itter away
the action of the drama into a mass of subordinate pictures. On the
other hand, the French method gives a degree of realism to each act in
a drama to which it cannot pretend where the scenes are shifted. Each
act becomes a living picture, revealed by the rising of the curtain and
closed by its fall. As long as it lasts it is perfect, and every year
of advance in the mechanical part of theatricals increases the
resources of the stage in the direction of realism. In interiors
particularly the advance has become very great, since the general
introduction of box scenes, with a regular ceiling and walls,
simulating the appearance of a room with complete fidelity. Such a
scene is barely practicable and always clumsy if set in sight of the
audience, and its removal is hardly possible, save as hidden by the
curtain. Open-air scenes may be enriched with all sorts of heavy
set-pieces, when acts are composed of one scene, which must be
dispensed with if the scenes are numerous, or their removal will entail
such a noise as seriously to disturb the illusion. The removal of
scenes, moreover, always disturbs, more or less, the action of a drama,
and unless that action be very complex, requiring several sets of
characters, to be introduced in different places simultaneously, is
unwise.

On the other hand, the breaking up of acts into three or more scenes
offers one great advantage, that of variety, and prevents many a play
from dragging. If there are two sets of characters in a play, the
virtuous and the wicked, it is a very good device to keep them apart,
acting simultaneously in different scenes, during the action of a play,
to be brought together only at the climax; and such a method has been
employed by the best artists, with a gain in interest that could not
have been obtained with the single-scene act for a basis.

The greatest masters of dramatic construction that have made their
appearance in the present century are probably Bulwer Lytton and Dion
Boucicault; and each has left good examples of treatment in both
schools. Bulwer, in the "Lady of Lyons" and "Richelieu," both romantic
plays, with the regular villanous element, has used the front scene to
advantage wherever he found it necessary. In "Money," on the other
hand, a scientific comedy of the very first order, the five pictures
succeed each other with no disturbance but that of the curtain. The
plot of "Money," be it observed, is quite simple, the characters