nsistent with himself in all parts of the dramatic action. The whole
world of mankind is at the service of the dramatist, and there is no
type of humanity that may not be brought upon the stage. The ancient
world of history or of tradition may be represented, or the stage may
hold up the mirror to contemporary manners and society.

The drama should be true to the time and locality in which the action is
placed. The dress and manners should be in keeping with the conditions
assumed, and the tone of thought and expression should not do violence
to time or place. A Carthaginian nobleman, for example, should not
ascertain the time of day by means of a gold watch, nor should an
unlettered rustic speak in strains of eloquent poetry. A violation of
the truth in time is called an _anachronism_. But "in some dramas, and
in some species of drama," as Ward has said, "time and place are so
purely imaginary and so much a matter of indifference that the adoption
of a purely conventional standard of manners, or at least the exclusion
of any definitely fixed one, is here desirable." This is shown in
Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The drama should be moral both in tone and teaching. We may apply to the
drama, as to every other species of composition, Pope's well-known
couplet:

"Immodest words admit of no defense,
For want of decency is a want of sense."

Indecent language and grossly immoral situations should be excluded from
the stage. When this is not done, as is frequently the case, the drama,
instead of uplifting, degrades humanity. This fact has brought the stage
into disrepute with many excellent people. In its close or _denouement_
the drama should not let vice triumph over virtue, nor should it make
the impression that wickedness ever escapes unpunished. Such teaching
places the stage in contravention with the moral order of the world,
according to which, even when the punitive consequences are not openly
manifest, wickedness is inevitably accompanied with some form of
internal or external retribution.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is an epic? On what may it be based? What is the method of the
epic? Where is the theme stated? Illustrate. What should be the
structure of the epic? What is meant by symmetry? What is an episode?
Why may it be introduced? Illustrate. What is said of the use of
dialogue? What is the nature of the great epic? What is meant by
_heroic_ here? Illustrate. What is a metrical