se of real life. A duel
is, of course, perfectly admissible in a French or German play, simply
as part of a picture of manners. Its stupid inconclusiveness may be the
very point to be illustrated. It is only when represented as a moral
arbitrament that it becomes an anachronism.]

[Footnote 4: I am glad to see, from Mr. Malcolm Salaman's introduction
to the printed play, that, even in those days of our hot youth, my own
aesthetic principles were less truculent.]

[Footnote 5: This image is sometimes suggested by an act-ending which
leaves a marked situation obviously unresolved. The curtain should never
be dropped at such a point as to leave the characters in a physical or
mental attitude which cannot last for more than a moment, and must
certainly be followed, then and there, by important developments. In
other words, a situation ought not to be cut short at the very height of
its tension, but only when it has reached a point of--at any rate
momentary--relaxation.]

_BOOK V_

EPILOGUE

_CHAPTER XXII_

CHARACTER AND PSYCHOLOGY

For the invention and ordering of incident it is possible, if not to lay
down rules, at any rate to make plausible recommendations; but the power
to observe, to penetrate, and to reproduce character can neither be
acquired nor regulated by theoretical recommendations. Indirectly, of
course, all the technical discussions of the previous chapters tend, or
ought to tend, towards the effective presentment of character; for
construction, in drama of any intellectual quality, has no other end.
But specific directions for character-drawing would be like rules for
becoming six feet high. Either you have it in you, or you have it not.

Under the heading of character, however, two points arise which may be
worth a brief discussion: first, ought we always to aim at development
in character? second, what do we, or ought we to, mean by "psychology"?

It is a frequent critical complaint that in such-and-such a character
there is "no development": that it remains the same throughout a play;
or (so the reproach is sometimes worded) that it is not a character but
an invariable attitude. A little examination will show us, I think,
that, though the critic may in these cases be pointing to a real fault,
he does not express himself quite accurately.

What is character? For the practical purposes of the dramatist, it may
be defined as a complex of intellectual, emotional, and nervous habits.