ntrary to the laws of life, he might as well falsify upon the pleasant
side and send his auditors happy to their homes. Shakespeare took the same
attitude in many comedies, of which _As You Like It_ may be chosen as an
illustration. The sudden reform of Oliver and the tardy repentance of the
usurping duke are both untrue to life and illogical as art; but Shakespeare
decided to throw probability and logic to the winds in order to close his
comedy with a general feeling of good-will. But this easy answer to the
question cannot be accepted in the case of the serious drama; for--and this
is a point that is very often missed--in proportion as the dramatic
struggle becomes more vital and momentous, the audience demands more and
more that it shall be fought out fairly, and that even the characters it
favors shall receive no undeserved assistance from the dramatist. This
instinct of the crowd--the instinct by which its demand for fairness is
proportioned to the importance of the struggle--may be studied by any
follower of professional base-ball. The spectators at a ball-game are
violently partisan and always want the home team to win. In any unimportant
game--if the opposing teams, for instance, have no chance to win the
pennant--the crowd is glad of any questionable decision by the umpires that
favors the home team. But in any game in which the pennant is at stake, a
false or bad decision, even though it be rendered in favor of the home
team, will be received with hoots of disapproval. The crowd feels, in such
a case, that it cannot fully enjoy the sense of victory unless the victory
be fairly won. For the same reason, when any important play which sets out
to end unhappily is given a sudden twist which brings about an arbitrary
happy ending, the audience is likely to be displeased. And there is yet
another reason for this displeasure. An audience may enjoy both farce and
comedy without believing them; but it cannot fully enjoy a serious play
unless it believes the story. In the serious drama, an ending, to be
enjoyable, must be credible; in other words, it must, for the sake of human
interest, satisfy the strict logic of art. We arrive, therefore, at the
paradox that although, in the final act, the comic dramatist may achieve
popularity by renouncing the laws of art, the serious dramatist can achieve
popularity only by adhering rigidly to a pattern of artistic truth.

This is a point that is rarely understood by people who look