thout an action in the sense stated--without a
plot, in a word--there can be no drama. But the very simplest action
will satisfy the dramatic test; a mystery representing the story of Cain
and Abel without a deviation from the simple biblical narrative, a farce
exhibiting the stalest trick played by designing sobriety upon oblivious
drunkenness, may each of them be a complete drama. But even to this
point, the imitation of action by action in however crude a form, not
all peoples have advanced.

Dramatic literature.

But after this second step has been taken, it only remains for the drama
to assume a form regulated by certain literary laws, in order that it
may become a branch of dramatic literature. Such a literature, needless
to say, only a limited number of nations has come to possess; and, while
some are to be found that have, or have had, a drama without a dramatic
literature, it is quite conceivable that a nation should continue in
possession of the former after having ceased to cultivate the latter. It
is self-evident that no drama which forms part of a dramatic literature
can ignore the use of speech; and however closely music, dancing and
decoration may associate themselves with particular forms or phases of
the drama, their aid cannot be more than adventitious. As a matter of
fact, the beginnings of dramatic composition are, in the history of such
literatures as are well known to us, preceded by the earlier stages in
the growth of the lyric and epic forms of poetry, or by one of these at
all events; and it is in the continuation of both that the drama in its
literary form takes its origin in those instances which lie open to our
study.

The dramatic and the histrionic arts.

While the aid of all other arts--even, strictly speaking, the aid of the
literary art--is merely an accident, the co-operation of the art of
acting is indispensable to that of the drama. The dramatic writer may
have reasons for preferring to leave the imagination of his reader to
supply the absence of this co-operation; but, though the term "literary
drama" is freely used of works kept away from the stage, it is in truth
either a misnomer or a self-condemnation. It is true that the actor only
temporarily interprets, and sometimes misinterprets, the dramatist,
while occasionally he reveals dramatic possibilities in a character or
situation which remained hidden from their literary inventor. But this
only shows that the courses o