circumstances, it would be quite possible to present the fifth act as an
independent comedietta.

But here a point of great importance calls for our notice. Though the
tension, once started, must never be relaxed: though it ought, on the
contrary, to be heightened or tightened (as you choose to put it) from
act to act; yet there are times when it may without disadvantage, or
even with marked advantage, be temporarily suspended. In other words,
the stretching-forward, without in any way slackening, may fall into the
background of our consciousness, while other matters, the relevance of
which may not be instantly apparent, are suffered to occupy the
foreground. We know all too well, in everyday experience, that tension
is not really relaxed by a temporary distraction. The dread of a coming
ordeal in the witness-box or on the operating-table may be forcibly
crushed down like a child's jack-in-the-box; but we are always conscious
of the effort to compress it, and we know that it will spring up again
the moment that effort ceases. Sir Arthur Pinero's play, _The
Profligate,_ was written at a time when it was the fashion to give each
act a sub-title; and one of its acts is headed "The Sword of Damocles."
That is, indeed, the inevitable symbol of dramatic tension: we see a
sword of Damocles (even though it be only a farcical blade of painted
lathe) impending over someone's head: and when once we are confident
that it will fall at the fated moment, we do not mind having our
attention momentarily diverted to other matters. A rather flagrant
example of suspended attention is afforded by Hamlet's advice to the
Players. We know that Hamlet has hung a sword of Damocles over the
King's head in the shape of the mimic murder-scene; and, while it is
preparing, we are quite willing to have our attention switched off to
certain abstract questions of dramatic criticism. The scene might have
been employed to heighten the tension. Instead of giving the Players (in
true princely fashion) a lesson in the general principles of their art,
Hamlet might have specially "coached" them in the "business" of the
scene to be enacted, and thus doubly impressed on the audience his
resolve to "tent" the King "to the quick." I am far from suggesting that
this would have been desirable; but it would obviously have been
possible.[1] Shakespeare, as the experience of three centuries has
shown, did right in judging that the audience was already sufficiently
int