atic construction cannot matter, if the
passion or spirit with which the author writes, be abundant and sincere.
The powder in a cartridge may be abundant and the bullet at the end may
be sincerely meant, yet neither will do execution till they are put
properly into the proper weapon, rightly aimed, and judgingly fired. So
with passion in the arts. Without art, inspiration is breath and a
feeding of the wind. In the theatre, inspiration without art is as a
sounding brass and as a tinkling cymbal.

It is sometimes maintained in print, by those saddened or maddened by
bad modern performances of the plays, that Shakespeare "could not
construct," that he is constantly "rambling," "chaotic," or
"intolerable," and that he is only played to-day because of his
"poetry." Those who maintain these things forget that an Elizabethan
play was constructed for a theatre much unlike the modern theatre, and
performed in a manner suited to that theatre, but less well suited to
the theatre of our times. Shakespeare's plays were constructed closely
and carefully to be effective on the Elizabethan stage. On that stage
they were highly and nobly effective. On the modern stage, produced in
the modern manner, they are less effective. There are many reasons why
they should be less effective on the modern stage. During the last
thirty years there has been a tendency towards naturalism in the
theatre. Modern audiences have learned not to care for poetry on the
stage unless it is made "natural" by realistic scenery. Modern audiences
are accustomed to the modern forms of dramatic construction, which are
unlike the Elizabethan forms. They know that modern playwrights put a
strong scene at the end of an act and a great scene at the end of the
play. They have learned to expect a play to be arranged in that manner,
and to count as ill constructed the play not so arranged. As it is
frequently said that the last acts of _Julius Caesar_ make anti-climax
and spoil the play, it is necessary to consider Shakespeare's
constructive practice in this and in some other plays.

The Greek tragic poets ended the action of their plays in the modern
manner, at the great scene, but, unlike us, they delayed the departure
of the audience for some minutes more, generally by a chorus of men and
women who expounded the moral value of the action in noble verse. The
audience came away calmed. If a Greek had constructed _Julius Caesar_, he
would have ended the action at the mu