s of Imagination
which may be observed in all their Plays.

"How many beautiful accidents might naturally happen in two or three
days; which cannot arrive, with any probability, in the compass of
twenty-four hours? There is time to be allowed, also, for maturity of
design: which, amongst great and prudent persons, such as are often
represented in Tragedy, cannot, with any likelihood of truth, be brought
to pass at so short a warning.

"Farther, by tying themselves strictly to the UNITY OF PLACE and UNBROKEN
SCENES; they are forced, many times, to omit some beauties which cannot be
shown where the Act began: but might, if the Scene were interrupted, and
the Stage cleared, for the persons to enter in another place. And
therefore, the French Poets are often forced upon absurdities. For if the
Act begins in a Chamber, all the persons in the Play must have some
business or other to come thither; or else they are not to be shown in
that Act: and sometimes their characters are very unfitting to appear
there. As, suppose it were the King's Bedchamber; yet the meanest man in
the Tragedy, must come and despatch his business there, rather than in
the Lobby or Courtyard (which is [_were_] fitter for him), for fear the
Stage should be cleared, and the Scenes broken.

"Many times, they fall, by it, into a greater inconvenience: for they
keep their Scenes Unbroken; and yet Change the Place. As, in one of their
newest Plays [_i.e., before 1665_]. Where the Act begins in a Street:
there, a gentleman is to meet his friend; he sees him, with his man,
coming out from his father's house; they talk together, and the first
goes out. The second, who is a lover, has made an appointment with his
mistress: she appears at the Window; and then, we are to imagine the
Scene lies under it. This gentleman is called away, and leaves his
servant with his mistress. Presently, her father is heard from within.
The young lady is afraid the servingman should be discovered; and thrusts
him through a door, which is supposed to be her Closet [_Boudoir_]. After
this, the father enters to the daughter; and now the Scene is in a House:
for he is seeking, from one room to another, for his poor _PHILIPIN_ or
French _DIEGO_: who is heard from within, drolling, and breaking many a
miserable conceit upon his sad condition. In this ridiculous manner, the
Play goes on; the Stage being never empty all the while. So that the
Street, the Window, the two Houses, and the Clo