But as this person, _ex hypothesi_, belongs to the class of
society which is familiar with this particular plot _ad nauseam_, is it
possible that he or she should go on betraying the same ignorance on
which the plot originally was based? Even Marguerite has seen "Faust"
nowadays!
This suggests an objection to old plots quite apart from their oldness,
for that which started by being probable becomes improbable by age. Even
if it were ever possible for a man to be jealous of a woman because he
saw her kissing a man whom, after long and weary years of superfluous
separation, he discovered to be her brother, it should surely be
impossible to-day. If I saw any man kissing my _fiancee_ I should know at
once it was my future brother-in-law--or at any rate I should
inquire--which the old hero never seemed to do. And yet I will wager that
in the course of this year at least a dozen novels and plays will be
built up upon this theme. It is, by the way, a noticeable characteristic
of people in plays never to have read nor to be interested in any but the
petty dramatic matter which is interesting them--and let us hope the
audience--at the moment. It may be replied that the economy of the stage
demands that everything that is not strictly essential should be
eliminated; but yet it ought to be possible, by a few words, to give the
idea that the figures upon the boards are doing more than moving to the
strings of the playwright.
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