Note 5 — CHAP. I. ON THE PROVINCES OF TRAGEDY AND COMEDY.

The neglect of this is one of the greatest defects in the modern drama; which in nothing falls so much short of the perfection of the Greek scene as in this want of simplicity in the construction of its fable. The good sense of the author of the History of the Italian Theatre (who, though a mere player, appears to have had juster notions of the drama, than the generality of even professed critics) was sensibly struck with this difference in tragedy. “Quant à l’unité d’action, says he, je trouve un grande difference entre les tragedies Grecques et les tragedies Françoises; j’apperçois toûjours aísément l’action des tragedies Grecques, et je ne la perds point de vûe; mais dans les tragedies Françoises, j’avoüe, que j’ai souvent bien de la peine à demêler l’action des episodes, dont elle est chargée.” [Hist. du Theatre Italian, par Louis Riccoboni, p. 293. Paris 1728.]