Essays On Literature

AII varieties of suffering are therefore the theme of drama, which promises to create out of them pleasure for the spectator; whence arises the first condition which this art form must fulfill, that it shall cause the spectator no suffering, and that it must know how to com-pensate by means of the gratifications which it makes possible for the pity which it arouses-a rule against which modern dramatists have particularly often been offenders. But this suf-fering is soon restricted to mental anguish only, for nobody wants to witness physi­cal suffering who knows how soon the bodily sensations thus stimulated put an end to all mental enjoyment.