Page:The thirty-six dramatic situations (1921).djvu/102

 100 THIRTY-SIX DRAMATIC SITUATIONS and to substitute any other element of difference or leave their place unfilled, and what will remain of tragic emo- tion? Nothing. We have, then, reason to conclude that love --an excel- lent motif for comedy, better still for farce - - sweet or poignant as it may be in stories read in solitude, of which we can fancy ourselves hero or heroine, love is not, in real- ity, tragic, despite the virtuosity which has sometimes succeeded in making it appear so, and despite the preva- lent opinion of this age of erotomania, which is now approaching its end.