A play is a story devised to be presented by actors on a stage before an audience. This plain statement of fact affords an exceedingly simple definition of the drama, --a definition so simple indeed as to seem at the first glance easily obvious and therefore scarcely worthy of expression. But if we examine the statement thoroughly, phrase by phrase, we shall see that it sums up within itself the entire theory of the theatre, and that from this primary axiom we may deduce the whole practical philosophy of dramatic criticism.