For example, there is
_Enoch Arden._ At present ENOCH, when he looks through the window and
sees his wife enjoying herself with PHILIP in the dining-room,
immediately lies down on the grass-plat in the back-yard, and groans in
a most harrowing style,--after which he picks himself up, and, going
back to his hotel, dies without so much as recognizing his old friends
and congratulating them upon their prosperity. Now the way in which the
play should have ended, had the dramatist wished to convince us that
"ENOCH" was a reasonable being, would have been somewhat as follows:--
ENOCH (looking through the window).--"Well, here's a go. My wife has
actually married PHILIP. They look pretty comfortable, too. PHILIP is
evidently rich. Here's luck for me at last. I've got him where I can
strike him pretty heavily." _[He enters the house,]_
PHILIP AND HIS WIFE.--"ENOCH! Can it be possible? Why, we thought you
were entirely dead, and so we married. Well! well! This is a healthy
state of things."
ENOCH (sternly).--"Mr. PHILIP RAY. You have had the impertinence to
marry my wife. Sir! I consider that you have taken an unjustifiable
liberty.
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