ABSTRACT
The play ends badly, but so does the novel, and it is not easy to see how, without a radical change of the plot, a much better ending could have been obtained. Mr. Collins has on previous occasions manifested his dramatic skill, and done much to disprove an opinion too generally entertained that a novelist is of necessity disqualified as a candidate for theatrical honors. In bringing so intricate a story upon the stage difficulty is inevitable in deciding how much to disclose by the conversation of the characters and how much to represent palpably and in action before the audience. The play concludes tragically, after the exciting interview between Hartright and the Count, with the death of the latter at the hands of the secret society, the murder being effected out of the presence of the audience. The curtain descends upon a picture of the devoted Countess Fosco fainting as she contemplates the slain body of her husband.
