SOURCE: "Plays: Well-Complicated," in Speech Monographs Vol. 42, No. 1, March, 1975, pp. 20-8.

Gillespie closely examines the structure of Scribe's dramas in an attempt to formulate a precise definition of the term "well-made play. "

Considerable confusion surrounds the meaning of the phrase well-made play. This confusion can be lessened by agreeing to restrict its use to those plays written in or after the nineteenth century, by or in the manner of Eugene Scribe. But even men the phrase lacks precision since little agreement exists about which features of Scribe's plays combine to call forth the designation well-made. The consistency with which various critics speak of the well-made play form or formula seems to imply an awareness of some pattern in the over-all structure, but the infrequent attempts to discover the pattern have not been successful.

The Improbability of Scribe's Plots:

His skill in the conduct of his plots is perhaps...