The action is less
concentrated in consequence; but the interest becomes more aerial
and refined from the principle of perspective introduced into the
subject by the imaginary changes of scene as well as by the length
of time it occupies. The reading of this play is like going [on?] a
journey with some uncertain object at the end of it, and in which
the suspense is kept up and heightened by the long intervals between
each action. Though the events are scattered over such an extent of
surface, and relate to such a variety of characters, yet the links
which bind the different interests of the story together are never
entirely broken. The most straggling and seemingly casual incidents
are contrived in such a manner as to lead at last to the most
complete development of the catastrophe. The ease and conscious
unconcern with which this is effected only makes the skill more
wonderful. The business of the plot evidently thickens in the last
act; the story moves forward with increasing rapidity at every step;
its various ramifications are drawn from the most distant points to
the same centre; the principal characters are brought together, and
placed in very critical situations; and the fate of almost every
person in the drama is made to depend on the solution of a single
circumstance--the answer of Iachimo to the question of Imogen
respecting the obtaining of the ring from Posthumus.
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