I feel I ought to know this already...

[steepholm]

All right, here's a question that's suddenly popped into my head. What is the very first example of a play, film, or TV drama that portrays events in non-chronological sequence - e.g. by using a flashback? And, when it was written, did everyone say 'Wow!'? Or hit the writer over the head with a copy of Aristotle's Poetics?

How far back can we take this? Any offers?