61 - Der natürliche Sohn /
Ich will lieber ein einfaches als ein mit Zwischenfällen überhäuftes Stück. Unterdessen sehe ich doch mehr auf ihre Verbindung, als auf ihre Vielheit. Ich bin weniger geneigt, zwey Begebenheiten zu glauben, die sich durch einen blossen Zufall neben einander oder auf einander zutragen, als eine ganze Menge von Begebenheiten, die aber, wenn man sie mit der täglichen Erfahrung, der unwandelbaren Regel aller dramatischen Wahrscheinlichkeiten, vergleicht, so genau mit einander verknüpft sind, daß es scheinet, die eine habe die andere nothwendig veranlassen müssen.
62 - Der natürliche Sohn /
Sie werden nicht durch Regeln, sondern durch etwas ganz anders, das weit unmittelbare, weit inniger, weit dunkler und weit gewisser ist, geführet und erleuchtet. Ich kann Ihnen nicht sagen, wie viel ich aus einem grossen Schauspieler, aus einer grossen Schauspielerinn mache! Wie stolz ich auf dieses Talent seyn würde, wenn ich es besässe. Als ich vor diesem auf der ganzen Welt noch niemanden etwas anging, Herr von meinem Geschicke und frey von allen Vorurtheilen war, wollte ich einst Komödiant werden; und man gebe mir nur die Versicherung, daß ich es so weit damit bringe als Quinault Dufresne, und ich werde es noch morgen. Nur das Mittelmäßige vereckelt uns das Theater; und nur die schlechten Sitten sind es, die uns in diesem so wie in jedem andern Stande, Schande bringen. Gleich unter Racinen, und unter Corneillen stehet bey mir ein Baron, eine Desma res, eine de Seine; und gleich unter Regnard und Molieren, der ältere Quinault und seine Schwester.
63 - Der natürliche Sohn /
Indem Dorval dieses sagte, machte ich eine sehr sonderbare Anmerkung; darüber nehmlich, daß er, bey Gelegenheit eines häußlichen Zufalls, den er in eine Komödie verwandelt, zwar Regeln festgesetzet, die allen dramatischen Gattungen gemein sind, von seiner Melancholie aber dahingerissen, sie blos auf das Trauerspiel angewendet habe.
64 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
But now since the Rewards of Honour are taken away, that virtuous Emulation is turn'd into direct Malice; yet so slothful, that it contents it self to condemn and cry down others, without attempting to do better; 'Tis a Reputation too unprofitable, to take the necessary Pains for it; yet wishing they had it, that Desire is incitement enough to hinder others from it. And this, in short, Eugenius, is the reason, why you have now so few good Poets; and so many severe Judges: Certainly, to imitate the Ancients well, much Labour and strong Study is required: Which Pains, I have already shewn, our Poets would want incouragement to take, if yet they had Ability to go through the Work. Those Ancients have been faithful Imitators, and wise Observers of that Nature which is so torn and ill represented in our Plays; they have handed down to us a perfect Resemblance of her; which we, like ill Copyers, neglecting to look on, have rendred monstrous, and disfigur'd. But, that you may know how much you are indebted to those your Masters, and be ashamed to have so ill requited them: I must remember you, that all the Rules by which we practise the Drama at this Day, (either such as relate to the Justness and Symmetry of the Plot; or the Episodical Ornaments, such as Descriptions, Narrations, and other Beauties, which are not essential to the Play;) were delivered to us from the Observations which Aristotle made, of those Poets, who either lived before him, or were his Contemporaries: We have added nothing of our own, except we have the Confidence to say our Wit is better; Of which none boast in this our Age, but such as understand not theirs. Of that Book which Aristotle AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. has left us, περὶτῆς Ποιητικῆς, Horace his Art of Poetry, is an excellent Comment, and, I believe, restores to us that second Book of his concerning Comedy, which is wanting in him.
65 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
Out of these two have been extracted the famous Rules which the French call, Des Trois Unitez, or, The Three Unities, which ought to be observ'd in every regular Play; namely, of Time, Place, and Action.
66 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
For the Second Unity, which is that of Place, the Ancients meant by it, That the Scene ought to be continued through the Play, in the same Place where it was laid in the Beginning: For the Stage, on which it is represented, being but one and the same Place, it is unnatural to conceive it many; and those far distant from one another. I will not deny, but by the Variation of painted Scenes, the Fancy (which in these Cases will contribute to its own Deceit) may sometimes imagine it several Places, with some Appearance of Probability; yet it still carries the greater likelihood of Truth, if those Places be suppos'd so near each other, as in the same Town or City, which may all be comprehended under the larger Denomination of one Place: For a greater Distance will bear no proportion to the shortness of time, which is allotted in the Acting, to pass from one of them to another. For the Observation of this, next to the Ancients, the French are to be most commended. They tye themselves so strictly to the Unity of Place, that you never see in any of their Plays, a Scene chang'd in the middle of an Act: If the Act begins in a Garden, a Street, or Chamber, 'tis ended in the same Place; and that you may know it to be the same, the Stage is so supplied with Persons, that it is never empty all the time: He who enters second has Business with him who was on before; and before the second quits the Stage, a third appears who has Business with him.
67 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
As for the Third Unity, which is that of Action, the Ancients meant no other by it than what the Logicians do by their Finis, the End or Scope of any Action: That which is the first in Intention, and last in Execu AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy.tion: Now the Poet is to aim at one great and compleat Action, to the carrying on of which all things in his Play, even the very Obstacles, are to be subservient; and the Reason of this is as evident as any of the former.
68 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
All we know of it is from the singing of their Chorus, and that too is so uncertain, that in some of their Plays we have reason to conjecture they sung more than five times. Aristotle indeed divides the integral Parts of a Play into four: First, the Protasis, or Entrance, which gives light only to the Characters of the Persons, and proceeds very little into any part of the Action: Secondly, the Epitasis, or working up of the Plot, where the Play grows warmer: The Design or Action of it is drawing on, and you see something promising that it will come to pass: Thirdly, the Catasiasis, call'd by theRomans, Status, the Height, and full Growth of the Play: We may call it properly the Counter-turn, which destroys that Expectation, imbroils the Action in new Difficulties, and leaves you far distant from that hope in which it found you; as you may have observed in a violent Stream, resisted by a narrow Passage; it runs round to an Eddy, and carries back the Waters with more swiftness than it brought them on. Lastly, the Catastrophe, which the Grecians call'd λύσις, the French, le denouement, and we, the discovery or unravelling of the Plot: There you see all things settling again upon their first Foundations, and the Obstacles which hindred the Design or Action of the Play once remov'd, it ends with that Resemblance of Truth and Nature, that the Audience are satisfied with the Conduct of it. Thus this great Man deliver'd to us the Image of a Play, and I must confess it is so lively, that from thence much light has been deriv'd to the forming it more perfectly into Acts and Scenes; but what Poet first limited to five the Number of the Acts I know not; only we see it so firmly establish'd in the time of Horace, that he gives it for a Rule in Comedy; Neu brevior quinto, neu sit productior actu: So that you see the Grecians cannot be said AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. to have consummated this Art: writing rather by Entrances, than by Acts; and having rather a general indigested Notion of a Play, than knowing how, and where to bestow the particular Graces of it.
69 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
But in how straight a compass soever they have bounded their Plots and Characters, we will pass it by, if they have regularly pursued them, and perfectly observ'd those three Unities of Time, Place and Action: the knowledge of which you say is deriv'd to us from them. But in the first Place give me leave to tell you, that the Unity of Place, however it might be practised by them, was never any of their Rules: We neither AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. find it in Aristotle, Horace, or any who have written of it, till in our Age the French Poets first made it a Precept of the Stage. The Unity of Time, even Terence himself (who was the best and most regular of them) has neglected: His Heautontimoroumenos or Self-punisher takes up visibly two Days, says Scaliger; the two first Acts concluding the first Day, the three last the Day ensuing; and Euripides, in tying himself to one Day, has committed an Absurdity never to be forgiven him: For in one of his Tragedies he has made Theseus go fromAthens to Thebes, which was about forty English Miles, under the Walls of it to give Battel, and appear Victorious in the next Act; and yet from the time of his Departure to the return of the Nuntius, who gives the Relation of his Victory, Æthra and the Chorus have but thirty six Verses; which is not for every Mile a Verse.
70 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
But as they have fail'd both in laying of their Plots, and in the Management, swerving from the Rules of their own Art, by mis-representing Nature to us, in which they have ill satisfied one Intention of a Play, which was Delight; so in the instructive Part they have err'd worse: Instead of punishing Vice, and rewarding Virtue, they have often shewn a prosperous Wickedness, and an unhappy Piety: They have set before us a bloody Image of Revenge in Medea, and given her Dragons to convey her safe from Punishment. A Priam and Astyanax murder'd, and Cassandra ravish'd, and the Lust and Murder ending in the Victory of him who acted them. In short, there is no Indecorum in any of our modern Plays, which, if I would excuse, I could not shadow with some Authority from the Ancients.
71 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
But by pursuing closely one Argument, which is not cloy'd with many Turns, the French have gain'd more liberty for Verse, in which they write: They have leisure to dwell on a Subject which deserves it; and to represent the Passions (which we have acknowledg'd to be the Poet's work) without being hurried from one thing to another, as we are in the Plays of Calderon, which we have seen lately upon our Theaters, under the name of Spanish Plots. I have taken notice but of one Tragedy of ours, whose Plot has that uniformity and unity of Design in it, which I have commended in the French; and that is Rollo, or rather, under the name of Rollo, The Story of Bassianus and Geta in Herodian; there indeed the Plot is neither large nor intricate, but just enough to fill the Minds of the Audience, not to cloy them. Besides, you see it founded upon the truth of History, only the time of the Action is not reduceable to the strictness of the Rules; and you see in some places a little Farce ming'ed, which is below the dignity of the other Parts; and in this all our Poets are extreamly peccant, even Ben AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. Johnson himself in Sejanus and Catiline has given us this Oleo of a Play, this unnatural Mixture of Comedy and Tragedy, which to me sounds just as ridiculously as the History of David with the merry Humours of Goliah. In Sejanus you may take notice of the Scene betwixt Livia and the Physician, which is a pleasant Satyr upon the artificial helps of Beauty: In Catiline you may see the Parliament of Women; the little Envies of them to one another; and all that passes betwixt Curio and Fulvia: Scenes admirable in their kind, but of an ill mingle with the rest.
72 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
I pass by this; neither will I insist on the Care they take, that no Person after his first Entrance shall ever appear, but the Business which brings him upon the Stage shall be evident: Which Rule if observ'd, must needs render all the Events in the Play more natural: For there you see the Probability of every Accident, in the Cause that produc'd it; and that which appears Chance in the Play, will seem so reasonable to you, that you will there find it almost necessary; so that in the Exit of the Actor you have a clear Account of his Purpose and Design in the next Entrance: (tho', if the Scene be well wrought, the Event will commonly deceive you) for there is nothing so absurd, says Corneille, as for an Actor to leave the Stage, only because he has no more to say.
73 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
I grant the French have performed what was possible on the ground-work of the Spanish Plays; what was pleasant before, they have made regular; but there is not above one good Play to be writ on all those Plots; they are too much alike to please often, which we need not the Experience of our own Stage to justifie. As for their new Way of mingling Mirth with serious Plot, I do not, with Lisideius, condemn the thing, though I cannot approve their manner of doing it: He tells us, we cannot so speedily recollect our selves after a Scene of great Passion and Concernment, as to pass to another of Mirth and Humour, and to enjoy it with any relish: But why should he imagine the Soul of Man more heavy than his Senses? Does not the Eye pass from an unpleasant Object to a pleasant, in a much shorter time than is required to this? And does not the Unpleasantness of the first commend the Beauty of the latter? The old Rule of Logick, might have convinc'd him, That Contraries when plac'd near, set off each other. A continued Gravity keeps the Spirit too much bent; we must refresh it sometimes, as we bait in a Journey, that we may go on with greater ease. A Scene of Mirth mix'd with Tragedy, has the same effect upon us which our Musick has betwixt the Acts, which we find a Relief to AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. us from the best Plots and Language of the Stage, if the Discourses have been long. I must therefore have stronger Arguments ere I am convinc'd, that Compassion and Mirth in the same Subject destroy each other; and in the mean time, cannot but conclude, to the Honour of our Nation, that we have invented, increas'd, and perfected a more pleasant way of writing for the Stage, than was ever known to the Ancients or Moderns of any Nation, which is Tragi-Comedy.
74 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
But to leave this, and pass to the latter part of Lisideius his Discourse, which concerns Relations, I must acknowledge with him, that the French have reason to hide that part of the Action which would occasion too much Tumult on the Stage, and to chuse rather to have it made known by Narration to the Audience. Farther, I think it very convenient, for the Reasons he has given, that all incredible Actions were remov'd; but, whether Custom has so insinuated it self into our Country-men, or Nature has so form'd them to Fierceness, I know not; but they will scarcely sufter Combats and other Objects of Horror to be taken from them. And indeed, the Indecency of Tumults is all which can be objected against fighting: For why may not our Imagination as well suffer it self to be deluded with the Probability of it, as with any other thing in the Play? For my Part, I can with as great ease persuade my self that the Blows are given in good earnest, as I can, that they who strike them are Kings or Princes, or those Persons which they represent. For Objects of Incredibility, I would be satisfied from Lisideius, whether we have any so remov'd from all appearance of Truth, as are those of Corneille's Andromede? A Play which has been frequented the most of any he has writ. If the Perseus, or the Son of an Heathen God, the Pegasus and the Monster, were not capable to choak a strong Belief, let him blame any Representation of ours hereafter. Those indeed were Objects of Delight; yet the Reason is the same as to the Probability: For he makes it not a Balette or Masque, but a Play, which is to resemble Truth. But for Death, that it ought not to be represented, I have, besides the Arguments alledged by Lisideius, the Authority of Ben Johnson, who has forborn it in his Tragedies; for both the Death of Sejanus and Catiline are related: Though in the latter I cannot but observe one Irregularity of that great Poet: He has remov'd the Scene in the same Act, AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. from Rome to Catiline's Army, and from thence again toRome; and besides, has allow'd a very inconsiderable time after Catiline's Speech, for the striking of the Battel, and the return of Petreius, who is to relate the event of it to the Senate: Which I should not animadvert on him, who was otherwise a painful Observer of τὸ πρεπὸν, or the decorum of the Stage, if he had not us'd extream Severity in his Judgment on the incomparable Shakespear for the same fault. To conclude on this Subject of Relations, if we are to be blam'd for shewing too much of the Action, the French are as faulty for discovering too little of it: A Mean betwixt both should be observed by every judicious Writer, so as the Audience may neither be left unsatisfied by not seeing what is beautiful, or shock'd by beholding what is either incredible or indecent. I hope I have already prov'd in this Discourse, that though we are not altogether so punctual as the French, in observing the Laws of Comedy; yet our Errors are so few, and little, and those things wherein we excel them so considerable, that we ought of right to be preferr'd before them. But what will Lisideius say, if they themselves acknowledge they are too strictly bounded by those Laws, for breaking which he has blam'd the English? I will alledge Corneille's Words, as I find them in the end of his Discourse of the three Unities; Il est facile aux speculatifs d'estre severes, &c. “'Tis easy for speculative Persons to judge severely; but if they would produce to publick View ten or twelve Pieces of this Nature, they would perhaps give more Latitude to the Rules than I have done, when by Experience they had known how much we are limited and constrain'd by them, and how many Beauties of the Stage they banish'd from it.“ To illustrate a little what he has said: By their servile Observations of the Unities of time and place, and integrity of Scenes, they have brought on themselves that dearth of Plot, and narrowness of Imagination, which may be observed in all their Plays. How many beautiful Accidents might naturally happen in two or three Days, which cannot arrive with any probability in the Compass of twenty AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. four Hours? There is time to be allowed also for maturity of Design, which amongst great and prudent Persons, such as are often represented in Tragedy, cannot, with any likelihood of truth, be brought to pass at so short a warning. Farther by tying themselves strictly to the Unity of Place, and unbroken Scenes, they are forc'd many times to omit some Beauties which cannot be shewn where the Act began; but might, if the Scene were interrupted, and the Stage clear'd for the Persons to enter in another place; and therefore the French Poets are often forc'd upon Absurdities: For if the Act begins in a Chamber, all the Persons in the Play must have some Business or other to come thither, or else they are not to be shewn that Act, and sometimes their Characters are very unfitting to appear there: As Suppose it were the King's Bed-chamber, yet the meanest Man in the Tragedy must come and dispatch his Business there, rather than in the Lobby or Court-yard, (which is fitter for him) for fear the Stage should be clear'd, and the Scenes broken. Many times they fall by it into a greater Inconvenience: for they keep their Scenes unbroken, and yet change the Place; as in one of their newest Plays, where the Act begins in the Street. There a Gentleman is to meet his Friend; he sees him with his Man, coming out from his Father's House; they talk together, and the first goes out: The Second who is a Lover, has made an appointment with his Mistress; she appears at the Window, and then we are to imagine the Scene lies under it. This Gentleman is call'd away, and leaves his Servant with his Mistress: Presently her Father is heard from within; the young Lady is afraid the Serving-man should be discover'd, and thrusts him into a place of safety, which is suppos'd to be her Closet. After this, the Father enters to the Daughter, and now the Scene is in a House: For he is seeking from one Room to another for this poor Philipin, or French Diego, who is heard from within, diolling and breaking many a miserable Conceit on the subject of his sad Condition. In this ridiculous Manner the Play goes forward, the Stage being never empty all the while: so that the AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. Street, the Window, the two Houses, and the Closet, are made to walk about, and the Persons to stand still. Now what I beseech you is more easy than to write a regular FrenchPlay, or more difficult than to write an irregular English one, like those of Fletcher, or of Shakespear?
75 - An Essay on Dramatick Poesy /
But to leave this, and pass to the latter part of Lisideius his Discourse, which concerns Relations, I must acknowledge with him, that the French have reason to hide that part of the Action which would occasion too much Tumult on the Stage, and to chuse rather to have it made known by Narration to the Audience. Farther, I think it very convenient, for the Reasons he has given, that all incredible Actions were remov'd; but, whether Custom has so insinuated it self into our Country-men, or Nature has so form'd them to Fierceness, I know not; but they will scarcely sufter Combats and other Objects of Horror to be taken from them. And indeed, the Indecency of Tumults is all which can be objected against fighting: For why may not our Imagination as well suffer it self to be deluded with the Probability of it, as with any other thing in the Play? For my Part, I can with as great ease persuade my self that the Blows are given in good earnest, as I can, that they who strike them are Kings or Princes, or those Persons which they represent. For Objects of Incredibility, I would be satisfied from Lisideius, whether we have any so remov'd from all appearance of Truth, as are those of Corneille's Andromede? A Play which has been frequented the most of any he has writ. If the Perseus, or the Son of an Heathen God, the Pegasus and the Monster, were not capable to choak a strong Belief, let him blame any Representation of ours hereafter. Those indeed were Objects of Delight; yet the Reason is the same as to the Probability: For he makes it not a Balette or Masque, but a Play, which is to resemble Truth. But for Death, that it ought not to be represented, I have, besides the Arguments alledged by Lisideius, the Authority of Ben Johnson, who has forborn it in his Tragedies; for both the Death of Sejanus and Catiline are related: Though in the latter I cannot but observe one Irregularity of that great Poet: He has remov'd the Scene in the same Act, AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. from Rome to Catiline's Army, and from thence again toRome; and besides, has allow'd a very inconsiderable time after Catiline's Speech, for the striking of the Battel, and the return of Petreius, who is to relate the event of it to the Senate: Which I should not animadvert on him, who was otherwise a painful Observer of τὸ πρεπὸν, or the decorum of the Stage, if he had not us'd extream Severity in his Judgment on the incomparable Shakespear for the same fault. To conclude on this Subject of Relations, if we are to be blam'd for shewing too much of the Action, the French are as faulty for discovering too little of it: A Mean betwixt both should be observed by every judicious Writer, so as the Audience may neither be left unsatisfied by not seeing what is beautiful, or shock'd by beholding what is either incredible or indecent. I hope I have already prov'd in this Discourse, that though we are not altogether so punctual as the French, in observing the Laws of Comedy; yet our Errors are so few, and little, and those things wherein we excel them so considerable, that we ought of right to be preferr'd before them. But what will Lisideius say, if they themselves acknowledge they are too strictly bounded by those Laws, for breaking which he has blam'd the English? I will alledge Corneille's Words, as I find them in the end of his Discourse of the three Unities; Il est facile aux speculatifs d'estre severes, &c. “'Tis easy for speculative Persons to judge severely; but if they would produce to publick View ten or twelve Pieces of this Nature, they would perhaps give more Latitude to the Rules than I have done, when by Experience they had known how much we are limited and constrain'd by them, and how many Beauties of the Stage they banish'd from it.“ To illustrate a little what he has said: By their servile Observations of the Unities of time and place, and integrity of Scenes, they have brought on themselves that dearth of Plot, and narrowness of Imagination, which may be observed in all their Plays. How many beautiful Accidents might naturally happen in two or three Days, which cannot arrive with any probability in the Compass of twenty AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. four Hours? There is time to be allowed also for maturity of Design, which amongst great and prudent Persons, such as are often represented in Tragedy, cannot, with any likelihood of truth, be brought to pass at so short a warning. Farther by tying themselves strictly to the Unity of Place, and unbroken Scenes, they are forc'd many times to omit some Beauties which cannot be shewn where the Act began; but might, if the Scene were interrupted, and the Stage clear'd for the Persons to enter in another place; and therefore the French Poets are often forc'd upon Absurdities: For if the Act begins in a Chamber, all the Persons in the Play must have some Business or other to come thither, or else they are not to be shewn that Act, and sometimes their Characters are very unfitting to appear there: As Suppose it were the King's Bed-chamber, yet the meanest Man in the Tragedy must come and dispatch his Business there, rather than in the Lobby or Court-yard, (which is fitter for him) for fear the Stage should be clear'd, and the Scenes broken. Many times they fall by it into a greater Inconvenience: for they keep their Scenes unbroken, and yet change the Place; as in one of their newest Plays, where the Act begins in the Street. There a Gentleman is to meet his Friend; he sees him with his Man, coming out from his Father's House; they talk together, and the first goes out: The Second who is a Lover, has made an appointment with his Mistress; she appears at the Window, and then we are to imagine the Scene lies under it. This Gentleman is call'd away, and leaves his Servant with his Mistress: Presently her Father is heard from within; the young Lady is afraid the Serving-man should be discover'd, and thrusts him into a place of safety, which is suppos'd to be her Closet. After this, the Father enters to the Daughter, and now the Scene is in a House: For he is seeking from one Room to another for this poor Philipin, or French Diego, who is heard from within, diolling and breaking many a miserable Conceit on the subject of his sad Condition. In this ridiculous Manner the Play goes forward, the Stage being never empty all the while: so that the AnEssayof Dramatick Poesy. Street, the Window, the two Houses, and the Closet, are made to walk about, and the Persons to stand still. Now what I beseech you is more easy than to write a regular FrenchPlay, or more difficult than to write an irregular English one, like those of Fletcher, or of Shakespear?