Vigny resumes in a still clearer manner the conditions of this new style. According to him drama is modern tragedy. Consequently: (1) In its conception we must take a broad out look on life and not the narrow-minded one resulting from common intrigue. We must not be satisfied with a hastily worked up crisis, but show a study of life extending over long periods and experience. He prefers Shakespeare's style to Racine's: (2) In its composition we should draw char acters, not roles; we would represent peaceful scenes, without drama, in which would be sprinkled an element of tragedy and comedy. No longer would we have a Rodrigue or a Phedre acting a scene in a person's life of ephemeral duration, but a Hamlet or a Lady Macbeth who maintain their character through out their whole existence. Assuredly the dramatic and artificial tone would be lacking but in its place we should have, as in actual life, our calm, happy or our sad moments.
(3) In its execution it would have a free and easy style—comic, tragic, sometimes even epic. The characters would not all speak the same pretentious language. The grandiloquence of kings and the passionate words of great heroes would be mingled with the simple say ings of the people and the merry quips of jesters. It is, in short, altogether the reverse of classical literature; real life replaces conven tion. It is a very large and revolutionary pro gram. An examination of the works will enable us to see whether it has been carried out, or whether it is even possible of execu tion.
The
Romanticism made its ap pearance on the stage in 1829 with
We are indebted to Alexandre Dumas Ore for the historic dramas (Henri
tine) (1830) and
The art of Alfred de Vigny, a great poet and thinker, was of a more sober order, but in temperament he was a poor dramatist. His adaptations of Shakespeare,
and
and his historical drama
Vigny proclaimed the rights of the poet which society had treated with contempt and con demned to suicide. This was the inert part of the work. But. the chaste love, which never dares to declare itself, of Kitty Bell and Chat tertoxi, that exquisite tenderness of two frail, pure beings, victims of the conditions of life, and which is only revealed in death, is a pene trating and poignant piece of drama which makes this work incomparable. No work, not even the masterpieces of Victor Hugo, attain such a degree of sincerity and perfection. , It should be noted that, i by a strange coin cidence, this unique work s classical in many respects: unity of place, unity of .time and a crisis which is passionate, violent and short. But it remains romantic in one point: Chatter ton is not an individual but a symbol, merely a name. His soul is the soul of the poet.
Victor Hugo is the master of Romantic drama. He began his career with (Cromwell' (1827), a piece unsuitable for theatrical repre sentation, and which, like his (Preface,' is more valuable from the point of view of a public declaration. These were followed by several other works, most of them in verse but some (the poorest ones) in prose. The most important were (Hernani) (1830), Bias) (1838) and (Les Burgraves) (1843). Later on, the author published two pieces but did not have them staged: the (Theatre en Liberte) (1866) and a mystical, gloomy drama, 'Tor quemada' (1882). Hugo's style is odd and dis concerting, He was essentially a poet and not a dramatist, and to this must be attributed his brilliancy and also his shortcomings. He was above all lyrical, attaining even the sublime. Some passages from (Hernani) and (Ruy of incomparable harmony, are an enchantment to the ear. Witness his duo between Hernani and Dona Sol, between Ruy Bias and the Queen, between Marion Delorme and Didier, or let us say between the Lover and the Be loved, the eternal lovers of romance with their melting and voluptuous language, whose words sink into the soul and transport us into a realm of dreams. Sometimes he uses the lash of satire, manipulated by the inflamed accents of Ruy Blas to stigmatize extortioners, those priests and courtiers of Spain i or the epical language of a Ruy Gomez de Silva in the por trait scene ((Hernani'), or even the truculent and superb comedy of Don Cesar, that tatter demalion so proudly arrayed in his ragged raiment. Hugo, the wonderful virtuoso, touches every string of the lyre with a master hand. But his characters have no living counter part, they do not belong to this world. They speak at great length and magnificently, but emptily. They speak for their own satisfac tion and not for others, not merely to make themselves heard but to portray their own character. And what definition they make! Eloquent, but how puerile! Hernani . . Une force qui va Une Line de malheur faite avec des tbahresi " ('.. A force that goes An unfortunate soul made with errors! ") Ruy Bias, the lackey enamored of a Queen " Un Per de terra amoureux dune (" An earthworm enamored of a star ").