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cient drama, and at the fame time to with-hold from us its advantages.

The only proper queftion, therefore, is, Whether our model be or be not a real improvement? This indeed may fairly be called in question and in order to a comparative trial, fome particulars must be premised. When a play begins, we have no difficulty to adjust our imagination to the fcene of action, however diftant it be in time or in place; because we know that the play is a reprefentation only. The cafe is very different after we are engaged: it is the perfection of reprefentation to hide itself, to impofe on the spectator, and to produce in him an im preffion of reality, as if he were a fpectator of a real event; but any interruption annihilates that impreffion, by roufing him out of his waking dream, and unhappily reftoring him to his fenfes. So difficult it is to fupport the impreffion of reality, that much flighter interruptions than the interval between two acts, are fufficient to diffolve the charm in the 5th act of the Mourning Bride, the three firft fcenes are in a room of ftate, the fourth in a prifon; and the change is operated by fhifting the fcene, which is done in a trice: but however quick the tranfition may be, it is impracticable to impose upon the spectators, fo as to make them conceive that they are actually carried from the palace to the prifon; they immediately reflect, that the palace and prifon are imaginary, and that the whole is a fiction.

From thefe premifes, one will naturally be, led, at first view, to pronounce the frequent interruptions in the modern drama to be an imperfection. It will occur, "That every interruption must have the effect to banish the dream of reality, and with it to banifh

*Chap. 2. part 1. fe&. 7.

banish our concern, which cannot fubfift while we are conscious that all is a fiction; and therefore, that in the modern drama fufficient time is not afforded for fluctuation and fwelling of paffion, like what is afforded in that of Greece, where there is no interruption." This reafoning, it must be owned, has a fpecious appearance: but we must not become faint-hearted upon the first repulfe; let us rally our troops for a fecond engagement.

Confidering attentively the ancient drama, we. find, that though the reprefentation is never interrupted, the principal action is fufpended not lefs frequently than in the modern drama: there are five acts in each; and the only difference is, that in the former, when the action is fufpended as it is at the end of every act, opportunity is taken of the interval to employ the chorus in finging. Hence it appears, that the Grecian continuity of reprefentation cannot have the effect to prolong the impreffion of reality: to banish that impreffion, a paufe in the action while the chorus is employ'd in finging, is no lefs effectual than a total fufpenfion of the reprefentation.

But to open a larger view, I am ready to fhow, that a reprefentation with proper pauses, is better qualified for making a deep impreffion, than a continued reprefentation without a paufe. This will be evident from the following confiderations. Reprefentation cannot very long fupport an impreffion of reality; for when the fpirits are exhausted by clofe attention and by the agitation of paffion, an uneafinefs enfues, which never fails to banish the waking dream. Now fuppofing the time that a man can employ with ftrict attention without wandering, to be no greater than is requifite for a fingle act, a fuppcfition that cannot be far from truth; it follows, that a continued reprefentation of longer endurance than

an

an act, inftead of giving fcope to fluctuation and fwelling of paffion, would overftrain the attention, and produce a total absence of mind. In that refpect, the four paufes have a fine effect; for by affording to the audience a feasonable refpite when the impreffion of reality is gone, and while nothing material is in agitation, they relieve the mind from its fatigue; and confequently prevent a wandering of thought at the very time poffibly of the most interesting scenes.

In one article, indeed, the Grecian model has greatly the advantage its chorus during an interval not only preferves alive the impreffions made upon the audience, but alfo prepares their hearts finely for new impreffions. In our theatres, on the contrary, the audience, at the end of every act, being left to trifle time away, lofe every warm impreffion; and they begin the next act cool and unconcerned, as at the commencement of the reprefentation. This is a grofs malady in our theatrical representations; but a malady that luckily is not incurable. To revive the Grecian chorus, would be to revive the Grecian flavery of place and time; but I can figure a detached chorus coinciding with a paufe in the representation, as the ancient chorus did with a paufe in the principal action. What objection, for example, can there lie against mufic between the acts, vocal and inftrumental, adapted to the fubject? Such detached chorus, without putting us under any limitation of time or place, would recruit the fpirits, and would preferve entire the tone, if not the tide of paffion the mufic, after an act fhould commence in the tone of the preceding paffion, and be gradually varied till it accord with the tone of the paffion that is to fucceed in the next act. The mufic and the reprefentation would both of them be gainers by their conjunction; which will thus appear. Mufic

that

that accords with the present tone of mind, is, on that account, doubly agreeable; and accordingly, though mufic fingly hath not power to raise a paffion, it tends greatly to fupport a paflion already raised. Further, mufic prepares us for the paffion that follows, by making cheerful, tender, melancholy, or animated impreffions, as the fubject requires. Take for an example the first scene of the Mourning Bride, where foft mufic, in a melancholy ftrain, prepares us for Almeria's deep diftrefs. In this manner, mufic and reprefentation fupport each other delightfully the impreffion made upon the audience by the reprefentation, is a fine preparation for the mufic that fucceeds; and the impreffion made by the mufic, is a fine preparation for the reprefentation that fucceeds. It appears to me evident, that, by fome fuch contrivance, the modern drama may be improved, fo as to enjoy the advantage of the ancient chorus without its flavifh limitation of place and time. And as to mufic in particular, I cannot figure any means that would tend more to its improvement: compofers, thofe for the ftage at leaft, would be reduced to the happy neceffity of ftudying and imitating nature; inftead of deviating, according to the prefent mode, into wild, fantastic, and unnatural conceits. But we must return to our fubject, and finish the comparison between the ancient and the modern drama.

The numberlefs improprieties forced upon the Greek dramatic poets by the conftitution of their drama, may be fufficient, one should think, to make us prefer the modern drama, even abftracting from the improvement propofed. To prepare the reader for this article, it must be premised, that as in the ancient drama the place of action never varies, a place neceffarily must be chofen, to which every per. fon may have accefs without any improbability. This confines the fcene to fome open place, generally the

court

court or area before a palace; which excludes from the Grecian theatre tranfactions within doors, though these commonly are the most important. Such cruel reftraint is of itself fufficient to cramp the most pregnant invention; and accordingly Greek writers, in order to preserve unity of place, are reduced to woful improprieties. In the Hippolytus of Euripides,* Phedra diftreffed in mind and body, is carried without any pretext from her palace to the place of action is there laid upon a couch, unable to fupport herself upon her limbs, and made to utter many things improper to be heard by a number of women who form the chorus: and what is ftill more improper, her female attendant ufes the strongest intreaties to make her reveal the fecret cause of her anguish; which at laft Phedra, contrary to decency and probability, is prevailed upon to do in prefence of that very chorus.t Alceftes, in Euripides, at the point of death, is brought from the palace to the place of action, groaning, and lamenting her untimely fate. In the Trachiniens of Sophocles,§ a fecret is imparted to Dejanira, the wife of Hercules, in prefence of the chorus. In the tragedy of Iphigenia, the meffenger employ'd to inform Clitemneftra that Iphigenia was facrificed, ftops fhort at the place of action, and with a loud voice calls the Queen from her palace to hear the news. Again, in the Iphigenia in Tauris, the neceffary prefence of the chorus forces Euripides into a grofs abfurdity, which is to form a fecret in their hearing ; and to difguife the abfurdity, much court is paid to the chorus, not one woman but a number, to engage them to fecrecy. In the Medea of Euripides, that princess makes no difficulty, in prefence of the chorus, to plot the death of her

A&t 1. fc. 6. § A& 2.

+ A& 2. fc. 2.

A 4. at the close.

husband,

+ A&t 2. fc. 1.

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