Dramatic Technique Part 36

[26] _Plays._ G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York.

[27] Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston; W. Heinemann, London.

[28] _The Trail of the Torch_, Paul Hervieu. Translated by J. H.

Haughton. Drama League Series, vol. XII. Doubleday Page & Co., New York.

[29] _The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann_, vol. VI, Introduction, p. xi, Ludwig Lewisohn, ed. B. W. Huebsch, New York.

[30] The Macmillan Co. publish both forms.

[31] _Nathan Hale_, Act IV, Scene 2. Clyde Fitch. Little, Brown & Co., Boston.

[32] Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston; W. Heinemann, London.

[33] _Idem._

[34] Pp. 143-45. R. H. Russell, New York. Also published by Walter H.

Baker & Co., Boston.

[35] Act IV, Scene 2. The Macmillan Co.

[36] _Contemporary Dramatists._ Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston.

[37] J. W. Luce & Co., Boston.

[38] Translated by May Hendee. Doubleday, McClure & Co., New York.

[39] _Plays of Oscar Wilde_, vol. II. J. W. Luce & Co., Boston.

[40] _The Fantasticks_, pp. 145-146. Translated by George Fleming. R.

H. Russell, New York.

[41] Samuel French, New York.

[42] _The Devonshire Hamlets_, pp. 34-46. Sampson Low, Son & Co., London.

[43] _Letters of Bulwer-Lytton to Macready_, LXIII. Brander Matthews, ed.

[44] _Hamburg Dramaturgy_, p. 377. Lessing. Bohn, ed.

[45] _Play-Making_, pp. 171-172. William Archer. Small, Maynard & Co., Boston.

[46] _The Troublesome Raigne of King Iohn_, pp. 279-280; _Shakespeare's Library_, vol. V. Reeves & Turner, London.

[47] _The Good Hope_, Act III. Herman Heijermans. _The Drama_, November, 1912.

[48] See pp. 29-30.

[49] _Washington Square Plays; The Clod._. Lewis Beach. Drama League Series, No. XX. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York.

[50] _The Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson_, pp. 210-211. Century Co., New York.

[51] The DeWitt Publishing House, New York.

[52] _Monsieur Poirier's Son-in-Law_, Act I. Emile Augier. Translated by B. H. Clark. A. Knopf, New York.

[53] _The Amazons_, Act III. Sir Arthur Pinero. Walter H. Baker & Co., Boston.

[54] _Herod, A Tragedy_, Act. II. Stephen Phillips. John Lane, New York.

[55] J. W. Luce & Co., Boston; Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., London.

[56] _The Fantasticks_, Act III. Edmond Rostand. Translated by Geo.

Fleming. R. H. Russell & Co., New York.

[57] _Morituri, Fritzshen_, Herman-Sudermann. Translated by Archibald Alexander. Copyright, 1910, by Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York.

[58] _Idem._

[59] _Letters of Bulwer-Lytton to Macready_, Brander Matthews, ed.

[60] Doubleday, Page & Co., New York.

[61] _Les Oberle._ Rene Bazin. Dramatized by E. Haraucourt.

L'Ill.u.s.tration Theatrale, December 9, 1905, p. 14.

[62] _Magda._ Translated by C. E. A. Winslow. Lamson, Wolffe & Co., Boston.

[63] _Lady Windermere's Fan_, Act II. Oscar Wilde. Acting version as arranged by Miss Margaret Anglin.

[64] _Idem_, Act IV. Acting version as arranged by Miss Margaret Anglin.

[65] _Eyvind of the Hills_, J. Sigurjonsson. American Scandinavian Society, New York.

[66] _From Ibsen's Workshop_, p. 8. Copyright, 1911, by Chas.

Scribner's Sons, New York.

CHAPTER VII

CHARACTERIZATION

In drama, undoubtedly the strongest immediate appeal to the general public is action. Yet if a dramatist is to communicate with his audience as he wishes, command of dialogue is indispensable. The permanent value of a play, however, rests on its characterization. Characterization focuses attention. It is the chief means of creating in an audience sympathy for the subject or the people of the play. "A Lord," "A Page,"

in a pre-Shakespearean play usually was merely a speaker of lines and little, if at all, characterized. When Robert Greene or his contemporaries adapted such sources for their stage, with sure instinct for creating a greater interest in their public, they changed these prefixes to "Eustace," "Jacques," "Nano," etc. Merely changing the name from type to individual called for individualization of character and usually brought it. Indeed, in drama, individualization is always the sign of developing art. In any country, the history of modern drama is a pa.s.sing, under the influence of the audience, from abstractions and personifications, through type, to individualized character. In the Trope, cited p. 17, one Mary cannot be distinguished from another. In a later form it is not a particular unguent seller who meets the Maries on the way to the tomb, but a type,--Unguent Seller. When a writer of a Miracle Play first departed a little from the exact actions and dialogue of the Bible, it was to add abstractions--Justice, Virtue, etc.--or types: soldiers, shepherds, etc. From these he moved quickly or slowly, as he was more or less endowed dramatically, to figures individualized from types, such as the well-characterized shepherds of the Second Towneley Play. The Morality ill.u.s.trates this same evolution even more clearly. Beginning with the pure abstractions of _Mundus et Infans_ or _Mankind_ it pa.s.ses through type characterization in _l.u.s.ty Juventus_ or _Hyckescorner_ to as well individualized figures as Delilah and Ishmael in _The Nice Wanton_.[1] Abstractions permit an author to say what he pleases with the least possible thought for characterization. Type presents characteristics so marked that even the un.o.bservant cannot have failed to discern them in their fellow men. Individualization differentiates within the types, running from broad distinctions to presentation of very subtle differences. Because individualization moves from the known to the less known or the unknown, it is harder for an audience to follow than type characterization, and far more difficult to write. However, he who cannot individualize character must keep to the broader kinds of melodrama and farce, and above all to that last asylum of time-honored types--musical comedy.