T HE
D E A O F T RAG E D
I
N
MO D E R N
T H RE E
AT
AND
ANC I E NT
D R A MA
L E C T U RE S D E L I V
E RE D
I NS TIT U TI O N
R O "AL
F E BR U AR "
, x 9 00
B"
W L C O U RT NEY
TH E
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.
WIT H
A
P RE FA T O R
"A W
B
.
NEW
B
" NO TE
P I NE R O
.
"O R K
R E NTA NO
x g oo
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S
P R E F AT O R
" NO T E
.
M" D E AR C O U RT N E",
Your publishers have fl a tt e ri n g ly
invited me to write an “ I n t r o d uc
tion
t o your lectures o n Tim Id ea
but
even
were
I
com
T
a
e
r
o
d
,
,
g y
f
petent to avail myself o f so great a
privi lege , I should consider it in th e
highest degree presumptuous , as it
wo uld be superfluous , in me to “ in
an ackn owledged scholar
t r o d u ce
and authoritative critic like yourself
Wh en the sch olar and thinker speaks
o f immortal poets , and of their de
of
an idea which ha s
v el op m e n t
proved a sourc e of noble and lofty i n
spiration t o man through i n n u m e r
able ages , the playwright of t o day ,
seeking illumination , must surely b e
among th e humblest o f his listen ers
What has such an o n e to do with th e
part o f Master o f C eremonies ? And
what need have you o f such a func
H owever , I feel that per
t i on a r y ?
debt of
s on a ll y I o we you a large
gratitude , and in payment I can only
o ffer you this my n ote of hand
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P RE F AT O RY
NO TE
For th e busy man , in this bustling
London life o f ours , th e incentives to
dream himself into other centuries ,and
keep alive in him the poetic in
so
fl u en ce s o f the past , are un happily rare
t o seek ; but wh en th e occasion arises ,
the enj oyment is past expressing
This i s what I o w e to you , my dear
C ourtney
Yours was th e W izard s
wand that guided me from c entu ry t o
c entury , from land t o land
I have
heard many lectures on many subj ects
I have b een instructed someti mes , and
wearied often But you appealed to me
l ess as a lecturer than a s a sing ularly
delightful talker , who , master o f his
subj ect in all its lights and shades ,
stimulates his listeners
thoughts ,
awaken s their imagi nations , and starts
their memori es c ontinually o n u n
c onscious j o u rn eys from which they
return with refreshed impre ssions
It was n ot long aft er I had stept out
o f th e s u nny greyness o f the London
s treets , exchanging the noisy bustle o f
the tra ffi c for th e almost solemn qui et
o f the theatre o f the Royal Institution ,
before I yielded , with th e rest o f your
audience , t o the persuasive charm
of your voice
At first , when you
t old us how S olon , in matter o f fact
t erms and with out understan ding ,had
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T O TH E A U TH O R
vii
questioned the dramat ic art o f Thespis
— much as some of ou r latter day wise
men a n d l e g i sl a t o r s are apt to do
the sense o f the present was strong
upon me
But when you proceeded
to trace the gradual growth o f tragedy
from its crude beginnings , the magic
o f your words , revealing the true in
wa r dn e s s of classic days , called up
vision s o f Greek villages and earliest
Dionysiac revels , exquisite with colour
and the elemental j oy o f life ; and anon ,
as you led us to ancient Athens , and
the great names o f l E s chyl u s , S op h o
cles and E uripides rolled intimately
yet worshipful ly from your tongue ,
other vision s arose o f huge maj estic
theatres open to the heavens , with
vast Ath enian crowds applauding th e
immort a ls ; an d then , as in an under
dream , o n e seemed to hear Asp a si a s
rapturous words in L a n d o r s master
piece
What a theatre " What an
elevation " What a prospect o f city
and port , o f land and water , o f porti
coes and temples , o f men and heroes ,
”
o f demigods and gods "
Then , with
that curious double working o f th e
mind —which o n e may liken to th e
e ffect of the telephone , when one s o wn
c onversation i s fantastically a ccom
p a n i e d by th e distant messages o f
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viii
P RE F AT O RY
NO TE
other voices born e o n crossing wires
while still intently listening to your
discourse ,as you spoke o f th e
Aga
”
"
“
CE d i p u s , I
memn on
and o f the
seemed to be visiting again the beauti
ful classic theatres o f Fiesole and o f
Orange ,dreaming under th e blue deeps
of southern skies , and recalling t he
antique dead to life
Also I seemed to
b e sitting again at the Th é ai t r e Fran
cais , while M oun et Sully led me ,
thro ugh the enchantment o f his art ,
into the very h eart o f Greek tragedy ,
giving life to th e tremendous creation
o f S oph ocles a s surely n o Greek actor
in a mask , with the c onventions o f the
H ellenic stage , c ould ever have done
But you changed the scene and the
epoch
You conducted me to spread
ing E nglan d in its first throes o f i m
spacious days
p e r i ali s m , and t o th e
”
an d what c o uld
o f great Eliz ab eth
that mean between us t w o but— Shake
speare ? I say b etween us two , for
the rest o f your au d itors had become
for m e as nought "o u were talking ,
in that charming manner o f yours ,j ust
to me a l o n e , a n d , in plac e o f th e
crowded lect ure room , I s aw th e
M ermaid Tavern
s aw
its b enches
filled by a c o n vi vial throng , made up ,
for the most part ,o f men whose names
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TO T H E
A U TH O R
ix
are fo r ever sweet in E nglish ears ;
saw , at another moment , the little
Glob e Theatre o n Bankside , where
Shakespeare was giving t o the players
the eternal laws o f their art , picking
o u t , with the eyes o f my imagination ,
”
that
delightful Proteus
Dick Bur
bage— surely the most highly privi
l e g e d o f all actors , for did h e n ot
embody Hamlet , Othello , Shylock ,
Lear , Macbeth , as they came new
b orn from th e poet s pen ? And as
I listened to yo u whil e you traced
the idea o f tragedy expressed through
these
deathless
creations , there
came t o me pleasant recollections
of my boyhood s days , when , from
a point o f vantage in the gallery ,
I saw my first Hamlet , my first
Othello , my first Macbeth , receiving
impressions which , even when my
later j udgment may have reb elled
against them , have been treasured
in secret as tenderly as th e dolls of
poor Mrs S ol n e ss
Then , from b e
hind th e curtain o f unwilled memory ,
there came nearer and more vividly ,
at your mention o f Othello , the ma
j e s ti c figure and son orous voice of
Salvini ,the Italian ; at your mention
o f Hamlet and Macbeth , the impres
sive and picturesque presence , th e
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P RE FATO RY NO TE
x
imaginative and intellectual domination
o f our great E nglish tragedian , H enry
I rving ; at your mention o f Mark
Antony , the classic dignity o f Ludwig
B arnay ; at your mention o f Romeo ,
the romantic figure and b eautiful
diction o f Forbes Robertson ; at your
mention o f King J ohn , th e subtle pre
And ,
s e n t m e n t o f B eerb o hm Tree
as you spoke o f Shakespeare
the
worldling , th e man o f a ffairs , th e
family man — happy wanderings in his
o w n idyllic Warwickshire came back
to me with that strange undercurrent
c ould almost
o f reminiscence , and I
of Avon
s e e again the quiet waters
steali n g gently and reverently past
the graveyard o f the ol d church of
Stratford
Once again yo u changed th e scene
and the epoch , as you carried the idea
o f tragedy from th e full blooded uni
v e rs a l i t y o f Shakespeare s theatre , big
with the poetry o f all humanity and
the c onstant optimism o f th e ages , to
th e dreamy ,childlike pathos o f Maeter
linck s spiritual marionettes and the
small despairing message from th e
great voice o f H enrik Ibsen
And , as
o
f
analysed
this
m
essage
th
e
o
u
y
famous N orwegian dramatist , and
probed its parochial pessimism , I was
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TO TH E A U T H O R
xi
carried away in memory to the G rand
H otel at Ch r istiania , where punctually
at c ertain hours I had seen a short ,
stout , grey whiskered o l d gentleman ,
with keen eyes and a hard set mouth ,
scrupul ously dressed in a black frock
coat , come to s i t on a p a rticular chair
i n a particular window , his mug o f
beer upon the window sill , and watch
the world—his world of native N or
w e g i an town smen and touring foreign
ers
S candinavia s greatest poet this ,
and o n e of th e most p otent dramatic
influences o f our day Yet , along the
cross wires of thought , came ZE s chy
l ean echoes from Marathon and
S alamis , came also S h ak e s p er e a n
echoes from Arden , and the Mermaid ,
and Elizab eth s Court—and I felt grate
ful that th e tragic idea had develope d
in a larger atmosphere than the s m ok
ing room of a N orwegian h otel
For
in that larger atmosphere the tragic
note , as you sa y , has never sounded
the despair of human virtue even wh en
it has soun ded th e despair o f human
happiness
And n ow , my dear C ourtney , you
tell us you perceive signs encouraging
you to h Op e that the tragic idea may
yet find fruitful stimulus in th e great
tum ult of imperial emotions at present
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xii
P RE FATO RY NO TE
stirring th e world spirit o f ou r peoples
With all my heart I trust it may prove
so ; and that we poor modern play
wrights will not b e found wanting at
least in the endeavour t o respond to
lofty and heroic inspiration
Believe me , my dear C ourtney ,
With sincere regard ,
Your obliged friend ,
A RTH U R W PI N E R O
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Throu gh th e i n flu en c e of m usic th e Ap olli n e
el e m e n t i s e n gr aft ed o n
t h e D i on y s i a c w i l d
”—
n e ss
N I ETZ S C H E, Tfie Bz tlz qf Tr g dy
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r
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e
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S OLO N , wh o was o n e o f th e tradi
it i s
t i o n a l wise men o f Greece
1—
Plutarch who tells us th e story
once
went t o se e Thespis act And after
the play was done , h e asked him
if he were not ashamed o f himself to
tell s o many lies before such a number
of people Wh en Thespis replied that
it was no harm to say o r to do s o in
play , Solon veh emently struck his s t a fl
”
“
Ay, said he ,
against the ground
if we honour a n d c ommend such play
as this , we shall fin d it some day in
”
o ur business
H ere is o n e o f the
earliest rec orded instanc es o f the
j udgment of t he intellect o n things o f
the imagination
Observe th e two
points which are found fault with in
art Fir st ,j udged by a severe sta n dard
o f experience , it is false ; next , it has
a de l eterio us influenc e o n the practical
conduct o f life
Solon , n o doubt , pre
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P lu t ar c h
cd ,C l ou gh )
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Life
f
o
Dryd en
Salon (
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s t ran slat i on
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B
I D EA O F T RAG E DY
2
serv ed his reputation for traditional
wisd o m by occasional lapses into
folly , as is the habit of oth er wise
men whose obzter di cta are apt to miss
th e higher aspect o f things
But I
begin with the story as indicative o f a
contrast you will find running through
the histor y o f G re e k art , and also ,
to a large ex t ent , o f modern art— th e
wide divergenc e b etween the most
c ultured e ffort s o f intelligent c riticism ,
and the spontaneous outp ouri n g o f the
a rti stic im ag ina t ion When i t came
to b e t h e ta sk o f Plato and Aristotl e
to give a philosop h ical account o f the
work which m e n lik e P he i d i as a n d
Pra x iteles , [E s ch yl u s h S ophocles , a n d
Euripi des had done before them , th e y
fail e d n early as completely as S o l o n
did , and for a similar reason
They
ap plied the a nalytic pr o cesses of logic
to a phenome n o n , an artistic birth , an
a s t h e t i c il lumination ,which has little
o r n othing to do with mental processe s
at all
In any study of th e ori gin s of th e
tragic idea , we m u st begin with th e
discov ery that drama in g e n e ra l , a n d
tragic drama i n particular , has its
birth not in the intellectual nature o f
man ,but in th e p o p ular mind Tragedy
i s born of the people , and belo ngs to
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I D EA O F TR A G E DY
3
the people , and i s ba s ed on so me rudi
mentary instincts of popular fancy and
popular mysticis m
It has its j u st i fi
cation , th e refore , i n some essential
qual i t ie s o f human nature itself, and
o wes little or nothing to th e d i al e c
tica l processe s of pure reas oni n g
No
clear er o r more pertinent lesson than
t his can b e derived from the study
To r e
o f how Greek drama arose
ce i v e the marvellous in the spirit o f
a child of the people , is th e true tragic
inspiratio n
N ever had a great and distinguished
art such ordinary an d comm onplac e
beginnings as Greek Tragedy A
crowd o f rustics in villages h old a
rude festival in honour of th e god
Dionysus with verses appropriate to
th e occasion , celebrating the deity s
characteristic actio n s and qualities in
a chorus , rude , enthusiastic , riotous ,
with touches o f early pessimism and
many notes o f extravagant j oy
Dionysus is n ot only the god of wine ,
nor was his festival only celebrated in
autumn
To him belongs th e birth
and burgeoning o f the earth in spring
H e is th e god who makes the young
world live again , wh o makes men e n
j oy the produce o f the grape , and
many other things besides —a wealth
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I D EA
4
OF
T RA G E DY
and amplitude o f existence , an a p
preciation o f the secret lying at the
heart of the universe , an opening ou t
o f n e w faculties and powers , a larger
life ,when the snows and the winter
are over
From the village the
Dionysiac festival is transplanted to
th e towns , a n d there , possibly , owing
to influences from th e Peloponnesus ,
it assumes a new character Gradu
ally th e incidents i n the god s career ,
his su fferings and his triumphs ,are ex
changed for , o r amplified by ,tales and
stories o f legendary Greece and th e
history o f her antique heroes
The
leader o f the chorus is distinguished
from th e body o f choristers as one
wh o has something to s ay o n his o wn
account
H e becomes an individual
personage ,an answerer ,hyp ocrites ,an
actor A s time goes on , this single
actor is reinforced by another , and in
turn by a third
Such is the genesis
o f the Gr e ek drama , kept close to its
ancient form by its chorus , by its
musical setting ; and gradually dis
t i n g u i sh e d from its anci e nt form by
two things above all — fir st , th e intro
duction o f distinct p ersonalities , wh o
answer th e chorus ; s econd , by the
extensi on of subj ects dealt with , th e
adoption of the ancient heroic legends
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T RA G E DY
OF
of
5
Greece as a storehous e o f drama
tic material
H ow large a par t the p op ular
mind pla yed in this g ra dua l evolutio n ,
it is n ow easy to s urmis e
When
from the standp oint o f later ages we
look b ack upon the Greek drama ,
o u r inclination is to appreciate with
higher zest the characters , the m a n
a g e m e n t of the p l o t , th e development
o f the i n trigu e
It is the chorus , how
e ver,whi ch is the charact eristic thing i n
Greek dramas , the chorus as the o u t
ward and visible sign o f t h e popular
feeling and th e popular inte lligenc e ,
from which all Greek dram a and Greek
tragedy were b or n
B ecause it was
found in t he earlies t exa mples , the
chorus s ur viv ed for some time in later
hist ory, a sort of pallid and ine ffectual
ghost and a dramatic tradition
It was
obviously a pure survival , wh ether it
appeare d in the French classical dramas
o r in Shakespeare , without any vital
connection with the play or any veri
table m i sc”d etre Sign ificantly enough
you will find tha t in comedy the
chorus , which Aristophanes still uses,
disappears altogether , although it s u r
vives much longer in tragedy Th e
reason is clear B oth c omedy and
tragedy have ,it is true ,the same root ;
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I DE A O F TRAG E DY
6
but the first can b e patr o n ised by i n
t e lli g e n ce and th e logical i n te l l e ct
criticism can always m ake merry over
follies —while tragedy belongs t o t he
p eople , and will th erefore b ear longe st
the impr ession o f tha t p opular i m a g
i n a t i o n whos e artistic form is the
chorus
H ow are w e to understand the
mea n ing o f this chorus , th e most
significant thing in Greek tragedy ?
"o u w ill find sev eral learned i n t e rp r e
t a t i on s , espec i ally in German c om
m e n t a t or s
Schlegel speaks of the
chorus as the attitude o f t h e i d ea l
s pectator , the ordina ry and inte llige nt
j ud gme nts whi ch a m a n who knew
the whole s tory would pass on the
a ction o f the characters
Or it may
b e that instead of the ideal spectator ,
we should talk o f th e average spec
tator , and you would then get an
of
the functions o f the
e stimate
chorus which might b e true o f
S ophocles , and if we add the lyrical
element , true also o f Euripides , but
c ertainly n ot true of ZE s chyl u s To
I E s chyl u s the ch orus represents much
more — th e general background of
historic co ndi tions in the midst o f
whi ch t h e a ction is t ak ing place , the
recital o f the ol d stories of a doomed
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I D E A O F T RA G E DY
8
moved sim ul taneously by common i m
pulses
Observe especially that there
was here a n union of Speaking , danc
ing and singing , and that one o f th e
characteristic marks of differenc e b e
tween ancient a n d modern drama is
the large space allotted in the ancient
t o music
Music , as it is the latest
expression o f indefinite art feeling , so
also is it the earliest
It gives utter
ance to that undertone o f melancholy
which appertains to the pop u lar rustic
mind , the fi r st notes of that pessimism
which afterwards enthrals some o f th e
deepest thinkers
There is a strain o f
mysticism , o f sorrow , o f passionate
regret , in all the early outpouri ngs of
the popular mind , c ombined too with
an extravagant j oy , as a reaction
against the gloom
Most of the drink
ing songs o f the world are set in a
minor key ; all the Volkslieder , all th e
popular s o ngs of a peasant ry , have a
plaintive , sober , melancholy air We
do not know ve r y much about th e
mysteries of ancient Greec e , th e
Ele u sinian mysteries , th e Dionysiac
mysteries , th e O rphic mysteries ; but
we do know that they too exhibited
a certain undercurrent o f woe
The
p e ople wh o lived nearest to N ature
co uld at times put o n a frantic j oy , as
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I D EA O F TRA GE DY
9
the Bacchanals did in honour o f their
g o d w h o gave them the produce of the
grape ; but they were also conscious ,
in every bone and fibre of their b eing ,
o f how hard N ature c ould be , o f the
misery o f bad seasons , o f the i n t ol e r
able weight o f a long and rigid winter ,
o f the di fficulty of making both ends
meet , of keeping a roof over their
heads and a fire on their hearth
N ature could smile in Spring and sum
mer , but it made men weep in autumn
and winter A bove all , below the
radiant face of the n atural world , was
th e dark and mysterious gloom of the
under world , whither men , after much
vain labour and sorrow , descended
and were heard o f no more You will
find precisely the same spirit running
through Mr William Morris Tae
E a rtaly P a ra dise ; indeed , something
of the kind has b ec ome th e sign o f
modern romantic melancholy
In
Maeterlinck s early dramas , you have
got this strain o f pessimism ,combined
also with an e ffort to reproduc e by
words the vague suggestions o f music
The very repetitions o f a phrase ,which
light minded critics laugh at in Maeter
linck as the reminiscences o f an
O ll e n d orfia n grammar , are in reality
musical phrases and n ot literary at all
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I D EA O F T RA G E DY
— iterations and repercussion s
of
a
characteristic phra se such as you would
find in a fugue 1 Th e [ezt mai zy in the
Wagneri an op er a is of course the same
thing We in t his mode rn age s houl d
find n o diffic u lty in comprehending the
Dionysiac mood in early Greece, for
we have apt parallels amongst o ur
s elve s i n other forms of art
There
are romantic melancholy and a half
fugitive j oy in Burne J ones there are
romantic melancholy and yearning in
Rossetti ; there are romantic melan
ch o l y and despair in Maeterlinck
there
are romantic melancholy and madness
in Wagne r 2
N evertheless , t he se Dionysiac ele
ments , a s we may call th e m , t hese
vague moods o f the popular i magi
nation
rhyt hmical , musical , d e cla m
a t o ry— cannot discover some outward
embodiment and expression of them
selves without th e aid o f a creative
arti st
What Ni etzsch e in his inter
esting es say o n th e bi rth o f tra gedy
describes as th e Apolline ele m en t must
b e sup eradded to t he Dionysiac mood
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tr o duc ti on b y J W Ma ckail t o
Ma e t e r li n ck s Ag l v zne nd S ly ette
2 S e e a cha pt e r e n tit l e d Mo d e rn Mel a n ch o l
y
i n [Md m [M
y t ici sm a n d otfier Essay s,by F r an c i s
G ri er s o n
1
S ee
In
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I DEA O F TR AG E DY
II
“
The blank mi sgivings of a creature
”
moving about i n words unrealized
a re by themselves inarticulate , dumb ;
they must get a voic e through the
mouth o f an artist , thro ugh ZE s ch ylu s
a nd
Sophocle s
N or are they only
dep endent o n t he existence and the
genius of a great creative artist ; they
must also find the right period ,a period
o f great popular expansion , a birth o f
national ardour , a fine glory o f patriot
ism As it was in th e Elizabethan age ,
s o was it in the Athenian age
Greece
throwing o ff the menacing invasion of
the Persians was like England throw
ing off the ominous threats o f a Spanish
Armada In each case th e p eople and a
nation awoke t o a cons ciousnes s o f itself
and its own po wers
Then , and only
the n ,was a new art born The ti mes
w er e ripe , and the m a n wa s there
Shakespeare to voice t h e p atriotis m o f
England , [E s chyl u s to give expre ssi on
to the victory o f enlightenment over
barbarism
But you will see also h ow
the very idea o f tragedy g o t its d i st i n c
tive and its most permanent character
From the vague feelings of men s short
li fe , and the imminent doom of death ,
g radual ly arose th e notion o f a fate ,a n
i mperial and arbitrary destiny ,an awful
[
f
shadow
sup erincumben t fortu ne ,in
o
[
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I D EA O F T RA G E DY
th e midst of which men had to spend
their brief time o f tempestuous life
And the o ther element , t oo , o f tra
g e d y ,the element of individual strength
and will ,the man struggling against his
fate , and now and again with power to
overcome it ,finds its apt paral lel in the
c easeless combat o f Athens ,th e centre
of
light and intelligence —“ la vi ll e
”
lumi ere — again st the dark forces of
barbarism ,those endl ess Persian hosts
with which it was her missio n to
struggle
If I am at all right i n
what I have tried to convey to you
hitherto , you wi ll find that th e idea
o f tragedy involves at least three i n
In the first
g r e d i e n t s or elements
plac e , it is born of popular pessimism
and melancholy I n th e next place , it
finds artistic voice when the people
b ecome cons ci ous o f them selves and
exalted national task
In the
o f an
third place , if we analyse it , tragedy
is always th e clash o f two powers
necessity without , freedom within ;
outside , a great , rigid , arbitrary law o f
fate ; inside , th e undefeated in dividual
will ,which can win its spiritual triumph
even when all its material surroundi ngs
and environment have crumbled into
hopeless ruin
We are now in a position t o under
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I D EA O F TRAG E DY
13
stand the conditions under which dra
matic art blossomed in Athens We
will put aside Thespis and h i s cart ,
the earliest known form o f a travelling
theatrical c ompany We will dispense
with the supposed derivation o f tragedy
from the prize given to the successful
competitor ,Tragos ,a goat for all these
things , fabulous or n o t fabulous , are at
all events enveloped in the darkness o f
an early age When [E s ch ylu s steps
forth o ut of the mists we get on firm
round , and realize that we have to
eal with o n e o f those great inventive
rt i st s who leave their mark on history
E schyl u s : a patriot
soldier first o f all , a man wh o
at Marathon and was equally
at Salamis ; a hero who ,by the
accident o f fortune , was con
h that hand to hand
struggle between the West and the
East , between a nascent civilization
n inveterate barbarism , which
11 the Persian wars
N or i s it
a soldier that l E s chyl u s claims
rest H e is one of those deeply
us men who , j ust at the period
crude theological notions are
e i n g revised , and possibly called in
u e s t i on , sets himself to the task o f
utting new life into theology b y
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OF
IDEA
TRA GE DY
wider and more human e ideas There
is nothing , observe , at this per iod in
th e st h centu r y B C , when Athen s
was busy showing herself the hom e
o f all art and all culture , of th e notion
that th e artist is a special , se parate
creature working at art fo r art s sa ke
N o ; th e ou tburst , th e awakening , th e
most s pl end i d p eri od wh ich h as left th e
m ost imperishable monum e nts in th e
world w a s originally based , first and
foremost ,o n a great wave of patriotism
and national ardour— a c o n flict with
Persia ; and based in a secondary but
n o less important degree o n an ardent
religious interest
It may or may n ot
b e true that , as history goes o n , and
the di fferent interests of men specialise
themselves more and more ,t h e artistic
impulse must keep itself distinct fr o m j
either religion or mora ls ; that it must "
n eve r p reach a sermon o r teach an
ethical lesson
N everth eless ,i t s roots
are n early everywhere found in a r e
li g i ou s and ethical soil , an d its chief
m anifestations , whe th e r in Greece or,
in the Italy o f th e early R
or in Elizabethan E ngland , ar
dent on the heig htening o f the n a t i on a l l
feeling , a general un lo osing and en
livening of popular energies
Imagine , th en , th ese D ionys ia c fes l
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I D EA O F TRA G E DY
16
shines , and there are glimpses b e
yond o f the olive trees and the hills ,
and th e intensely blue I E g e a n Sea
What kind o f drama is possible under
conditions like these ? It clearly must
b e something formal , statuesque , large
and simple in its design , m ore careful
o f th e broad e ffects than of th e minute
points o f characterization , always with
something of the statuary s art about
it , like that o f P h e i d i a s o n th e frieze
o f the Parthenon
Those masks , o n e
would think , would b e a real obstacle
to anyt hing like individuality ; yet they
were artistically devised , apparently
fitted close to th e fac e , and were
frequently changed
H ow frequently
you can easily imagine , wh en you r e
member that }E sch yl u s had only two
actors to start with , and that it was
S ophocles who invented a third The
actor manager , under such circum
stances , would n o t have much chance
o f displaying his individual p ec u liari
ties
But th e Greeks did n ot care
much for the individual actor a s such
to them he was th e mere vehicle for
expressing th e words o f the poet an d
th e acts o f th e hero And there was
n o lime light
Limitations are the artist s opp or
t un i ty
They may impose o n th e
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I D EA
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x7
inferior craftsman a burden too d iffi
cult to be bor n e ; for the higher artist
they a re not leaden we ights ,but wings
Wh en ZE s chyl u s took in hand the busi
n ess o f play writing , h e ma naged to
ob se rve faithful ly th e conven tion s, and
n
w
f
put
into
th
e
m
a
lif
e
One
t
e
o
e
y
his earliest pieces was a great national
drama —the vi ctory o f Greec e over th e
Persians— the s ort of thing we should
nowadays expe ct to find at Drury Lane
It was after the battle of S alamis ,whe n
the wooden walls of Athens or ,in ot h er
words , her ships , had destroyed the
Persian hosts , under the ve ry eyes o f
"erx es himself What would you ex
a
p e ct under such circumstan ces
great theatrical display of the ma
j esty of Athens , a long and boas tful
tirade to show that there never we re
such me n as Athenian warr iors and sea
men ? N othi ng o f the kind "ZE s chyl u s
lays the s cen e at the Persian Court
We are asked to sympathi se wi th th e
woes of Persian ladies , above all o f
the Persian Queen ,Atossa , into whose
soul th e i ron has alrea dy entered
Once , it is true , the poet allows him
self,through the mouthpiece o f a mes
senger ,to paint the glory of the Greek
navy , a veritable epic o f Salamis , in a
magnificent piece o f oratorical verse
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8
I D EA O F TRAG E DY
B ut through out we are invited to look
a t things from a Persian standpoint , to
erxes ,to observe
s e e the despair o f "
the ghost o f Darius rising from his
tomb to rebuke th e degeneracy o f his
descendants
A subtle artistic devic e ,
i f you will , t o enhance , as it were ,
n egatively , the
prowess o f Athen s ,
b u t still full o f sympathy for th e
Persian wounde d and dead
Clearly
this was not a play by an ordinary
man , but a true and honest piece o f
work by a Marathonian warrior wh o ,
full of pride in his ow n country , had
learnt the resp ect , born only in the
battlefield ,o f the enemy The Greeks ,
at all events , celebrated their festival
by being sorry for the Persians
It was an age b efore newspapers "
This , however , except so far as
clemency to the vanquish ed is a
national duty , hardly touches t he
deep er notes o f [E s chyl ea n drama
We have yet t o see in what sen se
[E s ch yl u s as a playwright was als o
Le t
th e founder o f Greek tragedy
m e refer back once more to th e
essenc e of tragedy , as I have ventured
to express it
Put briefly , it is always
a conflict between a great law or
power , universal or world wide in its
scope , and the free will of the indi
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I D EA O F T RA G E DY
1
9
vidual
N ec essity without , liberty
that is th e great theme
W ithin
which , however
disguised , run s
through every tragedy which has
been written in th e world
N ow
for 1 E s ch yl u s , living at a co m
p ar a ti ve ly early stage of the historic
period of Athens , there were notions
deeply imb edded in the popular mind
as to the action of divine p o wers and
th e necessity of wise conduct for the
individual , which to his intelligenc e
No
appeared crude and imperfect
thing , for instance , was more common
in Greek ordinary thought , as indeed
it was equally common in J ewish
ordinary thought , than the idea that
the sovereign power or p owers in
th e world were exceedingly envious
of human prosperity
The J ewish
tribal god proclaimed himself as a
j ealous god
H erodotus , who r e p r e
sents the average thoughtful mind o f
Greece , a little childish and cr e d u l
after story— for in
o u s , tells story
stance , that of Polycrates o f Samos
to prove that the gods had very care
fully to b e propitiated by any lucky ,
prosperous , o r successful man
In
combination with this n otion of divine
j ealousy , we find the idea also o f an
inexorable law of destiny to which th e
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I DEA O F T RAG E DY
Olympian gods were themselves s ub
j e ct , a great hard iron despotism of
fate , without ears to listen to human
prayers , with out eyes t o s e e th e range
It was an i rr e ve r
o f human misery
ent theory for any o n e wh o believed
that th e world was governed by intel
l i g e n ce ,regulated by j ustic e , and tem
pered with mercy ; moreover , for
purposes o f tragedy , it was an u n
dramatic th e ory , giving n o room for
the play of individual action
On b oth
thes e grounds , b ecause I E s ch yl u s wa s
n ot only a deeply religious man but
also a n artist , th e inventor of Greek
tragedy modifies the theory I s there
such a dreary despotism o f fate ? N ay ,
but we must n ot call fate th e i mp l a c
able thi n g , H d a r eLa , but Nep em s,
th e apportioner , the power which a p
portions and allots to every man a c
c ording to his des e rts
Is God really
j eal o us ? N ay , but except in a meta
phor we should not speak o f the
j ealousy of H eaven , but o f the wanton
ins o lenc e o f man , th e {J Bp aq o f pros
p e r i t y and success , which , leading
him on from o n e thoughtless , defiant ,
o r swaggering act t o another , breeds ,
as ZE s chyl u s will tell you , and i n e vi t
ably begets its own punishment Thus ,
it is n ot so much Z eus who is j ealous
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I DEA O F TRAG E DY
2 1
of
human success it is the successful
man who becomes insolent , and ex
ce e d s the rules o f that wise modera
ti o n alike of conduct a n d of thought ,
which the moralists o f Gre ec e were
always enj oining
Let us see for a moment how
[E s chyl u s applies th e se ideas to his
dramas
I take , as a matter o f
course , the celebrated tri logy of th e
O resteia , the three plays , A g a m e m
n on , C h o eph or oe, a n d E umenides ,
which , because every member o f th e
trilogy has been preserved , give
us the true idea o f what was in the
dramatist s mind
Agamemnon , th e
c onqueror o f Troy , b e longs to a
doomed house ; so much for th e ol d
idea o f an irrevocable destiny
He
comes back from the city which h e
has vanquished to find that in his a b
s enc e Clyt ae mnestra has sinned with
her paramour ZE g i st h u s , and h e is
killed like an ox at the shambles by the
very woman who is welcoming him so
glibly with her false words
H is s o n
Orestes , together with his daughter
Electra , conspire agai n st their mother ,
C lytmm n e st r a , and kill her in turn
Then Orestes is plagu ed by the furies ,
the Eri n nye s o f his dead mother , and
only at the last , before the Areopagus
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I D EA O F TRA GE DY
Athens , and owing to th e direct i n
t e rv e n t i o n of H eaven , is th e matricide
pardon ed , the E ri n n ye s , th e dark i n
s t r u m e n t s of
vengea nce , being con
verted into th e E umenides , th e kindly
in st u m e n t s of blessin g
It seems to b e
a dreary catalogue of crimes ,as though
the cur se of the family was b eing i n
e vi t a b l y passe d o n from father to son
But the fact that the eventual issue is
happi n ess ,th e dark furie s b ei n g turned
int o b e n e fice n t fairies , makes on e look
more c l osely at th e dramatic character
i sa t i o n
I s Agamemnon s o innocent
a victim ?
N o , h e has b een g uilty
o f much insolen t cruel t y towards th e
conquere d cit y o f Troy ; h e ha s
brough t back as his especial sp o ils
Cassa n dra , whom his wife knows t o
be
h er rival ; instead o f thanking
H eaven for his safe return , he accepts
almost divine h onours , audaciously
walking o n purple carpets , where a
m ore modest entry would have been
in far b etter taste
Moreover , h e had
sa crificed his and Clyt aemnestra s ch il d ,
I p hi g en e i a , in order that h e might get
favourable winds to help the Gr eek
expedition
H e had , at all events ,
c onsented to h e r death , an act whic h
her mother was not likely t o forget
H is murder , then , is n ot a matter i n
of
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I D EA
4
TRAG E DY
0 1:
Thyestes
H ere was a fine c a se for
casuistry , such as the J esuits in later
ages might have del i ghted in
B ut
o b se rve with what punctilious j eal ousy
I E s ch yl u s holds th e scales even
He
shall b e punished , driven from land to
land by th e Furies , which , in other
words , are the stings o f c on science ;
but h e shall be saved at last ,b ecause
the motive of his actions was a go od
o n e , and because Z e us w i lls n ot th e
death of a sinne r Will you say that
there is no j ustice in divin e decrees ?
Will you say that man i s helpl e ss
in the hands o f fate ? Will yo u s ay
that the laws of heredity are a d a
m a n t i n e in their force and strin
[E schyl u s will not have it
g e n cy
so
The divine ordinance is worked
N o o n e is
ou t through human frailty
p unished except for acts o f cruelty ,
which , i n th emselves , invite their
prop e r retributi o n S o m ew h e r e in th e
dreary chain of crime and cha stise
ment , it is possible for the individual
to h old up his hands and s ay he acted
for the b est
Orestes is pardoned at
th e last
Ab ove all , there arises a
gr eat moral law , an ordinance of th e
highest value o u t o f the st r uggles an d
su ffe rings , the disasters , the fruitle ss
efforts , the p rayers , and th e r uin o f
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I D EA
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2
5
human lives
The law o f retri bution
i s stern enough , but there is anoth e r
l aw that only by su ffer ing can a man
learn all the finer grace s o f sym pathy
and loving kindness ,flowering o u t o f a
horrible experience of evi l P a tkema ,
As
ma thema , sorrow i s knowledge
su r e d l y , b e
envisaged his dramatic
task most se rio usly , this first i nventor
o f tragedie s, th is H ellen i c inv e stigator
o f the meaning of human e xi s ten c e
Like the great H e brew dramatist who
wrote the B o ok o f J ob , he tried t o r e
concile th e ways o f God to men
I pass by with only a most in
adequate and cursory reference others
of the seven dramas which form all that
we have left of th e work o f [E s ch yl u s
the drama o f hospitality , as in “ Th e
Suppliants
th e drama o f patri otism ,
”
“
as i n
The Persians ; t h e drama o f
individual duty towards the State , as
in “ Th e S eve n against Thebes
ab ove all ,the great drama of Prome
”
theus Bound , which has served s o
often as a tragic fable of the doom o f
reformers and in n ovators
In the last
o f these , l E s ch yl u s rises
to a still
higher standpoi n t in his reform of
current mythology
Prometheus was
a great benefactor to ma n kind
He
communicated to men th at supreme
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6
I D EA O F TRAGE DY
invention o f fire , which raised them
from bestial levels to the possibilities
o f social habits , and the blessings o f
home
For this , Prometheus is pun
i sh e d by an angry Z eus , and h e is
chained to a rock whil e a vul ture gnaws
at his entrails
I s it wrong then t o
snatch th e secrets o f the Olympian
gods and disclos e th em to mortals ?
[E s ch yl u s will tell you that there was
an older dispen s ation where th ere was
much Olympian cruelty an d d e spotism
But after Saturn and Chro nos comes
Z eus , whose providence t ends to order
and harmony rather than chaos , and
who ultimately forgives and releases
Prometheus , b ec a use the Titan will
j oin with him in p r omo ting a n ewer
and a b et ter reign
S o everywhere
[E s ch yl u s i s o n th e side of religion
reformed by moral i ty , and b elieving a s
h e does in th e god s of p olytheism , yet
strikes eve r and anon the note o f mo n o
theism
Listen to him , for instanc e ,
in the celebrated choru s of th e Aga
memnon
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“
Z e u s , by wh a t n a m e so e er
H e g l o ri e s b e i n g a d d r e s s e d ,
E v en b y th a t h o l i e s t n am e
I n a m e th e H igh e s t a n d B e s t
O n H i m I c a s t my tr o u b l o us
’
My
on
.
care,
ly re fu ge from d e sp a ir ,
I DEA O F T RAG E DY
2
We ighi n g all e ls e, in H i m al on e I fin d
R e l i e f fr o m t h i s v ai n b u r d en o f t h e min d
7
” 1
.
It i s time to turn from I E s chyl u s t o
th e n ext inheritor of th e tragic mantl e ,
s op h g cg
l s
If [E s chyl u s was i n many
respects a prophet , his younger con
temporary , Soph ocles , was above all
a n artist
The religious thinker , the
philosopher , th e Marathonian warri o r
who s aw visions an d dreamed dreams ,
had put c ertain problems b efore th e
world The problems remained , but
their han dli n g , and , as it were , th eir
envisagement , m i ght b e di ffe rent
A
sort of Faust dr ama , as Goethe con
ce i v e d it , with a prologue in heaven
and an epi l ogue in hell , a n d a running
accompaniment of angels and demons ,
might b e succeeded by essentially th e
same problem o f human t e mptation
and frailty , without th e supernal or
infernal backgrou n d
S omething o f
this speci e s o f di ff e renc e is to b e ob
se rved when we leave th e [E s ch yl e a n
drama a n d approach the Sophoclean
It is th e kind o f c o n trast which
exist s between th e w o rk o f P h ei d i a s
and th e softer , mor e huma n e work o f
Praxiteles Th e tragic not e becomes ,
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‘ Th e
C
a
mp b ell
tr an sla ti on
.
S ee
Eng l zs/z V er se, p
'
.
r f
r
wi s
i s b y P o e s so
Le
(E scfi
y l us ; Tb s Sw en P lay s
I45
.
2
I DEA O F TRAG E DY
8
in a sense , more acute , because th e
sorrows and struggles o f the individual
human b eing are represented as th ey
occur o n th e ordinary worldly stage
with all the pity and terror which
they inspire ,unrelieved by any looking
before o r after in a transcendental
region
H ere is , for instance , Aj ax ,
an extremely human being ,very proud
stout
o f his thews and muscles , a
fighter , w h o deserved more than any
o n e else to inh e rit the arm s o f the
dead Achilles
N everth eless , it is de
cided that U lysses sho uld have them ,
and th e p o or simple minded and gallant
h ero feels intensely mortified and hurt
H e thought , poor fool , that his o w n
estimate o f himself was that which
others entertained
H e believed , in
the teeth of all common experience ,
that his place c ould n ot be readily
filled by any other man
As the poet
represents it , Aj ax has not only to
su ffer the misery o f be i ng slighted and
passed by , but is visited by a divin e
plague o f madness , s o that , thinking
h e is dealing with his enemies , he
falls upon and destroys only innocent
herds o f cattle
Vani t y , th e poet
would suggest , is after all a fo r m of
madness , a mistaken estimate o f men
and things Aj ax wakes from th e
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I DE A
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2
g
stupor o f his insanity to find himself
seated in his tent in the midst o f the
slaughtered herds , a man disgraced in
his o w n eyes as well as in the eyes
The
o f all his H ellenic comrades
chorus o f Salaminian sailors remain s
true to him , as also does his slave
wife , but h ow can th e broken threads
an e x istence b e again
of s o ruined
picked up ? A goddess interferes t o
soften the relations b etween himself
and U lysses , but for the hero himself,
who looks with
s g i t y at
a
the catastroph e 0 all his hopes and
ambitions , there is only o n e issue , a
proud , solitary , dauntless death i n
fli ct e d by his o w n hand far from the
haunts o f men
Sophocles was abo ve all an artist ,
and probably because he based his
idea o f trag e dy mainly upon artistic
c onsiderations , he makes the drama
wholly connected with the human
sphere I E s chyl u s was not a drama
t i st at all in a modern sense : S o p h o
cles was a dramatist ,even in a modern
sense
H e was called the Attic B ee ,
because o f the sweetness o f that
Hymettian honey which his verses
could distil But he was also a crafts
man , knowing how to involve his plot ,
and make every complication work
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I D EA O F T RAG E DY
towards th e dema ement Observ e j ust
a few points in passing
In th e story
of
(
E d i p u s and elsewhere , h e has
some idea o f intrigue ; h e is aware o f
the e ffectiveness o f a situation in which ,
wh i le th e spectators know everything ,
the actors themselves know n othing
This is practically what some critics ,
including B ishop Thirlwall ,have called
the irony o f Sophocles
Irony in th e
ordinary significati o n it certainly is
n ot ; it is not even irony in the sense
of
Socrates , where a profession o f
ignoran ce is used a s a convenient
c over for a vast amount o f knowledge
Th e irony o f S ophocles is n othing
more n or less than the qui te modern
device o f n ot keeping secrets from
your audience You should n ot u t
surprise and confound your
t e rl y
spectators by some sudden revelation
in the last act
They are apt to
resent this What they really like is
t o b e a good deal wiser than the
actors in the fable , because they then
fully appreciate the bearing o f the
various incidents Th e Greek drama
t i s t s never thought it inj ured their
story that it should b e known from
the very b eginning
E uripides goes
so far as to have a prologue in which
he succinctly tells you the whole o f his
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I DEA O F TRAG E DY
32
pero n s , wh o sends to th e oracle to
inquire for what caus e his people are
plagued ; and all the time he is himself
the cause
H e i s a parr icide , though
he knows it not H e is guilty o f incest ,
though h e knows it n o t The audience
know it quite well , but all through
the play the King is shown them i n
n ocently asking th e most deadly ques
tions ,and receiving the answers which
every man in t he auditor ium under
stands , and only the poor victim o f
destiny canno t c o m pre hend The n at
last , through the a gency of Teire sias ,
th e soothsayer , and some simple shep
herds , th e terrible revelation i s made
to him , and the a ccursed of men and
gods ,with eyes torn from th eir sockets ,
mad with grief, and c o ns cious that
he is the cur se o f hi s city , rushes on
th e stage , a thing to shudder at and
"ou will remember , doubt
abhor
less , how M Mounet Sully acted the
scene in 1 88 1
If this were indee d a l l , if S ophocles
h ad contented himself with painting
so unrelieved a tragedy a s t his , we
might well call him the w orst o f
cynic s and pessimists , b ecause h e
m ade n ot th e guilty but th e innocent
But the sec ond pla y in th e
s u fl er
”
“
trilogy , (E d ip u s at C olonus , is a
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33
singularly sweet and quiet picture o f
an o l d man s growing peace and con
t e n t m en t
The blind (E d ip u s , th e
wre ck o f all that once he was , secures
at last the “ passionless bride , divin e
”
Tranquillity , because H eaven , while
inexorably ordaining that crimes even
when they are unconscious shall meet
with their appropriate penalty , yet has
some regard for th e motive as well as
the e ff ect o f th e acts ,and appreciates
the di ff erenc e between conscious and
unconscious guilt There is a chorus
”
“
in the play of (E d i p u s at C olonus ,
which , where everything is attuned to
the n otes of domesticity and peac e , is
o n e o f the most beautiful poems o f
this Attic Bee And it is a pretty
story that when the son s of Soph o cles
haled the ol d man b efore the courts
on the ground that he had lost his i n
t e lli g e n ce , and could n ot therefore
make arrangements for the division of
his property ,the dramatist did nothing
but recite this famous chorus , and so
c onvinced the j udges that whoever
was mad , it was at least not he
Sophocles , I s ay , was an artist , a
dramatic craftsman , and there are
many smaller points by which this
could b e illustrated Aristotle declares
that he invented stage scenery ,though
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34
I D EA O F T RAG E DY
possibly he only means that he added
to stage e ff ect We know that h e i n
vented the third actor , a devic e o f
which [E schylu s afterwards availed
himself, and it is said too that h e
initiated th e plan of writing certain
parts for certain actors , though I d o
n ot know whether that ought to b e
Bu t , at all
called an improvement
events , h e saw far more clearly than
his predecessor the dramatic value o f
his h eroines Clyt aemnestra is a mag
n ifice n t part in l E s chyl u s ,but s h e pos
sessed no subtle ,only grandiose ,traits
Cassandr a is a part with some of
th e theatrical value o f a prophetess of
doom —let us say ,a glorified version o f
”
“
the Rat wife in Ibsen s Little Eyolf
”
1 0 in
Prometheus B ound is merely
th e plaintive maiden
But think of
S ophocles women
There is D e
j an i ra , wife to H ercules ; there is
Tecmessa , sympathetic slave spouse
of Aj ax ; there is J ocasta in CE d i p u s ;
above all , there is the contrasted pair
of noble women , Electra and Antigon e
—th e first ,a girl grown ol d ,weary with
waiting for her brother Orestes , who
is to execute vengeanc e for the death
of A ga memnon ; th e sec ond ,Antigon e ,
in th e wealth of her blossom i ng girl
hood , who , though she is beloved by
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I D EA O F TRA G E DY
35
H aemon ,yet goes to prison and death
un der the orders o f the tyrant Creon
because sh e insists on giving her
fallen brother , rebel as he is , decent
and hon ourable burial
N othing was
Sophocles fonder of than th e c ontrast
b etween the stronger and th e weaker
girl , between Antigon e and Ismene ,
between Electra and Chrysothemis ;
n or
were there many relationships
which th e poet cared more to mag
n ify than that b etween brothers and
sisters
When we c ome t o E uripides ,
we sh all find that all this study o f
woman s character for th e stage is
carried much further , and b ecomes
indeed o n e o f the marks o f th e later
dramatist s art And here it would
be my proper duty to proceed at once
t o E uripides , and to attempt to esti
mate th e points of contrast between
him and his predecessors
I will n ot
adop t this obvious course , partly b e
cause n ot su ffi cient time remains fo r
its ex ecution , but also for a much
more important reason
I d o n ot
desire to occupy myself with th e mere
historical order o f events in on e de
—
n
t
f
a
m
e
o
Greek
literature
you will
r
t
p
find that described in any ordinary
handbook—but I am s p eaking rather
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I DEA O F TRAG E DY
35
the spiritual a ffiliation o f ideas to
o n e another , and of the relation s b e
tween kindred systems of thought in
di fferent epochs o f the world s life
Now , so far as I can see , there is a
very general analogy between the
historical conditions o f Athens when
Euripides was th e p opular dramatist
and the historical conditions of o u r
modern age
There is th e sam e
break up o f ol d ideas owing to th e
solvents applied to them by philosophy
and science There is th e same sub
s t i t u t i on o f a purely ae sthetic aim in
works o f art for th e older religious
and ethical aims I n many senses , a l
th ough he keeps to the ancient frame
work , Euripides is quite a modern ,
and t o me , at all events , it is more
interesting to study him in comparison
an d c ontrast with th e modern era
Perhaps I sh ould n o t b e altogether
wrong if I called Euripides an ancient
Ibsen , o r Ibsen a modern Euripides
There is , however , a p oint o f some
importanc e ,the last with which I shall
trespass upon your patience It is o d d
to reflect how all this wonderful o u t
burst of dramatic art in Athens a ff ected
the minds o f the more th oughtful mem
b e rs of th e commonwealth , the great
philosophic thinkers o f Greece , Plat o
of
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37
and Aristotle
B oth , let it b e remem
bered ,wrote when the first fin e fervour
o f artistic creation was gradually dying
away into degenerate forms Yet this
does not altogether account for th e
chilling c ontrast between the artists ,
th e poets , the sculptors , the painters
and dignified philosophic critics What
will Plato tell you ?
H e will assert
that all art is imitation , and that poets
and artists must be banish ed from an
ideal state , n ot only b ecause they are
merely copiers o f what N ature does
ine ffably better , but because they de
li b e ra t e ly play upon human emotion ,
and s o weaken the true civic nobility
and sincerity What will Ari stotle tell
you ? H e is much more tolerant of art
than Plato
H e wishes to regulate its
exercise and n o t forbid it ; but h e too
thinks that art is mainly imitation , and
when h e gives his definition o f tragedy ,
he not only puzzles every commentator ,
but disappoints us by th e narrowness
You rememb er the c ele
o f his view
Tragedy is an imi
b rat e d definition :
t a t i o n of some action that is important ,
entire , and o f a proper magnitude , in
th e way not of narrative but o f action ,
e ff ecting , through pity and terror , th e
purgation o f such passions , o r tenden
”
cies
That purgation , x dda p m q , has
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I D EA O F TRAG E DY
38
been a terrible stumbling block for
critics B ecause art n ever is and n ever
was mere imitation , but also i d ea li sa
tion , some have desired to read into
the word x d da po w
e th e signification o f
”
”
“
ennoblement , or ideal illustration ,
”
“
typical exhibition , or something
or
’
f
B ut in truth x ci éa pa m is a
o th e sort
word adapted by Aristotle from medi
cal analogies I t only means purging
as medicine purges ,and thus denotes
th e fundamental feeling of th e philo
sopher that emotions as such were
bad , and ought t o b e purified
Dr
J ohnson hit this o ff well en ough in
answer to a question o f B oswell
He
says quite simply , that it means the
1
expulsion of impurities What Lessing
says o n this point in his D r a ma turg i e
o r Goethe in his study o f Aristotle s
Poetics , I have n o time to refer t o 2
The real point is ,I take it ,that b ecaus e
pity and fear are disturbing emotion s
in th e human frame , because they are
full o f impurities , b ecause they lower
the standard o f th e strong human
b eing , and lessen the rigour of moral
laws ,A ristotle thought it was j ust as
well that spectators should go t o a
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B o sw ell s Lif e,a n n I 7 7 6
L e ssi n g s D r a ma t u rg ze, No
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Na clzlese zu Ar zstoteles P oetzk, I 8 2 6
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Goet h e
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I D EA
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ber o f people
If we honour and co m
mend such play as this , we shall fin d
”
it some day in our business
But as it is Plutarch wh o gives u s
the original story ,let Plutarch also give
the c orrection
Repeating th e words
o f Gorgias , h e tells us that drama is a
form o f deception “ in which h e who
deceives is more to b e j ustified than
h e wh o does n ot deceive , and the man
who is deceived is wiser than the man
” 1
who is n ot deceived
If you are
going to believe in th e world of imagi
nation and romance ,th e stronger your
belief is , the more thoro u gh shall b e
your c onsistency and your j u s t i fica
tion
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1
P lu t a
r ch s
’
D e a udzeazd zs poetzs,p
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2
6
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II
N on e b u t you r s e lf shall yo u m e e t o n th e
h ighway o f Fa t e I f Ju d a s g o fo rt h t o n igh t ,
”
it i s t o war d s Ju d as h i s s t e p s w i ll t en d
MAE TE RLI NC K S VVzsa om a n d D esti ny , S e c ti on
“
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D I D Cicero speak ? asks Cassius in
the play o f [was C e sa r , and Casca
A y , he
answers co nt e rfip t u o u S Iy ,
”
spoke Greek
I n the last lecture , we
too have been speaking Greek , trying
to understand how th e Greeks r e p r e
sented to themselves some of th e i n
sistent problems of humanity In order
that the further remark o f Casca may
not be true— “ but for mine o wn part
”
it was Greek to me —let us attempt
to recapitulate very bri e fly some o f th e
points We found that while th e philo
Sophical critics , o n e with undisguised
aversion , another with tolerant but
s omewhat condescending acceptan ce ,
spoke o f art in general , and dramatic
art in particular ,as imitation , the early
dramatic artists o f Greece understood
quite di fferently the tasks which they
had set themselves to perform
They
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41
I D EA O F T RAG E DY
42
knew quite well that they were so little
imitating such acts and personages as
they availed themselves o f, that th ey
might rather b e described a s freely
reconstructing th e material before
them in such shapes and with such
definite designs as suited th eir imagi
nation
Their great storehous e o f
materials was the old h eroic legends
The annals o f the house o f Atreus
o r th e L a bd a ci d ae , th e Pelopid ae , and
th e rest , were to them as th e ch r on i
cles o f H olinshed and N orth s Plutarch ,
th e stories of Bandello and C yn t h i o s
H e ca t o m m i t h i ,
Sax o Gr a m m a t i cu s ,
and B el le fo r e st were to Shakespeare
Shakespeare made a somewhat dif
fe r e n t u s e of his materials , as we
shall have occasion to se e later ,but for
th e ancient as for th e modern artist
th e problem was the same — s o to carve
o u t and fashion a story from the great
quarry o f legendary tales ,that it should
b e a c omplete work in i t self with a
definite plot , definite characterisation ,
and definite incidents leading up t o the
catastrophe
M ore especially , h owever , in refer
enc e to o ur immediate subj ect , the
Greek dramatists had seized th e leading
idea o f tragedy ,though in details they
had evolved it di fferently
Th ey s a w
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43
that in its essence tragedy always meant
a conflict of some kind , depending o n
two antagonistic f actors
N ecessity
without ,freedom within ,the conscious
exercise o f personality , brought into
direct and immediate struggle with
the stern environment o f destiny
features like these we sa w were woof
and warp of the Greek tragic drama
O n the whole , however , it woul d b e
true to say that the notion o f an ex
ternal fate remains th e essence o f the
Greek creed Agamemnon dies b ecause
o f the curse o n the house o f Atreus ;
Orestes su ffers because h e is pursued
by the Furies of hi s murdered mother ;
(
E d i p u s is condemned b ecause o n him
too had descended the iron hand o f an
external n ecessity
B oth [E s chyl u s
and S ophocles , it is true , put into their
exposition o f these gloomy themes th e
notion of human responsibility , and
therefore ,in a certain measure ,human
freedom Without this indestructible :
feature of a man s will ,there could b e
’
for art n o tragedy at all Th e absolut e
quiescence of fatalism kills all d ra m a t i c l
significance o f character We have In
th e present lecture to s e e how these
old world problems of fate and free
will , of fore knowledge and responsi
bili ty, presen t ed themselves to the
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44
great mind o f th e E nglish dramatist
wh o marked the n ext decisive advance
in the c onception o f tragedy
It will b e rememb ered that one other
point which ,as I take it ,is of immense
c onsequence in th e proper understand
ing o f an art period , and therefore o f
th e nature of art — is that ZE s chyl u s
and S ophocles ,an d to a smaller degre e
E uripides , were connected with a
great uprising o f national vitality and
vigour ZE s chyl u s was a Marathonian
warrior
Sophocles was onc e elected
as a general
B oth were keenly r e
sp o n s ive
to a great c ontemporary
feeling , and b oth would equally have
repudiated th e idea that th e artist is a
solitary man ,b elonging to no race o r
c ountry ,leading his own life , pursuing
his own ideals in cloistral and selfish
isolation
The same general phen o
m enon is observable in th e case o f the
Elizabethan dramatists
They , too ,
belong to a period o f great awaken
ing ; they are part and parc el o f th e
dawning consciousness o f England s
imperial destiny
Take away this
background , and they cannot b e u h
d e r st oo d , least o f all th e greatest o f
the group , Shakespeare himself
It
would b e as true o f him , as it is i n
dubitably true o f ZE s ch yl u s and S o
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IDEA
OF
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45
p h o cl e s , that
h e represented a young
and ardent national feeling , throwing
o ff
all foreign dominion whether of
Spain or of Rome , and rightly strug
gling to be not only free , but to e x e r
cise a world wide sway In th e case
o f Shakespeare , however , we have a
peculiar intellectual e nvi r on m e n t ,whi ch
fo r analytic purposes we can dis
t i n g u i sh from the national environ
ment
I do not intend to talk about
th e Renaissance temper a s such , or
even attack the large subj ect o f the dif
fer e n t conditions o f modern and o f a n
cient life
My business is rather to
seize the characteristic points ,to bring
o u t the salient traits
There are two to
which I must draw attention , which
I can perhaps phrase in th e following
sentences
Shakespeare adapted the
Gothic spir it to dramatic literature ;
while like many o f his contemporaries ,
h e accepted , clung to ,believed in , th e
facts of human life ,instead of invent
ing theories ab out them
Or to put
the two more shortly
Shakespeare
was equally inspired by th e Gothic
spirit and th e spirit o f positive realism
The first need not detain us long
The obvious c ontrast between a Shake
s p eri a n and an ancient drama is that
th e modern involves a great many
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I DEA O F T RAG E DY
more characters ,includes a grea t many
more grotesque incongruities
The
di ff erenc e is j ust that between a G reek
temple and a Gothic cathedral The
ordered lines , the somewhat c old ,
symmetrical balan ce ,th e air of solidity ,
frigid squares
o f definite shape , o f
and parallelograms b elong to the o n e
to th e oth er th e flowing line ,th e fly
ing buttress , the sense of in extricable
c onfusion — neverth eless presided over
by a governing unity — th e love o f gro
t e s q u e gargoyles , the extraordinary
mixture o f the noble and the ordinary
We have only t o remember how a
classically educated mind , for instance
Voltaire , described Shakespeare as a
QQCL-i nt o x i s ate d har baria n ,and we can
understand h ow P h ei di a s ,say ,with his
Parthen on ,would regard the architects
o f C ologne Cathedral
The other phrase requires a little
more scrutiny , b ecause such words as
posi t ivism and realism have gained so
many c onfusing connotations in modern
c ontroversy that we are forced to p r o
ce e d warily
Th e easiest way ,perhaps ,
will b e to guide ourselves by a series o f
n egations It has pleased many critics
to ask whether Shakespeare was a Ro
man Catholic or a Protestant , whether
he b elieved in this or that doc t rine o f
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48
OF
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and its revolt against medi aevalism ,
h e showed a characteristic intoleranc e
o f all cut and dried formul ae o f any and
every kind I would no more speak
disrespectfully of M edi aevalism than
I would o f th e equator M edi aevalism
was a great spirit o f learning ,o f spirit
ual and mental discipline ; but the
essenc e o f it was , n evertheless , the
constant tendency to substitute theory
for fact
If yo u asked any question s
ab out the operations of N ature , yo u
were told that Aristotle said so and
so ; if you confronted any problem o f
man s relation to th e Infinite ,you were
assured that various oecumenical c oun
cils o f the Church had laid down very
precise and definite dogmas on the
‘
i s u b e ct
The revolting spirit of the
j
new learning could not away with
this stoppage of all free enquiry by
authority
Young and ardent , and
resolved to live his life as he pleased ,
and to find his ow n answers to his
questions in such experience as he
could obtain , a man o f th e renaissanc e
kicked down all th e elab orate edific e o f
theory and formula , o f ancient meta
physic s and crystallised theology
H e would breathe his o w n air o f e u
franchisement and liberty
H e would
go down the primrose path to th e
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I D EA O F TRAG E DY
49
everlasting bonfire , or win his way
through th e strait gate and by the nar
row path — i h his own fashion A u
t h o ri t y,theory , dogma — these h e could
not tolerate
Francis Bacon , an i n
adequate scientist , but also the father
o f modern science ,threw off this i n
cu b u s of authority in experimental r e
search
H e taught men everywhere
to interrogate N ature and to let her
answer h er o w n questions And a c
cording to their o wn fashion , and from
their di fferent points o f view , every
contemporary of Shakespeare ,not only
Bacon , but Cranmer and H ooker , E d
mund Spenser , and Sir Walter Raleigh
did the same The o n e great thing
was to get hold o f the facts of life , to
found yourself upon them as they
exist and are discovered by the natural
exercise of your powers , n o t to live in
a dreamland ,not to foreclose all enquiry
by a dogmatic pron ouncement , not to
think it necessary to answer either Yes
o r N o , but to answer both Yes and N o
if such were the meaning that the
facts b ore
It was in this sense that Shake
speare might b e called a positivist o r a
realist
H e deals with real figures ,
with living men and women
He
accepts positive facts
With all his
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I D EA O F T RAG E DY
50
inclination to dream dreams and see
visions , n owhere will you find s o clear
a condemnation of th e visionary a n d
th e dreamer as Shakespeare gives you
Indeed , in his o w n life , h e proved how
steadily h e kept b efore himself the
material facts o f his existenc e by mak
ing his money and buying land , and
settling down as a substantial burgess
in his o w n native city At the very time
”
“
that he was thinking about his Othello
”
and
King Lear , h e was bringing
an action against Philip Rogers in
th e C o urt of Stratford ,for th e rec overy
1
of ,
I
1
1
I can imagine that with
0
d
6 55
his positive practical intelligenc e — i n
itself perhaps a reaction against ideal
i s t i c tendencies — h e thought as much
o f the malt and meal for which pay
ment was due to him as he did o f the
spiritual agonies of Macbeth H e was
not an artist wholly immersed and lost
in his art
H e sat loose to his art
which is sanity ; h e was not wholly
captured by it lik e Shelley
which
way lies madn ess
It is necessary to lay stress o n this
practical side o f Shakespeare s genius ,
b ecause it explains not only what I
venture to call his realism ,his resolute
1
P r o fe ss or D ow d en s S /za é espea re, H i s [M
i nd
a nd A t , p
33
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I D EA O F T RAG E DY
5I
acceptanc e o f the fact , but it gives us
an i n sight into the way in which h e
interpreted to himself the problems o f
v
d e s t i n y a n d charact er— i n a word , the
whole subj ect matter o f tragedy
He
had certain examples b efore him ,
which no doubt whetted his practical
instincts H e s a w what had happened
o r was happening to some o f his a s
sociates and fellow playwrights The
stormy , meteori c career of Marlowe ,
the death bed repentance of Green e ,
the reckless Bohemianism o f Kyd and
Peele ,th ese were obj ect lessons which
did not fail to impress his mind
Rarely have the two sides o f man s
nature been so vigorously expressed ,
yet so completely fused ,as they were in
Shakespeare The artist life ,the life o f
the gipsy under tents , th e free w i tt i
ci sm s a t t h e Mermaid tavern ,where Ben
J onson ,like a weighty Spanish galleon ,
was circumvented and overwh elmed
by the nimble privateer like spirit and
audacit y of Shakespeare — all this made
o n e aspect o f his life ; th e other was
to b e found in the careful man who
gradually amassed money , who s a w
th e value o f worldly success , wh o
intended to redeem his family at
Stratford from the straits to which
the extravagan ces o f his father had
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reduced it
H ow will s o duplex a
temperament as this regard the facts
o f life , especially those deeper facts
which make for a man s spiritual as
well as temporal prosperity
H e sees
that the world itself interposes a na
tural barrier to a man s ambition s and
hopes
In oth er words , th e environ
ment o f the individual is in a sense a
destiny , in th e teeth o f which h e h a s
to make his individuality felt And s o ,
wh en h e determines to write a series
o f dramas o n th e E nglish Kings , h e
will give you various portraits o f how
t o make o r mar one s fortunes
O r if
you are not looking s o much at the
c onditions o f mundan e prosperi t y , if
your spirit is touched to finer issue s
with regard to th e fate o f sensitive
o r thoughtful or passionate or head
strong o r self willed men , trying to
work ou t their mental salvation in that
arena in which th e force s o f good and
evil are for ever struggling , Shake
speare will give yo u another series o f
portraits in which destiny is n o longer
either social o r political environment ,
but wears the face or form o f a man s
o wn character , inh erited o r acquired
The artist s faithfulness to fact h ere
stands him in good stead ,j ust as his
sympathy with the idealist and th e
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I DEA O F T RAG E DY
53
practic al man makes him at once th e
sanest and th e deepest of thinkers
N owadays , if we have to c onfront th e
problems of good and evil , of man s
free will and natural necessity , we
have inevitably to go through this
lt h e ory o r that , this philosophy of
brightness ,or that philosophy of gloom ,
approaching o ur subj ect through an
avenue , as it were , of theories and
It is o u r instinct to do this
f or m u l as
b ecause the hungry generations tread
us down
S o much has been stated
and devised and formulated and sys
t e m a t i s e d since Shakespeare wrote
But Shakespeare was singularly un
hampered by theories
H e coul d look
at the data b efore him with a fresh
and open intelligence
H e will not
give you dogmatic c onclusions , but h e
will state the facts
S ometimes this
absence o f a conclusion irritates us ,
j ust as the Athenians were irritated 5
by the tentative methods of Socrates
We are tempted to ask , Did Shake
speare think that the antithesis b e
tween good and evil would always
endure , o r did h e think that the p eople
would always b e a vacillating herd ,
turned this way and that , now by th e
personal character of Brutus , n ow by
th e flashy eloquence o f Antony ?
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I D EA O F T RA GE DY
54
Shakespeare , I say , was not minded
to give u s positive replies , either to
o u r psych ological or o u r political ques
tions H e was an artist first and fore
most , not a preacher , and he lived in
an age before democracy had shown
its powers of cohesion and self con
1
trol
So rarely does Shakespeare reveal
his dramatic methods that it is i n
t e r e s t i n g to discover ,b oth in his earlier
dramas and in his histories ,o n e artistic
device in which h e evidently b elieved
H e thought that a certain symmetrical
balancing of characters and o f subj ects
was th e way to produc e th e greatest
e ff ect on his audience
At first his
genius , naturally enough ,has to run in
trappings Take for instance two early
”
dramas , L ove s Labour Lost and
“ The Two Gentlemen o f Verona ”
In
the first you will find th e King and his
three fellow students se t over against
the Princess and her three ladies
In
”
th e Two Gentlemen of Verona , Syl
via and J ulia are distinguished a s the
bright and intellectual heroine and the
ardent and tender heroine
Proteus
is fickle , Valentine is faithful Launc e
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t h er s a b i d e o u r q u e s ti o n — T h ou a rt fre e "
”
We ask a n d a sk T h o u s m i l e st an d ar t s ti ll
M A R NO L D S S on n et 0a S/zaé espea e
O
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I DEA O F T RAG E DY
distance , and th e ghost o f the ol d
king shimmering in th e far di fferent
glamour o f an icy moon
But now let us turn to the histories ,
where again yo u will find the same
symmetrical arrangement There are
six main heroes in Shakespeare s his
tories , and they figure in three sets o r
contrasted and balanced characters
King J ohn is the weak criminal ,Richard
I I I is the strong criminal
H enry VI
is the weak good man , H enry V is
th e strong good man
Richard I I is a
man who thought that th e problems o f
kingcraft c ould b e solved by a certain
sentimental and artistic prettiness ;
H enry IV , winning n o small measure
of succ ess , thought they could b e
solved by a certain skilful and crafty
manipulation — as though the art o f
ruling were in th e one case mere fa n ci
ful play , and in th e other deliberate
machination Observe once more that
in these historical plays , Shakespeare
thought that everything turned on th e
nature and temperament of the i n d ivi
dual king— indeed that was very largely
th e case in early Tudor times —while ,
from his own point of view , he was
making studies for himself of the way in
which material pr osp e ri ty i s to be gained
"ou cannot play with life , or call for a
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I D EA O F T RAG E DY
57
looking glass , as Richard I I did , to
see what face you are wearing in a d
versity
It is not much good ,from the
point o f view of material success ,to b e
amiable , good , and inspired with the
most admirable sentiments , if you are
also weak , as was H enry VI still less
can you dash yourself against the
moral order o f the universe by c old ,
cruel ,masterful wickedn ess ,as Richard
I I I attempted
N o , th e ideally suc
ce ssfu l man is H enry V , with his
bright geniality , his instincts fo r
managing things , his native strength
and good humour
N o on e could paint
more tragically than Shakespeare the
woes of lovers
But H enry V tells
his French bride , Margaret , without
any hesitation , that , although it is true
that h e will die , it would b e false for
him to say that h e will die for the sake
eyes
For these
o f her beautiful
fellows of infinite tongue , that can
rhyme themselves into ladies favours ,
they do always reason themselves out
”
again
The treatment of H enry V , by th e
way , is a remarkable example o f
Shakespeare s resolute adh erence t o
th e normal laws of life and character
The young princ e was a wild madcap ,
entering with seeming recklessness into
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OF
TRAG E DY
all the fun and frolic of Eastcheap life
H ow was it to b e explained that h e
afterwards became such an admirable
King ,s o full of wise j ustic e and sanity
The chroniclers , whom Shakespeare
must have consulted , gave up the pro
blem Th e change must b e due to a
miracle , a special act of supernatural
grac e
But the student of natural life
knew n othing about miracles and ce
l e st i a l conversions To him ,as against
such authorities as Caxton an d Fab
yan , the di fference was mainly o n e
between youth and manhood , between
early frivolity and a later sense o f r e
sponsibility Shakespeare was making
much the sam e alteration in himself,
e ffecting the conversion o f a deer
stealer , a libertine , a haunter o f th e
M ermaid , a writer of “ Venus and
Adonis
and some extremely highly
coloured sonn ets , into a careful man
of
business and a worthy and r e
All the
s p e ct e d citizen o f Stratford
time in H enry V t h s character there
was a substratum of common sense ,
o f self control ; h e could b e in
th e
world at Eastcheap , a n d yet not o f
that particular world ; he could b e a
B ohemian and an adventurer , and yet
“ cultivate his o w n garden ” live his
,
And s o h e
o w n real life e lsewhere
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I DEA O F TRAG E DY
59
turn s on his boon companion , Falsta ff ,
with that terribly stern and j ust r e
proof
I kn o w t h ee n o t ,ol d m an
fal l t o thy pr ayer s
H ow i ll wh it e hai r s b ec om e a fool a n d a
”
j e s ter "
We are on the verge o f the tragedies
proper , but b efore leaving the subj ect
o f the histories ,which only in a second
ary degree interest us , let us make
o n e remark on the most singular of
the historic characters — that o f Richard
III
It is , in a sense , an u n Shake
sp e ri a n character ,because it is so little
analysed , s o wanti n g in contrasted
elements , so terribly simple , direct ,
incomplex
Richard I I I is hardly a
man at all ; h e is a d ae monic agency
the lust o f power raised to an almost
incomprehensible degree
As a tragic
hero , he is not s o much by Shake
speare s hand as by Marlowe s ,perhaps
the o n e indubitable Marlowe character
in the range o f Shakespeare s work ,
as Prof Dowden has remarked
For
how did Christopher Marlowe go to
work in putting his great personages
o n the stage ?
H e took o n e promi
nent quality , exaggerated its intensity
beyon d all human bounds , and the
man appeared as a monstrous ex
hi b i t i on of a prevailing characteristic ,
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I D EA O F T RAG E DY
which had eaten up all th e other traits
o f humanity
Tamburlaine the Great
was a monstrous exhibition o f barbaric
savagery and power Barabas , the
J ew o f Malta , was a monstrous ex
h i b i t i on of avarice
Dr Faustus was
a monstrous exhibition of the lust o f
knowledge Th e fate o f these men
does not touch us , b ecause we do not
feel quite sure that they are human at
all
N ot as a rule did Shakespeare
work thus : his characters have an
infinity o f elements harmoniously c om
Yet Richard I I I is also a
bi n e d
monster , a monstrous exhibition o f a
colossally evil will , o f what Aristotle
called Ben 67 77 9 , intellectual cleverness ,
engineered by an enormous power o f
volition ,and b ecome fiendish Perhap s
Shakespeare , when h e began to work
at tragedy , a sphere of art in which
Christopher Marlowe w a s a recognised
king , was bound at first to try a tragic
h ero in th e Marlowe vein , before h e
found his truer business o n widely
di ff erent lines
In approaching Shakespeare s treat
ment o f tragedy ,there are o n e or two
things which it is n ecessary to r e
memb er The first ,which is perhaps
th e most important o f all , is that the
S h ak e s p e r i a n drama is a drama o f i n
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6I
d i vi d u a l i t y , and
necessarily possesses
limitations which such a ch a ra ct e r i s
tic involves
I mean that the Eliza
b ethan dramatist , either because o f
the particular period in which he lived ,
o r b ecause o f a particular tendency o f
thought which links him in this r e
spect with Carlyle ,made th e a ea oa emem
of his dramas turn o n the virtues o r
vices , defects or excellences of an i n
dividual
H e cares to some extent for
the political environment , as can b e
seen in his histories , and also for th e
social environment ,as in Romeo and
J uliet and many other plays N ever
of
that modern
t h e l e s s , the whole
thought which speaks of th e growth
o f a social organism , and which makes
the fate of individuals subordinate to
it , is , for th e most part , wholly u n
represented i h Shakespeare
Since
Auguste Comte ,the Positivist phil os o
pher , added to the list of sciences th e
most modern o f all — sociology ; sinc e
H erbert Spencer wrote his S oci a l
S ta ti cs , and has since completed his
study in th e imposing volumes of his
Sociology ; we have learnt to look
upon the gradual evolution o f a social
order , as some great wave which
carries along the individual with it
With this conception is also connected
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I D EA O F TRAGE DY
62
fuller appreciation o f the popular
forces in history , and o f th e progress
and the meaning o f democracy
I
n eed not say how small a place in
Shakespeare s theory o f existenc e th e
people held
H e is perpetually laugh
”
“
ing at them ,not only in J ulius C aesar ,
but constantly through his histories ,
”
and above all in
C oriolanus
Like
Carlyle , and to some extent Froude ,
h e believed in history as made by i n
d i vi d u al s , as a series o f annals o f great
h eroes
N o modern dramatist can
a ff ord to put th e social organism ,with
its laws , and its slow , methodical , and
irresistible progress , o n o n e side s o
completely as Shakespeare does , for
h e would b e untrue to th e prevalent
c onc eption o f his day And , possibly ,
we may see when we come to the
N orwegian dramatist , Ibsen , that this
makes a characteristic di fference b e
tween the proc edure o f th e older and
th e contemporary writer
In o n e
sense , a drama solely o f individuality
makes the treatment o f tragedy more
clear and more forcible ; in another and
an obvious sense , it fails to make it s o
c omplete The idea that a man has
n ot only to struggle with the dark and
mysterious forces o f N ature , not only
to carry o n unequal warfare with cer
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64
OF
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B ohemian of B ohemians , an artist
living only in his world o f art , capable
merely o f viewing th e facts of exist
ence and th e qualitie s o f his charac
ters from th e purely aesthetic , emo
t i o n a l , imaginative side
A German
critic , o n the other hand , s o far as
I can see , is mainly occupied with
th e attempt to sh ow that Shake
sp eare was a man of considerable
common sense , usually pointing a
definite moral , and s o little able to fin d
inspiration in his o w n genius that h e
was always being moved to write
b ecause of some definit e incident
that happened to him in the course
of
his life
D oe s h e write j oyous
c omedies ? That is because h e was
taken up by th e C ourt , and saw b e
fore his eyes bright and fashionable
ladies o f society , whom h e represents
for us as Rosalind and B eatric e and
Portia
Does h e write tragedies
That must b e because h e had lost i h
fl u en ce in C ourt ,b ecause h e was upset
by th e fat e o f Raleigh o r E ssex , b e
cause th e royal favour had been ob
It is , doubtless , a useful
s cu r e d
exercise of ingenuity to construct a
life o f Shakespeare o u t of his writings ,
but I should have thought that th e
great warning again st this meth od of
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I DEA
TRAGE DY
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65
interpretation is furnished by his Son
nets At all events , th e a n alysis o f
his work as an artist has nothing to
do with the supposed historic back
ground We do not know e n ough o f
the historic background to make this
mode o f interpretation other than fal
.
.
li b l e
.
Much more di fficult , however , is it
t o keep the two sides o f Shakespeare s
nature in j ust equipoise , t o remem
b er that although he was an artist , h e
never seems to have allow e d himself
to thi n k that a world of reality did
not exist ; and that though h e was ,
a practical man , he yet c ould raise
himself into a world o f imagination ,
and understand , as n o man has ever
understood , all th e obscure workings
o f emotion and passion and thought
within the four corners of a n i n dividual
soul
D o you suppose , despite all
Shakespeare s sympathy with Romeo
and J uliet , that the artist did n o t s e e
h ow much ruin such wild and pas
produc e ?
s i o n a t e love maki n g could
“ Violent d e lights ”
says th e Friar ,
,
”
have violent ends
O r do you s u p
pose that ,because Othello is a nobl e
character , regally broad i n the rang e
o f his sympathies , toweri n g head and
shoulders above the men and women
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66
I D EA O F TRAG E DY
with whom h e was brought into c on
tact , that Shakespeare did n ot know
how awful is the catastroph e o f an
unbridled j ealousy ? It is in this respect
that th e theatrical representation o f
these plays is apt to put o ur thoughts
i n a wro n g key
Hamlet too often
ends with th e d eath o f its hero , a l
though Shak e sp e are b rings i n his
Fortinbras , as i n dicating the triumph
of
common sense
N o tragedian ,
probably , w h o e nacted th e part o f
Romeo , w o uld fail to bring down the
curtain upon the double suicide of
lover and lov e d , and yet it is the end
o f t h e play , with t h e c omm ents of the
e lder m e n o n th e catastrophe , and th e
reco n ciliation of the two h ouses o f
Capulet and M ontagu e , which r o unds
the drama into an intelligible whol e
H uman excesses , human sins , human
fail ures ,are the warp a n d th e woof o u t
o f which tragic drama is made ; but
th e artist , at least an artist as great
a n d as san e as Shakespeare , will feel
himself, and let y o u know through th e
ma n agement of his play ,that all magni
fice n t
aberrations like Othello and
Macbeth and L ear and H amlet dash
themsel v es in vain against the laws
by which th e world is governed
Was , therefore , Shakespeare a b e
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I D EA O F T RAGE DY
67
liever in poetic j ustice ? N o , certainly
not in th e narrow sense o f th e term
H e worked much t o o freely , t o o m u ch
in the spirit of an artist ,to b e content
with the narrow ,precise apportionment
of blame ,making the villain fail and the
good man succeed There is none of this
small didacticism about Sha kespeare
H e will fearlessly win o u r sympathies
H e will make
for his splendid failure s
Iago succeed in his diab olical scheme
H e will let Ki n g Lear at th e close of
the play frantically clasp in his arms
the dead b ody of Cordelia , albeit that
o ur weaker nature is crying out for
some happier ending Good and evil
are great facts in human life , and it
is abs u rd to say that good always
triumphs
Evil triumphs a s well
A
shallow optimism is th e last theory
of all to which a thinking man ought
to consent Looking at th e mundane
Sphere in which the b en e fice n t an d
m a l efice n t forces are warring , we can
n ot s a y that everything is for the best
in this best o f possible worlds
But
there is a hi g h e r form of poetic j ustice ,
which means nothi n g more and nothi n g
less tha n being true to the facts
If
history does not teach that th e world
is govern ed by moral laws , it is di lf i
cult to know what it does teach ,for it
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I D EA O F T RA G E DY
68
assuredly does n o t suggest a reign o f
chaos And if this b e s o — and most
c ert a inly Shakesp eare thought it was
s o —you ca n extract from Shakespeare s
plays a great j ustification of the ways
Ask , fo r i n
o f Providenc e to men
stance , wh ether o u r moral c onscienc e
is satisfied in his treatment o f the
human drama , and there can only
b e an a ffi rmative reply To talk o f
Shakesp e are as a p essimist is absurd
Th e real p essimism is not th e dis
cov e ry that human happiness is unat
Plenty of men and students
t a i n abl e
who are not pessimists have discovered
that Th e real pessimism is despair
o f human virtue , and that Shakespeare
n ever s o much as suggests
On the
c ontrary he believes in human virtue ,
and paints it wi th a loving hand J
H uman virtue may often go down b e
fore th e assaults o f evil — D es demona is
ensnared in the webs spun by Iago — but ,
nevertheless , it is its o w n exceeding
great reward ; and th e dead C ordelia
i n King Lear s arm s triumphantly pro
claims that self devotion , whether it
succeeds or fails , is th e hi ghest o f
mortal excellenc es
Wh a t , indeed , is the responsibility
which rests o n a dramatic artist when
he i s reconstructing the data of li fe for
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69
7’
H e is not ,we
the purposes o f his art
are agreed ,a mere imitator ; h e selects ,
adapts , fashions , rounds o ff his story
H e is a creator ,and in that sense he i s
actually a Providence
H e stands to
his characters ,and the fa te or fortun e
to which he exposes them in h is little
world , as the Divin e A r ti fi cer o f t h e
universe stands to th e big wor ld W o e
b e to him if he gives us a di fferent les
s on from what the big world teaches "
Perdita , you will rememb er , in The
”
Winter s Tale , obj ected to gillyvors ,
b ecause they were parti coloured
flowers that had b e en artifici a lly pro
d u ce d
Streaked gillyvors which some
”
call N ature s bastards
B ut what does
P o l i x e n e s answer
H e gives th e true
theory o f art as an addition to N atur e ,
a selective , creating forc e
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N a tu r e i s m a d e b e t te r by n o m an ,
Bu t N a t u r e m ak e s t h a t m e an ; s o ove r th a t
W h i ch you s ay a dd s t o N a t u r e , i s an art
”
T ha t N a t u r e m ak e s
“
ar t
.
In other words , the dramatist r e
creates experience and in that sense
adds , but his new creatio n m ust b e
true to N ature
Listen to what Les
”
“
sing says i n his
Dramatu rgie
“ O ut o f the few links picked o u t by
the poet , he ought to make a whole ,
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I D EA O F TRAGE DY
rounded in itsel f, that is fully ex
p lained o u t o f itself where n o di ffi culty
arises without the solution being found
The whole of this earthly
i n his plan
creator should b e a mer e outline of
the whole o f th e eternal creator ,
thought
should accustom us to the
that a s in H im all things are resolv ed
to th e b est , so also it will b e here ;
and th e poet forgets his most noble
c alling when h e fo rc es i n to a narrow
ci r cle the incompreh ensible ways o f
Prov i d e nce , an d purposely awaken s
” 1
o u r shudder thereat
I n how many ways c an a man dash
hims elf again st th e iron laws o f th e
universe ? In m a ny ways ,doubtless ;
but Shakespeare selects his examples
with soverei gn skill We may even
fin d s o me traces o f that symmetrical
arrangement before observ ed in deal
There is o n e
i n g with the histori es
passion , ruinous when in exc e ss , the
o f love
assion
Of this Shak e sp eare
p
gives us two examples — th e youthful ,
wild , unthinking passion o f Romeo ,
and th e middle aged dotage o f Antony ,
”
“
th e doting mallard who flies after
Cleopatra to his death
S o , again ,
there is the strong overmastering
emotion which we call ambition , o f
1 Le
ss i n g s D a ma ta g ze, No 7 9
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72
frailty , as you find it in Othello
Ther e is th e vic e o f frantic pessimism ,
th e despair o f all human virtue and
ex cellence , b ecause th e man has dis
c overed i n his o w n case the fick l e n e ss
o f fortune and his friends , as you s e e
it in Timon o f Athens And last in
the dreary list c omes a more subtle
disease ,o n which Shakespeare b estows
especial pains , a disease that fal ls
o n th e student , th e moralist , t h e philo
sopher , a malady o f introspection , th e
en ormous fallacy o f tryi n g to impose
your o w n ideals upon the world , as
you find it b o th in Brutus and in
H amlet There is r e a son to think that
th e two plays of “ J ulius C aesar and
“ Hamlet ” were worked at by Shake
,
speare ab out t h e same time ,for H am
let c o n tains a Significant refe renc e to
th e tragedy enacted o n th e Capitol ,
and H orat io pr o claims himself to b e
“ more
an antique Roman than a
”
Dane
I n all this portrait gallery of th e
sins and frailty o f humanity , which
lead us stra ight to th e sphere o f
tragedy , it is d ifficult to make on e
sel e ction rather than another in illus
t r a t i n g t h e dramatist s conception o f
his problem One characteristic above
all belongs by in dubitable birthmark
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I DEA O F TRA G E DY
73
to every Sh a k e sp e ri a n character
It
has a certain
g ma bg p t i tr a vag u e
wor
O FT nec e ssarily vagu e q uality
I mean t hat it open s large vistas , and
is not exhausted by th e en u meration
There are
o f a few simple attributes
s o many Sides to Othello a n d Macbeth ,
to Ki n g Lear and to H amlet , that
we are forced to realize them not s o
much as i n ve n tions as small pieces o f
c omplex humanity itself Nev e rt h e
l e ss if we suppos e that at a particular
period in the development o f Shake
speare s art h e was wrestli n g with
the d e e e p e r problems o f existence ,
whether in his ow n person , or as il
lus t rated among his c ontemporaries ,
we Shall hardly b e wrong in fixing
upo n two Of his tragedies as the most
Significant and illustrative D oubtl ess
to Shakespeare , a s to many men in
that riotous Elizabethan p e riod , there
came the temptation t o thi n k that th e
wh ole world was well l o st for love
In ch aracteristic fashion , Shak e speare
paints for u s two ways in which the
passion o f love can i n flue n c e men
It can redeem a man as it did Rom e o
It can destroy a man as it did Mark
Antony
N otice how skilfully we are
Sh own that at the Op ening o f th e play
Rome o was a man who loved rather
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T RA G E DY
imaginatively than in reality
H e had
a sentimental tenderness fo r Rosaline ,
h e uses the conventional terminol o gy
o f lovers , h e
talks about Cupid and
Dian s shaft , and th e rest o f th e
sickly folly of the enamoured
But
J uliet c onverts him from the mere
romance of love i n to a heart whole
passion , i n vadi n g the entire person
ality
B efore h e was in love with
L ov e ,now h e is in love with a woman ,
and his nat ure b ecomes infinitely
stronger and purer
Listen to him
when h e is told the n ews o f J uli e t s
feigned death
Th e re is n o fantastic
literary rubbish which he thinks a p
B efore
p ro p r i a t e to such an event
h e was more o r less o f a pupp et
pulled by alien wires , a plaything in
th e hands o f fate ; n ow h e is a man
”
“ I defy
D estiny h a s n o
yo u , stars
longer h old o f him
H e is prepared
“ to shake the yok e o f ina u spicious
”
stars from his world wearied flesh ,
and without o n e word o f poetical
imagery it is plain J uliet with him
“ Well
now
, J uliet , I will lie w ith
”
thee to night
There is all the s i m
p l i ci t y of a definite ,manly resolve in
which the whole nature is enlisted
From the external standpoint there i s
disaster , ruin , catastrophe , because
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violent delights have violent ends
but from the inner spiritual side o f th e
man s nature , which concerns us in
tragedy , there is a triumph even in
defeat , a victory over weakness , an
entire satisfaction fo r our moral con
s cience Romeo has achieved the end
H e has died upon a kiss
o f his life
It is di ff erent with Mark Antony ,
because b oth the age and the char
acter of th e hero are di ff erent The
absolute self surrender Of a middle
aged man who ought to b e conquering
th e world , and is conquered by a
splendid courtesan , the serpent o f ol d
N ile , is n o t a n oble thing at all ; it is
a despicable thing
But Shakespeare
is t o o much of an artist n o t to su r
round this theme of passion so de
structive to masculine energies with
all the Splendid light and c olour o f
eastern magnificence
We cannot
a ff ord to despise either Antony or
Cleopatra , because Shakespeare will
not for a moment allow us to regard
th em otherwise than as august ,
grandiose , tragic personalities Think
how Milton treated much th e same
”
“
theme i n his
Samson Agonistes ,
and you will s e e th e di ff er ence b e
tween a Puritan moralist and a sym
pathetic , human dramatist
Milton
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I D EA
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0F
cannot c onceal his scorn o f th e de
generate Samson , h e cannot refrain
from righteous railing against his
D elilah
But Antony is a H ercules ,
“
a demi god , the d emi Atlas of this
”
earth , th e arm and burgo n et o f men
H e is a ruin , but a ruin not wanting
in grandeur , the shell as it were o f
an imperial castle
B oth these two lovers , b oth Romeo
and Antony , have a s the co partner
o f their fates the women they deserve
As a rule , Shakespeare made his
women som e what wanting in compl e x
features H e lived in an age before th e
”
rise o f what we call Feminism , and
his heroines , exhibiting as they do
o n e or two well marked characteristics ,
are n ever analysed as fully or as care
fully as his men
I t is a p oint ,by th e
way , in which w e shall find a di ff er
ence b etween Elizab ethan drama a n d
th e drama o f Ibsen
But because
Shakespeare s women have fewer ele
ments they are , when they are i n
tended to b e st ro ng , extremely direct
and practical , with th e clearest know
ledge o f what th ey want , and o f th e
proper mean s to the desired end Ju
liet , despite her tender age o f fourteen
years , is o n e o f the most direct a n d
practical young women that could be
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77
She knows precisely what s h e wants
and every a c
a n union with Romeo
tion is clearly designed to bring about
th e result
It is s h e wh o s uggests a
marriage before the Friar ; it is s h e
who , when fath er and mother and
nurse all forsake her ,has the c ourage
and the hardihood to carry o u t h er
obj ects in her own way That is how
s h e saves Romeo , lifting him up to the
higher level o f passionate love at
which sh e h erself lives
But th e
middle aged lover Antony finds his
destiny in a woman with a past ,
a woman to whom Antony s love was
not so much a revelation o f what
human nature is capable o f, as the
latest and most supreme of her s e n
The portrait o f Cleopatra
sa t i o n s
is eminently fascinating , because sh e
is neither true nor false , neither sin
cere n or insincere , but a compound
of opposites , feminine , fascinati n g , a
triumphant wanton
H ow clearly
Shakespeare understood this character
you can see from her wonderful death
scene
The mode in which sh e
chooses to die , poisoning herself with
an asp , is silly a n d ridiculous enough ,
but tru e to life ,because such a woman
wo u ld have an instinctive horror o f
feeling pain
She is coque ttish to the
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78
ve ry end , a little theatrical , very emo
t i o n a l , but to the last entirely ca p t i va t
ing
Sh e died as sh e had lived , a
H elen , a Mary Queen o f Scots ,form ed
”
“
to b e a wonder and a wild desire , a
siren o f the M editerranean ,luring men
to destruction o n th e rocks
Apart from this theme of love ,
which , let us remember in passing ,
was n ot considered a proper subj ect
for dramatic a rt in the Athenian drama
b efore Euripides , we come to a very
modern burden , the burden o f intel
l e ct u a li ty Clearly this t oo was a form
o f temptation to which Shakespeare ,
o r any man of th e period , might well
b e pron e
There was always th e
danger for th e poet that , lead i ng as
he did an inner life , h e might make
th e mistake of thinking that it ex
han sted all possibilities o f existence
D O ideas govern th e world
Yes and
no Their ultimate victory is c ertain ,
but t o th e man who dreams , wh o
refuses to live th e life o f his day , they
are Often a subtle caus e o f ruin and
failure Think o f Bg l glg , th e most
{
high souled Ro m afif the man o f the
loftiest integrity , the husban d wh o
was worthy to have such a wife as
Portia , the hero t o whom in the play
in which he bears so c onspicuous a
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taken , that h e was th e r ight man to
cure the evils o f Rome ; H amlet
doubte d from th e very b egi n ning
.
tim e is ou t of j o i n t
T h a t ever I was b o rn t o
The
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set
cu r s ed s p i t e
it rig h t
.
H e has t oo fin e , t oo distinguished ,
oo intellectual a character to b e th e
rough instrument which fate de
m an de d
H e has the fatal malady o f
analysing his o w n motives , which is
generally destru ctive o f action
If
a man once begins by asking himself
what will b e th e results and co u se
q u e n ce s o f a definite act , h e will fin d
that at the moment o f action his will is
paralysed by excess o f scrupulosity , as
H amlet s wa s , when with his drawn
sword he s a w his uncle praying
It
was a disease of will from which
Hamlet was su ffering
In any other
times it woul d not have b een s o fatal
In this particular time ,when he was
called upon to do a specific act —to
avenge his father ,and kill the usurper ,
—i t is not he , but a man rather o f the
Fortinbras bui ld , who will b e th e
savi our of society
Observe ,t oo ,that ,
like many intell ectual men , h e can n ot
b e sure o f his o w n moods , H e sees
the ghost of his murdered father , but
i s it an honest ghost ? I s it really his
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8I
father s spirit ? H amlet believes in it
o n th e battlements o f Elsinore , b u t he
entirely disb e li e ves in another mood ,
when , despite the evidences o f his
senses , he talks of the bourn from
”
“
which
n o traveller ret urns
Th e
travell e r who had returned is dis
missed apparently as a fantasy o f his
brain And these supernatural visit
ings to such an analytic and intro
s p e ct i v e mind do not , as a matter o f
fact , supply him with the motive fo r
his subsequent action The ghost can
make him put o n an antic disposition ,
play with such creatures as Rosen
crantz and Gu il d e n st e m , deride th e
senile humours of Polonius ,and lessen
the torrent Of his words against hi s
mother But what the ghost cannot
do is to make him kill his uncle
He
murders him at last , more or less
accidentally , because his mother was
poisoned and Laertes had played foul
in the fencing bout
S o curiously de
structive o f stro n g practical volition is
a morbid intellectual tendency to
wards introspection , self analysis ,
metaphysical speculation
As Romeo had a heroi n e that suited
him , as Antony had the partner which
c orresponded with his sensual extra
vagance , so , too , in the irony of fate ,
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82
has Hamlet that particular kind o f
woman who would make th e tragedy
most complete
The genius of great
actresses has sometimes made us think
{t h a t
Op heli a was a lovable character
I In reality sh e belongs to Shakespeare s
i ca t e g ory o f weak women , who are
sometimes
good
and
weak
like
Des
,
I
l d e m on a
sometimes mean and
, and
When H amlet
w e ak , like Ophelia
L
c omes to her in his soul agony , she is
frightened — nothing more and n othing
less ; and all she knows of that inner
conflict that is rending the heart of
her lover is that his dress is o u t o f
order
Sh e is the meek , empty
headed ,foolish woman who makes a
man sorry that he ever tried to win
her confidence and her sympathy
E ach reply s h e makes to H amlet s
earn est questioning betrays the shal
lowness Of her soul Think o f the way
in which J uliet c ould defy all thos e
around her , and compare Ophelia s
m eek subservience
She will tell a lie
if her father wishes her to ; sh e will
deliberately lend herself to a plot to
ensnare her lover
Feeble , n erveless ,
with out a spark o f strength o r native
independence o f character , sh e dies
the death which is appropriate to her
N one o f the gloom and glamour o f
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83
suicide is hers She piteously tumble s
O ff a branch and is drowned
Desdemona ,too ,is another of Shake
speare s weak women
She is the
essenc e of simple goodness , s h e is an
icicle of purity ,but s h e is too na i ve
to comprehend all the wickedness and
chica n ery o f humanity H aving linked
h er fortunes with o n e o f the great
elem e nt a l forces o f the world , s h e is
assuredly not big enough for the part
s h e has assumed ,and the fact that s h e
is at once so good and s o powerless
deepens the tragedy o f Othello s rash
ent e rp rise i n matrimo n y
We need
not think that any reason for t h e
failure is to b e foun d in th e unwise
union between dark and white races
The psychological c ontrast is q uite
su fficient A stormy , j ealo u s , e m o
t i o n a l b eing like Othell o , inasmuch a s
he giv e s much to his wife i n the way
o f a large minded confidenc e and tru s t ,
requ ires m o re from his wife tha n th e
g e ntle , pliant , innocent Desdemona
can give him
Ig p o cg n ce i s a g re at
thi n g , but after all it is o n ly
virt u e ,- a n d it Often fai ls in the rough
I
Twic e at
t h OI Ough fa r e of the world
l east in th e cours e o f th e play Shake
speare suggests ,with Soph oclean irony ,1
1 S e e a b ove i n
pp 30 ,3 I
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I D EA O F TRAG E DY
th e inevitablen ess o f th e catastrophe
”
Look to her , M oor , says Brabantio ,
in Act I scene 3 ,“ if th ou hast eyes to
s e e ; s h e has dec eived her father and
may thee
to which Othello re
My life upon her faith
It
s p on d s ,
was indeed his life that was played for
and lost in this amazing marr iage
And once again , later o n , when th e
storms were beginning to gather round
th e devoted head o f th e heroine ,
E milia suggests to D esdemo n a that
the reason for Othello s strangeness is
”
“
his j ealousy
I s h e not j eal ous ?
asks I ago s wife
Desdemona replies
with scorn , Who
H e I think th e
sun where h e was b orn dr e w all such
humours from him (
Act I I I scene
What a stupendous admission o f i g n o r
ance
H ow many wives would fail t o
discover that a husband wa s j eal ous ,
in a w eek , shall I say , or in a day after
they had married him
We might go through in th i s fashi o n
th e rest o f the tragic characters o f
Shakesp e are
Macbeth , the imagi n
ative , ambitious villain ; King Lear ,th e
absorbing egotist , grown Old , making
demands o n e veryone round him fo r
their reverence and love , and , like all
e gotists , unab l e
to discern th e true
love o f Cordelia, bec ause sh e, cannot
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85
”
h eave her h eart into her mouth
and speak the artificial words of a ff e c
tion ; or, worst figure o f all , Timon ,
th e cynic and the pessimist , who , b e
cause he has foun d the unfaithfulness
o f friends , argu es from a single i n
stance t o a general conclusion , and
thinks that all friendships are false
‘
It is more n e c essary for my purp o se
to discover how through these and
other charact e rs Shakesp eare shapes
his idea o f tragedy As in the ancient ,
s o in the more modern dramatist ,there
is always t h e obscure ,d e sperate c o n flict
b etween th e individual , and what for
him appears destiny and fate
But
b ecause Shakespeare s characters are
typical , s umming up in themselves ,
as it were , the general tendencies o f
th i ngs , t here is often b ehind the i n
dividual catastroph e t h e suggesti on , as
it were , o f a world catastroph e Thus
w e miss half the overp owering s i g n i
fica n ce of King Lear , unle ss we see
b ehind the palsied figur e o f a br oken
Old man ,rebuking the h eavens ,which
seem t o conspire with his daughters
against him ,and reminding them in a
splendid passage that they too are Old ,
the picture o f a world in ruins — as
though th e o n e human power , which
was the grea t corrosive solvent of th e
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86
cosmos , was sel fishn e ss
But if we
ask what this fate o r destiny was , in
the c onception o f o u r English drama
D estiny
f ist ,there is only o n e answer
is nothi n but th e man s ch a m pg n
n o t an e x
g e n cy
H ave you ever noticed at th e very
beginning of Macbeth how the witches
s a y th e very words with which Mac
b eth opens the scen e
So fair and
”
foul a day I have not seen , says M ac
b eth as h e comes o n th e blasted
h eath N ow listen to the earlier chant
o f the witches ,
Fair is foul and foul
is fair , H over through the fog and
”
filthy air
C oul d th e re b e a more
Significant
suggestion
that
what
Macbeth is meeting is but his o w n
wicked thoughts , his o w n half under
stood purpos e s o f grasping ambition
and cruel murder ? N aturally , there
fore , i f destiny i s character , each
man and each woman will regard the
dominion o f fate in accordance with
his or her strength or weakness
Listen to the stro n g direct practical
intelligenc e o f H elena in “ All s Well
”
that E nds Well
Act
I
scene
I :
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r em e d i e s o ft i n ou r s elves d o li e,
Wh i ch we a s c ri b e t o h eaven ; t h e fa t e d sky
G i ve s us fr ee sc o p e , o n l y d o t h b a ckw a r d p u l l
"
O u r sl ow d e si gn s w h e n we o u r s el ve s are d ull
“
O ur
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I D EA O F T RAGE DY
88
”
c onditions ; and Gloucester ,in the
first agony o f his su ff eri n g , seems to
chide h eaven as though it were mali
ci ou S — “ A s flies t o wanton b oys are
we t o th e gods , They kill us for their
”
sport
H e knew b ette r later o n , and
attains th e higher level whi ch believes
that the world is govern ed by j ustice ,
and that if we su ff er we have earned
o u r su ff erings
The gods are j ust ,
and Of our pleasant vices Make i n st r u
”
ments to plague us
There is n o
such thing a s bli nd , unr ea soning
destiny , whi ch comes up en us from
th e outside and overbears o u r wills
We carry o u r o wn doom or happiness
within ourselves We must n o t , as
King Lear wanted to do , take upon us
th e mystery of things as if we were
G od s spie s
but within th e range o f
human acti vity which is Open to us we
kno w that as adventures are to the
a dventurous ,s o are success and failure
already implicit in o u r deserts What
is it that Maeterlinck says in his n oble
”
“
b ook
Wisdom and D estiny ?
H is
words are almost an echo o f Marcus
Aurelius meditations “ L et us always
rememb er that n othing b efalls us that is
n ot o f th e nature o f ourselves
Whether you climb up the mountain ,
o r g o down t he hill to the valley
our
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whether you j ourney to the end of t h e
world , or merely walk round you r
house , none but yourself Shall you
meet on th e highway of fate If J udas
go forth to night , it is towards J udas
” 1
his steps will tend
Shake sp eare
was an artist , and treated his themes
from an artist s standpoint ; but if you
must find a lesson in th e dramatic
work of an artist , you will find that
his tragedies are inspired through and
through with the same th ought
Real
destiny is a man s Own character
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Maete rli n ck s Wi sdom
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an d
D esti ny , S ec
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10
I II
”
e e a re ,
Th r
I s ai d , d i s e a s e d p ot a t oe s an d
”
th er e ar e s oun d p o t a t oe s
I b en a n s w e r e d :
I a m afr ai d n o n e o f t h e
s o un d p o t a t o e s h av e c om e u n d e r my O b s e rv a
”
ti on
G B r an d e s I b en nd Bj n s n (
p
En g tr an s )
(
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TH E RE is a curious passage in on e o f
H eine s prefaces in which he says that
while writing his p oems h e seemed to
h ear the whirring o f the wings o f a
bird above his head
H e asked some
Of his brother poets in B erlin whether
they had had a similar experienc e , but
they only looked at each other with a
strange expression , and declared that
n othing o f the kind had occurred t o
1
them
The wings which H eine had
heard , and th e young B erlin poets had
never h eard , were the rush and whirr
Only those wh o are
o f n ew ideas
c onscious o f this wing winnowing are
inspired by the thoughts o f a newer
era , and are awak e when the dawn
appears
To Euripides ,at all events ,
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H ein e
’
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90
P oems
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I D EA O F T RAG E DY
g2
Olympians were being stormed by a
young divinity called after no names
o f imperial or Divin e maj esty , but by
”
“
th e simple term o f
intelligenc e ,
Whether the human an alytic
intelligence is applied to antique st r u c
tures of religi o n , o r sup erstition , or
Old fashioned p o litical theory ,or hoary
dogmas o f morality , the result is a l
ways primarily destructive ; and a
chaotic period supervenes b efore
reason can moul d out of th e scattered
and inconsistent theories th e fabric o f
a b etter and more intelligible world
order
Shall we look at it o n th e side of
ethic s ? There comes the discovery
that there are n o abstract moral laws ,
true for ever and in all places , but
only recogn ised conve ntions which o n e
c ountry o r city can adopt , and another
c ommunity can rej ect
Sha ll we look
at it from the side of political theory ?
We shall mak e stra n ge disc overies as
to th e real seat of authority in a
state , the meaning of j usti ce , t h e
rational e o f civic law , th e j u st i fica
tion o f state punishment
Shall we
l ook at it from the side o f religious
b elief ?
H ere for the p oet and the
imaginative artist the acid s eems to
bite deeper still
E ither th e gods are
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I D E A O F T RA GE DY
93
good , and then the stories told ab out
them are false ,or else the stories are
true , and then th e gods are n o gods at
a ll
H ow can Z eus and Apoll o have
carried out their dominion over the
earth by me a ns o f action s reprobated
by the better feel i ng of humanity ?
Cheating and stealing and adultery ,
these are the acts wh ic h the ancient
legends impute to the gods , to say
nothing o f an absurd j ealousy and
a miserable system Of favouritism
Such , speaking in general terms , was
the character o f th e destructive work
don e by the S ophists and teachers o f
the new enlightenment
The ordin
ary c on c eptio n he ld in Athens ab out
Socrates was that his influence was
exert ed o n simil ar lines
H e was
brought up o n a charge of corru pting
the yo uth
It was an absolutely uh
j ust charge , if we may trust Plato ,
who , indeed , gives us a glorified S O
crates Y et even So crates great pupil
has to allo w t ha t d i a l e cti cs ,the b u siness
o f argument and discussio n and con
t r ove r sy ,t aught young men to wrangle
like puppies , a n d Aristotl e said with
o u t hesitation
that people ought to
have c ome to years of discretion before
they learnt moral philosophy
E uri
pid e s , h owever , lived in the flood
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tide o f these ideas , and whether h e
l earnt from th e lips o f Anaxagoras the
n oti on that intelligence was the s u
preme principle in the universe , o r
caught from Socrates th e trick o f
argument and analysis o f the current
notions o f th e day , his dramas , osten
s i bly like some Of the Older ones , are
yet inspired by a perfectly di fferent
spirit The e ffect in his case is all the
more interesting to us becaus e there
are many superficial and some real
likenesses between the age o f th e
Sophists in Greece and that spirit
‘
which has been called fin d e s i ecl e in
o u r modern world
Scepticism is , of course , the first
result
Much learned c ontroversy
exists a s to whether E uripides was
r e a ll y a sceptic ; but there is no manner
o f doubt that his handling of the older
myths and his treatment o f the divini
ties of Greece were conceived in a s ce p
tical vein
Listen to th e nai ve way in
which I on , coming out o f the temple
in the early morning light , rebukes his
pa t ron god Apollo for th e treatment
h e had meted ou t to his mother
“ I must needs rebuke Ph oebus ” he
,
says
H e b etrays virgins and aban
dons them , and allows his own chil
dren to perish N ot so ,t
bu s : since
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96
s i bl y
IDEA
OF
T RAG E DY
into th e other
H ere we reach a
point which is o f peculiar importance
to u s in referenc e to the idea o f
tragedy , and I must b e pardoned for
dilating a little on this subj ect
It is
Obvious that tragedy itself is b orn o f
pessimism , and could scarc ely b e co n
as having any other ori gi n
c e i ve d
U nless a poet i s keenly alive to the
s u ff erings o f humanity , unless h e feels
to the full th e irony o f mortals whos e
everyday dream is o f happiness , and
whose everyday experienc e is o f dis
app o i n tme n t and unhappiness , h e
would hardly adopt tragic themes for
th e exercise o f his muse
Everything ,
h owever , t urns on the meaning that
we attach to this word pessimism , and
t h e particular form in which it b e
c omes th e inspirer of dramatic e ff orts
"o u will remem ber that in th e last
lecture , when we were speaking of th e
pessimism t hat was in Shakespeare ,
I attempted to distinguish b etween th e
pessimism which desp aired o f human
happiness and th e pessimism which
despaired of human virtue
That is
looking at the matter fro m th e point
o f view o f the moralist
Now we
must occupy ourselves with the stand
point o f the artist
There are some forms Of th e philo
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I DEA
OF
T RA GE DY
97
theory of pessimism which a p
pear to cut at th e very root of the
artistic impulse
If they ever prod uce
fruit in the imaginative sphere , th e
fruitage is singularly bitter , stun ted ,
ab o rtive Take ,for instance ,a scheme
like that o f S ch op eg h g g e r
B egin
ning with an assuranc e that there is
a large preponderance of misery over
happiness in this world , h e explains
that we are all the victims of a great ,
mysterious , blind , but all powerful
forc e which he calls “ the will to
”
live
If you and I and all other
men and women are alike miser
able , the reason i s that we are at
onc e the creatures and playthings o f
a great impersonal , natural volition ,
driving us to live ou r dreary lives ,
to fear death , and cling to existence ,
whether we will or no
Intelligen ce
which is given t o the human race
is the dreariest of mockerie s , for it
is powerless against this insatiable
craving All that intelligenc e can do
is to throw light upon t h e turmoil , to
make us comprehend the fatal con
di t i o n s in which we are ensnared , and
thus to make us more unhappy than
we were before
N ow observe the
moral which Schopenhauer draws
from his philosophical scheme
He
S Op h i c
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98
I DEA O F TRAG E DY
tells us that we sh ould deny the will
to live , n ot so much by suicide — for
that would b e a wilful act , and o u r
obj ect is to get ri d o f will— but by
asceticism ,self restraint ,resignation to
passivi t y , such as was practised and
is now practised in the E ast
N ow , if we suppose that any dra
matic artist accepted S ch Op e n h a n e r as
his guide , philosopher and friend , h e
would have to believe that passivi t y
was better than activity ,and would b e
essaying th e almost impossible task o f
painting by m e an s of action a goal
The essence o f drama is
o f inaction
human activity th e very word signifies
action ; and th e idea is absolutely
eviscerated o f all meaning by th e
assumption that a denial o f the will to
live is o u r real obj ect Schopenhauer s
o w n n otion o f trag e dy illustrates this
I t is o n ly at best a sort o f alleviation
temporary consolation — part and
or
parcel , therefore , of that lamentable
gift of intelligenc e which shows how
hid e o u s is t h e chaos in which we live
What gives to all tragedy , in what
ever form it may appear, the peculiar
tendency towards th e sublime is th e
awakening o f the kn owledge that th e
world , life , can a ff ord us n o true
pleasure , and c onsequently is not
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I oo
I D E A O F T RA GE DY
ness — may stand o u t in almost radiant
colours
Let us grant with th e pessi
mist that m a n , as h e exists i n th e
midst of a nature that is alien to him ,
and under social c ondition s which
stun t or retard his growth ,is not likely
to sec u re much happiness
N ature ,(
as we know , is harsh and cru el , and
her laws are those which are terrible
for the individual , though helpful , it
may b e , to the world s progress — the
laws o f str uggle for existence , the
surv ival o f the fittest ,and development
by means of unlimited competition
Or if we tak e it from another side o f
scienc e — th e science O f b i ol o gyL—
there
is reason to suppose that the sins o f
the fathers are visited o n th e children ,
and that many men and women b e
gin their careers crippled and maimed
by a h ere ary taint
Or once more ,
the social r d er is fo u nd t o b e opp re s
sive , framed as it is for th e con
v e n i e n ce o f th e maj ority — th e i n ca r
nati on o f triumphant commonplace ,
the victory o f the c onventionally useful
rather than the ideally good , th e
desp otism of a maj ority which , if not
always wrong , as D r Stockmann
declares in Ibsen s En emy of me
at least qui te as often
P eople, is
wrong as right
Such things may well
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I D EA O F T RA G E DY
I OI
breed a sort o f pessimism , may p r o
duce for the thinker and ph ilosophic
student a mood of nervelessness and
gloom But th e artist who approach e s
these subj ects not as a thi n k e r or a s
a student , but as an observer of th e
flash and play o f human life , sees that
on
this background o f darkness h e
can paint his human beings w i th all
their rich vitality and S po nt a neous
n ess o f e ff ort , t ra n s fig u r e d a n d e n
nobled by c ontrast
And he has
this j ustification to begin with — that
all th e n obler and higher activities
o f man , whether in founding States ,
creating rules o f morality , o r even
building hospitals , are done in th e
teeth o f nature , and constitute a direct
challenge to the dull , mechanical
cruelty o f her laws
But the sovereign
vindication for the artist is the exceed
ing beauty of all human vitalities ,
whether they are e ff ective or i n e ffe c
tive , whether they succeed or fail
It
is life as such that the artist loves ,
strong , exuberant , magnificent life ,
defying laws of time and space , and
c onquering the impossible —circum
scribed , indeed , i f we look at its
scientific conditions , but ab solutely
free and untrammelled in its spiritual
essence
If an artist wh o fe els th e
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1 02
I D E A O F T RAG E DY
intoxication o f life writes tragedies ,
they d o n ot in reality depress us , b e
c a use , instead o f making th e p ulse
flag and b e at sl ower ,they st i r us , as it
were , with a trumpet call , they cause
n t h e b l ood to flow more eagerly through
l o u r veins
Did any o n e ever feel his
s ense o f vitality lowered by either
reading o r seeing o n the stage th e
ruin o f Othello o r th e tragedy of Lear ?
It is more di fficult to fin d c ontem
p o r a ry examples , but o n e can feel
much th e same thing with regard
t o many even o f the modern novelists
wh os e b ooks are Often classed as
pe s si mistic Take , for in stance , th e
t w o books o f that strong , original
”
“
Z ack
writer , who calls herself
They
On Tr i a l and s e i s Lif e
are pessimistic enough in all c on
science , i f we mean by the word
that the authoress is keenly c onscious
the sorrow Of things
But th e
of
a rtist has known how to enhanc e the
dignity o f human e ffort , even when
sh e proclaims it to b e hopeless
We
do grievous wrong t o works o f art if
we dismiss them becaus e th ey seem to
preach a glo omy moral
There is a
glo o m which is paralysing ; th ere is
an o ther gloom which a man o r woman
o f strong creative personali ty can turn
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I D EA
OF
TRAG E D Y
Euripides th e human with his drop
”
pings O f warm tears
M en and
women in th e E uripidean drama are
always alive : they s i n passionately ,
they transgress all moral and divi n e
laws ; they destroy on e another with
a fierce ferocity , they make glorious
failures —but th ey are vital
And ,j ust
b ecause the play o f life was S O i n fi
n i t e l y interesting to Euripides ,whether
it was Anaxagoras wh o taught him
this l esson or S ocrates o r his ow n
artistic genius , h e can put into clear
light q uite as ma n y virtues as are th e
vices o f which he is so prodigal Many
critics have called him misogy nist ,an d
c ertainly h e says very hard things o f
th e female sex
As a matter o f fact ,
in the tragi comedy of existence , h e
realizes far more clearly than his pre
d e ce ssor s the extraordinary value from
an artistic standpoint of women charac
ters H e knows h ow they can embroil
and embellish human things ,how they
can at onc e disturb and improve , ruin
and sa ve
By the side , therefore , o f
his splendidly villainous women like
Phaedra and Medea and Stheneb oea ,
women who break through every
natural imp ulse with undaunted reck
l essness , he will give you women wh o
are patterns of high moral duty ,women
.
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I D EA O F T RAG E DY
1 05
filled through and through with th e
idea of self s a cri fice , willing victims ,
like Polyxena and th e beautiful Iph i
—
n
e
i
a
not as in the older dramatist
e
g
killed by her father , but going v ol u n
t a r i ly to the altar for th e sake o f th e
Troj an expedition
S O , too , there is
n o higher example o f c onj ugal love
than that of Alcestis , who died fo r her
unworthy lord
Like Virgil after him ,Euripides sees
also the artistic value o f first love
b etween man and maid
This was
a c omplete innovation in tragedy
Plato thought that love itself was not
a worthy theme in drama
Aristo
phan es derides it
But the poet s
c ontempora r ies , who were themselves
perhaps learning a softer mood o f
romance , as th e great patriotic i m
pulses o f the Persian wars were dyi ng
away , appreciated th e novelty as
though it were indeed a revelation
Take the young H aemon with his
love O f Antigone , cheerfully dying for
her sake ; or take the moving treat
”
ment o f Perseus and Andromeda ,
which seems to have captivated At h e
nian audie n ces though it only exists
for us in fragments
Andromeda , as
Professor Lewis Campbell remarks in
his interesting b ook o n Greek tragedy ,
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1 06
I D E A O F TRAG E D Y
says the very words to h er deliverer
”
which Miranda in The T e mpest says
t o Ferdinand
Sir ,take me with you ,
whether as your servant , or wife , or
”
ha n dmaid , anticipates Miranda s “ To
be your fell ow you may deny me , but
I will b e your servant , whether you
”
will o r no
E uripides may o r may
not have been a misogynist , but at all
events he was one of th e earliest o f
”
th e Feminists , a protagonist in that
movement which so profoundly i n fl u
e n ce s the N orwegian dramatist Ibsen
In what I have said I have already
anticipated some o f th e con d itions o f
a modern age In a remarkable Speech
to a club o f working men at D r o n t h e i m
in I 885 , Ibsen declared that
th e
Revolution now preparing in Europe is
chiefly concerned with the future o f
the Workers and th e Women
I n this
I place all my h o pes and expectations ,
"
and for this I will work all my life
H ere are certainly two points which
will mark the life work of an advanced
thi n ker in contemporary tim e s The
rise of what i s known as the Feminist
M o vement , the echoes of which are
even heard in France , as proved
by such remarkable novels as Femmes
Nozw elles , by th e Broth ers Mar
g u e ri tt e , and Une Nozw elle D ouleu r ,
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I o8
I D E A O F T RA G E DY
a practical materialism which makes
wealth o n e o f th e obj ects o f men s
lives , and a theoretical materialism
which makes the doctor th e great hero
o f modern life , because all diseases ,
Spiritual o r mental , are in th e last
resort declared to b e physical ; a
social order in which woman is a c
claimed as the arbiter of her own des
tiny — these are the general aspects ,
the c ontemporary features which art
has to work with , and , if possible ,
mould to her ow n purpose
There is , h owever , another point
which , for o u r immediate obj ect , is
more important still
We are n ot
dealing with a young civilization such
as was to b e found in Greece in the
6 t h century B C , and in Italy in the
early Renaissance
We are dealing
with a society which has lost , to a
large extent , i t s faith in ideals , which
has b ecome sceptical of its own e ff ort s ,
more than a little weary Of th e higher
aims , more and more c ontent to r e
lapse o n the lower levels o f life and
thought
To an age o f this kind , to a
civilization which can b e described in
these t e rms , how will th e general idea
o f tragedy be altered ?
It depended ,
you will rememb er , o n a certain equi
poise b et ween a n external compelling
’
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I DEA O F TRA G E DY
1 09
fate and an internal power o f initiative
a n d resistance
The one was the ele
ment o f nec e ssity ,the impersonal order
o f th e universe ; the other was the
eleme n t Of freedom ,the personal fount
and source o f action
N ow , wh en
Shakespeare was attracted by this
problem — the Sphere all ow ed to human
volition in the midst of a great Over
powering environment — h e Slowly
worked towards a conclusi o n which
was consistent with his o wn energy
o f temperament and with the general
charact e ristics o f his age , that wh at
we mean by D estiny and Fate is
‘
n othing more nor less than a man s
character Man has not to look ou t
side for th e impulses which govern
him , but the tyrants which rule his
birth are found within the four walls
Such a doc
o f his Own personality
trine might Suit the strong youthful
times o f art and of a nation s vigour ,
b ecause , under such condi tions , the
value o f human e ff ort is recognised
as the one great thing in the universe ;
but when the times have grown older ,
wh en there has appeared a c ertain
lassitude in art and in national exist
ence , such a doctrine is t oo hard to be
borne
It is so much easier for those
who are already fatigued and wearied
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I D EA O F T RAG E DY
1 10
with much experience and much know
ledge of the fallaciousness and failure
of human e ff ort to s a y that destiny
c omes from th e outside , and is an
irresistible force overbearing human
wills
In Maeterlinck , for instance ,
you find the c onclusion that man is
th e plaything , th e sport o f Destiny
At all events this is true o f Maeter
linck s earlier dramas , where th e h u
man figure is s o faintly drawn that
th e n otion o f spontaneity or free
dom is absurd and impossible
Pel
”
leas and M elisande
were b oth t he
victims o f fate which th ey could n ot
c ontrol ; s o , t o o , were A g l ava i n e and
S elyse tt e ; s o , too , was the unlucky
Princess Mal e i n e
If yo u reduce h u
man vitality t o a thin , almost incor
p or eal vapour , if, instead o f human
b eing s that have length , breadth and
thickn ess ,you have frescoes o n a wall ,
it is absurd to a sk if things like these
can alter their fates , o r re cognise that
th e supreme fate lies in their cha racter
They will b e driven hither and thith er
as leaves in a wind , puppets dangled
o n Wire s over which the
y h ave n o
c ontrol , dolls whi ch the dramatist
take s o ut , dresses up , and , when th ey
i shed their task , put s into the
fin
{ have
wb o x a gain
What Maet erlinck will d o
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I DEA O F T RA GE DY
1 12
over , he is s o unconventional that h e
gives a vivid impression of originality ,
n ot always , I think , quite deserved
Many o f his social themes , for i n
stance , appear i n French dramatists ,
wh o raise , though in a different form ,
the precise questions which Ibsen
raises
But n o o n e c ould deny him
th e name of a dramatist
H e is a
master o f theatrical technique , in
th e presentment o f his themes , and in
the evolution of such plot as h e all ows
himself B oth his characters and th e
phrases which from time to time h e
puts into their mouth have a distinct
power ov e r o u r imagination , s o that
they b ec ome u n for g e t abl e
Indeed , I
might go further
They obsess the
mind like a nightmare that we should
like to shake off, but cannot If all this
means anything , it mean s that Ibsen
i s a real dramatist
Think ,for instance ,
in on e o f the least satisfactory o f his
”
dramas , Little Eyol f, how admirably
the first act is arranged , how clearly it
puts th e issues b efore us ,how instantl y
we understand th e situation o f th e
fath er and mother n ow that their b oy
is lost
S ometimes , as in this case ,
Ibsen b egins with a catastrophe , and
works o ut its consequences ; some
”
“
times , as i n John Gabriel Borkm a n ,
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I DEA O F T RAGE DY
113
the catastrophe has happened before
the curtain goes up
In each case w e
are put as close as possible to the
critical moment ,and the concentration
o f interest which is thereby gained i s
found to b e of no little dramatic value
Th e N orwegian writer prefers to work
analytically rather than synthetically
H e does not show how th e tragedy
grows , but , breaking it into its com
ponent parts , he traces the effects of
the trage dy o n his characters
N ev ertheless there remains on e co n
stant quality for which it is not easy to
find a word
It i s a quality o f grim
ness , o f ruggedness , of irritability , as
though life and the world had got o n
his nerves and filled him with spleen
H is dramas are n ever written in a
serene artistic temper , but too often
represent the unfathomable indigna
tion o f th e idealist who looks from
Dan to B eersheba and finds the whole
country barren
It is n o t an u n com
mon e ffect o f analysis that it leaves
few o f th e fair structures o f life stand
ing
The analytic mind , whether in
th e man o f science or in a disappointed
and thwarted poet like Ibsen , by r e
s olving a thing into its component parts ,
loses the sense o f its general valu e,mars
its beauty ,destroys its serviceableness
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I DEA 0 F TR A G E DY
in th e order o f th e universe We know ,
for instanc e , how victorious analysis ,
in th e sphere o f practical and moral
scienc e , has don e its best to resolve
th e notion o f duty into convenienc e or
pleasure or personal utility , and th e
idea of c onscience into an inherite d
fear of th e spirits o f dead ancestors
S omething o f the same kind must h ap
p en wh en a n isolated thinker like Ibsen
prob es th e ordinary c onvention s o f
social life and finds them hollow ,tap s
at all th e shutters and discovers that
what is b ehind them is valueless ,
throws open th e closet doors and r e
veals th e skeletons ,tears th e veil from
human a ffections , and displays their
meanness and littleness
Manki n d
must appear very despicable to a man
who makes Peer Gynt the h ero o f a
drama , paints th e conventional hus
band under th e form o f a self s a t i sfie d
idiot like H elmer , and has an especial
fondness fo r introducing the N orwegia n
emancipated young woman as the de
stroyer o f c onnubial felicity
The
human animal is eith er a knave or a
fool an d generally c ontemptible ; n or
does Ibsen even spare men lik e Ma s
ter B uilder S ol n e s s ,o r wounded Napo
leons like B o r k m a n , albeit that they
are supposed t o enlist o u r sympathies
.
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I D E A O F T RAGE DY
1 16
”
saga
Although this little dialogue
is conceived in a tender and gracious
S pirit , it reminds o n e o f those keen
heart thrusts which pass between hus
”
“
band and wife in
A D oll s H ouse
H elme r : “ N o man sacrifices his h onour
”
even for one h e loves
N ora : Mil
”
lions o f wom en have don e so
We
cannot easily forget the piteous wife
o f th e Master Builder wh o h as kept all
her ol d dolls c l othes i n a drawer ; n o r ,
b etter still , the figure o f Agnes in
“ B rand ”
Agne s , poring over her
little dea d boy s suits , o r placing her
candle i n the wi n dow so that its light
may fall across th e snow o n his grave ,
and give the little o n e a gleam o f
Christmas comfo rt , is dra wn with
some of th e most exquisite touches ,
full of a soft and radiant sweetness in
the mi d st o f an almost habitual gloom
No r can the man b e said to have failed
in understanding th e feminine nature
wh o has drawn such rem a rkable figures
”
“
Ro sm ers h ol m
a s R ebe cca i n
and
H edda Gabler in th e p lay cal l ed after
her name
You will find , I think , that
many actresses have l iked to act in
Ibsen s plays b ecause th e h eroin e
appeals to th em E ven Eleanora Dus e
”
“
has acted in
A Doll s H ouse , a 1
b eit that her maste rful vitality a n d th e
.
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I DEA
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0F
1 1
7
richness of her artistic nature made
the little butterfly N ora , who suddenly
wants to discover whether s ociety is
”
right o r she is , a more paradoxical
character than before
There is , however , in Ibsen , despite
the fact that he is above all a thinker
and a student , a c ertain incoherenc e
o f ideas which has sometimes a ve r y
ba ffling and confusing e ff ect
Partly
this is n o doubt due to th e fact that
some o f hi s earlie r dramas wer e writ
ten u nder the inspiration o f a Danish
thinker ,S oren K irkegaard ,an influence
which evaporated when h e executed
his later studies
The tragedy of
”
Brand and the work Love s C om
”
edy , which ,thanks to Profe ssor H er
ford , those o f us wh o do n ot know
N orwegian can n ow peruse for ou r
selves ,are especially oversha d owed by
the thoughts o f K irkegaard
I s ay
”
overshadowed , b ecause o f all the
thinkers who have made life di ffi cult
for us mortals this Danish philosopher
is the most paradoxical
H e is an
idealist ,who seems to have begun in
the school of K ant , but his paradoxes
are even more remarkable than those
famous antinomies of reason and ex
p e r i e n ce which made th e German
philosopher o f K onigsberg so full of
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I DE A O F T RAG E DY
1 18
hard sayings even for a Teutonic audi
"
ence
In
Brand , for instance , th e
K i rk e g a a r d i a n Go d , whom the hero
worships , is a deity who demands the
most appalling sacrifices o f all human
ties and associations before h e can b e
approached and understood , o r s u b s e
quently revealed as a d am
B rand le t s his mother go to hell , i s
th e c ause of th e death o f his o w n
child , and finally sacrifices his wife
all in the pursuit o f an ideal right
peculiar state o f will ,
e o u sn e s s , a
wholly remote from o u r actual life in
some impossible transcendental sphere
H ow a Go d who required such s a c
r ifice s
as these , wh o demanded s o
urgently and cruelly that all human
feelings should b e eradicated , can b e
afterwards proclaimed as th e g o d o f
love , wh en his sovereign power had
emptied such a word o f all meaning , is
impossible to understand
Observe , too , a curious cynicism
with which this pursuit o f paradoxical
idealism manifests itself in “ Love s
"
C omedy
In a boarding house are
collected a number o f young men and
maidens , mostly ordinary and c onve m
t i o n a l , under the care o f a lady wh o
b oasts herself to be o n e o f the most
successful match makers of her time
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I D EA O F T RAGE DY
12 0
Ibsen seems to dra w from his play
C onventional marriages — ma r i ag e: d e
safely b e r e co m
co7we7z
a rzce— can
mended
N o inj ury can b e done by
them , n o mo rtal wound inflicted o n
l ove And yet this is the man wh o
afterwards will storm and rail against
c onventional marriages , b ecause they
destroy human individuality Cynically
to recomme nd an un ion which is
afte rwards foun d destructive to th e
human soul , b etrays w h at I venture
to call incoh erenc e o f ideas
N or is
this the only form in which such in
coh erenc e is exhibited
There i s a
tendency in many o f th e later plays
to emp loy h i g h s o un di n g phra se s a p
a
a
l
n
d
ep
symbolical
v
l ue ,
r
t
f
e
e
o
p
y
but which on examinati on seem to
c ontain but littl e or nothing We h ear
”
the gr eat law of Change , a preten
of
tious phrase to sign i fy that human char
acter is more o r l es s fickle ; or “ the
”
great law o f R etribution , with which ,
indeed , every dramati st sho ul d deal
with out investin g it with capital le tters
N or shall I h esitate to s a y that over
and over again the wo r d Lib er ty is
used as if it could onl y mean i rr e s p on
s i b i l i ty
S ometimes th e freedom for
which Ibsen is c onstantl y pining is
h ardl y to b e disti n gui she d from license
of
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I D EA
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12 1
I touch with hesitation o n another
point which I b elieve forms a some
what envenomed subj ect o f debate b e
tween the older and the newer schools
I refer to a certain poverty
o f criticism
o f 7 7 1 2 se g 72 scén e, a designed squalor in
th e range and meaning of the plot , a
provincialism ,as it were ,in the intrigue
and management o f Ibsen s dramas
You will remember that Matthew
Arnold believed that the only true
literature was the literature o f th e
c entre , something that belonged to
the main line of literary development
o n th e ground o f its style , its manner
o f treatment , its arrangement of data
Ibsen s literature could never b e de
scribed as that o f the centre
Perhaps
the time has come when literature
ought no longer to b elong to th e
centre but to the circumference , and
there are many signs among our co n
t emporary writers that th ey have
definitely accepted this view of the
circumferenc e s the chief obj ect o f
their interest
e a n w h i l e , from th e
point o f vi ew of tragedy ,which Aristotle
said ought to deal with great things ,an d
which has been depicted in poetry as
”
tragedy with purple pall , as though
some regal splendour should b elong to
those whose ruin is depicted before
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12 2
I D E A O F T R AGE DY
o u r e ye s ,t h e
tragic drama that you find
in Ibsen is singularly mean , c ommon
place ,parochial — as if Apollo ,who onc e
entered th e h ous e o f Admetus , was
now tol d to take up his habitation in
a back parlour in S outh Hampstead
There may b e tragedie s in S outh
H ampstead , alth ough experienc e does
n ot consistently testify to the fact ; but ,
at all events from th e historic and tra
d i t i o n a l stand point , tragedy is more
likely to c oncern itself with Gl a m ys
Castle ,M elrose Abbey ,Carisbrooke ,o r
even with Carlton H ouse Terrace
B ehind some o f the grandiose trage
d ies o f Shakespeare , there is th e s u g
gestion o f a world catastroph e , as if
palsied K ing L ear shaking h i s mena
cing finger at the waterspouts was
the cra zy proph et o f a cosmic rui n
Such an atmosphere n ever surrounds
th e Ibsen drama For instanc e , Th e
”
E nemy o f th e People , is a play o n
much th e same subj ect as
Prome
”
theus V i n ct u s
In both there is th e
picture o f th e o n e man , n ever so
strong as when h e is most alone ,
waging , on the ground o f his superior
knowledge and insight , war against
the forc es o f ignoranc e , and blind ,
unreasoning forc e
Dr Stockmann is
a Prometheus , a Prometheus wh o has
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4
I DEA
OF
T RAG E DY
rank ?
Was John Gabriel B orkm a n
a real N apoleon o f financ e ? I n b oth
instanc es you have a peculiarly poi
g n a n t picture o f success followed by
failure but are the characters typical
enough to make us feel that they are
decisive examples of masterful skill or
masterful rapacity ? S o l n e s s is almost
a symbolical figure , and th e symbolic
character tends to failure as an ordinary
human b eing Just as a mere phase o f
individual idiosyncrasy will not n e ce ss
a r ily make a personage dramatic , s o ,
too ,will any character in a tragedy fail
to bring home to us the de solation o f
failure ,unless he b e in a real sense n o t
symbolic but typ ical 1
What , in fact , is Ibsen s idea o f tra
As far as I can s e e , it is th e
g e dy ?
failure o n th e part o f a given indivi d ual
to achieve his mission
In some dim
way we reali z e that th e b r ok e n d ow n
h eroes or heroines of Ibsen have had
some task which they ought to have
b een able to perform ,and some obj ect of
life w h i ch ,u n d er happier circumstances ,
they might have achieved , and their
disappointment and disgust make th e
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I t is nece s s a ry to di s tingu ish b etween a
A sym
s y m b olic fig u e a n d
a t yp i c a l figu r e
b o l i e fi gu r e i s a n a b st r action ; a t ypical figu r e
m ay b e fu ll of the r ipe j u ices of h u m anit y
I
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IDEA
OF
TRA G E DY
: 2
5
tragedy
This , o f course , might b e
the description o f every tragedy in the
world s history To know that on e
has a life vocation , to s i n against it ,
and consequently to acknowledge o n e
self a failure , is o f the very essenc e o f
the tragic idea
N ever t heless , if we
are thinking of the impression upon
ourselves , the character o f the person
ages and the circumstances which are
too strong for them have both to b e
c onsidered
Well , the indubitably
great thing about Ibsen s characters ,
perhaps the only great thing about
them ,is their vanity ; while th e circum
stances against which they have to
struggle are ,for the most part , relative
to the circumscribed conditions of life
in a young , crude , immature civili za
tion in N orway We know that when
Ibsen had produced his extraordinarily
”
impressive play o f
Ghosts , and
found that instead o f sympathy h e had
won derision , h e shook the dust o ff
his feet against his native country and
lived abroad
H e realized that h e was
too advanced in thought and feeling
for his N orwegian home
H e is a l
ways full o f the idea that the cramping
circumsta n ces of life in N orway are
fatal to individuality , to human liberty
But h e is a real revolutionary in this
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I D E A O F T R AG E DY
6
respect ,that h e does not care for liberty
as a possession but only as a pursuit
If heaven were to offer him freedom
in a socialistic c ommunity o n the o n e
hand , and a vehement c onflict o n b e
half o f liberty in an old aristocratic
and oligarchic state o n the other hand ,
h e woul d unh esitatingly choose the
latter
For him it is th e c onflict
which is sweet , not th e victory
N or
is h e a pessimist in the proper sense
of the term
H e does not despair
under all cir
o f human happiness
only despairs of it
cu m st a n ce s , h e
under special and limited conditions
S o much of th e early idealism belongs
to the disappointed an d bitter poet
that h e thinks happiness well worth
striving for
H e will put all social
institutions into the melting pot , and
wage ceaseless war against th e estab
l i sh e d , the conventional , and the de
coro u s , b ecause th e individual human
being has a right to struggle cease
lessly for happiness
The n ew Ibsen
”
“
play , Wh en we D ead Awaken , leads
to much the same conclusion s
I have left myself but small space
in which to deal with the c ontemporary
movements o f th e drama
F or many
reasons it is better that I sh ould pass
ove r such points as still remai n with
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I D E A O F T RAGE DY
8
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e fl e ct ,
—th e drama , n ever intende d to
b e acted , which under present cir
cu m s t a n ce s comes to b e recognised as
th e only form of dramatic writing that
the leaders of th e literary world care
t o essay Many o f Browning s dramas
b elong to this class , all of Swinburne s ,
and , according to some critics , a good
many of Tennyson s
N evertheless ,
there are some signs , hopeful , e n cou r
aging signs , o f a return to serious
dramatic writing There i s th e work
Laurenc e Irving and o f Mr
o f Mr
E smond , by no means devoid o f pro
mise
Quite recently we have b een
reading Mr Stephen Phillips
Paolo
”
and Francesca , in which the beautiful
legend o f Dante has received a worth y
setting of literary b eauty ; and Mrs
”
C ra i g i e s
O sb e r n and U r syn e , vigor
o u s , poetical , and rife
with sincere
emotion
But , after all , the great reaso n for
O ptimism with regard to th e future
is the fact that Mr Pinero has given
us in o ur modern age a play which
“ The
is a masterpiec e
Second
H ereafter we shall
know better , I think , than we do now
how great an achievement Mr Pinero s
The S econd Mr s Ta n q u eray rea lly
is , h ow true a trage dy in form , man
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I DEA O F T RA GE DY
m e n t an d sty le
12
9
We stand too close
to it at present to s e e its true propor
tions , and th e re a l issue disappears
because it is classed not only among
other plays of his , but superfici ally de
scribed as a study after th e model o f
Ibsen
In form it is much more li ke a
p lay of the school of Dumas the youn g
er ,alth ough Dumas di d n ot often write
anyt hing half so good The character
o f Paula T a n q u e r a y i s o n e o f the most
trium phan t creations which has ever
been c omposed for th e stage , in th e
fearlessness and truth o f its p o rt r a i
ture an d the artistic cunnin g of its p re
s e n tm e n t
Dumas wrote “ La Dame
a ux Cam élias when h e was a young
man ; Mr Pinero wrote Th e Second
”
Mrs T a n q u e ray in the matur ity of
his powers
Wh i le the on e gi ves a
theatrical glorification of th e courtesan ,
the oth er dares to draw her as s h e
really is , in a ll the pathetically good
insti n cts , and also the littl eness and
bitt erness o f her artificially develop ed
s oul
The sty le is in every sense
worthy o f th e theme indeed ,here and
th ere , are classical passages , classical
in their restraint , sobriety , and clear
cut form
Listen to the follo wing ,
when Aubrey and his wife are s i t
ting amid th e hopeless ruin o f th eir
ag e
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I D EA O F T RAGE DY
3o
fortunes , discussing the probabili ty o r
p ossibility o f b eginning again
The
sentences rin g with suppressed emo
tion ,but the logical situation is exposed
with a master s ha n d
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We ll m ake o ur calc u lations solel y
fo r the fu t u r e ,talk a b o u t the fu t ur e ,think ab o u t
the fu t u r e
I b elieve the fu t ur e is onl y the past
P a u la
again ,ente r e d th r o u gh anothe r ga te
T hat s an a wful b el ief
A u b ey
"ou m u st see
To night p r oves it
P a u la
now that , d o wh a t we will , go whe r e we wil l ,
—
o
ll
contin
u
all
y
r
e
m
inde
d
o
f
what I was
u
b
e
y
I see it
"o u r e frightened to night ; m eeting
A ub ey
this m an h a s frightene d yo u B u t that so r t o f
thing i s n t likel y to r ec u r Th e wo rld isn t q uite
so s m all as all th a t
I sn t it ? Th e onl y g r eat di stances it
P a ul
contains ar e those we carry Wi thin o u r s elves
the di stances that sep a r a te h u s b an d s and wive s ,
fo r instance An d so it ll b e with u s "o u ll d o
—
—
h
o
r
b
est
I
know
that
u
o
,
y
yo u r e a goo d
fellow But cir c u m st ances will b e too st r ong fo r
yo u i n the e n d ,m a r k m y wo r ds
P a ul a
A u b ey
O f co u r s e I m p r et ty now —I m p r ett y
P a u la
still —an d a p r ett y wo m an , wh a teve r else sh e
m ay b e , i s al w a y s —well , end ur a b le
Bu t even
now I not i ce th a t the lines of m y fa ce ar e getting
d eepe r ; s o a r e the hollow s a b o u t m y e yes
"es ,m y fa ce is cove r ed w i th little s h a dows that”
u s en t to b e the r e
going o ff
O h ,I know I m
I h a te pai nt an d d ye an d tho s e m e s ses ,b ut b y
a n d—
b y I s hal l d ri ft the wa y of the othe r s ; I
s han t b e a b le to he l p m yse l f
An d then , so m e
d ay — pe r h a ps ve r y s u d denl y , u nde r a q u ee r
fa nt a s tic light at n i ght o r in th e gl ar e of the
m o rn i ng — that ho rri d , irr esis ti b le t r uth that
A u br ey
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I D EA O F T RA GE DY
wh o run theatres for various motives :
b ecause it is not a bad form o f invest
ment , because the patronage o f th e
drama is fashionable , but mainly b e
cause they want to be amused
I t is
under such circumstances that E nglish
comedy b ecome s farce , or else a s o
c alled musical play ; while those who
might appreciate tragedy if they sa w
it , have t o c ontent themselves with
vulgar and extravagant melodrama
B ut wh en th e people alter , thes e
things w i ll , too , b e di fferent , and it
is possible that even b efore o ur eye s
the temper o f the nation is transform
ing itself Tragedy born o f th e people
is at its best and ful lest when it is
contemporaneous with a great ou t
b urst o f national life
Are we n ot
living at present under a wave o f i n
d i g n a n t emotion , wh ich is sweeping
away class distinctions , destroying th e
false n otion that wealth is a form o f
nobili ty, b ringing down th e rough esti
mate of things to the bare human
level , th e qualities which make a viri le
and e fli ci e n t man ? N ever i n history
has a nation awakened to th e consci
o u s n e s s o f its real sources o f great
n ess without finding expression for i t s
heightened feeling in art That I tak e
it is th e hope , as eventually it will be
the glory ,o f the twentieth centu ry
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