The curtain falls on a dazzling
scene of domestic bliss.
Ducis frankly acknowledged that he was guilty of a somewhat strained
interpretation of Shakespeare's tragic scheme, but he defended himself
on the ground that French refinement and French sensitiveness could
not endure the agonising violence of the true catastrophe. It is,
indeed, the fact that the patrons of the Comedie Francaise strictly
warned the adapter against revolting their feelings by reproducing the
"barbarities" that characterised the close of Shakespeare's tragic
masterpiece.
If so fastidious a flinching from tragic episode breathe the true
French sentiment, what, we are moved to ask, is the significance of
the unqualified regard which Ducis and his countrymen profess for
Shakespearean drama? There seems a strange paradox in the situation.
The history of France proves that Frenchmen can face without quailing
the direst tragedies which can be wrought in earnest off the stage.
There is a startling inconsistency in the outcry of Ducis's French
clients against the terror of Desdemona's murder. For the protests
which Ducis reports on the part of the Parisians bear the date 1792.
In that year the tragedy of the French Revolution--a tragedy of real
life, grimmer than any that Shakespeare imagined--was being enacted in
literal truth by the Parisian playgoers themselves.
Pages:
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287