"Alles in allem genommen, ist an dieser Komoedie, abgesehen von ihrer
formal musterhaften Technik, herzlich wenig zu bewundern.... An
Zweideutigkeiten, Obscoenitaeten, Schimpfscenen ist Ueberfluss vorhanden."
With admirable clarity of vision, Korting has spied the vital spot and
illuminated it with the word "Unterhaltungsdrama." That amusement was the
sole aim of the comic poets we firmly believe. But if this was so, why
arraign them on the charge of trying to convince us that everything is
happening in a perfectly natural manner? The outer form to be sure is that
of everyday life, but this is no proof that the poets demanded of their
audiences a belief in the verisimilitude of the events depicted. Can we
have no fantastic fairyland without some outlandish accompaniment such as
a chorus garbed as birds or frogs? But we reserve fuller discussion of
this point until later. We might suggest an interesting comparison to the
nonsense verse of W. S. Gilbert, which represents the most shocking ideas
in a style even nonchalantly matter-of-fact. Does Gilbert by any chance
actually wish us to believe that "Gentle Alice Brown," in the poem of the
same name, really assisted in "cutting up a little lad"?
Korting regains his usual clear-headedness in pronouncing 'that there is
little in the technique of _palliatae_ to excite our admiration.' Again we
insist (to borrow the jargon of the modern dramatic critic) it was but a
"vehicle" for popular amusement.
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