If the injury that has been done me cries aloud for justice, and is more the fault of others than myself, then the lesson derived from the drama will be the more consoling to me. I shall look into my own heart with pleasure, and if I conclude that I have done my full duty toward society, if I am a good parent, a just master, a kind friend, an upright man and a useful citizen, my spiritual satisfaction consoling me for injuries received from others, I shall then all the more appreciate the play which I have witnessed, because it will recall to me that in the pursuit of virtue I find the greatest happiness to which a wise man can attain: contentment with himself, and I shall return again to shed sweet tears at the spectacle of innocence and persecuted virtue.…
The noble and Serious drama has been criticized in turn for lacking stamina, warmth, power, and the comic element.…Let us see how far this criticism is justified: Every form which is too new to contain definite rules according to which it can be discussed, is judged by analogy according to the general rules governing human nature. Let us apply this method to, the case in question. The Serious emotional drama stands midway between heroic tragedy and light comedy. If I consider that part of it which touches upon tragedy, I ask myself: do the warmth and power of a character in a play, arise from his position in the state, or from the depths of his own character? A cursory glance at the models which real life furnishes to art (which is imitative), reveals that a powerful character is no more the sole possession of a prince than of any one else. Three men spring forth from the heart of Rome, and divide the world among them. The first is a pusillanimous coward; the second, valiant, presumptuous and fierce; the third, a clever rascal, who outwits the other two. But Lepidus, Antony, and Octavius, when they formed the Triumvirate, possessed characters which alone decided the different parts they were to play in their common usurpation. The softness of the first, the violence of the second, and the cleverness of the other—all these would have had their effect had it been merely a question of private succession among them. Every man is what he is because of his character; as to his station in life, that is determined by destiny; but a man's character can influence that station in life to a considerable extent. Hence, the Serious Drama, which shows me men who are moved by situations, is as susceptible of power, dynamic force, and elevation of thought, as heroic tragedy, which likewise shows me men who are moved, but who are above men in the ordinary walks of life. And if I consider that part of the Serious and noble drama which touches upon comedy, I cannot deny that the vis comica is indispensable to all good comedies; but then I may ask why the Serious Drama is criticized for a lack of warmth, which, if it exists, can be only the result of a lack of skill on the part of the dramatist? Since plays of this sort deal with people taken out of every-day life—as in light comedy—ought these characters to be treated with any less vigor, portrayed any the less forcibly, when the situation in which they find themselves involves their honor, or life itself, than when these same characters are involved in matters of less moment—say, in simple ordinary embarrassments of one kind or another, or even in comic situations? And even if all the dramas which I have referred to lack comic elements (which I am gravely inclined to doubt)…even then, the question revolves upon the ability or shortcomings of individual dramatists and not upon the dramatic form as such, which is in itself less bombastic and may be thought of as containing the best fiber of any.…
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