As is well known, in our day the proverb developed rapidly, was used and misused; it became easily available, and the result was a surfeit of it. The proverb proved, however, to be the seed of a prospective form—when the author and the public favored the same thing—\but it declined, was buried and ridiculed, because no one dared use it for greater efforts, as Musset had done, although not always successfully.
By this I do not mean to say that this is the only possible approach. The Théâtre Libre did not start its activity by proclaiming any program; it has never developed an aesthetic, never wanted to form a school. Writers have therefore taken advantage of this freedom, and the theatre's poster has shown the most varied forms, new and old together, even as old as the tragic parade, the mystery, and the pantomine. And from the laws of modern aesthetics has also been eliminated the decree that it is not permissible to place an action in the historical past. All prohibitive laws have been canceled, and only the demands of taste and of the modern spirit are allowed to determine the artistic form.
Is this not possibly an emancipation of art, a renaissance, a liberation from a terrible aesthetics which was beginning to make people unhappy, which wanted to change the theatre into a political arena, into a Sunday school, a chapel? Perhaps!
May we too get such a theatre where one can shudder at the most horrible, laugh at the ridiculous, play with toys; where one can get to see everything and not be offended if one gets to see what has so far been hidden behind theological and aesthetic veils, even though the old laws of convention be broken; may we get a free theatre where one has freedom for everything, except the freedom to lack talent and be a hypocrite or a fool!
And if we should not get any such theatre, we shall probably manage to survive anyway!
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