The fact that
it is a false alarm, and that there is no rational explanation for
Prinzivalle's wanton insult to a woman whom he reverently idolizes, in
no way makes matters better.[1] Not the least grotesque thing in the
play is Giovanna's expectation that Guido will receive Prinzivalle with
open arms because he has--changed his mind. We can feel neither approval
nor disapproval, sympathy nor antipathy, in such a deplorable
conjunction of circumstances. All we wish is that we had not been called
upon to contemplate it.[2] Maeterlinck, like Shakespeare, was simply
dallying with the idea of a squalid heroism--so squalid, indeed, that
neither he nor his predecessor had the courage to carry it through.
Pray observe that the defect of these two themes is not merely that they
are "unpleasant." It is that there is no possible way out of them which
is not worse than unpleasant: humiliating, and distressing. Let the
playwright, then, before embarking on a theme, make sure that he has
some sort of satisfaction to offer us at the end, if it be only the
pessimistic pleasure of realizing some part of "the bitter, old and
wrinkled truth" about life.
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