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Angelo, Tyrant of Padua

PREFACE

In view of the present status of all those momentous questions, which go to the very roots of society, it long ago occurred to the author of this drama that it might be profitable as well as elevating to develop upon the stage something like the following plan: — Given a plot dealing wholly with the affections, to present two serious, sorrowful figures, the woman in society and the woman not in society, that is to say, in two living examples, all women and woman. To represent these two women, who embody in themselves all womankind, as often moved by noble impulses, but always unhappy. To defend the one against despotism, the other against contempt.

To point out the temptations which the virtuous instinct of the one resists, and the suffering with which the other washes away her stains. To place the blame where it belongs, that is to say, upon man, who is the stronger, and upon the constitution of society, which is absurd. In these two typical hearts to cause the resentment of the woman to yield to the pious veneration of the daughter, the love of a. lover to the love of a mother, hatred to devotion, passion to a sense of duty. In opposition to these two women, thus imagined, to place two men, the husband and the lover, the despot and the exile, and to exhibit in them, by divers collateral developments of the plot, all the relations, regular and irregular, that man can sustain with woman on the one hand and society on the other. And then, over against this group, which craves and possesses and suffers, at times radiant, and at times overspread with gloom, to place the envious man, the fatal witness, who is always on hand, whom Providence stations on the outskirts of all societies, all governments, all prosperous careers, all human passions; the tireless enemy of everyone above him; changing his form according to the time and place, but always the same at heart; a spy at Venice, a eunuch at Constantinople, a pamphleteer at Paris. To station him, as Providence stations him, in the shadow, gnashing his teeth at every smile, this clever and abandoned wretch, who has no power save to injure, for all the doors that are closed to his love are open to his vengeance. Lastly, above the three men, between the two women, to place the dead Christ upon the cross, as a sacred bond, a symbol, an intercessor and counselor. To nail all this human suffering to the back of the crucifix.

Then, of all these elements, thus arranged, to make a drama; not concerned altogether with royalties, lest the possible application be lost sight of in the grandeur of the proportions; not altogether on the middle-class level, lest the insignificance of the characters interfere with the development of the idea; but dealing with persons of princely rank and with domestic incidents: with the former, because the drama should be great; with the latter because it should be true to life. And in this work, for the gratification of the craving of the mind to feel the past in the present and the present in the past, to mingle the divine element with the human, and the historical element with the social. To picture, by the way, apropos of this idea, not man and woman alone, not these three men and these two women alone, but a whole century, a country, a whole civilization, a whole people.

To build upon this thought, following the lines of history, a plot so simple and so true, so instinct with life and vivid, that it can serve to hide the thought itself from the eyes of the audience, as the flesh hides the bones.

That is what the author of this drama has sought to do. His sole regret is that the thought did not come to one better fitted than he to develop it.

Today, in the face of success clearly due to this underlying thought, a success which has exceeded all his hopes, he feels the need of setting forth his thought in its entirety to the sympathetic and enlightened multitude who gather evening after evening to witness his work, with an interest which places a heavy responsibility upon him.

It cannot be said too often for anyone who has reflected upon the needs of society, to which the endeavors of true art ought always to correspond, that to-day more than ever before the theatre is a place of instruction.

The drama, as the author of this work would like to make it, and as a man of genius might make it, ought to impart philosophy to the audience, direction to the thoughts, muscles, blood and life to poetry, an unbiased opinion to thinking men, a cooling drink to thirsty‘ souls, a balm to hidden wounds, to everyone good counsel, and to all a law.

It goes without saying that the essential conditions of art should be, first of all and in every respect, complied with. Curiosity, interest, amusement, laughter, tears, unflagging observation of whatever is true to nature, and the marvelous envelope of style, all these the drama must have, else it would be no drama; but to be complete, it must have also the desire to instruct, coincident with the desire to please. Shrink not from fascinating the audience with your drama, but let the lesson be within it, so that it may always be found when one chooses to dissect the lovely, entrancing, poetic, impassioned creation of your brain, gorgeously clad in gold and silk and velvet. In the most captivating drama there should always be a serious undercurrent of thought, just as there always is a skeleton in the loveliest woman.

The author, as will be seen, does not gloss over any of the stern duties of the dramatic poet. He will perhaps someday attempt, in a special work, to explain in detail what he has sought to accomplish in each of the dramas he has produced during the past seven years.

In presence of so vast a problem as that of the stage of the nineteenth century, he is deeply conscious of his own insufficiency; but he will persevere none the less in the work he has begun. With all his insignificance, how could he draw back; encouraged as he has been by the approval of the choicest minds, by the applause of the multitude, and by the loyal sympathy of all the eminent men who are numbered among the critics of today? He will go on then with firm tread; and whenever he deems it necessary to expound to all the world, in its smallest details, a useful idea, relating to society or to mankind at large, he will place the stage over it like a microscope. In the age in which we live the horizon of art is greatly widened. In the old days the poet spoke of “the public;” today he speaks of “the people.”

MAY 7, 1833.

CONTENTS:

Angelo, Tyrant of Padua

PREFACE

DRAMATIS PERSONAE