Dramatic Technique Part 3

ACT I. SCENE I

_Aline and maids; to whom Fiddlers; afterwards Dumont and Charles. As the curtain rises, the sound of the violin is heard approaching. Aline and the inn servants, who are discovered laying the table, dance up to door L.C., to meet the Fiddlers, who enter likewise dancing to their own music. Air: "Haste to the Wedding." The Fiddlers exeunt playing into house, R.U.E. Aline and Maids dance back to table, which they proceed to arrange._

_Aline._ Well, give me fiddles: fiddles and a wedding feast. It tickles your heart till your heels make a runaway match of it. I don't mind extra work, I don't, so long as there's fun about it. Hand me up that pile of plates. The quinces there, before the bride. Stick a pink in the Notary's gla.s.s: that's the girl he's courting.

_Dumont._ (_Entering with Charles._) Good girls, good girls! Charles, in ten minutes from now what happy faces will smile around that board!

ACT II. SCENE 2

_To these all the former characters, less the Notary. The fiddlers are heard without, playing dolefully. Air: "O, dear, what can the matter be?" in time to which the procession enters._

_Macaire._ Well, friends, what cheer? _Aline._ No wedding, no wedding! > _Together_ _Goriot._ I told 'ee he can't, and he can't! /

_Dumont._ Dear, dear me. _Ernestine._ They won't let us marry. > _Together_ _Charles._ No wife, no father, no nothing. /

_Curate._ The facts have justified the worst antic.i.p.ations of our absent friend, the Notary.

_Macaire._ I perceive I must reveal myself.[8]

If physical action in and of itself is so often dramatic, is all physical action dramatic? That is, does it always create emotion in an onlooker? No. It goes for naught unless it rouses his interest. Of itself, or because of the presentation given it by the dramatist, it must rouse in the onlooker an emotional response. A boy seeing "Crazy Mary" stalking the street in bedizened finery and bowing right and left, may see nothing interesting in her. More probably her actions will move him to jeer and jibe at her. Let some spectator, however, tell the boy of the tragedy in Crazy Mary's younger life which left her unbalanced, and, if he has any right feeling, the boy's att.i.tude will begin to change. He may even give over the jeering he has begun. Reveal to him exactly what is pa.s.sing in the crazed mind of the woman, and his mere interest will probably turn to sympathy. Characterization, preceding and accompanying action, creates sympathy or repulsion for the figure or figures involved. This sympathy or repulsion in turn converts mere interest into emotional response of the keenest kind. Though physical action is undoubtedly fundamental in drama, no higher form than crude melodrama or crude farce can develop till characterization appears to explain and interpret action.

The following extracts from Robertson's _Home_ show physical action, silly it is true, yet developing characterization by ill.u.s.trative action. The first, even as it amuses, characterizes the timid Bertie, and the second shows the mild mentality and extreme confusion of the two central figures.

_Mr. Dorrison._ Will you give Mrs. Pinchbeck your arm, Colonel? Dora, my dear. (_Taking Dora's._) Lucy, Captain Mountraffe will--(_Sees him asleep._) Ah, Lucy, you must follow by yourself.

(_Colonel takes off Mrs. Pinchbeck; Dorrison, Dora. At that moment, Bertie enters window, R., and runs to Lucy, kneels at her feet, and is about to kiss her hand. Mountraffe yawns, which frightens Bertie. He is running off as the drop falls quickly._)

_End of Act I_

_Colonel_. I'd always give my eyes to be alone with this girl for five minutes, and whenever I am alone with her, I haven't a word to say for myself. (_Aloud._) That music, Miss Thornhaugh?

_Dora._ (_At piano._) Yes.

_Col._ (_Aside._) As if it could be anything else. How stupid of me.

(_Aloud._) New music?

_Dora._ Yes.

_Col._ New laid--I mean, fresh from the country--fresh from London, or--yes--I--(_Dora sits on music stool at piano. This scene is played with great constraint on both sides. Colonel bends over Dora at piano._) Going to play any of it now?

_Dora._ No. I must practise it first. I can't play at sight.

_Col._ Can't you really? Don't you believe in--music--at first sight?

(_Dora drops a music book. Colonel picks it up. Dora tries to pick it up. They knock their heads together; mutual confusion. As they rise, each has hold of the book._)

_Dora._ I beg your pardon. (_Both trembling._) _Col._ /

_Dora._ It's nothing.

_Col._ Nothing, quite so.

(_Dora sits on music stool. As she does so, both leave hold of the book and it falls again._)

_Dora._ I thought you had the book.

_Col._ (_Picking it up._) And I thought you had it, and it appears that neither of us had it. Ha! ha! (_Aside._) Fool that I am! (_Dora sits thoughtfully, Colonel bending over her; a pause._) Won't you play something?

_Dora._ I don't know how to play.

_Col._ Oh, well, play the other one. (_They resume their att.i.tudes; a pause._) The weather has been very warm today, has it not?

_Dora._ Very.

_Col._ Looks like thunder to me.

_Dora._ Does it?

_Col._ Are you fond of thunder--I mean fond of music? I should say are you fond of lightning? (_Dora touches keys of piano mechanically._) Do play something.

_Dora._ No, I--I didn't think of what I was doing. What were you talking about?

_Col._ About? You--me--no! About thunder--music--I mean lightning.

_Dora._ I'm afraid of lightning. (Act II.)[9]

The first scene of Act I of _Romeo and Juliet_ is full of interesting physical action--quarrels, fighting, and the halting of the fight by the angry Prince. The physical action, however, characterizes in every instance, from the servants of the two factions to Tybalt, Benvolio, the Capulets, the Montagues, and the Prince. Moreover, this interesting physical action, which is all the more interesting because it characterizes, is interesting in the third place because in every instance it helps to an understanding of the story. It shows so intense an enmity between the two houses that even the servants cannot meet in the streets without quarreling. By its characterization it prepares for the parts Benvolio and Tybalt are to play in later scenes. It motivates the edict of banishment which is essential if the tragedy of the play is to occur.

SCENE 1. _Verona. A public place_

_Enter Sampson and Gregory, of the house of Capulet, with swords and bucklers_

_Sampson._ Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry coals.

_Gregory._ No, for then we should be colliers.

_Sam._ I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw.

_Gre._ Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.

_Sam._ I strike quickly, being mov'd.

_Gre._ But thou art not quickly mov'd to strike.

_Sam._ A dog of the house of Montague moves me.

Draw thy tool; here comes two of the house of Montague.