Page:The thirty-six dramatic situations (1921).djvu/101

 TWENTY-NINTH SITUATION 99 B ( 1 ) The Lover is the Slayer of the Father of His Beloved : - - "Le Cid" (and the opera drawn from it) ; "Olympie" by Voltaire. (2) - The Beloved is the Slayer of the Father of her Lover: --"Mademoiselle de Bressier" (Delpit, 1887). (3) - The Beloved is the Slayer of the Brother of Her Lover: - "La Reine Fiammette" (Mendes, 1889). (4) - The Beloved is the Slayer of the Husband of the Woman Who Loves Him, But Who Has Pre- viously Sworn to Avenge that Husband:- "Irene" by Voltaire. (5) - The Same Case, Except that a Lover, Instead of a Husband, Has Been Slain: "Fedora" (Sardou, 1882). (6) The Beloved is the Slayer of a Kinsman of the Woman Who Loves Him: "Romeo and Juliet," this situation being modified by that of "Abduction" (elope- ment), then, with triple effect by XXX VI, "Loss of Loved Ones;" the firsl time mistakenly, the second time simply and actually, the third time doubly and simultaneously to both the families of the principal characters; "l'Ancetre" I Saint -Saens and Lassus > : "Fortune and Misfortune of a Name" and "His Own Gaoler" by Calderon. The Beloved is the Daughter of the Slayer of Iler Lover's Father: "Le Crime de .lean Morel" imson, L890 ; "La Marchande de Sourires" (.Judith Gautier, L888 . The chief emotional elemenl thus remains the same as in the Fifth (Pursuit i, and Love here serves especially to presenl the pursued man under various favorable lights which have a certain unity. She whom he loves here plays, to some Bmall extent, the role of the Greek chorus. Suppress the love interest, replace it with any other tie, however weak, or even leave nothing in its place, and a play of the type of Situation Y, with all its terrors, will still remain. Attempt, oil the contrary, to curtail the other interest, the enmity to soften the vengeance