Page:The thirty-six dramatic situations (1921).djvu/103

 AMBITION (An Ambitious Person; a Thing Coveted; an Adversary) A highly intellectual type of action is here presented, for which there is no antique model, and from which mediocrity usually keeps a respectful distance.

A — Ambition Watched and Guarded Against by a Kinsman or a Patriot Friend: (1) — By a Brother: — "Timoleon" by Alfieri. Historic instance (comic, that is to say, feigned), Lucien and Napoleon Bonaparte.

(2) — By a Relative or Person Under Obligation: "Julius Caesar" by Shakespeare, "La Mort de Caesar" by Voltaire; "Brutus II" by Alfieri. In "La Mort de Caesar" there is a reappearance of the Nineteenth (Slaying of a Kinsman Unrecognized), so strong was the desire to recall the works of antiquity!

(3) — By Partisans: — "Wallenstein" by Schiller; "Cromwell" by Hugo; "Marius Vaincu" Mortier, 1911).

(B) — Rebellious Ambition (akin to VIII, A 1): — "Sir Thomas Wyat" by Webster; "Perkin Warbeck" by Ford; "Catilina" by Voltaire; Cade's insurrection in the second part of Shakespeare's "Henry IV."

C (1) — Ambition and Covetousness Heaping Crime Upon Crime: — "Macbeth" and "Richard III;" "Ezzelino" (A. Mussato); part of the "Cinq Doigts de Birouk" (Decourcelle, 1883); "La-Bête Féroce" (Jules Mary and Emile Rochard, 1908); "La Vie Publique" (Fabre, 1901). In comedy: "Ubu-roi" (Jarry). In 101