Page:The thirty-six dramatic situations (1921).djvu/112

 B (1) — False Suspicions Drawn Upon Oneself to Save a Friend: — "Aimer Sans Savoir Qui" by Lope; "Mme. Ambros" (Widor, 1885).

(2) — They Fall Upon the Innocent: — "Siroès" by Metastasio; "La Grande Iza" (Bouvier, 1882); "Le Fiacre No. 13" and "Gavroche" (Dornay, 1887 and 1888); "L'Affaire des Poisons" (Sardou, 1907); "Les Pierrots" (Grillet, 1908). Upon the Innocent Husband of the Guilty One: — "La Criminelle" (Delacour, 1882).

(3) — The Same Case as 2, but in Which the Innocent had a Guilty Intention': — "Jean Cévenol" (Fraisse, 1883). In Which the Innocent Believes Himself Guilty: - "Le Roi de l'Argent" (Milliet, 1885); "Poupèes Electriques" (Marinetti).

(4) — A Witness to the Crime, in the Interest of a Loved One, Lets Accusation Fall Upon the Innocent: — "Le Secret de la Terreuse" (Busnach, 1889).

C (1) — The Accusation is Allowed to Fall Upon an Enemy: "La Pieuvre" (Morel, 1885).

(2) — The Error is Provoked by an Enemy: — "The Palamedes" of Sophocles and of Euripides; "Le Ventre de Paris" (Zola, 1887); "Le Roi Soleil" (Bernéde, 1911); "L'Homme á Deux Têtes" (Forest, 1910). This nuance alone, it will be observed, attracted the Greek tragedians, who were, so to speak, tormented by a vague conception of the Iago of a later age and who tried, in a succession of distorted types, to produce it; we seem, in these works, to be assisting at the birth of the future Devil; of the evangelic Judas — and at that of the type of Jesus in Prometheus and Dionysos. This nuance C 2 seems to me a singularly fine one; it is, for instance, that of the "anonymous letter," and it will be admitted that a more admirably repugnant gargoyle cannot be imagined than the creature who crouches with pen in claw and malignant smile, to begin such a piece of work!

(3) — The Mistake is Directed Against the Victim by Her Brother: (here is included also the Twelfth,