Page:The thirty-six dramatic situations (1921).djvu/81

 (7) — Rivalry of Two Who Are Almost Equals, Complicated by the Abandoment of One (this tends toward A (1) of Situation XXV): — Corneille's "Ariane;" "Benvenuto" (Diaz, 1890). In fiction: "La Joie de Vivre."

(8) — Rivalry Between a Memory or an Ideal (That of a Superior Woman) and a Vassal of Her Own: - "Semiramide Riconosciuta" by Metastasio; "Madame la Mort"by Rachilde (in which the field of struggle is subjective); "La Morte" by Barlatier; "L'Image" by Beaubourg. Symmetrical case in the masculine: "The Lady from the Sea," by Ibsen.

(9) — Rivalry of Mortal and Immortal: -"La Dame à la Faulx" (Saint-Pol Roux).

C — Double Rivalry (A loves B, who loves C, who loves D): — Metastasio's "Adrien;" Lessing's "Emilia Galotti;" "La Fermière" (d'Artois, 1889); "Ascanio" (Saint-Saens, 1890); "Les Deux Hommes" (Capus, 1908); "Le Circuit" (Feydeau and de Croisset, 1909); "L'Article 301" (Duval, 1909). It is permissible to extend the rivalry to three, four, etc., which will make it less commonplace, but will not greatly vary the effects, although sometimes the chain will end in a complete circle (that is to say, D will love A), or a partial one (D returning the love of C).

D — Oriental Rivalries: We are beginning to take account of the fact that the divorce law was obtained chiefly through the efforts of our dramatic writers, less because they were convinced of its righteousness than because they felt the need of a renewal and increase of their limited combinations. They might, indeed, have breathed a fresher and purer air by turning toward Hindu polygamy! Goethe, Theophile Gautier who foresaw the decadence of woman through the extension and increase of vice), Maurice Barrès ("L'Ennemi des Lois") seem to have felt something of the sort. We could wish that the misunderstandings of the modern home, in which archaic fidelity and genuine monogamy have almost ceased to exist, on one side especially, might be settled with a modicum of this spirit of tolerance.

(1) — Rivalry of Two Immortals: — "The Loves of Krishna" by Roupa.