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The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 By: S. C. (Stephen Cullen) Carpenter (-1820?) |
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AND DRAMATIC CENSOR.
Vol. I APRIL 1810. No. 4.
HISTORY OF THE STAGE. CHAPTER IV. ORIGIN OF COMEDY ARISTOPHANES DEATH OF SOCRATES.
Though the term "tragedy" has from the first productions of Æschylus to
the present time, been exclusively appropriated to actions of a serious
nature and melancholy catastrophe, there is reason to believe that it
originally included also exhibitions of a pleasant, or comic kind. The
rude satires, and gross mummery which occupied the stage, or rather the
cart, of Thespis, were certainly calculated to provoke mirth in the
multitude. By what has already been shown, the reader is apprised that
the word, in its original sense, bore no relation whatever to those
passions and subjects, to the representations of which it is now
applied; but meant simply a dramatic action performed at the feast of
the goat, in honour of Bacchus. Thus the different provinces of the
drama then undistinguished, were confounded under one term, and
constituted the prime trunk from which sprung forth the two branches of
tragedy and comedy separately the first in point of time usurping the
original title of the parent stock, and retaining it ever after. Why human creatures should take delight in witnessing fictitious
representations of the anguish and misfortunes of their fellow beings,
in tragedy, and, in comedy of those follies, foibles and imperfections
which degrade their nature, is a question which many have asked, but few
have been able to answer. The facts are admitted. Towards a solution of
their causes, let us consider what is said on the subject of tragedy in
that invaluable work "A philosophical inquiry into the origin of our
ideas of the SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL." "It is a common observation," says the author, in the chapter on
sympathy and its effects, "that objects which in the reality would
shock, are, in tragical and such like representations, the source of a
very high species of pleasure. This taken as a fact, has been the cause
of much reasoning. The satisfaction has been commonly attributed, first
to the comfort we receive in considering that so melancholy a story is
no more than a fiction; and next to the contemplation of our own freedom
from the evils which we see represented. I am afraid it is a practice
much too common in inquiries of this nature, to attribute the cause of
feelings, which merely arise from the mechanical structure of our
bodies, or from the natural frame and construction of our minds, to
certain conclusions of the reasoning faculty on the objects presented to
us: for I should imagine that the influence of reason, in producing our
passions, is nothing near so extensive as is commonly believed. "To examine this point, concerning the effect of tragedy in a proper
manner, we must previously consider how we are affected by the feelings
of our fellow creatures, in circumstances of real distress. I am
convinced we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the
real misfortunes and pains of others; for let the affection be what it
will in appearance, if it does not make us shun such objects, if, on the
contrary, it induces us to approach them, if it makes us dwell upon
them, in this case we must have a delight or pleasure of some species
or other in contemplating objects of this kind. "Do we not read the authentic histories of scenes of this nature with as
much pleasure as romances or poems, where the incidents are fictitious?
The prosperity of no empire, nor the grandeur of no king, can so
agreeably affect in the reading, as the ruin of the state of Macedon and
the distress of its unhappy prince. Such a catastrophe touches us in
history, as much as the destruction of Troy does in fable. Our delight
in cases of this kind is very greatly heightened if the sufferer be some
excellent person who sinks under an unworthy fortune. Scipio and Cato
are both virtuous characters, but we are more deeply affected by the
violent death of the one, and the ruin of the great cause he adhered to,
than with the deserved triumphs and uninterrupted prosperity of the
other; for terror is a passion which always produces delight when it
does not press too close; and pity is a passion accompanied with
pleasure, because it arises from love and social affection... Continue reading book >>
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