124 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



to be congratulated on choosing the former several critics have 

 denied; but if these had stumbled upon the same chance for a com- 

 parison as was thrust upon me by a kindly fortune, I cannot but 

 fancy that a few of them would have modified their decision. It 

 happened by the sheerest luck that the last play I attended in Paris 

 the week before seeing Paolo and Francesca presented in London was 

 Marion Crawford's realistic version of the same story. History 

 was adhered to with brain-satisfying accuracy, and Madame Bern- 

 hardt, although I had seen her when she appeared to better advantage, 

 acted with genuine power; but the contrast between that presenta- 

 tion and Mr. George Alexander's production of the less historical 

 version by Mr. Phillips would have given pause to the most aggressive 

 advocates of reaHsm. The Parisian play was after all only a tragedy 

 of blood flowing across a picture of muddy passion, which all the 

 witchery of the supremely gifted actress and the magic of the incom- 

 parable scenic presentment could not raise above the commonplace; 

 whereas on the London stage was a tragedy of human souls with a 

 background of ineluctable Fate. Even when one admits the exist- 

 ence of certain vulnerable points, this background saves the plot, 

 and the final impression is one of inevitability. 



Passing to Ulysses, we may borrow from Aristotle : 



A certain man is absent from home for many years; he is jealously watched 

 by Poseidon, and left desolate. Meanwhile his home is in a wretched phght — 

 suitors are wasting his substance and plotting against his son. At length, tempest- 

 tost, he arrives and reveals his true self; he attacks his enemies, destroys them 

 and is himself preserved. This is the essence of the plot; the rest is episode. 



Even the play's warmest admirers, Mr. Stephen Gwynne, for 

 instance, are inclined to slight the question of plot and to emphasize 

 other aspects, such as ''the beauty of sight and sound, the grace of 

 gesture, the melody of verse, the glory of splendid words"; or, 

 " the fire and force, that lift out of the commonplace a common motive 

 or ait common thought." There is a weakness as to impelling and 

 unifying dramatic motive which the noble forms of Athena and 

 Poseidon may cloak but cannot altogether hide; and the weakness 

 may as well be admitted without contention. 



