TS ELIOT - Poetry and Drama

POETRY AND DRAMA

Other books by T.

S. Eliot

if

COLLECTED POEMS 1909-1935

FOUR QUARTETS THE WASTE LAND AND OTHER POEMS

SWEENEY AGONISTES

MURDER

IN THE

CATHEDRAL

THE FAMILY REUNION

THE COCKTAIL PARTY SELECTED ESSAYS

THE USE OF POETRY AND THE USE OF CRITICISM

THOUGHTS AFTER LAMBETH THE IDEA OF

WHAT

CHRISTIAN SOCIETY IS

CLASSIC?

NOTES TOWARDS THE DEFINITION OF CULTURE POINTS OF VIEW

OLD POSSUM'S BOOK OF PRACTICAL CATS

POETRY

AND DRAMA by

T. S.

ELIOT

The Theodore Spencer Memorial Lecture

HARVARD UNIVERSITY November

FABER

21, 1950

FABER'LTD

24 Russell Square

London

First

published

in

mcmli

by Faber and Faber Limited 24 Russell Square, London,

W.C.i

Printed and bound in Great Britain

by William Clowes and Sons, Limited

London and All

Beccles

rights reserved

customary act of respect that the lecturer on

is

It

tion should

founda-

nwn

begin by saying something about the

whose name the

in

was founded. The fact that between Theodore Spencer and myself there had long terminated only by death, was the friendship (I believe) reason

lectureship

my being asked to inaugurate this my primary reason for accepting the

for

Certainly

series: as

it

was

honour.

Except when there has been some accident to fix it in my memory, find that seldom remember the occasion of my first meeting or

with anyone

am

friend.

not

who

now

has subsequently become an associate sure whether

first

met Theodore

Spencer while he was an undergraduate at Trinity College,

Cambridge, or on some

later visit that

he loved Cambridge and liked

met him

in

he paid

to return there.

to

Englandfor had

certainly

England, and probably several times, before

came

Harvard as Norton Professor in 1932.- But it was during that when saw him almost every day at Eliot House, or in year, to

his

own home,

were

closely

or in the

associated;

company of mutual friends, and it was through this

that

we

constant

frequentation

put

self

with

course

of

life

my

in

and

was not anxious

duller

day than the

in

to

to

and

we

visits,

remember

carried

on

economies were

the

pleasure

was

that he

being effected,

to

He

was

visited

present,

Between

In 1938, or per-

in

England

which might be adverse

him

Lectureship

in

in

doctor's

the event.

in

manoeuvres of some of his friends

was appointed

And the

received

rumour reached us

land, toward obtaining for

and no

aid,

at intervals.

promotion or security of tenure at Harvard, and to the

detail

before lunch,

desultory correspondence.

in 1939,

haps early

his

give

anticipate.

Cambridge, at the Encaenia at which degree,

every

others.

remember

England several times

at

was no

there

chat

for

saw him) of course, only

After 1933

me

small class which he him-

selecting;

day on which he did not drop

He

man.

the

disposal; helped

which he was not ready

in

material need which he

always

and appreciate

lectures to

had been instrumental

of daily

love

to

most generously at

his time

juncture

came

that

was

that

to his

party

Cambridge, Eng-

In 1939 he Lectureship there. at

Cambridge University, but

owing to the outbreak of war, the immediate reduction in the numbers of students in the English Tripos, and the consequent reduction in the number of tutors, it was deemed best that his appointment

ment the

to his

should be deferred. This was

friends

in

England; but on the other hand, we had

pleasure of hearing of

'visiting

lecturer

should like

When

to

reappointment

from Cambridge

the

to

add

It

University.

note which

hope

is

august position ofBoylston Professor

Ted Spencer was not one

me

his

Harvard

as

was not long

he received promotion.

before

to

great disappoint-

privately,

to

to covet that

ask whether

not indiscreet.

became vacant,

postfor himself.

would

He

consider the

wrote

position

name were putforward. Well,

if my

both

and

private

public,

there

were several reasons,

could not

why

regard myself

as

of which was my lack of scholarship him that should have had to spend all

not the least think

time

told

reading

leisure

my

the books

left for

when

writing.

read that he

My

have read, and would have no

to

ought

delight

and

satisfaction

had received

himself

spare

that

were great

distinguished

appointment.

do not remember ourfirst meeting,

Though our

clearly

was

It

last.

in

Cambridge, Massachusetts, just

my return to London, and only few He was full of enthusiasm for the work

before death.

take that

year;

he

had ever seen him; and

many

both

infl in flue uenc nc

to

who were even his

personality,

humour and

he was

scholarly

and

thought

his

under-

that he

had

work and of useful

creative

remind those who knew him, or indeed those

slightly acquainted his interest in

conviviality

with him, of the charm of

human

with

beings,

his

gaiety,

or their

dignity

respect.

He

sense

of

such that he could

bearing

put his pupils on terms of informal equality, losing

to

his

him.

befo be fore re

do not need

weeks before

and more radiantly appeared in better health,

happy, than years of

remember very

without ever

had several

traits,

in

teacher. His stanhappy combination, which made him good were high, and his view of English studies dards of scholarship was humane; he mixed with men of letters in New York and

London, as well as in

society,

whether

his students degrees.

porary poetry P.D.

in the universities;

He

as

intellectual

human

had

literature;

society

beings,

not

and was perfectly

or not, so that he

merely

sensitive

appreciation of

and

own

his

had developed, and would

at ease

poetic gift believe

knew

as candidates

for

the best in contem-

was genuine. His

have gone on

to still

greater strength after

the

he had

further

assimilated

powerful influence of Yeats. But

of those

tion

characteristics

have

left

and

re-created

to the last,

men-

which most endeared him as

friend: humility, charity, generosity,

and what

can

only

call

fundamental goodness. In

choosing

subject

and

in

that

it

subject,

some way should be

have had in mind that

related to subject

it

should be

Theodore Spencer's

interests,

on which he himself would have

liked to hear me.

10

eviewing

-^^

-JL.

odd

my

critical

am

years,

output for the

surprised to find

^^J have returned

last

thirty-

how constantly

to the drama, whether

by ex-

amining the work of the contemporaries of Shakespeare, or by reflecting on the possibilities of the future. It may

even be that people are weary of hearing me on this find that have been composing subject. But, while variations on this theme all my life, my views have

been continually modified and renewed by increasing am impelled to take stock of the experience so that situation afresh at every stage

of my own experimentation.

have gradually learned more about the problems of poetic drama, and the conditions which it must fulfil

As

if it

is

to justify

not only my form, but the restored to

its

itself,

own

have made

little

clearer to myself,

reasons for wanting to write in this to see it general reasons for wanting

place.

And

think that if

say something

about these problems and conditions, it should make clearer to other people whether and if so why poetic 11

drama has anything potentially to offer the playgoer, that start with the assumption that prose drama cannot. For if

poetry

is

decoration, an added embellishment,

merely

merely gives people of literary tastes the pleasure of to listening poetry at the same time that they are witness-

if it

ing

play,

then

dramatically,

it

is

and not merely be

dramatic form,,. From

be written in verse

audience,

emotions

its

must

this

justify

itself

fine

which prose follows,

it

attention held

stirred

It

poetry shaped into follows that no play should

this it

for

And from

adequate.

superfluous.

by

is

dramatically

again,

that

the

the dramatic action,

its

the situation between the characters,

by

should be too intent upon the play to be wholly conscious

of the medium.

Whether we

use

prose or verse on the stage, they are

both but means to an end. The difference, from one point of view, is not so great as we might think. In those prose

and produced on the in which the characlater generations, the prose stage by ters speak is as remote, for the best part, from the vocab-

plays

which

ulary,

with

which

survive,

syntax and

are read

rhythm of our ordinary speech

cons nsta ta ecou ec ours rs to fumbling for words, its co approximation, its disorder and its unfinished sentences its

as verse

written.

is.

Like verse,

Our two

has been written, and re-

it

greatest prose stylists

in the

drama

from Shakespeare and the other Elizabethans who mixed prose and verse in the same play are, believe,

apart

character of speech by Congreve and Bernard Shaw. however clearly the characCongreve or of Shaw has ters

may

be differentiated

rhythm' which

is

the

that unmistakable

mark of 12

personal

prose style, and of which

who only the most accomplished conversationalists are for that matter show any usually monolo.guists trace in their talk. have all heard (too often!) of

We

Moliere's character

who

expressed surprise

when

told

he spoke prose. But it was M. Jourdain who was and not his mentor or his creator he did not speak right, he only talked. For mean to draw disprose triple

that

between prose, and verse, and our ordinary speech which is mostly below die level of either verse or at it in this way, it will appear that prose. So if you look

tinction:

gro^,onthe

stage

isjis

artificial as

that yerse_can3jJLL^

But while the

appreciate,

sensitive

when he hears

or alternatively,

verse

member of fine prose

the audience will

spoken in

play,

that

something better than ordinary conversation, he does not regard it as wholly different language from this

is

that

which he himself speaks,

for that

would

interpose barrier between himself and the imaginary characters on

Too many people, on the which they know to be in

other hand, approach

the stage.

play

sciousness are

of the

repelled

by

difference. It

is

verse,

it

if that

when they be deplorable when

unfortunate

verse, but can also

they are attracted by

with the con-

means

that they are pre-

the play pared to enjoy the play and the language of

two

separate things.

in dramatic speech,

*-_,

..

as

Thejchief effect of style and rhythm

whether in prose or

should be verse, -.'-.-'--'

unconscious.

From

mixture of prose and verse transition in the same play is generally to be avoided: each makes the auditor aware, with jolt, of the medium. It is,

this it

we may

follows that

say, justifiable

when 13

the author wishes

to

produce

this

jolt

when,

that

he wishes to transport the

is,

audience violently from one plane of reality to another.

kind of transition suspect that this to an Elizabethan audience, to

came

verse

^"**** **-

Jn*^, J^^ tojk

comedy

i,

naturally; u.

in the

who

same play

was

whose

easily acceptable

ears

bodhjgrosejind

lite3TiigEfaIutin and *"^

and to

whom

it

low

seemed per-

haps proper that the more humble and rustic characters should speak in homely language, and that those of

more

exalted rank should rant in verse.

But even

in the

of Shakespeare some of the prose passages seem to be designed for an effect of contrast which, when

plays

achieved,

is

fashioned.

something that

The knocking

can never

at the

become

gate in Macbeth

oldis

an

example that comes to everyone's mind but it has long seemed to me that the alternation of scenes in prose with scenes in verse in Henry IV points an ironic contrast be-

tween the world of high

mon

life.

politics

and the world of com-

The audience probably thought they were

getting their accustomed chronicle play garnished with

amusing scenes of low life and Part II provide Part

yet the prose scenes of both sardonic

comment upon

the

in the inthe chiefs of the parties bustling ambitions of

surrection of the Percys.

Today, however, because of the handicap under which believe that prose should be used verse drama suffers, very sparingly indeed

that

we

should aim at

which everything can be said that has and that when we find some situation which is

verse in

if

verse,

to be said intractable

is inelastic. merely that our form of verse there prove to be scenes which we cannot put in

in verse,

And

form of

it is

we must

either develop

14

our verse, or avoid having

to introduce such scenes. For

we

have. to accustom our,

audiences to verse to the^oiat at which to be conscious of it and to introduce prose

would only be to have so

wide

be

follows that

said, it

expression.

our verse

it

when

the dramatic situation has

it is

the only language in

which the emotions can be expressed

at all.

indeed necessary for any long poem,

monotony,

out bathos,

is

it

natural utterance, because then

escape

if

point of intensity that poetry becomes the

reached such

It is

But

the play

can say anything that has to will not be 'poetry' all the time.

range that

will only be 'poetry'

It

from

to distract their attention

medium of its

itself to the

dialogue,

as

to be able to say

homely

well as to take the highest

if

it

is

to

things with-

flights

without

sounding exaggerated. And it is still more important in if it is concerned with contemporary life. play, especially

The

more

reason for writing even the

verse play in verse instead of prose :o

is,

pedestrian parts of

however, not only

avoid calling the audience's attention to the fact that it at other moments listening to poetry. It is also that the

verse

rhythm should have

its

effect

without their being conscious of it. scene of Shakespeare's may illustrate ing scene of Hamlet

upon

brief analysis this

the theatre,

by

The open-

an opening

that

is

superfluous,

of one

has the advantage

everybody knows. do not notice, when we witness

What we

justified

point.

as well constructed

scene as that of any play ever written

of being one

the hearers,

scene in

the great variation of style. Nothing

and there

its

this

is

no

line

dramatic value. 15

of poetry which

The

first

is

twenty-two

is

not

lines

of the simplest words in the most homely idiom. long time in the theatre, Shakespeare had worked for

are built

and written

good many

plays,

before reaching the

point at which he could write those twenty-two

There

nothing quite so simplified and sure in

is

vious work.

He

lines.

his

pre-

first

developed conversational, colloquial verse in the Faulconmonologue of the character part

bridge in King John, and later the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet.

It

was

into the

much further

step

to carry

dialogue of brief replies.

No

You

lines

which,

like

are consciously at-

tending, not to the poetry, but to the poetry. If

unobtrusively

poet has begun to

master dramatic verse until he can write these in Hamlet, are transparent.

it

you were hearing Hamlet

meaning of the

for the

first

time,

without knowing anything about the play, do not think that it would occur to you to ask whether the speakers

were speaking different effect

what we

in verse or prose.

upon

us

The

from prose

verse

but

is

at the

having

moment,

aware of is the frosty night, the officers keeping watch on the battlements, and the foreboding of anominous action. do not say that there is no place for the are

situation in

which

ment of hearing author gives

it,

be the enjoypart of one's pleasure will

providing that the in that dramatic inevitability. And place,

of course, when

beautiful poetry

we

have both seen

play several times

between performances, we begin to analyse the means by which the author has produced his effects. But in the immediate impact of this scene we are uncon-

and read

scious

it

of the medium

From

its

expression.

the short, brusque ejaculations at the beginning,

suitable to the situation

and to the character of the guards 16

but not

expressing

their function in the

movement with

more

character than

the verse

play

is

glides

required for

into

slower

the appearance of the courtiers Horatio

and Marcellus. Horatio

says

't is

but our

fantasy,

and the movement changes again on the appearance of Royalty, the ghost of the King, into the solemn and sonorous

What

st this time art thou, that usurp'

of night,

this anticipation of the plot con(and note, by the way, veyed by the use of the verb usurp) and majesty is sug-

gested

So frown'

He

whose ghost

reference reminding us

in

this is

he once, when, in an angry park,

smote the sledded Polacks on the

ice.

an abrupt change to staccato in Horatio's words to the Ghost on its second appearance; this rhythm

There

is

changes again with the words

We To

do

offer

For

it

the

show of violence;

as the air, invulnerable,

it is,

And The

wrong, being so majestical,

it

our vain blows malicious mockery.

scene

reaches

resolution

with

the

Marcellus It

the cock. faded on the crowing of

Some say

that ever

'gainst

Wherein our Saviour's

The P.D.-3

bird

that season comes

birth is celebrated,

of dawning singeth I?

all

night long;

words

of

and Horatio's answer heard and do in

have

But

part

believe

it.

look, the morn, in russet mantle clad

Walks

dew of yon high

er the

eastern hill.

Break we our watch up;

This

is

great

poetry,

and

being poetic and dramatic,

it is

emerges,

it,

when we

which

also

ment.

It

analyse

reinforces

and

is

but besides

dramatic;

something more. There kind of musical design

one with the dramatic move-

has checked and accelerated the pulse of our

tion without our

knowing

of Marcellus there

is

it.

Note

that in these last

deliberate brief

poetic into consciousness.

When we

emo-

words

emergence of the

hear the lines

But) look) the morH) in russet mantle clad)

Walks

we

er the

are lifted for

dew of yon high

eastern hill

moment beyond

character, but with

no

of unfitness of the words coming, and at this moment, from the lips of Horatio. The transitions in the

sense

scene obey laws of the music of dramatic poetry.

two

lines

are preceded

by 'a

that the

of Horatio which line

Note

quoted twice

of the simplest speech which might

be either verse or prose So have

heard and do in part believe

and that he follows them abruptly with is

hardly

more than

it

half line

which

stage direction

Break we our watch up. It

would be

this

interesting

to pursue,

problem of the double pattern 18

by in

similar

analysis,

great poetic

drama

which may be examined from the point of view of stagecraft or from that of the music. But think the pattern

of this one scene

that the examination

us that verse

is

not merely

decoration, but that

it

is

enough to show

formalization, or an added

intensifies the

drama.

It

should in-

importance of the unconscious effect of the do not think that this effect verse upon us. And lastly,

dicate also the

is

only by those members

felt

audience

who

like

by those who go for the play alone. By the people who do not like poetry, mean those who cannot sit down with book of poetry and enjoy reading it poetry' but also

these people also,

when

they go to

play in verse, should

the audiences be affected by the poetry. And whom the writer of such play ought to keep in mind. word about those plays At this point might say

which we

The

plays

case,

call

of

poetiCj

are written in

John Millington Synge form

because they are~baseJ

people whose speech

and

though they

is

upon

rather

the idiom^of

prose. special

rural

naturally poetic, both in imagery

rhythm. believe that he even incorporated phrases which he had heard from these country people of Ireland. in

The language of Synge set

among

not available except for plays can draw more general that same people.

conclusions

my

from the

youth, and

now

is

plays

We

in

prose, so

much admired

in

hardly even read, by Maeterlinck. restricted in their subdifferent

These plays are in way and to say that the characterization in them ject matter; do not deny that they have is dim is an understatement. some poetic quality. But in order to be poetic in prose, dramatist has to be so consistently poetic that his scope is

very limited. Synge wrote plays about characters whose 19

in life talked poetically, so he could

originals talk

make them

The poetic prose poetry and remain real people.

who

dramatist

The

poetic.

to be too has not this advantage, has

poetic

drama

poetic convention or ject matter really

Yeats

is

Synge.

of his

poetic,

prose

is

more

limited

by

by our conventions as to what subthan is the poetic drama in verse.

dramatic verse can be employed, as Shakespeare

employed

show,

is

in

it,

to

say the

most matter-of-fact

things.

very different case, from dramatist would study of his development as

he went, and the triumph he wrote plays in period,

think, the great distance last

plays.

In his

first

about subjects co as suitable for conv nven enti tion onal ally ly ac acce cept pted ed metric which verse, in though even at that early stage

having the personal Yeats rhythm

is

not really

form

of speech quite suitable for anybody except mythical kings and queens. His middle-period Plays for Dancers are very beautiful, but they do not solve any problem for the dramatist in verse they are poetic prose plays with im-

was only

portant interludes in verse.

It

Purgatory that he solved his

problem of speech

and

laid all his successors

in his last

in verse,

under obligation to him.

20

play

am

Now,

going to venture to make some ob-

which

tions, failures

will lead

and

my own

on

based

servations

me

experience,

comment on my

to

in partial successes,

my own

inten-

plays.

do

any explorer or experimenter in new territory may, by putting on record kind of journal of his explorations, say something of use to those who this in the

follow

go

belief that

him

into the

same regions and

who

will perhaps

farther.

The

was

first

writer

that

some

thing of any importance that

who

has

worked

for years,

discovered,

and achieved

of verse, has to apdifferent frame of proach the writing of verse play in mind from that to which he has been accustomed in his

one the

For

success, in writing other kinds

previous work. In writing other verse, is

writing, so to speak, in terms of one's

way it

cation,

it

is

sounds

when you

yourself speaking.

read

The

of what

it

own

voice

to yourself is the

question of

will 21

think that

get

from

test.

communiit,

is

not

if

paramount hope

your poem

that the readers will

The poem can wait

little

sympathetic and judicious

and

it is

way.

is

you can only come to accept it.

right to you,

eventually

the approval of

while

few

begin with for future readers to meet the poet more than half

Itotjjn jtjhe theatre,

critics is

enough

theproblem of communication

presents jtself imm^

are

verse for other voices, not for your

know whose

to

deliberately writing

own, and you do not

You

aiming to which will have an immediate effect upon an

write lines

voices

they will be.

are

unknown and unprepared audience, to be interpreted to :hat audience by unknown actors rehearsed by an unknown producer. And the unknown audience cannot be show any indulgence towards

expected to poet cannot

name

to.

to

He

who know

his

nondramatic work and are

his favourably anything he puts ic must write with an audience in ie

receive

knows nothing and

nothing, about any previous the have had before he ventured

success

he

theatre.

Hence one

may

likes to do,

The

write his play merely for his ad-

mirers, those

prepared

the poet.

cares

finds out that

and knows

that every line

how

many of the

to do, are out

must be judged by

new

things

one

of place; and law, that of

dramatic relevance.

When

wrote Murder

ject generally it

subject

had the advan-

called for beginner, of an occasion which

tage for

plays,

in the Cathedral

sub-

admitted to be suitable for verse. Verse

has been generally held, should either take their

matter from some mythology, or

about some remote

from the present

historical

period,

far

else

should be

enough away

for the characters not to need to be

22

recognizable as

human

and therefore for them to

beings,

be licensed to talk in verse. Picturesque period costume

much more

renders verse

acceptable. Furthermore,

play was to be produced for

rather

special

my

kind of

an audience of those serious people who go to 'festivals' and expect to have to put up with poetry

audience

though perhaps on quite prepared

this

occasion

what they

for

religious play,

and people

gious play at

religious

bored and to

satisfy

some of them were not

got.

who go

festival

And

finally

deliberately

it

was

to

reli-

expect to be patiently

themselves with the feeling that they

have done something meritorious. So the path was made easy.

was only when put my mind to thinking what sort of play wanted to do next, that realized that in Murder It

had not solved any general problem but dead end. For point of view the play was

in the Cathedral

that

from

my

one thing, the problem of language which that play had me was special problem. Fortunately, did presented to not have to write in the

the twelfth century,

knew Norman French and

because that idiom, even if

Anglo-Saxon, would have been unintelligible. But the vocabulary and style could not be exactly those of

modern conversation using

as in

some modern French

the plot and personages of Greek

had to take

my

drama

plays

because

audience back to an historical event;

and they could not afford to be archaic, first because archaism would only have suggested the wrong period,

and second because

wanted

to

bring

home

to

the

audience the contemporary relevance of the situation.

The

style therefore

had to be 23

neutral,

committed neither

to the present nor to the past.

As

for the versification,

was only aware at this stage that the essential was was persuaded any echo of Shakespeare, for

to avoid that the

primary failure of nineteenth-century poets when they wrote for the theatre (and most of the greatest English

hand

drama) was not in their theatrical technique, but in their dramatic language and that this was due strict largely to their limitation to poets had tried their

at

blank verse which, after extensive use for nondramatic lost the flexibility poetry, had

which blank verse must

of conversation. The rhythm of regular blank verse had become too remote from the movement of modern speech. Therefore what kept in

have

if it

is

mind was

to give the effect

the versification of Everyman, hoping that any-

thing unusual in the sound of it

advantageous.

An

would

avoidance of too

be,

much

on

the whole,

iambic,

some

use of alliteration, and occasional unexpected

rhyme, from that of the

helped to distinguish the versification nineteenth century.

The

versification

of the dialogue

Cathedral has therefore, in

merit

but it it

it

it

my

no

Murder

opinion, only

in

the

negative

had to be avoided,

succeeded in avoiding

arrived at

in

positive novelty

in short, in so far as

solved the problem of speech in verse for writing today, solved

it

for this

clue to the verse

Here, then, were that

play only, and provided me with no should use in another kind of play.

two problems

of the metric

(it

left is

unsolved

really

that

of the

one and the same

might want to problem), for general use in any play write in future. next became aware of my reasons for

depending, in that play, so heavily upon the assistance of 24

the chorus. There

were two reasons

circumstances justified action of the play ter

which

The

it.

both the

first

for this,

was

in the

that the essential

historical facts

was somewhat

invented

which

and the mat-

man

limited.

he will be

kiUed,jmd hejs did not want to increaseme number of charac-

killed...

did not want to write

ters,

want

nor did

politics,

the meagre records as

Rosamund, and

in

chronicle of twelfth-century

to tamper unscrupulously with

Tennyson did suggesting

crossed in love in early youth).

(in

that

introducing Fair

Becket had been

wanted

to concentrate

on death and martyrdom. The introduction of of excited and sometimes their

emotion the

derfully.

hysterical

significance

The second

women,

of the

chorus

reflecting

action, helped

reason was this

in

won-

poet writing

time for the stage, is much more at home in felt sure, choral verse than in dramatic dialogue. This,

for the

first

could do, and perhaps the dramatic was something weaknesses would be somewhat covered up by the cries

of the women. The use of and

power,

technique.

would

concealed

For

this

the

chorus strengthened the defects

of

my

theatrical

decided that next time

reason

the chorus try to integrate

more

closely

into the

play.

wanted

to find out also,

the use of prose.

dispense altogether passages

in

Murder

whether

in the

could learn to

The two

prose

Cathedral could not have been

written in verse. Certainly, with the kind of dialogue the audience would have used verse which play,

been uncomfortably aware that it was verse they were sermon cast in verse is too unusual an hearing. P.D.

25

experience for even the most regular churchgoer

could have responded to

it

sermon

as

at all.

nobody

And

in the

of the knights, who are quite aware that they are an audience of people living 800 years after addressing

speeches

they themselves are dead, the use of platform prose is ineffect to shock the tended of course to have special audience out of their complacency. But trick: that

no

for

may,

under the influence of

do not wish rule out

kind of

is

device tolerable only in one play and of

is,

use for any other.

slightly

this

to give

you

know, have been

aught

St.

Joan.

the impression that

of dramatic poetry these three things

would

historical

or mythological subject-matter, the chorus, and tradido not wish to lay down any law tional blank verse. that the only suitable characters

and

modern life, or

should consist of dialogue

only,

am

or that

that

verse

wholly

new

situations are those

versification

is

of

necessary.

only tracing out the route of exploration of one

writer,

and that

reconquer

its

one, myself. If the poetic

place,

it

must, in

my

are

As

have

prepared to put up with verse from the dressed in the fashion of

personages they should be

made

to hear

it

is

to

opinion, enter into

overt competition with prose drama.

people

drama

some

said,

lips

distant

of

age

frorr/people dressed like

and apartments like ours, and and motorcars and radio sets. Audiences using telephones

ourselves, living in houses

are prepared to accept poetry recited is

kind of poetry

enjoy.

cause

And

it is

recital,

which

audiences (those

it

by

does them credit to

who go

to

in verse) expect poetry to be in

26

chorus, for that

verse play be-

rhythms which

with colloquial speech. What we have to bring poetry into the world in which the

Jiave lost touch

to

do

is

audience lives and to which

it

returns

when

leaves the

it

not to transport the audience into some imaginary world totally unlike its own, an unreal world in which poetry is tolerated. What should hope might theatre

be achieved, by generation of dramatists having the benefit of our experience, is that the audience should find,

moment of

at the

that

it

is

awareness that to

saying

'I

itself:

Then we should not be

too

on

it

is

could

hearing poetry, talk

in

poetry

transported into an arti-

own

ficial

world

daily

world would be suddenly illuminated and

the contrary, our

sordid, dreary trans-

figured.

was determined,

theme of contemporary time living in our the result. Here

in

wherever particular

first

we

wo^ld. The Family Reunion was concern was the problem of the

rhythm

which the

stresses

could be

syllables,

is

the

particular

substantially

made

to

come

occasion.

What

have continued to em-

what

number of of varying length and varying caesura and three stresses. The caesura with

the stresses

where

may come

in the line; the stresses

must be one

stress

on one

the other. In retrospect,

attention to

versification,

almost anybe close together or

at different

may

well separated by light syllables

on

contemporary

line

ploy

there

close to

should naturally put them, in uttering the

phrase

worked out

md

my

to find

versification,

speech,

own

life,

my

next play to take with characters of our own

therefore, in

places,

the only rule being that

side

of the caesura and two

soon saw that at

27

had given my and the expense of plot

character.

made some progress in dispensing

had, indeed,

but the device of using four of the minor personages, representing the Family, sometimes

with the chorus

as individual character

parts

as chorus,

does not seem to

thing, the

immediate

terized

part to

much of the

and sometimes

me

it is

one which, even

applicable

from

transition

very

complish. For another thing, trick,

very satisfactory. For one

membership of

actors

in another

collectively

individual, charac-

chorus

asking too

is

difficult transition to ac-

it

me

seemed to

if successful,

could not have been

had

play. Furthermore,

passages used the device of

lyrical

from

by being written

the rest of the dialogue

with only two

another

in

two

duet further isolated in shorter

sense These passages are in be presented as 'beyond character,' the speakers have kind of trance-like state in order to speak into falling

lines

stresses.

them. But they are so remote from the necessity of the action that they are hardly more than passages of poetry

which might be spoken by anybody they are too much The member of the audience, if he enlike operatic arias.

joys

this sort

of thing,

is

putting

in order to enjoy

up with

suspension of

poetic fantasia

these

pas-

to the action than are the sages are really less related

choruses in Murder

observed that plays,

introduces

or passage,

it

character, but

supports

in the Cathedral.

when

Shakespeare,

what might seem

in

one of his mature purely poetic line

never interrupts the action, or

on

out of

some mysterious way and character. When Macbeth

the contrary, in

both action

is

speaks his so often quoted words beginning

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow 28

when

or

Othello, confronted at night with his angry

father-in-law and friends, utters the beautiful line

Keep up your

we do

the bright swords, for

dew

will rust them

Shakespeare has thought of lines which are beautiful poetry and wishes to fit them in

not

that

feel

somehow, or

that

he has for the

moment come

to the

end of his dramatic inspiration and has turned to poetry to fill up with. The lines are surprising, and yet they fit in

we

with th ch char arac acte te

or else

conception of th

ha ac acte te

compelled to adjust our in such way that the lines

The

are

spoken by Macbeth reveal the weariness of the weak man who had been forced will be

by

his

appropriate to

it.

wife to realize his

ambitions, and

lines

own

half-hearted desires and her

who, with her

motive to continue. The

is

left

without the

of Othello expresses irony, and incidentally reminds us of

line

dignity and fearlessness the time of night in

death,

which the scene

takes

place.

Only\

poetry could do this but it is dramatic poetry that is, does not but intensifies the dramatic situation. interrupt

it

was not only because of the introduction of passages which called too much attention to themselves as poetry, It

and could not be dramatically justified, that found The Family Reunion defective: there were two weaknesses

which came was, that

to strike

had taken

time allowed to

me

far

as

too

more

serious

much of the

dramatist, in presenting

still.

The

strictly

first

limited

situation,

and

myself enough time, or provided myself with enough material, for developing it in action. had written left

what was, on the whole, good first act except that for first act it was much too the curtain rises long. When 29

again, the audience that

is

expecting,

as it has

right to expect,

going to happen. Instead, it finds itself further exploration of the background in is

something

treated to

other words, to what ought to have been given earlier if at

much

all.

The beginning of the second

most

the

difficult

act

much

presents

problem to producer and

cast:

beginning to wander. And then, after what must seem to the audience an intermin-

for the audience's attention

able time of ly that

we

is

comes so abruptunready for it. This was an

conclusion preparation, the after

are,

all,

elementary fault in mechanics. But the deepest flaw of all, was in

failure

of adjust-

between the Greek story and the modern situation. should either have stuck closer to Aeschylus or else taken his myth. One evigreat deal more liberty with dence of

this

the Furies.

is

the appearance of those ill-fated figures,

They must,

in future, be omitted

and be understood to be characters, sible

and not

visible

and they looked

strayed in

from

only to certain of my

We tried every posWe put them on the

to the audience.

manner of presenting them.

stage,

like uninvited

fancy dress

ball.

behind gauze, and they suggested

We

We

guests

who had

concealed

them

out of

Walt

still

made them dimmer, and they looked shrubbery just outside the window. have seen other

Disney film. like

from the

have seen them signalling from across football the garden, or swarming onto the stage like team, and they are never right. They never succeed in

expedients tried

being either Greek goddesses or modern spooks. But their

symptom of the merely ancient with the modern.

failure

is

30

failure to

adjust

the

more

serious evidence

is

that

we

divided

are left in

frame of mind, not knowing whether to consider the play the tragedy of the mother or the salvation of the son. The

two

situations are

confirmation

find

sympathies now have come to with the mother, who seems to me, except perhaps

of this in the be

not reconciled.

all

fact that

my

for the chauffeur, the only complete

being in the

my hero now strikes me as an insufferable prig.

and

play

human

had made some progress in learning how to the one write the first act of play, and had thing of made deal of progress in findwhich felt sure Well,

form of

ing serve

all

my

versification

and an idiom which would

purposes, without recourse to prose, and be

transition between the most intense capable of unbroken

speech and the most relaxed dialogue. stand, after

Reunion, in

my

making

some of the

for

tist

merely

ghosts.

my as

so well that

them out for

was

theme,

of The Family endeavoured to avoid

errors that

To

begin with, no chorus,

inclined to

still

will under-

these criticisms

designing The Cocktail Party.

and no

You

but

Greek drama-

go to

was determined

do so

to

point of departure, and to conceal the origins

nobody would

myself.

identify

In this at least

them

until

pointed

have been successful;

no one of my acquaintance (and no dramatic the

recognized

source of

my

critics)

the Alcestis of

story

have had to go into detailed explanation to convince them mean, of course, those who

Euripides.

were ness

In fact^

familiar with the plot

of the

inspiration.

of that play

But those who

of the genuinewere at first dis-

turbed by the eccentric behaviour of my

un^o

and

apparently intemperate habits and tendency to burst into song, have found some consolation after have his

called

attention to the behaviour

their

Euripides' play.

In the second place,

laid

down

of Heracles in

for myself the ascetic

poetry which could not stand the test of dramatic utility with such success, indeed, that it

rule to avoid strict is

perhaps an open question whether there

And

is

any poetry

keep in mind that in from time to time, something should happen play, that the audience should be kept in the constant expectain the

play at

all.

going to happen and that, when should be different, but not too differ-

tion that something it

does happen,

ent,

from what

it

tried to

finally,

is

the audience had been

expect.

have not yet got to the end of my investigation of the weaknesses of this play, but hope and expect to find

more than

those of

which

am

yet aware.

because while one can never repeat fore

success,

must always try to find something

hope

say

and there-

different,

even

if

the desire to write something which popular, to do, will be free of the defects of one's last work is very

less

incentive. powerful and useful

am aware that the last act

of my play only just escapes, if indeed it does escape, the last act but an accusation of being not epilogue and

am determined respect.

to

do something

also believe that

different, if

can, in this

while the self-education of

to write for the theatre seems to require poet trying

long

and putting it, so to his poetry, period of disciplining on very thin diet in order to adapt it to the needs speak, of the

stage,

there

may be

later

stage,

when

(and

if)

the

understanding of theatrical technique has become second

32

which he can dare

nature, at

to

make more

liberal use

with ordinary colloquial base that belief on the evolution of Shakespeare,

and take greater

poetry speech.

liberties

and on some study of the language in his late plays. In devoting so much time to an examination of

own

have,

plays,

poetic drama,

learning

how

been animated by

believe,

motive than egotism. it

is

It

seems to

more

likely

how

to write

man who

that

plays,

some poets can

and write good ones,

has started

how

by writing

and

until the verse play

possible source

public as likely

get his

after

only the

to

first

is

prose

under present-day condirecognized by the larger

of entertainment, the poet

opportunity to

making some

successful

but

good poetry, seems

to write

me extremely unlikely. And,

tions,

may be

not unreasonable hope

believe

learn plays should then to

poets

write plays, than from skilful prose

to

hope, but

only

have

come from

to

my

better

me that if we

dramatists learning to write poetry. That learn

of

sort

author of

work

is

for the stage

of reputation for himself as

of

verse.

have therefore

wished to put on record, for what it may be worth to others, some account of the difficulties tered,

and the mistakes into which

have

fallen,

and the

have had to try to overcome. should not like to close without

weaknesses

before you, though only in

which

poetic

ideal

and that

dim

drama should is

why

it

attempting to set outline, the ideal towards

strive. It is

interests

an unattainable

me, for

it

provides an

incentive towards further experiment and exploration,

beyond any goal which there is prospect of attaining. It is function of all art to give us some perception of an P.D.-S

35

imposing an order upon it. The painter works by selection, combination and emphasis among the elements of the visible world the musician in the order in

life,

world of sound. classifiable

when

seems to

me

beyond the namable, emotions and motives of our conscious life It

that

the part of

directed towards action

drama

life

which

there is wholly adequate to express of indefinite extent, of feeling which we can only fringe detect, so to speak, out of the corner of the eye and

prose

is

never completely focus; of feeling of which we are only kind of temporary detachment from action. aware in

There are great prose dramatists such^ a^ JIbsen and Cheldhovj-- who have at times done things of which

would not otherwise have supposed prose to be but who seem to me, in spite of their success,

capable, to have

been hampered in expression by writing in prose. This of sensibility can be expressed by dramatic peculiar range poetry, at

moments of

its

greatest intensity.

moments, we touch the border of those only music can express.

We

feelings

which

can never emulate music,

because to arrive at the condition of music

of poetry, and

At such

would be

the

of dramatic poetry. have before my eyes kind of mirage of Nevertheless, the perfection of verse drama, which would be design of human action and of words, such as to present at once

annihilation

the to

two

me

especially

of dramatic and of musical order.

aspects

It

seems

that Shakespeare achieved this at least in certain

scenes

even rather

of Romeo and

Juliet

early,

for there

and that

this

in his late plays. striving towards

direction

as

it

is

possible

to

34

go,

the

balcony scene was what he was

is

To go

as far in this

without losing that

contact with the ordinary everyday world with which

drama must come

to terms, seems to

of dramatic poetry. For in imposing

it is

me

the

proper aim

ultimately the function of art,

credible order

upon ordinary

reality,

and

thereby eliciting some perception of an order in reality, condition of serenity, stillness and reconto bring us to ciliation

and then leave

ceed toward

Dante, to proregion where that guide can avail us no us, as Virgil left

farther.

35