plays for children, for instance, the use of the marionette will prove a great educational factor, as it rouses the imagination of the child and weaves about the helpless tottering idol a purer and better fiction than does a realistic production by clever self-conscious children.
In the newly-awakened Bohemia, the marionettes became very popular, and the simple crude Kopecky earned his way to fame by writing hundreds and hundreds of ‘scenarios’ for marionettes. He paraphrased ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Faust,’ ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ and others, sowing the seed in a nation of peasants for a desire for dramatic self-expression. What Kopecky did in the villages, Vrchlicky found himself called upon to do in Prague. But his treatment of the classical themes was not the journalistic effort of the penny-a-liner; it was a master’s hand retouching ancient fables. A thorough knowledge of the prevalent conditions in the place of action seems to pervade the entire play, be the scene in fabulous dark Slavdom, glorious Hellas or debauched Rome. True, that the style and construction is still pre-Ibsenite. Asides and monologues mar the effect and heroic exits seem bombastic to our modern ear. But the plot, the wit, the poetry is there. And the variety of subjects almost awes us. Taking a few titles at random:
‘Pietro Aretino’ (1892), comedy in four acts. Venice in 1347.
‘Three Kisses’ (1893), a dramatic poem in one act. Bohemian mythology.
‘Samson,’ a trilology, a dramatic poem consisting of: I. Samson and the Philistines; II. Samson in the desert; III. Samson and Delilah.
The ‘Barrel of Diogenes’ (1902), comedy in one act, Corinth, 329 B. C.
‘Ear of Diogenes’ (1900), comedy in three acts; Syracuse, 384 B. C.
‘New Life’ (1900), comedy in one act. Modern Bohemian aristocracy.
