Page:The thirty-six dramatic situations (1921).djvu/20

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THIRTY-SIX DRAMATIC SITUATIONS

"Iolas" and "Phineus." A partial example: the second part of Euripides' "Alceste." Example in comedy: Musset's "Fantasio." Example in which protection is accorded by the host who has granted asylum: Euripides' "Dictys."

We see, by a glance over these subdivisions, what our writers might have drawn from the second of the Situations. For us, indeed, it should possess some little attraction, if only for the reason that two thousand years ago humanity once more listened to this story of the Deliverer, and since then has so suffered, loved and wept for the sake of it. This situation is also the basis of Chivalry, that original and individual heroism of the Middle Ages; and, in a national sense, of the French Revolution. Despite all this, in art,—if we except the burlesque of Cervantes, and the transplendent light flashing from the silver armor of Lohengrin,—in art, as yet, it is hardly dreamed of.