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Show THE COMPOSITION OF BALLETS. 183 but taste and art seldom accompany his daring flights. One of the peculiar qualities of Schiller, and which deserves notice, is, the almost endless variety he has spread over his characters ; and in this peculiarity, rather than in any other, this poet ought to be imitated. Allow your characters some moments of repose, which will form, as it were, a shadowing to their action. What is continually before the eyes of the audience, and ever speaking on the same subject, must necessarily weary them. A character, for instance, that is m a d from the beginning to the end of the piece, becomes a disgusting and ridiculous object ; a love-sick lady may be considered in the same light, who continues throughout the play lamenting her fate. Let sentiment be varied, therefore, and passion crossed. The principal person of a piece should be more frequently before the audience than the less important characters. The latter are, indeed, entirely subordinate to the former ; they appear to be generally employed either in causing the passions or in crossing them, and in producing incident, and heightening the interest. Interest must pervade every part of the production, but the greater share of this must be attached to the principal subject, rather than to the underplot. T w o leading characters may be opposed to each other, but in the end the hero must triumph, though even by death. Your hero must be kept sometimes out of sight, which causes that repose and variety that are essential to his very being. Never withdraw him, however, so long that he may be forgotten, for the interest with respect to his fate must not be suffered to languish. The performance of secondary characters lends a variety to the scene, securing, at the same time, a sort of welcome for the return of the hero; whether fabulous or historical, therefore, they are indispensably necessary. The fate of the hero must be the universal object of hope 12* |
