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diff --git a/18230-8.txt b/18230-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba5c817 --- /dev/null +++ b/18230-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1332 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of How to Write a Play, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: How to Write a Play + Letters from Augier, Banville, Dennery, Dumas, Gondinet, + Labiche, Legouvé, Pailleron, Sardou, Zola + +Author: Various + +Editor: James Brander Matthews + +Release Date: April 22, 2006 [EBook #18230] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO WRITE A PLAY *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif + + + + + + + + + + How to Write a Play + + CONTENTS + +Introduction by William Gillette +Letter from Émile Augier +Letter from Théodore de Banville +Letter from Adolphe Dennery +Letter from Alexandre Dumas Fils +Letter from Edmond Gondinet +Letter by Eugène Labiche +Letter by Ernest Legouvé +Letter from Édouard Pailleron +Letter from Victorien Sardou +Letter from Émile Zola +Notes by B.M. + +1916 By Dramatic Museum of Columbia University + + + + INTRODUCTION + +The impression has always prevailed with me that one who might properly +be classed as a genius is not precisely the person best fitted to +expound rules and methods for the carrying on of his particular branch +of endeavor. I have rather avoided looking the matter up for fear it +might not turn out to be so after all. But doesn't it sound as if it +ought to be? And isn't a superficial glance about rather confirmatory? +We do not--so far as I know--find that Shakspere or Milton or Tennyson +or Whitman ever gave out rules and regulations for the writing of +poetry; that Michael Angelo or Raphael was addicted to formulating +instructive matter as to the accomplishment of paintings and frescoes; +that Thackeray or Dickens or Meredith or George Sand were known to have +answered inquiries as to 'How to write a Novel'; or that Beethoven or +Wagner or Chopin or Mendelsohn paused in the midst of their careers in +order to tell newspaper men what they considered the true method of +composing music. These fortunate people--as well as others of their +time--could so easily be silent and thus avoid disclosing the fact that +they could not--for the lives of them--tell about these things; but in +our unhappy day even geniuses are prodded and teased and tortured into +speech. In this case we may be more than grateful that they are, for the +result is most delightful reading--even tho it falls a trifle short of +its purpose as indicated by the rather far-reaching title. + +There are no workable rules for play-writing to be found here--nor, +indeed, any particular light of any kind on the subject, so the letters +may be approacht with a mind arranged for enjoyment. I would be sorry +indeed for the trying-to-be dramatist who flew to this volume for +consolation and guidance. I'm sorry for him any way, but this additional +catastrophe would accelerate my sympathy, making it fast and furious. +Any one sufficiently inexperienced to consult books in order to find out +how to write a play will certainly undergo a severe touch of confusion +in this case, for four of the letter-writers confess quite frankly that +they do not know--two of these thereupon proceeding to tell us, thus +forcibly illustrating their first statement. One author exclaims, "Have +instinct!"--another, "Have genius!" Where these two necessaries are to +be obtained is not revealed. Equally discouraging is the Dumas +declaration that "Some from birth know how to write a play and the +others do not and never will." That would have killed off a lot of +us--if we had seen it in time. + +One approaches the practical when he counsels us to "Take an +interesting theme." Certainly a workable proposition. Many dramatists +have done that--wherever they could find it. The method is not +altogether modern. Two insist upon the necessity of a carefully +considered plan, while two others announce that it is a matter of no +consequence what one does; and another still wants us to be sure and +begin work at the end instead of the beginning. Gondinet--most +delightful of all--tells us that his method of working is simply +atrocious, for all he asks when he contemplates writing a play is +whether the subject will be amusing to him. Tho that scarcely touches +the question of how to write it, it is a practical hint on favoring +conditions, for no one will dispute that one's best work is likely to be +preformed when he him self enjoys it. Sardou comes nearest to projecting +a faint ray of practical light on the subject when he avers that there +is no one necessary way to write a play, but that a dramatist must know +where he is going and take the best road that leads there. He omits, +however, to give instructions about finding that road--which some might +think important. + +The foregoing indicates to some extent the buffeting about which a +searcher for practical advice on play-writing may find himself subject +in this collection of letters. He had better go for mere instruction to +those of a lower order of intellect, whose imaginative or creative +faculties do not monopolize their entire mental area. + +But that will hardly serve him better, for the truth is that no one can +convey to him--whether by written words or orally--or even by signs and +miracles--the right and proper method of constructing a play. A few +people know, but they are utterly unable to communicate that knowledge +to others. In one place and one only can this unfortunate person team +how to proceed, and that is the theatre; and the people to see about it +there are situated in front of the foot-lights and not behind them. + +A play or drama is not a simple and straight-told story; it is a +device--an invention--a carefully adjusted series of more or less +ingenious traps, independent yet inter-dependent, and so arranged that +while yet trapping they carry forward the plot or theme without a break. +These traps of scene, of situation, of climax, of acts and tableaux or +of whatever they are, require to be set and adjusted with the utmost +nicety and skill so that they will spring at the precise +instant and in the precise manner to seize and hold the +admiration--sympathy--interest--or whatever they may be intended to +capture, of an audience. Their construction and adjustment--once one of +the simplest--is now of necessity most complicated and intricate. They +must operate precisely and effectively, otherwise the play--no matter +how admirable its basic idea--no matter how well the author knows life +and humanity, will fail of its appeal and be worthless--for a play is +worthless that is unable to provide itself with people to play _to_. +The admiration of a few librarians on account of certain arrangements +of the words and phrases which it may contain can give it no value as +drama. Such enthusiasm is not altogether unlike what a barber might +feel over the exquisite way in which the hair has been arranges on +a corpse; despite his approval it becomes quite necessary to bury it. + +The play-writer's or playwright's work, then, supposing that he +possesses the requisite knowledge of life as it is lived to go on with, +is to select or evolve from that knowledge the basic idea, plot or +theme, which, skillfully displayed, will attract; and then to invent, +plan, devise, and construct the trap wherein it is to be used to snare +the sympathies, etc., of audiences. + +But audiences are a most undependable and unusual species of game. From +time immemorial their tastes, requirements, habits, appetites, +sentiments and general characteristics have undergone constant change +and modification; and thus continues without pause to the present day. +The dramatic trap that would work like a charm not long ago may not work +at all to-day; the successful trap of to-day may be useless junk +tomorrow. + +It must be obvious, then, that for light and instruction on the +judicious selection of the bait, and on the best method or methods of +devising the trap wherein that bait is to be displayed (that is to say +the play) but one thing can avail; and that one thing is a most diligent +and constant study of the habits and tastes of this game which it is our +business to capture--if we can. To go for information about these things +to people sitting by their firesides dreaming of bygone days, or, +indeed, to go to anyone sitting anywhere, is merely humorous. The +information which the dramatist seeks cannot be told--even by those who +know. For the gaining of such knowledge is the acquirement of an +instinct which enables its possessor automatically to make use of the +effective in play-writing and construction and devising, and +automatically to shun the ineffective. This instinct must be planted and +nourisht by more or less (more if possible) _living_ with audiences, +until it becomes a part of the system--yet constantly alert for the +necessary modifications which correspond to the changes which the tastes +and requirements of these audiences undergo. + +An education like this is likely to take the dramatist a great deal of +time--unless he is so fortunate as to be a genius. Perhaps the main +difference between the play-writing genius and the rest of us is that he +can associate but briefly with audiences and know it all, whereas we +must spend our lives at it and know but little. I have never happened to +hear of a genius of this description; but that is no argument against +the possibility of his existence. + +As to the talented authors of these letters, they know excellently +well--every one of them--how to write a play--or did while still +alive--even tho some of them see fit to deny it; but they cannot tell +_us_ how to do it for the very good reason that it cannot be told. +Their charming efforts to find a way out when cornered by such an +inquiry as appears to have been made to them are surely worth all +their trouble and annoyance--not to speak of their highly +probable exasperation. + + William Gillette +(May, 1916) + + * * * * * + + + + + How to Write a Play + + + + + I. + + From Émile Augier. + + +My dear Dreyfus: + +You ask me the recipe for making comedies. I don't know it; but I +suppose it should resemble somewhat the one given by the sergeant to the +conscript for making cannon: + +"You take a hole and you pour bronze around it." + +If this is not the only recipe, it is at least the one most followed. +Perhaps there should be another which would consist in taking bronze and +making a hole thru the center and an opening for light at the end. In +cannon this hole is called the core. What should it be called in +dramatic work? Find another name, if you don't like that one. + +These are the only directions I can give you. Add to them, if you wish, +this counsel of a wise man to a dramatist in a difficulty: + +"Soak your fifth act in gentle tears, and salt the other four with +dashes of wit." + +I do not think that the author followed this advice. + + Cordially yours, + + E. Augier + + * * * * * + + + + + II. + + From Théodore de Banville. + + +My dear friend: + +Like all questions, the question of the theater is infinitely more +simple than is imagined. All poetics, all dramatic criticism is +contained in the admirable dictum of Adolphe Dennery: "It is not hard to +succeed in the theater, but it is extremely hard to gain success there +with a fine play." + +To see this clearly you must consider two questions which have no +relation to each other: + +1. How should one set about composing a dramatic work which shall +succeed and make money? + +2. How shall one set about composing a dramatic work which shall be fine +and shall have some hope of survival? + +Reply to the first question: Nothing is known about it; for if anything +were known every theater would earn six thousand francs every evening. +Nevertheless, a play has some chance of succeeding and earning money if, +when read to a naïf person, it moves him, amuses him, makes him laugh or +weep; if it falls into the hands of actors who play it in the proper +spirit; and if at the public performance the leader of the _claque_ sees +no hitch in it. + +Reply to the second question: To compose a dramatic work which shall be +fine and shall live, have genius! There is no other way. In art talent +is nothing. Genius alone lives. A poet of genius combines in himself all +poets past and future, just as the first person you meet combines in +himself all humanity past and present. A man of genius will create for +his theater a form which has not existed before him and which after him +will suit no one else. + +That, my friend, is all that I know, and I believe that anything further +is a delusion. Those who are called "men of the theater" (that is, in +plain words, unlettered men who have not studied anywhere but on the +stage) have decreed that a man knows the theater when he composes +comedies according to the particular formula invented by M. Scribe. You +might as well say that humanity began and ended with M. Scribe, that it +is he who ate the apple with Eve and who wrote the 'Legendes des +Siècles,' Good Luck! + + Yours truly, + + Théodore de Banville + + * * * * * + + + + + III. + + From Adolphe Dennery. + + +Take an interesting theme, a subject neither too new nor too old, +neither too commonplace or too original,--so as to avoid shocking either +the vulgar-minded or the delicate-souled. + + Adolphe Dennery. + + * * * * * + + + + + IV. + + From Alexandre Dumas Fils. + + +My dear fellow-craftsman and friend: + +You ask me how a play is written. You honor me greatly, but you also +greatly embarrass me. + +With study, work, patience, memory, energy, a man can gain a reputation +as a painter, or a sculptor, or a musician. In those arts there are +material and mechanical procedures that he can make his own, thanks to +ability, and can attain to success. The public to whom these works are +submitted, having none of the technical knowledge involved, from the +beginning regard the makers of these works as their superiors: They feel +that the artist can always reply to any criticism: "Have you learned +painting, sculpture, music? No? Then don't talk so vainly. You cannot +judge. You must be of the craft to understand the beauties," and so on. +It is thus that the good-natured public is frequently imposed on, in +painting, in sculpture, in music, by certain schools and celebrities. It +does not dare to protest. But with regard to drama and comedy the +situation is altered. The public is an interested party to the +proceedings and appears, so to speak, for the prosecution in the case. + +The language that we use in our play is the language used by the +spectators every day; the sentiments that we depict are theirs; the +persons whom we set to acting are the spectators themselves in instantly +recognized passions and familiar situations. No preparatory studies are +necessary; no initiation in a studio or school is indispensable; eyes to +see, ears to hear--that's all they need. The moment we depart, I will +not say from the truth, but from what they think is truth, they stop +listening. For in the theater, as in life, of which the theater is the +reflexion, there are two kinds of truth; first, the absolute truth, +which always in the end prevails, and secondly, if not the false, at +least the superficial truth, which consists of customs, manners, social +conventions; the uncompromising truth which revolts, and the pliant +truth which yields to human weakness; in short, the truth of Alceste and +that of Philinte. + +It is only by making every kind of concession to the second that we can +succeed in ending with the first. The spectators, like all +sovereigns--like kings, nations, and women--do not like to be told the +truth, all the truth. Let me add quickly that they have an excuse, which +is that they do not know the truth;--they have rarely been told it. They +therefore wish to be flattered, pitied, consoled, taken away from their +preoccupations and their worries, which are nearly all due to ignorance, +but which they consider the greatest and most unmerited to be found +anywhere, because their own. + +This is not all; by a curious optical effect, the spectators always see +themselves in the personages who are good, tender, generous, heroic whom +we place on the boards; and in the personages who are vicious or +ridiculous they never see anyone but their neighbors. How can you expect +then that the truth we tell them can do them any good? + +But I see that I am not answering your question at all. + +You ask me to tell you how a play is made, and I tell you, or rather I +try to tell you, what must be put into it. + +Well, my dear friend, if you want me to be quite frank, I'll own up +that I don't know how to write a play. One day a long time ago, when I +was scarcely out of school, I asked my father the same question. He +answered: "It's very simple; the first act clear, the last act short, +and all the acts interesting." + +The recipe is in reality very simple. The only thing that is needed in +addition is to know how to carry it out. There the difficulty begins. +The man to whom this recipe is given is somewhat like the cat that has +found a nut. He turns it in every direction with his paw because he +hears something moving in the shell--but he can't open it. In other +words, there are those whom from their birth know how to write a play (I +do not say that the gift is hereditary); and there are those who do not +know at once--and these will never know. You are a dramatist, or you are +not; neither will-power nor work has anything to do with it. The gift is +indispensable. I think that every one whom you may ask how to write a +play will reply, if he really can write one, that he doesn't know how it +is done. It is a little as if you were to ask Romeo what he did to fall +in love with Juliet and to make her love him; he would reply that he did +not know, that it simply happened. + + Truly yours, + + A. Dumas _fils_. + + * * * * * + + + + + V. + + From Edmond Gondinet. + + +My dear friend: + +What is my way of working? It is deplorable. Do not recommend it to any +one. When the idea for a play occurs to me, I never ask myself whether +it will be possible to make a masterpiece out of it; I ask whether the +subject will be amusing to treat. A little pleasure in this life tempts +me a great deal more than a bust, even of marble, after I am gone. With +such sentiments one never accomplishes anything great. + +Besides, I have the capital defect for a man of the theater of never +being able to beat it into my head that the public will be interested in +the marriage of Arthur and Colombe; and nevertheless that is the key to +the whole situation. You simply must suppose the public a trifle +naïf,--and be so yourself. + +I should be so willingly, but I can't bring myself to admit that others +are. + +For a long time I imagined that the details, if they were ingenious, +would please the public as much as an intrigue of which the ultimate +result is usually given in the first scene. I was absolutely wrong, and +I have suffered for it more than once. But at my age one doesn't reform. +When I have drawn up the plan, I no longer want to write the piece. You +see that I am a detestable collaborator. Say so, if you speak to me, but +don't hold me up as a model. + + Edmond Gondinet. + + * * * * * + + + + + VI. + + FROM Eugène Labiche. + + +Everyone writes in accordance with his inspiration and his temperament. +Some sing a gay note, others find more pleasure in making people weep. + +As for me, this is my procedure: + +When I have no idea, I gnaw my nails and invoke the aid of Providence. + +When I have an idea, I still invoke the aid of Providence,--but with +less fervor, because I think I can get along without it. + +It is quite human, but quite ungrateful. + +I have then an idea, or I think I have one. + +I take a quire of white paper, linen paper--on any other kind I can +imagine nothing--and I write on the first page: + + PLAN. + +By the plan I mean the developed succession, scene by scene, of the +whole piece, from the beginning to the end. + +So long as one has not reached the end of his play he has neither the +beginning nor the middle. This part of the work is obviously the most +laborious. It is the creation, the parturition. + +As soon as my plan is complete, I go over it and ask concerning each +scene its purpose, whether it prepares for or develops a character or +situation, and then whether it advances the action. A play is a +thousand-legged creature which must keep on going. If it slows up, the +public yawns; if it stops, the public hisses. + +To write a sprightly play you must have a good digestion. Sprightliness +resides in the stomach. + + Eugène Labiche. + + * * * * * + + + + + VII. + + From Ernest Legouvé. + + +You ask me how a play is made. + +By beginning at the end. + +A novel is quite a different matter. + +Walter Scott, the great Walter Scott, sat down of a morning at his +study-table, took six sheets of paper and wrote 'Chapter One,' without +knowing anything else about his story than the first chapter. He set +forth his characters, he indicated the situation; then situation and +characters got out of the affair as best they could. They were left to +create themselves by the logic of events. + +Eugène Sue often told me that it was impossible for him to draw up a +plan. It benumbed him. His imagination needed the shock of the +unforeseen; to surprize the public he had to be surprized himself. More +than once at the end of an instalment of one of his serial stories he +left his characters in an inextricable situation of which he himself did +not know the outcome. + +George Sand frequently started a novel on the strength of a phrase, a +thought, a page, a landscape. It was not she who guided her pen, but her +pen which guided her. She started out with the intention of writing one +volume and she wrote ten. She might intend to write ten and she wrote +only one. She dreamed of a happy ending, and then she concluded with a +suicide. + +But never have Scribe, or Dumas _père_, or Dumas _fils_, or Augier, or +Labiche, or Sardou, written "Scene One" without knowing what they were +going to put into the last scene. A point of departure was for them +nothing but an interrogation point. "Where are you going to lead me?" +they would ask it; and they would accept it only if it led them to a +final point, or to the central point which determined all the stages of +the route, including the first. + +The novel is a journey in a carriage. You make stops, you spend a night +at the inn, you get out to look at the country, you turn aside to take +breakfast in some charming spot. What difference does it make to you as +a traveler? You are in no hurry. Your object is not to arrive anywhere, +but to find amusement while on the road. Your true goal is the trip +itself. + +A play is a railway journey by an express train--forty miles an hour, +and from time to time ten minutes stop for the intermissions; and if the +locomotive ceases rushing and hissing you hiss. + +All this does not mean that there are no dramatic masterpieces which do +not run so fast or that there was not an author of great talent, +Molière, who often brought about his ending by the grace of God. Only, +let me add that to secure absolution for the last act of 'Tartuffe' you +must have written the first four. + + Ernest Legouvé. + + * * * * * + + + + + VIII. + + From Édouard Pailleron. + + +You ask me how a play is made, my dear Dreyfus. I may well astonish you, +perhaps, but on my soul and honor, before God and man, I assure to you +that I know nothing about it, that you know nothing, that nobody knows +anything, and that the author of a play knows less about it than any one +else. + +You don't believe me? + +Let us see. + +Here is a capable gentleman, a man of the theater, a dramatist acclaimed +a score of times, at the height of his powers, in full success. He has +written a comedy. He has bestowed upon it all his care, all his time, +all his ability. He has left nothing to chance. + +He has just finisht it, and is content. According to the consecrated +expression, it is "certain to go." But as he is cautious, he does not +rely entirely upon his own opinion. He consults his +friends--fellow-workers, skillful as he, successful as he. He reads to +them his piece. I will not say that they are satisfied--another word is +needed--but at any rate, with more reason than ever, it is "certain to +go." + +He seeks out a manager, an old stager who has every opportunity for +being clear-headed, because of his experience, and every reason for +being exacting, because of his self-interest. He gives him the +manuscript, and as soon as the manager gets a fair notion of the piece, +this Napoleon of the stage, this strategist of success, is seized by a +profound emotion, but one easy to comprehend in the case of a man who is +convinced that five hundred thousand francs have just been placed in his +hand. He exults, he shouts, he presses the author in his arms, he rains +upon him the most flattering adjectives, beginning with "sublime" and +mounting upward. He calls him the most honied names: Shakspere, Duvert +and Lauzanne, Rossini, Offenbach--according to the kind of theater he +directs. He is not only satisfied, he is delighted, he is radiant--it is +"certain to go." + +Wait! That is not all. It is read to the actors--the same enthusiasm! +All are satisfied, if not with the play--they have not heard it yet--at +least with their parts. All are satisfied! It is "certain to go." + +Thereupon rehearsals are held for two months before those who have the +freedom of the theater, who sit successively in the depths of the dark +hall and show the same delirium. Even the sixty firemen on duty who, +during these sixty rehearsals, have invariably laught and wept at the +same passages. Yet it is well known that the fireman is the modern +Laforêt of our modern Molières, as M. Prud'homme would say, and that +when the fireman is satisfied--it is "certain to go!" + +The dress rehearsal arrives. A triumph! Bravos! Encores! Shouts! +Recalls! All of the signs of success--and note that the public on this +evening of rehearsal with the exception of a small and insignificant +contingent, will be the public of the first performance the next night. +It is "certain to go," I tell you! Certain! Absolutely certain! + +On this next night the piece is presented. It falls flat! Well, then? + +If the author knows what he is doing, if he is the master of his +method, explain to me then why, after having written twenty good pieces, +he writes a bad one? + +And don't tell me that failure proves nothing--you would pain me, my +friend. + +I do not intend to deny, you must understand, the value of talent and +skill and experience. They are, philosophically speaking, important +elements. But in what proportions do they contribute to the result? +That's what, let me repeat, nobody knows, the author as little as +anybody else. + +The author in travail with a play is an unconscious being, whatever he +may think about himself; and his piece is the product of instinct rather +than of intention. + +Believe me, my dear Dreyfus, in this as in everything, the cleverest of +us does what he can, and if he succeeds, he says that he has done +exactly what he tried to do. That's the truth. In reality an author +knows sometimes what he has tried to do, rarely what he has done;--and +as to knowing how he did it, I defy him! + +Then if it is good, let him try again! I cannot recede from this view. + +In our craft, you see, there is an element of unrebeginnable which +makes it an art, something of genius which ennobles it, something of the +fatally uncertain which renders it both charming and redoubtable. To try +to pick the masterpiece to pieces, to unscrew the ideal, to pluck the +heart out of the mystery, after the fashion of the baby who looks for +the little insect in the watch, is to attempt a vain and puerile thing. + +Ah! if I had the time--but I haven't the time. So it's just as well, or +better, that I stop. To talk too much about art is not a good sign in an +artist. It is like a lover's talking too much about love; if I were a +woman I should have my doubts. + +Well, do you wish me to disengage the philosophy of this garrulity? It +is found whole and entire in an apolog of my son--he too a philosopher +without knowing it. He was then seven. As a result of learning fables he +was seized with the ambition of writing one, which he brought to me one +fine day. It is called the 'Donkey and the Canary.' The verses are +perhaps a trifle long, but there are only two. That's the compensation. +Here they are. + +The canary once sang; and the ass askt him how he could learn this to +do? + +"I open my bill," said the bird; "and I say you, you, you!" + +Well, the ass, that's you--don't get angry. The canary, that's I. When I +sing I open my bill and I say, "you, you, you!" + +That's all that I can tell you. + + Édouard Pailleron. + + * * * * * + + + + + IX. + + From Victorien Sardou. + + +My dear friend: + +It's not so easy to answer you as you think. ...There is no one +necessary way of writing a play for the theater. Everyone has his own, +according to his temperament, his type of intellect, and his habits of +work. If you ask me for mine, I should tell you that it is not so easy +to formulate as the recipe for duck _à la rouennaise_ or spring chicken +_au gros sel_. Not fifty lines are needed, but two or three hundred, and +even then I should have told you only my way of working, which has no +general significance and makes no pretense to being the best. It's +natural with _me_, that's all. Besides, you will find it indicated in +part in the preface to 'La Haine' and in a letter which I wrote to La +Pommeraye about 'Fédora.' + +In brief, my dear friend, tho there are rules, and rules that are +invariable, precise, and eternal for the dramatic art, rules which only +the impotent, the ignorant, blockheads, and fools misunderstand, and +from which only they wish to be freed, yet there is only one true method +for the conception and parturition of a play--which is, to know quite +exactly where you are going and to take the best road that leads there. +However, some walk, others ride in a carriage, some go by train, X +hobbles along, Hugo sails in a balloon. Some drop behind on the way, +others run past the goal. This one rolls in the ditch, that one wanders +along a cross-road. + +In short, that one goes straight to the mark who has the most common +sense. It is the gift which I wish for you--and myself also. + + Victorien Sardou. + + * * * * * + + + + + X. + + From Émile Zola. + + +My dear Comrade: + +You ask how I write my plays. Alas! I should rather tell you how I do +not write them. + +Have you noticed the small number of new writers who take their chances +in the theater? The explanation is that in reality, for our generation +of free artists, the theater is repugnant, with its cookery, its +hobbles, its demand for immediate and brutal success, its army of +collaborators, to which one must submit, from the imposing leading man +down to the prompter. How much more independent are we in the novel! And +that's why, when the glamor of the footlights makes the blood dance, we +prefer to exercise it by keeping aloof and to remain the absolute +masters of our works. In the theater we are asked to submit to too much. + +Let me add that in my own case I have harnessed myself to a group of +novels which will take twenty-five years of my life. The theater is a +dissipation which I shall doubtless not permit myself until I am very +old. + +After all, if I could indulge in the theater. I should try to _make_ +plays much less than is the custom. In literature truth is always in +inverse proportion to the construction. I mean this: The comedies of +Molière are sometimes of a structure hardly adequate, while those of +Scribe are often Parisian articles of marvellous manufacture. + + Very cordially yours, + + Émile Zola. + + * * * * * + + + + + NOTES + + +ABRAHAM DREYFUS (1847-) was the author of half a dozen ingenious little +plays, mostly confined to a single act. One of them, 'Un Crane sans un +Tempête,' adapted into English as the 'Silent System,' was acted in New +York by Coquelin and Agnes Booth. Dreyfus was also the author of two +volumes of lively sketches lightly satirizing different aspects of the +French stage,--'Scènes de la vie de théâtre' (1880) and 'L'Incendie des +Folies-Plastiques' (1886). + +In the Spring of 1884 he delivered an address on the art of playmaking +before the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire of Brussels. This lecture was +entitled 'Comment se fait une pièce de théâtre;' and it was printed +privately in an edition limited to fifty copies, (Paris: A. Quantin, +1884). In the course of this address he read letters received by him +from ten or twelve of the most distinguisht dramatists of France in +response to his request for information as to their methods of +composition. It was to these letters that the lecture owed its interest +and its value. What M. Dreyfus contributed himself was little more than +a running commentary on the correspondence that he had collected. This +commentary was characteristically clever, brisk, bright and amusing; but +its interest was partly personal, partly local, and partly contemporary. +The interest of the letters themselves is permanent; and this is the +reason why it has seemed advisable to select the most significant of +them and to present them here unincumbered by the less useful remarks of +the lecturer. + +Émile Augier (1820-1889) disputes with Alexandre Dumas the foremost +place among the French dramatists of the second half of the nineteenth +century. The 'Gendre de M. Poirier' (which he wrote in collaboration +with Jules Sandeau) is the masterpiece of modern comedy, a worthy +successor to the 'Tartuffe' of Molière and the 'Marriage of Figaro' of +Beaumarchais. + +Théodore de Banville (1823-1891) was a poet rather than a playwright. +Altho he composed half-a-dozen little pieces in verse, the only one of +his dramatic efforts which really succeeded in establishing itself on +the stage, was 'Gringoire,' a one-act comedy in prose; and this met with +a more fortunate fate than its more fantastic companions only because +Banville revised and strengthened his plot in accordance with the +skilful suggestions of Coquelin, who "created" the part of the starving +poet. + +Adolphe Dennery (1811-1899) was the most adroit and fertile of +melodramatists in the midyears of the nineteenth century. Perhaps his +best play was 'Don César de Bazan'; and perhaps his most popular play +was the 'Two Orphans.' + +Alexandre Dumas _fils_ (1824-1895) was the son of the author of the +'Three Guardsmen'; and he inherited from his father the native gift of +playmaking, which he declared in this letter to be the indispensable +qualification of the successful dramatist. His 'Dame aux Camélias' has +held the stage for more than sixty years and has been performed hundreds +of times in every modern language. + +Edmond Gondinet (1828-1888) was the author of a host of pleasant pieces, +mostly comedies in from one to three acts, and mostly written in +collaboration. He believed that he preferred to write alone and that +only his good nature kept tempting him into working with others. It was +probably to warn away those who wanted to bring him their manuscripts +for expert revision that led him to assert in this letter that he was "a +detestable collaborator." + +Ernest Legouvé (1807-1903) was the collaborator of Scribe in the +composition of 'Bataille de Dames' and 'Adrienne Lecouvreur.' In his +delightful recollections, 'Soixante Ans de Souvenirs' he has a chapter +on Scribe in which he describes the methods of that master-craftsman in +dramatic construction; and in one of his 'Conférences Parisiennes' he +sets forth the successive steps by which another dramatist, Bouilly, was +able to compound his pathetic piece, the 'Abbé de l'Epée';--two papers +which deserve careful study by all who wish to apprehend the principles +of playmaking. + +Eugène Labiche (1815-1888) was the most prolific of the comic dramatists +of France in the nineteenth century and the most richly endowed with +comic force. Most of his pieces are frankly farcical, but not a few of +them rise to the level of true comedy. The solid merit of his best work +is cordially recognized in the luminous preface written by Augier for +the complete collection of Labiche's comedies. + +Édouard Pailleron (1834-1899) was a comic dramatist of more aspiration +than inspiration; and yet he succeeded in writing one of the most +popular pieces of his time;--the 'Monde où l'on s'énnuie.' + +Victorien Sardou (1831-1908) was probably the French playwright who was +most widely known outside of France. In the course of fifty years he was +successful in almost every kind of playwriting, from lively farce to +historic drama. His first indisputable triumph was with 'Pattes de +Mouche,' known in English as the 'Scrap of Paper' and as widely popular +in our language as in the original. + +Émile Zola (1840-1902) was a novelist who repeatedly sought for success +as a dramatist, attaining it only in the adaptations of his stories made +by professional playwrights. Yet one of his earlier pieces, 'Thérèse +Raquin' is evidence that he might have mastered the art of the +playwright, if he had not allowed himself to be misled by his own +unfortunate theory of the theatre as set forth in his severe studies of +'Nos Auteurs Dramatiques' (1881). + +In the 'Année Psychologique' for 1894 the distinguisht physiological +psychologist, the late Alfred Binet,--to whom we are indebted for the +useful Binet tests--publisht a series of papers dealing with the +psychology of the playwright, in the preparation of which he was aided +by M.J. Passy. The two investigators had a series of interviews with +Sardou, Dumas _fils_, Pailleron, Meilhac, Daudet, and Edmond de +Goncourt. Altho Daudet and Goncourt had written plays they were +essentially novelists with no instinctive understanding of the drama as +a specific art. Nor did either Pailleron and Meilhac make any +contribution of importance. But Dumas and Sardou were both of them born +playwrights of keen intelligence, having a definite understanding of the +principles of playmaking; and what they said to M. Binet and his +associate was interesting and significant. + +Dumas declared that he made no notes for any of his plays and that he +never composed a detailed scenario. He thought of only one piece at a +time, brooding over it for long months sometimes, and then throwing it +on paper almost at white heat, if it dealt with passion. If, on the +other hand, it was a comedy of character, a study of social conditions, +the actual composition was necessarily more leisurely and protracted. He +had carried in mind for six or seven years the theme of 'Monsieur +Alphonse;' and he had actually put it on paper in seventeen days. He had +written the 'Princesse Georges' in three weeks and the 'Etrangère' in a +month; and the second act of the 'Dame aux Camélias' had been penned in +a single session of four hours. But he had toiled seven or eight hours a +day for eleven months over the 'Demi-Monde,' the second act alone +costing him two months labor. He rarely modified what he had written by +minor corrections; but sometimes, when his play was completed, he +discovered that it was weak in its structure or inadequate in its +motivation, in which case he reconstructed one or more acts, or even the +whole play, writing it all over again. + +M. Dumas admitted that he took little interest in the setting of his +plays or in the manifold details of stage-management. He indicated +summarily the kind of room that he desired; and he put down in his +manuscript only the absolutely necessary movements of his characters. +The rest he left to the manager and the stage-manager. + +Here--as indeed everywhere,--Dumas revealed himself in the sharpest +contrast with Sardou, who designed his sets himself and placed his +furniture precisely where he needed it for the action of his play, +sometimes finding that a given scene seemed to him to lose half its +effect if it was acted on the left side of the stage instead of the +right. He was a constant note-taker, putting down suggestions for single +scenes or for striking suggestions, as these might occur to him; and as +a result of this incessant cerebral activity he had always on hand more +or less complete plots for at least fifty plays. When he decided to +write one of these pieces, he assembled his scattered notes, set them in +order, amplified and strengthened them; and when at last he saw his way +clear he made out an elaborate and detailed scenario, containing the +whole story, with ample indication of all the changes of feeling which +might take place in any of the characters in any scene. + +Then when he felt himself in the right mood, he feverishly improvized +the play, laughing over the jokes, weeping over the pathetic moments and +objurgating the evil deeds of the more despicable characters. But this +was only a first draft of the play; and it had to be gone over three or +four times, altered, condensed, sharpened, tightened in effect. The +first version was always too long; and the successive revisions reduced +it to scarcely more than a half of its original length. Sometimes he was +able to compact into a single pregnant phrase the substance of a speech +of many lines. And as the play slowly took on its final form Sardou not +only heard every word which every character had to speak, he also saw +every one of the movements which would animate the action. M. Binet +reminded him that when Scribe and Legouvé were collaborating on +'Adrienne Lecouvreur,' Scribe asserted that he visualized all that the +actors would do, while Legouvé heard all that they would say; and Sardou +then claimed that he was fortunate in possessing the double faculty of +both seeing and hearing. + +Of course, Sardou stage-managed his plays himself, teaching the +performers carefully, and going upon the stage, if need be, to act the +scene as he wanted it to be acted, indicating the expression, the +intonation and the gesture which he felt to be demanded by the +situation. + +He was equally meticulous in designing the scenery and the costumes; and +he was inexorable in insisting on the carrying out of his wishes. He had +a lively interest in painting, in sculpture and in architecture; and, in +fact, he confest, that if he had not been a playwright he would like to +have been an architect. This, it may be noted, is conformation of the +statement that there is a strong similarity between the art of +architecture and the art of the drama, due to the fact that both arts +are under the necessity of providing a solid structure to sustain the +fabric and to support the decoration. + + B.M. + + * * * * * + +OF THIS BOOK THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE COPIES WERE PRINTED FROM +TYPE BY CORLIES, MACY AND COMPANY IN SEPTEMBER; MCMXVI + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of How to Write a Play, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO WRITE A PLAY *** + +***** This file should be named 18230-8.txt or 18230-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/2/3/18230/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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