descriptive or symbolic of the Dark Ages of Juvenile Literature.


RECITATIVE

"The Dark Ages of Juvenile Literature do not afford a chronicle of greater
atrocity!

"Than that furnished by a very glum, grim, gruesome, gory, but
connubially-minded gentleman, whose ugly blue beard was a perfect
monstrosity!

"He also had an unfortunate predilection for leading unattached ladies to
the altar, constantly marrying wives, six wives, successively one after
another, on a regular railroad of matrimonial velocity!

"But, finding them _in_toto_, all very so-so, determined to turn each one
of them into a good woman by cutting off her head!

"As a punishment for the most unmitigatedly determined and persevering
female curiosity!"

(With naivete') "But to our tale!"

The "tale" introduces the lovely, luckless Fatima, sitting at her cottage
window, dreaming the dreams of girl-hood. She has received Bluebeard's
message of love, and is awaiting his coming as the hero of her heart's
romance. This "_Traum_" theme is almost precisely like the "Guileless Fool
Motive" of "Parsifal," and the application to Fatima is unmistakable.