a compound of comedy, farce and burlesque; while the accompanying music,
which would lend dignity to tragedy or grand opera, merely heightens the
humorous effect and lends the color of musical comedy or opera
bouffe.[192] KArting is right in calling it mere entertainment, Mommsen is
right in calling it caricature, but we maintain that it is professedly
mere entertainment, that it is consciously caricature and if it fulfills
these functions we have no right to criticise it on other grounds. If we
attempt a serious critique of it as drama, we have at once on our hands a
capricious mass of dramatic unrealities and absurdities: bombast,
burlesque, extravagance, horse-play, soliloquies, asides, direct address
of the audience, pointless quips, and so on. The minute we accept it as a
consciously conceived medium for amusement only, we have a highly
effective theatrical mechanism for the unlimited production of laughter.
And, in fact, every shred of evidence, however scant, goes to show that
the histrionism must have been conceived in a spirit of extreme
liveliness, abandon and extravagance in gesture and declamation, that
would not confine the actor to faithful portrayal in character, but would
allow him scope and license to resort to any means whatsoever to bestir
laughter amongst a not over-stolid audience.







Footnotes