Page:The thirty-six dramatic situations (1921).djvu/117

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THIRTY-FIFTH SITUATION

RECOVERY OF A LOST ONE

(The Seeker; the One Found)

This is the Situation of "The Hero and the Nymph" by Kalidasa; the second part of his "Sakuntala," and the "Later Life of Rama" by Bhavabuti; the second part also of "A Winter's Tale" and "Pericles" by Shakespeare; likewise of "Berthequine" and of "Bertha au Grand Pied" (Miracles of Notre-Dame, XIV Century); of almost all of "La Reine Aux Trois Fils," another Miracle; it is the Situation of "Thyestes in Sicyon" by Sophocles and of "Alcmeon in Corinth" by Suripides. It is the dénouement of "Père Chasselas" (Athis, 1886); "Foulards Rouges" (Dornay, 1882); "La Gardienne" (Henri de Regnier); it is the old familiar plot of the "stolen child" and of stories of foundlings; of arbitrary imprisonments, from the Man in the Iron Mask (upon whom Hugo began a drama) and "Richard Coeur-de-Lion" down to recent tales of sane persons confined as lunatics. It is the point from which bursts forth so frequently that double explosion of the principal Scene; My daughter! — My mother!"

Classes A and C Of Situation XI move toward the same end.

In other cases it is the part of the child to discover his father, his kinsman, and to make himself known; thus it is in the "Enfances Roland;" in "Les Enfants du Capitaine Grant" by Jules Verne and "les Aventures de Gavroche" (Darlay and Marot, 1909).