Poet Lore/Volume 25/Number 6/Jaroslav Vrchlicky and His Place in Bohemian Drama

by Charles Recht

Layout 2

JAROSLAV VRCHLICKY AND HIS
PLACE IN BOHEMIAN DRAMA^[1]

‘Concessions! All the time concessions! Our entire life consists of bartering concessions. We concede away our ideals, our warm youthful dreams. We concede the precious jewels so that we could keep the empty treasure box.

‘And what is the ultimate gain? Our hearts grow weary, our souls commonplace. Were it not for books and work, how could we ever live thru it all. . .’—Vrchlicky.

 

By Charles Recht

 

AS the modern Bohemian literature dates from the epoch of European revolutions of ’48, the prolific pen of Jaroslav Vrchlicky was due somewhat to the literary demand of a newly awakened nation. His predecessors in the drama had paved the way for him at a sacrifice of personal freedom to them, and the cost of starvation. When the Slav will prevail in the world, and the story of the Czechs will be recounted by foreign students of letters, the daring and enthusiasm of the young dramatist, Joseph Kaietan Tyl, will earn the tribute which properly belongs to him. Ordered to disband his troupe of actors, driven out of Prague, forbidden by the authorities to perform plays in the Bohemian tongue anywhere in Bohemia, this actor-playwright wrote his playlets in garrets and fields, and performed them in villages by candlelight, with marionettes before the newly-freed Serfs. Marionettes would hardly be suitable for a production of Strindberg before a modern audience, yet to a mind with an imagination which is not overtaxed, the dolls represent all emotions of character. The marionette has of late lost its place on the English-speaking stage, as though its use prevented a purely artistic production. This is an error. In plays for children, for instance, the use of the marionette will prove a great educational factor, as it rouses the imagination of the child and weaves about the helpless tottering idol a purer and better fiction than does a realistic production by clever self-conscious children.

In the newly-awakened Bohemia, the marionettes became very popular, and the simple crude Kopecky earned his way to fame by writing hundreds and hundreds of ‘scenarios’ for marionettes. He paraphrased ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Faust,’ ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ and others, sowing the seed in a nation of peasants for a desire for dramatic self-expression. What Kopecky did in the villages, Vrchlicky found himself called upon to do in Prague. But his treatment of the classical themes was not the journalistic effort of the penny-a-liner; it was a master’s hand retouching ancient fables. A thorough knowledge of the prevalent conditions in the place of action seems to pervade the entire play, be the scene in fabulous dark Slavdom, glorious Hellas or debauched Rome. True, that the style and construction is still pre-Ibsenite. Asides and monologues mar the effect and heroic exits seem bombastic to our modern ear. But the plot, the wit, the poetry is there. And the variety of subjects almost awes us. Taking a few titles at random:

‘Pietro Aretino’ (1892), comedy in four acts. Venice in 1347.

‘Three Kisses’ (1893), a dramatic poem in one act. Bohemian mythology.

‘Samson,’ a trilology, a dramatic poem consisting of: I. Samson and the Philistines; II. Samson in the desert; III. Samson and Delilah.

The ‘Barrel of Diogenes’ (1902), comedy in one act, Corinth, 329 B. C.

‘Ear of Diogenes’ (1900), comedy in three acts; Syracuse, 384 B. C.

‘New Life’ (1900), comedy in one act. Modern Bohemian aristocracy.

‘Wisdom of Rabbi Ben Loew,’ comedy in four acts. Prague during the reign of Rudolph II.

Let us look into the texture of this many colored tapestry. Let us examine the workmanship in particular of one of his Roman plays, and follow it with a translation of a practical stage piece—a popular one-act Bohemian play of situation.

 

1. See in the Autumn, 1913, number of Poet Lore, the Introduction to Vrchlicky’s ‘At the Chasm.’