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ON THE USE OF THE CHORUS IN TRAGEDY (1803)[63]

TRANSLATED BY A. LODGE

A Poetical work must vindicate itself—­if the execution be defective, little aid can be derived from commentaries.

On these grounds, I might safely leave the Chorus to be its own advocate, if we had ever seen it presented in an appropriate manner.  But it must be remembered that a dramatic composition first assumes the character of a whole by means of representation on the stage.  The Poet supplies only the words, to which, in a lyrical tragedy, music and rhythmical motion are essential accessories.  It follows, then, that if the Chorus is deprived of accompaniments appealing so powerfully to the senses, it will appear a superfluity in the economy of the drama—­mere hindrance to the development of the plot—­destructive to the illusion of the scene and wearisome to the spectators.  To do justice to the Chorus, more especially if our aims in Poetry be of a grand and elevated character, we must transport ourselves from the actual to a possible stage.  It is the privilege of Art to furnish for itself whatever is requisite, and the accidental deficiency of auxiliaries ought not to confine the plastic imagination of the Poet.  He aspires to whatever is most dignified, he labors to realize the ideal in his own mind-though in the execution of his purpose he must needs accommodate himself to circumstances.

The assertion so commonly made, that the Public degrades Art, is not well founded.  It is the artist that brings the Public to the level of his own conceptions; and, in every age in which Art has gone to decay, it has fallen through its professors.  The People need feeling alone, and feeling they possess.  They take their station before the curtain with an unvoiced longing, with a multifarious capacity.  They bring with them an aptitude for what is highest—­they derive the greatest pleasure from what is judicious and true; and if, with these powers of appreciation, they deign to be satisfied with inferior productions, still, if they have once tasted what is excellent, they will, in the end, insist on having it supplied to them.

It is sometimes objected that the Poet may labor according to an Ideal—­that the critic may judge from ideas, but that mere executive art is subject to contingencies and depends for effect on the occasion.  Managers will be obstinate; actors are bent on display—­the audience is inattentive and unruly.  Their object is relaxation, and they are disappointed if mental exertion be required, when they expected only amusement.  But if the Theatre be made instrumental toward higher objects, the pleasure of the spectator will not be increased, but ennobled.  It will be a diversion, but a poetical one.  All Art is dedicated to pleasure, and there can be no higher and worthier end than to make men happy.  The true Art is that which provides