Introduction to the Dramas of Balzac | Page 5

the conspiracies, and it is only by the public sacrifice of the young girl Pamela's honor, that he is rescued. Then ensues a clash between policy and duty--a theme so congenial to Balzac, and here handled with characteristic deftness. We notice, also, a distinct improvement in workmanship. Scenes move more easily; dramatic values become coherent; characters stand out from the "chorus" on the stage. Pamela is a flesh-and-blood girl; Jules is real; Joseph is comically individual; Dupre is almost a strong creation, and nearly every one of the other principals is individual.
/La Maratre/ (The Stepmother) is characterized as an "intimate" drama in five acts and eight tableaux. It was first presented at the Theatre-Historique, Paris, May 25, 1848. Its publication, by Michel Levy in the same year, was in brochure form. The time is just a little later than that of /Pamela Giraud/, and one similar motif is found in the Napoleonic influence still at work for years after Waterloo. Though this influence is apparently far beneath the surface, and does not here manifest itself in open plottings, it is nevertheless vital enough to destroy the happiness of a home--when mixed in the mortar of a woman's jealousy. The action is confined to a single chateau in Normandy. A considerable psychological element is introduced. The play is a genuine tragedy, built upon tense, striking lines. It is strong and modern enough to be suitable, with some changes, for our present day stage. The day of the playwright's immaturity (noticed in the three preceding plays) is past. With this, as with all of Balzac's work, he improved by slow, laborious plodding, gaining experience from repeated efforts until success was attained.
In his dramas he was not to succeed at the first trial, nor the second, nor the third. But here at the fourth he has nearly grasped the secret of a successful play. While at the fifth--/Mercadet/--we are quite ready to cry "Bravo!" Who knows, if he had lived longer (these plays were written in the last years of their author's life), to what dramatic heights Balzac might have attained!
To /Mercadet/ then we turn for the most striking example of the playwright's powers. This first appeared as /Le Faiseur/ (The Speculator), being originally written in 1838-40. Justice compels us to state, however, that another hand is present in the perfected play. In the original it was a comedy in five acts; but this was revamped and reduced to three acts by M. d'Ennery, before its presentation at the Gymnase Theatre, August 24, 1851. It was then re-christened /Mercadet/, and took its place as a 12mo brochure in the "Theatrical Library" in the same year. The original five-act version was first published as /Mercadet/, in /Le Pays/, August 28, 1851 (probably called forth by the presentation of the play four days earlier), and then appeared in book form, as /Le Faiseur/, from the press of Cadot, in 1853. It is of interest to note that the play was not presented till over a year subsequent to Balzac's death. The presented version in three acts has generally been regarded as the more acceptable, M. de Lovenjoul, the Balzacian commentator, recognizing its superior claims. It is the form now included in current French editions, and the one followed in the present edition.
Although /Mercadet/, like the others, excited the ridicule of supercilious critics, it has proven superior to them and to time. As early as the year 1869, the Comedie Francaise--the standard French stage--added /Mercadet/ to its repertory; and more than one company in other theatres have scored success in its representation. The play contains situations full of bubbling humor and biting satire. Its motif is not sentiment. Instead, it inveighs against that spirit of greed and lust for gain which places a money value even upon affection. But during all the arraignment, Balzac, the born speculator, cannot conceal a sympathy for the wily Mercadet while the promoter's manoeuvres to escape his creditors must have been a recollection in part of some of Balzac's own pathetic struggles. For, like Dumas pere, Balzac was never able to square the debit side of his books--be his income never so great. The author of /Cesar Birotteau/ and /Le Maison Nucingen/ here allows one more view of the seamy side of business.
Structurally, too, the play is successful. With so great an element of chance in the schemes of the speculator, it would have been easy to transcend the limits of the probable. But the author is careful to maintain his balances. Situation succeeds plot, and catastrophe situation, until the final moment when the absconding partner actually arrives, to the astonishment of Mercadet more than all the rest. And with Mercadet's joyful exclamation, "I am a creditor!" the play has reached its logical final curtain.
J. WALKER MCSPADDEN.

End of the Project Gutenberg