The San Francisco call., 1910-05-07
COLLEGE TO GIVE
PLAY IN english
Professor c. M. GayIey Declares
Drama ExceIs in Elements
of Tragic Fear
BY Prof. Charles Mills Gayley

BY Prof. Charles Mills Gayley
BERKELEY, May 6.-The presenta-
ton Of ~Oedipus the King" in the Greek
theater OF the University Of California
saturday morning. May Il, viii be an
event of great note-an opportunity
for lovers OF the drama not TO be
missed. This is the greatest tragedy
OF SophocIes, himself the prince Of
Greek tragic poets. The play will be
given in English that all may under
stand the substance; but it will be
given with strictest adherence to
classical custom that nothing of the
interest which attaches TO the history
of the stage may be lost. 1t will be
given 10y well trained amateurs of the
faculty and the student body; and the
choruses viii be sung TO the noble
music, especially composed by Payne.
II has been well said that NO trage-
dy in history or fiction can equal the
horror OF the tale OF Oedipus." The
Mot is so simple as to be told in a
f[sF1tence. An oracle foretells that
Oedipus shall slay his father and marry
his mother; and against his own viii
and without his own knowledge, he
fuihlls his own destiny. The play was
piece of Greek tragedy. Other things
being equal 1 doubt whether any
tragedy OF any age or country excels
tragedy OF any age or country excels
il ia conception, in dramatic execution,
i'm the portrayal of character, in ele-
ments OF pathos and tragic fear, in
closely knit sequence of events, in the
irony Of fate. the inevitable justice and
horror Of the catastrophe. Add to all
. he
high sincerity, the ideas of truth and
beauty, the poetic imagination and the
lofty utterances; and we have mas
Jcrpiece for the ages.
II is TO be remembered that, as today
i'm the case Of the Passion Play at
Oberammerga the performance of a
Greek tragedy was essentially a re
ligious function. Its purpose was to
Justify the ways of God TO man: and,
by representation upon the stage of
mythical traditions that to the Greeks
We're biblical, 10 illustrate the unchang-
ing course Of destiny, the retribution
that follows sin. With Aeschylus, the
dramatic characters had been gods, and
men OF superhuman quality, and the
emphasis had been laid upon the Mem
esis over which man mas no control
With Sophocles and the newer religion,
the emphasis is still with destiny. but a
destiny nodded in part by the character
and passion of the natural man.
HUMAN AND DIVINE
In Oedipus Tyrannus we possess a
tragedy not Of ancient Nemesis, but
Of destiny. human and divine, silently
working out its conclusions; of hu-
man Ignorance, folly, overconfidence
reaping their own reward. We be-
hold Z conflict between fortune and
fate; the steady Development of char
acter, frailty and passion toward a
catastrophe which is Inevitable be-
cause the human participants are will
flly defiant OF inherited tendencies
and of supernatural warning, or are
psthetically blind TO the viii of the
gods We have here a tragedy of
destiny, heredity, character and retri-
bution-an in one. The plot Of in
herited sin is no modern invention of
ZOls or Ibsen. Shakespeare runs it
through half dozen plays; Sopho-
cles and Aeschylus ran II through
their great dramatic trilogies. And 1
must say that both the Englishman
and Greek have better preserved the
reverence due to mystery and law, the
honor due 10 human nobility, the pity
due to mortal frailty, the resignation
and the peace Of the art that elevates.
than have the Frenchman or the Scan
dinavian.
the murder Of his own father, the
former king. and Of marriage with
his own mother. the present queen
and of bringing upon the people whom
he aims 10 rule with mercy and Justice
the pestilence which speaks the wrath
Of the gods, pledges himself to dis
cover and punish the criminal for
whose offense the land is suffering
with every step he takes in the ac-
complishment Of ambition or in the
fulfliment Of duty he but involves
himself the deeper in the web of cir
cumstance- No tragedy more grilnly
fraught with the mockery Of fate was
sver written.
SEER COMPELLED TO SPEAK
It has all the retributive Justice Of
Richard III and all the pathetic irony
Of King Lear. This irony resides in
the clash Of appearances manifest to
the spectator, but not to the hero him
self, the contradiction between the
hero's mortal confidence and his mortal
impotence. Men promise much and
perform little. They think they are
marching onward 10 fame and great
uess. when the ground is opening be-
nesth their feet, and they are sinking
to destruction" in his pride Of inno-
cence Oedipus viii force the reluctant
seer, Tiresias, TO unveil the mystery;
When that prophet, 10 shield Oedipus,
refuses TO speak, he is accused of the
crime by Oedipus and is compelled to
incriminate the king himself
She who Is both mother and wife to
Oedipus. Jocasta, the queen, by her
very efforts 10 dispel her religious
skepuctsm, her contempt OF oracles
her recital Of hare historical facts and
natural causes, furnishes the clew to
the horror that succeeds in awakening
the suspicious of Oedipus concerning
the truth. Irony follows on the heels
Of irony; hope after hope turns into
shuddering dread. The blows Of fate
shower upon the king, relief becomes
renewed suspense. and suspense is
ended only by catastrophe. All efforts
10 prove innocence have gone to prove
guilt The queen, desperate through
the discovery that her husband is her
son and her son a parricide and the
psrricide the brother of his own chill
dren, hangs herself Oedipus dashes
out his eyes.
With well knit plot and ever height
ened interest and breathless suspense
and solemn conclusion the tragedy
combines the scriptural dignity Of con-
cept and quotable phrase, the lofty
lyric quality Of choric psalm and
prayer II is simple, beautiful, ma
5estic. awful. It is one of the most
sensational Of tragedies because one