Browning and the Dramatic Monologue Part 16

The peculiar character of Mrs. Caudle must be definitely conceived, and the interpreter must express her feelings and reveal with great emphasis the impressions produced upon her, for these are the very soul of the rendering. The sudden awakening of ideas in her mind, or the way she receives an impression, must be definitely shown, for such manifestations are the chief characteristics of a monologue. Such mental action is the one element that makes the delivery of a monologue differ from that of other forms of literature.

The fact that one end of the conversation is omitted, or only echoed, concentrates our attention upon the workings of Mrs. Caudle's mind. The interpreter must vividly portray the arrival of every idea, the horrors with which she contemplates every successive conjecture.

The reader must express Mrs. Caudle's astonishment after she has found out Mr. Caudle's offence. "'What were you to do?'" is no doubt an echo of the question made by Mr. Caudle. Sarcastic surprise possesses her at the very thought of his asking such a question. "Let him go home in the rain, to be sure," is given with positiveness, as if it settled the whole matter.

"Take cold, indeed!" is also, no doubt, a sarcastic echo of Mr. Caudle's words. The abrupt explosion and extreme change from the preceding indicates clearly her repet.i.tion of Mr. Caudle's words. The pun: "He'd have better taken cold than taken our umbrella," may sound like a jest, but with Mrs. Caudle it is too sarcastic for a smile.

Mrs. Caudle must "hear the rain" and appear startled. The thought of the following day causes sudden and extreme change of feeling, face, and voice. Her wrath is aroused to a high pitch when Caudle snores or gives some evidence that he is asleep, and she is most abrupt and bitter in: "Nonsense; you don't impose upon me; you can't be asleep with such a shower as that." She repeats her question with emphasis. Then there must have been some groan or a.s.sent from poor Caudle, which is shown by a change of pitch and a sarcastic acceptance of his answer, "Oh, you _do_ hear it!" Presently, Mr. Caudle causes another explosion by evidently suggesting that the borrower would return the umbrella, "as if anybody ever did return an umbrella!"

A dramatic imagination can easily realize the continuity of thought in Mrs. Caudle's mind, her expression of profound grief over the poor children, the sudden thought of "poor mother" that awakens in her the reason for his doing the terrible deed, and her self-pity. Every change must be expressed decidedly, to show the working of her mind.

Such a monologue is decidedly dramatic, and to interpret it requires vivid imagination, quick perceptions, a realization of the relation of a specific type of character to a distinct situation and the interaction of situation and character upon each other. The interpreter must have a very flexible voice and responsive body. He must have command of the technique of expression and be able to suggest depth of meaning.

It is easy enough to study a monologue superficially, and find its meaning for ourselves in a vague way, sufficient to satisfy us for the moment, but there is necessity for more study when we attempt to make the monologue clear and forcible to others.

The interpreter will discover, when he tries to read the monologue aloud, that his subjective studies were crude and inconclusive. He will find difficulties in most unexpected places; but as he contemplates the work with dramatic instinct, or imaginative and sympathetic attention to each point, new light will dawn upon him. There is need always for great power of accentuation. Discoveries should be sudden, and the connections vigorously sustained. The modulations of the voice must often be extreme, while yet suggesting the utmost naturalness.

The length and abruptness of the inflections must change very suddenly.

There must be breaks in the thought, with a startled discovery of many points, and extreme changes in pitch to show these. Some parts should go very slowly, while others should have great quickness of movement.

Any serious monologue will serve to ill.u.s.trate the necessity of vocal expression for its interpretation. Take, for example, Browning's "Tray,"

and express the strong contrasts by the voice.

TRAY

Sing me a hero! Quench my thirst Of soul, ye bards!

Quoth Bard the first: "Sir Olaf, the good knight, did don His helm and eke his habergeon ..."

Sir Olaf and his bard.--!

"That sin-scathed brow" (quoth Bard the second), "That eye wide ope as though Fate beckoned My hero to some steep, beneath Which precipice smiled tempting Death...."

You too without your host have reckoned!

"A beggar-child" (let's hear this third!) "Sat on a quay's edge: like a bird Sang to herself at careless play, And fell into the stream. 'Dismay!

Help, you the stander-by!' None stirred.

"Bystanders reason, think of wives And children ere they risk their lives.

Over the bal.u.s.trade has bounced A mere instinctive dog, and pounced Plumb on his prize. 'How well he dives!

"'Up he comes with the child, see, tight In mouth, alive too, clutched from quite A depth of ten feet--twelve, I bet!

Good dog! What, off again? There's yet Another child to save? All right!

"'How strange we saw no other fall!

It's instinct in the animal.

Good dog! But he's a long while under: If he got drowned I should not wonder-- Strong current, that against the wall!

"'Here he comes, holds in mouth this time --What may the thing be? Well, that's prime!

Now, did you ever? Reason reigns In man alone, since all Tray's pains Have fished--the child's doll from the slime!'

"And so, amid the laughter gay, Trotted my hero off,--old Tray,-- Till somebody, prerogatived With reason, reasoned: 'Why he dived, His brain would show us, I should say.

"'John, go and catch--or, if needs be, Purchase that animal for me!

By vivisection, at expense Of half-an-hour and eighteen pence, How brain secretes dog's soul, we'll see!'"

This short poem well ill.u.s.trates Browning's peculiar spirit and earnestness, and also the strong hold which his chosen dramatic form had upon him. It was written as a protest against vivisection. Browning represents the speaker as one seeking for an expression among the poets of the true heroic spirit. "Bard the first" opens with the traditions and spirit of knighthood, but the speaker interrupts him suddenly in the midst of his first sentence, implying by his tone of disgust that such views of heroism are out of date.

The second bard begins in the spirit of a later age,

"'That sin-scathed brow ...

That eye wide ope, ...'"

and starts to portray a hero facing death on some precipice, but the speaker again interrupts. He is equally dissatisfied with this type of hero found in the pages of Byron or Bret Harte.

When the third begins--"A beggar child,"--the speaker indicates a sudden interest, "let's hear this third!" The speech of the third bard must be given with greater interest and simplicity, and in accordance with the spirit of the age,--the change from the extravagant to the perfectly simple and true, from the giant in his mail, or the desperado, to just a little child and a dog.

Approval and tenderness should be shown by the modulations of the voice.

Long, abrupt inflections express the excitement resulting from the discovery that the child has fallen into the stream, "Dismay! Help." Then observe the sarcastic reference to human selfishness, and, in tender contrast to the action of the bystanders, old Tray is introduced, followed by the remarks of the on-lookers and their patronizing description of the dog's conduct. Notice that the quotation is long, and that the point of view of the careless bystanders is preserved. The spirit of these bystanders is given in their own words until they laugh at old Tray's pains and blind instinct in fis.h.i.+ng up the child's doll from the stream.

Now follows the real spirit of bard the third, who portrays the sympathetic admiration for the dog.

"'And so, amid the laughter gay,'"

requires a sudden change of key and tone-color to express the intensity of feeling and the general appreciation of the mystery of "a mere instinctive dog."

The poem closes with an example of the cold, a.n.a.lytic spirit of the age, that hopes to settle the deepest problems merely by experiment.

"'By vivisection, at expense, Of half-an-hour and eighteen pence, How brain secretes dog's soul, we'll see!'"

The student will soon discover that the monologue is not only a new literary or poetic form, but that it demands a new histrionic method of representation.

The monologue should be taken seriously. It is not an accidental form, the odd freak of some peculiar writer. Browning has said that he never intended his poetry to be a subst.i.tute for an after-dinner cigar. A similar statement is true of all great monologues. A few so-called monologues on a low plane can be understood and rendered by any one. Every form of dramatic art has its caricature and perversion. Burlesque seems necessary as a caricature of all forms of dramatic art and so there are burlesques of monologues. These, however, must not blind the eyes to the existence of monologues on the highest plane. Many monologues, though short and seemingly simple, probe the profoundest depths of the human soul. Such require patient study; imagination, sympathetic insight, and pa.s.sion are all necessary in their interpretation.

X. ACTIONS OF MIND AND VOICE

The complex and difficult language of vocal expression cannot, of course, be explained in such a book as this, but there are a few points which are of especial moment in considering the monologue.

All vocal expression is the revelation of the processes of thinking or the elemental actions of the mind. The meaning of the expressive modulations of the voice must be gained from a study of the actions of the mind and their expression in common conversation. While words are conventional symbols, modulations of the voice are natural signs, which accompany the p.r.o.nunciation of words, and are necessary elements of natural speech.

Such expressive modulations of the voice as inflections are developed in the child before words. Hence, vocal expression can never be acquired from mechanical rules or by imitation. As the monologue reveals primarily the thinking and feeling of a living character, it affords a very important means of studying vocal expression.

In all dramatic work there is a temptation to a.s.sume merely outward bearings and characteristics, att.i.tudes, and tones without making the character think. The monologue is a direct revelation of the mind and can be interpreted only by naturally expressing the thought.

The interpreter of the monologue must reveal the point of view of his character, and must show the awakening or arrival of every idea. All changes in point of view, the simplest transitions in feeling and impressions produced by an idea, must be suggested. The mental life, in short, must be genuinely and definitely revealed by the actions of voice and body.

The first sign or expression of life is rhythm. All life begins and ends in rhythm, and accordingly, rhythm is the basis of all naturalness. In vocal expression the rhythmic process of thinking, the successive focussing and leaping of the mind from idea to idea, must be revealed by the rhythmic alternation in speech of pause and touch.

Without these, genuine thinking cannot be expressed in speaking. The pause indicates the stay of attention; the touch locates or affirms the centre of concentration. The mind receives an impression in silence, and speech follows as a natural result.