[56] I am compelled to draw attention to the words "æsthetic _systems_"
because, on the appearance of this article in _The Atlantic Monthly_,
a not unkindly reviewer took me to task for asserting, as he thought,
that the art-_work_ of Wagner was akin to that of Maeterlinck; he
pointed out, quite rightly, that César Franck's work lies closer to
Maeterlinck's than does Wagner's. But of course I had never asserted
that Wagner and Maeterlinck spoke to us in the same language or of the
same things. I was only concerned to prove that underlying the so very
different practice of the two men was a curious similarity of æsthetic
theory.
[57] Compare Amiel's saying--"Action is but coarsened thought."
[58] It is interesting to note that many things in Maeterlinck either
move us, by their very vagueness, just in the way that music does, or
else seem like a fragment from a libretto, needing to be set to music
before they can attain their full significance. Of the former class the
reader will remember such things as the conclusion of _Alladine and
Palomides_. To the latter class belong many of those curious scenes
in which the characters keep on reiterating apparently insignificant
words, to the intense annoyance of the Man in the Street, who cannot
see the meaning of it all. In _Aglavaine and Selysette_ there are
many passages that seem, without music, to be only the skeleton, the
scaffolding, of an emotional effect. There is a salient example of the
same thing in _Joyzelle_:
_Joyzelle._ Je t'embrassais la nuit, quand j'embrassais mes rêves....
_Lancéor._ Je n'ai pas eu de doute.... _Joyzelle._ Je n'ai pas eu de
crainte....
_Lancéor._ Et tout m'est accordé....
_Joyzelle._ Et tout me rend heureuse!...
_Lancéor._ Que tes yeux sont profonds et pleins de confiance!...
_Joyzelle._ Et que les tiens sont purs et pleins de certitudes!...
_Lancéor._ Comme je les reconnais!...
_Joyzelle._ Et comme je les retrouve!...
_Lancéor._ Tes mains sur mes épaules ont le geste qu'elles avaient
quand je les attendais sans oser m'eveiller....
_Joyzelle._ Et ton bras sur mon cou reprend la même place....
_Lancéor._ C'est ainsi qu'autrefois tes paupières se fermaient au
souffle de l'amour.
_Joyzelle._ Et c'est de même aussi que les larmes montaient dans tes
yeux qui s'ouvraient....
_Lancéor._ Quand le bonheur est tel....
_Joyzelle._ Le malheur ne vient pas tant que l'amour l'enchaine.
_Lancéor._ Tu m'aimes?...
_Joyzelle._ Oui....
It reads almost exactly like a libretto without its music.
_To SIR EDWARD ELGAR_