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0002-9475/78/0993-0303
304
BERND SEIDENSTICKER
critics and led to different, indeed contradictory interpretations. The Teiresias-Kadmos-scene at the beginning of the
first episode (170ff.) is particularly controversial. Until recently
Rivier,2 Pohlenz,3 and Schmid4 stood almost alone in their
opinion that the encounter of the two old proselytes of the new
cult is not meant to be comic. But in the last decade the comic
reading of the short scene, advocated by Pater,5 Norwood,6
Deichgraber,7 Grube,8 Kitto,9 Winnington-Ingram,'1 and
many others, has been increasingly questioned.1' Conacher,12
Rohdich,'3 Steidle,'4 and Roux's have either expressed doubts
or protested vigorously, and Lesky,'6 who had spoken of a
Tiibingen 1964); H. Rohdich, Die Euripideische Tragodie (Heidelberg 1968)
131-68; W. Steidle, Studien zum antiken Drama (Miinchen 1968) 32-38;
D. J. Conacher, Euripidean Drama (Toronto 1967) 56-77; D. Sutherland,
The Bacchae of Euripides (Nebraska 1968); I. A. LaRue, "Prurience Uncovered, The Psychology of Euripides' Pentheus," CJ 63 (1968) 209-14;
E. R. Schwinge, Die Verwendung der Stichomythie in den Dramen des
Euripides (Heidelberg 1968) 339-433; A. P. Burnett, "Pentheus and Dionysos,"
CP 65 (1970) 15-29; B. Seidensticker, "Pentheus," Poetica 5 (1972) 35-63;
J. Roux, Les Bacchantes, texte et comm. (Paris 1972); A. Lesky, Die
tragische Dichtung der Hellenen (Gottingen 19723); M. Arthur, "The Choral
Odes of the Bacchae of Euripides," YCS 22 (1972) 145-79; W. C. Scott,
"Two Suns over Thebes, Imagery and Stage-Effects in the Bacchae,"
TAPA 105 (1975) 333-46.
2 Rivier,
op. cit. (supra n. 1) 76f.
3 M. Pohlenz, Die griechische Tragodie (Gottingen 19542) 451.
4
Christ-Schmid, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur. 1,3 (Miinchen 1934)
662 n. 15.
5 W. Pater, Greek Studies (London 1908) 66.
6
Norwood, Riddle, 22f.
7 Deichgraber, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 327.
8 Grube, Dionysos, 39f.; Drama 402.
9 Kitto, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 375.
10Winnington-Ingram, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 41.
" Dodds, Bacchae, ad 170ff., mentions representatives of this view
"from Walter Pater down to Professor Grube"; earlier than Pater (1908)
however; P. Girard, "La trilogie chez Euripide," REG 17 (1904) 149-95,
see 187f.; J. Schmidt, "Euripides' Verhaltnis zur Komik und Komddie,"
1. Teil (Programm Grimma 1905) 34; in addition see Wilamowitz, op. cit.
(supra n. 1) 139; Friedlander, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 108; Blaiklock, op. cit.
(supra n. 1) 218f.
12 Conacher, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 61f.
'3 Rohdich, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 144.
'4 Steidle, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 33-35.
'5 Roux, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 301ff.
16 A.
Lesky, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur (Bern 19713) 451.
EURIPIDES' BACCHAE
305
W. Jens, "Euripides-Biichner,"
Opuscula aus Wissenschaft und
Bildung (Pfullingen 1964) 34: "Das Fluktuieren zwischen tragischem Pathos
und faunischer Burleske gibt dem letzten Dramatiker seine Modernitat."
18 A
systematic analysis of the comic elements in Greek tragedy does not
exist. The articles by Schmidt, op. cit. (supra n. 11), A. Reardon, "A Study
of Humour in Greek Tragedy," Univ. of Calif. Chronicle (1914) 30-60;
and L. Biffi, "Elementi comici nella tragedia Greca," Dioniso (1961) 89-102,
are no more than incomplete compilations of the material. I am preparing a
monograph devoted to the study of this unjustly neglected subject.
306
BERND SElDENSTICKER
EURIPIDES' BACCHAE
307
308
BERND SEIDENSTICKER
The admiration for Shakespeare's dramatic genius, however, soon led to more positive judgements and a deeper
understanding by more sympathetic critics. Voltaire24 confessed, almost involuntarily, that the barbaric mixture of
horror and buffoonery was more pleasing than the sterile
regularity, characteristic of the 'modern' age; and Wieland,25
who in his translation of Shakespeare had criticized comic
episodes in the tragedies and historical plays, defended the
playwright then in his pioneering essay 'Uber den Geist
Shakespeares" (1772), like Voltaire, as a 'natural genius.'
After Lessing26 and the brothers Friedrich27 and August
Wilhelm Schlegel,28 the romantic philosophers and poets in
particular understood and praised Shakespeare's combination
of comic and tragic elements.29 Modern Shakespearean criticism at last established the poetic quality and dramatic importance of the comic episodes. Detailed interpretations have
shown not only that the porter scene is dramaturgically
necessary30 and dramatically powerful,31 but also that it is
carefully integrated into its tragic context by a long series of
verbal and thematic connections which fill it deep with tragic
irony.32 No consensus has been reached, however, regarding
the dramatic intention and emotional effect of the scene. Two
differing interpretations deserve mention because they well
illustrate the fundamental point at issue and present arguments
typical of those which we shall encounter, when we try to
Voltaire, Lettres philosophiques, ed. G. Lanson (Paris 1909) II, 79ff.
Ch. M. Wieland, Werke (Berlin Hempel o.J.) XXXVI, 277-80.
26 F. G.
Lessing, e.g. Hamburgische Dramaturgie, 70 Stuck, in: Simtliche
Werke ed. Lachmann-Muncker, X, 80-84 (83).
27 F.
Schlegel, e.g. Geschichte der alten und der neuen Literatur, in:
Kritische F. Schlegel-Ausgabe, ed. H. Eichner, VI (1961) 291-95.
28 A. W.
Schlegel, e.g. Vorlesungen uber Dramatische Kunst und Literatur,
ed. G. V. Amoretti (Bonn-Leipzig 1923) 109-220 (141-44).
29
See K. S. Guthke, Die moderne Tragikomodie (Gottingen 1968) 106ff.
30 Some interlude is
necessary to allow Macbeth the time to change his
dress and wash his hands.
31 For the
heightening of tension see, for example, B. Vickers, The Artistry
of Shakespeare's Prose (London 1968) 383ff.
32 See the valuable discussion of this scene by K. Muir, Macbeth, The ArdenShakespeare (Liverpool 19619)XXV-XXXII, and the famous interpretation of
de Quincey, "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth," in: Th. de
Quincey, Riverside Edition, IV (Cambridge 1876) 533-39.
24
25
EURIPIDES' BACCHAE
309
310
BERND SElDENSTICKER
cb; ov xdtola'
Te.
Ka.
y7v'
OVQU() XQOT(oV
7ygovTre OVTcE;.
ent,euoje6'
b6&05;
K. S. Guthke, op. cit. (supra n. 29) 66. Guthke defines the tragicomic
as the synthetic mixture of the tragic and the comic by which the two
reciprocally heighten each other.
38
EURIPIDES' BACCHAE
Te.
Ka.
TI.
Ka.
TR.
Ka.
Te.
Ka.
311
40
312
313
EURIPIDES' BACCHAE
oTO oOv.
(364f.)
Could a scene the function of which was to present the
Dionysiac power of rejuvenation end with the stumbling departure of the two old men, leaning for necessary support
upon each other?47
45 Roux, op. cit. (supra n. 1) 303.
46
314
BERND SEIDENSTICKER
315
EURIPIDES' BACCHAE
(248-51)
Pentheus of course could be wrong. If we had been presented
with an unquestionably serious scene, we would dismiss his
judgement as inadequate. It would tell us something about
Pentheus, not about the effect of the two old men. On the
other hand, in the light of what has been said about the stage
action, the tone of the dialogue, and the function of the scene
we have good reason to assume that Pentheus' laughter is the
reaction the author intended to produce.
These four arguments taken together may not prove that the
scene is comic, but they strongly suggest the possibility of a
comic reading (and staging).
The explicit and implicit arguments of Conacher, Steidle,
Rohdich, Roux, and Lesky show that their protest against the
comic interpretation of the Teiresias-Kadmos-scene is based
on the following assumptions:
a) that a comic reading of the scene necessarily implies that
Euripides intended to unmask the abominable nonsense and
foolishness of the Dionysiac cult,51 and
b) that the scene, if comic, would lose its importance as the first
link in a chain of warnings which become more and more urgent
and threatening in the course of the action.52
But this is by no means the case.53 Just as in Macbeth the
laugh at the ridiculous old porter and his jokes does not
dissipate the gloomy atmosphere of the scene, so too in the
51
316
BERND SEIDENSTICKER
EURIPIDES' BACCHAE
317
318
BERND SEIDENSTICKER
apacbv
(857-61)
The tragic irony underlying the comic surface is intensified
by the symbolic meaning of the dressing which not only
provides the preparation for Pentheus' military reconnaissance
on Kithairon, but is also the visible expression of the total
destruction of the OeoCadXoswho having lost his fight against
maenadism is himself turned into a maenad. His bacchic
dress, however, will not be a dancing costume, but his shroud.
At the same time-even more important-the dressing scene
is a ritual prelude to the sparagmos. The victim, as in many
sacrifice rituals, is consecrated to the god by a rite of investiture. He becomes-like the priest who wears the dress of the
god-a surrogate.56 Doddss7 therefore is right, when he writes
that "the gruesomeness is enhanced by a bizarre and terrible
humour." But it is important to realize that the gruesomeness
of the sport with a doomed Pentheus does not spoil the comic
effect of the scene, as Dodds58 supposes: "the groundlings
will laugh and are meant to laugh, but for the sensitive
spectator the amusement is transmuted into pity and fear."
This Verrallian distinction of audiences (the naive and the
sophisticated and sensitive) does insufficient justice to the
complex tragicomic quality of the scene which at the same
time arouses laughter, pity, and terror. G. B. Shaw's59 words
in his review of a Globe production of H. Ibsen's Wild Duck
in 1897, xar' ava{oyiav,
are no less true for this scene:
"to look on with horror and pity at a profound tragedy,
shaking with laughter all the time at an irresistible comedy:
(that is, what the Wild Duck was last Monday at the Globe)."
In both scenes-the Teiresias-Kadmos-scene and the dressing scene-Euripides has effectively combined the comic and
56 See Dodds, Bacchae, xxv-xxviii; W. Burkert, "Greek Tragedy and
Sacrificial Ritual,' GRBS 7 (1966) 87-121.
S7 Dodds, Bacchae, 192.
S8 Dodds, Bacchae, 192 (Bradley's 'groundlings').
59 G. B. Shaw, 1897 in Saturday Review, cited from K. S. Guthke, op. cit.
(supra n. 29) 113.
EURIPIDES' BACCHAE
319
320
BERND SEIDENSTICKER
62
Dodds, Bacchae, ad 439; T. B. L. Webster, The Tragedies of Euripides
(London 1967) 269, has suggested that at the end, as deus-ex-machina he
wears a bearded mask (he is followed by Lesky, op. cit. [supra n. 1] 497).