A Digest of 500 Plays: Plot Outlines and Production Notes by Theodore J. Shank (review)

470 MODERN DRAMA February literature with Buchner's death at the age of 113 in 1837. There is an introduction into Buchner's life and work in which in less than 110 pages the editor has something essential to say about Buchner's works. He rightly asserts the importance of Buchner's drama to the modern theater, but it seems to me that in his remarks. the stress lies too heavily on the naturalistic aspect. For example, at the earliest stage of Woyzeck, this "barber" appeared as a "dogmatic atheist" in a scene which usually is dropped, but in this edition is inserted as scene XVI (p. 1119). The real Woyzeck, however, is rather a symbol of the deep sufferings infiicted on a humanbeing which is not fully explained by "Society, Environment, Circumstance" (p. xxv), but in the phrase: "Jeder Mensch ist ein Abgrund"-"Every man'. a chasm" (p. 123-1 would rather translate "Abgrund" with "abyss" as the editor did in "Lenz," p. 158). This "Abgrund" reveals itself in Woyzeck and his fellow men so convincingly that in my opinion there is no need for an "unauthorized" addition (p. xxxii) to the final scene of Woyzeck. implying the "dogmatic atheist 's" being brought to trial. Here the drama is the trial, and not only of Woyzeck_ This would render questionable the assertion that Buchner was certain that "Man is dirt, sand, and dung" (p. xxix). When some years ago the German poet Ham Erich Nossack received the Georg Buchner prize in Darmstadt, he gave a famous lecture on Georg Buchner's fight for ilie dignity of man· against his worst enemy: ilie totalitarian forces, which, under the disguise of Virtue (Robespierre in Danton's Death) or Science (the doctor in Woyzeck), want to degrade man to a mere function. Someiliing has to be said about -ilie translation. It seems extremely difficult to translate Buchner's dramas in such a way as to preserve the type of idiomatic language which, for example, represents Woyzeck not only as a member of ilie lowest class, but as a terribly disturbed human being. Yet one is surprised to read Buchner in English and to find out iliat noiliing is lost of a realism traversed by metaphors which illumine the depths of tlle human soul. There are a few passages which are slightly misrepresented: p.8: p. «: p. 125: p.1118: Wife • . . Even if it does cost her a little pain! Eh? The German "Und tut's ihr auch web dabei, he?" is a rhetorical question implying the contrary: it doesn't hurt her at all. Herault-Sechelles ••• You can continue worshiping Madame Momoro as Nature's masterwork; she's at least given you a crown of rosebuds in your groin. In this context ilie German word "Rosenkranze" means "rosaries." First Apprentice • • • Let us piss once more upon tlle Cross. The German text, "lasst uns noch ubers Kreuz pissen,": let us just piss crosswise. Doctor • • • and of a persistent usage of the Germanic language. The German text speaks of "Muttersprache" only. "Idealism is tlle most humiliating of insults to human nature." The German text "Dieser Idealismus" would be more adequately rendered Iby "This sort of idealism. • • ." MICHAEL SCHEREll University of Kansas A DIGEST OF 500 PLAYS: PLOT OUTliNES AND PRODUCTION NOTES~ edited by Theodore J. Shank, The Crowell-Collier Press, New York, 1963, 475 pp. Price $5.95. As a convenient reference guide for tlle commercial or amateur tlleater director. 1965 BOOK REVIEWS 471 this book supplies much important information: the number of acting parts in a play, set and costume descriptions, particular difficulties in staging and directing. and royalty fees. Although, strictly speaking, play plots are discussed rather than outlined, the result is effective in the condensed form required. The 'book, however, is not intended for the student of drama as literature, and the editor's liberal use of terms (Sidney Howard's Detective Story is called a tragedy) is sometimes disturbing. As the editor wisely notes, the choice of plays for such a collection is never completely satisfying to all readers. Among the numerous sections which deal with the drama from the Greeks to the present in the major countries of the...