The World of Melodrama by Frank Rahill (review)

1968 BOOK REVIEWS 219 THE WORLD OF MELODRAMA~ by Frank Rahill, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pa., 1967, 334 pp. Price $7.50. One bothersome question kept recurring as I read this astonishing display of one man's intimate acquaintance with the multiple details of stage melodrama throughout its long, if not always respected, history: Was all this effort really necessary? There is no doubt that Frank Rahill has assembled a most impressive critique of this liveliest of lively arts. It is the only serious study in print, and fills a long vacant space in any drama library. One must view the size of the undertaking with some awe, for I can imagine few others who. could have forced their way through the reading of these endless plots and counterplots, seductions attempted and/or accomplished, and virgins violated or vindicated with the devotion of this writer and still retain some measure of scholarly objectivity or even sanity. But my question must still be asked. Was it worth it? I suppose so. For all the triteness of so much of melodrama, and for all of its elemental appeal as it plucks sentimental heartstrings and exploits primitive emotions, melodrama at its best remains a thoroughly legitimate dramatic form. Shakespeare may not have known he was writing it-not in our terms, anyway-but he certainly built Hamlet on the solid foundation of genuine melodrama. Webster's Duchess and all her antagonists indulged in melodramatics of the purest sort. And melodrama in its modern sense of hero, heroine, and villain has pulled vast crowds into the theatre for a good 200 years. In our own time, especially through radio and television, it has become such a commercial staple of amusement that to eliminate it suddenly would leave its soap and cosmetic sponsors floundering. To condemn melodrama as such, then, is to condemn a great portion of public entertainment since the seventeenth century. This I do not mean to do. So long as men pursue women, villains pursue lust (Dr gold, or power) and heroes defend the honor of both sexes, melodrama will be with us as a legitimate ingredient of theatre, good or bad. My questioning of Mr. Rahill's total accomplishment is based, therefore, on the tremendous amDunt of nonsense which he had to' put up with in order to bring us his faithfully detailed report. We have in hand a volume sincerely devoted to the cause of tracing the history of melodrama as a theatrical genre important in its own right, but one which bogs down in trivia ad nauseum. My summary judgment of the book, therefore, is to say that it is at one and the same time thoroughly enjoyable and almost overwhelmingly tedious. Some process of refinement or distillation would have greatly benefited the end product. I would venture that Mr. Rahill in all probability has done a great deal of sifting and boiling down already, but more, much more, is still needed. The pileup of titles and plot reviews, of writers, actors, and theatres befuddles rather than clarifies. I found myself cDnstantly leafing back to earlier chapters for necessary reorientation; keeping everything straight was quite a chore indeed. And yet, this is a tremendously valuable book. You will learn more about the origins and development of melodrama than you ,imagined possible. The evolutiDn from the tawdry displays of the Paris boulevard theatres to the "adult" approach of a modern High N'Oon is completely, and I must assume accurately. documented. Starting out from Pixerecourt's C'Oelina~ Child 'Of Mystery in 1800 (with appropriate background filled in), we travel a long and highly adventuresome path. 220 MODERN DRAMA September Along the way are the blacks and whites of cape and sword romances (Dumas and his Three Musketeers); the sins and attractions of urban life in the city melodramas (Les Pauvres de Paris, so familiar to the English stage as Boucicault's Poor-or Streets-of New York-or London); absolutely defended virginity and the melodrama of tears, often associated with lost children and suddenly discovered parents (Dennery's The Two OrPhans); and lost virginity and domestic catastrophe (East Lynne). And of course there are the "subject" areas...