China and the West

[Roberts, R. Ellis] Yibusheng. Mei Chuan yi. [ID D26235].
Roberts schreibt : "[Ibsen's] prose plays shocked Europe because here once more were live people on the stage. This is certain, and yet all the time the theatres of Europe were all familiar to live people of Shakespeare, and their intense problems. Why did the situation in Ghosts seem so much more terrible than the situation in Measure for measure ? Why did Rosmer stun and shame audiences which could smile and yawn at the agony of Hamlet ? Why should Hedda Gabler appear heartless to a generation familiar with Iago, or Rebecca West ruthless to people who knew Macbeth, or Mrs. Allmers indecently sensual to playgoers who admired Cleopatra ? First, most people cannot listen intelligently to poetry, even when it is intelligently spoken ; secondly, the whole presentation of Shakespeare's plays under the Lyceum tradition tended to make actors and audiences alike treat them as belonging to some remote and long-dead past. Ibsen is too hard, too certain, too religious for an age which is soft, and vague and frivolous. Also he is, except for those who like the east wind and the mountain top, a bleak author."