Ruy Blas

The play is set in Spain under the soon-to-collapse reign of Charles II. The author remains the most appropriate source to talk about this major repertoire piece: “First, the nobility has a tendency to break up, and in dissolving divides […]. Always in examining this monarchy and this epoch […] one sees trembling in the shade something great, gloomy and unrecognized. It is the people. The people for whom is the future but not the present; the people orphans, poor, intelligent and strong, placed very low, and aspiring very high […]. The people should be represented in the character of Ruy Blas. […] The philosophical motive of Ruy Blas is a people aspiring to a higher state; the human subject is a man who loves a woman; the dramatic interest is a lackey who loves a queen. […] The three governing forms of the art would appear there personified and summed up. Don Salluste would be the mixed drama; Don Caesar, comedy; and Ruy Blas, tragedy. The drama provides action, comedy confuses it, and tragedy decides it. […] All these aspects are just and true, but not one of them is complete. Absolute truth is only to be found in the entire work.”

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