EACH IN HIS OWN WAY AND TWO OTHER PLAYS

1·14.7 MB·English

by  LIVINGSTON, ARTHUR

EACH IN HIS OWN WAY:
“AND TWO OTHER PLAYS

EACH IN HIS OWN
WAY

AND TWO OTHER PLAYS

BY
LUIGI PIRANDELLO

FROM THE ITALIAN BY
ARTHUR LIVINGSTON

LONDON
J. M. DENT & SONS LTD,
Printed in U.S. A,
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

Inv the originality of its form, “Each in His Own Way”
‘suggests the manner of “Six Characters In Search of An
Author." We may say, indeed, that if the Jatter was the
drama of the writing of a play, “Each in His Own Way” is
the drama of the presentation of @ play. Taking a character
from contemporary life, and mindful of a recent experience
in his own career as an author (where x woman in “real life”
recognized herself in one of his plays), Pirandello has tried
to dramatize an Ttalian—a Latin—“firse night,” with ita
Claques, its ctitics, its partisanchips, all that strange com-
motion which features new artistic events in nations that
have a long tradition of art, and no tradition of parliamen-
tary decoru .

But thig is only the external element ia “Each in His Own
Way” (let not one confuse it, as the "Six Characters" was
confused, with a skit on dramatic criticism). Deeper down,
this play presents a general picture of life as Pirandello sees
it--as though, after viewing the human soul in special aspects
in the many plays be,has written since 1919, the author felt
the need of summing’ up, reconstructing the whole canvas in
its totality, in a play that would show the wider relationships

wef the many themes which he has elsewhere treated,

Here we see the Stream of Lifcy-which Bergson would call
the “vital urge” (and Freud, maybe, the Unconscious), flow=
ing along with its silent, mighty, irresistible tide. ‘Two in-
dividuals, Delia Morello and Michele Rocca, would stem its
flow: they aro overwhelmed in the tumultuous torrent that
the Stream becoraes as the feeble dikes, which they have can=

v