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70 DRAMATIC AND LYRIC INTERPRETATION
La bonne n'est pas une tres belle fille, Mais nous n'tenons pas au minois, On lui fait la cour en famille A l'h6tel du No. 3 !
You remember that I have spoken of four colors by which I have indicated the shades of comic expression — Gray, Red, Purple, and Vermillion.
I have not given an example of Vermillion, because I cannot illustrate the comic spirit corresponding to the last named color.
Nothing in the literature of French songs, even of the most.remote period, offers an occasion of utilizing an expression of comedy, which I would call the coarse "comedy of grimaces" — grimaces of face, as well as grimaces of voice.
The words of songs, which we know, show not a trace of the utility even of such grimaces. These grimaces were introduced in France during the seventeenth century by the Italian jesters, headed by Scaramouche, who exhibited their low comedy on the Pont Neuf in Paris.
Their comedy consisted mainly in distorting their faces, which made their public, a crowd of servants, soldiers, chair-carriers, bar-keepers, and street-loiterers of both sexes, roar with laughter. |
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