Charuavi
The Critic
I am a rich man, a globe-trotter and a connoisseur. It is well-known that I have the largest private collection of curios gathered painstakingly during my travels around the world.
So, wherever I go, people try to sell me both genuine and fake antiques. However, no fakes ever make it to my collection because of Peter, an antiquarian, whom I employ.
We were visiting the ancient theater at Ephesus when a man approached us and whispered something into Peter’s ears.
I have seldom seen Peter get excited, but now he was, because the man had an authentic marble tablet, carved with Roman letters, to sell.
We bought that tablet, a bit broken though it was and Peter translated it. This is what it had to say:
“I saw Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus the King’ yesterday.
I do not see why the play is so popular. It only shows to what abysmal levels the taste of ‘hoi polloi’ has sunk. This sort of immoral play should be banned.
So called ‘modern’ Sophocles is not in the same league with the great dramatists of yesteryear, Thespis and Aeschylus. His brashness is jarring.”
Both Peter and I realized that the tablet was just an entry in a journal--marble though it was-- kept by a critic.
Last year we visited Stratford-upon-Avon. Peter managed to get his hands on an old parchment written in ‘ye Olde English’ and translated it into modern English for my benefit.
“1-11-1604
Saw ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare might have Royal patronage but his tragedies fall short of the standards set by the great Greek tragedies of Thespis, Aeschylus and Sophocles.
In future, Shakespeare should write only those frivolous comedies, so popular with the masses, rather than tragedies. He simply lacks the seriousness.”
Both I and Peter were highly amused by this parchment. Obviously it was a page from the diary of a critic.
Recently, my grandfather expired. As I am his only living descendant, I inherited everything from him including his diaries.
I must mention that he loved theater and rarely missed both the new and old plays on Broadway.
This is what I found in his journal.
“I took Lillian yesterday to see a new play (translated of course) by Henrik Ibsen, ‘A Doll’s house’.
I just cannot understand these modern playwrights. Is the play a tragedy or a comedy? Should we feel sorry for Nora or laugh at her for making a mountain out of a molehill?
I prefer the Greek and Shakespearean tragedies - real tragedies that satisfactorily end in a bloodbath. Ibsen has only dramatized a domestic squabble.”
I showed this to Peter and we had a good laugh over it.
“The theater may evolve, new plays and playwrights would come and go but the Critic would remain forever unsatisfied, and thinks nothing of advising the playwrights about how the plays should be written.” He said sagely. “We have three entries in three journals, marble, parchment and paper, to prove it.”
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I am a rich man, a globe-trotter and a connoisseur. It is well-known that I have the largest private collection of curios gathered painstakingly during my travels around the world.
So, wherever I go, people try to sell me both genuine and fake antiques. However, no fakes ever make it to my collection because of Peter, an antiquarian, whom I employ.
We were visiting the ancient theater at Ephesus when a man approached us and whispered something into Peter’s ears.
I have seldom seen Peter get excited, but now he was, because the man had an authentic marble tablet, carved with Roman letters, to sell.
We bought that tablet, a bit broken though it was and Peter translated it. This is what it had to say:
“I saw Sophocles’ play ‘Oedipus the King’ yesterday.
I do not see why the play is so popular. It only shows to what abysmal levels the taste of ‘hoi polloi’ has sunk. This sort of immoral play should be banned.
So called ‘modern’ Sophocles is not in the same league with the great dramatists of yesteryear, Thespis and Aeschylus. His brashness is jarring.”
Both Peter and I realized that the tablet was just an entry in a journal--marble though it was-- kept by a critic.
Last year we visited Stratford-upon-Avon. Peter managed to get his hands on an old parchment written in ‘ye Olde English’ and translated it into modern English for my benefit.
“1-11-1604
Saw ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare might have Royal patronage but his tragedies fall short of the standards set by the great Greek tragedies of Thespis, Aeschylus and Sophocles.
In future, Shakespeare should write only those frivolous comedies, so popular with the masses, rather than tragedies. He simply lacks the seriousness.”
Both I and Peter were highly amused by this parchment. Obviously it was a page from the diary of a critic.
Recently, my grandfather expired. As I am his only living descendant, I inherited everything from him including his diaries.
I must mention that he loved theater and rarely missed both the new and old plays on Broadway.
This is what I found in his journal.
“I took Lillian yesterday to see a new play (translated of course) by Henrik Ibsen, ‘A Doll’s house’.
I just cannot understand these modern playwrights. Is the play a tragedy or a comedy? Should we feel sorry for Nora or laugh at her for making a mountain out of a molehill?
I prefer the Greek and Shakespearean tragedies - real tragedies that satisfactorily end in a bloodbath. Ibsen has only dramatized a domestic squabble.”
I showed this to Peter and we had a good laugh over it.
“The theater may evolve, new plays and playwrights would come and go but the Critic would remain forever unsatisfied, and thinks nothing of advising the playwrights about how the plays should be written.” He said sagely. “We have three entries in three journals, marble, parchment and paper, to prove it.”
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