Page:The thirty-six dramatic situations (1921).djvu/108

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THIRTY-SECOND SITUATION

MISTAKEN JEALOUSY

(The Jealous One; The Object of Whose Possession He Is Jealous; the Supposed Accomplice; the Cause or the Author of the Mistake)

The last element is either not personified (A), or personified in a traitor (B), who is sometimes the true rival of the Jealous One (C).

A (1) — The Mistake Originates in the Suspicious Mind of the Jealous One: — "The Worst is not Always Certain" by Calderon; Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors;" "The Bondman" by Massinger; the "Marianne" of Dolse and of Tristan l'Hermite; "Tancrède" and "Marianne" by Voltaire; "la Princesse de Bagdad" by Dumas; "Un Divorce" (Moreau, 1884); "Monna Vanna" (Maeterlinck, 1902). How is it that Moliere has not written a comedy of jealousy upon this Situation symmetrical to that of "L'Avare?"

(2) — Mistaken Jealousy Aroused by a Fatal Chance — Voltaire's "Zaire" and the opera of that name by de la Nux; part of "Lucrèce Borgia." In comedy: "La Divorcée" (Fall and Léon, 1911).

(3) — Mistaken Jealousy of a Love Which is Purely Platonic: — "Love's Sacrifice" by Ford (in which the wife is unjustly suspected). "L'Esclave du Sevoin" Yalnay, 1881, in which it is more particularly the respect-