Aria Da Capo by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Book Review Example

“Aria da Capo” is one of the most famous Edna Millay’s literary works. It is a pacifist one-act play that is written in Commedia dell’arte style. Despite the fact that it is short, it is very intense and impressive. Also, it is conspicuous as the style and manner in which everything is presented are very original and allegoric.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in 1892 in Maine to a nurse Cora Buzzell and a schoolteacher Henry Millay¹. Her mother divorced her father when she was twelve and since then she s lived with her two sisters and her mother in poverty. Edna Millay began her literary life in school when in 1912 she entered her poem “Renascence” into a poetry contest in “The Lyric Year” (Feller). The poem was literally “picked from a slush pile of 10,000 manuscripts submitted in a contest” (Erwin 7) and despite the fact that it was placed fourth it launched her career and attracted attention to her poetry.

The publication of “Renascence” attracted the attention of the dean of the YWCA Training School of New York City, and she enabled Edna Millay to attend Vassar². Since then she wrote poetry and sold it to magazines, and from time to time she collected it into books. Her pen name was Nancy Boyd.

We know Edna St. Vincent Millay mainly as a poet rather than as a playwright. Her plays are of two types – romances and political plays. Her career of poet suffered from her “anti-fascist poetry in the late 1930’s and for participating in the American propaganda effort during World War II” (Feller). It is ironic because the play “Aria da Capo” is a political pacifist allegory. She wrote three one-act plays as a student at Vassar and five more later. With the exception of “The Wall of Dominoes” she wrote her plays in verse. “Aria da Capo is the one most frequently revived [plays], with 471 licensed productions alone in the decade following her death” (Feller).

The Commedia dell’arte is a form of theatre in which actors improvise upon a scenario; it originated in the middle of the sixteenth century in Italy and continued until the latter part of the eighteenth century (Schmitt 55).  Commedia dell’arte had several conspicuous features – masks that were used in performances, presence of women as actresses, and improvisation based on sketches. ³

Also, it was performed by professional actors only. The performances took place outdoors, as this genre had long been illegitimate. Commedia dell’arte actors performed “scripts from a variety of genres” (Schmitt 57) – comedies, tragedies, tragicomedies, pastorals. Groups of Commedia dell’arte performers usually consisted of ten actors: two old men, two young women lovers, two young men lovers, two servants, a captain and one serving maid. They frequently performed traditional roles with traditional names such as Colombina (Columbine) and Arlecchino (Harlequin).

Aria da Capo is written in the Commedia dell’arte style. First of all, there is one character whose name coincides with traditional Italian Commedia dell’arte character name; it is Columbine. Pierrot is another traditional Italian name, though not that popular with Commedia dell’arte characters. In the play they both represent a traditional spoiled couple (Cooperman), but their seemingly innocent and perfunctory remarks have not that innocent meaning.

The impression of improvisation – main feature of Commedia dell’arte –  is created also by lines of actors that they are supposed to forget. For readers it is clear that this is a form of the play organization and it is intentional. But for those who watch this play performed it seems like actors really improvise and forget their lines. And the idea of Cothurnus directing one group of actors to let the scene is intended to show that the improvisation takes place.

The play is performed on the stage that is decorated as for Harlequinade. Everything is colored “merry black and white”. Columbine’s and Pierrot’s costumes are bright – pink and lilac. The stage represents… the stage. The play is performed as if one group of actors interrupts other to perform their tragedy. Thing that differs the situation described in the play from the real situation most notably is the Greek name Cothurnus. So the play “Aria da Capo” is performed on the stage that is decorated as a stage and represents a play being played.

In music there is a term aria da capo. It is a “three-part song in which the third part repeats the first” (Feller). Millay’s play has the same structure. Why will be discussed later.

Pierrot and Columbine sit at the table and talk to each other, caricaturing the bohemian types and commenting on the radical movements of the era (Filler, Millay 4-6). The stage manager, Cothurnus, interrupts them and invites two shepherds to perform their pastoral scene.

The shepherds’ conversation is peaceful until Thyrsis proposes: “Let’s gather rocks, and build a wall between us; / And say that over there belongs to me, / And over here to you!” (Millay 9) They call it a game and decide not to step on each other’s territory. After that Corydon finds out that all the water is on Thyrsis’s side and his sheep cannot drink. But when Thyrsis falls asleep he finds jewels on his territory. Thyrsis finds a poisonous black root while searching for jewels on his territory. When Corydon is thirsty he asks Thyrsis to give him a bowl of water for a bowl of diamonds. Thyrsis gives Corydon poisoned water, and Corydon strangles Thyrsis with a jewel necklace. They die at the same time.

Cothurnus places the table over the two bodies and draws down the cover, and after that he instructs Pierrot and Columbine to “strike the scene” (Millay 17) Pierrot and Columbine come back and make several remarks about the shepherds. Then they follow Cothurnus’ advice to cover the corpses with the tablecloth to hide them from the audience and begin their scene from the very beginning.

There are five characters in the play: two shepherds, Thyrsis and Corydon; an artist Pierrot and his lover, young woman Columbine; and Cothurnus, Masque of Tragedy – he is a stage manager. Edna Millay describes their characters herself, and it gives the reader a profound understanding of the play and its implication.

Pierrot is fully aware of all the evils of his time; he is apathetic and indifferent. Yet from several lines of the play we can see that his actually he is unhappy. He is a hapless cynic; “there is nothing I can enjoy” (Millay 6) says he and continues his idle life. When he says “Moon’s just a word to swear by,” (Millay 6) he expresses “his conviction that all beauty and romance are fled from the world”(Millay 23). He finds Columbine’s company extremely boring but still does nothing. Columbine is pretty but stupid; she loves Pierrot but doesn’t try to understand him. She pretends to be extravagant, but her attempts bore Pierrot. They represent a typical couple who lead glamorous but empty life.

Cothurnus has deep and tremendous voice; all his lines are spoken with dignity and weight and it lends his words unarguable fundamentalism. He seems to be aware of all the evils, just like Pierrot. But, while Pierrot acts nonchalant and only teases Columbine, Cothurnus directs people to show the evils and conclude from it.

Corydon and Thyrsis are naïve, simple, and even childlike (Millay 24). Their ideal pastime is looking after their sheep and making songs. When they decide to play the game both realize that something is going wrong. Their quarrel is a surprise to them both. It is independent and even when they realize that they are going to kill each other they don’t realize why it’s happening.

The theme of the play is the awfulness of war and complacency of idle people who pretend that nothing happened when something horrible occurs. People forget the horrors of war too quickly. This play promotes peace and thoughtfulness.

When in the beginning of the play shepherds claim that they cannot play their pastoral tragedy scene with the setting for a farce, Cothurnus replies – “Try it and see. I think you’ll find you can” (Millay 8). Cooperman interprets this scene and state that “Millay is saying that what can seem light and everyday is not so far from tragedy” (Cooperman). ⁴

The moment when Cothurnus hides the corpses of shepherds under the tablecloth is the most important in the play. Harlequins return and on see the bodies, and Pierrot asks Cothurnus to “drag these bodies out of here! We can’t Sit down and eat with two dead bodies lying Under the table! … The audience wouldn’t stand for it!” (Millay 18)

Here is the “most scathing indictment of people” (Cooperman) as Cothurnus replies: “What makes you think so? – Pull down the tablecloth… And play the farce. The audience will forget” (Millay 18).

Why do people should forget about two dead bodies? Edna Millay claims that people don’t want to see evil; they prefer to hide it and live the life they are used to live. So Cooperman claims that the ability to see evil and admit it gives us power.

At first sight this play is rather impressionistic. Characters from Italian comedy are on the same stage with Greek Masque of Tragedy and shepherds from pastoral genre. But the contrast can be easily explained as it emphasizes the situation in the end, when all these characters are on the same stage.

The setting and characters require the audience to think of the meaning of that black and white properties and colored costumes. Idle Pierrot and pretty silly Columbine talk to each other; their conversation is meaningless. Beautiful and pretentious bright costumes create an impression of spoiled rich young people. They don’t care about their life too much – Pierrot is too lazy, Columbine is too stupid.

The appearance of two shepherds is absolutely different. They are casual people and their clothes represent their simple world view. And that casual people who intend no harm suffer from the evil of Cothurnus suggestion. The important thing is that they forget the lines where they want to start the game and where they doubt the intentions of one another. And when they forget their lines, the deep voice of Cothurnus tells prompts the forgotten lines. But it looks like he directs them onto the thoughts of malice and jealousy. For me they are just like sheep that are governed by the evil shepherd.

The play is very short but thought-provoking. There are many ideas that are packed in one play, in one act, and even in one dialogue. Idleness of young people, contempt with which one person treats another, being close to tragedy even when farce is expected, necessity to control the situation when it becomes a menace to peace, unwillingness to admit that the evil is close, tendency to hide the unpleasant things and pretend that they don’t exist – the play “Aria da Capo” carries all these ideas.

As Cooperman called it, “the Aesthetic Realism is the greatest opposition to man’s contempt.” What Edna St. Vincent Millay really intended to awake is our true power – to feel sympathy, to have good intentions, and to love the world.

Notes

1. For more biography see Feller and Wikipedia file.
2. The YWCA Training School of New York City dean name was Caroline Dow (Feller). Wikipedia claims that Edna Millay attracted her attention by playing piano and reciting her own poetry.
3. For more information see Shmitt 55-58.
4. Cooperman views the play from the Aesthetic Realism point of view (see Cooperman).

Works Cited

Cooperman, Bennett. “Aria da Capo & What Makes a Man Powerful?” (2008) PDF file.

Erwin, Robert. “A Candle for Edna Millay.” Helicon Nine 11 (1984): pp. 6-14. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 11 Mar. 2010.

Feller, Thomas R. “Edna St. Vincent Millay.” Critical Survey of Drama, Second Revised Edition (2003): Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 11 Mar. 2010.

Millay, Edna St. Vincent. “Aria da Capo.” A Penn State Electronic Classics Series Publication PDF file.

Schmitt, Natalie C. “Commedia dell’Arte : Characters, Scenarios, and Rhetoric.” Text & Performance Quarterly. 24.1 (2004): pp.55-74.