TH E P U PP ET TH EA T ER
69
by means of a handle, just the w.ay I had imagined it.
I expressed my astonishment, for I was struck that he should
have considered this game, invented for the mob, worthy of a
beautiful
art.
Not only that he should believe it capable of a higher
evolution, but also that he himself seemed to be occupied with it.
He smiled, saying that he dared assert that if a mechanic would
construct a marionette according to his requirements, he would pre–
sent a dance with it, which neither he nor any good dancer of his
time, including Vestris, could equal.
"Have you
ever
heard," he said, while I looked silently at the
floor, "of those mechanical legs which English artists manufacture
for unfortunate people who have lost theirs?" I said-no, I had
never seen such things. "I am sorry," he replied, "for
if
I tell you that
these unfortunate people dance with them, to be sure, I am almost
afraid you will not believe me. What am I saying, dance? The
sphere of their movements is rather limited, but those that are at
their command ·develop with a tranquillity, lightness,
an~
gr.ace
which astonishes every thinking mind."
I said jestingly that in this way he had what he was looking
for. For the artist who-is able to construct such a strange leg would
doubtless be able to produce a whole group of puppets for him,
according to his requirements. "Now what," I asked, as I saw him
also looking down, somewhat embarrassed, "what are these require–
ments you make of his skill?"
"Nothing," he replied,· "except what I have already found here:
symmetry, mobility, lightness; only
all
that in a higher degree and
especially a more natural order of the centers of gravity."
"And what advantage would this !puppet have over living
dancers?" I wondered.
""What advantage? First of all- a negative one, my dear friend,
that is, that it would never be affected. For affection, as you know,
appears when the soul
(vis
mot1ix)
finds itself at a point other than
that of the center of gravity of the movement. Since the puppeteer,
as a matter of fact, when he holds this wire, holds no other point
in his power but this one, all other limbs are what they should be,
dead; they .are only pendula that follow the pure law of gravitation;
an excellent quality, which
we
seek in vain with most dancers. Just
look at that woman dancer P.," he continued, "when she plays
Daphne, and, pursued by Apollo, turns around to look at him; her
soul is seated in the vertebrae of her.loins; she bends as if she were
to break, like a naiad from the school of Bernini. Look at young F.
when, as Paris, he stands among the three goddesses and hands the
