People enjoy tragedy because they are culprits, Eric Bentley contended last . They identify the guilt of a tragic hero with their own. "In tragedy we the most single-minded and complete identification with guilt of any art soever."

Unlike in melodrama, the hero in tragedy "is not only an angel, but also a" the critic said in his next to last Charles Eliot Norton lecture. He described melodrama and farce--the "lower" dramatic forms--as "childish," while and comedy are more "grown-up." "The high forms can be distinguished the low by a respect for reality," Bentley maintained.

But reality is not necessarily enjoyable; on the contrary, it is painful, and its is expressed in idioms such as "unflinching realism." "We will only face if there if something in it for us," stated. "We risk anxiety for the of forbidden wishes."

The biggest wish of all of us," Bent- is for justification of our But the wish is in vain. "By verdict own heart, no man is acquitted. He to spend days working for which will never be granted."

this reason, tragedy is an "explora- the morbid," and a "disturbance" as an outlet for guilt. Shake tragedy, Bentley said, "finds soft in human nature. It is Macbeth, Chatterly's Lover, that should from the mails."

"Transfiguration of Fear"

"disturbance" resulting from trag two elements: fear and pity. comes from the "mystery of what us, our ignorance of the In watching tragedy on the stage take terror by the hand, and as it more, we fear a little less." is not merely reduced by being it changes to awe, the of fear."

on the other hand, is "not too in tragedy," Bentley maintained. are voluptuous, and drama can't too much voluptuousness. The stop so that the play can

whole, "the aftertaste of tragedy disturbance untranscended," Bentley : "Tragedy implies disorder and and its order comes only through struction of the play. "The only which the poet can set up against is an aesthetic one created by

will give the last of his Charles lectures next Thursday on notional Dynamics of Comedy." of the lectures will be published.