industrial lord

Chapter 573 Grasping the Core Content
"Grand Duke Weisen invited you to his house?"

Everyone in the Fira delegation looked at Ludovico in surprise, as if they were meeting him for the first time.

People began to ask him all kinds of questions.

"Are you hiding some business from us?"

"Did you do anything bad when you went to the Duchy of Wessen last year?"

"Do you have a beautiful sister?"

……

Ludovico was also wondering, he and Grand Duke Wesson had no connection at all, why was he looking for him?
Because of this, he scheduled the meeting for tea time the next day, so that he could recall the incident carefully and have enough time to escape if it turned out to be bad.

"Uh..." Ludovico suddenly thought of something, "I think I know why he invited me."

Everyone looked at him. If there really was a big deal, they would just follow him and get some benefits.

Ludovico agreed. The guys' eyes were green, like wolves that wanted to eat people. He swallowed his saliva and said, "Grand Duke Weisen is Ms. Qingju's student. Ms. Qingju and I have been pen pals for many years. Although we have never met, we often discuss poetry in letters."

Many officials of the Kingdom of Sardinia had a background in law and literature. Many of them had a good literary foundation and would read some literary works on a daily basis.

They knew that Ludovico was a great poet, but they didn't expect that he was connected with another famous female poet.

Just as Ludovico thought, when he arrived at Frederick's residence the next day, Frederick really wanted to talk to him about literature.

Frederick quickly turned the topic to drama, and Ludovico couldn't help but complain.

Ludovico shook his head and said, "Tragedy is very popular in the Kingdom of Sardinia now. The more it hurts people's hearts and makes them cry, the better the play is."

"These tragedies have gorgeous scenery and grand scenes, the actors' monologues are so long that they make people doze off, and the lyrics are boring and preachy, which makes people bored."

"Life is already so depressing, why do we have to cry when watching a play? Wouldn't it be better to have more laughter?"

"Besides, if you want to preach, drama can also preach."

"Last year, I went to Weissenburg with the Fila government to attend the World Expo. I fell ill there. When I recovered, it started snowing. I went to the theater every day throughout the winter."

"I initially thought that farce was just for fun, until I saw a scene for the third time and realized that it had a didactic element to it."

Frederick asked with interest: "Which scene?"

Ludovico said: "There was a sign saying 'Bridge ahead is blocked', but many people didn't believe it and made excuses to keep going. When they found out the bridge was blocked, they came back in disgrace and blamed each other. Then they found out the sign said 'Believe it, you fool'."

"I work for the municipal government of Fira City. I used to write a lot of notices, but many people didn't read them."

"I suddenly realized that day that this farce was telling the audience in a way that if they didn't read the notice, they would suffer a bad outcome."

Frederick just smiled and thought that what he said made some sense, but this scene came from real life.

Ludovico continued, "In fact, comedies are not very good either. The content is all the same, either a misunderstanding or an affair. In the past two years, it has become popular for lost children to grow up and find their parents, and finally have a happy reunion with the help of a noble person."

"The audience knows the story as soon as they see the name of the play. The only thing to watch is the actors' performance and adaptation of the lines. Some troupes even add acrobatics and actresses dancing without clothes to attract audiences."

"There is a new kind of pastoral drama now, which is for city dwellers. However, the story is set in the countryside, with shepherd's flute as the main instrument, and the characters are farmers and shepherdesses." He then laughed and said, "Last month, a troupe in our area performed a pastoral drama and brought a real cow to the stage. As a result, the cow defecated a large pile on the stage, and the audience burst out laughing."

"The cow stopped pulling when we performed again, and the audience was still not satisfied."

Frederick laughed, and the audience just wanted to watch the fun.

After he finished laughing, he said, "It seems that many of your plays are about ordinary people. Are there any about aristocratic courts?"

Ludovico replied: "Of course there are, but those are mostly big plays in big theaters. Citizens prefer to go to small theaters to watch small plays for ordinary people."

"I prefer to write plays about ordinary people. The lyrics in big plays need to be in rhythm, which is a headache. Small plays don't have so many requirements."

“Besides, there are many small theaters, so the income from selling scripts is higher.”

Frederick nodded and said, "It seems that although the market for small plays is large, the content and themes are still the same, and there are not many major breakthroughs."

Ludovico nodded and said, "Indeed, I am tired of this, too."

"But I have found a new direction. When I was in Weissenburg, I read a collection of your essays on artistic work. It mentioned that art comes from life, and creators should get inspiration from life."

"At that time, there was an exhibition of paintings by the 'Wesson School'. I went to see it. The themes of their works were all about working in the fields and workers in factories. Many people came to see and buy their works."

“This inspired me to try to draw inspiration from my surroundings, and then I met an interesting person from the Kingdom of Gaul.”

Frederick had some knowledge of the Wessen school.

Now the city of Weissenburg is full of painters. In order to sell their paintings, some of them have begun to break through the original subject matter restrictions. They first achieved success by painting tractors, and then some began to paint workers in ironworks.

The size of these paintings is not large, the largest one is about 80×60 cm, and the smallest one is 40×30 cm. The price is not expensive and many people can afford it.

After printmakers entered the field, this type of painting began to appear on postcards and stamps, spreading throughout the Rhine Confederation through the rudimentary postal system.

The same is true for drama. Frederick had long advocated that creators write more plays about working life. However, after the Duchy of Wessen, these plays were not very popular. However, works on military themes were quite popular.

Frederick asked Ludovico, "Isn't that the Gaul who sells oysters that you met?"

Ludovico answered immediately: "Yes, his name is Dafranche. I wrote a play based on his story when I came back in the spring. You know him too?"

"I have heard of him," said Frederick.

"I read the play you wrote yesterday and was a little dissatisfied, so I wanted to talk to you about it."

Ludovico broke out in a cold sweat. He had never expected that he was called here because the play he wrote angered Grand Duke Wesson. If he had known this, he would have run away last night.

Frederick smiled and said, "Don't be nervous. I'm not here to accuse you."

"I think you have missed the core of the Davranche experience. Your script is just a new skin for the old content. It is no different from other plays with new skins."

Ludovico was relieved to find that he was not being held accountable, but he felt uncomfortable when he heard him criticizing his script.

(End of this chapter)