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Title: Mary Magdalene: A Play in Three Acts
Author: Maeterlinck, Maurice
Language: English
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MARY MAGDALENE
_A Play in Three Acts_
BY
MAURICE MAETERLINCK
_Translated by_
ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1910
COPYRIGHT, 1910,
BY MAURICE MAETERLINCK
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I have borrowed from Mr. Paul Heyse’s drama, _Maria von Magdala_, the
idea of two situations in my play, namely, at the end of the first
act, the intervention of Christ, who stops the crowd raging against
Mary Magdalene with these words, spoken behind the scenes: “He that
is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone;” and, in the
third, the dilemma in which the great sinner finds herself, of saving
or destroying the Son of God, according as she consents or refuses to
give herself to a Roman.
Before setting to work, I asked the venerable German poet, whom I
hold in the highest esteem, for his permission to develop those two
situations, which, so to speak, were merely sketched in his play, with
its incomparably richer plot than mine; and I offered to recognize his
rights in whatever manner he thought proper. My respectful request
was answered with a refusal, none too courteous, I regret to say, and
almost threatening.
From that moment, I was bound to consider that the words from the
Gospel, quoted above, are common property; and that the dilemma of
which I speak is one of those which occur pretty frequently in dramatic
literature. It seemed to me the more lawful to make use of it inasmuch
as I had happened to imagine it in the fourth act of _Joyzelle_, in the
same year in which _Maria von Magdala_ was published and before I was
able to become acquainted with that play.
I will add that, excepting the principle of these two situations, in
all that concerns the subject of the play, the conduct of the action,
the persons, the characters, the evolution and the atmosphere, our two
works have absolutely nothing in common: not a phrase, not a cue of the
one will be found in the other.
Having said this, I am happy to express to the aged master my gratitude
for an intellectual benefit which is none the less great for being
involuntary.
MAURICE MAETERLINCK.
ACT I
(_The gardens of ANNŒUS SILANUS at Bethany. A Roman terrace. A
quincunx. Marble benches, porticoes, statues. In the centre, a
basin with a fountain. Arbours. Orange-trees and laurel-trees
in stone vases. A balustrade on the right and left, overlooking
the valley. A balustrade at the back, open at the middle to give
access to a walk lined with plane-trees and statues and ending in
a thick hedge of laurels which closes the garden._)
SCENE I
(_ENTER ANNŒUS SILANUS and LUCIUS VERUS_)
SILANUS
Here is the terrace, the glory of my little domain: it reminds me of
my terrace at Præneste, which was the crown of my desires. Here are my
orange-trees, my cypresses and my oleanders. Here is the fish-pond,
the portico with the images of the gods: one of them is a statue of
Minerva, discovered at Antioch. (_Pointing to the landscape on the
left._) And here you have the incomparable view over the valley, where
spring already reigns. We hang midway in space. Admire the anemones
streaming down the slopes of Bethany. It is as though the earth were
ablaze beneath the olive-trees. Here I relish in peace the advantages
of old age, which knows how to take pleasure in the past; for youth
narrows the enjoyment of good things, by considering only those which
are present....
VERUS
At last! Here are trees and water and grass!... I had lost the memory
of them since my arrival in this stony desert which men call Judæa....
But how comes it, O my good master, that you have taken up your abode
near that dull and barren city, where the soil is abominable, where the
men are ugly, churlish, crafty and mischievous, unclean and barbarous?
SILANUS
As you know, I came with the Procurator Valerius Gratus to Cæsarea;
then I returned to Rome, where you were for some time my faithful
and favourite pupil. But soon I became ashamed of teaching a wisdom
whose certainties became more doubtful to my mind as the assurance
wherewith I proclaimed them increased. I was brought back here, to
this barbarous Judæa, by the strangest curiosity. During my first
sojourn, I had begun to study the sacred books of the Jews. They are
crude and bloodthirsty; but they also contain beautiful myths and the
early efforts of an uncivilized but, at times, singular wisdom. They
have not yet wearied me.
VERUS
Yes, our friend Appius, whom I met at Antioch, told me of your studies
and of your sudden and inordinate passion for old Jewish books....
SILANUS
He will be here shortly....
VERUS
Who? Appius?... Is he at Jerusalem?
SILANUS
Did you not know?... But how long have you yourself been in this
country?... In your letter of two days since, you did not tell me....
VERUS
Nearly a week; and I wished to give my first leisure to you. I left
Antioch to go to Jerusalem with the Procurator Pontius Pilate. He fears
disturbances and will probably need the help of my old legionaries....
SILANUS
The spacious, ample Appius, whose words are as rambling as his habits
and bring together the most distant friends, spoke to me of you, even
as he spoke to you of me. He told me that, when he had the good
fortune to meet you at Antioch, you seemed a prey to some great unhappy
love....
VERUS
Which was that?
SILANUS
What! Can the handsomest of military tribunes, in his magnificent
array, know more than one love that is not happy?... It concerned a
woman of these regions, a Galilean, if I be not mistaken....
VERUS
Mary of Magdala?... Did he speak to you of her?... Where is she?... I
did not see her again; she left Antioch suddenly; and I lost trace of
her....
SILANUS
But why did she not listen to you?... Appius declared to me that she
sets the men of this country, it is true, at naught, but shows herself
not at all inexorable to the Roman knights....
VERUS
It is one of those riddles of womankind which our duties as soldiers
hardly leave us time to solve. She did not appear to dislike me;
at least, the dislike which she affected was not without a harsh
gentleness.... But there was mingled with it a certain incomprehensible
dread, which made her timidly avoid me.... Besides, she seemed lately
to have suffered a great sorrow, for which she has already, I hear,
consoled herself more than once....
SILANUS
I do not know; and all this does not seem to me so very discouraging.
After all, why afflict one’s self with what the gods created for
pleasure?... Appius, therefore, wished me to cure you, by my wise
counsels, of an ill that saddens you needlessly. But, first, do you
love her as much as Appius declares? His talk is often extravagant and
heedless....
VERUS
I desired her, I still desire her, as I have never desired any woman....
SILANUS
You speak wisely in not separating, from the outset, desire and love.
Besides, I understand. She is certainly the loveliest of all the many
women whom I have admired in my life.
VERUS
What!... You have seen her?... Is she at Jerusalem then?
SILANUS
She is even nearer to us than Jerusalem, which is fifteen stadia from
Bethany.... (_Drawing him a little to the right_). Come to this portico
and look over there, at the bottom of the valley.... What do you see?...
VERUS
I see olive-trees, paths, tombs.... Then I see the pediments of palaces
or temples, columns, cypresses.... One might think one’s self in the
outskirts of Rome.... But I do not perceive....
SILANUS
It was Herod the Great, a sort of raving lunatic, but given to
building, who filled this valley with splendid palaces more Roman than
those of Rome herself.... But look half-way down the hill, to the left
of those three tall cypresses, three or four stadia from here.... Do
you espy one of the most beautiful marble villas?...
VERUS
The villa with the wide white steps leading to a semicircular colonnade
adorned with statues?...
SILANUS
That is where she has retired....
VERUS
Mary Magdalene?... In that solitude, so far from the city?...
SILANUS
She told me that she was fleeing from the fanaticism of the Jews, the
tumult and the sickening smells, which increase twofold at Jerusalem
as the Passover approaches....
VERUS
Then you see her?... You have spoken to her?...
SILANUS
The good Appius, knowing that the sight of a young and beautiful woman
delights my eyes without endangering them, did not dissuade her from
coming up to the house of a disarmed and harmless old man....
VERUS
What did she say to you?... What impression did she make upon you?...
SILANUS
She was clad in a raiment that seemed woven of pearls and dew, in a
cloak of Tyrian purple with sapphire ornaments, and decked with jewels
that rendered a little heavier this eastern pomp. As for her hair,
surely, unloosed, it would cover the surface of that porphyry vase with
an impenetrable veil of gold....
VERUS
I speak of her intelligence, her character.... Do not mistake: she is
no vulgar courtezan.... She has other attractions, binding love more
firmly....
SILANUS
I minded only her beauty, which is real and contents the eye....
However, we can judge better presently: she will soon be coming....
VERUS
She is coming here?... But does she know that she will find me with
you?...
SILANUS
Most certainly. It seemed to me that this meeting would do more to
assuage your malady than the wise counsels threatened by Appius....
VERUS
But she?... What did she say when she learnt that....
SILANUS
She smiled with a quivering and pensive grace.... The other guests
will be our indispensable Appius and Cœlius, your fellow-pupil at
Præneste.... I hope that they will bring our poor friend Longinus,
who, three weeks ago, lost a little daughter two years old.... I will
try to console him, by good and persuasive arguments, for a sorrow
certainly disproportionate to his loss. We shall have, among other
dishes--all excellent, I hope,--two fish from the Jordan, new to you,
which, dressed by Davus, my old cook.... But I hear the sound of the
double flute.... It must be the litter of the queen of Bethany and
Jerusalem at the threshold of my house.... Your eyes will soon behold
the soft light which they have missed and mine the smile that pleases
them ... unless the silver mirrors in the Atrium delay her longer than
they should....
VERUS
She is here....
(_ENTER, on the right, MARY MAGDALENE. She is followed by
some slaves, whom she dismisses with a harsh and imperious
gesture._)
SCENE II
THE SAME, MARY MAGDALENE
SILANUS (_going up to receive MARY MAGDALENE_)
“Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?... Who is she that looketh forth
as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun and terrible as an
army with banners,” as your sacred books sing at the approach of the
Shulamite?...
MARY MAGDALENE
Do not speak to me of my sacred books. I loathe them, as I loathe
everything that comes from that deceitful and sordid, greedy and
mischievous nation....
VERUS (_coming forward to greet her in his turn_)
I will say then, in the Roman fashion, “Hail to the eldest daughter of
Aglaia, youngest and happiest of the Graces!”
MARY MAGDALENE
Pity me, instead of praising me. I was robbed, last night, of my
Carthaginian rubies, besides twelve of my finest pearls; and, what
I feel even more, my Babylonian peacock and all the murænæ in my
fish-pond....
VERUS
Who dared commit such manifest sacrilege?...
MARY MAGDALENE
I do not know.... I have had the slaves in charge of the aviary and the
fish-pond beaten with rods and put to the torture: they have confessed
nothing and I believe that they know nothing....
VERUS
Have you no clue, no suspicion?
SILANUS
The theft amazes me, for the country is safe.... I have been living
here for nigh six years; and no one has ever tried to rob me of an
atom of my wisdom, which is never under lock and key and is the
only precious thing that I possess.... The Jew is crafty, sly and
evil-minded; he practises cheating and usury as well as most of the
cringing virtues and vices; but he nearly always avoids frank,
straightforward theft, honest theft, if one may say so....
MARY MAGDALENE
I at first suspected some Tyrian workmen who are fitting one of the
rooms in my villa with those movable panels which are changed at every
course, so that the walls may harmonize with the dishes covering the
table....
VERUS
I have seen some like them in the house of our Governor, Pomponius
Flaccus, at Antioch; but I did not know that this fashion, so new to
Rome herself, had already made its way into this remote country....
MARY MAGDALENE
Nor will you find it, except in my house; and the last palace of
the Tetrarch Antipas is still without it.... Therefore I began by
suspecting those workmen; but I have proofs that they are innocent.
I now feel sure that the thieves must be sought among that band of
vagrants and prowlers who have been infesting the country for some
time....
SILANUS
The famous band of the Nazarene....
MARY MAGDALENE
Even so. Their leader, I hear, is a sort of unwashed brigand who
entices the crowds with a rude kind of sorcery and, on the pretence
of preaching some new law or doctrine, lives by plunder and surrounds
himself with fellows capable of everything.... Besides, I have other
causes to complain of them.... Two days ago, when I was walking in my
gardens, under the portico that divides them from the road, a dozen
wretches, belonging to that band, insulted me foully and threatened
me with stones.... It is becoming intolerable; and it is time that the
countryside were rid of them....
VERUS
I have heard about those people.... I know that the authorities have
their eyes upon them.... I will have them watched more closely. For
that matter, if you wish, it would be easy for me to arrest their
leader....
MARY MAGDALENE
Do so, I pray you, and as soon as possible.... I should be especially
grateful to you....
SILANUS
I believe that you are misled. The robbers, in my opinion, must
not be looked for there. I am in a fairly good position to know the
band, seeing that, for five or six days, it has been gathered near my
house. I have even had the pleasure--for everything turns to pleasure
at my age--I have even had the pleasure of attending one of their
meetings. It was near the old road to Jericho. The leader was speaking
in the midst of a crowd covered with dust and rags, among whom I
observed a large number of rather repulsive cripples and sick. They
seem extremely ignorant and exalted. They are poor and dirty, but I
believe them to be harmless and incapable of stealing more than a cup
of water or an ear of wheat.... They were listening greedily to a more
or less silly anecdote, the story of a son who returns to his father
after squandering his patrimony.... I did not hear the end, for they
looked upon me with a certain suspicion.... But the Galilean, or the
Nazarene, as they call him here, is rather curious; and his voice is of
a penetrating and peculiar sweetness.... He appears to be the son of
a carpenter.... I will tell you more of him, I know many interesting
things about him; but permit me first to go to the other side of the
house, which commands the road, to see if my belated guests are not in
sight....
(_He GOES OUT on the left_.)
SCENE III
MARY MAGDALENE, VERUS
VERUS
I was not prepared for the joy of seeing you again, of your own
consent, after your cruel words. They deprived me even of the hope
that is sometimes left to those whom one would drive to despair....
MARY MAGDALENE
I was stupid and foolish; but reason has returned; and I now know that
the best love is not worth a tear....
VERUS
Inasmuch as it is hardly the best, nor even a good love, as soon as it
causes tears to be shed....
MARY MAGDALENE
There is no more best or worst love for me. Until lately, I lived among
falsehoods by which others profited; for the past six months, I have
lived among truths by which I myself profit.
VERUS
What do you mean?...
MARY MAGDALENE
That I sell myself more skilfully and dearer than before.
VERUS
Magdalene!... You slander yourself!...
MARY MAGDALENE
You would see, if your desire prompted you to try your fortune, that,
on the contrary, I rate myself very highly.
VERUS
You will always rate yourself less highly than I do. You will not
succeed in degrading yourself in my eyes; and I see in what you say
no more than the just rebellion of a deeply wounded soul struggling
against pain....
MARY MAGDALENE
You are wrong: it is not a soul struggling, but one that is finding
itself.
VERUS
I do not believe a word of it. However, I would rather spite or hatred
gave you to me than lose you for the noblest of reasons; and, as it is
a question only of rating you very highly, know, Magdalene, that from
this moment you are mine....
MARY MAGDALENE
May be.... But here is our host returning. We have nothing more to say
to each other, for the moment....
(_ENTER, on the left, SILANUS, APPIUS and CŒLIUS._)
SCENE IV
THE SAME, SILANUS, APPIUS, CŒLIUS
APPIUS (_going to MARY MAGDALENE_)
“Venus has left Cyprus and soars above Jerusalem!” Or, rather, it is
the fair Techmessa, who already brings back the smile to the lips of
the son of Telamon!... Admire, O Cœlius, the magnificent image raised
under this portico by Love and Beauty!
CŒLIUS
It is as though the azure sky were spread for them between those two
columns.
SILANUS
The azure and the light seem happy only when environing youth and
love.... But, to return to less dazzling images, better-suited to my
head burdened with years, I observed that it must have been a sort
of presentiment that urged us to speak, but a moment ago, of the
Nazarene’s band, for it was that same band which delayed our guests....
APPIUS
Yes, imagine, when we approached the last cross-road down there, we
found the whole country in a stir and the way blocked by a shouting,
gesticulating throng, which was crowding round a blind man who saw!...
VERUS
Yes, that is one of those phenomena which one meets with nowhere except
in Judæa....
CŒLIUS
It was extraordinary!... The poor man, crushed against an old wall,
rolled two drunk and virgin eyes, crying, “He is a prophet! He is a
prophet! I see men as trees, walking!” And the crowd stamped all around
for joy. He seemed dazed with the light....
APPIUS
Or rather with wine, for he was plainly staggering.
VERUS
And the Nazarene, did you see him?...
APPIUS
No, he had just gone away, taking with him the most turbulent part of
the crowd; but for that, we should never have been able to pass....
MARY MAGDALENE
Yes, it appears that, when those ruffians crowd round their leader,
they would not trouble to make way for Cæsar.
CŒLIUS
Where did he go?... I should be curious to see him....
SILANUS
He cannot be very far.... Do you see that laurel-hedge, at the bottom
of my garden?... It divides my little domain from the orchard of my
neighbour, known as Simon the Leper....
MARY MAGDALENE (_starting_)
What, your next neighbour is a leper?... You should have told us....
SILANUS
Be reassured, lady, he has no leprosy now....
APPIUS
I thought that one became a leper for life, just as one becomes a
senator.... This is another of the surprises of this monstrous
Judæa....
SILANUS
The Nazarene healed him.
CŒLIUS
Is he really healed?... As his next neighbour, you must know the
truth....
SILANUS
I know that he is as healthy in the face as the rose of Magdala and
lily of Bethany whom you see before you; but I do not know if he was
ever sick, not having seen him before his recovery....
APPIUS
I thought so.... Besides, I have seen much more extraordinary magicians
in Thrace and Egypt.... But, to return to this leper without leprosy,
what happens behind that hedge and in the house of your mysterious
neighbour?
SILANUS
The Nazarene has been his guest for the past three days. This Simon,
his sister, his wife and, I believe, his brother-in-law are common
people, who live on the produce of their olive-trees. They were
timorous, peaceable neighbours; but, since the arrival of the Nazarene,
everything is in commotion. It is a perpetual coming and going, a
perpetual tumult. Their orchard is filled incessantly with a multitude
of sick, of vagrants, of cripples, issuing from all the rocks in Judæa
to beseech him whom, with loud cries, they call the Saviour of the
World, the Son of David and King of the Jews. There are sometimes so
many of them that they overflow into my garden. The hedge, as you
see, has been trampled, crushed and even torn in certain places.
Fortunately, the Nazarene’s appearances are few and brief. Besides,
this picturesque spectacle, despite its inconveniences, amuses and
puzzles me.
(_ENTER, on the left, five or six POOR FOLK._)
CŒLIUS
Who are those people?
SILANUS
What did I tell you?... Here are half-a-dozen coming to ask for
bread....
APPIUS
Do they belong to this famous band?
MARY MAGDALENE
They are hateful and loathsome!... One of them has his face gnawed with
an ulcer, another is almost naked, another is starving!...
APPIUS
They certainly lack shame, thus to flaunt ugliness and dread....
SILANUS
Do not be uneasy: these will not long mar the pleasing grace of the
porticoes that refresh our eyes. My gardener has discovered them; he is
armed with a stout hoe and is driving them back uncivilly.... You see,
they do not insist, they walk away in silence, hanging their heads....
And, now that we have occupied ourselves long enough with these
unfortunate people, with their great leader and their maladies, let us
think a little of ourselves and enjoy the delightful afternoon which
spring-time sets before us.... My pleasure at seeing you here would
be flawless, if only our old friend Longinus had yielded to Appius’
entreaties and consented to accompany you....
APPIUS
I never felt more keenly the vanity of the great eloquence which he
himself taught me. To all my most convincing and well-stated arguments
he replied with a sullen silence, or shook his head, repeating that
he did not wish to throw a gloom over our happy party with his dismal
presence....
CŒLIUS
And yet it is quite three weeks since that child died.... I should not
have thought that grief could have affected him so much....
APPIUS
The more so as it concerned a child of tender years, whom her father
knew less well than did her nurse!...
SILANUS
There is something more astonishing yet, which clearly shows that
the greatest wisdom is not so much to know as to conform to what one
knows!... When, more than fifteen years ago, I lost a little boy
who must have been of about the same age as the child whom he now
mourns, Longinus undertook to console me. He wrote me an eloquent
letter, wherein, relying on the authority of Metrodorus, Panætius and
Hermachus, he proved that sorrow is not only useless, but ungrateful. I
found and read the letter again this morning; and so striking are its
more important passages that I know them almost by heart.... They were
the loftiest words that human wisdom could utter against death and
sorrow.... They protected me once....
MARY MAGDALENE
What were the words? It is well to know anything that can relieve
sorrow....
SILANUS
“You expect consolation,” he said; “you shall receive only reproaches.
If you bear the death of a child with so little patience, what would
you do if you had lost a friend? You ought to bring yourself to this
frame of mind, that you were more pleased at having had him than
grieved that you had him no longer. But most men reckon past advantages
and pleasures as of no account. They bury friendship with their
friend....”
APPIUS
I recognize and hail the mighty wisdom of our venerable master.
SILANUS
Why does he not remember it, when misfortune strikes him? But why did I
forget it myself, when I needed it most?... “I assure you,” he added,
“that of those whom we have loved, much remains to us after death has
removed them. The time that is past is ours; and I see nothing of
which we are more certain than of that which has been. The hope of the
future makes us ungrateful for the benefits which we have received, as
though the favours which we expect were not bound soon to be ranked
among things past. Death has deprived you of a son so young that he
could be of no promise to you yet; it is only a little time lost. There
are instances without end of fathers losing infant children without
shedding a single tear and returning to the senate after laying them
in the grave. This is not unreasonable; for, in the first place, it is
idle to give way to grief when grief can serve no purpose. And then it
is unjust to complain of a misfortune that has befallen one person and
still threatens all the others. Moreover, it is madness to complain,
when there is so little distance between the one who is dead and the
one who mourns him. Consider that all mankind, destined to one and the
same end, is divided only by little intervals, even when they appear
very great. He whom you think lost has only gone before. Since we must
all travel the same road, is it not unworthy of a wise man to weep for
one who has set out earlier than ourselves? To complain that the friend
or the child is dead is to complain that he was ever born. We are all
linked to the same fate. He who has come into the world must also leave
it. His stay may be longer, but the end is always alike. The time that
elapses between the first day and the last is uncertain and variable.
If you consider the wretchedness of life, it is long, even for a child;
if you regard the duration, it is short, even for an old man.”
MARY MAGDALENE
That would not have consoled me....
SILANUS
To console, lady, is not to do away with sorrow, but to teach one how
to overcome it.
(_At this moment, there is heard rising from the roads, the
paths and all the invisible country commanded by the terrace
a noise, at first dull and confused, which gradually becomes
more positive and precise. Sounds of a crowd forming and
hurrying, stones rolling, children crying, dogs barking; shouts
that grow more and more distinct: “This way! This way!... Come
quickly!... Come down!... To the right, to the right!... He is
there!... We saw him!... He is leaving the house!... To Simon’s
orchard!... Carry the palsied there!... Lead the blind!...
Quick, quick, this way!... They say he is going to speak!”
etc._)
APPIUS
What is this? What is happening?...
VERUS
They are hurrying from every side!...
CŒLIUS
All the roads are covered with people running like madmen!...
APPIUS
They seem to spring from the stones!...
CŒLIUS
But what is happening?... They are disappearing behind those
olive-trees....
VERUS
Here come two sick men carried on their beds....
CŒLIUS
A blind man falling!...
APPIUS
What is the matter with them?... Are they mad?...
VERUS
Who are those extraordinary creatures leaping among the rocks?...
SILANUS
They are the men possessed by devils, coming out of the tombs....
APPIUS
But, after all, what is happening?...
SILANUS
They have seen the Nazarene....
MARY MAGDALENE
The Nazarene?... Where is he?...
SILANUS
He has probably just come out of Simon’s house. They watch all his
movements. As soon as he is seen, they bring the sick; and the fanatics
come rushing up.... He must be walking in the neighbouring orchard....
(_Listening._) Yes.... Do you hear the crowd humming like bees?... It
is close to my laurel-hedge....
APPIUS
Let us go and see....
SILANUS
I do not advise you to. In the first place, those people are mostly
very poor, extremely dirty and very unpleasant to come into touch
with.... Then, you know the Jewish fanaticism.... In these moments of
exaltation, the most inoffensive become dangerous; and the sight of the
Roman toga and arms enrages them strangely.... Besides, we shall hear
what happens quite well from where we stand.... Listen!... The cries
are coming nearer still and increasing....
(_Behind the hedge that closes the end of the garden rise cries
that sound nearer and nearer: “Hosannah! Hosannah!... Son of
Man!... Lord, Lord, have pity! Lord, Son of David, heal the
sick man!... Master! Master! Lord!... Jesus of Nazareth, have
pity on me!... Make way!... Silence, silence!... He is going
to speak!” At these words, the tumult suddenly subsides. An
incomparable silence, in which it seems as though the birds
and the leaves of the trees and the very air that is breathed
take part, falls with all its supernatural weight upon the
countryside; and, in this silence, which weighs upon people on
the terrace also, there rises, absolute sovereign of space and
the hour, a wonderful voice, soft and all-powerful, intoxicated
with ardour, light and love, distant and yet near to every
heart and present in every soul._)
THE VOICE
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!...
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted!... Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth!...
APPIUS
What is he saying?...
SILANUS
Listen!... It is rather curious....
THE VOICE
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for
they shall be filled!... Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
obtain mercy!...
MARY MAGDALENE
I want to see!... (_She rises and, as though irresistibly drawn by the
divine voice, goes as if to descend the steps of the terrace and to
make for the bottom of the garden._)
SILANUS (_in a low voice, trying to hold her back_)
Do not go there!...
THE VOICE
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!...
MARY MAGDALENE
I will go!...
VERUS
I shall go with you....
MARY MAGDALENE (_fiercely, imperiously_)
No! Nobody!... Let me be!... (_She goes down towards the hedge, as
though fascinated._)
THE VOICE
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of
God!... Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!...
VERUS
Where is she going....
APPIUS
What is she doing?... She is mad!... She is trying to pass through the
hedge!...
THE VOICE
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you!... Rejoice
and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven!...
VERUS
She has opened the gate of the garden!... She is in the orchard!...
SILANUS
Women sometimes have thoughts which wise men do not understand....
VERUS
I shall go and join her; and, if I have to protect her against those....
SILANUS
Do no such thing.... They are listening to the voice and will not
perceive her presence, whereas the sight and sound of your arms....
Listen, listen to what he is saying: it is rather singular....
THE VOICE
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use
you!...
(_At that moment, cries, at first scattered, rise among
the invisible crowd behind the hedge. A few words are
distinguishable: “It Is the Roman woman! The Roman woman!...
The adulteress!... Shame!... Shame! Shame!... Magdalene!... The
strumpet!... Drive her away, drive her away!...” Immediately
afterwards, these cries are lost in a violent and formidable
shout of reprobation, in which only a few resounding words
are, with difficulty, perceived: “Shame! Shame!... Stone her!
Stone her!... Death! Death!... Stone her!” etc. All this is
accompanied by a noise of flight, of hurrying footsteps, of
sticks and pebbles clashing, of broken branches, etc._)
SILANUS
They have seen her!...
VERUS
But what is happening?... Is it she whom they are attacking?...
SILANUS
It is what I feared.... We must take care....
VERUS (_rushing to the bottom of the garden_)
This way!... Follow me!... Appius, Cœlius, your swords!...
(_At the moment when he rushes down, the laurel-hedge is burst
through in every part by the yelling and gesticulating crowd
pursuing MARY MAGDALENE. She makes a frenzied attempt to reach
the terrace. VERUS and his two friends run towards her, to try
to protect her against the invading multitude. Stones fly.
VERUS, standing in front of the others, brandishes his bare
sword. Just as the fighting is about to begin, when already
branches are broken, a statue overturned and so forth, suddenly
a loud call of the supernatural voice rings under the nearer
olive-trees. All cease, struck with stupor. A word of command
is passed from mouth to mouth: “Silence! Silence!... Listen!
Listen!... He is speaking! He is going to speak!... The Master
has made a sign!... Listen! Listen!...” Then, in the silence
thus suddenly produced, the divine voice rises, calm, august,
profound and irresistible._)
THE VOICE
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her!...
(_The stones are heard to drop to the ground. The crowd sways to
and fro, abashed, and disappears gradually, in silence, through
the hedge. VERUS comes forward to support MARY MAGDALENE, who
has stopped and is standing erect and motionless in the middle
of the walk. She rejects the proffered aid, with a harsh and
fierce gesture, and, staring in front of her, alone among the
others, who look at her without understanding, slowly she
climbs the steps of the terrace._)
CURTAIN
ACT II
(_The Tablinum [or large room behind the Atrium] of MARY
MAGDALENE’S villa at Bethany. At the back, leading one into the
other, the Atrium and a long vestibule with marble columns._)
SCENE I
MARY MAGDALENE, LUCIUS VERUS
(_Enter LUCIUS VERUS. MARY MAGDALENE runs up to him and throws
herself into his arms._)
MARY MAGDALENE
You at last, my Verus!... For three days I have awaited you, for three
days I have called you. Men grant me my beauty when its triumph brings
me nothing but regret and disgust. And I ask myself, is that beauty
really powerless when, at last, there is a question of the happiness
which every woman has the right to expect in her life?...
VERUS
I know not if I shall be able to give you the happiness that is your
due, Magdalene; but be assured that your beauty never gained a more
complete victory....
MARY MAGDALENE
What care I now for its victory!... It is I who am vanquished, utterly
vanquished beforehand, without daring to confess it to myself, without
being able to hide it from my indifference, so odiously acquired, or
from my vanity, which has never been more than the shameful crown
of my shame!... But why keep me waiting so long?... I thought that
everything was abandoning me, that all was lost because of the
dreadful words which I spoke at our good Silanus’ and which were not
true, which were only a profounder lie then my other lies, because
I was mad, because I did not know, because I did not wish for an
impossible happiness....
VERUS
You well know, Magdalene, that I never believed you the woman you
depicted.... But now neither do I dare believe in the happiness that
approaches.... I am quite dazzled, I doubt, I grope in the dark.... I
do not recognize the voice that has so often and so harshly repelled me.
MARY MAGDALENE (_in VERUS’ arms_)
It is not the same voice, it is not the same soul....
VERUS
And yet it is really you whom I hold in my arms, it is every parcel
of you whom I have implored so long!... I ask myself still if all
is indeed real, if all is indeed possible, if you are not trifling
with a too-credulous happiness which you will fling aside among all
those which beauty shatters when testing its power.... But no, when I
question, when I follow your eyes that plunge into mine, I see that it
is indeed true, that it was always true....
MARY MAGDALENE
Yes, yes, it is true, it is true and it was always true.... I did not
know it, I searched my heart in vain and I was ignorant of all my
feelings until these days of anguish.... I refused to see that you were
coming towards me and that everything was awaiting you.... And yet I
ought to have known it.... Already, at Antioch, do you remember, Verus,
how I avoided you?... I received so many others; and you alone, the
comeliest, the purest, I tried to ignore, to blot out, to destroy....
As soon as you appeared, I withdrew, like a shy and distrustful animal,
to my lair; and, only the other day, at our good Silanus’, I felt all
the evil, all the cruelty, or all the despair that fills my heart rise
to my lips.... But, to-day, I see; I am no longer the same; I no longer
know myself, because I am myself once more.... All that used to resist
is broken within my soul.... I no longer understand myself and I did
not know that happiness is so strange a thing.... I, who never wept in
my worst moments of distress, am sobbing to-day when happiness awaits
me.... I am glad and light-hearted and yet more shattered than if all
the misfortunes that hover in the skies were about to burst over me....
(_Embracing him more passionately_) Help me, my Verus, help me, support
me, you whom nothing threatens, you who have nothing to fear!...
VERUS
But what has happened? Can any one have dared, in my absence...?
MARY MAGDALENE
No, no, nobody; and it is not that; and I myself do not know the danger
that surrounds me.... But I have no other shelter than your arms; and
I feel myself lost if I lose you too.... Take me, bear me away on that
heart to which I am listening, far from myself, far from this place and
from my anxiety.... You alone can save me and I have no life but that
which you give me.... But why did you forsake me so long in my tears,
why did you not come until after the third day, abandoning me thus,
without a word of pity, without a sign of hope?...
VERUS
You are mistaken, Magdalene, or else your slaves did not acquaint you
with the truth.... The very day after our meeting at Silanus’, I came
to Bethany to tell you that, by order of the Procurator, I was suddenly
sent, at the head of a cohort, to suppress a curious riot that had
broken out near Jericho. The slaves who keep your door would not allow
me to approach you and replied to me in such a way that I dared not
well insist.... I understood that they were obeying orders so precise
and so stern that I must not try to thwart them....
MARY MAGDALENE
It is true.... I forgot.... I was mad and worn out, incapable of
seeing, willing or hearing.... I was not yet awake.... It seemed to
me that I was still struggling amid the hideous crowd in Simon’s
garden, where I called in vain upon him who had delivered me.... He was
abandoning me, he too.... I sent in search of him to no purpose. No one
could tell me where he was hiding.... Have you not seen him since?...
Do you not know where he is?...
VERUS
Who?
MARY MAGDALENE
The Nazarene....
VERUS
Let us not speak of that wretched man: his hours are numbered....
MARY MAGDALENE
His hours are numbered?... What do you mean?...
VERUS
No matter: that does not interest us now and soon we shall know nothing
of aught that does not touch our love; for it is wonderful to see how
the thoughts of those who love each other meet and unite in spite of
the distance and of the ill-natured speeches that come between them.
Is it not astonishing that, after leaving you at Silanus’, where I had
heard words that should have deprived me of all hope, I for the first
time felt our young happiness swell and blossom in all its strength
and all its certainty?... While you were calling me, I called you also
with all the deep and wonderful voices of my heart. I was kept far from
you by a duty unworthy of a soldier; for that expedition to Jericho,
the last, I trust, upon which I shall be sent, was almost odious and
often ridiculous. I counted with rage the minutes stolen from our new
life, which was already beginning in a soul that feared none of my
reasons for fearing....
MARY MAGDALENE
It will not really begin until we are far from this land where I
suffocate, where everything darkens and threatens happiness, where
I can no longer live.... Verus, I beseech you, if you love me as I
love you, let us hasten, let us leave everything; there is no time to
lose....
VERUS
You are right: a joy so long awaited must not be born among these
sinister rocks, where floats an odour of death and madness.... And
yet, even here, our thoughts came to an understanding long before our
words.... Like you, I have resolved to leave this hated city, where
really my obedience is abused.... I am at the orders of the Procurator,
but not at the venomous service of the Jewish priests, nor of the
clamorous and perfidious nation whom my old legionaries have conquered.
I have had enough of this ambiguous life. Before to-night, I shall find
a pretext for evading an order which I was to execute this very day, an
order of which I but too well know the origin.... If the pretext appear
insufficient, let Caiaphas and Annas go and complain to Cæsar....
Nothing counts in the presence of our love; and the inglorious errand
which they claim the right to impose upon me repels me all the more
inasmuch as it was to be accomplished, so to speak, before your eyes....
MARY MAGDALENE
Before my eyes?... Of what are you speaking?...
VERUS
Nothing that interests you; let us think only of our happy escape....
MARY MAGDALENE
I know that some danger threatens him....
VERUS
Whom do you mean?...
MARY MAGDALENE
It is impossible, after what he has done, that you should become the
instrument of his worst enemies.... You owe him my life and perhaps
our happiness.... What do they want with him? What orders have you
received?...
VERUS
I am charged to arrest him before this evening, together with the
principal leaders of his band. It is a vulgar constabulary measure,
directed against sick men and vagrants, of a kind that has never yet
been exacted of the legionaries.... It shall not take place; do not let
us speak of it....
MARY MAGDALENE
But why arrest him? What has he done? What is he accused of?... He is
innocent, I know; besides, one need but see him to understand.... He
brings a happiness that was not known before; and all those who come
near him are happy, it seems, like children at their awaking.... I
myself, who only caught a glimpse of him among the olive-trees, felt
that gladness was rising in my soul like a sort of light that overtook
my thoughts.... He fixed his eyes for but a moment on mine; and that
will be enough for the rest of my life.... I knew that he recognized
me without ever having seen me and I knew that he wished to see me
again.... He seemed to choose me gravely, absolutely, for ever....
VERUS
What does this mean? Are you speaking of him? What happened?... Have
you seen him again?... I was told, for that matter, that he is an
intriguer, ready for everything; but I should never have believed that
he would have dared....
MARY MAGDALENE
He has dared nothing.... I have not seen him again, I shall never see
him again, now that we are about to leave everything, to be only we two
alone....
VERUS (_clasping her more closely_)
To be one alone, Magdalene, in a happier land, where everything
encourages happiness, smiles upon lovers and blesses beauty....
MARY MAGDALENE (_bursting into convulsive sobs on VERUS’ breast_)
I love you.... I know it....
VERUS
Come, I know these tears that well at the same moment from our two
hearts in our one joy.... But here, between the columns of the
vestibule, come the greatest ornaments of that beautiful Rome which
we shall soon astonish with our love.... I am right: it is our good
Silanus, accompanied by the faithful Appius; led by the immortal gods,
they descend the marble steps to hallow with their fraternal presence
the first smiles of a happiness born under their eyes....
SCENE II
THE SAME, SILANUS, APPIUS
SILANUS
It was said and it was written that, on this most propitious day, I
should behold two marvels, not the lesser of which is to see thus
promptly reunited two lovers who, according to love’s ancient custom,
should have fled from each other the more obstinately the more they
yearned to meet....
APPIUS
By Metrodorus, Hermachus and Zeno, there are other things on hand than
the too-long-expected happiness of two lovers cutting short their
quarrels!... Tell them at once what has happened; shout it to them,
with all your throat and all your soul: death no longer exists! The
graves are about to open, the spirits of the dead to show themselves;
the gods are shaken, all the laws of life are overturned!... We have
just admired an unequalled, unspeakable, unheard-of phenomenon, that
has never been seen since light first rose upon the world, that will
not be seen again before the death of the gods!...
SILANUS
The more extraordinary it seems to you, Appius, the less should it
trouble the perfect composure of your soul, considering that a
phenomenon that will not be seen again could not well shake the laws of
the universe nor the stability of the gods!
VERUS
But what has happened? Appius seems to be the victim of a greater
exaltation than usual; and you yourself, my worthy master, despite your
even mind....
APPIUS
I will tell you what has happened: he has brought a dead man to life!...
MARY MAGDALENE
Who?...
SILANUS
The Nazarene, whose return I have come to announce to you, as I
promised.
MARY MAGDALENE
He has come back? Since when? Where is he?... Have you seen him?...
SILANUS
To reply to your questions in order, lady, I will tell you that he
returned this morning, that I saw him with my eyes and that, at this
moment, he is with my neighbour Simon the Leper. I am surprised,
however, that the absolute frenzy which has shaken the country for two
or three hours has not yet spread as far as here. It is true that your
dwelling is separated by a high hill and some olive-woods from the spot
where the sepulchre lies hidden.
MARY MAGDALENE
I have heard nothing, learned nothing.... In spite of my orders, no one
has told me.... But, after all, what has happened?... Appius is as
pale as a ghost.... What is it? What has he said, what has he done?...
APPIUS
He has done a thing which no man, no god, has done before him; a thing
which I would not have believed if ten thousand witnesses had come to
swear it in the name of the immortals, but in which I believe as firmly
as I am bound to believe in my own existence, having seen it with my
eyes, as I see you now, and almost touched it with my hands, as I touch
this vase. He said, “Rise, come forth and walk.” And the dead man rose,
came forth and began to walk among us!
VERUS
It was apparently a dead man whose health left nothing to be wished
for?...
SILANUS
No, I am convinced that it was really a dead man.
APPIUS
It was a real, a terrible dead man!... If not, my senses can no longer
declare that the sun shines in the blue or that human flesh decays!...
He had been four days in the grave!...
MARY MAGDALENE
But who? How? Where?... And the Nazarene?... I want to know.... Speak
for him, Silanus: he has not yet recovered his senses....
SILANUS
Here, in a few words, is what happened. Nevertheless, it is right that
I should tell you that I do not entirely share Appius’ amazement.
It should astonish us no more to see a man return to life than to
see a child come to life or an old man leave it. (MAGDALENE _makes a
movement of impatience_.) But I understand your impatience. I spoke to
you the other day of my neighbour Simon. He lives in the little house
that touches my property, with his wife, his sister-in-law and his
brother-in-law, named Lazarus. This Lazarus, whom I saw only two or
three times, for he was often away from home, had been ailing for some
weeks and died four days ago....
APPIUS
Four days, do you understand?... That is what nobody would dare deny....
SILANUS
Nor does any one think of doing so, Appius. They were a very united
family; and the sorrow of those poor people was great. From my
terrace, I could hear the lamentations of the women. According to the
custom of the Jews, Lazarus was buried on the night that followed after
his death. They laid him in a new grave, dug in the rocks that form
the other side of that hill, and closed the grave with an enormous
stone. This morning, suddenly, the rumour spread that the Nazarene had
returned and that he was going to restore to life the dead man, who was
his friend. Appius, who was at my house, persuaded me to go down with
him; and we followed the crowd into the valley of the tombs.
MARY MAGDALENE
I knew that he was to return to-day; but why did you not send word to
me at once, as you promised?...
SILANUS
It seemed to me that the spectacle at hand was not one of those on
which the eyes of a woman in the hour of her beauty love to rest.
Moreover, there was cause to fear lest your arrival among the excited
crowd should cause a repetition of the violence of the other day. For
an enormous crowd, silent, but quivering like a swarm of bees, escorted
the Nazarene, in front of whom walked the two sisters of Lazarus. We,
Appius and I, climbed on to a block of stone hidden behind some bushes,
whence we could see and hear everything without arousing the suspicion
of the Jews. They showed the grave to the Nazarene, who stopped and
lowered his head.
APPIUS
He wept. They whispered in the crowd, “Behold how he loved him!” But
nobody dared approach. They formed a circle at a distance, as though
round a dread being....
SILANUS
“Take ye away the stone,” said the Nazarene; and two men stepped toward
the grave.
APPIUS
You forget that, at that moment, one of the sisters of the dead man,
alarmed and all in tears, seized the Nazarene by the arm and said,
“Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four days.”
The Nazarene answered--I have not forgotten a single one of his
words--“Said I not unto thee that, if thou wouldest believe, thou
shouldest see the glory of God? Take ye away the stone.”
MARY MAGDALENE
Who is this sister of Lazarus? Is she Simon’s wife?
SILANUS
No, it is the other one: her name is Mary and, when the Nazarene stays
at Bethany, she never leaves him.
MARY MAGDALENE
Is she young?
SILANUS
She is younger than Simon’s wife.
MARY MAGDALENE
Have you seen her? Do you know her?...
SILANUS
I have spoken to her more than once. But to return to the stone, which
was enormous, flat and fastened into the walls of the cave: two men
attacked it with levers. It resisted at first and then, suddenly, fell
down all of a piece....
APPIUS
We were quite close, hanging aslant over the cave. By all the gods who
from heaven rule the earth and men, I swear that, at that moment, I
felt the terrible breath of the dead man strike me in the face!...
MARY MAGDALENE
Did you see the dead man?...
APPIUS
As I see you now, lady!...
VERUS
I do not understand how you can seriously interest yourselves in
these things which happen in an incongruous, mad world, where all is
witchcraft, coarse illusions and barbarous lies....
APPIUS
By Hades and Persephone, what my senses perceived was no illusion, I
assure you!... We nearly fell from our rock!... The corpse was there,
in the greedy light that devoured the cave, lying like a stiff and
shapeless statue, closely bound in grave-clothes, the face covered with
a napkin. The crowd, heaped up in a semicircle, irresistibly attracted
and repelled, leaned forward, stretched its thousand necks, without
daring to approach. The Nazarene stood alone, in front. He raised his
hand, spoke a few words which I did not catch and then, addressing the
corpse in a voice whose pent-up force I shall never forget, he cried,
“Lazarus, come forth!”
MARY MAGDALENE
Did he come forth?...
APPIUS
We heard only the sound of the wind moving the garments of the
multitude and the buzzing of the flies that swarmed into the grave.
All eyes were so firmly fixed upon the corpse that I saw, so to speak,
their motionless beams, as one sees the sunbeams in a dark room....
Suddenly, it became plain, terrifying, superhuman! The dead man,
obeying the order, slowly bent in two; then, snapping the bandages that
fastened his legs, he stood up erect, like a stone, all white, with his
arms bound and his head veiled. With small, almost impossible steps,
guided by the light, he came forth from the grave. The affrighted
crowd gradually fell back, without being able to turn away its gaze.
“Loose him and let him go,” said the Nazarene. And the two sisters of
the dead man, releasing themselves from the human hedge, rushed to
their brother.
MARY MAGDALENE
And he?...
APPIUS
He staggered, he stumbled at every step....
MARY MAGDALENE
But the Nazarene?...
APPIUS
He went away without a word and withdrew into Simon’s house.
VERUS
And the dead man, how did he go?...
APPIUS
The two sisters, wild-eyed, mechanically, blindly fumbled and cut the
napkin and the grave-clothes; then, supporting the dead man and helping
him to walk, they led him away to the same house. The crowd dared not
follow them save with their eyes. No one uttered a word; even the two
women did not yet speak to the dead man.
MARY MAGDALENE
And the Nazarene? Has he been seen again?
SILANUS
He has not left Simon’s house. The swaying multitude is waiting for him
in the orchard and along the roads; for, after the first long minutes
of stupor, reaction set in and a general alacrity followed....
APPIUS
Which was as extraordinary as the miracle itself! First, a confused
and almost dumb gladness, made up of whispers that seek and feel for
one another, passed through the crowd. Then, as though the truth had
suddenly burst forth under the skies, an unspeakable gaiety seized upon
the mass. The whispers became cries that were not recognizable. The
women, the children and especially the older men exulted frantically.
It was as though they were trampling on death, which a god had just
conquered and laid low, for the first time since man came into
existence. At this moment, an inconceivable and dangerous exaltation
still prevails in all the region round about the tombs; and, by
Hercules, though we have escaped unscathed, I would not advise my worst
enemy to risk the Roman toga and arms there!
VERUS
Is that all?...
APPIUS
What more would you have?...
VERUS
I should like to know what all this proves.
APPIUS
It proves that this man who has conquered death, which hitherto had
conquered the world, is greater than we and our gods. It therefore
behoves us to hear what he has to tell us and to conform our lives to
it.
SILANUS
I will conform mine to it, Appius, if what he teaches is better than
what I have learned. By awaking a dead man, in the depth of his grave,
he shows us that he possesses a power greater than that of our masters,
but not a greater wisdom. Let us await everything with an even mind.
It is not difficult, even for a child, to discern that which, in men’s
words, augments or decreases the love of virtue. If he can convince me
that I have acted wrong until to-day, I will amend, for I seek only the
truth. But, if all the dead who people these valleys were to rise from
their graves to bear witness, in his name, to a truth less high than
that which I know, I would not believe them. Whether the dead sleep or
wake, I will not give them a thought unless they teach me to make a
better use of my life....
MARY MAGDALENE (_starting_)
Listen!...
VERUS
What is it?...
APPIUS
I hear stones rolling....
VERUS
It is like the murmur of a crowd....
MARY MAGDALENE
He is coming!...
APPIUS (_going to the first columns of the vestibule_)
From here we overlook the wall of the first court.... I see them!...
MARY MAGDALENE (_pale and staggering, takes a few steps toward
the back of the Atrium and gazes into the distance_)
Yes....
APPIUS
They are wrapped in a cloud of dust.... There are two or three thousand
of them crowding toward the entrance.... I think it is those who were
at the grave....
VERUS
They would not dare!...
MARY MAGDALENE
Verus!...
VERUS
Fear nothing, Magdalene: this time, I alone will defend you.
APPIUS
They are following, at a distance, a man clad in white, who is entering
the court....
VERUS
But what is the janitor of the first courtyard doing?... Will he not
stop him?...
APPIUS
Yes.... He is coming now.... What is he doing?... One would think he
was afraid!... He suddenly stops and lets him pass without a word....
VERUS
And the others follow him.... They are entering the second court....
The impudence of those Jews is really incredible!... In Rome, even
during the Saturnalia, we should not allow the crowd to push its way
like that.... What are the slaves doing?...
MARY MAGDALENE
Is it he?...
SILANUS
Who?...
MARY MAGDALENE
The Nazarene....
SILANUS
I think not.... It is not his walk.... I believe rather that it is....
APPIUS
There he is, in the plane-tree avenue!
SILANUS
He is coming straight in our direction....
VERUS
He is even taking the shortest way. He is coming up the steps under the
boxwood arbour.... He seems at home.... Fortunately, the slaves are
running from every side to bar his entrance to the vestibule....
MARY MAGDALENE
Hush, I entreat you!...
VERUS
What is the matter?...
APPIUS
He is coming nearer; he is terribly pale....
SILANUS
I believe it is....
MARY MAGDALENE
Who?...
SILANUS
The other one.... The one whom he brought forth from the....
MARY MAGDALENE
Lazarus?...
SILANUS
Yes, I recognize him....
VERUS
What does he want with us?... Ghosts do not walk like that, in broad
daylight.... He is horrible!...
MARY MAGDALENE
Oh, hush, hush!...
SILANUS
Here he is....
SCENE III
_THE SAME, LAZARUS. At the back of the vestibule, the SLAVES.
Further away, imagined rather than perceived, the crowd of
JEWS._
(_A great silence. LAZARUS advances slowly from the back of the
vestibule. He looks neither to the right nor to the left.
The SLAVES of the villa, who have hastened up among the last
columns, form a group for a moment as though to block his
way. But, at the approach of the man risen from the dead, who
seems unaware of their presence, they fall back silently, one
after the other. LAZARUS ENTERS by the back of the Atrium
and stops on the threshold, which is raised by three steps.
MARY MAGDALENE moves backwards to one of the columns in the
foreground, against which she crushes herself, motionless. But
VERUS, breaking the silence, with his hand on the hilt of his
sword, goes up to LAZARUS._)
VERUS (_in a hectoring voice_)
Who are you?... (_LAZARUS does not reply._) You do not answer?... It is
indeed easier to cover with silence what one dare not confess. But, if
you have nothing to say, you have no business here. It is well for you
that my pity is stronger than my indignation. Go!
(_A new and profound silence._)
LAZARUS (_in a voice that does not seem yet to have recovered its
human note, to MAGDALENE_)
Come. The Master calls you.
(_MAGDALENE leaves the column against which she is leaning and
takes four or five steps towards LAZARUS, as though walking in
her sleep._)
VERUS (_barring the road_)
Where are you going?...
MARY MAGDALENE (_as though recovering consciousness with
difficulty, in a stifled, hesitating voice, which she vainly
tries to render firmer_)
Wherever he wishes....
VERUS
No, not while I am here!...
MARY MAGDALENE (_throwing herself convulsively into VERUS’ arms_)
Verus!...
VERUS (_clasping her violently_)
Have no fear, Magdalene. Nothing can touch you in these arms which
close round you. The madness of this land seems more contagious than
its pestilence and more tenacious than its leprosy; but Roman reason
does not waver, like the rest, at the first foul breath that issues
from a tomb. We will cut this matter short. (_To LAZARUS_) You I will
not touch with my sword. It shrinks from corpses, even when they
walk and drive the trade which you do. It is for the slaves to show
you the road back to the sepulchre.... Where are the slaves?... But,
before going, look at this and tell your master that the woman whom he
covets--by the gods, he lacks neither taste nor daring!--has sought a
refuge in these arms, which will know how to defend her against his
barbarous witchcraft and his childish spells. Above all, repeat to him
what I am about to say: he will perhaps understand. His life, which
will not be a long one, after what he has done, lies wholly in this
hand which drives you hence. I have spoken. Go. She will not follow
you....
MARY MAGDALENE (_struggling to escape from VERUS’ embrace, while,
in the effort, her hair becomes loosened and falls over her
shoulders_)
Yes!...
VERUS (_holding her back by force_)
What does this mean?... Then you wish to...? (_MAGDALENE nods her
head._) I no longer understand.... Or rather I begin to understand too
well.... You were at one.... And it was he whom you were awaiting with
that impatience which seemed so sweet to me?... For who could be made
to believe that the fairest, richest and proudest woman in all Judæa
would thus, without a previous understanding, obey the first word, the
first sign of the grotesque and repulsive messenger sent by one whom
she had seen but once in her life!... It is too much.... I see, I know:
go, since you love him!...
MARY MAGDALENE
No, no!... I love you, but he....
VERUS
But he?...
MARY MAGDALENE (_sinking in sobs at VERUS’ feet_)
It is a different thing!...
VERUS
It is well, stand up.... I do not keep you by force. But I could not
have believed that you had come to this.... I have fallen into one
of your Jewish traps. Do you see the crowd posted there, under the
portico, spying upon its hostages?... I will not have Roman property
defiled.... I bear you no grudge, Magdalene. Love, in me, is not
extinguished in a moment; and I possess more constancy than woman....
I shall watch over you. I know now that, by destroying him, I can save
her whom he wished to destroy. He does not suspect that he owes his
life to me; for hitherto, from pity or indifference, I had held back
the threats that were gathering over his head. But, since he himself
comes to attack me in my happiness, I add to those threats all the
weight of flouted love.... And, now, go with your guide from the
tombs.... We shall meet again before long.
(_LAZARUS GOES OUT slowly through the vestibule. MAGDALENE,
without a word, without a movement, without a look, GOES OUT
after him, amid the profound, still silence of all present._)
APPIUS (_after a long pause_)
We have this day seen more than one thing that we had not seen
before....
SILANUS
It is true, Appius; and this is as surprising as the resurrection of a
dead man....
CURTAIN
ACT III
(_In the house of JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA. The Supper-room in which the
Last Supper took place. Windows at the back. Doors to the right
and left. Judæo-Roman architecture. The lamps are lit. It is the
end of the night of the sixth of April._)
SCENE I
_NICODEMUS. LEVI THE PUBLICAN. SIMON THE LEPER. LAZARUS, THE
MAN RISEN FROM THE DEAD. CLEOPHAS, ZACCHÆUS. THE MAN THAT WAS
BORN BLIND. BARTIMÆUS, THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO. THE MAN OF
GERASA POSSESSED BY A DEVIL. THE IMPOTENT MAN OF BETHESDA.
THE MAN HEALED OF A DROPSY. THE MAN WHOSE HAND WAS WITHERED.
SIMON PETER’S MOTHER-IN-LAW MARY CLEOPHAS. SALOME, THE WIFE
OF ZEBEDEE. SUSANNA. Several nameless MEN AND WOMEN CURED BY
MIRACLES. A few HUNCHBACKED, HALT, BLIND, LEPERS and PALSIED
waiting to be healed. Some BEGGARS, two or three HARLOTS, etc.
(All these people are struck with consternation and alarm at
the arrest of JESUS and at the bad news that is current. They
crowd at the back of the room, muttering and whispering. ENTER
MARTHA, the sister of LAZARUS._)
MARTHA (_affrighted, looking anxiously around her_)
I have seen him!
(_Sensation. ALL gather eagerly round MARTHA._)
NICODEMUS
Where is he?...
MARY CLEOPHAS
Has he suffered?...
SALOME
What does he say?...
MARTHA
Where is my sister?...
MARY CLEOPHAS
She is with her mother, in our host’s chamber.... Her mother was worn
out with sorrow....
MARTHA (_going to one of the windows_)
Did no one follow me?... No, the street is empty.... I went a long way
round....
NICODEMUS
Where did you see him?...
MARTHA
He was coming out of Annas’ palace.... I followed him to Caiaphas’....
It seems they are looking for us.... They have a special grudge against
Lazarus, the man raised from the dead.... Where is he?...
NICODEMUS (_pointing to LAZARUS, in the shadow_)
Here, among us....
MARTHA
They mean to arrest all those who went with him.... They mean to stone
us according to the law.... They will persecute all those who come from
Galilee....
CLEOPHAS
We are all Galileans....
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
No, not I....
ANOTHER
Nor I: I am from Bethany.
BARTIMÆUS
And I from Jericho....
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
It is not well that we should be found together....
NICODEMUS
Where will you go?...
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
No matter where.... We shall be safer than here....
ANOTHER
They do not know us.... I have never been seen with him....
A WOMAN
Nor I either: he just simply healed me.... I was bowed together and he
made me straight....
A MAN
I saw him only once: it was when he said to me, “Arise and take up
thy bed and go thy way into thine house.” I am he whom they let down
through the roof upon a bed.... Now I walk like other men.... (_He
turns to the door and GOES OUT, followed by THOSE CURED BY MIRACLES who
spoke before him._)
A SICK MAN
They are right.... We are not known either.... I came to be healed of
a dysentery.... I have not had time to touch him. (_He also makes for
the door._)
MARTHA
Are you not ashamed?...
THE SICK MAN (_stopping on the threshold_)
Of what?... It serves no purpose that those whom he has healed should
perish because of him.... (_He GOES OUT._)
ANOTHER MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
He can do nothing for us, because he can do nothing for himself; and we
can do nothing for him....
A HUNCHBACK
Yes, why does he not protect us?... He is constantly speaking of his
father and the angels.... Where are those angels?
NICODEMUS
It is because his hour has not yet come.
THE HUNCHBACK
When will his hour come?... When it is too late.... I have not the time
to wait.... (_He GOES OUT._)
NICODEMUS
Let those who do not love him go.... The Son of Man shall come in such
an hour as you think not....
CLEOPHAS
His kingdom is not of this world....
A BLIND MAN
His kingdom is lost....
NICODEMUS
He said, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of
them is forgotten before God?”...
CLEOPHAS
He said, “Live not in careful suspense.”...
NICODEMUS
He said, “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.”...
THE BLIND MAN
But he also said, “Let the dead bury their dead.” (_He gropes his way
to the door and GOES OUT._)
A LAME MAN
I am going away, not that I am afraid, but to go and look for him....
ANOTHER
I also.... (_They GO OUT._)
A LEPER
Who said that we must wait for him here?...
NICODEMUS
Simon Peter.
THE LEPER
Where is Simon Peter?... He hardly shows himself.
MARTHA
He was by the fire, in the high-priest’s hall....
NICODEMUS
And John?...
MARTHA
I heard that he was in Annas’ house....
NICODEMUS
And what was the Master doing when you saw him?...
MARTHA
I saw him only for a moment, while he passed between the columns of the
vestibule.... There was a great crowd around him....
MARY CLEOPHAS
Did he see you?...
MARTHA
Yes. He looked at me....
NICODEMUS
He was not free?...
MARTHA
His hands were bound.... The Roman soldiers were striking him to make
him walk faster....
MARY SALOME
Oh!...
CLEOPHAS
And the others, the twelve, where are they?...
MARTHA
Nobody knows.... They were seized with panic.... I have heard that
Thomas and Jude have fled to Galilee....
NICODEMUS
And Mary Magdalene, did you see her?...
MARTHA
No, but James met her.... She is mad with grief, it seems.... She was
crying out, tearing her garments and dashing her head against the walls
in Annas’ palace.... The servants drove her away; and, since then,
nobody knows what became of her.... A poor man told me that she was
wandering in the Roman quarter....
NICODEMUS
Does she know that we are here?...
MARTHA
Yes, Simon Peter told her....
A SICK MAN
When she comes, do not let her go out again.... She will bring
misfortune upon us. She is dangerous and does not know what she is
doing....
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
There are men marching in the street.... I hear the sound of arms....
They are coming to arrest us!... Let all escape who can!... (_To
NICODEMUS, who is going to a window_) Do not go to the windows, you
will be recognized!...
BARTIMÆUS
I will go, I am not known, I am from Jericho.... (_He looks cautiously
into the street_). It is twelve soldiers, with a centurion.... Hush!...
Do not speak!...
NICODEMUS
Are they stopping?...
BARTIMÆUS
No.... They are passing.... There is no one in the street now....
Yes!... There is some one coming at the other end.... Do not make a
noise.... It is a woman and four men.... Why, I know them!... It is
Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathæa, James, I believe, and Andrew
and Simon Zelotes.... They are looking around them.... They are
knocking.... Go down and open the door to them....
SCENE II
_THE SAME, MARY MAGDALENE, JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA, JAMES, ANDREW and
SIMON ZELOTES_
MARY MAGDALENE (_beside herself, dishevelled, barefoot, with torn
garments_)
How many are you?... Are you ready?... What have you been doing while
waiting for me?... I have come from the Antonia Tower.... The military
tribune was not in the Roman quarter.... But I have seen his friend
Appius.... He will send him to us as soon as he returns.... Verus said
that it might be possible to save him.... I do not know how.... He will
explain it to us.... But, if he does not save him, we must.... James
and Simon have swords under their cloaks. Where is Peter? Where is
John?...
MARTHA
I saw them in the hall of the high-priest’s house....
MARY MAGDALENE
They ought to be here.... We must be many.... He is to pass through
this street, under that window, on his way to Pilate....
NICODEMUS
When?...
MARY MAGDALENE
To-night, before the second watch.... Which of you has arms? Where are
they hidden?...
NICODEMUS
What do you wish to do?...
MARY MAGDALENE
To deliver him, if Verus does not deliver him.... It is easy, you
shall see.... They will let us do as we please, I know they will....
The Romans do not want to judge him.... Appius told me so, they are
perplexed.... When they took him to Caiaphas, there were only two
soldiers to guard him and two sergeants from the Temple, armed with
sticks.... If only there had been five or six men with me!... We would
have hidden him, I know where; and he would have been saved!... But I
was all alone!...
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
It is not so easy as you think, Magdalene.... All the populace was
there, ready to stone him....
MARY MAGDALENE
But the populace is on his side and the crowd adores him!... You have
forgotten his triumphal entry!...
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
It is different now.... They were all shouting for his death outside
Caiaphas’ palace....
MARY MAGDALENE
It was a few servants of the Pharisees and Sadducees....
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
A few servants would not have been enough to cover a public place to
the very roofs.... It was indeed the same crowd as on the day of the
triumph.... No, believe me, Magdalene, he knows what he wishes.... He
is determined to be destroyed.... He has confessed everything....
MARY MAGDALENE
What can he have confessed, when he has done no wrong?...
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
He admitted that he was the Son of God and the King of the Jews.
MARY MAGDALENE
Is it not the truth?...
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
No doubt, but it would have been better not to proclaim it to-night. In
the eyes of the priests and Romans, it is a crime punishable by law....
AN INFIRM MAN
He must be guilty, or they would not have arrested him....
NICODEMUS
We cannot do more than he wishes and commands; and he renounces his
defence.
MARY MAGDALENE
But you do not see that he does that to try your faith, your strength,
your love!...
NICODEMUS
He foretold all this many times....
MARY MAGDALENE
That was because he knew the cowardice of those who pretended to love
him!... Ah, men are great and heroic and proud!... The only men who
have not fled, those who tremble least, the best of you discuss and
argue as though they had to do with a measure of wheat; and the women
are silent and weep!... Well, what do you say, my sisters?... Is not
this the moment to show your love?... And those whom he has healed,
where are they, what are they doing?... You there, who want to flee,
blind Bartimæus, the other one from Jericho, the other from Siloam:
those eyes, which he has opened, you turn from me, because I have the
courage to speak to you of him!... You, Simon the Leper, you, the
other from Samaria, have you forgotten that, before he came, you were
more hideous than death?... I see nothing around me but miracles in
hiding!... The man whose hand was withered, the man who was healed of a
dropsy on the Sabbath and the man of Gerasa possessed by a devil, who
dares not lift up his head!... And, among the palsied, he of Bethesda
who is running to the door, using his legs only to forsake the God who
healed him!... Even those whom he raised from the dead are afraid!...
Why, look at Lazarus: he is more pale than any of you!... And yet you
saw death, you; you lay touching it for four long days.... Is it more
terrible than men thought?... You do not answer?...
(_A long pause._)
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
Listen, Magdalene.... I lack neither courage nor loyalty....
Notwithstanding the power of the priests, I have thrown open my house
to those who followed him. I know the price which I shall have to
pay.... I am prepared to sacrifice everything and life itself to him.
But I know his will and I cannot disobey him.... Peter wished to defend
him and drew his sword.... He made him put it up into the sheath.... I
was at Gethsemane....
MARY MAGDALENE
Since you were there, why did you not help Peter?... We save those whom
we love; we listen to them afterwards!... But what will you do when you
have destroyed him?... Oh, I am delaying too long with those who are
afraid!... What am I doing here, among men who will do nothing?... I
am wasting his last chances and his last minutes.... I will go to meet
Verus; after him, we shall see.... (_She turns to the door. JOSEPH OF
ARIMATHÆA and NICODEMUS block her way._)
NICODEMUS
Do not go out, Magdalene: it means destroying him and destroying us
with him....
MARY MAGDALENE
Ah, destroying you with him, that is the trouble!... Wait! (_She takes
another step towards the door. NICODEMUS stops her resolutely._)
NICODEMUS
You shall not go out.
MARY MAGDALENE
I shall not go out?... True, you dare fight against a woman. I had not
foreseen this great courage born of terror. You all shake your heads
like empty cornspikes; and the women rejoice in at last discovering the
cowardice of the men, showing itself suddenly more signal than their
own!...
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
Take counsel, Magdalene; think of him and reflect that, if he heard
you....
MARY MAGDALENE
Well, if he heard me, it would be as on the day when that one among you
whom you all resemble reproached me with anointing his feet with too
costly an ointment!... Have you forgotten what he said?... Whom did he
declare to be right?... You have understood nothing!... For months and
years, you have lived in his light; and not one of you has the least
idea of what I saw because I loved him, I who did not come until the
eleventh hour, I whom he drew from lower than the lowest slave of the
lowest among you all!...
NICODEMUS (_listening to the sounds outside_)
Hush!... Listen!... Some one is walking outside the house.... (_To
BARTIMÆUS._) Go see who it is....
BARTIMÆUS (_at the window_)
It is a man wrapped in a cloak.... A Roman.... He has stopped.... He
knocks at the door.... He is coming in.... The door was not closed....
MARY MAGDALENE (_running to the door of the Supper-room_)
It is he, it is Lucius Verus!... Open the door to him! Open quickly!...
I hear him!...
(_They open the door of the Supper-room. LUCIUS VERUS appears in
the embrasure. At the sight of the strange assembly of PERSONS
CURED BY MIRACLES, CRIPPLES, BEGGARS and SICK, he stops and
stands dumbfoundered on the threshold._)
SCENE III
THE SAME, LUCIUS VERUS
MARY MAGDALENE (_running to VERUS with outstretched arms_)
It is you, my Verus, it is indeed you!... An eye that looks me in the
face, a sword, shoulders, hands that do not tremble!... Come! Come!
What are we to do?... Have you seen him?... Where are we going?... How
can we help him?... How many men do you need?... Where are yours? He is
not only innocent, as you well know, he is so pure, he stands so high
that the thoughts of men cannot reach him.... In his goodness he is
bearing everything for the sins of the world; but we will not have him
sacrifice himself for us.... A single glance from his eyes, a single
word from his mouth, are worth all the lives of all other men....
VERUS (_icily_)
Is this indeed the place where I was to meet you?... Who are these ...
these men ... surrounding you?...
MARY MAGDALENE
They can be trusted.... They love him as well as he loved them; but
they want a leader.... They were waiting for you.... They will follow
you everywhere....
VERUS (_ironically_)
I have not come to command this ... foreign ... troop.... I do not know
what you mean. There is some misunderstanding; and we should not, I
think, explain it here, before so many witnesses....
MARY MAGDALENE
You are right.... (_To the others_) Leave us.... I will call you when
the time comes for action....
(_ALL GO OUT, except MARY MAGDALENE and LUCIUS VERUS._)
SCENE IV
LUCIUS VERUS, MARY MAGDALENE
VERUS (_sarcastically_)
Who are those extraordinary persons?... I have never seen so many
cripples, vagrants and evil-smelling sick people gathered together....
What do they want with you?... I was told that you were living in the
midst of uncouth creatures, the oldest, the ugliest, the dirtiest and
the most pestilential of those Jews whom you mocked so pleasantly in
the house of the wise Silanus; but I could not have believed that they
were so intimate with you as this.... However, that no longer concerns
me. But I told you that we should meet again before long.... Appius
informed me that you had been looking for me in the Roman quarter.
I left everything to hasten at your first summons. I knew what was
happening and I was biding my time....
MARY MAGDALENE
How good and generous you are!... How reassuring and comforting your
presence and your smile!... Those others ... if you only knew!... They
were trembling like the reeds of which our Master speaks; and I was
helpless and dying with shame.... But I knew that you would come back
to us; and now this is you, your arms, your breast.... It seems to me
that Rome in her entirety is protecting us and that your arms, which
can do all things, cannot abandon him....
VERUS
They will not abandon you, Magdalene. The rest depends upon yourself
alone.... I am good and generous, perhaps, but in my own manner; and
we must understand each other.... So they have arrested him in whom you
take so lively an interest, as I told you that they would?...
MARY MAGDALENE
They have not only arrested him: all the menials of the Temple, the
grooms, the herds, the meanest scullions in the kitchens rushed at him,
insulted, flouted and ill-treated him.... And, as they were afraid,
as they were too cowardly to venture it alone, they made the Roman
soldiers help them!...
VERUS
I know.... But had we not best be brief and to the point?...
MARY MAGDALENE
Yes, we have no time to lose....
VERUS
Even so. It is not now a question of arrest nor of more or less
justifiable ill-usage, but of imminent death. I have seen the
Procurator Pontius Pilate.
MARY MAGDALENE
Good. What did he say?...
VERUS
I found him anxious, perplexed, at a loss. He is a mild, irresolute
man, an enemy to quarrels and violence. He had to choose between
the inevitably bloody revolt of the priests and their sectaries and
the sacrifice of an agitator who was unquestionably troublesome and
dangerous, but who has not, perhaps, incurred the death penalty in
the eyes of Roman law and justice. I spoke according to my duty and
conscience. He did not hesitate. He chose the more humane and wiser
course. And, as I am the armed guardian responsible for the Roman
peace, he gave the fate of your Nazarene into my hands. However, I must
admit that, before our interview, I had purposely allowed events to
take the course they did....
MARY MAGDALENE
He is saved! I was sure of it! And how right I was to fear nothing and
to hope all things in turning to you!...
VERUS
Do not let us go too fast. There are many things to consider....
MARY MAGDALENE
What do you say?...
VERUS
I say that there are many things to consider.... Had I known nothing
whatever of your adventure, my choice would not have been in doubt: I
should, while more or less pitying him, have sacrificed the wretched
man to the public tranquillity; it is the sovereign law of the empire;
but now....
MARY MAGDALENE
But now, it is different, you know him, you know everything.... There
is no excuse for a moment’s hesitation; it would be monstrous....
VERUS
Indeed, there is no excuse for a moment’s hesitation; it would be
monstrous, as you say.... Shall I, to snatch a favoured rival from a
well-merited death, for the second time lose the only woman whom I love
or can love?... That certainly is impossible....
MARY MAGDALENE
I do not quite understand....
VERUS
Yet it is simple enough: in saving him, I hand you over, without
defence, to the fellow who will drag you with him, by fall after fall,
to the bottom of none can tell what pit of folly and wretchedness,
whence no human and reasoning power will be able to extricate you.
Moreover, speaking for myself, I lose you irrevocably by thus giving
you, with my own simple, foolish hands, to one who robs me of my
happiness by methods against which a man who values the name does not
try to struggle. Whereas, if I abandon him to his fate, there remains
a chance of seeing you return to the light and for me some prospect of
finding you in my path; for our two lives have still, I hope, a long
space to cover; and many roads, as you well know, lead to Rome....
MARY MAGDALENE
I understand.... I understand, since I needs must understand.... But I
do not yet believe.... No, it is not possible; and you, the man whom I
know, have not come to tell me coldly that you wish to destroy him and
thus revenge yourself for an injury which he has not done you.... There
is, there must be, something else....
VERUS
Yes, there is something else.... There remains to us, if you are
absolutely bent upon it, one means of saving him. But, at the point to
which we have come and to which I have driven the adventure, saving
him probably means ruin to myself. Besides, time presses. The sentence
is written, I have seen it. He will be put to death at daybreak; for
the hours are numbered because of the Passover....
MARY MAGDALENE
What must I do?... Quick, quick, I will do it....
VERUS
The prisoner is guarded by my men; it is therefore not quite impossible
to effect his escape....
MARY MAGDALENE
Why yes, why yes, it is simple; and that, of course, is what we must
do!... Once free, he will hide and he will be forgotten.... Let us lose
no time.... But I do not understand why you came to say....
VERUS
You will soon understand.... I answer for the prisoner, therefore. Do
you know what I am doing, do you know what I risk by restoring him to
liberty?...
MARY MAGDALENE
You are only doing your duty in freeing an innocent man....
VERUS
It is not for me to enquire into his innocence; that does not concern
me. I am not his judge, but his keeper....
MARY MAGDALENE
Your soldiers will hold their tongues and no one will know that....
VERUS
My soldiers will not be able to hold their tongues. They will have to
choose between silence and their lives. It will therefore be known
that they acted only on my orders. Now there is no instance of the
high-priests’ ever abandoning a prey, a revenge, a hatred. They will
go and complain, first, at Antioch, to the Governor of Syria, and,
next, to Cæsar himself, whose anger is kindled at the very breath of a
suspicion. Do you know what Cæsar is? The greatest, the most powerful
men in Rome tremble before his shadow.... For me, it means, if not
death, at least exile far from Rome; and death, to us Romans, seems
sweet compared with exile.... That is what I give; that is my stake; I
am waiting for yours.
MARY MAGDALENE
You are waiting for mine?... What would you have me give?... I have
nothing left.... I distributed all to the poor the other evening....
VERUS
I do not ask for what one gives to the poor.... And, besides, I have
had enough of those evasions which lead to nothing and of those
shuffling phrases.... Ah, much I care for justice and a vagrant more
or less in the world and my own fate and my own exile!... Have you not
understood that it is you I want, you alone and all of you; that I have
wanted you for years; and that this is my hour?... It is not beautiful,
I know, and it is not as I dreamt it!... But it is all I have; and a
man takes what he can to make his life!... We stand here face to face,
with our two madnesses, which are more powerful than ourselves and
cannot recede; we must come to an understanding!... The more you love
him, the more I love you, the more you wish to save him and the more I
wish to destroy him! We must come to an understanding!... You want his
life, I want mine; and you shall have his life, but I shall have you,
before he escapes his death.... Is it understood?... Are we agreed?...
Say no, if you dare, and let his blood be upon her who has brought him
to this pass and who is destroying him twice over!...
MARY MAGDALENE
Ah, so that was it!... Yes, yes, I know, I see.... I was not conscious
and I no longer thought of it; but it was bound to be.... Ah, so it
was that which caused me just now, while you were speaking, to have no
confidence despite my confidence!... It is so strange, so monstrous, so
remote from us!... One needs a little time to understand.... All one’s
thoughts become deranged and one’s soul falls, falls, like a stone in
a well.... One grasps the meaning of nothing.... One no longer knows
where one stands....
VERUS
You and I know quite well; and there is nothing extraordinary in all
this.... A few days ago, you would not have needed so much urging; and
I do not understand that to-day, when the price of love is something
quite different, to-day, when a life, dear to you among all lives....
MARY MAGDALENE
Ah, you do not understand!... And to think that scarcely any one, not
even those who loved him, would understand better!... Am I then the
only being that has seen into his soul?... And yet it is not so very
difficult!... He has spoken to me only three times in my life, but I
know what he thinks. I know all that he wishes, I know all that he is
as completely as though I were within him, or as though he were there,
near me, fixing upon my brow his glance in which the angels come down
from heaven, as on the evening when I kissed his feet and wiped them
with my hair....
VERUS
I well knew that I came too late, but I should never have believed
that you had gone so far.... If he has spoken to you only three times,
he has not wasted the minutes and has told you enough to remove my
doubts.... But let us be calm. It is a question other than of love; and
your lover himself, were he consulted, would judge that a kiss does not
weigh much in the presence of death.... Since you love him so well,
is his life not worth a slight displeasure, which but lately would not
have inspired you with such horror?... If there were a looking-glass
in this room, I would go and gaze at myself with curiosity, to make
out what, in a few days, has made me so repulsive that the torture of
the one man whom you adore is preferred to the touch of my lips!...
But what is the matter?... One would think that I was speaking of
unimaginable things!... What have I said? What have I done?... Your
face is distorted.... There is no need to look at me like that, with
mad and terrified eyes, as though they beheld the fall of the sun or
the violation of a tomb!...
MARY MAGDALENE
Let me be.... You cannot know.... I am only beginning to understand....
VERUS
A few days since, you were not so slow in understanding....
MARY MAGDALENE (_in a soft and distant voice_)
Yes, yes.... For one sees only little by little.... (_Staring before
her_) It is unfolded slowly, like a thing that has no beginning, no
end, no name.... There are two deaths here, I hold two deaths in my
hand; and that is too heavy a weight for a poor creature born upon this
earth....
VERUS
Two deaths?... What do you mean?... You do not intend to follow him,
surely?... Your death, since he loves you, would only add a very
useless bitterness to his....
MARY MAGDALENE (_in the same soft and distant voice_)
No.... I am not speaking of mine.... It is two other deaths.... I still
have my senses.... I can see clearly in the abyss.... Let me look,
where you can see nothing....
VERUS
I should not have thought that, when I came to bring you his safety and
the great sacrifice which I am making to love....
MARY MAGDALENE (_with a sudden outburst_)
The sacrifice which you are making to love!... Ah, if you could see
the sacrifice which is being accomplished here and which the very
angels dare not look upon!... But you cannot know what has happened on
earth since he descended upon it!... It is no longer the same earth;
and it is no longer possible!... Before he came, the purest would not
have hesitated!... Before he came! Before he came!... And, even then,
to-day, I, who have been born again through him, if it were not he, if
it were a question of another, I should not have the strength!... I
should perhaps sin against all that he loves, to save what I love!...
But he gives too much strength to love and to suffer!... I could save
him in spite of himself; but no longer in spite of myself!... If I
bought his life at the price which you offer, all that he wished, all
that he loved would be dead!... I cannot plunge the flame into the mire
to save the lamp! I cannot give him the only death that could touch
him!... But look at me with clearer eyes and you shall perhaps see all
that I perceive without being able to tell you!... Were I to yield but
for a moment under the weight of love, all that he has said, all that
he has done, all that he has given would sink back into the darkness,
the earth would be more deserted than if he had not been born and
heaven would be closed to mankind for ever!... I should be destroying
him altogether, destroying more than himself, to gain for him days
which would destroy everything....
VERUS
It is not so much a question of gaining days for him as of sparing him
tortures, the mere thought of which should make you reflect....
MARY MAGDALENE
I know! I know!... Because I love him thus, as none has ever loved
upon this earth where heaven had not yet poured forth its love, must
I not sacrifice to him what no human soul has possessed before me?...
But you come to ask for all that he has given; and what he has given
is much more than his life and lives more in our hearts than it lives
in himself!... If I destroy him in myself, I destroy him in us!... I
know no more, I see no more, I understand no more.... I would do it,
perhaps, if my soul were alone; but it is no longer possible and God
would not have it!...
VERUS
The gods always will what men will.... Be sure that, if he whom you
are about to deliver to the torture could make his voice heard at this
moment, he would not hesitate....
MARY MAGDALENE
Ah, I know that he would not hesitate! And that is why I am struggling
thus, like a blind beast, between two sacrifices!... It is my past
shame that overwhelms me and prevents me from rising to the level of
his will!...
VERUS
Man has but one will in the presence of death....
MARY MAGDALENE
My God! My God!... I am nothing, I am defiled with every defilement:
what matters this one, which brings thee life?... But am I in
question?... Is it not thou alone whom I defile to-day in defiling thy
salvation, thou, the very source whence the source of all purity and
of every happiness and of every life will spring?... I no longer know
where to thrust back my soul!... Nothing remains to me, if I lose it;
nothing remains to us, if I save it!...
VERUS
Nothing is lost so long as life endures....
MARY MAGDALENE
Hush, I beseech you!... Leave me alone in his silence and his will....
Let me contemplate, let me listen to other things.... I do not yet love
him as he would be loved!... In vain I raise my eyes to his heaven
of light: I see only his death, his sorrows, his suffering ... his
steadfast face, his eyes that lit up all he looked upon, his mouth
that spoke unceasingly of happiness ... his feet which I have kissed,
lifeless and icy cold!... Verus, Verus, have pity!... I cannot bear
it, I cannot bear it! I am falling!... Do with me what you will!...
VERUS (_catching her in his arms_)
Magdalene, Magdalene!... I knew....
MARY MAGDALENE (_springing back at his touch_)
No, you did not know! And it is not that!... There is something
else!... There is another outlet!... Verus, Verus, come, you are not
without feeling, you are not a monster, you will understand also....
It depends on you.... For me it is impossible.... There is a wall
there defended by his angels.... I cannot pass it.... I must not
think of it.... But you, you can do everything!... To think that you
hold there, in that human hand of yours, the life of the God of Gods
descended upon earth!... I know, I know, you do not believe it....
But you must at least believe in his innocence; and you know that he
has done no evil.... He does not even know what evil is, since he is
all goodness.... He has done nothing but heal, console and pray....
He has done nothing but breathe over men’s souls and flood them with
happiness.... If only you knew him, if he had spoken to you, were it
but once!... Because he is innocent and because you are just, because
you have strength and because you are brave, you cannot deliver him
defenceless to the executioners.... It would not be Roman, it would not
even be manly....
VERUS
Enough of this; and, as everything is useless, let him be treated as
you have decided.... It is not I who am leading him to the torture....
MARY MAGDALENE (_clinging to the garments of VERUS, who takes a
step to the door_)
Verus! Verus!... I implore you!... That is not all!... All is not
said!... It cannot be decided like this!... But do not ask the one
impossible thing.... I will be your slave, I will live at your feet,
serve you on my knees for the rest of my days; but give me his life
without destroying in my soul and throughout the earth that which is
the very life of our new life!...
VERUS
Enough!... Besides, there is no time. My patience in saving a rival
whom I hate is as ridiculous as your persistent attempt to save your
lover by singing his praises!... When you see him dead, in less than
three hours hence, do not weep over him, lest your tears should be
flung back in your own face!... (_Perceiving JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA, who
discreetly opens the door, to the left, of the Supper-room._) Who
goes there?... Come in, come in, this is the very thing!... We need
witnesses. Where are the mountebanks, the monsters, the lepers? I want
to tell them....
MARY MAGDALENE
What?...
VERUS
They shall know who has betrayed their god!... We shall then see if you
have the heart to despatch him before their eyes and how they will take
the news!... Repugnant though they be, I want to see their ugly faces
again!... (_He reaches the door and throws it open wide._)
MARY MAGDALENE (_hurrying to stop his action_)
Verus! Verus!... This is not worthy of you!...
VERUS
I know! I know!... I am not worthy of anything, it appears! Not even of
you, harlot!... (_Calling in a loud voice_) Hi! Hi! The rest of you!...
Where are you?... Hasten this way, you halt and lame, you club-feet,
you cripples, you beggars, vagrants, lepers, paralytics!... I have
something of importance to tell you!... (_Startled faces appear in the
embrasures of the two doors._)
SCENE V
_VERUS, MARY MAGDALENE and nearly ALL THE CHARACTERS of_ SCENE III
VERUS
Come in, come in, you have nothing to fear!... (_They ENTER, timidly._)
Are you all there?... There seem to be fewer of you.... Where are the
others gone?...
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
Sir, some of them fear lest the night....
VERUS
I understand; they were afraid.... Their love and their faith do not
take any risk of blows.... However, these will do.... Do you see that
woman?... I came to offer to save your master. She had only to say
yes. She has said no. She orders his death. He will therefore die at
sunrise.
(_Sensation in the crowd._)
NICODEMUS
What is he saying, Magdalene?...
(_MARY MAGDALENE does not reply._)
VERUS
Ask her, you will learn....
NICODEMUS
Magdalene, is it true?...
(_MARY MAGDALENE remains silent._)
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA
But come, answer!... What is the matter with you?...
VERUS
She is at the same time betraying and destroying all those who followed
the tempter. I have spoken. Farewell. Look to yourselves. (_He turns
to the door._)
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA (_stopping him and beseeching him_)
Sir, I beg of you, do not go away like this.... She is mistaken, you
will see.... There is some terrible misunderstanding.... Magdalene,
come, what is he saying, what do you say?... Why, it is impossible!...
What has happened?...
_SEVERAL SICK MEN and BEGGARS (surrounding MAGDALENE, who remains
motionless, gazing blindly into the distance_)
Magdalene! Magdalene....
A HUNCHBACK
She also has sold him!... She was with the Iscariot!...
MARTHA (_putting her arms around MAGDALENE’S neck_)
Magdalene!... Listen to me!... You used to love me.... What has come to
you?... Tell me it is not true.... You have not heard....
MARY CLEOPHAS (_putting her hand on MAGDALENE’S shoulder_)
Magdalene, Magdalene!... No, it is impossible.... You cannot have
forgotten....
A POOR MAN
How much did you receive?...
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
Yes, how much?... Where is the money?...
ANOTHER
Give back the gold! Give back the gold!... Search her!...
MARY SALOME
Magdalene! Magdalene!... She is mad!...
A VAGRANT
Harlot!... Soldiers’ wench!...
ANOTHER
Strumpet! Strumpet! Strumpet!
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
The seven devils whom he cast out have entered her body again!...
ANOTHER
She has sold us like a herd of oxen!...
A SICK MAN
We shall all have to suffer!...
ANOTHER
Yes, but not before she does!...
THE MAN WHOSE HAND WAS WITHERED
She shall not go from here until....
A PALSIED MAN
In any case, she shall not go hence alive, take my word for it!...
(_Almost ALL, shouting, gesticulating, threatening, with clenched
fists, crowd round MAGDALENE, who remains motionless and dumb._)
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA (_intervening_)
Come, come, do not forget who you are, where you are nor in whose name
you are speaking. (_To VERUS_) Sir, I beg of you, a little patience....
I am a just and reasonable man; and everything will be explained....
Listen, Magdalene, I am speaking to you in his name.... There is still
time to say yes.... I am speaking as a father....
(_MAGDALENE maintains her motionless silence._)
THE HUNCHBACK
You see!... She has received the price!...
(_An explosion of hatred. ALL surround her more closely. The
cries, the threats, the imprecations, the entreaties, the moans
are redoubled. Suddenly, in the street, rises a tumult which
drowns that in the Supper-room. It is the shouting of an angry
crowd approaching swiftly, the sound of arms and horses. The
uproar in the room is at once lulled. ALL listen, anxiously._)
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
The Romans!... The soldiers!... They are coming to arrest us!... She
has betrayed us!... Let us fly!... This way, this way!...
(_ALL lose their heads. Some run wildly round the room, seeking
for an outlet._)
A VAGRANT
No, no!... Do not go out!... There is only one door!... We cannot
escape!... They would discover us!...
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE
Be silent!... Hide yourselves!...
A CRIPPLE
Why do you not put out the lamps?... They will see the lights!...
Quick! Quick! Put out the lamps!...
(_The lamps are put out._)
ANOTHER
Do not go to the windows!... Do not show yourselves at the windows!...
Lie down along the walls!...
VERUS
It is a noble spectacle and I long to see it out....
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHÆA (_going up to VERUS_)
Sir, do not ruin them.... They are weak and poor.... Almost all of them
are sick.... They know not what they do.... Have pity on men and do not
judge them....
(_The shouts--“Crucify him! Crucify him!... Tempter! Tempter!...
Galilean! Nazarene!... He would destroy the Temple!... He would
destroy the Law!... Blasphemer!... Crucify him! Crucify him!
Crucify him!”--are redoubled in the street and are now heard
outside the house itself. The red light of the torches is cast
into the room. THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO steals up to one of the
windows and looks out._)
A PANIC-STRICKEN VOICE
Do not go to the windows!...
A LAME MAN (_going to another window_)
What is happening?...
THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO
It is he!...
(_Several PERSONS, irresistibly attracted, climb up to the
windows and look into the street, with infinite caution.
Occasionally ONE of them turns to those who remain at the back
of the room, to tell them what he sees._)
ONE OF THOSE AT THE WINDOWS
There are soldiers all around him!... There is a crowd of them!...
ANOTHER
He is coming! He is coming this way!... His hands are bound!... They
are striking him!...
ANOTHER
He is weeping!... His eyes are bleeding!...
ANOTHER
They are taking him to Pilate!... There are Peter and John, hiding
themselves!...
ANOTHER
The blood is dripping on his feet!...
ANOTHER
He cannot walk any farther!... He staggers! He staggers!...
VERUS (_to MAGDALENE, who has not moved and who stands against a
column, in the middle of the room, staring before her, without
turning towards the windows_)
Magdalene!...
(_In the street, suddenly, the tumult falls, as a huge, heavy
object might fall. A wonderful silence._)
A VOICE (_in the room_)
What is it?...
THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO (_at the window_)
He falls!... He has fallen!... He is looking at the house!...
VERUS
Magdalene, I still promise you....
MARY MAGDALENE (_without stirring, without looking at VERUS,
without anger, simply, in a voice from another life, full of
peace, full of divine clarity and certainty_)
Go!...
THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO (_at the window_)
He rises to his feet!... They drag him along!...
(_The tumult, the shouts of “Crucify him!” are resumed and
redoubled in the street. VERUS GOES OUT slowly, with his eyes
on MAGDALENE, who remains motionless, as though in ecstasy and
all illumined with the light of the departing torches._)
CURTAIN
Transcriber's Notes
The following changes have been made to the text as printed:
1. A close-bracket ")" has been inserted after "_to receive_ MARY
MAGDALENE" on Page 17.
2. Two instances of punctuation after the speaker's name "MAGDALENE"
have been removed (Page 48, Page 59).
3. "THE SAME" (below "SCENE II" on Page 74) has been placed in upright
capitals rather than italics.
4. "Judea" (Page 104) has been changed to "Judæa".
5. Indentation and justification of stage directions have been made more
consistent.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Mary Magdalene: A Play in Three Acts" ***
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