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Read Ebook: Mary Magdalene: A Play in Three Acts by Maeterlinck Maurice Teixeira De Mattos Alexander Translator
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next PageEbook has 969 lines and 19769 words, and 20 pagesTranslator: Alexander Texeira de Mattos Characters' names within italicised stage directions are intended to be read as upright font. MARY MAGDALENE BY MAURICE MAETERLINCK NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1910 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. 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 SCENE I SILANUS Here is the terrace, the glory of my little domain: it reminds me of my terrace at Praeneste, 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. 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 Judaea.... 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 Caesarea; 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 Judaea, 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.... . 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.... Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page |
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