Transcriber's Note
The following linked Table of Contents is additional to the work as originally published.
[AUTHOR’S NOTE]
[ACT I]
[ SCENE I]
[ SCENE II]
[ SCENE III]
[ SCENE IV]
[ACT II]
[ SCENE I]
[ SCENE II]
[ SCENE III]
[ACT III]
[ SCENE I]
[ SCENE II]
[ SCENE III]
[ SCENE IV]
[ SCENE V]
Mary Magdalene
A Play in Three Acts
BY
MAURICE MAETERLINCK
Translated by
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
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
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!...
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