Jan 22– Polyeucte by Cornielle (1643) Translated by Thomas Constable

The play as an opera

Reading

Jan 22– Polyeucte by Cornielle (1643) Translated by Thomas Constable

Summary: A woman has a dream that her husband is going to die. They talk about it with their friends and family in the most metal way possible.

Commentary: Kind of hard to comment on just the first act of a short play. Pauline is in love with Polyeucte, but she has a dream that her ex boyfriend is going to kill him. Acceptable melodrama. This translation makes it sound pretty metal.

     So doth the ghostly foe our souls abuse,

     And all beyond his force he gains by ruse;

     He hates the purpose fast he cannot foil,—

     Then he retreats—retreats but to recoil!

     In endless barricade obstruction piles,

     To-day 'tis tears impede, to-morrow—smiles!

     And this poor dream—his coinage of the night

     Gives place to other lures, all falsely bright:

     All tricks he knows and uses—threats and prayers

     Attacks in parley—as the Parthian dares.

     In chain unheeded weakest link must fail,

     So fortress yet unwon he'll mount and scale.

     O break his bonds! Let feeble woman weep!

     The heart that God has touched 'tis God must keep!

     Who looks behind to dally with his choice

     When Heaven demands—obeys another voice!

Probably the most interesting passage:

     PAUL.

     You say his words: at all my fears he smiles,

     But I must dread these Christians and their wiles!

     I dread their vengeance, wreaked upon my lord,

     For Christian blood my father has outpoured!

     STRAT.

     Their sect is impious, mad, absurd and vain,

     Their rites repulsive, as their cult profane.

     Deride their altar, their weak frenzy ban,

     Yet do they war with gods and not with man!

     Relentless wills our law that they must die:

     Their joy—endurance; death—their ecstasy;

     Judged—by decree, the foes of human race,

     Meekly their heads they bow—to court disgrace!

You don't often hear Christians described as wily, and you're more likely to hear (at least in 21st century America) Christians referring to other religions as repulsive, profane, etc. Obviously, there was a time where the opposite was true, but it's not a thing we think about today. More of Eliot's subtle crusade to make readers question their religion? Regardless, a helpful (if controversial) exercise to think of a dominant culture as an invader, etc. and how that'd affect things, how people would be treated, etc. 

I remember singing "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love" as a kid and thinking you could easily append, "for the way things are" to the end. Don't cut yourself on that edge 8 year old me.