“ The upstart, the rogue, the tyrant, the rake, and all those haughty sinners who make an ill use of life, and whose steps are dogged by Death, will be surely punished; but can the reflection that death is no evil make amends for the long hardships of the blind man, the beggar, the madman, and the poor peasant? ”
George Sand, The Devil's Pool (1846). copy citation
| Author | George Sand |
|---|---|
| Source | The Devil's Pool |
| Topic | hardship death |
| Date | 1846 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translated by Jane Minot Sedgwick and Ellery Sedgwick |
| Weblink | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Devils_Pool_(1895) |
Context
“probably because he has nothing to lose, and his existence is already a life in death.
Is there comfort in this stoical thought of the half-pagan Christianity of the Renaissance, and does it satisfy religious souls? The upstart, the rogue, the tyrant, the rake, and all those haughty sinners who make an ill use of life, and whose steps are dogged by Death, will be surely punished; but can the reflection that death is no evil make amends for the long hardships of the blind man, the beggar, the madman, and the poor peasant? No! An inexorable sadness, an appalling fatality brood over the artist's work. It is like a bitter curse, hurled against the fate of humanity.
Holbein's faithful delineation of the society in which he lived is, indeed, painful satire.”
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