Maurice Maeterlinck

“ 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 ardor, light and love, distant and yet near to every heart and present in every soul. ”

“ Here is the terrace, the glory of my little domain: it reminds me of my terrace at Praneste, 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 Beth any. It is as though the earth were ablaze beneath the olive-trees. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I was brought back here, to this barbarous Judea, 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 shorty....
VERUS: Who? Appius?....Is he at Jerusalem? ”

“ 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. ”

“ Be sides, 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. ”

“ 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 Mary Magdalene avoids frank, straightforward theft, honest theft, if one may say so. ”

“ SILANUS: He cannot be very far. . . . Do you see that laurel-hedge, at the bottom of my garden? ... It divides my little do main from the orchard of my neighbor, known as Simon the Leper. . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: (Starting.) What, your next neighbor 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 Judea. . . .
SlLANUS: The Nazarene healed him. ”

“ It Is well to know anything that can relieve sorrow. . . .
SlLANUS: "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 your self 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. ”

“ The hope of the future makes us ungrateful for the benefits which we have received, as though the favors 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 ”

“ There are in stances without end of the fathers losing their infant children without shedding a single tear and returning to the senate after laying them in the graves. This is not unreasonable; for, in the first place, it is idle to give way to grief when grief can serve no purpose. ”

“ There is something more astonishing yet, which clearly shows that the greatest wisdom is not so much to know as to con form 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, Panaetius and Hermachus, he proved that sorrow is not only useless, but ungrateful. ”

“ The azure and the light seem happy only when environmenting 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! ”

“ 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? . . .
SlLANUS: 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 neighboring orchard. . . . (Listening.) Yes. . . . Do you hear the crowd humming like bees? ... It is close to my laurel-hedge. . . .
APPIUS: Let us go and see. . . . ”

“ And then it is unjust to complain of a misfortune that has be fallen one person and still threatens all the others. Moreover, it is madness to com plain, when there is so little distance be tween 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? ”

“ 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 in offensive become dangerous; and the sight of the Roman toga and arms enrages them strangely. ”

“ 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. ”