Maurice Maeterlinck

“ Man has but one will in the presence of death. . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: My God! My God! ... I am nothing, I am defiled with every defilement: what matters this one, which brings thee life? . . . But am I in question? . . . Is it not thou alone whom I defile today in defiling thy salvation, thou, the very source whence the source of all purity and of every happiness and of every life will spring? ... I no longer know where to thrust back my soul! . . . Nothing remains to me, if I lose it; nothing remains to us, if I save it! ”

“ It is a question other than of love; and your lover himself, were he consulted, would judge that a kiss does not weigh much in the presence of death. . . . Since you love him so well, is his life not worth a slight displeasure, which but lately would not have inspired you with such horror? . . . If there were a looking-glass in this room, I would go and gaze at myself with curiosity, to make out what, in a few days, has made me so repulsive that the torture of the one man whom you adore is preferred to the touch of my lips! ”

“ One needs a little time to understand. . . . All one's thoughts become deranged and one's soul falls, falls, like a stone in a well. . . . One grasps the meaning of nothing. . . . One no longer knows where one stands. . . .
VERUS: You and I know quite well; and there is nothing extraordinary in all this. . . . A few days ago, you would not have needed so much urging; and I do not understand that today, when the price of love is something quite different, today, when a life, dear to you among all lives. . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: Ah, you do not understand! ”

“ MARY MAGDALENE: You are only doing your duty in freeing an innocent man. . . .
VERUS: It is not for me to enquire into his innocence; that does not concern me. I am not his judge, but his keeper. . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: Your soldiers will hold their tongues and no-one will know that. . . .
VERUS: My soldiers will not be able to hold their tongues. They will have to choose between silence and their lives. It will therefore be known that they acted only on my orders. Now there is no instance of the high-priests' ever abandoning a prey, a revenge, a hatred. ”

“ They will not abandon you, Magdalene. The rest depends upon yourself alone. , . . I am good and generous, perhaps, but in my own manner; and we must understand each other. ... So they have arrested him in whom you take so lively an interest, as I told you that they would? . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: They have not only arrested him: all the menials of the Temple, the grooms, the herds, the meanest scullions in the kitchens rushed at him, insulted, flouted and ill-treated him. . . . And, as they were afraid, as they were too cowardly to venture it alone, they made the Roman soldiers help them! ”

“ It is not now a question of arrest nor of more or less justifiable ill-usage, but of imminent death. I have seen the Procurator Pontius Pilate.
MARY MAGDALENE: Good. What did he say? . . .
VERUS: I found him anxious, perplexed, at a loss. He is a mild, irresolute man, an enemy to quarrels and violence. He had to choose between the inevitably bloody revolt of the priests and their sectaries and the sacrifice of an agitator who was unquestionably troublesome and dangerous, but who has not, perhaps, incurred the death penalty in the eyes of the Roman law and justice. ”

“ In the eyes of the priests and the Romans, it is a crime punishable by law. . . .
AN INFIRM MAN: He must be guilty, or they would not have arrested him. . . .
NICODEMUS: We cannot do more than he wishes and commands; and he renounces his defense.
MARY MAGDALENE: But you do not see that he does that to try your faith, your strength, your love! . . .
NICODEMUS: He foretold all this many times. . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: That was because he knew the cowardice of those who pretended to love him! . . . Ah, men are great and heroic and proud! . . . ”

“ The greatest, the most powerful men in Rome tremble before his shadow. . . . For me, it means, if not death, at least exile far from Rome; and death, to us Romans, seems sweet compared with exile. . . . That is what I give; that is my stake; I am waiting for yours.
MARY MAGDALENE: You are waiting for mine? . . . What would you have me give? ... I have nothing left. ... I distributed all to the poor the other evening. . . .
VERUS: I do not ask for what one gives to the poor. ”

“ He has done nothing but heal, console and pray. . . . He has done nothing but breathe over men's souls and flood them with happiness. ... If only you knew him, if he had spoken to you, were it but once! . . . Because he is innocent and because you are just, because you have strength and because you are brave, you cannot deliver him defenseless to the executioners. ... It would not be a Roman, it would not even be manly. . . .
VERUS: Enough of this; and, as everything is useless, let him be treated as you have decided. . . . It is not I who am leading him to the torture. ”

“ My patience in saving a rival whom I hate is as ridiculous as your persistent attempt to save your lover by singing his praises! . . . When you see him dead, in less than three hours hence, do not weep over him, lest your tears should be flung back in your own face! . . . (Perceiving JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, who discreetly opens the door, to the left side, of the Supper-room.) Who goes there? . . . Come in, come in, this is the very thing! . . . We need witnesses. Where are the mountebanks, the monsters, and the lepers? I want to tell them . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: What is it? ”

“ Were I to yield but for a moment under the weight of love, all that he has said, all that he has done, all that he has given would sink back into the darkness, the earth would be more deserted than if he had not been born and heaven would be closed to mankind forever! ”

“ Moreover, speaking for myself, I lose you irrevocably by thus giving you, with my own simple, foolish hands, to one who robs me of my happiness by methods against which a man who values the name does not try to struggle. Whereas, if I abandon him to his fate, there remains a chance of seeing you return to the light and for me some prospect of finding you in my path; for our two lives have still, I hope, a long space to cover; and many roads, as you well know, lead to Rome. . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: I understand. ... ”

“ I lack neither courage nor loyalty. . . . Notwithstanding the power of the priests, I have thrown open my house to those who followed him. I know the price which I shall have to pay. ... I am prepared to sacrifice everything and life itself to him. But I know his will and I cannot disobey him. . . . Peter wished to defend him and drew his sword. . . . He made him put it up into the sheath. ... I was at Gethsemane. . . .
MARY MAGDALENE: Since you were there, why did you not help Peter? . . . We save those whom we love; we listen to them afterwards! ”

“ Suddenly, in the street, rises a tumult which drowns that in the Supper-room. It is the shouting of an angry crowd approaching swiftly, the sound of arms and horses. The uproar in the room is at once lulled. ALL listen, anxiously.)
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE: The Romans! . . . The soldiers! . . . They are coming to arrest us! . . . She has betrayed us! . . . Let us fly! . . . This way, this way! . . .
(ALL of them lose their heads. Some more of them begin to run wildly around the room, seeking for an outlet.)
A VAGRANT: No, no! . . . Do not go out! . . . There is only one door! ”

“ Yet it is simple enough: in saving him, I hand you over, without defense, to the fellow who will drag you with him, by fall after fall, to the bottom of none can tell what pit of folly and wretchedness, whence no human and reasoning power will be able to extricate you. ”

“ But it is all I have; and a man takes what he can to make his life! . . . We stand here face to face, with our two madnesses, which are more powerful than ourselves 'and cannot recede; we must come to an understanding! ”

“ They know not what they do. . . . Have pity on men and do not judge them. . . .
(The shouts—"Crucify him! Crucify him! . . . Tempter! Tempter! . . . Galilean! Nazarene! . . . He would destroy the Temple! . . . He would destroy the Law! . . . Blasphemer! . . . Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!"—are redoubled in the street and are now heard outside the house itself. The red light of the torches is cast into the room. THE BLIND MAN OF JERICHO steals up to approach one of the windows and looks out.)
A PANIC-STRICKEN VOICE: (Gasping shrilly in terror.) Do not go to the windows! ”

“ They mean to arrest all those who went with him. . . . They mean to stone us according to the law. . . . They will persecute all those who come from Galilee. . . .
MARY CLEOPHAS: We are all Galileans. . . .
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE: No, not I. . . .
ANOTHER MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE: Nor I: I am from Bethany.
BARTIMAEUS: And I from Jericho. . . .
A MAN CURED BY A MIRACLE: It is not well that we should be found together. ”