the tragedy of man

T H E T R A G E D YO F M A N

I M R E M A D Á C H

w i t h i m a g e s f r o m t h e a n i m a t e d f i l m a d a p t a t i o n b yM A R C E L L J A N K O V I C S

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9

F I R S T S C E N E

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[HEAVEN. THE LORD IN GLORY ON HIS THRONE. A HOST OF ANGELS KNEELING. THE FOUR ARCHANGELS STAND

BEFORE THE THRONE. GREAT BRILLIANCE.]

ANGELS’ CHORUS Glory to our God in the highest.Let the earth and the firmament adore Him,Whose word has called all things into beingAnd on whose glance the fate of all depends.He is all power, wisdom and bliss.Our share is only the shadow he has cast on us.Let us adore Him for his eternal grace, in grantingSuch a share in His light to us.The eternal great idea has taken shape.Lo, the Creation is already finishedAnd the Lord from all to whom He gives life’s breathAwaits due tribute at His holy footstool.

THE LORD Verily the great work is accomplished,The machine goes round, the creator takes his rest.So for a million years will it rotateBefore one single cog need be renewed.Arise then, guardian spirits of light, arise.


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S E C O N D S C E N E

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[THE GARDEN OF EDEN. IN THE MIDDLE THE TREES OF KNOWLEDGE AND OF ETERNAL LIFE.

ADAM AND EVE ENTER SURROUNDED BY VARIOUS KINDS OF ANIMALS WITH TAME CONFIDENCE.

IN THE OPEN GATE OF THE SKY A GLORY SENDS FORTH RAYS, AND THE SOFT HARMONIES OF THE

ANGELS’ CHORUS CAN BE HEARD. SUNNY DAY.]

EVE How sweet, how beautiful it is to live! ADAM And to be lords over everything.

EVE To feel that we are fully cared forAnd for all this we merely stammer thanksTo him, dispenser of all these joys.

ADAM Dependence is thy way of life, I see.I’m thirsty, Eve, see how temptinglyThis fruit looks down on us.

EVE I’m going to pick one.THE VOICE OF THE LORD

Stop, stop, the whole earth is thineAdam, only avoid, avoid these two trees.Another spirit guards their luscious fruitAnd he who tastes thereof shall die the death.Yonder the grapes are showing purpleThere soft shade invites thee to reposeDuring the sweltering heat of the radiant noon.


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T H I R D S C E N E

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[SPLENDID COUNTRY OUTSIDE EDEN. A LITTLE ROUGH WOODEN HOVEL. ADAM IS DRIVING IN

STAKES AS A FENCE. EVE IS MAKING AN ARBOUR. LUCIFER.]

ADAM This is my own. Instead of the wide worldThis place shall be my home. It is my domain.From noxious animals I shall guard it;And shall compel it to produce for me.

EVE I am making just such an arbourAs we had before, and so can conjure upThe Eden we have lost.

LUCIFER Alas! Fine wordsFall from your lips. The family and propertyWill be the world’s twain motive powerThe source of all its pleasures and its pains.These two ideas will grow unceasingly.From them will come the Nation and IndustryBegetting everything that’s great and nobleAnd, Saturn-like, devouring their own offspring.

ADAM Thou speak’st in riddles. Thou hast promised knowledge,For this I have renounced instinctive pleasures


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F O U R T H S C E N E

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[EGYPT. IN FRONT OF AN OPEN HALL. ADAM, AS PHARAOH, YOUNG, SEATED ON A THRONE.

LUCIFER AS HIS MINISTER: AT A RESPECTFUL DISTANCE, A BRILLIANT RETINUE. IN THE

BACKGROUND SLAVES ARE AT WORK, BUILDING A PYRAMID, UNDER OVERSEERS WHO KEEP

ORDER WITH WHIPS. FINE DAY.]

LUCIFER Your Majesty! Thy folk who count it happinessTo bleed for thee, is asking anxiouslyWhat can it be which does not let great PharaohTake his repose upon his cushioned throne?Why dost thou renounce the pleasures of the dayAnd the sweet visions which come by nightAnd dost not to thy slave, as is befittingConfide the care of thy vast projects,When already, all the glory and the powerOf this great world, and all the luxuryWhich man can bear, belong to thee?The riches of a hundred provinces acclaim their lord.The scented flower opens its cup for theeAnd for thee only brings forth its sweet fruit.A thousand women’s hearts are sighing for thee:The fair skinned beauty with her languid eye


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F I F T H S C E N E

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[ATHENS. THE AGORA—SEATS FOR ORATORS IN THE MIDDLE. IN FRONT AT THE SIDE, AN OPEN

TEMPLE WITH STATUES OF GODS, WREATHS OF FLOWERS AND AN ALTAR. EVE, AS LUCIA, THE WIFE

OF COMMANDER MILTIADES, WITH HER SON KIMON, ACCOMPANIED BY MANY SERVANTS CARRYING

OFFERINGS, COMES UP TO THE PORTICO OF THE TEMPLE. RAGGED PEOPLE LOUNGE ABOUT THE

MARKET-PLACE. A F INE MORNING.]

EVE Come, come this way my dear little son.See! that’s the way your father went, in a swift shipTo fight far away from our country’s frontiers.There dwells a barbarous folk, who daringlyThreaten the liberty of our fatherland.Let us pray, let us pray, my son,That Heaven will defend our country’s rightAnd bring your hero father safely back to us.

KIMON But why did father go so far awayTo protect these ragged cowardly peopleWhile grief consumes his lovely wife at home?

EVE Alas, don’t criticise your good father.A child who does so is accursed of God.Only a loving wife may be allowedTo sorrow o’er her husband’s exploits,


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S I X T H S C E N E

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[ROME. OPEN PORTICO WITH STATUES OF THE GODS AND MAGNIFICENT VESSELS IN WHICH INCENSE

IS BURNING. THE APENNINES ARE VIS IBLE. IN THE MIDDLE A SPREAD TABLE WITH THREE COUCHES.

ADAM AS SERGIOLUS, LUCIFER AS NIDO, CATULUS—ALL THESE DEBAUCHEES ; EVE AS JULIA, HIPPIA

AND CLUVIA, COURTESANS, DRESSED WANTONLY . GLADIATORS ARE FIGHTING ON A STAGE, SLAVES

STAND WAITING FOR ORDERS, FLAUTISTS ARE PLAYING. DUSK, AFTERWARDS NIGHT.]

CATULUS Sergiolus, look how restrained and dexterousThat gladiator with the red ribbon is.I’ll bet you that he beats the other one.

ADAM No, by Hercules!CATULUS Hercules indeed,

Who of us still believes in Gods?Swear by your Julia, then I might believe you.

ADAM So be it.LUCIFER That’s a powerful kind of oath

Substituting one false God for another.But say, what may we take this oath to mean:Do you swear by her beauty or your loveOr only by her faithfulness to you?

CATULUS Charm is a fleeting thing and were it notYou would be bored to-morrow with what delights to-day


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S E V E N T H S C E N E

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[CONSTANTINOPLE. SQUARE WITH SOME CITIZENS LOUNGING ABOUT. IN THE MIDDLE THE

PATRIARCH ’S PALACE; TO THE RIGHT A CONVENT, TO THE LEFT A WOOD . ADAM, AS TANCRED

IN THE PRIME OF LIFE, WITH OTHER KNIGHTS, AT THE HEAD OF THE CRUSADERS RETURNING

FROM ASIA, WITH FLUTTERING BANNERS AND THE SOUND OF DRUMS. LUCIFER AS HIS SQUIRE.

EVENING, LATER NIGHT.]

FIRST CITIZEN Look, once more a troop of ruffians is arriving.Let’s run and bar up all our doors and windowsIn case they mean to plunder us again.

SECOND CITIZEN Hide away our ladies! This wild mobIs well acquainted with the seraglio’s joys.

FIRST CITIZEN Our ladies, too, have known the victor’s right.ADAM Stop! Why do you flee from us like that?

Do you not perceive this holy sign,Brotherhood, which unites us in a common cause?To Asia we have borne our faith’s true light,The doctrine of Love, so that unruly millionsOf men, where the holy cradle rockedWhich brought to us salvation, should feel its grace.How then should you be without charity?


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E I G H T H S C E N E

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[PRAGUE. THE GARDEN OF THE EMPEROR’S PALACE. TO THE RIGHT AN ARBOUR, TO THE LEFT

AN OBSERVATORY WITH A LARGE BALCONY IN FRONT WITH KEPLER’S WRITING-TABLE, CHAIR AND

ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS. LUCIFER IS KEPLER’S SERVANT ON THE BALCONY. IN THE GARDEN

COURTIERS AND LADIES WALK ABOUT IN GROUPS, AMONG THEM EVE, AS BORBALA, KEPLER’S

WIFE—THE EMPEROR RUDOLPH IS IN DEEP CONVERSATION WITH ADAM AS KEPLER. IN THE BACK-

GROUND A BONFIRE FOR HERETICS IS BURNING. EVENING, LATER NIGHT. TWO COURTIERS COME

TO THE FRONT OF THE STAGE.]

F I R S T C O U RT I E R Who is it, who is burning over there,A heretic or witch?

SECOND COURTIER I don’t know.It’s not the fashion now to take an interest,Only riff-raff collect round the bonfireAnd they don’t get delirious for joy,But look on silently and mutter to themselves.

F I R S T C O U RT I E R In my time a burning was a festival.The Count and the Nobility were there.Ah, what a falling off from those good times.


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N I N T H S C E N E

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[THE SCENE SUDDENLY CHANGES TO THE PLACE DE GREVE AT PARIS ; THE BALCONY INTO THE

SCAFFOLD OF A GUILLOTINE, THE WRITING-TABLE INTO THE GUILLOTINE BY WHICH LUCIFER

STANDS AS EXECUTIONER. ADAM AS DANTON FROM THE EDGE OF THE SCAFFOLD IS SPEAKING TO

THE HOWLING MOB.—TO THE SOUND OF DRUMS A TROOP OF RECRUITS IN RAGS ARRIVES AND

LINES UP AT THE SCAFFOLD. BRIGHT DAY.]

ADAM [CONTINUING]

Equality, fraternity, liberty.CROWD Death to the man who does not acknowledge them.

ADAM I say that, too.—Two swords will saveThe great idea attacked on every sideTo all good men we say the one“The country is in danger, and they awake.The other we thunder at the miscreant—That word is “Tremble”—and they are destroyed.Kings have risen up in arms against usAnd we have cast our monarch’s head before them,The priests have risen, and we have wrenchedThe lightning from their hands, restoringTo its throne Reason, so long persecuted.


191

T E N T H S C E N E

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[THE WHOLE SUDDENLY CHANGES BACK AS IT WAS IN THE EIGHTH SCENE. ADAM, AGAIN AS KEPLER,

WITH HIS HEAD LEANING ON HIS WRITINGTABLE, LUCIFER, AS FAMULUS, STANDS BY HIM AND TAPS

HIM ON THE SHOULDER. THE DAY BEGINS TO DAWN.]

LUCIFER This time there’s no beheading.ADAM [RIS ING UP]

Oh, where am I, where are my dreams?LUCIFER They have gone off with the fumes, my master.

ADAM In this mean age can drunkenness aloneCreate in worn-out hearts some great idea?How splendid was the vision that appeared to me.Blind is the man who cannot see God’s spark,If it has been besmeared with blood and dirt.Its vice, its virtue, how giganticAnd how prodigious, both of themFor they were hall marked with the stamp of strength.Oh, why did I wake up? that gazing roundI better should perceive the smallness of the ageWith its vices hidden under a smiling faceAnd its conventional sham virtue?


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E L E V E N T H S C E N E

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[LONDON. A MARKET BETWEEN THE TOWER AND THE THAMES. A MOTLEY MULTITUDE SURGES

AND ROARS, ADAM, AS A DECREPIT MAN, WITH LUCIFER, IS ON A BASTION OF THE TOWER.

TOWARDS EVENING.]

CHORUS [MINGLING WITH THE MURMUR OF THE BUZZING CROWD,

ACCOMPANIED BY SOFT MUSIC]

The flowing tide of life roars on.Each wave is a new world.What do you care if that one sinks down?What do you fear if this one towers up?Now you’re afraid that the crowdSwallows up the individualNow you’re afraid that a man of markAnnihilates millions.To-day Art frightens you.To-morrow Science does the sameAnd in the bounds of a narrow systemYou confine the waves. For all your struggles and painsAfter all you only get water.


251

T W E L F T H S C E N E

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[THE COURT OF A SPLENDID PHALANSTER, BUILT IN THE SHAPE OF A U. THE GROUND FLOOR

OF THE TWO WINGS IS OPEN, FORMING A PORTICO. IN THE HALL ON THE RIGHT WORKMEN

ARE EMPLOYED AMONG CIRCULAR STEAM ENGINES IN MOTION. IN THAT ON THE LEFT A SAVANT

IS WORKING, IT IS A MUSEUM FILLED WITH VARIOUS KINDS OF NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS,

MECHANICAL, ASTRONOMICAL AND CHEMICAL APPARATUS AND CURIOSITIES. ALL MEMBERS

OF THE PHALANSTER ARE DRESSED ALIKE. ADAM AND LUCIFER EMERGE FROM THE GROUND

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE COURT. DAY.]

ADAM What country is this, what people have we got to?LUCIFER Those old ideas exist no more.

Wasn’t country a paltry conceptionOriginally begotten by prejudice,Then cherished by narrowness and rivalry.Now the whole earth is one country,All now are comrades with a common aim,And the calm course of their fair ordered lifeHas for its guardian—Science which they revere.

ADAM My soul’s ideal is then accomplished,All now is well, as I desired it should be.There’s only one thing I regret—country,That idea might, I think, have remained


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T H I R T E E N T H S C E N E

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[THE VOID. A SEGMENT OF OUR EARTH IS SEEN IN THE DISTANCE, CONTINUALLY BECOMING

SMALLER TILL IT ONLY APPEARS AS A STAR AMONG MANY OTHERS. AT FIRST THE SCENE IS IN

HALF DARKNESS, WHICH GRADUALLY BECOMES PITCH DARKNESS. ADAM, AS AN OLD MAN, FLYING

WITH LUCIFER.]

ADAM Tell, where does this mad flight of ours lead to?LUCIFER Did you not yearn to rise, freed from the dross,

To higher spheres, where if I understood you rightYou heard the voice of kindred spirits.

ADAM That’s true, but I did not imagineThat my path to them would be so desolate.This place appears so lone, so strangeAs if a sacrilegious man had passed by it.Two feelings struggle in my breast—I feel, how small the earth is, so that it restrictsMy lofty spirit, and I yearn to quit its sphere;But yet, alas, I weep, that I have left it.Ah, Lucifer, glance back upon our Earth.First the flowers vanish from our eyes,Then the quivering leaves of the forest.


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F O U R T E E N T H S C E N E

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[A MOUNTAINLESS, TREELESS COUNTRY COVERED WITH SNOW AND ICE. THE SUN IS A BLOOD-RED

DULL GLOBE AMONG LAYERS OF MIST. DOUBTFUL LIGHT. IN THE FRONT OF THE STAGE AMONG SOME

DWARF BIRCHES, JUNIPERS AND TANGLED PINES AN ESKIMO HUT. ADAM AS A COMPLETELY BROKEN

OLD MAN LEANING ON A STICK COMES DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN WITH LUCIFER.]

ADAM Why have we come to this endless world of iceWhere death with hollow eyes gazes upon us?Only a seal makes a splash, as it plungesStartled at the sound of our footsteps;Where vegetation, too, is tired of struggling,Dwarf bushes wave among the lichens,And the red-faced moon shines from behind the mistLike a death lamp in a sepulchre.Oh, lead me where the palms are greenTo that fair land of sun and scentsThere where man’s soul is lifted upTo a full consciousness of its power.

LUCIFER We are there. That blood-red ball is the sun,Beneath our feet lies the equator.Science has failed to conquer destiny.


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F I F T E E N T H S C E N E

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[THE SCENE CHANGES TO THE COUNTRY OF PALM TREES OF THE THIRD SCENE. ADAM, AGAIN

AS A YOUNG MAN, VERY SLEEPY, COMES OUT OF THE HUT, AND LOOKS ROUND IN AMAZEMENT.

EVE DOZES WITHIN. LUCIFER STANDS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAGE. RADIANT DAY.]

ADAM Horrible visions; where have you gone to?How all around me lives and smilesJust as I left it, yet my heart is broken.

LUCIFER Presumptuous man! You wish, perhaps,That nature’s order should be changedThat a new comet should shine in your night,That the earth should tremble, if a worm should perish.

ADAM Did I only dream, or am I dreaming now,And is life but a dreamWhich for a moment alights on lifeless matterTo dissolve at last together with it?Why, why these moments of consciousness,That we may see the horror of non-existence?

LUCIFER Do you shed tears? It is mere cowardice Not to resist and to accept a blowWhich you have power to avoid.


LUCIFER I require strife, a want of harmonyWhich begets new strength and gives us a new world.


ADAM The end is death, life is a struggleAnd man’s end is the struggle itself.


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