Et se preparoit même à passer les limites J'ignore si de Dieu l'ange se dévoilant Est venu lui montrer un glaive étincelant 1 Mais les prêtres bientôt nous ont enveloppés : and Abner explains to Athalie the eternal order which respects the sanctity of the temple.3 After Athalie's terrible vision of Jezebel, she is impelled by instinct to enter the temple. Dans le temple des Juifs un instinct m'a poussée.1 Mathan suspects that a kingly life is sheltered in the temple, and the examination of Joas brings out the fact that the temple is the background of his life. Ce temple est mon pays; je n'en connois point d'autre. Quelquefois à l'autel Je présente au grand prêtre ou l'encens ou le sel; 5 Ibid., sc. 7. See Faguet, Etudes Littéraires, Racine, p. 216 et seq.: 'Le temple a dans le drame son histoire, et comme une vie propre. Perfection même de l'art du spectacle, le décor est un personnage.' 6 Toutefois, je l'avoue, en ce comble de gloire, But when the storm breaks and the mystery begins to declare itself, it is of a more distant background that Josabeth thinks. Beyond the brook Kidron lies the desert, and if death is still to be met there it is a more merciful death than that meted out by human hatred and revenge. Je sais une secrète issue Par où, sans qu'on le voie, et sans être aperçue, Et cherchant comme nous son salut dans la fuite, Je craindrai moins pour lui les lions et les ours 1 After the decision has been made to show Joas circled with the royal crown, the order goes out for the temple to be closed.2 Priests watch over the light of the Eternal Wisdom, which they believe is to last as long as the sun and moon endure. When the embassy from Athalie comes, proposing peace in exchange for the treasure of the high priest, Abner appeals to the name of the holy place to induce Joad to avert the carnage by yielding. In the great last scene, however, by Joad's order armed Levites are hidden in the temple, ready to defend their king if the warriors from Athalie's camp should sound the call to arms. Here in the acute crisis of the action the appeal is to the background of armed defenders of the right on the one hand, Jette encore en mon âme un reste de terreur, Et parmi le débris, le ravage et les morts, A force d'attentats perdre tous mes remords. 1 Ibid., sc. 6. 2 Ibid., sc. 7. Athalie, act iii, sc. 3. 3 Ibid. Faut-il que je me jette à vos sacrés genoux ? Ibid., act v, sc. 2. and to the camp of evil on the other. 'Who is on the Lord's side, who? '1 Athalie's cry is: Lui Joas? lui ton roi? Songez, méchants, songez J'entends à haute voix tout mon camp qui m'appelle. On vient à mon secours : tremblez, troupe rebelle.2 But the voice of the Lord has spoken and destroyed the forces of evil.3 Athalie is driven out of the temple to her death.4 In the play of Esther the background is not the palais à volonté of Corneille; Racine states in his preface that the action takes place dans le palais d'Assuérus.5 Thus Racine makes his background take a real part in the aesthetic Vous, dès que cette reine, ivre d'un fol orgueil, De la porte du temple aura passé le seuil, Qu'elle ne pourra plus retourner en arrière, Prenez soin qu'à l'instant la trompette guerrière Dans le camp ennemi jette un subit effroi: Appelez tout le peuple au secours de son roi. 1 2 Ibid., sc. 5. 3 Athalie, act v, so. 3. Seigneur, le temple est libre et n'a plus d'ennemis : La voix du Tout-Puissant a chassé cette armée. 5 Esther, preface. See also the concise indications before each play of the place where the scene is to be laid. It is to be noticed that while in Les Frères Ennemis, Andromaque, Bérénice, and Bajazet the action takes place in a room, and even in Alexandre, Iphigénie, and Phèdre there is no indication of change of scene, in Esther we have instructions for the setting of the stage differently in each act. In the preface Racine states that this is intended to give variety. value of the play. As with Shakespeare, le décor est dans les vers.1 So when we compare the setting of the plays of the two great French tragedians, the solidarity is given in Corneille by the resounding purpose which rouses a sense of fellowship in the minds of the characters on the stage. In Racine the principal characters, a prey to the fatal and determined action of their passions, call out, it is true, in one another fierce answers to the play of love and jealousy and hatred, but are powerless before the unknown forces which act upon them and in them without stimulating the will. Ils agissent en nous quand nous pensons agir. In this lies the malady of the long shuddering cry against destiny which echoes all through the tragedy of Racine, unrelieved in the Greek plays except in the character of Andromaque, and the great exception to which are the plays of Esther and Athalie, which call up the conflict of good and evil as the background, and give the victory to the inspiration of a living religion.2 1 Le Bidois, De l'action dans la tragédie de Racine, p. 70. 2' Ajoutons cependant que, si la piété de Racine nous a ravi des chefsd'œuvre, elle en a aussi suscité. Peut-être quelques tragédies profanes de plus, où son génie se serait imité lui-même et eût fini par s'affaiblir, sont-elles plus que compensées par cette merveille d'Athalie où l'imagination s'est déployée avec autant plus de richesse qu'elle s'était pendant plusieurs années reposée et rafraîchie' (Paul Janet, 'La Psychologie de Racine,' Revue des Deux Mondes, September 15, 1875). CHAPTER X RACINE AS A POETICAL DRAMATIST It is regrettable that the critical question about the merits of Racine as France's great poet-dramatist too often takes the double form,' Has Racine produced great drama?' and Has he produced great poetry?' instead of 'Does Racine give us great dramatic poetry—or a great poetical drama?' To the former pair of questions the English critic often replies by comparing Racine with the Greek dramatists, to whom he finds him inferior,1 and with Shakespeare or Virgil or Dante or Goethe as poets, whom he finds immeasurably superior to the Frenchman.2 But let us examine the question in the second form proposed, and it is possible that we may be able to give some grounds for our belief in Racine's power to express uniquely what he meant in a genre that has its own character of beauty and strength, and in which he is supreme. The writer of poetical drama, as distinct from a play in prose, or a mixed genre such as Shakespeare's (where we find poetry used for elevated or strong feeling, and prose for relief), is bound to keep his action and characterization very much on one plane. He cannot use, for example, Shakespeare's device for enhancing in turn idealism and realism of treatment by setting up metre and the absence of metre as their outward symbols. Thus there can be no great depth of contrast emphasized on these lines within the play. The poet-dramatist is led to make use of a different method to bring out the force and values of his play. 1 See |