Four Mystery Plays - Rudolf Steiner

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To the ideas that have come to me, I am indebted for all that makes life worth while; not only for the courage, but also for the insight and power that make me hopeful of so training my children, that they shall not only be capable and useful in ordinary everyday life, in the old traditional sense, but that they shall at the same time carry inward peace and contentment within their souls. I have no wish to stray from the point, but I will say just one thing. I believe—nay I know—that the dreams which you share with so many can only be realized when men succeed in uniting what they call the realities of life with those deeper experiences, which you have so often termed dreams and fantasies. You may be astonished if I confess it to you: but much that seems true art to you is to me a mere fruitless critique of life. No hunger is stilled, no tears are dried, no source of degeneracy is discovered, when merely the outer show of hunger, or tear-stained faces, or degenerate beings is shown upon the stage. And the customary method of that presentation is unspeakably distant from the true depths of life, and the true relationship between beings.

      Estella:

      I understand your words indeed, but they merely show me that you do prefer to indulge in fancies, rather than to look upon the realities of life. Our ways, indeed, part.—I see that my friend is denied me tonight. (Rises.) I must leave you now. But we remain friends, as of old, do we not?

      Sophia:

      We must indeed remain friends. (While these last words are spoken, Sophia conducts her friend to the door.)

       Curtain

      Scene 1

       Table of Contents

       Room. Dominant note rose-red. Large rose-red chairs are arranged in a semicircle. To the left of the stage a door leads to the auditorium. One after the other, the speakers introduced enter by this door; each stopping in the room for a time. While they do so, they discuss the discourse they have just heard in the auditorium, and what it suggests to them.

       Enter first Maria and Johannes, then others. The speeches which follow are continuations of discussions already begun in the auditorium.

      Maria:

      My friend, I am indeed distressed to see

      Thy spirit and thy soul in sadness droop,

      And powerless to help the bond that binds

      And that has bound us both for ten blest years.

      E’en this same hour, filled with a portent deep

      In which we both have heard and learned so much

      That lightens all the darkest depths of soul,

      Brought naught but shade and shadow unto thee.

      Aye, after many of the speakers’ words,

      My listening heart could feel the very dart

      That deeply wounded thine. Once did I gaze

      Into thine eyes and saw but happiness

      And joy in all the essence of the world.

      In pictures beauty-steeped thy soul held fast

      Each fleeting moment, bathed by sunshine’s glow—

      Flooding with air and light the forms of men

      Unsealing all the depths and doubts of Life.

      Unskilled as yet thine hand to body forth

      In concrete colour-schemes, those living forms

      That hovered in thy soul; but in the hearts

      Of both of us there throbbed the joyous faith

      And certain hope that future days would teach

      Thine hand this art—to pour forth happiness

      Into the very fundaments of Being;

      That all the wonders of thy spirit’s search

      Unfolding visibly Creation’s powers

      Through every creature of thine art would pour

      Soul rapture deep into the hearts of men.

      Such were our dreams through all those days of yore

      That to thy skill, mirrored in beauty’s guise,

      The weal of future men would trace its source.

      So dreamed mine own soul of the goal of thine.

      Yet now the vital spark of fashioning fire

      That burned within thee seems extinct and dead.

      Dead thy creative joy: and well-nigh maimed

      The hand, which once with fresh and youthful strength

      Guided thy steadfast brush from year to year.

      Johannes:

      Alas, ’tis true; I feel as if the fires

      That erstwhile quickened in my soul are quenched.

      Mine eye, grown dull, doth no more catch the gleam

      Shed by the flickering sunlight o’er the earth.

      No feeling stirs my heart, when changing moods

      Of light and shade flow o’er the scenes around.

      Still lies my hand, seeking no more to chain

      Into a lasting present fleeting charms,

      Shown forth by magic elemental powers

      From utmost depths of Life before mine eyes.

      No new creative fire thrills me with joy.

      For me dull monotone obscures all life.

      Maria:

      My heart is deeply grieved to hear that thou

      Dost find such emptiness in everything

      Which thrives as highest good and very source

      Of sacred life itself within my heart.

      Ah, friend, behind the changing scenes of life

      That men call ‘Being,’ true life lies concealed

      Spiritual, everlasting, infinite.

      And in that life each soul doth weave its thread.

      I feel afloat in spirit potencies,

      That work, as in an ocean’s unseen depths,

      And see revealéd all the life of men,

      As wavelets on the ocean’s upturned face.

      I am at one with all the sense of Life

      For which men restless strive, and which to me

      Is but their inner self that stands revealed.

      I see, how oftentimes it binds itself

      Unto the very kernel of man’s soul,

      And lifts him to the highest that his heart

      Can ever crave. Yet as it lives in me

      It turns to bitter fruitage, when mine own

      Touches another’s being. Even so

      Hath this, my destiny, worked out in all

      I willed to give thee, when thou cam’st in love.

      Thy wish it was to travel at my side

      Unhesitating all the way, that soon

      Should lead thee to

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