No More Learning

1 This phrase is one of the proofs that when Krasinski began the play
he had no intention of finishing it as he did, and that Iridion was to
have been the incarnation of vengeance only.
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? 144 The Anonymous Poet of Polana
Some hint too of the north is requisite for the Thought
that the Anonymous Poet will send "to the north, the
land of graves and crosses. "
Burning with hatred for the city that has enslaved
Hellas, Amphilochus carries the priestess from her
native land that he may learn from her inspiration how
to vanquish Rome. Iridion is brought up to the destiny
of avenging his nation, taught detestation of Rome
from his cradle. After the death of Amphilochus who
bequeaths the inheritance of revenge to his son with
his last breath, Iridion and his sister, Elsinoe, live
in the dead man's Roman palace, together with a
mysterious aged man, the guardian of their childhood,
Masinissa. With the stealth of the panther Iridion is
working towards the compassing of his end. He is not
concerned with the vision of a restored country. His
one desire is revenge: to see Rome humbled to the
dust. No sense of rectitude or of pity can stay his
hand. No means are too base if they can but bring
ruin on Rome.
When the play begins Iridion is about to carry into
execution the project which he has harboured for years,
namely, by giving his beautiful sister to Heliogabalus
to win through her the domination over the young
emperor that he requires for his schemes. The first
scene opens upon Elsinoe's last hours in her father's
house, as she awaits the moment when Heliogabalus's
slaves shall arrive to bear her to the imperial palace.
Never is Krasinski a greater artist than when he treats
episodes that for their horror seem beyond the range
of art. The delicacy with which he handles them, the
restraint that gives them their extraordinary power,
where no word too much is said, no word too little, are
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? Iridion
145
nowhere more apparent than in this parting between
the brother and the sister whose honour he has sacri-
ficed. It passes in a hall in Iridion's palace. The
fountain plays in the middle. Slaves are lighting the
lamps. Iridion, sunk in anguish, has bowed his head
upon the feet of his father's statue. His slaves,
whispering to one another, reproach him for slumbering
while his sister is weeping and swooning in her apart-
ments. He summons her. She enters.
Elsinoe. Have the slaves come already?
Iridion. Not yet: but I would fain inspire thee for the last
time with thy father's spirit.
Elsinoe. Oh, brother!
Iridion. Thou knowest that the Caesar insists in his passion,
and the senate hath commanded thy statues to be placed in
the temples of the city. Thou knowest that thou art not my
sister, thou art not the bright-haired Elsinoe, the hope of thy
natal house, the darling of my heart. Thou art the victim
appointed for the suffering of many and for the shame of thy
sires.
Elsinoe. Yea. You all have taught me this from my child-
hood, and I am ready. But not to-day, not to-morrow. A
little later, when I have gathered strength, when I have
listened to my fill to the teaching of Masinissa and thy com-
mands, when I have drunk to the dregs of the chalice of your
poison.
Iridion. Chosen maiden, prepare thee for thy fate. It
behoves us to hasten on the road which we tread.
Elsinoe. Remember how I loved thee when we played on
the grass-plots of Chiara. Oh, have mercy on me!
Iridion. Thou temptest me to pity. --In vain, in vain.
Elsinoe. Why so many prayers and lamentations? It
befell in the olden times that men and gods . might be bought
off by death. Thy dagger flashes yonder, Iridion. Let us
hasten annihilation for ourselves, Iridion.
Iridion. Thou blasphemest against my father's thought.
Oh, sister, of old the life of one man sufficed for the salvation
of nations. To-day the times are otherwise. To-day the
sacrifice must be of honour. (He clasps her in his arms. ) To-
day thou shalt be wreathed with roses, thou shalt be decked
in smiles. Oh, unhappy child, lay here thy doomed head.
G.
10
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? 146 The Anonymous Poet of Poland
For the last time in thy father's house thy brother presses thee
to his bosom. Take thy farewell of me in all the beauty of
thy maiden freshness. Never again will I behold thee young
--never, never again!
His heart faints within him. He cries aloud on
Masinissa: and at the entrance of the old man, majestic,
awe-inspiring, Iridion's hesitation is at an end, and
Elsinoe pleads no more. Serving girls carry in costly
robes, singing: "Even as Aphrodite, rising from the
azure ocean in the rainbows of the foam of the sea, so
shalt thou be. We bring thee roses, incense and pearls. "
Masinissa and Iridion lead her to her father's statue,
where Iridion gives her his parting charge. Never
must she allow the Caesar to sleep in peace. She must
drop into his ear as a slow poison reports of plots for
his assassination, of treachery, till he is beside himself
with terror. Then the brother lays his hand on Elsinoe's
head:
Conceived in thirst for vengeance, grown to womanhood in
the hope of vengeance, predestined to infamy and ruin, I con-
secrate thee to the infernal deities of Amphilochus the Greek.
Elsinoe. The voices of Erebus resound on every side--oh,
my mother!
Choir of Women {surrounding her). Why tremble thy limbs
under the snowy veil, under the ribbons of purple with which
we wreathe thy breasts? Why dost thou grow pale under the
garland we have woven for the adorning of thy brow?
Iridion. See, the unhappy child is swooning.
Masinissa. Nay. She is beginning to live as it behoves
her to live.
Elsinoe. I cast off my father's threshold. My father has
condemned me. My brother has condemned me. Oh, never
. more will I return. I go to torment and long mourning.
Iridion's aim is secured. Elsinoe successfully works
on the fears of the childish emperor. She shrouds her-
self in a haughty mystery that whets his superstition:
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? Iridion
H7
she throws over him the spell of her aloof and disdain-
ful beauty till he is wax in her hands. On his side
Iridion, having gained through his sister constant access
to the emperor, plays the game of feigning that he
is Heliogabalus's only faithful adherent. By skilfully
manoeuvring with the young emperor's arrant cowardice
and love of pleasure Iridion's cue is to induce him to
consent to the destruction of Rome, and to retire to the
East where he will be lapped in security and free to
follow his indulgences. And all the while the Greek
is carrying on intrigues among the praetorians, the
gladiators, the slaves, the barbarians, the rabble of
Rome. They are ready. Iridion has only to give the
sign and they will follow him.
Heliogabalus is one of the types in the play whom
Krasinski has depicted with the most consummate art:
a half crazy vicious boy, a whipped cur at the feet of
the beautiful Elsinoe, amusing himself like a child with
his baubles, dabbling with the degraded mysteries of
eastern religions, clinging in terror for his life to the
false friend who is betraying him. In him Krasinski
concentrates the moral decay of Rome and the pagan
world. But Iridion has to contend against yet another
element than that of which Heliogabalus is representa-
tive, an element on which he reckons for his victory or
his failure: the Christians. We have here the pivot on
which the whole drama turns. No new life to revivify the
Roman world can be born of the pagan Rome of Helio-
gabalus, nor yet of the one virtuous heathen trio whom
Krasinski places against the universal degradation;
Alexander Severus, his mother, and the Stoic Ulpianus,
the last a fine example of ancient Roman integrity.
But Masinissa, the Mephistopheles of the play, foresees
10--2
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? 148 The Anonymous Poet of Poland
that Rome will not pass away into the lost empires of
history, because on her ashes shall rise from the cata-
combs another Rome. Iridion, therefore, cannot hope
for the downfall of Rome unless he gains the Christians
to his side. But their faith forbids them to wage war
against their persecutors. Consequently Iridion must,
Masinissa tells him, undermine their morals, deceive
them, bring into their midst a new and fatal discord.
This counsel satisfies Iridion's thirst for revenge on
Rome, beyond which he does not look: but the truth
is that Masinissa, as Satan, is using Iridion as a tool
not against Rome, but in the everlasting war between
Christ and Satan.
Krasinski's conception of Mephistopheles is neither
obvious nor conventional. From this Mephistopheles
breathes the majesty of old age, the mystery and the
remoteness of the African desert whence he professes
to have risen. He takes the lineaments, not of a Miltonic
fallen angel, but of an awful and majestic being with
infinite aims, who seduces by the very greatness of his
objects. His temptations are not addressed to what is
base in man, but to what man holds most sacred1. His
means--such as the sacrifice of Elsinoe's honour, the
ruin of Cornelia--are vile: but it is in the name of
what Iridion loves beyond all, for the sake of his country,
that he is bidden by Masinissa to do these things. The
colloquies between the Greek and his evil genius, with
the exception of the last scene, give no impression of
an ensnared soul battling against temptation. Masinissa
scarcely urges. He suggests: and these suggestions
have the magnetism of a compelling sovereignty whose
word has but to be uttered and it is accepted. Masi-
1 J. Kleiner, History of the Thought of Zygmunt Krasinski.
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? Iridion
149
nissa seems more the complement of Iridion's own
nature, Iridion's lower self, than an extraneous force1.
In Iridion Krasinski's subject, says Count Tar-
nowski, is not the individual soul: it is humanity. The
characters are not so much men and women as symbols.
It follows then that Krasinski's Mephistopheles is
scarcely a devil leading a soul to perdition, albeit at
the close of the play this is his endeavour. Rather he is
the Satan of the universal race, the evil spirit of history,
destroying not this or that soul, but turning nations
from their highest end, deflecting the spiritual progress
of the commonwealth, polluting even the sanctity of
patriotism2. He is, says Krasinski himself, defending
his idea under the concealment of a third person against
a critic who opposed it, "the element of all-evil which
constantly transforms itself by the very necessity of
creation into good; the Satan of all centuries and civili-
zations, eternally warring, eternally vanquished3. " This
psychological signification of the tempter links the Rome
of Iridion with the poet's own country4. The rebirth
of humanity coincided for Krasinski with the redress
of his nation's wrongs. Therefore whatever false or
misguided principle arose to bar or delay the advance
of the world to the desired goal was to the Anonymous
Poet the satanic incarnation. Hence his original and
daring presentment of Mephistopheles as Masinissa,
who ruins the work of Iridion for his country by its
ethically false direction.
Again, Masinissa is the embodiment of reason in
1 A. Matecki, quoted by J. Kallenbach, Zygmunt Krasinski.
2 St. Tarnowski, Zygmunt Krasinski.
3 Letters to Gaszynski. Kissingen, June 6, 1837.
4 J. Kallenbach, Zygmunt Krasinski.
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? 150 The A nonymous Poet of Poland
whom are absent the love and passion that rend Iridion's
soul. At this time of Krasinski's life when he was driven
into sophistry in order to justify his love for a married
woman, his idea of Satan was that of reason opposed
to passion. "Do you think pride is a passion ? " he writes
to Reeve. "No. There is no passion except love, and
love is God. Pride, hatred, are daughters of reason. . .
To produce evil of whatever kind passion has not been
necessary, but cold, observing, perverted thought1. "
Iridion's heart can be moved by his sister's anguish, can
shrink before the thought of wronging Cornelia: but
Masinissa remains the everlasting enemy of the heart.
To ensure his success in the catacombs Iridion
simulates Christianity, and receives Baptism under the
name of Hieronimus. He then sets to work to convince
the Christians that they must vindicate Christ by declar-
ing war on those who persecute Him in His members.
His fiery words carry away the young men, at the head
of whom stands one Simeon of Corinth. The old men
seek to restrain what they consider a youth's hotheaded
zeal by their appeal to the Divine law of forgiveness.
Then Masinissa unfolds to Iridion another stratagem.
He shall gain the ear of the Christians through Cornelia,
the beautiful maiden whose virginity is consecrated to
Christ, the saint and prophetess of the catacombs, who
has talked to Iridion of heavenly things.
"Lead her thought from Christ to thee," says Masinissa.
"He is far. Thou livest and art near her. Why dost thou waver
and doubt? She must be thine, not for vain pleasure, but because
our work calls for her destruction. "
But for once Iridion recoils. He has kept faith with
the furies to whom he has vowed that no stain of pity
1 Correspondance. Krasinski to Reeve. Rome, Dec. 20, 1834.
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? Iridion
or regret shall ever be seen in him: yet now tears rise
to his eyes.
"Thou knowest not," this again from Masinissa, "that each
of you might be almighty by your own inexorable, enraged
thought; but your enemy foresaw and sowed in your bosoms
a heart--fear, delusion, baseness. "
Iridion. Of whom speakest thou? Who made me abject
and unhappy? I know but one murderer of all my hours--
whose name is Rome.
Masinissa. There is another Rome which cannot perish.
Not on seven hills but on millions of stars do her feet rest.
Against her, even after the other Rome has fallen,
Iridion must war for ever. In the meanwhile, before
the victory for which Iridion, only half comprehending
Masinissa's words, is panting, the work in question must
go forward. Iridion remembers "unhappy Hellas. " For
her sake, cries he in despair, the son of Amphilochus
must ruin the happiness of an innocent girl, must tear
hope from one who hoped.
The scene shifts to the catacombs. On every side
branch out the long corridors lined by graves, dying
away into darkness. Iridion, at the feet of the bishop
Victor, as a rash but obedient son, insinuates his request:
may not the Christians for the glory of Christ join hands
with the praetorians and overthrow the oppressor?
Victor points to Christ dying on the cross, and bids this
beloved erring member of his flock believe in the force
of spiritual arms, and sin no more: and Iridion, piously
praying aloud for deliverance from temptation, turns to
Cornelia.
Islridion's adhesion to Christianity entirely feigned?
He is among the Christians in all the falsity of an in-
trigue, but not from any hatred of Christianity1. We
have some faint impression that he is not wholly un-
1 St. Tarnowski, Zygmunt Krasinski.
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? 152 The Anonymous Poet of Poland
moved by what he learns, chiefly from Cornelia, of the
Christian faith. Certain it is that in the last scene
when he looks upon the cross he does so as no mere
stranger1.
Krasinski paints few women, but always with that
singularly delicate and tender beauty that is so marked
in Elsinoe and still more in the exquisite, ethereal figure
of Cornelia. By a diabolical ingenuity, by the insinua-
tion of the love that almost without his knowledge had
forced its way into his soul, and is in its turn pressed
into his deadly purpose, Iridion is exploiting Cornelia
as a weapon in his war. He stands, a demon of guile,
among the dead in the catacomb alone with the beautiful
girl whose eyes are filled with love for the unseen.
Certain that he is preparing with the other youths some
wild act of bloodshed she entreats him for the sake of
his salvation to desist. Iridion hisses into her ear words
new to her: words of flattery.
Cornelia. Alas! Art thou the same with whom I knelt in
the cemetery of Euphemia? Hieronimus, is this thou? So long
I prayed. Such hard penance have I done for so many days
and nights.
Iridion. And thou shalt reach heaven. Who could doubt
it?
Cornelia. Oh, it was not for myself--not for myself.
Iridion. Then for whom?
Cornelia. One of my brothers.
Iridion. One of thy brothers! Speak truth--tell me his
name.
He approaches her, speaking the language of a
jealous lover, which she takes for delirium. He drags out
from her the admission that this brother was Hieronimus:
but as he once was, not he who gazes so wildly, who stands
before me without his senses. Apage! --
Iridion. See! I am calm now as before.
1 Op. cit.
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? Iridion
153
Cornelia. Gentle as thou wert once?
Iridion. Humble before thee.
Cornelia. Before the Lord. Promise that thou wilt not join
them, that thou wilt not arm for earthly and condemned
violence.
The bloodshed and carnage which she holds for
crime, Iridion says shall be the triumph of her God.
She prays for mercy on him, a sinner, that God will
not suffer him to perish before her eyes.
Ah! what say I? Surely, oh, Lord, I have vowed my whole
heart to Thee. What gloom is here! For the first time terror
of the dead has seized me.
Iridion. Lean on me.
He then tells her his story: how the son of Amphi-
lochus swore to his dying father to know neither love,
joy nor pity, but to live in order to destroy.
In revenge must I live and die.
Cornelia. On whom wouldst thou wreak it? Who wronged
him, who hath wronged thee?
Iridion. They who have compelled you all to wander
whence the living flee after they have laid down the dead.
They who have a thousand times reviled thy God. My father
preceded Him Who shall conquer--Him Who shall reign as
king--Him Whom thou hast doubted.
Cornelia. I!
Iridion. Because thou hast believed that He will leave this
earth to be the prey of Rome.
Cornelia. He is lost. And yet the eternal fire of the
Cherubim shineth in his eyes.
He hears Victor approaching, and retires into the
dark passage. Perturbed and terror-stricken, Cornelia
feels her heart beating with a strange, unknown emotion.
Never before has she turned her eyes from the cross
to a human face, and now it is this face that pierces
her memory: "and as a prophet and a saint he stands
before me. "
Once more she is alone. Iridion enters. She clings
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? 154 The Anonymous Poet of Polana
to a sarcophagus with the cry: "Ashes of the saints,
defend me in this night! " Iridion tells her to leave him.
Not, says she, till he will turn from the sin of his revenge.
Delirium is seizing on her. She kneels and prays for
him. For one moment his soul revolts against the wrong
he is about to do her. "You are my witnesses, bones of
the dead, and thou, mother earth, that I would fain have
spared her, and only her. " She entreats him to kneel
with her and pray. Simeon's voice rings through the
vault, calling his leader. Iridion seizes Cornelia in his
arms. His kisses are on her brow. She swoons in his
embrace, crying out that he and she are damned to-
gether. Awakening, her disordered brain is given to
understand by Iridion that he is Christ, come at last to
conquer with earthly weapons. His command that he
shall summon her brothers to arms is to her the mandate
of Christ: and she disappears, running, her cry "To
arms! " re-echoing through the catacombs.
Wild tumult follows. The Christian youths, carried
away by Iridion's eloquence, are divided between ardour
for his cause and doubt. Then Cornelia enters, crying:
"To arms! " The young men, long used to listen to her
as to an inspired saint, now take her summons for that
of heaven. The catacombs rock, flames break out, in
token of hell's victory. Amidst the fire appears Masi-
nissa to gaze on the spectacle of his triumph.
Faith, hope and love! Trinity which wert to last for ever,
to-day I have torn Thee asunder in the hearts of the most
beloved children of Thy benediction. Henceforth in Thy name
they will slay and burn--in Thy name oppress--in Thy name
rebel and rage. Thou shalt be crucified alike in their wisdom
and their stupidity, in their cold calculation and their frenzy,
in the sleepy humility of their prayers and the blasphemies of
their pride. In the summits of heaven Thou shalt drink this
cup of bitterness till Thou cursest them for ever.
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? Iridion
155
Iridion's hour is now approaching. Outside the city
the praetorians, led by Alexander Severus, are about
to march against Heliogabalus. Iridion is apparently
negotiating with them on the part of the Emperor. In
reality their movement is serving his plans. When they
attack Rome he will let loose his own forces, and there
will be a general destruction in which it is the Greek's
intention that Alexander, rather than live to save Rome,
shall perish. Iridion had in the past dissembled friend-
ship with Alexander for his own ends. Now Alexander
believes him to have forsaken his party for Helioga-
balus: and across the clash of hurrying events and
contending factions there breaks that tender and pathetic
moment when the young Alexander pleads with the
brother of Elsinoe.
"Dismiss him with the silence of contempt," says Ulpianus.
Alexander. I cannot. Leave him alone with me. Friends,
retire. Son of Amphilochus, have the avenging gods stretched
between us some cloud of delusion? I understand thee not.
Affront me not with double meaning words: for thou dost owe
me gratitude for that I trust not my own eyes, albeit they show
me clearly thy change of face.
Iridion. My thanks, Severus. If the fates had created me
a man and had willed to endow my heart with the sweet gift
of a friend, it is thee I would have asked of them.
Alexander. Renounce the tyrant's cause. Speak to me one
word of affection, and I will not doubt thy faith. Iridion, where
is thy sister?
Iridion. Where fate has chained her.
Alexander. Iridion, I call on thee--Iridion, I stay thee.