Home > Authors Index > Charles Kingsley > Saint's Tragedy > This page
The Saint's Tragedy, a play by Charles Kingsley |
||
Notes To Act 3 |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
Next > |
|
________________________________________________
_ NOTES TO ACT III P. 94. 'On the freezing stone.' Cf. Lib. II. section 5. 'In the absence of her husband she used to lay aside her gay garments, conducted herself devoutly as a widow, and waited for the return of her beloved, passing her nights in watchings, genuflexions, prayers, and disciplines.' And again, Lib. IV. section 3, just quoted. P. 96. 'The will of God.' Cf. Lib. IV. section 6. 'The mother-in- law said to her daughter-in-law, "Be brave, my beloved daughter; nor be disturbed at that which hath happened by divine ordinance to thy husband, my son." Whereto she answered boldly, "If my brother is captive, he can be freed by the help of God and our friends." "He is dead," quoth the other. Then she, clasping her hands upon her knees, "The world is dead to me, and all that is pleasant in the world." Having said this, suddenly springing up with tears, she rushed swiftly through the whole length of the palace, and being entirely beside herself, would have run on to the world's end, usque quaque, if a wall had not stopped her; and others coming up, led her away from the wall to which she had clung. Ibid. 'Yon lion's rage.' Cf. Lib. III. section 2. 'There was a certain lion in the court of the Prince; and it came to pass on a time that rising from his bed in the morning, and crossing the court dressed only in his gown and slippers, he met this lion loose and raging against him. He thereon threatened the beast with his raised fist, and rated it manfully, till laying aside its fierceness, it lay down at the knight's feet, and fawned on him, wagging its tail.' So Dietrich. Pp. 99-100, 103-108. Cf. Lib. IV. section 7. 'Now shortly after the news of Lewis's death, certain vassals of her late husband (with Henry, her brother-in-law) cast her out of the castle and of all her possessions. . . . She took refuge that night in a certain tavern, . . . and went at midnight to the matins of the "Minor Brothers." . . . And when no one dare give her lodging, took refuge in the church. . . . And when her little ones were brought to her from the castle, amid most bitter frost, she knew not where to lay their heads. . . . She entered a priest's house, and fed her family miserably enough, by pawning what she had. There was in that town an enemy of hers, having a roomy house. . . . Whither she entered at his bidding, and was forced to dwell with her whole family in a very narrow space, . . . her host and hostess heaped her with annoyances and spite. She therefore bade them farewell, saying, "I would willingly thank mankind if they would give me any reason for so doing." So she returned to her former filthy cell.' P. 100. 'White whales' bone' (i.e. the tooth of the narwhal); a common simile in the older poets. P. 104. 'The nuns of Kitzingen.' Cf. Lib. V. section 1. 'After this, the noble Lady the Abbess of Kitzingen, Elizabeth's aunt according to the flesh, brought her away honourably to Eckembert, Lord Bishop of Bamberg.' P. 106. 'Aged crone.' Cf. Lib. IV. section 8, where this whole story is related word for word. P. 109. 'I'd mar this face.' Cf. Lib. V. section 1. 'If I could not,' said she, 'escape by any other means, I would with my own hands cut off my nose, that so every man might loathe me when so foully disfigured.' P. 110. 'Botenstain.' Cf. ibid. 'The bishop commanded that she should be taken to Botenstain with her maids, until he should give her away in marriage.' P. 111. 'Bear children.' Ibid. 'The venerable man, knowing that the Apostle says, "I will that the younger widows marry and bear children," thought of giving her in marriage to some one--an intention which she perceived, and protested on the strength of her "votum continentiae."' P. 113. 'The tented field.' All records of the worthy Bishop on which I have fallen, describe him as 'virum militia strenuissimum,' a mighty man of war. We read of him, in Stero of Altaich's Chronicle, A.D. 1232, making war on the Duke of Carinthia destroying many of his castles and laying waste a great part of his land; and next year, being seized by some bailiff of the Duke's, and keeping that Lent in durance vile. In a A.D. 1237 he was left by the Emperor as 'vir magnaminus et bellicosus,' in charge of Austria, during the troubles with Duke Frederick; and died in 1240. P 115. 'Lewis's bones.' Cf. Lib. V. section 3. P 118. 'I thank thee.' Cf. Lib. V. section 4. 'What agony and love there was then in her heart, He alone can tell who knows the hearts of all the sons of men. I believe that her grief was renewed, and all her bones trembled, when she saw the bones of her beloved separated one from another (the corpse had been dug up at Otranto, and _boiled_.) But though absorbed in so great a woe, at last she remembered God, and recovering her spirit said--(Her words I have paraphrased as closely as possible.) Ibid. 'The close hard by.' Cf. Lib. V section 4. _ |
||