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Page 116
TEMPTER. What all-powerful love, that is the marriage of souls, has
to do with the propagation of the species!
STRANGER and WOMAN. Now he's come to the point!
TEMPTER. I've never been able to understand how a kiss, that's an
unborn word, a soundless speech, a quiet language of the soul, can
be exchanged, by means of a hallowed procedure, for a surgical
operation, that always ends in tears and the chattering of teeth.
I've never understood how that holy night, the first in which two
souls embrace each other in love, can end in the shedding of blood,
in quarrelling, hate, mutual contempt--and lint! (He holds his
mouth shut.)
STRANGER. Suppose the story of the fall were true? In pain shalt
thou bring forth children.
TEMPTER. In that case one could understand.
WOMAN. Who is the man who says these things?
TEMPTER. Only a wanderer on the quicksands of this life. (The WOMAN
rises.) So you're ready to go. Who will go first?
STRANGER. I shall.
TEMPTER. Where?
STRANGER. Upwards. And you?
TEMPTER. I shall stay down here, in between. ...
Curtain.
ACT IV
SCENE I
CHAPTER HOUSE OF THE MONASTERY
[A Gothic chapter house. In the background arcades lead to the
cloisters and the courtyard of the monastery. In the middle of the
courtyard there is a well with a statue of the Virgin Mary,
surrounded by long-stemmed white roses. The walls of the chapter
house are filled with built-in choir stalls of oak. The PRIOR'S own
stall is in the middle to the right and rather higher than the
rest. In the middle of the chapter house an enormous crucifix. The
sun is shining on the statue of the Virgin in the courtyard. The
STRANGER enters from the back. He is wearing a coarse monkish cowl,
with a rope round his waist and sandals on his feet. He halts in
the doorway and looks at the chapter house, then goes over to the
crucifix and stops in front of it. The last strophe of the choral
service can be heard from across the courtyard. The CONFESSOR
enters from the back; he is dressed in black and white; he has long
hair and along beard and a very small tonsure that can hardly be
seen.]
CONFESSOR. Peace be with you!
STRANGER. And with you.
CONFESSOR. How do you like this white house?
STRANGER. I can only see blackness.
CONFESSOR. You still are black; but you'll grow white, quite white!
Did you sleep well last night?
STRANGER. Dreamlessly, like a tired child. But tell me: why do I
find so many locked doors?
CONFESSOR. You'll gradually learn to open them.
STRANGER. Is this a large building?
CONFESSOR. Endless! It dates from the time of Charlemagne and has
continually grown through pious benefactions. Untouched by the
spiritual upheavals and changes of different epochs, it stands on
its rocky height as a monument of Western culture. That is to say:
Christian faith wedded to the knowledge of Hellas and Rome.
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