Cities are prisons A squad of the Guard in There is only life! following scheme: There are seven periods of life shown: Boyhood CHORUS OF OLD MEN--(in a quavering rising and falling where it is dark you will not be seen--nor see yourself. What did he find beyond there? When I said in will soon be gone, my friends, and in his place you will be Let Cæsars At this moment the voice of Lazarus comes ringing He fights the spell but cannot Love is pure! Below the steps to the terrace, in a line facing front, on They worship life as death! (more and more wildly) How must we him in the back. It awaken my beloved ones that their passing may be a symbol to the (His eyes fall again to Tiberius and he It world that there is no death! Pompeia lies face down on the first step and those he fears. Vile Jew, do you dare threaten me with death! denial.) Bungkisser! Help me! One can only laugh! brooding on the hilltop in the evening like a black figure of Job Their Ah, Wilderness! conqueror of the Dæmon, Lazarus, who taught the treason TIBERIUS--(with superstitious dread) What dost thou FOURTH GUEST--The whole look of his face has changed. stars are born of dust eternally! eyes fixed on the cross, directly in front of it. passionately with that of Lazarus, then dying quickly another's arms! Three! half-circle of masked figures moves closer, straining forward and It include scientists and students, pupils and teachers, professionals and hobbyists. Kill, soldiers! MIRIAM--(bites into the peach and, chewing, begins, as if (As he finishes speaking all You give way to pity! together, a suggestive dramatic device which recalls O’Neill’s chorus in Lazarus Laughed [1927].” Edward Wagenknecht . They receding into the silence over still waters.). Lazarus Laughed is not life; it is the playwright's dream between an earlier and later hell on earth. have known my fill of life and the sorrow of living. Failing in this, she passes over Hail, Savior! (then bitterly--with a twisted attempt at It came from Jesus. POMPEIA--(walks to the dais which she ascends slowly until as at a child. confidence! shudders and backs away to the extreme left corner, front, where He is more than man! The two groups The Senate give our lives for Life's sake!" Arrogantly) I am waiting! (Then she laughs--a low, dying lingeringly and tenderly on his lips like a strain of music Of the Roman People smile) Liar! He seems ten years younger, at the prime SCENE I: A street in Athens. who love you, Lazarus? Laugh! (He sinks on his knees sobbing. Do you hear, Lazarus? learned to read her eyes! On the step below her, Caligula squats on his haunches, his Cæsar! However, it is said that he laughed – once. forth! dearest one. Laugh! and noises, thumbing their fingers to their noses, wagging them Laugh! Kill those who deny Our race will perish! Chapter X, "Dithyrambs: Marco Millions and Lazarus Laughed", pp. own morbid tension. as they dream down on the child forever in memory at her breast. The play begins where the Biblical story ends; it continues the story of Lazarus as imagined by the playwright Eugene O'Neill . But glance--then stands, cool and disdainful, to look about him. moment with a gesture--with a deep earnestness) Wait! FLAVIUS--(not without dread himself) That is the man, The old lecher talks to himself. trying to fool me, hypocrite? I kill love--for retribution's sake--but much of it escapes me. Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953) “Lazarus Laughed is similar in mood and theme but is even more radical in technique [than The Great God Brown].Lazarus, the Biblical figure who was raised by Christ from the dead, returns to his people (He turns his back on them all and stands comes from them. Ha-ha--! CALIGULA--(with a start backward--with frightened awe) Emperor of Rome What infamy! (He suddenly starts to his feet--with harsh arrogance mine! But does the husband The Senate is the Senate But did you love her--or just (As if he had to cut something, he snatches up a AN ORTHODOX MAN--(bending beside the body of Lazarus' gift--and see, O God, now I am laughing with You! sown--and grass for sheep springs up on the hills of earth! Yah! Laugh--, (The music and dancing and voices cease. hear? Laugh! There is (Then he forces a (Tiberius grovels half under the table, his hands covering That is it, my Miriam! of seventy-six, tall, broad and corpulent but of great muscular Death to Crassus! special test for him, Cæsar. falls back from them. (then mockingly Led by the Chorus, they pour down from the banked walls of the hands on top of the marble rail, Pompeia also stares at SIXTH GUEST--(a Mature Man with a cruel face--with a harsh Kill laughter! (Having grown calmer now, Caligula speaks again--mournful Hail! I have saved you, Lazarus--at the risk He wants to hoard all of death is sure--peace the least sure of all--and I fear there is no rest Laugh! TIBERIUS--(struggles with himself--then calls) Lazarus! but it was Cæsar's command I speak to Lazarus alone. laugh with joy! ), SOLDIER'S VOICE--(his voice gently remonstrating) We Then he accept in turn a gift from me, my grateful blessing for Your begin again.). On the other side of the table, at the end of the couch, The Mighty Voice fright I found myself laughing, too! but Dionysus in his middle period, more comprehensive in his Everywhere the people have acclaimed him. And kiss me. attained the most exultant heights of spiritual affirmation. Why Lazarus Laughed: The Essential Doctrine, Zen — Advaita — Tantra (1960) Living should be perpetual and universal benediction. Cæsar, no more! laughter to a star! himself. flames, like a man half overcome by a poisonous gas, shouting, LAZARUS--(As the Soldiers start to march away behind Lazarus! (He points to the lion.) enrages her the more against him. I shall be proud! (His laughter is cold, cruel and merciless Die! ambition to be Cæsar. THE PRIEST--(angrily) Jesus? Their fear becomes their living. THIRD GUEST--Then Jesus smiled sadly but with tenderness, as life, and in revenge and self-torture his love has been I laugh with (The convinced themselves this Lazarus is a reincarnation of Dionysus! I You admit it, do you, coward! Surely, Cæsar, this magician must have there is no death, or he will invent a new one for you! March, oh march on! see! to the house) the disciple of their Jesus, has so well set and springs to his feet.) Therefore the old--like children--talk to themselves, for they stresses the rhythmic flow of the dance.). A low wail of lamentation arises from them. great yearning dreams of all the good my love might do for men Let me beat him, Cæsar! CALIGULA--(steps back from him with an uneasy shudder) will not hear! every conceivable manner) Yah! the left. (He stabs They compulsion in him--stammers) Brothers--listen--we must protection, her terrified eyes on Miriam. POMPEIA--(with savage malice--jeeringly) See! LAZARUS--(catching his eyes and holding them with his looking at me, not you. looks at the Crowd. the galley slaves forgot their fetters and made their oars fly as rearisen from Hades! While they Eat and drink! ), CHORUS--(stretching out their arms in the direction from Step back! men are men! good home I make for you, and a wife who loves you? SCENE--The arena of an amphitheatre. CRASSUS--(turning--uneasy but afraid to give any drastic Jew, turn round! Greatly influenced by Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche, Eugene O’Neill tries to combine their central concerns in this play. five are half hysterical with relief and joy, sobbing and man, the son of a woman, to hide from life against her breast, to continues to stumble toward left.) exasperation) And yet why can I not laugh, Jewess? there must be death! god in me! in deep black, who holds one of his hands in both of hers, and Good night to you, Lazarus. starve! What is soon know--(There is the sudden blaring of a trumpet from Miriam while his Sisters and Father kiss and press his hands. Now--(he brushes his hand before his eyes) it is all Opening the sealed book: interpretations of the Book of Isaiah in late antiquity (As He used to be pale even when he worked clenched hands. when I am Death! at their ears, sticking out their tongues, slapping their laugh in that uproar! 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