Transcriber's note: Italic font is indicated by _underscores_. Characters' names within italicised stage directions are intended to be read as upright font. MARY MAGDALENE _A Play in Three Acts_ BY MAURICE MAETERLINCK _Translated by_ ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS [Illustration] NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1910 COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MAURICE MAETERLINCK AUTHOR’S NOTE I have borrowed from Mr. Paul Heyse’s drama, _Maria von Magdala_, the idea of two situations in my play, namely, at the end of the first act, the intervention of Christ, who stops the crowd raging against Mary Magdalene with these words, spoken behind the scenes: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone;” and, in the third, the dilemma in which the great sinner finds herself, of saving or destroying the Son of God, according as she consents or refuses to give herself to a Roman. Before setting to work, I asked the venerable German poet, whom I hold in the highest esteem, for his permission to develop those two situations, which, so to speak, were merely sketched in his play, with its incomparably richer plot than mine; and I offered to recognize his rights in whatever manner he thought proper. My respectful request was answered with a refusal, none too courteous, I regret to say, and almost threatening. From that moment, I was bound to consider that the words from the Gospel, quoted above, are common property; and that the dilemma of which I speak is one of those which occur pretty frequently in dramatic literature. It seemed to me the more lawful to make use of it inasmuch as I had happened to imagine it in the fourth act of _Joyzelle_, in the same year in which _Maria von Magdala_ was published and before I was able to become acquainted with that play. I will add that, excepting the principle of these two situations, in all that concerns the subject of the play, the conduct of the action, the persons, the characters, the evolution and the atmosphere, our two works have absolutely nothing in common: not a phrase, not a cue of the one will be found in the other. Having said this, I am happy to express to the aged master my gratitude for an intellectual benefit which is none the less great for being involuntary. MAURICE MAETERLINCK. ACT I (_The gardens of ANNŒUS SILANUS at Bethany. A Roman terrace. A quincunx. Marble benches, porticoes, statues. In the centre, a basin with a fountain. Arbours. Orange-trees and laurel-trees in stone vases. A balustrade on the right and left, overlooking the valley. A balustrade at the back, open at the middle to give access to a walk lined with plane-trees and statues and ending in a thick hedge of laurels which closes the garden._) SCENE I (_ENTER ANNŒUS SILANUS and LUCIUS VERUS_) SILANUS