The versatility of Maeterlinck is evidenced by comparing such plays, within ten years, as _Joyzelle_ and _The Blue Bird_, _Monna Vanna_ and _Mary Magdalene_. _Joyzelle_ has elements of dramatic ecstasy with a tragic undertone. Professor William Lyon Phelps has summarized well the salient qualities of this play and its heroine in _Essays on Modern Dramatists_ (New York, 1921). _Monna Vanna_, written especially for Maeterlinck’s wife, is a rare blend of intense emotionalism and convincing characters with a crisis which challenges the reason. Giovanna, or Monna Vanna, wife of Guido Colonna, commander of the garrison at Pisa, will remain as Maeterlinck’s most vital heroine. Prinzivalle, general of the Florentines and her boyhood lover, is an idealized hero for his age but convincing in his chivalry. Medieval atmosphere and dramatic action accentuate the strong dialogue of this play. Ten years later, in 1913, appeared _Mary Magdalene_. In his Introduction, Maeterlinck relates, with some feeling, his effort to win cordial response from Paul Heyse, who had written a play on the same theme and with certain situations that the Belgian wished to use. Meeting with a refusal, “none too courteous I regret to say,” he decided to take his privilege of using Biblical words and his previously conceived situation. He gives to Mary Magdalene a few masterly lines; to Joseph of Arimathea, she says, “We save those whom we love; we listen to them afterwards.” To the Roman Verus, who would have her save Jesus by yielding herself to him, she replies: “I should perhaps sin against all that he loves, to save what I love. I could save him in spite of himself; but no longer in spite of myself. If I bought his life at the price which you offer, all that he wished, all that he loved, would be dead. I cannot plunge the flame into the mire to save the lamp.”[89]