Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint, 1207-1231 -- Drama; Tragedies (Drama)
P 139. 'My mother rose.' Cf. Lib. VI section 8. 'Her mother, who
had been long ago' (when Elizabeth was nine years old) 'miserably
slain by the Hungarians, appeared to her in her dreams upon her
knees, and said, "My beloved child! pray for the agonies which I
suffer; for thou canst." Elizabeth waking, prayed earnestly, and
falling asleep again, her mother appeared to her and told her that
she was freed, and that Elizabeth's prayers would hereafter benefit
all who invoked her.' Of the causes of her mother's murder the less
that is said the better, but the prudent letter which the Bishop of
Gran sent back when asked to join in the conspiracy against her is
worthy notice. 'Reginam occidere nolite timere bonum est. Si omnes
consentiunt ego non contradico.' To be read as a full consent, or
as a flat refusal, according to the success of the plot.
P. 140. 'Any living soul.' Dietrich has much on this point,
headed, 'How Master Conrad exercised Saint Elizabeth in the breaking
of her own will. . . . And at last forbad her entirely to give
alms; whereon she employed herself in washing lepers and other
infirm folk. In the meantime she was languishing, and inwardly
tortured with emotions of compassion.'
I may here say that in representing Elizabeth's early death as
accelerated by a 'broken heart' I have, I believe, told the truth,
though I find no hint of anything of the kind in Dietrich. The
religious public of a petty town in the thirteenth century round the
deathbed of a royal saint would of course treasure up most carefully
all incidents connected with her latter days; but they would hardly
record sentiments or expressions which might seem to their notions
to derogate in anyway from her saintship. Dietrich, too, looking at
the subject as a monk and not as a man, would consider it just as
much his duty to make her death-scene rapturous as to make both her
life and her tomb miraculous. I have composed these last scenes in
the belief that Elizabeth and all her compeers will be recognised as
real saints, in proportion as they are felt to have been real men
and women.
P. 142. 'Eructate sweet doctrine.' The expressions are Dietrich's
own.
Ibid. 'In her coffin yet.' Cf. Lib. VIII. section I.
Ibid. 'So she said.' Cf. Ibid.
Ibid. 'The poor of Christ.' 'She begged her master to distribute
all to the poor, except a worthless tunic in which she wished to be
buried. She made no will: she would have no heir beside Christ'
(i.e. the poor).
P. 143. 'Martha, and their brother,' etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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