Dramatic Works

Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Charles S. Kraszewski

• Publisher: Glagoslav Publications B.V. (N)
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781914337338
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre Playwriting

'Perhaps some day I'll disappear forever, ' muses the master-builder Psymmachus in Cyprian Kamil Norwid's Cleopatra and Caesar, 'Becoming one with my work…' Today, exactly two hundred years from the poet's birth, it is difficult not to hear Norwid speaking through the lips of his character.

The greatest poet of the second phase of Polish Romanticism, Norwid, like Gerard Manley Hopkins in England, created a new poetic idiom so ahead of his time, that he virtually 'disappeared' from the artistic consciousness of his homeland until his triumphant rediscovery in the twentieth century.

Chiefly lauded for his lyric poetry, Norwid also created a corpus of dramatic works astonishing in their breadth, from the Shakespearean Cleopatra and Caesar cited above, through the mystical dramas Wanda and Krakus, the Unknown Prince, both of which foretell the monumental style of Stanis?aw Wyspia?ski, whom Norwid influenced, and drawing-room comedies such as Pure Love at the Sea Baths and The Ring of the Grande Dame which combine great satirical humour with a philosophical depth that can only be compared to the later plays of T.S. Eliot.

All of these works, and more, are collected in Charles S. Kraszewski's English translation of Norwid's Dramatic Works, which along with the major plays also includes selections from Norwid's short, lyrical dramatic sketches — something along the order of Pushkin's Little Tragedies.

Cyprian Kamil Norwid's Dramatic Works will be a valuable addition to the library of anyone who loves Polish Literature, Romanticism, or theatre in general.

CLEOPATRA AND CAESAR

A historical tragedy,

written equally for scenic presentation

and dramatic reading

with the enhancement of dramatic gestures

and their succession in time, noted.

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PERSONS

CleopatraRuler of Egypt

Julius CaesarRoman Consul

Marc AntonyTriumvir, Spouse of Cleopatra

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Court of Cleopatra

EucastusMarshal of her Court

KondorGrand Master of Game

KnightCommander of her Armies

PsymmachusHer Architect

OlymposHer Physician

ZecheraHer Soothsayer

EroeHer Kanephoros

JackalHer Table Server

HeroHer Table Server

KarponHer Servant

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Faleg-MunSon of a Diver

Abdala GanymedionSon of a Reaper

AchillesEnvoy of Ptolemus

First Priest

Second Priest

Harper

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Julius Caesar’s Staff

Fortunius

Calligion

Aelius Cinna

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CorneliaWidow of Pompeius

DeliusRoman Guest of Cleopatra

PlancusEnvoy of Octavian

DolabellaEnvoy of Octavian

First Centurion

Second Centurion

Lictor

Commander of the Guard

Captive

Centurion¹

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Egyptian ChorusesChorus of Youths;

Chorus of Maidens

Courtiersof Cleopatra

Soldiersof Julius Caesar

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The action is set in the city of Alexandria and its environs, during the years 48 – 30 bc.

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INTRODUCTION

I: Concerning the idea of the tragedy. II: Concerning its dramatic reading. III: Concerning its staging. IV: Its obligatory contemporary progress.

I

Whoever makes use of the term national-tragedy makes clear a disseizing of certain tragical sublimities such as constitute the very nature of the tragic genre. A play might be described as national, a tragedy — extremely infrequently, or not at all. Calderon and Shakespeare were aware of this, for they did not derive the material for their tragedies exclusively from national sources.² Not because engaging with this or that tragic subject cannot be national in nature — in a manner of speaking, it always is. First, because the anecdotal aspect of the characters ca...