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Occultism in Western Theater and Drama University of Kentucky UKnowledge Studies in Romance Languages Series University Press of Kentucky 2005 Stages of Evil: Occultism in Western Theater and Drama Robert Lima Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/srls_book Part of the Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons Stages of Evil Studies in Romance Languages: 49 John E. Keller, Editor Occultism in Western Theater and Drama ROBERT LIMA THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2005 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com 09 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lima, Robert. Stages of evil : occultism in Western theater and drama / Robert Lima. p. cm. — (Studies in romance languages ; 49) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2362-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8131-2362-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Occultism in literature. 2. Drama—History and criticism. I. Title. II. Studies in Romance languages (Lexington, Ky.) ; 49. PN1650.O33L56 2005 809'.9337—dc22 20050283 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses To John Esten Keller, in celebration of a life and career full of achievements Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 I. The Matter of the Underworld 1. The Mouth of Hell: Damnation on the Stage of the Middle Ages 13 II. Metamorphoses of Gods 2. The Masks of Harlequin: Daemonic Antecedents of the Commedia dell’Arte Character 47 3. The Pagan Pluto: Touchstone of Celestina’s Magic in Tragicomedia de Calixto y Melibea 83 III. Possession and Exorcism 4. The Primal Spirit: Sacred Frenzy in Euripides’ Bacchae 101 5. Rites of Passage: Metempsychosis, Possession, and Exorcism in S. An-Sky’s The Dybbuk 117 6. The Savaged Mind: Voodoo Terror in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones 137 7. Satan in Salem: Sex as Grimoire in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible 147 8. A Matter of Habit: The Politics of Demonic Hysteria in John Whiting’s The Devils 159 9. The Prey of the Vampire: Malign Decadence in Francisco Nieva’s Nosferatu 177 IV. Cauldron and Cave 10. Wither’d and Wild: Witches of the Elizabethan and Jacobean Stages 197 11. The Cave and the Magician: Chthonic Sanctuaries in Early European Drama 225 Appendix: Bibliography of European and American Drama of the Occult 271 Index 315 Acknowledgments Parts of chapters in this book were conference presentations and were is- sued as follows: chapter 1 as “The Mouth of Hell: The Iconography of Dam- nation on the Stage of the Middle Ages,” European Iconography East and West, ed. György E. Szönyi, Symbola et Emblemata Series (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 35–48; chapter 2 as “The Genealogy of Harlequin as Diabolus,” in The Iconography of the Fantastic, ed. Attila Kiss, Márta Baróti-Gaál, and György E. Szönyi (Szeged: Jate, 2002), 81–92; chapter 3 as “The Arcane Paganism of Celestina: Plutonic Magic versus Satanic Witchcraft in Tragicomedia de Calixto y Melibea,” Neophilologus (Dordrecht) 82, no. 2 (April 1998): 221–33; and chapter 9 as “Nosferatu: A Play on the Vampire by Francisco Nieva,” Mod- ern Drama (Toronto) 44, no. 2 (spring 2001): 232–46. All are used with per- mission of the publishers. The majority of illustrations in this book are in the public domain. Per- mission to reprint those that are not is indicated as appropriate. In some cases, correspondence requesting permission has been ignored. I am grate- ful to Mr. and Mrs. Sandor Korein for permission to use as figure 17 The Weird Sisters (1827), by Alexandre-Marie Colin, which is in their collection. Introduction /1 Introduction 2/STAGES OF EVIL The play’s the thing. —Shakespeare, Hamlet Theater has been a mode of expression since the days of prehistory when man first attempted to communicate his experience and emotions, possi- bly through oral expression, perhaps through dance or mummery, to at- tentive companions gathered around a fire outdoors, at a hearth in a cave, or within another form of shelter. To magical gods, whom he feared when nature’s wrath was stirred but praised when the land came into fruition and the waters provided its nutrients, he made obeisances that may have consisted of ritualized movements, mimetic gestures, and sacred utterances. The desire to recount, proclaim, and venerate did not disappear with the advent of civilization. The early centuries of history not only witnessed the ongoing role of secular and religious ritual actions but also saw the emergence of drama, the written form of theater. Ancient Greece, gateway to Western culture, came to adhere to the Asian cult of Dionysus, whose ritual practices ultimately led to that form of expression defined by Aristotle as tragedy, with its masterpieces being the extant works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and to the concomitant form of comedy, with the plays of Aristophanes at the apex. Rome would follow suit with the writings of Plautus and Terence for two. And both cultures built magnifi- cent outdoor theaters in which to mount numerous productions during their religious and secular festivals. As the Roman Empire waned, Christianity became more powerful. In the process, it confronted the lewd drama and barbaric spectacles that passed for public entertainment. Soon the excesses became intolerable, and, when the church came into its own on the collapse of Rome, it banned all public representations and ordered the theaters to be closed. But the histri- onic spirit could not be bested so readily. If the presentation of plays in Previous page: Le grand architecte, Eliphas Levi. Public domain. Introduction /3 theaters was forbidden, the populace continued to enjoy an informal the- atrical experience through the peripatetic troubadours, jongleurs, min- strels, juglares, and other such purveyors of song, dance, juggling, acrobatics, and storytelling. In effect, it was an underground theater whose house was a town’s street, plaza, or courtyard, weather permitting, or a tavern. In time, the Middle Ages experienced the slow resurgence of theater, ironically first in the churches themselves as manifestations of the liturgy. An example is the Mass, a daily representation of Jesus Christ’s Last Sup- per, in which there are a leading actor (the priest who acts the role of Christ); supporting actors (the acolytes); a stage (the sanctuary with its altar); move- ment, gesture, and dialogue (between the priest, the acolytes, and the la- ity); and an audience (those in attendance at the service). But there were other liturgical observances that permitted greater participation by the la- ity, often leading to abuses that would prove intolerable. When too many secular elements crept into the liturgical observances, the church excised them, retaining only the sacred. As a result, the religious festivals of a laical nature came to be celebrated on the church’s steps or on its plaza under the patronage of craft guilds. An extension of these religious productions oc- curred with the introduction of pageant wagons, each of which mounted a scene of the seasonal mystery, miracle, or morality play. Slowly, Europe created a new theater with written texts that grafted the sacred and the profane in what is called religious drama. The next development was of greater import. The spirit of Italian hu- manism (Umanesimo) in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries led to the Renaissance in that country and elsewhere, making accessible classical sources once prohibited. The theater was reinstated as a cultural activity and flourished on all levels of society. Among its patrons were members of the nobility and of the church’s hierarchy—bishops, cardinals, and popes. These political and religious dignitaries installed theaters or allocated ar- eas for performances of plays in their palaces. European theater showed a vigorous life thereafter. Italy exported its popular improvisational commedia dell’arte, giving the world such comic characters as Arlecchino, Colombina, Pantalone, and Pulcinella; Spain en- joyed what has become known as its Golden Age and saw the innovative dramas of Lope de Vega (creator of the three-act play), Cervantes, Calderón, Tirso de Molina, and Ruiz de Alarcón; England produced the genius of Shakespeare and the bountiful talents of Marlowe and Jonson; France boasted the comic perspicacity of Molière and the highly crafted works of Corneille 4/STAGES OF EVIL and Racine; the works of Gozzi and Goldoni graced continental stages; and so on. European drama had reached a very high level of excellence. The centuries that followed proved less fulfilling because succeeding literary movements such as neoclassicism, romanticism, realism, and natu- ralism superimposed their tenets or perspective on the drama, generally to its detriment. These movements had their small triumphs, but the play- wrights whose works stand out in the panorama of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are Goldoni, Goethe, Zorrilla, Ibsen, and Strindberg, with Chekhov’s successes coming later.
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