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Demeter: A Mask. [1905]
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76 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1905
9 people want to read
About the author
Robert Bridges
463 books24 followersRobert Seymour Bridges was Britain's poet laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is the author of many well-known hymns. It was through Bridges’ efforts that Gerard Manley Hopkins achieved posthumous fame.
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Robert^Bridges
Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Robert^Bridges
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 19, 2018
A poetic masque in three acts retelling the story of Persephone's abduction into the underworld to serve as Hades' queen, her mother Demeter's search for her daughter, leading to an Olympian compromise that came to symbolize the Nature's yearly cycle of birth and death between spring and winter.
The play opens with Hades explaining his right to take Persephone ('man's mind was one with my desire / that Hell should have a queen') and his agreement with Zeus, followed by the appearance of a Chorus of Oceanides, who Persephone herself in the fields of Sicily, gathering flowers in the company of Artemis and Athene.
Persephone states her love for flowers to be the most satisfying love, but Athene and Artemis in turn advise that the love of love and the love of life should be considered more precious, though she scorns their tutelage:
'Nay, and I guess your purpose with me well:
I am a child and yo would nurse me up
A pupil in your school'.
Called to a hunting dance, the goddesses leave the stage, but persephone lingers awhile to give praise to a variety of her favorite flowers, such as the poppy ('He, like a hurried thief / Stuffs his rich silks into too small a bag'), providing the opportunity for Hades to take her.
Act II opens with two different songs by the Oceonides, the second telling of the effect of Persephone's disappearance on Demeter, who has set out on a relentless search for her daughter:
'Enlangour'd like a fasting lioness
That prowls around
Robb'd of her whelps, in fury comfortless
Until her lost be found'.
In a mixture of rhymed couplets and blank verse, Demeter describes her grief and her search, how Helios proved to be her informant, then vows revenge on Zeus, threatening to replace all crops with flowers, leading to the death of men and thus the death of the gods themselves:
'I will destroy the seeds of plant and tree:
Vineyard and orchard, oliveyard and cornland
Shall all withhold their fruits, and in their stead
Shall flourish the gay blooms that Cora loved.'
Hermes arrives in his customary role as messenger between the gods and hears the threat, which he is to deliver to Zeus as the act ends with the Oceanides in panic, vowing to enlist Poseidon to Demeter's cause against his brother.
The third and final, restorative act begins with a song and an ode by the Chorus as they wait at Sicily to see if Zeus will deliver Persephone back to her mother. While they wait, Demeter tells them of her time amongst humans in the court of King Keleos, which lead to the establishment of the Eleusian Mysteries, 'Where in the sorrow I underwent / Man's state is pattern'd; and in picture shown / the way to his salvation...'
Persephone does indeed return with Hermes, but as Demeter reaches out to remove her daughter's crown as Queen of Hades she finds resistance, and so the ongoing pact of Persephone's shared residence both above and below ground is explained.
In this last act, where Persephone lifts the lid on the sights of Hades, the lyricism is particularly striking ('ruin'd godheads, disesteem'd, condemn'd / To toil on deathless mockery' etc), culminating in a vision of the polar opposite of the newly established temple at Eleusis, the Cave of Cacopysia, where the daughter learnt that:
'Even in hell
The worst is hidden, and unfructuous night
Stifles her essence in her truthless heart.'
As a masque, the music, singing and scenery are every bit as integral as the words of the play, yet the language is so wonderful that I loved it on the page alone. Robert Bridges was obviously a master poet who was in thrall of Ancient Greece and had the talent to bring it to life.
Quality.
The play opens with Hades explaining his right to take Persephone ('man's mind was one with my desire / that Hell should have a queen') and his agreement with Zeus, followed by the appearance of a Chorus of Oceanides, who Persephone herself in the fields of Sicily, gathering flowers in the company of Artemis and Athene.
Persephone states her love for flowers to be the most satisfying love, but Athene and Artemis in turn advise that the love of love and the love of life should be considered more precious, though she scorns their tutelage:
'Nay, and I guess your purpose with me well:
I am a child and yo would nurse me up
A pupil in your school'.
Called to a hunting dance, the goddesses leave the stage, but persephone lingers awhile to give praise to a variety of her favorite flowers, such as the poppy ('He, like a hurried thief / Stuffs his rich silks into too small a bag'), providing the opportunity for Hades to take her.
Act II opens with two different songs by the Oceonides, the second telling of the effect of Persephone's disappearance on Demeter, who has set out on a relentless search for her daughter:
'Enlangour'd like a fasting lioness
That prowls around
Robb'd of her whelps, in fury comfortless
Until her lost be found'.
In a mixture of rhymed couplets and blank verse, Demeter describes her grief and her search, how Helios proved to be her informant, then vows revenge on Zeus, threatening to replace all crops with flowers, leading to the death of men and thus the death of the gods themselves:
'I will destroy the seeds of plant and tree:
Vineyard and orchard, oliveyard and cornland
Shall all withhold their fruits, and in their stead
Shall flourish the gay blooms that Cora loved.'
Hermes arrives in his customary role as messenger between the gods and hears the threat, which he is to deliver to Zeus as the act ends with the Oceanides in panic, vowing to enlist Poseidon to Demeter's cause against his brother.
The third and final, restorative act begins with a song and an ode by the Chorus as they wait at Sicily to see if Zeus will deliver Persephone back to her mother. While they wait, Demeter tells them of her time amongst humans in the court of King Keleos, which lead to the establishment of the Eleusian Mysteries, 'Where in the sorrow I underwent / Man's state is pattern'd; and in picture shown / the way to his salvation...'
Persephone does indeed return with Hermes, but as Demeter reaches out to remove her daughter's crown as Queen of Hades she finds resistance, and so the ongoing pact of Persephone's shared residence both above and below ground is explained.
In this last act, where Persephone lifts the lid on the sights of Hades, the lyricism is particularly striking ('ruin'd godheads, disesteem'd, condemn'd / To toil on deathless mockery' etc), culminating in a vision of the polar opposite of the newly established temple at Eleusis, the Cave of Cacopysia, where the daughter learnt that:
'Even in hell
The worst is hidden, and unfructuous night
Stifles her essence in her truthless heart.'
As a masque, the music, singing and scenery are every bit as integral as the words of the play, yet the language is so wonderful that I loved it on the page alone. Robert Bridges was obviously a master poet who was in thrall of Ancient Greece and had the talent to bring it to life.
Quality.
Displaying 1 of 1 review