Madame de Sade

by Yukio Mishima

C'est en lisant La Vie du Marquis de Sade de Tatsuhiko Shibusa que pour moi, en tant qu'écrivain, se posa l'énigme de comprendre comment la marquise de Sade, qui avait montré tant de fidélité à son mari pendant ses longs emprisonnements, a pu l'abandonner juste au moment où il retrouvait la liberté. Telle énigme a servi de point de départ à ma pièce, en laquelle on peut voir une tentative de fournir au problème une solution logique. j'ai eu l'impression que quelque chose de fort vrai en même temps que de fort peu intelligible paraissait derrière l’énigme, et j'ai voulu considérer Sade dans ce système de références.

Il est peut-être singulier qu'un Japonais ait écrit une pièce de théâtre sur un argument français. La raison en est que je souhaitais employer à rebours les talents que les comédiens de chez nous ont acquis en représentant des pièces traduites de langues étrangères.

Yukio Mishima

Genres: Plays, Japan, Theatre, Japanese Literature, Fiction, Drama, Classic Literature

133 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1965

About the author

Yukio Mishima (三島 由紀夫) was born in Tokyo in 1925. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University’s School of Jurisprudence in 1947. His first published book, The Forest in Full Bloom, appeared in 1944 and he established himself as a major author with Confessions of a Mask (1949). From then until his death he continued to publish novels, short stories, and plays each year. His crowning achievement, the Sea of Fertility tetralogy—which contains the novels Spring Snow (1969), Runaway Horses (1969), The Temple of Dawn (1970), and The Decay of the Angel (1971)—is considered one of the definitive works of twentieth-century Japanese fiction. In 1970, at the age of forty-five and the day after completing the last novel in the Fertility series, Mishima committed seppuku (ritual suicide)—a spectacular death that attracted worldwide attention.

Reviews

[GD · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Mishima, if you don't like it fuck you.

[Emilio Berra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sei donne intorno a un fantasma

Tutti conoscono il Marchese De Sade, ma pochi sanno chi sia la sua signora.
Ebbene Madame De Sade è questa qui!
Un momento ... Madame, in questa piece, è rappresentata ovviamente secondo lo sguardo di Mishima, scrittore già parecchio particolare di suo.

Il noto autore giapponese, leggendo una biografia di De Sade, rimase colpito che la moglie Renée, dopo aver tanto brigato per farlo scarcerare, al momento del ritorno non accorre da lui ; anzi, ha appena deciso di ritirarsi in convento.
Mishima vuole scoprire il perché. E lo fa a modo suo.

Le vicende sono rappresentate in tre momenti : 1772 ; 1778 ; 1790 (a nove mesi dall'inizio della Rivoluzione Francese).
Nel salotto della madre di Renée ruotano sei personaggi, tutti femminili : oltre a Madame Renée, troviamo appunto la madre e la sorella; poi due signore aristocratiche (emblemi l'una della virtù, l'altra del vizio); infine la cameriera.
Sei donne dunque a parlare di un uomo, l'assente.

Mishima conduce un'indagine sull'interiorità di Madame De Sade in modo del tutto personale per scoprire che cosa accade in fondo all'animo della signora, strisciando fra ambiguità, enigmi e risvolti inattesi.
E ancora una volta riesce a suscitare il nostro sconcerto.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The common people have become bored with morality, and they'd like to enjoy for themselves the immorality that hitherto has been the exclusive prerogative of the nobility.

There is much discussion here of the sacred and the profane, and the transmogrification that conjoins the two sides of that particular coin.

The seed of this story is the puzzling fact that while Madame de Sade stuck by her disgraced husband while he was imprisoned, once he was finally released she refused to see him. How did this happen? Mishima explores the possibilities.

The most striking characteristic of the marquis' illness is how pleasant it is.

The background here is the French Revolution, where many things turned upside down — to be part of the nobility was disgraceful, to be working class ideal. Notions of morality, justice, ethics and so on were all uprooted and viewed through a newly twisted lens.

You slept with convention and morality and normality, and you emitted groans of pleasure. That, surely, is how a monster behaves. You fattened on your hatred and scorn for anything even slightly at variance with the normal, just as you filled yourself three times a day with nutritious meals.

This came out in 1967, and I believe it is the first time I've handled a volume published while Mishima was still alive. The back cover blurb concludes: "Mishima lives in Tokyo with his wife and two children."

[Yana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Переклад від Фоліо цієї пʼєси (Інни Данченко) — не просто халтура, це зневага до читача. Великі питання і до того, хто редагував.

Якщо не хочете собі зіпсувати враження від Мішіми як драматурга — шукайте іноземними мовами.

[secret_place_of_books · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Pseudo)biografija markiza de Sade prikazana na dramaturški način iz ženske perspektive.Iako se kroz cijelu dramu spominje markiz de Sade, on se zapravo ne pojavljuje do samoga kraja, gdje opet ostaje skriven za čitatelje/gledatelje.

Zapravo je kroz sva tri čina u prvom planu odnos između majke i kćeri. Stoga se postavlja pitanje razloga koji majku potiče na djelovanje i razdvajanje bračnih drugova. Je li majka požrtvovna? Ili ipak koristoljubljiva?

"Zabljesnulo vas je ime de Sade i svoju kćer ste hotimice udali za Donatiena, ali danas kad požar prijeti da zahvati i vašu kuću, jedina vam je
briga da svoju kćerku i pošto-poto otkupite."

Gledajući iz perspektive kćeri kao supruge problematizira se odnos prema suprugu odnosno vjernost naspram svega.

Osim toga, drama se još i bavi problematizacijom odnosa između sestara koji je usko vezan s odnosom na relaciji muž-žena i bračna vjernost.

[Νικολέττα · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ένα θεατρικό έργο εμπνευσμένο από τη ζωή του Ντονασιάν Αλφόνς Φρανσουά κόμη Ντε Σαντ και τη στάση που κράτησαν η γυναίκα, η κουνιάδα κι η πεθερά του. Φιλοσοφικοί διάλογοι που περιστρέφονται γύρω από την ηθική και ο κάθε χαρακτήρας αντιπροσωπεύει και ένα ρεύμα σκέψης.
Τροφή για σκέψη και παρατήρηση.
Προτείνεται.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone was very horrible about this in their review of a London 2009 production with Dame Judi:

"...as punishingly dull and silly a play as it is possible to imagine. … This dodgy swinging sixties existentialism (evil is the new good) seems particularly tawdry in the wake of the Fritzl affair. I wonder how is surviving children would feel if some crass Japanese philosopher-playwright told them their father was merely trying to find a new route to paradise. ... Five years after writing this play, Mishima ritually disembowelled himself. Perhaps he'd finally realised what a stinker he'd written." Charles Spencer for the Daily Telegraph.

I like the "crass Japanese philosopher-playwright". Everyone seems to be very upset that Mishima wasn't a chap called Racine.

[Alkestis G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ένα θεατρικό έργο σχετικά με την Μαρκησία Ντε Σαντ που βρισκόταν πάντοτε στην σκιά του συζύγου της, και που χρεώθηκε την αισχύνη για όλες του τις διαστροφές. Ο ίδιος ο Μισίμα εμπνεόμενος από το γεγονός ότι η Μαρκησία παρέμεινε με θρησκευτική ευλάβεια στο πλάι του συντρόφου της μόνο και μόνο για να τον εγκαταλείψει όταν αφέθηκε πια ελεύθερος, θέλησε να συνθέσει ένα έργο προκειμένου να ανακαλύψει τα μυστικά μιας ψυχής καθώς και τα κίνητρα που θα μπορούσαν να την οδηγήσουν σε μια τέτοιου είδους πράξη. Ένα αρκετά ενδιαφέρον έργο ειδικά αν το δει κανείς υπό το πρίσμα της Ανατολής που προσπαθεί να κατανοήσει τη Δύση του παρελθόντος.

[Sarika Patkotwar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across Madame de Sade at a local bookstore when they were having a huge sale. Something about the cover, the title and the synopsis really fascinated me, and so I decided to pick it up. Having sat on my shelf for almost a year and a half, I finally decided to read the book. Madame de Sade is originally a Japanese play written by Yukio Mishimi, and I read the English translation done by Donald Keene.

The themes that interested me most when I bought his book were the fact that a Japanese writer wrote a play set in France and that it focused on feminism. I was pursuing my French Masters in literature with a research on feminism at that time, so I thought it to be the perfect fit. But even though I didn't get to the book back then, I'm sure I would've enjoyed it just as much as I did now.

Madame de Sade actually follows Marquis de Sade, who never once appears in the play, but is somehow always present because all the women in it only talk about him. So we have his wife Marquise (translated as Madame for the English readers) de Sade, who is the epitome of a devoted wife until she learns to accept her husband for who he is. And then we have her mother, her sister, their maid, and two more women, who, in my eyes, were the most integral characters. From the summary, every woman of the five important ones represents something and eventually through the course of the play, it becomes very evident.

I thought that the various themes were taken up brilliantly and uniquely in this play keeping both the individual mind-set and the socio-political scenario of France in the late 1700s in mind. So while on the one hand, there was a more subdued but strict atmosphere during the first two acts; on the other hand, there was also a more casual yet concerned one in the third act which takes place after the French Revolution. While the third act did seem to drag for a bit too long, the first two were very well made and thoroughly enjoyable.

This play is just beautifully done and it shows in the form of the crisp and intelligent writing. My copy also came with a few pictures here and there of the actual theatre performance by an array of wonderful Japanese actresses and that really helped me imagine the play better. A true portrayal of the way society works, this play, in a subtle manner, gives a great glimpse into the way we are made to think, and that was the most wonderful thing about it.

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yukio Mishima wrote a play about the ever-suffering Madame De Sade, the wife of you-know-who. This is a wonderful little play, and it's interesting to see a Japanese writer tackling the great French icon. Sade.... now that's a man who knew how to party!

[Hanifan Cipta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Theatre plays books is a format I’ve never explored before, so the premise initially confuses me, but it turns out to be just an 'okay’ book for me, overall.

Madame de Sade is a play written by Yukio Mishima, based on the life of Renée de Sade, the wife of the notorious Marquis de Sade. I have to admit that I hadn’t explored the story of Marquis de Sade before this book, so that might explain why I haven’t gotten the full experience from it, even though I can already imagine what happened when the stories were told.

There's not much I can’t say about this book. This might be the shortest review I've written for a read this year. The writing itself closely resembles the noble dialogues of the 1800s, which is impressive for a Japanese author like Mishima to have achieved in his 1900s era. Various characters besides Renée somehow felt alive in the story, the dialogues also seem natural and convincing, and there are a few photos from the play itself that helped me picture the play.

The only problem I have with this book is that it just feels like an alternative story of the Marquis de Sade condensed into a 108-page book, with a plot that feels unnatural. The dialogues were fine, it’s the entire plot that bugs me. Especially the final act in April 1790, where Renée, who once defended her husband for his infidelity and sodomy—an argument that even led to a tentative fight 20 years ago between her and Montreuil, her mother—suddenly snaps, realizing she’s been naive to her husband’s reputation as a notorious sexual predator. I just can’t accept the premise that characters drastically change their core beliefs just because they have a single spiritual revelation on a sunny day and then become religious. It feels so absurd and doesn’t seem to reflect the power of a genuine spiritual journey, in my opinion.

Overall, it’s just a decent book. I might have been wrong to read this before learning about Marquis de Sade, so check him out if you want to start exploring that wild story. Finally, kudos to Yukio Mishima (･ω･ﾉﾉﾞ)

[Alfred Weije · Rating 5 out of 5]

En av de bästa pjäserna jag tagit del av! Fruktansvärt bra

[Kimron · Rating 4 out of 5]

One can never get enough tantalizing Yukio

[Javee]

Es de los teatros que más he disfrutado nunca

[Mattias Ek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Markisinnan de Sade porträtteras en familjs individuella människoöde på en episk historisk kanvas. Den yttersta libertinen markis de Sade sitter fängslad i Bastiljen. Markisen själv kommer därför aldrig till tals under pjäsen men hans subversiva tankegods, omsatt i handling, är ständigt närvarande och präglar relationerna mellan det halva dussinet kvinnor som utgör pjäsens ensemble.

Världen håller på att förändras. Moraliska och sociala koder ifrågasätts. Den franska revolutionen vilar i sin startgrop vid pjäsens inledning, ännu ett drygt decennium bort. Därifrån påbörjas en implicit dialog mellan det som varit och det som ännu återstår att bli, främst genom interaktionen mellan markisens fru Renée och hans svärmor Montreuil.

Den tidigare är markisens främsta språkrör, hon talar i målande metaforer och försköningar, romantiserar sin mans demoner och prövningen som hennes giftermål inneburit. Svärmodern är kalkylerande och konventionell. Markisens främsta förtjänst var den sociala statusen som hans titel tillät markisinnan men efter otaliga skandaler uppmanar hon sin dotter att överge sin man.

Markisinnan biter ifrån. I det sista partiet av andra akten äger en konfrontation rum där den samtida samhälleliga konflikten ställs på sin spets. Moraliska imperativ ställs öga mot öga med värdenihilism, den statiska dispositionen i konflikt med den dynamiska. Föreställningar om rätt och fel, sanningsanspråket, ligger i potten.

När så markisinnan inverterar sin tidigare övertygelse i tredje akten, efter att ha läst litteraturen markisen producerade under sin fängelsevistelse, är det för sent. Revolutionen har ägt rum, markisen är fri, och markisinnan konstaterar besegrad att ”den värld vi lever i nu är en skapelse av markis de Sade.”

Implikationerna av förkunnelsen är mångfacetterade. På det mest omedelbara planet går det förstås att intolka en kritik av den moraliska degenerationen som den libertinska övertygelsen innebar och som endast förvärrats från tiden för revolutionen upp tom Mishimas tid. Men pjäsens anspråk är potentiellt större än så. Den inbjuder till att spekulera om hur den sociala revolutionens dictum om hämningslös lyckomaximering influerade riktningen på den vetenskapliga revolutionen.

Ingmar Bergman, som satte upp pjäsen på Dramaten i början av 1990-talet, spekulerade i att ljuset som markisinnan beskriver i sin avslutande monolog, vars själva kärna må vara markisen, och som "gör alla betraktare blinda”, var en metafor för ljuset från atombomben (samma monolog innehåller även referenser till miljontals lik eller ”det tystaste av gästabud"). Japanen Mishima var 20 år gammal vid tidpunkten för bombningen av Nagasaki och Hiroshima.

Ett mer subversivt meta-, uppsåt och kontextoberoende perspektiv tillåter för ljuset att vara en symbol för fundamental kunskap - ät inte från kunskapens träd/bygg inte Babylons torn. Den nihilistiska insikten, associerad med Guds död, och gränslös kunskapsackumulation som en förutsättning för hämningslös teknologisk utveckling, hämningslös teknologisk utveckling som en förutsättning för atombomben. Atombomben som en förutsättning för en förgörelse av den materiella världen i paritet med den själsliga förgörelsen som markisens filosofiska traktater uppmanar. Från det här perspektivet är den nihilistiska insikten lika sann som den är förödande.

[Weeping_ice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Letto per il mese di giugno in #leggendoilgiapponegdl
Che dire, visto quanto @sephreadstoo mi ha ossessionata con questo autore, non pensavo sarei mai riuscita ad apprezzarlo, invece non solo ho divorato questa breve piece teatrale in un pomeriggio, ma ho già pronto il prossimo testo sul comodino: Confessioni di una maschera.
Il Marchese è un fuoco attorno al quale si muovono su orbite ellittiche le donne protagoniste dei dialoghi, donne che compiono comunque movimenti rivoluzionari su se stesse.
È in questo sistema carnale che Mishima di pone col suo Je Suis Alphonse prima che fosse main stream. Nel cercare il raziocinio nella scelta apparentemente insensata di Renée, Mishima ci presenta non martiri, ma persone egoiste nel proprio desiderio di sopravvivenza terrena o mnemonica, pronte a dilaniare e dilaniarsi per rimanere.
A differenza di quanto accaduto con Murakami, ho trovato ognuna delle donne di Mishima viva e delineata nella sua unicità e una potenza e bellezza delle immagini che spaziava tra il poetico e il gusto cinematografico più puro e spinto.
Consiglierei la lettura a chiunque voglia avvicinarsi all'autore, ma abbia il timore di un'ambientazione completamente giapponese.

[擰發條鳥 · Rating 4 out of 5]

男人都是孩子，淫荡的男人则最纯真。救命，想起我以前还蛮同情萨德，可不就是被这一套唬住了。此外，勒内和母亲对峙的那几幕都非常好看，想来三岛由纪夫本人也是所谓“暴烈之美”的拥趸，他来写萨德还是蛮有意思。

[Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

你们看见玫瑰，就说美丽，看到蛇，就说恶心。你们不知道，这个世界，玫瑰与蛇本是亲密的朋友，到了夜晚，它们互相转化。蛇面颊鲜红，玫瑰鳞片闪闪。你们看见兔子说可爱，看见狮子说可怕。你们不知道，暴风雨之夜，它们是如何流血，如何相爱。大声朗读并全文背诵。

[Julie M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pièce très agréable à lire, qui traite de thèmes tabou (actuellement encore, donc affreusement à l’époque). Personnage et intrigue très marrants, un plaisir à lire.

[Kayetan Glinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the concept of morality and the symbolism were a good idea for the writing of this piece. However the execution threw me a bit off. The whole story seems rushed, jumping from one motif to another really chaotically. The plot is still really interesting and catchy and I think it wasn’t really hard to read, or understand.

[Növen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Så extremt fyndig, sådan framåtrörelse, ett riktigt undersökande i det mänskliga psyket, varför man kämpar för någon som beter sig på ett omänskligt sätt, någon man inte ens älskar.

[posh · Rating 3 out of 5]

explores a very unique perspective with interesting moral character execution but i feel like it would be boring to watch it played out on stage. then again, it's been staged by Ingmar Bergman once so maybe not??????

would be really cool more fleshed out as a Dostoyevskian novel (i like real books).

[Ángel Agudo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pieza de teatro breve y resultona que pone en el papel protagonista a la esposa del Marqués de Sade. El autor pretendia indagar respecto a una de las mayores incognitas respecto a Renée, la esposa de Sade, y es el por qué despues de haberlo esperado fielmente, y durante casi dos décadas, a que lo sacaran de la cárcel, justo el dia que le dan la libertad se marcha sin mediar palabra a un convento.

La obra tiene su aquel y una visión interesante sobre el Marqués, pero sigue siendo una Mishimada, es decir, que de fachada todo muy bonito, pero por detrás resuena hueco. El personaje de Renée es muy grandilocuente, pero ni sus pensamientos estan bien plasmados ni su evolución se siente natural.

[Ad · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best plays of cult author Mishima Yukio is "Madame de Sade" (1965), based on the life of Renée de Sade, the wife of the notorious Marquis de Sade ("Alphonse" in the play). It details the struggles of Renée, her family, and acquaintances during the various periods of incarceration of the marquis. Madame Sade has an all-female cast. Mishima employed the Racinian convention of the tirade to express the conflicting personalities of the characters, each embodying an aspect of French society of the late 18th c.

Mishima was motivated to write the piece when he read De Sades' biography and wondered why Renée waited with leaving him until her husband was finally released from prison. Another inspiration was his friend Shibusawa Tatsuhiko, who translated De Sade's novel "Juliette" into Japanese in 1960 and wrote a biography about De Sade in 1964. Shibusawa's explicit translation became the focus of a high-profile court case known as "The Sade Case", which was decided in 1969 in Shibusawa's disadvantage.

According to Mishima, each of the six characters is symbolic of a type of human nature:
- Renée, protagonist and wife of the Marquis de Sade: she represents (extreme) conjugal devotion.
- Madame de Montreuil, Renée's mother: she represents the law, society and morality.
- Anne, Renée's younger sister: she represents feminine innocence and lack of principle.
- Baroness de Simiane: she represents religion.
- Countess de Saint-Fond: she represents instincts and lust for the flesh.
- Charlotte, housekeeper of Madame de Montreuil: she represents the common people.

A few words about the historical Renée de Sade (1741-1810), born de Montreuil: the marriage with De Sade came about as an agreement between both families. Renée de Montreuil was the oldest daughter of a recently ennobled judge in Paris. She turned out to be tenaciously loyal, despite constant provocations from her husband. But the marriage also brought De Sade a very formidable mother-in-law...

Renée would follow her husband through the different jails in which he was locked up. In 1763, only a few months after the wedding ceremony, Sade was arrested in Paris and thrown into prison at the fortress of Vincennes for blasphemy and sodomy; Mme. de Montreuil got him released after 15 days in prison.

In 1772, De Sade traveled to Marseille where he committed sexual acts that included sodomy with four prostitutes and his manservant, Latour. The prostitutes accused him of poisoning (he had given them candy containing an aphrodisiac). The two men were sentenced to death in absentia. They fled to Italy, Sade taking his wife's sister with him. Renée remained in Marseille, taking charge of his defense. She paid the women to withdraw their complaint; her father gave her money to cover the expenses. Sade and Latour were caught and imprisoned at the Fortress of Miolans in French Savoy in late 1772, but escaped four months later.

Renée also remained with her husband during the long confinement in the Keep of Vincennes and in La Bastille (1778-1789), and only separated from him once he gained his freedom in 1789. (After that, the Sade would again be locked up from 1803 until his death in 1814, but by then the marriage was over).

Three of the characters in the play, except Renée, her mother and sister, are fictional. The most important personality, Marquis de Sade, does not appear physically.

The play is in three acts:
- The first act takes place in the autumn of 1772.
- The second act six years later, in September 1778.
- The final act twelve years later, in April 1790.

In each of the three acts, the stage is a literary salon in the residence of Madame de Montreuil in Paris. As history progresses, the decorations and trinkets in the salon become rarer. This can be explained by the French Revolution and the gradual dispossession of the nobility.

Madame de Sade was a huge success internationally and is still performed all over the world, especially in France.

Although perhaps mainly famous as novelist, especially outside Japan, Mishima Yukio was one of the greatest 20th c. Japanese playwrights. He wrote a total of 62 plays in such diverse genres as shingeki (Western-style psychological drama), kabuki and noh. He wrote tragedies, comedies and dance drama, his language ranging from classical Japanese to the modern vernacular.

For more information about the play of Mishima, see my review of Mishima on Stage: The Black Lizard and Other Plays.

Also see my website: https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/

[хіккізава · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5🌟
незважаючи на доволі цікаві теми які піднімає Мішіма та використання постать маркіза де Сада як позакадрового героя, який не з’являється в п‘єсі навіть по її завершенню, я не провідчувала цю історію та мала відчути наче мені чогось бракувало (але Мішіму читатиму й надалі)

[Mastugae Kiyoaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evil with beauty. Danger with tenderness. Slaughter with creation.

[حسن عدس · Rating 3 out of 5]

شخصية ساد اثرت في مشيما بما يجعلة يكتب تلك المسرحية بس هل كان مشيما رافض لساد فحط النهاية دي بصراحة مش عارف بس طريقة الكتابة شبة ساد ودي حاجة كويسة

[Siegfried · Rating 5 out of 5]

---Notes---

"You don't remember a red, liverish moon rising from a canal veiled in mist. And a disordered bed by the window enveloped by the sweet voice of a man singing to his mandolin on the bridge, a bed that looked like seaweed washed ashore on the white sands of the beach, filled with the damp and odor of the sea. He never mentioned a single memory of blood, but the bloodsoaked memories that flashed into his eyes were the source of our infinite tenderness."

"He was trying to create not the emptiness of acts of the flesh that vanishes the instant after satisfaction, but an imperishable cathedral of vice. He was trying to evolve in this world not sporadic acts of evil, but a ode of evil, not deeds so much as principles, not nights of pleasure so much as one long night to last through eternity, not slaves of the whip so much as a kingdom. His fascination with destruction ended in creation... He no longer has a heart. The mind that could write such things is not a human mind. It belongs to some different order. This man, who has abandoned all human feelings, has shut the world of men behind iron bars, and goes walking around it, jingling the keys. He is the keeper of the keys, he alone. My hands can no loner reach him. I have no longer even the strength left to thrust my hands through the bars and beg in vain for his mercy.
What radiance shines from him as he stands there outside my prison bars! He is the freest man in the world. His hands stretch out to the ends of time, to the ends of the world. He piles evil on eveil, and mounts on top. A little more effort will allow his fingers to touch eternity...

Alphonse, the strangest man I have known in this world, has spun a thread of light from evil, created holiness from filth he has gathered. Once again, girdling himself in the armor of his noble house of impeccable pedigree, he has become a pious knight... Human anguish, human suffering, human shrieks rise like the lofty silver horns of his helmet. He presses a sword staed with blood to his lips, and heroically intones the words of his oath... He flies. He soars. His heart beats under the silver armor in anticipation of bloody massacres, banquets where a million corpses lie befuddled with carousing, the quietest of banquets. His icy-cold sword makes lilies wet with blood white again, and his white horse, dabbled with blood, swells forth its chest like the prow of a boat, and advances toward a sky streaked with intermittent flashes of morning lightning."

Stark contrast with how Alphonse allegedly looked while he waited at the door, old, fat, shabby and with little dignity. And finally... "Please ask him to leave. And tell him this: 'The marquise will never see him again.'" How love is perpetuated through perversity and perversity through love! Yukio Mishima's aesthetics lie at the intersection of Tanizaki Junichiro and Baudlaire. See also “The Temple of the Golden Pavilion” and the homoerotic sexual fantasies about slaughtered young men in "Confessions of a Mask". Can't wait to see what Yourcenar has to say about this play.

[Vitani Days · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un volume fra i meno conosciuti di Mishima, ma non per questo meno pregnante. Si tratta di un'opera teatrale in tre atti, dal setting molto particolare per un autore orientale (ma non per Mishima): la Francia di fine XVIII secolo. L'opera, come già da titolo, c'entra molto col marchese de Sade e si ispira infatti alla sua vicenda biografica. Mishima, però, approccia la figura di Donatien Alphonse François de Sade in modo atipico: attraverso gli occhi di sua moglie Renée, della sorella di lei e della loro madre, oltre che di due altre donne (la baronessa di Simiane e la contessa di Saint-Fond). E questo sarebbe già un motivo per leggere quest'opera, poiché è rarissimo che Mishima ponga come protagoniste delle donne (e che donne grandi, le sue, paradossalmente!). Ognuna di queste donne ha nello svolgimento del dramma un ruolo ben definito, ognuna mostra coi propri occhi un lato del marchese de Sade (che è davvero se stesso "solo quando esce da se stesso, è un aborto sanguinante di Dio"). Ognuna mostra un uomo che, alla fine dei conti, è "solo un uomo", cioè imperfetto per sua natura.
Durante la lettura diviene chiaro come mai Mishima si sia interessato a una figura controversa come quella di de Sade, ma anche e soprattutto alla figura di sua moglie. Ha scelto di spiegare, a suo modo, il comportamento di Renée che dopo aver fatto tanto per liberare il marito dal carcere si rifiuta di vederlo dopo diciannove anni. E l'ha fatto riempiendo questo buco con le meraviglie della sua estetica, in quel modo stupendo che ha di rovesciare tutte le carte. Troviamo sempre dei personaggi in qualche modo "borderline", in qualche modo manchevoli, in qualche modo diversi, incompresi, o dalla doppia natura. Troviamo l'ipocrisia della società "bene" (incarnata dalla madre di Renée), oppure l'emblema del vizio e della depravazione (la Saint-Fond) che muore portata in processione come una santa martire. Troviamo la purezza che germoglia anche nelle anime considerate più abiette, la crudeltà innocente, la "polvere d'oro che luccica nel fango sul fondo dell'inferno". Troviamo Alphonse che, grazie al suo vizio, "ha costruito una scala che porta al paradiso". Non c'è un "bene", o un "male", assoluto. Solo la luce del sole e le ombre che porta con sé. Solo fiori candidi sporcati di sangue contro la loro volontà. E poi il mare, le nuvole.

[Natasha M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another one from my Dad's collection of books. I put off reading this for a while because a.) Marquis de Sade and b.) Yukio Mishima sort of disturbed me with Confessions of a Mask back when I read it in college. I can't give that book a re-read, alas, as I long since sold it back to the school system though...

Anyway, back on track! Thankfully I did give this play a read. It's Mishima's take on what Marquise (or Madam as the translator chose to translate it--Marquis/Marquess and Marquise/Marchioness can get confusing) was thinking/feeling during her husband's ... dare I say public transgressions/trials/incarcerations? Her attempts to reconcile her feelings with what she knows and the scandal the world knows? The play features the same 6 women throughout (Renee, Anne and their mother are historical personages while the other three are creations by the author) but I would say this falls in with what I remember of Mishima's sense of aesthetic and values. Personally, I don't think of Marquis de Sade as redeemable when one considers the fact that he inflicted himself upon unwilling (and often underage) participants for his particular pleasures but that's not really the discussion meant for this play as it's more about offering an answer to the wife's motives/devotion. This is very much a product of the 60s, it's ideas may have been a bit more groundbreaking then?

And, again, I'm fascinated that my copy was printed before Mishima's public suicide... Guess that's because I always think of him in the past tense.