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THE TRAGEDY OF MAN AS THEATRUM THEOLOGICUM (A DRAMATURG’S DIARY) Beforehand, the murder of the marquise (Ildiké Lanstyak) is seemingly the work of chance — two drunken sans-culottes enter, one of them recognizes the marquise and shoots her down like a dog, aiming at her between Danton’s legs. It’s an unbearable scene in its unmistakably erotic aim — in the literal sense of the word.®° It reminds one of the two clown-murderers in Richard III, those infinitely absurd Shakespearean figures who render the great historical project laughable even before their defeat. “Aristocratia mizeriei,” Silviu tells Etelka Magyari, playing the “woman aroused” by Danton, and that’s what she plays: the dignity of the commoners and the misery of the aristocracy. During the interval, the significance of [Eve as] the “aroused woman” reverses, compared to the original conception: they don’t kill her; on the contrary, this prostitute winds up leading the revolution. I ponder the woman’s words: Danton! Look at this conspirator — He would have killed you but I killed him first Oh, I’ve done well, and I want my reward: I want to spend a night with you, great man. You are a man, and I am a young woman. My admiration draws me to you, great one." And then [Adam as] Danton’s response: I’m counting, Madam, and find that I have fewer nights Remaining than are traitors in this country.* I interpret the woman’s words as the situation of political provocation in our own, radically abridged version, from which, as far as I’m concerned, what follows is that Danton has the woman murdered. In this utterly illusion-free version, on the other hand, she becomes a co-conspirator with the prostituted Saint-Just and Robespierre: they don’t kill her; rather, she participates in Danton’s liquidation. They remove the prostitute from the table, and she fuses with Saint-Just in a Hollywood kiss lasting until the end of the scene. It is the image of the scarcely begun but already prostituted revolution: Purcarete’s resignation knows no limits. Translator’s note: Visky plays on two meanings of the Hungarian word célzds: aim (as at a target) and allusion. 81 Madach: Ibid., 158-159. # Ibid., 159. + 265 *
