Citti, Francesco

English

Almae Matris Studiorum Campus

Modern English Versions of Senecan Tragedy Stephen Harrison, Oxford http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sjh/   1 : Introduction – the rebirth of Senecan tragedy in 20C General F.Citti and C.Neri, Seneca nel Novecento (2001), 81-148 S.J.Harrison, ‘Modern Versions of Senecan Tragedy’, Trends in Classics 1 (2009) 148-70. (a) 1920s L.Herrmann, Le théâtre de Sénèque (1924) [performance] O.Regenbogen, ‘Schmerz und Tod in den Tragödien Senecas’   1928 [psychology and pathos of pain and death, culturally specific to Roman imperial literature] F.L.Lucas, Seneca and Elizabethan Tragedy (1922) [influence but poor style] T.S.Eliot, ‘Seneca in Elizabethan Translation’ (1927) [Seneca and Shakespeare] ‘We must admit, first, that the tragedies of Seneca deserve the censure that has been directed upon them’ ‘In the plays of Seneca, the drama is all in the word, and the word has no further reality behind it. His characters all seem to speak with the same voice, and at the top of it; they recite in turn.’ (b) 1960s Interest in Senecan bimillennium in 1965. C.J.Herington, ‘Senecan Tragedy’, Arion 5 (1966), 422-71 O.Zwierlein, Die Rezitationsdramen Senecas (1966)  2: Ted Hughes’ Oedipus (1968)  A.Artaud , The Theatre and its Double (1970) :  Theatre of Cruelty ‘using primitive and ritualistic frameworks to return to the primal human elements of ‘love, crime, war and madness’, trying ‘to revert through theatre by present-day means to the higher idea of poetry underlying the Myths told by the great tragedians of ancient times, with theatre able once more to sustain a religious concept’. Used by director Peter Brook for Hughes’ version – Hughes’ preface: ‘I was in complete sympathy with Peter Brook’s guiding idea, which was to make a text that would release whatever inner power this story, in its plainest, bluntest form, still has, and to unearth, if we could, the ritual possibilities within it. … The figures in Seneca’s Oedipus are Greek only by convention; by nature they are more primitive than aboriginals. …In Seneca’s hands … this story becomes something close to the scenario of a mystery play, in the religious sense.’    Oed.980-97: Fatis agimur: cedite fatis;                              980 non sollicitae possunt curae mutare rati stamina fusi. quidquid patimur mortale genus, quidquid facimus uenit ex alto, seruatque suae decreta colus                              985 Lachesis dura reuoluta manu. omnia certo tramite uadunt primusque dies dedit extremum: non illa deo uertisse licet, quae nexa suis currunt causis.                              990 it cuique ratus prece non ulla       mobilis ordo: multis ipsum metuisse nocet, multi ad fatum uenere suum       dum fata timent.       Sonuere fores atque ipse suum                              995 duce non ullo molitur iter       luminis orbus.  Fate is the master of everything     it is vain to fight against fate from the beginning to the end the road is laid down      human scheming is futile     worries are futile    prayers are futile sometimes a man wins     sometimes he loses it has all been decided long ago elsewhere it is destiny not a single man can alter it all he can do is let it happen  the good luck the bad luck everything that happens everything that seems to toss our days up and down  it is all there from the first moment it is all there       tangled in the knotted mesh of causes helpless to change itself even the great god lies there entangled helpless in the mesh of causes and the last day lies there tangled with the first a man’s life is a pattern on the floor   like a maze it is all fixed      he wanders in the pattern no prayer can alter it or help him to escape it   nothing  then fear can be the end of him a man’s fear of his fate is often his fate leaping to avoid it   he meets it  Oed.403-508 (completely rewritten by Hughes as CHORUS TO BACCHUS)  OO-AI-EE …KA CHANT  3  times REPLY 3  times  DANCE DEATH INTO ITS HOLE DANCE DEATH INTO ITS HOLE INTO ITS HOLE ITS HOLE  ITS HOLE  ITS HOLE  HOLE  LET IT CLIMB LET IT COME UP LET IT COME UP LET IT CLIMB LET IT LIVE OPEN THE GATE OPEN THE GATE LET IT LIVE TEAR THE BLOOD  OPEN ITS MOUTH LET IT CRY  WHILE THE WIND  CROSSES THE STONES  WHILE THE STARS TURN WHILE THE MOON TURNS  WHILE THE SEA TURNS  WHILE THE SUN STANDS AT THE DOORWAY YOU        YOU        YOU YOU UNDER THE  YOU UNDER THE  YOU  UNDER THE LEAF YOU  UNDER THE STONE YOU  UNDER BLOOD  UNDER THE SEA  YOU   UNDER THE EARTH  YOU  UNDER THE LEAF YOU  UNDER THE STONE YOU  UNDER BLOOD  UNDER THE SEA  YOU   UNDER THE EARTH  UNDER THE LEAF       UNDER THE STONE UNDER BLOOD    UNDER THE SEA UNDER THE EARTH  UNDER THE LEAF       UNDER THE STONE UNDER BLOOD    UNDER THE SEA UNDER THE EARTH  YOU  YOU  YOU  YOU YOU  YOU  YOU  YOU  UNDER BLOOD    UNDER THE EARTH  YOU  Oed.626-41 (ghost of Laius speaks: Hughes appreciates Seneca’s ‘tremendous rhetorical speeches’):                               'O Cadmi effera cruore semper laeta cognato domus, uibrate thyrsos, enthea gnatos manu lacerate potius--maximum Thebis scelus maternus amor est. patria, non ira deum,                              630 sed scelere raperis: non graui flatu tibi luctificus Auster nec parum pluuio aethere satiata tellus halitu sicco nocet, sed rex cruentus, pretia qui saeuae necis sceptra et nefandos occupat thalamos patris                          635 inuisa proles: sed tamen peior parens quam gnatus, utero rursus infausto grauis 1 egitque in ortus semet et matri impios fetus regessit, quique uix mos est feris, fratres sibi ipse genuit--implicitum malum                            640 magisque monstrum Sphinge perplexum sua.’    you insane family of Cadmus   you will never stop slaughtering each other   finish it now  rip your children with your own          hands put an end to your blood now    because worse is coming   an evil too detestable to name is squatting on the     throne of Thebes   my country rots but it isn’t the gods   it is this a son and a mother   knotted and twisted together  a son and a mother   a couple of vipers bodies twisting together   blood flowing back together in the one sewer   it isn’t the wind fevers from the south or your   dried out earth  the drought and its scorching dust   these things are innocent   it is your king   blinded in the wrong that got him his throne  blinded   to his own origins blind to the fixed gods the   loathed son of that same queen who now swells under   him the Queen yes worse than him the   Queen  and her womb that chamber of hell   which began it all worse than an animal  he buried   his head in there there where he first came   screaming out  and brought new brothers for himself   out of his own mother’s body  horrible tentacles   of evil  a bloodier tangle than his own sphynx.    The dramatic original is considerably expanded, and once again made even more visceral by Hughes : ‘rip your children with your own hands’ (recalling the death of Pentheus) clearly renders enthea gnatos manu / lacerate (629), but removing the mitigating element of divine possession, and ‘an evil too detestable to name is squatting on the throne of Thebes’ adds a characteristically Hughes posture; the word ‘sewer’ is an element of Artaudian shock, just as the stress on the physicality of incest is much extended from the original, and the repetitions ( ‘a son and a mother … a son and a mother’, ‘blinded … blinded … blind’, ‘the Queen … the Queen’) primitively hammer the message home in quasi-ritual mode. On the other hand, the snake-imagery of the vipers echoes that of implicitum and perplexum (640-1). Once again we can see Hughes’ natural tendency to visceral language working with the dramatic tone of the original and Artaudian shock effects.                                                  1 Lines 636-7 are deleted in Zwierlein’s 1986 Oxford Classical Text, but were in the Latin text with which Hughes worked.  3 : Other Versions : 1980’s and 1990’s  F.Ahl, Seneca : Medea (1986) - Medea 740-52 (Medea’s prayer to the world of the dead):     comprecor vulgus silentum vosque ferales deos  et Chaos caecum atque opacam Ditis umbrosi domum,  Tartari ripis ligatos squalidae Mortis specus.  suppliciis, animae, remissis currite ad thalamos novos:  rota resistat membra torquens, tangat Ixion humum,    745  Tantalus securus undas hauriat Pirenidas,  gravior uni poena sedeat coniugis socero mei:  lubricus per saxa retro Sisyphum solvat lapis.  vos quoque, urnis quas foratis inritus ludit labor,  Danaides, coite: vestras hic dies quaerit manus. -         750  nunc meis vocata sacris, noctium sidus, veni  pessimos induta vultus, fronte non una minax.    Silent hordes and gods of death, I call upon you all in prayer :  Chaos – unseeing and unseen abyss – dark home of ghastly Dis,  caverns of decomposing Death, dungeoned by Tartarus’ steep slopes,  tormented souls, take respite, run and see this novel wedding night.  The limb-wrenching wheel must stop, and Ixion must touch the ground;  Tantalus must slake his thirst at Corinth, fearing no deceit:  one exception : Sisyphus, forebear of Jason’s new in-laws,  increase his torment, let the slipping stone roll him across the crags.  You Danaids, whose leaking urns mock your attempts to fill them up,  Come, be fulfilled together. This day needs your husband-killing hands.   Hecate, star of night, I call you to my ritual. Come now,  you have three faces you can threaten vengeance with; put on your worst.  A.J.Boyle, Seneca: Troades (1994) - Troades 229-249 (speech of Pyrrhus):    Haec tanta clades gentium ac tantus pauor,  sparsae tot urbes turbinis uasti modo,         230 alterius esset gloria ac summum decus:  iter est Achillis. sic meus uenit pater  et tanta gessit bella, dum bellum parat.  ut alia sileam merita, non unus satis  Hector fuisset? Ilium uicit pater,   235 uos diruistis. inclitas laudes iuuat  et clara magni facta genitoris sequi:     iacuit peremptus Hector ante oculos patris  patruique Memnon, cuius ob luctum parens  pallente maestum protulit uultu diem;           240 suique uictor operis exemplum horruit  didicitque Achilles et dea natos mori. tum saeua Amazon ultimus cecidit metus.  debes Achilli, merita si digne aestimas,  et si ex Mycenis uirginem atque Argis petat.  245 dubitatur etiam? placida nunc subito probas  Priamique natam Pelei gnato ferum  mactare credis? at tuam gnatam parens  Helenae immolasti: solita iam et facta expeto.      This havoc of nations, this holocaust,   These cities razed as by a hurricane,   For other men would be fame’s pinnacle:   For Achilles – his journey. My father   Arrived waging great wars in practice for war.   Forget his other deeds, wouldn’t Hector alone   Have been enough ? My father conquered Troy,   You sacked it. It gives me pleasure to pursue   Great father’s famed heroics and brilliant deeds.   Hector lay dead, killed before his father’s eyes,   Memnon before his uncle’s; his grieving   Mother brought in the doleful day ashen-faced.   The victor shuddered at what his action meant:   Achilles learnt even a goddess’ sons die.   Then the savage Amazon fell, our last fear.    You owe Achilles by his deserts a girl   From Mycenae or Argos if he asked.   Still unsure ? You now dispute our ways and think   It brutal to sacrifice Priam’s daughter   To Peleus’ son ? You, father, killed your daughter    For Helen. What I claim has precedent.  David Slavitt, Seneca: Thyestes (1992) - Thyestes, taunted by Atreus, realises that he has eaten his children (999-1022) : THY. Quis hic tumultus uiscera exagitat mea?  quid tremuit intus? sentio impatiens onus                          1000 meumque gemitu non meo pectus gemit. adeste, nati, genitor infelix uocat, adeste. Visis fugiet hic uobis dolor - unde obloquuntur? ATR. Expedi amplexus, pater;  uenere. - natos ecquid agnoscis tuos?  THY. Agnosco fratrem. Sustines tantum nefas gestare, Tellus? non ad infernam Styga tenebrasque mergis rupta et ingenti uia ad chaos inane regna cum rege abripis?  non tota ab imo tecta conuellens solo                               1010 uertis Mycenas? stare circa Tantalum uterque iam debuimus. Hinc compagibus et hinc reuulsis, si quid infra Tartara est auosque nostros, hoc tuam immani sinu  demitte uallem nosque defossos tege Acheronte toto. Noxiae supra caput animae uagentur nostrum et ardenti freto Phlegethon harenas igneus totas agens exilia supra nostra uiolentus fluat -  immota tellus pondus ignauum iacet,                               1020 fugere superi. ATR. Iam accipe hos potius libens diu expetitos: nulla per fratrem est mora; fruere, osculare, diuide amplexus tribus.     THYESTES : I tremble ! I’m feeling sick. My heart is beating   fast, in terror. Are they all right ? My children !      If they are well, I do not fear for myself.   Where are they ?   (ATREUS returns with a large salver)     You said you’d bring them. Are they safe ?   ATREUS : Open your arms to receive them. Here they are.   (ATREUS removes the cover)   You recognize your sons’ adoring faces ?   THYESTES : I recognize my brother ! Oh, gods !   How can the earth endure so vile a crime !   Crack, and let him fall into hell. Chaos   must snatch him away, the king and kingdom with him.    The whole damned palace, let it be razed,   and all of Mycenae. You and I should be dead,     should have died long ago. This accursèd house   ought to have exterminated like vermin,   or thrown into some abyss, some bottomless pit   where souls guilty of crimes less heinous than ours   could tread on our heads wth their filthy feet. Gods !   But there are no gods ! The earth lies there, like   lump of stupid rock. And the gods have all gone away,   leaving us here abandoned, like little children   suddenly orphaned. We call out, and our voices   echo in emptiness and mock our grief.       Caryl Churchill, Lucius Annaeus Seneca : Thyestes (1995) – again lines 999-1022:   THYESTES :  What’s this uproar churning     my stomach ? what’s this     shaking inside ? I can’t     bear the load I feel     and my chest groans with a   Children, come here, your      unhappy father’s     calling you, come here. This     pain will go when I      see your faces. Do I     hear their voices ? where ?    ATREUS : Open your arms, father,     they’re coming now.     Do you by any chance     Recognise your sons ?      ATREUS shows THYESTES their heads.    THYESTES : I recognise my      brother. Earth how can you     bear all this evil ?     Aren’t you bursting open     and plunging to the      underworld and snatching     kingdom and king down     a vast road to chaos ?     smashing the palace     and turning Mycenae     upside down ? By now     both of us should be with     Tantalus. And there     and there break it open,     if there’s anything     lower than hell and our     grandfather make a huge chasm and hide us, buried under the river. Guilty souls can  wander over our heads and the fiery flood pour lava over our exile. But earth is unmoved. Heavy and  still. The gods have left.    ATREUS : You should be happy     to see them, you kept on     asking for them. Your     brother’s not stopping you.     Enjoy, kiss, embrace.      Michael Eliot Rutenberg, Oedipus of Lucius Annaeus Seneca (1998):   Each age has found its own reflection in his plays. Our era is no exception. We now understand the meaning of plague in a way that was impossible before AIDS. Moreover, we have suffered two devastating World Wars, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the continued threat of nuclear annihilation. We can identify with those whose lives are filled with bitterness, despair, cynicism and loss of faith. It is also not difficult to understand classical tragedy as a fall from a high place, because we have witnessed the tragic fall of one American president who suffered from the sin of pride.  Oedipus 567-581 (Creon reports Tiresias’ ceremony):                 ac terram intuens grauiore manes uoce et attonita citat. latrauit Hecates turba; ter ualles cauae sonuere maestum, tota succusso solo                              570 pulsata tellus. 'audior' uates ait, 'rata uerba fudi: rumpitur caecum chaos iterque populis Ditis ad superos datur.' Subsedit omnis silua et erexit comas, duxere rimas robora et totum nemus                              575 concussit horror, terra se retro dedit gemuitque penitus: siue temptari abditum Acheron profundum mente non aequa tulit, siue ipsa tellus, ut daret functis uiam, compage rupta sonuit, aut ira furens                              580 triceps catenas Cerberus mouit graues.    His sightless eyes fixed steadily on the ground,    once more he called upon the earth    to vomit up its buried dead.   A tremor shook the ground beneath our feet.    Trees began to bow,    trunks suddenly split apart,     and the whole forest seemed to quake.   “They hear me,” the old man shouted,   And with that,    the ground cracked open beneath the funeral pyre,    and those charred, sacrificial beasts disappeared     into some bottomless pit,     some empty sickly void,      and in their place stood the viper’s brood.    A horrible roar rose up from what seemed to be     the very bowels of Hades    as if Cerberus, that triple-headed hound of Hell,     had angered at our intrusion.   4 : Conclusion.  This paper began from the two revivals of interest in Senecan drama over the last century, that of the 1920’s and that of the 1960’s, and has showed that concern with the capacity of Seneca’s extreme plots to express the monstrosities of modern life and with the scholarly debate over the performance and stageability of his plays ensured that the 1960’s revival continued for the rest of the twentieth century. Ted Hughes’ version of Oedipus clearly acted as a catalyst for other translations produced for performance, and the association of versions of Senecan tragedy with avant-garde and ‘shocking’ theatrical movements is striking, from the Artaudian Hughes Oedipus to Caryl Churchill. The extreme emotions and uncompromising plots of Senecan tragedy lend themselves well to the obsessions with violence, horror and passion in the post-modern world.. 

Materiali lezione prof. Harrison sulla fortuna di seneca tragico

http://campus.unibo.it/107245/1/Harrison_SenDrama.pdf

Materiali lezione prof. Harrison sulla fortuna di seneca tragico

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