Plays

not worth pity, yet you have shown me no harshness; you have led me to repent not by threats but by gentleness and love. Abraham I ask only one thing, Mary. Be faithful to God for the rest of your life. Mary With all my strength I will persevere, and though my flesh may fail, my spirit never will. Abraham You must serve God with as much energy as you have served the world. Mary If His will is made perfect in me it will be because of your merits. Abraham Come, let us hasten on our way. Mary Yes, let us set out at once. I would not stay here another moment.

Scene VIII

Abraham	Courage, Mary! You see how swiftly we have made the difficult and toilsome journey.
Mary	Everything is easy when we put our hearts into it.
Abraham	There is your deserted little cell.
Mary	God help me! It was the witness of my sin. I dare not go there.
Abraham	It is natural you should dread the place where the enemy triumphed.
Mary	Where, then, am I to do penance?
Abraham	Go into the inner cell. There you will be safe from the wiles of the serpent.
Mary	Most gladly as it is your wish.
Abraham	Now I must go to my good friend Ephrem. He alone mourned with me when you were lost, and he must rejoice with me now that you have been found.
Mary	Of course.

Scene IX

Ephrem	Well, brother! If I am not mistaken, you bring good news.
Abraham	The best in the world.
Ephrem	You have found your lost lamb?
Abraham	I have, and, rejoicing, have brought her back to the fold.
Ephrem	Truly this is the work of divine grace.
Abraham	That is certain.
Ephrem	How is she spending her days? I should like to know how you have ordered her life. What does she do?
Abraham	All that I tell her.
Ephrem	That is well.
Abraham	Nothing is too difficult for her⁠—nothing too hard. She is ready to endure anything.
Ephrem	That is better.
Abraham	She wears a hair shirt, and subdues her flesh with continual vigils and fasts. She is making the poor frail body obey the spirit by the most rigorous discipline.
Ephrem	Only through such a severe penance can the stains left by the pleasures of the flesh be washed away.
Abraham	Those who hear her sobs are cut to the heart, and the tale of her repentance has turned many from their sins.
Ephrem	It is often so.
Abraham	She prays continually for the men who through her were tempted to sin, and begs that she who was their ruin may be their salvation.
Ephrem	It is right that she should do this.
Abraham	She strives to make her life as beautiful as for a time it was hideous.
Ephrem	I rejoice at what you tell me. To the depths of my heart.
Abraham	And with us rejoice phalanxes of angels, praising the Lord for the conversion of a sinner.
Ephrem	Over whom, we are told, there is more joy in heaven than over the just man who needs no penance.
Abraham	The more glory to Him, because there seemed no hope on earth that she could be saved.
Ephrem	Let us sing a song of thanksgiving⁠—let us glorify the only begotten Son of God, Who of His love and mercy will not let them perish whom He redeemed with His holy blood.
Abraham	To Him be honour, glory, and praise through infinite ages. Amen.

Paphnutius

Argument

The conversion of Thais by the hermit Paphnutius. Obedient to a vision, he leaves the desert, and, disguised as a lover, seeks out Thais in Alexandria. She is moved to repent by his exhortations and, renouncing her evil life, consents to be enclosed in a narrow cell, where she does penance for three years. Paphnutius learns from a vision granted to Anthony’s disciple Paul that her humility has won her a place among the blessed in Paradise. He brings her out of her cell and stays by her side until her soul has left her body.

Characters

• Paphnutius

• Thais

• The Abbess

• Lovers fo Thais

• Disciples of Paphnutius

• Antony

• Paul

Paphnutius

Scene I

Disciples9	Why do you look so gloomy, father Paphnutius? Why do you not smile at us as usual?
Paphnutius	When the heart is sad the face clouds over. It is only natural.
Disciples	But why are you sad?
Paphnutius	I grieve over an injury to my Creator.
Disciples	What injury?
Paphnutius	The injury His own creatures made in His very image inflict on Him.
Disciples	Oh, father, your words fill us with fear! How can such things be?
Paphnutius	It is true that the impassible Majesty cannot be hurt by injuries. Nevertheless, speaking in metaphor, and as if God were weak with our weakness, what greater injury can we conceive than this⁠—that while the greater world is obedient, and subject to His rule, the lesser world resists His guidance?
Disciples	What do you mean by the lesser world?
Paphnutius	Man.
Disciples	Man?
Paphnutius	Yes.
Disciples	What man?
Paphnutius	Every man.
Disciples	How can this be?
Paphnutius	It has pleased our Creator.
Disciples	We do not understand.
Paphnutius	It is not plain to many.
Disciples	Explain, father.
Paphnutius	Be attentive, then.
Disciples	We are eager to learn.
Paphnutius	You know that the greater world is composed of four elements which are contraries, yet by the will of the Creator these contraries are adjusted in harmonious arrangement. Now, man is composed of even more contrary parts.
Disciples	What can be more contrary than the elements?
Paphnutius	The body and the soul. The soul is not mortal like the body, nor the body spiritual as is the soul.
Disciples	That is true. But what did you mean, father, when you spoke of “harmonious arrangement”?
Paphnutius	I meant that as low and high sounds harmoniously united produce a certain music, so discordant elements rightly adjusted make one world.
Disciples	It seems strange that discords can become concords.
Paphnutius	Consider. No thing is composed of “likes”⁠—neither can it be made up of elements which have no proportion among themselves, or which are entirely different in substance and nature.
Disciples	What is music, master?
Paphnutius	One of the branches of the “quadrivium” of philosophy, my son.