M. DE BORNIER'S " MAHOMET."*

TEBBE can be no doubt that this tragedy would be very effective on the stage. And so thought the Committee of the Thekre Francais, when in the year 1888 they read it and accepted it. But then came second thoughts, inspired from without, which in the end carried the day. Literature and the drama had to bow to politics, a submission which, if carried out in all countries, would mean a small and poor state of things for literature and the drama. In Le Temps of April 1st, 1890, appeared the following note, which M. de • Mahortwe Drams en Gine Ades, en Vers. Par Is Vicomte Henri de Bonder. Imprimd dans Is Correspondant, 10 Avril, 1880, Bornier has prefixed to his play, now first printed in .Le Correspondant of April 10th :—

" En prevision des difficult& diplomatiques auxquelles pouvait donner lieu la representation sur une scene francaise du Mahomet de M. Bernier, le conseil des ministres, dans une de sea dernibres reunions, a decide que la tragedie en question ne pourrait etre representee ni sur une scene subventionnee, ni our ancun autre theitre. L'Ambassadeur de France Constantinople, M. de Monte- bello, a ate charge d'aviser le Sultan de cette decision."

The decision, we are farther told, gave great satisfaction to the Sultan, who saw in it " a delicate attention to himself and his subjects." He observed, at the same time, that the French Government showed great cleverness in having thus ',tillage les suseeptibilites of their own Mussulman subjects. He ended by begging the Ambassador to transmit to Paris " rexpression de ma vive sympathie pour M. Carnot, pour son gouvernement

et pour la France."

Thus, the French Ministry, without any trouble to itself, has been able to gratify the Mahometans all over the world. And any one who is at all behind the scenes in France can also

see, without putting on very uncharitable spectacles, that it has been able to do another thing which pleases it quite as much, to snub the nobility and royalism of France in the person of one of its most distinguished representatives and writers, as well as that Christianity which triumphs so finely at the end of M. de Bornier's play. Naturally, the comitg de lecture of the Francais looked at the literary quality of Mahomet, at its dramatic and poetic distinction, which is con- siderable, at the life and spirit of its characters, and its general fitness for the stage, rather than at any religious bias that might be traced in it. And indeed the idealism—like all high fancies, it may at least be true—which makes Christ triumph over Allah's Prophet in his last hour, from a Christian point of view only raises the character of Mahomet, while it gives grandeur to the whole motive of the play. This might have been felt even by unbelievers, if they were not Mahometans. But anti-Christian feeling is too strong in France now to be softened by any literary or poetic taste. In passing from the hands of actors and authors into those of politicians, Mahomet was doomed. If M. de Bornier had left Christianity out of his play, and had allowed his hero to remain deceiving and deceived to the end, the play might possibly—in spite of the disadvan- tage of its author's name—have escaped suppression. No doubt, too, though it would have lost immensely in beauty, it would have gained in historic truth. But, after all, this is not the question. M. de Bomier's plays are no more historical than Racine's; his school is thoroughly idealistic, with an addition of modern romance to the stiffness of the grand old

French model. We have dwelt on all this because the Christianity of the play is the only possible excuse—and, we think, an amazingly bad one—for its condemnation. Mahomet stands out a sufficiently heroic figure. He is the Mahomet we know, and all the centuries since he lived have known him much the same : even his followers, we imagine, hardly looked upon him as a per- fect specimen of humanity. In this representation of the prophet, his wives and his friends, there is nothing new that need wound the susceptibilities of the Mahometan world. He is very like all prophets in his dreamy simplicity, his belief in his own special inspiration, his heroic courage, his violent passions, mixed with the noblest self-denial and the highest generosity. The bloodthirsty cruelty with which he persecuted the Jews, and carried on his war of conversion, is simply a matter of history. A Jewess, legend tells us, caused his death by poison, though perhaps not quite after the fashion of the play.

It may be interesting to give a slight sketch of the plot of Mahomet. The first act is a sort of prologue to the other

four, the period of which is fifteen years later. Mahomet, in the first flush of his prophetic ardour, proclaims one true God, and calls down the wrath of heaven on the idols of the Ca,aba, arousing the rage of the Arabs, and the hatred of Hassan,

the poet and prophet of the false gods. Khadidja, Mahomet's first and faithful wife, saves him from the violence of the crowd, and with her last breath proclaims him the Prophet of God. At this time Mahomet, a young man, is as pure and single-minded as he is brave, and a Christian monk, Georgios, who loves him and grieves over his delusions, speaks to him first of a high morality, then of Christianity, and tells him, even if he forgets the wife of his youth, to remember in the

days of his coming greatness a higher name than hers—Jesus Christ.

In the second act, when Mahomet is in the midst of his career, converting nations by fire and sword, there rises from among a crowd of fugitive Jews a woman, Sofia, who vows revenge upon the conqueror. She will not kill him, as Judith killed Holofernes ; but she knows his weaknesses, and she will degrade him in the midst of his power. Of his two wives, Halm, the sister of Hassan, has passed from love of him to hate, and also hates her beautiful rival Ayesha, who has never loved him, having before been betrothed to Safwan, and is indifferent to all that Hafsa may do or say. She is still indifferent when Mahomet, partly with the motive of rousing her jealousy, adds Sofia the Jewess to the number of his wives. The morality of his young days has passed away as com- pletely as the Christian monk prophesied ; and this man, worshipped by those round him, his every wish gratified, is the strangest mixture of self-indulgence and religion. In a deserted Christian convent he comes suddenly on a Byzantine picture of Christ, painted on the wall, lit up by the clear moonlight that pours into the church. In some very fine lines he apostrophises the picture, half reasoning with our Lord, half blaming Him, half adoring Him, half trying to exalt him- self above Him, but all with an under-current of doubt and misgiving, which breaks out in his proudest moments :—

" 0 file de Myriam, martyr mysterieux,

Pourquoi done devant toi baisserais-je lee yens ?

Je marche de splendeur et d'effroi revetu ; Je suis done ton egal !—Mahomet, qu'en sais-tu? "

When the third act opens, Mahomet is asleep, and Sofia, listening to his talk in his dreams, discovers that he is haunted by suspicion of Ayesha, the only creature he loves, and of her former lover, Safwan. This shows Sofia the way of revenge, and she saves Mahomet from death at the hands of Hafsa. There is great simplicity and beauty in the scene that follows between Mahomet and Ayesha, interrupted by the crowd of Arabs rushing in to announce the allied invasion of Romans from Byzantium, Jews, and Persians. After this, Sofia, with fiendish cunning, whispers to Safwan and Ayesha a hint of Mahomet's jealousy, and then comes what seems to us the most striking scene in the play, these two, till now so honourable and faithful, proving themselves almost traitors. Nowhere in the play, we think, is the verse itself so beautiful, and in the hands of good actors, the tragic passion of the scene could hardly be surpassed.

That a false accusation was brought against Mahomet's favourite wife, Ayesha, is matter of history, to be found in the Koran. In the fourth act, Mahomet returns from victory, to be confronted by Hafsa and Hassan with their charge against Ayesha and Safwan. In a very fine scene, the Prophet declares their innocence, and condemns their accusers to death. But his public confidence is belied by his private misery, and Sofia confirms his misgivings by telling him that Hafsa and Hassan did not lie. When he threatens her too with death, she shows him a little gold vial of poison, in which her refuge lies, and mocks him with his powerlessness, having but now, as the infallible Prophet, proclaimed the innocence of those two. She leaves him with ironical counsel :—

"D'ailleurs, to feras bien de ne plus t'emonvoir ;

Mieux vast ne pas punir, mienx vaut no pas savoir. Le silence est l'ami de la gloire ontragee ! '

And her last words as she goes out are : " Je anis venee !"

The fifth act is made up of the last scenes of the Prophet's life; and here Ayesha tells him the whole truth about Safwan, herself, and him, and teaches him in wonderful words—how she learned them, who knows P—that there is One greater, One who, instead of keeping woman in degradation, glorifies her :—

" Lui, Jesus, it a mis an lieu d'un joug infeme, L'etoile du matin stir le front de is femme Ce n'est pas Safwan seulement, c'est un autre, C'est un plus grand quo lui, c'est an plus fier vainqueur, Qui parle contre toi dans mon erne et mon co3nr. Frappe-le, celni-la, si ton bras pent l'atteindre ! Epargne Safwan. Moi, si mon sang doit teindre Cette place, to peux l'ordonner sans remord : Puisque je fns a toi, je dois etre a la mort ! "

Then rushes in Abon-Becker with great news :-

" Les Syrians, lea Grecs, les Bomains de Byzance, S'inclinent e. Is fois sous to tonte-puissance, Le roi de Parse mime A Is fm a cede L'empire de l'Islam est b jamais fonde I "

But the Prophet has learnt the real meaning of all his glory, and in this moment, brilliant for others, bitter for himself, the Angel of Death lays his hand upon him. He has drunk the poison that he made Sofia pour out for Safwan, and while Abou-Becker cries, " Gloire a toi, Mahomet ! " the last sound that passes the Prophet's lips is the name of Jesus Christ.

This sketch of the play is necessarily of the very slightest; it has been impossible to give any idea of the individuality of the characters, the eloquence, the by-play, the expression, the many touches of genius and talent which would have their full effect on the stage. The character of Ayesha has real and pathetic beauty, and the sympathy of the audience is carried away, as it ought to be, to a great extent by Mahomet himself. With all his sins, he is noble. M. de Bornier has given a fine and worthy representation of the leader of Islam, if he has also shown with much force the truth—however Mahometan Powers may dislike it—that Islam, in all highest virtues, as in greatness of origin, must bow to Christianity.