Sárospataki Füzetek 17. (2013)
2013 / 1-2. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Sawyer, Frank: Krisztus, egyház és világ T. S. Eliot Kórusok "A sziklá"-ból, 1934 c. versében
for these scenes. We may especially mention E.Martin Browne, who was involved in this.8 Of course, there were numerous people in the planning of the event and many more in the production of the drama itself. It originally ran for two weeks, starting May 28, 1934, with an audience of 1500 each evening. There were 330 characters that participated in the scenes and each scene had its own colour scheme, so that “the full range of the spectrum” was used.9 While the critics found flaws enough (it was a pageant making use of mainly amateur participants as such genre do), there were also some sparkling comments in the press. Later, Eliot allowed the play to go out of print, while maintaining the ‘Choruses from the Rock’ in his Collected Poems. The various scenes are composed of action with dialogue and each is commented upon and expanded by the poetic chorus which fulfils the role of a chorus in Greek drama — although the chorus has also been called Hebraic because of its biblical sources. The chorus was a set of 16 masked men and women who were dressed in stylised robes and stood behind the ‘Rock’. They were motionless - being a voice supporting the ‘Rock’ - and so full attention was focussed on their words. Voices from the chorus alternated between individuals, small groups, men and women, and the whole chorus. The play moves through church history, touching on the Roman and Saxon eras in Britain up to the consecration of Westminster Abbey. There are scenes from the Middle Ages (the crusades) and the Reformation, ending with an iconoclastic purge. But this is not the main theme; the major idea is that of the workers and all humanity applying craftsmanship (stonemasons, woodcarvers, metalworkers, painters) to the beautification of churches and of all of life solo Dei gloria. Mention is made of the consecration of Wren’s St. Paul’s Cathedral of the London diocese. Throughout there is meditation on the meaning of the church and what it means to build a ‘house for God’. Numerous biblical references are found in the dialogues and the poetry. The last scene brings all the players of each historical era on stage together with contemporary representatives. St. Peter appears now as ‘the rock’ and blesses the new building. The pageant is sometimes called a preaching to the converted, since it was about the renewal of church buildings and church life. However, Eliot included enough critique of religion to strike some notes that the ‘unconverted’ might also appreciate. The diction swings widely between street talk vernacular and Prayer Book jargon. Sometimes it seems too pedantic and preachy, but these lines illustrate common religious attitudes. Some remarks are trite. But the triteness is also meant to express common vernacular statements. The attitudes represented move all the way from alienation to admiration, with items of disinterest and scepticism mixed in as well. Among the basic themes Eliot works into the play we may mention the church, both militant and suffering, the perfection of the will, and the interplay of eternity and time. The historical scenes remind us that, “The Church must be forever building, for it is forever decaying within and attacked from without” (21). The ‘rock’ is the church, St. Peter, and finally Christ. We may think of Psalm 19:14: “The Lord is my rock and my redeemer”, and several similar statements in a variety of Old Testament texts. For the New Testament we may refer to Paul’s metaphor: “...the rock Christ, c hurc h & vvori d in r.S. 11 iot‘s 1934 CHORUSES 1 rom the rock 8 E.Martin Browne, The Making of T.S. Eliot’s Plays (Cambridge: Univ.Press, 1969). 9 Browne, 28. 2013/1-2 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK 69
