Progress Report

[Myrhaf]

By Myrhaf from Myrhaf,cross-posted by MetaBlog

I've written the first two scenes of my verse play. Here are the last two speeches of Act I, sc. ii, a scene of conspirators (the villains). The play is set in 6th century BC Ionia. An actor could chew some scenery with this final soliloquy.

TRYPHOSA

Our lives are weighted in the balance now;

If gravity tilts to Simonides,

Our fall is final.

PANTHER

Fear thus framed is waste.

Conserve the energies inside your soul

For anger, courage, hatred -- useful turns

Of mind that point as a pack to our goal.

When action waits, then resolution tells

The outcome, firm resolve brings on success.

But fear, base fear, is father to defeat,

A bastard child unwanted and unclaimed.

Now go, prepare: seek out the steel inside

Your breast and shine it till it gleams. Enough.

No words now.

(DRAKON and TRYPHOSA exit.)

No words now; what are words? The stuff of lies.

Without our words the world would be a school

Of honesty and fairness and we men

Would handle our affairs in silent

Righteousness, superior to gods.

For I myself have used words with deceit:

I know how lies go; I know what they do.

Brave Drakon names our cause a noble case;

His words are honorable and most true,

And I will ply them as a carpenter

His studs of pine and beams of sturdy oak.

The words of Thales, Heraclitus,

Democritus and Parmenides, the

Best words of our gabbing race, are but

Battalions bent to serve me as I wish.

They meet my end, my purpose hidden here

And burning all my being in a hot

Inferno; blasting, all-consuming flames

That do devour all my waking thoughts;

The goal that is my very form, my life:

I live for power. Power! Let the rest

Of vast existence fade forgotten all,

Until the final, tired tick of time;

The universe is nothing to my end,

I live for power, yearn for power, yea,

And food and water fuel me for my fight.

Delights and worldly pleasures tempt me not,

Distractions have I none, for power is

The matter and the form, the actual

Potential; all the raining atoms of

My soul collide, congeal and integrate

As one to this, my everything and all,

As power is existence, being, breath;

Without it lies the empty void of death.

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[Tenure]

Can I ask a question? Actually two:

What is the relationship between Panther and Tryphosa? I'm trying to understand if Tryphosa is a sturdy, stable figure in front of Panther, and this bent wreck who seeks power when he is on his own - or is he? That's what leads to my second question...

What is Tryphosa actually trying to achieve in this speech? Does he want power as in tyrannical power? I assume as much from the fact that he is planning a murder, so I suppose it's some sort of political scrabbling. Is he trying to disregard any reason to explain his actions, "Without our words the world would be a school / Of honesty and fairness", stating that it is in words that his evil is bred?

I love the whole route you're taking where he goes on about the ways words are 'bent to serve' as he wishes. The allegory to the carpenter and the Gods is a very slick metaphor.

My only problem is just that I'm kind of unclear of Tryphosa's purpose - I'm sure you mean more with this speech, not in terms of literary meaning, but in terms of acting, beyond just, "Mwhaha! See how delightfully EVIL I am!".

I'm into Greek tragedy a lot at the moment, so it's quite enjoyable to see a modern approach to the style, though I am slightly hesitant to the idea of trying to recreate old-style language just for the sake of it.

Look forward to reading more.