Theatre
Bacchanterna eller Fanatismen
Not translated into English
Erik Johan Stagnelius · 1822
Synopsis
A tragedy in one act, modelled on Euripides. Orpheus, who has lost Eurydice, has devoted himself to renunciation: he preaches patience in suffering and the expectation of reunion with the divine, far from the joys of the earth. Around him, the bacchantes celebrate their god in intoxication and the pleasure of the senses, as the cult of Bacchus requires, and the singer who has turned away from the earth finds himself in their midst.
Context
The Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (the national biographical dictionary) places the composition in 1821 and 1822; the play, presented as imitated from Euripides, appeared anonymously in 1822, a year before the author's death. Stagnelius took the first sheet to Erik Gustaf Geijer, who found him brilliant but strange. According to the old Nordic encyclopaedia, Orpheus is there the poet's spokesman, preaching resignation and piety, while the bacchantes represent earthly pleasures.
Who it is for
A short verse play, in Swedish; it assumes the myth of Orpheus is known and speaks the language of a mystic.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by Fredrik Böök as the culmination of the work, and counted among the most original dramas of its author.
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