Lawrence Durrell. An Irish Faustus. Revised edition
adapted by Penelope Durrell Hope. Birmingham, England: The
Delos Press, 1987. £55.00 signed and buckram; £8.95
paperback (Available from Peter Baldwin, 11 School Road, Moseley, Birmingham,
West Midlands, B13 9ET, England.)
Virginia Kirby-Smith Carruthers
An Irish Faustus is once again in print, in
a handsome edition issued in both hardcover and paperback formats by the
Delos Press. Seventy-five numbered copies of the hardcover version
have been signed by the author and feature a tipped-in illustration by
"Oscar Epfs." The same illustration serves as a cover piece for the
paperback.
Lawrence Durrell has contributed a new preface to
this edition. Here he mentions "a brilliant American adaptation of
the text," which I take to be the version produced by J. Newton White for
the Lawrence Durrell Society conference at Muskingum College in 1984.
According to Durrell, this production "resulted in transforming the structure
into a prolonged soliloquy passing through the head of a single protagonist--making
Faustus a one-man play, and carrying out the rest of the action with the
aid of beautiful big mobiles, different voices and special effects of lighting."
The preface aside, the new text (copyright 1987)
seems to be primarily the responsibility of Durrell's daughter, Penelope
Durrell Hope, who is credited on the copyright page as having "adapted"
the play. In his preface Durrell endorses the new version as the
"definitive text."
Most of the substantial alterations in the 1963
Faber and Faber text are cuts, a total of about seventy lines, in the last
three scenes. The majority of these are concentrated in Scene 8 and
serve to tighten somewhat the leisurely conversation between Faustus and
Martin, the Pardoner, as Faustus prepares to set out on his journey to
the mountain retreat of Matthew, the Hermit.
Minor alterations include a correction of a typographical
error (the reattribution to Faustus of a line mistakenly assigned in the
1963 edition to Anselm, the Chaplain, in Scene 7--p. 72 of the new edition)
and two changes in scene location: the great library at the palace
of the Queen, the setting of Scene 1, is now simply "a room at a castle,"
and Matthew's log hut becomes a more substantial stone cabin.
More notable are the changes in the names of the
Queen and her vampire husband, which lose their Northern European flavor
and become distinctly Irish. Perhaps to evoke, ironically, the heroic
attributes of Yeats' Countess, the obsessed Queen Katherine of the 1963
edition is rechristened Queen Kathleen. And her vanished husband,
Eric the Red, who "Ruled this kingdom with a rod of iron," is now Fergus
the Red, his name also ironically recalling the world of heroic Celtic
legend.
The revision that I find most intriguing is one
which stands out particularly because it comes at the conclusion of the
play. As Scene 9 draws to a close, Faustus, Matthew, Martin, and
Mephisto are settling down to enjoy a game of cards--"the old game of Fortune,"
with Hearts as Trumps. There is some disagreement about whose turn
it is to cut. In the 1963 text, Matthew insists that it is the Pardoner's
turn, and the last words are Martin's acceptance: "So be it;
well, off we go again." In the new version, Mephisto claims the deck:
"It's my turn I think. Off we go again." Interpretation, anyone?
Deus Loci 1 (1992): 130-131.
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