Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

102
of the three major "new" plays, The CUT). Paust and The Dead
Heart,
Tennyson's brief tragedy, The Cup.opened on January 3f
1881, and was well-received.- it was remarkable, claims
Stoker, for the number of h. -h-church clergy who visited it 2^.
The plot is simple: Synorix, a Galatiojti serving Rome, has
admired Comma, the wife of the Tetrarch Sinnatus, ever since
he saw her "A maiden moving slowly on to music" at the temple
of Artemis. Now he brings her a cup, saveti from the shrine of
the goddess which the legions had destroyed. He contrives to
have Sinnatus invite him to dinner, and represents himself to
Gamma as a well—wisher, who only serves Rome in order to serve
G-alatia, and warns her that the Romans suspect Sinnatus of
plotting against them. Then he contrives the assassination
of Sinnatus, and Gamma takes refuge in the temple of which
she is a priestess. Synorix becomes Tetrarch, and Gamma,
surprisingly, agrees to marry him. During the ceremony, which
forms mo.,t of the play's second act, she poisons Synorix and
herself, and dies nith Sinnatus's name on her lips. The play's
appeal to the hi,;h Anglicans is not far to seek: it offers a
re-creation of an ancient and aesthetically appealing religious
ritual, v;ith incense and singing, and suggests the defeat of
a new order in religion (the Roman worship of Diana) by an
older one (Gamma's devotion to Artemis). The subject is not
biblical, for representation of Christian rites on tlio stage
would hardly be acceptable to the censor, but it touches on
the same sensibilities as inform Moriuc the Epicurean - an
aesthetically pleasing; religiosity. Moreover, its plot may
have influenced vil-'e in Salome - a central i'eiaele diameter
who in a context of exotic ritualism com pa: -DOG the death of
a man.
The character of Synorix shows to