영어로 읽는 고전 _ 헨리크 입센의 황제와 갈릴리인
『헨리크 입센 전집 제5권』은 19세기 후반에 쓰인 극작품들을 엮은 모음집으로, 「황제와 갈릴리인」이 여기에 실려 있다. 이 작품은 '배교자 율리아누스'로 알려진 율리아누스 황제의 생애와 고투를 중심에 둔 역사극이다. 입센은 율리아누스의 내적 갈등을 따라가며, 로마사의 결정적 전환기를 배경으로 신앙과 권력, 그리고 이교와 그리스도교의 대립이라는 주제를 파고든다.
「황제와 갈릴리인」은 부활절 밤, 콘스탄티우스 황제의 궁정에 모인 흥미로운 인물들을 소개하며 시작한다. 파벌들이 충돌하고 비그리스도교인을 향한 폭력의 위협이 감도는 혼란 속에서, 젊은 율리아누스는 자신의 정체성과 주변의 기대 사이에서 고민한다. 가족과 궁정이 가하는 압력에 시달리는 한편, 그는 그리스도교 철학과 이교 철학 양쪽의 영향에서 벗어나려 애쓴다. 이 초반 장면에서 역사적 배경은 생생하게 살아나고, 종교적·정치적 격동을 배경으로 펼쳐지는 율리아누스의 내적 투쟁은 훗날 그가 배교에 이르는 길을 예비한다.
Classics Read in English _ Emperor and Galileanby Henrik Ibsen
The fifth volume of Ibsen's collected works is given over to Emperor and Galilean, the vast two-part world-historical drama that Ibsen himself considered his principal work — ten acts, four years of labour in Rome and Dresden, and the play he expected to be remembered by.
It opens in Constantinople on Easter night. The court of the Emperor Constantius is at prayer, and outside the palace the city is not calm: factions are quarrelling over doctrine, and there is talk of what may be done to those who have not come over. Nineteen-year-old Julian stands at the edge of it. He is the emperor's cousin, which is a dangerous thing to be — most of his family were murdered to secure the throne he now attends — and he has been raised in the faith of the men who did the murdering. He is devout. He is also frightened, and clever, and beginning to notice that no one around him can tell him what is true without also telling him what is convenient.
So he goes looking. To the Christian teachers first, then to the pagan philosophers at Athens and Ephesus, and finally to the mystic Maximus, who shows him visions and tells him there is a third empire coming that will reconcile the two — the empire of the spirit, in which flesh and soul are no longer at war. Julian decides he is the man appointed to found it.
He is not. He takes the purple, reopens the temples, drives the Galileans from office, and discovers that the harder he pushes the more of them there are; the martyrs he creates are worth more to the church than any argument he can make. By the end he is sacrificing bulls in the field and reading omens and quarrelling with a god he says does not exist, until a spear finds him in Persia and he goes down saying the words history gave him. Ibsen's own verdict is left to a Christian bystander at the graveside: this man was a vessel of wrath, and God will judge him more mercifully than we can. The third empire never arrives — and Ibsen, who spent his career writing about people crushed between what they believe and what they are, clearly did not expect it to.
Summary
SCENE FIRST.
The port of Constantinople. In the foreground to the right, a richly-decorated landing-stage, spread with carpets. On the elevated quay, at a little distance from the landing-stage, is seen a veiled stone, surrounded by a guard. Far out on the Bosphorus lies the imperial fleet, hung with flags of mourning.
A countless multitude, in boats and on the beach. Near the end of the landing-stage stands the Emperor Julian, robed in purple and decked with golden ornaments. He is surrounded by Courtiers and High Officers of State. Among those standing nearest to him are Nevita, the commander of the forces, and the court physician, Caesarius, together with the orators, Themistius and Mamertinus.
Julian.
[Looking out over the water.] What a meeting! The dead Emperor and the living.—Alas that he should have drawn his last breath in such distant regions! Alas that, in spite of all my haste, I should not have had the sweet consolation of embracing my kinsman for the last time! A bitter lot for both of us!—
Where is the ship with the body?
Nevita.
There it comes.
Julian.
That long boat?
Nevita.
Yes, most gracious Emperor.
Julian.
My poor kinsman! So great in life; and now to have to content you with so low a roof! Now you will not strike your forehead against the coffin-lid, you who bowed your head in riding through the Arch of Constantine.
