Louis Bouwmeester as Oedipus in a Dutch production of Oedipus the King
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Related e |
Featured: |
Louis Bouwmeester as Oedipus in a Dutch production of Oedipus the King (c. 1896)[1] is the informal title of a photo taken of Dutch actor Louis Bouwmeester playing Oedipus. In the photo, he has just gouged his eyes out and is bleeding.
Blinding episode
- And in his rage some demon pointed him
- The way, — for 'twas no man of us at hand.
- And with a fearful shout, as following
- Some leader, he assailed the folding doors.
- Then hoUowing inwards from the mortised bolts
- The yielding boards, he breaks into the room ;
- Where high suspended we beheld the queen.
- In twisted cordage violently swung.
- And he with terrible outcry when he saw.
- Poor king ! undid the hanging noose. But when
- She lay upon the ground, 'twas terrible
- To see what followed. For he tore away
- The brooch-pins that had fastened her attire,
- And, lifting, smote his eyeballs to the root,
- Saying, Henceforth they should not see the evil
- Suffered or done by him in the past time,
- But evermore in darkness now should scan
- The features he ought never to have seen.
- And not-discem the souls he longed to know.
- Chanting this strain, not once but oftentimes
- He dashed the points into his eyes ; and soon
- The bleeding pupils moistened aU his beard,
- Nor stinted the dark flood, but all at once
- The ruddy hail poured forth with plenteous shower.
- Thus from two springs, from man and wife together,
- Burst the joint evil that is now o'erflowing.
- And the old happiness in that past day
- Was truly happy, but the present hour
- Hath groaning, death, disaster, shame, all ill
- Without exemption, that hath e'er been named.
- --tr. Lewis Campbell
See also
- The blinding scene in Sophocles's Oedipus the King
- Enucleation of the eye
- Louis Bouwmeester
- Oedipus
- Oedipus the King
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Louis Bouwmeester as Oedipus in a Dutch production of Oedipus the King" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.