How Long the Inward War?

A report of a lecture by Eli Siegel on the English Morality Plays

Christopher Balchin

On January 9th, 1972 , Eli Siegel gave a magnificent lecture titled “How Long the Inward War?” In it he showed, with a breathtaking understanding of history, religion, and literature, of poetry and the human self, that the English morality and miracle plays of the 15 th century and earlier give form to and answer an eternal question of man. Commenting on the title he said:

The question is of now, because the inward war is essentially about oneself and the narrow, snug way everyone has a secret life he’s ashamed of—and something larger. What should we be run by, something snug and secret or is there a whole world and all time trying to tell us, “We are within you too!”

Throughout the lecture Eli Siegel showed that this war, between narrowness and width, care for self and justice to the world, is at the heart of these early morality plays, and also takes many deep, humorous, surprising forms in their dialogue, plot, and texture.

He first discussed the morality play Everyman, of 1495, [of English and Dutch origin], using the Norton Anthology of English Literature, saying:

Everyman is about what should the self be run by…. It is first of all a study in honesty. There are some things people have found it hard to be honest about: Death. What is time? What is eternity? What is God, if he is at all?

In the play, God is one of the characters, and He is angry because man is ungrateful. He sends his messenger, Death, to bring Everyman to judgement. “Some actor took the part of God,” said Mr. Siegel. “This was done in green pastures, and people weren’t as shocked as they thought.” As a history teacher I love the way Mr. Siegel saw the reality of persons in the past, whom he wrote of passionately in 1923 as “our fellow-men over the years.” Mr. Siegel became those guild members who performed these plays at festivals: “What part did you play?” “Oh, I was God.” “What part did you play Gib?” “Oh, I was Everyman.” It was ordinary people like us, he showed, people who could be casual, who portrayed these grand allegorical characters: God, Death, Everyman, and more.

In the play, Everyman is terrified when Death appears, because he knows he is not ready for judgement day. Death tells him he may ask someone to go with him on his journey. Everyman asks Kindred, then Fellowship, and then Goods, but none of these worldly characters, who represent the self as more narrow and limited, will accompany Everyman on his journey, and Everyman grows desperate.

Finally, he finds someone who will help—Good Deeds. But Good Deeds has been so neglected by Everyman that he is too weak to move. He says, from the floor:

“Here I lie, cold in the ground
Thy sins hath me sore bound
That I cannot stear.” (stir)

“Audiences have been moved by these lines,” Mr. Siegel commented, and then he explained why: “If we give what is good in us a certain beating, it shows.”

I have learned from Aesthetic Realism that the hope in a person that good things will happen to other people and other things, with a desire to know what those good things are, is good will, and in this play, Eli Siegel explained, the character of Good Deeds represents good will.

Good Deeds recommends that Everyman ask Knowledge to go with him, which he does. Knowledge agrees, saying in lines which Mr. Siegel pointed out are the motto of the Everyman library, and which he said are poetic:

“Everyman, I will go with thee and be thy guiguide
In thy most need to go by thy side.”

Knowledge and Good Deeds, differently, both represent the self wanting to be fair to the wide world, not snug and secret. Thanks to Knowledge, Everyman is able to go before God and repent, saying:

O ghostly Treasure, O Ransomer and guiRedeemer,
Of all the world Hope and Conduiter,
Mirror of joy, Foundator of mercy…
Receive my prayers, of thy benignity.
Though I be a sinner most abominable,
Yet let my name be written in Moses’ table...
Knowledge, give me the scourge of penance…

 

The play Everyman, Mr. Siegel said, is unevenly poetic, but this passage, with all its awkwardness, is poetic, he explained. Here, is it right for the verse to hobble. Said Mr. Siegel:

One thing it shows is prayer as difficult, like climbing a hill with rocks and large black birds flying around. It doesn’t seem to be a recital, it seems to be something felt by Everyman. Contrition should never skate, it should always hobble. Prayers are sometimes too unctuous and the contrition skates. The contrition here hobbles. The richness of salvation is here.

This is so important for people to know, in churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. Here was Eli Siegel giving the true criterion for sincere prayer, prayer which resolves the inward war because it is good for oneself and for the world.

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Go to Part Two of "How Long the Inward War?"