Overview

Described by Ghelderode himself as "A kind of poem, a sort of ancestral lament in gray and violet storm hues, which proceeds from the irrational, from clairvoyance," this is his "Climactic work" and certainly one of his most profound. "This tale, taken from the Scriptures and transposed to familiar bystreets," shows us a peasant family whose daughter is dying. The undertaker, the doctor, the vicar all rush in with thoughts of money dancing through their minds. The girl dies. But then her heart-broken fiance finds a stranger, a miracle worker, who reluctantly raises the girl from the dead. She resents being brought back, and has lost all previous human attitudes. Meantime the doctor and vicar attempt to attribute the revival to physical rather than supernatural causes, and they consort with others to bring the warlock stranger to justice. On the day of his crucifixion, the girl appears again, and finally dies, mercifully for all.