The devil on the scene
an essay on human comedy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21680/1983-2109.2026v33n70ID37934Keywords:
Acedia, Theater, HistoryAbstract
The meridian demon prowls our time: boredom, anguish, restlessness and despair really seem to be the evil of our time. Spectators of our own lives, everything is presented to us under the illusory light of a theater stage. But what if we could assume our roles as actors; what if we could, at the very moment of our departure from the scene, fly away with new clothes, touch up old makeup, dance new steps? Learning to dance in the theater of life: perhaps this is what this demon teaches us. Making the theater the theatrum mundi in a mirror: this is how the Baroque played in the devil's throw of the dice. Perhaps this is the way to lighten the heaviest of burdens. At the masquerade ball, what used to be a tragic fate presents itself as a comical staging – and on the stage of history, staging is nothing but endless repetition. Making the disease its own cure – such what is revealed in the game of transfiguration.
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