SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS

 "The Massacre of the Innocents" by Maurice Maeterlinck  (first "appeared in 1886 in a small magazine" in Belgium; this version translated by Barrett H. Clark for the anthology Great Short Stories of the World, edited by Barrett H. Clark & Maxim Lieber, 1925)

In their introduction to the section on Belgian literature in Great Short Stories of the World, the editors explain that it was not until 1880 that Belgium could truly claim a national literature of its own.  Prior to that, Belgian authors either joined French authors in Paris or "remained more or less isolated phenomena in their own country.  This changed with the founding of the magazine Le Jeune Belgique, followed by the works of such authors as Charles de Coster, Maurice Maeterlinck, Camille Lemonnier, and Emile Verhaeren.  Their stories , at least in this volume, were "little more than paintings in the manner of the earlier Flemish artists transferred to the medium of literature."  Modern Belgian literature tends to feature "a melancholy note that is attributable doubtless to the tragic history of that small country, a mysterious and mystic insistence upon the darker aspects of life; above all, a sense of the picturesque decay of a nation once immensely prosperous and powerful."

Such is the case of "The Massacre of the Innocents," which can easily be discerned from the story's title.

The tale opens on December 26th, when a small shepherd boy rushes into the town of Nazareth with alarming news.  A small group of Spanish soldiers had appeared at the family farm.  The took the boy's mother, stripped her naked, and hung her from a tree, while also taking the boy's nine sisters and tied the to another tree.  Then they robbed the place of valuables, stole the sheep and cattle of the boy's uncle, and set the home on fire.  The soldiers were slowly making their way with the stolen livestock to the wood.  The townspeople armed themselves with forks and spades and made their way to the wood, planning to attack the soldiers if they were not too numerous.

When the soldiers entered the wood, the townspeople rushed them and, after a brief battle, killed all the soldiers and their horses.  They stripped the soldiers of their booty and returned the stolen livestock.

A week passed quietly, then a large group of Spanish soldiers appeared and headquartered themselves in a large orchard.  The soldiers were led by an white-bearded officer who told his men to go through the village and take every child two years old or younger.  as he intended to massacre them, "in accordance with what is written in the Gospel of St. Matthew."  At first they found only one young child, who was immediately beheaded.  As the soldiers went through the village, they found more and more children hidden; these children were then dragged to the orchard and slaughtered.  Some of them were beheaded, others had their limbs chopped off.  The massacre soon spread to parents and villagers who resisted.  Bodies were everywhere.  Few children escaped.  Villagers who did not resist were spared.

Finally, the white-bearded officer tired.  All the younger children were dead.  "The weary soldiers wiped their swords on the grass and ate their supper among the pear-trees, then mounting in pairs, they rode out of Nazareth across the bridge over which they had come."

The villagers carried off their dead in silence.  Then they began to wash the blood off benches, tables, chairs, cradles, and the like,  Some went to retrieve strayed beasts. Others silently set to work Mending their broken windows and damaged roofs."

:As the moon quietly rose through the tranquil sky, a sleepy silence fell upon the village, where at last the shadow of no living thing stirred."

A horrifying tale of senseless violence that had become merely a way of life for a down-trodden people.  What happened, how it happened, and what the consequences were resonates far deeper than the mere telling of the story.  The country's "tragic history," the "darker aspects of life," and the "decay of a nation" are all on display here in this powerful story.  And, of course, the meaning of this story is that there can be no meaning.

"The Massacre of the Innocents" was the very first story that Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) published.  The author, who was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature, is best remembered as a playwright, and the author of L'Oiseau bleu (The Blue Bird), 1908, which popularized the phrase "the blue bird of happiness;" the story was eventually filmed as a popular movie starring Shirley Temple.  The Nobel Prize committee cited Maeterlinck's wealth of imagination and poetic fancy.  Maeterlinck's main themes in his plays were death and the meaning of life.  From the 1880s Maeterlinck was one of the leading authors forming a Belgian literature, and was an important force in the Symbolist movement.

One interesting story.  When Maeterlinck was visiting the United States, Samuel Goldwin asked him to submit some scenarios for filming.  Maeterlinck submitted two, but none were ever used.  Reportedly, when Goldwyn read the scenario based on Maeterlinck's famous play The Life of the Bee, Goldwyn read a few pages, then burst out of his office, and shouted, "My God!  The hero is a bee!"