Note
I have left one or two points of this play
unexplained in the opening notice. I do not
think any one will understand the beauty of
it until he has read it twice. The emotional
tone is perhaps apparent. The spirit manifests
itself in that particular iris marsh because
Narihira in passing that place centuries before
had thought of her. Our own art is so
much an art of emphasis, and even of overemphasis,
that it is difficult to consider the
possibilities of an absolutely unemphasized art,
an art where the author trusts so implicitly
that his auditor will know what things are
profound and important.
The Muses were "the Daughters of
Memory." It is by memory that this spirit
appears, she is able or "bound" because of
the passing thought of these iris. That is to
say, they, as well as the first shadowy and
then bright apparition, are the outer veils of
her being. Beauty is the road to salvation,
and her apparition "to win people to the
Lord" or "to enlighten these people" is part
of the ritual, that is to say, she demonstrates
the "immortality of the soul" or the "permanence
or endurance of the individual personality"
by her apparition—first, as a simple
girl of the locality; secondly, in the ancient
splendours. At least that is the general meaning
of the play so far as I understand it.
