La Pourpre en croix » : Figures du Roi-Martyr et post-figuration du Christ dans Carolus Stuardus, tragédie allemande d’Andreas Gryphius (1657/1663)

Carolus Stuardus is the only tragedy published by the Silesian Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664) to be about a contemporary event. Gryphius published two successive versions of the play : the first was written just after the execution of the king, and the other, considerably edited, after the Restoration. The play follows the pattern of the martyr drama, only carrying its conventions one step further : Carolus Stuardus integrates historical events which happened between the king’s execution and the Restoration, while aligning the narration of of the king’s death onto the Passion of Christ — which has led some critics to talk about « post-figuration », to follow the model of the « pre-figuration » that is central to typological exegesis. This poetic strategy is far from being simply a literary device ; it allows the author, whose politics were shaped by his Lutherian beliefs as much as by the traumatic impact of the Thirty Years’ War, to reveal retrospectively the transcendent meaning of the regicide : the restoration of the monarchy is what justifies a posteriori the sacrifice of the martyr-king and confirms the intangible legitimacy of the divine right of kings. By allowing for a figurative exegesis of History, the tragedy thus acts as a revealer of the workings of Providence.