|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: spectators' blood on fire.
Suddenly the thrilling chords of a harp rang through the hall, and the
throng burst into loud acclamations. All eyes were fixed on Salome,
who paused in her rhythmic dance, placed her feet wide apart, and
without bending the knees, suddenly swayed her lithe body downward, so
that her chin touched the floor; and her whole audience,--the nomads,
accustomed to a life of privation and abstinence, the Roman soldiers,
expert in debaucheries, the avaricious publicans, and even the
crabbed, elderly priests--gazed upon her with dilated nostrils.
Next she began to whirl frantically around the table where Antipas the
tetrarch was seated. He leaned towards the flying figure, and in a
Herodias |
