Otage, L'. Written 1909-10, performed 1914, L'Otage is the first play in Claudel's historical trilogy. Georges de Coûfontaine, a monarchist, has delivered Pope Pius VII from Napoleon and has brought him to his ancestral home, where his cousin Sygne helps to hide him. Turelure, a former peasant, now a Napoleonic prefect, threatens the pope's safety unless Sygne marries him. A priest, Badilon, reveals to Sygne, who loves Georges, her vocation to suffer to save the pope. At the Restoration Sygne, now Turelure's wife, dies saving Turelure's life from Georges. Turelure is made a count by the returning Louis XVIII.
The story of the family is continued in two further plays, Le Pain dur and Le Père humilié.
[Richard Griffiths]
