(wr. 1832, prod. 1919).
Drama, based on an old French novel and expounding the author's own Gnostic philosophy, starting from the premise that the world is the creation of Satan and that God has sent Christ to release it.
Satan counters God's action by producing a son of his own, mothered by the unsuspecting virgin Candida. This son, Merlin, is endowed with his father's supernatural power but has also inherited his mother's longing for God. He enlists King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to establish the kingdom of God on earth; but he meets the beautiful Nyniana and, succumbing to love's temptations, deviates from his goal. He teaches Nyniana how, by magic, to bind a man forever; one day, while Merlin sleeps under a hawthorn hedge, she applies her newly acquired knowledge. He is inextricably bound, and she has forgotten the magic word that can release him.
King Arthur and his knights set out to look for Merlin but perish in the wilderness and fall into Satan's power. Merlin, who loves God, turns away from Satan, who alone can release him, and, whispering "Our Father, Who art in heaven," dies a martyr's death.