Bacchus by Jean Cocteau Act Two

From the Second Act.

CARDINAL. Upon my word! So you even revile God!

HANS. I should only be following in the footsteps of the prophets, if I did so. Luther says, “What prophets has not reviled God?”

CARDINAL. That’s because, oddly enough, he thinks himself a prophet. But you do not go so far, do you?

HANS. No, Your Eminence. Although a mind which is slightly unhinged may at times prophesy without being aware of it.

CARDINAL. You admit yourself that God’s ideas and ours cannot be the same. His ways are inscrutable.

HANS. If they are inscrutable, it is possible that he may punish what you call good and reward what you call evil.

Pause.

CARDINAL. Are you not slightly drunk?

HANS. Bacchus is a god whom drunkards made in their own image. Does your Eminence know Dionysus? Do you know the Greek gods?

CARDINAL. I get them rather confused; there are so many!

HANS. There were many Greek gods, Your Eminence, and never an unbeliever. There is now one God and many unbelievers.

– Jean Cocteau, Bacchus from The Infernal Machine and other plays 1963