Part 11
HENRY IV. Cured, yes! I am cured! (_To Belcredi_) ah, but not to let it end this way all at once, as you suppose! (_Attacks him_). Do you know that for twenty years nobody has ever dared to appear before me here like you and that gentleman (_pointing to the doctor_)?
BELCREDI. Of course I know it. As a matter of fact, I too appeared before you this morning dressed....
HENRY IV. As a monk, yes!
BELCREDI. And you took me for Peter Damiani! And I didn't even laugh, believing, in fact, that....
HENRY IV. That I was mad! Does it make you laugh seeing her like that, now that I am cured? And yet you might have remembered that in my eyes her appearance now.... (_interrupts himself with a gesture of contempt_) Ah! (_Suddenly turns to the doctor_): You are a doctor, aren't you?
DOCTOR. Yes.
HENRY IV. And you also took part in dressing her up as the Marchioness of Tuscany? To prepare a counter-joke for me here, eh?
DONNA MATILDA (_impetuously_). No, no! What do you say? It was done for you! I did it for your sake.
DOCTOR (_quickly_). To attempt, to try, not knowing....
HENRY IV. (_cutting him short_). I understand. I say counter-joke, in his case (_indicates Belcredi_), because he believes that I have been carrying on a jest....
BELCREDI. But excuse me, what do you mean? You say yourself you are cured.
HENRY IV. Let me speak! (_To the doctor_): Do you know, doctor, that for a moment you ran the risk of making me mad again? By God, to make the portraits speak; to make them jump alive out of their frames....
DOCTOR. But you saw that all of us ran in at once, as soon as they told us....
HENRY IV. Certainly! (_Contemplates Frida and Di Nolli, and then looks at the Marchioness, and finally at his own costume_). The combination is very beautiful.... Two couples.... Very good, very good, doctor! For a madman, not bad!... (_With a slight wave of his hand to Belcredi_): It seems to him now to be a carnival out of season, eh? (_Turns to look at him_). We'll get rid now of this masquerade costume of mine, so that I may come away with you. What do you say?
BELCREDI. With me? With us?
HENRY IV. Where shall we go? To the Club? In dress coats and with white ties? Or shall both of us go to the Marchioness' house?
BELCREDI. Wherever you like! Do you want to remain here still, to continue--alone--what was nothing but the unfortunate joke of a day of carnival? It is really incredible, incredible how you have been able to do all this, freed from the disaster that befell you!
HENRY IV. Yes, you see how it was! The fact is that falling from my horse and striking my head as I did, I was really mad for I know not how long....
DOCTOR. Ah! Did it last long?
HENRY IV. (_very quickly to the doctor_). Yes, doctor, a long time! I think it must have been about twelve years. (_Then suddenly turning to speak to Belcredi_): Thus I saw nothing, my dear fellow, of all that, after that day of carnival, happened for you but not for me: how things changed, how my friends deceived me, how my place was taken by another, and all the rest of it! And suppose my place had been taken in the heart of the woman I loved?... And how should I know who was dead or who had disappeared?... All this, you know, wasn't exactly a jest for me, as it seems to you....
BELCREDI. No, no! I don't mean that if you please. I mean after....
HENRY IV. Ah, yes? After? One day (_stops and addresses the doctor_)--A most interesting case, doctor! Study me well! Study me carefully (_trembles while speaking_)! All by itself, who knows how, one day the trouble here (_touches his forehead_) mended. Little by little, I open my eyes, and at first I don't know whether I am asleep or awake. Then I know I am awake. I touch this thing and that; I see clearly again.... Ah!--then, as _he_ says (_alludes to Belcredi_) away, away with this masquerade, this incubus! Let's open the windows, breathe life once again! Away! Away! Let's run out! (_Suddenly pulling himself up_). But where? And to do what? To show myself to all, secretly, as Henry IV., not like this, but arm in arm with you, among my dear friends?
BELCREDI. What are you saying?
DONNA MATILDA. Who could think it? It's not to be imagined. It was an accident.
HENRY IV. They all said I was mad before. (_To Belcredi_): And you know it! You were more ferocious than any one against those who tried to defend me.
BELCREDI. Oh, that was only a joke!
HENRY IV. Look at my hair! (_Shows him the hair on the nape of his neck_).
BELCREDI. But mine is grey too!
HENRY IV. Yes, with this difference: that mine went grey here, as Henry IV., do you understand? And I never knew it! I perceived it all of a sudden, one day, when I opened my eyes; and I was terrified because I understood at once that not only had my hair gone grey, but that I was all grey, inside; that everything had fallen to pieces, that everything was finished; and I was going to arrive, hungry as a wolf, at a banquet which had already been cleared away....
BELCREDI. Yes, but, what about the others?...
HENRY IV. (_quickly_). Ah, yes, I know! They couldn't wait until I was cured, not even those, who, behind my back, pricked my saddled horse till it bled....
DI NOLLI (_agitated_). What, what?
HENRY IV. Yes, treacherously, to make it rear and cause me to fall.
DONNA MATILDA (_quickly, in horror_). This is the first time I knew that.
HENRY IV. That was also a joke, probably!
DONNA MATILDA. But who did it? Who was behind us, then?
HENRY IV. It doesn't matter who it was. All those that went on feasting and were ready to leave me their scrapings, Marchioness, of miserable pity, or some dirty remnant of remorse in the filthy plate! Thanks! (_Turning quickly to the doctor_): Now doctor, the case must be absolutely new in the history of madness; I preferred to remain mad--since I found everything ready and at my disposal for this new exquisite fantasy. I would live it--this madness of mine--with the most lucid consciousness; and thus revenge myself on the brutality of a stone which had dinted my head. The solitude--this solitude--squalid and empty as it appeared to me when I opened my eyes again--I determined to deck it out with all the colours and splendors of that far off day of carnival, when you (_looks at Donna Matilda and points Frida out to her_) when you, Marchioness, triumphed. So I would oblige all those who were around me to follow, by God, at my orders that famous pageant which had been--for you and not for me--the jest of a day. I would make it become--for ever--no more a joke but a reality, the reality of a real madness: here, all in masquerade, with throne room, and these my four secret counsellors: secret and, of course, traitors. (_He turns quickly towards them_). I should like to know what you have gained by revealing the fact that I was cured! If I am cured, there's no longer any need of_you_, and you will be discharged! To give anyone one's confidence ... that is really the act of a madman. But now I accuse you in my turn (_turning to the others_)! Do you know? They thought (_alludes to the valets_) they could make fun of me too with you (_bursts out laughing. The others laugh, but shamefacedly, except Donna Matilda_).
BELCREDI (_to Di Nolli_). Well, imagine that.... That's not bad....
DI NOLLI (_to the four young men_). You?
HENRY IV. We must pardon them. This dress (_plucking his dress_) which is for me the evident, involuntary caricature of that other continuous, everlasting masquerade, of which we are the involuntary puppets (_indicates Belcredi_) when, without knowing it, we mask ourselves with that which we appear to be ... ah, that dress of theirs, this masquerade of theirs, of course, we must forgive it them, since they do not yet see it is identical with themselves. (_Turning again to Belcredi_): You know, it is quite easy to get accustomed to it. One walks about as a tragic character, just as if it were nothing ... (_Imitates the tragic manner_) in a room like this.... Look here, doctor! I remember a priest, certainly Irish, a nice-looking priest, who was sleeping in the sun one November day, with his arm on the corner of the bench of a public garden. He was lost in the golden delight of the mild sunny air which must have seemed for him almost summery. One may be sure that in that moment he did not know any more that he was a priest, or even where he was. He was dreaming... A little boy passed with a flower in his hand. He touched the priest with it here on the neck. I saw him open his laughing eyes, while all his mouth smiled with the beauty of his dream. He was forgetful of everything.... But all at once, he pulled himself together, and stretched out his priest's cassock; and there came back to his eyes the same seriousness which you have seen in mine; because the Irish priests defend the seriousness of their Catholic faith with the same zeal with which I defend the secret rights of hereditary monarchy! I am cured, gentlemen: because I can act the mad man to perfection, here; and I do it very quietly, I'm only sorry for you that have to live your madness so agitatedly, without knowing it or seeing it.
BELCREDI. It comes to this, then, that it is we who are mad. That's what it is!
HENRY IV. (_containing his irritation_). But if you weren't mad, both you and she (_indicating the Marchioness_) would you have come here to see me?
BELCREDI. To tell the truth, I came here believing that you were the madman.
HENRY IV. (_suddenly indicating the Marchioness_). And she?
BELCREDI. Ah, as for her ... I can't say. I see she is all fascinated by your words, by this _conscious_ madness of yours. (_Turns to her_). Dressed as you are (_speaking to her_), you could even remain here to live it out, Marchioness.
DONNA MATILDA. You are insolent!
HENRY IV. (_conciliatingly_). No, Marchioness, what he means to say is that the miracle would be complete, according to him, with you here, who--as the Marchioness of Tuscany, you well know,--could not be my friend, save, as at Canossa, to give me a little pity....
BELCREDI. Or even more than a little! She said so herself!
HENRY IV. (_to the Marchioness, continuing_). And even, shall we say, a little remorse!...
BELCREDI. Yes, that too she has admitted.
DONNA MATILDA (_angry_). Now look here....
HENRY IV. (_quickly, to placate her_). Don't bother about him! Don't mind him! Let him go on infuriating me--though the doctor's told him not to. (_Turns to Belcredi._): But do you suppose I am going to trouble myself any more about what happened between us--the share you had in my misfortune with her (_indicates the Marchioness to him and, pointing Belcredi out to her_): the part he has now in your life? This is my life! Quite a different thing from your life! Your life, the life in which you have grown old--I have not lived that life (_to Donna Matilda_). Was this what you wanted to show me with this sacrifice of yours, dressing yourself up like this, according to the Doctor's idea? Excellently done, doctor! Oh, an excellent idea:--"As we were then, eh? and as we are now?" But I am not a madman according to your way of thinking, doctor. I know very well that that man there (_indicates Di Nolli_) cannot be me; because I am Henry IV., and have been, these twenty years, cast in this eternal masquerade. She has lived these years (_indicates the Marchioness_)! She has enjoyed them and has become--look at her!--a woman I can no longer recognize. It is so that I knew her (_points to Frida and draws near her_)! This is the Marchioness I know, always this one!... You seem a lot of children to be so easily frightened by me.... (_To Frida_): And you're frightened too, little girl, aren't you, by the jest that they made you take part in--though they didn't understand it wouldn't be the jest they meant it to be, for me? Oh miracle of miracles! Prodigy of prodigies! The dream alive in you! More than alive in you! It was an image that wavered there and they've made you come to life! Oh, mine! You're mine, mine, mine, in my own right! (_He holds her in his arms, laughing like a madman, while all stand still terrified. Then as they advance to tear Frida from his arms, he becomes furious, terrible and cries imperiously to his valets_): Hold them! Hold them! I order you to hold them!
(_The four young men amazed, yet fascinated, move to execute his orders, automatically, and seize Di Nolli, the doctor, and Belcredi._)
BELCREDI (_freeing himself_). Leave her alone! Leave her alone! You're no madman!
HENRY IV. (_In a flash draws the sword from the side of Landolph, who is close to him_). I'm not mad, eh! Take that, you!... (_Drives sword into him. A cry of horror goes up. All rush over to assist Belcredi, crying out together_):
DI NOLLI. Has he wounded you?
BERTHOLD. Yes, yes, seriously!
DOCTOR. I told you so!
FRIDA. Oh God, oh God!
DI NOLLI. Frida, come here!
DONNA MATILDA. He's mad, mad!
DI NOLLI. Hold him!
BELCREDI (_while they take him away by the left exit, he protests as he is borne out_). No, no, you're not mad! You're not mad. He's not mad!
(_They go out by the left amid cries and excitement. After a moment, one hears a still sharper, more piercing cry from Donna Matilda, and then, silence_).
HENRY IV. (_who has remained on the stage between Landolph, Harold and Ordulph, with his eyes almost starting out of his head, terrified by the life of his own masquerade which has driven him to crime_). Ah now ... yes now ... inevitably (_calls his valets around him as if to protect him_) here together ... here together ... for ever ... for ever.
_Curtain._
NOTE TO "HENRY IV."
With the author's consent and approval, the translator has omitted a few lines from the original Italian where their highly parenthetical character made the English version unnecessarily complex. One or two allusions have also been suppressed since they have not the same value in English as in Italian.--E.S.
RIGHT YOU ARE! (IF YOU THINK SO)
(_Così è, se vi pare!_)
A PARABLE IN THREE ACTS
BY
LUIGI PIRANDELLO
TRANSLATED BY
ARTHUR LIVINGSTON
CHARACTERS
LAMBERTO LAUDISI. SIGNORA FROLA. PONZA, SON-IN-LAW OF SIGNORA FROLA. SIGNORA PONZA, PONZA'S WIFE. COMMENDATORE AGAZZI, A PROVINCIAL COUNCILLOR. AMALIA, HIS WIFE. DINA, THEIR DAUGHTER. SIRELLI. SIGNORA SIRELLI, HIS WIFE. THE PREFECT. CENTURI, A POLICE COMMISSIONER. SIGNORA CINI. SIGNORA NENNI. A BUTLER. A NUMBER OF GENTLEMEN AND LADIES.
OUR OWN TIMES, IN A SMALL ITALIAN TOWN, THE CAPITAL OF A PROVINCE.
RIGHT YOU ARE! (IF YOU THINK SO)
## ACT I
_The parlor in the house of Commendatore Agazzi._
_A door, the general entrance, at the back; doors leading to the wings, left and right._
LAUDISI _is a man nearing the forties, quick and energetic in his movements. He is smartly dressed, in good taste. At this moment he is wearing a semi-formal street suit: a sack coat, of a violet cast, with black lapels, and with black braid around the edges; trousers of a light but different color. Laudisi has a keen, analytical mind, but is impatient and irritable in argument. Nevertheless, however angry he gets momentarily, his good humor soon comes to prevail. Then he laughs and lets people have their way, enjoying, meanwhile, the spectacle of the stupidity and gullibility of others._
AMALIA, _Agazzi's wife, is Laudisi's sister. She is a woman of forty-five more or less. Her hair is already quite grey. Signora Agazzi is always showing a certain sense of her own importance from the position occupied by her husband in the community; but she gives you to understand that if she had a free rein she would be quite capable of playing her own part in the world and, perhaps, do it somewhat better than Commendatore Agazzi._
DINA _is the daughter of Amalia and Agazzi. She is nineteen. Her general manner is that of a young person conscious of understanding everything better than papa and mamma; but this defect must not be exaggerated to the extent of concealing her attractiveness and charm as a good-looking winsome girl_.
_As the curtain rises Laudisi is walking briskly up and down the parlor to give vent to his irritation._
LAUDISI. I see, I see! So he did take the matter up with the prefect!
AMALIA. But Lamberto _dear_, please remember that the man is a subordinate of his.
LAUDISI. A subordinate of his ... very well! But a subordinate in the office, not at home nor in society!
DINA. And he hired an apartment for that woman, his mother-in-law, right here in this very building, and on our floor.
LAUDISI. And why not, pray? He was looking for an apartment; the apartment was for rent, so he leased it--for his mother-in-law. You mean to say that a mother-in-law is in duty bound to make advances to the wife and daughter of the man who happens to be her son-in-law's superior on his job?
AMALIA. That is not the way it is, Lamberto. We didn't ask her to call on us. Dina and I took the first step by calling on her and--she _refused_ to _receive_ us!
LAUDISI. Well, is that any reason why your husband should go and lodge a complaint with the man's boss? Do you expect the government to order him to invite you to tea?
AMALIA. I think he deserves all he gets! That is not the way to treat two ladies. I hope he gets fired! The idea!
LAUDISI. Oh, you women! I say, making that complaint is a dirty trick. By Jove! If people see fit to keep to themselves in their own houses, haven't they a right to?
AMALIA. Yes, but you don't understand! We were trying to do her a favor. She is new in the town. We wanted to make her feel at home.
DINA. Now, now, Nunky dear, don't be so cross! Perhaps we did go there out of curiosity more than anything else; but it's all so funny, isn't it! Don't you think it was natural to feel just a little bit curious?
LAUDISI. Natural be damned! It was none of your business!
DINA. Now, see here, Nunky, let's suppose--here you are right here minding your own business and quite indifferent to what other people are doing all around you. Very well! I come into the room and right here on this table, under your very nose, and with a long face like an undertaker's, or, rather, with the long face of that jailbird you are defending, I set down--well, what?--anything--a pair of dirty old shoes!
LAUDISI. I don't see the connection.
DINA. Wait, don't interrupt me! I said a pair of old shoes. Well, no, not a pair of old shoes--a flat iron, a rolling pin, or your shaving brush for instance--and I walk out again without saying a word to anybody! Now I leave it to you, wouldn't you feel justified in wondering just a little, little, bit as to what in the world I meant by it?
LAUDISI. Oh, you're irresistible, Dina! And you're clever, aren't you? But you're talking with old Nunky, remember! You see, you have been putting all sorts of crazy things on the table here; and you did it with the idea of making me ask what it's all about; and, of course, since you were doing all that on purpose, you can't blame me if I do ask, why those old shoes just there, on that table, dearie? But what's all that got to do with it? You'll have to show me now that this Mr. Ponza of ours, that jailbird as you say, or that rascal, that boor, as your father calls him, brought his mother-in-law to the apartment next to ours with the idea of stringing us all! You've got to show me that he did it on purpose!
DINA. I don't say that he did it on purpose--not at all! But you can't deny that this famous Mr. Ponza has come to this town and done a number of things which are unusual, to say the least; and which he must have known were likely to arouse a very natural curiosity in everybody. Look Nunky, here is a man: he comes to town to fill an important public position, and--what does he do? Where does he go to live? He hires an apartment on the _top_ floor, if you please, of that dirty old tenement out there on the very outskirts of the town. Now, I ask you--did you ever see the place? Inside?
LAUDISI. I suppose you went and had a look at it?
DINA. Yes, Nunky dear, I went--with mamma! And we weren't the only ones, you know. The whole town has been to have a look at it. It's a five story tenement with an interior court so dark at noontime you can hardly see your hand before your face. Well, there is an iron balcony built out from the fifth story around the courtyard. A basket is hanging from the railing ... They let it up and down--on a rope!
LAUDISI. Well, what of it?
DINA (_looking at him with astonished indignation_). What of it? Well, there, if you please, is where he keeps his wife!
AMALIA. While her mother lives here next door to us!
LAUDISI. A fashionable apartment, for his mother-in-law, in the residential district!
AMALIA. Generous to the old lady, eh? But he does that to keep her from seeing her daughter!
LAUDISI. How do you know that? How do you know that the old lady, rather, does not prefer this arrangement, just to have more elbow room for herself?
DINA. No, no, Nunky, you're wrong. Everybody knows that it is he who is doing it.
AMALIA. See here, Lamberto, everybody understands, if a girl, when she marries, goes away from her mother to live with her husband in some other town. But supposing this poor mother can't stand being separated from her daughter and follows her to the place, where she herself is also a complete stranger. And supposing now she not only does not live with her daughter, but is not even allowed to see her? I leave it to you ... is that so easy to understand?
LAUDISI. Oh say, you have about as much imagination as so many mud turtles. A mother-in-law and a son-in-law! Is it so hard to suppose that either through her fault or his fault or the fault of both, they should find it hard to get along together and should therefore consider it wiser to live apart?
DINA (_with another look of pitying astonishment at her uncle_). How stupid of you, Nunky! The trouble is not between the mother-in-law and the son-in-law, but between the mother and the daughter.
LAUDISI. How do you know that?