Three Plays Part 30

LANDOLPH (_timidly as if to excuse himself_). No ... I mean ... I was saying this morning to him (_indicates Berthold_)--he has just entered on service here--I was saying: what a pity that dressed like this and with so many beautiful costumes in the wardrobe ... and with a room like that (_indicates the throne room_)....

HENRY IV. Well? what's the pity?

LANDOLPH. Well ... that we didn't know....

HENRY IV. That it was all done in jest, this comedy?

LANDOLPH. Because we thought that....

HAROLD (_coming to his a.s.sistance_). Yes ... that it was done seriously!

HENRY IV. What do you say? Doesn't it seem serious to you?

LANDOLPH. But if you say that....

HENRY IV. I say that--you are fools! You ought to have known how to create a fantasy for yourselves, not to act it for me, or anyone coming to see me; but naturally, simply, day by day, before n.o.body, feeling yourselves alive in the history of the eleventh century, here at the court of your emperor, Henry IV.! You Ordulph (_taking him by the arm_), alive in the castle of Goslar, waking up in the morning, getting out of bed, and entering straightway into the dream, clothing yourself in the dream that would be no more a dream, because you would have lived it, felt it all alive in you. You would have drunk it in with the air you breathed; yet knowing all the time that it was a dream, so you could better enjoy the privilege afforded you of having to do nothing else but live this dream, this far off and yet actual dream! And to think that at a distance of eight centuries from this remote age of ours, so coloured and so sepulchral, the men of the twentieth century are torturing themselves in ceaseless anxiety to know how their fates and fortunes will work out! Whereas you are already in history with me....

LANDOLPH. Yes, yes, very good!

HENRY IV. ... Everything determined, everything settled!

ORDULPH. Yes, yes!

HENRY IV. And sad as is my lot, hideous as some of the events are, bitter the struggles and troublous the time--still all history! All history that cannot change, understand? All fixed forever! And you could have admired at your ease how every effect followed obediently its cause with perfect logic, how every event took place precisely and coherently in each minute particular! The pleasure, the pleasure of history, in fact, which is so great, was yours.

LANDOLPH. Beautiful, beautiful!

HENRY IV. Beautiful, but it's finished! Now that you know, I could not do it any more! (_Takes his lamp to go to bed_).

Neither could you, if up to now you haven't understood the reason of it! I am sick of it now. (_Almost to himself with violent contained rage_): By G.o.d, I'll make her sorry she came here! Dressed herself up as a mother-in-law for me...!

And he as an abbot...! And they bring a doctor with them to study me...! Who knows if they don't hope to cure me?...

Clowns...! I'd like to smack one of them at least in the face: yes, that one--a famous swordsman, they say!... He'll kill me.... Well, we'll see, we'll see!... (_A knock at the door_). Who is it?

THE VOICE OF JOHN. Deo Gratias!

HAROLD (_very pleased at the chance for another joke_). Oh, it's John, it's old John, who comes every night to play the monk.

ORDULPH (_rubbing his hands_). Yes, yes! Let's make him do it!

HENRY IV. (_at once, severely_). Fool, why? Just to play a joke on a poor old man who does it for love of me?

LANDOLPH (_to Ordulph_). It has to be as if it were true.

HENRY IV. Exactly, as if true! Because, only so, truth is not a jest (_opens the door and admits John dressed as a humble friar with a roll of parchment under his arm_). Come in, come in, father! (_Then a.s.suming a tone of tragic gravity and deep resentment_): All the doc.u.ments of my life and reign favorable to me were destroyed deliberately by my enemies. One only has escaped destruction, this, my life, written by a humble monk who is devoted to me. And you would laugh at him! (_Turns affectionately to John, and invites him to sit down at the table_). Sit down, father, sit down!

Have the lamp near you (_puts the lamp near him_)! Write!

Write!

JOHN (_opens the parchment and prepares to write from dictation_). I am ready, your Majesty!

HENRY IV. (_dictating_). "The decree of peace proclaimed at Mayence helped the poor and humble, while it damaged the weak and the powerful (_curtain begins to fall_): It brought wealth to the former, hunger and misery to the latter...."

_Curtain._

ACT III

_The throne room so dark that the wall at the bottom is hardly seen. The canva.s.ses of the two portraits have been taken away; and, within their frames, Frida, dressed as the "Marchioness of Tuscany" and Charles Di Nolli, as "Henry IV." have taken the exact positions of the portraits._

_For a moment, after the raising of curtain, the stage is empty. Then the door on the left opens; and Henry IV., holding the lamp by the ring on top of it, enters. He looks back to speak to the four young men who, with John, are presumedly in the adjoining hall, as at the end of the second act._

HENRY IV. No: stay where you are, stay where you are. I shall manage all right by myself. Good night! (_Closes the door and walks, very sad and tired, across the hall towards the second door on the right, which leads into his apartments_).

FRIDA (_as soon as she sees that he has just pa.s.sed the throne, whispers from the niche like one who is on the point of fainting away with fright_). Henry....

HENRY IV. (_stopping at the voice, as if someone had stabbed him traitorously in the back, turns a terror-stricken face towards the wall at the bottom of the room; raising an arm instinctively, as if to defend himself and ward off a blow_). Who is calling me? (_It is not a question, but an exclamation vibrating with terror, which does not expect a reply from the darkness and the terrible silence of the hall, which suddenly fills him with the suspicion that he is really mad_).

FRIDA (_at his shudder of terror, is herself not less frightened at the part she is playing, and repeats a little more loudly_). Henry!... (_But, although she wishes to act the part as they have given it to her, she stretches her head a little out of the frame towards the other frame_).

HENRY IV. (_Gives a dreadful cry; lets the lamp fall from his hands to cover his head with his arms, and makes a movement as if to run away_).

FRIDA (_jumping from the frame on to the stand and shouting like a mad woman_). Henry!... Henry!... I'm afraid!... I'm terrified!...

(_And while Di Nolli jumps in turn on to the stand and thence to the floor and runs to Frida who, on the verge of fainting, continues to cry out, the Doctor, Donna Matilda, also dressed as "Matilda of Tuscany," t.i.to Belcredi, Landolph, Berthold and John enter the hall from the doors on the right and on the left. One of them turns on the light: a strange light coming from lamps hidden in the ceiling so that only the upper part of the stage is well lighted. The others without taking notice of Henry IV., who looks on astonished by the unexpected inrush, after the moment of terror which still causes him to tremble, run anxiously to support and comfort the still shaking Frida, who is moaning in the arms of her fiance. All are speaking at the same time._)

DI NOLLI. No, no, Frida.... Here I am.... I am beside you!

DOCTOR (_coming with the others_). Enough! Enough! There's nothing more to be done!...

DONNA MATILDA. He is cured, Frida. Look! He is cured! Don't you see?

DI NOLLI (_astonished_). Cured?

BELCREDI. It was only for fun! Be calm!

FRIDA. No! I am afraid! I am afraid!

DONNA MATILDA. Afraid of what? Look at him! He was never mad at all!...

DI NOLLI. That isn't true! What are you saying? Cured?

DOCTOR. It appears so. I should say so....

BELCREDI. Yes, yes! They have told us so (_pointing to the four young men_).

DONNA MATILDA. Yes, for a long time! He has confided in them, told them the truth!

DI NOLLI (_now more indignant than astonished_). But what does it mean? If, up to a short time ago...?