Brecht Collected Plays: 5: Life of Galileo; Mother Courage and Her Children (World Classics) (44 page)

ANDREA
who has concealed the manuscript on him:
Yes, I’m going now. [I realise it’s as if a tower had collapsed which was enormously tall and thought to be unshakeable. The noise it made collapsing was louder than the noise of the builders and their machines during the whole period of its construction, and the column of dust which its collapse caused was even higher than it had been. But conceivably when the dust disperses it may turn out that although the top twelve stories fell down the bottom thirty are still standing. In which case the building could be developed further. Is that what you mean? It would be supported by the fact that the inconsistencies in our science are still all in evidence and have been sifted. The difficulty seems to have increased, but at the same time the necessity has become greater.] I’m glad I came.
He holds out his hand to him
.

GALILEO
does not take it; hesitantly:
My eyesight is bad, Andrea. I can’t see any more, I only stare. You had better go.
He walks slowly to [the globe and sees if it is shut
. I’m not unresponsive to the kindnesses I’m always being shown. Travellers passing through remember me, and so on. I don’t misinterpret such things.] I’m glad too to have talked to you, and to have found you as you are. You have had experiences which could have given you a quite wrong view of what we’ve always termed the future of reason. But of course, no single man could either bring it to pass or discredit it. *It is too big an affair ever to be contained inside a single head. Reason is something people can be divided into. It can be described as the egoism of all humanity.* Such egoism is not strong enough. But even a person like myself can still see that reason is not coming to an end but beginning. And I still believe that this is a new age. It may look like a bloodstained old harridan, but if so that must be the way new ages look. When light breaks in it does so in the uttermost darkness. While a few places are the scene of the most immense discoveries, which must contribute immeasurably to humanity’s resources for happiness, great areas of this world still lie entirely in the dark. In fact the blackness has actually deepened there. Look out for yourself when you travel through Germany with the truth under your coat.

Andrea goes out
.

Andrea says nothing about a ‘devastating analysis’ (p. 102). The scene quickly closes, somewhat as in the final text, though not on the word ‘Clear’ but on Galileo’s ensuing comment: ‘That’s good. Then he’ll be able to see his way.’

15 [14]

1637. Galileo’s book the
Discorsi
crosses the Italian frontier

Very close to the final text.

This English-language version, which Brecht and Laughton worked on from the end of 1944 up to the Hollywood production of July 1947, maintains the general structure of the play, but shortens and very largely rewrites it. The main structural changes are the omission of the first half of scene 4; the cutting of scene 5 a off the end of scene 4 and the elimination of it and 5b (the plague scenes); also the cutting of the second half of scene 12 (pp. 254–5 above), with Galileo waiting for the pope. An element of social interest was introduced by making Ludovico an aristocrat and creating two new characters: Federzoni the lens grinder, who helps bring out the point of Galileo’s use of the vernacular language, and the iron founder here called Matti, whose function is to appear in scenes 1 and 11 and show that the embryo bourgeoisie is on Galileo’s side. Ludovico takes over Doppone’s role in scenes 1 and 2; not surprisingly he becomes a little unconvincing. Federzoni too gets some of the elderly scholar’s lines in scene 9. In this scene Mucius is cut, in scene 14 the stove-fitter and the doctor. According to Brecht it was Laughton who insisted on transposing the handing-over of the
Discorsi
in this scene so that Galileo’s big self-accusatory speech should come after it.

The carnival scene (10) was rewritten entirely, with a new English-language ballad, though the gist of this remained much the same. The actions of the masqueraders and the crowd, while not exactly amounting to the ‘ballet’ proposed in the first version, were described in some detail, finishing with the appearance of the enormous dummy figure of ‘Galileo, the Bible-buster’.

Finally there are no scene titles in the text as published, but short English verses were put at the beginning of each scene, and at the end of the play, which now finished with the warning:

May you now guard science’ light,

Kindle it and use it right,

Lest it be a flame to fall

Downward to consume us all.

The full text of this version is given on page 333 ff. After the first plan for an American publication of the plays had fallen through, it was included in Eric Bentley’s anthology
From the Modern Repertoire
2 and published by University of Denver Press in 1952. Scene 15, which had been available in 1946 but was not played in the Los Angeles and New York production, was now added, and the resulting version seems closer to what Brecht wanted published for readers than any other.

The following is a brief scene-by-scene commentary on its changes from the first version. Scene numbers are those of the final text, with the American version’s numbering in square brackets.

1
.

The scene begins with the arrival of the Ptolemaic model which was previously already there. Galileo’s speech on the ‘new age’ is shorter and simpler and more sloppily worded (‘A new age was coming. I was on to it years ago’), but includes the ships and the Sienese masons. His second demonstration to Andrea, with the apple (which is in both the first and the final versions), is cut from Andrea’s ‘But it isn’t true’ (p. 10) to Galileo’s ‘Ha’ on p. 11. Ludovico then appears, the gist of the dialogue being much the same as in the final text, but very much shortened. Galileo’s discussion with Andrea about hypotheses is cut. The procurator, who follows Ludovico’s exit, is for some reason a museum curator; again the dialogue is shortened and simplified, even vulgarised:

CURATOR
: You’ve never let me down yet, Galilei.

GALILEO
: You are always an inspiration to me, Priuli. The ending of the scene is likewise shorter.

2
.

The form of the scene is as in the final text, except that Virginia makes the presentation, that Matti the (Florentine) ironfounder appears, and that the Doge has nothing to say. Note the curator’s ‘
best chamber-of-commerce manner
’ and the allusion to him as a businessman, also the new silliness of Virginia as exemplified in the closing exchanges.

3
.

This is the same scene as in the final version, but shortened. It introduces Galileo’s remarks about star charts, but cuts the episode with Mrs Sarti (p. 28) who does not appear at all. Virginia enters earlier – there is no cross-fade as before – and stays long enough to hear Sagredo read out the end of the letter to the grand duke. The scene now ends approximately as in the final text, though rather more abruptly.

4
.

The first half of the scene has been cut: Mrs Sarti’s speech, the grand duke’s arrival and the episode with the two boys, also Galileo’s opening speech and the beginning of the scientific argument up to where Cosimo’s three professors are invited to look through the telescope for themselves (p. 36 in the final version). Instead it begins with the philosopher talking Latin and the exchange (p. 36) about the need to use the vernacular for Federzoni’s sake. The argument which follows, now interrupted by the court ladies with jarringly improbable comments, follows the same pattern as the final version, though again in shortened form. It introduces notably Galileo’s remark, ‘Why defend shaky teaching? You should be doing the shaking,’ and the speech that follows about the arsenal workers and the sailors. The professors leave without speculating about Cosimo’s hurried departure, now attributed to the state ball.

5
.

[is cut]

6. [
5
]

Apart from the ending, this is a shortened form of the Collegium Romanum scene as we have it. The episode with the two astronomers is cut (from their entry p. 47 to their exit p. 49), apart from the very thin (or in this version infuriated) monk’s first remark. His ensuing speech (starting ‘They degrade humanity’s dwelling place’) is likewise cut. The scene ends on the little monk’s remark about Galileo’s having won. Galileo’s answer and the appearance of the cardinal inquisitor are omitted. The inscription about astronomical charts which is lowered after the curtain is not found in the other versions.

7. [
6
]

Again, this is a slightly shortened form of the final text. The great families attending the ball are named, Doppone is omitted, the two cardinals are now lamb and dove, the reference to star charts is new, Barberini swaps Biblical texts with Galileo and welcomes him to Rome, Bellarmin’s speech about the Campagna peasants and the ‘great plan’ is cut, the inquisitor greets Virginia with the comment that her fiancé comes ‘from a fine family’. The Lorenzo de’ Medici madrigal is still missing.

8. [
7
]

The scene with the little monk is virtually as in the final version. Most of Galileo’s speech about the Priapus is cut, but the beginning is as we now have it, and the phrases about the oyster and the pearl, and the peasants’ ‘divine patience’ are included.

9. [
8
]

The order of events is as in the final text, though the episode with Mucius has been cut. The scene thus starts with Virginia’s dialogue with Mrs Sarti, including the talk about horoscopes. The Keunos story has gone, as have all allusions to Andrea’s Jessica. Instead there is the dialogue between the collaborators as the experiment is prepared, including the little monk’s remark about ‘happiness in doubting’ but omitting Andrea’s account of how he has been observing the sun’s rays in the attic. The whole episode with Ludovico corresponds closely to the final text, from his entrance on p.
69
to his exit on p. 74, apart from the omission of Mrs Sarti’s long speech (pp. 72–3) and the little monk’s immediately preceding remark about God and physics. The end of the scene too is the same, except that it stops at the end of Galileo’s important speech.

10. [
9
]

The rewriting of this scene has already been mentioned (p. 238).

11. [
10
]

Close to the final text. Half the Vanni episode is here, though he is called Matti (as in scene 2) and it ends at the equivalent of ‘please
remember you’ve friends in every branch of business’ (p. 81). (The rest appears to have been written at the same time, but not included in the published text.) Galliardo and the student do not appear. The passages about Sagredo’s invitation and the possibility of escape were not in the earlier version.

12. [
11
]

The inquisitor’s long speech is shortened by half, notably by the references to papal politics and the abolition of top and bottom, with the ensuing quotation from Aristotle. The exchange about Galileo’s self-indulgence is new. That about the conclusion of his book is omitted. The ending, after ‘but its best part’ (p. 87) is new; the final stage instruction (which does not read like Brecht) being found only in this version. Otherwise this part of the scene is as we now have it. As already noted, the second part of the scene is cut.

13. [
12
]

From Andrea’s cry ‘someone who doesn’t know the truth’ (p. 88) to his imitation of Galileo is cut. The rest is as in the final version except for Federzoni’s remark about Andrea not getting paid, and the shifting of Andrea’s ‘Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero’ to immediately before Galileo’s answer.

14. [
13
]

The order of events has been shifted, and is the same as in the final text. There is now nothing about the Inquisition’s suspicions that manuscripts are being smuggled out, and the episodes with the doctor and the stove-fitter are cut. The ‘weekly letter to the archbishop’, whose discussion replaces that of the Montaigne inscriptions, is about half as long as in the final text. Andrea’s ensuing dialogue with Galileo is as in the final text up to the point where Virginia leaves the room (which now comes very much earlier), that is to say it discusses what has happened to his former collaborators. The revelation of the
Discorsi
then comes before the analysis of Galileo’s motives and conduct, which is now without the passages quoted on pp. 259 ff., but introduces Andrea’s gradually waning praise of Galileo’s behaviour, from Andrea’s ‘Two new branches of science’ (p. 97) to Galileo’s ‘It was not’ (p. 99). The ‘welcome to the gutter’ speech which follows is new, though shorter than its final version. The big speech is likewise
about one-third shorter than in the final text, omitting notably the phrases ‘But can we deny ourselves to the crowd and still remain scientists?’ and ‘Science, Sarti, is involved in both these battles’, as well as the suggestion of a Hippocratic oath and the picture of scientists as ‘inventive dwarfs’. The shift of emphasis from intellectual to social betrayal, the stressing of the liberating popular effects of the new science, finally the introduction of allusions to the horrors of the atom bomb, can all best be seen by comparing the actual text with that of the earlier version (pp. 260–261).

Galileo’s view of ‘the new age’, in the final exchanges, is expressed in the same terms as in the previous version. Again he ignores Andrea’s hand, without comment. There is no mention of Andrea’s journey through Germany, and the scene ends with Virginia’s final remark.

15. [
14
]

The scene is broadly similar to its earlier version, but has been wholly rewritten, including the song. Among other things, the witch’s house is shown, and the children steal her milk jug and kick it over.