Pirandello's Henry IV (6 page)

BELCREDI
   Oh, yes!—free to love your daughter, as he said—or, in your version, to love you—touched by your compassion perhaps?

MATILDA
   And compassion is very much what I'm feeling, believe me.

BELCREDI
   Oh, I do!—it's like a miracle.

DOCTOR
   May I speak? We doctors don't deal in miracles. I listened very carefully to everything he said, and, as I would put it, there's a relaxation in the coherence typical of systematised delusion; it's clearly, how can I put it, relaxed; the coherence of the delusion isn't er, cohering as before. He can't quite find the point of equilibrium between ego and superego . . . A sudden memory deflects him, not—and this is very encouraging—not into incipient inertia but rather into a melancholic reflex, which indicates . . . yes, significant cerebral activity. As I say, very encouraging. Now, with the shock tactic we have decided on—

MATILDA
   Why isn't the car back? It's over three hours . . .

DOCTOR
   What?

MATILDA
   The car! It's been over three hours!

DOCTOR
   (
looking at his watch
) Four, actually.

MATILDA
   It should have been back ages ago. But as usual . . .

DOCTOR
   Maybe they can't find the dress.

MATILDA
   I told them exactly where it was. And where's Frida?

BELCREDI
   In the garden with Carlo.

DOCTOR
   Calming her nerves.

BELCREDI
   It wasn't nerves, it was a tantrum.

MATILDA
   Don't try to force her, believe me, I know her.

DOCTOR
   Let's not rush things. We have to wait till it's dark, and it won't take a minute to set up. If we can give him a shock and snap the thread which binds him to his delusion, give him back what he longs for—he said it himself; you can't stay twenty-six for ever!—and free him from his prison—that's the way he sees it—

BELCREDI
   —he'll be cured! Saved by the alienation technique!

DOCTOR
   His clock stopped, and we're checking our watches for the critical moment when . . . with a quick shake, we might get his clock ticking again, after all this time.

Di Nolli enters.

MATILDA
   Carlo! Where's Frida?

DI NOLLI
   She's coming.

DOCTOR
   Is the car back?

DI NOLLI
   Yes.

MATILDA
   It is? With the dress?

DI NOLLI
   It's been back a while.

DOCTOR
   Excellent!

MATILDA
   Well, where is she? And the dress . . . ?

DI NOLLI
   You'll see in a moment. Here she comes.

BERTOLD
   (
entering
) Her Highness the Countess of Canossa!

Frida enters, the image of the portrait.

FRIDA
   Of Tuscany, if you don't mind. Canossa is just one of my castles.

BELCREDI
   Just look at her! Look at her! She's a different person.

MATILDA
   She's me! My God, can you see? Stop there, Frida! She's my portrait come to life!

DOCTOR
   Yes . . . Perfect!

BELCREDI
   It's amazing.

FRIDA
   Don't anybody make me laugh or I'll burst. Was your waist really so tiny, Mummy? I'm having to hold my stomach in.

MATILDA
   Wait . . . Hold still . . . These creases, is it really that tight on you?

FRIDA
   I can barely breathe. You better make it quick . . .

DOCTOR
   But we have to wait till dark . . .

FRIDA
   I can't hold myself in till dark!

MATILDA
   Why did you put it on so early?

FRIDA
   I couldn't resist. The minute I saw it . . .

DOCTOR
   Would you stand over there . . . here . . . not quite so close . . . now forward just a little . . .

BELCREDI
   For the full effect of twenty years between.

MATILDA
   What a disaster, eh?

BELCREDI
   Oh, I wouldn't go as far as that.

DOCTOR
   No, not at all! I only meant the dress . . . I meant . . . to compare . . .

BELCREDI
   As for the dress, it's not twenty years; more like a thousand. That's some shake for anybody's clock. (
pointing first at Frida and then at the Countess
) From there to there? You'll have to pick him up with a spoon. Think about it. Seriously: for us it's twenty years, two dresses, a masquerade . . . but if time stopped for him nearly a thousand years ago . . . Oh, you don't think so?

DOCTOR
   No. Because life doesn't stop. When the illusion is stripped away, you've caught up—the jump is not a thousand years, it's only twenty.

BELCREDI
   I've had a thought. Look at Frida and her mother. Who's leading the way? The older generation, that's who. The young think they're in the lead but they've got it backwards. We're years ahead of them, because we've been at it longer.

DOCTOR
   Ah, if only time didn't come between us like a wedge!

BELCREDI
   It doesn't. Young people still have to go through what we went through . . . get older, make more or less the same mistakes. It's an illusion that death is a doorway somewhere ahead of the door you came in by. You're
dying the moment you're born . . . those who started first are beating the path for those who follow. Look at her! (
He points at Frida.
)—centuries ahead of us, the Countess Matilda of Tuscany.

DI NOLLI
   Please. Tito—stop fooling.

BELCREDI
   Oh, you think I'm fooling?

DI NOLLI
   Ever since you got here.

BELCREDI
   Me? I even dressed up as a monk for you. I promise you, Doctor, I still don't understand what you're up to.

DOCTOR
   You will. Mind you, not with the Countess still dressed like that . . .

BELCREDI
   Ah—you mean, she, too . . . will have to . . .

DOCTOR
   Of course! Wearing a similar dress, which we've got ready for her, so he thinks she's the Countess Matilda of Canossa, too.

FRIDA
   Tuscany, Tuscany!

BELCREDI
   Oh . . . I see. He'll be confronted by two . . .

DOCTOR
   Exactly. Two of them. And then . . .

FRIDA
   (
with Di Nolli
) Two of who?

DI NOLLI
   I think he means . . .

DOCTOR
   (
joining them
) It's quite simple . . .

The three of them confer silently.

BELCREDI
   (
to Matilda
) My God . . . So then . . .

MATILDA
   Then what?

BELCREDI
   Does he mean so much to you? To lend yourself to this farrago? It's quite something for a woman to . . .

MATILDA
   For most women, perhaps.

BELCREDI
   Oh no, my dear, for any woman! To demean herself. . .

MATILDA
   I feel responsible.

BELCREDI
   No you don't. You know you'd never suffer the indignity.

MATILDA
   So if I wouldn't, what are you talking about? Where's the indignity?

BELCREDI
   Oh, not so as
they'd
ever notice, just enough to humiliate me.

MATILDA
   As if anyone's thinking of you at this moment!

DI NOLLI
   Right—we're all set . . . (
to Bertold
) You—get one of those three in here.

BERTOLD
   (
leaving
) Right away.

MATILDA
   But first we have to pretend our characters are leaving.

DI NOLLI
   Quite so—that's why I've called him to announce your departure. (
to Belcredi
) There's no need for you to be there.

BELCREDI
   Naturally . . . no need for me . . . no need at all . . .

DI NOLLI
   And anyway you might arouse his suspicion again, you see?

BELCREDI
   I do see. A bit part.

Landolf, followed by Bertold, enters from the door on the right.

LANDOLF
   Excuse me . . .

DI NOLLI
   Come in, come in . . . You're Lolo, aren't you?

LANDOLF
   Lolo or Landolpho, my lord, I answer to both.

DI NOLLI
   Good. Now, the Doctor and the Countess will take their leave . . .

LANDOLF
   No problem. We'll tell him the Pope's agreed to receive them. Himself's in his quarters sorry for everything he said and worrying His Holiness won't give him absolution. If you'd be so good, now put the costumes back on . . .

DOCTOR
   Yes—right—let's get on with it.

LANDOLF
   One other thing, if I may suggest. Tell him the Countess Matilda of Tuscany is all for it, begging the Pope on Himself's behalf.

MATILDA
   You see? He did recognise me!

LANDOLF
   No. Excuse me. It's only that what with His Holiness being under the Countess's roof, Himself is frightened it'll wreck his chances. It's a funny thing—you'll know better than me—but so far as I can see there's nothing in the history books about Henry IV being secretly in love with Matilda of Tuscany.

MATILDA
   No, there isn't. On the contrary.

LANDOLF
   That's what I thought. But he's always saying how he loved her, and now he's terrified her hating him might do for him with the Pope.

BELCREDI
   Well, we must find a way to convince him that this aversion of hers is a thing of the past!

LANDOLF
   Fine. I'll tell him that.

MATILDA
   Yes, why don't you? (
to Belcredi
) Because, in case you didn't know, my dear, history records precisely that—the Pope yielded to the entreaties of Matilda and the Abbot of Cluny . . . and if you want to know, at the time, during the pageant, my intention was to remind him . . . to show him my feelings were not as unfriendly as he imagined.

BELCREDI
   Well, how wonderful . . . to have history on your side.

LANDOLF
   Well, if that's the case, why dress up twice over—? you could go in with the Monsignor dressed as the Countess of Tuscany.

DOCTOR
   No!—for God's sake! That would ruin everything! He's got to see the two of them together. Come along, there's no time to lose. Listen, my lady, you're still the mother-in-law, Adelaide. We leave. He sees us go. That's vital.

Landolf, Matilda, and the Doctor leave.

FRIDA
   I'm starting to feel nervous.

DI NOLLI
   Not again?

FRIDA
   It wouldn't be so bad if I'd seen him earlier.

DI NOLLI
   There's nothing to be afraid of.

FRIDA
   He's not going to be violent?

DI NOLLI
   No—he's perfectly calm.

BELCREDI
   Melancholic. Haven't you heard he's secretly in love with you?

FRIDA
   That's what worries me.