Читать книгу: «Such is Life», страница 3
THE PRESIDING JUDGE.
I grant the floor to the Attorney-General, our worthy Signor Silvio Andreotti, Doctor of Civil and Canonical Law.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL.
(Who during the whole proceedings has been groaning, yawning and wriggling about in his seat.) Honorable judges! As the worthy Signor Corrado Ezzelino has rightly and forcibly expressed it in his excellent defence, the defendant is a disreputable scamp, an outcast from our dear human community, an individual of unexampled moral degeneracy, in whom I cannot deny there is a certain mental craftiness, or, to speak more plainly, a certain peasant's cunning. His own words which he has spoken here are evidence of this peasant's cunning, as is also the fact that, with the intention of confusing our power of judgment, by creating a favorable impression, he has not attempted to deny his deed. When, however, an individual from the lowest depths of human degeneracy commits a crime such as this, which cries to Heaven, then that individual must be looked upon no longer as a human being, but as a wild beast; and such a one, as the defendant, himself cleverly has shown, with the intention of tricking our judgment, is the most pernicious enemy of our commonwealth, for the protection of which I and you, you judges, have been placed here. Such a wild beast, by reason of his baseness, as well as on account of the danger he is to the community, deserves that he be destroyed by death and that his tracks be obliterated from the earth!
THE PRESIDING JUDGE.
Defendant Ludovicus, what more have you to say?
THE KING.
Nothing.
THE PRESIDING JUDGE.
The witnesses are excused!–The court stands adjourned until the passing of sentence.
(The witnesses, the judges and the Attorney-General leave the chamber.)
THE CLERK OF THE COURT.
(Beating his head, to Alma, who sits bathed in tears over the minutes.) Help me, holy Mary, Mother of God! The booby, with his foolishness, has blubbered all over the minutes! Not a letter can be read! The leaves are all stuck together!
ALMA.
(Sobbing.) O my God, he is innocent! I know that he is innocent!
THE CLERK OF THE COURT.
Why should it worry you whether he is innocent or guilty? Is it your head or his head they are going to cut off?
THE KING.
(Who stands alone in the middle of the room, aside, but with emphasis.) My words were, "And so at last the king's head shall fall under the headsman's axe in the market place of Perugia!"
THE CLERK OF THE COURT.
There, you see how innocent he is!
ALMA.
(Who has risen and prays earnestly, with hands folded across her breast.) Lord God in Heaven, Thou who hast compassion upon all the poor and miserable, preserve us from this!
THE CLERK OF THE COURT.
See now, you are a brave lad and have your heart in the right place! I shall certainly not bring you again soon to a sitting of the court. You must rewrite the whole minutes from memory at home. You will learn more from that than if you studied through the whole corpus juris!
THE ADVOCATE FOR THE DEFENSE.
(Who, after the judges have left the chamber, has taken a package of bread and butter, a flask and a glass from his robe. Re places the flask and glass in front of him, and then comes forward, busy with his breakfast.) Now, Gigi, wasn't that a Ciceronian defence that I made for you? But what do you know about Cicero! You will allow me to breakfast, of course. At first, I had the intention of sprinkling my defence with a little curiculum vitæ, a moving description of your cattle tending, etc. But, to be frank, Gigi, I don't believe that either would have helped you much with those (pointing) dunderheads out there!
THE KING.
You have my thanks for your pains, worthy Doctor Ezzelino.
(The judges return from the council-chamber and resume their places.)
THE PRESIDING JUDGE.
(Reading from his notes.) The defendant, Ludovicus, recently a tailor's apprentice in Perugia, and formerly employed in the tending of cattle in the village of Baschi, is accused of the crime of blasphemy against the holy person of the king, and is found guilty of this crime upon the evidence of unanimous testimony, as well as by his own admission. In consideration of his previous good character, as well as in consideration of his free confession, the defendant is sentenced to two years' incarceration–
ALMA.
(Gives a muffled cry.)
THE CLERK OF THE COURT.
Young fellow, will you hold your tongue while the judge is speaking!
THE PRESIDING JUDGE.
——and, furthermore, to ten years' deprivation of all the rights and honors of citizenship, as well as to banishment from the city of Perugia for the whole term of his life, under pain of death in case of his return.
THE CLERK OF THE COURT.
(To Alma.) Write, my lad! Write! This is the most important of all!
THE PRESIDING JUDGE.
(Continuing his reading.) In view of the important fact that the defendant has not shown the least trace of regret for his deed, the sentence provides that he shall spend his two years' incarceration in the most rigid solitary confinement.–Given in the name of the king, on the third day of the month of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand four hundred and ninety-nine. (Turning to the guards.) Take away the prisoner! (Rising. To the court.) I hereby declare to-day's session closed.
ACT III
Scene One
A PRISON
(To the left, the cell door. To the right, a barred window. At the back, a folding bench, fastened against the wall.)
THE KING.
(Sings to a lute.)
With an ivy wreath my brow was dressed,
In my locks there sparkled the dew;
A pair of falcons above my crest
Wove circles in the blue.
From the balcony, in joyous vein,
My mother beckoned and smiled;
At e'en thy father will come again,
In victor's garb, my child.
(He leans the lute against the wall, sinks down upon a stool at the back of the cell and plaits a straw mat.)–I am thirsty.–Is it really so late in the day?–How time passes here! (He rises and looks curiously upward through the window.) By the Lord, the sun is beginning to glide along the south wall of the tower!–Time for the water jug! (He fetches an earthen jug from the corner and stands expectantly before the door.)–He will soon come!–Did I ever enjoy a drink while I was king as I do the fresh draught of water which I have received daily at this hour for the last twelfthmonth? I believe it's a stroke of good fortune that I was never in jail during my own reign.
(The door opens noisily and a rough voice outside calls, "Water jug!" The King hastily sets the jug outside the door and returns inside the cell. The door slams shut, but is reopened immediately and the jailer enters.)
THE JAILER.
Zounds and death, Gigi, how did you smash the jug? Silence, you dog! There's a hole in the jug. It was sound yesterday. I'll pitch into you so that your face will bleed! You take me for your servant because lately I haven't watched you so closely. You'll get it now so that your hair will turn white! Show your work!
(The King produces the unfinished straw mat.)
THE JAILER.
That your day's work! You won't get a bit of bread until you finish five times that amount! (Throwing the mat down at his feet.) There!–Now I'll inspect your cell. Look out for yourself! I won't let you out of this hole alive!
(Putting his hands behind him, he goes step by step along the wall from door to window, examining it from top to bottom, and turning around now and then at the prisoner, who stands motionless in the middle of the cell.) What does that spider web mean up there? The fourth disciplinary punishment for eight days! (Turning around.) You still know the seven disciplinary punishments by heart?–Hey, Gigi?
THE KING.
I know them by heart.
THE JAILER.
First disciplinary punishment?
THE KING.
Deprivation of privileges.
THE JAILER.
I'll smash that lute of yours to bits; you fritter away your working hours with it!–Second disciplinary punishment?
THE KING.
Deprivation of work.
THE JAILER.
Then see how you will spend your time! In eight days you won't be able to stand on your legs!–Third disciplinary punishment?
THE KING.
Deprivation of a soft bed at nights.–My bed is as hard as if it were stuffed with pebbles!
THE JAILER.
Silence! This rascal would like to sleep in the hay. –Fourth disciplinary punishment?
THE KING.
Reduction of rations.
THE JAILER.
Bread and water from to-day for eight days!–Do your hear?!–Fifth disciplinary punishment?
THE KING.
Imprisonment in darkness.
THE JAILER.
Sixth disciplinary punishment?
THE KING.
Imprisonment in fetters.
THE JAILER.
By that you must understand you are chained all awry, so that after the first hour all the devils you have in your body say good-bye to you! Seventh disciplinary punishment?
THE KING.
Flogging.
THE JAILER.
(Having reached the window.) You shall shed your hide here yet! You, you thief, shall clamber up and down the Jacob's ladder until you fall dead. (He passes in front of the King, leaves the cell and shuts the door from the outside.)
THE KING.
(Looks after him in surprise. Then quite calmly, with quiet deliberation, he turns toward the door.) What does it mean? Where have I made a mistake? For a whole year I believed that in the course of a year I had educated this beast into a human being. Suddenly, after all that trouble, he drops back again into the animal kingdom.–Or did I dream?–It is impossible entirely that the jug should have been broken. I drank out of it this morning. He will break it now outside and then show me the pieces. Will he let me go thirsty today? Will he let me thirst?–I fear worse!–At any rate I shall receive him with a look that will make his eyes sink to the ground. (Bracing himself.) Help me, kingly majesty, in order that the fellow may realize his baseness of his own accord!–(Listening.) He's coming!–A duel without weapons, man against man!
(The door opens noisily. Princess Alma enters, clad as in the preceding act and carrying a jug with both her hands. The door closes loudly behind her.)
THE KING.
(With the fright of immoderate joy.) Alma?! My child!–Oh, beastly spite!
ALMA.
O Father, I cannot embrace you now! I bring you this jug of wine.
THE KING.
(Struggling for breath, with both hands at his breast.) Oh, satanic cruelty!–(Takes the jug from her and sets it to one side.) Whence come you, my child? For twelve months I've thirsted for a sight of you! You are living yet, you are whole and well. Speak, how is it with you among miserable mankind?
ALMA.
We have only a few minutes! At last I have been able to bribe the jailer, and from now on he will let me visit you once a week. Tell me quickly how I can lighten your sufferings.
THE KING.
My sufferings?–Yes! What a father I am to throw my child unprotected upon the world! That is my sorrow!–Otherwise, I thank God daily that He has separated me from mankind by these six-foot walls, so that I am safe from them!
ALMA.
You can see from my appearance, Father, how good people are to me. I am still in the service of the notary. Only tell me what I may bring you to strengthen you! What frightful torments you must have endured here!
THE KING.
No, no, my child! Do not bring me anything unfamiliar into this solitude! You don't know how time passes here with the speed of the wind. In the beginning I scratched seven hundred and thirty marks on that wall, to have the daily joy of rubbing one of them out. But soon I had to blot them out by the week or by the month. And now I see with dread how quickly they grow less and less, so that the last will soon be gone and I will have to seek refuge once more under overhanging rocks and contend with wolves for their booty!–But do not let my words sadden you! You cannot guess how the jailer prepared me for your coming!
ALMA.
I think with silent horror of how fiendishly he will torment you!
THE KING.
How you imagine things! To do that he would have to be more than the weak earthworm he is. No cruelty can keep pace with my callousness. Do you know, he has shed tears of compassion here without having heard the least complaint from me! Who could so degenerate as not to be thankful when his better self finds unexpected recognition!–He could not help begrudging me the joy of seeing you again, my child. But the cowardly anxiety which springs from his calling is responsible for that. The poor man is so jealous of the ridiculous little authority vested in him by his bunch of keys that the kindness he has shown me to-day makes him afraid of becoming entirely superfluous. But didn't you suffer need in order to buy the good will of this rascal?
ALMA.
Speak not of me, Father. Time is passing and I don't know how I can help you!
THE KING.
Really, I don't know either! Were I an abler man, my fate might perhaps seem more pitiable to me. Poor as I am, I only tremble at the moment when those iron doors shall protect me no longer, when those barred windows shall prevent them reaching me, when I shall stand again among people with whom I have no mutual understanding and from whose activities I am excluded more than ever by the sentence of the law.–If you only knew how painlessly this solitude heals the gaping wounds of the soul. The judge thought he was adding to my punishment when he sentenced me to solitary confinement. How deeply I have thanked him that I do not have to live here in association with other men!
ALMA.
(Bursting into tears.) Lord God in Heaven! Then you don't want to see me here again!
THE KING.
(Caressingly.) I repay your sacrifice with discontent and ill humor. Thoughts become heavy and sluggish when a man continues talking to himself day in and day out.–Only this I ask of you; when freedom is restored to me, leave me to my fate—not forever, only until I show myself worthy of your greatness of soul.
ALMA.
Oh nevermore! Do not ask me ever to leave you! It is impossible that the future should be as bad as the past!
THE KING.
Not for you. I believe that gladly.
ALMA.
Melancholy has mastered you in this gloom. Your proud heart is almost ready to break. Nothing can be read in your face of the quiet peace you pretend to feel.
THE KING.
I have not seen my face for a year, but I can imagine how ugly it has grown. How my looks must wound your feelings!
ALMA.
Oh, do not talk like that, father!
THE KING.
But you know my imperturbable nature. And now you come in, the only thing to make my happiness complete. It is only to reward you richly and splendidly that I would become a king again.
ALMA.
I hear the jailer! Tell me how I can lighten your sufferings!
THE KING.
(Sinks down on the stool exhausted, half to himself:) What do I lack? How frightful this prison would become if the pleasures of life were admitted here! How can I desire here a beautiful woman, where I cannot even conjure up a recollection of beauty! My couch there is shut during the day. There is no other resting-place, and I lie down there at night as weary as if I had ploughed an acre. And in the morning the clanging bell wakes me from dreams more serene than those I dreamed as a child. (As the door is opened.) When you see me again, my child, you will hear no more complaints. You shall feel as happy with me as if you were outside in your sunny world. Farewell!
ALMA.
Farewell, Father! (She leaves the cell. The door clangs behind her.)
THE KING.
A whole long year vet!–(He goes toward the wall.) I will just count the marks again and see how many remain to be rubbed out.
