Brecht Collected Plays: 5: Life of Galileo; Mother Courage and Her Children (World Classics) (11 page)

Mrs Sarti and Virginia pass the men on their way to mass
.

SAGREDO
: Don’t go to Florence, Galileo.

GALILEO
: Why not?

SAGREDO
: Because it’s run by monks.

GALILEO
: The Florentine Court includes eminent scholars.

SAGREDO
: Flunkeys.

GALILEO
: I’ll take them by the scruff of the neck and I’ll drag them to the telescope. Even monks are human beings, Sagredo. Even they are subject to the seduction of proof. Copernicus, don’t forget, wanted them to believe his figures; but I only want them to believe their eyes. If the truth is too feeble to stick up for itself then it must go over to the attack. I’m going to take them by the scruff of the neck and force them to look through this telescope.

SAGREDO
: Galileo, I see you embarking on a frightful road. It is a disastrous night when mankind sees the truth. And a delusive hour when it believes in human reason. What kind of person is said to go into things with his eyes open? One who is going to his doom. How could the people in power give free rein to somebody who knows the truth, even if it concerns the remotest stars? Do you imagine the Pope will hear the truth when you tell him he’s wrong, and not just hear that he’s wrong? Do you imagine he will merely note in
his diary: January 10th 1610 – got rid of heaven? How can you propose to leave the Republic with the truth in your pocket, risking the traps set by monks and princes and brandishing your tube. You may be a sceptic in science, but you’re childishly credulous as soon as anything seems likely to help you to pursue it. You don’t believe in Aristotle, but you do believe in the Grand Duke of Florence. Just now, when I was watching you at the telescope and you were watching those new stars, it seemed to me I was watching you stand on blazing faggots; and when you said you believed in proof I smelt burnt flesh. I am fond of science, my friend, but I am fonder of you. Don’t go to Florence, Galileo.

GALILEO
: If they’ll have me I shall go.

On a curtain appears the last page of his letter:

In giving the noble name of the house of Medici to the new stars which I have discovered I realise that whereas the old gods and heroes were immortalised by being raised to the realm of the stars in this case the noble name of Medici will ensure that these stars are remembered for ever. For my own part I commend myself to you as one of your loyalest and most humble servants who considers it the height of privilege to have been born as your subject.

There is nothing for which I long more ardently than to be closer to you, the rising sun which will illuminate this epoch.

Galileo Galilei.

4

Galileo has exchanged the Venetian Republic for the Court of Florence. His discoveries with the telescope are not believed by the court scholars

The old says: What I’ve always done I’ll always do. The new says: If you’re useless you must go.

Galileo’s house in Florence. Mrs Sarti is preparing Galileo’s study for the reception of guests. Her son Andrea is sitting tidying the star charts
.

MRS SARTI
: There has been nothing but bowing and scraping ever since we arrived safe and sound in this marvellous Florence. The whole city files past the tube, with me mopping the floor after them. If there was anything to all these discoveries the clergy would be the first to know. I spent four years in service with Monsignor Filippo without ever managing to get all his library dusted. Leather bound books up to the ceiling – and no slim volumes of poetry either. And that good Monsignor had a whole cluster of sores on his bottom from sitting and poring over all that learning; d’you imagine a man like that doesn’t know the answers? And today’s grand visit will be such a disaster that I’ll never be able to meet the milkman’s eye tomorrow. I knew what I was about when I advised him to give the gentlemen a good supper first, a proper joint of lamb, before they inspect his tube. But no:
she imitates Galileo:
‘I’ve got something else for them.’
There is knocking downstairs
.

MRS SARTI
looks through the spyhole in the window:
My goodness, the Grand Duke’s arrived. And Galileo is still at the University.

She hurries down the stairs and admits the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo de Medici, together with his chamberlain and two court ladies
.

COSIMO
: I want to see that tube.

CHAMBERLAIN
: Perhaps your Highness will possess himself until Mr Galilei and the other university gentlemen have arrived.
To Mrs Sarti:
Mr Galilei was going to ask our astronomers to test his newly discovered so-called Medicean stars.

COSIMO
: They don’t believe in the tube, not for one moment. So where is it?

MRS SARTI
: Upstairs in the study.

The boy nods, points up the staircase and runs up it at a nod from Mrs Sarti
.

CHAMBERLAIN
a very old man:
Your Highness!
To Mrs Sarti:
Have we
got
to go up there? I wouldn’t have come at all if his tutor had not been indisposed.

MRS SARTI
: The young gentleman will be all right. My own boy is up there.

COSIMO
entering above:
Good evening!

The two boys bow ceremoniously to each other. Pause. Then Andrea turns back to his work
.

ANDREA
very like his master:
This place is getting like a pigeon loft.

COSIMO
: Plenty of visitors?

ANDREA
: Stump around here staring, and don’t know the first thing.

COSIMO
: I get it. That the …?
Pointing to the telescope
.

ANDREA
: Yes, that’s it. Hands off, though.

COSIMO
: And what’s that?
He points to the wooden model of the Ptolemaic system
.

ANDREA
: That’s Ptolemy’s thing.

COSIMO
: Showing how the sun goes round, is that it?

ANDREA
: So they say.

COSIMO
sitting down on a chair, takes the model on his lap:
My tutor’s got a cold. I got off early. It’s all right here.

ANDREA
shambles around restlessly and irresolutely shooting doubtful looks at the unknown boy, then finds that he cannot hold out any longer, and brings out a second model from behind the maps, one representing the Copernican system:
But really it’s like this.

COSIMO
: What’s like this?

ANDREA
pointing at Cosimo’s model:
That’s how people think it is and –
pointing at his own –
this is how it is really. The earth turns round the sun, get it?

COSIMO
: D’you really mean that?

ANDREA
: Sure, it’s been proved.

COSIMO
: Indeed? I’d like to know why I’m never allowed to see the old man now. Yesterday he came to supper again.

ANDREA
: They don’t believe it, do they?

COSIMO
: Of course they do.

ANDREA
suddenly pointing at the model on Cosimo’s lap:
Give it back: you can’t even understand that one.

COSIMO
: Why should you have two?

ANDREA
: Just you hand it over. It’s not a toy for kids.

COSIMO
: No reason why I shouldn’t give it to you, but you need to learn some manners, you know.

ANDREA
: You’re an idiot, and to hell with manners, just give it over or you’ll start something.

COSIMO
: Hands off, I tell you.

They start brawling and are soon tangled up on the floor
.

ANDREA
: I’ll teach you to handle a model properly! Say ‘pax’.

COSIMO
: It’s broken. You’re twisting my hand.

ANDREA
: We’ll see who’s right. Say it turns or I’ll bash you.

COSIMO
: Shan’t. Stop it, Ginger. I’ll teach you manners.

ANDREA
: Ginger: who are you calling Ginger?

They go on brawling in silence. Enter Galileo and a group of university professors downstairs. Federzoni follows
.

CHAMBERLAIN
: Gentlemen, his highness’s tutor Mr Suri has a slight indisposition and was therefore unable to accompany his highness.

THEOLOGIAN
: I hope it’s nothing serious.

CHAMBERLAIN
: Not in the least.

GALILEO
disappointed:
Isn’t his highness here?

CHAMBERLAIN
: His highness is upstairs. I would ask you gentlemen not to prolong matters. The court is so very eager to know what our distinguished university thinks about Mr Galilei’s remarkable instrument and these amazing new stars.

They go upstairs
.

The boys are now lying quiet, having heard the noise downstairs
.

COSIMO
: Here they are. Let me get up.

They stand up quickly
.

THE GENTLEMEN
on their way upstairs:
No, there’s nothing whatever to worry about. – Those cases in the old city: our faculty of medicine says there’s no question of it being plague. Any miasmas would freeze at this temperature. – The worst possible thing in such a situation is to panic. – It’s just the usual incidence of colds for this time of year. – Every suspicion has been eliminated. – Nothing whatever to worry about.

Greetings upstairs
.

GALILEO
: Your highness, I am glad to be able to introduce the gentlemen of your university to these new discoveries in your presence.

Cosimo bows formally in all directions, including Andrea’s
.

THEOLOGIAN
noticing the broken Ptolemaic model on the floor:
Something seems to have got broken here.
Cosimo quickly stoops down and politely hands Andrea the model. Meantime Galileo unobtrusively shifts the model to one side
.

GALILEO
at the telescope:
As your highness no doubt realises, we astronomers have been running into great difficulties in our calculations for some while. We have been using a very ancient system which is apparently consistent with our philosophy but not, alas, with the facts. Under this ancient, Ptolemaic system the motions of the stars are presumed to be extremely complex. The planet Venus, for instance, is supposed to have an orbit like this.
On a board he draws the epicyclical orbit of Venus according to the Ptolemaic hypothesis
. But even if we accept the awkwardness of such motions we are still unable to predict the position of the stars accurately. We do not find them where in principle they ought to be. What is more, some stars perform motions which the Ptolemaic system just cannot explain. Such motions, it seems to me, are performed by certain small stars
which I have recently discovered around the planet Jupiter.

Would you gentlemen care to start by observing these satellites of Jupiter, the Medicean stars?

ANDREA
indicating the stool by the telescope:
Kindly sit here.

PHILOSOPHER
: Thank you, my boy. I fear things are not quite so simple. Mr Galilei, before turning to your famous tube, I wonder if we might have the pleasure of a disputation? Its subject to be: Can such planets exist?

MATHEMATICIAN
: A formal dispute.

GALILEO
: I was thinking you could just look through the telescope and convince yourselves?

ANDREA
: This way, please.

MATHEMATICIAN
: Of course, of course. I take it you are familiar with the opinion of the ancients that there can be no stars which turn round centres other than the earth, nor any which lack support in the sky?

GALILEO
: I am.

PHILOSOPHER
: Moreover, quite apart from the very possibility of such stars, which our mathematicians –
he turns towards the mathematician
– would appear to doubt, I would like in all humility to pose the philosophical question: are such stars necessary? Aristotelis divini universum …

GALILEO
: Shouldn’t we go on using the vernacular? My colleague Mr Federzoni doesn’t understand Latin.

PHILOSOPHER
: Does it matter if he understands us or not?

GALILEO
: Yes.

PHILOSOPHER
: I am so sorry. I thought he was your lens-grinder.

ANDREA
: Mr Federzoni is a lens-grinder and a scholar.

PHILOSOPHER
: Thank you, my boy. Well, if Mr Federzoni insists …

GALILEO
: I insist.

PHILOSOPHER
: The argument will be less brilliant, but it’s your house. The universe of the divine Aristotle, with the mystical music of its spheres and its crystal vaults, the orbits of its heavenly bodies, the slanting angle of the sun’s course, the secrets of the moon tables, the starry richness catalogued in the southern hemisphere and the transparent structure of
the celestial globe add up to an edifice of such exquisite proportions that we should think twice before disrupting its harmony.

GALILEO
: How about your highness now taking a look at his impossible and unnecessary stars through this telescope?

MATHEMATICIAN
: One might be tempted to answer that, if your tube shows something which cannot be there, it cannot be an entirely reliable tube, wouldn’t you say?

GALILEO
: What d’you mean by that?

MATHEMATICIAN
: It would be rather more appropriate, Mr Galilei, if you were to name your reasons for assuming that there could be free-floating stars moving about in the highest sphere of the unalterable heavens.