Brecht Collected Plays: 5: Life of Galileo; Mother Courage and Her Children (World Classics) (62 page)

LITTLE MONK
He hasn’t.

ANDREA
He held true. It is all right, it is all right.

LITTLE MONK
He did not recant.

FEDERZONI
No.

(
They embrace each other, they are delirious with joy)

ANDREA
So force cannot accomplish everything. What has been seen can’t be unseen. Man is constant in the face of death.

FEDERZONI
June 22, 1633: dawn of the age of reason. I wouldn’t have wanted to go on living if he had recanted.

LITTLE MONK
I didn’t say anything, but I was in agony. Oh, ye of little faith!

ANDREA
I was sure.

FEDERZONI
It would have turned our morning to night.

ANDREA
It would have been as if the mountain had turned to water.

LITTLE MONK
(
kneeling down, crying
) Oh God, I thank Thee.

ANDREA
Beaten humanity can lift its head. A man has stood up and said “no.”

(
At this moment the bell of Saint Marcus begins to toll. They stand like statues. Virginia stands up)

VIRGINIA
The bell of Saint Marcus. He is not damned.

(
From the street one hears the Town Crier reading Galileo’s recantation)

TOWN CRIER
I, Galileo Galilei, Teacher of Mathematics and Physics, do hereby publicly renounce my teaching that the earth moves. I foreswear this teaching with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith and detest and curse this and all other errors and heresies repugnant to the Holy Scriptures.

(
The lights dim; when they come up again the bell of Saint Marcus is petering out. Virginia has gone but the Scholars are still there waiting)

ANDREA
(
loud
) The mountain did turn to water.

(
Galileo has entered quietly and unnoticed. He is changed, almost unrecognizable. He has heard Andrea. He waits some seconds by the door for somebody to greet him. Nobody does. They retreat from him. He goes slowly and, because of his bad sight, uncertainly, to the front of the stage where he finds a chair, and sits down)

ANDREA
I can’t look at him. Tell him to go away.

FEDERZONI
Steady.

ANDREA
(
hysterically
) He saved his big gut.

FEDERZONI
Get him a glass of water.

(
The Little Monk fetches a glass of water for Andrea. Nobody acknowledges the presence of Galileo, who sits silently on his chair listening to the voice of the Town Crier, now in another street)

ANDREA
I can walk. Just help me a bit. (
They help him to the door)

ANDREA
(
in the door
) “Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.”

GALILEO
No, Andrea: “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”

(
Before the next scene a curtain with the following legend on it is lowered)

You can plainly see that if a horse were to fall from a height of three or four feet, it could break its bones, whereas a dog would not
suffer injury. The same applies to a cat from a height of as much as eight or ten feet, to a grasshopper from the top of a tower, and to an ant falling down from the moon. Nature could not allow a horse to become as big as twenty horses nor a giant as big as ten men, unless she were to change the proportions of all its members, particularly the bones. Thus the common assumption that great and small structures are equally tough is obviously wrong.

– From the “Discorsi”

Scene Thirteen

1633–1642
.

Galileo Galilei remains a prisoner

of the Inquisition until his death
.

A country house near Florence. A large room simply furnished. There is a huge table, a leather chair, a globe of the world on a stand, and a narrow bed. A portion of the adjoining anteroom is visible, and the front door which opens into it. An Official of the Inquisition sits on guard in the anteroom. In the large room, Galileo is quietly experimenting with a bent wooden rail and a small ball of wood. He is still vigorous but almost blind. After a while there is a knocking at the outside door. The Official opens it to a peasant who brings a plucked goose. Virginia comes from the kitchen. She is past forty
.

PEASANT
(
handing the goose to Virginia
) I was told to deliver this here.

VIRGINIA
I didn’t order a goose.

PEASANT
I was told to say it’s from someone who was passing through.

(
Virginia takes the goose, surprised. The Official takes it from her and examines it suspiciously. Then, reassured, he hands it back to her. The Peasant goes. Virginia brings the goose in to Galileo)

VIRGINIA
Somebody who was passing through sent you something.

GALILEO
What is it?

VIRGINIA
Can’t you see it?

GALILEO
No. (
He walks over
) A goose. Any name?

VIRGINIA
No.

GALILEO
(
weighing the goose
) Solid.

VIRGINIA
(
cautiously
) Will you eat the liver, if I have it cooked with a little apple?

GALILEO
I had my dinner. Are you under orders to finish me off with food?

VIRGINIA
It’s not rich. And what is wrong with your eyes again? You should be able to see it.

GALILEO
You were standing in the light.

VIRGINIA
I was not. – You haven’t been writing again?

GALILEO
(
sneering
) What do you think?

(
Virginia takes the goose out into the anteroom and speaks to the Official)

VIRGINIA
You had better ask Monsignor Carpula to send the doctor. Father couldn’t see this goose across the room. – Don’t look at me like that. He has not been writing. He dictates everything to me, as you know.

OFFICIAL
Yes?

VIRGINIA
He abides by the rules. My father’s repentance is sincere. I keep an eye on him. (
She hands him the goose
) Tell the cook to fry the liver with an apple and an onion. (
She goes back into the large room
) And you have no business to be doing that with those eyes of yours, father.

GALILEO
You may read me some Horace.

VIRGINIA
We should go on with your weekly letter to the Archbishop. Monsignor Carpula to whom we owe so much was all smiles the other day because the Archbishop had expressed his pleasure at your collaboration.

GALILEO
Where were we?

VIRGINIA
(
sits down to take his dictation
) Paragraph four.

GALILEO
Read what you have.

VIRGINIA
“The position of the Church in the matter of the unrest at Genoa. I agree with Cardinal Spoletti in the matter of the unrest among the Venetian ropemakers …”

GALILEO
Yes. (
Dictates
) I agree with Cardinal Spoletti in the matter of the unrest among the Venetian ropemakers: it is better to distribute good nourishing food in the name of charity than to pay them more for their bellropes. It being surely better to strengthen their faith than to encourage their acquisitiveness. St. Paul says: Charity never faileth. – How is that?

VIRGINIA
It’s beautiful, father.

GALILEO
It couldn’t be taken as irony?

VIRGINIA
No. The Archbishop will like it. It’s so practical.

GALILEO
I trust your judgment. Read it over slowly.

VIRGINIA
“The position of the Church in the matter of the unrest …”

(
There is a knocking at the outside door. Virginia goes into the anteroom. The Official opens the door. It is Andrea)

ANDREA
Good evening. I am sorry to call so late, I’m on my way to Holland. I was asked to look him up. Can I go in?

VIRGINIA
I don’t know whether he will see you. You never came.

ANDREA
Ask him.

(
Galileo recognizes the voice. He sits motionless. Virginia comes in to Galileo)

GALILEO
Is that Andrea?

VIRGINIA
Yes. (
Pause
) I will send him away.

GALILEO
Show him in.

(
Virginia shows Andrea in. Virginia sits, Andrea remains standing)

ANDREA
(
cool
) Have you been keeping well, Mr. Galilei?

GALILEO
Sit down. What are you doing these days? What are you working on? I heard it was something about hydraulics in Milan.

ANDREA
As he knew I was passing through, Fabricius of Amsterdam asked me to visit you and inquire about your health.

(
Pause)

GALILEO
I am very well.

ANDREA
(
formally
) I am glad I can report you are in good health.

GALILEO
Fabricius will be glad to hear it. And you might inform him that, on account of the depth of my repentance, I live in comparative comfort.

ANDREA
Yes, we understand that the church is more than pleased with you. Your complete acceptance has had its effect. Not one paper expounding a new thesis has made its appearance in Italy since your submission.

(
Pause)

GALILEO
Unfortunately there are countries not under the wing of the church. Would you not say the erroneous condemned theories are still taught – there?

ANDREA
(
relentless
) Things are almost at a standstill.

GALILEO
Are they? (
Pause
) Nothing from Descartes in Paris?

ANDREA
Yes. On receiving the news of your recantation, he shelved his treatise on the nature of light.

GALILEO
I sometimes worry about my assistants whom I led into error. Have they benefited by my example?

ANDREA
In order to work I have to go to Holland.

GALILEO
Yes.

ANDREA
Federzoni is grinding lenses again, back in some shop.

GALILEO
He can’t read the books.

ANDREA
Fulganzio, our little monk, has abandoned research and is resting in peace in the church.

GALILEO
So. (
Pause
) My superiors are looking forward to my spiritual recovery. I am progressing as well as can be expected.

VIRGINIA
You are doing well, father.

GALILEO
Virginia, leave the room.

(
Virginia rises uncertainly and goes out)

VIRGINIA
(
to the Official
) He was his pupil, so now he is his enemy.

– Help me in the kitchen.

(
She leaves the anteroom with the Official)

ANDREA
May I go now, sir?

GALILEO
I do not know why you came, Sarti. To unsettle me? I have to be prudent.

ANDREA
I’ll be on my way.

GALILEO
As it is, I have relapses. I completed the “Discorsi.”

ANDREA
You completed what?

GALILEO
My “Discorsi.”

ANDREA HOW?

GALILEO
I am allowed pen and paper. My superiors are intelligent men. They know the habits of a lifetime cannot be broken abruptly. But they protect me from any unpleasant consequences: they lock my pages away as I dictate them. And I should know better than to risk my comfort. I wrote the “Discorsi” out again during the night. The manuscript is in the globe. My vanity has up to now prevented me from destroying it. If you consider taking it, you will shoulder the entire risk. You will say it was pirated from the original in the hands of the Holy Office.

(
Andrea, as in a trance, has gone to the globe. He lifts the upper half and gets the book. He turns the pages as if wanting to devour them. In the background the opening sentences of the “Discorsi” appear:

MY PURPOSE IS TO SET FORTH A VERY NEW SCIENCE, DEALING WITH A VERY ANCIENT SUBJECT – MOTION…. AND I HAVE DISCOVERED BY EXPERIMENT SOME PROPERTIES OF IT WHICH ARE WORTH KNOWING….)

GALILEO
I had to employ my time somehow.

(
The text disappears)

ANDREA
Two new sciences! This will be the foundation stone of a new physics.

GALILEO
Yes. Put it under your coat.

ANDREA
And we thought you had deserted. (
In a low voice
) Mr. Galilei, how can I begin to express my shame. Mine has been the loudest voice against you.

GALILEO
That would seem to have been proper. I taught you science and I decried the truth.

ANDREA
Did you? I think not. Everything is changed!

GALILEO
What is changed?

ANDREA
You shielded the truth from the oppressor. Now I see! In your dealings with the Inquisition you used the same superb common sense you brought to physics.

GALILEO
Oh!

ANDREA
We lost our heads. With the crowd in the street corners we said: “He will die, he will never surrender!” You came back: “I surrendered but I am alive.” We cried: “Your hands are stained!” You say: “Better stained than empty.”

GALILEO
“Better stained than empty.” – It sounds realistic. Sounds like me.