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THE FATHER (_taking hold of him and shaking him_). For G.o.d's sake, do as I tell you! Don't you hear your mother asking you for a favour? Haven't you even got the guts to be a son?
THE SON (_taking hold of the Father_). No! No! And for G.o.d's sake stop it, or else ... (_General agitation. The Mother, frightened, tries to separate them_).
THE MOTHER (_pleading_). Please! please!
THE FATHER (_not leaving hold of the Son_). You've got to obey, do you hear?
THE SON (_almost crying from rage_). What does it mean, this madness you've got? (_They separate_). Have you no decency, that you insist on showing everyone our shame? I won't do it! I won't! And I stand for the will of our author in this.
He didn't want to put us on the stage, after all!
THE MANAGER. Man alive! You came here....
THE SON (_indicating Father_). _He_ did! I didn't!
THE MANAGER. Aren't you here now?
THE SON. It was his wish, and he dragged us along with him.
He's told you not only the things that did happen, but also things that have never happened at all.
THE MANAGER. Well, tell me then what did happen. You went out of your room without saying a word?
THE SON. Without a word, so as to avoid a scene!
THE MANAGER. And then what did you do?
THE SON. Nothing ... walking in the garden.... (_hesitates for a moment with expression of gloom_).
THE MANAGER (_coming closer to him, interested by his extraordinary reserve_). Well, well ... walking in the garden....
THE SON (_exasperated_). Why on earth do you insist? It's horrible! (_The Mother trembles, sobs, and looks towards the fountain_).
THE MANAGER (_slowly observing the glance and turning towards the Son with increasing apprehension_). The baby?
THE SON. There in the fountain....
THE FATHER (_pointing with tender pity to the Mother_). She was following him at the moment....
THE MANAGER (_to the Son anxiously_). And then you....
THE SON. I ran over to her; I was jumping in to drag her out when I saw something that froze my blood ... the boy there standing stock still, with eyes like a madman's, watching his little drowned sister, in the fountain! (_The Step-Daughter bends over the fountain to hide the Child. She sobs_). Then.... (_A revolver shot rings out behind the trees where the Boy is hidden_).
THE MOTHER. (_With a cry of terror runs over in that direction together with several of the actors amid general confusion_).
My son! My son! (_Then amid the cries and exclamations one hears her voice_). Help! Help!
THE MANAGER (_pus.h.i.+ng the actors aside while they lift up the Boy and carry him off_). Is he really wounded?
SOME ACTORS. He's dead! dead!
OTHER ACTORS. No, no, it's only make believe, it's only pretence!
THE FATHER (_with a terrible cry_). Pretence? Reality, sir, reality!
THE MANAGER. Pretence? Reality? To h.e.l.l with it all! Never in my life has such a thing happened to me. I've lost a whole day over these people, a whole day!
_Curtain._
"HENRY IV."
(_Enrico Quarto_)
A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS
BY
LUIGI PIRANDELLO
TRANSLATED BY
EDWARD STORER
CHARACTERS.
"HENRY IV." THE MARCHIONESS MATILDA SPINA, HER DAUGHTER FRIDA. THE YOUNG MARQUIS CHARLES DI NOLLI. BARON t.i.tO BELCREDI. DOCTOR DIONYSIUS GENONI. THE FOUR PRIVATE COUNSELLORS: HAROLD (FRANK), LANDOLPH (LOLO), ORDULPH (MOMO), BERTHOLD (FINO). (_The names in brackets are nick-names_). JOHN, THE OLD WAITER. THE TWO VALETS IN COSTUME.
A SOLITARY VILLA IN ITALY IN OUR OWN TIME.
"HENRY IV."
A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS
ACT I
_Salon in the villa, furnished and decorated so as to look exactly like the throne room of Henry IV. in the royal residence at Goslar. Among the antique decorations there are two modern life-size portraits in oil painting. They are placed against the back wall, and mounted in a wooden stand that runs the whole length of the wall. (It is wide and protrudes, so that it is like a large bench). One of the paintings is on the right; the other on the left of the throne, which is in the middle of the wall and divides the stand._
_The Imperial chair and Baldachin._
_The two portraits represent a lady and a gentleman, both young, dressed up in carnival costumes: one as "Henry IV."
