Read Online Pirandello's Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello, Tom Stoppard - Free Book Online

   Don’t provoke him, for God’s sake.
    BELCREDI    They did! (
pointing again at the four Counsellors
) Them!
    HENRY    You? Did you tell them it was a joke?
    LANDOLF    No . . . we just said you were cured.
    BELCREDI    There you are. (
to Matilda
) Aren’t you embarrassed at yourself?—look at him (
indicating Di Nolli
)—look at yourself, Countess—playing at dressing up!
    MATILDA    Oh, shut up! What does it matter who’s wearing what, if he’s really cured?
    HENRY    Yes, I’m really cured, (
to Belcredi
) But I haven’t finished with you yet. (
aggressively
) Are you aware that in twenty years no one has dared to come into my presence dressed like you and this gentleman here?
    Henry points to the Doctor.
    BELCREDI    Of course I am. For that matter, when I appeared before you this morning I came dressed—
    HENRY    —as a monk, of course!
    BELCREDI    You mistook me for Peter Damian, and the only reason I didn’t laugh was—
    HENRY    You thought I was crazy. So, now that I’m sane, you can jeer at her to see her in costume? And yet, you might have reflected that, in my eyes, she looks . . . Oh, what does it matter? (
turning suddenly to the Doctor
) You’re a doctor?
    DOCTOR    Er—yes. . .
    HENRY    So all this was your idea. Don’t you realise you could have plunged my mind back onto the dark pit of madness . . . making pictures talk and leap out of their frames?
    Henry observes Frida and Di Nolli, then Matilda, and lastly he looks at his own clothes.
    HENRY    (
cont.
) Double, double . . . Splendid, just what the doctor ordered for the lunatic . . . (
pointing at Belcredi
) To him it’s just another game of dressing up. (
addressing Belcredi
) And now—off with the motley, eh?—so I can come along with you—do you think?
    BELCREDI    With me—with us . . .
    HENRY    Where should we go, then? How about the club? In best bib and tucker. Or shall we go home with the Countess, the two of us?
    BELCREDI    Whatever you like. Why not? You don’t want to stay here—all alone and for evermore—keeping up a carnival joke that went wrong? It’s amazing how you managed to keep it going once you’d recovered from the accident.
    HENRY    Ah, yes—but when the horse threw me and I hit my head, I actually did lose my mind, I’m not sure for how long.
    DOCTOR    Ah! Most interesting! How long roughly?
    HENRY    About twelve years. (
to Belcredi
) Yes—knowing nothing about what life had saved up for you and not for me, from the day of the carnival onwards . . . all the changes, friends who turned against me, or how my place was taken, in . . . let’s say . . . the heart of a woman I loved . . . not knowing who’d died, who’d gone away . . . all that, you know, was no joke.
    BELCREDI    That’s not what I said—I was talking about later when . . .
    HENRY    Oh—later! Well, one day . . . Are you listening, Doctor?—I’m a very interesting case, you should take notes . . . Well, one day . . . all by itself, God knows how, the damage here (
He touches his forehead.
) . . . mended itself . . . I open my eyes slowly, to begin with I’m not sure if I’m asleep or awake—and then, yes, I’m awake, I touch things, the fog is clearing . . . I’m cured . . . And now—just as he says (
pointing to Belcredi
)—yes, throw off the masquerade! Shake off the nightmare! Open the doors and windows!Breathe in the air! Quick! Away! (
more calmly
) But where? For what? For everybody to point a furtive finger?—“There goes Henry IV!” And not as you see me now, but out in the world, arm in arm with you, my dear friends!
    BELCREDI    It wouldn’t be