Three Plays Part 20

DONNA MATILDA. No, not at all. How could I have given it to him? I was just like Frida then--and not even engaged. I gave it to him three or four years after the accident. I gave it to him because his mother wished it so much (_points to Di Nolli_)....

DOCTOR. She was his sister (_alludes to Henry IV._)?

DI NOLLI. Yes, doctor; and our coming here is a debt we pay to my mother who has been dead for more than a month.

Instead of being here, she and I (_indicating Frida_) ought to be traveling together....

DOCTOR. ... taking a cure of quite a different kind!

DI NOLLI. --Hum! Mother died in the firm conviction that her adored brother was just about to be cured.

DOCTOR. And can't you tell me, if you please, how she inferred this?

DI NOLLI. The conviction would appear to have derived from certain strange remarks which he made, a little before mother died.

DOCTOR. Oh, remarks!... Ah!... It would be extremely useful for me to have those remarks, word for word, if possible.

DI NOLLI. I can't remember them. I know that mother returned awfully upset from her last visit with him. On her death-bed, she made me promise that I would never neglect him, that I would have doctors see him, and examine him.

DOCTOR. Um! Um! Let me see! let me see! Sometimes very small reasons determine ... and this portrait here then?...

DONNA MATILDA. For Heaven's sake, doctor, don't attach excessive importance to this. It made an impression on me because I had not seen it for so many years!

DOCTOR. If you please, quietly, quietly....

DI NOLLI. --Well, yes, it must be about fifteen years ago.

DONNA MATILDA. More, more: eighteen!

DOCTOR. Forgive me, but you don't quite know what I'm trying to get at. I attach a very great importance to these two portraits.... They were painted, naturally, prior to the famous--and most regretable pageant, weren't they?

DONNA MATILDA. Of course!

DOCTOR. That is ... when he was quite in his right mind--that's what I've been trying to say. Was it his suggestion that they should be painted?

DONNA MATILDA. Lots of the people who took part in the pageant had theirs done as a souvenir....

BELCREDI. I had mine done--as "Charles of Anjou!"

DONNA MATILDA. ...as soon as the costumes were ready.

BELCREDI. As a matter of fact, it was proposed that the whole lot of us should be hung together in a gallery of the villa where the pageant took place. But in the end, everybody wanted to keep his own portrait.

DONNA MATILDA. And I gave him this portrait of me without very much regret ... since his mother.... (_indicates Di Nolli_).

DOCTOR. You don't remember if it was he who asked for it?

DONNA MATILDA. Ah, that I don't remember ... Maybe it was his sister, wanting to help out....

DOCTOR. One other thing: was it his idea, this pageant?

BELCREDI (_at once_). No, no, it was mine!

DOCTOR. If you please....

DONNA MATILDA. Don't listen to him! It was poor Bela.s.si's idea.

BELCREDI. Bela.s.si! What had he got to do with it?

DONNA MATILDA. Count Bela.s.si, who died, poor fellow, two or three months after....

BELCREDI. But if Bela.s.si wasn't there when....

DI NOLLI. Excuse me, doctor; but is it really necessary to establish whose the original idea was?

DOCTOR. It would help me, certainly!

BELCREDI. I tell you the idea was mine! There's nothing to be proud of in it, seeing what the result's been. Look here, doctor, it was like this. One evening, in the first days of November, I was looking at an ill.u.s.trated German review in the club. I was merely glancing at the pictures, because I can't read German. There was a picture of the Kaiser, at some University town where he had been a student ... I don't remember which.

DOCTOR. Bonn, Bonn!

BELCREDI. --You are right: Bonn! He was on horseback, dressed up in one of those ancient German student guild-costumes, followed by a procession of n.o.ble students, also in costume. The picture gave me the idea. Already some one at the club had spoken of a pageant for the forthcoming carnival. So I had the notion that each of us should choose for this Tower of Babel pageant to represent some character: a king, an emperor, a prince, with his queen, empress, or lady, alongside of him--and all on horseback. The suggestion was at once accepted.

DONNA MATILDA. I had my invitation from Bela.s.si.

BELCREDI. Well, he wasn't speaking the truth! That's all I can say, if he told you the idea was his. He wasn't even at the club the evening I made the suggestion, just as he (_meaning Henry IV._) wasn't there either.

DOCTOR. So he chose the character of Henry IV.?

DONNA MATILDA. Because I ... thinking of my name, and not giving the choice any importance, said I would be the Marchioness Matilda of Tuscany.

DOCTOR. I ... don't understand the relation between the two.

DONNA MATILDA. --Neither did I, to begin with, when he said that in that case he would be at my feet like Henry IV. at Canossa. I had heard of Canossa of course; but to tell the truth, I'd forgotten most of the story; and I remember I received a curious impression when I had to get up my part, and found that I was the faithful and zealous friend of Pope Gregory VII. in deadly enmity with the Emperor of Germany.

Then I understood why, since I had chosen to represent his implacable enemy, he wanted to be near me in the pageant as Henry IV.

DOCTOR. Ah, perhaps because....

BELCREDI. --Good Heavens, doctor, because he was then paying furious court to her (_indicates the Marchioness_)! And she, naturally....

DONNA MATILDA. Naturally? Not naturally at all....

BELCREDI (_pointing to her_). She couldn't stand him....

DONNA MATILDA. --No, that isn't true! I didn't dislike him.

Not at all! But for me, when a man begins to want to be taken seriously, well....

BELCREDI (_continuing for her_). He gives you the clearest proof of his stupidity.

DONNA MATILDA. No dear; not in this case; because he was never a fool like you.