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

by Bertolt Brecht

  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.

  PHILOSOPHER: Your reasons, Mr Galilei, your reasons.

  GALILEO: My reasons! When a single glance at the stars themselves and my own notes makes the phenomenon evident? Sir, your disputation is becoming absurd.

  MATHEMATICIAN: If one could be sure of not over-exciting you one might say that what is in your tube and what is in the skies is not necessarily the same thing.

  PHILOSOPHER: That couldn’t be more courteously put.

  FEDERZONI: They think we painted the Medicean stars on the lens.

  GALILEO: Are you saying I’m a fraud?

  PHILOSOPHER: How could we? In his highness’s presence too.

  MATHEMATICIAN: Your instrument – I don’t know whether to call it your brainchild or your adopted brainchild – is most ingeniously made, no doubt of that.

  PHILOSOPHER: And we are utterly convinced, Mr Galilei, that neither you nor anyone else would bestow the illustrious name of our ruling family on stars whose existence was not above all doubt. All bow deeply to the grand duke.

  COSIMO turns to the ladies of the court: Is something the matter with my stars?

  THE OLDER COURT LADY: There is nothing the matter with your highness’s stars. It’s just that the gentlemen are wondering if they are really and truly there. Pause.

  THE YOUNGER COURT LADY: I’m told you can actually see the wheels on the Plough.

  FEDERZONI: Yes, and all kinds of things on the Bull.

  GALILEO: Well, are you gentlemen going to look through it or not?

  PHILOSOPHER: Of course, of course.

  MATHEMATICIAN: Of course.

  Pause. Suddenly Andrea turns and walks stiffly out across the whole length of the room. His mother stops him.

  MRS SARTI: What’s the matter with you?

  ANDREA: They’re stupid. He tears himself away and runs off.

  PHILOSOPHER: A lamentable boy.

  CHAMBERLAIN: Your highness: gentlemen: may I remind you that the state ball is due to start in three quarters of an hour.

  MATHEMATICIAN: Let’s not beat about the bush. Sooner or later Mr Galilei will have to reconcile himself to the facts.

  Those Jupiter satellites of his would penetrate the crystal spheres. It is as simple as that.

  FEDERZONI: You’ll be surprised: the crystal spheres don’t exist.

  PHILOSOPHER: Any textbook will tell you that they do, my good man.

  FEDERZONI: Right, then let’s have new textbooks.

  PHILOSOPHER: Your highness, my distinguished colleague and I are supported by none less than the divine Aristotle himself.

  GALILEO almost obsequiously: Gentlemen, to believe in the authority of Aristotle is one thing, tangible facts are another. You are saying that according to Aristotle there are crystal spheres up there, so certain motions just cannot take place because the stars would penetrate them. But suppose those motions could be established? Mightn’t that suggest to you that those crystal spheres don’t exist? Gentlemen, in all humility I ask you to go by the evidence of your eyes.

  MATHEMATICIAN: My dear Galileo, I may strike you as very old-fashioned, but I’m in the habit of reading Aristotle now and again, and there, I can assure you, I trust the evidence of my eyes.

  GALILEO: I am used to seeing the gentlemen of the various faculties shutting their eyes to every fact and pretending that nothing has happened. I produce my observations and everyone laughs: I offer my telescope so they can see for themselves, and everyone quotes Aristotle.

  FEDERZONI: The fellow had no telescope.

  MATHEMATICIAN: That’s just it.

  PHILOSOPHER grandly: If Aristotle is going to be dragged in the mud – that’s to say an authority recognized not only by every classical scientist but also by the chief fathers of the church – then any prolonging of this discussion is in my view a waste of time. I have no use for discussions which are not objective. Basta.

  GALILEO: Truth is born of the times, not of authority. Our ignorance is limitless: let us lop one cubic millimetre off it. Why try to be clever now that we at last have a chance of being just a little less stupid? I have had the unimaginable luck to get my hands on a new instrument that lets us observe one tiny corner of the universe a little, but not all that much, more exactly. Make use of it.

  PHILOSOPHER: Your highness, ladies and gentlemen, I just wonder where all this is leading?

  GALILEO: I should say our duty as scientists is not to ask where truth is leading.

  PHILOSOPHER agitatedly: Mr Galilei, truth might lead us anywhere!

  GALILEO: Your highness. At night nowadays telescopes are being pointed at the sky all over Italy. Jupiter’s moons may not bring down the price of milk. But they have never been seen before, and yet all the same they exist. From this the man in the street concludes that a lot else might exist if only he opened his eyes. It is your duty to confirm this. What has made Italy prick up its ears is not the movements of a few distant stars but the news that hitherto unquestioned dogmas have begun to totter – and we all know that there are too many of those. Gentlemen, don’t let us fight for questionable truths.

  FEDERZONI: You people are teachers: you should be stimulating the questions.

  PHILOSOPHER: I would rather your man didn’t tell us how to conduct a scholarly disputation.

  GALILEO: Your highness! My work in the Great Arsenal in Venice brought me into daily contact with draughtsmen, builders and instrument mechanics. Such people showed me a lot of new approaches. They don’t read much, but rely on the evidence of their five senses, without all that much fear as to where such evidence is going to lead them …

  PHILOSOPHER: Oho!

  GALILEO: Very much like our mariners who a hundred years ago abandoned our coasts without knowing what other coasts they would encounter, if any. It looks as if the only way today to find that supreme curiosity which was the real glory of classical Greece is to go down to the docks.

  PHILOSOPHER: After what we’ve heard so far I’m not surprised that Mr Galilei finds admirers at the docks.

  CHAMBERLAIN: Your highness, I am dismayed to note that this exceptionally instructive conversation has become a trifle prolonged. His highness must have some repose before the court ball.

  At a sign, the grand duke bows to Galileo. The court quickly gets ready to leave.

  MRS SARTI blocks the grand duke’s way and offers him a plate of biscuits: A biscuit, your highness? The older court lady leads the grand duke out.

  GALILEO hurrying after them: But all you gentlemen need do is look through the telescope!

  CHAMBERLAIN: His highness will not fail to submit your ideas to our greatest living astronomer: Father Christopher Clavius, chief astronomer at the papal college in Rome.

  5

  Undeterred even by the plague, Galileo carries on with his researches

  (a)

  Early morning. Galileo at the telescope, bent over his notes. Enter Virginia with a travelling bag.

  GALILEO: Virginia! Has something happened?

  VIRGINIA: The convent’s shut; they sent us straight home. Arcetri has had five cases of plague.

  GALILEO calls: Sarti!

  VIRGINIA: Market Street was barricaded off last night. Two people have died in the old town, they say, and there are three more dying in hospital.

  GALILEO: As usual they hushed it all up till it was too late.

  MRS SARTI entering: What are you doing here?

  VIRGINIA: The plague.

  MRS SARTI: God alive! I’ll pack. Sits down.

  GALILEO: Pack nothing. Take Virginia and Andrea. I’ll get my notes.

  He hurries to his table and hurriedly gathers up papers. Mrs Sarti puts Andrea’s coat on him as he runs up, then collects some food and bed linen. Enter a grand-ducal footman.

  FOOTMAN: In view of the spread of the disease his highness has left the city for Bologna. However, he insisted that Mr Galilei too should be offered a chance to get to safety. The carriage will be outside your door in two minutes. />
  MRS SARTI to Virginia and Andrea: Go outside at once. Here, take this.

  ANDREA: What for? If you don’t tell my why I shan’t go.

  MRS SARTI: It’s the plague, my boy.

  VIRGINIA: We’ll wait for Father.

  MRS SARTI: Mr Galilei, are you ready?

  GALILEO wrapping the telescope in the tablecloth: Put Virginia and Andrea in the carriage. I won’t be a moment.

  VIRGINIA: No, we’re not going without you. Once you start packing up your books you’ll never finish.

  MRS SARTI: The coach is there.

  GALILEO: Have some sense, Virginia, if you don’t take your seats the coachman will drive off. Plague is no joking matter.

  VIRGINIA protesting, as Mrs Sarti and Andrea escort her out: Help him with his books, or he won’t come.

  MRS SARTI from the main door: Mr Galilei, the coachman says he can’t wait.

  GALILEO: Mrs Sarti, I don’t think I should go. It’s all such a mess, you see: three months’ worth of notes which I might as well throw away if I can’t spend another night or two on them. Anyway this plague is all over the place.

  MRS SARTI: Mr Galilei! You must come now! You’re crazy.

  GALILEO: You’ll have to go off with Virginia and Andrea. I’ll follow.

  MRS SARTI: Another hour, and nobody will be able to get away. You must come. Listens. He’s driving off. I’ll have to stop him.

  Exit.

  Galileo walks up and down. Mrs Sarti re-enters, very pale, without her bundle.

  GALILEO: What are you still here for? You’ll miss the children’s carriage.

  MRS SARTI: They’ve gone. Virginia had to be held in. The children will get looked after in Bologna. But who’s going to see you get your meals?

  GALILEO: You’re crazy. Staying in this city in order to cook! Picking up his notes: Don’t think I’m a complete fool, Mrs Sarti. I can’t abandon these observations. I have powerful enemies and I must collect proofs for certain hypotheses.

  MRS SARTI: You don’t have to justify yourself. But it’s not exactly sensible.

  (b)

  Outside Galileo’s house in Florence. Galileo steps out and looks down the street. Two nuns pass by.

  GALILEO addresses them: Could you tell me, sisters, where I can buy some milk? The milk woman didn’t come this morning, and my housekeeper has left.