Brecht Collected Plays: 5: Life of Galileo; Mother Courage and Her Children (World Classics)
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GALILEO Well, now I push the ice below the surface. I take away the pressure of my hands. What happens?
(Pause)
LITTLE MONK It rises to the surface.
GALILEO Correct. It seems to be able to divide the water as it’s coming up, doesn’t it?
LITTLE MONK Could it be lighter than water after all?
GALILEO Aha!
ANDREA Then all things that are lighter than water float, and all things that are heavier sink. Q.e.d.
GALILEO Not at all. Hand me that iron needle. Heavier than water? (They all nod) A piece of paper. (He places the needle on a piece of paper and floats it on the surface of the water. Pause) Do not be hasty with your conclusions. (Pause) What happens?
FEDERZONI The paper has sunk, the needle is floating.
VIRGINIA What’s the matter?
MRS. SARTI Every time I hear them laugh it sends shivers down my spine.
(There is a knocking at the outer door)
MRS. SARTI Who’s that at the door?
(Enter Ludovico. Virginia runs to him. They embrace. Ludovico is followed by a servant with baggage)
MRS. SARTI Well!
VIRGINIA Oh! Why didn’t you write that you were coming?
LUDOVICO I decided on the spur of the moment. I was over inspecting our vineyards at Bucciole. I couldn’t keep away.
GALILEO Who’s that?
LITTLE MONK Miss Virginia’s intended. What’s the matter with your eyes?
GALILEO (blinking) Oh yes, it’s Ludovico, so it is. Well! Sarti, get a jug of that Sicilian wine, the old kind. We celebrate. (Everybody sits down. Mrs. Sarti has left, followed by Ludovico’s Servant.)
GALILEO Well, Ludovico, old man. How are the horses?
LUDOVICO The horses are fine.
GALILEO Fine.
LUDOVICO But those vineyards need a firm hand. (To Virginia) You look pale. Country life will suit you. Mother’s planning on September.
VIRGINIA I suppose I oughtn’t, but stay here, I’ve got something to show you.
LUDOVICO What?
VIRGINIA Never mind. I won’t be ten minutes. (She runs out)
LUDOVICO How’s life these days, sir?
GALILEO Dull. – How was the journey?
LUDOVOCI Dull. – Before I forget, mother sends her congratulations on your admirable tact over the latest rumblings of science.
GALILEO Thank her for me.
LUDOVICO Christopher Clavius had all Rome on its ears. He said he was afraid that the turning around business might crop up again on account of these spots on the sun.
ANDREA Clavius is on the same track! (To Ludovico) My mother’s baskets are full of letters from all over Europe asking Mr. Galilei’s opinion.
GALILEO I am engaged in investigating the habits of floating bodies. Any harm in that? (Mrs. Sarti re-enters, followed by the Servant. They bring wine and glasses on a tray)
GALILEO (hands out the wine) What news from the Holy City, apart from the prospect of my sins?
LUDOVICO The Holy Father is on his death bed. Hadn’t you heard?
LITTLE MONK My goodness! What about the succession?
LUDOVICO All the talk is of Barberini.
GALILEO Barberini?
ANDREA Mr. Galilei knows Barberini.
LITTLE MONK Cardinal Barberini is a mathematician.
FEDERZONI A scientist in the chair of Peter!
(Pause)
GALILEO (cheering up enormously) This means change. We might live to see the day, Federzoni, when we don’t have to whisper that two and two are four. (To Ludovico) I like this wine. Don’t you, Ludovico?
LUDOVICO I like it.
GALILEO I know the hill where it is grown. The slope is steep and stony, the grape almost blue. I am fond of this wine.
LUDOVICO Yes, sir.
GALILEO There are shadows in this wine. It is almost sweet but just stops short. – Andrea, clear that stuff away, ice, bowl, and needle. – I cherish the consolations of the flesh. I have no patience with cowards who call them weaknesses. I say there is a certain achievement in enjoying things.
(The Pupils get up and go to the experiment table)
LITTLE MONK What are we to do?
FEDERZONI He is starting on the sun.
(They begin with clearing up)
ANDREA (singing in a low voice)
The Bible proves the earth stands still,
The Pope, he swears with tears:
The earth stands still. To prove it so
He takes it by the ears.
LUDOVICO What’s the excitement?
MRS. SARTI You’re not going to start those hellish goings-on again, Mr. Galilei?
ANDREA
And gentlefolk, they say so too.
Each learned doctor proves,
(If you grease his palm): The earth stands still.
And yet – and yet it moves.
GALILEO Barberini is in the ascendant, so your mother is uneasy, and you’re sent to investigate me. Correct me if I am wrong, Ludovico. Clavius is right: these spots on the sun interest me.
ANDREA We might find out that the sun also revolves. How would you like that, Ludovico?
GALILEO Do you like my wine, Ludovico?
LUDOVICO I told you I did, sir.
GALILEO You really like it?
LUDOVICO I like it.
GALILEO Tell me, Ludovico, would you consider going so far as to accept a man’s wine or his daughter without insisting that he drop his profession? I have no wish to intrude, but have the moons of Jupiter affected Virginia’s bottom?
MRS. SARTI That isn’t funny, it’s just vulgar. I am going for Virginia.
LUDOVICO (keeps her back) Marriages in families such as mine are not arranged on a basis of sexual attraction alone.
GALILEO Did they keep you back from marrying my daughter for eight years because I was on probation?
LUDOVICO My future wife must take her place in the family pew.
GALILEO You mean, if the daughter of a bad man sat in your family pew, your peasants might stop paying the rent?
LUDOVICO In a sort of way.
GALILEO When I was your age, the only person I allowed to rap me on the knuckles was my girl.
LUDOVICO My mother was assured that you had undertaken not to get mixed up in this turning around business again, sir.
GALILEO We had a conservative Pope then.
MRS. SARTI Had! His Holiness is not dead yet!
GALILEO (with relish) Pretty nearly.
MRS. SARTI That man will weigh a chip of ice fifty times, but when it comes to something that’s convenient, he believes it blindly. “Is His Holiness dead?” – “Pretty nearly!”
LUDOVICO You will find, sir, if His Holiness passes away, the new Pope, whoever he turns out to be, will respect the convictions held by the solid families of the country.
GALILEO (to Andrea) That remains to be seen. – Andrea, get out the screen. We’ll throw the image of the sun on our screen to save our eyes.
LITTLE MONK I thought you’d been working at it. Do you know when I guessed it? When you didn’t recognize Mr. Marsili.
MRS. SARTI If my son has to go to hell for sticking to you, that’s my affair, but you have no right to trample on your daughter’s happiness.
LUDOVICO (To his Servant) Giuseppe, take my baggage back to the coach, will you?
MRS. SARTI This will kill her. (She runs out, still clutching the jug)
LUDOVICO (politely) Mr. Galilei, if we Marsilis were to countenance teachings frowned on by the church, it would unsettle our peasants. Bear in mind: these poor people in their brute state get everything upside down. They are nothing but animals. They will never comprehend the finer points of astronomy. Why, two months ago a rumor went around, an apple had been found on a pear tree, and they left their work in the fields to discuss it.
GALILEO (interested) Did they?
LUDOVICO I have seen the day when my poor mother has had to have a dog whipped before their eyes to remind them to kee
p their place. Oh, you may have seen the waving corn from the window of your comfortable coach. You have, no doubt, nibbled our olives, and absentmindedly eaten our cheese, but you have no idea how much responsibility that sort of thing entails.
GALILEO Young man, I do not eat my cheese absentmindedly. (To Andrea) Are we ready?
ANDREA Yes, sir.
GALILEO (leaves Ludovico and adjusts the mirror) You would not confine your whippings to dogs to remind your peasants to keep their places, would you, Marsili?
LUDOVICO (after a pause) Mr. Galilei, you have a wonderful brain, it’s a pity.
LITTLE MONK (astonished) He threatened you.
GALILEO Yes. And he threatened you too. We might unsettle his peasants. Your sister, Fulganzio, who works the lever of the olive press, might laugh out loud if she heard the sun is not a gilded coat of arms but a lever too. The earth turns because the sun turns it.
ANDREA That could interest his steward too and even his money lender – and the seaport towns….
FEDERZONI None of them speak Latin.
GALILEO I might write in plain language. The work we do is exacting. Who would go through the strain for less than the population at large!
LUDOVICO I see you have made your decision. It was inevitable. You will always be a slave of your passions. Excuse me to Virginia, I think it’s as well I don’t see her now.
GALILEO The dowry is at your disposal at any time.
LUDOVICO Good afternoon. (He goes followed by the Servant)
ANDREA Exit Ludovico. To hell with all Marsilis, Villanis, Orsinis, Canes, Nuccolis, Soldanieris….
FEDERZONI … who ordered the earth stand still because their castles might be shaken loose if it revolves …
LITTLE MONK … and who only kiss the Pope’s feet as long as he uses them to trample on the people. God made the physical world, God made the human brain. God will allow physics.
ANDREA They will try to stop us.
GALILEO Thus we enter the observation of these spots on the sun in which we are interested, at our own risk, not counting on protection from a problematical new Pope …
ANDREA … but with great likelihood of dispelling Fabricius’ vapors, and the shadows of Paris and Prague, and of establishing the rotation of the sun …
GALILEO … and with some likelihood of establishing the rotation of the sun. My intention is not to prove that I was right but to find out whether I was right. “Abandon hope all ye who enter – an observation.” Before assuming these phenomena are spots, which would suit us, let us first set about proving that they are not – fried fish. We crawl by inches. What we find today we will wipe from the blackboard tomorrow and reject it – unless it shows up again the day after tomorrow. And if we find anything which would suit us, that thing we will eye with particular distrust. In fact, we will approach this observing of the sun with the implacable determination to prove that the earth stands still and only if hopelessly defeated in this pious undertaking can we allow ourselves to wonder if we may not have been right all the time: the earth revolves. Take the cloth off the telescope and turn it on the sun. (Quietly they start work. When the corruscating image of the sun is focused on the screen, Virginia enters hurriedly, her wedding dress on, her hair disheveled, Mrs. Sarti with her, carrying her wedding veil. The two women realize what has happened. Virginia faints. Andrea, Little Monk and Galileo rush to her. Federzoni continues working)
Scene Nine
On April Fool’s Day, thirty two,
Of science there was much ado.
People had learned from Galilei:
They used his teaching in their way.
Around the corner from the market place a Street Singer and his Wife, who is costumed to represent the earth in a skeleton globe made of thin bands of brass, are holding the attention of a sprinkling of representative citizens, some in masquerade who were on their way to see the carnival procession. From the market place the noise of an impatient crowd.
BALLAD SINGER (accompanied by his Wife on the guitar)
When the Almighty made the universe
He made the earth and then he made the sun.
Then round the earth he bade the sun to turn –
That’s in the Bible, Genesis, Chapter One.
And from that time all beings here below
Were in obedient circles meant to go:
Around the pope the cardinals
Around the cardinals the bishops
Around the bishops the secretaries
Around the secretaries the aldermen
Around the aldermen the craftsmen
Around the craftsmen the servants
Around the servants the dogs, the chickens, and the beggars.
(A conspicuous reveller – henceforth called the Spinner – has slowly caught on and is exhibiting his idea of spinning around. He does not lose dignity, he faints with mock grace)
BALLAD SINGER
Up stood the learned Galileo
Glanced briefly at the sun
And said: “Almighty God was wrong
In Genesis, Chapter One!”
Now that was rash, my friends, it is no matter small
For heresy will spread today like foul diseases.
Change Holy Writ, forsooth? What will be left at all?
Why: each of us would say and do just what he pleases!
(Three wretched Extras, employed by the chamber of commerce, enter. Two of them, in ragged costumes, moodily bear a litter with a mock throne. The third sits on the throne. He wears sacking, a false beard, a prop crown, he carries a prop orb and sceptre, and around his chest the inscription “The King of Hungary.” The litter has a card with “No. 4” written on it. The litter bearers dump him down and listen to the Ballad Singer)
BALLAD SINGER
Good people, what will come to pass
If Galileo’s teachings spread?
No altar boy will serve the mass
No servant girl will make the bed.
Now that is grave, my friends, it is no matter small:
For independent spirit spreads like foul diseases!
(Yet life is sweet and man is weak and after all –
How nice it is, for a little change, to do just as one pleases!)
(The Ballad Singer takes over the guitar. His Wife dances around him, illustrating the motion of the earth. A Cobbler’s Boy with a pair of resplendent lacquered boots hung over his shoulder has been jumping up and down in mock excitement. There are three more children, dressed as grownups among the spectators, two together and a single one with mother. The Cobbler’s Boy takes the three Children in hand, forms a chain and leads it, moving to the music, in and out among the spectators, “whipping” the chain so that the last child bumps into people. On the way past a Peasant Woman, he steals an egg from her basket. She gestures to him to return it. As he passes her again he quietly breaks the egg over her head. The King of Hungary ceremoniously hands his orb to one of his bearers, marches down with mock dignity, and chastises the Cobbler’s Boy. The parents remove the three Children. The unseemliness subsides)
BALLAD SINGER
The carpenters take wood and build
Their houses – not the church’s pews.
And members of the cobblers’ guild
Now boldly walk the streets – in shoes.
The tenant kicks the noble lord
Quite off the land he owned – like that!
The milk his wife once gave the priest
Now makes (at last!) her children fat.
Ts, ts, ts, ts, my friends, this is no matter small
For independent spirit spreads like foul diseases
People must keep their place, some down and some on top!
(Though it is nice, for a little change, to do just as one pleases!) (The Cobbler’s Boy has put on the lacquered boots he was carrying. He struts off. The Ballad Singer takes over the guitar again. His Wife dances around him in increased tempo. A Monk has been standing near a rich Couple, who are in subdued
costly clothes, without masks: shocked at the song, he now leaves. A Dwarf in the costume of an astronomer turns his telescope on the departing Monk, thus drawing attention to the rich Couple. In imitation of the Cobbler’s Boy, the Spinner forms a chain of grownups. They move to the music, in and out, and between the rich Couple. The Spinner changes the Gentleman’s bonnet for the ragged hat of a Beggar. The Gentleman decides to take this in good part, and a Girl is emboldened to take his dagger. The Gentleman is miffed, throws the Beggar’s hat back. The Beggar discards the Gentleman’s bonnet and drops it on the ground. The King of Hungary has walked from his throne, taken an egg from the Peasant Woman, and paid for it. He now ceremoniously breaks it over the Gentleman’s head as he is bending down to pick up his bonnet. The Gentleman conducts the Lady away from the scene. The King of Hungary, about to resume his throne, finds one of the Children sitting on it. The Gentleman returns to retrieve his dagger. Merriment. The Ballad Singer wanders off. This is part of his routine. His Wife sings to the Spinner)
WIFE
Now speaking for myself I feel
That I could also do with a change
You know, for me … (Turning to a reveller) … you have appeal
Maybe tonight we could arrange …
(The Dwarf-Astronomer has been amusing the people by focusing his telescope on her legs. The Ballad Singer has returned)
BALLAD SINGER
No, no, no, no, no, stop, Galileo, stop!
For independent spirit spreads like foul diseases
People must keep their place, some down and some on top!
(Though it is nice, for a little change, to do just as one pleases!)
(The Spectators stand embarrassed. A Girl laughs loudly)
BALLAD SINGER AND HIS WIFE
Good people who have trouble here below
In serving cruel lords and gentle Jesus
Who bids you turn the other cheek just so … (With mimicry)
While they prepare to strike the second blow:
Obedience will never cure your woe
So each of you wake up and do just as he pleases!
(The Ballad Singer and his Wife hurriedly start to try to sell pamphlets to the spectators)
BALLAD SINGER Read all about the earth going round the sun, two centesimi only. As proved by the great Galileo. Two centesimi only. Written by a local scholar. Understandable to one and all. Buy one for your friends, your children and your aunty Rosa, two centesimi only. Abbreviated but complete. Fully illustrated with pictures of the planets, including Venus, two centesimi only. (During the speech of the Ballad Singer we hear the carnival procession approaching followed by laughter. A Reveller rushes in)