ABEL: You’ll not hurt me, Cain.
CAIN: Why? Am I thy servant? He sweeps up his flail. Am I thy fool? Run from me!
ABEL: Astonished at the flail, he starts to back away. Brother! God loves us both!
CAIN: You are dead to me, Abel—run!
ABEL, halts: I will not! Come to the Lord!
CAIN, moving toward him, raising the flail: Run for your life!
ABEL: Brother, let God calm you!
CAIN, whirling about, flail raised, he calls to the air: Save us, Lord . . . !
ABEL, rushing to him: Come to Him!
CAIN—he turns on Abel, calling to God: Now save us! He strikes at Abel who dodges and runs.
ABEL, screaming: Mother!
CAIN, pursuing him he strikes Abel down: Save us! He strikes him again on the ground. Save us!
LUCIFER: Cain! How can you love God so!
God, calling from off: Cain! Where art thou!
Cain flings the flail away like an alien thing that somehow got into his hand. God enters rapidly, behind Him Eve and Adam.
GOD: Where is thy brother?
Cain is silent.
EVE: Where is Abel?
ADAM: Where is he?
GOD: Where is Abel, thy brother?
CAIN, with a new, dead indifference: I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?
GOD: The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
EVE—seeing the corpse, like a sigh at first: Ahhh.
ADAM, wide-eyed: Ohhh. The sigh repeatedly emanating from her, she halts, looking down at the corpse. Adam comes and faces it. Ohhhh.
EVE—she goes down beside the corpse, keening: Abel? Wake, my darling!
ADAM: Abel? Calls. Abel!
GOD: What hast thou done!
CAIN, with a bitter, hard grin, plus a certain intimate, familiar tone: What had to be done. As the Lord surely knew when I laid before Him the fruit of my sweat—for which there was only Thy contempt.
GOD: But why contempt? Didn’t I approve of your offering?
CAIN: As I would “approve” my ox. Abel’s lamb was not “approved,” it was adored, like his life!
GOD, indignantly: But I like lamb! Cain is dumbfounded. I don’t deny it, I like lamb better than onions.
LUCIFER: Surely there can be no accounting for taste.
CAIN: And this is Your justice?
GOD: Justice!
CAIN, with a bitter laugh: Yes, justice! Justice!
GOD: When have I ever spoken that word?
CAIN: You mean our worth and value are a question of taste?
GOD, incredulously: But Cain, there are eagles and sparrows, lions and mice—is every bird to be an eagle? Are there to be no mice? Let a man do well, and he shall be accepted.
CAIN: I have done well and I am humiliated!
GOD: You hated Abel before this day, so you cannot say you have done well.
EVE, rising from the corpse: You argue with Him? She rushes to tear at Cain, Adam holding her back. Kill him! He’s a murderer! Weeping, held by Adam, she calls: Take his life!
GOD: Surely you repent this, Cain.
CAIN: When God repents His injustice, I will repent my own!
LUCIFER: Why should he repent? Who sent death down here? You did! He points to God. There is the murderer!
ADAM: Watch your mouth!
LUCIFER: He arranged it all from beginning to end! Eve stops weeping, straightens, astonished, turns to God. Do You deny Azrael was here this morning while they slept? To Eve: Ask him!
EVE: You sent the Angel of Death?
Pause.
GOD: Yes.
EVE: Lord God . . . did you want this?
Pause.
GOD: Eve . . . soon the multitude will spring from this first family, and cover the earth. How will the thousands be shepherded as I have shepherded thee? Only if the eye of God opens in the heart of every man; only if each himself will choose the way of life, not death. For otherwise you go as beasts, locked up in the darkness of their nature. Slight pause. I saw that Cain was pious, yet in him I saw envy too. And so I thought—if Cain were so enraged that he lift his hand against his brother, but then, remembering his love for Abel and for me, even in his fury lay down his arms? To Cain: Man!—you would have risen like a planet before the generations, the victory of God, first brother and the first to reject a murder. Oh, Cain, how I hoped for thee!
ADAM, to Eve: Do you understand? He was trying to help us. She stands rigid, wide-eyed. Eve, you must beg his pardon.
EVE, turning to God: But why must my child have died? You could have tested me, or Adam or Abel—we could never have killed.
GOD: Woman, a moment ago you commanded me to take Cain’s life.
EVE: But I . . . I was angry.
GOD: Cain was also angry. She turns away, rejecting. Do you understand me? Beginning to anger. Then am I a wanton murderer? Speak! What am I to you?
ADAM: Eve! Tell Him you understand!
EVE: I do not understand . . . why we can’t just live!
GOD: Because without God you’ll murder each other!
EVE, furiously: And with God? With God?
GOD: Then do you want the Devil? Tell me now before the multitudes arrive. Who do you want?
ADAM: You, Lord, you!
GOD: Why? Your innocent son is dead; why!
ADAM: Because . . . how do I know?—maybe for someone somewhere, even this . . . is good? Right?
GOD, outraged: You are all worthless! The mother blames God, the father blames no one, and the son knows no blame at all. To Lucifer: Angel, you have won the world—and I hereby give it over to your ministry.
ADAM: Him!
GOD: This is the chaos you want, and him you shall have—the God who judges nothing, the God of infinite permission. I shall continue to do the hurricanes, the gorillas, and all that, but I see now that your hearts’ desire is anarchy and I wash my hands. I do not want to be God . . . any more! He starts away.
LUCIFER, dashing after Him: Lord! You don’t mean—not me all by myself!
GOD: That’s what you’ve been after, isn’t it?
LUCIFER: No, no—with You! It’s out of the question for me to run the world alone.
GOD: But what do you need Me for?
LUCIFER: But I can’t—I can’t make anything!
GOD: Really! But you’re such a superb critic.
LUCIFER: But they’re two entirely different things!
GOD: Perhaps once you’re in charge you’ll become more creative. He starts away again; Eve rushes to Him.
EVE: Wait, Lord, please!
GOD: Oh, woman, for thy torment especially I am most deeply sorry. Good-bye, dear Eve. He starts away.
EVE: But what do we do about Cain?
Now He halts, turns, alert.
LUCIFER, to God: Very well, I take the world! To Eve: Tell Him to go!
EVE, to Lucifer: But what about Cain?
LUCIFER: There’ll be no more talk about Cain. The boy simply got caught in a rotten situation, and no emotions are called for.
GOD: She seems to have a question—
LUCIFER: She is free! She has no further questions! To Eve: Tell Him to go back to His hurricanes.
EVE, to Lucifer: But He murdered my son.
GOD: But what is the question?
EVE: HE MURDERED MY SON!
GOD: And what is the question, woman!
LUCIFER: You’ve got your freedom! Stop here!
EVE, to Lucifer: But how—turning to Cain’s adamant face: How do I hand him his breakfast tomorrow? How do I call him to dinner? “Come, mankiller, I have meat for thee”?
CAIN, holding his ground, his profile to her eyes: It was not my fault!
EVE, crying out to God: How
can we live with him!
GOD: But what did you say to me a moment ago—“Why can’t we just live?” Why can’t you do it? Take your unrepentant son and start living.
LUCIFER: Why not? Will blaming Cain bring Abel back?
EVE: But shouldn’t he . . . shouldn’t he repent?
LUCIFER: You mean a few appropriate words will console you?
EVE: Not words, but . . . To Cain: Don’t you feel you’ve done anything?
LUCIFER: What’s the difference what he feels?
EVE, with high anxiety: You mean nothing has happened?
LUCIFER: There is no consolation, woman! Unless you want the lie of God, the false tears of a killer repenting!
EVE: But why must they be false? If he loved his brother, maybe now he feels . . . She breaks off, backing a step from Lucifer, and turns to God: Is this . . . why he can’t be God?
GOD, quickly: Why can’t he be God?
LUCIFER: I can and I will be—I am the truth!
EVE: But you . . . In fear: you don’t . . .
ADAM: He doesn’t love us!
EVE: Yes!
GOD: And that is why whatever you do, it’s all the same to him—it’s only his power this angel loves!
ADAM AND EVE, rushing to God: Father, save us!
GOD: Oh, my children, I thought you’d never understand!
LUCIFER, with a furious, bitter irony, as God approaches the beseeching people: And here He comes again—Father Guilt is back! Rushing to Cain: Cain, help me! You’re the one free, guiltless man! Tell God you have no need for Him! Speak out your freedom and save the world!
CAIN—he has been staring in silence, now he turns his dead eyes to Lucifer: Angel, none of this seems to matter, you know? One way or the other. Why don’t you let it all go?
With a near-sob Lucifer claps his hands over his ears, then, straightening, he comes to a salute before God.
LUCIFER: You have my salute! You have gorgeously prearranged this entire dialogue, and it all comes out the way You want—but You have solved absolutely nothing!
GOD, lifting His eyes from the kneeling Adam and Eve: Except, angel, that you will never be God. And not because I forbid it, but because they will never—at least for very long—believe it. For I made them not of dust alone, but dust and love; and by dust alone they will not, cannot long be governed. Lucifer bursts into sobbing tears. Why do you weep, angel? They love, and with love, kill brothers. Take heart, I see now that our war goes on.
ADAM AND EVE: No, Lord!
Lucifer looks at God now, clear-eyed, expectant.
GOD: It does go on. For love, I see, is not enough; though the Devil himself cry peace, you’ll find your war. Now I want to know what is in your heart. Tell me, man, what do you feel?
CAIN: I am thirsty.
GOD, after a slight pause: So in thy thirst will I sentence thee, Cain—to live. And in this loneliness shalt thou walk forever in the populous cities, a fugitive and a vagabond all the days of thy life. And whoever looks on thee will point and say, “There is the man who murdered his brother.”
CAIN, coming alive: Better kill me now! They will stone me wherever I go!
GOD: No, I declare to all the generations: Whoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. For I will set a mark upon thee, Cain, that will keep thee from harm.
CAIN: What mark?
GOD, holding two index fingers pointed toward Cain’s face: Come to me, my son. Terrified, Cain comes up to His fingers, and He comes around behind Cain, who is facing front, and presses his cheeks, forming a smile which Cain cannot relax. God lowers His fingers.
CAIN, smiling: What is the mark?
GOD: That smile is.
CAIN: But they will know that I killed my brother!
GOD: Yes, they will know, and you will smile forever with agony in your eyes—the sundered mark of Cain who killed for pride and power in the name of love.
Smiling, his eyes desperate, Cain turns to Eve. She cries out, hides her face in her hands. He tears at his cheeks, but his smile remains. He lowers his hands—a smiling man with astonished, terrifying eyes.
Adam? Eve? Now the way of life is revealed before you, and the way of death. Seek Me only in your hearts, you will never see My face again.
Lucifer, who has been staring off, swerves about. The people come alert, startled. God turns and walks upstage.
ADAM, rushing a half-step behind God: What’d you say? Lord, I don’t understand . . . God continues, moving into light. Adam halts, calling. Did you say never?
EVE: What does that mean? Almighty God! She starts to run up toward Him, but He disappears among the stars. Adam, above her now, turns down to Lucifer.
ADAM: Angel! He comes down to Lucifer, his finger rising toward the angel. Did he mean that you are . . . ?
Lucifer turns from the vanished God to Adam, his face twisted with puzzlement.
ADAM AND EVE, with a heartbroken, lost cry: Who is God?
LUCIFER: Does it really matter? Why don’t you have a nice breakfast together—the three of you—and forget the whole thing? After all, whoever God is, we have to be sensible. He walks away, glancing back to Eve. And whenever you’d like to start the dancing—just call.
EVE: Don’t ever come back!
LUCIFER, pointing insinuatingly at her: You know exactly what I mean.
Lucifer walks into darkness. Adam and Eve turn to Cain.
ADAM: He condemned you to wander the earth. You’ll have to go.
CAIN: But He let me live; there was some forgiveness in that. There’s too much work here for one man, Father.
EVE: How can you ask forgiveness? Indicating Abel. You can’t even weep for him. You are still full of hate!
CAIN: And your hate, Mother? She turns away. How will I weep? You never loved Cain!
ADAM: Spare one another . . . !
EVE, turning to the corpse: I loved him more. To Cain: Yes, more than you. And God was not fair. To me, either. Indicating Abel: And I still don’t understand why he had to die, or who or what rules this world. But this boy was innocent—that I know. And you killed him, and with him any claim to justice you ever had.
CAIN: I am not to blame!
EVE: Are you telling me that nothing happened here? I will not sit with you as though nothing happened!
ADAM: Ask her pardon! Cain turns away from both. Cain, we are surrounded by the beasts! And God’s not coming any more—Cain starts away. Boy, we are all that’s left responsible!—ask her pardon! Cain, adamant, the smile fixed on his face, walks out. Call to him. Pardon him. In God’s name cry mercy, Eve, there is no other!
With his arm around her he has drawn her to the periphery, where she stands, her mouth open, struggling to speak. But she cannot, and she breaks into weeping. As though in her name, Adam calls toward the departed Cain: Mercy!
The roars, songs, and cries of the animals fill the air. Adam looks up and about, and to the world, a clear-eyed prayer: Mercy!
CURTAIN
THE ARCHBISHOP’S CEILING
1977
Characters
ADRIAN
MAYA
MARCUS
IRINA
SIGMUND
ACT ONE
Some time ago.
A capital in Europe; the sitting room in the former residence of the archbishop.
Judging by the depth of the casement around the window at right, the walls must be two feet thick. The room has weight and power, its contents chaotic and sensuous. Decoration is early baroque.
The ceiling is first seen: in high relief the Four Winds, cheeks swelling, and cherubim, darkened unevenly by soot and age.
Light is from a few lamps of every style, from a contemporary bridge lamp to something that looks like an electrified hookah, but the impression of a dark, overcrowded room rema
ins; the walls absorb light.
A grand piano, scarved; a large blue vase on the floor under it.
Unhung paintings, immense and dark, leaning against a wall, heavy gilt frames.
Objects of dull brass not recently polished.
Two or three long, dark carved chests topped with tasseled rose-colored cushions.
A long, desiccated brown leather couch with billowing cushions; a stately carved armchair, bolsters, Oriental camel bags.
A pink velour settee, old picture magazines piled on its foot and underneath—Life, Stern, Europeo . . .
A Bauhaus chair in chrome and black leather on one of the smallish Persian rugs.
A wide, ornate rolltop desk, probably out of the twenties, with a stuffed falcon or gamebird on its top.
Contemporary books on shelves, local classics in leather.
A sinuous chaise in faded pink.
Layers of chaos.
At up right a doorway to the living quarters.
At left a pair of heavy doors opening on a dimly lit corridor. More chests here, a few piled-up chairs. This corridor leads upstage into darkness (and the unseen stairway down to the front door). The corridor wall is of large unfaced stones.
Adrian is seated on a couch. He is relaxed, an attitude of waiting, legs crossed, arms spread wide. Now he glances at the doorway to the living quarters, considers for a moment, then lifts up the couch cushions, looking underneath. He stands and goes to a table lamp, tilts it over to look under its base. He looks about again and peers into the open piano.
He glances up at the doorway again, then examines the ceiling, his head turned straight up. With another glance at the doorway he proceeds to the window at right and looks behind the drapes.
Maya enters from the living quarters with a coffeepot and two cups on a tray.
ADRIAN: Tremendous view of the city from up here.
MAYA: Yes.
ADRIAN: Like seeing it from a plane. Or a dream. He turns and approaches the couch, blows on his hands.
MAYA: Would you like one of his sweaters? I’m sorry there’s no firewood.
ADRIAN: It’s warm enough. He doesn’t heat this whole house, does he?
MAYA: It’s impossible—only this and the bedroom. But the rest of it’s never used.
The Penguin Arthur Miller Page 87
