Free Three Plays: Six Characters in Search of an Author, Henry IV, The Mountain Giants (Oxford World's Classics) by Luigi Pirandello

it, if you can.
    MOTHER . I don’t deny it, no …
    STEPDAUGHTER . Always full of loving care for you. [
To the
YOUNG BOY ,
angrily
] Isn’t it true? Tell him. Why don’t you speak up, you idiot?
    MOTHER . Leave the poor boy alone! Why do you want to make me look ungrateful? I don’t want to insult your father’s memory. I told this gentleman that it wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t for my own pleasure that I left his house and abandoned my son.
    FATHER . It’s true, sir. It was my doing.
Pause
    LEADING MAN [
to his fellow actors
]. How’s that for a show!
    LEADING LADY . One that they’re putting on for us.
    YOUNG ACTOR . For once in a while.
    DIRECTOR [
beginning to get seriously interested
]. Give them a hearing. Let’s give them a hearing.
    So saying, he goes down the steps into the auditorium and stands facing the stage as if to survey the scene from a spectator’s viewpoint
.
    SON [
without moving from his place; cold, quiet, ironic
]. Yes indeed. Now just wait for his chunk of philosophy! He’ll tell you all about the Daemon of Experiment.
    FATHER . You’re a cynical fool, and I’ve told you so a hundred times. [
To the
DIRECTOR
down in the auditorium
] He mocks me because of this phrase that I use in my own defence.
    SON [
with scorn
]. Phrases!
    FATHER . Phrases! Phrases! As if, when we’re faced by some inexplicable fact, some devouring evil, we didn’t all find comfort in a word that means nothing and that simply serves to calm us down.
    STEPDAUGHTER . And calm your remorse as well. That above all.
    FATHER . Remorse? It’s not true. Words alone have never calmed my remorse.
    STEPDAUGHTER . No, it took a bit of money too; yes, yes, a bit of money! Like the hundred lire he wanted to pay me, gentlemen.
The
ACTORS
recoil in horror
.
    SON [
to his half-sister, with contempt
]. That’s despicable.
    STEPDAUGHTER . Despicable? It was there in a blue envelope on the mahogany table in Madame Pace’s back room behind the shop. You know, sir. One of those
madames
who use the pretext of selling
Robes et Manteaux
* to attract us poor girls from good families into their
ateliers
.
    SON . And she’s bought herself the right to bully the whole family with that hundred lire he was going to pay her—and which, luckily—mark my words—he had no call to pay.
    STEPDAUGHTER . But we were right on the verge, you know. [
With a burst of laughter
]
    MOTHER [
protesting
]. Shame on you, daughter! Shame!
    STEPDAUGHTER [
sharply
]. Shame? It’s my revenge! I’m burning, burning, sir, to live that scene! The room … over here the window with the cloaks; over there the sofa bed; the mirror, a screen; and in front of the window the little mahogany table with the pale blue envelope containing the hundred lire. I can see it. I could take it. Oh, but you gentlemen should turn your backs: I’m almost naked! I’m not blushing now, though; now it’s his turn to blush! [
Pointing to the
FATHER ] But I can assure you he was very pale, very pale in that moment! [
To the
DIRECTOR ] Believe me, sir.
    DIRECTOR . I don’t understand a thing any more.
    FATHER . I bet you don’t. After being set on like that. Call everyone to order, and let me have my say; and pay no attention to her vicious slanders about me, until you’ve heard all the explanations.
    STEPDAUGHTER . No stories here. No telling stories.
    FATHER . I’m not telling stories. I want to explain to him.
    STEPDAUGHTER . Yes, in your own way! Very nice!
    At this point the
DIRECTOR
climbs back onto the stage to restore order
.
    FATHER . But this is where all the trouble starts! With words! We all have a world of things inside us; everyone has his own world of things! And how can we understand each other if in my words I put the meaning and the value of the things inside me; while my listener inevitably receives them with all the meaning and value that they have for him, in his own inner world? We think we understand each other: we never understand each other! Look