Pirandello's Henry IV Read Free Page A

exaggerate its importance—it was just that I hadn’t seen it for so long.
    DOCTOR    Please . . . patience . . .
    DI NOLLI    Well, quite—it’s been there for about fifteen years.
    MATILDA    Nearer eighteen.
    DOCTOR    Please!—you don’t know yet what I’m asking. In my belief these two portraits may be crucial. They were done, I suppose, before the famous—or should I say infamous—pageant, is that right?
    MATILDA    Of course.
    DOCTOR    When he was still in his right mind—that’s the point I was making. Were they his idea?
    MATILDA    No, not at all. Lots of us who took part decided to have our portraits done as a souvenir of the pageant.
    BELCREDI    I had mine done—Charles of Anjou.
    DOCTOR    You don’t know if it was he who asked for it?
    MATILDA    I’ve no idea. It’s possible. Or it might have been Carlo’s mother’s idea of humouring him.
    DOCTOR    Now, another thing. Was this pageant his idea?
    BELCREDI    No, it was mine.
    MATILDA    Don’t take any notice of him. It was poor Belassi’s idea.
    BELCREDI    Belassi?
    MATILDA    (
to the Doctor
) Count Belassi, poor man, who died two or three months later.
    BELCREDI    But Belassi wasn’t even there when I . . .
    DI NOLLI    Excuse me, Doctor, does it really matter whose idea . . .
    DOCTOR    It could be important.
    BELCREDI    It was mine! This is too much! Do you think I’d brag about it after what happened? You see, at the Club we’d been thinking of putting on a show for the next carnival. So I suggested this historical pageant, I say historical, it was more of a hodgepodge, everyone had to choose a character from this or that century, a king, or emperor, or prince, with his lady—queen or empress—beside him, also on horseback. The horses had all the period trappings, too, of course. That was my suggestion and it was adopted.
    MATILDA    Well, my invitation came from Belassi.
    BELCREDI    Theft. Belassi wasn’t even in the Club that night. Nor was
he
.
    DOCTOR    So then he chose Henry?
    MATILDA    That’s because, my name being Matilda, I said off the top of my head that I’d be Countess Matilda of Tuscany. He said, in that case he’d be Henry IV.
    DOCTOR    I’m sorry, I don’t see the connection.
    MATILDA    I didn’t either at first. He said he’d be at my feet just like at Canossa. I knew about Canossa but only vaguely, and when I looked it up I found I was the Pope’s most zealous ally against the German King Henry. I blushed from top to toe. I understood why he’d chosen to be Henry IV.
    DOCTOR    You mean, perhaps, because . . .
    BELCREDI    Dear God, Doctor—because he was mad about her, and she couldn’t stand him.
    MATILDA    That’s not true! I didn’t dislike him; quite the opposite. But whenever a man gets all serious about a woman—
    BELCREDI    He turns into a complete ass . . .
    MATILDA    No, he wasn’t like you, my dear.
    BELCREDI    But I’ve never asked to be taken seriously.
    MATILDA    Don’t we know it. But with him, you had to take him seriously back. (
to the Doctor
) Among the misfortunes we women have to put up with from time to time is suddenly being confronted by a pair of eyes gazing at us with the solemn promise of lifelong devotion. (
She bursts into laughter
.) There’s nothing more ridiculous. If only men could see themselves doing their lifelong devotion look. It always made me laugh. More so in those days. But now, after twenty years, let me confess something. When I laughed at him, it was partly out of fear, because, coming from him, you felt he could mean it. And