Brecht Collected Plays: 5: Life of Galileo; Mother Courage and Her Children (World Classics) (63 page)

ANDREA
And I of all people should have known. I was twelve when you sold another man’s telescope to the Venetian Senate, and saw you put it to immortal use. Your friends were baffled when you bowed to the Prince of Florence: Science gained a wider audience. You always laughed at heroics. “People who suffer bore me,” you said. “Misfortunes are due mainly to miscalculations.” And: “If there are obstacles, the shortest line between two points may be the crooked line.”

GALILEO
It makes a picture.

ANDREA
And when you stooped to recant in 1633, I should have understood that you were again about your business.

GALILEO
My business being?

ANDREA
Science. The study of the properties of motion, mother of the machines which will themselves change the ugly face of the earth.

GALILEO
Aha!

ANDREA
You gained time to write a book that only you could write. Had you burned at the stake in a blaze of glory they would have won.

GALILEO
They have won. And there is no such thing as a scientific work that only one man can write.

ANDREA
Then why did you recant, tell me that!

GALILEO
I recanted because I was afraid of physical pain.

ANDREA
No!

GALILEO
They showed me the instruments.

ANDREA
It was not a plan?

GALILEO
It was not.

(
Pause)

ANDREA
But you have contributed. Science has only one commandment: contribution. And you have contributed more than any man for a hundred years.

GALILEO
Have I? Then welcome to my gutter, dear colleague in science and brother in treason: I sold out, you are a buyer. The first sight of the book! His mouth watered and his scoldings were drowned. Blessed be our bargaining, whitewashing, deathfearing community!

ANDREA
The fear of death is human.

GALILEO
Even the church will teach you that to be weak is not human. It is just evil.

ANDREA
The church, yes! But science is not concerned with our weaknesses.

GALILEO
No? My dear Sarti, in spite of my present convictions, I may be able to give you a few pointers as to the concerns of your chosen profession.

(
Enter Virginia with a platter)

In my spare time, I happen to have gone over this case. I have spare time. – Even a man who sells wool, however good he is at buying wool cheap and selling it dear, must be concerned with the standing of the wool trade. The practice of science would seem to call for valor. She trades in knowledge, which is the product of doubt. And this new art of doubt has enchanted the public. The plight of the multitude is old as the rocks, and is believed to be basic as the rocks. But now they have learned to doubt. They snatched the telescopes out of our hands and had them trained on their tormentors: prince, official, public moralist. The mechanism of the heavens was clearer, the mechanism of their courts was still murky. The battle to measure the heavens is won by doubt; by credulity the Roman housewife’s battle for milk will always be lost. Word is passed down that this is of no concern to the scientist who is told he will only release such of his findings as do not disturb the peace, that is, the peace of mind of the well-to-do. Threats and bribes fill the air. Can the scientist hold out on the numbers? – For what reason do you labor? I take it the intent of science is to ease human existence. If you give way to coercion, science can be crippled, and your new machines may simply suggest new drudgeries. Should you then, in
time, discover all there is to be discovered, your progress must then become a progress away from the bulk of humanity. The gulf might even grow so wide that the sound of your cheering at some new achievement would be echoed by a universal howl of horror. – As a scientist I had an almost unique opportunity. In my day astronomy emerged into the market place. At that particular time, had one man put up a fight, it could have had wide repercussions. I have come to believe that I was never in real danger; for some years I was as strong as the authorities, and I surrendered my knowledge to the powers that be, to use it, no, not
use
it,
abuse
it, as it suits their ends. I have betrayed my profession. Any man who does what I have done must not be tolerated in the ranks of science. (
Virginia, who has stood motionless, puts the platter on the table)

VIRGINIA
You are accepted in the ranks of the faithful, father.

GALILEO
(
sees her
) Correct. (
He goes over to the table
) I have to eat now.

VIRGINIA
We lock up at eight.

ANDREA
I am glad I came. (
He extends his hand. Galileo ignores it and goes over to his meal)

GALILEO
(
examining the plate; to Andrea
) Somebody who knows me sent me a goose. I still enjoy eating.

ANDREA
And your opinion is now that the “new age” was an illusion?

GALILEO
Well. – This age of ours turned out to be a whore, spattered with blood. Maybe, new ages look like blood-spattered whores. Take care of yourself.

ANDREA
Yes. (
Unable to go
) With reference to your evaluation of the author in question – I do not know the answer. But I cannot think that your savage analysis is the last word.

GALILEO
Thank you, sir.

(
Official knocks at the door)

VIRGINIA
(
showing Andrea out
) I don’t like visitors from the past, they excite him.

(
She lets him out. The Official closes the iron door. Virginia returns)

GALILEO
(
eating
) Did you try and think who sent the goose?

VIRGINIA
Not Andrea.

GALILEO
Maybe not. I gave Redhead his first lesson; when he held out his hand, I had to remind myself he is teaching now. – How is the sky tonight?

VIRGINIA
(
at the window
) Bright.

(
Galileo continues eating)

Scene Fourteen

The great book o’er the border went

And, good folk, that was the end
.

But we hope you’ll keep in mind

You and 1 were left behind
.

Before a little Italian customs house early in the morning. Andrea sits upon one of his traveling trunks at the barrier and reads Galileo’s book. The window of a small house is still lit, and a big grotesque shadow, like an old witch and her cauldron, falls upon the house wall beyond. Barefoot children in rags see it and point to the little house
.

CHILDREN
(
singing)

One, two, three, four, five, six,

Old Marina is a witch.

At night, on a broomstick she sits

And on the church steeple she spits.

CUSTOMS OFFICER
(
to Andrea
) Why are you making this journey?

ANDREA
I am a scholar.

CUSTOMS OFFICER
(
to his Clerk
) Put down under “reason for leaving the country”: Scholar. (
He points to the baggage
) Books! Anything dangerous in these books?

ANDREA
What is dangerous?

CUSTOMS OFFICER
Religion. Politics.

ANDREA
These are nothing but mathematical formulas.

CUSTOMS OFFICER
What’s that?

ANDREA
Figures.

CUSTOMS OFFICER
Oh, figures. No harm in figures. Just wait a minute, sir, we will soon have your papers stamped. (
He exits with Clerk)

(
Meanwhile, a little council of war among the Children has taken place. Andrea quietly watches. One of the Boys, pushed forward by the others, creeps up to the little house from which the shadow comes, and takes the jug of milk on the doorstep)

ANDREA
(
quietly
) What are you doing with that milk?

BOY
(
stopping in mid-movement
) She is a witch.

(
The other Children run away behind the Custom House. One of them shouts
) “Run, Paolo!”

ANDREA
Hmm! – And because she is a witch she mustn’t have milk. Is that the idea?

BOY
Yes.

ANDREA
And how do you know she is a witch?

BOY
(
points to shadow on house wall
) Look!

ANDREA
Oh! I see.

BOY
And she rides on a broomstick at night – and she bewitches the coachman’s horses. My cousin Luigi looked through the hole in the stable roof, that the snow storm made, and heard the horses coughing something terrible.

ANDREA
Oh! – How big was the hole in the stable roof?

BOY
Luigi didn’t tell. Why?

ANDREA
I was asking because maybe the horses got sick because it was cold in the stable. You had better ask Luigi how big that hole is.

BOY
You are not going to say Old Marina isn’t a witch, because you can’t.

ANDREA
No, I can’t say she isn’t a witch. I haven’t looked into it. A man can’t know about a thing he hasn’t looked into, or can he?

BOY
No! – But THAT! (
He points to the shadow
) She is stirring hell-broth.

ANDREA
Let’s see. Do you want to take a look? I can lift you up.

BOY
You lift me to the window, mister! (
He takes a sling shot out of his pocket
) I can really bash her from there.

ANDREA
Hadn’t we better make sure she is a witch before we shoot? I’ll hold that.

(
The Boy puts the milk jug down and follows him reluctantly to the window. Andrea lifts the boy up so that he can look in)

ANDREA
What do you see?

BOY
(
slowly
) Just an old girl cooking porridge.

ANDREA
Oh! Nothing to it then. Now look at her shadow, Paolo.

(
The boy looks over his shoulder and back and compares the reality and the shadow)

BOY
The big thing is a soup ladle.

ANDREA
Ah! A ladle! You see, I would have taken it for a broomstick, but I haven’t looked into the matter as you have, Paolo. Here is your sling.

CUSTOMS OFFICER
(
returning with the Clerk and handing Andrea his papers
) All present and correct. Good luck, sir.

(
Andrea goes, reading Galileo’s book. The Clerk starts to bring his
baggage after him. The barrier rises. Andrea passes through, still reading the book. The Boy kicks over the milk jug)

BOY
(
shouting after Andrea
) She
is
a witch! She
is
a witch!

ANDREA
You saw with your own eyes: think it over!

(
The Boy joins the others. They sing)

One, two, three, four, five, six,

Old Marina is a witch.

At night, on a broomstick she sits

And on the church steeple she spits.

(
The Customs Officers laugh. Andrea goes)

Methuen Drama Modern Classics

Jean Anouilh
Antigone
• Brendan Behan
The Hostage
• Robert Bolt
A Man for All Seasons
• Edward Bond
Saved
• Bertolt Brecht
The Caucasian Chalk Circle • Fear and Misery in the Third Reich
•
The Good Person of Szechwan
•
Life of Galileo
•
The Messingkauf Dialogues
•
Mother Courage and Her Children • Mr Puntila and His Man Matti • The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui • Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny • The Threepenny Opera
• Jim Cartwright
Road
•
Two & Bed
• Caryl Churchill
Serious Money • Top Girls
• Noël Coward
Blithe Spirit
•
Hay Fever • Present Laughter • Private Lives • The Vortex
• Shelagh Delaney
A Taste of Honey
• Dario Fo
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
• Michael Frayn
Copenhagen
• Lorraine Hansberry
A Raisin in the Sun
• Jonathan Harvey
Beautiful Thing
• David Mamet
Glengarry Glen Ross
•
Oleanna
•
Speed-the-Plow
• Patrick Marber
Closer
•
Dealer’s Choice
• Arthur Miller
Broken Glass
• Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema, Barney Simon
Woza Albert!
• Joe Orton
Entertaining Mr Sloane
•
Loot
•
What the Butler Saw
• Mark Ravenhill
Shopping and F***ing
• Willy Russell
Blood Brothers
•
Educating Rita
•
Stags and Hens
•
Our Day Out
• Jean-Paul Sartre
Crime Passionnel
• Wole Soyinka •
Death and the King’s Horseman
• Theatre Workshop
Oh, What a Lovely War
• Frank Wedekind •
Spring Awakening
• Timberlake Wertenbaker
Our Country’s Good

Methuen Drama Contemporary Dramatists
include

John Arden (two volumes)

Arden & D’Arcy

Peter Barnes (three volumes)

Sebastian Barry

Dermot Bolger

Edward Bond (eight volumes)

Howard Brenton (two volumes)

Richard Cameron

Jim Cartwright

Caryl Churchill (two volumes)

Sarah Daniels (two volumes)