Pirandello's Henry IV Read Online Free PDF

sackcloth
) Tomorrow in Brixen, twenty-seven bishops from Germany and Lombardy will sign my petition for the removal of that impostor Gregory VII!
    ORDULF    Your Majesty, please, for God’s sake . . .
    HAROLD    (
urging him with signs to put his sackcloth back on
) Don’t say that Your Majesty . . . The Abbot’s here with the Duchess to intercede on your behalf.
    Surreptitiously Harold makes signs to the Doctor, urging him to say something quickly.
    DOCTOR    (
confused
) Ah—yes—that’s it—we’re here to intercede . . .
    Henry allows the three Counsellors to put the sackcloth back on his shoulders.
    HENRY    Yes—forgive me . . . God be my witness, it’s the burden of excommunication lying on me like a dead weight . . . Forgive me . . . my lady . . . Monsignor . . . (
quietly to Landolf, Harold, and Ordulf
) I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t bring myself to grovel to that man.
    LANDOLF    That’s because, Your Majesty, you’ve convinced yourself he’s Peter Damian when he isn’t!
    HENRY    He isn’t?
    HAROLD    No, he’s just some poor monk, Your Majesty.
    HENRY    We’re none of us the best judge of our actions when we act on instinct. Perhaps it takes a woman to understand me. Think of your daughter, Duchess—think of Bertha—I told you how my heart has changed.
    Henry suddenly turns to Belcredi and shouts in his face, as if he had denied it.
    HENRY    (
cont.
) Changed—changed—by the love and devotion she has shown me at this terrible time!
    Henry stops, shaken by his own outburst of fury, and tries to contain himself, with a cry of exasperation in his throat; then he turns back to Matilda, in gentle and sorrowful humility.
    HENRY    (
cont.
) She’s come with me, my lady, she’s waiting in the courtyard. She chose to follow me like a beggar, and she’s frozen from two nights out in the snow! You’re her mother, doesn’t it stir you to pity?—to go with him (
He points at the Doctor
.) and implore the Pope to receive me and grant forgiveness?
    MATILDA    (
shaking
) Oh, yes . . . yes . . . and at once . . .
    DOCTOR    We’ll do it! We’ll do it!
    HENRY    And another thing! One more thing!
    Henry calls them all round him and whispers in great secret.
    HENRY    (
cont.
) Receiving me is not enough. The Pope can do . . . anything. Even raise the dead. (
beating his chest
) Well, here I am. As you see me. There’s no magic he can’t overcome. My real punishment is this—
    Henry points at his picture on the wall, almost fearful.
    HENRY    (
cont.
) That!—look at it—to be shackled to that apparition! I’m a penitent now and a penitent I’ll remain, I swear to God, until His Holiness receives me. But once the anathema has been lifted, please, both of you, beg the Pope to do this one thing, because he can do it: set me free from that, there, so that—wretched as it is—I can live my own life. (
pointing at the picture on the wall
) You can’t stay twentysix forever! I’m asking this for your daughter, too—so I can love her as she deserves to be loved.
    There. That’s it. I am in your hands.
    (
bowing
) My lady! Monsignor!
    Henry heads back still bowing, but then he notices Belcredi, who has come closer to listen: he fears he may want to steal the imperial crown, which is sitting on the throne. Henry rushes to pick it up and hide it under his sackcloth. Then, with a sly smile he bows repeatedly and exits. Matilda is so shocked she collapses into a chair, almost fainting.

ACT TWO
    Another room in the villa, adjoining the throne room, furnished in a plain antique style. Late afternoon of the same day. Onstage are Matilda, the Doctor, and Belcredi. Matilda is keeping apart, preoccupied and on edge.
    BELCREDI