Pirandello's Henry IV Read Online Free PDF Page B

   Well . . . pretty straightforward so far, wouldn’t you say? a) He’s off his trolley and b) he smelled a rat. He wasn’t fooled . . . He told us himself in so many words, (
to Matilda
) You heard him, didn’t you?
    MATILDA    What . . .? Yes, but it wasn’t what you think.
    DOCTOR    He responded to our costumes the way a child would.
    MATILDA    A child? What are you talking about?
    DOCTOR    On one level. On another it’s more complicated than you can imagine.
    MATILDA    Not to me—it was plain as day.
    DOCTOR    To you, perhaps, but we must bear in mind the peculiar psychology of the mad—they can see right through any pretence, while at the same time suspending their disbelief, like children at play believing in their make-believe. That’s why I say he is in one sense like a child while in another it’s complicated—because, you see,
his
make-believe—and he is well aware of it—is that he is the image of that image in the picture frame.
    BELCREDI    He did say that.
    DOCTOR    There you are. Then what happens?—his image is joined by other images: us, do you follow me? And withthat shrewd insight of the madman, he immediately spotted the difference between us and him; he spotted the pretence, which made him suspicious. But he kept his suspicions to himself. That’s what madmen do. And that’s all there is to it! Of course, he didn’t see that we were doing it all for his sake. What made the game all the more pitiful is that he kept trying, in his coy, obstinate way, to tell us it was only a game—
his
game—hence the makeup and how he only puts it on for fun, and so on.
    MATILDA    No, you haven’t got it.
    DOCTOR    What do you . . . ?
    MATILDA    The plain fact is he recognised me.
    DOCTOR    That’s impossible.
    BELCREDI    (
at the same time
) He couldn’t have.
    MATILDA    I’m telling you he recognised me. When he looked into my eyes, he knew me.
    BELCREDI    But he was talking to you about Bertha, your daughter.
    MATILDA    He was talking about me—me!
    BELCREDI    Well, yes, he did mention . . .
    MATILDA    My dyed hair, exactly—and how quickly he added—didn’t you notice?—“or dark-haired if you were dark.” He remembered perfectly well that back then my hair was dark.
    BELCREDI    No, no . . .
    MATILDA    (
to the Doctor
) My hair is naturally dark, like Frida’s. That’s what got him talking about my daughter.
    BELCREDI    What daughter? He’s never seen your daughter.
    MATILDA    That’s my point, you idiot—everything he said about my pretend daughter
now
, he was saying about me
then
!
    BELCREDI    It’s catching!
    MATILDA    Oh, don’t be so stupid.
    BELCREDI    Excuse me but when were you ever his wife? He’s got a wife—in his mad mind she’s Bertha of Susa and you’re her mother.
    MATILDA    I’m not denying that I came to him as Adelaide—being blond and not dark anymore, the way he remembered me, I decided to be the mother-in-law. But the daughter doesn’t exist for him. He’s never seen her. He doesn’t even know I’ve got a daughter—so how can he know what colour her hair is?
    BELCREDI    He didn’t say he knew. He was just speaking generally . . . Good God, he was only making a point about people colouring their hair to look younger than they are—blondes, brunettes . . . and as usual you go off at a tangent.
    MATILDA    No . . . no . . . I don’t care what you say, he was talking to me about me, everything he said . . .
    BELCREDI    I couldn’t get a word in edgeways, and it was all about you!—what?—even when