Читать книгу Tiberius Caesar -- A Play in Five Acts - Ferdinand Dugue - Страница 4
ОглавлениеACT I
SCENE I: THE REVOLTERS
A square in the Carenes suburb of Rome. To the right, the palace of Nerva. To the left, the shop of the armourer Procula.
Streets and monuments in perspective.
PROCULA
It’s getting late. Hasten to carry these weapons to the patrician’s who ordered them from me.
(to a worker)
You know the dwelling of Senator Fonteius. Deliver to him, on my behalf this sword and military belt.
(to another)
You will go to Lord Atalus on the Flaminnian Way, turning right, toward the Palatine.
(to a third)
You to the home of the Tribune Lemas who dwells in that magnificent house with jets of water and huge cedars, down there on the other side of the golden column.
Get going and don’t lose a moment! Ah, I was forgetting, there’s still one more cuirass to take to the home of the illustrious Natalis, the former Consul.
NATALIS (entering)
Lower, will you, much lower—are you losing your wits to raise your voice that way on an open street?
PROCULA
May the Gods protect you, Lord Natalis. I was sending you your cuirass.
NATALIS
It’s unnecessary. I will try it on at your place.
PROCULA
As you please.
(to others)
The rest of you, leave.
NATALIS
Will you hide those weapons under your tunics. Do you need to allow passers-by to see what you are carrying?
PROCULA
Where’s the harm? The passers-by would say: Here are very shiny well chiseled blades. They would conclude it came from the armourer Procula. My pride would find its count.
NATALIS (lowering his voice)
Tiberius doesn’t like this sort of merchandise circulating too freely in Rome.
PROCULA
Eh, Lord? What do I have to fear from Tiberius? I am an artisan who makes weapons without inquiring the use they are intended for. As I hold nothing in the state, nothing that takes place in Rome can concern me, so long as it is not a question of Lord Nerva, my protector, my master.
NATALIS
Well, it’s in his name that I ask you today to use prudence.
PROCULA
In that case it’s a different matter.
(lowering his voice to a worker)
Separate from them now. Don’t allow a skin of steel under your tunic to appear, and take the most deserted streets.
(workers leave.)
Would you like to try on your cuirass now, Lord?
NATALIS
You guarantee me that it is dagger proof?
PROCULA
Completely.
NATALIS
Fine. You’ll fit it on me yourself. I’ll keep it under my pallium.
PROCULA
Order, Lord.
(aside)
Let’s rid ourselves quickly of this patrician because now’s the hour she emerges every evening.
(They go into the shop. A group of Patricians approaches.)
PORCIUS
Coe on, my dear Evander, there’s no going back.
EVANDRE
Success isn’t doubtful.
PORCIUS
Thus it’s quite certain that Tiberius has no suspicion, that he hasn’t left for Capri.
EVANDRE
Nerva affirmed it to me less than an hour ago.
PORCIUS
And the Praetorian Guard is with us?
EVANDRE
Caligula himself must bring it over to us.
PORCIUS
Caligula, the nephew of Tiberius, his heir? Humph! I really fear—
EVANDRE
What? The child is in a hurry to reign. That’s natural.
PORCIUS
Indeed, it’s true—but, between ourselves, the augurs are not favorable. I had the sacred chicken shut in its cage and it refused to eat.
EVANDRE
Because it wasn’t hungry.
PORCIUS
You jest, impious one that you are? Will you still laugh if I tell you that this morning, by mistake, I put on my left boot before my right?
EVANDRE
Presaging misfortune and death.
PORCIUS
That was the opinion of the great Augustus and it’s mine?
EVANDRE
Decidedly, my old Procius, fear will turn your head.
(going to meet other patricians who enter)
Be welcome, Seneca, long life to you Numa, your hand Aeneas. —Any news?
AENEAS
Everything is going beautifully. I left Caligula. Together we visited the barracks on the Palatine Hill.
EVANDRE
And it’s still this way that the cadaver of Plautus will be dragged to the pillory.?
AENEAS
Still.
PORCIUS
That brave Plautus! That excellent Plautus! When I think that yesterday I supped with him. You know he had the most admirable cooks in the world for dormouse in poppy juice. Poor friend! And for benjoin sauce. —Generous colleague! Without mentioning that Falernian of 100 leaves which dated from his ancestor Opimius! We emerged from his palace staggering a bit. He forgot to bow his head in passing a statue of Tiberius—the freedman of an informer saw him and this morning he was found dead in his bed. P Plautu, o best of men, to think that we will no longer drink together.
SENECA
Silence, Porcius! To think of his bowels when it’s a question of saving the country—it’s indecent!
PORCIUS
Right! Now here’s Seneca preaching abstinence. But why do you scorn wine and good cheer?
SENECA
Because I am a philosopher.
PORCIUS
Come off it. Because you have bad digestion!
EVANDER
There, there—no quarreling, I beg you. It’s necessary to avenge Plautus.
PORCIUS
Yes! But the people? Are you sure of the populace?
SENECA
I will harangue them.
PORCIUS (aside)
This scrawny philosopher is good only for making phrases.
(Natalis emerges from Procula’s shop.)
AENEAS
Ha! Here’s Natalis.
NATALIS
Imprudents that you are. Don’t stand around in groups like this in this square, Let’s go into Nerva’s.
ALL:
Let’s go in.
AURELIUS
Halt right there my noble friends.
EVANDER
What does this bone head of an Aurelius want with us?
NATALIS (low)
Let’s avoid him.
(aloud)
Evening Aurelius, Evening. We are expected somewhere.
AURELIUS
Stay put, I tell you.
NATALIS
But—
AURELIUS
You are conspiring. Very good. I’m one of you.
EVANDER
Are you drunk?
AURELIUS
No. Unfortunately, I cannot even get high.
PORCIUS (aside)
Poor man!
AURELIUS
So you are conspiring, right? I’m with you. Oh, first of all ff you don’t want me, I’ll denounce you. It’s true, it’s already been done, no question.
PORCIUS
Huh?
AURELIUS
To conspire under old Tiberius without being denounced,—why, that would be a prodigy, since even those who do not conspire are denounced! Aren’t there informers everywhere? In the friend that embraces you, in the woman you love, in the air that goes by, in the flowers that bloom, in the tomb that closes?
EVANDER
Shut up, wretch, shut up!
AURELIUS
Not at all, at all. By all the Gods of Hell, I will say all I have to say. I have a flux of eloquence like the philosopher Seneca.
NATALIS
But you intend to ruin us!
AURELIUS
I’m ruining myself with you.
PORCIUS
Ah, the mad man!
AURELIUS
Informers everywhere, always informers! I knew a son who denounced his father; a sister, her brother; a wife, her husband—my right hand will denounce my left! Raise your eyes to heaven—it’s a crime, be out or come in, laugh or weep, be serious or distracted, active or idle, walk, run, listen, reply, cough too loud, blow your nose in a certain way—all that’s a crime! The informer is there. Roman, he must die—Tiberius insists on it. Tiberius will have you butchered by a soldier, strangled by an executioner, or bled by a surgeon! In a mood of clemency, he invites you politely to suicide or to taste some of his delicious food. May the Gods preserve you from the parties of Tiberius!
EVANDER
Luckily, this place is deserted.
AURELIUS
That’s where Rome is, my good friends! And to say I’m still alive. By Jupiter, it’s cause for despair! I thought aloud, I publicly insulted Tiberius, I trod hi image under my feet, as I do again, the one that I wear on my finger! Well, I’ve never had the luck to be denounced. There are informers for everybody but me. It makes you think that in the end they don’t take you seriously. Still, I can’t yet denounce myself! Nevertheless, I’ve decided, weary of war, since Ihad a good idea. Let’s conspire. I said to myself, it’s the best way to get it over with quickly. And so, here I am! Well, where are we, my good friends? Put me au courant. I’m all ears.
NATALIS
This is dementia.
AURELIUS
Not at all. Let’s consider it a little. Each of you here has a motive for conspiring. I have the right to mine. Porcius conspires from fear. Evander because he is ruined. You, because you want to be Consul again. Seneca because—actually, why is he conspiring?
SENECA
Because I am a philosopher.
AURELIUS
And bilious. Me, I conspire because I am weary of life. It’s a sort of suicide I intend to make fashionable! Opening one’s veins in a bath has become too common. I’ve got a better way. With the lancet, the dagger, poison, asphyxiation, drowning one may miss his mark—which is a bore. You must start all over again and that’s tiresome. While conspiring with you, one is sure of one’s fate.
NATALIS
Why shut up, will you!
PORCIUS
At least speak lower.
AURELIUS
To wake up, to go to sleep, be cold, be hot, hang around with drunks like Porcius, and philosophers like Seneca, go by foot or in a letter, and start all over again every day—is there anything more insipid? I bear one of the greatest names in Rome; I’m one of the Julian house which has on one side, Clodius, the Sabine, and Aeneas, King of Alba on the other. I’ve led the most extravagant and dissipated life; I’ve had mistresses by the hundreds, friends by the thousands, and despite my lunacy, my prodigality, my follies, I’ve never been able to devour my enormous inheritance—which infuriates me; in short, at thirty years of age, I’m disgusted by everything completely bored, radically blasé; I hold in honor the two best things in the world, young love and old wine; I can no longer love or drink—my heart has gastritis like my stomach. You see plainly, the moment has come for me to conspire against old Tiberius.
NATALIS
Well, so be it! We will make room for you if Nerva wants you.
AURELIUS (becoming serious)
Nerva! Noble heart, pure life, old fashioned character—we are a band of ambitious men and good-for-nothings. Nerva alone is a man! Come on, will you, you will see how under such a leader this fool, this debauched Aurelius, Faces Peril and death!
NATALIS
Let’s not all go through the main gate. Let Aeneas and two or three others enter by way of the garden.
AURELIUS (very gaily)
I think that this time, for sure, I don’t have long to live.
(They all leave)
PROCULUS
Yet another conspiracy. More work for the executioners of Tiberius.
(looking toward Nerva’s palace)
May thunder at least spare that house! Here’s your day over, poor artisan. Rest your weary eyes by the chimney of the workshop. Come savor a moment of air passing through these trees. Especially come, motionless, silently, dazzled—admirer of the shining vision which fills your thoughts and burns your heart. Will the young patrician emerge tonight?
(Romulus enters joyfully and strikes him on the shoulder.)
ROMULUS
Good evening, Barbarian!
PROCULUS
Ah!
(getting hold of himself)
Good evening, friend Romulus.
ROMULUS
Your friend. Still, it’s true. To say that I, Romulus, Citizen of Rome, I, who descend directly from Pasiphae, the Mother of the Minotaur, am the friend of a Barbarian—
PROCULUS
You, you stoop—?
ROMULUS
Ah, so much the worse! I am not proud and I give you my hand willingly.
PROCULUS
And I shake it the same way.
ROMULUS
Poor Procula! Truly, you are not humiliated by your condition? Thus, you don’t even know where you were born; you are not sure if you are a Gaul, a German or a Spaniard?
PROCULUS
I don’t know. The secret of my birth belongs to Lord Nerva, who raised me with his slaves.
PROCULUS
And you’ve never asked him this secret?
PROCULUS
Never. He’s been good to me; as a child he let me open his books, admire his paintings, his statues, his mosaics; later he had me taught a trade, he gave me this shop at the gate of his palace. May the Gods reward him for it.
ROMULUS
To be a slave; to know nothing more.
PROCULUS
I know that I have a love, and that’s enough for me.
ROMULUS
To be freed so as to have to work to live!
PROCULUS
Work is a beautiful and holy thing which purifies the heart often and always raises it.
ROMULUS
For goodness sakes! Work degrades man! Is it possible not to be shamed by dirtying one’s hands handling tools? Scorn industry and commerce for those who, like me, have the honor of being citizens of Rome. It’s up to their Caesar to nourish them.
PROCULUS
Not very. I am furious with Tiberius!
PROCULUS
Truly!
ROMULUS
Tiberius is an old miser who doesn’t give the least largesse to the people of Rome. Would you believe it, it’s reached the point that I don’t have a copper in my pocket? I still need a little to purchase a new tunic.
PROCULUS (smiling)
Indeed.
ROMULUS
Moreover, I rented a room on the eighth floor in a suburb. The house was very ugly and the street very smelly. At night, you could hear the songs of singers and the howling of dogs. I was surrounded by whores, little Greeks, unemployed grammarians, beggars who spoiled sheep with garlic. I have for a neighbor a mountebank who contrived to cripple a little girl to make tours on the Sublicius bridge. In short, I was horribly bad, but I have simple tastes, and I contented myself with this modest support when my landlord, an Israelite merchant put me out the door—me, a citizen of Rome, because I hadn’t paid my rent. Now that’s what happens friend, under the reign of Tiberius.
PROCULUS
Ah, it’s intolerable!
ROMULUS
You laugh, yes, but I am very serious and will end by making Tiberius repent of his avarice. Because we are all powerful, the rest of us, the Citizens of Rome; it’s for us to enjoy everything without paying for anything! The Aediles owe us games, Triumphs, money; the Magistrates, wheat; when one is noble or knight they mock the little folk, these men in tunics, but come election day, these fine gentlemen all us by our names, press our hands, buy our votes; the Tribunes pay court to us, and the Caesars care for us. Thus we are like three hundred thousand stockholders at the expense of the state in the city of Rome.
Do you imagine that, on the day we get angry, Tiberius won’t tremble in all his members?
PROCULUS
Friend, forget Tiberius who is stronger.
ROMULUS
As for me, I intend that he pay his debts. Augustus bequeathed to the Roman people 45 million sesterces in his will. Tiberius, his heir still owes them to us.
(Procula turns and notices Kiomara, who stops with an old geezer she’s leading.)
PROCULUS (pointing her out to Romulus)
Silence.
(Kiomara and the old man leave.)
ROMULUS
What’s wrong with you? There you are, troubled by two passers-by, crossing the square.
PROCULUS (lowering his voice)
Heavens, one more time: forget Tiberius and find another means to fill your empty pocket.
ROMULUS
Such as?
PROCULUS
Work for me as an apprentice.
ROMULUS
Hammers, filings, the stench of copper. Yuck! Won’t you ever understand the dignity of a Roman Citizen?
PROCULUS
Then let me loan you some money.
ROMULUS
To borrow from the purse of a barbarian!
PROCULUS
From that of a friend.
ROMULUS
My friendship doesn’t go that far.
PROCULUS
All the same—
ROMULUS
Don’t insist—you’ll insult me.
ROMULUS
At your ease, ragamuffin Lord.
PROCULUS
I am no less grateful, my dear friend. But, I’m not worried, go. Jupiter, who protects me, will end by sending me some good windfall.
(Nerva emerges from his palace with Blandine and Chariclea.)
PROCULUS
Shut up!
NERVA
Blandine, my cherished daughter, go pray to the Gods of Rome that they render Rome glorious.
BLANDINE (aside)
The Gods of Rome!
NERVA (low to Chariclea)
Chariclea, you are taking her to the Temple of Vesta, aren’t you?
CHARICLEA
Yes, master.
NERVA (low)
The Temple is the place of asylum, and as it’s possible there may be tumult in the city—don’t leave it. I will come to get you myself. You quite understand me—and you will obey?
CHARICLEA
Yes, Lord.
NERVA (to Blandine)
Hug me one more. Till soon, dear daughter. I love you with the tenderness of a mother.
(aside)
In a few moments, she’ll be safe. Now that you no longer have to tremble for her, to work, old Roman.
(returns to his palace.)
BLANDINE (low to Chariclea)
Ah, good nurse—it’s frightful to deceive one’s father like this. When will I be able to tell him everything?
CHARICLEA
Patience, my child. It’s one of those pious fibs that heaven pardons. But, how will we do it? Your father believes we are going to the Temple of Vesta, and forbids us to leave because there might be some tumult in Rome.
BLANDINE
A danger threatens him, perhaps. Oh—my place is beside him. I’m staying.
CHARICLEA
Blandine, it’s the hour that the holy old man is waiting for us.
BLANDINE
Let’s leave then. But, we’ll return quickly.
(They both leave)
PROCULA
Not even the alms of a look. It’s all very simple—a slave.
ROMULUS (picking up something)
I was telling you that Jupiter would come to my rescue. Now, here I am, rich!
(Kiomara and the old geezer re-appear.)
All I have to do is run to sell this at the goldsmith’s.
PROCULA
What are you talking about?
ROMULUS
This gewgaw that I just picked up, and that one of those women doubtless lost.
PROCULA
Give me that.
ROMULUS
A joke of a jewe. It’s made in the form of a ross. The silver seems fine.
PROCULA
Yes, I remember. The daughter of Nerva wore that object on her neck. I’ve noticed it several times.
ROMULUS
It’s an amulet that doubtless she must have brought back from Jerusalem where her father was Questor: it seems these Jews are completely idolatrous and pagans.
PROCULA (aside)
O good luck! I might be able to approach her, to speak to her.
(He grabs the jewel)
ROMULUS
Well! What are you doing?
PROCULA
I’m placing the jewel in my belt until I can return it to her.
ROMULUS
Return it? What are you thinking of? I need money.
KIOMARA (coming up)
Would you like to earn a gold-piece?
ROMULUS
Huh?
KIOMARA
I’m asking you if you’d like to earn a gold coin.
ROMULUS
By working?
KIOMARA
No—that would be unworthy of a Citizen of Rome.
ROMULUS
You know who I am?
KIOMARA
I know it.
ROMULUS (aside)
Decidedly, I’m well known.
(aloud)
And what must be done?
KIOMARA
A small thing. I dwell far from this quarter—on the other side of the Pomerium, and I left there this morning with my father who is blind. The old man is weary of the trip and it’s necessary to keep him here until my return
ROMULUS
That’s easy. But I see from that ring that you are a slave. How is it that you have gold to spend?
KIOMARA
I’m not paying you to question me. Do you accept, yes or no?
ROMULUS
I accept, but you are going to find some gallant. It’s easy to have a blind father, and if you will, my beautiful girl,—
(he takes her by the waist and she abruptly pushes him away.)
What looks! One would say the eyes of a panther.
KIOMARA (low to the old man)
You’ll be fine here.
(aside)
Let’s run to save the imprudent youth who will ruins himself without me.
(she leaves)
ROMULUS
O Decadence! Here I am a blind man’s dog now. An idea, Procula, let’s make a swap. I will leave you the silver gewgaw, and you watch the blind-man for me.
PROCULA
Gladly.
ROMULUS
I’m going to lounge around for a while in the shops of the Sacred Way. Down there, at the corner of the street are some very diverting pantomimes, and dancers form Cadiz, sufficiently enticing—and then I was forgetting. It’s the hour they are going to drag the cadaver of Plautus to the pillory, and I want to be there to scream: Down with Tiberius.
PROCULA
Your tongue will end by doing you harm.
ROMULUS
Poor Procula, you know nothing about politics.
PROCULA
Indeed, it’s true.
ROMULUS
(leaving)
Goodbye, Barbarian.
PROCULA
Goodbye, citizen of Rome.
(to old man)
Come into my shop and you can rest.
(an affirmative gesture by the old man)
Would you give me your hand so I can lead you?
(another nod of the head)
Is he mute, too?
(the old man slowly gives him his hand)
That hand is cold like that of a cadaver!
(The old man goes into the workshop.
BLANDINE
No more hope, Chariclea, I’ve ruined him.
CHARICLEA
Ah, it’s a great misfortune.
BLANDINE
Lost. My cross, my dear cross.
PROCULA
Here it is, Madame.
BLANDINE
Yes, that’s it, that’s really it. Thanks, Procula, thanks
PROCULA
You know my name?
BLANDINE
Say rather, I haven’t forgotten.
PROCULA
You remember me?
BLANDINE
Didn’t you share the games of my childhood?
PROCULA
And I, who, each evening, seeing you pass, didn’t even dare.
BLANDINE
I couldn’t actually speak to you first. Well, here you are, become a man of business, a clever worker, and all the nobility of Rome comes to your place. Chariclea pretended that commercial success had turned your head and that you had become too proud to recognize your friends of yesteryear. Don’t you say anything to this naughty nurse who scolded us when others caressed us.
CHARICLEA
Your hand, my dear son.
BLANDINE
And don’t you see I’m holding out mine to you?
PROCULA
O radiant past! O all joys, all enchantments. The sturdy villa, the basins in which goldfish played, the granite sphinx, the great bulls of Clytumnus, Spring flowers, golden birds in their flight—
BLANDINE
My mother was living then!
CHARICLEA
And when’s the wedding, my son?
PROCULA
What wedding?
CHARICLEA
Yours.
PROCULA
Why, I’m not thinking of it.
BLANDINE
I promise an expensive gift to your fiancée.
PROCULA (aside)
Ah, the awakening. Fall back to earth, slave—the wings of your dream are broken.
BLANDINE
Why this cloud ob your face? Aren’t you happy?
PROCULA
Can a slave be happy, Madame? Is there a God for men of misery and servitude?
BLANDINE
Yes, Procula!—Listen, my father was a Questor in Jerusalem. I was barely seven. One night I was on the terrace with my mother and Chariclea. Iin the streets and on the square there was a large and very agitated multitude. I asked my mother what was going on. She pointed to a man with her finger—a condemned man being led to execution. He was covered with a purple cloak and a crown of thorns which was nailed into his flesh. He held a reed in his right hand and bore a heavy cross on his shoulders.
Men, women and children pursued him with insults and mockery, overwhelming him with blows and scratching his face. When he passed before us, he raised his head and cast a glance at us so full of kindness, of sorrow and forgiveness that an invincible force made us fall to our knees, and we remained there for a very long while, faces in our hands. The last glance of the just had saved our souls.
PROCULA
Who was this man, really?
BLANDINE
He was the God of all those who suffered, were they the least of slaves. He will be, I hope, that of Procula.
PROCULA
Yes, since he is yours.
CHARICLEA
Those noises, this crowd.
(aside, looking off)
Ah, it’s horrible.
(aloud)
Come, my young mistress, come.
BLANDINE (to Procula)
We will see each other again.
(She leaves with Chariclea. Night has come on completely.)
PROCULA
O Unknown God! All that I ask of you is to be able to die for her!
(Groups of people come on stage. The old man pokes his head out of the shop.
Kiomara comes to him rapidly.)
KIOMARA (low to the old geezer)
Everything is ready!
(An executioner enters by torch light, dragging Plautus’s body in a fishnet.)
EXECUTIONER
Make way! Make way! Let pass the justice of Tiberius.
CROWD
No, no.
ROMULUS
Stop a moment. We want to speak to the deceased according to the custom. We want to give him our messages for the other world.
EXECUTIONER
Make way, in the name of Tiberius, make way!
CROWD
Down! Down!
(They beat the Executioner who takes to his heels.)
ROMULUS
Now, citizens of Rome—be silent!
CROWD
Speak! Speak!
ROMULUS
Lord Plautus, I charge you to tell Augustus that the 43 million sesterces, donated by him to the Roman people in his will has not yet been disbursed by Tiberius.
CROWD
It’s true! Bravo! Bravo! Long live Augustus! Down with Tiberius.
ROMULUS
Someone else’s turn now.
PORCIUS
My turn. —Friend Plautus, tell your ancestor Opimius, whose wine we tasted yesterday evening, that the time of good meals is over, and that we cannot savor in peace dishes prepared by Sicilian chefs—
(Laughter and hoots from the crowd.)
ROMULUS
Don’t you recognize the orator? It’s Porcius, the drunk; Porcius,the glutton.
CROWD
Down with Porcius!
(They shove him.)
Down! Down!
PORCIUS (aside)
One will never make anything of these ragamuffins.
SENECA
I demand to speak.
CROWD
Silence! Listen! Silence!
SENECA (after having spit and coughed)
I won’t tell you O Manes of Senator Plautus, the color of Venus’ hair, the day of the birth of Hercules, the number of Achilles’ hair—
(Laughter and hoots)
CROWD
Enough! Enough!
SENECA
I won’t tell you—
CROWD
Down with the orator!
ROMULUS
It’s Seneca, the philosopher, Seneca, the lawyer, Seneca, the merchant of phrases—
CROWD
Down with him! Down with him!
SENECA
In the name of the twelve gread Gods—
ROMULUS
If he doesn’t shut up, throw him in the Tiber—
CROWD
Yes, yes.
SENECA
Mercy, my good friends, mercy.
CROWD
In the Tiber! In the Tiber!
NERVA (appearing)
Stop!
ALL
Nerva!
AURELIUS
Yes, citizens! The only man who is worthy of being your leader.
ROMULUS
Silence, now, and let everyone form up.
(To Nerva)
Approach, Lord, come confide to Plautus your message to the land of the shadows.
NERVA
When Tiberius strikes our friends and our neighbors he forbids regrets, he makes a crime of our tears. He orders the mother whose son he kills to put laurels on her door. He orders the son whose father he has killed to kiss his merciful hand; as for me, I declare that I honor the victims of Tiberius, that I approach them without fear, and that I hold them as sacred! Allow me then, O Death, to shake your cold hand. Let me turn your livid face toward the stars. Hear, O Death, my funereal goodbyes! Tell Julius Caesar that under Tiberius, barbarians insult the frontiers of the Empire, and that Rome agonizes in blood. Tell Augustus to send us from the depth of his tomb, a breath of honor and justie, to revive in us the faith of our ancestors, and to make Tiberius quake in his infamous island. Tell the Republicans, those vanquished at Pharsalus, that we have all sworn on your cadaver, eternal hate to tyranny!
ALL
Eternal hate!
ROMULUS
Listen—that marching, that noise of arms!
CROWD (with terror)
The Praetorians!
NERVA
Yes, the Praetorians—who are with us! The Praetorians that Caligula is leading to us!
(The old geezer makes a violent gesture)
KIOMARA (low)
Patience, will you!
(Numerous soldiers invade the square)
CROWD
Long live Caligula! Long live the Praetorians!
CALIGULA
Block all the streets!
(Turning to the Patricians)
In the name of Tiberius, I arrest you!
NERVA
Treason!
CALIGULA
You understand that resistance is useless.
KIOMARA (low to old geezer)
There! You see!
(The Old Geezer strides forward and throws back the hood that hid his face.)
ALL (recognizing him)
Tiberius!
TIBERIUS (to Caligula)
By Hercules! Now there’s a fine nephew.
CALIGULA (bending his knee)
Caesar!
TIBERIUS
Hug me, will you, my dear Caius!
(aside)
Someone must have warned him I was in Rome.
(looking at Kiomara)
She, perhaps!
CALIGULA (aside)
Kiomara didn’t deceive me.
(aloud)
Caesar, my devotion, my respect.
TIBERIUS
Fine, fine. I know your heart.
NERVA (to Caligula)
Do you deny that this very morning you conspired with us?
PATRICIANS
Yes, yes.
CALIGULA
I feigned to conspire.
TIBERIUS
He feigned, the dear child, and you suspected nothing. He’s clever at feigning. —Yes, it’s me, it’s really me, old Tiberius, that was thought to be at Capri, who comes like this to surprise his good people. Eh, what? Your heart didn’t tell you I was in Rome, in your midst.? I’ve been here for the last two days in this disguise, alone with Kiomara, my faithful Gaul. I haven’t wasted my time, I swear to you. I heard everything, saw all, guessed all, and I know better than ever the feelings of the people of Rome for their master. You see me filled with gratitude.
NERVA (aside)
He plays with his prey before tearing it to piees.
AURELIUS
By Jove, I really feel his claws.
TIBERIUS
Alas! Why is there a cloud in my sky? What, my good friends, you conspire against me?
PORCIUS
Mercy, Tiberius, mercy.
(He falls to his knees with Seneca and several others.)
AURELIUS
Wretched cowards!
TIBERIUS
Baseness after treachery. Indeed, they’re all the same.
NERVA
Don’t insult those whose heads remain unbowed, whose eyes look you in the face!
TIBERIUS
Right! Now there are the traditions of old Rome. I recognize there, indeed, probity, justice, heroic severity—in a word, the Republican Nerva!
(aside)
All my hate for this one!
(aloud)
They say you have a charming daughter—present her to me.
NERVA
You won’t tear her from the altar of Vesta.
(Blandine enters with Chariclea.)
BLANDINE
Father!
NERVA
Wretched hild!
TIBERIUS
Charming indeed.
BLANDINE (on her knees to Tiberius)
Caesar, prove that you are master by pardoning—
TIBERIUS
An innocent and sweet girl an disarm the powers of the earth. Well yes, I pardon. I’m doing even more, I’m taking you all to Capri where we will celebrate peace “en famille”—in a magnificent feast. You know, Caesar has this in common with Jupiter, he gets bored, sometimes. I need to distract myself and I cannot find a better opportunity to cheer myself up a little.
ROMULUS
If I could just squirm away—
(A Praetorian pushes him back brutally)
TIBERIUS
Ah, it’s you, Citizen of Rome! You accuse me of being miserly with spectacles; I will give you an astonishing one in which you shall have a role as an actor. As for the will of Augustus, we’ll talk about it again, and you won’t reproach Tiberius for paying his debts. Let’s get going. I’m in haste to show this beautiful girl (pointing to Blandine) the marvels of my imperial isle.
CHARICLEA (to Procula)
She’s lost.
TIBERIUS
Let’s go, my guests.
PROCULA
Don’t forget me, Caesar.
TIBERIUS
Who are you?
PROCULA
Their accomplice. Because I was the one who sold them weapons.
TIBERIUS
To Capri!
CURTAIN
