Читать книгу Justine - Frank J. Morlock - Страница 6

PROLOGUE

SCENE 1

The scenery should be as garish and lurid as possible, but no effort at realism is needed. Rather, the scenery should have the effect of a nightmare; i.e., details should be out of proportion, or occasionally, but not always, fantastic.

Enter the Marquis, before the curtain goes up.

De Sade

Allow me to introduce myself, ladies and gentlemen. You see before you a much maligned and traduced old man. I am at your service, the Marquis de Sade. I belong to an illustrious house, but alas, we have fallen on sad days, and my enemies have triumphed over me, and spread, quite successfully, the rumor that I am insane.

One young man has recently gone so far as to slander my name by ascribing a tragedy to me called Marat which he then styles as ‘produced by the Marquis de Sade and the inmates of Charenton.’ It is most unkind to make reference to my unfortunate sojourn in that institution. Most ungentlemanly. I was put there for political, not hygienic reasons. In fact, the whole thing was engineered to discredit my work. A trick not altogether forgotten in modern times.

At any rate, this play Marat, which has attracted so much attention, has raised suspicions that not only is the author mad, but so are those who would act in his play. (bowing) That is most untrue. In order to rebut this libel, a young friend of mine has undertaken to dramatize a trifle of mine known as ‘Justine.’ The young scamp has toned down some of the scenes and made some necessary adjustments to fit modern taste. But, I pronounce this play fully in the spirit of the original. Far from finding my characters insane, you will see that they behave in accordance with the highest standards of rationality set by the age and do nothing but upon philosophic reflection of the most refined kind.

And, as for the actors, they too, are quite sane. So I shall demonstrate by acting the part of a noted surgeon in this morality.

Let the play begin. (he bows again)

The Curtain Rises