THE THRONE ROOM.
(_The King in court costume. His office of court fool is shown
discreetly by a suitable head covering. In his languid hand he holds a
short bauble. He appears strangely altered: his pale face is deeply
lined and his eyes seem twice as large as formerly._)
THE KING.
How strange is life! During many years of hardship of every description
I felt my bodily strength increase daily. Each sunrise found me
brighter in spirits, stronger in muscle. No mishap caused me to doubt
the sturdiness of my constitution. And since I have been living here in
peace and plenty I am shriveling like an apple in springtime. I feel
life going from me step by step and the doctors agree in shrugging
their shoulders and saying with long faces that they cannot foresee the
outcome.----Did I ever reign in these halls? Every day since I came
here I have asked myself the same question, and every day it seems more
nonsensical. It is as hard for me to believe as it would be for me to
credit anyone who told me that I had lived on another planet. King
Pietro is the worthiest prince who ever had a throne, and I am the last
person in his realm who would want to change places with him. That is
my last word each evening, a word which does not make me dream of the
thick prison air, but of the dripping, stormbent, rustling trees, of
the gloomy heaths, of the virgin dew on the thick grass, of my journeys
from place to place on the stroller's vans, on the tailboards of which
I made all hearts waver between pity and respect.----I have noticed an
unusual cramp in my left arm for the last few days. It is not gout, it
is not the weakness of old age. But before my failing members give way,
I have a work to accomplish. Let me complete it, O Fate, so that we may
part in friendship! I have cultivated it with all possible care, as the
only thing profitable in my life. Or shall I be the dupe again?
Perhaps, the eager young hearts really do not need my help? Does
egotism make me overestimate by importance in furthering their union?
Who will open my eyes to my true merits? Blind I came, must I go so? I
go and listen! Later I shall not have to think about the answers.
(_Exit._)
(_Enter King Pietro and Crown Prince Filipo._)
KING PIETRO.
I have made inquiries among the Medici in Florence if they are willing
that a daughter of their house should become your wife. I have just
received word that the Medici, confident in the permanency of our rule,
would welcome such an alliance.
FILIPO.
Before you did that, my respected father, I had distinctly told you
that I shall never marry any one but Donna Alma, Alexandrion's daughter!
KING PIETRO.
(_In anger._) The daughter of my court fool! You belong back in the
shop whence you came!
FILIPO.
Then send me back to the shop, respected father!
KING PIETRO.
Although there can be no doubt of this maiden's virtues, the general
welfare of the state demands that you wed a prince's daughter. If you
desired to court the daughter of a citizen of Perugia, I might be able
to countenance your mesalliance without slapping our own origin in the
face. Even then, your choice would be an offense against the state,
which would result in party strife and violence among the citizens. But
if you chose a queen of obscurist origin for your people, then you show
at once that you undervalue the duties of a prince. Who can tell what
heirs may spring from such a marriage! Instead of looking forward to
your reign with confidence, they will await it with sullen dread,
anxiety and insubordination. Did I overcome King Nicola and drive him
to an early death that my son should indulge in madness such as cost
that monarch his life and throne?! That is the reason I brought
Alexandrion here, because he has meditated upon just such serious
questions! (_Lifting a portière._) Call the fool! Now he shall show me
if his wisdom can withstand the call of blood! Now he shall show me if
he can follow his own sermons as I do, or if he is only an empty
chatterer!
THE KING.
(_Entering._) What does my dear lord desire?
KING PIETRO.
I have been beholden to you for advice in the hours of the most
frightful danger. Had I not followed freely your advice, so full of
watchful and crafty shrewdness, in difficult situations we might today
be under foreign rule. Now, however, I require of you a sacrifice
which, as the father of your child, you owe the state and our dynasty.
Without restraint I allowed your intelligence to rule between me and my
own blood, never suspecting how soon I should have to ask you to put it
between yourself and your child. The Prince asks me to give him your
daughter for his wife!
THE KING.
My child is so far above me that her feet never touch the ground
without the seed of happiness blossoming beneath her tread.
KING PIETRO.
I can believe that, but will you order your daughter to reject every
offer of the Prince!
FILIPO.
Donna Alma will never obey that order!
KING PIETRO.
Silence!
THE KING.
I can order nothing in this country.
KING PIETRO.
That is true! But you must obey!
THE KING.
That is true! But my daughter need not obey!
KING PIETRO.
Enough of your jests! I am sorry I overprized your wisdom. You
understand that your refusal ends your stay here at my court. I am
pained to see your calm deliberation forsake you at this pass. You are
a bad father, Alexandrion, in not fearing to deprive your child of my
good will! In order to protect myself against the reproach of
ingratitude, I shall have your salary continued----
THE KING.
Thank you, brother, I need your bounty no longer.
KING PIETRO.
Are you out of your senses?!
THE KING.
I see more clearly than you. You no more than I can prevent the
wonderful fulfilment of mighty fate.
KING PIETRO.
Stop your idle babble! I ask you for the last time, will you obey my
order? If not, fear my wrath!
THE KING.
It is beyond your power as well as mine!
KING PIETRO.
Very well. My son if he wants may run after you. I banish you and your
child for life from this day forth from the land of Umbria, under pain
of death in case you return to it!
THE KING.
(_Breaks forth in merry laughter._)
FILIPO.
Holy Virgin, what's the matter with him!
KING PIETRO.
(_Disconcerted._) It is the laughter of a madman.
THE KING.
(_Laughing._) Surely, dear friends, you will permit me to laugh since I
have been paid for being foolish.
KING PIETRO.
Give us some explanation of what is passing within you, Alexandrion!
THE KING.
(_Raising himself to his full height._) Do you know that you banished
me once before, in this very room, from Umbria under pain of death?!
KING PIETRO.
It is impossible fur me to remember all the judgments I have passed!
THE KING.
You passed your first judgment against King Nicola, and I am he!
KING PIETRO.
(_Shaken._) It was long to be foreseen that he would come to such an
end! (_To the King._) Do you want to act a tragic scene for us out of
your former occupation?
THE KING.
I, here before you, am King Nicola!
KING PIETRO.
(_With apparent anger._) I have nothing to do with imposters. Do you
really expect to gain your ends by such thieves' tricks?
THE KING.
I am King Nicola! I am King Nicola!
KING PIETRO.
(_To Filipo._) He has had a stroke! God have mercy on his soul!
FILIPO.
His poor child! Merciful Heaven, when she hears of it!
THE KING.
(_In the greatest astonishment._) Why are you not overcome with
astonishment?----You do not believe me?!----Are you going to ask me to
prove what since my downfall I have kept secret only by supernatural
strength of soul!
FILIPO.
We believe you, Alexandrion! Let me conduct you to your room. We
believe you!
KING PIETRO.
If only your poor heart would grow quiet!
THE KING.
(_Anxiously._) No, no, I shall not grow quiet! You do not trust my
words! You doubt my reason!----Almighty God, where shall I get
witnesses to confirm the truth!----Let my daughter be called!----It is
high time; I shall not see the light much longer!----Let my daughter be
called!----I am too weak to fetch her myself.----Let my child be
called!----My child!
FILIPO.
I beseech you, Father, do not gratify his wish! The girl will go crazy
from anguish if unprepared she sees him in his mind's darkness!
THE KING.
Let my child be called! I have nothing to leave her but her princely
ancestry, and now she is about to be cheated of this last possession
through my stupendous folly! Who will believe the girl when my eyes are
closed! Indeed, there is nothing in me to recall a king! And my
pictures, my statues are destroyed! And even if a picture were found,
who would accept a resemblance as proof of my monstrous statement! A
resemblance in which time has destroyed every trace! Help me, Heavenly
Father, in this anguish worse than death!
KING PIETRO.
Have you quite forgotten, my dear Alexandrion, that King Nicola is
dead?!
THE KING.
Dead?----How kindly you speak because you think I am mad!
Dead?----Where is he buried? I fought against the flood and escaped to
land beyond the city walls. But who will believe me! Call my child
here! She will advise me, as she has done a hundred thousand times
before, with her wisdom.
FILIPO.
I'll hurry and call your own physician, my respected father!
THE KING.
Call my child! My child!
PRINCESS ALMA.
(_Rushing in._) My father! Almighty God, I heard your agonizing voice
throughout the house!
THE KING.
Am I King Nicola, or am I not?
ALMA.
You are King Nicola, my father. Do not worry! What more can they do to
us today?
THE KING.
So you too have gone mad or you are a miserable pretender! They don't
believe us! What can we do to prove it to them, so that I may lay my
head on the block and thereby give you attestation of your birth?! Send
to the prison! There they have the record of the scars on my body. I
blasphemed against the king. "Curse the king!" I cried. I was that
king!----But where is a man with a normal reason who will believe such
adventures! I never thought of that during all these years! Who would
carry documents with him when his head had been twice forfeited to the
executioner! And have I fathomed the ways of Almighty God more than
anyone only to be considered mad in the end!----But such is life! Such
is life!
KING PIETRO.
The sight of your sufferings is heartrending, Alexandrion! But your
assertion is ridiculous!
ALMA.
He is King Nicola!
FILIPO.
Think what you say, Donna Alma!
ALMA.
He is King Nicola!
THE KING.
Search your brain, my dear, clever child, and see if you cannot find a
means of making the truth shine before their eyes like a ray of
sunshine!
ALMA. I will bring a host of witnesses, father, as soon as the penalty
is taken off your head.
FILIPO.
Was not the name of King Nicola's daughter Alma?
KING PIETRO.
Thousands of children are baptized with princely names!
THE KING.
Do you hear, my child? An infallible proof! Otherwise, I shall yet end
my unhappy war with the world in a madhouse and burden your life with
the most gruesome of curses, the curse of the ridiculous!
ALMA.
Lead us to the Urselines!
FILIPO.
Can it be possible! The king in his victor's service! ----Speak, my
father!----Pardon him!
KING PIETRO.
Be you who you may, I lift every penalty which may hang over you.
THE KING.
And now the proofs, my child! Quick, the proofs! Even if their
testimony is as clear as day, it will do as little after my death to
help the recognition of your birth as my vain words do now!
ALMA.
The Mother Superior of the Urselines will testify (_Frightened._) My
father! Jesu, Maria, your look! What are you seeking so helplessly? For
God's sake, speak!
FILIPO.
(_Who has hurried to aid the King._) Go, Donna Alma! The strength
begins to leave his limbs.
THE KING.
(_Struggling against death, while Filipo and Alma support him upon the
steps of the throne._) I seek proofs!----Proofs! Who can prove by his
corpse that he was a king!----It is the last chance!----I am not
mad!----Hurry, my child!----Proofs!----Too late! too late!----Such is
life!
ALMA.
(_Bending over him, lamenting._) My father! Don't you hear me? Look me
in the eye, my father! What is your hand seeking? Your child is
kneeling beside you!
THE KING.
----I thank you, bu--but not as a king----only----as----a man----
ALMA.
Oh, oh, his eyes!----Father! Move your hand! Oh, woe is me, is there no
help? Oh, pity me, he no longer hears my voice! His cheeks are cold!
How can I warm his heart? Your mighty soul, my father, where is it,
that it save you! Don't leave me alone, my father! Don't leave me
alone! Oh, woe is me, woe is me, he has left me!
KING PIETRO.
(_To himself._) I stand here like an outlaw!
FILIPO.
Quiet your sorrow, Donna Alma!
KING PIETRO.
I will seek to make amends for her loss to the best of my power, if she
is willing to become my child through you.
FILIPO.
God bless you for that, my father!
KING PIETRO.
We will give him princely burial; whoever he may be! But nobody must
hear a word of what we three have passed through here during this hour.
History shall never tell of me that I made a king my court fool!
_Curtain._