Pirandello's Henry IV. Luigi Pirandello

Thank you! But when I speak as I feel, he has to go and spoil it to annoy me.

      DOCTOR (continues in his professional tone, turning to Belcredi) Resemblance, you see, my dear Baron, often resides where you least expect it—which is how . . .

      BELCREDI Which is how some people might even find a resemblance between you and me.

      DI NOLLI Please, please, we’ve got off the point.

      FRIDA That’s what happens when he’s around.

      MATILDA Which is exactly why I didn’t want him to come.

      BELCREDI How ungrateful, after all the fun you have at my expense.

      DI NOLLI Tito, I beg you—enough. The Doctor is here, we have serious business, and you know how important this is to me.

      DOCTOR Good. Let’s make a start by getting a few things clear. How did this portrait come to be here? Did you give it to him back at the beginning?

      MATILDA No, how would I? I was just a girl—like Frida—not even engaged. I let him have the picture three or four years after the accident because Carlo’s mother wouldn’t leave me alone about it.

      DOCTOR (to Di Nolli) Your mother being his sister?

      DI NOLLI Yes. We’re here because we promised her. She died a month ago. But for that, Frida and I would be on our honeymoon.

      DOCTOR With your mind on other things—I understand.

      DI NOLLI Mother died convinced that her brother was about to get better.

      DOCTOR And can you tell me why she thought so?

      DI NOLLI It was a conversation they had not long before she died.

      DOCTOR Did they now? It would be useful to know what he said.

      DI NOLLI I wish I could help you. All I know is she came back obviously upset. I gathered he’d spoken to her with unusual tenderness, almost as if he knew it was the last time . . . and on her deathbed she made me promise not to abandon him, to have him seen . . .

      DOCTOR And here we are. So first, let’s see . . . sometimes the tiniest event can . . . This portrait, then . . .

      MATILDA Oh, heavens, we mustn’t exaggerate its importance—it was just that I hadn’t seen it for so long.

      DOCTOR Please . . . patience . . .

      DI NOLLI Well, quite—it’s been there for about fifteen years.

      MATILDA Nearer eighteen.

      DOCTOR Please!—you don’t know yet what I’m asking. In my belief these two portraits may be crucial. They were done, I suppose, before the famous—or should I say infamous—pageant, is that right?

      MATILDA Of course.

      DOCTOR When he was still in his right mind—that’s the point I was making. Were they his idea?

      MATILDA No, not at all. Lots of us who took part decided to have our portraits done as a souvenir of the pageant.

      BELCREDI I had mine done—Charles of Anjou.

      DOCTOR You don’t know if it was he who asked for it?

      MATILDA I’ve no idea. It’s possible. Or it might have been Carlo’s mother’s idea of humouring him.

      DOCTOR Now, another thing. Was this pageant his idea?

      BELCREDI No, it was mine.

      MATILDA Don’t take any notice of him. It was poor Belassi’s idea.

      BELCREDI Belassi?

      MATILDA (to the Doctor) Count Belassi, poor man, who died two or three months later.

      BELCREDI But Belassi wasn’t even there when I . . .

      DI NOLLI Excuse me, Doctor, does it really matter whose idea . . .

      DOCTOR It could be important.