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caligula
- Act one
- Act two
- Act three
- Act four

- the myth of sysyphus
- Back Again To Myself
- Contradictions
- The Blood of Freedom
- Neither victims nor executioners
- The Night of Truth

Act Four

A room in the imperial palace. The stage is in semidarkness. Cherea and Scipio enter. Cherea crosses to the right, then comes back left to Scipio.

SCIPIO (With a sullen mouth) What do you want of me?

CHEREA You didn't come to our meeting yesterday.

SCIPIO (looking away and crossing) That's right.

CHEREA Scipio, I'm not in the habit of asking help from others, but I need you now. You and I are the only ones who can sponsor this murder with the right motives. I want you to stay with us.

SCIPIO I can't do that.

CHEREA So you are with him then?

SCIPIO No ...

CHEREA And yet he killed your father.

SCIPIO That's how it all began. But that’s how it ends, too.

CHEREA Sometimes you just have to choose.

SCIPIO We're consumed by the same fire. I'm unfortunate enough to understand him. CHEREA So you have chosen to take his side.

SCIPIO (passionately) No, I can never, ever again take anyone’s side.

CHEREA (affectionately; approaching Scipio) He's taught you to despair in taking any action because to do so would bloody your innocent hands in some way or other. That, by itself, would justify me in killing him. (Helicon enters.)

HELICON I've been looking for you, Cherea. Caligula's planning a little get-to-gether. He wants you to wait for him. (to Scipio) You aren't invited. Off you go!

SCIPIO (looking back at Cherea as he goes out) Cherea.

CHEREA (gently) Yes, Scipio?

SCIPIO You do understand.

CHEREA (in the same gentle tone) No, Scipio.

OCTAVIUS But what can he want with us at this hour of the night? If it's only to have us killed why all these preliminaries?

THE OLD SENATOR We should have acted sooner; I always said so. Now we're in this torture chamber. (Cherea enters)

CHEREA (Sits, showing no sign of apprehension.) Any idea what's happening?

SENATORS (speaking together) He's found out about the conspiracy.

CHEREA And?

TIlE OLD SENATOR (shuddering) Torture.

CHEREA (still unperturbed) Caligula once gave 81,000 sesterces to a slave who, despite torture, wouldn't confess to a theft he had committed.

OCTAVIUS For some reason that doesn’t console me.

CHEREA He’s a connoisseur of courage. You ought to keep that in mind. (to the Old Patrician) If you don't mind, would stop chattering your teeth? I detest that sound.

THE OLD SENATOR Ah -- --

OCTAVIUS Concentrate on the fact that our lives are at stake.

CHEREA (coolly) You'll be quoting Caligula next.

TIlE OLD SENATOR (on the verge of tears) Remember what he always says it to the executioner: "Kill him slowly, so that he feels what dying's like and hence appreciates life more!"

CHEREA After an execution he yawns, and says quite seriously: "What I admire most is my insensitivity." That’s my favorite.

OCTAVIUS I hear something.

CHEREA Of course such a remark betrays a weakness. If he were really insensitive he would never make such a boast.

THE OLD SENATOR If you don’t mind, would you stop philosophizing? I detest that!

CHEREA (who has not noticed Helicon) Let's admit at least that such a man forces one to think. There's nothing like insecurity for stimulating the brain. No wonder he's so hated.

THE OLD SENATOR (pointing a trembling finger at the axe which Helicon has placed just behind Cherea) It's happening!

CHEREA (Noticing now, and in a slightly altered tone) Maybe you were right.

OCTAVIUS Waiting was a mistake. We should have acted at once.

CHEREA Now we know.

THE OLD SENATOR I don't want to die.

Suddenly strange music begins behind a curtain at the back of the stage. The hostages gaze at each other in silence. Outlined on the illuminated curtain, in shadow play, Caligula appears and executes some grotesque dance movements. He is wearing ballet dancer's skirts and his head is garlanded with flowers. As the music climaxes Caligula disappears and Helicon announces gravely: "Gentlemen, the performance is over." Meanwhile Caesonia has entered soundlessly behind the watching Senators. She speaks in an ordinary voice, but none the less they give a start on hearing it.

CAESONIA Caligula has instructed me to tell you that in the past he has called his advisory committee together only for purposes of State business. But tonight he has invited you to participate with him in an artistic emotion. (A short pause. Then she continues in the same tone.) He added, I should note, that anyone who failed to participate would strung up on a meat hook. (They keep silent.) I apologize for insisting, but I must ask if you found the dance beautiful.

OCTAVIUS (After only a brief hesitation) It was beautiful, Caesonia.

THE OLD SENATOR (effusively) Lovely! Lovely!

CAESONIA And you, Cherea?

CHEREA (Icily) It was . . . fine art.

CAESONIA Good. Now I can convey your critical appreciation to Caligula. (She exits)

HELICON Tell me, Cherea, was it really fine art?

CHEREA In a way.

HELICON I defer to your cleverness, Cherea. Deceptive as only a respectable citizen can be. But clever indeed. I am not clever. And yet I’m very protective of Caius, even if he wants none of it.

CHEREA I don't quite understand what you're saying. But I congratulate you on your devotion to duty. I like devoted servants.

(Cherea laughs and turns away. Helicon draws one knife and puts the flat side on the side of Cherea’s face pulling it around to face him. Helicon takes out another knife and places the sharp side directly between them as Cherea is forced to look him straight in the eye.)

HELICON Look carefully Cherea. Study it like a piece of fine art. A portrait of your enemy. (He pats Cherea on the head with the flat knife, and then exits).

CHEREA (Angrily) Now, let's act quickly. You two stay here. Before the night is out there'll be a hundred of us. (Exits)

OCTAVIUS (Sadly) Did I really say that dance was beautiful.

THE OLD PATRICIAN (conciliatingly) Maybe we just didn't understand it.

LUCIUS What’s going on? Caligula’s guards forced me to come here.

THE OLD SENATOR (absent-mindedly) For the dance, perhaps.

LUCIUS Dance?

THE OLD SENATOR Excuse me, the artistic emotion.

CASSIUS I've just heard Caligula's very ill.

OCTAVIUS He is.

CASSIUS What's the matter with him? (In a joyful tone) By the gods, is he going to die?

OCTAVIUS I doubt it. His disease is only fatal to others.

CAESONIA ( Enters and in a casual tone) I thought you should know that Caligula has serious stomach trouble. Just now he vomited blood. (They crowd round her, not noticing Caligula off to the side)

LUCIUS I vow to the gods if he recovers, to pay the Treasury two hundred thousand sesterces as a token of my joy.

CASSIUS (on one knee with exaggerated eagerness) Take my life in place of his!

CALIGULA (going up to Lucius) I accept your offer, Lucius. And I thank you. A representative of the Treasurer Board will call on you tomorrow. (Goes to Cassius and embraces him.) You can't imagine how touched I am. (A short pause. Then, tenderly) So you love me, Cassius, as much as that?

CASSIUS (emotionally) Caesar, there's nothing, nothing I wouldn't sacrifice for your sake.

CALIGULA (embracing him again) Ah, Cassius, this is really too much; I don't deserve all this love. (Cassius makes a protesting gesture.) No, no, really, I'm not worthy of such devotion. (He beckons to two soldiers.) Take him away. (gently, to Cassius) Go, my friend, and remember that Caligula’s heart is yours.

CASSIUS (terrified) But where are they taking me?

CALIGULA To death, of course. You gave your life in exchange for mine. I feel better already. Even that nasty taste of blood in my mouth has gone. You’ve cured me, Cassius. And now that I’m quite myself again, I feel like throwing a party in honor of my generous friend. (Cassius' face is distorted by terror and his body limp with fear as he is dragged away)

CALIGULA (In a nostalgic tone) Soon the paths along the sea will be bobbing with golden mimosa flowers. Young women will be wearing light summer dresses. The blue sky will be washed with a light breeze and clean swift sunshine! The smiles of life. (serious) If you had loved life enough, my friend, you wouldn't have gambled it away so rashly.

CASSIUS (Momentarily revived by one last effort to change Caligula’s mind) But it's all a joke, Caligula. Life's just a joke. And I'm laughing. Cac, cac, cac, cac. See, I'm laughing! Cac! Cac! Cac! Cac! (It doesn't work, and his "laugh" starts to alternative with weeping offstage, until it abruptly stops).

CALIGULA (Looking at Lucius) And the loser must pay. The winner demands it. (A short silence.) Come, Caesonia. (He turns to the others.) By the way, an idea has just ambushed me, and I want to share it with you. Up to now my reign has been too happy. There's been no world-wide plague, no religious persecution, not even a revolution -- in short, nothing likely to give us a place in history. In a sense, you see, that’s why I have been trying to make up for the modesty of fate. I mean -- I don't know if you've followed me -- well (he gives a little laugh), in short, I'm your plague. (In a different tone) But don't say a word. Here's Cherea's coming. You're on, Caesonia.

CAESONIA Caligula is dead.

THE OLD SENATOR Only a short while ago he was dancing. (Caesonia fixes on him)

CAESONIA The effort was too much for him. (No one speaks.) You've nothing to say, Cherea?

CHEREA (in a low voice) It's a great misfortune for us all, Caesonia.

CALIGULA Well played, Cherea. (He spins round and stares at the others. Petulantly) So it didn't come off. (to Caesonia) Don't forget what I told you.

(Caligula abruptly dashes off. Nobody knows what’s going on.)

THE OLD SENATOR (hoping against hope) Is he ill, Caesonia?

CAESONIA (with a hostile look) No, my pet. Though he never has more than two hours sleep and spends the best part of the night stalking the corridors. You should give a thought to what may pass in this man's mind in those hours between midnight and sunrise. Is he ill? No, he’s not ill, unless you invent a name for the boils and sores that fester in his soul.

(Recovering her composure and in a changed tone) Oh, I was forgetting. Caligula has decreed that today is to be a special holiday devoted to art. So he has organized a poetry reading. A group of poets will be given a set theme and asked to improvise. He wants the poets among you to take part in the competition. He particularly mentioned young Scipio and wise Octavius.

OCTAVIUS But I’m no poet ---

CAESONIA (In a level tone, as if she has not heard him) Needless to say there will be prizes. There will also be penalties. (Looks of consternation.) Just between ourselves, the penalties are not too severe.

OCTAVIUS -- I can appreciate good poetry, but writing -- (Cut off by Caligula's entry, looking gloomier than ever.)

CALIGULA All ready?

CAESONIA Yes. (Calling offstage) Poets can enter.

CALIGULA The "Caligula Prize." Subject: death. Time limit: one minute.

THE OLD SENATOR (Taking a keen interest) Who will compose the jury?

CALIGULA I shall. Isn't that enough?

THE OLD SENATOR Oh, yes, quite enough.

CHEREA Will you be competing, Caius?

CALIGULA Unnecessary. I wrote my poem on this theme long ago.

THE OLD SENATOR (Eagerly) Where can one get a copy of it?

CALIGULA No need. I recite it every day, in my own way.

(Caesonia eyes him nervously. Caligula rounds on her almost savagely.) Is there anything in my appearance that displeases you?

CAESONIA (Gently) I'm sorry. (She turns away)

CALIGULA (Caligula turns to Cherea.) As I was saying. It's the only poem I have ever fathered, but it’s the living proof that I am the only true artist Rome has ever known -- the only one, Cherea, to reconcile his thoughts and his deeds.

CHEREA Surely it’s only a matter of having the power to do so.

CALIGULA Quite true. Other artists create because they lack power. I don't need to make a work of art; I live it. (Brutally) Well, poets, are you ready? (No one answers)

CALIGULA Good. I take that for a yes. Listen carefully. When I whistle, the first of you will step forward and begin reading. When I whistle again, he must stop and the second begin. And so on. The winner, of course, will be the one whose poem has not been interrupted by the whistle. Get ready. (Turning to Cherea, he whispers.) Efficient organization's needed for everything, even for art. (Blows his whistle.)

OCTAVIUS Death, when beyond thy murky banks ...

FIRST POET (full and impressive voice) In their dim cave, the fatal sisters three ... (Whistle.)

SECOND POET (lisping) I summon thee, sweet Death ...

FOURTH POET When I was in my happy infancy ...

CALIGULA (yelling) Stop! What possible connection could there be between the childhood of an idiot and the subject of this competition? The connection! Tell me the connection!

FOURTH POET But, Caius, I haven’t finished. (Shrill whistle.)

FIFTH POET (in a high-pitched voice) Relentless, he stalks her virgin life ... (Whistle.)

SIXTH POET (mysteriously) Oh, this long, profound prayer ... (Whistle, broken off as Scipio comes forward without paper.)

CALIGULA You haven't anything to read?

SCIPIO I don't need to read it.

CALIGULA Well, let's hear you. (He chews at his whistle.)

SCIPIO (standing very near Caligula, he recites listlessly, without looking at him)

Pursuit of happiness that purifies the heart, Skies rippling with light,

O wild, sweet, festal joys, frenzy without hope!

CALIGULA (gently) Stop, please. The others needn't compete. (to Scipio) You're very young to understand so well the lessons we can learn from death.

SCIPIO (gazing straight at Caligula) I was very young to lose my father.

CALIGULA (turning hastily) The rest of you fall in again. Really, being a bad poet is too horrible a penalty already. Until now I'd thought of enlisting you as my allies and occasionally dreamed of your forming my gallant legion of last-ditch defenders. Another illusion gone! I’m casting you off among my enemies. The poets are against me and that is indeed the last straw. March out in military order! As you file past me lick your poems to erase any trace of your atrocities. Attention! Forward! (Keeping step, the poets file out by the right, tonguing their immortal poems. Caligula adds in a lower tone) Now leave me, everyone.

CHEREA Now's our opportunity.

(Scipio, who has overheard, halts on the threshold and walks back to Caligula. The two of them talk intensely but briefly. Scipio goes out. Caligula makes a vague gesture. Then, almost savagely, he pulls himself together and takes some steps toward Caesonia.)

CAESONIA What did he say?

CALIGULA It would tax your understanding. (staring at her) Let's just say I have decided to let Scipio try his chances again, elswhere. I'm through with him. But you, I wonder why you are still here.

CAESONIA Because you need me.

CALIGULA No. If I killed you I think I might understand.

CAESONIA Why don’t you do it then? (slight pause) But can't you, if only for a minute, just let yourself go.

CALIGULA For several years now I have been practicing the art of letting myself go.

CAESONIA That’s not the way I mean it. Of course, you just laugh at everything I say.

CALIGULA The freedom of the heart you want to talk about -- everyone acquires it, in his own way. I’m more interested in the fact that I could have you put to death. (Laughs.) It would be the perfect climax to my career. (He rises and swings the mirror round toward himself. Then he walks in a circle. Arms hang limp, almost without gestures. There is something animal in his gait as he continues speaking.) It's odd. When I'm not killing, I feel alone. The living aren't enough to populate the universe and to keep us company. When you are all here around me, you make me aware of a limitless void where I dare not look. I'm only comfortable amongst my dead. (He shivers and turns toward the audience, leaning a little forward. He has forgotten Caesonia's presence.) They are real. They are like me. They are awaiting me and urging me to hurry. I have long dialogues with this or that man who screamed to me for mercy and whose tongue I had cut out.

CAESONIA Come. Lie down beside me. (Caligula does so.) Now you are comfortable. It is quiet!

CALIGULA Quiet? How unperceptive you are. Listen! (Distant metallic tinklings.) Aren't you aware of the thousand muffled sounds of hatred on the alert?

CAESONIA No one would dare. . .

CALIGULA Yes, stupidity would.

CAESONIA Stupidity doesn't kill. It makes men behave.

CALIGULA It is deadly, Caesonia, when it considers itself insulted. No, it's not the men whose sons or fathers I have killed who'll murder me. They're on my side because they have the same taste in their mouths. But the others -- those I ridiculed and laughed at -- I’m defenseless against their vanity.

CAESONIA (passionately) We will defend you. Many of us still love you.

CALIGULA Fewer and fewer. I’ve taken care of that. Besides, let's be fair and admit that stupidity is not my only enemy. There’s also those extraordinary ordinary men. (slight pause) But why such a show of devotion? This wasn't part of our agreement.

CAESONIA (who has risen and is pacing) Hasn't it been enough to see you killing others, without knowing you'll be killed as well? Isn't it enough to take you into my bed all torn and tearing, breathing your smell of murder when you lie on top of me? Each day I see you slipping further and further from any human likeness. I know, I know each day I'm getting old, my beauty can only wane. But my love, my fear for you has so shaped me that now I don’t even care if you no longer love me. I only want you to get well, to be a boy with a whole life ahead of you. What else can you want?

CALIGULA (rising, looks at her fixedly) You've been with me a long time now.

CAESONIA (Not looking at him) Yes. . . . And you're going to keep me, aren't you?

CALIGULA (Standing close behind her) I only know why you're here now. Because of all those nights of fierce, joyless pleasure and because of all you know about me. (He takes her in his arms, bending her head back a little with his right hand.) I'm twenty-two. Not too old. But at this moment, when I have cast off so many skins and my life looks to me so long already, so fulfilled, you are the only witness left. And I can't resist a sort of shameful, sentimental tenderness for the old woman that you’ll become.

CAESONIA So you mean to keep me with you.

CALIGULA All I know -- and this is the worst of it -- is that this sentimental tenderness is the only pure emotion I’ve ever had. (Caesonia frees herself from his arms. Caligula follows her. She presses her back to his chest and he puts his arms round her.) Wouldn't it be better that the last witness should disappear?

CAESONIA I'm just happy because of what you just said. Why can't we share this happiness?

CALIGULA What makes you think I'm unhappy?

CAESONIA Happiness doesn't thrive on destruction.

CALIGULA Then there must be two kinds of happiness, and I chose the murderer’s happiness. For I am happy. Just look at me. I laugh, Caesonia, when I think that for years all Rome carefully avoided pronouncing the name of Drusilla. For years Rome was mistaken. Love isn't enough for me, as I realized then, and that is what I realize again today as I look at you. Loving a person is being willing to grow old with that person. Surely you don’t think I’m capable of that? Drusilla old would be far worse than Drusilla dead. People think a man suffers because out of the blue, death snatches away the woman he loves. But real suffering has more meaning: it comes from the discovery that grief, too, cannot last. Even grief is devoid of meaning.You see, I had no excuse, not even the fiction of a love, nor the bitterness of melancholy. I have no alibi. But here I am today far freer than I was years ago because I am liberated from memory and delusion. (He laughs bitterly.) I know now that nothing lasts. Just think! There are only two or three of us in all history who really experienced that knowledge and achieved this insane happiness. Caesonia, you have watched out to the very end a very strange tragedy. It is time for the curtain to fall on you. (holds his hand out to her)

CAESONIA (terrified) Can that freedom be happiness?

CALIGULA (hugs her from behind and gradually tightens his grip on Caesonia's throat) You may be sure of it, Caesonia. Without it I might have been a smug man. Thanks to it, I have won the god-like lucidity of the solitary man. (His exaltation grows as little by little he strangles Caesonia, who puts up no resistance. Bending his head, he goes on speaking, into her ear.) I live, I kill, I exercise the rapturous power of a destroyer which makes child's play of the power of a creator. This is happiness -- this unparalleled isolation of a man who sees his whole life at once, the measureless joy of the unpunished assassin, this ruthless logic that crushes human lives (he laughs), that's crushing yours out, Caesonia, to complete at last the eternal solitude I desire.

CAESONIA (struggling feebly) Caius .

CALIGULA (more and more excitedly) No, no sentiment. I must have done with it, for there is no time to waste. There is no time to waste, dear Caesonia. (Caesonia has stopped breathing. He stares wildly at her; his voice grows harsh and grating.) You, too, were guilty. But killing is not the solution. (He spins round and gazes crazily at the mirror.) Caligula! You too, you too are guilty. Well, what can a little more or less matter? But who would dare condemn me in this world where no one is innocent and nobody is judge? (He brings his eyes close to his reflected face. He sounds genuinely distressed.) You see, Helicon has failed you. I won't have the moon. Never, never, never! But how painful it is to know that and to have to go through to the bitter end! Listen! Innocence arming for the fray, preparing for its final triumph. Why am I not in their place, among them? I'm afraid. (Sound of his pain) After despising others, to recognize the same cowardice in myself. But that doesn’t matter. Fear doesn’t last either. I’m about to enter that great emptiness where the heart has rest. (He seems calmer. When he speaks again his voice is steadier, less shrill.) Everything seems so complicated. Yet everything is quite simple. If I'd had the moon, if love were enough, all would be changed. But where can I quench this thirst? What heart, what god would be as deep and pure for me as a great lake? (Kneeling, weeping.) Neither this world nor the other world has a place for me. Yet I know, and you know (still weeping, he stretches out his arms toward the mirror) that all I needed was for the impossible to be. The impossible! I've searched the confines of the world, along all my secret frontiers. I stretched out my hands (Screaming, now at the moon). See, I still stretch out my hands, but I always find you confronting me, and I've come to loathe you. Helicon! Nothing, nothing yet. Helicon! Oh, this night is heavy, heavy as all of human suffering. Helicon will not come. We shall be guilty forever. (The shadows turn into Caligula’s killers. The patricians watch, but hold their coats over their faces while others surround Caligula and repeatedly stab him. Caligula chokes and laughs as if embracing death.) In history, Caligula! In history! (Caligula's body drops and the killers move triumphantly, but he pulls himself up to his knees) I'm still alive! (He dies, but the killers begin to strike at his body again until he turns into a bloody mass blending into the red gloom)

END