Start: My father, you know … was a whee...

Start:

My father, you know … was a wheelwright. Once, we resided on the land of a wealthy family. And one day we were banished, all of us.

[FASCH: What on earth are you--?]

I watched as my mother died in penury, as my siblings scattered to alleyways and poorhouses, and I, the eldest, cared alone for my father, who, quite blind in his old age, would rave at me that I was not really his son.

[... … …]

End:

The trouble with cards, you see, is that even in a game of skill, in which queen, jester, and knave find meaning only in combination, the contest is reduced, at the last to its simplest element. To luck alone.

For full extended monologue, please refer to the script edition cited here: Itamar Moses, Bach at Leipzig, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. pp.51-52.

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