Overview
- Female: 1
- Male: 2
Context
In an attempt to shock Henry out of his delusion, His soon-to-be sister in law, Donna Matilda, and her daughter Frida, have dressed up as two different historical figures from the time of King Henry IV. However, before they can carry off the plot, Henry speaks with Donna Matilda, and obliquely confesses his love for her - a confession that feeds Matilda’s vanity, and her secret love for Henry which was never realized when they were young.
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HENRY IV. (following up what he has been saying in the other room). And now I will ask you a question: how can I be astute, if you think me obstinate?
DOCTOR. No, no, not obstinate!
HENRY IV. (smiling, pleased). Then you think me really astute?
DOCTOR. No, no, neither obstinate, nor astute.
HENRY IV. (with benevolent irony). Monsignor, if obstinacy is not a vice which can go with astuteness, I hoped that in denying me the former, you would at least allow me a little of the latter. I can assure you I have great need of it. But if you want to keep it all for yourself....
DOCTOR. I? I? Do I seem astute to you?
HENRY IV. No. Monsignor! What do you say? Not in the least! Perhaps in this case, I may seem a little obstinate to you (cutting short to speak to Donna Matilda). With your permission: a word in confidence to the Duchess. (Leads her aside and asks her very earnestly): Is your daughter really dear to you?
DONNA MATILDA (dismayed). Why, yes, certainly....
HENRY IV. Do you wish me to compensate her with all my love, with all my devotion, for the grave wrongs I have done her—though you must not believe all the stories my enemies tell about my dissoluteness!
DONNA MATILDA. No, no, I don't believe them. I never have believed such stories.
HENRY IV. Well, then are you willing?
DONNA MATILDA (confused). What?
HENRY IV. That I return to love your daughter again? (Looks at her and adds, in a mysterious tone of warning). You mustn't be a friend of the Marchioness of Tuscany!
DONNA MATILDA. I tell you again that she has begged and tried not less than ourselves to obtain your pardon....
HENRY IV. (softly, but excitedly). Don't tell me that! Don't say that to me! Don't you see the effect it has on me, my Lady?
DONNA MATILDA (looks at him; then very softly as if in confidence). You love her still?
HENRY IV. (puzzled). Still? Still, you say? You know, then? But nobody knows! Nobody must know!
DONNA MATILDA. But perhaps she knows, if she has begged so hard for you!
HENRY IV. (looks at her and says): And you love your daughter? (Brief pause. He turns to the doctor with laughing accents). Ah, Monsignor, it's strange how little I think of my wife! It may be a sin, but I swear to you that I hardly feel her at all in my heart. What is stranger is that her own mother scarcely feels her in her heart. Confess, my Lady, that she amounts to very little for you. (Turning to Doctor): She talks to me of that other woman, insistently, insistently, I don't know why!...
Pirandello, Luigi. Henry IV (Enrico Quarto). Act 2.
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