Nicolae Sirius - Time Weeps (Timpul plnge)

Act I - part 1
Personages:
Gregor The Emperor
Relina The Emperor's wife
Oramov The Rival
Papace The Violin Player
Gogore The Scribe
Pengo The Painter
Soldier 1
Soldier 2
Sedom The Old Man
Oront The Superintendent
The Nameless Soldier
Arat The Priest
Patrin The Treasurer
Dalario The Lawyer
Garot The General
Almon The Palmist
Three maids
The Chamber Orchestra

Scene 1

Setting: An Imperial Chamber inside a Castle.

Three doors and two windows establish the connection between this room and the other parts of
the castle. The furniture of the room consists of an old bookshelf filled with books, scrolls and
papyruses, two armchairs, a cupboard filled with bottles and glasses of different descriptions, an
inner staircase that leads to an inner balcony, a small table, a sofa, and a sand-clock.

Relina: (Looking through the window.) All I can see from this window is a hall. (Gazing
towards Gregor.) And from that hall if I want to see further I cannot see more than a room.
(Softly, sad, but ironically.) And from that room if I want to see further, I cannot see more than
another hall. (Slightly agitated.) And from that hall...

Gregor: (Almost asleep in his armchair. Opens his eye only to have a short look at Relina.) Why
then even a glimpse at the inside of this castle could make others happy?

Oramov: (Enters, after knocking at the door.) Your Majesty... (Gregor stares at him. Oramov
smiles.) Your Majesty... (Gregor rises slowly from his armchair, yet undecided what he intends
to do next he makes towards the sand-clock.)
Relina: (Softly, but decisive.) His Majesty is not feeling well!

Oramov: (Pretending he is in a good mood.) Would it be just because I was not here for a few
days? (Gregor turns to Oramov.) Majesty! Papace... I brought him in to play for you. I brought
him in with his entire orchestra.

Gregor: (Surprised.) Did I hear exactly what you said?

Oramov: (Smiling while makes it to the door.) Today I only brought him in with the Chamber
Orchestra. (He opens widely the door so the Chamber Orchestra can be seen. Gregor turns his
back on the scene and moves slowly towards his armchair.) As well, I brought in the painter. I
know that once a year he has a day off but... (He opens another door. And Pengo appears on the
threshold, holding in his hands a huge easel.) Would Your Majesty... (Approaching Gregor.)
Would Your Majesty believe that?

Gregor: (Facing Oramov.) Should I believe what?

Oramov: (With a gesture in the air.) Papace... (Relina leaves the room.) Papace already has
discovered...

Gregor: (Dubiously.) What else did he discover?

Oramov: (Full of importance.) While practicing his violin, he discovered sounds identical to the
weeping of time.

Gregor: (Ironically.) And how does time weep?

Oramov: (Tactful.) This is why I brought Papace in... to prove it.

Gregor: But... why only Papace comes up with things like that?

Oramov: (Careful.) O, Majesty, how you take this news. (Short pause.) If Papace's discovery
had not been real would I have allowed myself to come along with him in front of Your Majesty
right in the first day of this year?

Gregor: (Still doubtful.) When then did he discover that?

Oramov: (Sure of himself.) Yesterday!

Gregor: Meaning?

Oramov: That's what he said!

Gregor: (Changing his mind.) Would the weeping of time be connected with the closing of the
year... and nothing else...

Oramov: (Leaving the phrase in suspense.) I thought so, too... but...

Gregor: (Not pleased. Goes to the left door and looks sharply into the painter's eyes.) Is that
true?

Pengo: (Frightened.) Ma... Ma...

Gregor: (Sarcastic.) Is Ma? what do you mean by ...Majesty?

Pengo: (As suffocated.) Ma...

Oramov: (Reverting Gregors' attention.) But does time weep everywhere the same? (Gregor
turns and looks at Oramov as if the question were addressed to him. While Oramov tactfully
continues.) This is exactly how I questioned Papace.

Gregor: (Trying to listen further, motions Pengo to arrange his easel by the window.) Quick...
And put on the canvas what you hear! (To Oramov.) And?

Oramov: Nevertheless... that was the most important point... (Slight pause.) Papace looked at
me, and, then... (Relina enters the room. Oramov approaches Gregor and speaks in a lower
voice.) Then... (Relina takes a bottle from the bar and pours brandy in a glass. Oramov intends to
show Gregor that what follows could not be told in the presence of others... Relina approaches
the painter.) Then...

Gregor: (Looking around a little disturbed.) Then...?

Pengo: (Bows in front of Relina, murmuring.) Fascinated!

Oramov: (To Gregor. With a short look towards Pengo.) He is accustomed to mumble too
much!

Relina: (To Pengo.) Why should you? (Stepping unintentionally on her long dress she loses her
balance and spills some brandy... crying softly.) Why this?

Gregor: (Looks at Relina. And suddenly, as if in the army, he turns on his heels and takes from
the bookshelf a small silver bell, which he rings loudly. Recognizing the signal, three maids
appear on the threshold, jostling one another at the entrance.) Do you require a special
invitation? (The maids feeling guilty bend their heads down, remain motionless. Relina leaves
the room.) Her Majesty wanted to be waited on and had taken the trouble of going to the bar.

Oramov: (Towards the maids... almost whispering.) Such a tragedy!

Gregor: (Turning to Oramov.) Did you say something?

Oramov: (Pointing towards maids.) Yes. I said it would be better to offer them a place in the
Chamber Orchestra.

Gregor: (As if enjoying a game.) Oh yes, to learn from them a lyrical song.

Oramov: (Entertaining to Gregor.) Or time how weeps.

Gregor: (As if pleased. Approaching the maids.) Suppose the time just weeps for me. But for
how long has it been weeping for, I want to know.

Maid 1: (Raising her eyes.) Weeping for You, Your Majesty?

Oramov: (To himself.) No doubt that for him is weeping...

Gregor: (Gazing at maids.) ...If not for me, for whom then?

Oramov: (Moving towards maids.) It might be time weeping for me.

Maid 2: Neither for you nor for him alone.

Oramov: Is then time weeping in vain?

Maid 1: Would time weep... I even don't know that.

Relina enters the room wearing a new dress. She makes to the bar and fills a glass of brandy.
Pengo looks at her attentively and bows. Relina looks in turn at him, sight, and moves to the
window.

Gregor: Fiddler!

Papace: (From the hall.) At Your Orders... Your...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) Come in. (Papace enters and bows in front of Gregor.) Explain to
them what you discovered yesterday! Papace: (Examines the maids with a cool eye and then
turns to Gregor.) Your Majesty, this is not for them...

Gregor: Why not?

Papace: (Tactful. Looking in Gregor's eyes.) Since I saw them... (Slight pause. Relina leaves the
room, unnoticed.) Since I saw them first...
Gregor: Precisely!

Papace: (Emphatically.) ...Their minds!

Gregor: What is with their minds?

Papace: They are just good for assisting the negative not the positive forces.

Gregor: Why that?

Papace: Because their minds are not ripe!

Gregor: (While rings a silver bell twice.) Call the superintendent!

Oront: (Entering the room.) At Your orders...

Gregor: (Interrupting him while showing the maids.) Why were they employed here if their
minds are not ripe?

Oront: (Perplexed.) Ripe?

Gregor: I mean able to understand subtle goings on.

Oront: (Looking in turn to Gregor and maids.) I doubt that I understand ...Your Majesty. You
said subtle goings on?

Gregor: Papace has just discovered how time weeps... And I asked them whom the time is
weeping for and they did not know.

Oront: Your Majesty... they are simply maids.

Gregor: And?

Oront: They would not understand more that the other maids understand.

Gregor: Then, why did you employ them here?

Oront: Count Marut asked me to employ them and that was that.

Gregor: Didn't the Count know who should be employed here?

Oront: I supposed he knew it.

Gregor: Has it not been your role to know if the Count would performed precisely his own role?

Oront: (Calm.) I should have paid more attention to this. But now...

Gregor: Now, what?

Oront: (Looking in turn at all of them.) Let's put ourselves in their situation...

Gregor: (Growing angry.) What? Should I replace the maids?

Oront: (Still calm.) Clemency, Your Majesty! If you don't take on their feelings, then whom...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) Worth!

Oront: Clemency, Your Majesty. I lost myself and I made a mistake.

Gregor: (Coming towards Oront.) It was not a mistake... (Short pause.) You are skilful enough
not to make any mistakes!

Oramov: (Coming towards Oront.) It was an insult with premeditation. This is why you have to
be paid for...

Oront: What payment? (Gregor turns his back while ringing the bell. Somebody opens widely a
door.) Majesty! Your Majesty! Time does not weep... Majesty, maybe Papace...

Oramov takes Oront by the hand to the door and closes the door behind him. Then he turns
towards the maids. And with the gesture of a conductor in front an orchestra he suggests to the
maids to recite together. The maids look at each other and mumble something unclear while he
firmly goes on reciting: Oh, Oront does not yet know. Time weeps and weeps so softly. Is he the
one who doesn't know why this weeping is secret? Not to share with him his faith join right now
this string orchestra and sing why time weeps for those who do not obey the law.

Gregor: Too much! (Signaling Papace to come to him.) Play what you discovered yesterday!

Papace: (First bows to Gregor.) By myself?

Gregor: What do you mean?

Papace: Should I play it with the Chamber Orchestra?

Gregor: (Signals Papace to invite orchestra.) Bring them in! (Papace moves to the door where
the Chamber Orchestra was left, and motions it to follow him.) To the balcony... (The Chamber
Orchestra moves to the balcony. At Papace's signal the orchestra starts playing the weeping of
time. Oramov fills a glass of wine, drinks it quickly. Re-fills the glass and drinks a bit... Then he
takes the maids by the hand and leads them to the orchestra. He returns and drinks his glass of
wine, looking attentively at Gregor. The maids cry softly. Gregor rings the silver bell a few
times. Papace signals the orchestra to resume its playing. Gregor turns to Papace and makes a
sign to continue playing.) Why did you stop playing?

Papace: (To Gregor.) The maids started to cry.

Gregor: And?

Papace: I don't understand what they think when they cry...

Gregor: This should not concern you. (Papace bows, turns and signals the orchestra to continue
its playing.) Should not concern you too much.

Gogore: (From the threshold of the door keeping in his hands a few dossiers.) Right at Your
Orders, Your Majesty!

Gregor: Why these dossiers with you?

Oramov: (To Gregor.) I gave him something to work the night of the New Year. (To Gogore.)
Put them back! (Smiling at Gregor.) Not long ago a great composer invited me to conduct the
Blue Orchestra.

Gregor: (Surprised.) Blue Orchestra?

Oramov: (Stressing.) Yes. A special orchestra... that used to play only at unusual funerals.

Gregor: Unusual?

Oramov: Yes. Unusual funerals...(Short pause.) Funerals... where no one used to cry.

Gregor: (Surprised.) ...No one?

Oramov: (Stressing.) During the ceremony those invited could dance, whisper, clap their hands
at the entrance of a beautiful woman or, tired, had to go home.

Gregor: (Again captured by the story.) But the funerals... did the funerals take place in the
daytime? (Relina opens the right door and listen.) Or did they take place at night?

Oramov: At twilight, and after.

Gregor: (Signals Oramov to resume his speech.) Why don't you take notes, Gogore? Don't you
think that what you have just heard might concern you?
Gogore: (With a feeling of guilt.) It does concern Your Majesty!

Gregor: (Scornfully.) Don't sleep now in the shed of regrets and take notes carefully. (Signaling
Oramov to continue.) Interesting!

Oramov: All those who were dying were worshiped because it was believed that they died here
but arose in another life. There...

Relina: (Entering the room.) Should we listen to such sad music exactly the first day of the
year?

Gregor: Why then Papace came to play for me?

Oramov: (Worried at Gregor's slight irony.) O, Majesty how you turn things round. I brought
Papace to...

Gregor: (To Relina.) Leave this alone... because it is something utterly important.

Relina: Again about...

Gregor: (Avoiding a direct answer.) Yet... Yet I can not understand how this would be possible...

Relina: What do you mean?

Gregor: (Pointing to Oramov.) What he was just telling me not doubt would bewilder a weaker
mind... yet I decipher the escape gate behind the story.

Relina: (Fed up.) Again about... Again the escape gate...

Gregor: (Firmly.) No! These of whom he spoke right now, had already rose in another world...

Relina: (Turns her back. While approaching Pengo.) I wish you would finish what I asked you
to long ago.

Pengo: (To Gregor. As it complaining.) Your Majesty...

Gregor: (Kind, to Relina.) Leave him accomplish what I have just asked him to.

Relina: (Ironic.) Of course I leave him... Even he doesn't know what he is doing!

Relina exits. Gregor signals Pengo to continue his work. Meanwhile the back door is opened and
two armed soldiers bring in an old man, by force. Gregor looks surprised towards them. Oramov
approaches the orchestra and whispers a few words to Papace. Papace nods, looking towards
Gregor, while Gogore catches a sight of them and takes notes.
Soldier 1: Your Majesty...

Gregor: What else has happened?

Soldier 1: We found him on the Island of Sadness. He was speaking...

Gregor: Let him speak, if he speaks, for himself. The danger arises when he speaks for a group.

Soldier 2: He was speaking in front of a rock.

Gregor: That's not bad either.

Soldier 1: Across the rock there is a valley.

Gregor: And?

Soldier 1: It echoes like any valley.

Gregor: Aha! (Passing in front of the painter's easel.) The valley you are drawing here looks like
a mountain.

Oramov: (Coming closer and pointing at the drawing.) Indeed! (Softly in Pengo's ear.) Turn this
mountain up-side down, you idiot!

Pengo: (To Gregor.) I will turn it!... Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Ignoring the painter. To the soldier.) Who exactly was behind that valley?

Soldier 2: A hill.

Gregor: Hill, hill... or something else?

Soldier 1: (Emphatically.) A hill, but on top of it was a boulder.

Gregor: (Vexed.) And?

Soldier 1: Behind that boulder was another man communicating with the one that we just
caught.

Gregor: Hard to imagine where the old people find places to hide and conspire!

Soldier 2: If Your Majesty allows us, we'll tell you what they were talking about.
Gregor: (Smiling.) Would otherwise the story of the rock and the valley be important to me?

Soldier 2: (Oramov makes a discrete sign to the soldiers.) Should we bring the other old man?

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) There is no need, now. I'll first check on the gravity of their talk.
(Pause. Oramov signals the soldiers to keep their heads down.) ...Then I will ask Gogore to pass
in writing the judgement they should meet. (Gogore stands up and remains for a while
motionless. Oramov whispers something to Papace. Gogore catches sight on them.) Or, simply, I
will ring the bell!

Soldier 1: Majesty...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) I will do the same with you!

Soldier 1: (Frightened.) We caught him, Your Majesty. We did not...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) I could punish them even before they would see me. Yet this is not
what I find important.

Oramov: (Makes a sign to the soldier to begin their narration quicker. To Gregor.) They related
first what they saw... now they should relate what they heard.

Gregor: (Ignores Oramov. Signals the soldiers to begin their narration.) I'm listening!

Soldier 2: "Imagine! While I was playing chess..."

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) Who said this?

Soldier 2:The other old man.

Gregor: The one you did not bring in?

Soldier 2: Yes, Your Majesty. But we could not catch him... but heard him...

Gregor: Lift up your right hand when you narrate what he said.

Soldier 2: (Lifting his right arm and beginning again.) "Imagine. While I was playing chess with
a general..."

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) Which general?

Soldier 2: (Letting his right hand down.) I don't know your Majesty.
Gregor: Aha!

Soldier 2: (Lifting his right hand up.) "The idiot started to cheat."

The sound of a church bell is heard in the vicinity.

Gregor: (Signaling him to resume his narration.) Can't you hear the bell of the church?

Sedom: (Looking towards Gregor.) What music!

Gregor: (Surprised.) Shut up!

Sedom: Oh, no...

Gregor: Shut up!

Sedom: Who is there singing for me?

Gregor: (Walking up and down the room.) Shut up!

Sedom: ...Again all is quiet!

Gregor: I'll kill you if you don't shut up!

Sedom: But the sound of the bell...

Gregor: (Growing angry.) Can't you shut up?

Sedom: O, no, they are my friends. And how I wish to be with them. But how could I ... when
now I am here... and feel like in the womb of a spider.

Gregor: (Signaling the soldiers. The soldiers push the old man to the floor.) How dare you speak
like that?

Sedom: (Struggling.) And who are you to punish me for what I speak?

Gregor: (To soldiers.) Is he mad?

Soldier 1: Your Majesty...

Sedom: (Almost breathlessly.) I know who I am!

Gregor: (Stoops over the old man. Stands up and signals the painter. The latter comes quickly.)
What do you see here?
Pengo: Here?

Gregor: Don't look in my eyes, idiot! Look in the old man's eyes! (Turning towards the
soldiers.) Take the old man in front of the easel! (To Pengo.) A good painter... a good one indeed,
paints not with colors or brushes... a good painter sees through the eyes what is inside the self.
Do you hear?

Pengo: Yes, Your Majesty?

Gregor: Then, not to offend the emperor's lance you have to understand the emperor's mind.
Clear?

Pengo: Yes, Your Majesty!

Gregor: And you? (Soldiers look at each other in confusion.) The sound of the bell of the church
faints away.

Soldier 1: (Confused.) Faints?

Gregor: Faints away, idiot!

Soldier 2: Should we pull the bell again?

Gregor: No, you poor thing. (Coming closer to them.) Continue your narration!

Soldier 2: (Lifting up his right arm.) "Imagine! While I was playing chess with a general, the
idiot..."

Gregor: You already told me this.

Soldier 2: (Continuing.) "The idiot started to cheat."

Gregor: The general?

Soldier 2: Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: When you narrate lift up your right arm properly.

Soldier 2: (Lifting his right hand.) "I was deep in thought... I wasn't concentrating much on the
game, because I knew I'd win it anyway."

Gregor: Aha!

Soldier 2: "But he was waiting for a sign of inattention on my part. And immediately stole a
mountain and a hill from my enlarging domain."
Gregor: (Looking questioningly at the soldier.) Is that so?

Soldier 2: (Letting his right hand down.) Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Signaling to him to continue.) Aha!

Soldier 2: (Lifting his right hand.) "I let him do it pretending that I hadn't noticed it. He waited
again for another moment of inattention. And tried to steal the greatest of seas from my oldest
kingdom. (Short pause. Gregor looks suspiciously at the soldier. The latter looks frightened but
tries to play his role better, taking a step forward and stressing.) I challenged him... demolished
all his chessmen! And with a move of my sword in front of his head I made him checkmate."

Gregor: Would this be proven not to be true I will make you checkmate, too!

Soldier 2: (Frightened.) It is what I heard Your Majesty.

Soldier 1: (Signaled by Oramov to begin his narration.) "Oh, me, oh, me..."

Gregor: (Taken by surprise.) What's wrong with you?

Soldier 1: Nothing, Your Majesty. This is how the other old man began to speak...

Gregor: (Pointing to Sedom.) This man, you mean.

Soldier 1: Yes Your Majesty.

Gregor: Lift up your right hand then and continue!

Soldier 1: "Oh, me, while I was playing parido* with a soldier who had appeared in front of me
to regain a province his empire claimed, I saw in his mind how the entire waters of the oceans
were troubled and how he alone, as if the king of his empire, ordered the ships to leave or to
anchor at shore, preparing hurriedly against me a war that was to bring him the greatest fame.

Gregor: I cannot believe it!

Soldier 1: (Continuing.) I was playing quietly; he was looking at me morosely. When the waters
in his mind dried up, noticing how great my technique was, he retracted, throwing himself at my
feet for a cigar butt I had thrown away. This is the habit of the penniless soldier. He quickly
realize it, stood up and started to scream to an imaginary general, that if the latter ever
contradicted an order again he would... "

Pengo: (Rushing towards Gregor.) Your Majesty...

Gregor: (Calm.) What happened?

Pengo: The old man... the old man... (Gregor approaching Sedom.) He can not wake up!

Gregor: Why not?

Pengo: I found myself wandering while looking in his eyes...

Gregor: Wondering?

Pengo: There was a valley... (Relina opens the door and listen.) And...

Gregor: How could there be a valley in his eyes?

Pengo: Yes, and not only...

Gregor: (Surprised.) What else could you see?

Pengo: I could see a hill...

Gregor: A Hill?

Pengo: Three rivers sprang from the foot of this hill. Three virgins were bathing in those rivers,
singing.

Gregor: Hills? Singing?

Pengo: Green hills.

Gregor: (Ironically) And virgins singing!

Pengo: Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Singing what?

Pengo: The passing of time.

Gregor: Passing of time?

Pengo: (Singing.) The passing of time, the passing of time is the only thing we are sure of.

Gregor: Then why did the old man died?

Pengo: I did not ask him.

Gregor: Idiot! You cast an evil eye on him, for sure. (Turning to Gogore.) Tell me how those
bewitched by the evil eye die... What can be seen in their eyes?

Relina comes in. Tells Oramov something that could not be heard on the stage and leaves.
Oramov follows her.

Gogore: (Rummaging through the books on a library-shelf.) I am looking, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Addressing the Solder 1) When you heard the old man speaking was it day or was it
night?

Soldier 1: It was twilight when we saw and heard him but we caught him just a little bit after
nightfall.

Gregor: Oramov... (Looking around.) Did he leave? (Shouting.) Oramov!

Oramov: (Coming in quickly.) What happened?

Gregor: The old man...

Oramov: What about him?

Gregor: Don't look at me, look at him! (Signaling Papace, who approaches Gregor in haste.
Papace listens carefully, makes a bow and signaling the orchestra they leave quietly the room.)

Oramov: Is this not amazing?

Gregor: Amazing?

Oramov: Did he...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) You've just told me that you have conducted the Blue Orchestra.

Oramov: (Frightened.) Yes I did.

Gregor: Did you see him while you conducted that orchestra?

Oramov: (As for himself.) Who can he be?

Gregor: Or maybe he...

Oramov: I've seen him only once... but in my mind.

Gogore: (Reading from a book.) When one dies bewitched by the evil eye what is left in his
eyes is a valley flooded with grass, a snake, an apple and a woman offering one a jug of water.

Gregor: Gogore, you lost your mind! Is that the Book of Death, or you cited a passage from
somewhere else?

Gogore: (Walking towards Gregor.) This is the Book...

Gregor: (Signaling him not to come closer.) I can hear. You don't need to come closer. (Pause.)
Explain it to me.

Gogore: (Reading carefully from the book.) The valley represents the depth of your resting
place. The snake is the one taking you there. The apple is the hill you cannot climb up anymore,
and the woman offering you a jug of water is the empire always weeping for you, if you were an
emperor.

Gregor: Then it is true that he was an emperor, as the soldiers said.

Soldier 1: Yes, Your Majesty!

Soldier 2: How could we tell a lie?

Gregor: (Turning towards the soldiers.) Shut up!

Oramov: (Bending over the old man and looking into his eyes for a few seconds than
departing.) Except darkness no other thing could be seen in his eyes.

Pengo: (Bending over the old man.) Here is a valley... Here is a hill...

Gregor: (Without moving close to the old man.) I don't see anything.

Oramov: (To Pengo.) What does that valley look like?

Pengo: Green.

Gregor: (Takes out of his pocket a magnifying glass. Oramov signals Pengo to step away.
Gregor bends over the old man.) It is not green. And it is not purple. (To Gogore.) What else did
you say?

Gogore: (Trembling.) What?

Gregor: What else did you describe...

Gogore: A snake...

Gregor: Snake?

Pengo: Yes, Your Majesty, a snake. And an apple and...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) Wait till I check on it.

Gogore: That's what the book says.

Gregor: I will see if it is so or if you read from your own mind.

Gogore: I try not to make any mistake, Your Majesty.

Oramov: Your Majesty, I don't think that we need the soldiers here anymore.

Gregor: I understand. But lock them in a cell.

Oramov: (Making a discrete sign to the soldiers.) In a cell?

Gregor: (Firmly.) Until the cause of the death of the old man can be elucidated...

Oramov followed by the soldiers leave the room.

Gogore: Your Majesty...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) Where is the snake Gogore?

Gogore: (Dropping the book from his hands.) The snake?

Gregor: (Turning towards Pengo.) You have just described what you saw in the old man's eyes...
"I could see a valley, I could see a hill... Three rivers sprang from the foot of the hill. Three
virgins were bathing in those rivers, singing." (Pengo nods in agreement.) Where exactly did you
see all these?

Pengo: In the eyes of the old man... I already drew them to present them to Your Majesty...

Gregor: (Oramov enters the room without being noticed, stops in front of the bar, takes a bottle
of wine and drinks from it breathlessly.) Why, if you saw in the eyes of the old man those things
I could not see them too? And instead I saw three spears and the Moon and the Sun and the Earth
fallen through them?
Pengo: O, Your Majesty!

Gregor: Shut up! (Turning towards Gogore.) Try to find out why this old man died! (To Pengo.)
Show me what you have drawn!

Pengo: (Brings a drawing.) This is what...

Gregor: (Surprised.) What's this?

Pengo: Ma... Ma... Ma...

Gregor: (Nervous.) Ma!

Gogore: (Taking from the bookshelf a book and reading.) The Moon, the Sun, the Earth...and...
and...

Oramov: (To Gogore. Whispering.) And three spears!

Gogore: (Turning his back on Oramov.) If it were for a single star... he might had been a poet.

Gregor: (Angry.) Look for what you must! (Sarcastically.) Or you want me to get rid of you?
(To Pengo.) Bring in, Oramov!

Pengo: (Looking towards Oramov.) Ma...

Oramov: (Letting the bottle down.) I just came in, Your Majesty. And exactly what I was
thinking about. How this won't be true?

Gregor: (Surprised.) True? What do you mean by that?

Oramov: I mean the Moon, the Sun and the Earth...

Gregor: (To Pengo.) Look after Papace! (To Oramov.) Where are the soldiers?

Oramov: Both of them in the same cell!

Papace: (Coming in, followed by Pengo.) At Your orders, Your Majesty!

Gregor: (To Papace.) What does Oramov know and I don't know?

Papace: How should I know that, Your Majesty?

Gregor: Even you don't know what he knows?

Gogore: Your Majesty, if You allow me...

Gregor: (Ignoring Gogore he looks in turn at Oramov, Papace and Pengo.) Three spears! But
who could see this?

Gogore: (Insisting.) I have just found... and the book reads in part...

Gregor: (Signaling Pengo, Oramov and Papace to leave the room. Then he turns to Gogore.)
How are you sure Gogore that I could see the Moon, the Sun and the Earth in the eyes of the old
man?

Gogore: (Hardly keeping the book in his hands.) Your Majesty, the book reads in part: the Moon
is the valley, the Sun is the apple, the Earth is the snake and the spears...

Gregor: I know the spear... (Short pause.) Look for Pengo.

Pengo: (Enters, followed by Gogore.) At Your orders...

Gregor: (Ignoring his salute.) Are the virgins still bathing in those rivers?

Pengo: (Afraid.) I don't know Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Angry.) Bring in Oramov! (To Gogore.) Don't look on the walls! Try to find what you
must!

Oramov: (Enters, followed by Pengo.) It seems that something went wrong today...

Gregor: (Pointing at the old man.) You told me that once you saw him in your mind.

Oramov: (Sure of himself.) Yes!

Gregor: How was he traveling? By sea? By land?

Oramov: He was no traveling.

Gregor: No?

Oramov: He was just sitting on a rock on the top of a hill.

Gregor: (Turning towards Gogore.) At my request concerning the death of the old man you
confirmed: "When you die of the evil eye what is left in your eyes is a valley flooded with grass,
a snake, an apple and a woman offering one a jug of water".
Gogore: (Shocked.) I was just reading this from The Book of Dying and Living, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Nothing is clear... (Pointing towards Pengo and Oramov to leave the room. To Gogore.)
Fetch Almon! Gogore exits and returns followed by Almon.

Almon: At your service, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Pointing towards Sedon.) Let me know why his life came to an end when no one was
expecting it!

Almon: Your Majesty, from the very beginning everyone's life has a mark on it.

Gregor: Meaning?

Almon: (Looking into the old man's palm.) Who cut his life?

Gregor: (Relina opens a door and listens...) Meaning?

Almon: (Reading the old man's palm.) His life starts at the bottom free of any danger. (Pause.)
And...

Gregor: And?

Almon: He comes to a main road.

Gregor: Who?

Almon: I mean his life. And is going on so for a while. But... (Short pause.) There...

Gregor: There what?

Almon: (Pointing.) There are a few paths intersecting with his life.

Gregor: Leave out all those paths that intersect with his life... and say clearly the cause of his
death.

Almon: I'll get to that also, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Tell me if he was doomed to die by the hand of a man or if his days were numbered.

Almon: Yes, Your Majesty. (Looking more carefully.) He gets to a hill. And...

Gregor: And?
Almon: (Wondering.) So many... so many...

Gregor: So many, what?

Almon: (Still wondering.) So many paths and crossroads close to the top of this hill that his life
moves through them almost unseen, as a river runs under the earth.

Gregor: (Nervously.) Forget this jungle of paths and crossroads... and see solely why he died of.

Almon: (Pointing.) This is the place from where he looks back with a kind of regret.

Gregor: Leave out his regrets...

Almon: (Concentrated.) But, strange... Here, he is on the margin of the river and, there he is on
the other side of the river. How could he be in two places at the same time...

Gregor: (Nervous.) Leave out the crossroads, paths, margins of the river and regrets...

Almon: To live them out?

Gregor: Yes!

Almon: (Frightened.) Without them I can not explain...

Gregor: Then be quick, or I'll die by the time you explain it to me.

Almon: Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Come on, you idiot!

Almon: There is something unusual here.

Gregor: Namely?

Almon: There is a something...

Gregor: Namely?

Gregor: Could it be taken as a snake but it is not. And it is neither a road.

Gregor: Precisely!

Almon: It is similar to a draft of wind, which still unseen can move up or down small branch of
trees.
Gregor: (Furious.) Are you dreaming? (Short pause.) ....Let me know what this man died of!

Almon: I'll get there too, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Quicker!

Almon: There are tree rivers. I mean two smaller rivers spring from a bigger one.

Gregor: (Fed up.) Now you are learning, scoundrel!

Almon: Forgiveness, Your Majesty. They are not rivers they are tongues of the snake.

Gregor: Tongues of snake?

Almon: Tongues of the snake coming out of an apple.

Gregor: Don't they come out of the snake any more or have you lost your mind?

Almon: Oh yes, Your Majesty! But they are all so close here that you don't know where they
come out anymore.

Gregor: Look carefully scoundrel... Don't mistake anything anymore... or you'll lose your life!

Almon: Oh, here we are!

Gregor: Aha!

Almon: Here is a hand... grasping with all its might. The old man tries to escape but... he cannot.
He is like in the web of a spider...

Gregor: (Shocked.) Hand? (Taking the magnifying glass out of his pocket and looking through
it.) I still can not see that hand...

Almon: Right here... If this hand were not to come against him, he could have lived his life on.

Gregor: (Looking carefully into Almons' eyes.) Who's been that hand?

Almon: I don't know, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Fainting. Almon helps him to sit on his armchair.) How a hand could cut short
somebody's life?

Almon: I really don't know...

Gregor: (Breathlessly.) But how this could be true?

Almon: I don't know...

The lights dim from white to red as in a sunset. Short pause. And the silence is broken by
Oramov's voice: Time weeps, and weeps so softly... If you want...

The Chamber Orchestra starts playing the same song. Gregor opens his eyes a bit but closes
them again. As a distant echo Gogore's voice is heard: Your Majesty, anything I have just read to
you were passages from the Book of Dead. The light dims slowly till the stage is covered in
darkness.

Act I - part 2
Personages:
Gregor The Emperor
Relina The Emperor's wife
Oramov The Rival
Papace The Violin Player
Gogore The Scribe
Pengo The Painter
Soldier 1
Soldier 2
Sedom The Old Man
Oront The Superintendent
The Nameless Soldier
Arat The Priest
Patrin The Treasurer
Dalario The Lawyer
Garot The General
Almon The Palmist
Three maids
The Chamber Orchestra

Scene 2

(Gregor, Sedom.)

Some noise. As if it heralds a fight between two men. And only the middle of the stage is
covered in a yellow to red light. Gregor pushes Sedom to the floor. The light dims till nothing on
the stage can be seen clearly.
Scene 3

(Yellow light. Back stage. Gregor, Almon.)

Almon: All roads come to an end here.

Gregor: Where?

Almon: Here. These roads resemble the shape of a man.

Gregor: (Softly.) It looks like it.

Almon: But here is a hand.

Gregor: Where?

Scene 4

Slight sound. As a summer wind whispers among the reeds. Yellow to red light increases in
intensity. Gregor in his sleep moves his hands trying to catch something. A sharp noise and
Gregor's voice accompanying it: Is this my own hand? (He gets up and looks around, frightened.
The light dims until Gregor can not be seen clearly

Scene 5

(Gregor, Papace.)

Yellow light growing slowly in intensity. Papace enters the room. He stops bows. Gregor looks at
Papace but says nothing. From behind the door a soft sound of steps. Both of them look in the
same direction. Gregor signals Papace to open the door. Papace makes it to the door. Then, as if
he needs a new confirmation before opening the door he looks again towards Gregor.

Papace: (Opens the door and looks briefly at the hall.) Nothing else but a shadow of a woman!

Gregor: (Surprised.) Shadow of a woman?

Papace: Maybe, Her Majesty Relina was passing by.

Gregor: (With a long sigh.) And I, ...never could I see her shadow. (Short pause) Would indeed
be Her Majesty at this hour on the hall?

Papace: Because of Your Majesty she might not sleep.

Gregor: I, too, could not sleep. And so frequently I dream of my childhood.

The light goes off.

Scene 6

(Gregor. Sleeping in his armchair.)

Sound of stormy rain. And a lightening engulfs for a moment the whole room.

Scene 7

(Gregor, Papace.)

The room is bathed in a diffuse light.

Papace: (Quietly enters the room. Whispering.) I was about to rub noses with a soldier who
intended to enter the Castle.

Gregor: (Opening large his eyes.) Shouldn't he sleep at this hour?

Papace: He wanted to inform Your Majesty that he saw the sea burning.

Gregor: He is mad! And just for this you came here?

Papace: No!

Gregor: Then?

Papace: Your personal guard already put that soldier under arrest.

Gregor: That's exactly how it should be! (Short pause.) And?

Papace: Now he is shouting to be executed in the castle.

Gregor: What good would that bring him?

Papace: He wishes to be buried with the homage granted to emperors.

Gregor: (Growing angry.) A real madman!

Papace: I think so, too. Yet Oramov asked me to play for him as he passed away and the funeral
ceremony was about to take place right then in this very castle.

Gregor: And you?

Papace: I did not play as I would have done it for an emperor, but Oramov was not able to make
that distinction.

Gregor: Only strange things...

Papace: I think so, too.

Gregor: (Sleepy.) Just pass my word to the guard to arrest that mad soldier once more.

Papace: (The light goes off.) I, too, think he should be arrested once more.

Scene 8

The stage is lighted gradually, to its full. Gregor gets up and looks attentively at the clock,
mumbling something. Then he takes the small silver bell and rings it five times. Papace appears
on the threshold and bows deeply.

Gregor: No doubt that the human history soon will change!

Papace: (Surprised. Preparing his answer carefully.) How could this not happen if Your Majesty
decided on a wind of change.

Gregor: (Rubbing his eyes.) I cannot sleep! (Short pause.) And I dream (Approaching
Papace.) I dream when I sleep! (Looking into Papace's eyes.) How should I know what Oramov
dreams? (Short pause.) Or he does not dream any more? (Pause.) Would Pengo be fulfilling
Oramov's dreams? (Papace wants to say something but refrains...) Or dreams have nothing to
say?

Papace: (On a mysterious tone.) They have Your Majesty. How otherwise would it be. Just hours
before Your Majesty called on me I had a dream. ...I dreamt a hand knocking on my window... a
hand... but resembling a branch of a tree. (Gregor turns his back on him and looks at the window.
Short pause.) When this hand disappeared an eye appeared in the window and lightened my
room as if it were the moon.

Gregor: Wasn't the moon?

Papace: It wasn't Your Majesty! Because the moon would rise or set in a while but this eye
started to cry.

Gregor: Started to cry?

Papace: Then an old man arrived. He was thirsty and wanted to drink but he realized that the
lake near by was nothing but the tears that flowed from that eye.

Gregor: Is that so?

Papace: Yes Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Interested.) And?

Papace: Your Majesty came up... and showed something to the old man. And he suddenly started
to laugh.

Gregor: What did I show him?

Papace: A sign in the air.

Gregor: A sign in the air?

Papace: Yes, Your Majesty. And after that you started to speak to the old man.

Gregor: I started to speak?

Papace: "Don't drink the tears of this eye" you said, "Don't drink them. Here is my work." Then
you stood up and kissed the old man's hand.

Gregor: Did I kiss his hand?

Papace: Yes, Your Majesty. But don't blame me... That was only in my dream. (Pause.) And the
old man said that he would be waiting for you.

Gregor: Why?

Papace: I don't know Your Majesty.

Gregor: Where does he live?

Papace: I don't know Your Majesty.

Gregor: (To himself.) Which old man could he be?

Papace: I don't know Your Majesty.

Gregor: The last old man I have seen is the man who yesterday was brought in because of his
wrong doing... (Short pause.) Would it be that old man?

Papace: (Preparing his answer carefully.) Your Majesty it doesn't resemble him in body.

Gregor: Does it not?

Papace: But according to the way he spoke, it resembles him in voice.

Gregor: (A little troubled.) Aren't you mistaken?

Papace: I am not Your Majesty.

Gregor: Maybe you are!

Papace: Your Majesty, as soon as I had woken up from that uneasy dream I started to write an
overture to play it to you today.

Gregor: Blast! That's the last straw! Only this I did not expect to hear...

Papace: I have the score with me.

Gregor: Score? Show it to me. (Papace shows him the score.) Which one is my voice?

Papace: Your Majesty, it is difficult to show which notes are your voice and which notes are the
old man's voice, on this score.

Gregor: Then?

Papace: Don't worry Your Majesty.

Gregor: How not?

Papace: I'll play it.

Gregor: And, is still my voice?

Papace: Don't worry Your Majesty...

Gregor: (Signals Papace to start playing. He plays a few notes, he signals him to resume his
playing.) Whose voice was here?

Papace: The old man's voice.

Gregor: What did he say?

Papace: He said "...there was a black river".

Gregor: Was this in your dream?

Papace: Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Don't make up something...

Papace: How could I?

Gregor: (Signaling him to play.) Whose voice was now?

Papace: (Resuming his play.) It is still the old man's voice.

Gregor: What did he say?

Papace: "Which springs from the base of a temple."

Gregor: What springs from there?

Papace: That river.

Gregor: (As soon as Papace starts playing.) Whose voice is this?

Papace: (Resuming his play.) Still the old man...

Gregor: (Agitated.) Is he the only one speaking?

Papace: No, he isn't, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Passing up and down the room.) What else did he say?

Papace: That "...somebody tries to drown the hands of the clock in that river".

Gregor: Is that part of your dreamt, too?

Papace: It was Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Agitated.) I feel that you try to make up things...

Papace: How could I?

Gregor: Tell me the dream once again.

Papace: A hand was knocking on my window.

Gregor: Did I say this?

Papace: No, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Did the old man say this?

Papace: He didn't either, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Then who said that?

Papace: That's what I had seen in my dream... A simple image...

Gregor: (Vexed.) This does not concern me at all!

Papace: Your Majesty, at the beginning there were images that heralded the discussion you had
with the old man.

Gregor: I am not interested in images... Let me know where I started to speak with the old man.

Papace: "There was a black river..."

Gregor: You've played that.

Papace: "That springs from..."

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) You played this also.

Papace: (Troubled.) Yes.

Gregor: Then?

Papace: (Looking at his bowstring.) Your Majesty...

Gregor: (Turning his back on him.) How long did I speak with the old man?

Papace: You met him at twilight and parted after midnight.

Gregor: Twilight? (Pause.) It just happened yesterday that the soldiers brought in this man at
twilight. So I might say that I met him at twilight. Otherwise at that time I go for a walk.
(Ironically.) Anyhow, you mentioned that this old man does not resemble with the one who
appeared in your dream. Yet you have not doubt that his voice resemble the voice of one in your
dream. How could this have come about?

Papace: Have you ever seen him before, Your Majesty?

Gregor: No. The soldiers brought him in because he spoke differently from what he should.

Papace: How did he explain his wrong doings?

Gregor: Explaining? On the contrary! Instead of asking for forgiveness as soon as the bells of
the church began to ring for prayer he wondered as if he were listening to an exciting music.

Papace: And did you forbid him to wonder?

Gregor: Of course.

Papace: What else did the old man say?

Gregor: Listening further when the bells were ringing he suddenly whispered "...it is silence".
(Short pause.) And after that he claimed that his friends were weeping for him.
Papace: (A little embarrassed.) Your Majesty, did you kiss his hand?

Gregor: (Furious.) Kissed? Kissed his hand?

Papace: Forgiveness, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Still angry.) How could I do that? I rammed my fist down his throat because he
wouldn't keep quiet. Haven't you seen?

Papace: I was playing then and I only heard "...but who are you to punish me for what I speak?"

Gregor: What were you playing?

Papace: The weeping of time.

Gregor: That's clear. You killed him!

Papace: (Frightened.) How could I, Your Majesty...

Gregor: Did he pass away in vain then?

Papace: That song was for Your Majesty.

Gregor: Why did you need that song for me? (Short pause.) What did you play for the old man?

Papace: The same song (Frightened.) But he was like a guest.

Gregor: Play that song to me now. (Papace picks up his violin and starts playing.) What does it
say here?

Papace: (Stops playing.) "Your body rolling down..."

Gregor: Where?

Papace: (Terrified.) Your body rolling down... on the verge of death.

Gregor: (Sure of himself.) Go on playing. (Papace picks up the violin and starts again playing.)
What do you say here?

Papace: (Stops playing.) "On the verge of death you can't escape..."

Gregor: Then while you are saying that you did not play exclusively to the old man?

Papace: That's the song...

Gregor: (Ironic.) That's true! How would otherwise be a song composed by you?
Papace: (Defending himself in desperation.) How was I to know that the old man would be
brought in?

Gregor: (Calm. Sure of himself.) And then why did you play it for me if I were not on the verge
of death?

Papace: (Tactful.) If someone indeed understands this song it would benefit him.

Gregor: (Ironic.) That's exactly what we could see!

Oramov: (Coming in without knocking at the door.) Did you call on me, Your Majesty?

Gregor: No! But I knew that you come when I don't need you.

Oramov: O, Majesty, how you play with words...

Gregor: (With a sharp look at Oramov.) Bring in Pengo!

Oramov leaves. Papace wants to say something. Gregor takes his bowstring. He has a close look
at it and gives it back to Papace. Pengo enters the room and bows.

Pengo: At your orders...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) Did Oramov call on you?

Pengo: (Oramov enters the room.) Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Could you still remember what you saw yesterday in the eyes of the old man, who was
brought in by force?

Pengo: Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Were there in his eyes "...three virgins ... bathing and singing..."

Pengo: (Taken aback.) Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: And what were they singing?

Pengo: Something very sad...

Gregor: (To Papace.) You see! (To Pengo.) Namely, what did you say that they were singing
about?

Pengo: Something about a year.

Gregor: Meaning?
Pengo: The passing of time.

Gregor: (To Papace.) You see! (To Pengo.) But don't you think that this song brought about his
death?

Pengo: (Looking less stressed.) Yes, Your Majesty.

Papace: (Horrified.) Your Majesty, I have played only the violin.

Gregor: (To Pengo.) Then you are convinced that the sound could bring good or bad things to
our minds or bodies?

Pengo: (Avoiding Papace's eye.) Certainly!

Gregor: (To Papace.) You see! (To Oramov.) Bring in Gogore.)

Papace: I was invited to play...

Gregor: (Ignoring Papace. To Gogore, who enters followed by Oramov.) What did Pengo see
yesterday in the eyes of the old man who was brought in by the guards?

Gogore: Three virgins who were bathing and singing.

Gregor: And you read its meaning...

Gogore: (Frightened.) Taking at random a book from the shelf: A woman who offers you a jug of
waters..."

Gregor: Forget it! This is for the evil eye.

Gogore: (Reading at random from another book.) "When there are three virgins showing up on
the same day and you don't know which of them to choose, then..."

Gregor: What a choice, Gogore? You lost your mind! Here it is a matter of death not of
marriage.

Oramov: (Making a discrete sign to Papace.) Maybe he was forced to die.

Gregor: (Turning towards Oramov.) How this could come about?

Oramov: (Looking to each of them in turn.) Or, maybe he solely gave up his life.

Gregor: You might say so when one of us is guilty... But wait to see who is the guilty one.

Gogore: (Coming up towards Gregor.) I found it. (He reads from a book.) "When three virgins
are bathing and singing in your mind..."
Gregor: See as well what happens...

Gogore: Then the time is up and nothing would protect you farther.

Gregor: (To Papace.) You see?

Papace: (Almost crying.) I have only played the violin.

Gregor: (Turning his back on them and looking at the window. Oramov signals Papace not to be
afraid.) What is a law? (Short pause.) A law is a handful of words! But who makes this law?
(Short pause.) In this very castle so many have been judged... but who cared if they were guilty
or we've just played with their lives in vain?

Oramov: This is true, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Shouting.) Now another man was deprived of his life. And right in front of us. Still no
one has the courage to say who is the author of this crime.

Oramov: This is true, also, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (To Pengo.) Show me your last records...

Pengo: Records... or drawings?

Gregor: Lets name them from now on "as unveiled records of a dramatic case".

Pengo: (Frightened. In a haste to bring the sketches.) Records! ... Records!... I cannot believe it...

Papace: (Approaching Gregor.) Your Majesty, maybe...

Gregor: May be! ...but what?

Papace: (Showing.) On the retina...

Gregor: Mine... or yours?

Papace: The old man's retina...

Gregor: What happened with it?

Papace: (With a trembling voice.) The last image that remained on his retina could be a proof...

Gregor: Would it?

Papace: For sure reflected in the old man's eyes was nothing but the maids.
Gregor: (Questioning Pengo.) Would it be true?

Pengo: (Showing the drawings to Gregor.) It's exactly what I saw in the eyes of the old man!
...they were three... and...

Papace: (Trying in desperation to protect himself) And three were our maids...

Gregor: (As if playing a game.) But not virgins! (To Gogore.) Look what happens when the
maids just weep for you!

Gogore: (Reading at random from a book.) When you are dreaming of maids...

Gregor: (Angry.) Do you think that the old man was dreaming of maids?

Gogore: For sure not, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Then? Look for what you must!

Gogore: (Citing from a book.) "When the maids don't obey..."

Gregor: They obeyed, Gogore. Don't read the whole book!

Gogore: (Citing at random.) "When the maids trick you..."

Gregor: I don't care what they do to you!

Gogore: "When maids weep for you, you are "as good as dead."

Gregor: "As good as dead"? Show me! (To Pengo.) So clever is Papace!

Pengo: Your Majesty...

Gregor: Is the book lying?

Pengo: It isn't, Your Majesty.

Papace: (Falling at Gregors feet.) So much wisdom... So much wisdom Majesty...

Gregor: (Sharp. Turing to Oramov.) What harm did he do to you that you should kill him?

Oramov: (Smiling sarcastic.) Did I?

Gregor: Didn't you tell me that once the old man showed up in your mind?

Oramov: Yes. But this is not connected to what happened...

Gregor: What is not connected in this world?

Oramov: (Laughing.) Everything looks absurd...

Gregor: (Calm. Decisive. As reciting the words.) What is absurd? ...that you brought in Papace
to prove how time weep? Was it absurd when carefully, by the hand, you managed to take the
maids to the orchestra together then to play for me? (To Gogore.) Let Oramov know once more
what happens when the maids weep for you...

Oramov: There is no need to read it again. Because there is not the slightest connection between
the maids simple appearance in this room and the subdued death of the old man.

Gregor: Then why did you say, referring to the maids, that "they precisely know for whom time
is weeping". And this is why...

Oramov: (Cutting in.) Why, what?

Gregor: (Stressing.) You wanted to do away with the old man in front of me...

Oramov: (Furious.) We go too far... and anyone here...

Gregor: (Calm. Looking around.) Who is in here?

Oramov: (Sure of himself.) Who did not see how the old man died?

Gregor: I doubt that there is someone around that could see!

Oramov: (Towards Papace.) Papace! (Papace does not answer.) Papace!

Gregor: Who is Papace? (Papace looks down.)

Oramov: (Horrified.) Why I brought you in, Papace? (Looking at Pengo.) Pengo!

Gregor: (Ironic.) Who could not say that Pengo was here? But is that true? (Pengo looks down.)

Oramov: (Hopeless.) Papace!

Gregor: (Moving slowly and sure towards Oramov.) And, now, why should it be different?

Oramov: (Angry.) What do you mean?

Gregor: How many times out of your own desire you brought for judgement defenseless
subjects... While at my back you laughed and played with others crippled games! But now...

Oramov: (Still angry.) Now, what?

Gregor: Came the most expected time...

Oramov: What for?

Gregor: To pay for your dear work!

Oramov: Probably to keep my mouth shut... not to comment as witness on your endless crimes.

Gregor: (Rings loudly the silver bell.) Not even this! (A door opens wide. Gregor turns his back
on Oramov and speaks to the man behind the door.) No one was on my rival's side! Take him
away!

Pengo: (Whispering while withdrawing in a corner of the room.) I thought the emperor is mad...
but no... he keeps a card in his long sleeves and plays it when he needs it... but ...very well. (The
light dims. Somebody comes in, and grabs Oramov from behind. Oramovs fights in desperation,
calling on Papace and Pengo. The light goes off.)

Gregor: (Laughing loudly.) And now let's think if Oramov were here.

END ACT I

Almon The Palmist

Three maids
The Chamber Orchestra

Scene 1

The same setting.

(Gregor, The Nameless Soldier.)

From the window, diffuse light covering a part of the room.

Soldier: (Opens and closes the door carefully behind him. Whispering.) Majesty!

Gregor: (Trying to wake up.) Who's there?

Soldier: It's me... (Short pause.) Majesty... I found...

Gregor: What did you find?

Soldier: (Slowly. Whispering.) What I could never dream of!

Gregor: Dream what?

Soldier: That I could find...

Gregor: (Surprised.) What did you find then?

Soldier: A plate.

Gregor: (Surprised.) A plate? What kind of plate?

Soldier: (On the same tone.) They have invented a new kind of writing

Gregor: (Concerned.) A new kind of writing? (Short pause.) And who are those who invented it?

Soldier: Count Marut, Dalario the lawyer, Patrin the treasurer, and Arat the priest.

Gregor: (Coming towards the soldier.) When did they invent such a thing?

Soldier: Yesterday, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Yesterday?

Soldier: Everything was worked out before hand... Everything!

Gregor: Worked out before hand?

Soldier: Everything!

Gregor: And you... How did you find out?

Soldier: The day before yesterday, I heard Dalario, the lawyer, whispering something to Arat, the
priest.

Gregor: Whispering what?

Soldier: He said: (Imitating the lawyer's voice) "Don't forget..."

Gregor: Don't forget what?

Soldier: That tomorrow, it does not matter what else would come up, they must meet.

Gregor: Where should they meet?

Soldier: In the church.

Gregor: In the church? (Short pause.) Tomorrow?

Soldier: Your Majesty... the lawyer spoke with the priest the day before yesterday.

Gregor: You already told me that.

Soldier: It means that the 'tomorrow', the lawyer referred to, was yesterday.

Gregor: Aren't you mistaken?

Soldier: I am not!

Gregor: Why didn't you tell me from the beginning that the lawyer wanted to meet the priest
yesterday.

Soldier: How would I have said that the lawyer asked Arat, the priest: let's meet yesterday!

Gregor: (Louder.) And?

Soldier: As I heard the lawyer saying: "That was the last of him!"

Gregor: Whom was he referring to?

Soldier: He was looking towards Your Majesty's castle!

Gregor: Aha! And?

Soldier: Before they parted the lawyer reminded the priest not to forget of their plan for
tomorrow. And that he wanted to enter the church before sunrise.

Gregor: Aha! And?

Soldier: But I got to the church before them.

Gregor: (Satisfied.) Good! (Short pause.) ...And? Go on!

Soldier: I can just see the lawyer coming in, looking around, scared But when he saw the priest
coming out of the altar alone, to meet him, he shouted: "I brought it in my arms all the way." The
priest said nothing but laughed.

Gregor: What did he carry in his arms?

Soldier: The plate!

Gregor: Aha! And?

Soldier: The priest read it breathlessly, seemed extremely pleased with it, wrote a sermon on the
spot and asked the lawyer to follow him because they were expected at the Castle.

Gregor: By me?

Soldier: No, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Then?

Soldier: By Count Marut, and Patrin, the treasurer.

Gregor: This can't be true!

Soldier: You can imagine Your Majesty how difficult it was for me...

Gregor: Difficult?

Soldier: By myself... (Gregor looks at him, surprised.) Alone... surrounded by saints!

Gregor: What do you mean?

Soldier: I'm still haunted by that feeling. (Short pause.) The lawyer left the church, first... The
priest waited a bit not to be seen leaving together, put off the light, opened and closed the
backdoor behind him, and...

Gregor: And?

Soldier: When I tried to get out... in front of the altar... two eyes were looking straight at me!

Gregor: Who else was in the church?

Soldier: I thought the same. (Short pause.) And made up my mind that no matter who it might be
I should ram my fist down his throat (Looking straight into Gregor's eyes.) even if it would cost
my life.

Gregor: And?

Soldier: It was so dark that I felt the Devil wanted to catch me there to stitch my skin with the
black rays of the night.

Gregor: It must have been just before the sunrise! Then the dark is at its darkest.

Soldier: (With a shaky voice.) Those eyes looked straight at me just straight! (Short pause.)
Straight!

Gregor: And?
Soldier: I grabbed a chair... quickly lifted it up... and struck!

Gregor: (Curious.) And?

Soldier: I heard a sharp echo... (Short pause. Gregor looks frightened.) One of the chair's legs
broke in two, bounced off where I had struck, and broke my head.

Gregor: I can not believe it.

Soldier: When I came to my senses... I saw the same eyes in front of me! But now they looked
as if they were two little stones petrified on the floor.

Gregor: You killed him!

Soldier: I thought so, too, but...

Gregor: What else?

Soldier: I tried to touch the person but there was nothing nothing.

Gregor: (Frightened.) It must have been the Spirit

Soldier: I thought so, too and went groping aboutfound a candle lit it And (Short pause.) would
Your Majesty believe it?

Gregor: What happened?

Soldier: There was not even a shadow of a person there.

Gregor: I told you. It must have been the Spirit!

Soldier: I blew off the candle...

Gregor: And?

Soldier: The same eyes... again in front of me.

Gregor: Strange!

Soldier: I had lost all my courage!

Gregor: For sure!

Soldier: Again I lit the candle and looked around carefully.

Gregor: What to see the Spirit?

Soldier: I started to pray then.

Gregor: You should have done this right from the beginning!

Soldier: A veil that seemed to have covered my eyes, suddenly lifted!

Gregor: And?

Soldier: On the floor... exactly at the spot where those eyes were looking straight at me... (Short
pause.)

Gregor: (Frightened.) What was there?

Soldier: The priest's glasses... Motionless

Gregor: (Vexed.) You idiot! And where did you smash the chair?

Soldier: Against the table, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Angry.) The holy table?

Soldier: As I said Your Majesty the dark was so deep as if the Devil

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) You idiot! You kept me thinking that you started to destroy the
church, instead of spying on the priest to see where he was going.

(Short pause. Gregor moves agitated.)

Soldier: After that I went out exactly the way I had come in.

Gregor: (Still angry.) And?

Soldier: On my way I found that the lawyer and the priest had already entered the castle.

Gregor: Didn't the guard stop them?

Soldier: They didn't Your Majesty...

Gregor: They didn't!

Soldier: But the guard stopped me!

Gregor: (Furious.) And? Tell me what happened And be quick!

Soldier: I showed the guard the priest's glasses and told them that the priest had sent me to fetch
them.
Gregor: Good!

Soldier: I listen carefully down the hall and suddenly from behind a door I heard the priest's
voice... (mimics the priest voice): "I feel that this is not a suitable place... Let's go to the armory
room. There no one dares to enter."

Gregor: (Ironically.) Aha! Let's remember what His Holiness said!

Soldier: When I heard that, I ran into the armory room and hid carefully in a wardrobe.

Gregor: And?

Soldier: Minutes later, I saw Arat, the priest, Dalario, the lawyer, Patrin, the treasurer and Marut,
the count, pouring in.

Gregor: What do you mean by "pouring in"?

Soldier: That's how I saw them through the keyhole of the wardrobe I squeezed in.

Gregor: Forget about strange metaphors... and just be clear in what you say!

Soldier: Dalario, the lawyer walked in front of the priest.

Gregor: Leave out the succession in which they walked...

Soldier: The treasurer seemed horrified.

Gregor: (Upset.) Forget the succession in which they walked in and what they looked like... it is
not important. Tell me what they were speaking about!

Soldier: The priest, first, made a sign of blessing in the air.

Gregor: Aha

Soldier: But the count, smiled ironically, set on the table a map and silently invited them all to
have a closer look.

Gregor: And?

Soldier: Softly, the priest began to speak.

Gregor: (Curious but ironic.) What was His Holiness speaking about?

Relina: (To Gregor while she enters the room.) You don't sleep even at this hour?
Gregor: (Pointing to the soldier.) He just came in to bring me the latest news. (Closer to Relina.)
I feel the past is coming back...

Relina: What do you mean?

Gregor: I feel it. It seems as if a river is running towards its springs.

Relina: May it have been your sword, not a river.

Gregor: My sword?

Relina: Yes! Instead of using it as before, to cut heads, you have decided to return it to its
scabbard!

Gregor: (Angry.) It would be better for you to go to bed!

Relina: Why don't you do the same?

Gregor: (Motions the soldier to continue his story. And then turns to Relina.) Listen to see why I
could neither sleep nor even have a rest!

Soldier: (Imitating the priest's voice.) "He is finished now. That was the last of him." (To
Relina.) Forgiveness Your Majesty. That was the priest's voice.

Relina: Who's voice?

Soldier: Arat,'s voice, the priest.

Gregor: Precisely! What did Arat, the priest, meant by that?

Soldier: That Your Majesty no longer is at peace!

Gregor: (To Relina.) Remember that well.

Soldier: (Imitating the lawyer's voice.) "I fully share your opinion." (To Relina.) This was
Dalario's, ...the lawyer's voice.

Relina: It's strange how you tell the story

Gregor: (To the soldier.) And why did Dalario have to stress a thing, the priest had already
mentioned?

Soldier: To state that they are two, yet thinking with a single mind.

Gregor: (To the soldier.) And what can these two or three or four do, when they have already
chosen to use their minds as a single one?
Soldier: (Handing the plate to Gregor.) A plot! ...plot, Your Majesty! A plot!

Gregor: A plot? (Trying to read the plate.) A plot because they wrote, backwards, their intention
on this plate? (To Relina, while handing her the plate.) Could you imagine that?

Relina: (Reading the plate.) Why should I imagine it? I see the situation, anyway!

Gregor: Your lack of understanding keeps you away of me.

Relina: Since I live here, the crimes committed...

Gregor: You are too young to understand

Relina: (Turning her back to Gregor.) And what exactly did you mean by that? Gregor takes a
map from the bookshelf, unfolds it and sets it on the table. Relina turns the hourglass upside-
down, pushes the hands of the clock forward, hides the black plate under her blouse and leaves
the room. She returns the next moment, goes to the bar, fills a glass of brandy, makes a discrete
sign to the soldier and goes slowly to the window.

Soldier: Your Majesty!

Gregor: (Turning around.) What has happened?

Soldier: Her Majesty... (showing the hourglass and the clock.) has changed the correct flow of
time.

Relina:(Takes the silver bell from the bookshelf and gives it to Gregor.) Ring it once! (Gregor
moves towards the hourglass and looks at it in silence. Relina follows him.) Ring it once!
(Gregor takes the bell from her and puts it in his pocket. Then he goes to the clock, trying to fix
its hands.) Ring it once... I want to share the feelings of those you've killed without reason!

Gregor: Emperors don't commit crimes! (To the soldier.) Go on!

Soldier: Then, Arat, the priest, whispered: "I've been dreaming about him for a long time now.
For a long time now he has been like a thorn in my brain. Does he think this circus will never
end?"

Gregor: (Approaching the soldier and looking straight in his eyes.) Did Arat, the priest, said that
word by word exactly as you are telling it to me now?

Soldier: Yes, Your Majesty!

Gregor: You are not mistaken?

Soldier: I am sure not!

Gregor: (Rings the silver bell four times. Gogore enters the room.) Were you sleeping?

Gogore: (Guilty.) I was sleeping, Your Majesty.

Gregor: You sleep and know nothing of the plot!

Gogore: (Rubbing his eyes.) What kind of plot Your Majesty?

Gregor: Plot, you idiot! Plot!

Gogore: (Shocked.) Against whom?

Gregor: Would it be absurd to hear that somebody has made an attempt on your life!

Gogore: Am I good for nothing, Your Majesty?

Gregor: Shut up and try to find what you need!

Gogore: What should I look for?

Gregor: What does it mean when the priest dreams about you.

Gogore: What priest dreamt about me?

Gregor: (Angry.) The priest dreamt about me!

Gogore: (Softly to himself.) The priest had nothing better to do...

Relina laughs silently and leaves the room. Gregor summons the soldier to continue his story.

Soldier: Three times the guard came in and said that there was no danger.

Gregor: Tell me everything and then we will see if indeed the guard was right...

Gogore: (Loudly.) When the priest dreams about you, but hasn't met you...

Gregor: (To Gogore.) Let's see what does it mean when the priest knows you...

Gogore: When the priest dreams about you only once...

Gregor: (To the soldier.) Did he say that he dreamt about me only once?

Soldier: Yes... He did say that...

Gregor: (To Gogore.) Tell me what happens!

Gogore: (Worried.) Your Majesty that's not a good sign!

Gregor: Meaning?

Gogore: It means that the priest is after your life.

Gregor: Don't worry Gogore! I'll cool the priest's mind before he has the chance to dream about
me a second time! (To the soldier.) And about the circus did he say?

Soldier: "Does he think this circus will never end?"

Gregor: Aha! (To Gogore.) Search for that!

Soldier: Then I made the door squeak.

Gregor: (Surprised.) What door?

Soldier: The door at the wardrobe you keep the armor in.

Gregor: Hell! What were you doing there?

Soldier: I have told you before, Your Majesty, that I was hiding in the wardrobe and how I was
squeezed in there, peeping through the keyhole, the door squeaked. (Gregor signals the soldier to
hold on, while he fills and drinks a glass of water. Then he motions the soldier to continue.) The
priest gazed attentively at the door and...

Gregor: And?

Soldier: He came slowly towards the door stopped arranged his cassock... (Short pause.) and...

Gregor: And?

Soldier: And slowly he started to caress the door.

Gregor: (Vexed.) I can not believe it!

Soldier: When the priest touched the door I felt his hands rhythmically fall on my head as if a
hammer.

Gregor: Did he see you?

Soldier: He didn't. He stood like that for a while and...

Gregor: And?

Soldier: Then he prayed that the door wouldn't squeak anymore.

Gregor: I can't believe such a thing!

Soldier: Yet, the lawyer approached the priest and whispered to him to speak faster to the door
as it was not out of the question the devil would come up from behind it.

Gregor: Did the lawyer know you were behind the door?

Soldier: No, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Then?

Soldier: While the lawyer said that, he was looking towards Your Majesty's room.

Gregor: (Angry.) What else did they speak about?

Soldier: Count Marut, seeing that the priest became sad, made a discrete sign to Dalario, the
lawyer, to leave the priest to finish.

Gregor: And?

Soldier: Maybe I moved a bit and the door squeaked again. Then you should have seen the priest
how he fell down on his knees, asking the lawyer to pray too. (Mimics the priest's voice) "If you
don't believe I do, and where I am you must believe. So, start praying".

Gogore: Majesty...

Gregor: (Signals Gogore to wait. To the soldier.) Did the lawyer pray too?

Soldier: Yes, Your Majesty! But not too long because the treasurer Patrin became agitated and
interrupted them, stating that it was not time for prayers.

Gregor: Aha! (Signaling Gogore to come closer. Relina comes in. Takes her glass of brandy and
goes to the window.) Did you find...

Gogore: I found it, Your Majesty.

Gregor: What about?

Gogore: The book says: "The circus artist doesn't like dreaming".

Gregor: That's not clear!

Gogore: The book says: "The careless don't like dreaming".

Gregor: That's not clear, either!

Gogore: The book says: "The unwise doesn't die wise".

Gregor: (To Gogore.) Must be a better explanation somewhere else. (Signaling the soldier to
continue.) Go on!

Soldier: And only then general Garot showed up.

Gregor: (Surprised.) How did he come in?

Soldier: I don't know Your Majesty but he was full of perspiration and soon he faced them said
that the situation is unbearable and they must do something to escape the misery. The lawyer cut
in stating (mimics the lawyer's voice) "He'll kill us all and there'll be no-one left to protect the
law". And he was looking straight in their eyes like a fox.

Gregor: Look how the lawyer tries to twist their minds!

Soldier: Right on the spot the priest stared at the lawyer and told him that he could not die in the
same place as he or the others.

Gregor: (Surprised.) Why couldn't he?

Soldier: That's precisely what the lawyer asked him: "In accordance with which law Your
Holiness can not die in the same place as us, if we die for the same cause? "

Gregor: (Takes the bell out of his pocket and sets it on the table. He moves to the hourglass.)
And? (Relina takes the silver bell and leaves the room.) And?

Soldier: The priest bent over the table as if he wanted to whisper something to the lawyer... The
latter stretched his neck so as to be only a few inches from the priest's mouth... And suddenly I
heard as if a beat of waves on the rocks.

Gregor: What happened?

Soldier: The priest, simply boxed the lawyer's ears. Claiming that he is part of the holy orders.

Gregor: I can not believe that! And?

Soldier: In less than a second the lawyer took off his gun, but the general stopped him with a
discrete sign, while speaking calmly. (Mimics the general's voice.) "How would we survive
without religion?"...

Gregor: Aha! And?

Soldier: The treasurer, angry, cut in!

Gregor: Why did he?

Soldier: (Imitating the treasurer's voice.) "You are right! But would religion survive without
me?"

Gregor: What did he mean?

Soldier: This is what the general asked him: "What do you mean?" But seeing that the treasurer
said nothing, the general went on "You speak as if religion was born in your treasure-house!"

Gregor: And?

Soldier: The general began to speak very slowly! At every word he said he touched his gun...
another word and yet again he touched his gun, to show them that he meant it, and left!

Gregor: Where?

Soldier: To bring the Emperor.

Gregor: Meaning he was looking for me?

In the hall, the silver bell is sounded once. Relina enters the room unnoticed, takes her glass of
brandy, and looks towards the window. Gregor shudders... looking at the table where he left the
bell. The door is opened wide and somebody waits in front of it.

Gregor: There was a mistake (The door is closed, slowly.) Find the silver bell, Gogore! Without
it I don't' feel I am alive.

Papace: (Knocks at the door and then enters.) Majesty...

Gregor: Fiddler, somebody stole my bell!

Papace: How would this be possible?

Gregor: I feel as if I lost my soul

Relina: (Softly.) You would have lost it if you had it.

Gregor: What can I do now?

Relina: (To Gregor.) If you don't want to sleep I will go to bed...

Gregor: (Ignoring Relina.) Papace... Did the day showed up?

Papace: To whom?

Gregor: (Angry.) Did the sun rise?

Papace: It hasn't, Your Majesty, but I heard the bell ring in the hall and I did not know what
happened.

Gregor: Somebody took my bell. But who Here we were four: I, Gogore, Relina, and, this
soldier. And, suddenly, the sound of the bell came from the hall. (Short pause.) Maybe you took
it.

Papace: How would I, if I was not here.

Gogore: (Reading from a book.) "When the silver bell is stolen"

Gregor: (Agitated.) Find the bell! Don't read from books!

Relina: (Leaving.) That's the way you taught him...

Gogore: I will Your Majesty

Gregor: If the bell sounds again in the hall it means that Relina took it.

Papace: Would Her Majesty play such a joke?

Gregor: I feel I lost my soul! (Short pause.) Right now when the bandits are planing a plot
against me.

Papace: I've heard of it!

Gregor: (Surprised.) Heard of it?

Papace: Why I could not sleep any more...

Gregor: When did you hear that?

Papace: This night.

Gregor: Shouldn't you have come to inform me?

Papace: Would I disturb Your Majesty?

Gregor: Disturb? You should do your duty!

Papace: Would I interrupt when Your Majesty was speaking...

Gregor: I was speaking with this soldier who had just came to bring me this news.

Papace: I know Your Majesty. I covered my ears when I heard the soldier saying...
Gregor: Heard? Did you listen at the door?

Papace: How could I listen at the door when I was in bed?

Gregor: Then?

Papace: How could one sleep while hearing such a news?

Gregor: Who came to bring you this news? (To the soldier.) Who else knows

Soldier: It is no...

Papace: (Interrupting him.) Who would come to tell me if this is secret?

Gregor: Make me understand that... (To Gogore, who is looking into a pair of boots.) Did you
find the bell Gogore?

Gogore: It is not even in these boots.

Papace: I did listen on the radio, Majesty.

Gregor: Radio?

Papace: Yes. When Your Majesty was speaking to the soldier.

Gregor: What radio?

Papace: Oront, the administrator...

Gregor: What about him? He is in the dungeon!

Papace: When I was called in, to play for Your Majesty that song that almost brought me bad
luck if Your Majesty...

Gregor: Forget about that

Papace: He told me...

Gregor: (Interrupting him.) Oront, you mean?

Papace: Yes, Your Majesty!

Gregor: Go on...

Papace: That Your Majesty asked him to inform all subjects...

Gregor: To inform them what?

Papace: How time weeps.

Gregor: Did I ask him that?

Papace: He told me that.

Gregor: Oront?

Papace: Precisely!

Gregor: When did he tell you that?

Papace: Yesterday!

Gregor: Yesterday?

Papace: Yesterday!

Gregor: When then yesterday?

Papace: Before I was brought in, to play the weeping of time.

Gregor: Even then he told you this how could the subjects hear such a thing if you played for me
here between these four walls...

Papace: O, Majesty! (Gregor looks at him in astonishment.) We know that Your Majesty asked
Oront to install receivers in all the beds in the castle so as to be up-to-date with everything you
say.

Gregor: (Stupefied.) Receivers?

Papace: The radio station was on since yesterday. You sent Oront to the dungeon so he could not
turn off the radio... this is how the news went on air.

Gregor: (Stuttering.) I'll kill him! For all the subjects to know the secret life of the emperor. Is
that what Oront wanted. (Staggering.) Gogore! (Gogore helps Gregor to sit on his armchair.) And
no one to inform me about this...

Papace: This was how the plot started.

Gregor: (Raving.) This is what I needed now...

(The light goes off.)

Man
Oront The Superintendent
The Nameless Soldier
Arat The Priest
Patrin The Treasurer
Dalario The Lawyer
Garot The General
Almon The Palmist
Three maids
The Chamber Orchestra

Scene 2

Interior of studio

(Relina, Pengo)

Relina: (Showing the silver bell.) I've stolen his silver bell.

Pengo: If the Emperor finds out...

Relina: He knows it... He is looking for it.

Pengo: And doesn't know His Majesty took it?

Relina: He knows... But gives the impression that he doesn't know it. As he pretended yesterday
that he did not see...

Pengo: (Setting his easel.) What did the Emperor pretend not to see?

Relina: When you bowed in front of me and murmured "I am delighted". I cried all night.

Pengo: (Surprised.) How would Her Majesty cry...

Relina: Just like that. Thinking of what you said!

Pengo: (Timid.) Yes Your Majesty but...

Relina: I would not say that one could be delighted even with things one doesn't see... But then I
lost myself... And this because it was for the first time in this castle, where every one speaks only
of power and death, that you looked at me as if your eyes were weeping. I was worried... Worried
that Gregor would take his revenge on you. But instead he called on the maids and you saw what
followed. He did not know how otherwise to hide his furry...
Pengo: (Confused.) Majesty but I...

Relina: Only trough jealousy he tries to express his sentiments...

Pengo: (Surprised.) Who?

Relina:(Drawing near.) Even this you don't know?

Pengo: (Avoiding.) How would I dare, Your Majesty...

Relina: Don't you dare because my father sold me?

Pengo: (Doubtful.) Did he?

Relina: How otherwise? would Gregor buy me?

Pengo: Did he?

Relina: I was but a child...

Pengo: How could I believe that Your Majesty was bought...

Relina: That's the truth! This is why I offered him only what he bought?

Pengo: Only?

Relina: (Ironically.) Would I offer him my soul if he bought only my body?

Pengo: (Offering her a chair to pose for him.) Majesty...

Relina: Never!

Pengo: A portrait as for Your Majesty...

Relina:(Removing the canvas from the easel.) This would be a real torture for me.

Pengo: Torture?

Relina: Isn't it for you, too?

Pengo: No!

Relina: How come?

Pengo: To work for His Majesty Gregor would it be a torture?

Relina: (Taking the brushes from Pengos's hand.) Indeed!

Pengo: Can Your Majesty say this?

Relina: (Drawing him nearer ) If I would not have understood what you meant yesterday, you
could accuse me today

Pengo: What is His Majesty Gregor going to say if he finds out?

Relina: His Majesty is in the dungeon...

Pengo: In the dungeon? What does Your Majesty mean by that?

Relina: He was betrayed!

Pengo: Betrayed? By whom

Relina: Last night he was betrayed...

Pengo: How could this be? His Majesty... the most important man...

Relina: Important?

Pengo: He could decipher even the deepest meaning of a dream.

Relina: This is why the nation suffered... Suffered because he has not deciphered her dreams!
Didn't you hear last night when that nameless soldier brought him the news that he was
betrayed?

Pengo: Yes, Majesty, I did, because Oront installed under my pillow, a receiver as big as my
head, that I could hear even His Majesty's shoes squeak.

Relina: Then?

Pengo: Can I believe this?

Relina: Why not?

Pengo: That was a rehearsal... They tested the microphones and nothing more!

Relina: (Smiling.) Are you sure?

Pengo: At least I think so.

Relina: (Catching him in her arms.) Look into my eyes when you speak...
Pengo: (Trying to disengage himself.) Your Majesty...

Relina: I want to see if one is saying the truth...

Pengo: I can not...

Relina: What do you mean by that?

Pengo: (Almost crying.) When I think of His Majesty Gregor and...

Relina: Instead of being happy that you don't need to think of him...

Pengo: Even there, in the dungeon, filled with creatures who scare us, I will try to follow the
Emperor.

Relina: (Angry.) You must wake up!

Pengo: Majesty I, a painter employed...

Relina: Exactly. As Papace has been employed to play for the dead. Oromav to remember how
he conducted the Blue Orchestra, which played only at funerals, where those who died were
worshiped, because they would arise in another world. Almon to decipher past and future which
are hidden in the lines of our hands. Gogore to read what is of no benefit to the sound mind.
(Short pause.) And this is Gregor!

Pengo: (Turning.) Where is His Majesty?

Relina: In all of you!

Pengo covers his eyes Papace comes in. He throws his violin on the floor, looks around absent-
mindedly.

Relina: Don't be upset Papace! Better play something beautiful for us.

Papace: (Cold) If you were the Empress, I would have done it!

Pengo: How dare you speak like that?

Papace: Gregor has run away! He took with him everything he could...

(Pengo takes his easel and runs out the door. Relina picks up the violin and gives it to Papace.
Papace throws the violin and leaves the room. Relina goes to the window. And the dark covers
the room.)

Scene 3
Interior of dungeon.

(Gregor, Gogore)

Gregor: Gogore... Where are my boots?

Gogore: (Holding a lighted candle.) Here, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Looking at his boots.) You didn't clean them for more then a year now...

Gogore: I can not see anything here, Your Majesty. And it is very narrow, too.

(Short pause)

Gregor: Did you take everything?

Gogore: I took everything I could...

Gregor: I asked you if you took everything... not if you took only what you could. (Short pause.)
I can't believe my eyes! Plot overnight... (Short pause.) The situation would have been far
different if you would have found the silver bell. I made use of it all the time, and exactly now,
when the bandits jumped at my neck, I tried to find the bell and the bell is not to be found. (Short
pause.) Did I ever ring once and no one come to carry out my orders? Is that true or not?

Gogore: It is true Your Majesty.

Gregor: Then? Who is guilty?

Gogore: I did not find it Your Majesty.

(Short pause.)

Gregor: I don't know why but I think that the silver bell is in your pocket. (Short pause.) Try and
find it...

Gogore: (Reversing his pockets.) It's not here, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Who took my silver bell, soon they will make use of it! (Short pause.) I am surprised
that you could not find a better place and brought me into this cave. I won't even be able to
breathe my last (Short pause.) Try to do something don't look at me... Try to think, otherwise
you'll become senile. (Gogore stands up and cleans the books of dust.) Did you take all of them?

Gogore: I did Your Majesty.

Gregor: Count them! Is something missing? (Short pause.) If we took the books we took
everything! (Short pause.) Why did that soldier not return? Maybe they caught him...
Gogore: I don't think so.

Gregor: Why then does he not come to inform me at least in which tunnel I should go. (Short
pause.) You said that the first tunnel is full of tanks...

Gogore: Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Criminals! They got there, instead of us.

Gogore: Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Checking the baggage.) The clock Where is the clock, Gogore?

Gogore: (Checking carefully among the things.) It is not Your Majesty.

Gregor: (Furious.) Shouldn't you have taken the clock, first?

Gogore: (Guilty.) Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: Tell me what time it is now.

Gogore: I don't know Your Majesty.

Gregor: How long do you think we have been here?

Gogore: One hour.

Gregor: And at what time did we leave?

Gogore: I don't know... When Your Majesty called me the clock was already out of order. (Short
Pause.) A real nightmare... (Short pause.) I woke up when the soldier was shouting "Plot, Your
Majesty Plot!" and after I heard him complaining that Her Majesty had changed the flowing of
time.

Gregor: Why didn't you come to tell me that everything I say or any news I receive is spied on
and sent to air.

Gogore: I thought I was dreaming. How could I think that this might be true?

Gregor: (Lamenting.) Now everyone knows what the emperor thinks and does (Shot pause.)
Why does that soldier why doesn't he come back?

Gogore: He must come...

Gregor: It is too humid and we can not stay here, forever. If he does not come soon we will die
like rats. (Short pause.) Open the door and look carefully around.
Gogore: I don't have the key...

Gregor: What did you do with it?

Gogore: The soldier took it!

Gregor: The soldier?

Gogore: Yes, Your Majesty.

Gregor: How can you tell me that the soldier took the key. Is he not coming back after what
happened to us?

Gogore: He said he would

Gregor: (Angry. Kicking around) What is with this bow?

Gogore: Is from Papace's violin

Gregor: And the violin?

Gogore: I could not pull it from his hands.

Gregor: And?

Gogore: And

Gregor: (Dropping the bow.) Would the sun rise? (Gogore looks silent.) Put your hand here...
you will see that all is wet. (Short pause.) Soon, we will run out of candles and this is exactly
what the rats are waiting for. (Short pause.) Have you ever dreamt of your childhood? (Gogore
does not answer, starts to arrange the books, finishes and returns to the same place.) Oh,
childhood... The only real thing! The only pure thing! (Short pause.) I can still see my father
getting up before sunrise, praying and leaving to work in the field... and I, following him slowly.
"If you plant a tree ", my father used to say, "and its fruit is eaten by somebody else, your soul
will receive the benefit. But, if you plant hate in human souls, it would return to you a
thousandfold. For even if you don't understand how these things come about... yet, this is the law
of the universe at work, as has ever been." (Short pause.) That candle is burning low... Lit
another one! (Gogore does not move.) I know that you don't want to answer because you are so
sad but don't you want to carry out my order? (Short pause.) Don't make me feel that I am living
with the dead! (The candle burns off.) Lit another candle! Gogore! (Angry while groping about)
Gogore! Gogore!

Scene 4

Interior of a room furnished simply.

Sitting at a table, Arat, Dalario, Patrin and Garot.

Arat: (Worried.) Who's the soldier who was in the church and how could he get in?

Dalario: He could have killed you if you stayed in the church after I brought you the plate from
the printer.

Arat: That's exactly what he said that it did not matter who might had been in the church then,
he would have rammed his fist down his throat. Almost to lose my life! And you, mister general,
don't you have a vague idea what solider was there... This, is simply, because you don't have a
clear record of the soldiers under your command...

Garot: Evidence we have after all we work in the army. But when that soldier, you were
referring to, spoke with Gregor, not even once did he mention his name it is as if that soldier
were nameless.

Arat: Oront was hidden away Who would believe that he would return?

Garot: We will find him and release him don't worry.

Arat: Release him? You have just said that Gregor needed not more than a couple of minutes to
throw his rival in the dungeon. And it looks as if he had never been the man that could oppose
him.

Dalario: Who might be in the tunnel, General, if you can not open it?

Garot: I don't know. We tried to open it... but the main gate is blocked.

Arat: I am worried because there is a tunnel from the church to the castle<...p> Patrin: I told
you not to make such an underground connection... And it did cost me an enormous amount of
money.

Arat: (Stuttering.) Was it your money?

Patrin: It was from the government's pocket.

Arat: You speak as if the government is you.

Patrin: I know what I am speaking about!

Arat: You speak nonsense!

Patrin: At the time you used to kiss Gregor's hand, why didn't you say the same?

Arat: Look at this evil how he speaks!

Dalario: Let us not quarrel. In the end every penny spent was in conformity with governmental
law.

Patrin: What law are you speaking about? Who could approve funds to Arat to build an
underground path, from the castle to his church? I consented to this, privately. And this because
of his friendship with Gregor.

Arat: (Raging.) Am I the only one who got money?

Patrin: The General received funds too.

Garot: Did I? The funds, as many as they have been, if someone could call them funds, were
simply tips for the army. And this generosity came about when the government did not have time
to spend even this small amount.

Dalario: Let's not take things so tragically! What it should be known is that the Law did not die!

Patrin: What law are you taking about? Myself, at least I have the courage to say that if I were
to be judged in accordance with the law, I should have been investigated daily, condemned or
imprisoned But to those who forced me to stuff their pockets and now condemned me for illegal
matters I wish them not to be investigated, condemn or imprisoned, but simply killed at once!

Arat: Have you lost your mind! Look at the way he talks!

Dalario: Then let us set aside the legal matters and see how we can form a new govern.

Arat: I'm afraid he will ambush us...

Garot: Who would ambush us Your Holiness?

Arat: What do you mean? When you were not able even to open the main gate of the tunnel...
No doubt Gregor with his people will fight back from there!

Dalario: How many soldiers, General, would Gregor have on his side?

Garot: I have no idea! Last night I was shocked when I heard that a soldier betrayed me.

Arat: He betrayed us! You've just been hoodwinked... How does it come that a soldier precisely
followed us step by step?

Garot: Holiness I show my respect to you on every occasion even though my religious
inclinations are limited!

Arat: So what! Was I the one to stop you from deepening them?

Garot: As long as I use the army's uniform

Arat: You use it but it is not yours!

Garot: Yet, the army protects the state.

Arat: What is a state? Today it is and tomorrow might vanish! While faith is not created for a
period of time, it's eternal!

Patrin: How to stop myself jumping at Arat's neck when I hear how he speaks?

Garot: He will understand he was wrong...

Patrin: It does not make sense now to list all the other financial advantages I gave him!

Arat: Didn't you give financial advantages to Dalario, too? And now he tries to infer the
permanent validity of the law! Stating that the law didn't die! (Furious.) Only faith is eternal!

Dalario: (Calm.) We just accuse ourselves Should we already say that among us there is no one
who has been correct?

Patrin: Fortunately yes. But it happens that that person is not involved in politics.

Arat: That's why!

Dalario: Who is that person?

Patrin: Among those I know, only Relina did not show any interest in power and money.

Arat: The Empress? Gregor ran away, she must leave too!

Relina: (Enters the room followed by the nameless soldier, armed to the teeth.) I can not leave
Your Holiness! Neither did Gregor! He is waiting for you. (Making a sign to all four to stand up.)
I don't suggest you make use of your guns!

Arat: (Shocked.) Did I say before that we were betrayed? One of you did it! Either he, who said
that the law didn't die or the one who said the army protects the state. (To Patrin.) Don't nudge
me evil! Your are not clean either!

Garot: I am a respectful man...

Arat: (Angry.) Why are we here if you are so respectful?

Garot: I don't regret or cry for what I have done!

Arat: Not even I! If I had been protected! (To Relina.) We were wrong! This is it! (Relina lights
a few candles and sets them in a chandelier.) Now we will not kill each other!
Dalario: I must repeat! The law did not die!

Arat: How can the law die? There would be anarchy everywhere!...

Dalario: (Standing up.) Let's see based on which acts are we incriminated? It is futile to add that
this kind of trap would not hit back those who organized it. (Laughing.) Let's suppose that we
will be killed... Would Relina remain in the history of mankind for this brave act? Or maybe she
thought so! (To Garot.) Is it so hard for you to ask this rebel to come to his senses and surrender?
Or do you want to see how I disarm him? I can do that in a second! (Sitting down.) I am not here
to waste my time...

Patrin: (To Relina.) Majesty, the treasure house is not empty! I know that Gregor ran off... But
Gregor is just an isolated case in the history of those who betray... Anyhow, as soon as I found
out that he ran away and left you in this unpleasant situation I put aside what I thought would be
appropriate for your position. Maybe I would have acted in the same manner if I had been in
your situation. Yet, I repeat the things are just ready for you!

Relina: (The soldier turns off the light.) From that switch the radio station was connected. You
must have known even this! I suppose that anything you wanted to, you said it openly. Anyhow...
Gregor is waiting for you!

Garot: Soldier! Carry out the Empress order! Gregor is located in the tunnel, which makes the
connection between the castle and the church.

The soldier salutes the general and makes sign to the three men to follow him. Patrin and Dalario
look astonished.

Arat: (In despair.) I have said already who betrayed us!

Relina: Time betrayed you, not the general! You should have known that. The history of the
world has no other alternative but to change!

THE END