No More Learning

THE MATHEMATICIAN Certainly.
(Pause. Suddenly Andrea turns around and walks stiffly out through the length of
the room. His mother intercepts him)
MRS. SARTI What's got into you?
ANDREA They're stupid. (Tears himself loose and runs away)
THE PHILOSOPHER A deplorable child.
THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN Your Highness, gentlemen, may I remind you that the
state ball is due to start in forty-five minutes?
THE MATHEMATICIAN Why beat about the bush? Sooner or later Mr. Galilei will
have to face up to the facts. His moons of Jupiter would pierce the crystal
sphere. That's all there is to it.
ANDREA You'll be surprised, but there is no crystal sphere.
THE PHILOSOPHER Any textbook will tell you there is, my good man.
ANDREA Then we need new textbooks.
THE PHILOSOPHER Your Highness, my esteemed colleague and I are supported
by no less an authority than the divine Aristotle,
GALILEO (almost abjectly) Gentlemen, belief in the authority of Aristotle is one
thing, observable facts are another. You say that according to Aristotle there are crystal spheres up there and that certain motions are impossible because the stars would have to pierce the spheres. But what if you observed these motions? Wouldn't that suggest to you that the spheres do not exist? Gentlemen, I humbly beseech you to trust your own eyes.
THE MATHEMATICIAN My dear Galilei, though it may seem dreadfully old- fashioned to you, I'm in the habit of reading Aristotle now and then, and I can assure you that when I read Aristotle I do trust my eyes.
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? GALILEO I'm used to seeing the gentlemen of all faculties close their eyes to all facts and act as if nothing had happened. I show them my calculations, and they smile; I make my telescope available to help them see for themselves, and they quote Aristotle.
ANDREA The man had no telescope!
THE MATHEMATICIAN Exactly!
THE PHILOSOPHER (grandly) If Aristotle, an authority acknowledged not only by
all the scientists of antiquity but by the church fathers themselves, is to be dragged through the mire, a continuation of this discussion seems superfluous, at least to me. I refuse to take part in irrelevant arguments. Basta.
GALILEO Truth is the child of time, not of authority. Our ignorance is infinite, let's whittle away just one cubic millimeter. Why should we still want to be so clever when at long last we have a chance of being a little less stupid? I've had the good fortune to lay hands on a new instrument with which we can observe a tiny corner of the universe a little more closely, not much though. Make use of it. THE PHILOSOPHER Your Highness, ladies and gentlemen, I can only wonder what all this will lead to.
GALILEO I submit that as scientists we have no business asking what the truth may lead to.
THE PHILOSOPHER (in wild alarm) Mr. Galilei, the truth can lead to all sorts of things!
GALILEO Your Highness. In these nights telescopes are being directed at the sky all over Italy. The moons of Jupiter don't lower the price of milk. But they have never been seen before, and yet they exist. The man in the street will conclude that a good many things may exist if only he opens his eyes. And you ought to back him up. It's not the motions of some remote stars that make Italy sit up and take notice, but the news that doctrines believed to be unshakeable are beginning to totter, and we all know that of these there are far too many. Gentlemen, we oughtn't to be defending shaky doctrines!
GALILEO Your Highness! My work in the great arsenal of Venice brought me into daily contact with draftsmen, architects and instrument makers. Those people taught me many new ways of doing things. They don't read books but they trust the testimony of their five senses, most of them without fear as to where it will lead them . . .
THE PHILOSOPHER Fancy that!
GALILEO Very much like our seamen who left our shores a hundred years ago, without
the slightest idea of what other shores, if any, they might reach. It looks as if we had to go to the shipyards nowadays to find the high curiosity that was the glory of ancient Greece.
THE PHILOSOPHER After what we have heard here today, I have no doubt that Mr. Galilei will find admirers in the shipyards.
THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN Your Highness, I note to my great dismay that this exceedingly instructive conversation has taken a little longer than foreseen. Your Highness must rest a while before the court ball.
(At a signal, the grand duke bows to Galileo. The court quickly prepares to leave) MRS. SARTI (stepping in the way of the grand duke and offering him a plate of pastry) A bun, Your Highness? (The older lady-in-waiting leads the grand duke away)
GALILEO (running after them) But all you gentlemen need do is look through the instrument.
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? THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN His Highness will not fail to obtain an expert opinion on your statements by consulting our greatest living astronomer, Father Christopher Clavius, astronomer-in-chief at the papal college in Rome.
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? 5
Undaunted even by the plague, Galileo continues his investigations.
a)
Early morning. Galileo bending over his notes at the telescope. Virginia comes in with a traveling bag.
GALILEO Virginia! Is anything wrong?
VIRGINIA The convent is closed. They sent us home. There are five cases of plague in
Arcetri.
GALILEO (calls out) Sarti!
VIRGINIA And last night our market was roped off. They say two people have died in the old city, and there are three more dying in the hospital.
GALILEO As usual, they've hushed it up until the last minute. MRS. SARTI (comes in) What are you doing here?
VIRGINIA The plague.
MRS. SARTI My God! I'd better pack. (Sits down)
GALILEO No need to pack. Take Virginia and Andrea. I'll go get my notes.
(He hurries back to the table and gathers his papers in great haste. Mrs, Sarti puts a coat on Andrea as he runs in, and goes to get some food and bedding. Picks up mail and reads) His Highness has left the city for Bologna because of the raging disease. Before leaving he insisted that you should be given an opportunity to escape. The coach will be here soon.
MRS. SARTI (to Virginia and Andrea) Go right outside, you two. Here, take this. ANDREA Why? If you don't tell me why, I won't go.
MRS. SARTI
VIRGINIA
MRS. SARTI
GALILEO (wrapping the telescope in a tablecloth) Put Virginia and Andrea in the
coach. I'll join you in a minute.
VIRGINIA No, we won't leave without you. You'll never be ready if you start
packing your books.
MRS. SARTI The carriage is here.
GALILEO Be reasonable, Virginia. If no one gets in, the coachman will just drive
away. The plague is no joke.
VIRGINIA (protesting as Mrs. Sarti leads her and Andrea out) Help him with his books
or he won't come.
MRS. SARTI (calls out from the house door) Mr. Galilei! The coachman says he won't
wait.
GALILEO Mrs, Sarti, I don't think I should leave. Everything is in such a muddle
here, you know, all my notes of the last three months, I might as well throw them away if I don't go on with them for a night or two. And anyway the plague is everywhere.
It's the plague, my child. We'll wait for father.
Mr. Galilei, are you ready?
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? MRS. SARTI Mr. Galilei! Come this minute! You're out of your mind. GALILEO You go with Virginia and Andrea. I'll come later.
MRS. SARTI In another hour they won't let anyone leave the city. You must
come! (Listens) He's driving off! I've got to stop him. (Out)
(Galileo walks hack and forth. Mrs. Sarti returns, very pale, without her bundle)
GALILEO Don't stand around like that! The coach with the children will leave without you.
MRS. SARTI They've left. They had to hold Virginia down. The children will be taken care of in Bologna. But who'd get you your meals?
GALILEO You're crazy. Staying in the city to cook! . . , (Takes up his papers) You mustn't take me for a fool, Mrs. Sarti. I can't interrupt my observations. I have powerful enemies, I've got to supply proofs for certain propositions.
MRS. SARTI You needn't apologize. But it's not reasonable. b)
Outside Galileo's house in Florence. Galileo comes out of the door and looks down the street. Two, nuns are passing by.
GALILEO (addresses them from above the window) Sisters, could you tell me where I can buy milk? This morning the milk woman didn't come, and my housekeeper is away.
(man passes)
GALILEO (addresses man) Aren't you the baker who brings us our bread? Have you seen my housekeeper? She must have gone out last night. She hasn't been here all morning.
(The man shakes his head. A window across the street is opened and a woman looks out)
GALILEO Do you know anything about my housekeeper?
THE WOMAN Your housekeeper collapsed in the street. Up there. She must
have known. That's why she left you. How can people be so inconsiderate?
(She bangs the window shut)
GALILEO (at a window addressing other people on the street) Can you tell me
what's happened to the woman?
THE WOMAN (appears at her window again) They take 'em to potter's field. The whole
street back there's infected. Why don't you close it off?
(The soldiers stretch a rope across the street)
? THE WOMAN But now nobody can get into our house! Don't put your rope there. We're all well here. Stop! Stop! Can't you hear? My son's gone to the city, he won't be able to get back. You beasts! You beasts!
(Her sobbing and screaming are beard from inside.
GALILEO There seems to be a fire back there.
THE WOMAN The firemen won't touch it if there's any suspicion of plague.
All they can think about is the plague.
GALILEO Just like them! Their whole system of government is like that. They
cut us off like a withered fig branch that's stopped bearing fruit.
THE WOMAN You mustn't say that. They're helpless, that's all.
GALILEO Are you alone in your house?
THE WOMAN Yes. My son sent me a note. Thank God he heard last night that
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? someone had died around here, so he didn't come home.
There've been
eleven cases in the neighborhood during the night.
GALILEO I can't forgive myself for not sending my housekeeper away in time. I
had urgent work to finish, but she had no reason to stay.
THE WOMAN We can't go away either. Who would take us in? You mustn't reproach yourself. I saw her. She left this morning, at about seven
o'clock. She was sick, because when she saw me step out to bring in the bread she circled around me. I suppose she didn't want your house to be sealed off. But they get wise to everything.
(A rattling sound is heard)
GALILEO What's that?
THE WOMAN They're making noise to drive away the clouds that carry the
seeds of the plague.
(Galileo roars with laughter)
THE WOMAN How can you laugh?
(A man comes down the street and finds it roped off)
GALILEO Hey, you! The street's closed and there's nothing to eat in the house.
(The man has already run away)
GALILEO You can't just let us starve here! Hey! Hey!
THE WOMAN Maybe they'll bring us something. If they don't, I can put a pitcher
of milk on your doorstep, if you're not afraid, but not until after dark. GALILEO Hey! Hey! Somebody ought to hear us.
(Suddenly Andrea stands at the rope. His face is stained with tears)
GALILEO Andrea! How did you get here?
ANDRF. A I was here this morning. I knocked, but you didn't open. People told
me . . .
GALILEO Didn't you go away?
ANDREA I did. But I managed to jump out. Virginia went on. Can I come in? THE WOMAN No, you can not. You must go to the Ursulines. Maybe your
mother is there too.
I've been there. But they wouldn't let me see her. She's too sick.
Did you walk the whole way back? You've been gone for three days.
ANDREA
GALILEO
ANDREA
GALILEO (helplessly) Don't cry, Andrea. You know, I've found out a few things in
That's how long it took, don't be angry. And once they caught me.
the meantime. Shall I tell you? (Andrea nods, sobbing) But listen carefully, or you won't understand. Remember when I showed you the planet Venus? Don't listen to that noise, it's nothing. Remember? You know what I saw? It's like the moon. I saw it as a half-circle and I saw it as a crescent. What do you think of that? I can show you the whole thing with a little ball and a lamp. It proves that Venus has no light of its own either. And it describes a simple circle around the sun, isn't that marvelous?
ANDREA (sobbing) Yes, and that's a fact.
GALILEO (softly) I didn't stop her from leaving. (Andrea is silent)
But of course if I hadn't stayed it wouldn't have happened. Will they have to believe you now?
GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO
THE WOMAN There's a woman with three children over there. Give her some too.
I've got all the proofs I need. You know what? When all this is over, I'll go to Rome and show them.
(Two muffled men -with long poles and buckets come down the street. With the poles they hold out bread to Galileo and the old woman in their windows)
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? GALILEO I've nothing to drink. There's no water in the house.
(The two shrug their shoulders) Will you be back tomorrow?
GALILEO If you do come, could you reach up to me a little book that I need for
my work?
GALILEO This boy, my pupil, will be here to give it to you. It's a table showing
the period of Mercury, Andrea. I've mislaid mine. Will you find me one at school?
(The men have already moved on)
ANDREA Sure. I'll get it for you, Mr. Galilei. (Out) (Galileo retires. The old woman steps out of the house opposite and places a pitcher at Galileo's door)
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? 6
1616: The Collegium Romanum, the research institute of the Vatican, confirms Galileo's discoveries.
Large hall in the Collegium Romanum, Rome. It is night. High ecclesiastics, monks, scholars, in groups. Galileo on one side, alone. Great merriment. Before the scene opens, boisterous laughter is heard.
? Things take indeed a wondrous turn When learned men do stoop to learn. Clavius, we are pleased to say Upheld Galileo Galilei.
? *PRE-RECORDED -
A FAT PRELATE (holds his belly for laughter) Oh stupidity! Oh stupidity! Can anyone
tell me of a proposition that has not been believed?
A SCHOLAR What about the proposition that you have an inconquerable aversion
to food, monsignor! THE FAT PRELATE Will be believed, never fear. Only reasonable statements are not believed. The existence of the devil is being doubted. But that the earth spins around like a marble
in a gutter, that's being believed. Sancta simplicitas!
A MONK (acting out a comedy) I'm dizzy. The earth is turning too fast. Permit me to hold on to you, professor. (He pretends to stagger and holds on to a scholar)
THE SCHOLAR (joining in the fun) Yes, she's dead drunk again, the old hag.
THE MONK Stop, stop! We're sliding off! Stop, I say!
ANOTHER SCHOLAR Venus is listing badly. I can only see half of her behind. Help!
ANOTHER MONK If only we don't get thrown on the moon. Brothers, they say it bristles with sharp mountain peaks!
THE FIRST SCHOLAR Plant your foot against it.
THE FIRST MONK And don't look down. I feel as sick as a monkey.
THE FAT PRELATE (pointedly loud in Galileo's direction) What! Monkey business in
the Collegium Romanum? (Loud laughter. Two astronomers of the Collegium come
out of a door. Quiet sets in)
A MONK Still investigating? That's a scandal! ANOTHER ASTRONOMER (angrily) Not us!
THE ASTRONOMER Where's this going to end? I can't understand Clavius . . . Are all the claims made in the last fifty years to be taken at face value? In 1572 a new star appeared in the highest sphere, the eighth, the sphere of the fixed stars. It was rather larger and brighter than its neighbors and a year and a half later it was gone, overtaken by perdition. Is that any reason to question the eternal immutability of the heavens?
THE PHILOSOPHER If we let them, they'd smash up the whole universe.
THE ASTRONOMER Yes, what's the world coming to! Five years later, Tycho Brahe,
? 30
? a Dane, determined the trajectory of a comet. It started above the moon and broke through all the spheres, the material carriers of all movable celestial bodies. It met with no resistance, its light was not deflected. Is that any reason to doubt the existence of the spheres?
THE PHILOSOPHER Out of the question! How can Christopher Clavius, the greatest astronomer of Italy and of the church, lower himself to investigating such stuff!
I THE FAT PRELATE Scandalous! * ,
ASTRONOMER But there he is, investigating. There he sits, gaping through that devil's tube. . Principiis obsta! The whole trouble began years ago when we started using the tables of Copernicus--a heretic--for calculating such things as the length of the solar year, the dates of solar and lunar eclipses, the positions of the celestial bodies.
A MONK I ask you: What is better, to get a lunar eclipse three
days behind schedule or to miss out on eternal salvation altogether? *
A VERY THIN MONK (steps forward with an open Bible, fanatically stabbing his finger at a passage) What does the Book say? "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon. " How can the sun stand still if it never moves as these heretics claim? Does the Book lie?
ASTRONOMER No, and that's why we're leaving. Yes, there are phenomena that perplex us astronomers, but must man understand everything? (Goes out)
THE VERY THIN MONK They degrade the home of mankind, a planet they call it. They load man, animal, plant and soil on a cart and chase it in circles through the empty sky. Heaven and earth, they claim, have ceased to exist. The earth because it's a star in the sky, and the sky because it consists of many earths. There's no longer any difference between above and below, between eternal and transient. That we are transient, that we know. But now they tell us that heaven itself is transient. There are sun, moon and stars, but we live on this earth, that's what we've learned and what the Book says; but now, according to them, the earth is just another star. One day they'll be saying there's no difference between man and beast, that man himself is an animal and only animals exist.
THE FIRST SCHOLAR (to Galileo) Mr. Galilei, you've dropped something. * GALILEO (who bad taken his pebble out of his pocket during the preceding speech and
dropped it on the floor, as he stoops to pick it up) It didn't drop, monsignor, it rose. THE FAT PRELATE (turns his back on him) The insolence of the man! *
(A very old cardinal comes in, supported by a monk. The others reverentially
make room for him)
THE VERY OLD CARDINAL Are they still in there? Can't they get this foolishness over with? Surely Clavius knows his astronomy. I hear this Mr, Galilei has moved man from the center of the universe to somewhere on the edge. Obviously he's an enemy of mankind. And ought to be treated as such. Man is the crown of creation, every child knows that, he's God's
? ? ? 31
? highest and most beloved creature. Would God have put his most marvelous work, his supreme effort on a little far-away star that's constantly on the move? Would he have sent His Son to such a place? How can there be men so perverse as to believe these slaves of their mathematical tables? How can one of God's creatures put up with such a thing?
THE FAT PRELATE (in an undertone) The gentleman is present. *
THE VERY OLD CARDINAL (to Galileo) Oh, you're the man? You know, I don't see too well any more, but I can see that you look remarkably like the man -- what was his name again? -- whom we burned a few years ago.
You want to degrade our earth, though you live on it and receive everything from it. You're fouling your own nest! But I for one will not stand for it.
I'm not some nondescript being on some little star that briefly circles around somewhere. I walk with assurance on a firm earth, it stands still, it is the center of the universe, I am in the center, and the Creator's eye rests on me, on me alone. Around me, fixed to eight crystal spheres, revolve the fixed stars and the mighty sun, which was created to illumine my surroundings. And myself as well, in order that God may see me. Hence obviously and irrefutably, everything depends on me, man, the supreme work of God, the creature in the center, the image of God, imperishable and . .