When I was a young man in Siena I saw some masons, after arguing for five minutes, discard an age-old method of moving granite blocks in favor of a new and more
practical
arrangement of the ropes.
Life-of-Galileo-by-Brecht
?
Bertolt Brecht Life of Galileo
Play
Translators: Wolfgang Sauerlander and Ralph Manheirn Adaptor: Janek Liebetruth
Version 1
September, 07 2007
CHARACTERS
GALILEO GALILEI
ANDREA SARTI
MRS. SARTI, Galileo's housekeeper, Andrea's mother LUDOVICO MARSILI, a rich young man
MR. PRIULI, procurator of the university of Padua SAGREDO, Galileo's friend
VIRGINIA, Galileo's daughter
SENATORS
COSMO DE' MEDICI, Grand Duke of Florence
THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN
THE PHILOSOPHER
THE MATHEMATICIAN
THE OLD WOMAN
ASTRONOMER
A VERY THIN MONK
THE VERY OLD CARDINAL
FATHER CHRISTOPHER CLAVIUS, an astronomer THE LITTLE MONK
THE CARDINAL INQUISITOR
CARDINAL BARBERINI, later Pope Urban VIII CARDINAL BELLARMINE
SECRETARY
FILIPPO MUCIUS, a scholar
VANNI, an iron founder
A HIGH OFFICIAL
A SHADY INDIVIDUAL
A MONK
A BORDER GUARD
2
1
Galileo Galilei, teacher of mathematics in Padua, sets out to demonstrate the new Copernican system.
? In the year sixteen hundred and nine Science' light began to shine.
At Padua city, in a modest house Galileo Galilei set out to prove
The sun is still, the earth is on the move.
? Galileo's modest study in Padua. It is morning. A boy, Andrea, the housekeeper's son, brings in a glass of milk and a roll.
GALILEO (washing his torso, puffing and happy) Put the milk on the table, but don't shut any books.
ANDREA Mother says we've got to pay the milkman. Or he'll make a circle around our house, Mr. Galilei.
GALILEO You must say, "describe a circle," Andrea.
ANDREA Of course. If we don't pay he'll describe a circle around us, Mr.
Galilei.
GALILEO I've got something for you. Look behind the star charts.
(Andrea fishes a large wooden model of the Ptolemaic system from behind
the star charts)
ANDREA What is it?
. GALILEO An armillary sphere. It shows how the stars move around the earth, in
the opinion of the ancients.
ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA
How?
Let's examine it. First of all: description. There's a little stone in the middle. That's the earth.
There are rings around it, one inside another. How many?
Eight.
? GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO
Those are the crystal spheres.
There are balls fastened to the rings . . .
The stars.
There are tags with words painted on them. What kind of words?
? Names of stars. Such as?
ANDREA
GALILEO
ANDREA
GALILEO
ANDREA (sets the rings in motion) That's pretty. But we're so shut in.
GALILEO (drying himself) Yes, that's just what I felt when I saw the thing for the first
time. Some people feel that way. (Throws Andrea the towel, meaning that he should rub his back) Walls and rings and immobility. For two thousand years
The bottommost ball is the moon, it says. The one above it is the sun. Now spin the sun around.
3
? men believed that the sun and all the stars of heaven were circling around them. The pope, the cardinals, princes and scholars, the captains, merchants, fishwives and schoolchildren, all thought they were sitting motionless inside this crystal sphere. But now we'll get out of it, Andrea, we're in full sail.
Because the old times are gone, and this is a new age. For the last hundred years mankind has seemed to be expecting something.
Cities are narrow, and so are minds. Superstition and plague. But now we say: Since things are thus and so, they will not remain thus and so. Because, my friend, everything is in motion.
I like to think that it all started with ships. From time immemorial ships had hugged the shores, but suddenly they abandoned the shores, and sailed out upon the oceans.
And a great desire has arisen to find the causes of all things. Every day something new is being discovered. Even men a hundred years old let youngsters shout in their ears to tell them about the latest discoveries.
A great deal has been discovered, but there's much more to be discovered. Plenty of work for future generations.
When I was a young man in Siena I saw some masons, after arguing for five minutes, discard an age-old method of moving granite blocks in favor of a new and more practical arrangement of the ropes. Then and there I realized that the old times are over and that this is a new day. Some men will know all about their habitat, this heavenly body they live on. They're no longer satisfied with what it says in the ancient books.
Because where faith had ruled for a thousand years, doubt has now set in. Today everybody is saying: Yes, that's what the books tell us, but we want to see for ourselves. The most sacred truths are being looked into. Things that were never: held in doubt are being doubted now.
All this has stirred up a breeze that lifts even the gold-braided coats of princes and prelates, revealing stout or spindly legs, legs just the same as ours. The heavens, we know now, are empty. And that has given rise to joyous laughter.
I foresee that in our lifetime people will talk astronomy in the market place. Even the sons of fishwives will go to school. The people of our cities are always eager for novelty, they will be glad to hear that in our new astronomy the earth moves too. It has always been taught that the stars are pinned to a crystal vault, which prevents them from falling down. Now we've mustered the courage to let them float free, with nothing to hold them; they're in full sail, just as our ships are in full sail.
And the earth rolls merrily around the sun, and all the fishwives, merchants, princes and cardinals, and even the pope, roll with it.
Overnight, the universe has lost its center and now in the morning it has any number of centers. Now any point in the universe may be taken as a center. Because, suddenly, there's plenty of room.
Our ships sail far out into the ocean, our planets revolve far out in space, and even in chess nowadays the rooks range over many fields. What does the poet say? "Oh, early morning . . . "
ANDREA
? "Oh, early morning of beginning!
Oh, breath of wind that
Comes from new-found shores! "
And you'd better drink your milk. There'll be people coming in a minute.
4
? GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA
Did you figure out what I told you yesterday?
What? You mean Kippernick and all that turning business?
Copernicus, yes.
No. Why do you want me to figure it out? It's too hard for me, I'll only
be eleven in October.
GALILEO I want you to understand it, you in particular. To make everybody
understand, that's why I work and buy expensive books instead of
paying the milkman.
ANDREA But I can see that the sun's not in the same place in the evening and
morning. So it can't stand still. It just can't.
GALILEO You "see"! What do you see? You see nothing at all. You're just gaping.
Gaping isn't seeing. (He places the iron washstand in the center of the room) Now, that's the sun. Sit down. (Andrea sits down in the only chair. Galileo stands behind him) Where is the sun, right or left?
ANDREA Left.
GALILEO And how does it get to the right?
ANDREA When you carry it over to the right. Naturally.
? GALILEO Only then? (Hepicks up the chair with him in it and turns it halfway around) Where's the sun now?
ANDREA On the right.
? GALILEO Has it moved? ANDREA I guess it hasn't. GALILEO What moved? ANDREA Me!
GALILEO (roars) Wrong! Stupid! the chair!
ANDREA But me with it!
GALILEO Obviously, The chair is the earth. You're sitting on it,
MRS SARTI (has come in to make the bed. She has watched the scene) Mr. Galilei, what on earth are you doing with my boy?
? GALILEO I'm teaching him how to see, Mrs. Sarti.
MRS. SARTI By carrying him around the room?
ANDREA Never mind, mother. You don't understand.
MRS. SARTI Is that so? But of course you understand. A young gentleman is here, he
wants to take lessons. Very well dressed, and he has a letter of recommendation. (Hands over the letter) When you get through with my Andrea, he'll be saying that two times two make five. You've got him all mixed up. Last night he tried to prove to me that the earth moves around the sun. He says some fellow by the name of Kippernick figured it out.
ANDREA Didn't that 'Copernicus' figure it out, Mr. Galilei? You tell her.
MRS. SARTI Do you really tell him such nonsense? He blabs it out in school and
the priests come running to me because of all the sinful stuff he says. You
should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Galilei.
GALILEO (eating his breakfast) Mrs. Sarti, as a result of our investigations, and after
heated arguments, Andrea and I have made discoveries which we can no longer keep secret from the world. A new age has dawned, a great age, and it's a joy to be alive.
MRS. SARTI I see. I hope we'll be able to pay the milkman in the new age, Mr. Galilei. (Pointing at the letter) Just do me a favor and don't turn this one away. I'm thinking of the milk bill. (Out)
GALILEO (laughing) Just give me time to finish my milk! --(To Andrea) Well, you
5
? seem to have understood something yesterday after all.
ANDREA I only told her to get a rise out of her. But it's not true. You only turned the
chair with me in it around sideways, but not like this. (He moves his arm in a circle to the front] Because I'd have fallen off the chair, and that's a fact. Why didn't you turn the chair over? Because that would prove I'd fall off the earth if it moved that way. There.
GALILEO But I proved to you . . .
ANDREA But last night I figured out that if the earth turned that way I'd hang down
head first at night, and that's a fact.
GALILEO (takes an apple from the table) Look here. This is the earth. ANDREA Don't always use that kind of example, Mr. Galilei. That way you can
prove anything.
GALILEO (putting the apple hack) Very well.
ANDREA You can do anything with examples if you're clever. But I can't carry my
mother around in a chair like that. So you see, it was a bad example. And what would happen if the apple were the earth? Nothing would happen.
When I was a young man in Siena I saw some masons, after arguing for five minutes, discard an age-old method of moving granite blocks in favor of a new and more practical arrangement of the ropes. Then and there I realized that the old times are over and that this is a new day. Some men will know all about their habitat, this heavenly body they live on. They're no longer satisfied with what it says in the ancient books.
Because where faith had ruled for a thousand years, doubt has now set in. Today everybody is saying: Yes, that's what the books tell us, but we want to see for ourselves. The most sacred truths are being looked into. Things that were never: held in doubt are being doubted now.
All this has stirred up a breeze that lifts even the gold-braided coats of princes and prelates, revealing stout or spindly legs, legs just the same as ours. The heavens, we know now, are empty. And that has given rise to joyous laughter.
I foresee that in our lifetime people will talk astronomy in the market place. Even the sons of fishwives will go to school. The people of our cities are always eager for novelty, they will be glad to hear that in our new astronomy the earth moves too. It has always been taught that the stars are pinned to a crystal vault, which prevents them from falling down. Now we've mustered the courage to let them float free, with nothing to hold them; they're in full sail, just as our ships are in full sail.
And the earth rolls merrily around the sun, and all the fishwives, merchants, princes and cardinals, and even the pope, roll with it.
Overnight, the universe has lost its center and now in the morning it has any number of centers. Now any point in the universe may be taken as a center. Because, suddenly, there's plenty of room.
Our ships sail far out into the ocean, our planets revolve far out in space, and even in chess nowadays the rooks range over many fields. What does the poet say? "Oh, early morning . . . "
ANDREA
? "Oh, early morning of beginning!
Oh, breath of wind that
Comes from new-found shores! "
And you'd better drink your milk. There'll be people coming in a minute.
4
? GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA
Did you figure out what I told you yesterday?
What? You mean Kippernick and all that turning business?
Copernicus, yes.
No. Why do you want me to figure it out? It's too hard for me, I'll only
be eleven in October.
GALILEO I want you to understand it, you in particular. To make everybody
understand, that's why I work and buy expensive books instead of
paying the milkman.
ANDREA But I can see that the sun's not in the same place in the evening and
morning. So it can't stand still. It just can't.
GALILEO You "see"! What do you see? You see nothing at all. You're just gaping.
Gaping isn't seeing. (He places the iron washstand in the center of the room) Now, that's the sun. Sit down. (Andrea sits down in the only chair. Galileo stands behind him) Where is the sun, right or left?
ANDREA Left.
GALILEO And how does it get to the right?
ANDREA When you carry it over to the right. Naturally.
? GALILEO Only then? (Hepicks up the chair with him in it and turns it halfway around) Where's the sun now?
ANDREA On the right.
? GALILEO Has it moved? ANDREA I guess it hasn't. GALILEO What moved? ANDREA Me!
GALILEO (roars) Wrong! Stupid! the chair!
ANDREA But me with it!
GALILEO Obviously, The chair is the earth. You're sitting on it,
MRS SARTI (has come in to make the bed. She has watched the scene) Mr. Galilei, what on earth are you doing with my boy?
? GALILEO I'm teaching him how to see, Mrs. Sarti.
MRS. SARTI By carrying him around the room?
ANDREA Never mind, mother. You don't understand.
MRS. SARTI Is that so? But of course you understand. A young gentleman is here, he
wants to take lessons. Very well dressed, and he has a letter of recommendation. (Hands over the letter) When you get through with my Andrea, he'll be saying that two times two make five. You've got him all mixed up. Last night he tried to prove to me that the earth moves around the sun. He says some fellow by the name of Kippernick figured it out.
ANDREA Didn't that 'Copernicus' figure it out, Mr. Galilei? You tell her.
MRS. SARTI Do you really tell him such nonsense? He blabs it out in school and
the priests come running to me because of all the sinful stuff he says. You
should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Galilei.
GALILEO (eating his breakfast) Mrs. Sarti, as a result of our investigations, and after
heated arguments, Andrea and I have made discoveries which we can no longer keep secret from the world. A new age has dawned, a great age, and it's a joy to be alive.
MRS. SARTI I see. I hope we'll be able to pay the milkman in the new age, Mr. Galilei. (Pointing at the letter) Just do me a favor and don't turn this one away. I'm thinking of the milk bill. (Out)
GALILEO (laughing) Just give me time to finish my milk! --(To Andrea) Well, you
5
? seem to have understood something yesterday after all.
ANDREA I only told her to get a rise out of her. But it's not true. You only turned the
chair with me in it around sideways, but not like this. (He moves his arm in a circle to the front] Because I'd have fallen off the chair, and that's a fact. Why didn't you turn the chair over? Because that would prove I'd fall off the earth if it moved that way. There.
GALILEO But I proved to you . . .
ANDREA But last night I figured out that if the earth turned that way I'd hang down
head first at night, and that's a fact.
GALILEO (takes an apple from the table) Look here. This is the earth. ANDREA Don't always use that kind of example, Mr. Galilei. That way you can
prove anything.
GALILEO (putting the apple hack) Very well.
ANDREA You can do anything with examples if you're clever. But I can't carry my
mother around in a chair like that. So you see, it was a bad example. And what would happen if the apple were the earth? Nothing would happen.
GALILEO (laughs) I thought you weren't interested.
ANDREA All right, take the apple. What would keep me from hanging head down
at night?
GALILEO Well, here's the earth, and you're standing here. (He sticks a splinter
from a log into the apple) And now the earth turns. ANDREA And now I'm hanging head down.
GALILEO What do you mean? Look closely! Where's the head? (shows on the apple) ANDREA There. Below.
? GALILEO Sure? (Turns the apple back) Isn't the head still in the same place? Aren't the feet still below it? When I turn it, do you stand like this? (He takes the splinter out and turns it upside down)
ANDREA No. Then, why don't I notice the turning?
GALILEO Because you're turning too. You and the air above you and everything else
on the globe.
ANDREA But why does it look as if the sun were moving?
GALILEO (again turns the apple with the splinter) Look, you see the earth
underneath, it stays that way, it's always underneath and as far as you're concerned it doesn't move. Now look up.
The lamp is over your head. But now that I've turned it, what's over your head, in other words, above?
ANDREA (making the same turn) The stove. GALILEO And where's the lamp? ANDREA Below.
GALILEO Aha!
ANDREA That's great. That'll get a rise out of her.
(Ludovico Marsili, a rich young man, enters)
LUDOVICO Good morning, sir. My name is Ludovico Marsili.
GALILEO (examining his letter of recommendation) You've been in Holland? LUDOVICO Where I heard a great deal about you, Mr. Galilei. GALILEO Your
family owns property in the Campagna? LUDOVICO My mother wanted me to look around and see what's going on in the world. That kind of thing.
GALILEO And in Holland they told you that in Italy, for instance, I was going on?
6
? LUDOVICO GALILEO LUDOVICO GALILEO LUDOVICO Horses. GALILEO I see.
LUDOVICO GALILEO LUDIVICO GALILEO
I have no head for science, Mr. Galilei.
I see. In that case it'll be fifteen scudi a month.
Very well, Mr. Galilei.
I'll have to take you first thing in the morning. You'll be the loser, Andrea.
And since mother also wanted me to take a look at the sciences . . . Private lessons: Ten scudi a month.
Very well, sir.
What are your interests?
Naturally I'll have to drop you. You understand, you don't pay. ANDREA All right, I'm going. Can I take the apple?
GALILEO Yes.
(Andrea leaves)
LUDOVICO You'll have to be patient with me. Mostly because in science everything's the opposite of common sense. Take that crazy tube they're selling in Amsterdam. I've examined it carefully. A green leather casing and two lenses, one like this (he indicates a concave lens) and one like this (indicates a convex lens). As far as I know, one magnifies and the other reduces.
Any sensible person would expect them to cancel each other out. But they don't.
Play
Translators: Wolfgang Sauerlander and Ralph Manheirn Adaptor: Janek Liebetruth
Version 1
September, 07 2007
CHARACTERS
GALILEO GALILEI
ANDREA SARTI
MRS. SARTI, Galileo's housekeeper, Andrea's mother LUDOVICO MARSILI, a rich young man
MR. PRIULI, procurator of the university of Padua SAGREDO, Galileo's friend
VIRGINIA, Galileo's daughter
SENATORS
COSMO DE' MEDICI, Grand Duke of Florence
THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN
THE PHILOSOPHER
THE MATHEMATICIAN
THE OLD WOMAN
ASTRONOMER
A VERY THIN MONK
THE VERY OLD CARDINAL
FATHER CHRISTOPHER CLAVIUS, an astronomer THE LITTLE MONK
THE CARDINAL INQUISITOR
CARDINAL BARBERINI, later Pope Urban VIII CARDINAL BELLARMINE
SECRETARY
FILIPPO MUCIUS, a scholar
VANNI, an iron founder
A HIGH OFFICIAL
A SHADY INDIVIDUAL
A MONK
A BORDER GUARD
2
1
Galileo Galilei, teacher of mathematics in Padua, sets out to demonstrate the new Copernican system.
? In the year sixteen hundred and nine Science' light began to shine.
At Padua city, in a modest house Galileo Galilei set out to prove
The sun is still, the earth is on the move.
? Galileo's modest study in Padua. It is morning. A boy, Andrea, the housekeeper's son, brings in a glass of milk and a roll.
GALILEO (washing his torso, puffing and happy) Put the milk on the table, but don't shut any books.
ANDREA Mother says we've got to pay the milkman. Or he'll make a circle around our house, Mr. Galilei.
GALILEO You must say, "describe a circle," Andrea.
ANDREA Of course. If we don't pay he'll describe a circle around us, Mr.
Galilei.
GALILEO I've got something for you. Look behind the star charts.
(Andrea fishes a large wooden model of the Ptolemaic system from behind
the star charts)
ANDREA What is it?
. GALILEO An armillary sphere. It shows how the stars move around the earth, in
the opinion of the ancients.
ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA
How?
Let's examine it. First of all: description. There's a little stone in the middle. That's the earth.
There are rings around it, one inside another. How many?
Eight.
? GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO
Those are the crystal spheres.
There are balls fastened to the rings . . .
The stars.
There are tags with words painted on them. What kind of words?
? Names of stars. Such as?
ANDREA
GALILEO
ANDREA
GALILEO
ANDREA (sets the rings in motion) That's pretty. But we're so shut in.
GALILEO (drying himself) Yes, that's just what I felt when I saw the thing for the first
time. Some people feel that way. (Throws Andrea the towel, meaning that he should rub his back) Walls and rings and immobility. For two thousand years
The bottommost ball is the moon, it says. The one above it is the sun. Now spin the sun around.
3
? men believed that the sun and all the stars of heaven were circling around them. The pope, the cardinals, princes and scholars, the captains, merchants, fishwives and schoolchildren, all thought they were sitting motionless inside this crystal sphere. But now we'll get out of it, Andrea, we're in full sail.
Because the old times are gone, and this is a new age. For the last hundred years mankind has seemed to be expecting something.
Cities are narrow, and so are minds. Superstition and plague. But now we say: Since things are thus and so, they will not remain thus and so. Because, my friend, everything is in motion.
I like to think that it all started with ships. From time immemorial ships had hugged the shores, but suddenly they abandoned the shores, and sailed out upon the oceans.
And a great desire has arisen to find the causes of all things. Every day something new is being discovered. Even men a hundred years old let youngsters shout in their ears to tell them about the latest discoveries.
A great deal has been discovered, but there's much more to be discovered. Plenty of work for future generations.
When I was a young man in Siena I saw some masons, after arguing for five minutes, discard an age-old method of moving granite blocks in favor of a new and more practical arrangement of the ropes. Then and there I realized that the old times are over and that this is a new day. Some men will know all about their habitat, this heavenly body they live on. They're no longer satisfied with what it says in the ancient books.
Because where faith had ruled for a thousand years, doubt has now set in. Today everybody is saying: Yes, that's what the books tell us, but we want to see for ourselves. The most sacred truths are being looked into. Things that were never: held in doubt are being doubted now.
All this has stirred up a breeze that lifts even the gold-braided coats of princes and prelates, revealing stout or spindly legs, legs just the same as ours. The heavens, we know now, are empty. And that has given rise to joyous laughter.
I foresee that in our lifetime people will talk astronomy in the market place. Even the sons of fishwives will go to school. The people of our cities are always eager for novelty, they will be glad to hear that in our new astronomy the earth moves too. It has always been taught that the stars are pinned to a crystal vault, which prevents them from falling down. Now we've mustered the courage to let them float free, with nothing to hold them; they're in full sail, just as our ships are in full sail.
And the earth rolls merrily around the sun, and all the fishwives, merchants, princes and cardinals, and even the pope, roll with it.
Overnight, the universe has lost its center and now in the morning it has any number of centers. Now any point in the universe may be taken as a center. Because, suddenly, there's plenty of room.
Our ships sail far out into the ocean, our planets revolve far out in space, and even in chess nowadays the rooks range over many fields. What does the poet say? "Oh, early morning . . . "
ANDREA
? "Oh, early morning of beginning!
Oh, breath of wind that
Comes from new-found shores! "
And you'd better drink your milk. There'll be people coming in a minute.
4
? GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA
Did you figure out what I told you yesterday?
What? You mean Kippernick and all that turning business?
Copernicus, yes.
No. Why do you want me to figure it out? It's too hard for me, I'll only
be eleven in October.
GALILEO I want you to understand it, you in particular. To make everybody
understand, that's why I work and buy expensive books instead of
paying the milkman.
ANDREA But I can see that the sun's not in the same place in the evening and
morning. So it can't stand still. It just can't.
GALILEO You "see"! What do you see? You see nothing at all. You're just gaping.
Gaping isn't seeing. (He places the iron washstand in the center of the room) Now, that's the sun. Sit down. (Andrea sits down in the only chair. Galileo stands behind him) Where is the sun, right or left?
ANDREA Left.
GALILEO And how does it get to the right?
ANDREA When you carry it over to the right. Naturally.
? GALILEO Only then? (Hepicks up the chair with him in it and turns it halfway around) Where's the sun now?
ANDREA On the right.
? GALILEO Has it moved? ANDREA I guess it hasn't. GALILEO What moved? ANDREA Me!
GALILEO (roars) Wrong! Stupid! the chair!
ANDREA But me with it!
GALILEO Obviously, The chair is the earth. You're sitting on it,
MRS SARTI (has come in to make the bed. She has watched the scene) Mr. Galilei, what on earth are you doing with my boy?
? GALILEO I'm teaching him how to see, Mrs. Sarti.
MRS. SARTI By carrying him around the room?
ANDREA Never mind, mother. You don't understand.
MRS. SARTI Is that so? But of course you understand. A young gentleman is here, he
wants to take lessons. Very well dressed, and he has a letter of recommendation. (Hands over the letter) When you get through with my Andrea, he'll be saying that two times two make five. You've got him all mixed up. Last night he tried to prove to me that the earth moves around the sun. He says some fellow by the name of Kippernick figured it out.
ANDREA Didn't that 'Copernicus' figure it out, Mr. Galilei? You tell her.
MRS. SARTI Do you really tell him such nonsense? He blabs it out in school and
the priests come running to me because of all the sinful stuff he says. You
should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Galilei.
GALILEO (eating his breakfast) Mrs. Sarti, as a result of our investigations, and after
heated arguments, Andrea and I have made discoveries which we can no longer keep secret from the world. A new age has dawned, a great age, and it's a joy to be alive.
MRS. SARTI I see. I hope we'll be able to pay the milkman in the new age, Mr. Galilei. (Pointing at the letter) Just do me a favor and don't turn this one away. I'm thinking of the milk bill. (Out)
GALILEO (laughing) Just give me time to finish my milk! --(To Andrea) Well, you
5
? seem to have understood something yesterday after all.
ANDREA I only told her to get a rise out of her. But it's not true. You only turned the
chair with me in it around sideways, but not like this. (He moves his arm in a circle to the front] Because I'd have fallen off the chair, and that's a fact. Why didn't you turn the chair over? Because that would prove I'd fall off the earth if it moved that way. There.
GALILEO But I proved to you . . .
ANDREA But last night I figured out that if the earth turned that way I'd hang down
head first at night, and that's a fact.
GALILEO (takes an apple from the table) Look here. This is the earth. ANDREA Don't always use that kind of example, Mr. Galilei. That way you can
prove anything.
GALILEO (putting the apple hack) Very well.
ANDREA You can do anything with examples if you're clever. But I can't carry my
mother around in a chair like that. So you see, it was a bad example. And what would happen if the apple were the earth? Nothing would happen.
When I was a young man in Siena I saw some masons, after arguing for five minutes, discard an age-old method of moving granite blocks in favor of a new and more practical arrangement of the ropes. Then and there I realized that the old times are over and that this is a new day. Some men will know all about their habitat, this heavenly body they live on. They're no longer satisfied with what it says in the ancient books.
Because where faith had ruled for a thousand years, doubt has now set in. Today everybody is saying: Yes, that's what the books tell us, but we want to see for ourselves. The most sacred truths are being looked into. Things that were never: held in doubt are being doubted now.
All this has stirred up a breeze that lifts even the gold-braided coats of princes and prelates, revealing stout or spindly legs, legs just the same as ours. The heavens, we know now, are empty. And that has given rise to joyous laughter.
I foresee that in our lifetime people will talk astronomy in the market place. Even the sons of fishwives will go to school. The people of our cities are always eager for novelty, they will be glad to hear that in our new astronomy the earth moves too. It has always been taught that the stars are pinned to a crystal vault, which prevents them from falling down. Now we've mustered the courage to let them float free, with nothing to hold them; they're in full sail, just as our ships are in full sail.
And the earth rolls merrily around the sun, and all the fishwives, merchants, princes and cardinals, and even the pope, roll with it.
Overnight, the universe has lost its center and now in the morning it has any number of centers. Now any point in the universe may be taken as a center. Because, suddenly, there's plenty of room.
Our ships sail far out into the ocean, our planets revolve far out in space, and even in chess nowadays the rooks range over many fields. What does the poet say? "Oh, early morning . . . "
ANDREA
? "Oh, early morning of beginning!
Oh, breath of wind that
Comes from new-found shores! "
And you'd better drink your milk. There'll be people coming in a minute.
4
? GALILEO ANDREA GALILEO ANDREA
Did you figure out what I told you yesterday?
What? You mean Kippernick and all that turning business?
Copernicus, yes.
No. Why do you want me to figure it out? It's too hard for me, I'll only
be eleven in October.
GALILEO I want you to understand it, you in particular. To make everybody
understand, that's why I work and buy expensive books instead of
paying the milkman.
ANDREA But I can see that the sun's not in the same place in the evening and
morning. So it can't stand still. It just can't.
GALILEO You "see"! What do you see? You see nothing at all. You're just gaping.
Gaping isn't seeing. (He places the iron washstand in the center of the room) Now, that's the sun. Sit down. (Andrea sits down in the only chair. Galileo stands behind him) Where is the sun, right or left?
ANDREA Left.
GALILEO And how does it get to the right?
ANDREA When you carry it over to the right. Naturally.
? GALILEO Only then? (Hepicks up the chair with him in it and turns it halfway around) Where's the sun now?
ANDREA On the right.
? GALILEO Has it moved? ANDREA I guess it hasn't. GALILEO What moved? ANDREA Me!
GALILEO (roars) Wrong! Stupid! the chair!
ANDREA But me with it!
GALILEO Obviously, The chair is the earth. You're sitting on it,
MRS SARTI (has come in to make the bed. She has watched the scene) Mr. Galilei, what on earth are you doing with my boy?
? GALILEO I'm teaching him how to see, Mrs. Sarti.
MRS. SARTI By carrying him around the room?
ANDREA Never mind, mother. You don't understand.
MRS. SARTI Is that so? But of course you understand. A young gentleman is here, he
wants to take lessons. Very well dressed, and he has a letter of recommendation. (Hands over the letter) When you get through with my Andrea, he'll be saying that two times two make five. You've got him all mixed up. Last night he tried to prove to me that the earth moves around the sun. He says some fellow by the name of Kippernick figured it out.
ANDREA Didn't that 'Copernicus' figure it out, Mr. Galilei? You tell her.
MRS. SARTI Do you really tell him such nonsense? He blabs it out in school and
the priests come running to me because of all the sinful stuff he says. You
should be ashamed of yourself, Mr. Galilei.
GALILEO (eating his breakfast) Mrs. Sarti, as a result of our investigations, and after
heated arguments, Andrea and I have made discoveries which we can no longer keep secret from the world. A new age has dawned, a great age, and it's a joy to be alive.
MRS. SARTI I see. I hope we'll be able to pay the milkman in the new age, Mr. Galilei. (Pointing at the letter) Just do me a favor and don't turn this one away. I'm thinking of the milk bill. (Out)
GALILEO (laughing) Just give me time to finish my milk! --(To Andrea) Well, you
5
? seem to have understood something yesterday after all.
ANDREA I only told her to get a rise out of her. But it's not true. You only turned the
chair with me in it around sideways, but not like this. (He moves his arm in a circle to the front] Because I'd have fallen off the chair, and that's a fact. Why didn't you turn the chair over? Because that would prove I'd fall off the earth if it moved that way. There.
GALILEO But I proved to you . . .
ANDREA But last night I figured out that if the earth turned that way I'd hang down
head first at night, and that's a fact.
GALILEO (takes an apple from the table) Look here. This is the earth. ANDREA Don't always use that kind of example, Mr. Galilei. That way you can
prove anything.
GALILEO (putting the apple hack) Very well.
ANDREA You can do anything with examples if you're clever. But I can't carry my
mother around in a chair like that. So you see, it was a bad example. And what would happen if the apple were the earth? Nothing would happen.
GALILEO (laughs) I thought you weren't interested.
ANDREA All right, take the apple. What would keep me from hanging head down
at night?
GALILEO Well, here's the earth, and you're standing here. (He sticks a splinter
from a log into the apple) And now the earth turns. ANDREA And now I'm hanging head down.
GALILEO What do you mean? Look closely! Where's the head? (shows on the apple) ANDREA There. Below.
? GALILEO Sure? (Turns the apple back) Isn't the head still in the same place? Aren't the feet still below it? When I turn it, do you stand like this? (He takes the splinter out and turns it upside down)
ANDREA No. Then, why don't I notice the turning?
GALILEO Because you're turning too. You and the air above you and everything else
on the globe.
ANDREA But why does it look as if the sun were moving?
GALILEO (again turns the apple with the splinter) Look, you see the earth
underneath, it stays that way, it's always underneath and as far as you're concerned it doesn't move. Now look up.
The lamp is over your head. But now that I've turned it, what's over your head, in other words, above?
ANDREA (making the same turn) The stove. GALILEO And where's the lamp? ANDREA Below.
GALILEO Aha!
ANDREA That's great. That'll get a rise out of her.
(Ludovico Marsili, a rich young man, enters)
LUDOVICO Good morning, sir. My name is Ludovico Marsili.
GALILEO (examining his letter of recommendation) You've been in Holland? LUDOVICO Where I heard a great deal about you, Mr. Galilei. GALILEO Your
family owns property in the Campagna? LUDOVICO My mother wanted me to look around and see what's going on in the world. That kind of thing.
GALILEO And in Holland they told you that in Italy, for instance, I was going on?
6
? LUDOVICO GALILEO LUDOVICO GALILEO LUDOVICO Horses. GALILEO I see.
LUDOVICO GALILEO LUDIVICO GALILEO
I have no head for science, Mr. Galilei.
I see. In that case it'll be fifteen scudi a month.
Very well, Mr. Galilei.
I'll have to take you first thing in the morning. You'll be the loser, Andrea.
And since mother also wanted me to take a look at the sciences . . . Private lessons: Ten scudi a month.
Very well, sir.
What are your interests?
Naturally I'll have to drop you. You understand, you don't pay. ANDREA All right, I'm going. Can I take the apple?
GALILEO Yes.
(Andrea leaves)
LUDOVICO You'll have to be patient with me. Mostly because in science everything's the opposite of common sense. Take that crazy tube they're selling in Amsterdam. I've examined it carefully. A green leather casing and two lenses, one like this (he indicates a concave lens) and one like this (indicates a convex lens). As far as I know, one magnifies and the other reduces.
Any sensible person would expect them to cancel each other out. But they don't.
