Authors: Bertolt Brecht
GALILEO
How do you explain those spots of light?
SAGREDO
It can’t be true …
GALILEO
It
is
true: they are high mountains.
SAGREDO
On a star?
GALILEO
Yes. The shining particles are mountain peaks catching the first rays of the rising sun while the slopes of the mountains are still dark, and what you see is the sunlight moving down the peaks into the valleys.
SAGREDO
But this gives the lie to all the astronomy that’s been taught for the last two thousand years.
GALILEO
Yes. What you are seeing now has been seen by no other man beside myself.
SAGREDO
But the moon can’t be an earth with mountains and valleys like our own any more than the earth can be a star.
GALILEO
The moon
is
an earth with mountains and valleys, – and the earth
is
a star. As the moon appears to us, so we appear to the moon. From the moon, the earth looks something like a crescent, sometimes like a half-globe, sometimes a full-globe, and sometimes it is not visible at all.
SAGREDO
Galileo, this is frightening.
(
An urgent knocking on the door
)
GALILEO
I’ve discovered something else, something even more astonishing.
(
More knocking. Galileo opens the door and the Curator comes in
)
CURATOR
There it is – your “miraculous optical tube.” Do you know that this invention he so picturesquely termed “the fruit of seventeen years research” will be on sale tomorrow for two scudi apiece at every street corner in Venice? A shipload of them has just arrived from Holland.
SAGREDO
Oh, dear!
(
Galileo turns his back and adjusts the telescope
)
CURATOR
When I think of the poor gentlemen of the senate who believed they were getting an invention they could monopolize for their own profit…. Why, when they took their first look through the glass, it was only by the merest chance that they didn’t see a peddler, seven times enlarged, selling tubes exactly like it at the corner of the street.
SAGREDO
Mr. Priuli, with the help of this instrument, Mr. Galileo has made discoveries that will revolutionize our concept of the universe.
CURATOR
Mr. Galileo provided the city with a first rate water pump and the irrigation works he designed function splendidly. How was I to expect this?
GALILEO
(
still at the telescope
) Not so fast, Priuli. I may be on the track of a very large gadget. Certain of the stars appear to have regular movements. If there were a clock in the sky, it could be seen from anywhere. That might be useful for your shipowners.
CURATOR
I won’t listen to you. I listened to you before, and as a reward for my friendship you have made me the laughing-stock of the town. You can laugh – you got your money. But let me tell you
this: you’ve destroyed my faith in a lot of things, Mr. Galilei. I’m disgusted with the world. That’s all I have to say. (
He storms out
)
GALILEO
(
embarrassed
) Businessmen bore me, they suffer so. Did you see the frightened look in his eyes when he caught sight of a world not created solely for the purpose of doing business?
SAGREDO
Did you know that telescopes had been made in Holland?
GALILEO
I’d heard about it. But the one I made for the Senators was twice as good as any Dutchman’s. Besides, I needed the money. How can I work, with the tax collector on the doorstep? And my poor daughter will never acquire a husband unless she has a dowry, she’s not too bright. And I like to buy books – all kinds of books. Why not? And what about my appetite? I don’t think well unless I eat well. Can I help it if I get my best ideas over a good meal and a bottle of wine? They don’t pay me as much as they pay the butcher’s boy. If only I could have five years to do nothing but research! Come on. I am going to show you something else.
SAGREDO
I don’t know that I want to look again.
GALILEO
This is one of the brighter nebulae of the Milky Way. What do you see?
SAGREDO
But it’s made up of stars – countless stars.
GALILEO
Countless worlds.
SAGREDO
(
hesitating
) What about the theory that the earth revolves round the sun? Have you run across anything about that?
GALILEO
No. But I noticed something on Tuesday that might prove a step towards even that. Where’s Jupiter? There are four lesser stars near Jupiter. I happened on them on Monday but didn’t take any particular note of their position. On Tuesday I looked again. I could have sworn they had moved. They have changed again. Tell me what you see.
SAGREDO
I only see three.
GALILEO
Where’s the fourth? Let’s get the charts and settle down to work.
(
They work and the lights dim. The lights go up again. It is near dawn
)
GALILEO
The only place the fourth can be is round at the back of the larger star where we cannot see it. This means there are small stars revolving around a big star. Where are the crystal shells now that the stars are supposed to be fixed to?
SAGREDO
Jupiter can’t be attached to anything: there are other stars revolving round it.
GALILEO
There is no support in the heavens. (
Sagredo laughs awkwardly
) Don’t stand there looking at me as if it weren’t true.
SAGREDO
I suppose it is true. I’m afraid.
GALILEO
Why?
SAGREDO
What do you think is going to happen to you for saying that there is another sun around which other earths revolve? And that there are only stars and no difference between earth and heaven? Where is God then?
GALILEO
What do you mean?
SAGREDO
God? Where is God?
GALILEO
(
angrily
) Not there! Any more than he’d be here – if creatures from the moon came down to look for him!
SAGREDO
Then where is He?
GALILEO
I’m not a theologian: I’m a mathematician.
SAGREDO
You are a human being! (
Almost shouting
) Where is God in your system of the universe?
GALILEO
Within ourselves. Or – nowhere.
SAGREDO
Ten years ago a man was burned at the stake for saying that.
GALILEO
Giordano Bruno was an idiot: he spoke too soon. He would never have been condemned if he could have backed up what he said with proof.
SAGREDO
(
incredulously
) Do you really believe proof will make any difference?
GALILEO
I believe in the human race. The only people that can’t be reasoned with are the dead. Human beings are intelligent.
SAGREDO
Intelligent – or merely shrewd?
GALILEO
I know they call a donkey a horse when they want to sell it, and a horse a donkey when they want to buy it. But is that the whole story? Aren’t they susceptible to truth as well? (
He fishes a small pebble out of his pocket
) If anybody were to drop a stone … (
Drops the pebble
)… and tell them that it didn’t fall, do you think they would keep quiet? The evidence of your own eyes is a very seductive thing. Sooner or later everybody must succumb to it.
SAGREDO
Galileo, I am helpless when you talk. (
A church bell has been ringing for some time, calling people to mass. Enter Virginia, muffled up for mass, carrying a candle, protected from the wind by a globe
)
VIRGINIA
Oh, father, you promised to go to bed tonight, and it’s five o’clock again.
GALILEO
Why are you up at this hour?
VIRGINIA
I’m going to mass with Mrs. Sarti. Ludovico is going too. How was the night, father?
GALILEO
Bright.
VIRGINIA
What did you find through the tube?
GALILEO
Only some little specks by the side of a star. I must draw attention to them somehow. I think I’ll name them after the Prince of Florence. Why not call them the Medicean planets? By the way, we may move to Florence. I’ve written to His Highness, asking if he can use me as Court Mathematician.
VIRGINIA
Oh, father, we’ll be at the court!
SAGREDO
(
amazed
) Galileo!
GALILEO
My dear Sagredo, I must have leisure. My only worry is that His Highness after all may not take me. I’m not accustomed to writing formal letters to great personages. Here, do you think this is the right sort of thing?
SAGREDO
(
reads and quotes
) “Whose sole desire is to reside in Your Highness’ presence – the rising sun of our great age.” Cosmo di Medici is a boy of nine.
GALILEO
The only way a man like me can land a good job is by crawling on his stomach. Your father, my dear, is going to take his share of the pleasures of life in exchange for all his hard work, and about time too. I have no patience, Sagredo, with a man who doesn’t use his brains to fill his belly. Run along to mass now. (
Virginia goes
)
SAGREDO
Galileo, do not go to Florence.
GALILEO
Why not?
SAGREDO
The monks are in power there.
GALILEO
Going to mass is a small price to pay for a full belly. And there are many famous scholars at the court of Florence.
SAGREDO
Court monkeys.
GALILEO
I shall enjoy taking them by the scruff of the neck and making them look through the telescope.
SAGREDO
Galileo, you are traveling the road to disaster. You are suspicious and skeptical in science, but in politics you are as naive as your daughter! How can people in power leave a man at large who tells the truth, even if it be the truth about the distant stars? Can you see the Pope scribbling a note in his diary: “10th of January, 1610, Heaven abolished?” A moment ago, when you were at the telescope, I saw you tied to the stake, and when you said you believed in proof, I smelt burning flesh!
GALILEO
I am going to Florence.
(
Before the next scene a curtain with the following legend on it is lowered
)
By setting the name of Medici in the sky, I am bestowing immortality
upon the stars. I commend myself to you as your most faithful and devoted servant, whose sole desire is to reside in Your Highness’ presence, the rising sun of our great age.
- GALILEO GALILEI
Scene Four
Galileo’s house at Florence. Well-appointed. Galileo is demonstrating his telescope to Prince Cosmo di Medici, a boy of nine, accompanied by his Lord Chamberlain, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court and an assortment of university Professors. With Galileo are Andrea and Federzoni, the new assistant (an old man). Mrs. Sarti stands by. Before the scene opens the voice of the Philosopher can be heard
.
VOICE OF THE PHILOSOPHER
Quaedam miracula universi. Orbes mystice canorae, arcus crystallini, circulatio corporum coelestium. Cyclorum epicyclorumque intoxicatio, integritas tabulae chordarum et architectura elata globorum coelestrium.
GALILEO
Shall we speak in everyday language? My colleague Mr. Federzoni does not understand Latin.
PHILOSOPHER
Is it necessary that he should?
GALILEO
Yes.
PHILOSOPHER
Forgive me. I thought he was your mechanic.
ANDREA
Mr. Federzoni is a mechanic and a scholar.
PHILOSOPHER
Thank you, young man. If Mr. Federzoni insists …
GALILEO
I insist.
PHILOSOPHER
It will not be as clear, but it’s your house. Your Highness … (
The Prince is ineffectually trying to establish contact with Andrea
) I was about to recall to Mr. Galilei some of the wonders of the universe as they are set down for us in the Divine Classics. (
The Ladies “ah”
) Remind him of the “mystically musical spheres, the crystal arches, the circulation of the heavenly bodies – ”
ELDERLY LADY
Perfect poise!
PHILOSOPHER
“– the intoxication of the cycles and epicycles, the integrity of the tables of chords and the enraptured architecture of the celestial globes.”
ELDERLY LADY
What diction!
PHILOSOPHER
May I pose the question: Why should we go out of
our way to look for things that can only strike a discord in this ineffable harmony?
(
The Ladies applaud
)
FEDERZONI
Take a look through here – you’ll be interested.
ANDREA
Sit down here, please.
(
The Professors laugh
)
MATHEMATICIAN
Mr. Galilei, nobody doubts that your brain child – or is it your adopted brain child?- is brilliantly contrived.
GALILEO
Your Highness, one can see the four stars as large as life, you know.
(
The Prince looks to the Elderly Lady for guidance
)
MATHEMATICIAN
Ah. But has it occurred to you that an eyeglass through which one sees such phenomena might not be a too reliable eyeglass?
GALILEO
How is that?
MATHEMATICIAN
If one could be sure you would keep your temper, Mr. Galilei, I could suggest that what one sees in the eyeglass and what is in the heavens are two entirely different things.