EZRA
(Taking letter out of his pocket)
“One day you and I met—met in a blue, open place—we saw each other’s hair and knew that we both loved the Sun. Later we loved each other as well.”
DOROTHY
Yes!
EZRA
(Continuing to read)
“And you have forgotten me, left me behind.”
(DOROTHY buries her face in his shoulder.)
“But because we are not real, it does not matter. We think we are in love—but that does not matter either. We have touched, and twisted ourselves together, floating …”
DOROTHY
Oh Mao—bright-haired one …
EZRA
(As he strokes her)
Dearest, whatever happens, we have touched, come together and slipped one round the other.
(As she lifts her head)
Come to Sirmione—where it all began.
DOROTHY
Where I first saw color …
EZRA
And let there be peace between us.
DOROTHY
The Gods be praised I’ve inspired you to write poems.
EZRA
Avanti, Madame Pound. Get your sketchbook. We return to Sirmione!
(DOROTHY exits quickly. EZRA waits to be sure that she is gone, then calls.)
Marcella!
(After a moment, MARCELLA enters.)
MARCELLA
Where’s Dorothy?
EZRA
Get your things. We’re going to Sirmione!
MARCELLA
With Dorothy?
EZRA
Of course! You and I will take the first walk around the lake together—to the little temple of Catullus that I told you about. We’ll sit inside on the stone bench, look out over the water.
MARCELLA
But what will Dorothy think?
EZRA
(He begins to get to his knees.)
Give me your hand, Marcella.
(Uneasily, she gives him her hand, He kisses it.)
“‘How many wonders are less sweet
Than love I bear to thee
When I am old.’”
MARCELLA
Ezra!
EZRA
Marry me, Marcella. Give an old man his last chance.
MARCELLA
I …
EZRA
I’ll arrange everything—
MARCELLA
You can’t do this!
EZRA
Dorothy’s reasonable, she understands the Objective—always has—she’ll go back to London, live with Omar …
(DOROTHY enters during this speech, carrying her sketchbook, overhears.)
MARCELLA
But surely, after all these years—
EZRA
Years piled up, crushing me!
(He reaches for her hand, kisses it again; he is still on his knees.)
There’s some good in me yet, Marcella—take the good—
DOROTHY
(Rushing forward)
Ezra, how could you … !
MARCELLA
Mrs. Pound, I want you to know—
DOROTHY (Furious)
Please!
MARCELLA
I never intended—
DOROTHY
Marcella, please leave us now.
(MARCELLA exits.)
EZRA
I want to remember Sirmione as it was, before we were married—before the war, before everything started to fall to pieces.
DOROTHY
Stop that!
EZRA
I gave you my name, I gave you an occupation. I gave you a son. That was all you really wanted.
DOROTHY
Lies!
EZRA
Well, what else do you want, now?
DOROTHY
A little time alone with you!
EZRA
But you don’t love me.
DOROTHY
Stop!
EZRA
Marcella might.
(MARY enters.)
MARY
Babbo, I …
(Looks from EZRA to DOROTHY, sensing something wrong)
Dorothy, has something happened?
DOROTHY
He asked her to marry him!
MARY
Marcella?
DOROTHY
Who else?
MARY
Oh, Babbo.
EZRA
I thought she might love me.
DOROTHY
I won’t stand for this. After all these years. No divorce. No!
MARY
(To EZRA)
What did Marcella say?
EZRA
She sees … the difficulties.
DOROTHY
Difficulties!
MARY
Babbo. You can’t do this.
EZRA
(To DOROTHY)
You wanted peace—no sorrow, no anguish, no horror—nothing but gentleness—floating above the world.
DOROTHY
I was young, I knew nothing.
EZRA
Oh, please … Dorothy.
DOROTHY
She must go.
EZRA
She have mercy on him now.
DOROTHY
When did you ever show me mercy? From the beginning, you trained me to accept your work, your genius as an excuse for everything—an excuse for every cruel and unfeeling act!
(EZRA begins to sob.)
Oh yes, now the tears! When it’s too late, when nothing can wash away the dryness of my heart—all these years loving in the desert.
EZRA
Why don’t you discard me here? Then I won’t be any trouble to anyone.
MARY
Oh Babbo …
(She takes out a handkerchief, wipes his face.)
DOROTHY
(To MARY)
I put up with the others—all of them—I knew he had to have them, for his poetry. Even Sheri. I understood, I built my life on understanding! But at least I was always his wife, I presided. Perhaps you mock that—
MARY
No.
DOROTHY
But it mattered to me, greatly! On the lawn at St. Elizabeths—I poured the tea, I passed the little sandwiches. I will never surrender my place.
EZRA
“How have I laboured to bring her soul into separation;
To give her a name and her being!”
DOROTHY
I remember that poem, Ezra—I remember it very well! Surely you have not forgotten the way you ended it …
“I beseech you enter your life.
I beseech you to learn to say ‘I,’
When I question you;
For you are no part but a whole,
No portion, but a being.”
It has taken me almost a lifetime—but finally I have learned to say “I.” “I” will call Marcella.
EZRA
No!
DOROTHY
(She goes to the exit, calls.)
Marcella!
EZRA
No, no, please—
MARY
Babbo, it won’t work.
DOROTHY
Marcella! May I see you for a moment, please!
(MARCELLA enters with her suitcase.)
MARCELLA
Please believe me, Mrs. Pound, I …
DOROTHY (Briskly)
I believe you’ve seen enough of Italy.
MARCELLA
(Notices EZRA is crying, goes to him.)
Ezra?
DOROTHY
He has something to tell you.
EZRA (Sobbing)
I can’t … can’t …
MARCELLA
(Standing up)
This was never what I wanted.
DOROTHY
You encouraged him!
MARCELLA
I only tried to comfort him.
DOROTHY
You should have
realized the consequences of allowing him to hope.
MARY
I’m so sorry, Marcella—
MARCELLA
(To MARY)
You want me to leave, as well.
MARY
I can’t see any other solution.
EZRA (To MARY)
Just a few days longer—
DOROTHY
Like a little boy cheated out of a sweet.
(She has won; she pulls herself together.)
MARCELLA
(To MARY)
How soon—?
DOROTHY
At once.
MARY
I’ll drive you down to the station—the fast train to Rome comes through at seven. Can you be ready?
MARCELLA
Yes.
DOROTHY
(In control now)
I’ll make you a sandwich for the train. Would you like that?
MARCELLA
I would “like” five minutes alone with Ezra.
DOROTHY
No.
(Consternation. Finally, MARY takes control.)
MARY
Dorothy—it’s only right. They’ll never see each other again.
DOROTHY
Very well. Five minutes.
(MARY and DOROTHY exit. MARCELLA kneels by his chair.
A long silence.)
EZRA
(Taking her hands)
Stay with me. You’re all I have—out of the wreckage.
MARCELLA
I won’t do that to Dorothy. No.
EZRA
Dorothy will come to understand, in time.
MARCELLA
She’ll come to understand—like she did with all the others.
EZRA
Yes!
MARCELLA
But I’m not like “all the others.” You’ve never understood that.
EZRA
I understood you might love me …
MARCELLA
Yes, and for that I want to thank you.
EZRA
Thank—!
MARCELLA
I came to Washington a year ago looking for what I’d never found—in my family, in my teaching, in my wanderings—
EZRA
My errors and wrecks lie all about me.
(Faintly)
The Wasteland.
MARCELLA
You were my teacher—but more than that: a man I could admire, a man I could, without compromising, love. In the end that’s what matters: that you exist—and you do exist—without me.
EZRA
Not without you.
MARCELLA (Rising)
You’ve given me what I came to find: the measure of a man.
EZRA
There’s so much more to do—the anthology to finish—
MARCELLA
It’s finished, Ezra, all but your introduction.
EZRA
And there’s so much more of Italy to show you …
MARCELLA
Actually, I didn’t come here to see Italy. That was Dorothy’s idea.
EZRA
(With difficulty)
I have so much more … to give …
MARCELLA
You have given me … everything. Goodbye, Ezra.
(She kisses him. EZRA turns violently away, as though to
dismiss her.)
No—that won’t do. A proper goodbye.
(They kiss. EZRA holds onto her. She detaches his hands,
turns away as DOROTHY and MARY enter. MARCELLA
leaves, without looking back.)
MARY
Babbo—I’m so sorry.
(She embraces him. He sobs.)
DOROTHY
Please—don’t encourage him. It will take me weeks to get him over this.
MARY
We can be gentle with him.
DOROTHY
When was he gentle with me?
EZRA
Mary, you could have helped me!
MARY
Not this time, Babbo.
EZRA
I thought you were my rock.
MARY
I’ve tried to be—I told myself, Babbo has a right to do whatever he likes—anything that makes him happy. Whomever he brings into my home is welcome. He makes his own laws, and I accept them.
DOROTHY
You might have anticipated there would be difficulties.
MARY
I did. From the first day, I realized I was up against something beyond Babbo’s control. He expected me to help him … he was in great need of shelter and tenderness, so he could write Paradise.
EZRA
For one beautiful day, there was peace—but you couldn’t keep it up.
MARY
More than one—but no, I couldn’t keep it up. This house no longer contains a family. We shouldn’t even be breaking bread together.
EZRA
You want me to be a demigod.
MARY
The vision has withered. I’m so weary of it all—I feel as though my skin is a bag of bones.
EZRA
“If love be not in the house, there is nothing!”
(MARY exits. To DOROTHY)
I want to go back to Sant’Ambrogio.
DOROTHY
No, Ezra—I can’t manage you there, alone—
EZRA
You managed before, you can manage now.
DOROTHY
There are tenants in my apartment.
EZRA
Get rid of them …
DOROTHY
Where do you expect me to find the strength … ?
EZRA
Throw them out!
DOROTHY
No—they pay me.
EZRA
Get a hotel room!
DOROTHY
Very well. I’ll start packing tomorrow.
EZRA
Now—now!
DOROTHY
Tomorrow.
(Suddenly sinking into a chair)
He never know how tired …
LIGHTS FADE
SCENE 4
Setting: A hotel room in Rapallo. Several days later
(EZRA stands alone in the middle of the floor. He is dressed as in the first scene: cloak, sombrero.)
EZRA
(He begins to undress, slowly and laboriously.)
To abuse words, to be abused by words: they sink under the weight. Like swallows up in the air—flying at the beginning, carrying all thought and meaning on their wings. But “’Tis the white stag, fame, we’re a-hunting, bid the world’s hounds come to horn!” Those hounds have dragged my words to the ground.
“The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world.
Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace,
Pull down they vanity, I say, pull down.”
(Now naked, he climbs onto bed, lies flat, staring at the ceiling. Enter MARY and DOROTHY with suitcases.)
DOROTHY
(At the bed, covering him hastily)
He’s resting—exhausted. I thought we’d have to call an ambulance.
MARY
Old, and sick, and very tired.
DOROTHY
We’re all very tired.
(Pause)
He’s asking for Olga.
MARY
And you don’t object?
DOROTHY
There are times when one must simply be practical. I’m seventy years old. Ezra has been my delight and my burden for almost fifty years. Olga is sixty-three—tell her to take him to her house, with my blessing. I’ve done all that I can.
MARY
I’ll call her right away.
DOROTHY
I telephoned her already. She said she’d hurry over from Sant’Ambrogio.
MARY
My poor mother—after all these years. I’ll go downstairs and look out for her.
(Exit.)
EZRA (Confused)
O
lga?
DOROTHY
No—Dorothy. Olga’s coming.
EZRA
You—?
DOROTHY
I’ll go to London.
EZRA
(Reaching for her)
Dorothy … “If, when this life’s over …”
DOROTHY
Goodbye, Mao.
(As she turns toward the exit, OLGA enters, wearing a red Chinese jacket embroidered with gold. They face each other in silence.)
OLGA
Rest, peace.
DOROTHY
Yes.
OLGA
“What thou lovest well remains …”
DOROTHY
The Cantos. He’ll never finish them, now. Lately I’ve begun to realize—to admit to myself—to KNOW that his poetry—
OLGA
I can’t agree with you, I can’t acknowledge—
DOROTHY
His poetry, which I bore for him, suckled as I never did our son—
OLGA
Don’t say it!
DOROTHY
Died. Departed. Gone—
(A beat.)
OLGA
(In spite of herself)
When—?
DOROTHY
Perhaps years ago, when we left London—fled, really, he’d made so many enemies.
OLGA
Not his fault. Greatness is always misunderstood.
DOROTHY
Or when we realized Paris wasn’t going to work, either, and went into exile, in Rapallo.
OLGA
Hardly exile.
DOROTHY
Or when we were all three living together, and quarreling, and he was so horribly disappointed—“If love be not in the house”—
OLGA
How he could have believed it would work—
DOROTHY
He loved us both.
(OLGA is speechless. DOROTHY continues calmly.)
But really, I believe his ruin came with the children.
OLGA
But we made sure the children never interfered.
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