The Cure at Troy
Page 5
Chorus
This is terrible talk. I always heard
That suffering made people compassionate,
But he’s only got harder.
Odysseus
There’s plenty
I could tell him, and tell about him,
If there was time. But I’ll say only this:
My aim has always been to get things done
By being adaptable. If I’m dealing with
Plain-spoken, honest people, they’ll find me
As honest and plain-spoken as they come.
My main concern is to keep things moving on
In the right direction.
But in this case, no.
Not any more.
I give up.
Let him go.
He’s welcome to his island. All we need
Is Philoctetes’ bow. Not him. Don’t forget
I am the bender of as great a bow
Myself. And don’t forget Teucer either.
You’re only another archer among archers.
And since you’re so worried about who’s going to be
The Lord of Lemnos, you be it yourself.
You should have been the Lord of Fallen Troy
But that’s an honour fallen now to me.
Philoctetes
You of all of them!
Odysseus
Enough said. Time to move!
Philoctetes
Son of Achilles, are you going to go
Without one word still? Don’t deny yourself.
Odysseus
Ignore him, Neoptolemus. The thing’s
Ruined if you start shilly-shallying.
Philoctetes
And what about the rest of you?
Where’s your pity now? Are you all just yes-men?
Chorus
When the captain speaks, the crew has to obey.
Neoptolemus
Whether it’s shilly-shallying or not,
What you’ll do is wait here to the last
When all the prayers and thanksgivings are over
And the boat’s rigged out.
Maybe he’ll come round
And see the sense of moving with us yet.
I’m away on with Odysseus.
You hear?
Be ready and be listening for the shout.
Exit Odysseus and Neoptolemus.
Philoctetes
I am going to die here,
I’m going to die of hunger,
That’s what’s going to happen.
Trapped among fallen rocks
In the bare mouth of a cave.
Watching clouds and birds
Blowing across the sky.
No bow any more.
Slow death by exposure.
Chorus
You walked yourself into it. Don’t protest and lament
As if at this stage your whole predicament
Was unavoidable. It is not Odysseus
But your own self you have to blame for this.
Philoctetes
Some animals in a trap
Eat their own legs off
In order to escape.
I’d like to see him caught
And so stuck and smashed up
He couldn’t do even that.
Chorus
We had no hand in whatever scheme he laid
So listen to us: don’t contradict a god.
I sense that there’s some overarching fate
You must obey. I say this in all friendship.
Philoctetes
He’ll be sitting laughing at me,
Sitting watching the sea
Somewhere, him and the bow.
Turning it over and over,
Trying it out in his hands,
Testing the weight and the lift.
I loved the feel of it,
Its grip and give, and the grain
That was seasoned with my sweat.
When I held it, I had a hold
On the crossbeam of the world.
I was the wind and the trees
And the pillar of Hercules.
But now he’s sitting with it,
Laughing and turning it over.
Great gods, be just!
I am mocked and accursed
And I hate that man for ever.
Chorus
If you seek justice, you should deal justly always.
You should govern your tongue and present a true case.
For don’t forget: Odysseus was commanded.
There was nothing personal in what he did.
Philoctetes
I’ll soon be tainted meat
For the scavengers to pick at.
The shining eyes and claws
Of all the hunted creatures
Are sharpening for a kill:
Crows and wolves and vultures
And every animal
That was my victim ever.
I’m at their mercy now.
This is the last stand
And I haven’t an arrow even.
All I’ve left is a wound.
Chorus
Your wound is what you feed on, Philoctetes.
I say it again in friendship and say this:
Stop eating yourself up with hate and come with us.
Philoctetes
I can feel your sympathy,
And did feel it all along.
But now leave me alone.
Once bitten is hard-bitten.
Stop this torturing me.
Chorus
What torture?
Philoctetes
All talk of Troy and me, me
That was stabbed in the back, going back ever.
Chorus
For your own good you have to.
Philoctetes
For my own good,
For the last time, leave me alone!
Chorus
All right.
All right.
Goodbye.
You are on your own.
We’re back to the rowing benches and the rowing.
Philoctetes
No. Wait.
Not yet.
Are you away for good?
Chorus
Easy.
Take it easy.
Philoctetes
No! Hold on still!
Chorus
What’s wrong? What is it now?
Philoctetes
The foot! The foot!
Being left with that, left on my own again.
Chorus
What do you want?
Are you for coming with us now or are you not?
Philoctetes
The sore has me astray. I can’t think right.
Chorus
But listen to yourself.
You want to come.
Philoctetes
Never. No. No matter how I’m besieged.
I’ll be my own Troy. The Greeks will never take me.
But, friends, still, friends, there is one last thing.
Chorus
What is it?
Philoctetes
Have you not a sword for me? Or an axe?
Or something?
Chorus
What for?
Philoctetes
What for? What do you think for?
For foot and head and hand. For the relief
Of cutting myself off. I want away.
Chorus
How away?
Philoctetes
Away to the house of death.
To my father, sitting waiting there
Under the clay roof. I’ll come back in to him
Out of the light, out of his memory
Of the day I left.
We’ll be on the riverbank
Again, and see the Greeks arriving
And me setting out for Troy,
in all good faith.
Chorus
Setting out time is here for us anyhow.
But maybe not.
&n
bsp; There’s something holding these two.
Enter Neoptolemus and Odysseus.
Odysseus
What has you so worked up? Why can we not
Just rise and go? What’s on your mind?
Neoptolemus
I did a wrong thing and I have to right it.
Odysseus
What was that?
Neoptolemus
I did this whole thing your way.
Odysseus
We were Greeks with a job to do, and we did it.
Neoptolemus
I behaved like a born liar.
Odysseus
But it worked!
It worked, so what about it?
Neoptolemus
Not for me.
And I’m not leaving till the thing’s put right.
Odysseus
It’s the bow. You’re having second thoughts.
Neoptolemus
What else?
Odysseus
You mean you’re going to just give it back?
Neoptolemus
I am going to redress the balance.
The scales will even out when the bow’s restored.
Odysseus
Act your age. Be reasonable. Use your head.
Neoptolemus
Since when did the use of reason rule out truth?
Odysseus
Neoptolemus: am I hearing right?
Neoptolemus
Oh yes. Loud and clear, and more and more.
Odysseus
I’d have been better then not hearing you.
Neoptolemus
Too bad. Too late.
Odysseus
Oh, not too late at all.
There’s one last barrier you’ll not get past.
Neoptolemus
What’s that?
Odysseus
The will of the Greek people,
And me here as their representative.
Neoptolemus
What kind of talk is that? You’re capable,
Odysseus, and resourceful. But you have no values.
Odysseus
And where’s the value in your carry-on?
Neoptolemus
Candour before canniness. Doing the right thing
And not just saying it.
Odysseus
What’s so right about
Reneging on your Greek commission?
You’re under my command here. Don’t you forget it.
Neoptolemus
The commands that I am hearing overrule
You and all you stand for.
Odysseus
And what about
The Greeks? Have they no jurisdiction left?
Neoptolemus
The jurisdiction I am under here
Is justice herself. She isn’t only Greek.
Odysseus
You’ve turned yourself into a Trojan, lad,
And that will have consequences.
Neoptolemus
So let them come.
Odysseus (reaching for his sword)
Do you see where this hand is now?
Neoptolemus
Do you see mine?
Odysseus
Right! What I’ve seen and heard here, I’ll report.
You won’t get off with this. I’m going back
To outline all the charges.
Neoptolemus
A good move.
If you kept more out of the way like this,
There’d be less bother all round.
Exit Odysseus.
Philoctetes!
Philoctetes! Come out here. Where are you?
Enter Philoctetes, at the cave mouth.
Philoctetes
What’s all this now?
Have you not done enough
Damage already?
Neoptolemus
Listen. Listen to me.
Philoctetes
I listened to you once and I believed you.
But never again.
Neoptolemus
Do you deny
The possibility of a change of heart?
Philoctetes
Once was enough. You slithered in like this,
All sincerity till you got the bow.
Neoptolemus
Things are different now. I ask again:
Are you going to stay here saying no for ever
Or do you come in with us?
Philoctetes
I’ll never join
So you can save your breath.
Neoptolemus
That is your last word?
Philoctetes
Utterly. No more.
Neoptolemus
In that case, I give up.
Reluctantly, regretfully, give up.
Philoctetes
What sort of a surrender do you want?
How do you think I could believe you ever,
That told me lies and then when I relented
Opened the trapdoor under me? Gods curse you
And the traitors that you’re in with.
Neoptolemus
Curse no more.
I have the bow for you.
Look. Take it.
Here!
Philoctetes
Where’s the ambush? This I do not believe.
Neoptolemus
I swear by the name of Zeus, the almighty god.
Philoctetes
Swear, oh, you’ll swear! It’s only words to you.
Neoptolemus
It is more than words.
Hold your hand out.
Take it.
Philoctetes comes down. Pause and momentary mutual clasp to recall original pledging. Enter Odysseus.
Odysseus
As the gods are my witness, as both of you are Greeks,
In my capacity as your commander,
I forbid the handover of this weapon.
Whether Achilles’ son wants it or not,
You are under orders, Philoctetes,
To join the force at Troy.
Philoctetes
And you are in range at last.
He aims the bow.
Neoptolemus
No, Philoctetes, no!
Hold off. Don’t.
Don’t!
Philoctetes
Let go. How dare you, son?
Let go!
Neoptolemus
You can’t.
Exit Odysseus.
Philoctetes
He was mine for the taking and you saved him. Why?
Neoptolemus
It would have been the end of both of us.
Philoctetes
Commander, he said. One of the big names.
Big talk only, when all was said and done.
Neoptolemus
Forget about him. You have the bow
And my slate’s clean again. The air is cleared.
Philoctetes
Entirely.
You are back to your old self,
Your father’s son.
Neoptolemus
It does me good to hear that.
It gives me hope
You might credit what I’m going to tell you.
You know it already anyhow. You know
Human beings have to bear up and face
Whatever’s meant to be. There’s a courage
And dignity in ordinary people
That can be breathtaking. But you’re the opposite.
Your courage has gone wild, you’re like a brute
That can only foam at the mouth. You aren’t
Bearing up, you are bearing down. Anybody
That ever tries to help you just gets savaged.
You’re a wounded man in terrible need of healing
But when your friends try, all you do is snarl
Like some animal protecting cubs.
So listen now to me, Philoctetes,
And brand this into your skull.
You’re a sick man.
The snake-bite at the shr
ine was from a god,
But the gods send remedies, and they expect
Obedience then as well.
You are to come
Of your own free will to the town of Troy.
Asclepius, the healer, you remember,
He’ll be there with his sons, and they’ll cure you.
Then you’re to take your bow and go with me
Into the front line and win the city.
All this must come to pass. A soothsayer,
And a Trojan soothsayer at that, has foretold it.
This is the summer of the fall of Troy.
It’ll be talked about for ever and you’re to be
The hero that was healed and then went on
To heal the wound of the Trojan war itself.
Philoctetes
You’re making me see things in such brilliant light
I can’t bear it. I’ve been in the afterlife
For ten years now, ten years of being gone
And being forgotten. Even you, my son,
Won’t bring me back. The past is bearable,
The past’s only a scar, but the future –
Never. Never again can I see myself
Eye to eye with the sons of Atreus.
What’s happened to you, son? This makes no sense.
These people defiled your father’s memory
And gave his armour to Odysseus.