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The Resources of Quinola, a play by Honore de Balzac |
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Act 2 |
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_ ACT II SCENE FIRST (A room in the palace of Senora Brancadori.) [Avaloros, Sarpi and Paquita.]
Paquita. She is melancholy. Avaloros. Is thought, then, a malady? Paquita. Yes, and you therefore can be sure of good health. Sarpi. Say to my dear cousin that Senor Avaloros and I are awaiting her good pleasure. Avaloros. Stay; here are two ducats if you will say that I am sometimes pensive-- Paquita. I will say that your tastes are expensive. But I must go and induce the senora to dress herself. (Exit.)
SCENE SECOND [Avaloros and Sarpi.]
Avaloros. While your little cousin is making a fool of him, you are displaying all the activity of a statesman and clearing the way for the king's conquest of French Navarre. If I had a daughter I would give her to you. Old Lothundiaz is no fool. Sarpi. How fine it would be to be founder of a mighty house; to win a name in the history of the country; to be a second Cardinal Granville or Duke of Alva! Avaloros. Yes! It would be a very fine thing. I also think of making a name. The emperor made the Fuggers princes of Babenhausen; the title cost them a million ducats in gold. For my part, I would like to be a nobleman at a cheaper rate. Sarpi. You! How could you accomplish it? Avaloros. This fellow Fontanares holds the future of commerce in his own hands. Sarpi. And is it possible that you who cling so persistently to the actual have any faith in him? Avaloros. Since the invention of gunpowder, of printing and the discovery of the new world I have become credulous. If any one were to tell me that a man had discovered the means to receive the news from Paris in ten minutes, or that water contained fire, or that there are still new Indies to discover, or that it is possible to travel through the air, I would not contradict it, and I would give-- Sarpi. Your money? Avaloros. No; my attention to the enterprise. Sarpi. If the vessel is made to move in the manner proposed, you would like then to be to Fontanares what Amerigo Vespucci was to Christopher Columbus. Avaloros. Have I not here in my pocket enough to pay for six men of genius? Sarpi. But how would you manage the matter? Avaloros. By means of money; money is the great secret. With money to lose, time is gained; and with time to spend, everything is possible; by this means a good business may be made a bad one, and while those who control it are in despair the whole profit may be carried off by you. Money,--that is the true method. Money furnishes the satisfaction of desire, as well as of need. In a man of genius, there is always a child full of unpractical fancies; you deal with the man and you come sooner or later on the child; the child will become your debtor, and the man of genius will go to prison. Sarpi. And how do you stand with him now? Avaloros. He does not trust my offers; that is, his servant does not. I shall negotiate with the servant. Sarpi. I understand you; I am ordered to send all the ships of Barcelona to the coasts of France; and, through the prudence of the enemies which Fontanares. made at Valladolid, this order is absolute and subsequent to the king's letter. Avaloros. What do you want to get out of the deal? Sarpi. The functions of the Grand Master of Naval Construction--these I wish to be mine. Avaloros. But what is your ultimate object? Sarpi. Glory. Avaloros. You rascally trickster! Sarpi. Your greedy extortioner! Avaloros. Let us hunt together; it will be time enough to quarrel when we come to the division of the prey. Give me your hand. (Aside) I am the stronger, and I control the viceroy through the Brancadori. Sarpi. (aside) We have fattened him sufficiently, let us kill him; I know how to destroy him. Avaloros. We must gain over this Quinola to our interests, and I have sent for him to hold a conference with the Brancadori.
SCENE THIRD [The same persons and Quinola.]
Sarpi. You rogue, while you are waiting for your master to propel the galleys by new methods, you ought to be rowing in them yourself. Quinola. The king, who justly appreciates my merits, well understands that he would lose too much by such an arrangement. Sarpi. You shall be watched! Quinola. That I can well believe, for I keep watch on myself. Avaloros. (to Sarpi) You are rousing his suspicions, for he is an honest lad. (To Quinola) Come my good fellow, have you any idea of what is meant by wealth? Quinola. No, for I have seen it from too great a distance. Avaloros. Say, such a sum as two thousand golden doubloons? Quinola. What? I do not know what you mean! You dazzle me. Is there such a sum? Two thousand doubloons! That means to be a land-holder, to own a house, a servant, a horse, a wife, an income; to be protected instead of being chased by the Holy Brotherhood!--What must I do to gain it? Avaloros. You must assist me in obtaining a contract for the mutual advantage of your master and myself. Quinola. I understand! To tangle him up. O my conscience, that is very fine! But, dear conscience, be silent for a while; let me forget you for a few days, and we will live comfortably together for the rest of my life. Avaloros. (to Sarpi) We have him. Sarpi. (to Avaloros) He is fooling us! If he were in earnest he would not talk thus. Quinola. I suppose you won't give me the two thousand doubloons in gold until after the treaty has been signed. Sarpi. (with eagerness) You can have it before. Quinola. You don't mean it! (Holding out his hand) Give it me then. Avaloros. As soon as you sign notes of hand for the amounts which have already matured. Quinola. The Grand Turk himself never offered the bowstring with greater delicacy. Sarpi. Has your master got his ship? Quinola. Valladolid is at some distance from this, I admit; but we control in that city a pen which has the power of decreeing your disgrace. Sarpi. I will grind you to powder. Quinola. I will make myself so small that you can't do it. Avaloros. Ah! you scoundrel, what do you propose to do? Quinola. To talk to you about the gold.
SCENE FOURTH [The same persons, Faustine and Paquita.]
(Exit.)
SCENE FIFTH [The same persons, with the exception of Paquita.]
Avaloros. The wretched man seems daring enough. Quinola. Daring without money is naturally amazing to you. Sarpi. (to Quinola) Will you enter my service? Quinola. I am too set in my ways to take a master. Faustine. (aside) He is despondent! (Aloud) Why is it that men like you, Sarpi and Avaloros, for whom I have done so much, should persecute, instead of protecting, the poor man of genius who has so lately arrived among us? (Avaloros and Sarpi are confused.) I cry shame upon you! (To Quinola) You must explain to me exactly their schemes against your master. Sarpi. (to Faustine) My dear cousin, it does to need much penetration to divine what malady it is under which you have labored since the arrival of this Fontanares. Avaloros. (to Faustine) You owe me, senora, two thousand doubloons, and you will need to draw still further on my purse. Faustine. I? What have I ever asked of you? Avaloros. Nothing, but you never refuse anything which I am generous enough to offer you. Faustine. Your monopoly of the wheat trade is a monstrous abuse. Avaloros. Senora, I owe you a thousand doubloons. Faustine. Write me at once a receipt for the two thousand doubloons, and a check for the like sum which I do not intend to pay you. (To Sarpi) After having put you in the position in which you now flourish, I warn you that your best policy is to keep my secret. Sarpi. My obligations to you are too great to admit of my being ungrateful. Faustine. (aside) He means just the contrary, and he will make the viceroy furious with me. (Exit Sarpi.)
SCENE SIXTH [The same persons, with the exception of Sarpi.]
Faustine. Very good. Avaloros. We shall be friends? Faustine. Your monopoly of the wheat trade is perfectly legal. Avaloros. Ah! senora. Quinola. (aside) That is what is called doing business. Avaloros. Senora, you are a noble creature, and I am-- Quinola. (aside) A regular swindler. Faustine. (offering the check to Quinola) Here, Quinola, this is for the expenses of your master's machine. Avaloros. (to Faustine) Don't give it to him, senora, he may keep it for himself, and for other reasons you should be prudent; you should wait-- Quinola. (aside) I pass from the torrid to the arctic zone; what a gamble is life! Faustine. You are right. (Aside) Better that I should hold in a balance the fortune of Fontanares. (To Avaloros) If you wish to keep your monopoly hold your tongue. Avaloros. There is nothing keeps a secret better than capital. (Aside) These women are disinterested until the day they fall in love. I must try to defeat her; she is beginning to cost me too much. (Exit.)
SCENE SEVENTH [Faustine and Quinola.]
Quinola. Everything is against him. Faustine. But he knows how to wrestle with difficulties. Quinola. We have been for two years half drowned in difficulties; sometimes we have gone to the bottom and the gravel was pretty hard. Faustine. But what force of character, what genius he has! Quinola. You see, there, senora, the effects of love. Faustine. And with whom is he in love now? Quinola. Still the same--Marie Lothundiaz. Faustine. A doll! Quinola. Yes, nothing but a doll. Faustine. Men of talent are all like that. Quinola. Colossal creatures with feet of clay! Faustine. They clothe with their own illusions the creature that entangles them; they love their own creation; they are egotists! Quinola. (aside) Just like the women! (Aloud) Listen, senora, I wish that by some honest means we could bury this doll in the depths of the--that is--of a convent. Faustine. You seem to me to be a fine fellow. Quinola. I love my master. Faustine. Do you think that he has noticed me? Quinola. Not yet. Faustine. Speak to him of me. Quinola. But then, he would speak to me by breaking a stick across my back. You see, senora, that girl-- Faustine. That girl ought to be forever lost to him. Quinola. But he would die, senora. Faustine. He must be very much in love with her. Quinola. Ah! that is not my fault! All the way here from Valladolid I have a thousand times argued the point, that a man like he ought to adore women, but never to love an individual woman! Never-- Faustine. You are a pretty worthless rascal! Go and tell Lothundiaz to come and speak with me and to bring his daughter with him. (Aside) She shall be put in a convent. Quinola. (aside) She is the enemy. She loves me so much that she can't help doing us a great deal of harm. (Exit.)
SCENE EIGHTH [Faustine and Fregose.]
Faustine. Can a woman ever lose her habit of seduction? Fregose. Senora, you are ungenerous; I should think that a patrician lady of Venice would know how to spare the feelings of an old soldier. Faustine. Come, my lord, you presume more upon your white hair than a young man would presume upon his fairest locks, and you find in them a stronger argument than in--(She laughs). Let me have no more of this petulance. Fregose. How can I be otherwise than vexed when you compromise yourself thus, you, whom I wish to be my wife? Is it nothing to have a chance of bearing one of the noblest of names? Faustine. Do you think it is too noble for a Brancadori? Fregose. Yet, you would prefer stooping to a Fontanares! Faustine. But what if he could raise himself as high as to a Brancadori? That would be a proof of love indeed! Besides, as you know from your own experience, love never reasons. Fregose. Ah! You acknowledge that! Faustine. Your friendship to me is so great that you have been the first to learn my secret. Fregose. Senora! Yes, love is madness! I have surrendered to you more than myself! Alas, I wish I had the world to offer you. You evidently are not aware that your picture gallery alone cost me almost all my fortune. Faustine. Paquita! Fregose. And that I would surrender to you even my honor.
SCENE NINTH [The same persons and Paquita.]
Fregose. Paquita, do not deliver that order. Faustine. The other day, they tell me, the Queen Catherine de Medici sent an order to Diana of Poitiers to deliver up what jewels she had received from Henry II.; Diana sent them back melted into an ingot. Paquita, fetch the jeweler. Fregose. You will do nothing of the kind, but leave the room. (Exit Paquita.)
SCENE TENTH [The same persons, with the exception of Paquita.]
Fregose. I am quite aware of the fact that here it is my duty to receive them. But is my whole fortune worth one word from you? Forgive an impulse of despair. Faustine. One ought to be a gentleman, even in despair; and in your despair you treat Faustine as a courtesan. Ah! you wish to be adored, but the vilest Venetian woman would tell you that this costs dear. Fregose. I have deserved this terrible outburst. Faustine. You say you love me. Love me? Love is self-devotion without the hope of recompense. Love is the wish to live in the light of a sun which the lover trembles to approach. Do not deck out your egotism in the lustre of genuine love. A married woman, Laura de Nova, said to Petrarch, "You are mine, without hope--live on without love." But when Italy crowned the poet she crowned also his sublime love, and centuries to come shall echo with admiration to the names of Laura and Petrarch. Fregose. There are very many poets whom I dislike, but the man you mention is the object of my abomination. To the end of the world women will throw him in the face of those lovers whom they wish to keep without taking. Faustine. You are called general, but you are nothing but a soldier. Fregose. Indeed, and how then shall I imitate this cursed Petrarch? Faustine. If you say you love me, you will ward off from a man of genius--(Don Fregose starts)--yes, there are such--the martyrdom which his inferiors are preparing for him. Show yourself great, assist him! I know it will give you pain, but assist him; then I shall believe you love me, and you will become more illustrious, in my sight at least, by this act of generosity than by your capture of Mantua. Fregose. Here, in your presence, I feel capable of anything, but you cannot dream of the tempest which will fall upon my head, if I obey your word. Faustine. Ah! you shrink from obeying me! Fregose. Protect him, admire him, if you like; but do not love him! Faustine. The ship given him by the king has been held back; you can restore it to him, in a moment. Fregose. And I will send him to give you the thanks. Faustine. Do it! And learn how much I love you. (Exit Don Fregose.)
SCENE ELEVENTH Faustine. (alone) And yet so many women wish that they were men.
SCENE TWELFTH [Faustine, Paquita, Lothundiaz and Marie.]
(Exit.)
SCENE THIRTEENTH [The same persons, excepting Paquita.]
Faustine. (to Marie) My child, seat yourself by me. (To Lothundiaz) Be seated. Lothundiaz. You are very kind, senora; but permit me to go and see that famous gallery, which is spoken of throughout Catalonia. (Faustine bows assent and Lothundiaz leaves the room.)
[Faustine and Marie.]
Marie. And have been for five years, senora. Faustine. At sixteen one knows not what it is to love. Marie. What does that matter, if I love him? Faustine. With us, sweet girl, love is but self-devotion. Marie. I will devote myself to him, senora. Faustine. What! Would you give him up if that were for his interest? Marie. That would be to die, but yet my life is wholly his. Faustine. (aside as she rises from her seat) What strength in weakness and innocence! (Aloud) You have never left your father's house, you know nothing of the world nor of its hardships, which are terrible! A man often dies from having met with a woman who loves him too much, or one who loves him not at all; Fontanares may find himself in this situation. He has powerful enemies; his glory, which is all he lives for, is in their hands; you may disarm them. Marie. What must I do? Faustine. By marrying Sarpi, you will assure the triumph of your dear Fontanares; but no woman would counsel such a sacrifice; it must come, it will come from you. At first you must dissemble. Leave Barcelona for a time. Retire to a convent. Marie. And never see him again? Ah! If you knew--he passes every day at a certain hour under my windows, and that hour is all the day to me. Faustine. (aside) She stabs me to the heart! Oh! She shall be Countess Sarpi.
SCENE FIFTEENTH [The same persons and Fontanares.]
Marie. (aside) What a pang I feel! Fontanares. Shall I live long enough to testify my gratitude to you? If I achieve anything, if I make a name, if I attain to happiness, it will be through you. Faustine. Why that is nothing! I merely tried to smooth the way for you. I feel such pity for men of talent in misfortune that you may ever count upon my help. Yes, I would go so far as to be the mere stepping-stone over which you might climb to your crown. Marie. (drawing Fontanares by his mantle) But I am here, I (he turns around), and you never saw me. Fontanares. Marie! I have not spoken to you for ten days! (To Faustine) Oh! senora, what an angel you are! Marie. (to Fontanares) Rather say a demon. (Aloud) The senora was advising me to retire to a convent. Fontanares. She! Marie. Yes. Faustine. Children that you are, that course were best. Fontanares. I trip up, it seems, on one snare after another, and kindness ever conceals a pitfall. (To Marie) But tell me who brought you here? Marie. My father! Fontanares. He! Is he blind? You, Marie, in this house! Faustine. Sir! Fontanares. To a convent indeed, that she might dominate her spirit, and torture her soul!
SCENE SIXTEENTH [The same persons and Lothundiaz.]
Faustine. Sir! Fontanares. You came here, senora, widow of a cadet of the house of Brancadori, to whom you sacrificed the small fortune your father gave you; but here you have utterly changed-- Faustine. What right have you to judge my actions? Lothundiaz. Keep silence, sir; the senora is a high born lady, who has doubled the value of my palace. Fontanares. She! Why she is a-- Faustine. Silence! Lothundiaz. My daughter, this is your man of genius! Extreme in everything, but leaning rather to madness than good sense. Senor Mechination, the senora is the cousin and protector of Sarpi. Fontanares. Well, take your daughter away from the house of the Marchioness of Mondejar of Catalonia. (Exeunt Lothundiaz and Marie.)
SCENE SEVENTEENTH [Faustine and Fontanares.]
(Exit.)
SCENE EIGHTEENTH [Faustine and Paquita] Faustine. How handsome he looked in his rage, Paquita! Paquita. Ah! senora, what will become of you if you love him in this way? Faustine. My child, I feel that I have never loved before, and in an instant I have been transformed as by a stroke of lightning. In one moment I have loved for all lost time! Perhaps I have set my foot upon the path which leads to an abyss. Send one of my servants to the house of Mathieu Magis, the Lombard. (Exit Paquita.)
SCENE NINETEENTH Faustine. (alone) I already love him too much to trust my vengeance to the stiletto of Monipodio, for he has treated me with such contempt that I must bring him to believe that the greatest honor he could win would be to have me for his wife! I wish to see him groveling at my feet, or I will perish in the attempt to bring him there.
SCENE TWENTIETH [Faustine and Fregose.]
Faustine. You have given it to him then, and I suppose hate him no longer. I thought the sacrifice would be above your strength, and wished to know if hate were stronger than obedience. Fregose. Ah! senora-- Faustine. Could you take it back again? Fregose. Whether obedient or disobedient, I cannot displease you. Good heavens! Take back the ship! Why, it is crowded with artisans who are its masters. Faustine. You never know what I want, and what I do not want. Fregose. His death? Faustine. No, but his disgrace. Fregose. And in that I shall avenge myself for a whole month of anguish. Faustine. Take care to keep your hands off what is my prey. And first of all, Don Fregose, take back your pictures from my gallery. (Don Fregose shows astonishment). It is my will. Fregose. You refuse then to be marchioness of-- Faustine. They shall be burned upon the public square or sold, and the price given to the poor. Fregose. Tell me, what is your reason for this? Faustine. I thirst for honor and you have ruined mine. Fregose. Accept my name and all will be well. Faustine. Leave me, I pray you. Fregose. The more power you have, the more you abuse it.
Faustine. (alone) So, so! I am nothing then but the viceroy's mistress! He might as well have said as much! But with the aid of Avaloros and Sarpi I intend to have a pretty revenge--one worthy of old Venice.
SCENE TWENTY-SECOND [Faustine and Mathieu Magis.]
Faustine. Pray tell me, who are you? Mathieu Magis. Mathieu Magis, a poor Lombard of Milan, at your service. Faustine. You lend money? Mathieu Magis. I lend it on good security--diamonds or gold--a very poor business. Our losses are overwhelming, senora. And at present money seems actually to be asleep. The raising of maravedis is the hardest of farm-labor. One unfortunate deal carries off the profits of ten lucky strokes, for we risk a thousand doubloons in the hands of a prodigal for three hundred doubloons profit. The world is very unjust to us. Faustine. Are you a Jew? Mathieu Magis. In what sense do you mean? Faustine. In religion. Mathieu Magis. I am a Lombard and a Catholic, senora. Faustine. You disappoint me. Mathieu Magis. Senora would have wished-- Faustine. I would have wished that you were in the clutches of the Inquisition. Mathieu Magis. Why so? Faustine. That I might be certain of your fidelity. Mathieu Magis. I keep many secrets in my strong box, senora. Faustine. If I had your fortune in my power-- Mathieu Magis. You would have my soul. Faustine. (aside) The only way to gain this man's adherence is by appealing to his self-interest, that is plain. (Aloud) You lend-- Mathieu Magis. At twenty per cent. Faustine. You don't understand what I mean. Listen; you are lending the use of your name to Senor Avaloros. Mathieu Magis. I know Senor Avaloros. He is a banker; we do some business together, but his name in the city stands too high and his credit in the Mediterranean is too sound for him to need the help of poor Mathieu Magis-- Faustine. I see, Lombard, you are very cautious. If you wish to lend your name to promote an important business undertaking-- Mathieu Magis. Is it smuggling? Faustine. What difference does it make? The question is, what would guarantee your absolute silence? Mathieu Magis. High profit. Faustine. (aside) This is a rare hunting dog. (Aloud) Very well, I am going to entrust you with a secret of life and death, for I purpose giving up to you a great man to devour. Mathieu Magis. My small business feeds on the great passions of life; (aside) where there is a fine woman, there is a fine profit.
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