The Resources of Quinola: A Comedy in a Prologue and Five Acts

SCENE FIFTEENTH

The same persons and Fontanares.

Fontanares (to Faustine)

Senora. (He kisses her hand.)

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.

Fontanares And it was you who brought this angel of purity to the house of a woman for whom Don Fregose is wasting his fortune and who accepts from him the most extravagant gifts without marrying him?

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.

Fontanares So, senora, your generosity was merely a trick to serve the interests of Sarpi! We are quits then! And so farewell. (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.

Fregose What is this? I thought to find Fontanares here, happy in the possession of the ship you gained for him.

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. (Exit.)

SCENE TWENTY-FIRST

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.

Mathieu Magis

I am told the senora has need of my poor services.

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.

Curtain to the Second Act

ACT III

SCENE FIRST

(The stage setting is the interior of a stable. Overhead are piles of hay; along the walls are wheels, tubes, shafts, a long copper chimney, a huge boiler. To the left of the spectator the Madonna is sculptured on a pillar. To the right is a table strewn with paper and mathematical instruments. Above the table hangs on the wall a blackboard covered with figures; by the side of the table is a shelf on which are onions, a water crock and a loaf. To the right of the spectator is a wide door, and to the left, a door opening on the fields. A straw bed lies by the side of the pillar at the feet of the Madonna. It is night-time.)

Fontanares and Quinola.

(Fontanares, in a black robe girded by a leathern belt, works at his table. Quinola is checking the various parts of the machine.)

Quinola Though you wouldn't think it, senor, I also have been in love! Only when I have once understood the woman, I have always bade her good-bye. A full pot and bottle, ah! these never betray, and moreover, you grow fat on them. (He glances at his master.) Pshaw! He doesn't even hear me. There are three more pieces ready for the forge. (He opens the door.) Here is Monipodio!

SCENE SECOND

The same persons and Monipodio.

Quinola The last three pieces have come in. Bring the models and make duplicates of them, as a provision against accident.

(Monipodio beckons to Quinola from the passage; two men make their appearance.)

Monipodio Carry these away, boys, and not a sound! Vanish like spectres. This is worse than theft. (To Quinola) He is dead and buried in his work.

Quinola

He suspects nothing as yet.

Monipodio Neither they nor any one else suspect us. Each piece is wrapped up like a jewel and hidden in a cellar. But we need thirty ducats.

Quinola

Zounds!

Monipodio Thirty rascals built like those fellows eat as much as sixty ordinary men.

Quinola

Quinola and Company have failed, and I am a fugitive!

Monipodio

From protests?

Quinola Stupid! They want me bodily. Fortunately, I have two or three suits of old clothes which may serve to deliver Quinola from the clutches of the keenest sleuths, until I can make payment.

Monipodio

Payment? That is folly.

Quinola Yes, I have kept a little nest-egg against our thirst. Put on that ragbag of the begging friar and go to Lothundiaz and have a talk with the duenna.

Monipodio Alas! Lopez has returned from Algeria so often that our dear duenna begins to suspect us.

Quinola I merely wish her to carry this letter to Senorita Marie Lothundiaz (handing a letter). It is a masterpiece of eloquence, inspired by that which inspires all masterpieces. See! We have been living for ten days on bread and water.

Monipodio And what could we look for? To eat ortolans? If our men had expected fine fare they would have struck long ago.

Quinola If love would only cash my note of hand, we might still get out of this hole.

(Exit Monipodio.)

SCENE THIRD

Quinola and Fontanares.

Quinola (rubbing an onion into his bread) This is the way we are told the Egyptian pyramid-builders were fed, but they must also have had the sauce which gives us an appetite, and that is faith. (Drinks water.) You don't appear to be hungry, senor? Take care that the machine in your head doesn't go wrong!

Fontanares

I am nearing the final solution —

Quinola (whose sleeve splits up as he puts back the crock) And I have found one in the continuity of my sleeve. In this trade my clothes are becoming as uncertain as an unknown quantity in algebra.

Fontanares

You are a fine fellow! Always merry, even in the depths of misfortune.

Quinola And why not, gadzooks! Fortune loves the merry almost as much as the merry love her.

SCENE FOURTH

The same persons and Mathieu Magis.

Quinola Ah! Here comes our dear Lombard; he looks at all these pieces of machinery as if they were already his lawful property.

Mathieu Magis

I am your most humble servant, my dear Senor Fontanares.

Quinola

This is he, polished, dry, cold as marble.

Fontanares

Good-day, Senor Magis. (Cuts himself a piece of bread.)

Mathieu Magis You are a sublime hero, and as far as I am concerned, I wish you all sorts of good luck.

Fontanares And is this the reason why you try to bring upon me all sorts of bad luck?

Mathieu Magis You snap me up very sharply; you do wrong, you forget that in me there are two men.

Fontanares

I have never seen the other.

Mathieu Magis

I have a heart, away from my business.

Fontanares

But you are never away from your business.

Mathieu Magis

I am always filled with admiration at the sight of your struggle.

Fontanares

Admiration is the passion which is the most easily exhausted.

Moreover, you never make any loans on sentiment.

Mathieu Magis There are sentiments which bring profit, while others cause ruin. You are animated by faith; that is very fine, but it is ruinous. We made six months ago certain little agreements; you asked of me three thousand ducats for your experiments —

Quinola

On the condition, that you were to receive five thousand in return.

Fontanares

Well?

Mathieu Magis

The payment was due two months ago.

Fontanares You demanded it by legal process two months ago, the very next day after it was due.

Mathieu Magis

I did it without thought of annoying you, merely as a formality.

Fontanares

And what do you want now?

Mathieu Magis

You are to-day my debtor.

Fontanares Eight months gone already? It has passed like a dream! And I was proposing to myself this evening the solution of the problem how to introduce cold water, so as to dissolve the steam! Magis, my dear friend, assist me in this matter, be my protector, and give me a few days more?

Mathieu Magis

As many as you desire.

Quinola Do you mean it? This is the first appearance of the other man. (To Fontanares) Senor, I shall make the gentleman my friend. (To Magis) I appeal to the two Magises and ask if they will give us the sight of a few doubloons!

Fontanares

Ah! I begin to breathe freely.

Mathieu Magis

That can easily be managed. I am to-day not merely your money-lender,

I am money-lender and co-proprietor, and I wish to draw out my share in the property.

Quinola

Double man, and triple dog!

Mathieu Magis

Capital has nothing to do with faith —

Quinola

Or with hope and charity; crowns are not Catholics.

Mathieu Magis When a man comes and asks us to discount a bill, we cannot say: "Wait a bit; we have a man of genius at work trying to find a gold mine in a garret or a stable!" No, indeed! Why in six months I could have doubled those ducats over again. Besides, senor, I have a small family.

Fontanares (to Quinola)

That creature has a wife!

Quinola

Yes, and if she brings forth young they will eat up Catalonia.

Mathieu Magis

I have heavy expenses.

Fontanares

You see how I live.

Mathieu Magis Ah! If I were rich, I would lend you (Quinola holds out his hands) the wherewith to live better.

Fontanares

Wait fifteen days longer.

Mathieu Magis (aside) This cuts me to the heart. If the matter concerned only myself I would perhaps let it go, but I must earn what has been promised me, which is to be my daughter's dowry. (Aloud) Now really, I have a great regard for you, you please me immensely —

Quinola (aside)

To think that it would be a crime to strangle him!

Fontanares

You are of iron; I shall show myself as hard as steel.

Mathieu Magis

What do you mean, senor?

Fontanares

You shall help me, whether you would or not.

Mathieu Magis I will not! I want my capital! And would think nothing of seizing and selling all this iron work.

Fontanares You compel me to meet trick with trick. I was proceeding with my work honestly! Now, if necessary, following your example, I shall leave the straight path. I shall be of course accused, as if perfection could be expected of me. But I do not mind calumny. But to have this cup to drink is too much. You made a senseless contract with me, you now shall sign another, or you will see me dash my work to fragments, and keep my secret buried here. (He strikes his hand on his heart.)

Mathieu Magis Ah! senor, you will not do that. That would be theft, a piece of rascality of which a great man is incapable.

Fontanares You seize upon my integrity as a weapon by which you would insure the success of monstrous injustice.

Mathieu Magis Listen, I wish to have nothing to do with this matter, and if you will come to an understanding with Don Ramon, a most excellent man, I will yield all my rights to him.

Fontanares

Don Ramon?

Quinola

Yes, the philosopher whom all Barcelona sets up in opposition to you.

Fontanares After all, I have solved the last problem, and glory and fortune will attend the future current of my life.

Quinola Your words seem to indicate that there is still a part to be supplied in the machinery.

Fontanares

A trifle – a matter of some hundred ducats.

Mathieu Magis Such a sum could not be raised from all that you have here, if it were sold by authority of government, counting the costs.

Quinola

Carrion! Will you get out?

Mathieu Magis If you humor Don Ramon, he doubtless will be willing to give you the assistance of his credit. (Turns to Quinola) As for you, gallows-bird, if ever you fall into my hands, I will get even with you. (To Fontanares) Good-bye, man of genius. (Exit.)

SCENE FIFTH

Fontanares and Quinola.

Fontanares

His words make me shudder.

Quinola And me also! The good ideas of a genius are always caught in the webs of such spiders as he.

Fontanares Well, if only we can get a hundred ducats more, from that time forth we shall have a golden life filled with the banquets of love. (He takes a drink of water.)

Quinola I quite believe you, but confess that blooming hope, that heavenly jade, has led us on pretty deep into the mire.

Fontanares

Quinola!

Quinola I do not complain for myself, I was born to trouble. The question is, how are we to get the hundred ducats. You are in debt to the workmen, to the master locksmith Carpano, to Coppolus the dealer in iron, steel and copper, and to our landlord, who after taking us in, more from fear of Monipodio than from compassion, will end by turning us out of doors; we owe him for nine months' board and lodging.

Fontanares

But the work is all but finished.

Quinola

But what of the hundred ducats?

Fontanares How is it that you, usually so brave and merry, begin now to speak to me in such a dolorous tone?

Quinola It is because, as a means of remaining at your side, I shall be obliged to disappear.

Fontanares

And why?

Quinola Why? Pray what are we to do about the sheriff? I have incurred, for you and for myself, trade debts to the amount of a hundred doubloons; and lo! these debts take, to my mind, the figure, face and feet of tipstaves!

Fontanares

How much unhappiness is comprised in the term glory!

Quinola Come! Do not be downcast. Did you not tell me that your grandfather went, some fifty years ago, with Cortez, to Mexico; has he ever been heard of?

Fontanares

Never.

Quinola Don't forget you have a grandfather! You will be enabled to continue your work, until you reach the day of your triumph.

Fontanares

Do you wish to ruin me?

Quinola

Do you wish to see me go to prison and your machine to the devil?

Fontanares

I do not.

Quinola Permit me then to bring about the return of this grandfather? He will be the first of his company to return from the West Indies.

SCENE SIXTH

The same persons and Monipodio.

Quinola

How goes it?

Monipodio

Your princess has received her letter.

Fontanares

What kind of a man is this Don Ramon?

Monipodio

He is an ass.

Quinola

Is he envious?

Monipodio As three rejected play-writers. He makes himself out to be a wonderful man.

Quinola

But does any one believe him?

Monipodio They look upon him as an oracle. He scribbles off his treatises, explaining that the snow is white because it falls from heaven, and he maintains, in contradiction to Galileo, that the earth does not move.

Quinola

Do you not plainly see, senor, that I must rid you of this philosopher? (To Monipodio) You come with me; you must be my servant.

(Exeunt.)

SCENE SEVENTH

Fontanares (alone) What brain, even though it be encased in bronze, could stand the strain of this search after money, while also making an inquiry into the most jealously guarded secrets of nature? How can the mind, engaged in such quests, have time for distrusting men, fighting them, and combining others against them? It is no easy thing to see at once what course had best be taken, in order to prevent Don Ramon from stealing my glory, and Don Ramons abound on every side. I at last dare to avow that my endurance is exhausted.

SCENE EIGHTH

Fontanares, Esteban, Girone and two workmen.

Esteban Can any of you tell me where a person named Fontanares is hiding himself?

Fontanares

He is not hiding himself. I am he; he is merely meditating in silence.

(Aside) Where is Quinola? He would know how to send them away satisfied. (Aloud) What do you want?

Esteban We want our money! We have been working without wages for three weeks; the laborer lives from day to day.

Fontanares

Alas, my friends, I do not live at all!

Esteban You are alone; you can pinch your belly. But we have wives and children. At the present moment we have pawned everything.

Fontanares

Have confidence in me.

Esteban

Can we pay the baker with this confidence in you?

Fontanares

I am a man of honor.

Girone

Hark you! We also are men of honor.

Esteban Take the honor of each of us to the Lombard and you will see how much he will lend you on it.

Girone

I am not a man of talent, not I, and no one will give me trust.

Esteban I am nothing but a villainous workman, but if my wife needs an iron pot, I pay for it, by heaven!

Fontanares

I would like to know who it is has set you on me in this way?

Girone

Set us on? Are we dogs?

Esteban

The magistrates of Barcelona have given judgment in favor of Masters

Coppolus and Carpano, and have granted them a lien on your inventions;

pray tell us, where is our lien?

Girone

I shan't go away from this place without my money.

Fontanares

Can you find any money by staying here? However, here you may remain.

Good-day. (He takes up his hat and cloak.)

Esteban

No! You won't go out without paying us.

(The workmen prepare to bar the door.)

Girone

There is a piece which I forged myself; I am going to keep it.

Fontanares

What! You wretch! (He draws his sword.)

The Workmen

You will not make us budge.

Fontanares (rushing upon them) Here is for you! (He stops short and throws away his sword.) Perhaps these fellows have been sent by Avaloros and Sarpi to push me to extremes. If they succeeded I might be accused of murder and thrown into prison for years. (He kneels down before the Madonna.) Oh, my God! Are genius and crime the same thing in Thy sight? What have I done to suffer such defeats, such insults and such outrages? Must I pay for my triumph in advance? (To the workmen) Every Spaniard is master in his own house.

Esteban You have no house. This place is the Golden Sun; the landlord has told us so.

Girone

You haven't paid for your lodging; you pay for nothing.

Fontanares

Remain where you are, my masters, I was wrong; I am in debt.