Height Scene
(Dante and Virgil)
Dante (clearly frightened). What is going to happen to them?
Virgil: Don’t feel sorry for them, my son!That’s the law of counterfeiting! The evil they made to the others will be inflicted them by those devils!
(horrible screamers and terrible howls will be heard from inside the torture room)
Dante (shivering): Oh that is so frightening!
Virgil: Take courage my son!!! That’s the Hell not a walk for seminarians and novices!!!
(from a dark corner a man silently appears walking like in trance, praying with rosary in his hands; he’s a man of medium size and strong looking; he wears a black hooded habit, sandals and a shoulder bag)
Ninth Scene
(the above said and Alberto Tragagliolo)
Dante (recovering behind his master with trembling voice): Look my master…there is someone coming up…
Virgil (with a cold blood voice): Who are you, in the name of God!
Alberto Tragagliolo: In the name of God my name is Alberto Tragagliolo, father commissary of pope Clement the VIII for the Roman Holy Inquisition. I came from Piacenza and I was also called as Drago!
Dante: It’s why you are a dragon that those bloody devils didn’t pick you up with the others?
Virgil: No, my son! Haven’t you heard Satan?
Alberto Tragagliolo (showing the holy rosary still in his hand) It’s because of this! Furthermore I was sent to the assembly on defense of some defendant…’ you know? I don’t even know why I’m here…
Dante: What we are going to do with him, master?
Virgil: We cannot leave him here, can we?
Alberto Tragagliolo: Might God compensate you for your generosity…
Virgil: But father, I must warn you, we are simply moving to another circle of this same Hell!
(other terrible screams will be heard from the torture’s room)
Alb. Tragagliolo (pointing the torture’s room): Anywhere else will be better than that!
Virgil: Let me see! (to Dante) Tell me son: would you like to visit the Era of Enlightenment or you want to see directly the French Revolution?
Dante (thinking about it and pointing the empty table where the judges sat just shortly before): As far as I understood we have already assisted the struggle between science and reason by one side and blind faith and religion by the other side, haven’t we?
Virgil: Though is not so simple as you put it, I would say you are right… you’re really a quick pupil anyway!
Dante: Thank you so much my master, but it’s you who are a great schoolmaster!
Virgil: Don’t be so humble, my son!!! So, my friend, before going to Paris we could accompany you in London. What do you think about?
Alb. Tragagliolo (sheepish but still grateful) I’m in your hands sir!
Virgil: Of course it won’t be easy at all… have you some money with you?
Alb. Tragagliolo: Sure I do!!!
Virgil: And you need a new identity…
Alb.Tragagliolo: I’ve some clothes in my bag; may I go to wear them before we leave?
Virgil (pointing the Observatory Room): You can go there; and be quick please!
Alb. Tragagliolo: Thanks sir! I’ll be ready in a couple of minutes! (exits)
Tenth Scene
(Dante and Virgil)
Dante (suspiciously): Who is he, master? Won’t you believe to his story of being a pope’s emissary?
Virgil: Don’t worry my son! I know very well who is him…
Dante (looking forward): Please let me know it , before he’s back!
Virgil: He’s a master ascended!
Dante (curiously surprised): What do you mean by a master ascended?
Virgil: He’s a body no longer subject to laws of gravity and death…
Dante (fascinated and admired): How is it possible?
Virgil: In some way they succeed in melting the body and the soul together…
Dante (l.b.): Really great!!! Almost unbelievable… But there are many of them?
Virgil: No really; only a few…
Dante: Are them good guys?
Virgil: They are tolerated…
Dante: But are them destined to be saved?
Virgil: It’s up to them to save their souls… Normally they choose to live pursuing material aims…
Dante: Can I have some names?
Virgil: They are really a few, as I told you. Something tells me that our friend he’s going to pretend to be the Count of Saint-Germain… or may be Swedenborg Emmanuel… Louis Claude de Saint Martin or even, who knows?, Antoine Fabre d’Olivet… It depends on what and whom he founds in London!
Dante: But why do you want bring him to London?
Virgil: I’ll suggest him to search the Conte Cagliostro right in London…
Dante: But do belong all these masters ascended to a caste of nobility?
Virgil (laughing): O no, my son! Conte Cagliostro is only a skilled falsary… He can help him to acquire any identity…Watch out, son!!!Here he comes!
Eleventh Scene
(the above said and Alberto Tragagliolo)
(A very elegant man appears coming out from the Astronomical Observatory)
Dante: May I ask him something before we go?
Virgil: Anything but his past or his next identity…
Dante (with sighs of nostalgia): No, master! I want ask him something of my Florence…
Alb. Tragagliolo: I’m ready! Shall we go?
Virgil: You look really dressy!
Alb. Tragagliolo: Thank you sir!
Dante: Have you ever been to Florence?
Alb. Tragagliolo (looking with suspicion): What are you asking it for?
Dante: I’m from Florence, ‘ you know?
Alb. Tragagliolo: Are you really? What’s your name?
Dante: My name is Dante Alighieri…
Alb. Tragagliolo (surprised): Dante Alighieri? Do you mean Durante degli Alighieri, the poet?
Virgil: Right him, man!!!
Dante (humbly): And he’s Publius Vergilius Maro my schoolmaster!!!
Alb. Tragagliolo (changing attitude): Dante Alighieri the Florentine and Virgil from Mantua!!!I’m very sorry I didn’t recognize you! honoured to meet you! But what the hell are you two doing here?
Virgil (cutting shortly): We’re just travellers! This is not our place; at least, not more than it is for yourself!!!
Alb. Tragagliolo: I see….
Dante: Can you please answer to my question now?
Alb. Tragagliolo: Of course I can! I was in Florence in 1348, escaping the Black Death with Giovanni Boccaccio ‘till when the Ciompi’s Revolt took place. And I went back to Florence, in the following century, among the new people, at the time Cosimo de’ Medici took power. But I spent my best years with his grandson Lorenzo, known as The Magnificent, who succeeded Piero de’ Medici in 1469. Lorenzo was a great patron of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. Lorenzo was an accomplished poet and musician and brought composers and singers to Florence, including Alexander Agricola, Johannes Ghiselin, and Heinrich Isaac. I left when, following the French king Charles VIII invasion, the Florentines rebelled and expelled Lorenzo’s son Piero the Second, so restorating a republican government. You surely know that during this period, the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola had become prior of the San Marco monastery in 1490. He was famed for his penitential sermons, against widespread immorality and attachment to material riches. He blamed the exile of the Medici as a divine punishment for their decadence. He seized the opportunity to carry through political reforms leading to a more democratic rule. But when Savonarola publicly accused Pope Alexander VI of corruption, he was banned from speaking in public. When he broke this ban, he was excommunicated. The Florentines, tired of his extreme teachings, turned against him and arrested him. He was convicted as a heretic and burned at the stake on the Piazza della Signoria on 23 May 1498. Fortunately the Medici took back the power, at the time Niccolò Machiavelli rose his fame thanks to his political handbook, titled The Prince, which is about ruling and the exercise of power. Machiavelli also wrote the Florentine Histories, the history of the city.
Dante: I’ve read both the Prince and the Florentine Histories!!!
Alb. Tragagliolo: I was sure you did! So you have learned the Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time and re-established a republic on 16 May 1527. Restored twice with the support of both Emperor and Pope, the Medici in 1537 became hereditary dukes of Florence, and in 1569 Grand Dukes of Tuscany, extending its power even to Siena and Pistoia. Actually all Tuscany but Lucca and Piombino.
Dante: I’ve also read all this.
Alb. Tragagliolo: As a matter of fact the great family of Medici had three Popes and two Queens of France, in addition of many cardinals. Furthermore they were the richest bankers of that time! And that’s all I’ve seen with my eyes; for the rest is for hearing… ‘you know?
Dante: May be I should be proud of that but I feel so sad instead!
Virgil: Well, it seems that your republic has not performed at its best!
Dante: Small consolation indeed!!!
Virgil: Shall we go? Our spaceship is waiting for us to go!
Alb. Tragagliolo: I’m ready sir!
Dante: Let’s go master!
exeunt
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