Twelfth Scene
The French Revolution
(Robespierre, Sylvain Maréchal, Georges Couthon and other
revolutionary French men; twelve dwarves: : Wheezy, Sneezy and Freezy; Slippy,
Drippy and Nippy; Showery, Flowery and Bowery; Hoppy, Croppy and Poppy. Apart:
Dante and Virgil).
When the curtain opens the
dwarves are pulling a double decked circular carousel, segmented in ten parts,
each one of them, up and down has an open guillotine; on the first level any
segment has a revolutionary man, kneeling, with his head locked, ready to be
executed; the upper side, which has a
circle of lower diameter, hosts a wax dummy, in the same position of the men
below, also ready to be executed; the lower and upper segments are connected by
a slide in order to allow the cutting heads to descend right on the down
standing bodies. Six dwarves are in the bottom round, the other six are in the upper
round.
Wheezy: (pushing
the carousel and singing a sort of mocking rhymes): When it’s Duodi, whose turn will be? When Decadi, it’ll round for him?
Robespierre (in a
bossy voice): Hey you, half citizens, stop the roundabout!
Sneezy: (stops
moving): What do you bloody want monsieur?
Robespierre: I
want to claim on my defense!
Freezy: You are
not allowed!
Robespierre ( in a brash way): My last speech!!!
Slippy: Come on!
Let’s hear your spell!!!
Robespierre: The springs of popular government in
revolution are at once virtue and terror: virtue, without which terror is
fatal; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing other than
justice, prompt, severe, inflexible... Yes, as the sword that gleams in the
hands of the heroes of liberty resembles that with which the henchmen of
tyranny are armed!!!
Drippy: (shouting to the upper guys): Poppy hero, low
the blade!!!
(a dry cut sounds in the air and a wax head falls down
together with a wax cast, right over Robespierre who will shout of pain loudly)
Nippy (collecting the wax head and showing it to
horrified Robespierre): Watch this!!! Next time could be yours to fall down!!!
All the dwarves will resume singing loudly.
Dwarf Chorus: Napoléon is coming, Napoléon is coming,
Napoléon is coming to save our homeland!!! (twice)
Thirteenth Scene
(Dante and Virgil)
Dante(scared and outraged) : What does all that mean,
master? And whom are those poor guys?
Virgil: The dwarves, I might suppose, impersonate the
twelve months of the Republican Revolutionary Calendar: maybe you know them
with their real names; Brumaire, Frimaire, Germinal, Prairial, ‘you know?
Dante: Now I do.. and the guys?
Virgil: The guy who made the speech is the King of Terror, Maximillien
Robespierre! The other guys were his partners ruling the reign of terror!
Dante (l.b.) I’m confused and perplexed, master! I
always thought the French Revolution had been a right movement of justice and
freedom… and now I see its promoters punished so heavily, scoffed and teased by
those funny dwarves…
Virgil: Those guys over there, my son, betrayed
themselves and the other inspirers of the French Revolution. As a matter of
fact we won’t find here, neither in other infernal circles Danton, Murat and
the other heads of French Revolution but only those, like Robespierre, who
transformed the ambitions of justice and freedom into a climax of anger and
fear!!!
Dante: I see you’re right, as usual, master!
Virgil: Do you want see more of this? Napoléon is near
to come, as a matter of fact!!!
Dante: I think I would like to go further than him, if
you don’t mind!!!
Virgil: I don’t mind at all, my son! Let’s go further
then! The following century is full of interesting characters even in this part
of the world!!!
exeunt
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