SCENE 2. A PRIVATE ROOM IN A TAVERN, WITH A PIANO.Mozart and Salieri at table.SalieriWhat makes you look so gloomy?Mozart Gloomy? No.SalieriMozart, there's surely something on your mind.The dinner's good, the wine is excellent,but you, you frown and brood.Mozart I must confess it: I'm worried about my Requiem.Salieri Oh, you're writinga Requiem? Since when?Mozart Three weeks or so.But the queer part… didn't I tell you?Salieri No.Mozart Well, listen:three weeks ago I got home rather late —they told me someone had been there to see me.All night — I know not why — I lay and wonderedwho it could be and what he wanted of me.Next day the same thing happened: the man came;I was not in. The third day — I was playingupon the carpet with my little boy —there came a knock: they called me, and I went;a man, black-coated, with a courteous bow,ordered a Requiem and disappeared.So I sat down at once and started writing.Now from that day to this my man in blackhas never come again. — Not that I mind.I hate the thought of parting with my work,though now it's done. Yet in the meantime I…SalieriYou what?Mozart I'm ashamed to say it.Salieri To say what?MozartI am haunted by that man, that man in black.He never leaves me day or night. He followsbehind me like a shadow. Even nowI seem to see him sitting here with us,making a third.Salieri Come, come! what childish terrors!Dispel these hollow fancies, Beaumarchaiswas wont to say to me: «Look here, old friend,when black thoughts trouble you, uncork a bottleof bright champagne, or reread „Figaro“».MozartYes, you and Beaumarchais were boon companions,of course — you wrote «Tarare» for Beaumarchais.A splendid piece — especially one tune —I always find I hum it when I'm gay:ta-ta, ta-ta… Salieri, was it truethat Beaumarchais once poisoned someone?Salieri No,I doubt it. He was much too droll a fellowfor such a trade.Mozart And then he was a geniuslike you and me. And villainy and geniusare two things that don't go together, do they?SalieriYou think so?He pours the poison into Mozart's glass. Drink your wine.Mozart Your health, dear friend:here's to the frank and loyal brotherhoodof Mozart and Salieri, sons of Music.He drinks.SalieriWait, wait! You've drunk it off. You've left me out.Mozart
(throwing his napkin on the table) Enough:I've eaten.He goes to the piano. Listen to this, Salieri:my Requiem.He plays. Are you weeping?Salieri These are tearsI've never shed before — painful yet anodyne,as if I had discharged a heavy debt,as if the surgeon's knife had lopped awaya sick and throbbing limb! These tears, dear Mozart…You must not mind them. Oh, play on, make haste,flooding my soul with sound…Mozart If all could feellike you the force of harmony! But no;the world would crumble then; for none would careto bother with the baser needs of life;then all would seek art's franchise. We are few,the chosen ones, the happy idlers, wewho have no use for what is merely useful,who worship only beauty — do we not,dear friend? — But I'm not well — some leaden languor…I must have sleep. Adieu!Salieri Until we meet.Alone.Your sleep will be a long one, Mozart! — Nay,it cannot be that what he said was true,and I no genius. «Villainy and genius,two things that do not go together». Wait:that's false — for surely there was Buonarroti.— Or is that but a legend, but a lie,bred by the stupid mob, by their inanevulgarity, and that great soul who wroughtthe Vatican had never sunk to murder?<21 апреля 1941>
