Shipwreck (12 page)

Herzen enters
.

HERZEN
   Rousseau has a lot to answer for.

George follows Herzen, with the basket
.

GEORGE
   Oh … why do you say that?

Natalie leaves. Emma takes the basket and upends it. A single virulent toadstool falls out
.

HERZEN
   I idolised Rousseau when I was young … Man in his natural state, uncorrupted by civilisation, desiring only those things which are good to desire …

GEORGE
   Oh, yes.

HERZEN
    … and everybody free to follow their desires without conflicts, because they'd all want the same things …

EMMA
   Where's Natalie?

GEORGE
   Didn't she come back?

HERZEN
   She'll be rounding up the nurse and the children.

GEORGE
   (
to Emma
) My love, what do you think? We're going to share a house with Alexander and Natalie in Nice! He's going to go on ahead and find a place.

EMMA
   Why … why leave Paris?

HERZEN
   We belong to Egypt, not to the Promised Land. The people faltered. I wouldn't insult them by absolving them. They had no programme, and no sovereign brain to carry one out. The Sovereign People are our invention. The masses are more like a phenomenon in nature, and nature isn't interested in our fantasy that ink is action. Ask George. We're dupes.

Natalie enters
.

HERZEN
   (
cont.
) (
to Natalie
) I'm a dupe. Well and good. We, too, will look to our faults—our passions and vices—and prepare ourselves by living by our ideals in a republic of our own. We are many!—Nine, counting my mother and the children.

NATALIE
   The children must be hungry. I'm starving.

TURGENEV
   It's going to rain.

HERZEN
   (
to Natalie
) George has offered to escort you and the children on your journey south. (
to Emma
) Your husband is kindness itself.

GEORGE
   (
to Emma
) And when you've had the baby, you'll join us.

EMMA
   (
to Herzen
) There's nothing he wouldn't do for you.

NATALIE
   Come on—we can go in that empty cottage.

Herzen and Natalie leave, holding hands
.

GEORGE
   (
to Turgenev
) Are you writing anything?

TURGENEV
   Well … no …

EMMA
   Yes, he is. It's a comedy.

TURGENEV
   Here it comes.

Turgenev puts his palm out to the first drops. They leave, following Herzen and Natalie
.

S
EPTEMBER
1850

Nice (at this time an Italian town
).

Herzen is writing on the verandah of a large house on the Promenade. The light is Mediterranean, the sea washing the shingles is audible,
part of the garden is visible. The verandah is a large area containing a family dining table and chairs, and some comfortable chairs around a smaller table. There is a door to the interior. Mother and Kolya are absorbed together, at a distance from Herzen, using a hand mirror (in which Kolya studies his mouth movements). An Italian servant
, ROCCA,
is laying the table and singing for his own enjoyment. As he goes indoors, he passingly ‘serenades' Mother and Kolya. Mother manages a game smile. With her collusion, Kolya trots over to Herzen. Herzen slightly over-enunciates for Kolya
.

HERZEN
   
Was moechtest du denn?
[What do you want, darling?]

Kolya looks back to Mother for assurance. She smiles him on
.

KOLYA
   
Ich spreche Russisch!
[I speak Russian!] (in ‘English') ‘Sunny day! My name is Kolya!'

HERZEN
   
Wunderbar!
[Wonderful!]

Great delight, made physical, on all sides
.

HERZEN
   (
cont.) Jetzt sprichst du Russisch!
[Now you speak Russian!]

KOLYA
   
Ich spreche Russisch!
[I speak Russian!]

Rocca returns, singing, with more things for the table
.

HERZEN
   
Zeig es Mami!
[Show Mummy!]
Do vei Signora?
[Where is the Signora?]

ROCCA
   
Sta nel giardino.
[She was in the garden.]

Rocca leaves singing
.

MOTHER
   I suppose the next one will juggle.

Herzen places Kolya's hands on Herzen's face and enunciates while Kolya lip-reads
.

HERZEN
   (
to Kolya) Garten.
[Garden.]

Kolya trots off out of sight
.

MOTHER
   But Italy is friendlier than Switzerland, especially to children and old ladies. The school in Zurich was the last straw—what a shock when they discovered they were harbouring the child of a dangerous revolutionary instead of a Russian nobleman.

HERZEN
   I was pleased that my little book made such an impression on the good burghers of Zurich … and we stole the school's best teacher for Kolya, so it's ended well—(
He looks at his watch.
)—and I have to meet him off the diligence at Genoa. He'll soon have Kolya orating on the seashore like Demosthenes with a pebble in his mouth. But I want you to be happy here, too.

MOTHER
   I, too? (
She kisses him.
)

HERZEN
   I liked Nice when we came through here on our way to Rome three years ago, do you remember?

MOTHER
   I remember the shingle beach when we were on our way back after the French Republic was declared … and the excitement, when we reached the border, of having Republican stamps in our passports … A French stamp, even before the Republic, would get you into trouble at home, Sasha …

HERZEN
   How can
I
go back? I've tried suffocation, darkness, fear and censorship—and I've tried air, light, security and freedom to publish—and I know which is better. There's no emperor or king or pope in Europe who can match the Tsar for despotism, especially now, after the almighty scare he got … The people here have had a civilisation for two thousand years, and they keep something of themselves
which no passing tyranny can eradicate. But I'll show you why I can't go home again. (
He goes to the table where he has been working and picks up a French journal.
) Here's a man writing about us. It's a French paper. He's the first person in France to write about the Russian people, and he can prove that the Russian people are not human, because they are devoid of moral sense. The Russian is a thief and a liar, and is so innocently because it's his nature.

MOTHER
   He doesn't mean us, he means the peasants.

HERZEN
   Yes, they lie to landowners, officials, judges, policemen … and steal from them—and they are right, because they are denied every kind of self-protection and dignity. What have our moral categories got to do with the Russians we've abandoned? Not to steal would be to concede the fairness of their portion. For two hundred years their whole life has been one long dumb passive protest against the existing order. They have no one to speak for them.

MOTHER
   What time is the diligence?

HERZEN
   God give me Medea!

MOTHER
   (
indicating the garden
) Kolya's nagging Natalie to go to the beach—and she's in no fit state—where's the nurse?

HERZEN
   (
throwing down the journal
) This is not some demented pamphleteer, he's a distinguished historian famous for his humanitarian views, writing for intelligent Frenchmen—(
shouting after her
) It's about time to acquaint Europe with Russia, don't you think?

Mother leaves
.

Herzen looks at his watch, hurries away, reverses direction and shouts towards the garden
.

HERZEN
   (
cont
.) Don't let go of his hand in the water!

Leaving again, he encounters Emma, who is no longer pregnant, wheeling a small baby carriage.

HERZEN
   (
cont.
) Is there any news of George? When is he coming?

EMMA
   I don't know.

HERZEN
   Well, it's too bad of him. We're not complete without him.

Natalie, seven months pregnant, comes into view.

HERZEN
   (
cont.) (to Natalie
) I'm going to pick up Spielmann. That's his name!—Spielmann!

Laughing, he runs off calling for Rocca. Natalie comes forward.

NATALIE
   Was there a letter?

Emma gives Natalie a sealed letter.

NATALIE
   (
cont.
) Thank you. (
Natalie puts the letter in her bosom.
)

EMMA
   If he says when he's coming, perhaps you'll tell me.

NATALIE
   Yes, of course.

EMMA
   If you loved him, you'd leave Alexander.

NATALIE
   (
shakes her head
) Alexander must be spared this. The one time he began to wonder … he nearly lost his mind. I would have done anything to reassure him.

EMMA
   You did the simplest thing. If you weren't in a state where you can hardly be said to be of practical use, George would be here now.

NATALIE
   You mustn't humiliate yourself, Emma. He loves you, too.

EMMA
   I'm a post office, and living upstairs in your house like a lodger, which is all we can afford to be—there is no further humiliation I could suffer. But I'm glad to do it for my George. He was unrecognisable when I came from Paris. He was suffering more than I. If you can't make him happy—or cure him—give him back. He'll come back anyway. This is not love, it's exaltation.

Emma's baby starts crying. She picks it up and paces.

NATALIE
   You haven't understood anything. All my actions spring from the divine spirit of love, which I feel for all creation. Your logical way of looking at things just shows that you have grown apart from Nature. George is not the way you talk about him. He understands. He loves you. He loves Alexander. He loves your children and mine. Together, our love will be strong enough for all of us.

George enters, in travelling clothes. He takes one look at his wife, baby and pregnant mistress, and turns about.

NATALIE
   George!

EMMA
   George!

Natalie, with a glad cry, runs after him, followed by Emma.

NOVEMBER
   1850

A newborn baby starts squalling inside the house. Bouquets of flowers arrive, by messenger and butler (Rocca). Herzen and George appear from indoors in smoking jackets, with cigars and glasses of champagne.

HERZEN
   (
toasts
) To Natalie and baby Olga.

GEORGE
   To Natalie and Olga.

HERZEN
   Where's Emma?

George looks around.

GEORGE
   There.

D
ECEMBER
1850

The same place. A nurse
(MARIA FOMM)
wheels a smart pram. Emma is holding her crying eighteen-month-old child and close to hysteria. Herzen is writing what turns out to be a cheque and an IOU. When the baby raises its voice, Emma continues louder, so the decibel level threatens sometimes to become ludicrous.

EMMA
   On our honeymoon in Italy, George didn't like the cologne they had there, so I sent to Paris for his special cologne, and when it arrived in Rome we were in Naples, and when it reached Naples we were back in Rome, and so it went on until the cologne followed us back to Paris. The carriage charges were enormous. That's how I've always been with George. Nothing was too good or too much. Daddy used to be rich, he supplied all the silk furnishings to the Prussian court, but somehow the revolution made him quite poor, and he resents George, it's so unfair. I've borrowed and sold everything I can so that George isn't troubled, and now I don't know where else to turn.