Shipwreck (7 page)

MARX
   It was bound to happen. I was expecting it.

BAKUNIN
   Why didn't you tell me? All our lives we'll remember where we were when France became a republic again!

MARX
   I was in Brussels, waiting for the first copy of
The Communist Manifesto
to come from the printer …

BAKUNIN
   I was in Brussels, too, waiting for
La Réforme
to arrive with my open letter to the French government …

TURGENEV
   No!
I
was in Brussels! …
The Barber of Seville
… Can I have a look?

Marx gives him the book.

BAKUNIN
   I've been on my feet twenty hours a day—

MARX
   Minister Flocon said that with three hundred more like you …

BAKUNIN
   … preaching rebellion, destruction …

MARX
   … France would be ungovernable.

BAKUNIN
   I've been living in barracks with the Republican Guard. You won't believe this, but it's the first time I've actually met anyone from the working class.

MARX
   Really? What are they like?

BAKUNIN
   I've never come across such nobility.

TURGENEV
   (
reading
) ‘A ghost is going round Europe—the ghost of Communism!'

BAKUNIN
   A Polish National Committee has already been set up in Prussian Poland to plan the invasion of Russia. I've got to get there. Turgenev, this is the last thing I'll ever ask of you—

TURGENEV
   Ask Flocon.

BAKUNIN
   You think the Provisional Government will give me the money to go to Poland?

TURGENEV
   I'm certain of it.

MARX
   (
to Turgenev
) You're a writer. Do you think there's something funny about ‘the ghost of Communism'? I don't want it to sound as if Communism is dead.

Herwegh enters in red, black and gold military uniform.

BAKUNIN
   Herwegh!

MARX
   (
to Turgenev
) Do you know English?

TURGENEV
   Fairly well. Let me see … (
in ‘English'
) ‘A ghost … a phantom is walking around Europe …'

HERWEGH
   (
somewhat embarrassed
) What do you think?

BAKUNIN
   Nice. Are you a mason?

HERWEGH
   No—I'm in command of a brigade of German Democratic Exiles. We're going to march on Baden!

BAKUNIN
   March all the way to Germany?

HERWEGH
   No, no, we're going to the frontier by train—I've got six hundred tickets.

TURGENEV
   Did Flocon give you the money?

HERWEGH
   Yes, how did you know?

BAKUNIN
   Wonderful!

HERWEGH
   It was Emma's idea.

TURGENEV
   I knew you weren't really a poet. Only a poet. Have you had any military experience?

HERWEGH
   Emma says whether you're a poet or a revolutionary, genius is genius.

BAKUNIN
   She's right. Look at Byron.

HERWEGH
   Byron wrote far too much, actually.

Turgenev returns to pondering the book. Emma enters. She, too, is in military mode, with a red, black and gold cockade. She is accompanied by a small shop boy in the livery of a fashionable store, who is burdened with elegantly wrapped parcels. He may have a small pushcart in the same livery.

MARX
   (
intervening sternly
) Just a moment, Herwegh!

Then Marx sees Emma.

EMMA
   I've got provisions for the march, my angel—the most wonderful little meat pasties from Chevet, and a turkey stuffed with truffles—

MARX
   Scoundrel!

EMMA
   He's got to eat, Karl. Come with us to the Champs Élysées—George is going to review the troops!

Marx is now beside himself with rage. He pursues the Herweghs out.

MARX
   Adventurist! By what right do you interfere in the economic struggle with this diversionary folly?

EMMA
   Don't take any notice of him, darling.

MARX
   Victory in Europe will be decided between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie!—only ceaseless propaganda and agitation …

The shop boy follows Marx and the Herweghs out.

TURGENEV
   (
thoughtfully
) ‘A spook … a spectre …'

BAKUNIN
   (
transported
) This is what it was all for, from the beginning … studying Kant, Schelling, Fichte … with Stankevich and Belinsky … with you in Berlin, do you remember, you in your lilac waistcoat, I in my green, walking down Unter den Linden talking furiously about the spirit of history …

TURGENEV
   (
jogged
) ‘A
spirit
… a spirit is haunting Europe …'

BAKUNIN
   We were on a journey to this moment. Revolution is the Absolute we pursued at Premukhino, the Universal which contains all the opposites and resolves them. It's where we were always going.

TURGENEV
   (
taps the book, triumphantly satisfied
) ‘A hobgoblin is stalking around Europe—the hobgoblin of Communism!'

He closes the book, looks up and ‘shoots' twice.

Natalie and
NATALIE (NATASHA) TUCHKOV,
aged nineteen, enter rapidly in high spirits. Natasha's hair is wet. Natalie has a tricolour wrapped round her as a shawl.

NATALIE
   
Vive la République! Vive la République!

The two women have entered the next scene.

15 M
AY
1848

A different apartment, near the newly completed Arc de Triomphe. Herzen is with Kolya, holding Kolya's palms to his
—
Herzen's—face.

HERZEN
   
Vive la République
, Kol-ya! (
to Natalie
) Where did you get that?

NATASHA
   Everybody's wearing them!

Natalie and Natasha are in a state of ecstatic, romantic friendship in which everything is joyous or hilarious or soulful.

NATALIE
   It's a present for you from Natasha.

HERZEN
   Well … thank you.

Natalie removes the ‘shawl' and presents it to Herzen, leaving herself déshabillée but only her shoulders and arms actually bare.

HERZEN
   (
cont
.) But you've got no clothes on.

NATASHA
   I'm wearing them!

NATALIE
   Poor darling, she arrived wet through, so I said—

NATASHA
   ‘Take off your clothes! At once!'

NATALIE
   I made her put on my dress.

HERZEN
   Of course. I had no idea you had only one dress. In fact, my impression was that you had a dress shop …

NATALIE
   But I want her to smell of me, and I want to smell of her—

NATASHA
   You smell like camellias …

Natalie inhales rapturously from Natasha's hair.

NATALIE
   Russia!

Mother enters.

MOTHER
   Natalie!—suppose the servant came in … ! (
taking Kolya
) Look at your terrible mother … If this is what goes on in a republic … (
to Natalie
) There's a letter for you.

NATASHA
   It's from me!

Natalie and Natasha embrace. Herzen drapes the flag over Natalie as a manservant
,
BENOIT
,
opens the door to admit Sazonov with an air of condescension.

SAZONOV
   
Citoyens!
—you're back at last …

Natalie and Natasha dash out past Sazonov, who is thrown off his stride. Benoit follows the women out.

SAZONOV
   (
cont.
) And who was the young …?

HERZEN
   (
lightly
) My wife has fallen in love … We met the family in Rome, they're neighbours of Ogarev back home.

Mother accepts Sazonov's bow.

MOTHER
   We arrived back ten days ago. (
to Kolya
) Come on, it's time for your and Tata's tea …

HERZEN
   
Maman
, ask Benoit to post this for me, please …

He puts his written sheets into the prepared envelope and seals it.

MOTHER
   The Marquis? All right, but he's grander than the last one—the last one
spoke
, the new one always seems about to ask me to dance …

Mother leaves with Kolya, leaving behind Kolya's top.

HERZEN
   French servants were the biggest surprise. I knew you weren't allowed to send them into the army or sell them … but nothing prepares you for their amazing efficiency, politeness and absolute lack of calling.

SAZONOV
   Forget France! Don't you see?—our time has come. The Russian government is in an impasse. They won't want to be the pariahs of Europe. They'll have to make a gesture.

HERZEN
   Oh, they will! They'll cancel all leave for the Cossacks, Tsar Nicholas will be the last righteous ruler in a wilderness of cowards and constitutions.

SAZONOV
   No,
history is being made
! Russia is going to need a liberal cultured ministry, men with European experience. Have you thought of that?

HERZEN
   I promise you, I never have.

SAZONOV
   Well, the government will have to appeal to us.

HERZEN
   You and me?

SAZONOV
   Well, people of our circle.

HERZEN
   (
laughs
) Which ministry do you fancy?

SAZONOV
   You can laugh … but the stage is now bigger than your little articles for the
Contemporary.

HERZEN
   Nevertheless, the workers are marching on the National Assembly this morning … so let's see if the elected government acts like republicans …

There is a transition to some hours later, with a sound of rioting.

Herzen enters tired and angry. Turgenev is shown in by Benoit.

HERZEN
   (
cont
.) (
to Benoit
)
Du vin
. [Wine.]

Benoit leaves.

HERZEN
   (
cont.
) So, what do you think now of your democratic republic?

TURGENEV
   Mine? I'm a tourist like you. You should be asking what the Parisians thought of it … and the remarkable thing is, you couldn't tell. It was as if they'd bought tickets and were interested to see how it would turn out. The lemonade and cigar sellers circulated, very content, like fishermen hauling in a good catch. The National Guard waited to see which way it was going, and then set about the mob.

HERZEN
   The mob? Workers marching behind their banners.

TURGENEV
   Invading the National Assembly to demand the self-abolition of an elected parliament which happens to be not to their taste.

HERZEN
   Turgenev!—you talk to me of taste? A republic behaving like the monarchy it displaced is not a failure of aesthetics. This is a republic by superstition only, by incantation.
Vive la République!
But it turns out the Republic makes revolution unnecessary and, in fact, undesirable. Power is not to be shared with the ignoramuses who built the barricades. They're too poor to have a voice.

TURGENEV
   It was an insurrection, and order has triumphed.

HERZEN
   Well, don't imagine today was the end. When the lid blows off this kettle, it'll take the kitchen with it. All your civilised pursuits and refinements which you call the triumph of order will be firewood and pisspots once the workers kick down the doors and come into their kingdom. Do I regret it? Yes, I regret it. But we've enjoyed the feast, we can't complain when the waiter says,
‘L'addition, messieurs!'