SCENES FROM A PLAY
297
censorship. Instead of the present deportations there will be Red de–
portations, of which dissident revolutionaries will be the favorite victims.
Just as the present bureaucracy identifies itself with patriotism and ex–
terminates all its opponents, denouncing them as traitors bought by
foreign gold, in the same way your favorite bureaucracy will identify
itself with Labor and Socialism and persecute everyone who goes on
thinking with his own head, denouncing him as a paid agent of the
so-called class enemy.
DoN PAoLo
(seized by anger, takes hold of
UuvA
by his coat lapels and
shouts in his fac e) .
But why must that be our destiny? Why can there
be no way out? Are we hens cooped up in a hen-roost? Why should we
have to remain in the bondage of an unchangeable fatality? Why should
a state, a society that we want to put at the service of man's brother–
hood, be doomed before it has even begun to exist?
Ur.rvA
(pushing
DoN PAOLO
away with a calm and energetic gesture,
makes him sit down and for the first time smiles at him in a friendly
way).
Come, Pietro, don't let's quarrel. I assure you I didn't come here
to bicker with you. This is the last time we'll ever see each other, and
it would be a pity to part in a squabble.
DoN PAoLo
(his suspicions aroused).
Why the last time?
UuvA
(continues without replying).
We've known each other for many
years, and in spite of everything, I've got a certain amount of esteem
for you. For many years now I've been watching you engaged in a sort
of chivalrous joust with life, or with the creator, if you prefer: the strug–
gle of the creature to break down his limitations. All this is very noble;
I say it without irony, yes, it is very noble, but it requires a degree of
ingenuity in which I am lacking.
DoN PAOLO. Man has no real existence except in so far as he fights
against his own limitations. Man raised himself above the beasts from
the moment in which he began this struggle. He turns back into a beast
the moment he gives it up; he turns back into a sheep, or a pig, or a
parrot, or a lion, or a hyena, according to temperament. The moment
he gives it up. Uliva, we mustn't capitulate. Of course, man is free not
to be free; he is free, that is, not to be a man. And it's not easy to be
a man. But a man like you, Uliva. ...
UuvA
(interrupting).
He who finds resignation intolerable and revolu–
tion illusory has still got one way out that many are afraid of. And yet
perhaps it is the only way out that is really worthy of man.
DoN PAOLO
(suddenly alarmed).
Uliva .. .
UuvA
(continuing without taking any notice of. him).
You spoke to
me once about a secret dream of yours. You expressed it in home-made
terms: you would make a soviet out of the Fucino plain and nominate
