Two Scenes from a Play*
IGNAZIO SILONE
1.
ULIVA, DoN PAOLO,
vozce of
DoN ZABAGLIONE,
vozces of the
CROWD.
DoN PAoLo
(anxiously)
.
Hasn't the knife-grinder passed yet?
ULIVA. No. Just listen to what's happened. The new printing-press .
DoN PAoLo. Has the paper been printed? Is it ready for distribution?
UuvA. The new printing-press too was discovered and sequestrated
this morning at dawn.
DoN PAoLo
(starting).
Annina, Murica-have they been arrested?
UuvA. They were not there.
DoN PAoLo
(stricken) .
Sequestrated. The new printing-press destroyed
too.
UuvA. It was Romeo told me, he was in a hurry and gave no other
details. He was in a hurry, he had the impression he was being shadowed.
If
they haven't got him, he may be here shortly and he'll tell you about
it himself.
DoN PAor.o
(almost to himself) .
So the war will break out and there
won't be a single public protest from us.
UuvA. We can hardly ask them to postpone the war just because you
are not yet able to
~abotage
it.
These two scenes are from "And He Hid Himself," an unpublished play by
lgnazio Silane in which the author makes use of some of the characters who
appear in "Bread and Wine," in particular, Don Paolo Spina; and situations
which are at times analogous, but never identical with those in the novel. Silone
describes the play as having been inspired by "Bread and Wine"; it is not, how–
ever, in any way an adaptation or dramatization of the novel.
The reader ought to know that the place is Italy; and the time just before
the Ethiopian War. Don Paolo and Uliva are both members of the underground
movement, and Murica, who appears in the second of the two scenes, has been
condemned to death for betraying the movement. When, at the beginning of the
second scene, he comes to see Don Paolo, it has already been decided that Don
Paolo is to be Murica's executioner. Hence Don Paolo is surprised to see him
and at first takes his visit to be a plea for mercy.
