HUt.4ANITIS
347
between two voids, here I am, actual and unique. I've got this nose
with the big pores, this solid behind, this belly like a rock,
(thumps it)
these meaty lips, these knuckles which have always made me un–
happy-gorilla knuckles. This heart that never stops. This character.
This mind. Oh, this mind, it's murdering me. But ... the essential me.
So here goes: My life before 1905-nothing. Blackness. Tohu-bohu.
. . . So the year is about 1905, and it must be the month of January.
It's behind the candy store,
in
the brass bed. And it must be night,
because they'd have been too busy
in
the daytime. In the back was
a coalstove with a nickel crown, and big cheeks and fiery windows.
But here they are.
IMOGEN:
His father and mother.
BUMMIDGE:
And
he
takes. And then she. . . .Oh, she can't. She's
undressed. And he.... It's vile. No, no, no ! It's the primal scene.
Oh, that bitch! Throwing herself away. And nobody can interfere.
To them it's nothing. They're ignorant. Pa-Ma-wait! Oh, wait!
What are you doing! Stop! But how can they stop? Who is there
to corne between them? This is bigger than any of us. I'm being
conceived. Pray, Philip Bomovitch, pray.
(He clasps hands, praying)
But it's too late. My number is up. Bang! And may God have mercy
on my soul. All our souls. I'm doomed to
be
born. Thrown into
being.
WINKLEMAN:
Oh, brother. Even the old name. Bomovitch!
BUMMIDGE:
(Lies on the couch, legs drawn up in the foetal position)
I'm in the womb now. The cells are dividing like mad: four, eight,
sixteen, one twenty-eight, one billion. Iron, phosphorus and starch
are boiling. My eyes, kneecaps, pancre'as and hair are developing.
I'm being created.
Meanwhile, what is Mama up to?
(Indignantly sits)
Gossiping, eat–
ing herring and potatoes, drinking tea with lump sugar. That's why
my teeth look like dice. How did Freud's mother pass the time?
Thinking, I'll bet. Reading serious books in German.
(Throws him–
self back again)
But I'm floating inside.
(Cu:rls his fingers and tries
to look like an embryo)
I'm folding, unfolding, refolding. The meso–
derm, the endoderm. Now I'm a fish.
(Elongates himself)
Ontogony,
phylogony, do your stuff. Notochord. Gills, Reptiles. Up to the verte–
brate tree. Up-up!
MADGE
with alarm, dumbshow, inquiring, receiving explana–
tion. During the ensuing,
BELLA
and
MAX
join the group, and
do not appear surprised at what they see.
