Back here again....
[From Amadeus, by Peter Shaffer. This piece brings tears to my eyes just reading it aloud]
Capisco!
I know my fate.
Smashed. Smashed Down - The Palace of Sound!
Now for the first time I feel my emptiness, as Adam felt his nakedness.
[He rises]
Tonight at an inn somewhere in this city stands a giggling child who can put down on paper, without actually setting down his billiard cue, casual notes which turn my considered ones into lifeless scratches.
Grazie Signore!
You gave me the desire to serve you - which most men do not have - then saw to it the service was shameful in the ears of the server.
Grazie!
You gave me the desire to praise you- which most men do not have - then made me mute.
Grazie tanti!
You put into me perception of the Incomparable - which most men never know! - then ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre.
[His voice gains power] Why?…What is my fault? …
Until this day I have pursued virtue with rigour. I have laboured long hours to relieve my fellow men. I have worked and worked the talent you have allowed me.
[calling up] You know how hard I've worked! - Solely that in the end, in the practice of the art which alone makes the world comprehensible to me, I might hear Your Voice! And now I do hear it - and it says only one name: MOZART!
… Spiteful, sniggering, conceited, infantile Mozart! - who has never worked one minute to help another man! - shit-talking Mozart with his botty-smacking wife! - him you have chosen to be your sole conduct!
And my only reward - my sublime - privilege - is to be the sole man alive in this time who shall clearly recognise your Incarnation!
[savagely] Grazie e grazie ancora!
[pause] So be it! From this time we are enemies, You and I! I'll not accept it from You - Do you hear?… They say God is not mocked. I tell you, Man is not mocked!… I am not mocked!… They say the spirit bloweth where it listeth : I tell you NO! It must list to virtue or not blow at all! What else is virtue for, but to fit us for Your incarnations?
[Yelling] Dio Ingiusto! - You are the Enemy!
I name Thee now - Nemico Eterno!
And this I swear. To my last breath I shall block you on earth, as far as I am able.
[He glares up at God.]
[To audience]: What use, after all, is Man, if not to teach God His lessons?
Capisco!
I know my fate.
Smashed. Smashed Down - The Palace of Sound!
Now for the first time I feel my emptiness, as Adam felt his nakedness.
[He rises]
Tonight at an inn somewhere in this city stands a giggling child who can put down on paper, without actually setting down his billiard cue, casual notes which turn my considered ones into lifeless scratches.
Grazie Signore!
You gave me the desire to serve you - which most men do not have - then saw to it the service was shameful in the ears of the server.
Grazie!
You gave me the desire to praise you- which most men do not have - then made me mute.
Grazie tanti!
You put into me perception of the Incomparable - which most men never know! - then ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre.
[His voice gains power] Why?…What is my fault? …
Until this day I have pursued virtue with rigour. I have laboured long hours to relieve my fellow men. I have worked and worked the talent you have allowed me.
[calling up] You know how hard I've worked! - Solely that in the end, in the practice of the art which alone makes the world comprehensible to me, I might hear Your Voice! And now I do hear it - and it says only one name: MOZART!
… Spiteful, sniggering, conceited, infantile Mozart! - who has never worked one minute to help another man! - shit-talking Mozart with his botty-smacking wife! - him you have chosen to be your sole conduct!
And my only reward - my sublime - privilege - is to be the sole man alive in this time who shall clearly recognise your Incarnation!
[savagely] Grazie e grazie ancora!
[pause] So be it! From this time we are enemies, You and I! I'll not accept it from You - Do you hear?… They say God is not mocked. I tell you, Man is not mocked!… I am not mocked!… They say the spirit bloweth where it listeth : I tell you NO! It must list to virtue or not blow at all! What else is virtue for, but to fit us for Your incarnations?
[Yelling] Dio Ingiusto! - You are the Enemy!
I name Thee now - Nemico Eterno!
And this I swear. To my last breath I shall block you on earth, as far as I am able.
[He glares up at God.]
[To audience]: What use, after all, is Man, if not to teach God His lessons?