We can do it tomorrow.

Turn out that bedroom light-and

close the window. (Music playing softly becomes audible as
the men go out slowly, closing 1h11 Joor, MUI the light fades
ou.t.)
CUJlTAlN

Auto-Da-Fe
A Tragedy in One Act

104,
 CHARACTERS Auto-Da-Fe
MME. DuvENET
EL01,* her son. ScENE: The front porch of an old fram8 cottage in the V~
Ca"e of New Orleans. There are palm or bfJtlana trees, one on
either .side of the porch steps: pots of geraniums and other vivid
flowers along the low bal-ustrade. There is an effect of sinister
flntiquity in the setting, trCJen the flowers suggesting the rich,us.s
of decay. Not far off on Bourbon Street the lurid -procession of
* Pronounced EU-wan. The part i.s eruteJ /Of' Mr. John Abhotl. bars and hot-spots throws out distance-muted strains of the juke-
organs and occasional .shouts of laughter. Mme. Du,;enet, a frail
woman of sixty-s8'Ven, is rocking on the porch ;,, the faint, sad
glow of an August sunset. Eloi, her son, comes out the sere~
door. He i.s a frail man in his late thirties," gaunt, ascetic type
with f 8'Veri.rh dark eyes.
Mother and son are both fanatics and, thMr speech has SOm-8-
thin g_of the quality of poetic or religious incantation.

MME: DuvENET: Why did you speak so crossly to Miss Bor-

ddon?
ELol: (standing against the column) She gets on my nerves.
MME. DuvENET: You take a dislike to every boarder we get.
EL01: She's not to be trusted. I think she goes in my room.
MME. DuvENET: What makes you think that?
EL01: I've found some evidence of it.
MME. DuvENET: Well, I can assure you she doesn't go in your
room.
ELoI: Somebody goes in my room and roots through my things.
MME. DuvENET: Nobody ever touches a thing in your room.
ELoJ: My room is my own. I don't want anyone in it.
107
MME, DuvENET: You know very well that I have to go in to purity all the time, and yet you're willing to stay in the 111iclst
clean it. of corruption.
EL01: I don't want it cleaned. MME. DuvENET: I harp on nothing. I stay here because I have
MME, DuvENET: You want the room to be filthy? to. And as for corruption, I've never allowed it to touch me.
EL01: Just don't go in it to clean it or anything else. EL01: It does, it does. We can't help breathing it here. It gets
MME. DuvENET: How could you live in a room that was never in our nostrils and even goes in our blood.
cleaned? MME. DuvENET: I think you're the one that harps on things
EL01 : I'll clean it myself when cleaning is necessary. around here. You won't talk quietly. You always By off on
MME, DuvENET: A person would think that you were conceal- some tangent and raise your voice and get us all stirred up
ing something. for no good reason.
EL01: What would I have to conceal? ELoI: I've had about all that I can put up with, Mother.
MME. DuvENET: Nothing that I can imagine. That's why it's MME. DuvENET: Then what do you want to dor
so strange that you have such a strong objection to even your EL01: Move, move. This asthma of mine, in a pure-atmosphere
mother going into your room. uptown where the air is fresher, I know that I wouldn't have
EL01: Everyone wants a little privacy, Mother. it nearly so often.
MME. DuvENET: (;tiffty} Your privacy, Eloi, shall be regarded MME. DuvENET: I leave it entirely to you. If you can find
as sacred. someone to make an acceptable offer, I'm willing to move.
EL01: Huh. E;c.o1: You don't have the power to move or the will to break
MME. DuvENET: I'll just allow the filth to accumulate there. from anything that you're used to. You don't know how much
EL01: (sharply) What do you mean by "the filth"? we've been affected already!
MME. DuvENET: (sadly) The dust and disorder that you would MME. DuvENET: By what, Eloi?
rather live in than have your mother come in to clean it up. E~o1: :his feti? old swamp we live in, the Vieux Carre! Every
EL01: Your broom and your dust-pan wouldn't accomplish unagmable kmd of degeneracy springs up here, not at arm's
length, even, but right in our presence!
much. Even the air in this neighborhood is unclean.
MME. DuvENET: Now I think you're exaggerating a little.
MME. DuvENET: It is not as clean as it might be. I love clean
ELOr: You read the papers, you hear people talk, you walk past
window-curtains, I love white linen, I want immaculate, spot-
open windows. You can't be entirely unconscious of what goes
less things in a house.
on! A woman was horribly mutilated last night. A man
ELoI: Then why don't we move to the new part of town
smashed a bottle and twisted the jagged end of it in her face.
where it's cleaner?
~ME, DuvENET: They bring such things on themselves by
MME, DuvENET: The property in this block has lost all value. their loose behavior.
We couldn't sell our place for what it would cost us to put EL01: Night after night there are crimes taking place in the
new paint on the walls. parks.
EL01: I q.on't understand you, Mother. You harp on purity, MME. DuvENET: The parks aren't all in the Quarter.
108
109
ELOI: '"{he parks aren't all in the Quarter but decadence is. EL01: (after II thoughtful pause).1 ~m breathing hoa,;sely.
This is the primary lesion, the-focal infection, the--cltancrcl MME. DuvENET: Sit down and try to relax. ·
In medical language, it spreads by-metastasis! It creeps E!,01: I can>t any more.
through the capillaries and into the main blood vessels. From MME, DuvENET: You'd better go in and take an.amytal tablet.
there it is spread all through the surrounding tissue! Finally EL01: I don't want to get to depending too much on drugs. I'm
nothing is left outside the decay! not very well, I'm never well any more.
MME, DuvENET: Eloi, you are being unnecessarily violent in MME. DuvENET: You never will take the proper care of your~
your speech. self.
EL01: I feel that strongly about it. EL01: I can hardly remember the time when I really felt good.
MME. DuvENET: You mustn't allow yourself to sound like a MME, DuvENET: You've never been quite as strong as I'd like
fanatic. you to be.
EL01: You take-no-stand against it? EL01: I seem to have chronic fatigue.
MME. DuvENET: You know the stand that I take. MME, DuvENET: The Duvenet trouble has always been mostly
ELoI: I know what ought to be done. with nerves.
MME. DuvENET: There ought to be legislation to make for re- EL01: Look! I had a sinus infection! You call that nerves?
forms. MME. DuvENET: No, but-
Eto1: Not only reforms but action really drastic! EL01: Look! This asthma, this choking, this suffocation I have,
MME, DuvENET: I favor that, too, within all practical bounds. do you call that nerves?
EL01: Practical, practical. You can't be practical, Mother, and ¥ME, DuvENET: I never agreed with the doctor about t-hat
wipe out evil! The town should be razed. condition.
MME. DuvENET: You mean this old section torn down? EL01: You hate all doctors, you're rabid on the subject!
ELOI: Condemned and demolished! MME. DuvENET: I think all healing begins with faith in the
MME, DuvENET: That's not a reasonable stand. spirit.
EL01: It's the stand I take. EL01: How can I keep on going when I don't sleep?
MME. DuvENET: Then I'm afraid you're not a reasonable per- MME. DuvENET: I think your insomnia's caused by eating at
son. night.
ELoI: I have good precedence for it. EL01: It soothes my stomach.
MME. DuvENx-r: What do you mean? MME. DuvENET: Liquids would serve that purpose!
EL01: All through the Scriptures are cases of cities destroyed by EL01: Liquids don't satisfy me. .
the justice of fire when they got to be nests of foulness! MME. DuvENET: Well, something digestible, then. A little hot
MME. DUVENET: Eloi, Eloi. cereal maybe with cocoa or Postum.
ELot: Condemn it, I say, and purify it with fire! EL01: All that kind of slop is nauseating to look at!
MME. DuvENET: You're breathing hoarsely. That's what brings MME, DuvENET: I notice at night you won't keep the covers
on asthma, over-excitement, not just breathing bad air! on you. ·
· I IO II I
 •
EL01: I can't stand covers in summer. EL01: You just don't know. (dMkly) There's lots of things that
MME. DuvENET: You've got to have something over your body you don't know about, Mother.
at night. MME. DuvENET: I've never pretended nor wished to know a
EL01: Oh, Lord, oh, Lord. great deal. (They fall into a silence, and Mme. Duvenet
MME. DuvENET: Your body perspires and when it's exposed, rocks slO'Wly back and forth. The light is nearly gone. A dis-
you catch cold l tant fuJee.boJC can he heMd playing "The New San Antonio
EL01: You're rabid upon the subject of catching cold.
Ro1e." She speaks, finally, in a gentle, liturgical tone.) There
MME. DuvENET: Only because you're unusually prone to colds. are three simple rules I wish that you would observe. One:
EL01: (with curious intensity) It isn't a coldt It is a sinus in- you should wear under-shirts whenever there's changeable
fection! weather1 Two: don't sleep without covers, don't kick them off
MME. DuvENET: Sinus infection and all catarrhal conditions arc in the night! Three: chew your food, don't gulp it. Eat like
caused by the same things as colds! a human being and not like a dog! In addition to those three
EL01: At ten every morning, as regular as clock~work, a head- very simple rules of common hygiene, all that you need is
ache commences and doesn't let up till late in the afternoon. faith in spiritual healing! (Eloi looks at her for a moment in
MME, DuvENET: Nasal congestion is often the cause of head- weary desperation. Then he groom aloud and rises from the
ache. steps.) Why that look, and the groan?
EL01: Nasal congestion has nothing to do with this one! Eto1: (intensely) You-just-don't-know/
MME. DuvENET: How do you know?
MME. DuvENET: Know what?
Eto1: It isn't in that location! ELOr: Your world is so simple, you live in a fool's paradise!
MME. DuvENET: Where is it, then? MME. DUVENET: Do I indeedl
ELoI: It's here at the base of the skull. And it runs around here. EL01: Yes, Mother, you do indeed! I stand in your presence a
MME. DuvENET: Around where? stranger, a person unknown! I live in a house where nobody
EL01: Around here! knows my name!
MME. DuvENET: (tou.&hing his forehead) Oh! There! MME. DuvENET: You tire me, Eloi, when you become so ex-
Eto1: No, no, are you blind? I said here! citedl
MME. DuvENET: Oh, here! EL01: You just don't know. You rock on the porch and talk
ELOI: Yes! Here! about clean white curtains! While I'm a.11 flame, all burning,
MME. DuvENET: Well, that could be eye•strain. and no bell rings, nobody gives an alarm!
Eto1: When Pve just changed my glasses? MME. DUVENET: What are you talking about?
EL01: Intolerable burden! The conscience of all dirty men!
MME. DuvENET: You read consistently in the wrong kind 0£
light. MME. DUVENET: I don't understand you.
ELoI: You seem to think I'm a saboteur of myself. EL01: How can I speak any plainer?
MME. DuvENET: You actually are. MME. DuvENET: You go to confession!
IIZ 113
EL01: The priest is a cripple in skirts! MME. DuvENET: You got a letter from someone? And that
MME. DuvENET: How can you say that! upset you?
EL01: Because I have seen his skirts and his crutches and heard
Eto1: I didn't get any letter.
his meaningless mumble through the wall!
MME, DUVENET: Then what did you mean by "a letter"?
MME. DuvENET: Don't speak like that in my presence!
EL01: A letter came into my hands by accident, Mother.
EL01: It's worn-out magic, it doesn't burn any more!
MME. DUVENET: While you were sorting the maiU
MME. DuvENET: Burn any more? Why should it! EL01: Yes.
EL01: Because there needs to be burning!
MME. DuvENET: What was there about it to prey on your mind
MME. DuvENET: For what?
so much?
ELoJ: (leaning against the column) Fot the sake of burning, for
EL01: The letter w~ mailed unsealed, and something fell out.
God for the purification! Oh, God, oh, God. I can't go back
, house, and I can't stay out on the porch! I can' t even MME. DuvENET: Something fell out of the unsealed envelope?
in the
EL01: Yes!
breathe very freely, I don't know w:hat is about to happen
MME, DuvENET: What was it fell out?
to me!
ELoI: A picture.
MME. DuvENET: You're going to bring on an attack. Sit
MME. DuvENET: A what?
down! Now tell me quietly and calmly what is the matter?
EL01: A picture!
What have you had on your mind for the last ten days?
EL01: How do you know that I've had something on my I?irid? MME. DtrVENET: What kind of a picture? (H 6 does not answer.
MME. DuvENET: You've had something on your mind since The julee-hox starts playing again ths same tune with its idiotic
a week ago Tuesday. gaiety in ths distance.) Eloi, what kind of a picture fell out
EL01: Yes, that's true. I have. I didn't suppose you'd noticed •••
of the envelope?
MME. DuvENET: What happened at the post-office? EL01: (gently and sadly) Miss Bordelon is standing in the hall
EL01: How did you guess it was there? and overhearing every word I say.
MME. DuvENET: Because there is nothing at home to explain MME, DUVENET: (turning sharply) She's not in the hall.
your condition. EL01: Her ear is clapped to the door!
EL01: (leaning back exhau.rtetlly) No. MME. DuvENET: She's in her bedroom reading•.
MME. DuvENET: Then obviously it was something where you EL01: Reading what?
work. MME. DUVENET: How do I know what she's reading? What
EL01: Yes ... difFerence does it make what she is reading!
MME. DuvENET: What was it, Eloi? (Far down the street" EL01: She keeps a journal of everything said in the house. I feel
tamale vendor cries out in his curiously rich haunting 'fJoi&e: her taking short-hand notes at the table!
"Re-ed ho-ot, re-ed ho-ot, re-e-ed!" He moves in the other di- MME. DuvENET: Why, for what purpose, would she take short-
.
rection and fades from heanng.) . El01.-~
What was 1t, hand notes on our conversation?
EL01: A letter. EL01: Haven't you heard of hired investigators?
.114 115
MME. DuvENET: Eloi, you,re talking and saying such horrible MME. DUVENET: Investigation? Of what?
things! EL01: Of all the circumstances around the case.
EL0_1: (gently) I may be wrong. I may be wrong. MME. DUVENET: What circumstances are there to think of but
MME. DuvENET: Eloi, of course you're mistaken! Now go on the fact that somebody used the mails for that purpose! ·
and tell me what you started to say about the picture. EL01: The youth of the sender has something to "do with the
EL01: A lewd photograph fell out of the envelope. case.
MME. DuvENET: A what? MME. DuvENET: The sender was young?
EL01: An indecent picture. EL01: The sender was only nineteen.
MME. DuvENET: Of whom? MME. DuvENET: And are the sender's parents still alive?
EL01: <yf two naked figures. EL01: Both of them still living and in the city. The sender hap-
MME. DuvENET: Oh! ... That's all it was? pens to be an only child.
EL01: You haven't looked at the picture. MME. DuvENET: How do you know these facts about the
MME. DuvENET: Was it so bad? sender?
EL01: It passes beyond all description! EL01: Because I've conducted a private investigation.
MME. DuvENET: As bad as all that? MME. DuvENET: How did you go about that?
ELoI: No. Worse. I felt ·as though something exploded, blew .ELot: I called on the sender, I went to the dormitory. We
up in my hands, and scalded my face with acid! talked in private and everything was disc~d. The attitude
MME. DuvENET: Who sent this horrible photograph to you, taken was that I had come for money. That I was intending
Eloi? to hold the letter for blackmail.
EL01: It wasn't to me. MME. DuvENET: How perfectly awful.
MME. DuvENET: Who was it addressed to? ELOI: Of course I had to explain that I was a federal employee
ELot: One of those-opulent-antique dealers on-Royal ... who had some obligation to his employers, and that it was
MME. DuvENET: And who was the sender? really excessively fair on my part to even delay the action
EL01: A university student. that ought to be taken.
MME. DuvENET: Isn't the sender liable to prosecution? MME. DuvENET: The action that has to be taken!
EL01: Of course. And to years in prison. ELoI: And then the sender began to be ugly. Abusive. I can't
MME. DuvENET: I see no reason for clemency in such i case. repeat the charges, the evil suggestions! I ran from the room.
ELot: Neither did I. · I leh my hat in the room. I couldn't even go back to pick
MME. DuvENET: Then what did you do about it? it up!
ELot: I haven't done anything yet. MME. DuvENET: Eloi, Eloi. Oh, my dear Eloi. When did this
MME. DuvENET: Eloi! You haven•t reported it to the author- happen, the interview with the sender? •
ities yet? EL01: The interview was on Friday.
ELoI: I haven't reported it to the authorities yet. MME. DuvENET: Three days ago. And you haven't done any-
MME. DuvENET: I can't imagine one reason to hesitate! thing yet?
ELot: I couldn,t proceed without some investigation. ELot: I thought and I thought and I couldn't take any action!
116 117 .
MME. DuvENET: Now it's too late.
EL01: Destroy it?
EL01: Why do you say it's t.oo late?
MME, DuvENET: Yes!
MME. DuvENET: You've held the lett~r too long to take any
EL01:How?
action.
EL01: Oh', no, I haven't. I'm not paralyzed any long~. MME Dt1VENET: Bum it! (Eloi rises unsteadily. For a third
MME, DuvENET: But if you report on the letter now they will
timtJ the distant juice-organ begins to grind out "The New San
ask why _you haven't reported on it sooner! Antonio Rose," with its polka rhythm and cries of insane
exultation.)
Eto1: I can explain t:he responsibility of it!
Eto1: (faintly) Yes, yes-burn it!
MME, DuvENET: -No, no, it's much better not to do anything
MME. DuvENET: Burn it this very instant!
now!
EL01: I'll take it inside to burn it.
EL01: I've got to do something.
MME. DuvENET: No, bum it right here in my presence.
MME. DuvENET: You'd better destroy the letter.
Eto1: You can't look at it.
Eto1: And let the offenders go scot free?
MME. DuvENET: My God, my God, I would pluck out my
MME, DuvENET: What else can you do since you've hesitated
eyes before they would look at that picture!
~o long!
EL01: (hoarsely) I think it is better to go in the kitchen or
Eto1: There's got to be punishment for it!
basement.
MME, DuvENET: Where is the letter?
MME. Duv.ENET: No, no, Eloi, burn it here! On the porch!
Eto1: I have it here in my pocket.
EL01: Somebody might see.
MME. DuvENET: You have that thing on your person?
MME. DuvENET: What of it?
Eto1: My inside pocket.
EL01: It might be thought that it was something of mine.
MME. DuvENET: Oh, Eloi, how stupid, how foolish! Suppose
MME. DuvENET: Eloi, Eloi, take it out and burn it! ·Do you
something happened and something like that was found on
hear me? Bum it now! This instant!
you while you were unconscious and couldn't explain how you
EL01: Turn your back. I'll take it out of my pocket.
got it.
MME. DuvENET: (turning) Have you matches, Eloi?
EL01: Lower your voice! That woman is listening to us!
Eto1: (sadly) Yes, I have them, Mother,
MME. DuvENET: Miss Bordelon? No!
MME. DuvENET: Very well, then. Burn the letter and burn the
EL01: She is, she is. She's hired as investigator. She claps her ear
terrible picture. (Eloi fumblingly removes some papers from
to the wall when I talk in my sleep!
kir inside pocket. Hu htJnd is shaking so tlult the -picture /alls
MME. DuvENET: Eloi, Eloi.
from hi.r gt'QJp to the -porch-steps. Eloi groms as he stoops
Eto1: They've hired her to spy, to poke and pry in the house!
slowly to -picle it up.) Eloi! What is the matter?
MME. DuvENET: Who do you mean?
Eto1: I-dropped the picture.
ELOI: The sender, the antique-dealer!
MME. DuvENET: Pick it up and set fire to it quickly!
MME. DuvENET: You're talking so wildly you scare me. Eloi,
EL01: Yes ... (He strikes a match. His /ace is livid in the glow
you've got to destroy that letter at once!
of the flame and tlS he stares at the slip of paper, his eyes
118
119

-
 seem to start from his head. He is breathing hoarsely. H 11
drt1WS the flame and the papM within on11 ineh of eaeh other
but seems unable to move them any closer. All 11t ones ha
Ulters t1 strangled cry and lets the match fall.)
MME, DuvENET: (turning) Eloi, you've burned your fingers!
EL01: Yes!
MME. DuvENET: Oh, come in the kitchen and let me put soda.
Lord :Byron's Love Letter
on it! (Eloi turns and goes quickly into the house. She sttJrts
to follow.) Go right in the kitchen! We'll put on baking soda!
( She reaches for the handle of the s&t'een door. Eloi slips t"8
latch into place. Madame Du'Venet f>Ulls the door and finds ii
locked.) Eloi! (He stare.sat her through the screen. A note
of terror comes into her 'Voice.) Eloi! You've latched the
door! What are you thinking of, Eloi? (Eloi backs slowly
away and out of sight,) Eloi, Eloi! Come back here and open
this door! (A door slams inside the house, and the boarder's
voice is raised in surprise and anger. Mme. Duvenet is now
caUing frantital.ly.) Eloi, Eloi! Why have you locked me
out? What are you doing in there? Open the screen.door,
please! (Eloi's voice is raised violently. The woman insidtt
cries out with fear. There is a metallic clatter as though a tin
object were hurled against a wall. The woman s&t'ersms; then
there is a muffeed explosion. Mme. Duvenet claws and beats
ot the screen door.) Eloi! Eloi! Oh, answer me, Eloi!
(There is a sudden burst of fiery light from the interior of l

the cottage. It spills through the screen door and out upon
the clawing, witch-like figure of the old woman. She S&t'eams
in panic and turns diz.:zily about. With stiff, grotesque mov11-
ments and gestures, she staggers down the porch-steps, and
hegins to shout hoarsely and despairingly.) Fire! Fire! The
house is on fire, on fire, the J:iouse is on fire!

CURTAIN

1'20