- 13 minutes ago
Published in 1879 by Luigi Capuana (1839-1915), this is a very early and quite amazing interrogation scene, written as a piece of classic Italian fiction. It had huge influence on later mafia related movies, such as those by Scorese and many others.
The narrator is Michael Henrik Wynn, the editor of the 24/7 educational net radio stream, Historyradio.org.
The narrator is Michael Henrik Wynn, the editor of the 24/7 educational net radio stream, Historyradio.org.
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00:00The Deposition by Luigi Capuano
00:05Narrated by Michael Henry Wynn
00:17Ah, che giornata magnifica!
00:20Sì, la vita è bella.
00:22Guarda la gente.
00:24Ma che stai facendo? Lasciami andare!
00:27Ti giuro che sono innocente!
00:33I know nothing about it, Your Honor.
00:37Nothing at all? How can that be?
00:39It all happened within fifty yards of his shop.
00:43Nothing at all, I say, in an offhand way.
00:46But really next to nothing.
00:48I'm a barber, Your Honor.
00:50Heavens be praised, I have custom enough to keep me busy from morning till night.
00:56There are three of us in the shop, and with all the shaving and combing and hair cutting,
01:01not one of us three at the time to stop and scratch his head.
01:04And I, least of all, many of my customers are so kind as to prefer my services to those of
01:13my two young men.
01:15Perhaps because I amused with my little jokes.
01:20And with all the laithering and shaving this face and that, and combing the hair of so many heads,
01:26how does Your Honor expect me to pay attention to other people's affairs?
01:32And the morning I read about it in the paper, why, I stood there with my mouth open and I
01:37said,
01:37Well, that was the way it was bound to end.
01:42Why did you say that was the way it was bound to end?
01:46Why, because it had ended that way.
01:48You see, on the instance that I called to mind the ugly face of the husband,
01:54every time I saw him pass up or down the streets,
01:57it's one of those impressions that one cannot account for.
02:00I used to think that fellow was the face of a convict.
02:04But of course, that proves nothing.
02:06There are plenty who have the bad luck to be uglier than mortal sin.
02:10But very worthy people all the same.
02:14But in this case, I didn't think I was mistaken.
02:18But you were friends.
02:19He used to come very often and sit at the entrance to your barber shop.
02:23Very often?
02:24Well, only once in a while or other.
02:27By your leave, neighbor, he would say.
02:29He always called me neighbor.
02:31That was his name for everyone.
02:33I would say,
02:34Well, certainly.
02:36The chair stood there empty.
02:38Your honor understands that I could hardly be so uncivil as to say to him,
02:43No, you cannot sit down.
02:46A barber shop is a public place like a cafe or a beer saloon.
02:52At all events, one may sit down without paying for it.
02:55Not you.
02:56And no need to have a shave or haircut either.
03:00By your leave, neighbor.
03:02And there he would sit in silence, smoking and scowling with his eyes half shut.
03:09He would loathe for half an hour, an hour, sometimes longer.
03:12He annoyed me.
03:14I don't deny it.
03:15From the very start, there was a good deal of talk.
03:19What sort of talk?
03:21A good deal of talk.
03:22Your honor knows better than I how evil-minded people are.
03:27I make it a practice not to believe a syllable of what I'm told about anybody.
03:31Good or evil.
03:33That's the way I keep out of trouble.
03:36Come, come.
03:37What sort of talk?
03:38Keep to the point.
03:40What sort of talk?
03:41One day they would say this, and the next they would say that.
03:45And by harping on it long enough, they made themselves believe that the wife...
03:49Well, your honor knows that the pretty wife is a chastisement of God.
03:55And there are some things you can't help seeing.
04:00Unless you won't see.
04:03Then it was he, the husband.
04:05I know nothing about it, your honor.
04:07Nothing at all.
04:08But it is true that every time he came and sat down by my doorway inside the shop,
04:13I used to say to myself,
04:15If that man can't see, he certainly must be blind.
04:20And if he won't see, he certainly must be...
04:24Well, your honor knows what I mean.
04:27There's certainly no getting out of that.
04:30Out of that.
04:31Perhaps your honor can help me with the right word.
04:36Dilemma?
04:38Dilemma, yes, your honor.
04:40And Biazi, the notary who comes to me to be shamed,
04:43And uses another word that just fits the case.
04:46Begging your honor's pardon.
04:50Then according to you, this, uh, Don Nicasio,
04:55Oh, I will put my finger in the pie.
04:57Let him answer for himself.
04:58Everyone has a conscience of his own.
05:00And Jesus Christ has said,
05:03Judge not, lest ye be judged.
05:07Well, one morning, or was it in the evening?
05:09I don't remember exactly.
05:11Yes, now he comes back to me.
05:13It wasn't the morning.
05:14I saw him pass by, scowling with his head bent down.
05:19I was in my doorway, sharpening a razor.
05:23Out of curiosity, I gave him a passing word as well as a nod,
05:28Adding a gesture that was as good as a question.
05:31He came up to me, looked me straight in the face,
05:35And answered, haven't I told you that sooner or later I should do something crazy?
05:44And I shall, neighbor, yes, I shall.
05:47They are dragging me by the air.
05:49Let me cut it off, then, I answered jokingly,
05:53To make him forget himself.
05:57So he had told you before, had he?
06:00How did he happen to tell you before?
06:02Oh, your honor knows how words slip out of the mouth at certain moments.
06:06Who pays attention to them?
06:08For my part, I have too many other things in my head.
06:13Come, come.
06:14What had he been talking about when he told you before?
06:18Great heavens, give it up to think, your honor.
06:21What had he been talking about?
06:23Why his wife, of course, who knows?
06:26Someone must have put a plea in his ears.
06:28It needs only half a word to ruin a poor devil's peace of mind.
06:33And that is how a man lets such words slip out of his mouth as,
06:37Sooner or later I shall do something crazy.
06:42That is all.
06:43I know nothing else about it, your honor.
06:47And the only answer you made him was a joke.
06:50I could not say to him, go ahead and do it, could I?
06:54As it was, he went off shaking his head.
06:57But what idea he kept brooding over after that, who knows?
07:02One can't see inside of another man's brain.
07:06But sometimes when I heard him freeing his mind,
07:10then he used to free his mind to.
07:13Why, yes, to me and maybe to others as besides.
07:16You see, one bears things and one bears things and one bears things.
07:21And at last, rather than burst with them,
07:24one frees one's mind to the first man who comes along.
07:31But you were not the first man who came along.
07:34You used to call at his house.
07:37Only as a barber, your honor.
07:39Only when Don Igazio used to send for me.
07:42And very often I would get there too late, though I tried my best.
07:46And very likely you sometimes went there when you knew he was not at home.
07:51On purpose, your honor?
07:53No, never.
07:54And when you found out his wife alone, you allowed yourself.
07:59Calumnus, your honor, who dares say such things.
08:02Does she say so?
08:04It may be that once or twice a few words escape means, yes.
08:09I, you know how it is when I find myself face to face with a pretty woman.
08:14You know how it is.
08:16If only not to cut a foolish figure.
08:22But it was very far from a joke.
08:25You ended by threatening her.
08:27What calumny is threatening her?
08:29What for?
08:30A woman of her stamp doesn't need to be threatened.
08:32I would never have stooped so low.
08:35I'm no schoolboy.
08:38Passion leads men into all sorts of folly.
08:41That woman is capable of anything.
08:44She would slander our lord himself to his face.
08:46Passion.
08:47I, at my age, am well on the fores, your honor.
08:52I may get many a gray hair besides.
08:54Many a folly I've committed in my youth like everyone else.
08:57But nah.
08:59Besides, with a woman like that.
09:01I was no blind man, even if Don Ocasio was.
09:06I knew that young fellow, poor fool, he paid dearly for her.
09:10I know he had turned her head.
09:13That's the way with some women.
09:15They go their own gait.
09:16They're off with one and on with another.
09:19And that they end by becoming the slave to some scullerag who robs and abuses them.
09:24He used to beat her, your honor.
09:26Many, many a time, your honor.
09:29And I, for the sake of the poor husband whom I pitied.
09:32Yes, that's why she says I threatened him.
09:35She says so because I was foolish enough to give her a talking to the day Don Ocasio said to
09:41me,
09:41I shall do something crazy.
09:45She knew what I meant.
09:47At least she pretended that she did.
09:49No, this was what you said.
09:51Yes, your honor.
09:52I remember exactly what I said.
09:54To spoil your sport, I told her, if it sends me to the galleys.
09:58But I was speaking in the name of the husband.
10:01In the heat of the moment, one falls into the part.
10:06The husband knew nothing of all this.
10:08Was I to boast of him, of what I've done?
10:11A friend either gives his services or he won't do, or he doesn't.
10:15That's how I understand it.
10:18Why were you so much concerned about it?
10:22I would not have been, your honor.
10:25I had too soft a heart.
10:29Your threats became troublesome.
10:32I'm not threats alone, but promise after promise, and gifts besides.
10:36A ring and a pair of earrings.
10:38That's true.
10:39I won't deny it.
10:40I found them in my pocket, quite out of chance.
10:42They belonged to my wife.
10:44But I did it to keep poor Don Ocasio from doing something crazy.
10:49If I only could win my point, I told myself,
10:51if I could only get that young fellow out of the way,
10:54then it would be time enough to say to John Ocasio,
10:57if my friend gave me back my ring and my earrings.
11:02He would not have needed to be told twice.
11:04He is an honorable man, Don Ocasio.
11:09But when she answered you,
11:11keep them to yourself, I don't want them,
11:13you began to beg her, almost in tears.
11:17Aye, your honor,
11:19since you must be told,
11:20I don't know how I managed to control myself.
11:23I have completely put myself in the place of that.
11:26I could have strangled them with my own hands.
11:28I could have done that very same crazy thing
11:31that Don Ocasio thought of doing.
11:35Yet you were very prudent.
11:36That is evident.
11:37You said to yourself,
11:38if not for me, then for him,
11:40the lover of him, not Don Ocasio.
11:42And you began to work upon the husband,
11:44who up to that time had let things slide,
11:47either because he did not believe,
11:49or because he preferred to bear the lesser evil.
11:53It may be that some chance word escaped me.
11:57There are times when a man of honor loses his head,
12:00but beyond that, nothing, your honor.
12:02Don Ocasio himself will bear me witness.
12:05But Don Ocasio says,
12:07He too!
12:10As he turned against me.
12:13A fine way to show his gratitude.
12:17He has nothing to be grateful for.
12:20Don't excite yourself.
12:21Sit down again.
12:22You began by protesting
12:23that you knew nothing about it at all.
12:26And yet you know so many things.
12:27You must know quite a number more.
12:30Don't excite yourself.
12:31You want to drag me over a precipice, your honor.
12:33I begin to understand.
12:36Men who are blinded by passion
12:38to walk over precipices on their own feet.
12:41But then, your honor, imagine that I, myself,
12:45I imagine nothing.
12:46It is evident that you were the instigator,
12:49and nothing more than the instigator too.
12:51Calumny, calumny, your honor.
12:53That same evening,
12:54you were seen talking with the husband
12:56and her quite late.
12:57I was trying to persuade him not to.
12:59I said to him,
13:00Let things alone.
13:01Since it is your misfortune to have it so,
13:03what difference does it make
13:05whether he is the one or somebody else?
13:07He kept repeating,
13:08Somebody else, yes.
13:10But not that rotten beast.
13:12His very words, your honor.
13:15You stood at the corner of the adjoining street,
13:17lying in wait.
13:18Who saw me there?
13:20Who saw us, your honor?
13:22You were seen.
13:23Come, make up your mind to tell me all you know.
13:27It would be better for you.
13:28The woman testifies there were two of them,
13:30but in the dark she could not recognize the other.
13:33Just because I wanted to do a kind act.
13:36This is what I brought on myself
13:38by trying to do one kind act.
13:41You stood at the street corner.
13:44It was like this, your honor.
13:45I had gone with him as far as that,
13:48but when I saw that it was no use to try to stop him,
13:51it was striking eleven,
13:53the streets were deserted,
13:54I started to leave him indignantly
13:56without a parting word.
13:58Well, what next?
14:00Do I need thongs to drag the words out of your mouth?
14:03What next?
14:04Why, your honor knows how it is at night
14:06under the lamp.
14:07You see, and then you don't see.
14:08That's the way it is.
14:10I turned around,
14:11O'Kaziar plunged through the doorway of his home
14:13just by the entrance to the little lay.
14:14I cried nothing more.
14:16You ran forward.
14:18That was quite natural.
14:19I hesitated on the threshold.
14:21The hallway was so dark.
14:23You couldn't have done that.
14:25The woman would have recognized you
14:26by the lamp of the streetlights.
14:28The lamp is some distance off.
14:31You went in one after the other.
14:33Which of you shut the door?
14:34Because the door was shut immediately.
14:36In the confusion of the moment,
14:38two men struggling together,
14:39I could hear them gasping.
14:40I wanted to call for help.
14:42Then I fall.
14:43And then I felt myself seized by the arm.
14:46Run, neighbor, run.
14:47This is no business of yours.
14:51It didn't sound like the voice of a human being.
14:53And that was how.
14:54That was how I happened to be there.
14:56A helpless witness, your honor.
14:58I think that O'Kaziar meant to kill his wife, too.
15:01The wretched woman escaped.
15:02She ran and shot herself up in the room.
15:05And that is how you have read so afterwards in the papers.
15:10The husband would have been wise
15:12that you have killed her first.
15:15Evil weeds had better be torn up by the roots.
15:20What more do you have in that man right, your honor?
15:24Nothing at all, as you call it.
15:26Just your deposition.
15:27The clerk will read it to you now,
15:29and you will sign it.
15:31Can any harm come from it?
15:33I am innocent, your honor.
15:35I have only said what you wanted to make me say.
15:38You have tangled me up in a fine net,
15:40like that little fresh water fish.
15:43Wait a moment.
15:44And this is the most important thing of all.
15:47How did it happen that the mortal wounds
15:49of the dead man's body were made with a razor?
15:52Oh, the treachery of Don Igazio.
15:55My God.
15:57My God.
15:57Yes, your honor.
15:58Two days before.
15:59No one can think of everything.
16:00No one can foresee everything.
16:01He came to the shop and said to me,
16:03Neighbor, lend me a razor.
16:08I have a corn that is troubling me.
16:11He was so matter-of-fact about it
16:13that I did not hesitate for an instant.
16:16I even warned him,
16:18Be careful.
16:19You can't joke with corns,
16:21a little blood,
16:22and you might start a cancer.
16:26Don't borrow trouble, neighbor,
16:28he answered.
16:30But the razor could not be found.
16:33You must have brought it away.
16:34I?
16:35Who would remember a little thing like that?
16:37I was more dead than alive, your honor.
16:40Where are you trying to lead me with your questions?
16:43I tell you I'm innocent.
16:45Do not deny so obstinately.
16:48A fraggly confession will help you far more than to protest your innocence.
16:52The facts speak clearly enough.
16:54It is well known how passion maddens the heart and the brain.
16:57A man in that state is no longer himself.
17:01That is the truth, your honor.
17:04The wretched woman by which she is sending me to the galleys.
17:10The more she said no, no, no,
17:14the more I felt myself going mad from head to foot
17:18as if she were pouring fire over me with her no, no, no.
17:23But now I don't want another man to suffer in my place.
17:28Yes, yes, yet I was the one.
17:32I was the one who killed him.
17:34I was bewitched, your honor.
17:39I'm willing to go to the gallows,
17:42but I'm coming back here
17:44if I have a good enough luck to live through my term
17:48of the justice of this world
17:51to think that she goes scot-free,
17:54the real and only cause of all the harm.
17:58But I will see that she gets justice.
18:02That I solemnly swear
18:04with these two hands of mine now.
18:08In prison I shall think of nothing else,
18:11and if I come back and find her alive,
18:15grown old and ugly,
18:17it makes no difference.
18:20She will have to pay for it.
18:23And she will have to make good.
18:26Oh, no, no, no.
18:28But I will say, yes, yes, yes.
18:33And I will drain the last drop of blood
18:37if I have to end my days in the galleys.
18:42And the sooner the better.
18:45She will have to keep washing me.
18:50I will be wise.
18:52I will take this,
18:52When I make good.
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