Amédée, the New Tenant, Victims of Duty by Eugène Ionesco

Author:Eugène Ionesco
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 2026-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

MADELEINE: Stop doing that, Amédée ! Who told you to do that?

SECOND POLICEMAN: He’s getting away!

MAN: [to WOMAN] I told you they wouldn’t catch him!

MADO: Marvellous!

SOLDIER: [enthusiastically] Oh boy, oh boy!

AMÉDÉE:[flying away] I’m not doing it on purpose, Madeleine! I can’t help myself!

FIRST POLICEMAN: All I caught is his left shoe!

MADELEINE: Oh yes, you can, you’re doing it on purpose!

AMÉDÉE: [flying away] I promise you, Madeleine, it’s not my fault, it’s the wind !

MADO: You see, he says it’s the wind!

MAN: It’s the wind!

SOLDIER: Attaboy!

WOMAN: It’s not the wind!

FIRST POLICEMAN: [shoe in hand, to MADELEINE severely] Is that your husband, Madame?

MADELEINE: Yes, officer, I’m afraid it is!

AMÉDÉE: [slowly rising] It’s not my fault! I hope you’ll all forgive me!

SECOND POLICEMAN: [to MADELEINE] Tell him to come down! At once !

MADELEINE: Come down at once!

MADO: [to MADELEINE] Why don’t you leave him alone!

AMÉDÉE: [still hanging in mid-air] I swear it’s not my fault, please forgive me, all of you, it’s the wind that did it ! I couldn’t help myself!

MAN: Don’t often see anything like this!

WOMAN: He’s flying away! He says he doesn’t want to, but he looks happy enough !

MADELEINE: [to AMÉDÉE] Will you come down at once! Do as everyone tells you !

[The SOLDIER takes out a camera and photographs AMÉDÉE flying away.]

SECOND POLICEMAN: A fine thing ! Respectable people too!

MADO: [to the SOLDIER] I say, you give me one, yes?

FIRST POLICEMAN: Hi, you there! It’s forbidden to take photographs !

MADELEINE: Amédée! Just you come down! You’ll catch cold!

SECOND POLICEMAN: Come down, M. Amédée, your wife wants you!

MAN: Hallo, there . . . Jack-in-the-box! [To the POLICEMAN:] Come off it! Down with the police!

WOMAN: [to MAN] Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?

AMÉDÉE: [in mid-air] I don’t know what to say, please forgive me, Ladies and Gentlemen; you mustn’t think... I should like to keep my feet on the ground . . . It’s against my will. . . I don’t want to get carried away... I should like to be of some use to my fellow men . . . I believe every man should realize his limitations . . .

MADO: Oh! He knows how to talk!

SOLDIER: Yippee! Yippee!

MAN: He’s making a speech!

AMÉDÉE: [ as above] I swear to you I’m against dissolution . . . I stand for immanence, I’m against transcendence ! I’m terribly sorry . . . Please accept my apologies ! . . .

MADELEINE: Listen to me, Amédée, and come down . . . I’ll make it all right with the police! . . . [To the POLICEMEN:] Won’t I?

FIRST POLICEMAN: Why yes, of course, Madame. It can all be arranged!. . .

MADELEINE: Amédée, you can come home now, the mushrooms have bloomed . . .

SOLDIER: I don’t get it!

MAN: It’s all about some mushrooms !

WOMAN: They’re mushroom-growers!

AMÉDÉE: [in mid-air] Madeleine, I promise you, you can really believe me this time, I didn’t want to run away from my responsibilities . . . It’s the wind, I didn’t do it on purpose, not of my own free will !

MADO: It’s not his fault, if it’s not of his own free will!

AMÉDÉE: Forgive me .

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