The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams

The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams

Author:Tennessee Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Directions


SERAFINA: The call is ten cents for three minutes. Is the line busy?

ALVARO: Not the line, but the boss.

SERAFINA: And the charge for the call goes higher. That ain’t the phone of a millionaire you’re using!

ALVARO: I think you talk a poor mouth. [He picks up the piggy and shakes it.] This pig sounds well fed to me.

SERAFINA: Dimes and quarters.

ALVARO: Dimes and quarters’re better than nickels and dimes. [Serafina rises severely and removes the piggy bank from his grasp.] Ha, ha, ha! You think I’m a bank robber?

SERAFINA: I think you are maleducato! Just get your boss on the phone or hang the phone up.

ALVARO: What, what! Mr. Siccardi? How tricks at the Southern Fruit Comp’ny this hot afternoon? Ha, ha, ha!—Mangiacavallo!—What? You got the complaint already? Sentite, per favore! This road hog was—Mr. Siccardi? [He jiggles the hook; then slowly hangs up.] A man with three dependents!—out of a job . . . [There is a pause.]

SERAFINA: Well, you better ask the operator the charges.

ALVARO: Oofa! A man with three dependents—out of a job!

SERAFINA: I can’t see to work no more. I got a suggestion to make. Open the bottom drawer of that there bureau and you will find a shirt in white tissue paper and you can wear that one while I am fixing this. And call for it later. [He crosses to the bureau.]—It was made for somebody that never called for it. [He removes the package.] Is there a name pinned to it?

ALVARO: Yes, it’s . . .

SERAFINA [fiercely, but with no physical movement]: Don’t tell me the name! Throw it away, out the window!

ALVARO: Perchè?

SERAFINA: Throw it, throw it away!

ALVARO [crumpling the paper and throwing it through the window]: Ecco fatto! [There is a distant cry of children as he unwraps the package and holds up the rose silk shirt, exclaiming in Latin delight at the luxury of it.] Colore di rose! Seta! Seta pura!—Oh, this shirt is too good for Mangiacavallo! Everything here is too good for Mangiacavallo!

SERAFINA: Nothing’s too good for a man if the man is good.

ALVARO: The grandson of a village idiot is not that good.

SERAFINA: No matter whose grandson you are, put it on; you are welcome to wear it.

ALVARO [slipping voluptuously into the shirt]: Ssssssss!

SERAFINA: How does it feel, the silk, on you?

ALVARO: It feels like a girl’s hands on me! [There is a pause, while he shows her the whiteness of his teeth.]

SERAFINA [holding up her broken spectacles]: It will make you less trouble.

ALVARO: There is nothing more beautiful than a gift between people!—Now you are smiling!—You like me a little bit better?

SERAFINA [slowly and tenderly]: You know what they should of done when you was a baby? They should of put tape on your ears to hold them back so when you grow up they wouldn’t stick out like the wings of a little kewpie! [She touches his ear, a very slight touch, betraying too much of her heart. Both laugh a little and she turns away, embarrassed.



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