Bertolt Brecht: LIFE OF GALILEO. Bertolt Brecht – Life of Galileo (Methuen Drama | modern classic)

Scene 1: - Because the old days are over and this is a new time (pg. 6)- The great ocean they feared, is a little puddle (pg. 7)- Mathematics, so to speak, is an unproductive art (pg. 14) - I’m stupid. I understand absolutely nothing. So I’m compelled to fill the gaps in my knowledge (pg. 14)- Any ignorant monk in the Inquisition could just put a ban on your thoughts? (pg. 15)- Freedom of trade, freedom of research. Free trading in research (pg. 16)- We physicist may think we have the answer, but that doesn’t mean we can prove it (pg. 18)- Lots of laws that explain very little, whereas out new hypothesis has very few laws that explain a lot (pg. 18)

Scene 3:- January ten, sixteen ten: Galileo Galilei abolishes heaven (pg. 22)- The whole world was against them, and they were right (pg. 27)- I’m trembling with death that it may be truth (pg. 28) - The lure of a proof is too great. Nearly everyone succumbs to it; sooner or later we all do. Thinking is one of the

chief pleasures of the human race” (pg. 29)- It seemed to me I was watching you stand on blazing faggots; and when you said you believed in proof I smelt

burnt flesh (pg. 33)

Scene 4: - The old says: What I’ve always done I’ll always do. The new says: If you’re useless you must go (pg. 34)- Say if turns or I’ll bash you (pg. 36)- Shutting their eyes to every fact and pretending that nothing has happened (pg. 41)- Truth is born of the times, not of authority. Our ignorance is limitless (pg. 42)- You people are teachers: you should be stimulating the questions (pg. 42)

Scene 5: - As usual they hushed it all up till it was too late [plague] (pg. 44) - Just like them. It’s their whole system of government. Chopping us off like the diseased branch of some barren

figtree (pg. 47)

Scene 6: - One can’t treat everything as gospel (ph. 51)- Give them half a chance and they’ll smash up the whole starry sky (pg. 51)- Does mankind have to understand everything? (pg. 52) - Clearly this makes him an enemy of the human race. We must treat him as such (pg. 53)

Scene 7: - Where is truth (pg. 59) - I suppose God hadn’t got far enough in his studies before he wrote the bible; is that it? (pg. 59) - Foolish, absurd, heretical and contrary to our faith (pg. 60) - Science is the rightful and much-loved daughter of the Church (pg. 60)

Scene 8: - They have been assured that God’s eye is always on them…that the whole drama of the world is constructed

around them (pg. 65) - I can see how betrayed and deceived they will feel (pg. 66) - An apple from the tree of knowledge. He’s wolfing it down (pg. 67)

Scene 9: - Someone who doesn’t know the truth is just thick-headed. But someone who does know it and calls it a lie is a

crook (pg. 70) - He’s heard everything Galileo had to teach and he’s forced to admit that it’s all nonsense (pg. 71)

Bertolt Brecht: LIFE OF GALILEO. - I always feel that every moment stolen from that great man is a moment stolen from Italy (pg. 72) - Rome allowed me to get a reputation because I said nothing (pg. 73) - You have no right to trample all over your daughter’s happiness with your great feet (pg. 78)- I have watched my son slipping into sin with all those ‘experiments’ and ‘theories’ and ‘observations’ and there

was nothing I could do about it (pg. 78) - If rumour says a pear has been seen on an apple tree they will drop their work hurry off to gossip about it (79)- My mother is forced to have a dog whipped before their eyes, as the only way to recall them to discipline and

order and a proper respect (pg. 79) - I might right in the language of the people, for the many, rather than in Latin for the few (pg. 79) - My object is to not establish that I was right but to find out if I am (pg. 81) - There wil be no mercy for thse who failed to research, and who go on talking all the same (pg. 81) Scene 10: - Once take a mad dog’s muzzle off it spreads diseases. People must keep their place, some down and some on

top (pg. 84)- Galileo Galilei, the bible-buster (pg. 85)

Scene 11: 1633- You’re the man who’s battling for freedom to teach what’s new (pg. 87)- Give a bear honey and if the brute’s hungry you risk losing your arm (pg. 88)

Scene 12: - Are we to base human society on doubt and no longer on faith? (pg. 91) - And men have quoted the Bible as they hacked each other to pieces (pg. 91) - They have placed their faith in a brass ball they call a compass, not in God. (pg. 92) - God anyhow is no longer necessary to them (pg. 92) - This evil man knows that he is up to when he writes his astronomical works not in Latin but in the idiom of the

fishwives and wool merchants (pg. 92) - He is a man of the flesh. He would give in immediately (pg. 93)

Scene 13: Recant- Someone who doesn’t know the truth is just thick-headed. But someone who does know it and calls it a lie is a

crook (pg. 95) - He talked about his sense of beauty, saying that was what forced him to look for the truth (pg. 95) - And no force will help them to make what has been seen unseen (pg. 96)- So force won’t do the trick. There are some things it can’t do. So stupidity has been defeated, it’s not

invulnerable. So man is not afraid of death (pg. 97) - Unhappy the land that has no heroes!

No. Unhappy the land where heroes are needed (pg. 98)

Scene 14: 1633-1642- And we thought you had deserted! No voice against you was louder than mine! (pg. 105) - I taught you science and I denied the truth (pg. 106)- You were hiding the truth. From the enemy (pg. 106) - He’ll die, but he’ll never recant

I’ve recanted, but I’m going to lieYour hands are stainedBetter stained than empty

- Fearing death is human. Human weaknesses don’t matter to science (pg. 107)

Text by Brecht: Forward- Then things are not merely as bad as before, but much worse because people have made immense sacrifices for

their schemes and have lost everything (pg. 116) Galileo: Laughton translation: - The millennium of faith is ended, said I, this is the millennium of doubt (pg. 205)

Bertolt Brecht: LIFE OF GALILEO. - Mr. Galilei has generously handed this fresh product of his brain entirely over to you (pg. 211) - But this gives the lie to all the astronomy that’s been taught for the last two thousand years (pg. 213)- You’ve destroyed by faith in a lot of things, Mr. Galileo. I’m disgusted in the world (pg. 214)- I believed in the human race. The only people that can’t be reasoned with are the dead. Human beings are

intelligent (pg. 216)- The evidence of your own eyes is a very seductive thing. Sooner or later everybody must succumb to it (pg.

216)

Bertolt Brecht: LIFE OF GALILEO.

Background:

- 15th February, 1564: Pisa, Italy - 1564-1642- Family belonged to nobility but not rich- 1570: family moved to Florence - Never married - Relationship with Marina Gamba

3 children 2 daughters: Virginia and LIvia 1 son: Vincenzio (joined father) Daughters became Sister Maria Celeste and Sister Arcangela

- 1610: moved to from Padua to Florence Position at Court of the Medici

1. Provide 10 key moments in Galileo’s life: - 1592: Galileo appointed professor of mathematics at University of Padua- Bore three children with Marina Gamba –never married. - Warned by Cardinal Bellamarine under Pope Paul V to not discuss or defend Copernican theories. - 1633: Rome and faced Inquisition – found guilty of heresy for this book (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief

World Systems). Under house arrest for remainder of life. - 1638: Galileo became completely blind. - 1643: Galileo dies outside home. 2. Provide 10 key world events that occurred:- The Plague of 1665.

Cause by overpopulation and hot weather. Slowly died out by end of 1655 – winter halted spread of disease and the Great Fire of London destroyed

rodents and disease. - Printing press invented- King James’ bible written- Reformation - Protestants vs. Catholics- English Civil war (1642)- Renaissance – Italian cultural movement - St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre. 3. Identify 10 inventions/theories: - 1602: The period of the Pendulum (contributed to the development of the pendulum clock) - Wrote his book “De Motu” (On Motion) in which he disproved Aristotle theory (heavier objects fall faster than

lighter ones) - 1594: created a pump that raised water out of the ground using horses- 1609: created the telescope (magnify objects 20 times)- Proved Copernican system – earth revolved around the moon. - Galileo’s theory about the relation between the tide and the moon. - Used the telescope the accurately determine the exact longitude of places- Discovered 4 satellites of Jupiter, observe supernova, verify phases of Venus, and discover sunspots. - Created the Sector: object that had measurements engraved on legs as to measure angles. - Simple thermometer - Designed the clock pendulum.- Compass

Bertolt Brecht: LIFE OF GALILEO.

4. Locate Venice, Padua, Florence, Rome, and Vatican City:

5. Galileo’s claims for inventing telescope:Galileo’s main objective to claiming to invent the telescope revolves around money. When discussing with the Procurator, money was a large issue that came up.

- Large ego- Opportunistic- Hans Lippershey: German-Dutch lens maker created first telescope.

6. a. 5 key facts about Aristotle:- 384-322 BCE. Greek philosopher - Author of philosophical and scientific system that became framework and vehicle for both Christian

scholasticism and medieval Islamic philosophy. - Explored anatomy of creatures – embryological development of chicks, distinguished whales and dolphins from

fish…etc.: more than 500 species – information about anatomy, diet, habitat, modes of copulation, reproductive system…etc.

- Aristotle’s intellectual range was vast, covering most of the sciences and many of the arts, including biology, botany, chemistry, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, philosophy of mind, physics, poetics, political theory, psychology, and zoology

- Learnt under Plato - Established a school: Lyceum - Divided science into three kinds: productive, practical and theoretical.- Mentor Alexander the Great-

b. 5 key facts about Ptolemy:

Bertolt Brecht: LIFE OF GALILEO. - 85-165 BCE – Greek astronomer and geographer/ mathematian. - Use geometric models to predict position of sun, moon and planets, using a combination of circular motions

(epicycles) – with naked eye- Almagest: significant book describing astrology. - Newton disproved all observations made by Ptolemy in the Almagest.

c. 5 key facts about Copernicus: - 1473-1543: Polish astronomer and mathematician. - Published heliocentric model for solar system (universe revolves around the earth) - First person in history to create complete and general system, combining mathematics, physics and cosmology.

7. Draw Aristotle version of universe:

8. Draw Galileo’s Copernican theory:

9. Church worries about Galileo’s theories:Knowledge empowers people to revisit beliefs and views and therefore, the Church feared that Galileo’s theory of the earth revolving the sun, which contradicted the Church views, would cause a drastic revelation.

- Controversy between God and science. - Challenging power of Pope

Bertolt Brecht: LIFE OF GALILEO.

10. 10 interesting facts about Spanish Inquisition: - Began officially by papal bull issued by Pope Sixtus IV on November 1, 1478 - Intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy and replace Christian Inquisition, Roman Inquisition and Portuguese

Inquisition. - Sought to punish Jews (and Muslims) who converted to Christianity but were not sincere in their conversions. - Root out, suppress and punish heretics – create religious unity and weaken local political authorities and

familial alliances. - Government makes profit by confiscating property of those found guilty with heresy. - Auto-da-fe: act of faith (being burned at the stake)- 1834: Inquisition abolished.- Spanish Inquisition run by Catholic Church but handed over to government when person found to be heretical

to be tortured and punished (“church does not shed blood”).- Person condemned and executed if single person made allegations against them – accusations out of revenge or

to gain rewards.- Estimated 32, 000 people burnt alive during 340 years of Inquisition. - Notorious / infamous.- Muslims: view Jesus as a prophet rather than a God. - To ensure nobody denies Church doctrine.- Censors knowledge – books, news