Scene 4
(Silence)
HELICON: You seem tired?
CALIGULA: I have walked far.
H: Yes, your absence has lasted a long time.
(Silence)
C: It was difficult to find.
H: What, then?
C: What I want.
H: And what do you want?
C: (still natural) The moon.
H: What?
C: Yes, I want the moon.
H: Ah! (A silence. Helicon approaches) What do you want that for?
C: Well! It’s one of the things that I don’t have.
H: Of course. And now, all is in order?
C: No, I haven’t been able to get it.
H: That’s annoying.
C: Yes, that’s the reason I’m tired. (A pause) Helicon!
H: Yes, Caius.
C: You think that I’m mad.
H: You know very well I never think. I’m clearly too intelligent for that.
C: Yes, upon the whole! But I’m not mad and even I have never been so reasonable. Only, all at once, I feel within a hunger for the impossible. (A pause) Things, as they are, don’t seem satisfactory to me.
H: That’s a pretty common opinion.