Читать книгу The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald онлайн

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Destage—And he could make verses and sing them with his guitar.

Lamarque—And he would tell us about men and women of history—about Charlotte Corday and Fouquet and Molière and St. Louis and Mamine, the strangler, and Charlemagne and Mme. du Barry and Machiavelli and John Law and François Villon—

Destage—Villon! (enthusiastically) He loved Villon. He would talk for hours of him.

François—(pouring more wine) And then he would get very drunk and say “Let us fight” and he would stand on the table and say that everyone in the wine shop was a pig and a son of pigs. La! He would grab a chair or a table and Sacré Vie Dieu! but those were hard nights for us.

Lamarque—Then he would take his hat and guitar and go into the streets to sing. He would sing about the moon.

François—And the roses and the ivory towers of Babylon and about the ancient ladies of the court and about “the silent chords that flow from the ocean to the moon.”

Destage—That’s why he made no money. He was bright and clever—when he worked, he worked feverishly hard, but he was always drunk, night and day.