Dom Casmurro 29.52 · 29.52

The Emperor calls it out one last time from the carriage — 'A medicina, a nossa Escola' — the two words that have anchored his whole appeal reduced now to a slogan flung over his shoulder. 'Ainda,' still, marks the insistence: even departing, he keeps pressing the point, as an idea we cannot let go of keeps repeating itself in the mind that holds it.

The refrain is really Bentinho's own longing, given away by its persistence. Medicine, the School — the anti-seminary — chants itself through the fading vision because it is what the boy wants with his whole heart and dares not want aloud. Machado sets the words inside guillemets, formally quoted, lending the private wish the dignity of a public proclamation. It is the daydream's final gift to itself: the deepest desire, spoken plainly at last, but only by an imaginary king, and only as he rides away.

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