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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/76872-0.txt b/76872-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3007325 --- /dev/null +++ b/76872-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11258 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76872 *** + + + + + +TRAGEDIES OF SEX + + + + + TRAGEDIES OF SEX + + BY + + FRANK WEDEKIND + + Translation and Introduction by + SAMUEL A ELIOT, JR. + + Spring’s Awakening (Frühlings Erwachen) + Earth-Spirit (Erdgeist) + Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) + Damnation! (Tod und Teufel) + + [Illustration] + + + + + _ + + BONI AND LIVERIGHT + PUBLISHERS :: :: NEW YORK + + + + + _Copyright, 1914_ + _Copyright, 1921_ + _Copyright, 1923_ + BY + BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC. + + +CAUTION.--All persons are hereby warned that the plays published in +this volume are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United +States and all foreign countries, and are subject to royalty, and any +one presenting any of said plays without the consent of the Author or +his recognized agents, will be liable to the penalties by law provided. + + Both theatrical and motion picture rights are reserved. + + +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION vii + + SPRING’S AWAKENING (FRÜHLINGSERWACHEN) 1 + + EARTH-SPIRIT (ERDGEIST) 111 + + PANDORA’S BOX (BÜCHSE DER PANDORA) 217 + + DAMNATION! (TOD UND TEUFEL) 305 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Frank Wedekind’s name is widely, if vaguely, known by now, outside of +Germany, and at least five of his plays have been available in English +form for quite some years, yet a résumé of biographical facts and +critical opinions seems necessary as introduction to this--I will not +say authoritative, but more careful--book. The task is genial, since +Wedekind was my special study at Munich in 1913, and I translated his +two Lulu tragedies the year after. The timidity or disapprobation +betrayed in this respect by our professional critics of foreign drama +makes my duty the more imperative. James Huneker merely called him +“a naughty boy!” Percival Pollard tiptoed around him, pointing out a +trait here and a trait there, like a menagerie-keeper with a prize +tiger. Viereck once waxed rapturous over Reinhardt’s production of +_Spring’s Awakening_ (that gave me my own first inkling of what +Wedekind might mean for me), but my friend Moderwell tossed him off in +less than a page of _The Theatre of Today_ as an immoral joker out of +_Simplicissimus_. It is true that Wedekind is by no means easy to grasp +or tabulate, true that greater men, such as Strindberg, have suffered +from similar slighting and ill-considered estimates here, before they +were suitably interpreted; but Wedekind has been dead five years, and +the time for a fair and thoughtful, if very inexhaustive, judgment of +him has surely come. + +Although he was of the same generation as the naturalistic dramatists +who everywhere came to the fore in the 1890’s--Hauptmann, Chekov, +Brieux, etc.--Frank Wedekind was not of them, but far ahead of them. +They are now all but out-moded; his influence has barely begun. He +did not fit his time: the first twenty years of his active life, +in fact, were spent in continuous friction with the contemporary +world. He experienced the rancor and contempt, the smart of injustice +and the hopeless hatred, of most outcasts from society. Hostility +toward bourgeois civilization is the keynote of many of his works. +He is--against, I think, his natural tendency--a pessimist--all the +blacker for the flame of strange, Utopian ideals still flaring up in +his most savage scenes. The wrestle of contradictory wills within +him is what gives his writing its abnormal tensity, what drives him +often to overstrain each dramatic idea till its analogy to life is +so distorted most people find it morbid. He yearns to annihilate +the crude, the coarse, the ugly and the weak. He has declared, “The +reunion of holiness and beauty as the divine object of pious devotion +is the purpose to which I offer my life: toward which, indeed, I have +striven since earliest childhood.” Physical beauty, he means: a sort +of Pagan worship of the body--its lowest impulses and its highest +development.... But in every direction he found that reunion obstructed +by his all-too-well regulated German civilization. Like his own +Marquis of Keith he feverishly pursued the joy of life and could never +enjoy his life: when about to strike a splendid blow for his Promised +Land he would see a spike-helmeted angel with a police-club sentinel +at Eden’s gate. Only in the present century--only, indeed, after the +Great War had determined, for the Continent, what the outstanding +characteristics of the twentieth century were to be--did Wedekind, the +Expressionist, who despised literature and thrust raw life upon the +stage, arrive at his present commanding position and win the admiration +and discipleship of many of his countrymen. + +Though he died in March, 1918, he had incorporated in many a play +before then both the sensational content and the free, direct, +spasmodic form which German literature, especially German drama, was to +show in the post-War turmoil and distress. Georg Kaiser and the other +Expressionists so prized to-day can make no secret of their debt to +him, and the wild rush they represent and play to--to contemplate man’s +lowest impulses, the roots of will and feeling, the instincts, not the +ideals that actuate confused and drifting peoples, and having studied +them in crude, disordered life to set them down in baldest, swiftest +speech, in rank but penetrating truth--this rush that is observed in +all the Continental countries but most among the Germans did there +alone possess a guide and prophet in the dead author, analyzer, wry and +bitter thinker, Wedekind. + +Less than a twelvemonth after his decease, a desperate, revolutionary +era found suddenly in this perverse and pessimistic man, in his harsh +world of whores and swindlers, ruthless materialists and broken poets, +its own true shape and pressure. At the same time the former standards +of good taste, and theatre-censorships, were swept away; the ban which +had lain heavily on Wedekind throughout his stormy life, the legal ban +and the far more significant disfavor of the “good citizens,” arbiters +of general opinion, whom he had outraged so in their smug goodness, +their virtuous ideals, their bourgeois self-esteem,--these now were +lifted from his works: _Pandora’s Box_ became--imagine it--a popular +attraction; from him who had so foreseen the breakdown of conventional +formulæ and unreal modes of thought all men now feverishly sought some +intimation of what society, dazzled with commotion, must yet look +forward to. + +For us in America, confirmed, not shattered, in our previous +illusions and conceit by the war’s outcome, there is less reason to +embrace this scornful soothsayer, this emissary (one is tempted to +believe) from Mephistopheles himself,--now cold and condescending, +and again intent with hectic hate. For all the foolish outcry over +the freer manners, perhaps the looser morals, of our youth, we are +still certain in America of our subjective health, of some objective +verities at least, of “progress,” of “ideals,” of many metaphysical +abstractions which Wedekind distrusts, shows up, derides. Ambassador +Gerard, innately, sensibly, was most American. In his _Four Years in +Germany_ he mentions shudderingly our author’s name, points to the +fact that Berlin still was going, over and over, to performances of +_Earth-Spirit_ as but one more indictment of a degenerate, odious +nation, and plainly shows us what must be the straight American’s +reaction to this volume--if such “straight,” normal readers should ever +take it up. But none the less it is important for America to question +and to try, to root, if need be, hog-like, to the bottom of our +civilization’s pile, and recognize the gross and primitive, the basely +human, that underlies each separate soul of us and all our deeds. +Naturalism of one type or another--nineteenth-century literalness or +twentieth-century explosiveness--is for us the necessary form our Art +must take; for only through the pitiless representing of home truth can +the easy sentimentalism, so hostile to real literature, be combated, +and America given self-knowledge and real grounds for spiritual +leaps in after-years. O’Neil in drama, Masters in poetry, Anderson, +Lewis, Frank and many more in fiction, these undeflected observers of +our seamier sides, prepare the way for the full appreciation due to +Wedekind. They are more literary, more artfully self-conscious than he +in his best work. Technique concerns them more. But it is not merely +for the light his drama throws on dominant European interests of the +moment, it is also for the impulse he may give to further, similar +probing and expression here at home that these four plays have been +prepared--revised or newly now translated--for eager and earnest +readers and (who knows?) it may be, for the stage. + +They are linked together, these four culled from the score of +Wedekind’s writing, not solely in theme (for though they are recognized +in their own land as the _Geschlechtstragödien_ par excellence, there +are other tragedies of sex from Wedekind’s later years), but in +sequence too, chronological, philosophic. What an echo, for instance, +of the freshness and the fervor of _Spring’s Awakening_ we hear in +the scenes where Hugenberg, the schoolboy of _Earth-Spirit_, Act +IV, and _Pandora’s Box_, Act I, reveals his virginal, enthusiastic, +adventurous, devoted flush of life. How subtly is Lulu foreshadowed +in the vivid sketch of Ilse in _Spring’s Awakening_: buoyant, +unmoral,--simple in her acceptance of life complete, more likable +than Lulu in her pity, too, for those not so full-blooded. How keenly +Casti-Piani piques our interest, in _Pandora’s Box_, Act II; how +satisfyingly his life is summed and closed in _Tod und Teufel_--verily +_Damnation!_ The four plays hang together, and present compactly +Wedekind’s own growth of mind--from ardor, almost missionary zeal, +instilling his own subjective sympathy into his youngsters, girls as +well as boys, of _Spring’s Awakening_ (and his own hate, as well, of +teachers, parents, all their dry repressive world), to the objective +but still passionate building of full-formed characters, solid plot, +unswerving tragedy (no Muffled Gentleman here!) in _Earth-Spirit_, and +then to the less contained, extravagant riot, repulsively cold or hotly +ugly, perverse, verbose, derisive of his audience and even of his +art, that he so rightly named _Pandora’s Box_; and lastly to the frank +self-revelation, unrealistic preaching, unmotivated, unartful, yet +superbly confident theatricality of his _Damnation!_ + +What a life of disillusionment, self-questioning and pain must lie +behind these changes! Its externals Wedekind sketched himself, in +1901; but its real import can only be deduced from close, fond study +of his many plays, his stories and his poems. His father, a physician, +lived--it may be interesting to us Americans to know--in San Francisco +from the beginning of the gold rush in 1849 till 1864. His mother was +an actress in the German theater there when the elder Wedekind, at +46, met her and married her, a girl just half his age. Her father, an +inventor, manufacturer and gifted musician, had died some years before +in a German insane asylum. One child was born to the couple in America, +but they returned to Germany in 1864 and there, in Hanover, Frank (note +the American, quite un-German form of the name) was born, on the 24th +of July. + +In 1872 the family moved to Switzerland, where Frank grew up, one of +six children, amid scenery that he praises but which, to judge by the +absence of any response to the beauties of nature from most of his +work, had little effect upon him. At 19 he began to earn his living, +at first as a journalist, at 22 as a press-agent, at 24 as a private +secretary, traveling extensively with his employers (notably the +painters Rudinoff and Willy Grétor) in France and England. In 1895-96 +he was a public reader of Ibsen plays in Switzerland; in ’96-97, +political editor of _Simplicissimus_ in Munich; in ’97-98, an actor and +producer in a theatrical company which toured North Germany in Ibsen +plays and first presented on the stage his _Earth-Spirit_, written in +’93, published in ’95. In ’98-99 he held a similar important post with +the resident company of the Schauspielhaus in Munich and wrote his +great, though local, comedy _The Marquis of Keith_. + +Save for a term in prison as a result of the prosecution of the +editors of _Simplicissimus_ for lèse-majesté,--a term enriched by +the composition of his long story of Utopian education--physical +education--for young girls, named _Minne-haha_ (again the influence +of America), which to my ears is the most pure and limpid piece of +German prose one is ever likely to find,--he continued to reside in +Munich, active in this or that playhouse or cabaret, for the rest of +his life. He composed many _Brettl-lieder_, rhymes and music, and sang +them in Bohemian restaurants. Every June, after Max Reinhardt became a +theatrical power in Berlin, he appeared there as an actor in a series +of his own plays, hastily prepared but persistently repeated to a +slowly growing, grudgingly appreciative public. As an actor he was a +paradox: more natural than Naturalistic, but more Expressionistic than +expressive. I saw him act several times in his _Franziska_, his new +play in 1912-13, and marveled at the almost inarticulate strain, the +rigid body, popping eyes, deep-lined and taut-drawn face, that marked +him then. Sartorially he was something of a dude: to be correct was a +requirement he forced upon his mettlesome temperament. His inheritance, +derived from a mixture of middle-aged, scientific, abstract-minded, +cold North German and young, sensuous, emotional, artistic Austrian, +resulted in a conflict that could be seen by anyone: he possessed +thesis and antithesis but never synthesis. His face expressed by +turns his fluctuant, opposing sides, Jesuit and ironic actor, tragedy +and vice, now gray, sharp-eyed, superior,--suddenly warm and deep. +He was no artist on the boards--too stiff, too choked with his own +earnestness, too genuinely intense,--but he was vastly interesting as a +man, a sufferer, a moralist and preacher inured to being scoffed at and +returning the too normal world hot scorn for scorn. + +Extravagances and overemphasis, unmotivated, violent decisions and +spasmodic super-vitality in his characters, all these his vividest +traits, are explicable on this score of his own clashing disharmony +within. But he himself explains them as an artistic revolt, merely, +against the repressed and colorless dramaturgy which conquered Germany +in the wake of Ibsen. These bookish plays that stood in the way of +his own starkly abundant theatric art both angered him to protest and +augmented his own trend toward free unnaturalness. He has in his time, +he says (in _Schauspielkunst_, a collection of critical notes published +in 1910), played many parts by Sudermann, Hauptmann, Max Halbe, etc., +and he is sure that actors trained in their literary technique are +unequal to his fierce, full-blooded characters. He demands acting +that shall be like hurdle-racing--bold, bounding creativeness--but +the lesser actors blue-pencil their hurdles out of the way, while the +greater ones make long “dramatic pauses” before them and deprive them +so of conviction. Certainly, Wedekind’s jerky stage-style requires a +rushing performance to give even the semblance of smooth truth to the +preposterous, but, when rightly played, thrilling theatric stories he +often tells. Short-of-breath, dry and uninspired, with voice untrained +for emotional seizures and outbursts, the ordinary cup-and-saucer actor +must of course mar Wedekind’s plays. + +In the field of ethics, however, lay his sharpest cleavage from his +own generation, and his most dangerous pitfall. The mighty influence +of Ibsen had perverted, when Wedekind began to write, not merely +stagecraft, but all German drama, and turned it to the contemplation +not of life and action, but of principles: guilt, duty, and atonement. +Underrunning all the enthusiasm for exact representation and thorough +character-delineation that reigned in 1890 was an anæmic current of +literary preconceptions, second-hand ideals, and prime attention +to externals, either mere incidental questions of technique or +moral, philosophic conclusions (most often suicidal) to problems of +responsibility and conduct prearranged for meek and docile characters. +In the Prologue to _Earth-Spirit_, Wedekind specifically mocks the +pale and will-less heroes of Hauptmann’s _Lonely Lives_ and _Before +Sunrise_, and by implication all the conscientious weakness of the +then new Naturalism. He for his part had a sharp hunger for life, +irrespective of its moral aims and effects,--life boisterous, physical +and energizing. It is reflected in Melchior in _Spring’s Awakening_, +with keenest sympathy. He had also a theory, expressed by Alva, his +self-portrait in _Pandora’s Box_, that the place to find compelling +drama was in the changeful lives of people who never read a book, +who lived by instinct and expressed themselves, words and deeds, in +total ignorance of cultured ethics. The Paris and the London scenes of +_Pandora’s Box_ may indicate that in those cities the young dramatist +plunged into this demimonde in person, experienced much, and actually +undermined, instead of strengthening, his artistic creative power. + +In ’90-91, when he wrote _Spring’s Awakening_, the 26-year-old pioneer +playwright was still close to adolescent tumult, doubt and rapture. +He writes a fluent, subtly interconnected, almost musical suite of +scenes utterly real when dealing with the children and youthfully +satirical when caricaturing the adults. He has no literary by-end, +no preoccupation with form or naturalism as such, and while he has a +moral, or rather an anti-moral, purpose, and evidently seeks to include +in his play the ontogeny of all the more common sex-perversions, his +chief interest is in Melchior, Moritz and Wendla--the vividness and +promise of the life awakening in them, the cruelty and tragedy of its +extinguishment, for which the adult world must take full blame. Whether +the play was produced at all in the 1890’s I do not know. Reinhardt, +who had had marked success with _Earth-Spirit_ among his very first +independent productions, in 1902-03, gave a very notable interpretation +of _Spring’s Awakening_ in 1906 which attained 390 performances; and it +has been widely acted since then, and in book form has far outstripped +the popularity of any other Wedekind work. A very imperfect translation +appeared in this country about 1909, and a private production was +later attempted in New York, with ludicrous inartistry. The “lesson” +of the play--“Parents, respect the possibilities of puberty, and give +it enlightenment and guidance”--is an old story with us now. We must +not forget the date on Wendla’s tombstone: the play transpires in 1892. +But the multifarious, teeming life, the lovableness and universal +naturalness of the chief characters, and the free, ardent expression +of the young author,--these are of no specific time, and will keep +Wedekind’s name alive for generations of adolescent readers. + +His foreign experiences seem to have taken place between the writing +of this play and that of _Earth-Spirit_. The author is quite out of +sight in _Earth-Spirit_; he is the animal-tamer of the Prologue, the +showman putting his performers through their acts. There is a grim +objectiveness about this study of clashing wills and fatal weaknesses. +No moral is in sight, and if the technique is consciously more +conventional and studied (note Alva’s soliloquy in Act III), the +matter is far removed from the Ibsen-Hauptmann fashion of its day. +The dialogue is so idiomatic, so carefully fitted to each speaker’s +character, that this play is by far the hardest of the four to put in +English. Wedekind has dramatized the attractions and repulsions of sex +among mature people very variously endowed with strength and courage. +He has created Lulu, the embodiment of primitive, natural, instinctive +femininity, and watched her drive men mad. He offers no judgments, he +indulges in no retrospects or explanations: this is the fundamental +stuff of life as he has lived it and observed it. It takes a naturally +theatric shape: it is violently dramatic just because it is real and +living. + +To these powerful, objective ’90’s of Wedekind belong also the one-act +play _Der Kammersänger_ or _The Tenor_, acted in New York in 1916 and +published in _Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays_; and _The Marquis of +Keith_, in which the struggle for success and money is as turbulently +dramatized as the sex-conflict was in _Earth-Spirit_. But there is a +moralizing character in _The Marquis_, a foil for the conscienceless +hero and also a mouthpiece for Wedekind. As he found himself and his +message disregarded, bitterness overcame him, and more and more he +scolds or preaches directly at his public. He worked over _Pandora’s +Box_, off and on, throughout this decade, and the impulse to expound +himself ever and again peeps through its three distorted pictures +of low life. Here and there it is deliberately disgusting. When it +was published, in 1901 or ’02, most of Act II was in bad French, +much of Act III in worse English: author or publisher or both were +self-conscious about it: and promptly it was banned. There ensued +appeals through various courts, and finally the ban was lifted, an +all-German text prepared, and occasional productions ventured. My +translation, published in New York in 1914, has never roused objection; +why should it?--the bare speeches without the accompanying action +which I have heard vividly described by friends lately in Germany, can +scarcely be shocking to readers in 1923. Later, Wedekind published the +two _Lulu_ plays together under her name, omitting _Earth-Spirit_, +Act III (which seems to me indispensable, none the less), and +_Pandora’s Box_, Act I--a commendable compression, because the whole +cholera episode is morbid and nearly incredible, and a swift flight +to France after Schön’s murder is quite thinkable without the long, +mostly undramatic speeches that overload the present commencement of +_Pandora’s Box_. + +The pessimism of the last act is terrific and leads straight to the +mood of _Damnation!_--a sort of satyr-play, concluding the three +tragedies. In it, quite unrealistically, is passionately expressed +what _Pandora’s Box_ implies--the hopelessness, the impossibility of +happiness (for one, that is, whose conception of happiness is physical) +from life as at present organized. This was the mission--this and the +various remedies that Wedekind proposed--which the world persistently, +unshakably condemned. Wedekind writhed. Between _Pandora’s Box_ and +_Damnation!_ (1905) appeared two scarcely disguised subjective plays, +_King Nicolo_, or _Such is Life_, which is very largely autobiography +transferred to fourteenth-century Italy, a swift, dramatic and pathetic +tale genuinely engaging our sympathies; and _Hidalla_, or _The Giant +Dwarf_, which partly by satire, partly by outright propaganda, +sets forth the Wedekindian point of view--the necessity for a new +morality, for those who are rich enough to afford it: a morality +that puts beauty, not material welfare, first among its objects, +and especially revolutionizes sexual life. The worthlessness, for +Wedekind, of intellectual concepts, theories, spirituality and all +other abstractions--his utter absorption in the darker, inner world of +feeling, will and instinct, especially the world of his own jarring +soul, unheeding others or society at large, robs this one-sided drama +of true tragic force. He tried again to justify himself in his next +two plays: _Music_, a quite objective study of the havoc artistic +education, seduction, abortion, the punishment of abortion, etc., etc., +may cause; and _Censorship_, a wholly subjective one-act written after +the lawsuits over _Pandora’s Box_ had been settled, and striving, not +too transparently, to show the world his truly self-sacrificial and +missionary spirit. By this time disciples were beginning to come to +him; he married; and the force of his irritation spent itself. His last +period begins. + +It had little that was new to offer. _Schloss Wetterstein_ is an +engrossing, if extravagant, sex-tragedy in three semi-independent +acts, reminiscent of the _Lulu_ plays but laid in an aristocratic +environment. The Jack the Ripper of its grewsome end is an American +millionaire--an artist in sadism. Had Wedekind been reading of Harry +Thaw? _Franziska_ is a parody of _Faust_, a sort of feminine Faust, a +phantasmagoria in which there every now and then outcrops a striking, +profound, or even beautiful moment. Franziska finishes not in Faust’s +heaven, but in domesticity, and one cannot clearly discover whether +this is mockery or a real change of view. _Samson_, or _Shame and +Jealousy_, and _Herakles_, are blank-verse plays of Hebrew or Hellenic +legends, written with lessening power and intensity,--plays dramatic, +poetic, passionate enough to rank with Hauptmann’s work of the same +period but not “so fair, so wild, so brightly flecked” as Wedekind once +had been. In the first year of the War, finally, appeared a curiously +objective historical character-study in eight scenes, _Bismarck_, +plainly forerunning Drinkwater’s _Lincoln_ and its successors, and +utterly un-Wedekindian in style--not a word of sex, of satire, or of +himself. The full tale of his work includes, besides the above, four +very light satiric farces--one of them, _The World of Youth_, dated +1889, a most interesting prelude to nearly all his later ideas; two +esoteric verse-dialogues, two pantomime scenarios constructed in the +’90’s, the time of his greatest power, and anticipating modern movie +and ballet technique; a large number of poems, mostly erotic ballads +that he sang to his own accompaniment (I was reminded of them, and him, +when I first heard Bobby Edwards of Greenwich Village), and some prose +tales, shorter than _Minne-haha_. + +Always he dealt in will, in inner urges, often specifically in “the +hellish drive out of which no joy remains alive.” His characters, no +matter how often balked, derided, or wounded, return to the attack +Until they are killed. Emotion is an inexhaustible force. The drama +of opposed views, of contrasted attitudes on points of conduct or +belief, can offer nothing so enthralling as this insatiable struggle +for the most fundamental pleasures humanity knows--which never +ultimately or for long are pleasures! And the same Satanic return to +the attack, repeated efforts at destruction, are seen in Wedekind’s own +life, hurling play after play against conventional society. At last, +after his death, conventional society broke down, and the forces of +disruption honored him, and the confused masses sought in his other, +Utopian, constructive work for light upon the society that is to +come. To few writers is such posthumous homage given; by few can such +a reversal of judgment be expected. Wedekind remained ever true to +himself, his deeply divided, contrary self, now appearing through his +plays, now vanishing again behind his characters, but always vividly +alive: one could feel _him_, one had the sense of human passion and +struggle, of something personally experienced and sweated out, in +almost all his work. Hence, in the last analysis, his hold upon our +later generation: we too want life, not literature--personality, not +limpid art--original thought, even destructive and extravagant, not old +truths, even the deepest, newly dressed. Wedekind, like Strindberg, +like Andreiev, and like Shaw, meets these demands. If America should +ever have reason to turn pessimistic, Wedekind will be waiting; and +even as America is, in Wedekind she can find much that is vital, +life-promoting, of immediate power and worth. + + SAMUEL A. ELIOT, JR. + Smith College, + January, 1923. + + + + + SPRING’S AWAKENING + + (FRÜHLINGS ERWACHEN) + + A Children’s Tragedy + + + _Dedicated to_ + + THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN + + + + +CHARACTERS + + + MELCHIOR GABOR } + MORITZ STIEFEL } + HÄNSCHEN RILOW } + ERNEST ROEBEL } _Schoolboys, aged 14 to 17_ + LÄMMERMEIER } + OTTO } + GEORGE } + ROBERT } + + DIETHELM } + REINHOLD } + RUPRECHT } _Boys in a House of Correction_ + HELMUTH } + GASTON } + + MR. GABOR, a Judge } + MRS. FANNY GABOR } _Melchior’s Parents_ + + MR. STIEFEL, _Moritz’s Father_ + MR. ZIEGENMELKER, _his Friend_ + MR. PROBST, _Moritz’s Uncle_ + REV. MR. KAHLBAUGH, _Pastor_ + + DR. SONNENSTICH, Principal } + DR. AFFENSCHMALZ } + DR. KNOCHENBRUCH } _The Faculty of the + DR. ZUNGENSCHLAG } Boys’ School_ + DR. KNÜPPELDICK } + DR. HUNGERGURT } + DR. FLIEGENTOD } + + HABEBALD, _the School Beadle_ + DR. PROKRUSTES, _Head of the House of Correction_ + A LOCKSMITH + DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER, M.D. + THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN + + MRS. BERGMANN + INA MÜLLER, _her married daughter_ + WENDLA BERGMANN, _her 14-year-old daughter_ + MARTHA BESSEL } + THEA } _Wendla’s Friends_ + ILSE, _an older girl, an artist’s model_ + + +The Scene is laid in Southern Germany or in Switzerland. The Time is +from May to November, 1892. + + + + +A NOTE ON THE STAGING + + +SPRING’S AWAKENING is divided into Nineteen Scenes as follows: + + ACT I: SCENE 1. In Mrs. Bergmann’s House. + SCENE 2. A Park. + SCENE 3. The Same. + SCENE 4. The School Yard. + SCENE 5. In the Woods. + + ACT II: SCENE 1. Melchior’s Study. + SCENE 2. Same as I, 1. + SCENE 3. In the Rilow House. + SCENE 4. A Hayloft. + SCENE 5. Mrs. Gabor’s Room. + SCENE 6. The Bergmann Garden. + SCENE 7. A Path near the River. + + ACT III: SCENE 1. The Faculty Room at the School. + SCENE 2. By the Wall of the Graveyard. + SCENE 3. In the Gabor House. + SCENE 4. In the House of Correction. + SCENE 5. Wendla’s Bedroom. + SCENE 6. A Vineyard. + SCENE 7. The Graveyard. + +It will be noted that the scenes concluding the acts, long scenes all +of them, are intended to occupy the full stage, and that the prior +scenes in each act may be played in the foreground. + +Two of the scenes, II, 3, and III, 6, have nothing to do with the +story and to save time may be omitted, though the latter has another +importance, lightening with its idyllic atmosphere the squalor and +bitterness of the last act. If it _is_ omitted, III, 4, and III, 5, +might be played in reverse order. + +The simplest arrangement of the stage would be a neutral proscenium, +six or seven feet deep, pierced with doors. Behind this, different +backwalls can be lowered, and all the interior scenes played in this +shallow front space. On the back of the stage should be sloping ground +covered with underbrush, and a path winding down through it. In the +middle-stage can be set the properties for special scenes--a bench in a +box-hedge for I, 2 and 3; a huge oak-trunk for I, 5; a garden wall with +grass and violets for II, 6; the graveyard wall with Moritz’s grave for +III, 2, etc. The swiftest possible sequence of scenes within the act is +of prime importance. + + + + +ACT I + + + SCENE I.--_A pretty little room, with a window looking out on an + early spring garden._ WENDLA’S _bed in one corner, wardrobe in + the other, table and two chairs between. Doors just below bed and + wardrobe._ + + WENDLA _stands at the foot of the bed, all dressed except for her + frock, which hangs on the chair in front of her. Her mother stands + on the other side of the table, with a long dress in her hands._ + +WENDLA--Why did you make the dress so long for me, mother? + +MRS. BERGMANN--You’re fourteen years old to-day! + +WENDLA--If I had known you were going to make my dress so long, I’d +rather not have been fourteen. + +MRS. BERGMANN--It isn’t too long, Wendla. What do you want? Can I help +my girl’s growing two inches taller every spring? A girl as grown up as +you can’t go round in a little princess-dress! + +WENDLA--All the same, my little princess-dress looks better on me +than that nightgown. Let me wear it just once more, mother! Just this +summer! That penitence-frock will suit me just as well at fifteen as at +fourteen: let’s hang it up till my =next= birthday! Now I’d only tread +on the braid. + +MRS. BERGMANN--I don’t know what I ought to say. I’d like so much to +keep you this way, child,--just as you are. Other girls are overgrown +and awkward at your age. You’re just the opposite. Who knows what you +will be like when the others are fully developed? + +WENDLA--Who knows? Perhaps I shan’t =be= at all. + +MRS. BERGMANN--Child, child, what makes you think such things! + +WENDLA--Don’t, mother dear; oh, don’t be sad. + +MRS. BERGMANN--[_Kissing her._] My only darling! + +WENDLA--They come to me so, night-times, when I can’t go to sleep. They +don’t make me a bit sad, and I know I sleep better afterwards. Is it +wrong, mother, to think about things like that? + +MRS. BERGMANN--Go, dear, and hang the “penitence-frock” away, and put +on your princess-dress again, God bless you! When I get the chance I’ll +put another breadth of ruffles on the bottom of it. + +WENDLA--[_Hanging the dress in the wardrobe._] No! Then I might as well +be all of twenty right away! + +MRS. BERGMANN--If only you don’t get too cold. In its time that little +dress was plenty long enough for you, but now---- + +WENDLA--Now, with summer coming? Oh, mother, not even little children +get diphtheria in their knees! Why are you so scary? At my age nobody +freezes, least of all in the legs. Do you think it would be better if +I got too hot, mother? Thank the good God if your darling doesn’t cut +off her sleeves some morning and come to you at twilight without her +shoes and stockings!--When I wear my penitence-frock I’ll dress like a +fairy queen under it.... Don’t scold, motherkin,--nobody’ll see how, +then! + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE II.--_Sunday evening. A gravel walk in front of a park bench; + shrubbery and tree-tops behind. MELCHIOR enters, followed by the + other boys_. + +MELCHIOR--I’m tired of that: I don’t want to any more. + +OTTO--Then the rest of us can just as well stop, too. Have you done +your work, Melchior? + +MELCHIOR--Go on playing, why don’t you! + +MORITZ--Where are you going? + +MELCHIOR--For a walk. + +GEORGE--It’ll be dark soon. + +ROBERT--Have you done your work already? + +MELCHIOR--And why shouldn’t I go for a walk in the dark? + +ERNEST--Central America!--Louis XV!--Sixty lines of Homer!--Seven +equations! + +MELCHIOR--Damn the work! + +GEORGE--Oh, if only Latin Comp. didn’t come to-morrow! + +MORITZ--One can’t think of anything without some work coming in between! + +OTTO--I’m going home. + +GEORGE--I, too, home to work! + +ERNEST--Me, too; me, too. + +ROBERT--Good night, Melchior. + +MELCHIOR--Sleep well!... [_All make off except_ MORITZ.] Gosh, I’d like +to know what we’re in the world for! + +MORITZ--School makes me wish I’d been a cabhorse sooner!--What do we +go to school for? So that somebody can examine us. And what are we +examined for? To make us flunk! Seven of us have got to flunk just +because the classroom upstairs only holds sixty.--I’ve felt so queer +since Christmas! Devil take me, if it weren’t for Papa I’d tie up my +bundle this very night and be off to Altoona! + +MELCHIOR--Let’s talk about something else. [_They go for a walk._] + + [In practice, MELCHIOR can here fling himself down on the bench; + MORITZ remain standing.] + +MORITZ--Do you see the black cat there with its tail stuck up? + +MELCHIOR--Do you believe in omens? + +MORITZ--I don’t quite know.--It came from over there.--Means nothing! + +MELCHIOR--I believe that’s a Charybdis everyone falls into who has +struggled up out of the Scylla of religious nonsense. Let’s sit down +under this beech. The warm spring wind is streaming over the mountains. +I’d like to be a young Dryad in the woods up there letting herself be +rocked and swung in the highest tree-tops all night long to-night.... + +MORITZ--Unbutton your vest, Melchior. + +MELCHIOR--Ah, how it blows through one’s clothes! + +MORITZ--It’s getting so jolly dark you can’t see your hand before your +face. Where are you? [_He draws_ MELCHIOR _down beside him. Only their +voices, from here on, come out of the darkness._] Don’t you believe +too, Melchior, that modesty in people is just the effect of their +bringing-up? + +MELCHIOR--I started thinking about that just the day before yesterday. +No, after all it seems to me to be deeply rooted in human nature. +Imagine undressing completely before even your best friend! You +wouldn’t do it unless he did it, too, at the same time. But it’s also +more or less a matter of custom. + +MORITZ--I’ve sometimes thought, if I have children, boys and girls, +right from the start I’ll have them sleep together in the same room--if +possible, on the same bed--and help each other twice a day to dress and +undress,--and on hot days, boys and girls alike, let ’em wear nothing +at all but a short tunic, white woolen with just a leather belt. It +seems to me, if they grew up so, they’d surely, later, be more at ease +than we are, usually.... + +MELCHIOR--Oh, I’m sure of that, Moritz!--The only question is, what if +the girls should have children? + +MORITZ--How do you mean--have children? + +MELCHIOR--I believe there’s a kind of instinct in that matter. I +believe, for instance, if you shut up a pair of kittens, male and +female, and cut them off from any contact with the outer world--left +them absolutely to their own impulses, that is--well, the female sooner +or later would get pregnant, though neither she nor the male had +anyone to imitate or show them how. + +MORITZ--With animals--yes--it must happen all by itself. + +MELCHIOR--With people, too, just the same! I ask you, Moritz,--if your +boys are sleeping on the same bed as the girls, and all of a sudden +the first masculine impulses stir in them.... I’d like to bet with +anybody.... + +MORITZ--Yes, you may be right there. But all the same---- + +MELCHIOR--And with your girls it would be absolutely the same at the +corresponding age. Not that a girl exactly--of course, one can’t tell +so well ... at least, it would be natural to expect ... and their +curiosity, too, would be there, to do its share. + +MORITZ--One question by the way---- + +MELCHIOR--Well? + +MORITZ--You’ll answer? + +MELCHIOR--Surely. + +MORITZ--True? + +MELCHIOR--There’s my hand. Well, Moritz? + +MORITZ--Have you written your theme yet? + +MELCHIOR--Oh, speak out what you want to say! No one can hear us or +see us. + +MORITZ--You understand my children would be made to work all day in +the yard or the garden, or play games that called for real physical +exertion. They’ll have to ride and wrestle and climb, and of all things +not sleep so soft at night as we do. We are awfully softened! I don’t +believe people dream when they have hard beds! + +MELCHIOR--I’m going to sleep from now till vintage time in just my +hammock. I’ve shoved my bed behind the stove: they go together. Last +winter I dreamt once that I whipped our Lolo till he couldn’t move a +limb! That was the most horrible thing I’ve ever dreamt.--What makes +you look at me so strangely? + +MORITZ--Have you felt them yet? + +MELCHIOR--What? + +MORITZ--How did you phrase it? + +MELCHIOR--Masculine impulses? + +MORITZ--M-hm. + +MELCHIOR--Yes indeed! + +MORITZ--I too. + +MELCHIOR--In fact I’ve known that quite a while--nearly a year. + +MORITZ--It struck me like a bolt of lightning! + +MELCHIOR--You had dreamt? + +MORITZ--Oh, just a flash ... of legs in sky-blue tights climbing over +the teacher’s desk--to be exact, I thought they were going to climb +over it. I only got a glimpse of them. + +MELCHIOR--George Zirschnitz dreamt of his =mother=. + +MORITZ--Did he tell you that? + +MELCHIOR--Out there on the gallows-path. + +MORITZ--If you only knew what I’ve gone through since that night! + +MELCHIOR--Qualms of conscience? + +MORITZ--Qualms of conscience?--Pangs of death! + +MELCHIOR--Good God.... + +MORITZ--I thought I was past cure. I thought I was suffering from some +inward weakness.--I only began to feel easier when I set out to take +notes on the memories of my life. Oh, yes, Melchior! the last three +weeks have been a Gethsemane for me. + +MELCHIOR--I had been more or less prepared for it beforehand. I felt a +bit ashamed, but that was all. + +MORITZ--And yet you’re almost a full year younger than me. + +MELCHIOR--On that point, Moritz, I wouldn’t waste much thought. By +all I can make out, there is no definite age for this phantom’s first +appearance. You know that big Lämmermeier with the straw-colored hair +and the big nose? He’s three years older than me, but Hansy Rilow says +that to this very day he dreams of nothing but tarts and apricot jelly. + +MORITZ--I ask you, how can Hansy Rilow tell about that? + +MELCHIOR--He’s asked him. + +MORITZ--He’s asked him?--I’d never have dared to ask anybody! + +MELCHIOR--You just asked me, didn’t you? + +MORITZ--Yes, I did!--Maybe Hansy had made his will too, +beforehand!--Isn’t it a queer game the world plays with us?! And +we’re supposed to be grateful! I don’t remember having felt the least +desire for this sort of disturbance.--Why couldn’t I have been left +sleeping quietly until everything was still again! Father and mother +could have had a hundred better children. But here I am, with no idea +how I got here, and now I must be responsible for not having stayed +away!--Haven’t you sometimes thought about that too, Melchior: in what +kind of a way exactly we got mixed up in this whirl? + +MELCHIOR--Do you mean you don’t know that either, Moritz? + +MORITZ--How should I know?--I see how the hens lay eggs and hear how +Mama says she carried me under her heart; but is that enough?--And I +remember being embarrassed even at five years old when someone turned +up the queen of hearts, she was so décolleté. That feeling has gone; +but to-day I can scarcely speak to any girl any more without something +abominable coming into my head--and I swear to you, Melchior, I don’t +know =what=! + +MELCHIOR--I’ll tell you the whole thing. I’ve gotten it partly out of +books, partly from pictures, partly from observations of nature. You’ll +be surprised. It made me an atheist at first. I told George Zirschnitz +about it, too. He wanted to tell Hansy Rilow, but Hansy had learned it +all from his French governess when he was a kid. + +MORITZ--I’ve gone through Meyer’s Abridged from A to Z. Words! just +words and more words! Not one simple explanation! Oh, this reticence! +What good to me is an encyclopædia that has nothing to say on the most +vital question of all? + +MELCHIOR--Did you ever see two dogs running about the streets? + +MORITZ--No!--Don’t tell me anything yet--not to-day, Melchior! I’ve +still got Central America and Louis XV before me, not to speak of the +sixty lines of Homer, the seven equations, the Latin Comp.--I should +lose out at everything to-morrow again. If I am to drudge successfully +I must be as dull as an ox. + +MELCHIOR--But come up to my room with me. In three-quarters of an hour +I’ll have the Homer, the algebra, and =two= Latin Comp.’s. I’ll put a +few harmless blunders into yours, and the thing’s done. Mama’ll make us +some lemonade again, and we’ll talk comfortably about propagation. + +MORITZ--I can’t!--I can’t talk comfortably about propagation! If you +want to help me, give me your information in writing. Write down what +you know. Make it as short and plain as you can, and stick it between +my books to-morrow at recess. I’ll carry it home without knowing I have +it, and come upon it sometime unexpectedly. I won’t be able to help +skimming thru it, even if I’m tired.... If it’s absolutely necessary, +you can draw something in the margin, too. + +MELCHIOR--You’re like a girl.... But just as you like. It’ll be an +interesting job for me all right.--One question, Moritz. + +MORITZ--Hm? + +MELCHIOR--Have you ever =seen= a girl? + +MORITZ--Yes! + +MELCHIOR--All? + +MORITZ--Every bit! + +MELCHIOR--I, too.--Then no illustrations will be necessary. + +MORITZ--At the Shooting-meet, in Leilich’s Anatomical Museum. If it +had come up, I’d have been chucked out of school. As beautiful as the +daylight--and oh, so =true=! + +MELCHIOR--I was with Mama in Frankfort last summer-- Are you going +already, Moritz? + +MORITZ--To get my work done.--Good night. + +MELCHIOR--So long! + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE III.--_A stormy afternoon._ MARTHA, WENDLA _and_ THEA _are + coming along the path_. + +MARTHA--How the water gets into your shoes! + +WENDLA--How the wind whistles past your cheeks! + +THEA--How your heart pounds! + +WENDLA--Let’s go out to the bridge. Ilse said the river was full of +bushes and trees. The boys have a raft on the water. They say Melchi +Gabor nearly got drowned yesterday evening. + +THEA--Oh, =he= can swim! + +MARTHA--You bet he can, kid! + +WENDLA--If he hadn’t been able to swim, I guess he’d have been really +drowned. + +THEA--Your braid’s coming out, Martha, your braid’s coming out! + +MARTHA--Pooh, let it! It bothers me so all the time! I can’t wear my +hair short, like you; I can’t wear it loose like Wendla; I can’t wear a +bang; and at home I even have to put it up--all on account of my aunt! + +WENDLA--I’ll bring scissors with me to-morrow to the +confirmation-class. While you’re reciting “Well for him who erreth not” +I’ll cut it off! + +MARTHA--For God’s sake, Wendla! Papa’ll beat me to pieces, and Mama’ll +lock me up three nights in the coal-hole! + +WENDLA--What’ll he beat you with, Martha? + +MARTHA--It often strikes me that they’d miss something, after all, if +they didn’t have such a horrid little brat as I am. + +THEA--Oh, my dear! + +MARTHA--Aren’t you allowed to have a sky-blue ribbon thru the top of +your chemise? + +THEA--Pink satin! Mama thinks pink goes well with my pitch-black eyes. + +MARTHA--Blue’s awfully becoming to me.--Well, Mama yanked me out of bed +by the hair--this way; I fell with my hands out on the floor.--You see +Mama prays with us night after night.... + +WENDLA--In your place I’d have run away from them long ago, out into +the world. + +MARTHA--There! That’s it, that’s just what I’m aiming at. That’s just +it.--But she’d like to see me! Oh, she’d just like to see me! At any +rate, I shan’t have anything to blame my =mother= for later on! + +THEA--Huh--huh-- + +MARTHA--Can you possibly think, Thea, what Mama meant by that? + +THEA--Not I-- Can you, Wendla? + +WENDLA--I would simply have asked her. + +MARTHA--I lay on the floor and shrieked and screamed. In comes Papa. +Rip!--Off with the chemise! Out of the door with me! There now! Maybe +I’d like to go down on the street like that, eh?... + +WENDLA--Oh, Martha, that just can’t be true! + +MARTHA--I froze. I told all about it. Well, I must sleep in the sack +the whole night. + +THEA--Never in my life could I sleep in a sack! + +WENDLA--I really wish I could sleep in your sack =for= you sometime. + +MARTHA--If only you’re not beaten---- + +THEA--But don’t you smother in it? + +MARTHA--Your head stays out. It’s tied under your chin. + +THEA--And then do they beat you? + +MARTHA--No. Only when there’s something special. + +WENDLA--What do they beat you =with=, Martha? + +MARTHA--Oh, what--with anything handy.--Does your mother think it’s +“disreputable” to eat a piece of bread in bed? + +WENDLA--No, no. + +MARTHA--I do believe they enjoy it, though, even if they never speak of +that.--When once I have children I’ll let them grow up like the weeds +in our flower-garden. No one bothers himself about =them=, and they +stand so high, so thick!--while the roses in the beds are flowering +worse and worse each summer. + +THEA--When _I_ have children I’ll dress them all in rosy pink--pink +hats, pink dresses, pink shoes. Only their stockings--their stockings +will be black as night! Then when I go walking I’ll have them march +ahead of me.--And you, Wendla? + +WENDLA--How do you two know that you’ll have any? + +THEA--Well, why shouldn’t we have some? + +MARTHA--It’s true Aunt Euphemia hasn’t any. + +THEA--Silly! That’s because she’s not married! + +WENDLA--Aunty Bauer was married three times, and hasn’t got one. + +MARTHA--If you have any, Wendla, which would you rather--boys or girls? + +WENDLA--Boys! Boys! + +THEA--Me too--boys! + +MARTHA--Me too--better twenty boys than three girls. + +THEA--Girls are tiresome. + +MARTHA--If I weren’t a girl already, I surely wouldn’t want to be one +any more! + +WENDLA--That’s a matter of taste, I guess, Martha. I’m glad every day +that I’m a girl. I wouldn’t exchange with a prince, believe me.--But +that’s why I’d only want boys. + +THEA--But that’s nonsense, Wendla, rank nonsense! + +WENDLA--But look here, child,--mustn’t it be a thousand times more +uplifting to be loved by a man than by a girl? + +THEA--But you wouldn’t say that forest-inspector Pfälle loved Melitta +more than she loves him! + +WENDLA--Yes, I would, too, Thea.--Pfälle is proud. Pfälle is proud of +being forest-inspector, for he has nothing else.--Melitta is =happy=, +because she gets ten thousand times more than she is. + +MARTHA--Aren’t you proud of =yourself=, Wendla? + +WENDLA--That would be silly. + +MARTHA--How proud I wish I could be, in your place! + +THEA--Only see how she puts her feet down, how straight ahead she +looks, how she holds herself, Martha! If that isn’t pride-- + +WENDLA--But what for? I’m so happy that I’m a girl! If I weren’t one, +I’d kill myself, so that next time.... [_Stops, seeing_ MELCHIOR. _He +crosses past them, greeting them, and goes, followed by their eyes._] + +THEA--He’s got a wonderful head. + +MARTHA--That’s how I think of the young Alexander, when he went to +school to Aristotle. + +THEA--Oh, good gracious! Greek History!--I only remember how Socrates +lay in his tub when Alexander sold him the donkey’s shadow. + +WENDLA--They say he’s the third best in his class. + +THEA--Professor Knochenbruch says he could be first, if he wanted to. + +MARTHA--He has a lovely forehead, but his friend has more soulful eyes. + +THEA--Moritz Stiefel?--He’s a stupid! + +MARTHA--I’ve always gotten on with him perfectly well. + +THEA--He humiliates you, no matter where you are with him. At the +Rilows’ party he offered me some sugar-almonds. Imagine, Wendla,--they +were soft and warm! Isn’t that just---- He said he had kept them too +long in his trousers pocket! + +WENDLA--Think of this: Melchi Gabor told me that time that he didn’t +believe in anything--not in God, or in a future life--in just nothing +in the world! + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE IV.--_Near the Boys’ School. All the boys but_ MELCHIOR _and_ + MORITZ _and_ ERNEST ROEBEL _are standing about expectantly_. + +MELCHIOR--[_Entering._] Can any of you tell me where Moritz Stiefel is +keeping himself? + +GEORGE--He’s going to catch it--Oh, he’s going to catch it! + +OTTO--He’ll go too far once, and then he’ll get what’s coming to him +good and plenty. + +LÄMMERMEIER--Lord knows _I_ wouldn’t like to be in his shoes at this +moment! + +ROBERT--Some cheek! Some impudence! + +MELCHIOR--But wha--wha--what do you mean? + +GEORGE--What do we mean?--Well, listen.... + +LÄMMERMEIER--I wish I hadn’t said anything. + +OTTO--Me too--=wish= I hadn’t! + +MELCHIOR--If you don’t tell me this minute---- + +ROBERT--Well, here it is: Moritz Stiefel has broken into the +Faculty-Room! + +MELCHIOR--The Faculty-Room! + +OTTO--The Faculty-Room! Right after Latin. + +GEORGE--He was the last out. He stayed behind on purpose. + +LÄMMERMEIER--As I turned the hall corner I saw him opening the door. + +MELCHIOR--You go to---- + +LÄMMERMEIER--Yeah, if only =he= doesn’t go to---- + +GEORGE--I guess someone had left the key in the lock. + +ROBERT--Or else Moritz Stiefel has a pick-lock on him. + +OTTO--I’d believe it of him! + +LÄMMERMEIER--If he has luck he’ll only get a Sunday afternoon. + +ROBERT--Along with a demerit in his report. + +OTTO--If he doesn’t get a suspension on top of a reprimand. + +HANSY RILOW--There he is! + +MELCHIOR--Pale as a sheet. [MORITZ _appears, in the utmost excitement_.] + +LÄMMERMEIER--Moritz, Moritz, what have you done? + +MORITZ--Nothing--nothing---- + +ROBERT--You’re feverish. + +MORITZ--With joy--with rapture--with jubilation---- + +OTTO--You were caught----? + +MORITZ--I’ve passed!--Melchior, I’ve passed! Oh, let the world +go hang now--I have passed!--Who would have believed that I’d be +promoted! I can’t realize it! Twenty times over I read it! I can’t +believe it--but God be thanked, there it was--there it stayed! I =am= +promoted!--[_Smiling._] I don’t know--I feel so queer--the earth’s +going round.... Melchior, Melchior, if you only knew what I’ve gone +thru! + +HANSY RILOW--Congratulations, Moritz!--Just be glad that you got away +safe! + +MORITZ--You don’t know, Hansy--you can’t imagine what depended on it. +For the last three weeks I’ve slunk past that door as though it were +the mouth of hell. Then, to-day,--it was ajar! I think if a million had +been offered me, nothing, oh, nothing could have held me back! Before +I knew it I was standing in the middle of the room--I was opening the +record book, turning the pages, finding--and during all that time--it +makes me shudder!---- + +MELCHIOR--During all that time---- + +MORITZ--All that time the door behind me was standing wide open!--How I +got out, how I got down the stairs, I don’t remember. + +HANSY RILOW--Did Ernest Roebel pass, too? + +MORITZ--Oh, yes, Hansy, sure! Ernest Roebel is promoted the same way. + +ROBERT--Then you just can’t have read right. Not counting the dunces’ +bench, there are sixty-one of us with you and Roebel, and the upper +classroom can’t hold more than sixty! + +MORITZ--I read perfectly right. Ernest Roebel is moved up just as I +am--both of us, for the present, to be sure, only =provisionally=. +During the first quarter it will be decided which of us must make room +for the other.--Poor Roebel! God knows I’m not afraid for myself any +more. I’ve looked too far down into the depths this time for that! + +OTTO--I bet you five marks it’ll be you that makes room. + +MORITZ--You haven’t got it. I don’t want to rob you.--Gosh, won’t I +grind from now on!--Now I can tell you all too,--and you can believe it +or not, it doesn’t matter now--but _I_ know, _I_ know how true it is: +if I had not been promoted, I’d have shot myself. + +ROBERT--Brag! + +GEORGE--The coward! + +OTTO--I’d like to see you shoot anything! + +LÄMMERMEIER--Punch his face! + +MELCHIOR--[_Punches_ LÄMMERMEIER.] Come along, Moritz. Let’s go to the +forester’s house. + +GEORGE--Do you really believe that rot? + +MELCHIOR--Is that your business?--Let ’em talk, Moritz. Just let’s +get away, out o’ the city. [_He pulls him away. They meet_ PROFESSORS +KNOCHENBRUCH _and_ HUNGERGURT, _touch their caps, and exeunt. The other +boys vanish, to the other side._] + +KNOCHENBRUCH--It is beyond my comprehension, dear colleague, how the +best of my pupils can feel drawn like that to the very worst of them +all. + +HUNGERGURT--And beyond mine too, dear colleague. + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE V.--_A sunny afternoon in a wood of beech and oak trees. Thick + undergrowth. A big oak-trunk with mossy roots. By it_, WENDLA + _stands, looking about for the path_. MELCHIOR _breaks thru the + brush_. + +MELCHIOR--[_Seeing her, stops dead._] Is it really you, Wendla? What +are you doing up here so all alone? I’ve been tramping up and down this +wood for the last three hours without meeting a soul, and now all of a +sudden you step out of the thickest covert at me! + +WENDLA--Yes, it’s I. + +MELCHIOR--If I didn’t know you were Wendla Bergmann I’d think you were +a Dryad fallen out of the branches! + +WENDLA--No, no, I’m Wendla Bergmann.--Where have you come from? + +MELCHIOR--I’m following my thoughts. + +WENDLA--I’m looking for woodruff.[1] Mama wants to flavor May-wine with +them. At first she was going to come too, but at the last moment Aunty +Bauer turned up, and she doesn’t like to climb: so I came up here alone. + +MELCHIOR--Have you got your woodruff? + +WENDLA--The whole basket full. Over there under the beech-trees +they’re as thick as meadow-clover. Just now I’m looking round for a way +out. I seem to have got mixed up. Maybe you can tell me what time it is. + +MELCHIOR--Just after ha’ past three.--When do they expect you back? + +WENDLA--I thought it would be later. I lay a long time in the moss by +the brook and dreamed. The time went by me so quickly, I was afraid it +would soon be night. + +MELCHIOR--If nobody’s expecting you yet, let’s lie down here a little +while. Under the oak there’s my favorite place. When you lean your head +back against the trunk and stare thru the twigs at the sky, you get +hypnotized. [_He does as he says._] The ground is still warm from the +morning sun. [_She sits on a root._]--There’s something I’ve wanted to +ask you for weeks, Wendla. + +WENDLA--But I must be at home before five. + +MELCHIOR--We’ll go in time together. I’ll take the basket and we’ll +strike out thru the underbrush and get to the bridge in ten minutes. +When one lies like this, with his forehead in his palm, one gets the +strangest ideas.... + +WENDLA--What was it you wanted to ask me, Melchior? + +MELCHIOR--I’ve heard, Wendla, that you go a lot to poor people and take +them things to eat and even clothes and money. Do you do that of your +own accord or does your mother send you? + +WENDLA--Generally Mother sends me. There are poor laborers’ families +with an awful lot of children. Often the man is out of work, and then +they’re cold or go hungry. We have still such a lot of things left in +cupboards and bureaus that we don’t need any longer.--But what made you +think of it? + +MELCHIOR--Do you like to go, or not, when your mother sends you on such +errands? + +WENDLA--Oh, I like to ever so much!--How can you ask? + +MELCHIOR--But the children are dirty, the women are sick, the rooms are +alive with filth, the men hate you because you don’t work---- + +WENDLA--That isn’t true, Melchior,--and if it were true I’d go all the +more! + +MELCHIOR--What do you mean, Wendla,--all the more? + +WENDLA--I’d go all the more for that: it would give me so much more +pleasure to be able to help them! + +MELCHIOR--Oh, so you go to the poor people for the pleasure you get out +of it! + +WENDLA--I go because they’re poor! + +MELCHIOR--But if it didn’t give you any pleasure, would you stop going? + +WENDLA--Well, can I help it if it does give me pleasure? + +MELCHIOR--[_Rolling over and staring straight up._] And yet it’s for +that that you’ll get into heaven!--So it was true, the thought that has +left me no peace for the last month!--Can the skinflint help it if it +=doesn’t= give him any pleasure to go and visit sick and dirty children? + +WENDLA--Oh, I’m =sure= it would give =you= the =greatest= pleasure! + +MELCHIOR--And yet it’s for that that he’s condemned to everlasting +death. [_Sits up, his back against the tree._] I’ll write it up and +send it to Pastor Kahlbauch. He started me on this. Why does he drivel +to us about “the joy of sacrifice”?--If he can’t answer me I won’t go +to his Sunday-school any more, nor let myself be confirmed. + +WENDLA--Why do you want to give pain to your dear father and mother? +Let yourself be confirmed! It won’t cost you your head! If it weren’t +for our horrid white dresses and your baggy trousers, perhaps one could +even feel enthusiastic about it. + +MELCHIOR--There =is= no self-sacrifice. There =is= no unselfishness.--I +see the good rejoice in their goodness, and the wicked tremble and +groan--I see you, Wendla Bergmann, shake your curls and laugh, and I +get as glum about it as a pariah!--What did you dream about just now, +Wendla, when you lay in the grass by the brookside? + +WENDLA--Silly things--foolishness---- + +MELCHIOR--With your eyes open? + +WENDLA--Oh, I dreamt I was a poor beggar-child, oh, awfully poor, who +was shoved out on the street at five in the morning and had to beg the +whole day long in wind and rain among harsh, hard-hearted people; and +if I came home at night shivering with hunger and cold, and hadn’t as +much money as my father wanted, then I was beaten and beaten.... + +MELCHIOR--Oh, I know, Wendla. You get that out of silly kid-stories. +Believe me, such brutal people don’t exist any more! + +WENDLA--Oh, yes, they do, Melchior,--you don’t know!--Martha Bessel is +beaten night after night, so that you can see the marks the next day. +Oh, what she must suffer! It makes you boiling hot to hear her tell +about it. I’m so terribly sorry for her, I often have to cry into my +pillow in the middle of the night. For months I’ve been thinking and +thinking how to help her. I’d joyfully put myself in her place for a +week. + +MELCHIOR--Her father should simply be reported to the police. Then +they’d take the child away from him. + +WENDLA--I, Melchior, have never been whipped in my life--not one single +time. I can scarcely guess what it’s like to be beaten. I’ve tried +hitting myself, to find out how it feels really, inside.--It must be a +shuddery sensation. + +MELCHIOR--I don’t believe a child is ever made better by it. + +WENDLA--Better by what? + +MELCHIOR--Being struck. + +WENDLA--[_Reaching over and plucking a young shoot._] With this switch, +for example.--Whew, but that’s strong and slender! + +MELCHIOR--That would draw blood. + +WENDLA--Wouldn’t you hit me with it once? + +MELCHIOR--You? + +WENDLA--Yes. + +MELCHIOR--What’s got into you, Wendla? + +WENDLA--[_Drawing back, a little alarmed._] Why shouldn’t you? + +MELCHIOR--Oh, don’t shrink. I won’t hit you. + +WENDLA--But even if I let you? + +MELCHIOR--Never, girl! + +WENDLA--Even if I ask you to, Melchior? + +MELCHIOR--Have you lost your senses? + +WENDLA--I have never in my life been beaten! + +MELCHIOR--If you can beg for a thing like that!... + +WENDLA--[_Thrusting it into his hands._] I do! Please! + +MELCHIOR--I’ll teach you to say Please! [_Strikes her._] + +WENDLA--Oh, what! I don’t feel the least thing! + +MELCHIOR--No wonder--thru all your skirts like that.... + +WENDLA--Then hit me on the legs--here! + +MELCHIOR--Wendla! [_Strikes her harder._] + +WENDLA--Oh, you’re just stroking me!--You’re stroking me! + +MELCHIOR--You wait, you witch--I’ll beat the devil out of you! [_He +throws the sprig aside and falls upon her with his fists so that she +breaks out with a fearful cry. Undeterred, raging, his blows rain on +her thick and fast, while big tears overflow and streak his cheeks. Of +a sudden, he springs upright, clasps his temples with both hands, and, +passionately sobbing, plunges into the forest._] + + +CURTAIN + + + + +ACT II + + + SCENE I.--MELCHIOR’S _study. A recess, rear center, with casements + looking out upon moonlit garden and dark, evening woods. + Window-seat. Low table with a well-shaded oil lamp, books, + cigarettes, etc._ MORITZ _and_ MELCHIOR _sit on the two ends of + the window-seat, in profile, facing each other_. + +MORITZ--Now I’m quite cheerful again--only a bit excited. But in the +Greek class I went to sleep like the besotted Polyphemus! I’m amazed +old Zungenschlag didn’t tweak my ears. This morning again I came within +an ace of being late. My first thought when I woke up was of the verbs +in -MI. Gee whiz, but didn’t I conjugate all during breakfast and along +the road till everything turned green before me!--It must have been a +little after three when I dropped off. The pen left a blot on my book. +The lamp was smoking when Matilda woke me. In the elders under my +window the blackbirds were twittering so joyously--I got unutterably +melancholy again at once. I buttoned my collar and pulled the brush +thru my hair.--But you feel it when you force yourself against +nature.... + +MELCHIOR--Shall I roll you a cigarette? + +MORITZ--No, thanks--I won’t smoke.--If only it can keep on like this! I +mean to work and work till my eyes pop out of my head. Ernest Roebel +has fallen down six times already since vacation--three times in Greek, +twice with Knochenbruch, last time in History of Literature. I haven’t +been in that pitiful fix more than five times, and from to-day on it +shall never happen again!--Roebel won’t shoot himself. Roebel hasn’t +got parents who are sacrificing their all for him. Whenever he wants +to, he can be a soldier of fortune or a cowboy or a sailor. But if _I_ +fail my father’ll have a stroke and Mama’ll go crazy. That’s the kind +of thing nobody would live to see. Before the exam I prayed God to let +me get consumption, so that the cup might pass me by untasted. It did +pass over--even tho its nimbus still gleams at me from afar so that I +never dare to lift my eyes.--But now that I’ve got hold of the first +rung I shall haul myself up. I’m sure of that, because the inevitable +consequence of a fall will be a broken neck. + +MELCHIOR--There’s an undreamed-of meanness to this life. It wouldn’t +take much to make me hang myself up in the branches.--Wonder where Mama +can be with the tea. + +MORITZ--Your tea will do me good, Melchior.--I’m actually trembling! +I feel so strangely sensitized. Touch me a moment. I see, I hear, I +feel much more sharply, and yet everything’s so dreamy, so charged with +atmosphere.--How the garden recedes in the moonlight there, so still, +so deep, as if it went on forever! Dim-veiled figures are moving among +the bushes; they slip over the open tracts in breathless activity, and +vanish in the half-dark. I should say they were holding a conference +under the chestnut-tree.--Shan’t we go down, Melchior? + +MELCHIOR--Let’s wait till we’ve had some tea. + +MORITZ--The leaves whisper so eagerly. It’s as if I were hearing +dead Grandmother tell the story of the Queen without a Head. She was +a perfectly beautiful queen, fair as the sun, lovelier than all the +maidens in the land,--only she had come into the world, alas! without a +head. She couldn’t eat nor drink nor see nor laugh nor kiss either. She +could only make herself understood to her court thru her supple little +hand. With her dainty feet she tossed off declarations of war and +death-sentences. Then one day she was conquered by a king who happened +to have two heads that were always at outs with each other--quarreled +the whole year long so hard that neither let the other speak a word. So +the chief court conjurer took the smaller of the two heads and set it +on the queen; and lo and behold, it was mighty becoming to her; so then +the king married the queen and the two were no longer at loggerheads +but kissed each other on the forehead and the cheeks and the mouth, and +lived for a long, long time after in happiness and joy.... Confounded +rot! Since vacation I haven’t been able to get the Headless Queen out +of my head! If I see a beautiful girl, I see her without a head,--and +then all of a sudden I appear as the Headless Queen--myself!... Well, +it’s possible that one will be set on my shoulders yet. [MRS. GABOR +_enters with a tray of steaming tea, which she sets down on the table +after moving the lamp a little, and then shakes hands with_ MORITZ.] + +MRS. GABOR--Here, children! Fall to!--Good evening, Moritz Stiefel. How +are you? + +MORITZ--[_Standing._] Well, thank you, Mrs. Gabor.--I’m listening to +the roundelays down there. + +MRS. GABOR--But you’re not looking a bit well.--Don’t you feel quite +right? + +MORITZ--It’s nothing to speak of. I’ve been rather late getting to bed +the last few nights. + +MELCHIOR--Think of it--he’s been studying all night! + +MRS. GABOR--You shouldn’t do that kind of thing, Master Stiefel! You +should take care of yourself. Look out for your health. School can’t +take the place of health in your life. Take frequent long walks in the +fresh air! That is worth more to you at your age than correct Middle +High German! + +MORITZ--I will go walking oftener. You’re right. One can work, too, +while one is walking. Why didn’t I think of that myself!--The written +lessons I should have to do at home just the same. + +MELCHIOR--You’ll do the written work here with me. That way it’ll +be easier for both of us.--You know, Mama, Max von Trenk has been +down with brain-fever. Well, this noon Hansy Rilow came from Trenk’s +death-bed to inform Mr. Sonnenstich that Trenk had just died in his +presence. “Is that so?” says Sonnenstich. “Haven’t you still got two +hours’ work to make up from last week? Here’s the note to the proctor. +See that the thing is cleared up at last. The entire class will attend +the interment.”--Hansy was simply paralyzed. + +MRS. GABOR--What is that book you have there, Melchior? + +MELCHIOR--“Faust.” + +MRS. GABOR--Have you read it all yet? + +MELCHIOR--Not all thru. + +MORITZ--We’re just at the Walpurgisnacht. + +MRS. GABOR--I should have waited a year or two more, if I’d been you, +before reading that. + +MELCHIOR--I don’t know any book, Mama, that I’ve found so much that was +beautiful in. Why shouldn’t I have read it? + +MRS. GABOR--Because you can’t understand it. + +MELCHIOR--How can you know that, Mama? I feel plainly enough that I’m +not able yet to grasp it in its full sublimity, but.... + +MORITZ--We always read it together. That makes understanding it vastly +easier. + +MRS. GABOR--You are old enough, Melchior, to be able to judge what is +good for you and what isn’t. Do whatever you feel you can justify. I +shall be the first to realize, and be glad, if you never give me any +reason to have to withhold anything from you. I only wanted to remind +you that even the best can do harm if one is still too immature to +appraise it rightly. I shall always rather put my trust in you than +in any possible set of educational rules.--If you want anything +else, children, come and call me, Melchior: I shall be in my bedroom. +[_Exit._] + +MORITZ--Your Mama meant the story of Gretchen. + +MELCHIOR--Have we lingered even a moment over that! + +MORITZ--Faust himself can’t have been more cold-blooded getting thru it! + +MELCHIOR--After all, that villainy isn’t the climax of the poem. Faust +could have promised the girl marriage, he could have deserted her +directly after, without being one whit less guilty in my eyes. Gretchen +could have died of a broken heart for all the difference I’d see.--When +you behold how intensely everyone always looks first for that sort +of thing, you might think the whole world revolved round penis and +vulva.[2] + +MORITZ--To be frank with you, Melchior, I’ve had exactly that feeling +since I read your paper. It fell out at my feet in the first days of +vacation. I had my Plötz [a French grammar] in my hand.--I bolted the +door and ran through your quivering lines like a frightened owl flying +through a blazing wood. I think I read most of it with my eyes shut. +At your explanations a stream of vague memories rang in my ears like a +song one used to hum joyously to one’s self in childhood, and at the +brink of death hears from the mouth of another, and is appalled.--My +sympathy was aroused most by what you wrote about the girl’s part, I +shall never get over the impression that made. I’m sure, Melchior, to +have to suffer wrong is sweeter than to do wrong. Blamelessly to have +to undergo so sweet a wrong seems to me the essence of every earthly +bliss. + +MELCHIOR--I don’t want my bliss given me as a charity! + +MORITZ--But why not? + +MELCHIOR--I don’t want anything that I haven’t had to struggle and win +for myself. + +MORITZ--But then is it still enjoyable, Melchior?--The girl’s delight, +Melchior, is like the blessèd gods’. The girl represses. Her very +nature protects her. She is kept free from any bitterness or regret +up to the last moment, and so can see, all at once, heaven itself +break over her. She is still fearful of hell in the very instant of +discovering and embracing paradise. Her senses are as fresh as the +spring that bubbles from pure rock. She lays hold of a cup no earthly +breath has yet clouded--a draught of nectar that she takes and swallows +even as it flames and flares.... The gratification that the man +receives seems to me shallow and flat beside hers! + +MELCHIOR--Let it seem what it will to you, but keep it to yourself. I +don’t like to think about it. + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE II.--WENDLA’S _room, empty_. MRS. BERGMANN, _her hat on, her + shawl round her shoulders, a basket on her arm, enters with + beaming face_. + +MRS. BERGMANN--Wendla! Wendla! + +WENDLA--[_Appearing, half dressed, at the other door._] What is it, +Mother? + +MRS. BERGMANN--Up already, dear? Well! That’s nice of you. + +WENDLA--Have you been out already? + +MRS. BERGMANN--Hurry up now and get dressed! You must go straight down +to Ina’s and take this basket to her. + +WENDLA--[_Finishing dressing during the following._] Have you been at +Ina’s? How is Ina feeling? Isn’t she ever going to get better? + +MRS. BERGMANN--Just think, Wendla: the stork came to her last night and +brought her a new little boy! + +WENDLA--A boy?--A boy?--Oh, that’s grand!--So it was for that she’s +been sick so long with influenza! + +MRS. BERGMANN--A splendid boy! + +WENDLA--I’ve got to see him, Mother!--So now I’m an aunt for the third +time--one niece and two nephews! + +MRS. BERGMANN--And what fine nephews they are!--That’s just the way +of it when one lives so close to the church roof.--It’ll be just two +[and a half?] years to-morrow since she went up those steps in her +wedding-dress! + +WENDLA--Were you with her when he brought him, mother? + +MRS. BERGMANN--He had just that minute flown away again!--Don’t you +want to pin a rose on here? [_At the front of her dress._] + +WENDLA--Why didn’t you get there a little bit sooner, Mother? + +MRS. BERGMANN--Why, I do believe, almost, that he brought you something +too--a brooch or something like that. + +WENDLA--[_Losing patience._] Oh, it’s really too bad! + +MRS. BERGMANN--But I tell you that he did bring you a brooch too! + +WENDLA--I’ve got brooches enough.... + +MRS. BERGMANN--Why, then be happy, darling. What are you troubled about? + +WENDLA--I’d like to have known, so much, whether he flew in by the +window or down the chimney. + +MRS. BERGMANN--You must ask Ina about that. [_Laughing._] You must ask +Ina about that, dear heart! Ina will tell you all about it exactly. +Didn’t Ina spend a whole half-hour talking to him? + +WENDLA--I’ll ask Ina as soon as I get down there. + +MRS. BERGMANN--Be sure you don’t forget, you angel child! Really, I’m +interested myself in knowing if he came in by the window or the chimney! + +WENDLA--Or how about asking the chimney-sweep, rather?--The +chimney-sweep must know better than anybody whether he flies down the +chimney or not. + +MRS. BERGMANN--No, not the chimney-sweep, dear; not the chimney-sweep! +What does the chimney-sweep know about the stork? He’ll fill you +chuck-full of nonsense he doesn’t believe himself.... Wha-what are you +staring down the street so at? + +WENDLA--A man, mother, three times as big as an ox!--with feet like +steamboats--! + +MRS. BERGMANN--[_Plunging to the window._] Impossible! Impossible! + +WENDLA--[_Right after her._] He’s holding a bedstead under his chin +and fiddling “The Watch on the Rhine” on it--now he’s just turned the +corner.... + +MRS. BERGMANN--Well! You are and always were a little rogue! To put +your simple old mother into such a fright!--Go get your hat. I wonder +when you’ll ever get any sense! I’ve given up hope! + +WENDLA--So have I, Mother; so’ve I. It’s pretty sad about my sense! +Here I have a sister who’s been married two and a half years; here I +am an aunt three times over; and I haven’t the least idea how it all +happens!... Don’t be cross, motherkin! don’t be cross! Who in the world +should I ask about it but you? Please, Mother dear, tell it to me! +Tell me, darling motherkin! I feel ashamed at myself! Please, please, +mother, speak! Don’t scold me for asking such a thing. Tell me about +it--how does it happen--how does it all come about?--Oh, you can’t +seriously expect me still to believe in the stork when I’m fourteen! + +MRS. BERGMANN--But, good Lord, child, how queer you are! What things do +occur to you! Really, I just can’t do that! + +WENDLA--But why not, mother? Why not? It can’t be anything ugly, +surely, when everyone feels so glad about it! + +MRS. BERGMANN--Oh, oh, God defend me!--Have I deserved to---- Go and +put your things on, girl,--put your things on. + +WENDLA--I’m going ... and supposing your child goes out now and asks +the chimney-sweep? + +MRS. BERGMANN--Oh, but that’s enough to drive me crazy!--Come, child, +come here: I’ll tell you.... Oh, Almighty Goodness!--only not to-day, +Wendla! To-morrow, day after, next week, whenever you want, dear heart! + +WENDLA--Tell it to me to-day, mother. Tell it to me now; now, at once. +Now that I’ve seen you so upset, it’s all the more impossible for me to +quiet down again until you do! + +MRS. BERGMANN--I just can’t, Wendla. + +WENDLA--Oh, but why can’t you, motherkin?--Here I’ll kneel at your feet +and put my head in your lap. Cover my head with your apron and talk and +talk as if you were sitting all soul alone in the room. I won’t move a +muscle, I won’t make a sound; I’ll keep perfectly still and listen, no +matter what may come! + +MRS. BERGMANN--Heaven knows, Wendla, it isn’t my fault! The good God +knows me.--Come, in His name!--I will tell you, little girl, how you +came into this world--so listen, Wendla.... + +WENDLA--[_Under her apron._] I’m listening. + +MRS. BERGMANN--[_Incoherent._] But it’s no use, child! That’s all! I +can’t justify it.--I know I deserve to be put in prison,--to have you +taken from me.... + +WENDLA--[_Under her apron._] Pluck up heart, Mother! + +MRS. BERGMANN--Well, then, listen.... + +WENDLA--[_Trembling._] O God, O God! + +MRS. BERGMANN--To have a child--you understand me, Wendla?---- + +WENDLA--Quick, mother! I can’t bear it much longer! + +MRS. BERGMANN--To have a child--one must love the man--to whom one is +married--=love= him, I say,--as one can only love a man! You must love +him so utterly--with all your heart--that--that--it can’t be =told=! +You must love him, Wendla, as you at your age can’t possibly love +anyone yet.... Now you know. + +WENDLA--[_Getting up._] Great--God--in Heaven! + +MRS. BERGMANN--Now you know what tests lie before you! + +WENDLA--And that is all? + +MRS. BERGMANN--God help me, yes, all!--Now pick up the basket there +and go down to Ina. You’ll get some chocolate there, and cakes with +it.--Come here--let me just look you over--laced boots, silk gloves, +sailor-blouse, a rose in your hair.... But your little dress is really +getting too short now, Wendla! + +WENDLA--Have you got meat for dinner already, motherkin? + +MRS. BERGMANN--God bless you and keep you!--I must find time to sew +another breadth of ruffles round your skirt. + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE III.--_A toilet--not to be thought of as equipped with modern + plumbing._ HANSY RILOW _enters, a light in his hand; bolts the + door and opens the lid_. + +HANSY--Hast thou prayed to-night, Desdemona? [_He draws from his +bosom a reproduction of the Venus of Palma Vecchio._] I shouldn’t say +you looked like “Our Father Who Art in Heaven,” darling:--awaiting +contemplatively whoever may be coming, just as in that delicious +moment of dawning rapture when I beheld thee lying in Schlesinger’s +shop-window--these supple limbs just as beguiling still, these softly +swelling hips, these young, upstanding breasts!--Oh, how giddy with joy +must the great master have felt when the fourteen-year-old original lay +stretched on the divan before his eyes! + +And wilt thou sometimes visit me in dreams? With eager arms will +I receive thee, and kiss thee till thy breath is gone. Thou wilt +take possession of me as the lawful heiress takes possession of her +desolated castle. Gate and door spring open as by invisible hands, and +below in the park the fountain joyously begins to plash! + +“It is the cause! It is the cause!”--That I am not lightly moved to +murder thee, thou may’st learn from the fearful throbbing in my +breast. My throat contracts at the thought of my lonely nights. I swear +to thee, dear, upon my soul, it is not satiety inspires me! Who would +dare boast that he was satiated with =thee=? + +But thou dost suck the marrow from my bones! Thou crook’st my back, +and rob’st my eyes of their last gleam of youth. You claim too much +of me with your inhuman coyness, you wear me out with your unmoving +limbs!--It’s you or I!--and _I_ who have prevailed! + +If I should count them up--those vanished ones with all of whom I +have fought this same fight here!--Psyche by Thumann--one legacy yet +from that dried-up Mlle. Angelique, that rattlesnake in the Eden of +my childhood; Io by Correggio; Galathea by Lossow; then an Amor of +Bouguereau’s; Ada by J. van Beers--that Ada whom I had to abduct from +a secret drawer in father’s desk, to add her to my harem; a quivering, +thrilling Leda by Makart, that I found by chance among my brother’s +college lecture-notes; seven, O thou doomed in thy perfect flower, who +have rushed before thee down this path into Tartarus! Let that give +thee comfort, and seek not to heighten my pangs into agony with these +supplicating looks! + +Thou diest not for =thy= sins, but for =mine=! Need to defend myself +against myself drives me with bleeding heart to do this seventh murder +on a mate. There =is= something tragic in the rôle of Bluebeard. I +guess that all his murdered wives together suffered less than he did +in the strangling of each single one. + +But my conscience will grow calmer and my body stronger when thou, +she-devil, residest no longer in the red-silk cushions of my +jewel-casket. Then in thy stead I will have the Lorelei of Bodenhausen +or the Forsaken Lass of Linger or the Loni of Defregger occupy that +voluptuous pleasure-chamber--provided I shall have recovered the +quicker for this! A bare three months more, perhaps, and your unveiled +Jehoshaphat, sweet soul, would have begun devouring my poor brain as +the sun a butter-ball. It was high time to effect the separation from +bed and board! + +Brrr! I feel a Heliogabalus in me! Moritura me salutat!--O girl, girl, +why do you press your knees together?--why still even now,--in the +face of inscrutable eternity?--One spasm, and I will let thee live! +One feminine movement, one sign of sensuality, of sympathy, girl! and +I will frame thee in gold and hang thee above my bed. Art thou not +conscious that it is thy =purity=, nothing more, begets my excesses? +Woe, woe to the unhuman! + +Anyone can see that she’s had the advantage of a model +education!--Well, =so have _I_ too=. + +Hast thou prayed to-night, Desdemona? + +My heart contracts in convulsions---- Silly!--Holy St. Agnes died for +her continence too, and was not half so naked as thou!--One more kiss +on your virginal body, your child-like, budding breast, your sweetly +rounded--cruel, unyielding knees.... + +It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul. + +Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars! + +It is the cause!---- + +[_The picture falls into the depths. He shuts the lid._] + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE IV.--_A hayloft. Murky light, the smell of fresh hay_, MELCHIOR + _lying in it_. WENDLA _comes up the ladder_. + +WENDLA--So =here’s= where you hid! Everybody’s looking for you. The +wagon’s gone out again. You must help. There’s a storm coming up. + +MELCHIOR--Get away from me!--Get away from me! + +WENDLA--What’s the matter with you?--Why do you hide your face? + +MELCHIOR--Get out! Get out!--Or I’ll throw you down on the barn-floor! + +WENDLA--Now I certainly won’t go. [_She kneels beside him._] Why won’t +you come out on the hayfield with us, Melchior? Here it’s so sultry and +dark! What if we =do= get wet to the skin--we don’t care! + +MELCHIOR--The hay smells so wonderful.--The sky outside must be as +black as a pall.--I can’t see anything but the gleaming poppy at your +breast,--and your heart, I hear it beating!---- + +WENDLA--Don’t kiss me, Melchior!--Don’t kiss me! + +MELCHIOR--Your heart--I hear it beating---- + +WENDLA--People love each other--when they kiss---- Don’t! Don’t!---- + +MELCHIOR--Oh, believe me, there’s no such thing as love!--Self-seeking, +egoism,--that’s all there is!--I love you as little as you love me.---- + +WENDLA--Don’t!-------- Don’t, Melchior!---- + +MELCHIOR-- ... Wendla! + +WENDLA--Oh, Melchior!----don’t--don’t---- + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE V.--MRS. GABOR _sits and writes_. + + [_Or else she may be shown in a dark room, in silhouette against + the window, reading her letter over by its failing light._] + +MRS. GABOR--My dear Moritz Stiefel! + +I take up my pen with a heavy heart after twenty-four hours of +considering and reconsidering everything that you write me. The money +for passage to America I am not able, I give you my solemn word, to +furnish you. In the first place I have not that much at my disposal, +and in the second, even if I had, it would be doing you the greatest +wrong I can imagine to put into your hands the means of carrying out +so rash and critical a venture. You would do me bitter injustice, +Moritz Stiefel, if you saw in this refusal of mine any sign of failing +affection. On the contrary, it would be the grossest failure in my duty +as your friend and counselor for me to be willing to let your momentary +loss of judgment cause me too to lose my head and blindly follow my +first, most natural impulses. I am willing and ready, if you wish me +to, to write to your parents and try to convince them that throughout +the course of this last term you have done all you could and drawn so +heavily upon your strength that a severe attitude towards what has +happened to you would not only be unwarranted but, more seriously, +might have the gravest effect upon your mental and physical health. + +Your implied threat that you will take your own life in case your +flight is not made feasible has--to speak frankly, Moritz,--rather +taken me aback. No matter how undeserved a misfortune may be, we +should never let ourselves be driven to ignoble measures. The way in +which you seem to wish to make me--who have never shown you anything +but kindness--answerable for a possible shocking outrage on your +part, might, to a person inclined to think evil, look very much like +blackmail. I must confess that this mode of acting from you, who +usually are so well aware of what a man owes himself, was the very last +I should have expected. For the present, I cherish the firm conviction +that you were still suffering too much from the first shock to be able +to realize fully what you were doing. + +And so I am confidently hoping that these words of mine will find +you already in a more composed state of mind. Take the affair as it +stands. To my way of thinking, it is wholly inadmissible that a young +man should be judged by his school marks. We have too many examples of +very bad scholars who have become remarkable men, and conversely of +excellent scholars who have not distinguished themselves in life. In +any case I assure you that so far as I am concerned your mishap will +not cause any change in your relations with Melchior. It will always +give me pleasure to see my son in the company of a young man who--let +the world judge of him as it will--deserved and won not only his but my +most cordial sympathy. + +And so--up with your chin, Moritz Stiefel! Such crises, of this kind +or of that, come upon us all and must just be got over. If everyone so +placed should snatch forthwith at dagger and poison, there might easily +soon be no more men and women in the world. Let us hear from you soon +again, and believe me cordially and steadfastly + + Your maternal friend, + FANNY G. + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE VI.--_The_ BERGMANN _Garden in the radiance of the morning sun_. + +WENDLA--[_Discovered._] Why have you stolen out of the house?--To look +for violets!--Because mother sees me smiling.--And why can’t you stop, +and shut your lips tight any more?--I don’t know.--Oh, I don’t know--I +can’t find words.... + +The path is like a plush carpet underfoot--not one little stone, not +a thorn.--My feet don’t touch the ground.... Oh, how I did sleep last +night. + +Here’s where they used to be. [_Kneels._] They make me feel as solemn +as a nun at communion.--Dear violets!--All right, motherling! I’ll put +on my penitence-dress!--Oh, God, if somebody would only come whom I +could hug and tell! + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE VII.--_Twilight. The sky is lightly overcast. The path winds + through low growth and sedgegrass. Not far away the river sounds._ + MORITZ _sits facing the audience, his back to some bushes and the + path_. + +MORITZ--It is better so.--I don’t fit in. Let them mount and climb upon +each other’s heads.--I will pull the door to behind me, and step into +the open. I won’t pay so much just to let myself be pushed around. + +I didn’t put myself forward. Why should I put myself forward now?--I +have no compact with God. Let them distort the thing any way they have +a mind to. I was pressed.--I don’t say my parents are responsible. +After all, they had to be prepared for the worst. They were old enough +to know what they were doing. I was an infant when I came into the +world--otherwise even I might have been cunning enough to become +another person. Why should I pay the penalty for all the others’ being +there already! + +I suppose I must have fallen on my head.... If anyone gives me a +present of a mad dog, I give him his mad dog back; and if he won’t take +his mad dog back, then I am humane and.... + +Yes, I just must have fallen on my head! + +One is born quite by accident, and yet, after the most mature +consideration, one is not supposed to---- It’s enough to make one shoot +one’s self dead! + +At least the weather shows that it sympathizes. All day it’s looked +like rain, but it’s still holding off.--A rare peace is brooding over +nature: nowhere anything sharp or exciting; heaven and earth like a +transparent spider’s-web. And everything seems to feel so well. The +landscape lovely as a lullaby--“Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf’ ein,” +as Fraülein Snandulia sang. Too bad she holds her elbows awkwardly!--It +was at the feast of St. Cecilia I danced for the last time. Snandulia +only dances at parties. Her silk dress was cut so low, back and +front--behind down to the belt at her waist, and in front low enough to +take away your wits.--She can’t have had a chemise on.... + +That would be something that might stop me yet!--More just for +curiosity.--It must be an extraordinary sensation--a feeling as if one +were being swept down a torrent---- I shan’t tell anybody that I’ve +come back with the thing undone. I shall act as if I had taken part in +all that.... It’s rather mortifying, to have been human and not got to +know the most human thing of all.--You come from Egypt, my dear sir, +and have not seen the =pyramids=?! + +I don’t want to cry again to-day. I don’t want to think any more about +my funeral---- Melchior will lay a wreath upon my casket; Pastor +Kahlbauch will console my parents; old Sonnenstich will cite parallels +from history.--A gravestone I probably won’t get. I should have liked +an urn of snowy marble on a black syenite base,--but, praise God, I +shan’t miss it! Memorials are for the living, not for the dead. + +I should need a year to take leave of everything in my thoughts. I +don’t want to cry again. I am so happy that I can look back without +bitterness. How many lovely evenings I have spent with Melchior!--under +the river willows, at the forester’s hut, on the highroad out there +where the five lindens stand, up on castle hill among the peaceful +ruins of Runenburg---- When the hour has come, I shall think with all +my might of whipped cream. Whipped cream doesn’t sustain you, but it’s +filling and leaves a pleasant taste.... And I had thought mankind was +infinitely worse. I haven’t found a soul that wouldn’t have wanted to +do his best; and many a one I have pitied on my account. + +I pass to the altar like the youth in ancient Etruria whose dying +rattle buys his brothers’ prosperity through the coming year.--One by +one I go through all the mysterious shudders of deliverance. I gulp +with sorrow at my fate.--Life has given me the cold shoulder. From up +there I see grave, friendly looks beckon me: the headless queen, the +headless queen--sympathy with soft arms awaiting me.... Your tenders +are for children; I carry my free pass within myself. Sinks the shell, +off sails the butterfly: the dream besets us no more.--You should play +no mad games with the fraud! The mist dissolves: life is a matter of +taste. [_His shoulder is suddenly grabbed from behind by_ ILSE.] + +ILSE--[_In torn clothes, a gay kerchief round her head._] What have you +lost? + +MORITZ--[_Starting to his feet._] Ilse! + +ILSE--What are you looking for here? + +MORITZ--What d’you frighten me so for? + +ILSE--What is it? What have you lost? + +MORITZ--But why did you startle me so awfully? + +ILSE--I’ve just come from the city.--I’m going home. + +MORITZ--I don’t know, what I’ve lost. + +ILSE--Then it’s no good your looking. [MORITZ _swears_.] It’s four days +since I was home. + +MORITZ--Sneaking like a cat! + +ILSE--That’s ’cause I’ve got my dancing-slippers on.--Mother =will= +make eyes!--Come along to the house with me! + +MORITZ--Where have you been bumming around again? + +ILSE--In =Priapia=! + +MORITZ--Priapia? + +ILSE--At Nohl’s, at Fehrendorf’s, at Padinsky’s,--with Lenz, Rank, +Spühler,--with everybody you can think of!--Kling, kling,--=she= will +jump! + +MORITZ--Are they painting you? + +ILSE--Fehrendorf’s painting me as St. Stylites, standing on a +Corinthian capital. Fehrendorf, I must tell you, is a mess.[3] Last +time I stepped on one of his tubes. Squashed it. He wipes his brush on +my hair. I give him one on the ear. He throws his palette at my head. +I knock the easel over. He gets after me with the maulstick over couch +and tables and chairs, all round the studio. Behind the stove lay a +sketch! Be good, or I’ll tear it!--He swore amnesty, and then for a +finishing touch he kissed me--kissed me, oh, something terrible! + +MORITZ--Where do you spend the night when you stay in town? + +ILSE--Last night we were at Nohl’s; night before at Boyokevitch’s; +Sunday with Oikonomopulos. At Padinsky’s there was champagne. +Valabregez had sold his “Man Sick with the Plague.” Adolar drank out of +the ash-tray. Lenz sang “The Murd’ress of Her Child,” and Adolar played +the guitar to pieces. I was so drunk they had to put me to bed.--You’re +still going to school all the time, Moritz? + +MORITZ--No, no--this term, I’m getting out. + +ILSE--You’re right. Oh, how the time flies when you’re earning +money!--D’you remember how we used to play robbers?--Wendla Bergmann +and you and I and the rest, when you all came out in the evening and +drank new, warm goat’s milk at our house?--What’s Wendla doing? I +remember seeing her at the flood.--What’s Melchi Gabor doing?--Does he +still gaze so deeply into things?--In singing-lesson we used to stand +opposite each other. + +MORITZ--He philosophizes. + +ILSE--Wendla came to see us a while ago, and brought mother some +preserves. I was sitting that day for Isidor Landauer. He’s using me +for Holy Mary, the Mother of God, with the Christ-child. He’s a ninny, +and disgusting. Whew! like a weathercock!--Have you got a “morning +after” headache? + +MORITZ--From last night. We swilled like hippopotamuses. It was five +o’clock when I staggered home. + +ILSE--One only needs to look at you.--Were there girls there? + +MORITZ--Arabella, the bar-maid,--a Spanish girl. The landlord left us +all, the whole night through, alone with her. + +ILSE--One only needs to look at you, Moritz.--I never have these +morning-afters! Last Carnival I went for three days and three nights +without getting into a bed, or even out of my clothes. From masquerade +ball to café; noontimes at the Bellavista, evenings at the cabaret, +nights to another ball! Lena was along, and fatty Viola.--The third +night, Henry found me. + +MORITZ--Had he been looking for you? + +ILSE--He’d stumbled over my arm. I was lying senseless in the +gutter-snow.--So then I joined up with him. For two weeks I never left +his lodgings. That was a horrible time!--Mornings I had to throw on +his Persian dressing-gown, and evenings walk about the room in a black +page’s costume--white lace at the collar, cuffs, and knees. Every +day he’d photograph me in a new arrangement: one time on the back of +the sofa, as Ariadne, another time as Leda, another as Ganymede, and +once on all fours as a female Nebuchadnezzar. And then he would rave +about killing--about shooting, suicide, and charcoal fumes. Early +mornings he’d bring a pistol into bed, load it full of cartridges and +poke it into my breast: one wink, and I’ll fire!--Oh, he would have +fired, Moritz; he would have fired!--Then he’d stick the thing in +his mouth like a bean-shooter. Maybe that would wake my instinct for +self-preservation! And then--Brrr! the bullet would have gone through +my spine. + +MORITZ--Is Henry still alive? + +ILSE--How do I know?--Over the bed was a mirror let into the ceiling. +The little room looked tower-high and bright as an opera-house. You +saw yourself actually hanging downwards from the sky. I had the +most frightful dreams at night.--God, O God, when would it be day +again!--Good night, Ilse. When you sleep you’re beautiful for murder! + +MORITZ--Is this Henry still alive? + +ILSE--God willing, no!--One day when he went to get some absinthe +I threw my cloak on and slipped out onto the street. The Carnival +was over. The police snapped me up. What was I after in men’s +clothes?--They took me to headquarters, and there came Nohl, +Fehrendorf, Padinsky, Spühler, Oikonomopulos, the whole Priapia, and +bailed me out. In a cab they transported me to Adolar’s studio. Ever +since I’ve been true to the gang. Fehrendorf is a monkey, Nohl is a +pig, Boyokevitch an owl, Loison a hyena, Oikonomopulos a camel--but +that’s why I love them one and all the same, and don’t care to tie +up to anyone else, though the world were full of archangels and +millionaires! + +MORITZ--I must go back, Ilse. + +ILSE--Come with me as far as our house. + +MORITZ--What for?--What for? + +ILSE--[_Kidding him._] To drink fresh, warm goat’s milk!--I’ll singe +your forelock and hang a little bell around your neck. And we still +have a rocking-horse that you can play with. + +MORITZ--I must get back. I still have the Sassanids, the Sermon on the +Mount and the parallelepipedon on my conscience.--Good night, Ilse. + +ILSE--Sweet dreams!--Do you ever go down to the wigwam any more, where +Melchi Gabor buried my tomahawk?--Brrr! Before you catch on, I’ll lie +in the dust-bin! [_She hurries off._] + +MORITZ--One word, it would have cost.--[_Calls._] Ilse!--Ilse!---- +Praise God, she doesn’t hear! + +--I am not in the mood.--For that, one needs a clear head and a joyful +heart.--Too bad, too bad the chance is lost! + +... I shall say that I have had huge crystal mirrors over my beds--and +have trained an unruly filly--and made her prance before me across the +carpet in long black silk stockings and patent-leather shoes, and long +black kid gloves and black velvet around her neck;--and how I stifled +her in my pillows, in an access of madness.... I shall smile when the +talk is of lust.... I shall---- + +=scream!--I shall scream!--Oh to be you, +Ilse!--Priapia!--Unconsciousness!--That takes away my power!--This +favorite of fortune, this sunny creature, this daughter of joy upon my +dolorous path!--Oh!--Oh!= + +[_He staggers across the path and falls under the high, dark, cavernous +bushes on the further side, crawling towards the river._] + + * * * * * + +So have I found it again without trying, the grassy bank? The mulleins +seem to have grown since yesterday. The vista between the willows is +the same still. The river is flowing heavily like melted lead. Don’t +let me forget.... [_He draws_ MRS. GABOR’S _letter from his pocket, +lights a match, and burns it_.]--How the sparks fly--back and forth--up +and down!--Souls!--Shooting stars!---- + +Before I lit the match you could still see the grasses and a strip of +the horizon.--Now it’s gotten dark. Now I’m not going home any more. + + +CURTAIN + + + + +ACT III + + + SCENE I.--_The Faculty Room. Two small, high windows, one of them + walled up. Portraits of Pestalozzi and J. J. Rousseau on the + walls. Long, narrow, green table, with a gaspipe and six + flaring burners over it. At one end, on a platform_, PRINCIPAL + SONNENSTICH[4] _sits. Behind the table sit, quite close together, + in a grotesque row_, PROFESSORS AFFENSCHMALZ (_nearest_ + SONNENSTICH), KNOCHENBRUCH, FLIEGENTOD, HUNGERGURT, ZUNGENSCHLAG, + _and_ KNÜPPELDICK. HABEBALD, _the beadle or proctor of the school, + cowers near the door_. + +SONNENSTICH--May one of the gentlemen perhaps have something further +to remark?--Gentlemen!--If we find ourselves unable to avoid the +necessity of moving the rustication of our crime-laden pupil before +a superior Board of Education, it is for the very weightiest reasons +that we cannot help it. We cannot if only to do our best to atone for +the misfortune that has already burst upon us; still less if we would +insure our institution for the future against further calamities of the +same order. We cannot if we are to discipline our crime-laden pupil for +the demoralizing influence that he has exerted upon his classmates; we +cannot, most conclusively, if so we may prevent him from exerting the +like influence upon the remainder of his classmates. We are compelled +to it--and this, gentlemen, is perhaps the most fundamental ground of +all, against which no protest =can= prevail,--because it is for us +to protect our institution from the ravages of a suicide-=epidemic=, +such as has already broken out at various schools like ours and has so +far defied all efforts to attach the schoolboy to those conditions of +existence best adapted to his education into cultivated manhood.--May +one of the gentlemen still have something to remark? + +KNÜPPELDICK--[_Furthest away; middle-aged._] I can no longer repel the +conviction that it may at last be about time to open a window somewhere. + +ZUNGENSCHLAG--[_Next him, bearded, choleric._] There--there prevails +here an at-at-atmosphere like that in subterranean cata-catacombs, +like tha-tha-that in the archive-repositories of the quo-quondam +star-chamber tribunal at We-Wetzlar! + +SONNENSTICH--Habebald! + +HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? + +SONNENSTICH--Open a window. We have, Heaven be praised, atmosphere +enough out-of-doors.--May one of the gentlemen have anything further to +remark? + +FLIEGENTOD--[_The Secretary, with the minutebook; bearded, ponderous._] +If my worthy colleagues wish to have a window opened, I have nothing, +personally, to object against it; only might I ask that they will not +wish to have that window opened which is directly at my back? + +SONNENSTICH--Habebald! + +HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? + +SONNENSTICH--Open the other window!--May one of the gentlemen have +something still further to remark? + +HUNGERGURT--[_Small, mild, spectacled; between_ FLIEGENTOD _and_ +ZUNGENSCHLAG.] Without any wish on my part to aggravate the +controversy, might I recall the fact that the other window has been +walled up since the autumn holidays? + +SONNENSTICH--Habebald! + +HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? + +SONNENSTICH--Leave the other window closed!--I see myself compelled, +gentlemen, to bring the matter to a vote. I request those colleagues +who are =for= opening the only window that can enter into the question, +to indicate it by standing. [_The three furthest from him stand._] One, +two three. [_Counting the seated ones, too._] One, two, three. Habebald! + +HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? + +SONNENSTICH--Leave the one window likewise closed.--I for my part am +of the opinion that our atmosphere leaves nothing to be desired!--May +one of the gentlemen still have something to remark?--Gentlemen!--Let +us make the supposition that we omit to move the rustication of our +crime-laden pupil before a superior Board of Education. =We= will then +be held accountable, by the Ministry of Education, for the disaster +that has befallen us. Of the various schools that have been visited +by this suicide-epidemic, those in which twenty-five per cent of the +pupils have fallen victims to the ravages of the suicide-epidemic +have been temporarily =closed= by the Ministry of Education. To +preserve our Institution from this most staggering blow is our duty, +as the guardians and safekeepers of our institution. It grieves us +deeply, gentlemen and colleagues, that we are in no position to let +our crime-laden pupil’s qualifications in other respects count as +mitigating circumstances. A mild procedure, which might be justifiable +towards our crime-laden pupil singly, is at this time, when the very +existence of our institution is imperilled in the most dangerous manner +conceivable, certainly =not= justifiable! We see ourselves reduced to +the necessity of passing judgment on the guilty lest we, the innocent, +be judged.--Habebald! + +HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? + +SONNENSTICH--Bring him up. [HABEBALD _goes out_.] + +ZUNGENSCHLAG--If it is settled that the pre-prevailing a-a-a-atmosphere +leaves little or nothing to be desired, I should like to move +that during the summer vacation the other window as well should +be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be walled up! + +FLIEGENTOD--If our dear colleague Zungenschlag does not find our +sanctum satisfactorily ventilated, I should like to set the machinery +in motion toward having a ventilator installed in our dear colleague +Zungenschlag’s high and cavernous brow. + +ZUNGENSCHLAG--Th-th-that is too much for me to put up +with!--Ru-rudenesses are more than I need to put up with!--I am in +possession of my five senses...! + +SONNENSTICH--I must request our colleagues, Messrs. Fliegentod and +Zungenschlag, to preserve decorum. I think I hear our crime-laden pupil +already on the stairs. [HABEBALD _opens the door, whereupon_ MELCHIOR, +_pale but composed, steps before the assemblage_.] Step up nearer to +the table.--When Mr. Stiefel had been informed of his son’s impious and +wicked act, he searched in his grief and perplexity among the effects +that his son Moritz had left behind him, in hopes that so he might +happen to find the moving cause of that abominable outrage. So doing, +he stumbled, in an irrelevant place, upon a piece of writing which, +without yet making the abominable outrage understandable in itself, +yet offers, I regret to say, an explanation only too conclusive of the +moral obliquity in the criminal which must have underlain his act. I am +speaking of a twenty-page treatise in dialogue form entitled “Coition,” +accompanied by life-sized drawings, rank with the most shameless +obscenities, and responding to the most perverted demands that a +depraved debauchee could possibly make upon lascivious literature---- + +MELCHIOR--I have---- + +SONNENSTICH--You have to keep quiet.--Mr. Stiefel handed this +manuscript over to us, and we promised the distracted father at any +cost to identify its author. The handwriting was accordingly compared +with the hands of each one of the dead profligate’s schoolmates, +and it proved, in the unanimous judgment of the whole faculty and in +perfect accord with the specialist’s opinion of our esteemed colleague +in calligraphy, to have the closest conceivable similarity to yours---- + +MELCHIOR--I have---- + +SONNENSTICH--You have to keep quiet.--Notwithstanding the crushing fact +that this resemblance has been marked by unimpeachable authorities, +we believe that we may refrain for the moment from taking any further +steps till we have first circumstantially interrogated the guilty +student concerning his crime against morals, in conjunction with +the instigation to self-murder arising from it, with which he is +accordingly charged. + +MELCHIOR--I have---- + +SONNENSTICH--You have to answer to the particular questions which I +shall put to you, in order, one after the other, with a simple, modest +“Yes” or “No.”--Habebald! + +HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? + +SONNENSTICH--The documents!--I trust that our Secretary, Mr. +Fliegentod, will from now on record the proceedings as nearly verbatim +as possible. [_To_ MELCHIOR.] Do you recognize this manuscript? + +MELCHIOR--Yes. + +SONNENSTICH--Do you know what this manuscript contains? + +MELCHIOR--Yes. + +SONNENSTICH--Is the writing in this manuscript yours? + +MELCHIOR--Yes. + +SONNENSTICH--Does this obscene manuscript originate from you? + +MELCHIOR--Yes.--I beg you, Mr. Sonnenstich, to show me one obscenity +in it. + +SONNENSTICH--You are to answer the particular questions I put to you +with a simple, modest “Yes” or “No”! + +MELCHIOR--I have written no more and no less than what is very well +known to you to be fact. + +SONNENSTICH--Insolence. + +MELCHIOR--I ask you to show me one offense against morals in that paper! + +SONNENSTICH--Do you imagine I’d have a mind to act the clown for you? +Habebald!... + +MELCHIOR--I have---- + +SONNENSTICH--You have as little respect for the dignity of your +assembled teachers as you have decent sensibility for mankind’s inbred +feeling for the modesty of the shamefastness of the moral order of the +world!--Habebald! + +HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? + +SONNENSTICH--It’s in fact the Langenscheidt for the learning in three +hours of agglutinative Volapük![5] + +MELCHIOR--I have---- + +SONNENSTICH--I instruct our Secretary, Mr. Fliegentod, to close the +minutes! + +MELCHIOR--I have---- + +SONNENSTICH--You have to keep quiet!--Habebald. + +HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? + +SONNENSTICH--Take him down! + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE II.--_A graveyard seen through pouring rain. Gray stone wall + about five feet high, and quite close to it, parallel with it, an + open grave, behind which stands_ PASTOR KAHLBAUCH, _umbrella in + left hand and prayer-book in right, flanked by_ MORITZ’S _father, + his friend_ ZIEGENMELKER, _and_ UNCLE PROBST, _on the right, + and_ PRINCIPAL SONNENSTICH _and_ PROFESSOR KNOCHENBRUCH, _with + a string of schoolboys, on the left. At a little distance, by a + half-collapsed monument, are_ ILSE _and_ MARTHA. + +PASTOR KAHLBAUCH-- ... For he who rejects the mercy wherewith the +Eternal Father has blest man born in sin, he shall die a spiritual +death. He who in wilful, carnal denial of God’s proper honor liveth +for evil and serveth it, he shall die the death of the body. He, +however, who wantonly throws from him the cross which the All-merciful +has laid upon him for his sins, verily, verily, I say unto you, he +will die the everlasting death!--[_He closes the book and puts it in +his pocket, takes a shovel from the wall-face and with it pushes some +mud into the grave, and hands the shovel to_ MR. STIEFEL.]--Let =us=, +however, faithful pilgrims upon the thorny way, praise the Lord, the +All-bountiful, and render him thanks for his inscrutable elections. +For as truly as =this= soul did die a threefold death, so truly +will God the Lord induct the righteous man into bliss and the Life +Everlasting.--Amen. + +MR. STIEFEL--[_His voice thick with tears._] The boy was none of +mine!--The boy was none of mine!--The boy never pleased me from +childhood up! [_He throws a shovelful of mud into the grave, and gives +the shovel back._ PASTOR KAHLBAUCH _hands it to_ PROFESSOR SONNENSTICH.] + +SONNENSTICH--[_Throws a shovelful of mud into the grave._] Self-murder +as the most serious conceivable offense against the moral order of the +world is the most perfect conceivable demonstration =of= the moral +order of the world, in that the suicide relieves the moral order of the +world from passing judgment upon him, and establishes its existence. +[_He passes the shovel to_ PROFESSOR KNOCHENBRUCH.] + +PROF. KNOCHENBRUCH--[_Throws a shovelful of mud into the grave._] +Defective--depraved--delinquent--decayed--and detrited! [_He walks +around the grave and hands the shovel to_ UNCLE PROBST.] + +UNCLE PROBST--[_Throws a shovelful of mud into the grave._] Not from my +very mother would I have believed a child could act so basely toward +his parents! [_Hands the shovel to_ ZIEGENMELKER.] + +ZIEGENMELKER--[_Throws a shovelful of mud into the grave._] Toward a +father who for twenty years now has had no thought, early or late, but +for his child’s welfare! [_Puts the shovel back against the wall._] + +PASTOR KAHLBAUCH--[_Pressing_ MR. STIEFEL’S _hand_.] We know that for +them that love God all things work together for good. 1 Corinth. 12, +15.--Think of the sorrowing mother, and strive by redoubled love to +make up to her for her loss. [_He squeezes out past the Professors and +boys._] + +SONNENSTICH--[_Pressing_ MR. STIEFEL’S _hand_.] We would probably not +have been able to promote him, anyway. [STIEFEL _passes him_.] + +KNOCHENBRUCH--[_Pressing_ MR. STIEFEL’S _hand_.] And if we had promoted +him, next spring he would most assuredly have failed to pass. + +UNCLE PROBST--[_Coming round in front and pressing_ STIEFEL’S _hand_.] +Now your first duty is to think of yourself. You’re the father of a +family!... + +ZIEGENMELKER--[_Doing likewise._] Rely on me. I’ll steer you!--Beastly +weather! enough to make one’s guts crawl. Whoever doesn’t get after +that right away with a stiff drink ’ll be taken off with heart-failure! +[_Leads him toward_ PASTOR KAHLBAUCH.] + +MR. STIEFEL--[_Blowing his nose._] The boy was none of mine.... The boy +was none of mine.... [KAHLBAUCH _takes his other arm. All the men pass +off.--The rain lets up._ HANSY RILOW _slips in behind the grave_.] + +HANSY RILOW--[_Throwing in a shovelful of mud._] Rest in peace, +old fellow!--Greet my immortal brides from me, immolated memories; +and commend me most humbly to the dear Lord’s mercy--poor dumbbell +you!--They’ll put up a scarecrow on your grave here yet, in memory of +your angel simpleness.... + +GEORGE--Has the pistol been found? + +ROBERT--No one need hunt for a pistol! + +ERNEST--Did you see him, Robert? + +ROBERT--A God-damned swindle, I call it.--Who did see him?--Who! + +OTTO--Yeah, that’s the sore point!--They’d thrown a cloth over him. + +GEORGE--Was his tongue hanging out? + +ROBERT--His eyes!--That’s why they’d thrown the cloth over. + +OTTO--[_Shuddering._] Grrr! + +HANSY--Do you know for sure that he hanged himself? + +ERNEST--I’ve heard that his whole head was gone. + +OTTO--Nonsense! Rot! + +ROBERT--Why, I’ve had the noose in my hands!--I never saw a hanged body +yet that you wouldn’t have covered up. + +GEORGE--He couldn’t have taken his leave in a vulgarer way. + +HANSY--What the devil,--hanging is said to be quite handsome! + +OTTO--I’ve got five marks still owing me from him. We had a bet. He +swore he’d keep his place. + +HANSY--It’s your fault that he’s lying there. You called him a boaster. + +OTTO--Poppycock! _I_’ve got to grind thru the nights, too. If he’d +learned the history of ancient Greek literature, he wouldn’t have had +to hang himself! [_Turns to go._] + +ERNEST--Have you done your composition, Otto? + +OTTO--Just the introduction. + +ERNEST--I haven’t the least idea what to write. + +GEORGE--What, weren’t you there when Affenschmalz gave us the choice of +subject? + +HANSY--I’m going to fake up something out of Democritus. + +ERNEST--I want to see if Meyer’s Abridged has anything left I can use. + +OTTO--[_As all disappear._] Have you done your Virgil for +to-morrow?--[_When they are gone_, MARTHA _and_ ILSE _come to the +grave_.] + +ILSE--Quick! quick!--There come the grave-diggers off there. + +MARTHA--Hadn’t we better wait, Ilse? + +ILSE--What for?--We’ll bring new ones, and more, and more!--There are +enough growing. + +MARTHA--You’re right, Ilse!--[_She throws an ivy-wreath into the +grave._ ILSE _opens her apron and lets a shower of fresh anemones rain +upon the coffin_.]--I’ll dig up our roses. What if I =am= beaten for +it?--Here they’ll bloom well. + +ILSE--I will water them as often as I go past. I’ll bring +forget-me-nots over from the brook, and irises from the house. + +MARTHA--It ought to be glorious!--glorious! + +ILSE--I was just over the bridge up there when I heard the shot. + +MARTHA--Poor heart! + +ILSE--And I know the reason too, Martha. + +MARTHA--Did he tell you something? + +ILSE--Parallelepipedon!--But don’t tell anybody. + +MARTHA--I won’t.--There’s my hand. + +ILSE--Here is the pistol. + +MARTHA--That’s why it couldn’t be found! + +ILSE--I took it right out of his hand when I went past in the morning. + +MARTHA--Give it to me, Ilse!--Please, give it to me! + +ILSE--No, I’m going to keep it for remembrance. + +MARTHA--Is it true, Ilse, that he’s lying in there without a head? + +ILSE--He must have loaded it with water!--The mulleins were spattered +all over with blood. His brains hung round on the osiers. + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE III.--MR. _and_ MRS. GABOR _face each other, the window between + them, lighting them_. + +MRS. GABOR-- ... They were in need of a scapegoat. They couldn’t +disregard the accusations that were springing up on every side against +=them=. And now that my son has had the ill luck to fall foul of the +old pedants at the precise moment, now am I, his own mother, to help to +complete his executioners’ work?--God preserve me from it! + +MR. GABOR--I have looked on at your ingenious educational methods for +fourteen years in silence. They were contrary to my ideas. I had always +lived under the persuasion that a child was not a plaything, that a +child had a claim upon our most earnest efforts. But I said to myself, +if the grace and esprit of one parent are able to take the place of the +other’s serious principles, why, they may be preferable to the serious +principles.--I am not blaming you, Fanny; but don’t stand in my way +when I am trying to make good to the boy the wrong that both you and I +have done him. + +MRS. GABOR--I will stand in your way as long as a drop of blood runs +warm in my veins! In a House of Correction my child will be lost. A +criminal nature may perhaps be bettered in such institutions.--I don’t +know. A child naturally good will there as certainly become criminal +as a plant degenerates when deprived of air and sun. I am conscious of +no wrong done him. I thank God to-day as always that He showed me the +way to awaken in my child an upright character and noble mind. What has +he done then that’s so dreadful?--I haven’t the least idea of trying to +exculpate him!--For being turned out of school he needs no exculpation; +and if he =were= at fault, he has paid for it.--You may know better +about all that; you may be perfectly right theoretically. But I cannot +let my only child be driven and forced to his destruction! + +MR. GABOR--That does not depend upon us, Fanny. That is a risk that we +took upon ourselves along with our happiness. He that is too feeble +for the march is left by the wayside. And it is surely not so bad +as it might be, if the inevitable comes in time. May Heaven defend +us from it! Our duty is to steady the waverer as long as reason can +find means to do it.--That he has been expelled from school is not +his fault. If he had =not= been expelled from school, that wouldn’t +have been his fault, either.--You take things too lightly. You see +only inquisitive trifling where fundamental lesions of character are +really involved. You women are not qualified to judge such things. +Anyone who can write what Melchior writes must be degenerate at the +innermost core of his being. His essence is tainted. No nature that’s +half-way healthy permits itself that sort of thing. We are all of us +flesh and blood: every one of us strays from the strict, true path. +But what he has written represents a =principle=. What he has written +is no chance, casual slip, but documentary proof, of ghastly clarity, +of that frankly affected =purpose=, that natural propensity, that +bent toward the immoral because it =is= immoral!--it manifests that +exceptional spiritual corruption that we jurists designate as moral +imbecility.--Whether his condition can be in any way remedied, I am +not able to say. If we would retain one glimmer of hope,--and, before +all, consciences as his parents free from remorse,--we must apply +ourselves with decision and in all earnestness to the task.--Let us +cease contention, Fanny! I am sensible how hard for you it is. I know +you idolize him, because he suits so perfectly your gifted temperament. +But be stronger than yourself. Show yourself for once at last unselfish +toward your son! + +MRS. GABOR--God help me, how can I prevail against that!--One must +be a =man=, to be able to say such things! One must be a man to +let oneself be so blinded by the dead letter! One must be a man to +close his eyes to what stares him in the face!--I have acted toward +Melchior conscientiously and carefully from the first day I found him +susceptible to impressions from his environment. Are we responsible +for =accident=? =You= may be struck down to-morrow by a falling tile, +and along will come your friend, your father, and instead of tending +your wounds set his foot upon your head!--I will not let my child be +ruined before my very eyes! Would I be his mother if I did?--It is +unthinkable! It is utterly out of the question. What in the world +did he write then, after all? Isn’t it the most blatant proof of his +innocence, of his ignorance, of his childish immaturity, that he =can= +write such things?--You can have no inkling of knowledge of human +nature, you must be an utterly soulless bureaucrat, or unbelievably +narrow, to smell out moral corruption here!--Say what you like: if you +put Melchior in the House of Correction, we must separate--and then let +me see if nowhere in the world I can find help and means to snatch my +child from his downfall! + +MR. GABOR--You will have to reconcile yourself to it--if not to-day, +to-morrow. To discount misfortune comes hard to everybody. I will stand +by you, and when your courage threatens to fail I will spare no pains, +no sacrifice, to ease your heart. I see the future so lowering, so +gloomy,--it only lacked that you too should yet be lost to me. + +MRS. GABOR--I shall never see him again; I shall never see him again. +He will never stand the degradation, he will never come to terms +with filth. He will break the constraint put on him: the terrible +example is fresh before his eyes.--And if I do see him again--O God, O +God!--that happy, spring-like heart, his ringing laugh,--everything, +everything,--his child-like resolution to battle manfully for right +and good,--oh, that unspoiled spirit like the morning sky, as I have +cherished it in him, clear and pure, as my highest good....--Hold =me= +to account, if the wrong cries for reparation! Hold =me= to account! +Do what you will with me! _I_ bear the blame!--But keep your fearful +hands off the child! + +MR. GABOR--It is =he= who has gone wrong. + +MRS. GABOR--=He has not gone wrong!= + +MR. GABOR--=He has= gone wrong!--I would have given anything to have +spared your boundless love this!--A woman came to me this morning +distracted, scarcely able to speak, with this letter in her hand--a +letter to her fifteen-year-old daughter.[6] She had opened it, she +said, from simple curiosity; the child was not at home.--In this letter +Melchior explains to the fifteen-year-old girl that his treatment of +her leaves him no peace, that he has sinned against her, etc., etc., +and will naturally take the responsibility for everything. She is not +to worry, even if she should feel consequences. He is already on the +way to procure help--his expulsion will make that easier for him. The +misstep they have made may yet lead to her happiness--and what more +senseless twaddle you please! + +MRS. GABOR--Impossible! + +MR. GABOR--The letter is forged. It’s a case of imposture. Someone +is trying to turn his notorious expulsion to account. I have not yet +spoken with the lad--but just look at the hand! Look at the writing! + +MRS. GABOR--An unheard-of, shameless piece of knavery! + +MR. GABOR--[_With double meaning._] I fear so. + +MRS. GABOR--No! No! Never in the world! + +MR. GABOR--All the better for us, then.--The woman asked me, wringing +her hands, what she ought to do. I told her she ought not to let her +fifteen-year-old daughter scramble around haylofts. The letter she +fortunately left with me.--Now if we send Melchior to another school +where he won’t even be under =parental= supervision, we shall have +the same thing happening in three weeks--a new expulsion--his joyous, +spring-like heart will get accustomed to them by degrees.--Tell me, +Fanny, where =am= I to put the lad? + +MRS. GABOR--In the House of Correction---- + +MR. GABOR--In the...? + +MRS. GABOR-- ... House of Correction! + +MR. GABOR--He will find there, first of all, what was wrongfully +withheld from him at home: iron discipline, fundamental principles, +and a moral restraint to which he will have to submit under all +circumstances.--And I may add that the House of Correction is not +the abode of horror you imagine from the name. Chief weight there +is laid upon the development of Christian thought and feeling. The +lad will there, at last, learn to aim at what’s =good=, not what’s +=interesting=, and in his actions take account not of his natural +impulses but of the law.--Half an hour ago I received a telegram from +my brother which, I think, confirms what the woman told me. Melchior +has confided in him and asked him for two hundred marks with which to +fly to England.... + +MRS. GABOR--[_Covers her face._] Merciful Heaven! + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE IV.--_The House of Correction. The setting may be the same as + for the Faculty Room, without any pictures or furniture._ + + MELCHIOR _is shown in company with_ DIETHELM, REINHOLD, RUPRECHT, + HELMUTH, _and_ GASTON. + +DIETHELM--Here’s a twenty-pfennig piece. + +REINHOLD--What’s that for? + +DIETHELM--I’ll put it on the floor. You get in a circle round it. +Whoever hits it, gets it. + +RUPRECHT--Aren’t you in on this too, Melchior? + +MELCHIOR--No, thank you. + +HELMUTH--The Joseph! + +GASTON--He can’t any more. He’s here to recover his health. + +MELCHIOR--[_To himself._] It isn’t wise for me to stay out. Everyone +keeps an eye on me. I must join in--or my creature will go to the +devil.--The confinement makes them abuse themselves.--I may break my +neck: I’ll be glad. I may get away: I’ll be glad too. I can only gain, +either way.--Ruprecht is getting to be my friend: he knows all about +things here. I’ll treat him to the chapters of Judah’s daughter-in-law +Tamar, of Moab, of Lot and his daughters, of Queen Vashti and of +Abishag the Shunammite.--He’s got the sorriest face in the lot! + +RUPRECHT--I’m getting it! + +HELMUTH--It’ll come yet! + +GASTON--Day after to-morrow, maybe! + +HELMUTH--Now!--Look!--O God, O God!... + +ALL--Summa--summa cum laude!! + +RUPRECHT--[_Picking up the coin._] Many thanks. + +HELMUTH--Come here with that, you! + +RUPRECHT--Dirty beast! + +HELMUTH--Jail-bird! + +RUPRECHT--[_Strikes him in the face._] There! [_Runs away._] + +HELMUTH--[_Running after him._] I’ll kill you! + +THE REST--[_Rushing after them._] Get after him! Hustle! Hey! Hey! Hey! + +MELCHIOR--[_Alone, looking at the window._] There’s where the +lightning-rod goes down. You must wind a handkerchief round +it.--When I think of =her= the blood always shoots to my head. +And Moritz weighs on me like lead.--I’ll go to a newspaper +office: pay me by the hundred, I’ll sell papers--collect +news--write--local--ethical--psychophysical.... It’s no longer so +easy to starve:--lunch-wagons, soft-drink places.--The house is sixty +feet high and the stucco is crumbly.... She hates me--she hates me +because I’ve robbed her of her freedom. No matter how I act, it +remains--rape.--All I can do is to hope, gradually, in the course of +years....--In a week it’ll be new moon. To-morrow I’ll grease the +hinges. By Saturday at the latest I must know who has the key.--Sunday +evening at prayers, a cataleptic fit--please God no one else gets +sick!--Everything lies as clearly as if it had happened before me. I +can get over the window-sill easily--a swing--a grip--but one must wrap +a handkerchief around it.--There comes the Head Inquisitor. [_He goes +off._ DR. PROKRUSTES _and a_ LOCKSMITH _enter on the other side_.] + +DR. PROKRUSTES-- ... It’s true the windows are in the third story and +nettles are planted underneath; but what does degeneracy care for +nettles?--Last winter one climbed out of a skylight on us, and we had +all the fuss of picking up and carting away and burying.... + +THE LOCKSMITH--Do you want the grating of wrought iron? + +DR. PROKRUSTES--Wrought iron--and since it can’t be set in, riveted. + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE V.--WENDLA’S _room_. WENDLA _in bed_. MRS. BERGMANN _at + its foot_. INA _leaning at the window_. DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER + _discoursing_. + +DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER--How old are you exactly? + +WENDLA--Fourteen and a half. + +DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER--I have been prescribing Blaud’s pills for fifteen +years, and in a great many cases have observed the most inspiring +improvement. I prefer them to cod-liver oil or tonics with iron. Begin +with three to four pills per day, and increase the quantity as fast +as you can assimilate it. I had prescribed for the Baroness Elfriede +von Witzleben an increase of one pill every third day. The Baroness +misunderstood me and increased the dose three pills each day. In less +than three weeks the Baroness was able to go to Pyrmont with her lady +mother to complete the cure. Tiring walks and extra meals we can +dispense with. Instead, promise me, my dear, that you will try to +move about all the more energetically, and not be ashamed to ask for +nourishment as soon as your appetite reappears. Then these oppressed +feelings round the heart will soon pass off--and the headache, the +chills, the dizziness--and our terrible bilious attacks. Baroness +Elfriede von Witzleben within a week of beginning the cure was enjoying +a whole broiled chicken with baked new potatoes for breakfast. + +MRS. BERGMANN--May I offer you a glass of wine, Doctor? + +DR. VON BRAUSEPULVER--Thank you, dear Mrs. Bergmann, my carriage is +waiting. Don’t take it so much to heart. In a few weeks our dear little +patient will be as fresh and lively again as a gazelle,--be sure of +it!--Good day, Mrs. Bergmann. Good day, my dear. Good day, ladies. Good +day. [_He goes, accompanied by_ MRS. BERGMANN.] + +INA--[_At the window._] Well, your plane-tree is turning already--quite +gay again. Can you see it from your bed?--A brief display, hardly worth +being glad about, as one watches it come and go.--I must be going soon +now, too. August will be waiting for me at the post office, and I must +see the dressmaker first. Mucki is getting his first little trousers, +and Karl is to have some new leggings for the winter. + +WENDLA--Often I feel so happy, Ina!--all gladness and sunshine. I +wouldn’t have dreamed that anyone could feel so blissful round the +heart. I want to go out and walk across the meadows in the evening glow +and hunt for primroses along the river, and sit down at the bank and +dream.... And then comes the =toothache=, and I think I must be going +to die first thing in the morning: I get hot and cold, everything goes +black before my eyes, and then the uncanny thing flutters in me.--Every +time I wake up I see mother crying. Oh, that hurts me so--I can’t tell +you, Ina! + +INA--Hadn’t I better lift your pillow higher? + +MRS. BERGMANN--[_Coming back._] He thinks the nausea will get better +too; and then you can just quietly get up again.... It’s my belief too +that it’ll be better if you get up again soon, Wendla. + +INA--By the next time I drop in, perhaps you’ll be dancing round +the house again.--Good-bye, mother. I’ve just got to get to the +dressmaker’s. God keep you, Wendla dear. [_Kisses her._] Get better +very, very soon. + +WENDLA--Good-bye, Ina.--Bring me some primroses when you come again. +Good-bye. Kiss your youngster for me.... [INA _goes_.]--What else did +he say, mother, when he was out there? + +MRS. BERGMANN--He didn’t say anything. He said the Baroness von +Witzleben was also subject to fainting-spells. It was almost always +that way with chlorosis. + +WENDLA--Did he say, mother, that I had chlorosis? + +MRS. BERGMANN--You’re to drink milk and eat meat and vegetables when +your appetite has come back. + +WENDLA--Oh, mother, mother, I don’t believe I have chlorosis!... + +MRS. BERGMANN--You have chlorosis, child. Lie still, Wendla, lie still. +You have chlorosis. + +WENDLA--No, mother, no! I know I haven’t! I feel it! I haven’t got +chlorosis--I’ve got the dropsy.... + +MRS. BERGMANN--You have chlorosis. Yes, he did say you had chlorosis. +Quiet down, girlie. It will get better. + +WENDLA--It won’t get better. I have the dropsy. I must die, +mother.--Oh, mother, I must die! + +MRS. BERGMANN--You must not die, child! You must not die!... Merciful +Heaven, you must not die! + +WENDLA--But why do you cry, then, so miserably? + +MRS. BERGMANN--You must not die--child! You haven’t got dropsy. You +have a =baby=, girl! You have a baby!--Oh, why, why did you do that to +me? + +WENDLA--I didn’t do anything---- + +MRS. BERGMANN--Oh, don’t deny it now, Wendla!--I know, I know. See, I +couldn’t have said a word to you,--Wendla, my Wendla!... + +WENDLA--But that is quite impossible, mother! I’m not married! + +MRS. BERGMANN--Great God, that’s just it--that you’re not married! That +is just the frightful thing about it!--Wendla, Wendla, Wendla, what did +you do! + +WENDLA--Why, really, I don’t remember any more! We were lying in the +hay.... I haven’t loved a soul in the world but you--only you, mother. + +MRS. BERGMANN--My darling---- + +WENDLA--Oh, mother, why didn’t you tell me everything? + +MRS. BERGMANN--Child, child, let’s not make each other’s hearts still +heavier. Control yourself! Don’t despair, my child!--What, tell that to +a fourteen-year-old girl? Why, I should sooner have expected the sun to +go out! I haven’t done anything different with you than my dear good +mother did with me.--Oh, let us trust in the good God, Wendla; let us +hope for pity, and bear our lot! See, there’s still time: nothing has +happened =yet=, child; and if we just don’t get cowardly now, the good +God won’t forsake us either.--Be brave, Wendla, be =brave=!--One may +be sitting at the window so with her hands in her lap, because so far +everything has turned out good,--and then something bursts in on her +and makes her heart feel like breaking on the spot.... Wha-what are you +trembling for? + +WENDLA--Somebody knocked. + +MRS. BERGMANN--I didn’t hear anything, dear heart. [_Goes to the door +and opens it._] + +WENDLA--Oh, I heard it very clearly.--Who is outside? + +MRS. BERGMANN--No one.--Schmidt’s mother from Garden Street.--You come +just right, Mother Schmidtin. + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE VI.--_Vintagers, men and women, are in the Vineyard. In the west + the sun is sinking behind the mountain peaks. A clear sound of + bells comes up from the valley.--At the uppermost vine-trellis, + under the overhanging cliffs_, HANSY RILOW and ERNEST ROEBEL + _sprawl in the drying grass_. + +ERNEST--I have overworked. + +HANSY--Let’s not be sad.--Too bad how the minutes fly. + +ERNEST--You see them hanging and can no more--and to-morrow they’ll be +pressed. + +HANSY--Being tired is as unbearable to me as being hungry. + +ERNEST--Oh, I can no more! + +HANSY--Just this one shining muscatel! + +ERNEST--There’s a limit to my elasticity. + +HANSY--If I bend the spray, it’ll swing back and forth between our +mouths. We’ll neither of us have to stir--just bite off the grapes and +let the stalk spring back to the vine. + +ERNEST--One no sooner resolves on something than lo! the strength that +had vanished is renewed in him again. + +HANSY--And add the flaming firmament--and the evening bells,--my hopes +for the future rise scarcely higher than this. + +ERNEST--I often see myself as a Reverend Pastor already, with a genial, +motherly housewife, a voluminous library, and offices and honors +everywhere. Six days you have, to ruminate, and on the seventh you +open your mouth. When you go walking, school-children take your hand, +and when you come home the coffee is steaming, the cakes are brought +in, and thru the garden door the girls come up with apples.--Can you +imagine anything happier? + +HANSY--I have visions of half-shut lashes, half-opened lips, and +Turkish draperies.--I don’t believe in pathos. You see, our elders +pull long faces to cover their stupidities from us. Among themselves +they call each other blockheads as we do. I know that.--When I’m a +millionaire, I’ll set up a memorial to dear God.--Think of the future +as a milk pudding with sugar and spice. One fellow upsets it and bawls. +Another stirs it all up in a mess and toils. Why not skim it?--or don’t +you believe that that art can be learned? + +ERNEST--Let us skim! + +HANSY--What’s left ’ll be chicken-feed.--I’ve pulled my head out of so +many nooses now already.... + +ERNEST--Let us skim, Hansy!--Why do you laugh? + +HANSY--Are you beginning again already? + +ERNEST--One of us has got to begin. + +HANSY--When we think back thirty years hence to an evening such as +this, it may seem to us beautiful beyond words. + +ERNEST--And how beautiful everything =is=, now, quite of itself! + +HANSY--So why not? + +ERNEST--If one happened to be alone, one might even weep. + +HANSY--Don’t let us be sad. [_Kisses him on the mouth._] + +ERNEST--[_Returning the kiss._] I left the house with the idea of just +merely speaking to you and going back again. + +HANSY--I was expecting you.--Virtue isn’t a bad clothing, but it +belongs on imposing figures. + +ERNEST--It still hangs loose around our limbs. I should have been +uneasy if I hadn’t found you.--I love you, Hansy, as I’ve never loved a +living soul.... + +HANSY--Let’s not be sad.--When we think back, thirty years hence,--why, +we may laugh at ourselves!--And now it is all so beautiful! The +mountains are glowing, the grapes droop into our mouths, and the +evening breeze whispers along the rocks like a little playful +wheedling-- ... + + +CURTAIN + + + SCENE VII.--_The graveyard, in a clear November night. On bush and + tree rustles the withered foliage. Jagged clouds speed by under + the moon._--MELCHIOR _clambers over the wall above_ MORITZ’S + _grave--set much farther up-stage than in Scene II--and jumps + down, knocking over_ MORITZ’S _cross_. + +MELCHIOR--The pack won’t follow me into this place.--While they’re +searching brothels, I can catch my breath and see how far I’ve +gotten.... + +Coat in tatters, pockets empty,--even from the most harmless I have +something to fear.--During the day I must try to get farther on in the +wood.... + +I have kicked down a cross.--The little flowers would have been frozen +to-night!--All around the earth is bare.... + +In the realm of the dead! + +To climb out of the skylight was not so hard as the road before +me.--This was the only thing that I was not prepared for.... + +I hang above the abyss--everything swallowed up and gone!--Oh, that I +had stayed back there! + +Why she thru my fault?--Why not the guilty one!--Inscrutable +Providence!--I would have broken stones and gone hungry...! + +What is left now to keep me straight?--Crime will follow on crime. I +am abandoned to the mire. Not even the strength left to wind things +up.... + +I was not bad!--I was not bad!--I was not bad!... + +Never has mortal wandered over graves so filled with envy!--Pah! I +should never screw up the courage!--Oh, if insanity would but seize on +me--this very night! + +I must look over there among the latest ones.--The wind whistles past +every stone with a different note--a heart-chilling symphony! The +rotten wreaths blow apart and dangle on their long strings piecemeal +round the marble crosses--a forest of scarecrows!--Scarecrows on all +the graves, each more horrible than the next, house-high, putting the +devils to flight.--The golden letters glitter so coldly.... The weeping +willow moans, and gropes with gigantic fingers over the inscriptions!... + +A praying cherub--a bare slab---- + +Now a cloud casts its shadow down here.--How fast it flies, +crying!--like a host pursued it rushes up in the east.--Not a star in +the sky!---- + +Evergreen round the plot?--Evergreen?--a girl?... + +[Illustration: + + · _Here Rests in God_ · + + WENDLA BERGMANN + + BORN · MAY · 5 · 1878 + DIED _of_ CHLOROSIS + OCTOBER · 27 · 1892 + + · _Blessed are the Pure in Heart_ · + +] + +And I am her murderer!--I am her murderer!--Despair is left me--only +despair!--I may not cry here. I must get away--away! [MORITZ STIEFEL, +_with his head under his arm, comes stumping over the graves_.] + +MORITZ--One moment, Melchior. It may be long before the chance recurs. +You’ve no idea how everything depends on the time and place.... + +MELCHIOR--Where did =you= come from? + +MORITZ--From over there--from the wall. You knocked down my cross. I +lie by the wall.--Give me your hand, Melchior.... + +MELCHIOR--You are =not= Moritz Stiefel! + +MORITZ--Give me your hand. I’m certain sure you’ll thank me. It’ll +never be so easy for you again. This is a rarely fortunate meeting.--I +came up especially---- + +MELCHIOR--Don’t you sleep? + +MORITZ--Not what you call sleeping.--We sit on church steeples, on +lofty gables,--wherever we want.... + +MELCHIOR--Ever restless? + +MORITZ--For fun.--We scoot around young birch-trees, round lonely +forest shrines. Over gatherings of people we hover, over sites of +misfortune, over gardens and festival places. In the dwelling-houses +we crouch in the chimney-corner and behind the bed-curtains.--Give me +your hand!--We have little to do with each other but we see and hear +everything that happens in the world. We know that everything is folly +that men strive for and achieve,--and laugh at it. + +MELCHIOR--What good does that do? + +MORITZ--What’s it need to do?--We are out of reach--nor good nor evil +can touch us any more. We stand high, high above the earth-folk, each +for himself alone. We have nothing to do with each other because that +bores us. None of us still has anything at heart whose loss he could +feel. We are equally immeasurably far above both grief and rejoicing. +We are content with ourselves, and that is all!--The living we despise +beyond words: we can hardly pity them. They amuse us with their doings, +because, being alive, they are not really to be pitied. We smile, each +to himself, over their tragedies, and meditate.--Give me your hand! If +you will give me your hand, you will fall over with laughing at the +emotion with which you give me your hand.... + +MELCHIOR--Doesn’t that disgust you? + +MORITZ--We stand too high above it for that. We smile!--At my funeral I +was among the mourners. I got a lot of entertainment from it. That is +sublimity, Melchior! I made more noise than any of them, and slipped +off to the wall to hold my sides for laughter. Our unapproachable +sublimity is in fact the only standpoint that lets us assimilate the +dirt.... I suppose I was laughed at too before I soared aloft! + +MELCHIOR--I have no desire to laugh at myself. + +MORITZ-- ... The living as such are truly not to be pitied.--I admit +I should never have thought so either. And now it’s beyond my +comprehension how one can be so naïve. Now I see thru the fraud so +clearly that not the tiniest cloud is left.--How can you hesitate, +Melchior? Give me your hand. In a turn of the head you’ll be standing +sky-high above yourself.--Your living is a grievous omission, a sin of +negligence.... + +MELCHIOR--Can you dead forget? + +MORITZ--We can do everything. Give me your hand! We can be sorry for +the young, for the way they take their timidity for idealism, and the +old, whose stoical superiority comes near to breaking their hearts. We +see the Kaiser shake for dread of a street-song, and the beggar for +dread of the trump of doom. We look straight thru the actor’s make-up, +and see the poet in the dark don his. We behold the contented man in +his beggary, and in the weariness of his burdened soul the capitalist. +We observe people in love, and see them blush before each other in the +presentiment that they are frauds defrauded. Parents we see bringing +children into the world in order that they may call to them “How +fortunate you are to have such parents!”--and we see the children go +forth and do the like. We can eavesdrop on the innocent in their lonely +cravings, and the five-groschen drab at her reading of Schiller.... God +and the devil we see making fools of themselves before each other, and +cherish in our hearts the unshakable conviction that both are drunk.... +A quiet--a content--Melchior!--You need only reach me your little +finger.--You may get to be snow-white before such a favorable moment +appears to you again. + +MELCHIOR--If I shake hands on it, Moritz, it will be from +self-contempt. I see myself proscribed. What lent me courage, lies in +the grave. I can no longer think myself worthy of noble impulses--and +perceive nothing, nothing, that might yet stand in the way of my +descent.--I am, in my own opinion, the most detestable creature in the +universe.... + +MORITZ--What are you waiting for? [A MUFFLED GENTLEMAN _enters, and +addresses_ MELCHIOR.] + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--The fact is, you’re shivering with hunger. +You’re in no sort of condition to decide.--[_To_ MORITZ.] Go. + +MELCHIOR--Who are you? + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--That will come out.--[_To_ MORITZ.] +Vanish!--What have you here to do?--Why haven’t you got your head on? + +MORITZ--I shot myself. + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Then stay where you belong! You’re altogether +done with. Don’t bother us here with your charnel stench. +Inconceivable--why, just look at your fingers! Pah, what the devil! +they’re crumbling down already! + +MORITZ--Don’t send me away, please!... + +MELCHIOR--Who are you, good sir? + +MORITZ--Don’t send me away, I beg you! Let me take part in things here +a little while yet. I will not oppose you in anything.--It’s so chilly +down there! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Then why do you brag about =sublimity=?--You +know well enough that that’s humbug--sour grapes! Why do you wilfully +=lie=, you coinage of the brain?--If you value the favor so highly, +stay for all of me; but look out for any more hot-air boasting, my +friend, and kindly keep your rotting hand out of the game! + +MELCHIOR--Are you going to tell me who you are, or not? + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--No.--I propose that you entrust yourself to me. +First, I should see to your getting away. + +MELCHIOR--You are--my father?! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Would you not recognize your worthy father by +his voice? + +MELCHIOR--No. + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--The gentleman, your father, is seeking comfort +at this moment in the capable arms of your mother.--I open the world +to you. Your momentary want of balance springs from your wretched +situation. With a hot supper in your belly, you can laugh at it. + +MELCHIOR--[_To himself._] They can’t both be the devil!--[_Aloud._] +After what I have been guilty of, no hot supper can give my peace of +mind back to me! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--That depends on the supper!--So much I can +tell you: that the little girl would have borne her child first rate! +She was perfectly built. She simply succumbed to Mother Schmidtin’s +abortives.--I will take you among men. I will give you an opportunity +to expand your horizon beyond your wildest dreams. I will make you +acquainted with everything interesting, without exception, that the +world has to offer. + +MELCHIOR--Who are you? Who are you?--I can’t consign myself to a person +I don’t know! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--You’ll never learn to know me unless you entrust +yourself to me. + +MELCHIOR--Do you think so? + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Fact!--And anyway you have no choice. + +MELCHIOR--I can at any moment give my friend here my hand. + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Your friend is a charlatan. Nobody smiles, +who has one penny left in his pocket. The sublimated humorist is the +wretchedest, most pitiable creature in creation! + +MELCHIOR--Let the humorist be what he will. Tell me who =you= are, or +I’ll give the humorist my hand! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Well?! + +MORITZ--He is right, Melchior. I have been putting on airs. Let him +treat you, and make full use of him. No matter how muffled he may be, +he is, at least, that! + +MELCHIOR--Do you believe in God? + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--That depends. + +MELCHIOR--Do you want to tell me who discovered gunpowder? + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Berthold Schwarz--alias Constantine +Anklitzen--round 1330, a Franciscan monk at Freiburg-im-Breisgau. + +MORITZ--What would I give to have had him let it alone! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--You would merely have hanged yourself! + +MELCHIOR--What do you think about morality? + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Look here!--am I your schoolboy? + +MELCHIOR--Ask me what you are! + +MORITZ--Don’t quarrel!--Please don’t quarrel! What good will come of +that?--What are we sitting, one dead and two live men, here together +in the churchyard at two in the morning for, if we want to fall out +like tipplers!--It was for my pleasure that I was allowed to remain +and witness the proceedings. If you want to quarrel, I’ll take my head +under my arm and go. + +MELCHIOR--You’re still the same old runaway! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--The ghost isn’t so wrong. One shouldn’t ignore +one’s dignity.--By morality I understand the real product of two +imaginary quantities. The imaginary quantities are should and would.[7] +The product is called morality, and its reality is unquestionable. + +MORITZ--Oh, if you had only told me that sooner! My morality harried +me to death. For my dear parents’ sake I clutched at deadly weapons. +“Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the +land.” In my case the text has phenomenally stultified itself! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Indulge in no illusions, my dear friend. Your +precious parents would no more have died of it than you. Strictly +speaking, they would in fact have stormed and blustered merely from the +necessities of health. + +MELCHIOR--You may be right so far:--but I can tell you positively, good +sir, that if I had given Moritz my hand just now without more ado, the +blame would have rested simply and solely on my morality. + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--But that’s just the reason you’re =not= Moritz! + +MORITZ--All the same I don’t believe the difference is so material--at +least, not so conclusive, that you might not perchance have met me too, +esteemed Unknown, as I trotted that time through the alder-thickets +with the pistol in my pocket. + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--And don’t you remember me? Why, even at the +final moment, you still were standing between =Death= and =Life=.--But +here, in my opinion, is not exactly the place to prolong so deeply +probing a debate. + +MORITZ--It is indeed growing cold, gentlemen!--Though they did dress me +in my Sunday suit, I have on under it neither shirt nor drawers. + +MELCHIOR--Good-bye, dear Moritz. Where this person is taking me, I +don’t know; but he is somebody---- + +MORITZ--Don’t lay it up against me, Melchior, that I tried to make away +with you! It was old attachment.--I’d be willing to have to wail and +weep all my life if I could now accompany you out of here once more! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--In the end, each has his share--=you= the +consoling consciousness of having nothing--=thou= the enervating doubt +of everything.--[_To_ MORITZ.] Farewell. + +MELCHIOR--Farewell, Moritz! Accept my cordial thanks for appearing to +me once more. How many glad, untroubled days have we not spent with one +another in these fourteen years! I promise you, Moritz, let chance what +will,--tho in the years to come I turn ten times a different man,--be +my path upwards or downwards,--you I shall never forget---- + +MORITZ--Thanks, thanks, dear friend. + +MELCHIOR--And when some day I am an old man, grizzle-haired, then +perhaps it will be =you= that once again stand closer to me than all +those living with me. + +MORITZ--I thank you.--Luck to your journey, gentlemen.--Lose no more +time! + +THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Come, child! [_He links arms with_ MELCHIOR, +_and makes off with him over the graves_.] + +MORITZ--Here I sit now with my head in my arm.--The moon hides her +face, unveils again, and looks not a hair the wiser.--So now I’ll turn +back to my little plot, straighten the cross up that the madcap kicked +so recklessly down on me, and when all is in order I’ll lay myself out +on my back again, warm myself with decay, and smile.... + + +CURTAIN + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _Asperula odorata._ + +[2] In the original, P.... and V...., with four dots, not five, after +the V. + +[3] Literally, a cut-up noodle. + +[4] Sonnenstich means sunstroke: one pictures a round, red face +enringed with bristling gray hair, and an explosive manner. + +[5] This sentence, in the lack of any authentic stage-direction, +remains dark. “The Langenscheidt” is evidently a book, but why is it +here suddenly referred to, or what is done with it? + +[6] Note Wedekind’s subtlety: Mr. Gabor doesn’t remember Wendla’s +precise age, and makes her as old as he can, to minimize Melchior’s +transgression,--well before the days of Freud. + +[7] In German, _sollen_ and _wollen_, verbs representing =duty= and +=desire=. + + + + + EARTH-SPIRIT + + (ERDGEIST) + + A Tragedy in Four Acts + + “I was created out of ranker stuff + By Nature, and to the earth by Lust am drawn. + Unto the spirit of evil, not of good, + The earth belongs. What deities send to us + From heaven are only universal goods; + Their light gives gladness, but makes no man rich; + In their domain no pelf is seized and held. + The stone of price, all-treasured gold, from false + And evil-natured powers must be won, + Who riot underneath the light of day. + Not without sacrifice their favor is gained, + And no man liveth who from serving them + Hath extricated undefiled his soul.” + + [Spoken by Wallenstein in Schiller’s + _Wallenstein’s Death_, Act II.] + + + + +CHARACTERS + + + DR. SCHÖN, _newspaper owner and editor_ + ALVA, _his son, a writer_ + DR. GOLL, M.D. + SCHWARZ, _an artist_ + PRINCE ESCERNY, _an African explorer_ + ESCHERICH, _a reporter_ + SCHIGOLCH, _a beggar_ + RODRIGO, _an acrobat_ + HUGENBERG, _a schoolboy_ + FERDINAND, _a coachman_ + LULU + COUNTESS GESCHWITZ + HENRIETTE, _a servant_ + + + + +PROLOGUE + + +[_At rise is seen the entrance to a tent, out of which steps an +animal-tamer, with long, black curls, dressed in a white cravat, a +vermilion dress-coat, white trousers and white top-boots. He carries in +his left hand a dog-whip and in his right a loaded revolver, and enters +to the sound of cymbals and kettledrums._] + + Walk in! Walk in to the menagerie, + Proud gentlemen and ladies lively and merry. + With avid lust or cold disgust, the very + Beast without Soul bound and made secondary + To human genius, to stay and see! + Walk in, the show’ll begin!--As customary, + One child to each two persons comes in free. + + Here battle man and brute in narrow cages, + Where one in mockery his long whip lashes, + The other, growling as when thunder rages, + Against the man’s throat murderously dashes,-- + Where now the crafty, now the strong prevails, + Now man, now beast, against the flooring quails. + The animal rears,--the human on all fours! + One ice-cold look of dominance--The + beast submissive bows before that glance, + And the proud heel upon his neck adores. + + Bad are the times! Ladies and gentlemen + Who once before my cage in thronging crescents + Crowded, now honor operas, and then + Ibsen, with their so highly valued presence. + My boarders here are so in want of fodder + That they reciprocally devour each other. + How well off at the theater is a player, + Sure of the meat upon his ribs, no matter + How terrible the hunger round his platter, + And colleagues’ inner cupboards yawning bare!-- + But if to heights of art we would aspire, + We may not reckon merit by its hire. + + What see you, whether in light or sombre plays? + =House-animals=, whose morals all must praise, + Who vent pale spites in vegetarian ways, + And revel in a singsong to-and-fro + Just like those others--in the seats below. + This hero has a head by one dram swirled; + That, is in doubt whether his love be right; + A third you hear despairing of the world,-- + Full five acts long you hear him wail his plight, + And no man ends him with a merciful sleight! + But the =real= beast, the =beautiful=, =wild= beast, + Your eyes on =that=, _I_, ladies, only, feast! + + You see the Tiger, that habitually + Devours whatever falls before his bound; + The Bear, who, gluttonous from the first sally, + Sinks at his late night-meal dead to the ground; + You see the Monkey, little and amusing, + From sheer ennui his petty powers abusing,-- + He has some talent, of all greatness scant, + So, impudently, coquettes with his own want! + Upon my soul, within my tent and trammel-- + See, right behind the curtain, here--’s a Camel! + And all my creatures fawn about my feet + When my revolver cracks-- + [_He shoots into the audience._] + Behold! + Brutes tremble all around me. I am cold: + The =man= stays cold,--you, with respect, to greet. + + Walk in!--You hardly trust yourselves in here?-- + Then very well, judge for yourselves! Each sphere + Has sent its crawling creatures to your telling: + Chameleons and serpents, crocodiles, + Dragons, and salamanders chasm-dwelling,-- + I know, of course, you’re full of quiet smiles + And don’t believe a syllable I say.-- + + [_He lifts the entrance-flap and calls into the tent._] + + Hi, Charlie!--bring our =Serpent= just this way! + + [_A stage-hand with a big paunch carries out the actress of_ + =LULU= _in her Pierrot costume, and sets her down before the + animal-tamer_.] + + She was created to incite to sin, + To lure, seduce, corrupt, drop poison in,-- + To murder, without being once suspected. + [_Tickling_ LULU’S _chin_.] + My pretty beast, only be =unaffected=, + Not vain, not artificial, not perverse, + Even if the critics therefore turn adverse. + Thou hast no right to spoil the shape most fitting, + Most =true=, of =woman=, with meows and spitting! + Nor with buffoonery and wry device + To foul the =childish simpleness= of =Vice= + Thou shouldst--to-day I speak emphatically-- + Speak =naturally= and not unnaturally, + For the first principle, of earliest force + In every art, has been Be matter-of-course! + + [_To the public._] + There’s nothing special now to see in her, + But wait and watch what later will occur! + She coils about the Tiger stricter--stricter-- + He roars and groans!--Who’ll be the final victor?-- + Hop, Charlie, march! Carry her to her cage, + + [_The stage-hand picks up_ LULU _slantwise in his arms; the + animal-tamer pats her on the hips_.] + + Sweet innocence--my dearest appanage! + + [_The stage-hand carries_ LULU _back into the tent_.] + + And now the best thing yet remains to say: + My poll between the teeth of a beast of prey! + Walk in! The show’s not new, yet every heart + Takes pleasure in it still! I’ll wrench apart + This wild beast’s jaws--I dare--and he’ll not dare + To close and bite! Let him be ne’er so fair, + So wild and brightly flecked, he feels respect + For my poor poll! I offer it him direct: + One =joke=, and my two temples crack!--but, lo, + The lightning of my eyes I will forego, + Staking my =life= against a =joke=! and throw + My whip, my weapons, down. I am in my skin! + I yield me to this beast!--His name do ye know? + --The honored public! that has just walked in! + + [_The animal-tamer steps back into the tent, accompanied by + cymbals and kettledrums._] + + + + +ACT I + + + SCENE--_A roomy studio. Entrance door at the rear, left. Another door + at lower left to the bedroom. At centre, a platform for the model, + with a Spanish screen behind it, shielding it from the rear door, + and a Smyrna rug in front. Two easels at lower right. On the upper + one is the picture of a young girl’s head and shoulders. Against + the other leans a reversed canvas. Below these, toward centre, an + ottoman, with a tiger-skin on it. Two chairs along the left wall. + In the background, right, a step-ladder._ + + SCHÖN _sits on the foot of the ottoman, inspecting critically the + picture on the further easel_. SCHWARZ _stands behind the ottoman, + his palette and brushes in his hands_. + +SCHÖN--Do you know, I’m getting acquainted with a brand-new side of the +lady. + +SCHWARZ--I have never painted anyone whose expression changed so +continuously. I could hardly keep a single feature the same two days +running. + +SCHÖN--[_Pointing to the picture and observing him._] Do you find that +in it? + +SCHWARZ--I have done everything I could think of to induce at least +some repose in her mood by my conversation during the sittings. + +SCHÖN--Then I understand the difference. [SCHWARZ _dips his brush in +the oil and draws it over the features of the face_.] Do you think that +makes it look more like her? + +SCHWARZ--We can do no more than take our art as scientifically as +possible. + +SCHÖN--Tell me---- + +SCHWARZ--[_Stepping back._] The color had sunk in pretty well, too. + +SCHÖN--[_Looking at him._] Have you ever in your life loved a woman? + +SCHWARZ--[_Goes to the easel, puts a color on it, and steps back on the +other side._] The dress hasn’t been given relief enough yet. We don’t +rightly perceive yet that a living body is under it. + +SCHÖN--I make no doubt that the workmanship is good. + +SCHWARZ--If you’ll step this way.... + +SCHÖN--[_Rising._] You must have told her regular ghost-stories. + +SCHWARZ--As far back as you can. + +SCHÖN--[_Stepping back, knocks down the canvas that was leaning against +the lower easel._] Excuse me---- + +SCHWARZ--[_Picking it up._] That’s all right. + +SCHÖN--[_Surprised._] What is that? + +SCHWARZ--Do you know her? + +SCHÖN--No. [SCHWARZ _sets the picture on the easel. It is of a lady +dressed as Pierrot with a long shepherd’s crook in her hand._] + +SCHWARZ--A costume-picture. + +SCHÖN--But, really, you’ve succeeded with =her=. + +SCHWARZ--You know her? + +SCHÖN--No. And in that costume---- + +SCHWARZ--It isn’t nearly finished yet. [SCHÖN _nods_.] What would you +have? While she is posing for me I have the pleasure of entertaining +her husband. + +SCHÖN--What? + +SCHWARZ--We talk about art, of course,--to complete my good fortune! + +SCHÖN--But how did you come to make such a charming acquaintance? + +SCHWARZ--As they’re generally made. An ancient, tottering little +man drops in on me here to know if I can paint his wife. Why, of +course, were she as wrinkled as Mother Earth! Next day at ten prompt +the doors fly open, and the fat-belly drives this little beauty in +before him. I can feel even now how my knees shook. Then comes a +sap-green lackey, stiff as a ramrod, with a package under his arm. +Where is the dressing-room? Imagine my plight. I open the door there. +[_Pointing left._] Just luck that everything was in order. The sweet +thing vanishes into it, and the old fellow posts himself outside as a +bastion. Two minutes later out she steps in this Pierrot. [_Shaking his +head._] I never saw anything like it. [_He goes left and stares in at +the bedroom._] + +SCHÖN--[_Who has followed him with his eyes._] And the fat-belly stands +guard? + +SCHWARZ--[_Turning round._] The whole body in harmony with that +impossible costume as if it had come into the world in it! Her way of +burying her elbows in her pockets, of lifting her little feet from the +rug,--the blood often shoots to my head.... + +SCHÖN--One can see that in the picture. + +SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] People like us, you know---- + +SCHÖN--Here the model is mistress of the conversation. + +SCHWARZ--She has never yet opened her mouth. + +SCHÖN--Is it possible? + +SCHWARZ--Allow me to show you the costume. [_Goes out left._] + +SCHÖN--[_Before the Pierrot._] A devilish beauty. [_Before the other +picture._] There’s more depth here. [_Coming down-stage._] He is still +rather young for his age. [SCHWARZ _comes back with a white satin +costume_.] + +SCHWARZ--What sort of material is that? + +SCHÖN--[_Feeling it._] Satin. + +SCHWARZ--And all in one piece. + +SCHÖN--How does one get into it then? + +SCHWARZ--That I can’t tell you. + +SCHÖN--[_Taking the costume by the legs._] What enormous trouser-legs! + +SCHWARZ--The left one she pulls up. + +SCHÖN--[_Looking at the picture._] Above the knee! + +SCHWARZ--She does that entrancingly! + +SCHÖN--And transparent stockings? + +SCHWARZ--Those have got to be painted, specially. + +SCHÖN--Oh, you can do that. + +SCHWARZ--And with it all a coquetry! + +SCHÖN--What brought you to that horrible suspicion? + +SCHWARZ--There are things never dreamt of in our school-philosophy. +[_He takes the costume back into his bedroom._] + +SCHÖN--[_Alone._] When one is asleep.... + +SCHWARZ--[_Comes back; looks at his watch._] If you’d like to make her +acquaintance, moreover,---- + +SCHÖN--No. + +SCHWARZ--They must be here in a moment. + +SCHÖN--How much longer will the lady have to sit? + +SCHWARZ--I shall probably have to bear the pains of Tantalus three +months longer. + +SCHÖN--I mean the other one. + +SCHWARZ--I beg your pardon. Three times more at most. [_Going to the +door with him._] If the lady will just leave me the upper part of the +dress then.... + +SCHÖN--With pleasure. Let us see you at my house again soon. [_He +collides in the doorway with_ DR. GOLL _and_ LULU.] For Heaven’s sake! + +SCHWARZ--May I introduce.... + +DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] What are you doing here? + +SCHÖN--[_Kissing_ LULU’S _hand_.] Mrs. Goll.... + +LULU--You’re not going already? + +DR. GOLL--But what wind blows you here? + +SCHÖN--I’ve been looking at the picture of my intended---- + +LULU--[_Coming forward._] Your--intended--is here? + +DR. GOLL--So you’re having work done here, too? + +LULU--[_Before the upper picture._] Look at it! Enchanting! Entrancing! + +DR. GOLL--[_Looking round him._] Have you got her hidden somewhere +round here? + +LULU--So that is the sweet young prodigy who’s made a new person out of +you.... + +SCHÖN--She sits in the afternoon mostly. + +DR. GOLL--And you don’t tell anyone about it? + +LULU--[_Turning round._] Is she really so solemn? + +SCHÖN--Probably the after-effects of the seminary still, dear lady. + +DR. GOLL--[_Before the picture._] One can see that you have been +transformed profoundly. + +LULU--But now you mustn’t let her wait any longer. + +SCHÖN--In a fortnight I think our engagement will come out. + +DR. GOLL--[_To_ LULU.] Let’s lose no time. Hop! + +LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Just think, we came at a trot over the new bridge. +I was driving, myself. + +DR. GOLL--[_As_ SCHÖN _prepares to leave_.] No, no. We two have more to +talk about. Get along, Nellie. Hop! + +LULU--Now it’s going to be about me! + +DR. GOLL--Our Apelles is already wiping his brushes. + +LULU--I had imagined this would be much more amusing. + +SCHÖN--But you have always the satisfaction of preparing for us the +greatest and rarest pleasure. + +LULU--[_Going left._] Oh, just wait! + +SCHWARZ--[_Before the bedroom door._] If madame will be so kind.... +[_Shuts the door after her and stands in front of it._] + +DR. GOLL--I christened her Nellie, you know, in our marriage-contract. + +SCHÖN--Did you?--Yes. + +DR. GOLL--What do you think of it? + +SCHÖN--Why not call her rather Mignon? + +DR. GOLL--That would have been good, too. I didn’t think of that. + +SCHÖN--Do you consider the name so important? + +DR. GOLL--Hm.... You know, I have no children. + +SCHÖN--But you’ve only been married a couple of months. + +DR. GOLL--Thanks, I don’t want any. + +SCHÖN--[_Having taken out his cigarette-case._] Have a cigarette? + +DR. GOLL--[_Helps himself._] I’ve plenty to do with this one. [_To_ +SCHWARZ.] Say, what’s your little danseuse doing now? + +SCHÖN--[_Turning round on_ SCHWARZ.] You and a danseuse? + +SCHWARZ--The lady was sitting for me at that time only as a favor. I +made her acquaintance on a flying trip of the Cecilia Society. + +DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Hm.... I think we’re getting a change of +weather. + +SCHÖN--The toilet isn’t going so quickly, is it? + +DR. GOLL--It’s going like lightning! Woman has got to be a virtuoso +in her job. So must we all, each in his job, if life isn’t to turn to +beggary. [_Calls._] Hop, Nellie! + +LULU--[_Inside._] Just a second! + +DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] I can’t get onto these blockheads. [_Referring +to_ SCHWARZ.] + +SCHÖN--I can’t help envying them. These blockheads know of nothing +holier than an altar-cloth, and feel richer than you and me with +30,000-mark incomes. Besides, you’re no person to judge a man who has +lived since childhood from palette to mouth. Take it upon yourself to +finance him: it’s an arithmetic example! I haven’t the moral courage, +and one can easily burn one’s fingers, too. + +LULU--[_As_ PIERROT, _steps out of the bedroom_.] Here I am! + +SCHÖN--[_Turns; after a pause._] Superb! + +LULU--[_Nearer._] Well? + +SCHÖN--You shame the boldest fancy. + +LULU--How do you like me? + +SCHÖN--A picture before which art must despair. + +DR. GOLL--Ah, you think so, too? + +Schön--[_To_ LULU.] Have you any notion what you’re doing? + +LULU--I’m perfectly aware of myself! + +SCHÖN--Then you might be a little more discreet. + +LULU--But I’m only doing what’s my duty. + +SCHÖN--You are powdered? + +LULU--What do you take me for! + +DR. GOLL--I’ve never seen such a white skin as she’s got. I’ve told +our Raphael here, too, to do just as little with the flesh tints as +possible. I can’t get up any enthusiasm for this modern daubing. + +SCHWARZ--[_By the easels, preparing his paints._] At any rate, it’s +thanks to impressionism that present-day art can stand up beside the +old masters without blushing. + +DR. GOLL--Oh, it may be quite the thing for a brute being led to +slaughter. + +SCHÖN--For Heaven’s sake don’t get excited! [LULU _falls on_ GOLL’S +_neck and kisses him_.] + +DR. GOLL--They can see your undershirt. You must pull it lower. + +LULU--I would soonest have left it off. It only bothers me. + +DR. GOLL--He should be able to paint it out. + +LULU--[_Taking the shepherd’s crook that leans against the Spanish +screen, and mounting the platform, to_ SCHÖN.] What would you say now, +if you had to stand at attention for two hours? + +SCHÖN--I’d sell my soul to the devil for the chance to exchange with +you. + +DR. GOLL--[_Sitting, left._] Come over here. Here is my post of +observation. + +LULU--[_Plucking her left trouser-leg up to the knee, to_ SCHWARZ.] So? + +SCHWARZ--Yes.... + +LULU--[_Plucking it a thought higher._] So? + +SCHWARZ--Yes, yes.... + +DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN, _who has seated himself on the chair next him, +with a gesture_.] I find that she shows up even better from here. + +LULU--[_Without stirring._] I beg pardon! I show up equally well from +every side. + +SCHWARZ--[_To_ LULU.] The right knee further forward, please. + +SCHÖN--[_With a gesture._] The body does show finer lines perhaps. + +SCHWARZ--The lighting is at least half-way bearable to-day. + +DR. GOLL--Oh, you must throw on lots of it! Hold your brush a bit +longer. + +SCHWARZ--Certainly, Dr. Goll. + +DR. GOLL--Treat her as a piece of still-life. + +SCHWARZ--Certainly, Doctor. [_To_ LULU.] You used to hold your head a +wee mite higher, Mrs. Goll. + +LULU--[_Raising her head._] Paint my lips a little open. + +SCHÖN--Paint snow on ice. If you get warm doing that, then instantly +your art gets inartistic! + +SCHWARZ--Certainly, Doctor. + +DR. GOLL--Art, you know, must so reproduce nature that one can get at +least some =spiritual= enjoyment from it! + +LULU--[_Opening her mouth a little, to_ SCHWARZ.] So--look. I’ll hold +it half opened, so. + +SCHWARZ--Every time the sun comes out, the wall opposite throws warm +reflections in here. + +DR. GOLL--[_To_ LULU.] You must keep your pose and behave as if our +Velasquez here were nonexistent. + +LULU--Well, a painter =isn’t= a man, anyway. + +SCHÖN--I don’t think you ought to judge the whole craft from nothing +more than one notable exception. + +SCHWARZ--[_Stepping back from the easel._] However, I rather wish I had +had to hire a different studio last fall. + +SCHÖN--[_To_ GOLL.] What I wanted to ask you--have you seen the little +Murphy girl yet as a Peruvian pearl-fisher? + +DR. GOLL--I see her to-morrow for the fourth time. Prince Polossov took +me. His hair has already got dark yellow again with delight. + +SCHÖN--So you find her quite fabulous, too. + +DR. GOLL--Who ever wants to judge of that beforehand? + +LULU--I think someone knocked. + +SCHWARZ--Pardon me a moment. [_Goes and opens the door._] + +DR. GOLL--[_To_ LULU.] You can safely smile at him less bashfully! + +SCHÖN--To him it means nothing at all. + +DR. GOLL--And if it did!--What are we two sitting here for? + +ALVA SCHÖN--[_Entering, still behind the Spanish screen._] May one come +in? + +SCHÖN--My son! + +LULU--Oh! It’s Mr. Alva! + +DR. GOLL--Don’t mind. Just come along in. + +ALVA--[_Stepping forward, shakes hands with_ SCHÖN _and_ GOLL.] Glad to +see you. [_Turning toward_ LULU.] Do I see aright? Oh, if only I could +engage you for my title part! + +LULU--I don’t think I could dance nearly well enough for your show! + +ALVA--Ah, but you have a dancing-master whose like cannot be found on +any stage in Europe. + +SCHÖN--But what brings you here? + +DR. GOLL--Maybe you’re having somebody or other painted here, too, in +secret! + +ALVA--[_To_ SCHÖN.] I wanted to take you to the dress rehearsal. + +DR. GOLL--[_As_ SCHÖN _rises_.] Oho, do you have ’em dance to-day in +full costume already? + +ALVA--Of course. Come along, too. In five minutes I must be on the +stage. [_To_ LULU.] Poor me! + +DR. GOLL--I’ve forgotten--what’s the name of your ballet? + +ALVA--Dalailama. + +DR. GOLL--I thought =he= was in a madhouse. + +SCHÖN--You’re thinking of Nietzsche, Doctor. + +DR. GOLL--You’re right; I got ’em mixed up. + +ALVA--I have helped Buddhism to its legs. + +DR. GOLL--By his legs is the stage-poet known. + +ALVA--Corticelli dances the youthful Buddha as tho she had seen the +light of the world by the Ganges. + +SCHÖN--So long as her mother lived, she danced with her legs. + +ALVA--Then when she got free she danced with her intelligence. + +DR. GOLL--Now she dances with her heart. + +ALVA--If you’d like to see her---- + +DR. GOLL--Thank you. + +ALVA--Come along with us! + +DR. GOLL--Impossible. + +SCHÖN--Anyway, we have no time to lose. + +ALVA--Come with us, Doctor. In the third act you see Dalailama in his +cloister, with his monks---- + +DR. GOLL--The only thing I care about is the young Buddha. + +ALVA--Well, what’s hindering you? + +DR. GOLL--I can’t. I can’t do it. + +ALVA--We’re going to Peter’s, after it. There you can express your +admiration. + +DR. GOLL--Don’t press me any further, please. + +ALVA--You’ll see the tame monkey, the two Brahmans, the little girls.... + +DR. GOLL--For heaven’s sake, keep away from me with your little girls! + +LULU--Reserve us a proscenium box for Monday, Mr. Alva. + +ALVA--How could you doubt that I would, dear lady! + +DR. GOLL--When I come back this Hellebreugel will have messed up the +whole picture on me. + +ALVA--Well, it could be painted over. + +DR. GOLL--If I don’t explain to this Caravacci every stroke of his +brush---- + +SCHÖN--Your fears are unfounded, I think.... + +DR. GOLL--Next time, gentlemen! + +ALVA--The Brahmans are getting impatient. The daughters of Nirvana are +shivering in their tights. + +DR. GOLL--Damned splotchiness! + +SCHÖN--We’ll get jumped on if we don’t bring you with us. + +DR. GOLL--In five minutes I’ll be back. [_Stands down right, behind_ +SCHWARZ _and compares the picture with_ LULU.] + +ALVA--[_To_ LULU, _regretfully_.] Duty calls me, gracious lady! + +DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHWARZ.] You must model it a bit more here. The hair +is bad. You aren’t paying enough attention to your business! + +ALVA--Come on. + +DR. GOLL--Now, just hop it! Ten horses will not drag me to Peter’s. + +SCHÖN--[_Following_ ALVA _and_ GOLL.] We’ll take my carriage. It’s +waiting downstairs. [_Exeunt._] + +SCHWARZ--[_Leans over to the right, and spits._] Pack!--If only life +could end!--The bread-basket!--paunch and mug!--my artist’s pride has +got its back up. [_After a look at_ LULU.] This company!--[_Gets up, +goes up left, observes_ LULU _from all sides, and sits again at his +easel_.] The choice would be a hard one to make. If I may request Mrs. +Goll to raise the right hand a little higher. + +LULU--[_Grasps the crook as high as she can reach; to herself._] Who +would have thought that was possible! + +SCHWARZ--I am quite ridiculous, you think? + +LULU--He’s coming right back. + +SCHWARZ--I can do no more than paint. + +LULU--There he is! + +SCHWARZ--[_Rising._] Well? + +LULU--Don’t you hear? + +SCHWARZ--Someone is coming.... + +LULU--I knew it. + +SCHWARZ--It’s the janitor. He’s sweeping the stairs. + +LULU--Thank Heaven! + +SCHWARZ--Do you perhaps accompany the doctor to his patients? + +LULU--Everything =but= that. + +SCHWARZ--Because, you are not accustomed to being alone. + +LULU--We have a housekeeper at home. + +SCHWARZ--She keeps you company? + +LULU--She has a lot of taste. + +SCHWARZ--What for? + +LULU--She dresses me. + +SCHWARZ--Do you go much to balls? + +LULU--Never. + +SCHWARZ--Then what do you need the dresses for? + +LULU--For dancing. + +SCHWARZ--You really dance? + +LULU--Czardas ... Samaqueca ... Skirt-dance. + +SCHWARZ--Doesn’t--that--disgust you? + +LULU--You find me ugly? + +SCHWARZ--You don’t understand me. But who gives you lessons then? + +LULU--Him. + +SCHWARZ--Who? + +LULU--Him. + +SCHWARZ--He? + +LULU--He plays the violin---- + +SCHWARZ--Every day one learns something new. + +LULU--I learned in Paris. I took lessons from Eugénie Fougère. She let +me copy her costumes, too. + +SCHWARZ--What are =they= like? + +LULU--A little green lace skirt to the knee, all in ruffles, +low-necked, of course, very low-necked and awfully tight-laced. Bright +green petticoat, then brighter and brighter. Snow-white underclothes +with a hand’s-breadth of lace.... + +SCHWARZ--I can no longer---- + +LULU--Then paint! + +SCHWARZ--[_Scraping the canvas._] Aren’t you cold at all? + +LULU--God forbid! No. What made you ask? Are you so cold? + +SCHWARZ--Not to-day. No. + +LULU--Praise God, one can breathe! + +SCHWARZ--How so?... [LULU _takes a deep breath_.] Don’t do that, +please! [_Springs up, throws away his palette and brushes, walks up and +down._] The bootblack has only her feet to attend to, at least! And +his color doesn’t eat into his money, either. If I go without supper +to-morrow, no little society lady will be asking me if I know anything +about oyster-patties! + +LULU--Is he going out of his head? + +SCHWARZ--[_Takes up his work again._] What ever drove the fellow to +this test? + +LULU--I’d like it better, too, if he had stayed here. + +SCHWARZ--We are truly the martyrs of our calling! + +LULU--I didn’t wish to cause you pain. + +SCHWARZ--[_Hesitating, to_ LULU.] If you--the left trouser-leg--a +little higher---- + +LULU--Here? + +SCHWARZ--[_Steps to the platform._] Permit me.... + +LULU--What do you want? + +SCHWARZ--I’ll show you. + +LULU--You mustn’t. + +SCHWARZ--You are nervous.... [_Tries to seize her hand._] + +LULU--[_Throws the crook in his face._] Let me alone! [_Hurries to the +entrance door._] You’re a long way yet from getting me. + +SCHWARZ--You can’t understand a joke. + +LULU--Oh, yes, I can. I understand everything. Just you leave me be. +You’ll get nothing at all from me by force. Go to your work. You have +no right to molest me. [_Flees behind the ottoman._] Sit down behind +your easel! + +SCHWARZ--[_Trying to get around the ottoman._] As soon as I’ve punished +you--you wayward, capricious---- + +LULU--But you must have me, first! Go away. You can’t catch me. In long +clothes I’d have fallen into your clutches long ago--but in the Pierrot! + +SCHWARZ--[_Throwing himself across the ottoman._] I’ve got you! + +LULU--[_Hurls the tiger-skin over his head._] Good night! [_Jumps over +the platform and climbs up the step-ladder._] I can see away over all +the cities of the earth. + +SCHWARZ--[_Unrolling himself from the rug._] This old skin! + +LULU--I reach up into heaven, and stick the stars in my hair. + +SCHWARZ--[_Clambering after her._] I’ll shake it till you fall off! + +LULU--If you don’t stop, I’ll throw the ladder down. [_Climbing +higher._] Will you let go of my legs? God save the Poles! [_Makes the +ladder fall over, jumps onto the platform, and as_ SCHWARZ _picks +himself up from the floor, throws the Spanish screen down on his head. +Hastening down-stage, by the easels._] I told you that you weren’t +going to get me. + +SCHWARZ--[_Coming forward._] Let us make peace. [_Tries to embrace +her._] + +LULU--Keep away from me, or---- [_She throws the easel with the +finished picture at him, so that both fall crashing to the floor._] + +SCHWARZ--[_Screams._] Merciful Heaven! + +LULU--[_Up-stage, right._] You knocked the hole in it yourself! + +SCHWARZ--I am ruined! Ten weeks’ work, my journey, my exhibition! Now +there is nothing more to lose! [_Plunges after her._] + +LULU--[_Springs over the ottoman, over the fallen step-ladder, and over +the platform, down-stage._] A grave! Don’t fall into it! [_She stamps +thru the picture on the floor._] She made a new man out of him! [_Falls +forward._] + +SCHWARZ--[_Stumbling over the Spanish screen._] I am merciless now! + +LULU--[_Up-stage._] Leave me in peace now. I’m getting dizzy. O Gott! O +Gott!... [_Comes forward and sinks down on the ottoman._ SCHWARZ _locks +the door; then seats himself next to her, grasps her hand, and covers +it with kisses--then pauses, struggling with himself._ LULU _opens her +eyes wide_.] + +LULU--He may come back. + +SCHWARZ--How d’you feel? + +LULU--As if I had fallen into the water.... + +SCHWARZ--I love you. + +LULU--One time, I loved a student. + +SCHWARZ--Nellie---- + +LULU--With four-and-twenty scars---- + +SCHWARZ--I love you, Nellie. + +LULU--My name isn’t Nellie. [SCHWARZ _kisses her_.] It’s Lulu. + +SCHWARZ--I would call you Eve. + +LULU--Do you know what time it is? + +SCHWARZ--[_Looking at his watch._] Half past ten. [LULU _takes the +watch and opens the case_.] You don’t love me. + +LULU--Yes, I do.... It’s five minutes after half past ten. + +SCHWARZ--Give me a kiss, Eve! + +LULU--[_Takes him by the chin and kisses him. Throws the watch in the +air and catches it._] You smell of tobacco. + +SCHWARZ--Call me Walter. + +LULU--It would be uncomfortable to---- + +SCHWARZ--You’re just making believe! + +LULU--You’re making believe yourself, it seems to me. _I_ make believe? +What makes you think that? I’ve =never needed to do that=. + +SCHWARZ--[_Rises, disconcerted, passing his hand over his forehead._] +God in Heaven! The world is strange to me---- + +LULU--[_Screams._] Only don’t kill me! + +SCHWARZ--[_Instantly whirling round._] =Thou hast never yet loved!= + +LULU--[_Half raising herself._] =You have never yet loved=...! + +DR. GOLL--[_Outside._] Open the door! + +LULU--[_Already sprung to her feet._] Hide me! O God, hide me! + +DR. GOLL--[_Pounding on the door._] Open the door! + +LULU--[_Holding back_ SCHWARZ _as he goes toward the door_.] He will +strike me dead! + +DR. GOLL--[_Hammering._] Open the door! + +LULU--[_Sunk down before_ SCHWARZ, _gripping his knees._] He’ll beat +me to death! He’ll beat me to death! + +SCHWARZ--Stand up.... [_The door falls crashing into the studio._ DR. +GOLL _with bloodshot eyes rushes upon_ SCHWARZ _and_ LULU, _brandishing +his stick_.] + +DR. GOLL--You dogs! You.... [_Pants, struggles for breath a few +seconds, and falls headlong to the ground._ SCHWARZ’S _knees tremble_. +LULU _has fled to the door. Pause._] + +SCHWARZ--Mister--Doctor--Doc--Doctor Goll---- + +LULU--[_In the door._] Please, tho, first put the studio in order. + +SCHWARZ--Dr. Goll! [_Leans over._] Doc--[_Steps back._] He’s cut his +forehead. Help me to lay him on the ottoman. + +LULU--[_Shudders backward in terror._] No. No.... + +SCHWARZ--[_Trying to turn him over._] Dr. Goll. + +LULU--He doesn’t hear. + +SCHWARZ--But you, help me, please. + +LULU--The two of us together couldn’t lift him. + +SCHWARZ--[_Straightening up._] We must send for a doctor. + +LULU--He is fearfully heavy. + +SCHWARZ--[_Getting his hat._] Please, tho, be so good as to put the +place a little to rights while I’m away. [_He goes out._] + +LULU--He’ll spring up all at once. [_Intensely._] Bussi!--He just won’t +notice anything. [_Comes down-stage in a wide circle._] He sees my +feet, and watches every step I take. He has his eye on me everywhere. +[_Touches him with her toe._] Bussi! [_Flinching, backward._] It’s +serious with him. The dance is over. He’ll send me to prison. What +shall I do? [_Leans down to the floor._] A strange, wild face! +[_Getting up._] And no one to do him the last services--isn’t that sad! +[SCHWARZ _returns_.] + +SCHWARZ--Still not come to himself? + +LULU--[_Down right._] What shall I do? + +SCHWARZ--[_Bending over_ GOLL.] Doctor Goll. + +LULU--I almost think it’s serious. + +SCHWARZ--Talk decently! + +LULU--He wouldn’t say that to me. He makes me dance for him when he +doesn’t feel well. + +SCHWARZ--The doctor will be here in a moment. + +LULU--Doctoring won’t help =him=. + +SCHWARZ--But people do what they can, in such cases! + +LULU--He doesn’t believe in it. + +SCHWARZ--Don’t you want to--at any rate--put something on? + +LULU--Yes,--right off. + +SCHWARZ--What are you waiting for? + +LULU--Please.... + +SCHWARZ--What is it? + +LULU--Shut =his= eyes. + +SCHWARZ--You make me shiver. + +LULU--Not nearly so much as you make =me=! + +SCHWARZ--I? + +LULU--You’re a born criminal. + +SCHWARZ--Aren’t you the least bit touched by this moment? + +LULU--It hits me, too, some. + +SCHWARZ--Please, just you keep still now! + +LULU--It hits you some, too. + +SCHWARZ--You really didn’t need to add that, at such a moment! + +LULU--=Please=...! + +SCHWARZ--Do what you think necessary. I don’t know how. + +LULU--[_Left of_ GOLL.] He’s looking at me. + +SCHWARZ--[_Right of_ GOLL.] And at me, too. + +LULU--You’re a coward! + +SCHWARZ--[_Shuts_ GOLL’S _eyes with his handkerchief_.] It’s the first +time in my life I’ve ever been condemned to that. + +LULU--Didn’t you do it to your mother? + +SCHWARZ--[Nervously.] No. + +LULU--You were away, perhaps. + +SCHWARZ--No! + +LULU--Or else you were afraid? + +SCHWARZ--[_Violently._] No! + +LULU--[_Shivering, backward._] I didn’t mean to insult you. + +SCHWARZ--She’s still alive. + +LULU--Then you still have somebody. + +SCHWARZ--She’s as poor as a beggar. + +LULU--I know what that is. + +SCHWARZ--Don’t laugh at me! + +LULU--Now I am rich---- + +SCHWARZ--It gives me cold shudders---- [_Goes right._] She can’t help +it! + +LULU--[_To herself._] What’ll I do? + +SCHWARZ--[_To himself._] Absolutely uncivilized! [_They look at each +other mistrustfully._ SCHWARZ _goes over to her and grips her hand_.] +Look me in the eyes! + +LULU--[_Apprehensively._] What do you want? + +SCHWARZ--[_Takes her to the ottoman and makes her sit next to him._] +Look me in the eyes. + +LULU--I see myself in them as Pierrot. + +SCHWARZ--[_Shoves her from him._] Confounded dancer-ing! + +LULU--I must change my clothes---- + +SCHWARZ--[_Holds her back._] One question---- + +LULU--I can’t answer it. + +SCHWARZ--Can you speak the truth? + +LULU--I don’t know. + +SCHWARZ--Do you believe in a Creator? + +LULU--I don’t know. + +SCHWARZ--Can you swear by anything? + +LULU--I don’t know. Leave me alone. You’re mad. + +SCHWARZ--What do you believe in, then? + +LULU--I don’t know. + +SCHWARZ--Have you no soul, then? + +LULU--I don’t know. + +SCHWARZ--Have you ever once loved----? + +LULU--I don’t know. + +SCHWARZ--[_Gets up, goes right, to himself._] She doesn’t know! + +LULU--[_Without moving._] I don’t know. + +SCHWARZ--[_Glancing at_ GOLL.] He knows. + +LULU--[_Nearer him._] What do you want to know? + +SCHWARZ--[_Angrily._] Go, get dressed! [LULU _goes into the bedroom_. +_To_ GOLL.] Would I could change with you, you dead man! I give her +back to you. I give my youth to you, too. I lack the courage and the +faith. I’ve had to wait patiently too long. It’s too late for me. I +haven’t grown up big enough for happiness. I have a hellish fear of it. +Wake up! I didn’t touch her. He opens his mouth. Mouth open and eyes +shut, like the children. With me it’s the other way round. Wake up, +wake up! [_Kneels down and binds his handkerchief round the dead man’s +head._] Here I beseech Heaven to make me =able= to be happy--to give +me the strength and the freedom of soul to be just a weeny mite happy! +For =her= sake, =only for her sake=. [LULU _comes out of the bedroom, +completely dressed, her hat on, and her right hand under her left arm_.] + +LULU--[_Raising her left arm, to_ SCHWARZ.] Would you hook me up here? +My hand trembles. + + +CURTAIN + + + + +ACT II + + + SCENE--_A very ornamental parlor. Entrance-door rear, left. Curtained + entrances right and left, steps leading up to the right one. On + the back wall over the fireplace_, LULU’S _Pierrot picture in a + magnificent frame. Right, above the steps, a tall mirror; facing + it, right centre, a chaise longue. Left, an ebony writing-table. + Centre, a few chairs around a little Chinese table._ + + LULU _stands motionless before the mirror, in a green silk + morning-dress. She frowns, passes a hand over her forehead, feels + her cheeks, and draws back from the mirror with a discouraged, + almost angry, look. Frequently turning round, she goes left, opens + a cigarette-case on the writing-table, lights herself a cigarette, + looks for a book among those that are lying on the table, takes + one, and lies down on the chaise longue opposite the mirror. After + reading a moment, she lets the book sink, and nods seriously to + herself in the glass; then resumes reading._ SCHWARZ _enters, + left, palette and brushes in hand, and bends over_ LULU, _kisses + her on the forehead, and goes up the steps, right_. + +SCHWARZ--[_Turning in the doorway._] Eve! + +LULU--[_Smiling._] At your orders? + +SCHWARZ--Seems to me you look extra charming to-day. + +LULU--[_With a glance at the mirror._] Depends on what you expect. + +SCHWARZ--Your hair breathes out a morning freshness.... + +LULU--I’ve just come out of the water. + +SCHWARZ--[_Approaching her._] I’ve an awful lot to do to-day. + +LULU--You tell yourself you have. + +SCHWARZ--[_Lays his palette and brushes down on the carpet, and sits on +the edge of the couch._] What are you reading? + +LULU--[_Reads._] “Suddenly she heard an anchor of refuge come nodding +up the stairs.” + +SCHWARZ--Who under the sun writes so absorbingly? + +LULU--[_Reading._] “It was the postman with a money-order.” [HENRIETTE, +_the servant, comes in, upper left, with a hat-box on her arm and a +little tray of letters which she puts on the table_.] + +HENRIETTE--The mail. I’m going to take your hat to the milliner, madam. +Anything else? + +LULU--No. [SCHWARZ _signs to her to go out, which she does, slyly +smiling_.] + +SCHWARZ--What were all the things you dreamt about last night? + +LULU--You’ve asked me that twice already this morning. + +SCHWARZ--[_Rises, takes up the letters._] News makes me tremble. Every +day I fear the world may go to pieces. [_Giving_ LULU _a letter_.] For +you. + +LULU--[_Sniffs at the paper._] Madame Corticelli. [_Hides it in her +bosom._] + +SCHWARZ--[_Skimming a letter._] My Sama-queca-dancer sold--for fifty +thousand marks! + +LULU--Who’s that from? + +SCHWARZ--Sedelmeier in Paris. That’s the third picture since our +marriage. I hardly know how to escape my good fortune! + +LULU--[_Pointing to the letters._] There are more there. + +SCHWARZ--[_Opening an engagement announcement._] See. [_Gives it to_ +LULU.] + +LULU--[_Reads._] “Sir Henry von Zarnikow has the honor to announce the +engagement of his daughter, Charlotte Marie Adelaide, to Doctor Ludwig +Schön.” + +SCHWARZ--[_As he opens another letter._] At last! He’s been an eternal +while evading a public engagement. I can’t understand it--a man of his +standing and influence. What can be in the way of his marriage? + +LULU--What is that that you’re reading? + +SCHWARZ--An invitation to take part in the international exhibition at +St. Petersburg. I have no idea what to paint for it. + +LULU--Some entrancing girl or other, of course. + +SCHWARZ--Will you be willing to pose for it? + +LULU--God knows there are other pretty girls enough in existence! + +SCHWARZ--But with no other model--tho she be as racy as hell--can I so +fully show the depth and range of my powers. + +LULU--Then I must, I suppose. Mightn’t it go as well, perhaps, lying +down? + +SCHWARZ--Really, I’d like best to leave the composition to your +taste. [_Folding up the letters._] Don’t let’s forget to congratulate +Schön to-day, anyway. [_Goes left and shuts the letters in the +writing-table._] + +LULU--But we did that a long time ago. + +SCHWARZ--For his bride’s sake. + +LULU--You can write to him again if you want. + +SCHWARZ--And now to work! [_Takes up his brushes and palette, kisses_ +LULU, _goes up the steps, right, and turns around in the doorway_.] Eve! + +LULU--[_Lets her book sink, smiling._] Your pleasure? + +SCHWARZ--[_Approaching her._] I feel every day as if I were seeing you +for the very first time. + +LULU--You’re a terror. + +SCHWARZ--You make me one. [_He sinks on his knees by the couch and +caresses her hand._] + +LULU--[_Stroking his hair._] You’re using me up fast. + +SCHWARZ--You are mine. And you are never more ensnaring than when you +ought for God’s sake to be, just once, real ugly for a couple of hours! +Since I’ve had you, I have had nothing further. I’ve lost hold of +myself entirely. + +LULU--Don’t be so passionate! [_Bell rings in the corridor._] + +SCHWARZ--[_Pulling himself together._] Confound it! + +LULU--No one at home! + +SCHWARZ--Perhaps it’s the art-dealer---- + +LULU--And if it’s the Chinese Emperor! + +SCHWARZ--One moment. [_Exit._] + +LULU--[_Visionary._] Thou? Thou? [_Closes her eyes._] + +SCHWARZ--[_Coming back._] A beggar, who says he was in the war. I have +no small change on me. [_Taking up his palette and brushes._] It’s high +time, too, that I should finally go to work. [_Goes out, right._ LULU +_touches herself up before the glass, strokes back her hair, and goes +out, returning leading in_ SCHIGOLCH.] + +SCHIGOLCH--I’d thought he was more of a swell--a little more glory to +him. He’s sort of embarrassed. He quaked a little in the knees when he +saw =me= in front of him. + +LULU--[_Shoving a chair round for him._] How can you beg from him, too? + +SCHIGOLCH--I’ve dragged my seventy-seven spring-times here just for +that. You told me he kept at his painting in the mornings. + +LULU--He hadn’t got quite awake yet. How much do you need? + +SCHIGOLCH--Two hundred, if you have that much handy. Personally, I’d +like three hundred. Some of my clients have evaporated. + +LULU--[_Goes to the writing-table and rummages in the drawers._] Whew, +I’m tired! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Looking round him._] This helped bring me, too. I’ve been +wanting a long time to see how things were looking with you now. + +LULU--Well? + +SCHIGOLCH--It gives one cold shivers. [_Looking up._] Like with me +fifty years ago. Instead of the loafing chairs we still had rusty old +sabres then. Devil, but you’ve brought it pretty far! [_Scuffing._] +Carpets.... + +LULU--[_Giving him two bills._] I like best to walk on them bare-footed. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Scanning_ LULU’S _portrait_.] Is that you? + +LULU--[_Winking._] Pretty fine? + +SCHIGOLCH--If that’s the sort of thing. + +LULU--Have something sweet? + +SCHIGOLCH--What? + +LULU--[_Getting up._] Elixir de Spaa. + +SCHIGOLCH--That doesn’t help me---- Does he drink? + +LULU--[_Taking a decanter and glasses from a cupboard near the +fireplace._] Not yet. [_Coming down-stage._] The cordial has such +various effects! + +SCHIGOLCH--He comes to blows? + +LULU--He goes to sleep. [_She fills the two glasses._] + +SCHIGOLCH--When he’s drunk, you can see right into his insides. + +LULU--I’d rather not. [_Sits opposite_ SCHIGOLCH.] Talk to me. + +SCHIGOLCH--The streets keep on getting longer, and my legs shorter. + +LULU--And your harmonica? + +SCHIGOLCH--Wheezes, like me with my asthma. I just keep a-thinking it +isn’t worth the trouble to make it better. [_They clink glasses._] + +LULU--[_Emptying her glass._] I’d been thinking that at last you +were---- + +SCHIGOLCH--At last I was up and away? I thought so, too. But no matter +how early the sun goes down, still we aren’t let lie quiet. I’m hoping +for winter. Perhaps then my [_coughing_]--my--my asthma will invent +some opportunity to carry me off. + +LULU--[_Filling the glasses._] Do you think they could have forgotten +you up there? + +SCHIGOLCH--Would be possible, for it certainly isn’t going like it +usually does. [_Stroking her knee._] Now you tell--not seen you a long +time--my little Lulu. + +LULU--[_Jerking back, smiling._] Life is beyond me! + +SCHIGOLCH--What do you know about it? You’re still so young! + +LULU--That you call me Lulu. + +SCHIGOLCH--Lulu, isn’t it? Have I ever called you anything else? + +LULU--I haven’t been called Lulu since man can remember. + +SCHIGOLCH--Some other kind of name? + +LULU--Lulu sounds to me quite antediluvian. + +SCHIGOLCH--Children! Children! + +LULU--My name now is---- + +SCHIGOLCH--As if the principle wasn’t always the same! + +LULU--You mean---- + +SCHIGOLCH--What is it now? + +LULU--=Eve=. + +SCHIGOLCH--Leapt, hopped, skipped, jumped.... + +LULU--That’s what I answer to. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Gazing round._] This is the way I dreamt it for you. It’s +your natural bent. [_Seeing_ LULU _sprinkling herself with perfume_.] +What’s that? + +LULU--Heliotrope. + +SCHIGOLCH--Does that smell better than you? + +LULU--[_Sprinkling him._] That needn’t bother you any more. + +SCHIGOLCH--Who would have dreamt of this royal luxury before! + +LULU--When I think back--Ugh! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Stroking her knee._] How’s it going with you, then? You +still keep at the French? + +LULU--I lie and sleep. + +SCHIGOLCH--That’s genteel. That always looks like something. And +afterwards? + +LULU--I stretch--till it cracks. + +SCHIGOLCH--And when it has cracked? + +LULU--What do you mind about that? + +SCHIGOLCH--What do I mind about that? What do I mind? I’d rather +live till the last trump and renounce all heavenly joys than leave +my Lulu deprived of anything down here behind me. What do I mind +about that? It’s my sympathy. To be sure, my better self =is= already +transfigured--but I still have some understanding of this world. + +LULU--I haven’t. + +SCHIGOLCH--You’re too well off. + +LULU--[_Shuddering._] Idiot.... + +SCHIGOLCH--Better than with the old dancing-bear? + +LULU--[_Sadly._] I don’t dance any more. + +SCHIGOLCH--He got his call all right. + +LULU--Now I am---- [_Stops._] + +SCHIGOLCH--Speak out from your heart, child! I believed in you when +there was no more to be seen in you than your two big eyes. What are +you now? + +LULU--A beast.... + +SCHIGOLCH--The deuce you---- And what kind of a beast? A fine +beast! An elegant beast! A glorified beast!--Well, let them bury me +quickly! We’re through with prejudices--even with the one against the +corpse-washer. + +LULU--You needn’t be afraid that you will be washed once more. + +SCHIGOLCH--Doesn’t matter, either. One gets dirty again. + +LULU--[_Sprinkling him._] It would call you back to life again! + +SCHIGOLCH--We are mud. + +LULU--I beg your pardon! I rub grease into myself every day and then +powder on top of it. + +SCHIGOLCH--Probably worth while, too, on the dressed-up mucker’s +account. + +LULU--It makes the skin like satin. + +SCHIGOLCH--As if it weren’t just dirt all the same! + +LULU--Thank you. I wish to be worth nibbling at! + +SCHIGOLCH--We are. Give a big dinner down below there pretty soon. Keep +open house. + +LULU--Your guests will hardly overeat themselves at it. + +SCHIGOLCH--Patience, girl! Your worshippers won’t put you in alcohol, +either. It’s “schöne Melusine” as long as it keeps reacting. +Afterwards? They don’t take it at the zoölogical garden. [_Rising._] +The gentle beasties might get stomach-cramps. + +LULU--[_Getting up._] Have you enough? + +SCHIGOLCH--Enough and some to spare for planting a juniper on my +grave.--I’ll find my own way out. [_Exit._ LULU _follows him, and +presently returns with_ DR. SCHÖN.] + +SCHÖN--What’s your father doing here? + +LULU--What’s the matter? + +SCHÖN--If I were your husband that man would never cross my threshold. + +LULU--You can be intimate with me. He’s not here. [_Referring to_ +SCHWARZ.] + +SCHÖN--Thank you, I’d rather not. + +LULU--I don’t understand. + +SCHÖN--I know you don’t. [_Offering her a seat._] That is just the +point I’d like to speak to you about. + +LULU--[_Sitting down uncertainly._] Then why didn’t you yesterday? + +SCHÖN--Please, nothing now about yesterday. I did tell you two years +ago. + +LULU--[_Nervously._] Oh, yes,--hm! + +SCHÖN--Please be kind enough to cease your visits to my house. + +LULU--May I offer you an elixir---- + +SCHÖN--Thanks. No elixir. Have you understood me? [LULU _shakes her +head_.] Good. You have the choice. You force me to the most extreme +measures:--either act in accordance with your station---- + +LULU--Or? + +SCHÖN--Or--you compel me--I may have to turn to that person who is +responsible for your behavior. + +LULU--How can you imagine that----? + +SCHÖN--I shall request your husband, himself to keep watch over your +doings. [LULU _rises, goes up the steps, right_.] Where are you going? + +LULU--[_Calls thru the curtains._] Walter! + +SCHÖN--[_Springing up._] Are you mad? + +LULU--[_Turning round._] Aha! + +SCHÖN--I have made the most superhuman efforts to raise you in society. +You can be ten times as proud of your name as of your intimacy with me. + +LULU--[_Comes down the steps and puts her arm around_ SCHÖN’S _neck_.] +Why are you still afraid, now that you’re at the zenith of your hopes? + +SCHÖN--No comedy! The zenith of my hopes? I am at last engaged: I have +still to hope that I may bring my bride into a clean house. + +LULU--[_Sitting._] She has developed delightfully in the two years! + +SCHÖN--She no longer looks thru one so earnestly. + +LULU--She is now, for the first time, a woman. We can meet each other +wherever seems suitable to you. + +SCHÖN--We shall meet each other nowhere but in the presence of your +husband! + +LULU--You don’t believe yourself what you say. + +SCHÖN--Then =he= must believe it, at least. Go on and call him! Thru +his marriage to you, thru all that I’ve done for him, he has become my +friend. + +LULU--[_Rising._] Mine, too. + +SCHÖN--And that way I’ll cut down the sword over my head. + +LULU--You have, indeed, put chains upon me. But I owe my happiness to +you. You will get friends by the crowd as soon as you have a pretty +young wife again. + +SCHÖN--You judge women by yourself! He’s got the sense of a child or he +would have tracked out your doublings and windings long ago. + +LULU--I only wish he would! Then, at last he’d get out of his +swaddling-clothes. He puts his trust in the marriage contract he has in +his pocket. Trouble is past and gone. One can now give oneself and let +oneself go as if one were at home. That isn’t the sense of a =child=! +It’s banal! He has no education; he sees nothing; he sees neither me +nor himself; he is blind, blind, blind.... + +SCHÖN--[_Half to himself._] When =his= eyes open! + +LULU--Open his eyes for him! I’m going to ruin. I’m neglecting myself. +He doesn’t know me at all. What am I to him? He calls me darling and +little devil. He would say the same to any piano-teacher. He makes no +pretensions. Everything is all right, to him. That comes from his never +in his life having felt the need of intercourse with women. + +SCHÖN--If that’s true! + +LULU--He admits it perfectly openly. + +SCHÖN--A man who has painted them, rags and tags and velvet gowns, +since he was fourteen. + +LULU--Women make him anxious. He trembles for his health and comfort. +But he isn’t afraid of =me=! + +SCHÖN--How many girls would deem themselves God knows how blessed in +your situation. + +LULU--[_Softly pleading._] Seduce him. Corrupt him. You know how. Take +him into bad company--you know the people. I am nothing to him but a +woman, just woman. He makes me feel so ridiculous. He will be prouder +of me. He doesn’t know any differences. I’m thinking my head off, day +and night, how to shake him up. In my despair I dance the can-can. He +yawns; and drivels something about obscenity. + +SCHÖN--Nonsense. He is an artist, though. + +LULU--At least he believes he is. + +SCHÖN--That’s the chief thing! + +LULU--When _I_ pose for him.... He believes, too, that he’s a famous +man. + +SCHÖN--We =have= made him one. + +LULU--He believes everything. He’s as diffident as a thief, and lets +himself be lied to, till one loses all respect! When we first got to +know each other I made him believe I had never loved before--[SCHÖN +_falls into an easy-chair_.] Otherwise he would really have taken me +for some sort of reprobate! + +SCHÖN--You make God knows what exorbitant demands on =legitimate= +relations! + +LULU--I make no exorbitant demands. Often I even dream still of Goll. + +SCHÖN--He was, at any rate, not banal! + +LULU--He is there, as if he had never been away. Only he walks as tho +in his socks. He isn’t angry with me; he’s awfully sad. And then he is +fearful, as tho he were there without the permission of the police. +Otherwise, he feels at ease with us. Only he can’t quite get over my +having thrown away so much money since---- + +SCHÖN--You yearn for the whip once more? + +LULU--Maybe. I don’t dance any more. + +SCHÖN--Teach him to do it. + +LULU--A waste of trouble. + +SCHÖN--Out of a hundred women, ninety educate their husbands to suit +themselves. + +LULU--He loves me. + +SCHÖN--That’s fatal, of course. + +LULU--He loves me---- + +SCHÖN--That is an unbridgeable abyss. + +LULU--He doesn’t know me, but he loves me! If he had anything +approaching a true idea of me, he’d tie a stone around my neck and sink +me in the sea where it’s deepest. + +SCHÖN--Let’s finish this. [_He gets up._] + +LULU--As you say. + +SCHÖN--I’ve married you off. Twice I have married you off. You live +in luxury. I’ve created a position for your husband. If that doesn’t +satisfy you, and he laughs in his sleeve at it,--I don’t indulge in +ideal expectations, but--leave me out of the game, out of it! + +LULU--[_Resolutely._] If I belong to any person on this earth, I belong +to you. Without you I’d be--I won’t say where. You took me by the hand, +gave me food to eat, had me dressed,--when I was going to steal your +watch. Do you think that can be forgotten? Anybody else would have +called the police. You sent me to school, and had me learn manners. +Who but you in the whole world has ever had any kindness for me? I’ve +danced and posed, and was glad to be able to earn my living that way. +But =love= at command, I can’t! + +SCHÖN--[_Raising his voice._] Leave =me= out! Do what you will. I +haven’t come to raise a row; I’ve come to shake myself free of it. +My engagement is costing me sacrifices enough! I had imagined that +with a healthy young husband--and a woman of your years can hope for +none better--you would, at last, have been contented. If you are under +obligations to me, don’t throw yourself a third time in my way! Am I +to wait yet longer before putting my pile in security? Am I to risk +letting the final success of all my concessions during the last two +years slip from me? What good is it to me to have you married, when you +can be seen going in and out of my house at every hour of the day?--Why +the devil didn’t Dr. Goll stay alive just one year more! With him you +were in safe keeping. Then I’d have had my wife long since under my +roof! + +LULU--And what would you have had then? The kid gets on your nerves. +The child is too uncorrupted for you. She’s been much too carefully +brought up. What should I have against your marriage? But you’re making +a big mistake if you think that your imminent marriage warrants you in +expressing your contempt of me! + +SCHÖN--Contempt?--I shall soon give the child the right idea. If +anything is contemptible, it’s your intrigues! + +LULU--[_Laughing._] Am I jealous of the child? That never once entered +my head. + +SCHÖN--Then why talk about the child? The child is not even a whole +year younger than you are. Leave me my freedom to live what life I +still have. No matter how the child’s been brought up, she’s got her +five senses just like you.... [SCHWARZ _appears, right, brush in hand_.] + +SCHWARZ--What’s the matter here? + +LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Well? Go on. Talk. + +SCHWARZ--What’s the matter with you two? + +LULU--Nothing that touches you---- + +SCHÖN--[_Sharply._] Quiet! + +LULU--He’s had enough of me. [SCHWARZ _leads her off, to the right_.] + +SCHÖN--[_Turning over the leaves in one of the books on the table._] It +had to come out--I must have my hands free at last! + +SCHWARZ--[_Coming back._] Is that any way to jest? + +SCHÖN--[_Pointing to a chair._] Please. + +SCHWARZ--What is it? + +SCHÖN--Please. + +SCHWARZ--[_Seating himself._] Well? + +SCHÖN--[_Seating himself._] You have married half a million.... + +SCHWARZ--Is it gone? + +SCHÖN--Not a penny. + +SCHWARZ--Explain to me the peculiar scene.... + +SCHÖN--You have married half a million---- + +SCHWARZ--No one can make a crime of that. + +SCHÖN--You have created a name for yourself. You can work unmolested. +You need to deny yourself no wish---- + +SCHWARZ--What have you two got against me? + +SCHÖN--For six months you’ve been revelling in all the heavens. You +have a wife whom the world envies you, and she deserves a man whom she +can respect---- + +SCHWARZ--Doesn’t she respect me? + +SCHÖN--No. + +SCHWARZ--[_Depressed._] I come from the dark depths of society. She +is above me. I cherish no more ardent wish than to become her equal. +[_Offers_ SCHÖN _his hand_.] Thank you. + +SCHÖN--[_Pressing it, half embarrassed._] Don’t mention it. + +SCHWARZ--[_With determination._] Speak! + +SCHÖN--Keep a little more watch on her. + +SCHWARZ--I--on her? + +SCHÖN--We are not children! We don’t trifle! We live!--She demands that +she be taken seriously. Her value gives her a perfect right to be. + +SCHWARZ--What does she do, then? + +SCHÖN--You have married half a million! + +SCHWARZ--[_Rises; beside himself._] She----? + +SCHÖN--[_Takes him by the shoulder._] No, that’s not the way! [_Forces +him to sit._] We have a very grave matter here to discuss. + +SCHWARZ--What does she do? + +SCHÖN--First count over on your fingers all you have to thank her for, +and then---- + +SCHWARZ--What does she do--man! + +SCHÖN--And then make yourself responsible for your failings,--no one +else. + +SCHWARZ--With whom? With whom? + +SCHÖN--If we should shoot each other---- + +SCHWARZ--Since when, then? + +SCHÖN--[_Evasive._] --I have not come here to make a scandal, but to +rescue you =from= scandal. + +SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] You have misunderstood her. + +SCHÖN--[_Embarrassed._] That gets us nowhere. I can’t see you go on +living in blindness. The girl deserves to be a respectable woman. Since +I have known her she has improved as she developed. + +SCHWARZ--Since you have known her? Since when have you known her then? + +SCHÖN--Since about her twelfth year. + +SCHWARZ--[_Bewildered._] She never told me that. + +SCHÖN--She used to sell flowers in front of the Alhambra Café. Every +evening between twelve and two she would press in among the guests, +bare-footed. + +SCHWARZ--She told me nothing of that. + +SCHÖN--She did right there. I’m telling you, so you may see that hers +is not a case of moral degeneracy. The girl is, on the contrary, of +extraordinarily good disposition. + +SCHWARZ--She said she had grown up with an aunt. + +SCHÖN--That was the woman I gave her to. She was her best pupil. The +mothers used to make her an example to their children. She has the +feeling for duty. It is simply and solely your mistake if you have till +now neglected to appeal to the best in her. + +SCHWARZ--[_Sobbing._] O God!---- + +SCHÖN--[_With emphasis._] No O God! Of the happiness you have enjoyed +nothing can be changed. The past is past. You overrate yourself against +your better knowledge if you persuade yourself you will lose. You stand +to gain. But with “O God” nothing is gained. I have never done you a +greater kindness: I speak out plainly and offer you my help. Don’t show +yourself unworthy of it! + +SCHWARZ--[_From now on more and more broken up._] When I first knew +her, she told me she had never loved before. + +SCHÖN--When a widow says =that=---- It does her credit that she chose +you for a husband. Make the same claims on yourself and your happiness +is without a blot. + +SCHWARZ--She says he had her wear short dresses. + +SCHÖN--But he married her! That was her master-stroke. How she brought +the man to it is beyond me. But you must know by now. You are enjoying +the fruits of her diplomacy. + +SCHWARZ--Where did Dr. Goll get to know her? How? + +SCHÖN--Through me! It was after my wife’s death, when I was making the +first advances to my present fiancée. She thrust herself between us. +She had set her heart on becoming my wife. + +SCHWARZ--[_As if seized with a horrible suspicion._] And then when her +husband died? + +SCHÖN--You married half a million! + +SCHWARZ--[_Wailing._] Oh, to have stayed where I was! To have died of +hunger! + +SCHÖN--[_Superior._] Do you think, then, that _I_ make no compromises? +Who is there that does not compromise? You have married half a million. +You are to-day one of our foremost artists. Such things can’t be done +without money. You are not the man to sit in judgment on her. You can’t +possibly treat an origin like Mignon’s according to the notions of +bourgeois society. + +SCHWARZ--[_Quite distraught._] Whom are you speaking of? + +SCHÖN--Of her father! You’re an artist, I say: your ideals are on a +different plane from those of a wage-worker. + +SCHWARZ--I don’t understand a word of all that. + +SCHÖN--I am speaking of the inhuman conditions out of which, thanks to +her good management, the girl has developed into what she is! + +SCHWARZ--Who? + +SCHÖN--Who? Your wife. + +SCHWARZ--=Eve=? + +SCHÖN--I called her Mignon. + +SCHWARZ--I thought her name was Nellie? + +SCHÖN--Dr. Goll called her so. + +SCHWARZ--I called her Eve---- + +SCHÖN--What her real name is I don’t know. + +SCHWARZ--[_Absently._] Perhaps she knows. + +SCHÖN--With a father like hers, she is, with all her faults, an utter +miracle. I don’t understand you---- + +SCHWARZ--He died in a madhouse---- + +SCHÖN--He was here just now! + +SCHWARZ--Who was here? + +SCHÖN--Her father. + +SCHWARZ--Here--in my home? + +SCHÖN--He squeezed by me as I came in. And there are the two glasses +still. + +SCHWARZ--She says he died in the madhouse. + +SCHÖN--[_Encouragingly._] Let her feel your authority! Only make her +render you unconditional obedience, and she asks no more. With Dr. Goll +she was in heaven, and there was no joking him. + +SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] She said she had never loved---- + +SCHÖN--But start with yourself. Pull yourself together! + +SCHWARZ--She has sworn---- + +SCHÖN--You can’t expect a sense of duty in her before you know your own +task. + +SCHWARZ--By her mother’s grave! + +SCHÖN--She never knew her mother, let alone the grave. Her mother +hasn’t got a grave. + +SCHWARZ--I don’t fit in society. [_He is in desperation._] + +SCHÖN--What’s the matter? + +SCHWARZ--Pain--horrible pain! + +SCHÖN--[_Gets up, steps back; after a pause._] Guard her for yourself, +because she’s yours.--The moment is decisive. To-morrow she may be lost +to you. + +SCHWARZ--[_Pointing to his breast._] Here, here. + +SCHÖN--You have married half----[_Reflecting._] She is lost to you if +you let this moment slip! + +SCHWARZ--If I could weep! Oh, if I could cry out! + +SCHÖN--[_With a hand on his shoulder._] You’re suffering---- + +SCHWARZ--[_Getting up, apparently quiet._] You are right, quite right. + +SCHÖN--[_Gripping his hand._] Where are you going? + +SCHWARZ--To speak with her. + +SCHÖN--Right! [_Accompanies him to the door, left. Coming back._] That +was tough work. [_After a pause, looking right._] He had taken her into +the studio before, tho...? [_A fearful groan, left. He hurries to the +door and finds it locked._] Open! Open the door! + +LULU--[_Stepping thru the hangings, right._] What’s---- + +SCHÖN--Open it! + +LULU--[_Comes down the steps._] That is horrible. + +SCHÖN--Have you an ax in the kitchen? + +LULU--He’ll open it right off---- + +SCHÖN--I can’t kick it in. + +LULU--When he’s had his cry out. + +SCHÖN--[_Kicking the door._] Open! [_To_ LULU.] Bring me an ax. + +LULU--Send for the doctor---- + +SCHÖN--You are not yourself. + +LULU--It serves you right. [_Bell rings in the corridor._ SCHÖN _and_ +LULU _stare at each other. Then_ SCHÖN _slips up-stage and stands in +the doorway_.] + +SCHÖN--I mustn’t let myself be seen here now. + +LULU--Perhaps it’s the art-dealer. [_The bell rings again._] + +SCHÖN--But if we don’t answer it---- [LULU _steals toward the door; +but_ SCHÖN _holds her_.] Stop. It sometimes happens that one is not +just at hand--[_He goes out on tiptoe._ LULU _turns back to the locked +door and listens_. SCHÖN _returns with_ ALVA.] Please be quiet. + +ALVA--[_Very excited._] A revolution has broken out in Paris! + +SCHÖN--Be quiet. + +ALVA--[_To_ LULU.] You’re as pale as death. + +SCHÖN--[_Rattling at the door._] Walter! Walter! [_A death-rattle is +heard behind the door._] + +LULU--God pity you. + +SCHÖN--Haven’t you brought an ax? + +LULU--If there’s one there---- [_Goes slowly out, upper left._] + +ALVA--He’s just keeping us in suspense. + +SCHÖN--A revolution has broken out in Paris? + +ALVA--Up in the office the editors are tearing their hair. Not one of +them knows what to write about it. [_The bell rings in the corridor._] + +SCHÖN--[_Kicking against the door._] Walter! + +ALVA--Shall I run against it? + +SCHÖN--I can do that. Who may be coming now? [_Standing up._] That’s +what it is to enjoy life and let others take the consequences! + +LULU--[_Coming back with a kitchen-ax._] Henriette has come home. + +SCHÖN--Shut the door behind you. + +ALVA--Give it here. [_Takes the ax and pounds with it between the jamb +and the lock._] + +SCHÖN--You must hold it nearer the end. + +ALVA--It’s cracking-- [_The lock gives_; ALVA _lets the ax fall and +staggers back. Pause._] + +LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN, _pointing to the door_.] After you. [SCHÖN +_flinches, drops back_.] Are you getting--dizzy? [SCHÖN _wipes the +sweat from his forehead and goes in_.] + +ALVA--[_From the couch._] Ghastly! + +LULU--[_Stopping in the doorway, finger on lips, cries out sharply._] +Oh! Oh! [_Hurries to_ ALVA.] I can’t stay here. + +ALVA--Horrible! + +LULU--[_Taking his hand._] Come. + +ALVA--Where to? + +LULU--I can’t be alone. [_Goes out with_ ALVA, _right_. SCHÖN _comes +back, a bunch of keys in his hand, which shows blood. He pulls the door +to, behind him, goes to the writing-table, opens it, and writes two +notes._] + +ALVA--[_Coming back, right._] She’s changing her clothes. + +SCHÖN--She has gone? + +ALVA--To her room. She’s changing her clothes. [SCHÖN _rings_. +HENRIETTE _comes in_.] + +SCHÖN--You know where Dr. Bernstein lives? + +HENRIETTE--Of course, Doctor. Right next door. + +SCHÖN--[_Giving her one note._] Take that over to him, please. + +HENRIETTE--In case the doctor is not at home? + +SCHÖN--He is at home. [_Giving her the other note._] And take this to +police headquarters. Take a cab. [HENRIETTE _goes out_.] I am judged! + +ALVA--My blood has congealed. + +SCHÖN--[_Toward the left._] The fool! + +ALVA--He waked up to something, perhaps? + +SCHÖN--He has been too much absorbed in himself. [LULU _appears on the +steps, right, in dustcoat and hat_.] + +ALVA--Where are you going now? + +LULU--Out. I see it on all the walls. + +SCHÖN--Where are his papers? + +LULU--In the desk. + +SCHÖN--[_At the desk._] Where? + +LULU--Lower right-hand drawer. [_She kneels and opens the drawer, +emptying the papers on the floor._] Here. There is nothing to fear. He +had no secrets. + +SCHÖN--Now I can just withdraw from the world. + +LULU--[_Still kneeling._] Write a pamphlet about him. Call him +Michelangelo. + +SCHÖN--What good’ll that do? [_Pointing left._] There lies my +engagement. + +ALVA--That’s the curse of your game! + +SCHÖN--Shout it through the streets! + +ALVA--[_Pointing to_ LULU.] If you had treated that girl fairly and +justly when my mother died---- + +SCHÖN--My engagement is bleeding to death there! + +LULU--[_Getting up._] I shan’t stay here any longer. + +SCHÖN--In an hour they’ll be selling extras. I dare not go across the +street! + +LULU--Why, what can you do to help it? + +SCHÖN--That’s just it! They’ll stone me for it! + +ALVA--You must get away--travel. + +SCHÖN--To leave the scandal a free field! + +LULU--[_By the couch._] Ten minutes ago he was lying here. + +SCHÖN--This is the reward for all I’ve done for him! In one second he +wrecks my whole life for me! + +ALVA--Control yourself, please! + +LULU--[_On the couch._] There’s no one here but us! + +ALVA--But look at =us=! + +SCHÖN--[_To_ LULU.] What do you want to tell the police? + +LULU--Nothing. + +ALVA--He didn’t want to remain a debtor to his destiny. + +LULU--He always had thoughts of death immediately. + +SCHÖN--He had thoughts that an ordinary human can only dream of. + +LULU--He had paid dearly for it. + +ALVA--He had what we don’t have! + +SCHÖN--[_Suddenly violent._] I know your motives! I have no cause to +consider you! If you try every means to prevent having any brothers and +sisters, that’s all the more reason why I should get more children. + +ALVA--You’ve a poor knowledge of men. + +LULU--You get out an extra yourself! + +SCHÖN--[_With passionate indignation._] He had no moral sense! +[_Suddenly controlling himself again._] Paris in revolution----? + +ALVA--Our editors act as though they’d been struck. Everything has +stopped dead. + +SCHÖN--That’s got to help me over this!--Now if only the police would +come. The minutes are worth more than gold. [_The bell rings in the +corridor._] + +ALVA--There they are---- [SCHÖN _starts to the door_. LULU _jumps up_.] + +LULU--Wait, you’ve got blood---- + +SCHÖN--Where? + +LULU--Wait, I’ll wipe it. [_Sprinkles her handkerchief with heliotrope +and wipes the blood from_ SCHÖN’S _hand_.] + +SCHÖN--It’s your husband’s blood. + +LULU--It leaves no trace. + +SCHÖN--Monster! + +LULU--You will marry me, all the same. [_The bell rings in the +corridor._] Only have patience, children. [SCHÖN _goes out and returns +with_ ESCHERICH, _a reporter_.] + +ESCHERICH--[_Breathless._] Allow me to--to introduce myself---- + +SCHÖN--You’ve run? + +ESCHERICH--[_Giving him his card._] From police headquarters. A +suicide, I understand. + +SCHÖN--[_Reads._] “Fritz Escherich, correspondent of the ‘News and +Novelties.’” Come along. + +ESCHERICH--One moment. [_Takes out his notebook and pencil, looks +around the parlor, writes a few words, bows to_ LULU, _writes, turns to +the broken door, writes_.] A kitchen-ax. [_Starts to lift it._] + +SCHÖN--[_Holding him back._] Excuse me. + +ESCHERICH--[_Writing._] Door broken open with a kitchen-ax. [_Examines +the lock._] + +SCHÖN--[_His hand on the door._] Look before you, my dear sir. + +ESCHERICH--Now if you will have the kindness to open the door---- +[SCHÖN _opens it_. ESCHERICH _lets book and pencil fall, clutches at +his hair_.] Merciful Heaven! God! + +SCHÖN--Look it all over carefully. + +ESCHERICH--I can’t look at it! + +SCHÖN--[_Snorting scornfully._] Then what did you come here for? + +ESCHERICH--To--to cut up--to cut up his throat with a razor! + +SCHÖN--Have you seen it all? + +ESCHERICH--That must feel---- + +SCHÖN--[_Draws the door to, steps to the writing-table._] Sit down. +Here is paper and pen. Write. + +ESCHERICH--[_Mechanically taking his seat._] I can’t write---- + +SCHÖN--[_Behind his chair._] Write! Persecution--mania.... + +ESCHERICH--[_Writes._] Per-secu-tion--mania. [_The bell rings in the +corridor._] + + +CURTAIN + + + + +ACT III + + + SCENE--_A theatrical dressing-room, hung with red. Door upper right. + Across upper left corner, a Spanish screen. Centre, a table set + endwise, on which dance costumes lie. Chair on each side of this + table. Lower right, a smaller table, with a chair. Lower left, a + high, very wide, old-fashioned arm-chair. Above it, a tall mirror, + with a make-up stand before it holding puff, rouge, etc., etc._ + + ALVA _is at lower right, filling two glasses with red wine and + champagne_. + +ALVA--Never since I began to work for the stage have I seen the public +so wildly enthusiastic. + +LULU--[_Voice from behind the screen._] Don’t give me too much red +wine. Will he see me to-day? + +ALVA--Father? + +LULU--Yes. + +ALVA--I don’t know if he’s in the theater. + +LULU--Doesn’t he want to see me at all? + +ALVA--He has so little time. + +LULU--His =bride= occupies him. + +ALVA--Speculations. He gives himself no rest. [SCHÖN _enters_.] You? +We’re just speaking of you. + +LULU--Is he there? + +SCHÖN--You’re changing? + +LULU--[_Peeping over the Spanish screen, to_ SCHÖN.] You write in all +the papers that I’m the most gifted danseuse who ever trod the stage, a +second Taglioni and I don’t know what else--and you haven’t once found +me gifted enough to convince yourself of the fact. + +SCHÖN--I have so much to write. You see, I was convincing to others: +there are hardly any seats left.--You must keep rather more in the +proscenium. + +LULU--I must first accustom myself to the light. + +ALVA--She has kept strictly to her part. + +SCHÖN--[_To_ ALVA.] You must get more out of your performers! You don’t +know enough yet about the technique. [_To_ LULU.] What do you come as +now? + +LULU--As a flower-girl. + +SCHÖN--[_To_ ALVA.] In tights? + +ALVA--No. In a skirt to the ankles. + +SCHÖN--It would have been better if you hadn’t bothered with symbolism. + +ALVA--I look at a dancer’s feet. + +SCHÖN--The point is, what the public looks at. A vision like =her= has +no need, praise God, of your symbolic mummery. + +ALVA--The public doesn’t look as if it were being bored! + +SCHÖN--Of course not; because I have been working the press in her +favor for the last six months. Has the Prince been here? + +ALVA--Nobody’s been here. + +SCHÖN--Well, that’s what you get for letting a dancer come on thru two +acts in raincoats. + +ALVA--Who is the Prince? + +SCHÖN--Shall we see each other afterwards? + +ALVA--Are you alone? + +SCHÖN--With acquaintances. At Peter’s? + +ALVA--At twelve? + +SCHÖN--At twelve. [_Exit._] + +LULU--I’d given up hoping that he’d ever come. + +ALVA--Don’t let yourself be misled by his grumpy growls. If you’ll +only be careful not to spend all your strength before the last number +begins--[LULU _steps out in a classical, sleeveless dress, white with a +red border, a bright wreath in her hair and a basket of flowers in her +hands_.] + +LULU--He doesn’t seem to have noticed at all how cleverly you have +deployed your performers. + +ALVA--I won’t blow in sun, moon and stars in the first act! + +LULU--[_Sipping._] You disclose me by degrees. + +ALVA--And I was well aware that you knew all about changing costumes. + +LULU--If I’d tried to sell my flowers =so= before the Alhambra café, +they’d have had me behind lock and key right off the very first night. + +ALVA--Why? You were a child! + +LULU--Do you remember how I looked the first time I came into your room? + +ALVA--You wore a dark blue dress with black velvet. + +LULU--They had to stick me somewhere and didn’t know where. + +ALVA--My mother had been lying sick for two years already then. + +LULU--You were playing theater, and asked me if I wanted to play, too. + +ALVA--To be sure! We played theater! + +LULU--I see you still--the way you shoved the figures back and forth. + +ALVA--For a long time my most terrible memory was when all at once I +saw clearly into your relations---- + +LULU--You got icy curt towards me then. + +ALVA--Oh, God-- I saw in you something so infinitely far above me. I +had perhaps more veneration for you than for my mother. Think--when my +mother died--I was seventeen--I went and stood before my father and +demanded that he make you his wife on the spot or we’d have to fight a +duel. + +LULU--He told me that at the time. + +ALVA--Since I’ve grown older, I can only pity him. He will never +comprehend me. There he is making up a story for himself about a little +diplomatic game that puts me in the rôle of laboring against his +marriage with the Countess. + +LULU--Does she still look out upon the world as innocently as ever? + +ALVA--She loves him. I’m convinced of that. Her family has done +everything to induce her to turn back. I don’t think any sacrifice in +the world would be too great for her to make for his sake. + +LULU--[_Holds out her glass to him._] A little more, please. + +ALVA--[_Giving it to her._] You’re drinking too much. + +LULU--He shall learn to believe in my success! He doesn’t believe in +art at all. He only believes in newspapers. + +ALVA--He believes in nothing. + +LULU--He brought me into the theater so that eventually someone might +be found rich enough to marry me. + +ALVA--Well, all right. Why need that trouble us? + +LULU--I am to feel pleased if I can dance myself into a millionaire’s +heart. + +ALVA--God forbid that anyone should snatch you from us! + +LULU--You’ve composed the music for it, tho. + +ALVA--You know that it was always my desire to write a piece for you. + +LULU--I am not at all suited to the stage, however. + +ALVA--You came into the world a dancer! + +LULU--Then why don’t you make your pieces as interesting as life is, at +least? + +ALVA--Because if we did no man would believe us. + +LULU--If I hadn’t known more about acting than people on the stage +pretend to, what might not have happened to me? + +ALVA--I provided your part with all the impossibilities imaginable, +though. + +LULU--Nobody in the real world is taken in by hocus-pocus like that. + +ALVA--It’s enough for me that the public finds itself most tremendously +stirred up. + +LULU--But _I_’d like to find myself most tremendously stirred up. +[_Drinks._] + +ALVA--You don’t seem to be in need of much more for that. + +LULU--Can you wonder, since every one of my scenes has an ulterior +purpose? There are some men down there debating with themselves very +earnestly already.--I can feel that without looking. + +ALVA--What does it feel like? + +LULU--No one of them has any notion of the others. Each thinks that he +alone is the unhappy victim. + +ALVA--But how can you feel that? + +LULU--One gets such an icy thrill running up one’s body. + +ALVA--You are incredible. [_An electric bell rings over the door._] + +LULU--My cape.... I shall keep in the proscenium! + +ALVA--[_Putting a wide shawl round her shoulders._] Here is your cape. + +LULU--He shall have nothing more to fear for his shameless boosting. + +ALVA--Keep yourself under control! + +LULU--God grant that I dance the last sparks of intelligence out of +their heads. [_Exit._] + +ALVA--Yes, a more interesting piece could be written about her. +[_Sits, right, and takes out his notebook. Writes. Looks up._] First +act: Dr. Goll. Rotten already! I can call up Dr. Goll from purgatory +or wherever he’s doing penance for his orgies, but _I_’ll be made +to answer for his sins. [_Long-continued but much deadened applause +and bravos outside._] That storm sounds like a menagerie when the +meat appears at the cage!--Second act: Walter Schwarz. Still more +impossible! How our souls do strip off their last coverings in the +light of such lightning-strokes!--Third act?--Is it really to go on +this way? [_The attendant opens the door from outside and lets_ ESCERNY +_enter. He acts as tho he were at home, and without greeting_ ALVA +_takes the chair near the mirror._ ALVA _continues, not heeding him._] +It can not go on this way in the third act! + +ESCERNY--Up to the middle of the third act it didn’t seem to be going +so well to-day as sometimes. + +ALVA--I was not on the stage. + +ESCERNY--Now she’s in full career again. + +ALVA--She’s lengthening each number. + +ESCERNY--I once had the pleasure of meeting the artiste at Dr. Schön’s +house. + +ALVA--My father introduced her to the public through certain critiques +in his paper. + +ESCERNY--[_Bowing slightly._] I was conferring with Dr. Schön about the +publication of my discoveries at Lake Tanganyika. + +ALVA--[_Bowing slightly._] From what he has let drop there can be no +doubt that he takes the liveliest interest in your book. + +ESCERNY--One very good thing about the artiste is that the audience +seems not to exist for her at all. + +ALVA--As a child she learned the quick changing of clothes; but I was +surprised to discover in her so important a danseuse. + +ESCERNY--When she dances her solo she grows intoxicated with her own +beauty,--she seems to be mortally love-sick of it herself. + +ALVA--Here she comes. [_Gets up and opens the door. Enter_ LULU.] + +LULU--[_Without wreath or basket, to_ ALVA.] You’re called for. I was +three times before the curtain. [_To_ ESCERNY.] Dr. Schön is not in +your box? + +ESCERNY--Not in mine. + +ALVA--[_To_ LULU.] Didn’t you see him? + +LULU--He is probably away again. + +ESCERNY--He has the furthest lower box on the left. + +LULU--It seems he is ashamed of me! + +ALVA--There wasn’t a good seat left for him. + +LULU--[_To_ ALVA.] Ask him, though, if he likes me better now. + +ALVA--I’ll send him up. + +ESCERNY--He applauded. + +LULU--Did he really? + +ALVA--Give yourself some rest. [_Exit._] + +LULU--I’ve got to change again now. + +ESCERNY--But your dresser isn’t here? + +LULU--I can do it quicker alone. Where did you say Dr. Schön was +sitting? + +ESCERNY--I saw him in the left parquet-box farthest back. + +LULU--I’ve still five costumes now before me; dancing-girl, ballerina, +queen of the night, Ariel, and Lascaris.... [_She goes behind the +Spanish screen._] + +ESCERNY--Would you think it possible that at our first encounter I +expected nothing more than to make the acquaintance of a young lady +of the literary world?... [_He sits at the left of the centre table, +and remains there to the end of the scene._] Have I perhaps erred in +my judgment of your nature, or did I rightly interpret the smile which +the thundering storms of applause called forth on your lips?--That +you are secretly pained at the necessity of profaning your art before +people of doubtful disinterestedness? [LULU _makes no answer_.] That +you would gladly exchange the shimmer of publicity at every moment for +a quiet, sunny happiness in distinguished seclusion? [LULU _makes no +answer_.] That you feel you possess enough dignity and rank to fetter +a man to your feet--in order to enjoy his utter helplessness?... [LULU +_makes no answer_.] That in a comfortable, richly furnished villa you +would feel in a more fitting place than here,--with unlimited means, to +live completely as your =own mistress=? [LULU _steps forth in a short, +bright, pleated petticoat and white satin bodice, black shoes and +stockings, and spurs with bells at her heels_.] + +LULU--[_Busy with the lacing of her bodice._] If there’s just one +evening I don’t go on, I dream the whole night that I’m dancing and +feel the next day as if I’d been racked. + +ESCERNY--But what difference could it make to you to see before you +instead of this mob =one= spectator, specially elect? + +LULU--That would make no difference. I don’t see anybody anyway. + +ESCERNY--A lighted summer-house--the splashing of the water near at +hand.... I am forced in my exploring-trips to the practice of a quite +inhuman tyranny---- + +LULU--[_Putting on a pearl necklace before the mirror._] A good school! + +ESCERNY--And if I now long to deliver myself unreservedly into the +power of a woman, that is a natural need for relaxation.... Can you +imagine a greater life-happiness for a woman than to have a man +entirely in her power? + +LULU--[_Jingling her heels._] Oh, yes! + +ESCERNY--[_Disconcerted._] Among men of culture you will not find one +who can help losing his head over you. + +LULU--Your wishes, however, no one can quite fulfil without deceiving +you. + +ESCERNY--To be deceived by a girl like you must be ten times more +enrapturing than to be uprightly loved by anybody else. + +LULU--You have not known what it was to be uprightly loved by any girl +yet in all your life! [_Turning her back to him and pointing._] Would +you undo this knot for me? I’ve laced myself too tight. I am always so +excited getting dressed. + +ESCERNY--[_After repeated efforts._] I’m sorry; I can’t. + +LULU--Then leave it. Perhaps I can. [_Goes left._] + +ESCERNY--I confess that I am lacking in deftness. Maybe I was a poor +student in my relations with women. + +LULU--And probably you don’t have much opportunity in Africa, either? + +ESCERNY--[_Seriously._] Let me confess to you frankly that my isolation +in the world embitters many an hour. + +LULU--The knot is almost done.... + +ESCERNY--What draws me to you is not your dancing. It’s your physical +and spiritual refinement, as revealed in every one of your movements. +No one who takes the interest I do in works of art could be deceived +as to that. For ten evenings I’ve been studying your spiritual life in +your dance, until to-day when you entered as the flower-girl I became +perfectly clear. Yours is a grand nature--unselfish; you can see no one +suffer; you embody the joy of life. As a wife you will make a man happy +above all things.... You are all open-heartedness. You would be a poor +actor. [_The bell rings again._] + +LULU--[_Having somewhat loosened her laces, takes a deep breath and +jingles her spurs._] Now I can breathe again. The curtain is going up. +[_She takes from the centre table a skirt-dance costume--of bright +yellow silk, without a waist, closed at the neck, reaching to the +ankles, with wide, loose sleeves--and throws it over her._] I must +dance. + +ESCERNY--[_Rises and kisses her hand._] Allow me to remain here a +little while longer. + +LULU--Please stay. + +ESCERNY--I need a little solitude. [LULU _goes out_.] What is to be +aristocratic? To be eccentric, like me? Or to be perfect in body and +mind, like this girl? [_Applause and bravos outside._] She gives me +back my faith in humanity,--gives me back my life. Should not this +woman’s children be more princely, body and soul, than children whose +mother has no more vitality in her than I have felt in me until to-day? +[_Sitting, right; ecstatically._] The dance has ennobled her body.... +[ALVA _enters_.] + +ALVA--One is never sure a moment that some miserable chance won’t throw +the whole performance out for good. [_He throws himself into the big +chair, left, so that the two men are in exactly reversed positions from +their former ones. Both converse somewhat boredly and apathetically._] + +ESCERNY--But the audience has never shown itself so responsive before. + +ALVA--She’s finished the skirt-dance. + +ESCERNY--I hear her coming.... + +ALVA--She isn’t coming. She has no time. She changes her costume in the +wings. + +ESCERNY--She has two ballet-costumes, if I’m not mistaken? + +ALVA--I find the white one more becoming to her than the rose-color. + +ESCERNY--Do you? + +ALVA--Don’t you? + +ESCERNY--I find she looks too bodiless in the white tulle. + +ALVA--I find she looks too animal in the rose tulle. + +ESCERNY--I don’t find that. + +ALVA--The white tulle brings out the child-like side of her nature more. + +ESCERNY--The rose tulle brings out the womanly side of her nature more. +[_The electric bell rings over the door._ ALVA _jumps up_.] + +ALVA--For heaven’s sake, what is wrong? + +ESCERNY--[_Getting up too._] What’s the matter? [_The electric bell +continues ringing till after they go out._] + +ALVA--Something’s gone wrong there---- + +ESCERNY--How can you get so frightened all of a sudden? + +ALVA--That must be a hellish confusion! [_He runs out._ ESCERNY +_follows him. The door remains open. Faint dance-music heard. Pause._ +LULU _enters in a long cloak, and shuts the door to behind her. She +wears a rose-colored ballet costume with flower-garlands. She walks +across the stage and sits down in the big arm-chair near the mirror. +After a pause_ ALVA _returns_.] + +ALVA--You had a faint? + +LULU--Please lock the door. + +ALVA--At least come down to the stage. + +LULU--Did you see him? + +ALVA--See whom? + +LULU--With his fiancée? + +ALVA--With his---- [_To_ SCHÖN, _who enters_.] You might have spared +yourself that jest! + +SCHÖN--What’s the matter with her? [_To_ LULU.] How can you play the +scene straight at me! + +LULU--I feel as if I’d been whipped. + +SCHÖN--[_After bolting the door._] You will dance--as sure as I’ve +taken the responsibility for you! + +LULU--Before your fiancée? + +SCHÖN--Have you a right to trouble yourself before whom? You’ve been +engaged here. You receive your salary.... + +LULU--Is that your affair? + +SCHÖN--You dance for anyone who buys a ticket. Whom I sit with in my +box has nothing to do with your business! + +ALVA--I wish you’d stayed sitting in your box! [_To_ LULU.] Tell me, +please, what I am to do. [_A knock at the door._] There is the manager. +[_Calls._] Yes, in a moment! [_To_ LULU.] You won’t compel us to break +off the performance? + +SCHÖN--[_To_ LULU.] Onto the stage with you! + +LULU--Let me have just a moment! I can’t now. I’m utterly miserable. + +ALVA--The devil take the whole theater crowd! + +LULU--Put in the next number. No one will notice if I dance now or in +five minutes. There’s no strength in my feet. + +ALVA--But you will dance then? + +LULU--As well as I can. + +ALVA--As badly as you like. [_A knock at the door again._] I’m coming. + +LULU--[_When_ ALVA _is gone_.] You are right to show me where I belong. +You couldn’t do it better than by letting me dance that skirt-dance +before your fiancée.... You do me the greatest service when you point +out to me where my place is. + +SCHÖN--[_Sardonically._] For you with your origin it’s incomparable +luck to still have the chance of appearing before respectable people! + +LULU--Even when my shamelessness makes them not know where to look. + +SCHÖN--Nonsense!--Shamelessness?--Don’t make a necessity of virtue! +Your shamelessness is what balances your every step with gold. One +cries “bravo,” another “fie”--it’s all the same to you! Can you wish +for a more brilliant triumph than when a respectable girl can hardly be +kept in the box? Has your life any other aim? As long as you still have +a spark of self-respect, you are no perfect dancer. The more terribly +you make people shudder, the higher you stand in your profession! + +LULU--And it is absolutely indifferent to me what they think of me. I +don’t, in the least, want to be any better than I am. I’m content with +myself. + +SCHÖN--[_In moral indignation._] That is your true nature. That’s +straight!--Corruption! + +LULU--I wouldn’t have known that I had had a spark of self-respect---- + +SCHÖN--[_Suddenly distrustful._] No harlequinading---- + +LULU--O Lord--I know very well what I’d have become if you hadn’t saved +me from it. + +SCHÖN--Are you anything different then to-day?--heh? + +LULU--God be thanked, no! + +SCHÖN--Just so! + +LULU--[_Laughs._] And how awfully glad of it I am! + +SCHÖN--[_Spits._] Will you dance now? + +LULU--In anything, before anyone! + +SCHÖN--Then down to the stage! + +LULU--[_Begging like a child._] Just a minute more! Please! I can’t +stand up straight yet. They’ll ring. + +SCHÖN--You have become what you are in spite of everything I sacrificed +for your education and your welfare. + +LULU--Had you overrated your ennobling influence? + +SCHÖN--Spare me your witticisms. + +LULU--The Prince was here. + +SCHÖN--Well? + +LULU--He takes me with him to Africa. + +SCHÖN--Africa? + +LULU--Why not? Didn’t you make me a dancer just so that someone might +come and take me away with him? + +SCHÖN--But not to Africa, though! + +LULU--Then why didn’t you calmly let me fall in a faint, and mutely +thank the Lord for it? + +SCHÖN--Because, more’s the pity, I had no reason for believing in your +faint! + +LULU--[_Making fun of him._] You couldn’t bear it any longer out front +there? + +SCHÖN--Because I had to bring home to you what you are and to whom you +are not to look up. + +LULU--You were afraid, though, that my legs might possibly have been +really injured? + +SCHÖN--I know too well you are indestructible. + +LULU--So you know that? + +SCHÖN--[_Bursting out._] Don’t look at me so impudently! + +LULU--No one is keeping you here. + +SCHÖN--I’m going as soon as the bell rings. + +LULU--As soon as you have the energy! Where is your energy? You +have been engaged three years. Why don’t you marry? You recognize +no obstacles. Why do you try to put the blame on me? You ordered me +to marry Dr. Goll: I forced Dr. Goll to marry me. You ordered me to +marry the painter: I made the best of a bad bargain. Artists are your +creatures, princes your protégés. Why don’t you marry? + +SCHÖN--[_Raging._] Do you imagine =you= stand in the way? + +LULU--[_From here to the end of the act triumphant._] If you knew +how happy your rage is making me! How proud I am that you take every +means to humble me! You push me down as low--as low as a woman can be +debased to, for then, you hope, you can sooner get over me. But you +have suffered unspeakably yourself from everything you said just now +to me. I see it in your eyes. Already you are near the end of your +composure. Go! For your innocent fiancée’s sake, leave me alone! One +minute more and your mood will change, and then you’ll make a scene +with me of another kind, that you can’t answer for now. + +SCHÖN--I fear you no longer. + +LULU--Me? Fear yourself! I do not need you. I beg you to go! Don’t +give me the blame. You know that I don’t need to faint to destroy your +future. You have unlimited confidence in my honorableness. You believe +not only that I’m an ensnaring daughter of Eve; you believe, too, that +I’m a very good-natured creature. I am neither the one nor the other. +The bad thing for you is that you think I am. + +SCHÖN--[_Desperate._] Leave my thoughts alone! You have two husbands +under the sod. Take the Prince, dance =him= into the ground. I am +through with you. I know where the angel in you leaves off and the +devil begins. If I take the world as it’s made, the Creator must bear +the responsibility, not I! To me life is not an amusement! + +LULU--And, therefore, you make claims upon life greater than anyone can +make.... Tell me, who of us two is more full of claims and demands, you +or I? + +SCHÖN--Be silent! I don’t know how or what I think. When I hear you, I +don’t think any more. In a week I’ll be married. I conjure you, by the +angel that is in you, during that time come no more to my sight! + +LULU--I will lock my doors. + +SCHÖN--Go on and boast! God knows that since I began wrestling with the +world and with life I have cursed no one like you! + +LULU--That comes from my lowly origin. + +SCHÖN--From your depravity! + +LULU--With a thousand pleasures I take the blame on myself! You must +feel clean now; you must think yourself a model of austerity now, a +paragon of unflinching principle--or else you can’t marry the child at +all in her boundless inexperience---- + +SCHÖN--Do you want me to grab you and---- + +LULU--Yes! Yes! What must I say to make you? Not for the world now +would I exchange with the innocent child! Besides, the girl loves you +as no woman has ever loved you yet! + +SCHÖN--Silence, beast! Silence! + +LULU--Marry her--and then she’ll dance in her childish wretchedness +before =my= eyes, instead of I before hers! + +SCHÖN--[_Raising his fists._] God forgive me---- + +LULU--Strike me! Where is your riding-whip? Strike me on the legs---- + +SCHÖN--[_Grasping his temples._] Away, away! [_Rushes to the door, +recollects himself, turns around._] Can I go before the girl now, this +way? Home!--If I could only slip out of the world! + +LULU--Be a man! Look yourself in the face once:--you have no trace +of a conscience; you shrink back from no wickedness; in the most +cold-blooded way you are meaning to make the girl that loves you +unhappy. You conquer half the world; you do what you please;--and you +know as well as I that---- + +SCHÖN--[_Sunk in the chair, right centre, utterly exhausted._] Stop. + +LULU--That you are too weak--to tear yourself away from me. + +SCHÖN--[_Groaning._] Oh! Oh! You make me weep. + +LULU--This moment makes =me= I cannot tell you how glad. + +SCHÖN--My age! My position! + +LULU--He cries like a child--the terrible man of might. Now go so to +your bride and tell her what kind of a girl I am at heart--not a bit +jealous! + +SCHÖN--[_Sobbing._] The child! The innocent child! + +LULU--How can the incarnate devil get so weak all of a sudden!----But +now go, please. You are nothing more now to me. + +SCHÖN--I cannot go to her. + +LULU--Out with you. Come to me again when you have got back your +strength. + +SCHÖN--Tell me in God’s name what I must do. + +LULU--[_Gets up; her cloak remains on the chair. Shoving aside the +costumes on the centre table._] Here is writing-paper---- + +SCHÖN--I can’t write.... + +LULU--[_Upright behind him, her arm on the back of his chair._] Write! +“My dear Countess....” + +SCHÖN--[_Hesitating._] I call her Adelheid.... + +LULU--[_With emphasis._] “My dear Countess....” + +SCHÖN--My sentence of death! [_He writes._] + +LULU--“Take back your promise. I cannot reconcile it with my +conscience----” [SCHÖN _drops the pen and glances up at her +entreatingly_.] Write “conscience”! “--to fetter you to my unhappy +lot....” + +SCHÖN--[_Writing._] You are right. You are right. + +LULU--“I give you my word that I am unworthy of your love----” [SCHÖN +_turns round again_.] Write “love”! “These lines are the proof of +it. For three years I have tried to tear myself free; I have not the +strength. I am writing you at the side of the woman who commands me. +Forget me. Dr. Ludwig Schön.” + +SCHÖN--[_Groaning._] O God! + +LULU--[_Half startled._] No, no O God! [_With emphasis._] “Dr. Ludwig +Schön.” Postscript: “Do not attempt to save me.” + +SCHÖN--[_Having written to the end, quite collapses._] Now--comes +the--execution. + + +CURTAIN + + + + +ACT IV + + + SCENE--_A splendid hall in German Renaissance style, with a heavy + ceiling of carved oak. The lower half of the walls of dark carved + wood; the upper half on both sides hung with faded Gobelins. At + rear, a curtained gallery from which, at right, a monumental + staircase descends to halfway down stage. At centre, under the + gallery, the entrance-door, with twisted posts and pediment. At + left, a high and spacious fireplace with a Chinese folding screen + before it. Further down, left, a French window onto a balcony + with heavy curtains, closed. Down right, door hung with Genoese + velvet. Near it, a broad ottoman, with an arm-chair on its left. + Behind, near the foot of the stairs_, LULU’S _Pierrot-picture on + a decorative stand and in a gold frame made to look antique. In + the centre of the hall, down-stage, a heavy square table, with + three high-backed upholstered chairs round it and a vase of white + flowers on it._ + + COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _sits on the ottoman, in a soldier-like, + fur-trimmed waist, high, upstanding collar, enormous cufflinks, + a veil over her face, and her hands clasped convulsively in + her muff_. SCHÖN _stands down right_. LULU, _in a big-flowered + morning-dress, her hair in a simple knot in a golden circlet, + sits in the arm-chair left of the ottoman_. + +GESCHWITZ--[_To_ LULU.] You can’t think how glad I shall be to see you +at our lady artists’ ball. + +SCHÖN--Is there no sort of possibility of a person like me smuggling in? + +GESCHWITZ--It would be high treason if any of us lent herself to such +an intrigue. + +SCHÖN--[_Crossing to the centre table, behind the ottoman._] The +glorious flowers! + +LULU--Fräulein von Geschwitz brought me those. + +GESCHWITZ--Don’t mention it.--Oh, you’ll be in man’s costume, won’t you? + +LULU--Do you think that becomes me? + +GESCHWITZ--You’re a dream here. [_Signifying the picture._] + +LULU--My husband doesn’t like it. + +GESCHWITZ--Is it by a local man? + +LULU--You will hardly have known him. + +GESCHWITZ--No longer living? + +SCHÖN--[_Down left, with a deep voice._] He had enough. + +LULU--You’re in bad temper. [SCHÖN _controls himself_.] + +GESCHWITZ--[_Getting up._] I must go, Mrs. Schön. I can’t stay any +longer. This evening we have life-class, and I have still so much to +get ready for the ball. Good-bye, Dr. Schön. [_Exit, up-stage._ LULU +_accompanies her_. SCHÖN _looks around him_.] + +SCHÖN--Pure Augean stable. That, the end of my life. Show me one corner +that’s still clean! The pest in the house. The poorest day-laborer has +his tidy nest. Thirty years’ work, and this my family circle, the home +of my---- [_Glancing round._] God knows who is overhearing me again +now! [_Draws a revolver from his breast pocket._] Man is, indeed, +uncertain of his life! [_The cocked revolver in his right hand, he +goes left and speaks at the closed window-curtains._] That, my family +circle! The fellow still has courage! Shall I not rather shoot =myself= +in the head? Against deadly enemies one fights, but the---- [_Throws +up the curtains, but finds no one hidden behind them._] The dirt--the +dirt.... [_Shakes his head and crosses right._] Insanity has already +conquered my reason, or else--exceptions prove the rule! [_Hearing_ +LULU _coming he puts the revolver back in his pocket_. LULU _comes down +to him_.] + +LULU--Couldn’t you get away for this afternoon? + +SCHÖN--Just what did that Countess want? + +LULU--I don’t know. She wants to paint me. + +SCHÖN--Misfortune in human guise, paying her respects! + +LULU--Couldn’t you get away, then? I would so like to drive through the +grounds with you. + +SCHÖN--Just the day when I must be at the Exchange. You know that I’m +not free to-day. All my property is drifting on the waves. + +LULU--I’d sooner be dead and buried than let my life be embittered so +by my property. + +SCHÖN--Who takes life lightly does not take death hard. + +LULU--As a child I always had the most horrible fear of death. + +SCHÖN--That is just why I married you. + +LULU--[_With her arms round his neck._] You’re in bad humor. You invent +too many worries. For weeks and months I’ve seen nothing of you. + +SCHÖN--[_Stroking her hair._] Your light-heartedness should cheer up my +old days. + +LULU--Indeed, you didn’t marry me at all. + +SCHÖN--Whom else did I marry then? + +LULU--I married you! + +SCHÖN--How does that alter anything? + +LULU--I was always afraid it would alter a great deal. + +SCHÖN--It has, indeed, crushed a great deal underfoot. + +LULU--But not one thing, praise God! + +SCHÖN--Of that I should be covetous. + +LULU--Your love for me. [SCHÖN’S _face twitches, he signs to her to +go out in front of him. Both exeunt lower right_. COUNTESS GESCHWITZ +_cautiously opens the rear door, ventures forth, and listens. Hearing +voices approaching in the gallery above her, she starts suddenly._] + +GESCHWITZ--Oh, dear, there’s somebody----[_Hides behind the +fire-screen._] + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Steps out from the curtains onto the stairs, turns back._] +Has the youngster left his heart behind him in the Nightlight Café? + +RODRIGO--[_Between the curtains._] He is still too small for the great +world, and can’t walk so far on foot yet. [_He disappears._] + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Coming down the stairs._] God be thanked we’re home again +at last! What damned skunk has waxed the stairs again? If I have to +have my joints set in plaster again before being called home, she can +just stick me up between the palms here and present me to her relations +as the Venus de’ Medici. Nothing but steep rocks and stumbling blocks! + +RODRIGO--[_Comes down the stairs, carrying_ HUGENBERG _in his arms_.] +This thing has a royal police-captain for a father and not as much +spunk in his body as the raggedest hobo! + +HUGENBERG--If there was nothing more to it than life and death, then +you’d soon learn to know me! + +RODRIGO--Even with his lover’s woe, little brother don’t weigh more +than sixty kilos. On the truth o’ that I’ll let ’em hang me any time. + +SCHIGOLCH--Throw him up to the ceiling and catch him by the feet. +That’ll snap his young blood into the proper fizz right from the start. + +HUGENBERG--[_Kicking his legs._] Hooray, hooray, I shall be expelled +from school! + +RODRIGO--[_Setting him down at the foot of the stairs._] You’ve never +been to any sensible school yet. + +SCHIGOLCH--Here many a man has won his spurs before you. Only, no +timidity! First, I’ll set before you a drop of what can’t be had +anywhere for money. [_Opens a cupboard under the stairs._] + +HUGENBERG--Now if she doesn’t come dancing in on the instant, I’ll +wallop you two so you’ll still rub your tails in the hereafter. + +RODRIGO--[_Seated left of the table._] The strongest man in the world +little brother will wallop! Let mama put long trousers on you first. +[HUGENBERG _sits opposite him_.] + +HUGENBERG--I’d rather you lent me your mustache. + +RODRIGO--Maybe you want her to throw you out of the door straight off? + +HUGENBERG--If I only knew now what the devil I was going to say to her! + +RODRIGO--That she knows best herself. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Putting two bottles and three glasses on the table._] I +started in on one of them yesterday. [_Fills the glasses._] + +RODRIGO--[_Guarding_ HUGENBERG’S.] Don’t give him too much, or we’ll +both have to pay for it. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Supporting himself with both hands on the table-top._] +Will the gentlemen smoke? + +HUGENBERG--[_Opening his cigar-case._] Havana-imported! + +RODRIGO--[_Helping himself._] From papa police-captain? + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Sitting._] Everything in the house is mine. You only need +to ask. + +HUGENBERG--I made a poem to her yesterday. + +RODRIGO--What did you make to her? + +SCHIGOLCH--What did he make to her? + +HUGENBERG--A poem. + +RODRIGO--[_To_ SCHIGOLCH.] A poem. + +SCHIGOLCH--He’s promised me a dollar if I can spy out where he can meet +her alone. + +HUGENBERG--Just who does live here? + +RODRIGO--Here =we= live! + +SCHIGOLCH--Jour fix--every stock-market day! Our health. [_They clink._] + +HUGENBERG--Should I read it to her first, maybe? + +SCHIGOLCH--[_To_ RODRIGO.] What’s he mean? + +RODRIGO--His poem. He’d like to stretch her out and torture her a +little first. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Staring at_ HUGENBERG.] His eyes! His eyes! + +RODRIGO--His eyes, yes. They’ve robbed her of sleep for a week. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_To_ RODRIGO.] You can have yourself pickled. + +RODRIGO--We can both have ourselves pickled! Our health, gossip Death! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Clinking with him._] Health, jack-in-the-box! If it’s +still better later on, I’m ready for departure at any moment; +but--but---- [LULU _enters right, in an elegant Parisian ball-dress, +much décolleté, with flowers in breast and hair_.] + +LULU--But children, children, I expect company! + +SCHIGOLCH--But I can tell you what, those things must cost something +over there! [HUGENBERG _has risen_. LULU _sits on the arm of his +chair_.] + +LULU--You’ve fallen into pretty company.--I expect visitors, children! + +SCHIGOLCH--I guess I’ve got to stick something in there myself, too. +[_He searches among the flowers on the table._] + +LULU--Do I look well? + +SCHIGOLCH--What are those you’ve got there? + +LULU--Orchids. [_Bending over_ HUGENBERG.] Smell. + +RODRIGO--Do you expect Prince Escerny? + +LULU--[_Shaking her head._] God forbid! + +RODRIGO--So somebody else again----! + +LULU--The Prince has gone traveling. + +RODRIGO--To put his kingdom up for auction? + +LULU--He’s exploring a fresh string of tribes in the neighborhood of +Africa. [_Rises, hurries up the stairs, and steps into the gallery._] + +RODRIGO--[_To_ SCHIGOLCH.] He really wanted to marry her originally. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Sticking a lily in his buttonhole._] I, too, wanted to +marry her originally. + +RODRIGO--You wanted to marry her originally? + +SCHIGOLCH--Didn’t you, too, want to marry her originally? + +RODRIGO--You bet I wanted to marry her originally! + +SCHIGOLCH--Who has not wanted to marry her originally! + +RODRIGO--I could never have done better! + +SCHIGOLCH--She hasn’t let anybody be sorry that he didn’t marry her. + +RODRIGO-- ... Then she’s not your child? + +SCHIGOLCH--Never occurs to her. + +HUGENBERG--What is her father’s name then? + +SCHIGOLCH--She’s just boasted of me! + +HUGENBERG--What is her father’s name then? + +SCHIGOLCH--What’s he say? + +RODRIGO--What her father’s name is. + +SCHIGOLCH--She never had one. + +LULU--[_Comes down from the gallery and sits again on_ HUGENBERG’S +_chair-arm_.] What have I never had? + +ALL THREE--A father. + +LULU--Yes, sure--I’m a wonder-child. [_To_ HUGENBERG.] How are you +getting along with =your= father? Contented? + +RODRIGO--He smokes a respectable cigar, anyway, the police-captain. + +SCHIGOLCH--Have you locked up upstairs? + +LULU--There is the key. + +SCHIGOLCH--Better have left it in the lock. + +LULU--Why? + +SCHIGOLCH--So no one can unlock it from outside. + +RODRIGO--Isn’t he at the stock-exchange? + +LULU--Oh, yes, but he suffers from persecution-mania. + +RODRIGO--I take him by the feet, and yup!--there he stays sticking to +the roof. + +LULU--He hunts you into a mouse-hole with the corner of his eye. + +RODRIGO--What does he hunt? Who does he hunt? [_Baring his arm._] Just +look at this biceps! + +LULU--Show me. [_Goes left._] + +RODRIGO--[_Hitting himself on the muscle._] Granite. Wrought-iron! + +LULU--[_Feeling by turns_ RODRIGO’S _arm and her own_.] If you only +didn’t have such long ears---- + +FERDINAND--[_Entering, rear centre._] Doctor[8] Schön! + +RODRIGO--The rogue! [_Jumps up, starts behind the fire-screen, +recoils._] God preserve me! [_Hides, lower left, behind the curtains._] + +SCHIGOLCH--Give me the key! [_Takes it and drags himself up the +stairs._] + +LULU--[HUGENBERG _having slid under the table_.] Show him in! + +HUGENBERG--[_Under the front edge of the tablecloth, listening; to +himself._] If he doesn’t stay--we’ll be alone. + +LULU--[_Poking him with her toe._] Sh! [HUGENBERG _disappears_. ALVA +_is shown in by_ FERDINAND.] + +ALVA--[_In evening dress._] Methinks the matinée will take place by +burning lamplight. I’ve---- [_Notices_ SCHIGOLCH _painfully climbing +the stairs_.] What the ---- is that? + +LULU--An old friend of your father’s. + +ALVA--Quite unknown to me. + +LULU--They were in the campaign together. He’s awfully badly---- + +ALVA--Is my father here then? + +LULU--He drank a glass with him. He had to go to the stock market. +We’ll have lunch before we go, won’t we? + +ALVA--When does it begin? + +LULU--After two. [ALVA _still follows_ SCHIGOLCH _with his eyes_.] How +do you like me? [SCHIGOLCH _disappears thru the gallery_.] + +ALVA--Had I not better be silent to you on that point? + +LULU--I only mean my appearance. + +ALVA--Your dressmaker manifestly knows you better than I--may permit +myself to know you. + +LULU--When I saw myself in the glass I could have wished to be a +man--my man!... + +ALVA--You seem to envy your man the delight you offer to him. [LULU _is +at the right_, ALVA _at the left, of the centre table. He regards her +with shy satisfaction._ FERDINAND _enters, rear, covers the table and +lays two plates, etc., a bottle of Pommery, and hors d’œuvres._] Have +you a toothache? + +LULU--[_Across to_ ALVA.] Don’t. + +FERDINAND--Doctor Schön...? + +ALVA--He seems so puckered-up and tearful to-day. + +FERDINAND--[_Thru his teeth._] One is only a man after all. [_Exit._] + +LULU--[_When both are seated._] What I always think most highly of +in you is your firmness of character. You’re so perfectly sure of +yourself. Even when you must have been afraid of falling out with your +father on my account, you always stood up for me like a brother just +the same. + +ALVA--Let’s drop that. It’s just my fate--[_Moves to lift up the +tablecloth in front._] + +LULU--[_Quickly._] That was me. + +ALVA--Impossible!--It’s just my fate, with the most trivial thoughts +always to attain the best. + +LULU--You deceive yourself if you make yourself out worse than you are. + +ALVA--Why do you flatter me so? It is true that perhaps there is no man +living, so bad as I--who has brought about so much good. + +LULU--In any case you’re the only man in the world who’s protected me +without lowering me in my own eyes! + +ALVA--Do you think that so easy? [SCHÖN _appears in the gallery +cautiously parting the hangings between the middle pillars. He starts, +and whispers, “My own son!”_] With gifts from God like yours, one turns +those around one to criminals without ever dreaming of it. I, too, am +only flesh and blood, and if we hadn’t grown up with each other like +brother and sister---- + +LULU--And that’s why I only give myself to you alone quite without +reserve. From you I have nothing to fear. + +ALVA--I assure you there are moments when one expects to see one’s +whole inner self cave in. The more self-suppression a man loads onto +himself, the easier he breaks down. Nothing will save him from it +except----[_Stops to look under the table._] + +LULU--[_Quickly._] What are you looking for? + +ALVA--I conjure you, let me keep my confession of faith to myself! As +an inviolable sanctity you were more to me than with all your gifts you +could be to anyone else in your life! + +LULU--How extraordinarily different your mind is, on that, from your +father’s! [FERDINAND _enters, rear, changes the plates and serves +broiled chicken with salad_.] + +ALVA--[_To him._] Are you sick? + +LULU--[_To_ ALVA.] Let him be! + +ALVA--He’s trembling as if he had fever. + +FERDINAND--I am not yet so used to waiting.... + +ALVA--You must have something prescribed for you. + +FERDINAND--[_Thru his teeth._] I’m a coachman usually----[_Exit._] + +SCHÖN--[_Whispering from the gallery._] So, he too. [_Seats himself +behind the rail, able to cover himself with the hangings._] + +LULU--What sort of moments are those of which you spoke, where one +expects to see his whole inner self tumble in? + +ALVA--I =didn’t want= to speak of them. I should not like to lose, in +joking over a glass of champagne, what has been my highest happiness +for ten years. + +LULU--I have hurt you. I don’t want to begin on that again. + +ALVA--Do you promise me that for always? + +LULU--My hand on it. [_Gives him her hand across the table._ ALVA +_takes it hesitatingly, grips it in his, and presses it long and +ardently to his lips_.] What are you doing? [RODRIGO _sticks his head +out from the curtains, left_. LULU _darts an angry look at him across_ +ALVA, _and he draws back_.] + +SCHÖN--[_Whispering from the gallery._] And there is still another! + +ALVA--[_Holding the hand._] A soul--that in the hereafter will rub the +sleep out of its eyes.... Oh, this hand.... + +LULU--[_Innocently._] What do you find in it?... + +ALVA--An arm.... + +LULU--What do you find in it?... + +ALVA--A body.... + +LULU--[_Guilelessly._] What do you find in it?... + +ALVA--[_Stirred up._] Mignon! + +LULU--[_Wholly ingenuously._] What do you find in it?... + +ALVA--[_Passionately._] Mignon! Mignon! + +LULU--[_Throws herself on the ottoman._] Don’t look at me so--for God’s +sake! Let us go before it is too late. You’re an infamous wretch! + +ALVA--I told you, didn’t I, I was the basest villain.... + +LULU--I see that! + +ALVA--I have no sense of honor, no pride.... + +LULU--You think I am your equal! + +ALVA--You?--you are as heavenly high above me as--as the sun is over +the abyss! [_Kneeling._] Destroy me! I beg you, put an end to me! Put +an end to me! + +LULU--Do you =love= me then? + +ALVA--I will pay you with everything that was mine! + +LULU--Do you love me? + +ALVA--Do you love me--Mignon? + +LULU--I? Not a soul. + +ALVA--I love you. [_Hides his face in her lap._] + +LULU--[_Both hands in his hair._] I poisoned your mother---- [RODRIGO +_sticks his head out from the curtains, left, sees_ SCHÖN _sitting in +the gallery and signs to him to watch_ LULU _and_ ALVA. SCHÖN _points +his revolver at_ RODRIGO; RODRIGO _signs to him to point it at_ ALVA. +SCHÖN _cocks the revolver and takes aim_. RODRIGO _draws back behind +the curtains_. LULU _sees him draw back, sees_ SCHÖN _sitting in the +gallery, and gets up_.] His father! [SCHÖN _rises, lets the hangings +fall before him_. ALVA _remains motionless on his knees. Pause._] + +SCHÖN--[_A newspaper in his hand, takes_ ALVA _by the shoulder_.] Alva! +[ALVA _gets up as though drunk with sleep_.] A revolution has broken +out in Paris. + +ALVA--To Paris ... let me go to Paris---- + +SCHÖN--Up in the office the editors are tearing their hair. Not one +of them knows what to write about it. [_He unfolds the paper and +accompanies_ ALVA _out, rear_. RODRIGO _rushes out from the curtains +toward the stairs_.] + +LULU--[_Barring his way._] You can’t get out here. + +RODRIGO--Let me through! + +LULU--You’ll run into his arms. + +RODRIGO--He’ll shoot me thru the head! + +LULU--He’s coming. + +RODRIGO--[_Stumbling back._] Devil, death and demons! [_Lifts the +tablecloth._] + +HUGENBERG--No room! + +RODRIGO--Damned and done for! [_Looks around and hides in the doorway, +right._] + +SCHÖN--[_Comes in, centre; locks the door; and goes, revolver in hand, +to the window down left, of which he throws up the curtains._] Where is +=he= gone? + +LULU--[_On the lowest step._] Out. + +SCHÖN--Down over the balcony? + +LULU--He’s an acrobat. + +SCHÖN--That could not be foreseen. [_Turning against_ LULU.] You who +drag me thru the muck of the streets to a tortured death! + +LULU--Why did you not bring me up better? + +SCHÖN--You destroying angel! You inexorable fate!--To turn murderer or +else to drown in filth; to take ship like a fleeing convict, or hang +myself over the mire!--You joy of my old age! You hangman’s noose! + +LULU--[_In cold blood._] Oh, shut up, and kill me! + +SCHÖN--Everything I possess I have made over to you, and asked nothing +but the respect that every servant pays to my house. Your credit is +exhausted! + +LULU--I can answer for my account for years to come. [_Coming forward +from the stairs._] How do you like my new gown? + +SCHÖN--Away with you, or my brains will crack to-morrow and my son +swim in his blood! You infect me like an incurable pest in which I +shall groan away the rest of my life. I =will= cure myself! Do you +understand? [_Pressing the revolver on her._] This is your physic. +Don’t break down; don’t kneel! You yourself shall apply it. You or +I--which is it to be? [LULU, _her strength threatening to desert her, +has sunk down on the couch, turning the revolver this way and that_.] + +LULU--It doesn’t go off. + +SCHÖN--Do you still recall how I snatched you out of the clutches of +the police? + +LULU--You have great confidence---- + +SCHÖN--Because I’m not afraid of a street-girl? Shall I guide your hand +for you? Have you no mercy towards yourself? [LULU _points the revolver +at him_.] No false alarms! [LULU _fires a shot into the ceiling_. +RODRIGO _springs out of the portières, up the stairs and away thru the +gallery_.] What was that? + +LULU--[_Innocently._] Nothing. + +SCHÖN--[_Lifting the portières._] What flew out of here? + +LULU--You’re suffering from persecution-mania. + +SCHÖN--Have you got still more men hidden here? [_Tearing the revolver +from her._] Is yet another man calling on you? [_Going left._] +I’ll regale your men! [_Throws up the window-curtains, flings the +fire-screen back, grabs_ COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _by the collar and drags +her forward_.] Did you come down the chimney? + +GESCHWITZ--[_In deadly terror, to_ LULU.] Save me from him! + +SCHÖN--[_Shaking her._] Or are you, too, an acrobat? + +GESCHWITZ--[_Whimpering._] You hurt me. + +SCHÖN--[_Shaking her._] Now you will =have= to stay to dinner. [_Drags +her right, shoves her into the next room and locks the door after +her._] We want no town-criers. [_Sits next to_ LULU _and makes her take +the revolver again._] There’s still enough for you in it. Look at me! I +cannot assist the coachman in my house to decorate my forehead for me. +Look at me! I pay my coachman. Look at me! Am I doing the coachman a +favor if I can’t bear the vile stable-stench? + +LULU--Have the carriage got ready! Please! We’re going to the opera. + +SCHÖN--We’re going to the devil! Now I am coachman. [_Turning the +revolver in her hand from himself to_ LULU’S _breast_.] Do you believe +that anyone, abused as you have abused me, would hesitate between an +old age of slavish infamy and the merit of freeing the world from +=you=? [_Holds her down by the arm._] Come, get through. It shall be +the happiest remembrance of my life. Pull the trigger! + +LULU--You can get a divorce. + +SCHÖN--Only that was left! In order that to-morrow the next man may +find his pastime where I have shuddered from pit to pit, suicide upon +my neck and =you= before me! You dare suggest that? That part of my +life I have poured into you, am I to see it tossed before wild beasts? +Do you see your bed with the sacrifice--the victim--on it? The lad is +homesick for you. Did you let yourself be divorced? You trod him under +your feet, knocked out his brains, caught up his blood in gold-pieces. +I let myself be divorced? =Can= one be divorced when two people have +grown into one another and half the man must go too? [_Reaching for the +revolver._] Give it here! + +LULU--Don’t! + +SCHÖN--I’ll spare you the trouble. + +LULU--[_Tears herself loose, holding the revolver down; in a +determined, self-possessed tone._] If men have killed themselves for my +sake, that doesn’t lower my value. You knew quite as well why you made +me your wife as I knew why I took you for husband. You had deceived +your best friends with me; you could not well go on deceiving yourself +with me. If you bring me your old age in sacrifice, you have had my +whole youth in return. You understand ten times better than I do which +is the more valuable. I have never in the world wished to seem to be +anything different from what I am taken for, and I have never in the +world been taken for anything different from what I am. You want to +force me to fire a bullet into my heart. I’m not sixteen any more, but +to fire a bullet in my heart I am still much too young! + +SCHÖN--[_Pursuing her._] Down, murderess! Down with you! To your +knees, murderess! [_Crowding her to the foot of the stairs._] Down, +and never dare to stand again! [_Raising his hand._ LULU _has sunk +to her knees_.] Pray to God, murderess, that he give you strength. +Sue to heaven that strength for it may be lent you! [HUGENBERG _jumps +up from under the table, knocking a chair aside, and screams “Help!”_ +SCHÖN _whirls toward him, turning his back to_ LULU, _who instantly +fires five shots into him and continues to pull the trigger_. SCHÖN, +_tottering over, is caught by_ HUGENBERG _and let down in the chair_.] + +SCHÖN--And--there--is--one--more---- + +LULU--[_Rushing to_ SCHÖN.] All merciful----! + +SCHÖN--Out of my sight! Alva! + +LULU--[_Kneeling._] The one man I loved! + +SCHÖN--Harlot! Murderess!--Alva! Alva!--Water! + +LULU--Water; he’s thirsty. [_Fills a glass with champagne and sets it +to_ SCHÖN’S _lips_. ALVA _comes thru the gallery, down the stairs_.] + +ALVA--Father! O God, my father! + +LULU--I shot him. + +HUGENBERG--She is innocent! + +SCHÖN--[_To_ ALVA.] You! It miscarried. + +ALVA--[_Tries to lift him._] You must get to bed; come. + +SCHÖN--Don’t take hold of me so! I’m drying up. [LULU _comes with +the champagne-cup; to her_.] You are still like yourself. [_After +drinking._] Don’t let her escape. [_To_ ALVA.] You are the next. + +ALVA--[_To_ HUGENBERG.] Help me carry him to bed. + +SCHÖN--No, no, please, no. Wine, murderess---- + +ALVA--[_To_ HUGENBERG.] Take hold of him on that side. [_Pointing +right._] Into the bedroom. [_They lift_ SCHÖN _upright and lead him +right_. LULU _stays near the table, the glass in her hand_.] + +SCHÖN--[_Groaning._] O God! O God! O God! [ALVA _finds the door locked, +turns the key and opens it_. COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _steps out_. SCHÖN +_at the sight of her straightens up, stiffly_.] The Devil. [_He falls +backward onto the carpet._ LULU _throws herself down, takes his head in +her lap, and kisses him_.] + +LULU--He has got thru. [_Gets up and starts toward the stairs._] + +ALVA--Don’t stir! + +GESCHWITZ--I thought it was you. + +LULU--[_Throwing herself before_ ALVA.] You can’t give me up to the +law! It is =my= head that is struck off. I shot him because he was +about to shoot me. I have loved nobody in the world but him! Alva, +demand what you will, only don’t let me fall into the hands of justice. +Take pity on me. I am still young. I will be true to you as long as I +live. I will be wholly yours, yours only! Look at me, Alva. Man, look +at me! Look at me! [_Knocking on the door outside._] + +ALVA--The police. [_Goes to open it._] + +HUGENBERG--I shall be expelled from school. + + +CURTAIN + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] That is, since Act III Alva has won his Ph.D. + + + + + PANDORA’S BOX + + (DIE BÜCHSE DER PANDORA) + + A Tragedy in Three Acts + + + + +CHARACTERS + + + LULU + DR. ALVA SCHÖN, PH.D., _a writer_ + SCHIGOLCH + RODRIGO QUAST, _acrobat_ + ALFRED HUGENBERG, _escaped from a reform-school_ + COUNTESS GESCHWITZ + BIANETTA } + LUDMILLA STEINHERZ } + MAGELONE } + KADIDIA, _her daughter_ } + COUNT CASTI-PIANI } In Act II + PUNTSCHU, _a banker_ } + HEILMANN, _a journalist_ } + BOB, _a groom, aged 15_ } + A DETECTIVE } + MR. HUNIDEI } + KUNGU POTI, _imperial prince of Uahubee_ } In Act III + DR. HILTI, _tutor_ } + JACK } + +The first act takes place in Germany, the second in France, the third +in England. + + + + +ACT I + + + SCENE--_The hall of “Earth-Spirit,” Act IV, feebly lighted by an oil + lamp on the centre table. Even this is dimmed by a heavy shade._ + LULU’S _picture is gone from the easel, which still stands by the + foot of the stairs. The fire-screen and the chair by the ottoman + are gone too. Down left is a small tea-table, with a coffee-pot + and a cup of black coffee on it, and an arm-chair next it._ + + _In this chair, deep in cushions, with a plaid shawl over her + knees, sits_ COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _in a tight black dress_. RODRIGO, + _clad as a servant, sits on the ottoman. At the rear_, ALVA SCHÖN + _is walking up and down before the entrance door_. + +RODRIGO--He lets people wait for him as if he were a concert conductor! + +GESCHWITZ--I beg of you, don’t speak! + +RODRIGO--Hold my tongue? with a head as full of thoughts as mine is!--I +absolutely can’t believe she’s changed so awfully much to her advantage +there! + +GESCHWITZ--She is more glorious to look at than I have ever seen her! + +RODRIGO--God preserve me from founding my life-happiness upon =your= +taste and judgment! If the disease has hit her as it has you, I’m +smashed and thru! You’re leaving the contagious ward like a rubber-lady +who’s had an accident and taken to hunger-striking. You can scarcely +blow your nose any more. First you need a quarter-hour to sort your +fingers, and then you have to be mighty careful not to break off the +tip. + +GESCHWITZ--What puts =us= under the ground gives =her= health and +strength again. + +RODRIGO--That’s all right and fine enough. But I don’t think I’ll be +travelling off with her this evening. + +GESCHWITZ--You will let your bride journey all alone, after all? + +RODRIGO--In the first place, the old fellow’s going with her to protect +her in case anything serious----My escort could only be suspicious. And +secondly, I must wait here till my costumes are ready. I’ll get across +the frontier soon enough all right,--and I hope in the meantime she’ll +put on a little embonpoint, too. Then we’ll get married, provided I +can present her before a respectable public. I love the practical in a +woman: what theories they make up for themselves are all the same to +me. Aren’t they to you too, Doctor? + +ALVA--I haven’t heard what you were saying. + +RODRIGO--I’d never have got my person mixed up in this plot at all if +she hadn’t kept tickling my bare pate, before her sentence. If only +she doesn’t start exercising again too hard the moment she’s out of +Germany! I’d like best to take her to London for six months, and let +her fill up on plum-cakes. In London one expands just from the sea air. +And then, too, in London one doesn’t feel with every swallow of beer as +if the hand of fate were at one’s throat. + +ALVA--I’ve been asking myself for a week now whether a person who’d +been sentenced to prison could still be made to go as the chief figure +in a modern drama. + +GESCHWITZ--If the man would only come, now! + +RODRIGO--I’ve still got to redeem my properties out of the pawn-shop +here, too. Six hundred kilos of the best iron. The baggage-rate on +’em is always three times as much as my own ticket, so that the whole +junket isn’t worth a trousers button. When I went into the pawn-shop +with ’em, dripping with sweat, they asked me if the things were +genuine!--I’d have really done better to have had the costumes made +abroad. In Paris, for instance, they see at the first glance where +one’s best points are, and bravely lay them bare. But you can’t learn +that sitting cross-legged; it’s got to be studied on classically shaped +people. In this country they’re as scared of naked skin as they are +abroad of dynamite bombs. Two years ago at the Alhambra Theater I was +stuck for a fifty-marks fine because people could see I had a few hairs +on my chest, not enough to make a respectable toothbrush! But the Fine +Arts Minister opined that the little schoolgirls might lose their joy +in knitting stockings because of it; and since then I have myself +shaved once a month. + +ALVA--If I didn’t need every bit of my creative power now for the +“World-Conqueror,” I might like to test the problem and see what could +be done with it. That’s the curse of our young literature: we’re so +much too literary. We know only such questions and problems as come up +among writers and cultured people. We cannot see beyond the limits of +our own professional interests. In order to get back on the trail of +a great and powerful art we must live as much as possible among men +who’ve never read a book in their lives, who are moved by the simplest +animal instincts in all they do. I’ve tried already, with all my might, +to work according to those principles--in my “Earth-Spirit.” The woman +who was my model for the chief figure in that, breathes to-day--and +has for a year--behind barred windows; and on that account for some +incomprehensible reason the play was only brought to performance by +the Society for Free Literature. As long as my father was alive, all +the stages of Germany stood open to my creations. That has been vastly +changed. + +RODRIGO--I’ve had a pair of tights made of the tenderest blue-green. If +=they= don’t make a success abroad, I’ll sell mouse-traps! The trunks +are so delicate I can’t sit on the edge of a table in ’em. The only +thing that will disturb the good impression is my awful bald head, +which I owe to my active participation in this great conspiracy. To lie +in the hospital in perfect health for three months would make a fat pig +of the most run-down old hobo. Since coming out I’ve fed on nothing +but Karlsbad pills. Day and night I have orchestra rehearsals in my +intestines. I’ll be so washed out before I get across the frontier that +I won’t be able to lift a bottle-cork. + +GESCHWITZ--How the attendants in the hospital got out of her way +yesterday! That was a refreshing sight. The garden was still as +the grave: in the loveliest noon sunlight the convalescents didn’t +venture out of doors. Away back by the contagious ward she stepped out +under the mulberry trees and swayed on her ankles on the gravel. The +doorkeeper had recognized me, and a young doctor who met me in the +corridor shrunk up as tho a revolver shot had struck him. The Sisters +vanished into the big rooms or stayed stuck against the walls. When +I came back there was not a soul to be seen in the garden or at the +gate. No better chance could have been found, if we had had the curséd +passports. And now the fellow says he isn’t going with her! + +RODRIGO--I understand the poor hospital-brothers. One has a bad foot +and another has a swollen cheek, and there bobs up in the midst of them +the incarnate death-insurance-agentess! In the Hall of the Knights, as +the blessed division was called from which I organized my spying, when +the news got around there that Sister Theophila had departed this life, +not one of the fellows could be kept in bed. They scrambled up to the +window-bars, if they had to drag their pains along with them by the +hundredweight. I never heard such swearing in my life! + +ALVA--Allow me, Fräulein von Geschwitz, to come back to my proposition +once more. Tho she shot my father in this very room, still I can see +in the murder, as in the punishment, nothing but a horrible misfortune +that has befallen =her=; nor do I think that my father, if he had come +through alive, would have withdrawn his support from her entirely. +Whether your plan for freeing her will succeed still seems to me very +doubtful, tho I wouldn’t like to discourage you; but I can find no +words to express the admiration with which your self-sacrifice, your +energy, your superhuman scorn of death, inspires me. I don’t believe +any man ever risked so much for a woman, let alone for a friend. I am +not aware, Fräulein von Geschwitz, how rich you are, but the outlay +for what you have accomplished must have shattered your fortune. May +I venture to offer you a loan of 20,000 marks--which I should have no +trouble raising for you in cash? + +GESCHWITZ--How we did rejoice when Sister Theophila was really dead! +From that day on we were free from supervision. We changed our beds +as we liked. I had done my hair like hers, and copied every tone of +her voice. When the professor came he called =her= “gnädiges Fräulein” +and said to me, “It’s better living here than in prison!”... When the +Sister suddenly was missing, we looked at each other in suspense: +we had both been sick five days: now was the deciding moment. Next +morning came the assistant.--“How is Sister Theophila?”--“Dead!”--We +communicated behind his back, and when he had gone we sank in each +other’s arms: “God be thanked! God be thanked!”--What pains it cost me +to keep my darling from betraying how well she already was! “You have +nine years of prison before you,” I cried to her early and late. And +now they probably wouldn’t let her stay in the contagious ward three +days more! + +RODRIGO--I lay in the hospital full three months to spy out the ground, +after toilfully peddling together the qualities necessary for such a +long stay. Now I act the valet here with you, Dr. Schön, so that no +strange servants may come into the house. Where is the bridegroom who’s +ever done so much for his bride? My fortune has also been shattered. + +ALVA--When you succeed in developing her into a respectable artiste you +will have put the world in debt to you. With the temperament and the +beauty that she has to give out from the inmost depths of her nature +she can make the most blasé public hold its breath. And then, too, she +will be protected, by =acting= passion, from a second time becoming a +criminal in reality. + +RODRIGO--I’ll soon drive her kiddishness out of her! + +GESCHWITZ--There he comes! [_Steps louden in the gallery. Then the +curtains part at the head of the stairs and_ SCHIGOLCH _in a long black +coat with a white sun-shade in his right hand comes down. Thruout the +play his speech is interrupted with frequent yawns._] + +SCHIGOLCH--Confound the darkness! Outdoors the sun burns your eyes out. + +GESCHWITZ--[_Wearily unwrapping herself._] I’m coming! + +RODRIGO--Her ladyship has seen no daylight for three days. We live here +like in a snuff-box. + +SCHIGOLCH--Since nine o’clock this morning I’ve been round to all the +old-clothes-men. Three brand-new trunks stuffed full of old trousers +I’ve expressed to Buenos Aires via Bremerhaven. My legs are dangling on +me like the tongue of a bell. It’s going to be a different life for me +from now on! + +RODRIGO--Where are you going to get off to-morrow morning? + +SCHIGOLCH--I hope not straight into Ox-butter Hotel again! + +RODRIGO--I can tell you a fine hotel. I lived there with a lady +lion-tamer. The people were born in Berlin. + +GESCHWITZ--[_Upright in the arm-chair._] Come and help me! + +RODRIGO--[_Hurries to her and supports her._] And you’ll be safer from +the police there than on a high tight-rope! + +GESCHWITZ--He means to let you go with her alone this afternoon. + +SCHIGOLCH--Maybe he’s still suffering from his chilblains! + +RODRIGO--Do you want me to start my new engagement in bath-robe and +slippers? + +SCHIGOLCH--Hm--Sister Theophila wouldn’t have gone to heaven so +promptly either, if she hadn’t felt so affectionate towards our patient. + +RODRIGO--When one has to serve thru a honeymoon with her, she’ll have +a very different value. Anyway, it can’t hurt her if she gets a little +fresh air beforehand. + +ALVA--[_A pocketbook in his hand, to_ GESCHWITZ, _who is leaning on a +chair-back by the centre table_.] This holds 10,000 marks. + +GESCHWITZ--Thank you, no. + +ALVA--Please take it. + +GESCHWITZ--[_To_ SCHIGOLCH.] Come along, at last! + +SCHIGOLCH--Patience, Fräulein. It’s only a stone’s throw across +Hospital Street. I’ll be here with her in five minutes. + +ALVA--You’re bringing her here? + +SCHIGOLCH--I’m bringing her here. Or do you fear for your health? + +ALVA--You see that I fear nothing. + +RODRIGO--According to the latest wire, the doctor is on his way to +Constantinople to have his “Earth-Spirit” produced before the Sultan by +harem-ladies and eunuchs. + +ALVA--[_Opening the centre door under the gallery._] It’s shorter for +you thru here. [_Exeunt_ SCHIGOLCH _and_ COUNTESS GESCHWITZ. ALVA +_locks the door_.] + +RODRIGO--You were going to give more money to the crazy skyrocket! + +ALVA--What has that to do with you? + +RODRIGO--I get paid like a lamp-lighter, tho I had to demoralize all +the Sisters in the hospital. Then came the assistants’ and the doctors’ +turn, and then---- + +ALVA--Will you seriously inform me that the medical professors let +themselves be influenced by you? + +RODRIGO--With the money those gentlemen cost me I could become +President of the United States! + +ALVA--But Fräulein von Geschwitz has reimbursed you for every penny +that you spent. So much I know, and you’re still getting five hundred +marks a month from her besides. It is often pretty hard to believe +in your love for the unhappy murderess. When I asked Fräulein von +Geschwitz just now to accept my help, it certainly was not done to stir +up =your= insatiable avarice. The admiration which I have learnt to +have for Fräulein von Geschwitz in this affair, I am far from feeling +towards you. It is not at all clear to me what claims of any kind you +can make upon me. That you chanced to be present at the murder of my +father has not yet created the slightest bond of relationship between +you and me. On the contrary, I am firmly convinced that if the heroic +undertaking of Countess Geschwitz had not come your way you would be +lying somewhere to-day, without a penny, drunken in the gutter. + +RODRIGO--And do you know what would have become of you if you hadn’t +sold for two millions the tuppenny paper your father ran? You’d have +hitched up with the stringiest sort of ballet-girl and been to-day +a stable-boy in the Humpelmeier Circus. What work do you do? You’ve +written a drama of horrors in which my bride’s calves are the two chief +figures and which no high-class theater will produce. You walking +pajamas! You fresh ragbag, you! Two years ago I balanced two saddled +cavalry-horses on this chest. How that’ll go now, after this [_clasping +his bald head_], is a question sure enough. The foreign girls will get +a fine idea of German art when they see the sweat come beading thru my +tights at every fresh kilo-weight! I shall make the whole auditorium +stink with my exhalations! + +ALVA--You’re weak as a dish-clout! + +RODRIGO--Would to God you were right! or did you perhaps intend to +insult me? If so, I’ll set the tip of my toe to your jaw so that your +tongue’ll crawl along the carpet over there! + +ALVA--Try it! [_Steps and voices outside._] Who is that...? + +RODRIGO--You can thank God that I have no public here before me! + +ALVA--Who can that be! + +RODRIGO--That is my beloved. It’s a full year now since we’ve seen each +other. + +ALVA--But how should they be back already! Who can be coming there? I +expect no one. + +RODRIGO--Oh, the devil, unlock it! + +ALVA--Hide yourself! + +RODRIGO--I’ll get behind the portières. I’ve stood there once before, a +year ago. [_Disappears, right._ ALVA _opens the rear door, whereupon_ +ALFRED HUGENBERG _enters, hat in hand_.] + +ALVA--With whom have I--.... You? Aren’t you----? + +HUGENBERG--Alfred Hugenberg. + +ALVA--What can I do for you? + +HUGENBERG--I’ve come from Münsterburg. I ran away this morning. + +ALVA--My eyes are bad. I am forced to keep the blinds closed. + +HUGENBERG--I need your help. You will not refuse me. I’ve got a plan +ready.--Can anyone hear us? + +ALVA--What do you mean? What sort of a plan? + +HUGENBERG--Are you alone? + +ALVA--Yes. What do you want to impart to me? + +HUGENBERG--I’ve had two plans already that I let drop. What I shall +tell you now has been worked out to the last possible chance. If I had +money I should not confide it to you; I thought about that a long time +before coming.... Don’t you want to let me explain my scheme to you? + +ALVA--Will you kindly tell me just what you are talking about? + +HUGENBERG--She cannot possibly be so indifferent to you that I must +tell you that. The evidence =you= gave the coroner helped her more than +everything the defending counsel said. + +ALVA--I beg to decline the supposition. + +HUGENBERG--You would say that; I understand that, of course. But all +the same you were her best witness. + +ALVA--=You= were! You said my father was about to force her to shoot +herself. + +HUGENBERG--He was, too. But they didn’t believe me. I wasn’t put on my +oath. + +ALVA--Where have you come from now? + +HUGENBERG--From a reform-school I broke out of this morning. + +ALVA--And what do you have in view? + +HUGENBERG--I’m trying to get into the confidence of a turnkey. + +ALVA--What do you mean to live on? + +HUGENBERG--I’m living with a girl who’s had a child by my father. + +ALVA--Who is your father? + +HUGENBERG--He’s a police captain. I know the prison without ever having +been inside it; and nobody in it will recognize me as I am now. But +I don’t count on that at all. I know an iron ladder by which one can +get from the first court to the roof and thru an opening there into +the attic. There’s no way up to it from inside. But in all five wings +boards and laths and great heaps of shavings are lying under the roofs, +and I’ll drag them all together in the middle and set fire to them. My +pockets are full of matches and all the things used to make fires. + +ALVA--But then you’ll burn up there! + +HUGENBERG--Of course, if I’m not rescued. But to get into the first +court I must have the turnkey in my power, and for that I need money. +Not that I mean to bribe him; that wouldn’t go. I must lend him money +to send his three children to the country, and then at four o’clock in +the morning when the prisoners of respected families are discharged, +I’ll slip in the door. He’ll lock-up behind me and ask me what I’m +after, and I’ll ask him to let me out again in the evening. And before +it gets light, I’m up in the attic. + +ALVA--How did you escape from the reform-school? + +HUGENBERG--Jumped out the window. I need two hundred marks for the +rascal to send his family to the country. + +RODRIGO--[_Stepping out of the portières, right._] Will the Herr Baron +have coffee in the music-room or on the veranda? + +HUGENBERG--How did that man come here? Out of the same door! He jumped +out of the same door! + +ALVA--I’ve taken him into my service. He is dependable. + +HUGENBERG--[_Grasping his temples._] Fool that I am! Oh, fool! + +RODRIGO--Oh, yah, we’ve seen each other here before! Cut away now to +your vice-mama. Your kid brother might like to uncle his brothers and +sisters. Make your sir-papa the grandfather of his children! You’re the +only thing we’ve missed. If you once get into my sight in the next two +weeks, I’ll beat your bean up for porridge. + +ALVA--Be quiet, you! + +HUGENBERG--I’m a fool! + +RODRIGO--What do you want to do with your fire? Don’t you know the +lady’s been dead three weeks? + +HUGENBERG--Did they cut off her head? + +RODRIGO--No, she’s got that still. She was mashed by the cholera. + +HUGENBERG--That is not true! + +RODRIGO--What do you know about it! There, read it: here! [_Taking out +a paper and pointing to the place._] “The murderess of Dr. Schön....” +[_Gives_ HUGENBERG _the paper. He reads_:] + +HUGENBERG--“The murderess of Dr. Schön has in some incomprehensible way +fallen ill of the cholera in prison.” It doesn’t say that she’s dead. + +RODRIGO--Well, what else do you suppose she is? She’s been lying in +the churchyard three weeks. Back in the left-hand corner behind the +rubbish-heap where the little crosses are with no names on them, there +she lies under the first one. You’ll know the spot because the grass +hasn’t grown on it. Hang a tin wreath there, and then get back to your +nursery-school or I’ll denounce you to the police. I know the female +that beguiles her leisure hours with you! + +HUGENBERG--[_To_ ALVA.] Is it true that she’s dead? + +ALVA--Thank God, yes!--Please, do not keep me here any longer. My +doctor has forbidden me to receive visitors. + +HUGENBERG--My future life means so little now! I would gladly have +given the last scrap of what life is worth to me for her happiness. +Heigh-ho! One way or another I’ll sure go to the devil now! + +RODRIGO--If you dare in any way to approach me or the doctor here or my +honorable friend Schigolch too near, I’ll inform on you for intended +arson. You need three good years of prison to learn where not to stick +your fingers in! Now get out! + +HUGENBERG--Fool! + +RODRIGO--Get out! [_Throws him out the door. Coming down._] I wonder +you didn’t put your purse at that rogue’s disposal, too! + +ALVA--I won’t stand your damned jabbering! The boy’s little finger is +worth more than all you! + +RODRIGO--I’ve had enough of this Geschwitz’s company! If my bride is +to become a corporation with limited liability, somebody else can go +in ahead of me. I propose to make a magnificent trapeze-artiste out of +her, and willingly risk my life to do it. But then I’ll be master of +the house, and will myself indicate what cavaliers she is to receive! + +ALVA--The boy has what our age lacks: a hero-nature; therefore, of +course, he is going to ruin. Do you remember how before sentence was +passed he jumped out of the witness-box and yelled at the justice: “How +do you know what would have become of =you= if you’d had to run around +the cafés barefoot every night when you were ten years old?” + +RODRIGO--If I could only have given him one in the jaw for that right +away! Thank God, there are jails where scum like that gets some +respect for the law pounded into them. + +ALVA--One like him might have been my model for my “World-conqueror.” +For twenty years literature has presented nothing but demi-men: men who +can beget no children and women who can bear none. That’s called “The +Modern Problem.” + +RODRIGO--I’ve ordered a hippopotamus-whip two inches thick. If that has +no success with her, you can fill my cranium with potato-soup. Be it +love or be it whipping, female flesh never inquires. Only give it some +amusement, and it stays firm and fresh. She is now in her twentieth +year, has been married three times and has satisfied a gigantic horde +of lovers, and her heart’s desires are at last pretty plain. But the +man’s got to have the seven deadly sins on his forehead, or she honors +him not. If he looks as if a dog-catcher had spat him out on the +street, then, with such women-folks, he needn’t be afraid of a prince! +I’ll rent a garage fifty feet high and break her in there; and when +she’s learnt the first diving-leap without breaking her neck I’ll pull +on a black coat and not stir a finger the rest of my life. With her +practical equipment it costs a woman not half the trouble to support +her husband as the other way round, if only the man looks after the +mental work for her, and doesn’t let the sense of the family go to +wreck. + +ALVA--I have learnt how to master humanity and drive it in harness +before me like a well-broken four-in-hand,--but that boy sticks in my +head. Really, I can still take private lessons in the scorn of the +world from that schoolboy! + +RODRIGO--She’ll just comfortably let her hide be papered with +thousand-mark bills! I’ll extract salaries out of the directors with a +centrifugal pump. I know their kind. When they don’t need a man, let +him shine their shoes for them; but when they must have an artiste +they’ll cut her down from the very gallows with their own hands and +with the most binding compliments. + +ALVA--In my circumstances there’s nothing left in the world that +I should fear--but death. Yet in feelings and sensations I am the +poorest beggar.--However, I can no longer scrape up the moral courage +to exchange my established position for the excitements of the wild, +adventurous life! + +RODRIGO--She had sicked Papa Schigolch and me out on a hunt together +to rout her out some strong antidote for insomnia. We each got a +twenty-mark piece for expenses. There in the Nightlight Café we see the +youngster sitting like a criminal on the prisoner’s bench. Schigolch +sniffed at him from all sides, and remarked, “He is still virgin.” [_Up +in the gallery, dragging steps are heard._] There she is! The future +magnificent trapeze-artiste of the present age! [_The curtains part at +the stair-head, and_ LULU _appears, supported by_ SCHIGOLCH _and in_ +COUNTESS GESCHWITZ’S _black dress, slowly and wearily descending_.] + +SCHIGOLCH--Hui, old moldy! We’ve still to get over the frontier to-day. + +RODRIGO--[_Glaring stupidly at_ LULU.] Thunder of heaven! Death! + +LULU--[_Speaks, to the end of the act, in the gayest tones._] Slowly! +You’re pinching my arm! + +RODRIGO--How did you ever get the shamelessness to break out of prison +with such a wolf’s face? + +SCHIGOLCH--Stop your snout! + +RODRIGO--I’ll run for the police! I’ll give information! This scarecrow +let herself be seen in tights? The padding alone would cost two months’ +salary!--You’re the most perfidious swindler that ever had lodging in +Ox-butter Hotel! + +ALVA--Kindly refrain from insulting the lady! + +RODRIGO--Insulting, you call that? For this gnawed bone’s sake I’ve +worn myself away! I can’t earn my own living! I’ll be a clown if I can +still stand firm under a broomstick! But let the lightning strike me on +the spot if I don’t worm ten thousand marks a year for life out of your +tricks and frauds! I can tell you that! A pleasant trip! I’m going for +the police! [_Exit._] + +SCHIGOLCH--Run, run. + +LULU--He’ll take good care of himself! + +SCHIGOLCH--We’re rid of =him=!--And now some black coffee for the lady! + +ALVA--[_At the table left._] Here is coffee, ready to pour. + +SCHIGOLCH--I must look after the sleeping-car tickets. + +LULU--[_Brightly._] Oh, freedom! Thank God for freedom! + +SCHIGOLCH--I’ll be back for you in half an hour. We’ll celebrate our +departure in the station-restaurant. I’ll order a supper that’ll keep +us going till to-morrow.--Good morning, Doctor. + +ALVA--Good evening. + +SCHIGOLCH--Pleasant rest!--Thanks, I know every door-handle here. So +long! Have a good time! [_Exit, centre._] + +LULU--I haven’t seen a room for a year and a half. Curtains, chairs, +pictures.... + +ALVA--Won’t you drink it? + +LULU--I’ve swallowed enough black coffee these five days. Have you any +brandy? + +ALVA--I’ve got some elixir de Spaa. + +LULU--That reminds one of old times. [_Looks round the hall while_ ALVA +_fills two glasses_.] Where’s my picture gone? + +ALVA--I’ve got it in my room, so no one shall see it here. + +LULU--Bring it here, do! + +ALVA--Haven’t you got over your vanity even in prison? + +LULU--How anxious at heart you get when you don’t see yourself for +months! One day I got a brand-new dust-pan. When I swept up at seven +in the morning I held the back of it up before my face. Tin doesn’t +flatter, but I took pleasure in it all the same.--Get the picture out +of your room. Shall I come, too? + +ALVA--No, Heaven’s sake! You must spare yourself! + +LULU--I’ve been sparing myself long enough now! [ALVA _goes out, right, +to get the picture_.] He has heart-trouble; but to have to plague one’s +self with imagination fourteen months!... He kisses with the fear of +death on him, and his two knees shake like a frozen vagabond’s. In +God’s name!... In this room--if only I had not shot his father in the +back! + +ALVA--[_Returns with the picture of_ LULU _in the Pierrot-dress_.] It’s +covered with dust. I had leant it against the fireplace, face to the +wall. + +LULU--You didn’t look at it all the time I was away? + +ALVA--I had so much business to attend to, with the sale of our paper +and everything. Countess Geschwitz would have liked to have hung it up +in her house, but she had to be prepared for search-warrants. [_He puts +the picture on the easel._] + +LULU--[_Merrily._] Now the poor monster is getting personally +acquainted with the life of joy in Hotel Ox-butter! + +ALVA--Even now I don’t understand how events hang together. + +LULU--Oh, Geschwitz arranged it all very cleverly. I do admire her +inventiveness. But the cholera must have raged fearfully in Hamburg +this summer; and on that she based her plan for freeing me. She took +a course in hospital nursing here, and when she had the necessary +documents she journeyed to Hamburg with them and nursed the cholera +patients. At the first opportunity that offered she put on the +underclothes that a sick woman had just died in and which really ought +to have been burnt. The same morning she traveled back here and came to +see me in prison. In my cell, while the wardress was outside, we two, +as quick as we could, exchanged underclothes. + +ALVA--So that was the reason why the Countess and you fell sick of the +cholera the same day! + +LULU--Exactly, that was it! Geschwitz of course was instantly brought +from her house to the contagious ward in the hospital. But with me, +too, they couldn’t think of any other place to take me. So there we lay +in one room in the contagious ward behind the hospital, and from the +first day Geschwitz put forth all her art to make our two faces as like +each other as possible. Day before yesterday she was let out as cured. +Just now she came back and said she’d forgotten her watch. I put on her +clothes, she slipped into my prison frock, and then I came away. [_With +pleasure._] Now she’s lying over there as the murderess of Dr. Schön. + +ALVA--So far as outward appearance goes you can hold your own with the +picture as well as ever. + +LULU--I’m a little peaked in the face, but otherwise I’ve lost nothing. +Only one gets incredibly nervous in prison. + +ALVA--You looked horribly sick when you came in. + +LULU--I had to, to get our necks out of the noose.--And you? What have +you done in this year and a half? + +ALVA--I’ve had a succès d’estime in literary circles with a play I +wrote about you. + +LULU--Who’s your sweetheart now? + +ALVA--An actress I’ve rented a house for in Karl Street. + +LULU--Does she love you? + +ALVA--How should I know that? I haven’t seen the woman for six weeks. + +LULU--Can you stand that? + +ALVA--You will never grasp it--but with me there’s the closest +alternation between my sensuality and my creative powers. So, as +regards you, for example, I have to make the choice of either setting +you forth artistically or of loving you. + +LULU--[_In a fairy-story tone._] I used to dream, once, every other +night, that I’d fallen into the hands of a sadist.... Come, give me a +kiss! + +ALVA--It’s shining in your eyes like the water in a deep well one has +just thrown a stone into. + +LULU--Come! + +ALVA--[_Kisses her._] Your lips have got pretty thin, sure enough. + +LULU--Come! [_Pushes him into a chair and seats herself on his knee._] +Do you shudder at me?--In Hotel Ox-butter we all got a lukewarm +bath every four weeks. The wardresses took that opportunity to +search our pockets as soon as we were in the water. [_She kisses him +passionately._] + +ALVA--Oh, oh! + +LULU--You’re afraid that when I’m away you couldn’t write any more +poems about me? + +ALVA--On the contrary, I shall write a dithyramb upon your glory. + +LULU--I’m only sore about the hideous shoes I’m wearing. + +ALVA--They do not encroach upon your charms. Let us be thankful for the +favor of this moment. + +LULU--I don’t feel at all like that to-day.--Do you remember the +costume ball where I was dressed like a knight’s squire? How those +wine-full women ran after me that time? Geschwitz crawled round, round +my feet, and begged me to step on her face with my cloth shoes. + +ALVA--Come, dear heart! + +LULU--[_In the tone with which one quiets a restless child._] Quietly! +I shot your father. + +ALVA--I do not love you less for that. One kiss! + +LULU--Bend your head back. [_She kisses him with deliberation._] + +ALVA--You hold back the fire of my soul with the most dexterous art. +And your breast breathes so virginly too. Yet if it weren’t for your +two great, dark, child’s eyes, I must needs have thought you the +cunningest whore that ever hurled a man to destruction. + +LULU--[_In high spirits._] Would God I were! Come over the border with +us to-day! Then we can see each other as often as we will, and we’ll +get more pleasure from each other than now. + +ALVA--Through this dress I feel your body like a symphony. These +slender ankles, this cantabile. This rapturous crescendo. And these +knees, this capriccio. And the powerful andante of lust!--How +peacefully these two slim rivals press against each other in the +consciousness that neither equals the other in beauty--till their +capricious mistress wakes up and the rival lovers separate like the +two hostile poles. I shall sing your praises so that your senses shall +whirl! + +LULU--[_Merrily._] Meanwhile I’ll bury my hands in your hair. [_She +does so._] But here we’ll be disturbed. + +ALVA--You have robbed me of my reason! + +LULU--Aren’t you coming with me to-day? + +ALVA--But the old fellow’s going with you! + +LULU--He won’t turn up again.--Is not that the divan on which your +father bled to death? + +ALVA--Be still. Be still.... + + +CURTAIN + + + + +ACT II + + + SCENE--_A spacious salon in white stucco. In the rear wall, between + two high mirrors, a wide folding doorway showing in the rear room + a big card-table surrounded by Turkish upholstered chairs. In the + left wall two doors, the upper one to the entrance-hall, the lower + to the dining-room. Between them a rococo console with a white + marble top, and above it_ LULU’S _Pierrot-picture in a narrow gold + frame let into the wall. Two other doors, right; near the lower + one a small table. Wide and brightly covered chairs stand about, + with thin legs and fragile arms; and in the middle is a sofa of + the same style (Louis XV)._ + + _A large company is moving about the salon in lively conversation. + The men_--ALVA, RODRIGO, MARQUIS CASTI-PIANI, BANKER PUNTSCHU, + _and_ JOURNALIST HEILMANN--_are in evening dress_. LULU _wears a + white Directoire dress with huge sleeves and white lace falling + freely from belt to feet. Her arms are in white kid gloves, her + hair done high with a little tuft of white feathers._ GESCHWITZ + _is in a bright blue hussar-waist trimmed with white fur and + laced with silver braid, a tall tight collar with a white bow, + and stiff cuffs with huge ivory links_. MAGELONE _is in bright + rainbow-colored shot silk with very wide sleeves, long narrow + waist, and three ruffles of spiral rose-colored ribbons and violet + bouquets. Her hair is parted in the middle and drawn low over her + temples. On her forehead is a mother-of-pearl ornament, held by a + fine chain under her hair._ KADIDIA, _her daughter, twelve years + old, has bright-green satin gaiters which yet leave visible the + tops of her white silk socks, and a white-lace-covered dress with + bright-green narrow sleeves, pearl-gray gloves, and free black + hair under a big bright-green hat with white feathers_. BIANETTA + _is in a loose-sleeved dress of dark-green velvet, the bodice sewn + with pearls, and the skirt full, without a waist, embroidered + at the hem with great false topazes set in silver_. LUDMILLA + STEINHERZ _is in a glaring summer frock striped red and blue_. + + RODRIGO _stands, centre, a full glass in his hand_. + +RODRIGO--Ladies and gentlemen--I beg your pardon--please be quiet--I +drink--permit me to drink--for this is the birthday party of our +amiable hostess--[_taking_ LULU’S _arm_] of Countess Adelaide +d’Oubra--damned and done for!--I drink therefore -- -- and so forth, +go to it, ladies! [_All surround_ LULU _and clink with her_. ALVA +_presses_ RODRIGO’S _hand_.] + +ALVA--I congratulate you. + +RODRIGO--I’m sweating like a roast pig. + +ALVA--[_To_ LULU.] Let’s see if everything’s in order in the card-room. +[ALVA _and_ LULU _exeunt, rear_. BIANETTA _speaks to_ RODRIGO.] + +BIANETTA--They were telling me just now you were the strongest man in +the world. + +RODRIGO--That I am. May I put my strength at your disposal? + +MAGELONE--I love sharp-shooters better. Three months ago a +sharp-shooter appeared in the Casino, and every time he went “bang!” I +felt like this. [_She wriggles her hips._] + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Who speaks thruout the act in a bored and weary tone, +to_ MAGELONE.] Say, dearie, how does it happen we see your nice little +princess here for the first time to-night? [_Meaning_ KADIDIA.] + +MAGELONE--Do you really find her so delightful?--She is still in the +convent. She must be back in school again on Monday. + +KADIDIA--What did you say, Mama? + +MAGELONE--I was just telling the gentlemen that you got the highest +mark in geometry last week. + +HEILMANN--Some pretty hair she’s got! + +CASTI-PIANI--Just look at her feet: the way she walks. + +PUNTSCHU--By God, she’s a thoroughbred! + +MAGELONE--[_Smiling._] But, my dear sirs, take pity on her! She’s +nothing but a child still! + +PUNTSCHU--That’d trouble me damned little! [_To_ HEILMANN.] I’d give +ten years of my life if I could initiate the young lady into the +ceremonies of our secret society! + +MAGELONE--But you won’t get me to consent to that for a million. I +won’t have the child’s youth ruined, the way mine was! + +CASTI-PIANI--Confessions of a lovely soul! [_To_ MAGELONE.] Would you +not grant your permission even for a set of real diamonds? + +MAGELONE--Don’t brag! You’ll give as few real diamonds to me as to my +child. You know that best yourself. [KADIDIA _goes into the rear room_.] + +GESCHWITZ--But is nobody at all going to play, this evening? + +LUDMILLA--Why, of course, Comtesse. I’m counting on it very much, for +one! + +BIANETTA--Then let’s take our places right away. The gentlemen will +soon come then. + +GESCHWITZ--May I ask you to excuse me just a second more? I must say a +word to my friend. + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Offering his arm to_ BIANETTA.] May I have the honor to +be your partner? You always hold such a lucky hand! + +LUDMILLA--Now just give me your other arm and then lead us into the +gambling-hell. [_The three go off so, rear._] + +MAGELONE--Say, Mr. Puntschu, have you still got a few Jungfrau-shares +for me, maybe? + +PUNTSCHU--Jungfrau-shares? [_To_ HEILMANN.] The lady means the stock +of the funicular railway on the Jungfrau. The Jungfrau, you know,--the +Virgin--is a mountain and they’re going to build a wire railway +up it. [_To_ MAGELONE.] You understand,--just so there may be no +confusion;--and how easy that would be in this select circle!--Yes, +I still have some four thousand Jungfrau-shares, but I should like +to keep those for myself. There won’t be such another chance soon of +making a little fortune out of hand. + +HEILMANN--I’ve only one lone share of this Jungfrau-stock so far. I +should like to have more, too. + +PUNTSCHU--I’ll try, Mr. Heilmann, to look after some for you. But I +tell you beforehand you’ll have to pay drug-store prices for them! + +MAGELONE--My fortune-teller advised me to look about me in time. All my +savings are in Jungfrau-shares now. If it doesn’t turn out well, Mr. +Puntschu, I’ll scratch your eyes out! + +PUNTSCHU--I am perfectly sure of my affairs, my dearie! + +ALVA--[_Who has come back from the card-room, to_ MAGELONE.] I can +guarantee your fears are absolutely unfounded. I paid very dear for +my Jungfrau-stock and haven’t regretted it a minute. They’re going up +steadily from day to day. There never was such a thing before. + +MAGELONE--All the better, if you’re right. [_Taking_ PUNTSCHU’S _arm_.] +Come, my friend, let’s try our luck now at baccarat. [_All go out, +rear, except_ GESCHWITZ _and_ RODRIGO, _who scribbles something on a +piece of paper and folds it up, then notices_ GESCHWITZ.] + +RODRIGO--Hm, madam Countess---- [GESCHWITZ _starts and shrinks_.] Do +I look as dangerous as that? [_To himself._] I must make a bon mot. +[_Aloud._] May I perhaps make so bold---- + +GESCHWITZ--You can go to the devil! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_As he leads_ LULU _in_.] You will allow me a word or two. + +LULU--[_Not noticing_ RODRIGO, _who presses his note into her hand_.] +Oh, as many as you like. + +RODRIGO--[_As he bows and goes out, rear._] I beg you will excuse me.... + +CASTI-PIANI--[_To_ GESCHWITZ.] Leave us alone! + +LULU--[_To_ CASTI-PIANI.] Have I vexed you again somehow? + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Since_ GESCHWITZ _does not stir_.] Are you deaf? +[GESCHWITZ, _sighing deeply, goes out, rear_.] + +LULU--Just say straight out how much you want. + +CASTI-PIANI--With money you can no longer serve me. + +LULU--What makes you think that we have no more money? + +CASTI-PIANI--You handed out the last bit of it to me yesterday. + +LULU--If you’re sure of that then I suppose it’s so. + +CASTI-PIANI--You’re down to bedrock, you and your writer. + +LULU--Then why all these words?--If you want to have me for yourself +you need not first threaten me with execution. + +CASTI-PIANI--I know that. But I’ve told you more than once that you +are not the sort I fall for. I haven’t plundered you because you +loved me, but loved you in order to fleece you. Bianetta is more to +my taste from top to bottom than you. You set out the choicest lot +of sweetmeats, and when one has frittered his time away at them he +finds he’s hungrier than before. You’ve loved too long, even for our +relations here. With a healthy young man, you only ruin his nervous +system. But you’ll fit all the more perfectly in the position I have +sought out for you. + +LULU--You’re crazy! Have I commissioned you to find a position for me? + +CASTI-PIANI--I told you, though, that I was an employment-agent. + +LULU--You told me you were a police spy. + +CASTI-PIANI--One can’t live on that alone. I was an employment-agent +originally, till I blundered over a minister’s daughter I’d got a +position for in Valparaiso. The little darling in her childhood’s +dreams had imagined the life to be even more intoxicating than it +is, and complained about it to Mama. On that, they nabbed me; but by +reliable demeanor I soon enough won the confidence of the criminal +police and they sent me here on a hundred and fifty marks a month, +because they were tripling our contingent here on account of these +everlasting bomb-explosions. But who can get along in Paris on a +hundred and fifty marks a month? My colleagues get women to support +them; but, of course, I found it more convenient to take up my former +calling again; and of the numberless adventuresses of the best +families of the entire world, whom chance brings together here, I have +already forwarded many a young creature hungry for life to the place of +her natural vocation. + +LULU--[_Decisively._] I’m no good for that business. + +CASTI-PIANI--Your views on that question make no difference whatever +to me. The department of justice will pay anyone who delivers the +murderess of Dr. Schön into the hands of the police a thousand marks. +I only need to whistle for the constable who’s standing down at the +corner to have earned a thousand marks. Against that, the House of +Oikonomopulos in Cairo bids sixty pounds for you--twelve hundred +marks--two hundred more than the Attorney General. And, besides, I am +still so far a friend of mankind that I prefer to help my loves to +happiness, not hurl them into misery. + +LULU--[_As before._] The life in such a house can never in the world +make a woman of my sort happy. When I was fifteen, I might have liked +it. I was desperate then--thought I should never be happy. I bought a +revolver, and ran one night barefoot through the deep snow over the +bridge to the park to shoot myself there. But then by good luck I lay +three months in the hospital without once getting sight of a man, and +in that time my eyes were opened and I got to know myself. Night after +night in my dreams I saw the man for whom I was created and who was +created for me, so that when I was let out on the men again I was a +silly goose no longer. Since then I can see on a man, in a pitch-dark +night and a hundred feet away, whether we’re meant for each other; and +if I sin against that insight I feel the next day dirtied, body and +soul, and need weeks to get over the loathing I have for myself. And +now you imagine I’ll give myself to every and any Tom and Harry! + +CASTI-PIANI--Toms and Harries don’t patronize Oikonomopulos of Cairo. +His custom consists of Scottish lords, Russian dignitaries, Indian +governors, and our jolly Rhineland captains of industry. I must only +guarantee that you speak French. With your gift for languages you’ll +quickly enough learn as much English, besides, as you’ll need to get +on with. And you’ll reside in a royally furnished apartment with an +outlook on the minarets of the El Azhar Mosque, and walk around all day +on Persian carpets as thick as your fist, and dress every evening in a +fabulous Paris gown, and drink as much champagne as your customers can +pay for, and, finally, you’ll even remain, up to a certain point, your +own mistress. If the man doesn’t please you, you needn’t play up to him +at all. Just let him give in his card, and then----[_Shrugs, and snaps +his fingers._] If the ladies didn’t get used to that the whole business +would be simply impossible, because every one of them after the first +few weeks would go headlong to the devil. + +LULU--[_Her voice shaking._] I do believe that since yesterday you’ve +got a screw loose somewhere. Am I to understand that the Egyptian will +pay fifteen hundred francs for a person whom he’s never seen? + +CASTI-PIANI--I took the liberty of sending him your pictures. + +LULU--Those pictures that I gave you, you’ve sent to him? + +CASTI-PIANI--You see he can value them better than I. The picture in +which you stand before the mirror as Eve he’ll probably hang up at the +house-door, after you’ve got there.... And then there’s one thing more +for you to notice: with Oikonomopulos in Cairo you’ll be safer from +your bloodhounds than if you crept into a Canadian wilderness. It isn’t +so easy to transport an Egyptian courtesan to a German prison,--first, +on account of the mere expense, and second, from fear of treading too +close upon eternal Justice. + +LULU--[_Proudly, in a clear voice._] What have I to do with your +eternal Justice! You can see as plain as your five fingers I shan’t let +myself be locked up in any such amusement-place! + +CASTI-PIANI--Then will you permit me to whistle up the policeman? + +LULU--[_In wonder._] Why don’t you simply ask me for twelve hundred +marks, if you want the money? + +CASTI-PIANI--I want for no money! And I also don’t ask for it because +you’re dead broke. + +LULU--We still have thirty thousand marks. + +CASTI-PIANI--In Jungfrau-stock! I never have anything to do with stock. +The Attorney General pays in the imperial currency, and Oikonomopulos +pays in English gold. You can be on board early to-morrow. The passage +doesn’t last much more than five days. In two weeks at most you’re in +safety. Here you are nearer to prison than anywhere. It’s a wonder +which I, as one of the secret police, cannot understand, that you two +have been able to live for a full year unmolested. But just as _I_ +came on the track of your antecedents, so any day, with your mighty +consumption of men, one of my colleagues may make the happy discovery. +Then I may just wipe my mouth, and you spend the most enjoyable years +of your life in prison. If you will kindly decide quickly. The train +goes at 12:30. If we haven’t struck a bargain before eleven, I whistle +up the policeman. If we have, I pack you, just as you stand, into a +carriage, drive you to the station, and to-morrow night escort you on +board ship. + +LULU--But is it possible you can be serious in all this? + +CASTI-PIANI--Don’t you understand that your bodily rescue is the only +thing left me to do? + +LULU--I’ll go with you to America or to China, but I can’t let myself +be sold of my own accord! That is worse than prison! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Drawing a letter from his pocket._] Just read this +effusion! I’ll read it to you. Here’s the postmark “Cairo,” so you +won’t believe I work with forged documents. The girl is a Berliner, +was married two years and to a man whom you would have envied her, +a former comrade of mine. He travels now for some Hamburg colonial +company.... + +LULU--[_Merrily._] Then perhaps he =visits= his wife occasionally? + +CASTI-PIANI--That is not incredible. But hear this impulsive expression +of her feelings. My white-slave traffic seems to me absolutely no +more honorable than the first judge you happened on would think it, +but a cry of joy like this lets me feel a certain moral satisfaction +for a moment. I am proud to earn my money by scattering happiness +with full hands. [_Reads._] “Dear Mr. Meyer”--that’s my name as +a white-slave trader--“when you go to Berlin, please go right +away to the conservatory on the Potsdamer Strasse and ask for +Gusti von Rosenkron--the most beautiful woman that I’ve ever seen +anywhere--delightful hands and feet, naturally small waist, straight +back, full body, big eyes and short nose--just the sort you like best. +I have written to her already. She has no prospects with her singing. +Her mother hasn’t a penny. Sorry she’s already twenty-two, but she’s +pining for love. Can’t marry, because absolutely without means. I +have spoken with Madame. They’d like to take another German, if she’s +well educated and musical. Italians and Frenchwomen can’t compete +with us;--not cultured enough. If you should see Fritz”--Fritz is the +husband; he’s getting a divorce, of course,--“tell him it was all a +bore. He didn’t know any better, neither did I.” Now come the exact +details---- + +LULU--[_Goaded._] I cannot sell the only thing that ever was my own! + +CASTI-PIANI--Let me read some more. + +LULU--[_As before._] This very evening, I’ll hand over to you our +entire wealth. + +CASTI-PIANI--Believe me, for God’s sake, I’ve =got= your last red cent! +If we haven’t left this house before eleven, you and your lot will be +transported to-morrow in a police-car to Germany. + +LULU--You =can’t= give me up! + +CASTI-PIANI--Do you think that would be the worst thing I “can” have +done in my life?... I must, in case we go to-night, have just a brief +word with Bianetta. [_He goes into the card-room, leaving the door +open behind him._ LULU _stares before her, mechanically crumpling up +the note that_ RODRIGO _stuck into her hand, which she has held in her +fingers thruout the dialogue_. ALVA, _behind the card-table, gets up, a +bill in his hand, and comes into the salon_.] + +ALVA--[_To_ LULU.] Brilliantly! It’s going brilliantly! Geschwitz +is wagering her last shirt. Puntschu has promised me ten more +Jungfrau-shares. Steinherz is making her little gains and profits. +[_Exit, lower right._] + +LULU--I in a bordel? [_She reads the paper she holds, and laughs +madly._] + +ALVA--[_Coming back with a cash-box in his hand._] Aren’t you going to +play, too? + +LULU--Oh, yes, surely--why not? + +ALVA--By the way, it’s in the “Berliner Tageblatt” to-day that Alfred +Hugenberg has hurled himself over the stairs in prison. + +LULU--Is he too in prison? + +ALVA--Only in a sort of house of detention. [_Exit, rear._ LULU _is +about to follow, but_ COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _meets her in the doorway_.] + +GESCHWITZ--You are going because I come? + +LULU--[_Resolutely._] No, God knows. But when you come then I go. + +GESCHWITZ--You have defrauded me of all the good things of this world +that I still possessed. You might at the very least preserve the +outward forms of politeness in your intercourse with me. + +LULU--[_As before._] I am as polite to you as to any other woman. I +only beg you to be equally so to me. + +GESCHWITZ--Have you forgotten the passionate endearments you used, +while we lay together in the hospital, to seduce me into letting myself +be locked into prison for you? + +LULU--Well, why else did you bring me down with the cholera beforehand? +I swore very different things to myself, even while it was going on, +from what I had to promise you! I am shaken with horror at the thought +that that should ever become reality! + +GESCHWITZ--Then you cheated me consciously, deliberately! + +LULU--[_Gaily._] And what have you been cheated of, eh? Your physical +advantages have found so enthusiastic an admirer here, that I ask +myself if I won’t have to give piano lessons once more, to keep alive! +No seventeen-year-old child could make a man madder with love than you, +a pervert, are making him, poor fellow, by your shrewishness. + +GESCHWITZ--Of whom are you speaking? I don’t understand a word. + +LULU--[_As before._] I’m speaking of your acrobat, of Rodrigo Quast. +He’s an athlete: he balances two saddled cavalry horses on his chest. +Can a woman desire anything more glorious? He told me just now that +he’d jump into the water to-night if you did not take pity on him. + +GESCHWITZ--I do not envy you your cleverness at torturing the helpless +victims sacrificed to you by their inscrutable destiny. I cannot envy +you at all. My own misery has not yet wrung from me the pity that I +feel for you. _I_ feel free as a god when I think to what creatures +=you= are enslaved. + +LULU--Whom do you mean? + +GESCHWITZ--Casti-Piani, upon whose forehead the most degenerate +baseness is written in letters of fire! + +LULU--Be silent! I’ll kick you, if you speak ill of =him=. He loves +me so uprightly that your most venturous self-sacrifices are beggary +in comparison! He gives me such proofs of self-denial as reveal +=you= for the first time in all your loathsomeness! You didn’t get +finished in your mother’s womb, neither as woman nor as man. You have +no human nature like the rest of us. The stuff didn’t go far enough +for a man, and for a woman you got too much brain in your noddle. +That’s the reason you’re crazy! Turn to Miss Bianetta! She can be +had for everything for pay! Press a gold-piece into her hand and +she’ll be yours. [_All the company save_ KADIDIA _throng in out of the +card-room_.] For the Lord’s sake, what has happened? + +PUNTSCHU--Nothing whatever! We’re thirsty, that’s all. + +MAGELONE--Everybody has won. We can’t believe it. + +BIANETTA--Seems to me I have won quite a fortune! + +LUDMILLA--Don’t boast of it, my child. That isn’t lucky. + +MAGELONE--But the bank has won, too! How is that =possible=? + +ALVA--It is colossal, where all the money comes from! + +CASTI-PIANI--Let us not ask! Enough that we need not spare the +champagne. + +HEILMANN--I can pay for a supper in a respectable restaurant +afterwards, anyway! + +ALVA--To the buffet, ladies! Come to the buffet! [_All exeunt, lower +left._] + +RODRIGO--[_Holding_ LULU _back_.] Un momong, my heart. Have you read my +billet-doux? + +LULU--Threaten me with discovery as much as you like! I have no more +twenty thousands to dispose of. + +RODRIGO--Don’t lie to me, you punk! You’ve still got forty thousand +in Jungfrau-stock. Your so-called spouse has just been bragging of it +himself! + +LULU--Then turn to =him= with your blackmailing! It’s all one to me +what he does with his money. + +RODRIGO--Thank you! With that blockhead I’d need twice twenty-four +hours to make him grasp what I was talking about. And then come his +explanations, that make one deathly sick; and meanwhile my bride-to-be +writes me to call it off, and I can just hang a hurdy-gurdy over my +shoulder. + +LULU--What, have you got engaged here? + +RODRIGO--Maybe I ought to have asked your permission first? What were +my thanks here for having freed you from prison at the cost of my +health? You abandoned me! I might have had to turn porter if this girl +hadn’t taken me up! At my entrance, the very first evening, somebody +threw a velvet-covered arm-chair at my head! This country is too +decadent to value genuine shows of strength any more. If I’d been a +boxing kangaroo they’d have interviewed me and put my picture in all +the papers. Thank Heaven, I’d already made the acquaintance of my +Celestine. She’s got the savings of twenty years deposited with the +government; and she loves me just for myself. She doesn’t aim at vile +vulgarities and nothing else like you. She’s had three children by an +American bishop--all of the greatest promise. Early day after to-morrow +we’re going to get married at the registrar’s. + +LULU--You have my blessing. + +RODRIGO--Your blessing can be stolen from me. I’ve told my bride I had +twenty thousand in stock at the bank. + +LULU--[_Amused._] And after that he boasts the woman loves him for +himself! + +RODRIGO--She honors in me the man of feeling, not the man of force +as you and all the others have done. That’s well over now. First +they’d tear the clothes from one’s body and then waltz around with the +chambermaid. I’ll be a skeleton before I’ll let myself in again for +such diversions! + +LULU--Then why the devil do you especially pursue poor Geschwitz with +your proposals? + +RODRIGO--Because the thing is of noble blood. I’m a man of the world, +and can do distinguished conversation better than any of you. But now +[_with a gesture_] my talk is hanging out of my mouth! Will you get me +the money before to-morrow evening, or won’t you? + +LULU--I have no money. + +RODRIGO--I’ll have hen-droppings in my head before I’ll let myself +be put off with that! He’ll give you his last cent if you’ll only do +your damned debt and duty by him once! You lured the poor lad here, +and now he can see where to scare up a suitable engagement for his +accomplishments. + +LULU--What is it to you if he wastes his money with women or at cards? + +RODRIGO--Do you absolutely =want=, then, to throw the last penny that +his father earned by his paper into the jaws of this rapacious pack? +You’ll make four people happy if you’ll strain a point and sacrifice +yourself for a philanthropic purpose! Has it got to be only Casti-Piani +=forever=? + +LULU--[_Lightly._] Shall I ask him perhaps to light you down the stairs? + +RODRIGO--As you wish, Countess! If I don’t get the twenty thousand +marks by to-morrow evening, I make a statement to the police and your +salon comes to an end. Auf Wiedersehen! [HEILMANN _enters, breathless, +upper right_.] + +LULU--You’re looking for Miss Magelone? She’s not here. + +HEILMANN--No, I’m looking for something else---- + +RODRIGO--[_Taking him to the entry-door, opposite him._] Second door on +the left. + +LULU--[_To_ RODRIGO.] Did you learn that from your bride? + +HEILMANN--[_Bumping into_ PUNTSCHU _in the doorway_.] Excuse me, my +angel! + +PUNTSCHU--Ah, it’s you. Miss Magelone’s waiting for you in the lift. + +HEILMANN--You go up with her, please. I’ll be right back. [_He hurries +out, left._ LULU _goes out at lower left_. RODRIGO _follows her_.] + +PUNTSCHU--Some heat, that! If I don’t cut off =your= ears, you’ll +cut ’em off me! If I can’t hire out my Jehoshaphat,[9] I’ve just got +to help myself with my brains! Won’t they get wrinkled, my brains! +Won’t they get indisposed! Won’t they need to bathe in Eau de Cologne! +[BOB, _a groom in a red jacket, tight leather breeches, and twinkling +riding-boots, fifteen years old, brings in a telegram_.] + +BOB--Mr. Puntschu, the banker! + +PUNTSCHU--[_Breaks open the telegram and murmurs_:] “Jungfrau Funicular +Stock fallen to----” Ay, ay, so goes the world! [_To_ BOB.] Wait! +[_Gives him a tip._] Tell me--what’s your name? + +BOB--Well, my name is Freddy, but they call me Bob, because that’s the +fashion now. + +PUNTSCHU--How old are you? + +BOB--Fifteen. + +KADIDIA--[_Enters hesitatingly from lower left._] I beg your pardon, +can you tell me if Mama is here? + +PUNTSCHU--No, my dear. [_Aside._] Devil, she’s got breeding! + +KADIDIA--I’m hunting all over for her; I can’t find her anywhere. + +PUNTSCHU--Your mama will turn up again soon, as true as my name’s +Puntschu! [_Looking at_ BOB.] And that pair of breeches! God of +Justice! It gets uncanny! [_He goes out, upper right._] + +KADIDIA--Haven’t =you= seen my mama, perhaps? + +BOB--No, but you only need to come with me. + +KADIDIA--Where is she then? + +BOB--She’s gone up in the lift. Come along. + +KADIDIA--No, no, I can’t go up with you. + +BOB--We can hide up there in the corridor. + +KADIDIA--No, no, I can’t come, or I’ll be scolded. [MAGELONE, _terribly +excited, rushes in, upper left, and possesses herself of_ KADIDIA.] + +MAGELONE--Ha, there you are at last, you common creature! + +KADIDIA--[_Crying._] O Mama, Mama, I was hunting for you! + +MAGELONE--Hunting for me? Did I tell you to hunt for me? What have +you had to do with this fellow? [HEILMANN, ALVA, LUDMILLA, PUNTSCHU, +GESCHWITZ, _and_ LULU _enter, lower left_. BOB _has slipped away_.] Now +don’t bawl before all the people on me; look out, I tell you! + +LULU--[_As they all surround_ KADIDIA.] But you’re crying, sweetheart! +Why are you crying? + +PUNTSCHU--By God, she’s really been crying! Who’s done anything to hurt +you, little goddess? + +LUDMILLA--[_Kneels before her and folds her in her arms._] Tell me, +cherub, what bad thing has happened. Do you want a cookie? Do you want +some chocolate? + +MAGELONE--It’s just nerves. The child’s getting them much too soon. It +would be best, anyway, if no one paid any attention to her! + +PUNTSCHU--That sounds like you! You’re a pretty mother! The courts’ll +take the child away from you yet and appoint me her guardian! +[_Stroking_ KADIDIA’S _cheeks_.] Isn’t that so, my little goddess? + +GESCHWITZ--I should be glad if we could start the baccarat again at +last! [_All go into the dining-room again._ LULU _is held back at the +door by_ BOB, _who comes from the upper entrance_.] + +LULU--[_When_ BOB _has whispered to her_.] Certainly! Let him come in! +[BOB _opens the hall door and lets_ SCHIGOLCH _enter, in evening dress, +his patent-leather shoes much worn, and keeping on his shabby opera +hat_.] + +SCHIGOLCH--[_With a look at_ BOB.] Where did you get him from? + +LULU--The circus. + +SCHIGOLCH--How much does he get? + +LULU--Ask him if it interests you. [_To_ BOB.] Shut the doors. [BOB +_goes out lower left, shutting the door behind him_.] + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Sitting down._] The truth is, I’m in need of money. I’ve +hired a flat for my mistress. + +LULU--Have you taken another mistress here, too? + +SCHIGOLCH--She’s from Frankfort. In her youth she was mistress to the +King of Naples. She tells me every day she was once very bewitching. + +LULU--[_Outwardly with complete composure._] Does she need the money +very badly? + +SCHIGOLCH--She wants to fit up her own apartments. Such sums are of no +account to =you=. [LULU _is suddenly overcome with a fit of weeping_.] + +LULU--[_Flinging herself at_ SCHIGOLCH.] O God Almighty! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Patting her._] Well? What is it now? + +LULU--[_Sobbing violently._] It’s too horrible! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Draws her onto his knee and holds her in his arms like a +little child._] Hm--You’re trying to do too much, child. You must go to +bed, now and then, with a story.--Cry, that’s right, cry it all out. +It used to shake you just so fifteen years ago. Nobody has screamed +since then, the way you could scream! You didn’t wear any white tufts +on your head then, nor any transparent stockings on your legs: you had +neither shoes nor stockings then. + +LULU--[_Crying._] Take me home with you! Take me home with you +to-night! Please! We’ll find carriages enough downstairs! + +SCHIGOLCH--I’ll take you with me; I’ll take you with me.--What is it? + +LULU--It’s going round my neck! I’m to be shown up! + +SCHIGOLCH--By whom? Who’s showing you up? + +LULU--The acrobat. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_With the utmost composure._] I’ll look after him. + +LULU--Look after him! =Please=, look after him! Then do with me what +you will! + +SCHIGOLCH--If he comes to me, he’s done for. My window is over the +water. But [_shaking his head_] he won’t come; he won’t come. + +LULU--What number do you live at? + +SCHIGOLCH--376, the last house before the hippodrome. + +LULU--I’ll send him there. He’ll come with the crazy woman that creeps +about my feet. He’ll come this very evening. Go home and let them find +it comfortable. + +SCHIGOLCH--Just let them come. + +LULU--To-morrow bring me the gold rings he wears in his ears. + +SCHIGOLCH--Has he got rings in his ears? + +LULU--You can take them out before you let him down. He doesn’t notice +anything when he’s drunk. + +SCHIGOLCH--And then, child--what then? + +LULU--Then I’ll give you the money for your mistress. + +SCHIGOLCH--I call that pretty stingy. + +LULU--And whatever else you want! Whatever I have. + +SCHIGOLCH--It’ll soon be ten years since we knew each other. + +LULU--Is that all?--But you’ve got a mistress. + +SCHIGOLCH--My Frankforter is no longer of to-day. + +LULU--But then swear! + +SCHIGOLCH--Haven’t I always kept my word to you? + +LULU--Swear that you’ll look after him. + +SCHIGOLCH--I’ll look after him. + +LULU--Swear it to me! Swear it to me! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Puts his hand on her ankle._] By everything that’s holy! +To-night, if he comes---- + +LULU--By everything that’s holy!--How that cools me! + +SCHIGOLCH--How this heats me! + +LULU--Oh, do drive straight home. They’ll come in half an hour! Take a +carriage! + +SCHIGOLCH--I’m going. + +LULU--Quick! Please!-- --All-powerful---- + +SCHIGOLCH--Why do you stare at me so again already? + +LULU--Nothing-- ... + +SCHIGOLCH--Well? Is your tongue frozen on you? + +LULU--My garter’s broken. + +SCHIGOLCH--What if it is? Is that all? + +LULU--What does that augur? + +SCHIGOLCH--What does it? I’ll fasten it for you if you’ll keep still. + +LULU--That augurs misfortune! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Yawning._] Not for you, child. Cheer up, I’ll look after +him! [_Exit._ LULU _puts her left foot on a foot-stool, fastens her +garter, and goes out into the card-room. Then_ RODRIGO _is cuffed in +from the dining-room, lower left, by_ CASTI-PIANI.] + +RODRIGO--You can treat me decently anyway! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Still perfectly unemotional._] Whatever would induce me +to do that? I wish to know what you said to her here a little while ago. + +RODRIGO--Then you can be very fond of me! + +CASTI-PIANI--Will you bandy words with me, dog? You demanded that she +go up in the lift with you! + +RODRIGO--That’s a shameless, perfidious lie! + +CASTI-PIANI--She told me so herself. You threatened to denounce her if +she didn’t go with you.--Shall I shoot you on the spot? + +RODRIGO--The shameless hussy! As if anything like that could occur to +me!--Even if I should want to have her, God knows I don’t first need to +threaten her with prison! + +CASTI-PIANI--Thank you. That’s all I wanted to know. [_Exit, upper +left._] + +RODRIGO--Such a hound! A fellow I could throw up onto the roof so he’d +stick like a Limburger cheese!--Come back here, so I can wind your guts +round your neck. That would be even better! + +LULU--[_Enters, lower left; merrily._] Where were you? I’ve been +hunting for you like a pin. + +RODRIGO--I’ve shown =him= what it means to start anything with me! + +LULU--Whom? + +RODRIGO--Your Casti-Piani! What made you tell him, you slut, that I +wanted to seduce you?! + +LULU--Did you not demand that I give myself to my late husband’s son +for twenty thousand in Jungfrau-shares? + +RODRIGO--Because it’s your duty to take pity on the poor young fellow! +You shot away his father before his nose in the prime of his life! But +your Casti-Piani will think it over before he comes into =my= sight +again. I gave him one in the basket that made his tripe fly to heaven +like Roman candles. If that’s the best substitute you have for me, then +I’m sorry I ever enjoyed your favor! + +LULU--Lady Geschwitz is in the fearfullest case. She twists herself up +in fits. She’s at the point of jumping into the water if you let her +wait any longer. + +RODRIGO--What’s the beast waiting for? + +LULU--For you to take her with you. + +RODRIGO--Then give her my regards, and she can jump into the water. + +LULU--She’ll lend me twenty thousand marks to save me from destruction +if you will preserve her from it herself. If you’ll take her off +to-night, I’ll deposit twenty thousand marks to-morrow in your name at +any bank you say. + +RODRIGO--And if I don’t take her off with me? + +LULU--Denounce me! Alva and I are dead broke. + +RODRIGO--Devil and damnation! + +LULU--You make four people happy if you strain a point and sacrifice +yourself for a worthy end. + +RODRIGO--It won’t go; I know that, beforehand. I’ve tried the thing +out thoroughly. Who’d have expected such a creditable feeling in that +bag o’ bones! What interested me in her was her being an aristocrat. +My behavior was as gentleman-like, and more, as you could find among +German circus-people. If I’d only just pinched her in the calves once! + +LULU--[_Watchfully._] She is still a virgin. + +RODRIGO--[_Sighing._] If there’s a God in heaven, you’ll get paid for +your jokes some day! I prophesy that. + +LULU--Geschwitz waits. What shall I tell her? + +RODRIGO--My very best wishes, and I am perverse. + +LULU--I will deliver that. + +RODRIGO--Wait a second. Is it certain sure I get twenty thousand marks +from her? + +LULU--Ask herself! + +RODRIGO--Then tell her I’m ready. I await her in the dining-room. I +must just first look after a barrel of caviare. [_Exit, left._ LULU +_opens the rear door and calls in a clear voice “Martha!”_ COUNTESS +GESCHWITZ _enters, closing the door behind her_.] + +LULU--[_Pleased._] Dear heart, you can save me from death to-night. + +GESCHWITZ--How? + +LULU--By going to a certain house with the acrobat. + +GESCHWITZ--What for, dear? + +LULU--He says you must belong to him this very night or he’ll denounce +me to-morrow. + +GESCHWITZ--You know I can’t belong to any man. My fate has not +permitted that. + +LULU--If you don’t please him, that’s his own fix. Why has he fallen in +love with you? + +GESCHWITZ--But he’ll get as brutal as a hangman. He’ll revenge himself +for his disappointment and beat my head in. I’ve been through that +already.... Can you not possibly spare me this ultimate test? + +LULU--What will you gain by his denouncing me? + +GESCHWITZ--I have still enough left of my fortune to take us to America +together in the steerage. There you’d be safe from all your pursuers. + +LULU--[_Pleased and gay._] I want to stay here. I can never be happy +in any other city. You must tell him that you can’t live without him. +Then he’ll feel flattered and be gentle as a lamb. You must pay the +coachman, too: give him this paper with the address on it. 376 is a +fourth-class hotel where they’re expecting you with him this evening. + +GESCHWITZ--[_Shuddering._] How can such a monstrosity save your life? +I don’t understand that. You have conjured up to torture me the most +terrible fate that can fall upon outlawed me! + +LULU--[_Watchful._] Perhaps the encounter will cure you. + +GESCHWITZ--[_Sighing._] O Lulu, if an eternal retribution does exist, +I hope I may not have to answer then for you. I cannot make myself +believe that no God watches over us. Yet you are probably right that +there is nothing there, for how can an insignificant worm like me have +provoked his wrath so as to experience only horror there where all +living creation swoons for bliss? + +LULU--You needn’t complain. When you =are= happy you’re a hundred +thousand times happier than one of us ordinary mortals ever is! + +GESCHWITZ--I know that too! I envy no one! But I am still waiting. You +have deceived me so often already. + +LULU--I am yours, my darling, if you quiet Mr. Acrobat till to-morrow. +He only wants his vanity placated. You must beseech him to take pity on +you. + +GESCHWITZ--And to-morrow? + +LULU--I await you, my heart. I shall not open my eyes till you come: +see no chambermaid, receive no hairdresser, not open my eyes before you +are with me. + +GESCHWITZ--Then let him come. + +LULU--But you must throw yourself at his head, dear! Have you got the +house-number? + +GESCHWITZ--Three-seventy-six. But quick now! + +LULU--[_Calls into the dining-room._] Ready, my darling? + +RODRIGO--[_Entering._] The ladies will pardon my mouth’s being full. + +GESCHWITZ--[_Seizing his hand._] I implore you, have mercy on my need! + +RODRIGO--A la bonne heure! Let us mount the scaffold! [_Offers her his +arm._] + +LULU--Good night, children! [_Accompanies them into the corridor ... +then quickly returns with_ BOB.] Quick, quick, Bob! We must get away +this moment! You escort me! But we must change clothes! + +BOB--[_Curt and clear._] As the gracious lady bids. + +LULU--Oh what, gracious lady! You give me your clothes and put on mine. +Come! [_Exeunt into the dining-room. Noise in the card-room, the doors +are torn open, and_ PUNTSCHU, HEILMANN, ALVA, BIANETTA, MAGELONE, +KADIDIA _and_ LUDMILLA _enter_, HEILMANN _holding a piece of paper with +a glowing Alpine peak at its top_.] + +HEILMANN--[_To_ PUNTSCHU.] Will you accept this share of +Jungfrau-stock, sir? + +PUNTSCHU--But that paper has no exchange, my friend. + +HEILMANN--You rascal! You just don’t want to give me my revenge! + +MAGELONE--[_To_ BIANETTA.] Have you any idea what it’s all about? + +LUDMILLA--Puntschu has taken all his money from him, and now gives up +the game. + +HEILMANN--Now he’s got cold feet, the filthy Jew! + +PUNTSCHU--How have I given up the game? How have I got cold feet? The +gentleman has merely to lay plain cash! Is this my banking-office I’m +in? He can proffer me his trash to-morrow morning! + +HEILMANN--Trash you call that? The stock to my knowledge is at 210! + +PUNTSCHU--Yesterday it was at 210, you’re right. To-day, it’s just +nowhere. And to-morrow you’ll find nothing cheaper or more tasteful to +paper your stairs with. + +ALVA--But how is that possible? Then we =would= be down and out! + +PUNTSCHU---Well, what am _I_ to say, who have lost my whole fortune +in it! To-morrow morning I shall have the pleasure of taking up the +struggle for an assured existence for the thirty-sixth time! + +MAGELONE--[_Pressing forward._] Am I dreaming or do I really understand +the Jungfrau-stock has fallen? + +PUNTSCHU--Fallen even lower than you! Tho you can use ’em for +curl-paper. + +MAGELONE--O God in Heaven! Ten years’ work! [_Falls in a faint._] + +KADIDIA--Wake up, Mama! Wake up! + +BIANETTA--Say, Mr. Puntschu, where will you eat this evening, since +you’ve lost your whole fortune? + +PUNTSCHU--Wherever you like, young lady! Take me where you will, but +quickly! Here it’s getting quite alarming. [_Exeunt_ PUNTSCHU _and_ +BIANETTA.] + +HEILMANN--[_Squeezing up his stock and flinging it to the ground._] +That is what one gets from this pack! + +LUDMILLA--Why did you speculate on the Jungfrau too? But just send a +few little notes on the company here to the German police, and you may +still win something in the end. + +HEILMANN--I’ve never tried that yet, but if you want to help me----? + +LUDMILLA--Let’s go to an all-night restaurant. Do you know the +Five-footed Calf? + +HEILMANN--I’m very sorry---- + +LUDMILLA--Or the Sucking Lamb, or the Smoking Dog? They’re all right +near here. We’ll be all by ourselves there, and before dawn we’ll have +a little article ready. + +HEILMANN--Don’t you sleep? + +LUDMILLA--Oh, of course; but not at night. [_Exeunt_ HEILMANN _and_ +LUDMILLA.] + +ALVA--[_Who has been trying to resuscitate_ MAGELONE.] Ice-cold hands! +Ah, what a splendid woman! We must undo her waist. Come, Kadidia, undo +your mother’s waist! She’s so fearfully tight-laced. + +KADIDIA--[_Without stirring._] I’m afraid. [LULU _enters lower left in +a jockey-cap, red jacket, white leather breeches and riding boots, a +riding cape over her shoulders_.] + +LULU--Have you any cash, Alva? + +ALVA--[_Looking up._] Have you gone crazy? + +LULU--In two minutes the police’ll be here. We are denounced. You can +stay, of course, if you’re eager to! + +ALVA--[_Springing up._] Merciful Heaven! [_Exeunt_ ALVA _and_ LULU.] + +KADIDIA--[_Shaking her mother, in tears._] Mama, Mama! Wake up! They’ve +all run away! + +MAGELONE--[_Coming to herself._] And youth gone! And my best days +behind me! Oh, this life! + +KADIDIA--But I’m young, Mama! Why shouldn’t I earn any money? I don’t +want to go back to the convent! Please, Mama, keep me with you! + +MAGELONE--God bless you, sweetheart! You don’t know what you say----Oh, +no, I shall look around for a vaudeville engagement, and sing the +people my misfortunes with the Jungfrau-stock. Things like that are +always applauded. + +KADIDIA--But you’ve got no voice, Mama! + +MAGELONE--Ah, yes, that’s true! + +KADIDIA--Take me with you into vaudeville! + +MAGELONE--No, it would break my heart!--But, well, if it can’t be +otherwise, and you’re so made for it,--I can’t change things!--Yes, we +can go to the Olympia together to-morrow! + +KADIDIA--O Mama, how glad that makes me feel! [_A plain-clothes +detective enters, upper left._] + +DETECTIVE--In the name of the law--I arrest you! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Following him, bored._] What sort of nonsense is that? +=That= isn’t the right one! + + +CURTAIN + + + + +ACT III + + + SCENE--_An attic room, without windows, but with two skylights, under + one of which stands a bowl filled with rain-water. Down right, + a door thru a board partition into a sort of cubicle under the + slanting roof. Near it, a wobbly flower-table with a bottle and + a smoking oil-lamp on it. Upper right, a worn-out couch. Door + centre; near it, a chair without a seat. Down left, below the + entrance door, a torn gray mattress. None of the doors can shut + tight._ + + _The rain beats on the roof_. SCHIGOLCH _in a long gray overcoat + lies on the mattress_; ALVA _on the couch, wrapped in a plaid + whose straps still hang on the wall above him_. + +SCHIGOLCH--The rain’s drumming for the parade. + +ALVA--Cheerful weather for her first appearance! I dreamt just now we +were dining together at the Olympia. Bianetta was with us there again. +The tablecloth was dripping on all four sides with champagne. + +SCHIGOLCH--Ya, ya. And I was dreaming of a Christmas pudding. [LULU +_appears with her rather short hair falling to her shoulders, barefoot, +in a torn black dress_.] Where have you been, child? Curling your hair +first? + +ALVA--She only does that to revive old memories. + +LULU--If one could only get warmed up a little, from one of you! + +ALVA--Are you going to enter barefoot on your pilgrimage? + +SCHIGOLCH--The first step always costs all kinds of moaning and +groaning. Twenty years ago it was no whit better, and what she has +learned since then! The coals only have to be blown. When she’s been at +it a week, not ten locomotives will hold her in our miserable attic. + +ALVA--The bowl is running over. + +LULU--What shall I do with the water? + +ALVA--Pour it out the window. [LULU _gets up on the chair and empties +the bowl thru the skylight_.] + +LULU--It looks as if the rain were going to let up at last. + +SCHIGOLCH--You’re wasting the time when the clerks go home after supper. + +LULU--Would to God I were lying somewhere where no step would wake me +any more! + +ALVA--Would that I were, too! Why prolong this life? Let’s rather +starve to death together this very evening in peace and concord! Aren’t +we at the last stage now? + +LULU--Why don’t =you= go out and get us something to eat? You’ve never +earned a penny in your whole life! + +ALVA--In this weather, when no one would kick a dog from his door? + +LULU--But me! I, with the little blood I have left in my limbs, I am to +stop your mouths! + +ALVA--I don’t touch a farthing of the money! + +SCHIGOLCH--Let her go, just! I long for one more Christmas pudding; +then I’ve had enough. + +ALVA--And I long for one more beefsteak and a cigarette; then die! I +was just dreaming of a cigarette, such as has never yet been smoked! + +SCHIGOLCH--She’ll rather see us finished before her eyes, than go and +do herself a little pleasure. + +LULU--The people on the street will sooner leave cloak and coat in my +hands than go with me for nothing! If you hadn’t sold my clothes, I at +least wouldn’t need to be afraid of the lamp-light. I’d like to see the +woman who could earn anything in the rags I’m wearing on my body! + +ALVA--I have left nothing human untried. As long as I had money I spent +whole nights making up tables with which one couldn’t help winning +against the cleverest card-sharps. And yet evening after evening I +lost more than if I had shaken out gold by the pailful. Then I offered +my services to the courtesans; but they don’t take anyone that the +courts haven’t first branded, and they see at the first glance if one’s +related to the guillotine or not. + +SCHIGOLCH--Ya, ya. + +ALVA--I spared myself no disillusionments; but when I made jokes, they +laughed at =me=, and when I behaved as respectable as I am, they boxed +my ears, and when I tried being smutty, they got so chaste and maidenly +that my hair stood up on my head for horror. Him who has not prevailed +over society, they have no confidence in. + +SCHIGOLCH--Won’t you kindly put on your boots now, child? I don’t think +I shall grow much older in this lodging. It’s months since I had any +feeling in the ends of my toes. Toward midnight, I’ll drink a bit more +down in the pub. The lady that keeps it told me yesterday I still had a +serious chance of becoming her lover. + +LULU--In the name of the three devils, I’ll go down! [_She puts to her +mouth the bottle on the flower-table._] + +SCHIGOLCH--So they can smell your stink a half-hour off! + +LULU--I shan’t drink it all. + +ALVA--You won’t go down. You’re my woman. You shan’t go down. I forbid +it! + +LULU--What would you forbid your woman when you can’t support yourself? + +ALVA--Whose fault is that? Who but my woman has laid me on the sick-bed? + +LULU--Am _I_ sick? + +ALVA--Who has trailed me thru the dung? Who has made me my father’s +murderer? + +LULU--Did =you= shoot him? He didn’t lose much, but when I see you +lying there I could hack off both my hands for having sinned against my +judgment! [_She goes out, into her room._] + +ALVA--She infected me from her Casti-Piani. It’s a long time since she +was susceptible to it herself! + +SCHIGOLCH--Little devils like her can’t begin putting up with it too +soon, if angels are ever going to come out of them. + +ALVA--She ought to have been born Empress of Russia. Then she’d +have been in the right place. A second Catherine the Second! [LULU +_re-enters with a worn-out pair of boots, and sits on the floor to put +them on_.] + +LULU--If only I don’t go headfirst down the stairs! Ugh, how cold! Is +there anything in the world more dismal than a daughter of joy? + +SCHIGOLCH--Patience, patience! It’s just a question of getting the +right push into the business. + +LULU--It’ll be all right with me! No one need pity me any more. [_Puts +the bottle to her lips._] That fires one!--O accursed! [_Exit._] + +SCHIGOLCH--When we hear her coming, we must creep into my cubby-hole +awhile. + +ALVA--I’m damned sorry for her! When I think back.... I grew up with +her in a way, you know. + +SCHIGOLCH--She’ll hold out as long as I live, anyway. + +ALVA--We treated each other at first like brother and sister. Mama +was still living then. I met her by chance one morning when she was +dressing. Dr. Goll had been called for a consultation. Her hairdresser +had read my first poem, that I’d had printed in “Society”: “Follow thy +pack far over the mountains; it will return again, covered with sweat +and dust----” + +SCHIGOLCH--Oh, ya! + +ALVA--And then she came, in rose-colored muslin, with nothing under it +but a white satin slip--for the Spanish ambassador’s ball. Dr. Goll +seemed to feel his death near. He asked me to dance with her, so she +shouldn’t cause any mad acts. Papa meanwhile never turned his eyes from +us, and all thru the waltz she was looking over my shoulder, only at +him.... Afterwards she shot him. It is unbelievable. + +SCHIGOLCH--I’ve only got a strong doubt whether anyone will bite any +more. + +ALVA--I shouldn’t like to advise anyone to! [SCHIGOLCH _grunts_.]--At +that time, tho she was a fully developed woman, she had the expression +of a five-year-old, joyous, utterly healthy child. And she was only +three years younger than me then--but how long ago it is now! For +all her immense superiority in matters of practical life, she let me +explain “Tristan and Isolde” to her--and how entrancingly she could +listen! Out of the little sister who even in her marriage still felt +like a schoolgirl, came the unhappy, hysterical artist’s wife. Out +of the artist’s wife came then the spouse of my murdered father, and +out of =her= came, then, my mistress. Well, so that is the way of the +world. Who will prevail against it? + +SCHIGOLCH--If only she doesn’t skid away from the gentlemen with +honorable intentions and bring us up instead some vagabond she’s +exchanged her heart’s secrets with. + +ALVA--I kissed her for the first time in her rustling bridal dress. +But afterwards she didn’t remember it.... All the same, I believe she +had thought of me even in my father’s arms. It can’t have been often +with him: he had his best time behind him, and she deceived him with +coachman and bootblack; but when she did give herself to him, then _I_ +stood before her soul. That was the way, without my realizing it, that +she acquired this dreadful power over me. + +SCHIGOLCH--There they are! [_Heavy steps are heard mounting the +stairs._] + +ALVA--[_Starting up._] I will not endure it! I’ll throw the fellow out! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Wearily picks himself up, takes_ ALVA _by the collar and +cuffs him toward the left_.] Forward, forward! How is the young man to +confess his trouble to her with us two sprawling round here? + +ALVA--But if he demands other things--low things--of her? + +SCHIGOLCH--If, well, if! What more will he demand of her? He’s only a +man like the rest of us! + +ALVA--We must leave the door open. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Pushing_ ALVA _in, right_.] Nonsense! Lie down! + +ALVA--I’ll hear it soon enough. Heaven spare him! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Closing the door, from inside._] Shut up! + +ALVA--[_Faintly._] He’d better look out! [LULU _enters, followed by_ +HUNIDEI, _a gigantic figure with a smooth-shaven, rosy face, sky-blue +eyes, and a friendly smile. He wears a tall hat and overcoat and +carries a dripping umbrella._] + +LULU--Here’s where I live. [HUNIDEI _puts his finger to his lips and +looks at_ LULU _significantly. Then he opens his umbrella and puts +it on the floor, rear, to dry._] Of course, I know it isn’t very +comfortable here. [HUNIDEI _comes forward and puts his hand over her +mouth_.] What do you mean me to understand by that? [HUNIDEI _puts his +hand over her mouth, and his finger to his lips_.] I don’t know what +that means. [HUNIDEI _quickly stops her mouth_. LULU _frees herself_.] +We’re quite alone here. No one will hear us. [HUNIDEI _lays his finger +on his lips, shakes his head, points at_ LULU, _opens his mouth as if +to speak, points at himself and then at the door_.] Good Lord, he’s +a monster! [HUNIDEI _stops her mouth; then goes rear, folds up his +overcoat and lays it over the chair near the door; then comes down with +a broad smile, takes_ LULU’s _head in both his hands and kisses her on +the forehead. The door, right, half opens._] + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Behind the door._] He’s got a screw loose. + +ALVA--He’d better look out! + +SCHIGOLCH--She couldn’t have brought up anything drearier! + +LULU--[_Stepping back._] I hope you’re going to give me something! +[HUNIDEI _stops her mouth and presses a gold-piece in her hand, then +looks at her uncertain, questioningly, as she examines it and throws +it from one hand to the other_.] All right, it’s good. [_Puts it in +her pocket._ HUNIDEI _quickly stops her mouth, gives her a few silver +coins, and glances at her commandingly_.] Oh, that’s nice of you! +[HUNIDEI _leaps madly about the room, brandishing his arms and staring +upward in despair_. LULU _cautiously nears him, throws an arm round him +and kisses him on the mouth. Laughing soundlessly, he frees himself +from her and looks questioningly around. She takes up the lamp and +opens the door to her room. He goes in smiling, taking off his hat. The +stage is dark save for what light comes thru the cracks of the door._ +ALVA _and_ SCHIGOLCH _creep out on all fours_.] + +ALVA--They’re gone. + +SCHIGOLCH--[_Behind him._] Wait. + +ALVA--One can hear nothing here. + +SCHIGOLCH--You’ve heard that often enough! + +ALVA--I will kneel before her door. + +SCHIGOLCH--Little mother’s sonny! [_Presses past_ ALVA, _gropes across +the stage to_ HUNIDEI’s _coat, and searches the pockets_. ALVA _crawls +to_ LULU’s _door_.] Gloves, nothing more! [_Turns the coat round, +searches the inside pockets, pulls a book out that he gives to_ ALVA.] +Just see what that is. [ALVA _holds the book to the light_.] + +ALVA--[_Wearily deciphering the title-page._] Warnings to pious +pilgrims and such as wish to be so. Very helpful. Price, 2s. 6d. + +SCHIGOLCH--It looks to me as if God had left =him= pretty completely. +[_Lays the coat over the chair again and makes for the cubby-hole._] +There’s nothing =to= these people. The country’s best time’s behind it! + +ALVA--Life is never as bad as it’s painted. [_He, too, creeps back._] + +SCHIGOLCH--Not even a silk muffler he’s got and yet in Germany we creep +on our bellies before this rabble. + +ALVA--Come, let’s vanish again. + +SCHIGOLCH--She only thinks of herself, and takes the first man that +runs across her path. Hope the dog remembers her the rest of his +life! [_They disappear, left, shutting the door behind them._ LULU +_re-enters, setting the lamp on the table_. HUNIDEI _follows_.] + +LULU--Will you come to see me again? [HUNIDEI _stops her mouth. She +looks upward in a sort of despair and shakes her head_. HUNIDEI, +_putting his coat on, approaches her grinning; she throws her arms +around his neck; he gently frees himself, kisses her hand, and turns +to the door. She starts to accompany him, but he signs to her to +stay behind and noiselessly leaves the room._ SCHIGOLCH _and_ ALVA +_re-enter_.] + +LULU--[_Tonelessly._] How he has stirred me up! + +ALVA--How much did he give you? + +LULU--[_As before._] Here it is! All! Take it! I’m going down again. + +SCHIGOLCH--We can still live like princes up here. + +ALVA--He’s coming back. + +SCHIGOLCH--Then let’s just retire again, quick. + +ALVA--He’s after his prayer-book. Here it is. It must have fallen out +of his coat. + +LULU--[_Listening._] No, that isn’t he. That’s someone else. + +ALVA--Someone’s coming up. I hear it quite plainly. + +LULU--Now there’s someone tapping at the door. Who can it be? + +SCHIGOLCH--Probably a good friend he’s recommended us to. Come in! +[COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _enters, in poor clothes, with a canvas roll in her +hand_.] + +GESCHWITZ--[_To_ LULU.] If I’ve come at a bad time, I’ll turn around +again. The truth is, I haven’t spoken to a living soul for ten days. I +must just tell you right off, I haven’t received any money. My brother +never answered me at all. + +SCHIGOLCH--And now your ladyship would like to stretch her feet out +under =our= table? + +LULU--[_Tonelessly._] I’m going down again. + +GESCHWITZ--Where are you going, in this finery?--Tho penniless, I have +come not wholly empty-handed. I bring you something else. On my way +here an old-clothes-man offered me twelve shillings for it, yes--but I +could not force myself to part from it. You can sell it if you want to, +tho. + +SCHIGOLCH--What is it? + +ALVA--Let us see it. [_Takes the canvas and unrolls it. Visibly +rejoiced._] Oh, by God, it’s Lulu’s portrait! + +LULU--[_Screaming._] Monster, you brought that here? Get it out of my +sight! Throw it out of the window! + +ALVA--[_Suddenly with renewed life, deeply pleased._] Why, I should +like to know? Looking on this picture I regain my self-respect. It +makes my fate comprehensible to me. Everything we have endured gets +clear as day. [_In a somewhat elegiac strain._] Let him who feels +secure in his respectable citizenship when he sees these blossoming +pouting lips, these child-eyes, big and innocent, this rose-white body +abounding in life,--let him cast the first stone at us! + +SCHIGOLCH--We must nail it up. It will make an excellent impression on +our patrons. + +ALVA--[_Energetic._] There’s a nail sticking all ready for it in the +wall. + +SCHIGOLCH--But how did you come upon this acquisition? + +GESCHWITZ--I secretly cut it out of the wall in your house, there, +after you were gone. + +ALVA--Too bad the color’s got rubbed off round the edges. You didn’t +roll it up carefully enough. [_Fastens it to a high nail in the wall._] + +SCHIGOLCH--It’s got to have another one underneath if it’s going to +hold. It makes the whole flat look more elegant. + +ALVA--Let me alone; I know how I’ll do it. [_He tears several nails out +of the wall, pulls off his left boot, and with its heel nails the edges +of the picture to the wall._] + +SCHIGOLCH--It’s just got to hang awhile again, to get its proper +effect. Whoever looks at that’ll imagine afterwards he’s been in an +Indian harem. + +ALVA--[_Putting on his boot again, standing up proudly._] Her body was +at its highest point of development when that picture was painted. The +lamp, dear child! Seems to me it’s got extraordinarily dark. + +GESCHWITZ---He must have been an eminently gifted artist who painted +that! + +LULU--[_Perfectly composed again, stepping before the picture with the +lamp._] Didn’t you know him, then? + +GESCHWITZ--No. It must have been long before my time. I only +occasionally heard chance remarks of yours, that he had cut his throat +from persecution-mania. + +ALVA--[_Comparing the picture with_ LULU.] The child-like expression +in the eyes is still absolutely the same in spite of all she has lived +thru since. [_In joyous excitement._] But the dewy freshness that +covers her skin, the sweet-smelling breath from her lips, the rays of +light that beam from her white forehead, and this challenging splendor +of young flesh in throat and arms---- + +SCHIGOLCH--All that’s gone with the rubbish wagon. She can say with +self-assurance: That was me once! The man she falls into the hands of +to-day’ll have no conception of what we were when we were young. + +ALVA--[_Cheerfully._] God be thanked, we don’t notice the gradual +decline when we see a person all the time. [_Lightly._] The woman +blooms for us in the moment when she hurls the man to destruction for +the rest of his life. That is, so to say, her nature and her destiny. + +SCHIGOLCH--Down in the street-lamp’s shimmer she’s still a match for a +dozen walking spectres. The man who still wants to make connections at +this hour looks out more for heart-qualities than mere physical good +points. He decides for the pair of eyes from which the least thievery +sparkles. + +LULU--[_Now as pleased as_ ALVA.] I shall see if you’re right. Adieu. + +ALVA--[_In sudden anger._] You shall not go down again, as I live! + +GESCHWITZ--Where do you want to go? + +ALVA--Down to fetch up a man. + +GESCHWITZ--Lulu! + +ALVA--She’s done it once to-day already. + +GESCHWITZ--Lulu, Lulu, where you go I go, too. + +SCHIGOLCH--If you want to put your bones up for sale, kindly hunt up a +district of your own! + +GESCHWITZ--Lulu, I shall not stir from your side! I have weapons upon +me. + +SCHIGOLCH--Confound it all, her ladyship means to fish with our bait! + +LULU--You’re killing me. I can’t stand it here any more. [_Exit._] + +GESCHWITZ--You need fear nothing. I am with you. [_Follows her._] + +ALVA--[_Whimpering, throws himself on his couch._ SCHIGOLCH _swears, +loudly and grumbling_.] I guess there’s not much more good to expect on +this side! + +SCHIGOLCH--We ought to have held the creature back by the throat. +She’ll scare away everything that breathes with her aristocratic +death’s head. + +ALVA--She’s flung me onto a sick-bed and larded me with thorns outside +and in! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_On_ GESCHWITZ _still_.] All the same, she’s got enough +spirit in her for ten men, she has! + +ALVA--No mortally wounded man’ll ever be more thankful for his +coup-de-grâce than I! + +SCHIGOLCH--If she hadn’t enticed the acrobat into my place that time, +we’d still have had =him= round our necks to-day. + +ALVA--I see it trembling above my head as Tantalus saw the branch with +the golden apples! + +SCHIGOLCH--[_On his mattress._] Won’t you turn up the lamp a little? + +ALVA--I wonder, can a simple, natural man in the wilderness suffer so +unspeakably, too?--God, God, what have I made of my life! + +SCHIGOLCH--What’s the beastly weather made of my ulster!--When _I_ was +five-and-twenty, I knew how to help myself! + +ALVA--Not everyone has had the joy of my sunny, glorious youth! + +SCHIGOLCH--I guess it’s going right out. When they come back it’ll be +as dark in here again as in the womb. + +ALVA--With the clearest consciousness of my purpose I sought the +companionship of people who’d never read a book in their lives. With +self-denial, with exaltation, I clung to the elements, that I might +be carried to the loftiest heights of poetic fame. The reckoning was +false. I am the martyr of my calling. Since the death of my father I +have not written a single verse! + +SCHIGOLCH--If only they haven’t stayed together! Nobody but a silly boy +will go with two, no matter what. + +ALVA--They’ve not stayed together! + +SCHIGOLCH--That’s what I hope. If need be, she’ll keep the creature off +from her with kicks. + +ALVA--One, risen from the dregs, is the most celebrated man of his +nation; another, born in the purple, lies in the mud and cannot die! + +SCHIGOLCH--Here they come! + +ALVA--And what blessed hours of mutual joy in creation they had lived +thru with each other! + +SCHIGOLCH--That they can rightly do for the first time now!--We must +hide again. + +ALVA--I stay here. + +SCHIGOLCH--Just what do you pity them for?--He who spends his money has +his good reasons for it! + +ALVA--I have no longer the moral courage to let my comfort be disturbed +for a miserable sum of money! [_He wraps himself up in his plaid._] + +SCHIGOLCH--Noblesse oblige! A respectable man does what he owes his +position. [_He hides, left._ LULU _opens the door, saying “Come right +in, dearie,” and there enters_ PRINCE KUNGU POTI, _heir-apparent of +Uahubee, in a light suit, white spats, tan button-boots, and a gray +tall hat. His speech, interrupted with frequent hiccoughs, abounds +with the peculiar African hiss-sounds._] + +KUNGU POTI--God damn--it’s dark on the stairs! + +LULU--It’s lighter here, sweetheart. [_Pulling him forward by the +hand._] Come on! + +KUNGU POTI--But it’s cold here, awful cold! + +LULU--Have some brandy? + +KUNGU POTI--Brandy? You bet--always! Brandy’s good! + +LULU--[_Giving him the bottle._] I don’t know where the glass is. + +KUNGU POTI--Doesn’t matter. [_Drinks._] Brandy! Lots of it! + +LULU--You’re a nice-looking young man. + +KUNGU POTI--My father’s the emperor of Uahubee. I’ve got six wives +here, two Spanish, two English, two French. Well--I don’t like my +wives. Always I must take a bath, take a bath, take a bath.... + +LULU--How much will you give me? + +KUNGU POTI--Gold! You trust me, you’ll have gold! One gold-piece. I +always give gold-pieces. + +LULU--You can give it to me later, but show it to me. + +KUNGU POTI--I never pay beforehand. + +LULU--But you can show it to me, tho! + +KUNGU POTI--Don’t understand, don’t understand! Come, Ragapsishimulara! +[_Seizing_ LULU _round the waist_.] Come on! + +LULU--[_Defending herself with all her strength._] Let me be! Let me +be! [ALVA, _who has risen painfully from his couch, sneaks up to_ +KUNGU POTI _from behind and pulls him back by the collar_.] + +KUNGU POTI--[_Whirling round._] Oh! Oh! This is a murder-hole! +Come, my friend. I’ll put you to sleep! [_Strikes him over the head +with a loaded cane._ ALVA _groans and falls in a heap_.] Here’s a +sleeping-draught! Here’s opium for you! Sweet dreams to you! Sweet +dreams! [_Then he gives_ LULU _a kiss; pointing to_ ALVA.] He dreams of +you, Ragapsishimulara! Sweet dreams! [_Rushing to the door._] Here’s +the door! [_Exit._] + +LULU--But I’ll not stay here?!--Who can stand it here now!--Rather down +onto the street! [_Exit._ SCHIGOLCH _comes out_.] + +SCHIGOLCH--Blood!--Alva!--He’s got to be put away somewhere. Hop!--Or +else our friends’ll get a shock from him--Alva! Alva!--He that isn’t +quite clear about it---- One thing or t’other; or it’ll soon be too +late! I’ll give him legs! [_Strikes a match and sticks it into_ ALVA’S +_collar_....] He will have his rest. But no one sleeps here.--[_Drags +him by the head into_ LULU’S _room. Returning, he tries to turn up the +light._] It’ll be time for me, too, right soon now, or they’ll get no +more Christmas puddings down there in the tavern. God knows when she’ll +be coming back from her pleasure tour! [_Fixing an eye on_ LULU’S +_picture_.] She doesn’t understand business! She can’t live off love, +because her life is love.--There she comes. I’ll just talk straight to +her once---- [COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _enters_.] ... If you want to lodge +with us to-night, kindly take a little care that nothing is stolen here. + +GESCHWITZ--How dark it is here! + +SCHIGOLCH--It gets much darker than this.--The doctor’s already gone to +rest. + +GESCHWITZ--She sent me ahead. + +SCHIGOLCH--That was sensible.--If anyone asks for me, I’m sitting +downstairs in the pub. + +GESCHWITZ--[_After he has gone._] I will sit behind the door. I will +look on at everything and not quiver an eyelash. [_Sits on the broken +chair._] Men and women don’t know themselves--they know not what they +are. Only one who is neither man nor woman knows them. Every word they +say is untrue, a lie. And they do not know it, for they are to-day so +and to-morrow so, according as they have eaten, drunk, and loved, or +not. Only the body remains for a time what it is, and only the children +have reason. The men and women are like the animals: none knows what +it does. When they are happiest they bewail themselves and groan, and +in their deepest misery they rejoice over every tiny morsel. It is +strange how hunger takes from men and women the strength to withstand +misfortune. But when they have fed full they make this world a +torture-chamber, they throw away their lives to satisfy a whim, a mood. +Have there ever once been men and women to whom love brought happiness? +And what is their happiness, save that they sleep better and can forget +it all? My God, I thank thee that thou hast not made me as these. I am +not man nor woman. My body has nothing common with their bodies. Have +I a human soul? Tortured humanity has a little narrow heart; but I know +it’s no virtue of mine if I resign all, sacrifice all.... [LULU _opens +the door, and_ DR. HILTI _enters_. GESCHWITZ, _unnoticed, remains +motionless by the door_.] + +LULU--[_Gaily._] Come right in! Come!--you’ll stay with me all night? + +DR. HILTI--[_His accent is very broad and flat._[10]] But I have no +more than five shillings on me. I never take more than that when I go +out. + +LULU--That’s enough, seeing it’s you! You have such faithful eyes! +Come, give me a kiss! [_She flings herself down on the couch._ DR. +HILTI _begins to swear in his native tongue_.[11]] Please, don’t say +that. + +DR. HILTI--By the devil, this is really the first time I’ve ever gone +with a girl! You can believe me. Mass, I hadn’t thought it would be +like this! + +LULU--Are you married? + +DR. HILTI--Heaven and Hail, why do you think I am married?--No, I’m a +tutor; I read philosophy at the University. The truth is, I come of a +very old country family. When I was a student, I only got two gulden +a week for pocket-money, and I could make better use of that than for +girls! + +LULU--So you have never been with a woman? + +DR. HILTI--Just so, yeah! But I want it now. I got engaged this evening +to a country-woman of mine. She’s a governess here. + +LULU--Is she pretty? + +DR. HILTI--Yeah, she’s got a hundred thousand.--I am very much excited, +as it seems to me. + +LULU--[_Tossing back her hair and getting up._] I =am= in luck! [_Takes +the lamp._] Well, if you please, Mr. Tutor? [_They go into her room._ +GESCHWITZ _draws a small black revolver from her pocket and sets it to +her forehead_.] + +GESCHWITZ--Come, come,--beloved! [DR. HILTI _tears open the door +again_.] + +DR. HILTI--[_Plunging in._] Insane seraphs! Someone’s lying in there! + +LULU--[_Lamp in hand, holds him by the sleeve._] Stay with me! + +DR. HILTI--A dead man! A corpse! + +LULU--Stay with me! Stay with me! + +DR. HILTI--[_Tearing away._] A corpse is lying in there! Horrors! Hail! +Heaven! + +LULU--Stay with me! + +DR. HILTI--Where d’s it go out? [_Sees_ GESCHWITZ.] And there is the +devil! + +LULU--Please, stop, stay! + +DR. HILTI--Devil, devilled devilry.--Oh, thou eternal----[_Exit._] + +LULU--[_Rushing after him._] Stop! Stop! + +GESCHWITZ--[_Alone, lets the revolver sink._] Better, hang! If now +she sees me lying in my blood, she’ll not weep a tear for me! I have +always been to her but the docile tool that she could use for the +most difficult tasks. From the first day she has abhorred me from +the depths of her soul.--Shall I not rather jump from the bridge? +Which could be colder, the water or her heart? I would dream till I +was drowned.----Better, hang!----Stab?--Hm, there would be no use in +that---- How often have I dreamt that she kissed me! But a minute more; +an owl knocks there at the window, and I wake up----Better, hang! Not +water; water is too clean for me. [_Starting up._] There!--There! There +it is!--Quick now, before she comes! [_Takes the plaid-straps from the +wall, climbs on the chair, fastens them to a hook in the doorpost, puts +her head thru them, kicks the chair away, and falls to the ground._] +Accursed life!--Accursed life!--Could it be before me still?--Let me +speak to your heart just once, my angel! But you are cold!--I am not +to go yet! Perhaps I am even to have been happy once.--Listen to him, +Lulu! I am not to go yet! [_She drags herself before_ LULU’S _picture, +sinks on her knees and folds her hands_.] My adoréd angel! My love! My +star!--Have mercy upon me, pity me, pity me, pity me! [LULU _opens the +door, and_ JACK _enters--a thick-set man of elastic movements, with a +pale face, inflamed eyes, arched and heavy brows, a drooping mustache, +thin imperial and shaggy whiskers, and fiery red hands with gnawed +nails. His eyes are fixed on the ground. He wears a dark overcoat and +a little round felt hat. Entering, he notices_ GESCHWITZ.] + +JACK--Who is that? + +LULU--That’s my sister, sir. She’s crazy. I don’t know how to get rid +of her. + +JACK--Your mouth looks beautiful. + +LULU--It’s my mother’s. + +JACK--Looks like it. How much do you want? I haven’t got much money. + +LULU--Won’t you spend the night with me here? + +JACK--No, haven’t got the time. I must get home. + +LULU--You can tell them at home to-morrow that you missed the last ’bus +and spent the night with a friend. + +JACK--How much do you want? + +LULU--I’m not after lumps of gold, but, well, a little something. + +JACK--[_Turning._] Good night! Good night! + +LULU--[_Holds him back._] No, no! Stay, for God’s sake! + +JACK--[_Goes past_ GESCHWITZ _and opens the cubicle_.] Why should I +stay here till morning? Sounds suspicious! When I’m asleep they’ll turn +my pockets out. + +LULU--No, I won’t do that! No one will! Don’t go away again for that! I +beg you! + +JACK--How much do you want? + +LULU--Then give me the half of what I said! + +JACK--No, that’s too much. You don’t seem to have been at this long? + +LULU--To-day is the first time. [GESCHWITZ, _still on her knees, has +half risen toward_ JACK; LULU _yanks her back by the straps around her +neck_.] Lie down and be quiet! + +JACK--Let her alone! She isn’t your sister. She is in love with you. +[_Strokes_ GESCHWITZ’S _head like a dog’s_.] Poor beast! + +LULU--Why do you stare at me so all at once? + +JACK--I got your measure by the way you walked. I said to myself: That +girl must have a well-built body. + +LULU--But how can you tell a thing like that? + +JACK--I even saw that you had a pretty mouth. But I’ve only got a +florin on me. + +LULU--Well, what difference does that make! Just give that to me! + +JACK--But you’ll have to give me half back, so I can take the ’bus +to-morrow morning. + +LULU--I have nothing on me. + +JACK--Just look, though. Hunt thru your pockets!--Well, what’s that? +Let’s see it! + +LULU--[_Showing him._] That’s all I have. + +JACK--Give it to me! + +LULU--I’ll change it to-morrow, and then give you half. + +JACK--No, give it all to me. + +LULU--[_Giving it._] In God’s name! But now you come! [_Takes up the +lamp._] + +JACK--We need no light. The moon’s out. + +LULU--[_Puts the lamp down._] As you say. [_She falls on his neck._] I +won’t harm you at all! I love you so! Don’t let me beg you any longer! + +JACK--All right; I’m with you. [_Follows her into the cubby-hole. The +lamp goes out. On the floor under the two skylights appear two vivid +squares of moonlight. Everything in the room is clearly seen._] + +GESCHWITZ--[_As in a dream._] This is the last evening I shall spend +with these people. I’m going back to Germany. My mother’ll send me the +money. I’ll go to a university. I must fight for woman’s rights; study +law.... [LULU _shrieks, and tears open the door_.] + +LULU--[_Barefoot, in chemise and petticoat, holding the door shut +behind her._] Help! Help! [GESCHWITZ _rushes to the door, draws her +revolver, and crying “Let go!” pushes_ LULU _aside. As she aims at the +door_, JACK, _bent double, tears it open from inside, and runs a knife +into_ GESCHWITZ’S _body. She fires one shot, at the roof, and falls +with suppressed crying, crumpling up._ JACK _tears her revolver from +her and throws himself against the exit-door_.] + +JACK--God damn! I never saw a prettier mouth! [_Sweat drips from +his hairy face. His hands are bloody. He pants, gasping violently, +and stares at the floor with eyes popping out of his head._ LULU, +_trembling in every limb, looks wildly round. Suddenly she seizes the +bottle, smashes it on the table, and with the broken neck in her hand +rushes upon_ JACK. _He swings up his right foot and throws her onto her +back. Then he lifts her up._] + +LULU--No, no!--Mercy!--Murder!--Police! Police! + +JACK--Be still. You’ll never get away from me again. [_Carries her in._] + +LULU--[_Within, right._] No.--No!--No!--Ah!--Ah!... [_After a pause_, +JACK _re-enters. He puts the bowl on the table._] + +JACK--That =was= a piece of work! [_Washing his hands._] I =am= a +damned lucky chap! [_Looks round for a towel._] Not even a towel, +these folks here! Hell of a wretched hole! [_He dries his hands on_ +GESCHWITZ’S _petticoat_.] This invert is safe enough from me! [_To +her._] It’ll soon be all up with you, too. [_Exit._] + +GESCHWITZ--[_Alone._] Lulu!--My angel!--Let me see thee once more! +I am near thee--stay near thee--forever! [_Her elbows give way._] O +cursed--!! [_Dies._] + + +CURTAIN + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] For the meaning of this see page 51. + +[10] In the original he comes from Basle, Switzerland. English with a +Dutch accent might offer the best equivalent. + +[11] “Hiemäl, Härgoht, Töüfäl, Kräuzpataliohn,” such is the weird +appearance of all his German. + + + + + DAMNATION! + + (TOD UND TEUFEL) + + A Death-Dance in Three Scenes + + + “Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν + ὅτι οἱ πόρναι + προάγουσιν ὑμᾶς + εἰς τῆν βασιλείαν + τοῦ Θεοῦ.” + ὁ Ἰησοῦς. + (_Matth._ 21. 31.) + + + + +CHARACTERS + + + MARQUIS CASTI-PIANI + FRÄULEIN ELFRIEDE VON MALCHUS + HERR KÖNIG + LISISKA + THREE GIRLS + + + SCENE--_A room with three doors, and windows with the blinds drawn. On + each side, facing each other, two arm-chairs upholstered in red. + In both down-stage corners are little trellis screens behind which + the actor is hidden from the stage tho not from the audience. Red + upholstered stools in both these corners._ + + ELFRIEDE VON MALCHUS _sits in one of the arm-chairs. She is + evidently uneasy. She wears a modern “reformed” dress with hat, + cloak, and gloves._ + +ELFRIEDE--How much longer are they going to keep me waiting? [_Long +pause. She remains sitting motionless._] How much longer are they going +to keep me waiting! [_Long pause as before._] How much longer are +they going to keep me waiting here!! [_After a moment, she gets up, +takes off her cloak and lays it on the chair, takes off her hat and +puts it on the cloak, and then walks up and down twice with manifest +excitement. Stopping, she cries again_:] How much longer will they +keep me waiting here??!! [_On her last word, the_ MARQUIS CASTI-PIANI +_enters thru the centre door. He is a tall, bald-headed man, with a +high forehead, great black, melancholy eyes, strong, hooked nose, and +thick, drooping black mustache. He wears a black coat, a dark, fancy +waistcoat, dark gray trousers, patent-leather shoes and a black cravat +with a diamond pin._] + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Bowing._] What can I do for you, madam? + +ELFRIEDE--I have already explained it to the--lady, as clearly as I can +possibly explain it, =why= I am here. + +CASTI-PIANI--The--lady told me why you were here. The lady told me also +that you were a member of the International Union for the Suppression +of the White Slave Traffic. + +ELFRIEDE--=That= I =am=! I =am= a member of the International Union for +the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. But even if I did =not= +belong to it I could not possibly have spared myself this search! For +nine months I’ve been on the track of this unfortunate, and everywhere +I’ve been so far she’d just been carried off to another city. But +she is in this house! She’s here at this moment! The--lady who was +here just now admitted that, without any beating round the bush. She +promised me she would send the girl here to this room, so that I could +speak with her in private and undisturbed. I am waiting here now for +the girl, and for no one else. I have no desire and no need to go +through a second cross-examination. + +CASTI-PIANI--I beg you, madam, not to excite yourself further. The +girl felt she should present herself to you--respectably dressed. The +lady asked me to tell you that, for she feared that in your agitation +you might be tempted to take some needlessly violent measure. And she +asked me to do what I could to help you through the embarrassment which +waiting in these surroundings would naturally cause you. + +ELFRIEDE--[_Walking up and down._] Pray keep your amiable conversation +to yourself! There is nothing new for me now in the atmosphere of this +place. The first time I entered such a house, I had to fight physical +nausea. Only then did I realize what tremendous self-suppression my +entrance into the Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic +had involved me in. Till then I had taken part in our activities as an +idle pastime, solely to avoid growing old and gray in uselessness. + +CASTI-PIANI--This confession awakens in me so much sympathy that I feel +tempted to ask you for your credentials as an active member of the +International Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. +We know from experience that a lot of people crowd into that calling +who have quite other ends in view than the rescue of fallen girls. If +you are earnestly bent on attaining your high purposes, the strict +precautions we are compelled to use will assuredly meet your approval. + +ELFRIEDE--I have been a member of our Union for nearly three years now. +My name is--Fräulein von Malchus. + +CASTI-PIANI--Elfriede von Malchus? + +ELFRIEDE--Yes, Elfriede von Malchus.--How do you know my first name? + +CASTI-PIANI--Why, we read the annual reports of the Union. If I +remember right, you were a distinguished speaker at last year’s annual +meeting in Cologne? + +ELFRIEDE--I am sorry to say that for two whole years I did nothing but +write and speak and speak and write, without ever working up courage to +attack the white slave traffic directly, until finally the white slave +traffic found a victim under my own roof, in my own family! + +CASTI-PIANI--If I am rightly advised, however, only your own papers, +books, and magazines were to blame for this misfortune. Apparently you +did not keep them carefully enough away from the young person for whose +rescue you are here at this moment? + +ELFRIEDE--There you are absolutely right! I grieve to confess I cannot +contradict you there! Night after night, when I had stretched under +the bed-clothes, content with myself and the world, for a ten-hour +sleep undisturbed by any earthly emotion, that seventeen-year-old girl +crept into my study without my ever dreaming of it and glutted her +love-starved imagination with the most seductive pictures of sensual +pleasure, and the fearfullest vice, from my piles of books on the +suppression of the white slave traffic. Silly goose that I was, in +spite of my twenty-eight years, I never saw the next morning that the +girl had sat up all night! I had never in my life known a sleepless +night! When I went to work again in the morning I never once asked +myself how my papers could have got into such atrocious confusion! + +CASTI-PIANI--If I mistake not, my dear young lady, the girl had been +engaged by your parents to do the lighter housework? + +ELFRIEDE--To her destruction! Yes! Mama as well as Papa was enchanted +with her propriety and modesty. To Papa, who is a ministerial official +and a bureaucrat of the purest water, her presence in our house was +like a sunbeam. At her sudden disappearance, Papa as well as Mama +stopped calling my activities for the Union an old maid’s eccentricity. +They called it an outright crime. + +CASTI-PIANI--The girl is the illegitimate child of a wash-woman?--Do +you perhaps know who her father was? + +ELFRIEDE--No, I never asked her about that.--But pray who are you? How +do you come to know all this? + +CASTI-PIANI--Hm--the girl had read in one of your Union’s publications +that certain advertisements were published in the daily papers by +which, under certain well-known false pretenses, the white-slavers +decoyed young girls into their clutches in order to introduce them to +the love-market. Accordingly, the girl looked up an insertion of that +kind in the first paper that came to hand, and on finding one, wrote a +very correct letter of application for the position falsely advertised +in the insertion. In this way I made her acquaintance. + +ELFRIEDE--And you dare tell me that--with such cynicism! + +CASTI-PIANI--I dare tell you that, my dear young lady, with just such +objectivity. + +ELFRIEDE--[_In the utmost excitement, with fists clenched._] So the +monster who delivered up this girl to a life of shame was you! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_With a disconsolate smile._] If you guessed, my dear +young lady, the hidden springs of your diabolical excitement, you would +be wise enough, perhaps, to keep perfectly calm in the presence of such +a monster as _I_ seem to you to be. + +ELFRIEDE--[_Curt._] I don’t understand that. I don’t know what you mean! + +CASTI-PIANI--You--are--still--a virgin? + +ELFRIEDE--[_Gasping._] How dare you put such a question to me! + +CASTI-PIANI--Who in God’s wide world will forbid me!--But we’ll leave +that. In any case, you have not married. You are, as you just informed +me yourself, twenty-eight years old. These facts may be sufficient to +prove to you that in comparison with other women, not to speak of that +child of nature for whose rescue you have come here,--you are only to a +very slight degree open to sensuous influences. + +ELFRIEDE--You may be right in that. + +CASTI-PIANI--I speak, of course, only with the understanding that I +shall not annoy you with this discussion. I am very far from thinking +you unhealthily or unnaturally constituted. But do you know, my +young lady, how you have satisfied those sensuous cravings that you +have?--to be sure, as you admit, extremely weak? + +ELFRIEDE--Well? + +CASTI-PIANI--By joining the International Union for the Suppression of +the White Slave Traffic. + +ELFRIEDE--[_Restraining her anger._] Who are you, my dear sir!--I came +here to free an unfortunate girl from the claws of vice! I did not come +here to listen to lectures, in very bad taste, from you. + +CASTI-PIANI--Nor did I suppose you did. But you see, when viewed +from this standpoint, we are more allied to one another than you in +your proud little bourgeois virtue ever dreamt. On =you= nature has +conferred but an extremely scant sensuous susceptibility. The storms of +life have long since made a horribly chilly desert of =me=. But what +fighting the white slave traffic is to =your= sensual life, that, to +mine, if you will still grant me something of the kind,--is the white +slave traffic itself! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Aroused._] Don’t dissemble so shamelessly, you vile +creature! Do you think you can lull me to sleep with your fantastic +=sense=-hocus-pocus?--me, who’ve run after that girl from one den of +vice to another like a hunted brute?! I’m not here now as a member of +the Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. I’m here as +an unhappy criminal who has unintentionally plunged an innocent young +life into suffering and despair. I shall never be happy again as long +as I live if I can’t snatch this child from her ruin now. You would +have me believe an impure curiosity drives me into this house. You’re +a liar! You don’t believe your own words! And it was not unsatisfied +sensuality that made you barter this girl away, but money-greed! You +lured and sold this girl because it was good business! + +CASTI-PIANI--Good business! Naturally! But good business is based on +profits for both parties. I may say that I do no business which is +=not= good. Every business that is not good is immoral!--Or do you +believe perhaps that the love-business is a =bad= business for the +woman? + +ELFRIEDE--How do you mean? + +CASTI-PIANI--I mean simply this--I don’t know whether you’re just in +the mood at this moment to listen to me with some attentiveness? + +ELFRIEDE--Save your introduction, for God’s sake! + +CASTI-PIANI--Well then, I mean this: When a man finds himself in dire +need there is often no choice left him but stealing or starving. But +when a woman is in need, she has a third choice: the possibility of +selling her love. This way out remains for the woman only because in +granting her body she need not experience any emotion. Now since the +world was created, woman has made use of this advantage. To speak of +nothing else, man is by nature vastly superior to woman from the sheer +fact that the woman suffers in childbirth---- + +ELFRIEDE--That’s the screaming incongruity exactly! That’s what I’m +always saying. To =bear= children is pain and care, but to =beget= +them passes as an amusement. And nevertheless benevolent Creation +(which suffers from crazy fits in many other respects, too) has laid +the burden of pain and care on the weaker sex! + +CASTI-PIANI--On that, young lady, we’re quite of the same opinion. And +now you want to rob your unfortunate sisters of the little advantage +over the male which--“crazy Creation” did confer on them: the advantage +of being able, in extreme need, to sell their sexual favors,--by +representing this sale as an inexpiable shame! I’ll say you’re a fine +champion of woman’s rights! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Almost in tears._] That possibility of selling ourselves +weighs on our oppressed sex as an unspeakable misfortune, an +everlasting curse! + +CASTI-PIANI--But--God in heaven knows--it isn’t =our= fault that the +buying and selling of love weighs on the female sex as an everlasting +curse! We traders have no dearer aim than that this love-business +should be as open and unmolested as any other honest trade! We have +no loftier ideal than that prices in the love-business should be as +high as they can possibly be made to be. Hurl your accusations, if you +would fight the oppression of your unfortunate sex, in the face of +conventional society! If you would defend your sisters’ natural rights, +attack first of all the International Union for the Suppression of the +White Slave Traffic! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Boiling over._] I won’t let you humbug me here any +longer! I am firmly convinced that you have no serious intention of +setting the girl free. While I play the fool here listening to your +sociological lectures, the poor thing’ll be hustled into a cab somehow, +packed off to the station and transported to some place where she’ll +be safe all her life from members of the Union for the Suppression of +the White Slave Traffic.--Very well, I know what I have to do! [_Takes +hat._] + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Smiling._] If you guessed, dear lady, how your outburst +of rage beautified your bourgeois appearance, you would not be in such +a hurry to depart. + +ELFRIEDE--Let me out! It’s high time! + +CASTI-PIANI--Where are you thinking of going now? + +ELFRIEDE--You know quite as well as I do where I am going now! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Takes her by the throat, chokes her, and forces her into +one of the chairs._] You’ll stay here. I’ve still got a word to say to +you! Try to scream, go ahead, try it! We are accustomed here to every +possible outcry. Shriek as loud as you can shriek!--[_Letting her go._] +I shall be surprised if I don’t bring you to reason before you run +straight from this house to the police! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Gasping, toneless._] It’s the first time in my life +violence like that has been offered me! + +CASTI-PIANI--You have done so awfully much in your useless life +for the uplift of the daughters of joy! Now for once do something +useful for the uplift of =joy=! Then you needn’t feel sorry for the +poor creatures any more. Because the joy-business is branded as the +vulgarest, shamefullest of all professions, girls and women of good +society give themselves to a man for nothing rather than let their +favors be paid for! Thereby these girls and women degrade their sex in +the same way as a tailor degrades his craft if he gives clothes to his +customers for nothing! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Still as though stunned._] I don’t understand one word of +all that! I went to school when I was five and stayed there till I was +fourteen. Then I had to sit on a school-bench three more years before +taking my teacher’s examinations. As long as I was young, our house was +frequented by gentlemen of the best society. I had a proposal from one +man who had inherited an estate of twenty square miles and who would +have followed me to the ends of the world if I had wanted him to. But +I felt I couldn’t love him. Perhaps it wasn’t right of me. Perhaps I +was only lacking that minimum of passion which is essential to marriage +under any circumstances. + +CASTI-PIANI--Have you calmed down at last? + +ELFRIEDE--Just explain one more thing to me. If the girl in the course +of the life she’s living here, brings a child into the world, who will +take care of that child? + +CASTI-PIANI--You take care of it! Or as a feminist, have you perhaps +something on earth more important to do? So long as any woman under +God’s sun must still be afraid of becoming a mother, all the +“emancipation” in the world is nothing but empty gabble! Motherhood +is a necessity of nature for a woman, like breathing and sleeping. +And this innate right has been most barbarously restricted by +conventional society. A natural child is almost as big a disgrace as +the love-business itself! =Whore= here and =whore= there! The mother +of an illegitimate child is no more spared the name of whore than is a +girl in this house. If ever anything in your woman’s movement inspired +me with loathing, it was the =morality= that you inject into your +disciples on life’s way. Do you imagine the love-business would ever +in the world’s history have been described as a disgrace if the man +could have competed with the woman in the love-market? Envy! Nothing +but commercial envy! Nature accorded to the woman the monopoly of being +able to trade in her love. Therefore conventional society, which is +governed by man, would like nothing better than over and over again to +represent that trade as the most shameful of crimes! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Stands up and lays her cloak over the chair. Walking up +and down._] I confess I am at this moment quite unable to tell whether +your opinions on that point are right or not. But how in the world is +it possible for a man of your culture, of your social views, of your +intellectual eminence, to throw his life away among the vilest elements +of society! God knows it may have been only your beastly brutality +that has made me take your assertions seriously. But I feel very sure +you’ve given me things to think about for a long time to come, things +I’d never in my life have thought of myself. Every winter for years +I’ve heard from twelve to twenty lectures by all the male and female +authorities on the woman movement; but I can’t remember ever having +heard a word that went to the bottom of the business the way your +statements do. + +CASTI-PIANI--[_In a singsong._] Let us always realize quite clearly, +my dear lady, that we all are as though walking in our sleep on a +ridge-pole, and that any unexpected enlightenment can be the breaking +of our necks. + +ELFRIEDE--[_Staring at him._] What do you mean by =that=?--There’s +something monstrous in your mind?! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Very quietly._] I said it only in regard to your +views, which so far have let you feel so innocently safe in throwing +round epithets like =respectable= and =vile= as if you were specially +commissioned of God to sit in judgment on your fellow-mortals. + +ELFRIEDE--[_Staring at him._] You’re a great man.--You’re a high-minded +man! + +CASTI-PIANI--Your words probe the mortal wound that I brought with me +into the world and that I shall probably die of, some day. [_Throws +himself into a chair._] I am--a moralist! + +ELFRIEDE--And would you bewail your fate on that account?! Because +the power of making other men happy was given you? [_After a short +inner struggle, she throws herself at his feet._] Marry me, marry me, +for mercy’s sake! Before I saw =you= I was never able to imagine the +possibility of giving myself to a man! I am absolutely inexperienced; +that I can swear to you by the sacredest oaths. Till this moment I +never guessed what the word =love= meant. With you, here, I feel it +for the first time. Love lifts the lover up above his miserable self. +I’m an everyday average woman, but my love for you makes me so free +and fearless that nothing is impossible to me. Continue, in God’s +name, from crime to crime! I will go before you! Go to prison! I will +go before you! Go from prison to the scaffold! I will go before you. +Don’t, I beseech you, don’t let this fortunate opportunity escape! +Marry me, marry me, marry me! So shall help come to us two poor +children of men! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Stroking her head, without looking at her._] Whether +you love me or don’t love me, you dear animal, is all one to me. Of +course, you cannot know how many thousand times I have already had to +undergo just such outbursts of emotion. Far be it from me to undervalue +love. But alas, love must also serve as the vindication of all those +innumerable women who merely satisfy their sensual wants, without +asking the least return, and by their unrecompensed abandon only ruin +the market. + +ELFRIEDE--Marry me! There is still time for you to begin a new life! +Marriage will reconcile you with society. You can be editor of a +socialist paper, you can be a representative in the Reichstag! Marry +me, and then even you will learn for once in your life what superhuman +sacrifices a woman is capable of in her boundless love! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Still without looking at her, stroking her hair._] The +best your superhuman sacrifices could do would be to turn my stomach. +All my life I have loved tigresses. With bitches I was never anything +but a stick of wood. My only consolation is that marriage, which you +glorify so rapturously and for which bitches are bred, is a civilized +institution. Civilized institutions arise only that they may be +surmounted. The race will win beyond marriage just as it has surmounted +slavery. The =free love-market=, where the tigress triumphs, is founded +on a =primordial law= of =unalterable nature=. And how proud and high +will woman stand in the world, so soon as she has conquered the right +to sell herself, unbranded, at the highest price a man will bid for +her! Illegitimate children will be better cared for then by the mother, +than legitimate ones are now by the father. Then the pride and ambition +of woman will no longer lie in the man who allots her her place, but +in the world, where she struggles up to the highest position that her +value can give her. Then what a glorious fresh vital sound the words +“daughter of joy” will have! In the story of paradise it is written +that Heaven endowed woman with the power to seduce. Woman seduces whom +she will. Woman seduces when she will. She does not wait for love. +And conventional society combats this hellish danger to our sacred +civilization, by bringing woman up in an artificial darkness of mind +and soul. The growing girl must not know what it means =to be a woman=. +All our institutions might go to smash if she did! No hangman’s dodge +is too base for the defense of conventional society! With every advance +of civilization the love-business expands. The cleverer the world gets, +the bigger is the love-market. And our celebrated civilization, in +the name of morality, condemns these millions of daughters of joy to +starvation, or robs them in the name of morality of their self-respect +and life-vindication, yea, hurls them down to the level of beasts, all +in the name of morality! How many centuries more will an =immorality= +which cries to Heaven ravage this world with the sword and ax of +morality! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Voicelessly whimpering._] Marry me! You stand above and +beyond the world! For the first time, to-day I offer my hand to a man! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Stroking her hair without looking at her._] Materialism! +Commercialism!--What would the world know about morality at all, if man +could commandeer love as he bosses politics! + +ELFRIEDE--I hope for no higher happiness from our marriage than the +privilege of kneeling so before you all my life and listening to your +words! + +CASTI-PIANI--Have you ever asked yourself what marriage means? + +ELFRIEDE--Till this moment I’ve had no occasion to do so. [_Rising._] +Tell me! I shall do everything to come up to your requirements. + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Draws her onto his knee._] Come here, my child. I’ll +explain it to you. [ELFRIEDE _is prudish for a moment_.] Please keep +still. + +ELFRIEDE--I have never sat on a man’s knee. + +CASTI-PIANI--Give me a kiss. [_She kisses him._] Thanks. [_Holding +her off._] You’d like to know what marriage is?--Tell me, which is +stronger: a man who has =one= dog or a man who has =none=? + +ELFRIEDE--The man who has the dog is stronger. + +CASTI-PIANI--And now tell me again, which is stronger: a man who has +one dog or a man who has =two= dogs? + +ELFRIEDE--I guess the man who has one dog is stronger, for of course, +two dogs couldn’t very well help getting jealous of each other. + +CASTI-PIANI--That would be the least consideration. But he would have +to feed =two= dogs or else they’d run away, while =one= dog takes care +of himself and also if there is need protects his master from robbers. + +ELFRIEDE--And by this abominable comparison you would explain the +unselfish inseparable union of man and wife? Merciful God, what a life +you must have had! + +CASTI-PIANI--The man with one wife is economically stronger than if he +had none; but he is also economically stronger than if he had to take +care of two or more wives. That is the cornerstone of marriage. Woman +would never have dreamt of this ingenious device! + +ELFRIEDE--You poor pitiable man! Did you ever know a home and family? +Did you ever have a mother to nurse you when you were sick, to read +you stories when you were convalescing, for you to confide in when +there was something in your heart, and who helped you always and +always, even when you had thought for the longest time that there was +no more help for you on God’s earth? + +CASTI-PIANI--What I lived through as a child no human creature could +live through without having his will and energy broken and ruined. Can +you imagine yourself a young man of sixteen and still whipped because +the logarithm of Pi won’t go into his head? And the man who whipped me +was my father! And I whipped back! I beat my father to death! He died +after I’d beaten him once.--But these are trifles. You see what sort of +creatures I live with here. I have never heard among these creatures +the insults that were my mother’s share all through my childhood and +which her spitefulness earned afresh for her each day. But those are +trifles. The slaps, blows and kicks with which father, mother and a +dozen teachers vied with one another to demean my defenseless body, +were trifling in comparison with the slaps, blows and kicks with which +the vicissitudes of life have vied with one another to degrade my +defenseless =soul=. + +ELFRIEDE--[_Kisses him._] If you could guess how much I love you for +all those frightful experiences! + +CASTI-PIANI--The life of man is tenfold death =before= death. Not +merely for me. For you! For everything that breathes! For the ordinary +man, life consists of pains, aches and tortures which his =body= +suffers. And if a man struggles up to a higher plane, in the hope of +escaping the sufferings of the body, then for him life consists of +pains, aches and tortures which the soul endures and beside which the +torments of the body were a kindness. How =horrible= this life is is +shown by mankind’s having had to think out a Being that consisted of +nothing but goodness, but love, but kindness,--and by all humanity’s +having to pray daily, hourly to this Being, in order to endure its life +at all! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Caressing him._] When you marry me, pains of the body +and soul-pains alike will have an end! You need not plague yourself +any longer with all these frightful questions. My mama has a private +fortune of sixty thousand marks, and after all their twenty-five years +of happy married life, Papa hasn’t an inkling of it. Doesn’t the +prospect lure you, of marrying me and having sixty thousand marks cash +suddenly at your disposal? + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Pushing her off nervously._] You don’t understand how to +caress, young lady! You act like an ass that’s trying to be a setter. +Your hands irritate me! That’s not because you haven’t learnt anything. +It’s because of your having sprung from the enslaved love-life of +conventional society. There’s nothing thoroughbred in your body. +You lack the necessary delicacy! Delicacy, modesty, shame! You lack +the feeling for the =effect= of your caresses, a feeling that every +thoroughbred child is born with. + +ELFRIEDE--[_Springing up._] And you dare to tell me that in this house? + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Rising simultaneously._] That I dare tell you in this +house! + +ELFRIEDE--In this house? That I lack the necessary delicacy, the +necessary =shame=?! + +CASTI-PIANI--That you lack the necessary delicacy and sense of shame! +In this house of ill-fame I tell you that! Get it into your head, once +and for all, with what =fine tact= these creatures apply themselves to +their defamed calling! The girl most lately come into this house knows +more about the soul of man than the most famous professor of psychology +in the most renowned university. You, young lady, would assuredly +experience the same disappointments here as you have always had. The +woman who is created for the love-market can be recognized at the first +glance. Her frank and regular features shine with =innocent rapture= +and blissful =innocence=.--[_Regarding_ ELFRIEDE.] In =your= face, with +all due respect, I can find no trace of either rapture or innocence. + +ELFRIEDE--[_Hesitating._] Don’t you believe, my lord, that with my iron +will, my energy, and my insuperable enthusiasm for the beautiful, I +might yet acquire the delicacy and the fine tact of which you speak? + +CASTI-PIANI--No, no, madam!--please, no! Get rid of those notions on +the spot! + +ELFRIEDE--I am so deeply convinced of the moral significance of +everything you say that the =utmost sacrifice= by which I could +overcome my bourgeois helplessness would not be too great for me! + +CASTI-PIANI--No, no. I won’t agree to that! That would be horrible. +Life is horrible enough. No, no, madam! Keep your fearful fingers off +the one divine ray that pierces the shuddering night of our tortured +earthly existence! What am I living for? Why do I take part in this +civilization of ours? No, no! The one pure flower of heaven in life’s +thorn-thicket, befouled with sweat and blood, shall not be trampled +out under clumsy feet! Believe me, I beg you, that I would have shot +a bullet through my head half a century ago if it had not been that +above the wail shrieking to heaven from birth-pangs, woes of life and +death-agonies, still gleamed this =one bright star=! + +ELFRIEDE--The utmost mental exertion fails to give me even an inkling +of your meaning! What is that ray that pierces the night of our +existence? What is the =one pure flower of heaven= that must not be +trampled into the dirt? + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Taking_ ELFRIEDE’S _hand and whispering mysteriously_.] +Sensual pleasure, gracious lady!--The laughing, sunny enjoyment of +the senses! =Sensual joy is the ray=, the =flower of heaven=, because +it is the one unclouded bliss, the one pure rapture undefiled, that +earthly existence offers us. Believe me when I say that for half a +century nothing has kept me in this world but selfless worship of this +one full-throated laughing joy, this =sensual pleasure= that repays +mankind for all the torments of existence! + +ELFRIEDE--I think somebody’s coming. + +CASTI-PIANI--Lisiska, probably! + +ELFRIEDE--Lisiska? Who is Lisiska? + +CASTI-PIANI--The girl who studied those books on the suppression of +the white slave traffic in your house! In a moment you can convince +yourself if I have said too much! We are prepared for such occasions, +thank heaven. [_Takes her down right._] Sit down behind this screen. +From here, even =you= can for once in your life watch the =clear, +unsullied= bliss of two people whom the =joy of the senses= draws +together! [ELFRIEDE _seats herself on the stool behind the screen, +right_. CASTI-PIANI _goes to the centre door, glances out, and then +retires behind the screen, left, and sits_. HERR KÖNIG _and_ LISISKA +_enter, centre. He is a young man of twenty-five, in a gay sport-suit +with knee-breeches._ LISISKA _is dressed in a simple white garment +reaching to the calf, black stockings, patent-leather slippers, and a +white bow in her loose black hair_.] + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + I have not come to while my time away, + A sensualist in the circle of your charms, + And will with gratitude and friendship pay + If quickly sober’d I can leave your arms. + +LISISKA-- + + Speak not so friendly in my ear. + Here you are lord, and command us here. + Hesitate not to color my pallid + And bloodless cheeks with buffets untallied! + That for a whore like me + Is an unheard-of fee! + Helpless lamenting, sobbing and wailing + Need not cause you the slightest quailing. + Shallow’s the bliss from such abuse! + Pile pitiless blow upon blow without truce! + If your fist should smash in my face entire + Even that would not slake my desire! + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + I am not prepared for such words, such a test.... + Is this a merry welcome for the guest? + You speak as if in purgatory already + Here, you atoned for lust enjoyed and gone. + +LISISKA-- + + Oh, no! Untamed the Monster, Lust, doth eddy, + Raging forever in flesh, blood and bone! + Think you I, the devil’s spouse, + Would ever have happened into this house + If my heart’s horrible hammering stopped + When Rapture seized me and shone? + Rapture evaporates, dropped + On a hot stone! + And Lust, an unstilled throe, + A hungering woe, + Plunges, to find death, into this + And every abyss! + Are you not cruel, good sir, in your joys? + I should be sorry! + But what do you care for my noise? + Strike me, your quarry! + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + If that dark urge is really yours, to go + From the last depths to something yet below,-- + I could shed tears that from the spring-time crew + Of amorous girls I picked and chose just you. + Out of your eyes, so innocent, so gay, + There gleamed on me a =bliss without alloy=.... + +LISISKA-- + + Do you wish that our time pass away-- + And we have no joy? + Down there, over our rules and tenets, + Mother Adele sits, watch in hand: + Counts and reckons, immovable, bland, + My enjoyment’s minutes! + [_Pause._] + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + You have grown tired of ecstasy at length + And hope for lassitude from tears and pain,-- + For some deep calm to overcome the strength + Of your hot craving day and night in vain. + +LISISKA-- + + If I sleep, then please with a sudden hard + Punch in the ribs wake me up, well-jarred! + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + That note was false! A flaw is in the reed! + --How can a human being understand that?! + Whistle at happiness--at life--you can that,-- + But =sleep=? No! that was blasphemy indeed! + +LISISKA-- + + I am not your property, + You need not protect me; + Spare not then so anxiously + The joys that still affect me; + Seek no means to comfort me; + Kindness knows not how to; + Who beats me up most mercilessly,-- + He’s the one I bow to. + You ask me + Whether or no + I still can blush? + Unmask me + With a quick blow, + And mark the flush! + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + Cold sweat runs down me, chill’d in skull and spine, + Shuddering!--Let me out!... Half in a dream + I hoped to pluck the sweet fruits of love’s vine. + You offer thorns to me instead!... You seem + A young wild thing; how came it that you strayed-- + Impossible!--from flower-paths to these briars? + +LISISKA-- + + Leave not my sore desires + All unallayed! + Turn not heartless away from your slave! + Before me I have my grave, + And my only hope is to leave behind + No more of this world than I needs must. + Think you, we only come to such lust + Because in this house we are kept confined? + No, it is but the senses’ torturing thirst + Holds us here accursed! + But this, too, was reckoned without insight: + Night by night + I see it, blinding-clear:--that even + In this house no heaven + Of peace to the senses is given! + +ELFRIEDE--[_In her hiding-place, to herself, with astonishment._] God +Almighty! That is just the =exact contrary= of what I’ve imagined it +for ten long years! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_In his hiding-place, to himself, with horror._] Devil! +Devil! Devil! That is the =exact contrary= of what I’ve imagined about +sensual joy for fifty years! + +LISISKA-- + + Don’t go away from me! Hear me, hard-hearted! + I was an innocent child, and started + Life earnestly, full of duty and zeal! + I could never carelessly smile,--but =feel=--?!... + From my teachers, even my brothers and sisters, + I often heard awed admiring whispers, + And my parents would both presage: + “You’ll be the delight of our old age.” + Then with a sudden blast + That was past! + And once-awakened lust + Grew over all bounds, all “oughts,” + Over all my thoughts, + Over all my heart’s feeling of trust, + So that I marvel’d, driven + Infatuate, master’d, what it implied, + That I saw no lightning strike at my side + Nor heard any thunder from heaven. + Then it came to me--hope, that our life had been given + For joy to us, joy never glutted nor dried. + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + And this high hope you found was not fulfilled? + --I speak, I know, as a blind man of--of---- + +LISISKA-- + + No--it was only a hellish =drive= + Whence no joy remained alive. + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + But when so many girls have died of love-- + Was it with all of them--Desire unstilled? + --But then, how should such hordes of women press + By thousands down =your= path of dire excess? + +LISISKA-- + + Have you no will to glory + In the stripes upon my body? + For what was it made so soft,-- + For what was it so tender created? + Speechless looks have dilated + O’er stroke upon stroke here, oft! + Flagging desires anew to inflame + Boasting I tell from whom they came. + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + Be still, I tell you! One more word thereon + And I’ll have stayed too long!... ’Tis plain to see + In your pale features how tempestuously + Youth fled from you!... Your innocence once gone, + Did he who robbed you of it leave you in shame? + +LISISKA-- + + No--but another came, + Found glee and blame; + For always I swore eternal troth + To the young fools, and broke the oath. + Always I hoped my curse + Must disappear with another man. + Each time it was bitterness or worse. + No rest could be found for me, or can, + For ’twas always only the hellish drive + Out of which no joy came forth alive! + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + So to this house you came at last, and lead + A life of riot and revel here indeed! + Music resounds, champagne drips from the tables, + Laughter roars through the graying dawn full oft, + Nought the long working-day knows but the soft + Sound of hot tongues’ husht lisping of love’s fables.-- + What a low, common beggar I must be + To you--proud queen of joy and ecstasy! + I came with what was mine from you to purchase + A plain, straightforward interchange of pleasure. + I could tear my hair with rage! For without measure + Hideous is the lust that here besmirches + Those libertines your friends and you their game! + They set no stops to their inhuman glee! + Hasten and wreathe =their= limbs! A purer aim + And element upbuoys and quickens me! + I sought refreshment, and have no desire + To smear myself in the earth’s deepest mire! + +LISISKA-- + + Oh, stay! If you desert me now, ’tis harder,-- + ’Tis night around me again! Don’t go away! + Like a lip-lash already each word you say + Flicks me, and stings my craving with pricking whips: + Would you might loathe and hate me with such ardor + That it would be your fists and not your lips + Whose blow on blow aches through my body’s smart! + Once you’ve been pressed to my heart + Then go back whence you came, + Smilingly write my name + In your notebook ... --while with me + There will stay but the ghastly curse--to be + Once more in the grip of the hellish drive + Out of which no joy remained alive! + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + I can’t believe my senses now!--It seems, + You’ve fallen in =love= with me? Oh, cruel!--Spurned + By women, I have wept aloud and yearned + Thru many--how many--nights of tortured dreams! + Is the first love in all my life now faltering + Toward me upon bought lips?!--Are you not bound + To give to every stranger, without paltering, + His will,--and hopes of comfort would you found + On me?--to me lay passionately bare + Your soul, whose lurid charms shall hold me fast? + If e’er my lot so close to yours were cast + I should be seized with horror past compare! + +LISISKA-- + + For God’s sake, don’t believe in my love! + ’Tis my duty here to affect the dove! + Think to yourself just once what it means + When suddenly someone parts the screens!-- + Rake up love’s coals, be alive and elated; + There is a =man= by God created!-- + --Do you want me to play that wretched game + With =you= here? + To feel but loathing when your high’st flame + Burns thru here?! + But if you thoroly with your Hunnish + Fists my body and limbs will punish,-- + That, if you find pleasure in it, + Can unite us till my dying minute! + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + White robe of innocence! Spirit unstained + By even this house! Your purity makes blind + My eyes; your beauty takes my heart and mind + With infinite gazing.--Rioting unrestrained + In fierce self-martyrdom without repose-- + You fight the soul’s unfathomable woes,-- + Death in your face, and in your heart hot hate + For all earth’s vain delights turned desolate! + [_He kneels._] + Let me be friend, be brother to you! Whether + You give your body up to me--lies deep + Beneath us!--so have you exalted me! + To your slim knees here solemnly I vow + That only as soul cleaves to soul art thou + My own--so only am I thine--together! + Out of hell’s agony to heaven’s steep + You soared, and now unconscious of the sweep, + Of lusts that ebb and flow beneath your height + Must bleed your life out in sublimity + Thru me shall that be shown to all men’s sight! + From my chaste poetry the world shall learn + To weigh the wrong and misery of sold love! + I swear it by the eternal stars above, + The purest light that in our night can burn. + Give me a pledge, avow to me openly:-- + Have you by love been gladden’d? once? or ever? + +LISISKA--[_Raising him._] + + If you killed me now straight off, I could never + Say it differently! + It was always only the hellish drive + Whence no joy remained alive. + Thus, once for all, it is in this place: + Here is the rendezvous + Of all to whom love is a pang without grace + And a hankering ever new! + What other chance callers may appear + Aren’t taken in earnest by us here! + Men such as you + Are few + For they count for nothing where + We house, whom men compare + With beasts unheeded.-- + But now have I yet succeeded + In bringing you round to grant + Comfort to my wild want? + +HERR KÖNIG-- + + What wilderness of paths your hand may lead me, + Still gleams a star above us that will speed me! + +LISISKA--[_Hugs and kisses him._] + + Then come, love! pliable at last, for trysts + In ancient, ne’er-disturbed tranquillity, + As uttermost lust’s calm bliss long known to me! + Oh, if I only died under your fists! + [_Both exeunt, right._] + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Breaking out of his hiding-place, wildly._] What was +that? + +ELFRIEDE--[_Breaking out likewise, passionately._] What was that! +Worthless parasite that I am! What did my withered brain ever think +the joy of the senses was! Self-immolation, glowing martyrdom, that’s +what the life in this house is! And I, in my lying arrogance, in my +threadbare virtue, supposed this house a breeding-place of depravity! + +CASTI-PIANI--I am smashed and shattered!! + +ELFRIEDE--All my youth, that the good God gave me overflowing with +the desire and the power to love,--I have wantonly dragged it through +the gray, soul-smothering dirt of the streets! Coward that I was, the +sacredness of sensual passion seemed to me the basest reprobacy! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Stunned._] That was the blinding-bright enlightenment +that unforeseen breaks his neck who walks in his sleep on the +ridge-pole! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Passionately._] That was the blinding-bright enlightenment! + +CASTI-PIANI--What am I still doing in the world, if even sensual +pleasure is nothing but a hellish flaying of man, nothing but a satanic +butchery of mankind, like all the rest of our earthly existence?! So +=that’s= the true aspect of the =one divine ray= that pierces the +horrible night of our tormented life! Oh, if only I had shot a bullet +through my head half a century ago! Then I would have been spared this +pitiful bankruptcy of my bilked and swindled spiritual wealth. + +ELFRIEDE--What is there still for you to do in the world? I can tell +you! You trade in girls. You boast you trade in girls. Anyway, you have +the closest relations with all the places that count in the white slave +trade. Sell me! I beseech you, sell me into a house like this! You can +make a very lucrative bargain of me! I have never loved; and, surely, +that doesn’t lower my value! I won’t bring you any disgrace! You shall +add, by me, to the honor in which your customers hold you! I promise! I +will guarantee myself to you with any oath you ask me! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Half-crazed._] What will keep me from breaking my neck? +What will help me across the icy shudders of death? + +ELFRIEDE--I will help you across! _I!_ Sell me! Then you’ll be saved! + +CASTI-PIANI--Who are =you=? + +ELFRIEDE--I want to find my death in the joy of the senses. I want to +give myself up to be slaughtered on the altar of sensuous love! + +CASTI-PIANI--Am I to sell you--=you=? + +ELFRIEDE--I want to die the martyr’s death that this girl who was just +here is dying! Have _I_ no natural human rights the same as others? + +CASTI-PIANI--Heaven preserve me from it! [_With mounting emphasis._] +This--this--this is the =derisive laughter of Hell=, that rings above +my plunge into death! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Sinking to his feet._] Sell me! Sell me! + +CASTI-PIANI--The most terrible times of my life arise before me. Once +before, I sold in the love-market a girl whom nature had not intended +for it! For that crime against nature I spent six full years behind +=prison bars=. Of course she, too, was one of those temperamentless +creatures in whose =faces= one can see “big feet.” + +ELFRIEDE--[_Clasping his knees._] On my soul I implore you, sell me! +You were right. My activity in combating the white slave traffic was +unsatisfied sensuality. But my sensuousness is =not= weak! Ask me for +proofs. Shall I kiss you madly, insanely? + +CASTI-PIANI--[_In utmost despair._] And this ear-piercing howl of +suffering at my feet? What =is= that! This echoing shriek for help from +birth-pangs, woes of life, and death-agonies I will no longer endure. I +cannot stand this earth’s continuous crying any longer! + +ELFRIEDE--[_Wringing her hands._] =To you yourself=, if you will, I +will yield up my virginity! =To you yourself=, if you will, I will give +my first love-night! + +CASTI-PIANI--[_Shrieking._] The last straw! [_A shot._ ELFRIEDE _utters +a piercing yell_. CASTI-PIANI, _the smoking revolver in his right hand, +his left pressed convulsively to his breast, totters to one of the +arm-chairs and breaks down in it_.] + +CASTI-PIANI--I--I beg your pardon--Baroness. I’ve--I’ve hurt +myself.--That was not--not gallant of me---- + +ELFRIEDE--[_Bending over him._] God have mercy, you haven’t hit +yourself with it?! + +CASTI-PIANI--Don’t--don’t hurt my ears--shrieking! Be +loving--loving--loving--if you can---- + +ELFRIEDE--[_Stands up in horror, both hands in her hair, stares at him +and screams._] No! No! No! I =can’t= be loving with this sight before +me! I =can’t= be loving! [_Directly after the shot, three slim young +girls, dressed exactly like_ LISISKA, _have curiously one after the +other stepped out of the three doors. Hesitatingly they approach_ +CASTI-PIANI, _and, with the minimum of action or emotion, gesturing +silently among themselves, they essay to ease his death-struggles. He +looks up and sees them._] + +CASTI-PIANI--And that--and that--ve-vengeance? Spirits of +vengeance?--No! No!--That--that is Marushka! I see you now. That +is Euphemia!--That, Theophila!-- --Marushka! Kiss me, Marushka! +[_The slenderest of the three girls bends over_ CASTI-PIANI _and +kisses him on the mouth_.] No! [_In anguish._] No! No! That +wasn’t anything!--Kiss--kiss me differently! [_She kisses him +again._]--So!--So, so, so!--I have de-deceived you [_slowly raising +himself, supported by_ MARUSHKA]--deceived you all! The joy of the +senses--torture--bloody agony!-- --At last--at last--deliverance! [_He +stands, straight and stiff, as though seized with catalepsy, his eyes +very wide open._] We--we must receive--His Worship-- --standing.... +[_He falls dead._] + +ELFRIEDE--[_Drowned in tears, to the three girls._] Well?--Is none +of you girls brave enough to do it? You were more to this man than I +was permitted to be! [_The three girls shake their heads and withdraw +shyly, frightened, but cold and impassive._ ELFRIEDE, _sobbing, turns +to the corpse_:] Then forgive me miserable! While you were alive, +you abhorred me with all your soul! Forgive me that I come near you +now! [_Kisses him passionately on the mouth. Breaking into a flood +of tears_.] This last disillusion, even in your fearfullest blackest +pessimism you can never have conceived,--that a =virgin= was to close +your eyes! [_She closes his eyes and sinks, weeping piteously, at his +feet._] + + +CURTAIN + + + + +Transcriber’s Notes + + + • Italics represented by _underscores_. + + • Small caps converted to ALL CAPS. + + • Gespert text (words with intraletter spacing) represented with + =equal signs=. + + • Obvious typographic erros silently corrected. + + • Variations in hyphenation and punctuation kept as in the original. + + • Footnotes numbered consecutively and relocated to the end of each + play. + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76872 *** diff --git a/76872-h/76872-h.htm b/76872-h/76872-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22e525b --- /dev/null +++ b/76872-h/76872-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14614 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Tragedies of sex | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { margin: 0 10%; font-family: serif; } + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; 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} + + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illowp15 {width: 15%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp15 {width: 100%;} +.illowp49 {width: 49%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp49 {width: 100%;} +.illowp50 {width: 50%;} + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76872 ***</div> +<div class='x-ebookmaker-drop'> +<figure class="figcenter illowp49" id="cover" style="max-width: 114.0em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Book cover"> +</figure> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="front"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">[i]</span></p> + + +<div class="poetry-container"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza"> +<div class='verse'><h1>TRAGEDIES OF SEX</h1></div> +</div></div></div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='chapter'> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ii"></a><a id="Page_iii"></a>[iii]</span></p> + +<p class='center mt1 fs250 bold ltsp05'>TRAGEDIES OF SEX</p> +<p class='center mt2 bold'>BY</p> +<p class='center mth fs120 bold'>FRANK WEDEKIND</p> + +<p class='center mt2 fs90 bold'>Translation and Introduction by</p> +<p class='center mtq bold'>SAMUEL A ELIOT, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container mt2"><div class="poetry"><div class="stanza sans bold"> +<div class='verse'>Spring’s Awakening (Frühlings Erwachen)</div> +<div class='verse'>Earth-Spirit (Erdgeist)</div> +<div class='verse'>Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora)</div> +<div class='verse'>Damnation! (Tod und Teufel)</div> +</div></div></div> + +<div class='mt2'><figure class="figcenter illowp15" id="colophon" style="max-width: 23.75em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/colophon.jpg" alt="Publisher's Colophon"> +</figure> +</div> + +<p class='center mt2 fs150 ltsp2 bold'>BONI <span class="allsmcap">AND</span> LIVERIGHT</p> +<p class='center bold'><span class="smcap">Publishers</span>      : :      : :      <span class="smcap">New York</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='chapter'> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[iv]</span></p> + +<p class='center mt4'><i>Copyright, 1914</i><br> + <i>Copyright, 1921</i><br> + <i>Copyright, 1923</i></p> +<p class='center'><span class="smcap">By</span></p> +<p class='center'><span class="smcap">Boni & Liveright, Inc.</span></p> + +<blockquote class='mt6'> +<p>CAUTION.—All persons are hereby warned that the plays published +in this volume are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United +States and all foreign countries, and are subject to royalty, and any one +presenting any of said plays without the consent of the Author or his +recognized agents, will be liable to the penalties by law provided.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="center fs90"> +Both theatrical and motion picture rights are reserved. +</p> + +<p class='center mt6'>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS"> + CONTENTS + </h2> +</div> + + +<table class='toc'> +<tr><th></th><th class='tdr'><span class='allsmcap'>PAGE</span></th></tr> +<tr> + <td><a href="#INTRODUCTION"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></a></td> + <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_vii'>vii</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><a href='#SPRINGS_AWAKENING'><span class="smcap">Spring’s Awakening</span> (<span class="smcap">Frühlingserwachen</span>)</a></td> + <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><a href="#EARTH-SPIRIT"><span class="smcap">Earth-Spirit</span> (<span class="smcap">Erdgeist</span>)</a></td> + <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><a href="#PANDORAS_BOX"><span class="smcap">Pandora’s Box</span> (<span class="smcap">Büchse der Pandora</span>)</a></td> + <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_217'>217</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><a href="#DAMNATION"><span class="smcap">Damnation!</span> (<span class="smcap">Tod und Teufel</span>)</a></td> + <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_305'>305</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vi"></a><a id="Page_vii"></a>[vii]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION"> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> +</div> + +<p>Frank Wedekind’s name is widely, if vaguely, +known by now, outside of Germany, and at least five +of his plays have been available in English form for +quite some years, yet a résumé of biographical facts +and critical opinions seems necessary as introduction +to this—I will not say authoritative, but more careful—book. +The task is genial, since Wedekind was +my special study at Munich in 1913, and I translated +his two Lulu tragedies the year after. The timidity +or disapprobation betrayed in this respect by our +professional critics of foreign drama makes my duty +the more imperative. James Huneker merely called +him “a naughty boy!” Percival Pollard tiptoed +around him, pointing out a trait here and a trait +there, like a menagerie-keeper with a prize tiger. +Viereck once waxed rapturous over Reinhardt’s production +of <i>Spring’s Awakening</i> (that gave me my +own first inkling of what Wedekind might mean for +me), but my friend Moderwell tossed him off in less +than a page of <i>The Theatre of Today</i> as an immoral +joker out of <i>Simplicissimus</i>. It is true that Wedekind +is by no means easy to grasp or tabulate, true +that greater men, such as Strindberg, have suffered +from similar slighting and ill-considered estimates +here, before they were suitably interpreted; but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span> +Wedekind has been dead five years, and the time for +a fair and thoughtful, if very inexhaustive, judgment +of him has surely come.</p> + +<p>Although he was of the same generation as the +naturalistic dramatists who everywhere came to the +fore in the 1890’s—Hauptmann, Chekov, Brieux, etc.—Frank +Wedekind was not of them, but far ahead +of them. They are now all but out-moded; his +influence has barely begun. He did not fit his time: +the first twenty years of his active life, in fact, were +spent in continuous friction with the contemporary +world. He experienced the rancor and contempt, the +smart of injustice and the hopeless hatred, of most +outcasts from society. Hostility toward bourgeois +civilization is the keynote of many of his works. He +is—against, I think, his natural tendency—a pessimist—all +the blacker for the flame of strange, +Utopian ideals still flaring up in his most savage +scenes. The wrestle of contradictory wills within him +is what gives his writing its abnormal tensity, what +drives him often to overstrain each dramatic idea till +its analogy to life is so distorted most people find it +morbid. He yearns to annihilate the crude, the +coarse, the ugly and the weak. He has declared, +“The reunion of holiness and beauty as the divine +object of pious devotion is the purpose to which +I offer my life: toward which, indeed, I have striven +since earliest childhood.” Physical beauty, he means: +a sort of Pagan worship of the body—its lowest impulses +and its highest development.... But in +every direction he found that reunion obstructed by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span> +his all-too-well regulated German civilization. Like +his own Marquis of Keith he feverishly pursued the +joy of life and could never enjoy his life: when about +to strike a splendid blow for his Promised Land he +would see a spike-helmeted angel with a police-club +sentinel at Eden’s gate. Only in the present century—only, +indeed, after the Great War had determined, +for the Continent, what the outstanding characteristics +of the twentieth century were to be—did +Wedekind, the Expressionist, who despised literature +and thrust raw life upon the stage, arrive at his +present commanding position and win the admiration +and discipleship of many of his countrymen.</p> + +<p>Though he died in March, 1918, he had incorporated +in many a play before then both the sensational +content and the free, direct, spasmodic form +which German literature, especially German drama, +was to show in the post-War turmoil and distress. +Georg Kaiser and the other Expressionists so prized +to-day can make no secret of their debt to him, and +the wild rush they represent and play to—to contemplate +man’s lowest impulses, the roots of will and +feeling, the instincts, not the ideals that actuate confused +and drifting peoples, and having studied them +in crude, disordered life to set them down in baldest, +swiftest speech, in rank but penetrating truth—this +rush that is observed in all the Continental countries +but most among the Germans did there alone possess +a guide and prophet in the dead author, analyzer, +wry and bitter thinker, Wedekind.</p> + +<p>Less than a twelvemonth after his decease, a desperate, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span> +revolutionary era found suddenly in this +perverse and pessimistic man, in his harsh world of +whores and swindlers, ruthless materialists and +broken poets, its own true shape and pressure. At +the same time the former standards of good taste, +and theatre-censorships, were swept away; the ban +which had lain heavily on Wedekind throughout his +stormy life, the legal ban and the far more significant +disfavor of the “good citizens,” arbiters of general +opinion, whom he had outraged so in their smug +goodness, their virtuous ideals, their bourgeois self-esteem,—these +now were lifted from his works: +<i>Pandora’s Box</i> became—imagine it—a popular +attraction; from him who had so foreseen the breakdown +of conventional formulæ and unreal modes of +thought all men now feverishly sought some intimation +of what society, dazzled with commotion, must +yet look forward to.</p> + +<p>For us in America, confirmed, not shattered, in our +previous illusions and conceit by the war’s outcome, +there is less reason to embrace this scornful soothsayer, +this emissary (one is tempted to believe) from +Mephistopheles himself,—now cold and condescending, +and again intent with hectic hate. For all the +foolish outcry over the freer manners, perhaps the +looser morals, of our youth, we are still certain in +America of our subjective health, of some objective +verities at least, of “progress,” of “ideals,” of many +metaphysical abstractions which Wedekind distrusts, +shows up, derides. Ambassador Gerard, innately, +sensibly, was most American. In his <i>Four Years in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span> +Germany</i> he mentions shudderingly our author’s +name, points to the fact that Berlin still was going, +over and over, to performances of <i>Earth-Spirit</i> as +but one more indictment of a degenerate, odious +nation, and plainly shows us what must be the +straight American’s reaction to this volume—if such +“straight,” normal readers should ever take it up. +But none the less it is important for America to question +and to try, to root, if need be, hog-like, to the +bottom of our civilization’s pile, and recognize the +gross and primitive, the basely human, that underlies +each separate soul of us and all our deeds. +Naturalism of one type or another—nineteenth-century +literalness or twentieth-century explosiveness—is +for us the necessary form our Art must take; +for only through the pitiless representing of home +truth can the easy sentimentalism, so hostile to real +literature, be combated, and America given self-knowledge +and real grounds for spiritual leaps in +after-years. O’Neil in drama, Masters in poetry, +Anderson, Lewis, Frank and many more in fiction, +these undeflected observers of our seamier sides, prepare +the way for the full appreciation due to +Wedekind. They are more literary, more artfully +self-conscious than he in his best work. Technique +concerns them more. But it is not merely for the +light his drama throws on dominant European interests +of the moment, it is also for the impulse he may +give to further, similar probing and expression here +at home that these four plays have been prepared—revised +or newly now translated—for eager and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span> +earnest readers and (who knows?) it may be, for the +stage.</p> + +<p>They are linked together, these four culled from +the score of Wedekind’s writing, not solely in theme +(for though they are recognized in their own land +as the <i>Geschlechtstragödien</i> par excellence, there are +other tragedies of sex from Wedekind’s later years), +but in sequence too, chronological, philosophic. +What an echo, for instance, of the freshness and the +fervor of <i>Spring’s Awakening</i> we hear in the scenes +where Hugenberg, the schoolboy of <i>Earth-Spirit</i>, +Act IV, and <i>Pandora’s Box</i>, Act I, reveals his virginal, +enthusiastic, adventurous, devoted flush of life. +How subtly is Lulu foreshadowed in the vivid sketch +of Ilse in <i>Spring’s Awakening</i>: buoyant, unmoral,—simple +in her acceptance of life complete, more +likable than Lulu in her pity, too, for those not +so full-blooded. How keenly Casti-Piani piques our +interest, in <i>Pandora’s Box</i>, Act II; how satisfyingly +his life is summed and closed in <i>Tod und Teufel</i>—verily +<i>Damnation!</i> The four plays hang together, +and present compactly Wedekind’s own growth of +mind—from ardor, almost missionary zeal, instilling +his own subjective sympathy into his youngsters, +girls as well as boys, of <i>Spring’s Awakening</i> (and his +own hate, as well, of teachers, parents, all their dry +repressive world), to the objective but still passionate +building of full-formed characters, solid plot, +unswerving tragedy (no Muffled Gentleman here!) in +<i>Earth-Spirit</i>, and then to the less contained, extravagant +riot, repulsively cold or hotly ugly, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</span> +perverse, verbose, derisive of his audience and even +of his art, that he so rightly named <i>Pandora’s Box</i>; +and lastly to the frank self-revelation, unrealistic +preaching, unmotivated, unartful, yet superbly confident +theatricality of his <i>Damnation!</i></p> + +<p>What a life of disillusionment, self-questioning and +pain must lie behind these changes! Its externals +Wedekind sketched himself, in 1901; but its real +import can only be deduced from close, fond study +of his many plays, his stories and his poems. His +father, a physician, lived—it may be interesting to +us Americans to know—in San Francisco from the +beginning of the gold rush in 1849 till 1864. His +mother was an actress in the German theater there +when the elder Wedekind, at 46, met her and married +her, a girl just half his age. Her father, an +inventor, manufacturer and gifted musician, had died +some years before in a German insane asylum. One +child was born to the couple in America, but they +returned to Germany in 1864 and there, in Hanover, +Frank (note the American, quite un-German form +of the name) was born, on the 24th of July.</p> + +<p>In 1872 the family moved to Switzerland, where +Frank grew up, one of six children, amid scenery that +he praises but which, to judge by the absence of any +response to the beauties of nature from most of his +work, had little effect upon him. At 19 he began to +earn his living, at first as a journalist, at 22 as a +press-agent, at 24 as a private secretary, traveling +extensively with his employers (notably the painters +Rudinoff and Willy Grétor) in France and England. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</span> +In 1895-96 he was a public reader of Ibsen plays in +Switzerland; in ’96-97, political editor of <i>Simplicissimus</i> +in Munich; in ’97-98, an actor and producer +in a theatrical company which toured North Germany +in Ibsen plays and first presented on the stage +his <i>Earth-Spirit</i>, written in ’93, published in ’95. In +’98-99 he held a similar important post with the resident +company of the Schauspielhaus in Munich and +wrote his great, though local, comedy <i>The Marquis +of Keith</i>.</p> + +<p>Save for a term in prison as a result of the +prosecution of the editors of <i>Simplicissimus</i> for +lèse-majesté,—a term enriched by the composition of +his long story of Utopian education—physical +education—for young girls, named <i>Minne-haha</i> +(again the influence of America), which to my ears +is the most pure and limpid piece of German prose +one is ever likely to find,—he continued to reside +in Munich, active in this or that playhouse or cabaret, +for the rest of his life. He composed many +<i>Brettl-lieder</i>, rhymes and music, and sang them in +Bohemian restaurants. Every June, after Max +Reinhardt became a theatrical power in Berlin, he +appeared there as an actor in a series of his own +plays, hastily prepared but persistently repeated +to a slowly growing, grudgingly appreciative public. +As an actor he was a paradox: more natural than +Naturalistic, but more Expressionistic than expressive. +I saw him act several times in his <i>Franziska</i>, +his new play in 1912-13, and marveled at the almost +inarticulate strain, the rigid body, popping eyes, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[xv]</span> +deep-lined and taut-drawn face, that marked him +then. Sartorially he was something of a dude: to +be correct was a requirement he forced upon his +mettlesome temperament. His inheritance, derived +from a mixture of middle-aged, scientific, abstract-minded, +cold North German and young, sensuous, +emotional, artistic Austrian, resulted in a conflict +that could be seen by anyone: he possessed thesis and +antithesis but never synthesis. His face expressed by +turns his fluctuant, opposing sides, Jesuit and ironic +actor, tragedy and vice, now gray, sharp-eyed, superior,—suddenly +warm and deep. He was no artist +on the boards—too stiff, too choked with his own +earnestness, too genuinely intense,—but he was +vastly interesting as a man, a sufferer, a moralist +and preacher inured to being scoffed at and returning +the too normal world hot scorn for scorn.</p> + +<p>Extravagances and overemphasis, unmotivated, +violent decisions and spasmodic super-vitality in his +characters, all these his vividest traits, are explicable +on this score of his own clashing disharmony within. +But he himself explains them as an artistic revolt, +merely, against the repressed and colorless dramaturgy +which conquered Germany in the wake of Ibsen. +These bookish plays that stood in the way of his +own starkly abundant theatric art both angered him +to protest and augmented his own trend toward free +unnaturalness. He has in his time, he says (in +<i>Schauspielkunst</i>, a collection of critical notes published +in 1910), played many parts by Sudermann, +Hauptmann, Max Halbe, etc., and he is sure that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</span> +actors trained in their literary technique are unequal +to his fierce, full-blooded characters. He +demands acting that shall be like hurdle-racing—bold, +bounding creativeness—but the lesser actors +blue-pencil their hurdles out of the way, while the +greater ones make long “dramatic pauses” before +them and deprive them so of conviction. Certainly, +Wedekind’s jerky stage-style requires a rushing performance +to give even the semblance of smooth +truth to the preposterous, but, when rightly played, +thrilling theatric stories he often tells. Short-of-breath, +dry and uninspired, with voice untrained +for emotional seizures and outbursts, the ordinary +cup-and-saucer actor must of course mar Wedekind’s +plays.</p> + +<p>In the field of ethics, however, lay his sharpest +cleavage from his own generation, and his most +dangerous pitfall. The mighty influence of Ibsen +had perverted, when Wedekind began to write, not +merely stagecraft, but all German drama, and turned +it to the contemplation not of life and action, but +of principles: guilt, duty, and atonement. Underrunning +all the enthusiasm for exact representation +and thorough character-delineation that reigned in +1890 was an anæmic current of literary preconceptions, +second-hand ideals, and prime attention to externals, +either mere incidental questions of technique +or moral, philosophic conclusions (most often suicidal) +to problems of responsibility and conduct +prearranged for meek and docile characters. In the +Prologue to <i>Earth-Spirit</i>, Wedekind specifically +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</span> +mocks the pale and will-less heroes of Hauptmann’s +<i>Lonely Lives</i> and <i>Before Sunrise</i>, and by implication +all the conscientious weakness of the then new +Naturalism. He for his part had a sharp hunger +for life, irrespective of its moral aims and effects,—life +boisterous, physical and energizing. It is reflected +in Melchior in <i>Spring’s Awakening</i>, with +keenest sympathy. He had also a theory, expressed +by Alva, his self-portrait in <i>Pandora’s Box</i>, that the +place to find compelling drama was in the changeful +lives of people who never read a book, who lived by +instinct and expressed themselves, words and deeds, +in total ignorance of cultured ethics. The Paris and +the London scenes of <i>Pandora’s Box</i> may indicate +that in those cities the young dramatist plunged into +this demimonde in person, experienced much, and +actually undermined, instead of strengthening, his +artistic creative power.</p> + +<p>In ’90-91, when he wrote <i>Spring’s Awakening</i>, the +26-year-old pioneer playwright was still close to +adolescent tumult, doubt and rapture. He writes +a fluent, subtly interconnected, almost musical suite +of scenes utterly real when dealing with the children +and youthfully satirical when caricaturing the adults. +He has no literary by-end, no preoccupation with +form or naturalism as such, and while he has a moral, +or rather an anti-moral, purpose, and evidently seeks +to include in his play the ontogeny of all the more +common sex-perversions, his chief interest is in Melchior, +Moritz and Wendla—the vividness and promise +of the life awakening in them, the cruelty and tragedy +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</span> +of its extinguishment, for which the adult world must +take full blame. Whether the play was produced at +all in the 1890’s I do not know. Reinhardt, who +had had marked success with <i>Earth-Spirit</i> among his +very first independent productions, in 1902-03, gave +a very notable interpretation of <i>Spring’s Awakening</i> +in 1906 which attained 390 performances; and it +has been widely acted since then, and in book form +has far outstripped the popularity of any other +Wedekind work. A very imperfect translation appeared +in this country about 1909, and a private +production was later attempted in New York, with +ludicrous inartistry. The “lesson” of the play—“Parents, +respect the possibilities of puberty, and +give it enlightenment and guidance”—is an old story +with us now. We must not forget the date on +Wendla’s tombstone: the play transpires in 1892. +But the multifarious, teeming life, the lovableness +and universal naturalness of the chief characters, and +the free, ardent expression of the young author,—these +are of no specific time, and will keep +Wedekind’s name alive for generations of adolescent +readers.</p> + +<p>His foreign experiences seem to have taken place +between the writing of this play and that of +<i>Earth-Spirit</i>. The author is quite out of sight in +<i>Earth-Spirit</i>; he is the animal-tamer of the Prologue, +the showman putting his performers through +their acts. There is a grim objectiveness about +this study of clashing wills and fatal weaknesses. +No moral is in sight, and if the technique is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">[xix]</span> +consciously more conventional and studied (note Alva’s +soliloquy in Act III), the matter is far removed +from the Ibsen-Hauptmann fashion of its day. The +dialogue is so idiomatic, so carefully fitted to each +speaker’s character, that this play is by far the +hardest of the four to put in English. Wedekind +has dramatized the attractions and repulsions of +sex among mature people very variously endowed +with strength and courage. He has created Lulu, +the embodiment of primitive, natural, instinctive femininity, +and watched her drive men mad. He offers +no judgments, he indulges in no retrospects or explanations: +this is the fundamental stuff of life as +he has lived it and observed it. It takes a naturally +theatric shape: it is violently dramatic just because +it is real and living.</p> + +<p>To these powerful, objective ’90’s of Wedekind +belong also the one-act play <i>Der Kammersänger</i> or +<i>The Tenor</i>, acted in New York in 1916 and published +in <i>Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays</i>; and +<i>The Marquis of Keith</i>, in which the struggle for success +and money is as turbulently dramatized as the +sex-conflict was in <i>Earth-Spirit</i>. But there is a +moralizing character in <i>The Marquis</i>, a foil for the +conscienceless hero and also a mouthpiece for Wedekind. +As he found himself and his message disregarded, +bitterness overcame him, and more and more +he scolds or preaches directly at his public. He +worked over <i>Pandora’s Box</i>, off and on, throughout +this decade, and the impulse to expound himself ever +and again peeps through its three distorted pictures +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[xx]</span> +of low life. Here and there it is deliberately disgusting. +When it was published, in 1901 or ’02, most +of Act II was in bad French, much of Act III in +worse English: author or publisher or both were +self-conscious about it: and promptly it was banned. +There ensued appeals through various courts, and +finally the ban was lifted, an all-German text prepared, +and occasional productions ventured. My +translation, published in New York in 1914, has +never roused objection; why should it?—the bare +speeches without the accompanying action which +I have heard vividly described by friends lately in +Germany, can scarcely be shocking to readers in +1923. Later, Wedekind published the two <i>Lulu</i> +plays together under her name, omitting <i>Earth-Spirit</i>, +Act III (which seems to me indispensable, +none the less), and <i>Pandora’s Box</i>, Act I—a commendable +compression, because the whole cholera +episode is morbid and nearly incredible, and a swift +flight to France after Schön’s murder is quite thinkable +without the long, mostly undramatic speeches +that overload the present commencement of <i>Pandora’s +Box</i>.</p> + +<p>The pessimism of the last act is terrific and leads +straight to the mood of <i>Damnation!</i>—a sort of satyr-play, +concluding the three tragedies. In it, quite +unrealistically, is passionately expressed what <i>Pandora’s +Box</i> implies—the hopelessness, the impossibility +of happiness (for one, that is, whose conception +of happiness is physical) from life as at present +organized. This was the mission—this and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</span> +various remedies that Wedekind proposed—which the +world persistently, unshakably condemned. Wedekind +writhed. Between <i>Pandora’s Box</i> and <i>Damnation!</i> +(1905) appeared two scarcely disguised +subjective plays, <i>King Nicolo</i>, or <i>Such is Life</i>, which +is very largely autobiography transferred to fourteenth-century +Italy, a swift, dramatic and pathetic +tale genuinely engaging our sympathies; and <i>Hidalla</i>, +or <i>The Giant Dwarf</i>, which partly by satire, partly +by outright propaganda, sets forth the Wedekindian +point of view—the necessity for a new morality, for +those who are rich enough to afford it: a morality +that puts beauty, not material welfare, first among +its objects, and especially revolutionizes sexual life. +The worthlessness, for Wedekind, of intellectual concepts, +theories, spirituality and all other abstractions—his +utter absorption in the darker, inner world +of feeling, will and instinct, especially the world of +his own jarring soul, unheeding others or society at +large, robs this one-sided drama of true tragic force. +He tried again to justify himself in his next two +plays: <i>Music</i>, a quite objective study of the havoc +artistic education, seduction, abortion, the punishment +of abortion, etc., etc., may cause; and <i>Censorship</i>, +a wholly subjective one-act written after the +lawsuits over <i>Pandora’s Box</i> had been settled, and +striving, not too transparently, to show the world his +truly self-sacrificial and missionary spirit. By this +time disciples were beginning to come to him; he +married; and the force of his irritation spent itself. +His last period begins.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</span></p> + +<p>It had little that was new to offer. <i>Schloss Wetterstein</i> +is an engrossing, if extravagant, sex-tragedy +in three semi-independent acts, reminiscent of the +<i>Lulu</i> plays but laid in an aristocratic environment. +The Jack the Ripper of its grewsome end is an +American millionaire—an artist in sadism. Had +Wedekind been reading of Harry Thaw? <i>Franziska</i> +is a parody of <i>Faust</i>, a sort of feminine Faust, a +phantasmagoria in which there every now and then +outcrops a striking, profound, or even beautiful +moment. Franziska finishes not in Faust’s heaven, +but in domesticity, and one cannot clearly discover +whether this is mockery or a real change of view. +<i>Samson</i>, or <i>Shame and Jealousy</i>, and <i>Herakles</i>, are +blank-verse plays of Hebrew or Hellenic legends, +written with lessening power and intensity,—plays +dramatic, poetic, passionate enough to rank with +Hauptmann’s work of the same period but not “so +fair, so wild, so brightly flecked” as Wedekind once +had been. In the first year of the War, finally, appeared +a curiously objective historical character-study +in eight scenes, <i>Bismarck</i>, plainly forerunning +Drinkwater’s <i>Lincoln</i> and its successors, and utterly +un-Wedekindian in style—not a word of sex, of +satire, or of himself. The full tale of his work includes, +besides the above, four very light satiric +farces—one of them, <i>The World of Youth</i>, dated +1889, a most interesting prelude to nearly all his +later ideas; two esoteric verse-dialogues, two pantomime +scenarios constructed in the ’90’s, the time of +his greatest power, and anticipating modern movie +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</span> +and ballet technique; a large number of poems, +mostly erotic ballads that he sang to his own accompaniment +(I was reminded of them, and him, when +I first heard Bobby Edwards of Greenwich Village), +and some prose tales, shorter than <i>Minne-haha</i>.</p> + +<p>Always he dealt in will, in inner urges, often +specifically in “the hellish drive out of which no joy +remains alive.” His characters, no matter how often +balked, derided, or wounded, return to the attack +Until they are killed. Emotion is an inexhaustible +force. The drama of opposed views, of contrasted +attitudes on points of conduct or belief, can offer +nothing so enthralling as this insatiable struggle for +the most fundamental pleasures humanity knows—which +never ultimately or for long are pleasures! +And the same Satanic return to the attack, repeated +efforts at destruction, are seen in Wedekind’s own +life, hurling play after play against conventional +society. At last, after his death, conventional society +broke down, and the forces of disruption honored +him, and the confused masses sought in his +other, Utopian, constructive work for light upon +the society that is to come. To few writers is such +posthumous homage given; by few can such a reversal +of judgment be expected. Wedekind remained +ever true to himself, his deeply divided, contrary +self, now appearing through his plays, now vanishing +again behind his characters, but always vividly alive: +one could feel <i>him</i>, one had the sense of human passion +and struggle, of something personally experienced +and sweated out, in almost all his work. Hence, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</span> +in the last analysis, his hold upon our later generation: +we too want life, not literature—personality, +not limpid art—original thought, even destructive +and extravagant, not old truths, even the deepest, +newly dressed. Wedekind, like Strindberg, like Andreiev, +and like Shaw, meets these demands. If +America should ever have reason to turn pessimistic, +Wedekind will be waiting; and even as America is, in +Wedekind she can find much that is vital, life-promoting, +of immediate power and worth.</p> + +<p class="right mt1 pr1"> + <span class="smcap">Samuel A. Eliot, Jr.</span> +</p> + +<p class='no-indent'> + Smith College,<br> + January, 1923. +</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> +<h2 class='nobreak' id='SPRINGS_AWAKENING'>SPRING’S AWAKENING</h2> + +<p class='center mth bold'>(<span class="smcap">Frühlings Erwachen</span>)</p> +<p class='center mt2 bold'>A Children’s Tragedy</p> +<p class='center mt2 bold'><i>Dedicated to</i></p> +<p class='center mt1 bold'><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span></p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_2"></a><a id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + <h3 class="nobreak"> + CHARACTERS + </h3> +</div> + +<div> +<table class='left'> +<tr> +<td class='pr1'> + <span class="smcap">Melchior Gabor</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Moritz Stiefel</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Hänschen Rilow</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Ernest Roebel</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Otto</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">George</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Robert</span> +</td> +<td class='vam tight'> +⎫<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎬<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎭ +</td> +<td class='vam'> +<i>Schoolboys,<br> +aged 14 to 17</i> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div class='mt1'> +<table class='left'> +<tr> +<td class='pr1'> + <span class="smcap">Diethelm</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Reinhold</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Ruprecht</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Helmuth</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Gaston</span> +</td> +<td class='vam tight'> +⎫<br> +⎪<br> +⎬<br> +⎪<br> +⎭ +</td> +<td class='vam'> +<i>Boys in a House of Correction</i> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div class='mt1'> +<table class='left'> +<tr> +<td class='pr1'> + <span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>, a Judge<br> + <span class="smcap">Mrs. Fanny Gabor</span> +</td> +<td class='vam very-tight'> +⎫<br> +⎬<br> +⎭ +</td> +<td class='vam'> +<i>Melchior’s Parents</i> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div class='mt1'> + <span class="smcap">Mr. Stiefel</span>, <i>Moritz’s Father</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Mr. Ziegenmelker</span>, <i>his Friend</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Mr. Probst</span>, <i>Moritz’s Uncle</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Rev. Mr. Kahlbaugh</span>, <i>Pastor</i><br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span> +</div> + +<div class='mt1'> +<table class='left'> +<tr> +<td class='pr1'> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Sonnenstich</span>, Principal<br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Affenschmalz</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Knochenbruch</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Zungenschlag</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Knüppeldick</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Hungergurt</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Fliegentod</span> +</td> +<td class='vam x-tight'> +⎫<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎬<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎭ +</td> +<td class='vam center'> +<i>The Faculty of the<br> +Boys’ School</i><br> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div class='mt1'> + <span class="smcap">Habebald</span>, <i>the School Beadle</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Prokrustes</span>, <i>Head of the House of Correction</i><br> + <span class="smcap">A Locksmith</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. von Brausepulver</span>, M.D.<br> + <span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span><br> +</div> +<div class='mt1'> + <span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Ina Müller</span>, <i>her married daughter</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Wendla Bergmann</span>, <i>her 14-year-old daughter</i><br> +</div> +<div> +<table class='left'> +<tr> +<td class='pr1'> + <span class="smcap">Martha Bessel</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Thea</span> +</td> +<td class='vam very-tight'> +⎫<br> +⎬<br> +⎭ +</td> +<td class='vam'> +<i>Wendla’s Friends</i> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +<div> + <span class="smcap">Ilse</span>, <i>an older girl, an artist’s model</i> +</div> + +<p class='center mt1'>The Scene is laid in Southern Germany or in<br> +Switzerland. The Time is from May<br> +to November, 1892.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="A_Note_on_the_Staging"> + <span class="smcap">A Note on the Staging</span> + </h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Spring’s Awakening</span> is divided into Nineteen Scenes +as follows:</p> + +<div class='mth'> +<table class='left'> +<tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Act</span></td> + <td class='tdr pr1'> I:</td> + <td class='pr1'><span class='smcap'>Scene 1.</span></td> + <td>In Mrs. Bergmann’s House.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 2.</span></td> + <td>A Park.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 3.</span></td> + <td>The Same.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 4.</span></td> + <td>The School Yard.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 5.</span></td> + <td>In the Woods.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Act</span></td> + <td class='tdr pr1'> II:</td> + <td><span class='smcap'>Scene 1.</span></td> + <td>Melchior’s Study.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 2.</span></td> + <td>Same as I, 1</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 3.</span></td> + <td>In the Rilow House.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 4.</span></td> + <td>A Hayloft.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 5.</span></td> + <td>Mrs. Gabor’s Room.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 6.</span></td> + <td>The Bergmann Garden.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 7.</span></td> + <td>A Path near the River.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td><span class="smcap">Act</span></td> + <td class='tdr pr1'> III:</td> + <td><span class='smcap'>Scene 1.</span></td> + <td>The Faculty Room at the School.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 2.</span></td> + <td>By the Wall of the Graveyard.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 3.</span></td> + <td>In the Gabor House.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 4.</span></td> + <td>In the House of Correction.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 5.</span></td> + <td>Wendla’s Bedroom.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 6.</span></td> + <td>A Vineyard.</td> +</tr> +<tr><td colspan='2'></td> + <td><span class="smcap">Scene 7.</span></td> + <td>The Graveyard.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span></p> + +<p class='mt1'>It will be noted that the scenes concluding the +acts, long scenes all of them, are intended to occupy +the full stage, and that the prior scenes in each act +may be played in the foreground.</p> + +<p>Two of the scenes, II, 3, and III, 6, have nothing +to do with the story and to save time may be omitted, +though the latter has another importance, lightening +with its idyllic atmosphere the squalor and bitterness +of the last act. If it <i>is</i> omitted, III, 4, and III, +5, might be played in reverse order.</p> + +<p>The simplest arrangement of the stage would be a +neutral proscenium, six or seven feet deep, pierced +with doors. Behind this, different backwalls can be +lowered, and all the interior scenes played in this +shallow front space. On the back of the stage should +be sloping ground covered with underbrush, and a +path winding down through it. In the middle-stage +can be set the properties for special scenes—a bench +in a box-hedge for I, 2 and 3; a huge oak-trunk for +I, 5; a garden wall with grass and violets for II, 6; +the graveyard wall with Moritz’s grave for III, 2, +etc. The swiftest possible sequence of scenes within +the act is of prime importance.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="SA_ACT_I"> + ACT I + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene I.</span>—<i>A pretty little room, with a window looking +out on an early spring garden.</i> <span class="smcap">Wendla’s</span> +<i>bed in one corner, wardrobe in the other, table +and two chairs between. Doors just below bed +and wardrobe.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><span class="smcap">Wendla</span> <i>stands at the foot of the bed, all +dressed except for her frock, which hangs on the +chair in front of her. Her mother stands on the +other side of the table, with a long dress in her +hands.</i></p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Why did you make the dress so long +for me, mother?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—You’re fourteen years old to-day!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—If I had known you were going to make +my dress so long, I’d rather not have been fourteen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—It isn’t too long, Wendla. +What do you want? Can I help my girl’s growing +two inches taller every spring? A girl as grown up +as you can’t go round in a little princess-dress!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—All the same, my little princess-dress +looks better on me than that nightgown. Let me +wear it just once more, mother! Just this summer! +That penitence-frock will suit me just as well at fifteen +as at fourteen: let’s hang it up till my <span class="gesperrt">next</span> +birthday! Now I’d only tread on the braid.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—I don’t know what I ought to +say. I’d like so much to keep you this way, child,—just +as you are. Other girls are overgrown and +awkward at your age. You’re just the opposite. +Who knows what you will be like when the others are +fully developed?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Who knows? Perhaps I shan’t <span class="gesperrt">be</span> +at all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Child, child, what makes you +think such things!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Don’t, mother dear; oh, don’t be sad.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—[<i>Kissing her.</i>] My only darling!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—They come to me so, night-times, when +I can’t go to sleep. They don’t make me a bit sad, +and I know I sleep better afterwards. Is it wrong, +mother, to think about things like that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Go, dear, and hang the “penitence-frock” +away, and put on your princess-dress +again, God bless you! When I get the chance I’ll +put another breadth of ruffles on the bottom of it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Hanging the dress in the wardrobe.</i>] +No! Then I might as well be all of twenty right +away!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—If only you don’t get too cold. +In its time that little dress was plenty long enough +for you, but now⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Now, with summer coming? Oh, +mother, not even little children get diphtheria in their +knees! Why are you so scary? At my age nobody +freezes, least of all in the legs. Do you think it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> +would be better if I got too hot, mother? Thank the +good God if your darling doesn’t cut off her sleeves +some morning and come to you at twilight without +her shoes and stockings!—When I wear my penitence-frock +I’ll dress like a fairy queen under it.... +Don’t scold, motherkin,—nobody’ll see how, then!</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene II.</span>—<i>Sunday evening. A gravel walk in front +of a park bench; shrubbery and tree-tops behind. +<span class="smcap">Melchior</span> enters, followed by the other +boys</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I’m tired of that: I don’t want to any +more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—Then the rest of us can just as well stop, +too. Have you done your work, Melchior?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Go on playing, why don’t you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Where are you going?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—For a walk.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—It’ll be dark soon.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Have you done your work already?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—And why shouldn’t I go for a walk in +the dark?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—Central America!—Louis XV!—Sixty +lines of Homer!—Seven equations!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Damn the work!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—Oh, if only Latin Comp. didn’t come to-morrow!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—One can’t think of anything without +some work coming in between!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—I’m going home.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—I, too, home to work!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—Me, too; me, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Good night, Melchior.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Sleep well!... [<i>All make off except</i> +<span class="smcap">Moritz</span>.] Gosh, I’d like to know what we’re in +the world for!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—School makes me wish I’d been a cabhorse +sooner!—What do we go to school for? So +that somebody can examine us. And what are we +examined for? To make us flunk! Seven of us have +got to flunk just because the classroom upstairs only +holds sixty.—I’ve felt so queer since Christmas! +Devil take me, if it weren’t for Papa I’d tie up my +bundle this very night and be off to Altoona!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Let’s talk about something else. +[<i>They go for a walk.</i>]</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>[In practice, <span class="smcap">Melchior</span> can here fling himself down on +the bench; <span class="smcap">Moritz</span> remain standing.]</p> +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Do you see the black cat there with its +tail stuck up?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Do you believe in omens?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I don’t quite know.—It came from over +there.—Means nothing!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I believe that’s a Charybdis everyone +falls into who has struggled up out of the Scylla of +religious nonsense. Let’s sit down under this beech. +The warm spring wind is streaming over the mountains. +I’d like to be a young Dryad in the woods up +there letting herself be rocked and swung in the highest +tree-tops all night long to-night....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Unbutton your vest, Melchior.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Ah, how it blows through one’s +clothes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—It’s getting so jolly dark you can’t see +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span> +your hand before your face. Where are you? [<i>He +draws</i> <span class="smcap">Melchior</span> <i>down beside him. Only their voices, +from here on, come out of the darkness.</i>] Don’t you +believe too, Melchior, that modesty in people is just +the effect of their bringing-up?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I started thinking about that just the +day before yesterday. No, after all it seems to me +to be deeply rooted in human nature. Imagine undressing +completely before even your best friend! +You wouldn’t do it unless he did it, too, at the same +time. But it’s also more or less a matter of custom.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I’ve sometimes thought, if I have children, +boys and girls, right from the start I’ll have +them sleep together in the same room—if possible, +on the same bed—and help each other twice a day +to dress and undress,—and on hot days, boys and +girls alike, let ’em wear nothing at all but a short +tunic, white woolen with just a leather belt. It seems +to me, if they grew up so, they’d surely, later, be +more at ease than we are, usually....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Oh, I’m sure of that, Moritz!—The +only question is, what if the girls should have children?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—How do you mean—have children?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I believe there’s a kind of instinct in +that matter. I believe, for instance, if you shut up +a pair of kittens, male and female, and cut them off +from any contact with the outer world—left them +absolutely to their own impulses, that is—well, the +female sooner or later would get pregnant, though +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> +neither she nor the male had anyone to imitate or +show them how.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—With animals—yes—it must happen all +by itself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—With people, too, just the same! I +ask you, Moritz,—if your boys are sleeping on the +same bed as the girls, and all of a sudden the first +masculine impulses stir in them.... I’d like to bet +with anybody....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Yes, you may be right there. But all the +same⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—And with your girls it would be absolutely +the same at the corresponding age. Not that +a girl exactly—of course, one can’t tell so well ... +at least, it would be natural to expect ... and their +curiosity, too, would be there, to do its share.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—One question by the way⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Well?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—You’ll answer?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Surely.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—True?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—There’s my hand. Well, Moritz?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Have you written your theme yet?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Oh, speak out what you want to say! +No one can hear us or see us.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—You understand my children would be +made to work all day in the yard or the garden, or +play games that called for real physical exertion. +They’ll have to ride and wrestle and climb, and of +all things not sleep so soft at night as we do. We +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> +are awfully softened! I don’t believe people dream +when they have hard beds!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I’m going to sleep from now till vintage +time in just my hammock. I’ve shoved my bed +behind the stove: they go together. Last winter I +dreamt once that I whipped our Lolo till he couldn’t +move a limb! That was the most horrible thing I’ve +ever dreamt.—What makes you look at me so +strangely?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Have you felt them yet?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—What?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—How did you phrase it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Masculine impulses?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—M-hm.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Yes indeed!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—In fact I’ve known that quite a while—nearly +a year.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—It struck me like a bolt of lightning!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You had dreamt?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Oh, just a flash ... of legs in sky-blue +tights climbing over the teacher’s desk—to be exact, +I thought they were going to climb over it. I only +got a glimpse of them.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—George Zirschnitz dreamt of his +<span class="gesperrt">mother</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Did he tell you that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Out there on the gallows-path.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—If you only knew what I’ve gone through +since that night!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Qualms of conscience?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Qualms of conscience?—Pangs of death!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Good God....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I thought I was past cure. I thought +I was suffering from some inward weakness.—I only +began to feel easier when I set out to take notes on +the memories of my life. Oh, yes, Melchior! the last +three weeks have been a Gethsemane for me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I had been more or less prepared for +it beforehand. I felt a bit ashamed, but that was all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—And yet you’re almost a full year +younger than me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—On that point, Moritz, I wouldn’t +waste much thought. By all I can make out, there +is no definite age for this phantom’s first appearance. +You know that big Lämmermeier with the straw-colored +hair and the big nose? He’s three years older +than me, but Hansy Rilow says that to this very day +he dreams of nothing but tarts and apricot jelly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I ask you, how can Hansy Rilow tell +about that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—He’s asked him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—He’s asked him?—I’d never have dared +to ask anybody!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You just asked me, didn’t you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Yes, I did!—Maybe Hansy had made his +will too, beforehand!—Isn’t it a queer game the +world plays with us?! And we’re supposed to be +grateful! I don’t remember having felt the least desire +for this sort of disturbance.—Why couldn’t I +have been left sleeping quietly until everything was +still again! Father and mother could have had a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> +hundred better children. But here I am, with no idea +how I got here, and now I must be responsible for +not having stayed away!—Haven’t you sometimes +thought about that too, Melchior: in what kind of +a way exactly we got mixed up in this whirl?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Do you mean you don’t know that +either, Moritz?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—How should I know?—I see how the hens +lay eggs and hear how Mama says she carried me +under her heart; but is that enough?—And I remember +being embarrassed even at five years old when +someone turned up the queen of hearts, she was so +décolleté. That feeling has gone; but to-day I can +scarcely speak to any girl any more without something +abominable coming into my head—and I swear +to you, Melchior, I don’t know <span class="gesperrt">what</span>!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I’ll tell you the whole thing. I’ve +gotten it partly out of books, partly from pictures, +partly from observations of nature. You’ll be surprised. +It made me an atheist at first. I told George +Zirschnitz about it, too. He wanted to tell Hansy +Rilow, but Hansy had learned it all from his French +governess when he was a kid.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I’ve gone through Meyer’s Abridged +from A to Z. Words! just words and more words! +Not one simple explanation! Oh, this reticence! +What good to me is an encyclopædia that has nothing +to say on the most vital question of all?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Did you ever see two dogs running +about the streets?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—No!—Don’t tell me anything yet—not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> +to-day, Melchior! I’ve still got Central America +and Louis XV before me, not to speak of the sixty +lines of Homer, the seven equations, the Latin Comp.—I +should lose out at everything to-morrow again. +If I am to drudge successfully I must be as dull as +an ox.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—But come up to my room with me. +In three-quarters of an hour I’ll have the Homer, +the algebra, and <span class="gesperrt">two</span> Latin Comp.’s. I’ll put a few +harmless blunders into yours, and the thing’s done. +Mama’ll make us some lemonade again, and we’ll +talk comfortably about propagation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I can’t!—I can’t talk comfortably about +propagation! If you want to help me, give me your +information in writing. Write down what you know. +Make it as short and plain as you can, and stick it +between my books to-morrow at recess. I’ll carry +it home without knowing I have it, and come upon +it sometime unexpectedly. I won’t be able to help +skimming thru it, even if I’m tired.... If it’s absolutely +necessary, you can draw something in the +margin, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You’re like a girl.... But just as +you like. It’ll be an interesting job for me all right.—One +question, Moritz.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Hm?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Have you ever <span class="gesperrt">seen</span> a girl?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Yes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—All?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Every bit!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I, too.—Then no illustrations will be +necessary.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—At the Shooting-meet, in Leilich’s Anatomical +Museum. If it had come up, I’d have been +chucked out of school. As beautiful as the daylight—and +oh, so <span class="gesperrt">true</span>!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I was with Mama in Frankfort last +summer— Are you going already, Moritz?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—To get my work done.—Good night.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—So long!</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene III.</span>—<i>A stormy afternoon.</i> <span class="smcap">Martha</span>, <span class="smcap">Wendla</span> +<i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Thea</span> <i>are coming along the path</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—How the water gets into your shoes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—How the wind whistles past your +cheeks!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—How your heart pounds!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Let’s go out to the bridge. Ilse said +the river was full of bushes and trees. The boys +have a raft on the water. They say Melchi Gabor +nearly got drowned yesterday evening.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Oh, <span class="gesperrt">he</span> can swim!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—You bet he can, kid!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—If he hadn’t been able to swim, I guess +he’d have been really drowned.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Your braid’s coming out, Martha, your +braid’s coming out!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Pooh, let it! It bothers me so all the +time! I can’t wear my hair short, like you; I can’t +wear it loose like Wendla; I can’t wear a bang; and +at home I even have to put it up—all on account of +my aunt!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I’ll bring scissors with me to-morrow +to the confirmation-class. While you’re reciting +“Well for him who erreth not” I’ll cut it off!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—For God’s sake, Wendla! Papa’ll beat +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span> +me to pieces, and Mama’ll lock me up three nights +in the coal-hole!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—What’ll he beat you with, Martha?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—It often strikes me that they’d miss +something, after all, if they didn’t have such a horrid +little brat as I am.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Oh, my dear!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Aren’t you allowed to have a sky-blue +ribbon thru the top of your chemise?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Pink satin! Mama thinks pink goes well +with my pitch-black eyes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Blue’s awfully becoming to me.—Well, +Mama yanked me out of bed by the hair—this way; +I fell with my hands out on the floor.—You see Mama +prays with us night after night....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—In your place I’d have run away from +them long ago, out into the world.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—There! That’s it, that’s just what I’m +aiming at. That’s just it.—But she’d like to see me! +Oh, she’d just like to see me! At any rate, I shan’t +have anything to blame my <span class="gesperrt">mother</span> for later on!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Huh—huh—</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Can you possibly think, Thea, what +Mama meant by that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Not I— Can you, Wendla?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I would simply have asked her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—I lay on the floor and shrieked and +screamed. In comes Papa. Rip!—Off with the +chemise! Out of the door with me! There now! +Maybe I’d like to go down on the street like that, +eh?...</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, Martha, that just can’t be true!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—I froze. I told all about it. Well, I +must sleep in the sack the whole night.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Never in my life could I sleep in a sack!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I really wish I could sleep in your sack +<span class="gesperrt">for</span> you sometime.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—If only you’re not beaten⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—But don’t you smother in it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Your head stays out. It’s tied under +your chin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—And then do they beat you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—No. Only when there’s something special.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—What do they beat you <span class="gesperrt">with</span>, Martha?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Oh, what—with anything handy.—Does +your mother think it’s “disreputable” to eat +a piece of bread in bed?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—No, no.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—I do believe they enjoy it, though, even +if they never speak of that.—When once I have children +I’ll let them grow up like the weeds in our +flower-garden. No one bothers himself about +<span class="gesperrt">them</span>, and they stand so high, so thick!—while the +roses in the beds are flowering worse and worse each +summer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—When <i>I</i> have children I’ll dress them all +in rosy pink—pink hats, pink dresses, pink shoes. +Only their stockings—their stockings will be black as +night! Then when I go walking I’ll have them march +ahead of me.—And you, Wendla?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—How do you two know that you’ll have +any?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Well, why shouldn’t we have some?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—It’s true Aunt Euphemia hasn’t any.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Silly! That’s because she’s not married!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Aunty Bauer was married three times, +and hasn’t got one.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—If you have any, Wendla, which would +you rather—boys or girls?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Boys! Boys!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Me too—boys!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Me too—better twenty boys than three +girls.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Girls are tiresome.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—If I weren’t a girl already, I surely +wouldn’t want to be one any more!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—That’s a matter of taste, I guess, Martha. +I’m glad every day that I’m a girl. I wouldn’t +exchange with a prince, believe me.—But that’s why +I’d only want boys.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—But that’s nonsense, Wendla, rank nonsense!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—But look here, child,—mustn’t it be a +thousand times more uplifting to be loved by a man +than by a girl?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—But you wouldn’t say that forest-inspector +Pfälle loved Melitta more than she loves +him!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Yes, I would, too, Thea.—Pfälle is +proud. Pfälle is proud of being forest-inspector, +for he has nothing else.—Melitta is <span class="gesperrt">happy</span>, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> +because she gets ten thousand times more than she is.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Aren’t you proud of <span class="gesperrt">yourself</span>, +Wendla?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—That would be silly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—How proud I wish I could be, in your +place!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Only see how she puts her feet down, how +straight ahead she looks, how she holds herself, Martha! +If that isn’t pride—</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—But what for? I’m so happy that I’m +a girl! If I weren’t one, I’d kill myself, so that next +time.... [<i>Stops, seeing</i> <span class="smcap">Melchior</span>. <i>He crosses +past them, greeting them, and goes, followed by their +eyes.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—He’s got a wonderful head.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—That’s how I think of the young Alexander, +when he went to school to Aristotle.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Oh, good gracious! Greek History!—I +only remember how Socrates lay in his tub when +Alexander sold him the donkey’s shadow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—They say he’s the third best in his +class.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Professor Knochenbruch says he could be +first, if he wanted to.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—He has a lovely forehead, but his friend +has more soulful eyes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—Moritz Stiefel?—He’s a stupid!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—I’ve always gotten on with him perfectly +well.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thea</span>—He humiliates you, no matter where you +are with him. At the Rilows’ party he offered me +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> +some sugar-almonds. Imagine, Wendla,—they were +soft and warm! Isn’t that just—— He said he +had kept them too long in his trousers pocket!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Think of this: Melchi Gabor told me +that time that he didn’t believe in anything—not in +God, or in a future life—in just nothing in the +world!</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene IV.</span>—<i>Near the Boys’ School. All the boys +but</i> <span class="smcap">Melchior</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Moritz</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Ernest Roebel</span> +<i>are standing about expectantly</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—[<i>Entering.</i>] Can any of you tell me +where Moritz Stiefel is keeping himself?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—He’s going to catch it—Oh, he’s going +to catch it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—He’ll go too far once, and then he’ll get +what’s coming to him good and plenty.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span>—Lord knows <i>I</i> wouldn’t like to be +in his shoes at this moment!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Some cheek! Some impudence!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—But wha—wha—what do you mean?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—What do we mean?—Well, listen....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span>—I wish I hadn’t said anything.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—Me too—<span class="gesperrt">wish</span> I hadn’t!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—If you don’t tell me this minute⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Well, here it is: Moritz Stiefel has +broken into the Faculty-Room!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—The Faculty-Room!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—The Faculty-Room! Right after Latin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—He was the last out. He stayed behind +on purpose.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span>—As I turned the hall corner I saw +him opening the door.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You go to⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span>—Yeah, if only <span class="gesperrt">he</span> doesn’t go +to⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—I guess someone had left the key in the +lock.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Or else Moritz Stiefel has a pick-lock +on him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—I’d believe it of him!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span>—If he has luck he’ll only get a +Sunday afternoon.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Along with a demerit in his report.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—If he doesn’t get a suspension on top of +a reprimand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy Rilow</span>—There he is!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Pale as a sheet. [<span class="smcap">Moritz</span> <i>appears, +in the utmost excitement</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span>—Moritz, Moritz, what have you +done?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Nothing—nothing⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—You’re feverish.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—With joy—with rapture—with jubilation⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—You were caught——?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I’ve passed!—Melchior, I’ve passed! +Oh, let the world go hang now—I have passed!—Who +would have believed that I’d be promoted! I +can’t realize it! Twenty times over I read it! I +can’t believe it—but God be thanked, there it was—there +it stayed! I <span class="gesperrt">am</span> promoted!—[<i>Smiling.</i>] I +don’t know—I feel so queer—the earth’s going +round.... Melchior, Melchior, if you only knew +what I’ve gone thru!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy Rilow</span>—Congratulations, Moritz!—Just +be glad that you got away safe!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—You don’t know, Hansy—you can’t +imagine what depended on it. For the last three +weeks I’ve slunk past that door as though it were +the mouth of hell. Then, to-day,—it was ajar! I +think if a million had been offered me, nothing, oh, +nothing could have held me back! Before I knew +it I was standing in the middle of the room—I was +opening the record book, turning the pages, finding—and +during all that time—it makes me shudder!⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—During all that time⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—All that time the door behind me was +standing wide open!—How I got out, how I got down +the stairs, I don’t remember.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy Rilow</span>—Did Ernest Roebel pass, too?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Oh, yes, Hansy, sure! Ernest Roebel is +promoted the same way.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Then you just can’t have read right. +Not counting the dunces’ bench, there are sixty-one +of us with you and Roebel, and the upper classroom +can’t hold more than sixty!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I read perfectly right. Ernest Roebel +is moved up just as I am—both of us, for the present, +to be sure, only <span class="gesperrt">provisionally</span>. During +the first quarter it will be decided which of us must +make room for the other.—Poor Roebel! God knows +I’m not afraid for myself any more. I’ve looked +too far down into the depths this time for that!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—I bet you five marks it’ll be you that makes +room.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—You haven’t got it. I don’t want to +rob you.—Gosh, won’t I grind from now on!—Now +I can tell you all too,—and you can believe it or not, +it doesn’t matter now—but <i>I</i> know, <i>I</i> know how true +it is: if I had not been promoted, I’d have shot myself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Brag!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—The coward!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—I’d like to see you shoot anything!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span>—Punch his face!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—[<i>Punches</i> <span class="smcap">Lämmermeier</span>.] Come +along, Moritz. Let’s go to the forester’s house.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—Do you really believe that rot?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Is that your business?—Let ’em talk, +Moritz. Just let’s get away, out o’ the city. [<i>He +pulls him away. They meet</i> <span class="smcap">Professors Knochenbruch</span> +<i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Hungergurt</span>, <i>touch their caps, and +exeunt. The other boys vanish, to the other side.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Knochenbruch</span>—It is beyond my comprehension, +dear colleague, how the best of my pupils can feel +drawn like that to the very worst of them all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hungergurt</span>—And beyond mine too, dear colleague.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene V.</span>—<i>A sunny afternoon in a wood of beech +and oak trees. Thick undergrowth. A big oak-trunk +with mossy roots. By it</i>, <span class="smcap">Wendla</span> +<i>stands, looking about for the path</i>. <span class="smcap">Melchior</span> +<i>breaks thru the brush</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—[<i>Seeing her, stops dead.</i>] Is it +really you, Wendla? What are you doing up here +so all alone? I’ve been tramping up and down this +wood for the last three hours without meeting a +soul, and now all of a sudden you step out of the +thickest covert at me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Yes, it’s I.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—If I didn’t know you were Wendla +Bergmann I’d think you were a Dryad fallen out +of the branches!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—No, no, I’m Wendla Bergmann.—Where +have you come from?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I’m following my thoughts.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I’m looking for woodruff.⁠<a id="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Mama +wants to flavor May-wine with them. At first she +was going to come too, but at the last moment Aunty +Bauer turned up, and she doesn’t like to climb: so +I came up here alone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Have you got your woodruff?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—The whole basket full. Over there +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> +under the beech-trees they’re as thick as meadow-clover. +Just now I’m looking round for a way out. +I seem to have got mixed up. Maybe you can tell +me what time it is.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Just after ha’ past three.—When do +they expect you back?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I thought it would be later. I lay a +long time in the moss by the brook and dreamed. +The time went by me so quickly, I was afraid it +would soon be night.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—If nobody’s expecting you yet, let’s +lie down here a little while. Under the oak there’s +my favorite place. When you lean your head back +against the trunk and stare thru the twigs at the +sky, you get hypnotized. [<i>He does as he says.</i>] +The ground is still warm from the morning sun. +[<i>She sits on a root.</i>]—There’s something I’ve wanted +to ask you for weeks, Wendla.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—But I must be at home before five.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—We’ll go in time together. I’ll take +the basket and we’ll strike out thru the underbrush +and get to the bridge in ten minutes. When one +lies like this, with his forehead in his palm, one gets +the strangest ideas....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—What was it you wanted to ask me, +Melchior?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I’ve heard, Wendla, that you go a +lot to poor people and take them things to eat and +even clothes and money. Do you do that of your +own accord or does your mother send you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Generally Mother sends me. There are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> +poor laborers’ families with an awful lot of children. +Often the man is out of work, and then they’re +cold or go hungry. We have still such a lot of +things left in cupboards and bureaus that we don’t +need any longer.—But what made you think of it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Do you like to go, or not, when your +mother sends you on such errands?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, I like to ever so much!—How can +you ask?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—But the children are dirty, the +women are sick, the rooms are alive with filth, the +men hate you because you don’t work⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—That isn’t true, Melchior,—and if it +were true I’d go all the more!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—What do you mean, Wendla,—all the +more?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I’d go all the more for that: it would +give me so much more pleasure to be able to help +them!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Oh, so you go to the poor people for +the pleasure you get out of it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I go because they’re poor!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—But if it didn’t give you any pleasure, +would you stop going?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Well, can I help it if it does give me +pleasure?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—[<i>Rolling over and staring straight +up.</i>] And yet it’s for that that you’ll get into +heaven!—So it was true, the thought that has left +me no peace for the last month!—Can the skinflint +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span> +help it if it <span class="gesperrt">doesn’t</span> give him any pleasure to go +and visit sick and dirty children?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, I’m <span class="gesperrt">sure</span> it would give <span class="gesperrt">you</span> the +<span class="gesperrt">greatest</span> pleasure!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—And yet it’s for that that he’s condemned +to everlasting death. [<i>Sits up, his back +against the tree.</i>] I’ll write it up and send it to +Pastor Kahlbauch. He started me on this. Why +does he drivel to us about “the joy of sacrifice”?—If +he can’t answer me I won’t go to his Sunday-school +any more, nor let myself be confirmed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Why do you want to give pain to your +dear father and mother? Let yourself be confirmed! +It won’t cost you your head! If it weren’t +for our horrid white dresses and your baggy +trousers, perhaps one could even feel enthusiastic +about it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—There <span class="gesperrt">is</span> no self-sacrifice. There <span class="gesperrt">is</span> +no unselfishness.—I see the good rejoice in their +goodness, and the wicked tremble and groan—I see +you, Wendla Bergmann, shake your curls and +laugh, and I get as glum about it as a pariah!—What +did you dream about just now, Wendla, when +you lay in the grass by the brookside?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Silly things—foolishness⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—With your eyes open?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, I dreamt I was a poor beggar-child, +oh, awfully poor, who was shoved out on the +street at five in the morning and had to beg the +whole day long in wind and rain among harsh, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> +hard-hearted people; and if I came home at night shivering +with hunger and cold, and hadn’t as much money +as my father wanted, then I was beaten and +beaten....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Oh, I know, Wendla. You get that +out of silly kid-stories. Believe me, such brutal people +don’t exist any more!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, yes, they do, Melchior,—you don’t +know!—Martha Bessel is beaten night after night, +so that you can see the marks the next day. Oh, +what she must suffer! It makes you boiling hot to +hear her tell about it. I’m so terribly sorry for +her, I often have to cry into my pillow in the middle +of the night. For months I’ve been thinking and +thinking how to help her. I’d joyfully put myself +in her place for a week.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Her father should simply be reported +to the police. Then they’d take the child away +from him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I, Melchior, have never been whipped +in my life—not one single time. I can scarcely +guess what it’s like to be beaten. I’ve tried hitting +myself, to find out how it feels really, inside.—It +must be a shuddery sensation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I don’t believe a child is ever made +better by it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Better by what?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Being struck.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Reaching over and plucking a young +shoot.</i>] With this switch, for example.—Whew, but +that’s strong and slender!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—That would draw blood.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Wouldn’t you hit me with it once?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—What’s got into you, Wendla?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Drawing back, a little alarmed.</i>] +Why shouldn’t you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Oh, don’t shrink. I won’t hit you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—But even if I let you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Never, girl!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Even if I ask you to, Melchior?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Have you lost your senses?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I have never in my life been beaten!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—If you can beg for a thing like +that!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Thrusting it into his hands.</i>] I do! +Please!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I’ll teach you to say Please! [<i>Strikes +her.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, what! I don’t feel the least thing!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—No wonder—thru all your skirts like +that....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Then hit me on the legs—here!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Wendla! [<i>Strikes her harder.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, you’re just stroking me!—You’re +stroking me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You wait, you witch—I’ll beat the +devil out of you! [<i>He throws the sprig aside and +falls upon her with his fists so that she breaks out +with a fearful cry. Undeterred, raging, his blows +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> +rain on her thick and fast, while big tears overflow +and streak his cheeks. Of a sudden, he springs upright, +clasps his temples with both hands, and, passionately +sobbing, plunges into the forest.</i>]</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="SA_ACT_II"> + ACT II + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene I.</span>—<span class="smcap">Melchior’s</span> <i>study. A recess, rear center, +with casements looking out upon moonlit +garden and dark, evening woods. Window-seat. +Low table with a well-shaded oil lamp, +books, cigarettes, etc.</i> <span class="smcap">Moritz</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Melchior</span> +<i>sit on the two ends of the window-seat, in profile, +facing each other</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Now I’m quite cheerful again—only a +bit excited. But in the Greek class I went to sleep +like the besotted Polyphemus! I’m amazed old +Zungenschlag didn’t tweak my ears. This morning +again I came within an ace of being late. My first +thought when I woke up was of the verbs in -MI. +Gee whiz, but didn’t I conjugate all during breakfast +and along the road till everything turned green +before me!—It must have been a little after three +when I dropped off. The pen left a blot on my +book. The lamp was smoking when Matilda woke +me. In the elders under my window the blackbirds +were twittering so joyously—I got unutterably +melancholy again at once. I buttoned my collar +and pulled the brush thru my hair.—But you feel it +when you force yourself against nature....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Shall I roll you a cigarette?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—No, thanks—I won’t smoke.—If only it +can keep on like this! I mean to work and work +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> +till my eyes pop out of my head. Ernest Roebel +has fallen down six times already since vacation—three +times in Greek, twice with Knochenbruch, last +time in History of Literature. I haven’t been in +that pitiful fix more than five times, and from to-day +on it shall never happen again!—Roebel won’t shoot +himself. Roebel hasn’t got parents who are sacrificing +their all for him. Whenever he wants to, +he can be a soldier of fortune or a cowboy or a +sailor. But if <i>I</i> fail my father’ll have a stroke and +Mama’ll go crazy. That’s the kind of thing nobody +would live to see. Before the exam I prayed +God to let me get consumption, so that the cup +might pass me by untasted. It did pass over—even +tho its nimbus still gleams at me from afar so +that I never dare to lift my eyes.—But now that +I’ve got hold of the first rung I shall haul myself +up. I’m sure of that, because the inevitable consequence +of a fall will be a broken neck.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—There’s an undreamed-of meanness to +this life. It wouldn’t take much to make me hang +myself up in the branches.—Wonder where Mama +can be with the tea.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Your tea will do me good, Melchior.—I’m +actually trembling! I feel so strangely sensitized. +Touch me a moment. I see, I hear, I feel much +more sharply, and yet everything’s so dreamy, so +charged with atmosphere.—How the garden recedes +in the moonlight there, so still, so deep, as if it went +on forever! Dim-veiled figures are moving among the +bushes; they slip over the open tracts in breathless +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> +activity, and vanish in the half-dark. I should say +they were holding a conference under the chestnut-tree.—Shan’t +we go down, Melchior?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Let’s wait till we’ve had some tea.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—The leaves whisper so eagerly. It’s as +if I were hearing dead Grandmother tell the story +of the Queen without a Head. She was a perfectly +beautiful queen, fair as the sun, lovelier than all +the maidens in the land,—only she had come into +the world, alas! without a head. She couldn’t eat +nor drink nor see nor laugh nor kiss either. She +could only make herself understood to her court +thru her supple little hand. With her dainty feet +she tossed off declarations of war and death-sentences. +Then one day she was conquered by a king +who happened to have two heads that were always +at outs with each other—quarreled the whole year +long so hard that neither let the other speak a +word. So the chief court conjurer took the smaller +of the two heads and set it on the queen; and lo and +behold, it was mighty becoming to her; so then the +king married the queen and the two were no longer +at loggerheads but kissed each other on the forehead +and the cheeks and the mouth, and lived for a +long, long time after in happiness and joy.... +Confounded rot! Since vacation I haven’t been able +to get the Headless Queen out of my head! If I see +a beautiful girl, I see her without a head,—and then +all of a sudden I appear as the Headless Queen—myself!... +Well, it’s possible that one will be set +on my shoulders yet. [<span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span> <i>enters with a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> +tray of steaming tea, which she sets down on the +table after moving the lamp a little, and then shakes +hands with</i> <span class="smcap">Moritz</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—Here, children! Fall to!—Good +evening, Moritz Stiefel. How are you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—[<i>Standing.</i>] Well, thank you, Mrs. +Gabor.—I’m listening to the roundelays down there.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—But you’re not looking a bit well.—Don’t +you feel quite right?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—It’s nothing to speak of. I’ve been +rather late getting to bed the last few nights.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Think of it—he’s been studying all +night!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—You shouldn’t do that kind of +thing, Master Stiefel! You should take care of +yourself. Look out for your health. School can’t +take the place of health in your life. Take frequent +long walks in the fresh air! That is worth +more to you at your age than correct Middle High +German!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I will go walking oftener. You’re right. +One can work, too, while one is walking. Why didn’t +I think of that myself!—The written lessons I should +have to do at home just the same.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You’ll do the written work here with +me. That way it’ll be easier for both of us.—You +know, Mama, Max von Trenk has been down with +brain-fever. Well, this noon Hansy Rilow came +from Trenk’s death-bed to inform Mr. Sonnenstich +that Trenk had just died in his presence. “Is that +so?” says Sonnenstich. “Haven’t you still got two +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> +hours’ work to make up from last week? Here’s the +note to the proctor. See that the thing is cleared +up at last. The entire class will attend the interment.”—Hansy +was simply paralyzed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—What is that book you have there, +Melchior?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—“Faust.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—Have you read it all yet?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Not all thru.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—We’re just at the Walpurgisnacht.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—I should have waited a year or two +more, if I’d been you, before reading that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I don’t know any book, Mama, that +I’ve found so much that was beautiful in. Why +shouldn’t I have read it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—Because you can’t understand it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—How can you know that, Mama? I +feel plainly enough that I’m not able yet to grasp +it in its full sublimity, but....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—We always read it together. That +makes understanding it vastly easier.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—You are old enough, Melchior, to be +able to judge what is good for you and what isn’t. +Do whatever you feel you can justify. I shall be +the first to realize, and be glad, if you never give me +any reason to have to withhold anything from you. +I only wanted to remind you that even the best can +do harm if one is still too immature to appraise it +rightly. I shall always rather put my trust in you +than in any possible set of educational rules.—If +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> +you want anything else, children, come and call me, +Melchior: I shall be in my bedroom. [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Your Mama meant the story of +Gretchen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Have we lingered even a moment over +that!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Faust himself can’t have been more cold-blooded +getting thru it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—After all, that villainy isn’t the +climax of the poem. Faust could have promised the +girl marriage, he could have deserted her directly +after, without being one whit less guilty in my eyes. +Gretchen could have died of a broken heart for all +the difference I’d see.—When you behold how intensely +everyone always looks first for that sort +of thing, you might think the whole world revolved +round penis and vulva.⁠<a id="FNanchor_2_2" href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—To be frank with you, Melchior, I’ve had +exactly that feeling since I read your paper. It +fell out at my feet in the first days of vacation. I +had my Plötz [<span class="fs90">a French grammar</span>] in my hand.—I +bolted the door and ran through your quivering +lines like a frightened owl flying through a blazing +wood. I think I read most of it with my eyes shut. +At your explanations a stream of vague memories +rang in my ears like a song one used to hum joyously +to one’s self in childhood, and at the brink of +death hears from the mouth of another, and is appalled.—My +sympathy was aroused most by what +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> +you wrote about the girl’s part, I shall never get +over the impression that made. I’m sure, Melchior, +to have to suffer wrong is sweeter than to do wrong. +Blamelessly to have to undergo so sweet a wrong +seems to me the essence of every earthly bliss.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I don’t want my bliss given me as +a charity!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—But why not?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I don’t want anything that I haven’t +had to struggle and win for myself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—But then is it still enjoyable, Melchior?—The +girl’s delight, Melchior, is like the blessèd +gods’. The girl represses. Her very nature protects +her. She is kept free from any bitterness or +regret up to the last moment, and so can see, all +at once, heaven itself break over her. She is still +fearful of hell in the very instant of discovering +and embracing paradise. Her senses are as fresh +as the spring that bubbles from pure rock. She lays +hold of a cup no earthly breath has yet clouded—a +draught of nectar that she takes and swallows even +as it flames and flares.... The gratification that +the man receives seems to me shallow and flat beside +hers!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Let it seem what it will to you, but +keep it to yourself. I don’t like to think about it.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene II.</span>—<span class="smcap">Wendla’s</span> <i>room, empty</i>. <span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>, +<i>her hat on, her shawl round her shoulders, +a basket on her arm, enters with beaming +face</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Wendla! Wendla!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Appearing, half dressed, at the other +door.</i>] What is it, Mother?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Up already, dear? Well! +That’s nice of you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Have you been out already?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Hurry up now and get dressed! +You must go straight down to Ina’s and take this +basket to her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Finishing dressing during the following.</i>] +Have you been at Ina’s? How is Ina feeling? +Isn’t she ever going to get better?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Just think, Wendla: the stork +came to her last night and brought her a new little +boy!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—A boy?—A boy?—Oh, that’s grand!—So +it was for that she’s been sick so long with +influenza!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—A splendid boy!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I’ve got to see him, Mother!—So now +I’m an aunt for the third time—one niece and two +nephews!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—And what fine nephews they +are!—That’s just the way of it when one lives so +close to the church roof.—It’ll be just two [<span class="fs90">and a +half?</span>] years to-morrow since she went up those steps +in her wedding-dress!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Were you with her when he brought +him, mother?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—He had just that minute flown +away again!—Don’t you want to pin a rose on here? +[<i>At the front of her dress.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Why didn’t you get there a little bit +sooner, Mother?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Why, I do believe, almost, that +he brought you something too—a brooch or something +like that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Losing patience.</i>] Oh, it’s really too +bad!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—But I tell you that he did bring +you a brooch too!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I’ve got brooches enough....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Why, then be happy, darling. +What are you troubled about?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I’d like to have known, so much, +whether he flew in by the window or down the chimney.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—You must ask Ina about that. +[<i>Laughing.</i>] You must ask Ina about that, dear +heart! Ina will tell you all about it exactly. Didn’t +Ina spend a whole half-hour talking to him?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I’ll ask Ina as soon as I get down there.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Be sure you don’t forget, you +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> +angel child! Really, I’m interested myself in knowing +if he came in by the window or the chimney!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Or how about asking the chimney-sweep, +rather?—The chimney-sweep must know +better than anybody whether he flies down the chimney +or not.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—No, not the chimney-sweep, +dear; not the chimney-sweep! What does the chimney-sweep +know about the stork? He’ll fill you +chuck-full of nonsense he doesn’t believe himself.... +Wha-what are you staring down the street so at?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—A man, mother, three times as big as +an ox!—with feet like steamboats—!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—[<i>Plunging to the window.</i>] +Impossible! Impossible!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Right after her.</i>] He’s holding a +bedstead under his chin and fiddling “The Watch on +the Rhine” on it—now he’s just turned the corner....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Well! You are and always +were a little rogue! To put your simple old mother +into such a fright!—Go get your hat. I wonder +when you’ll ever get any sense! I’ve given up hope!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—So have I, Mother; so’ve I. It’s +pretty sad about my sense! Here I have a sister +who’s been married two and a half years; here I am +an aunt three times over; and I haven’t the least +idea how it all happens!... Don’t be cross, +motherkin! don’t be cross! Who in the world should +I ask about it but you? Please, Mother dear, tell +it to me! Tell me, darling motherkin! I feel +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> +ashamed at myself! Please, please, mother, speak! +Don’t scold me for asking such a thing. Tell me +about it—how does it happen—how does it all come +about?—Oh, you can’t seriously expect me still to +believe in the stork when I’m fourteen!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—But, good Lord, child, how +queer you are! What things do occur to you! +Really, I just can’t do that!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—But why not, mother? Why not? It +can’t be anything ugly, surely, when everyone feels +so glad about it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Oh, oh, God defend me!—Have +I deserved to—— Go and put your things on, girl,—put +your things on.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I’m going ... and supposing your +child goes out now and asks the chimney-sweep?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Oh, but that’s enough to drive +me crazy!—Come, child, come here: I’ll tell you.... +Oh, Almighty Goodness!—only not to-day, Wendla! +To-morrow, day after, next week, whenever you +want, dear heart!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Tell it to me to-day, mother. Tell +it to me now; now, at once. Now that I’ve seen you +so upset, it’s all the more impossible for me to quiet +down again until you do!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—I just can’t, Wendla.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, but why can’t you, motherkin?—Here +I’ll kneel at your feet and put my head in your +lap. Cover my head with your apron and talk and +talk as if you were sitting all soul alone in the room. +I won’t move a muscle, I won’t make a sound; I’ll +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> +keep perfectly still and listen, no matter what may +come!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Heaven knows, Wendla, it isn’t +my fault! The good God knows me.—Come, in His +name!—I will tell you, little girl, how you came into +this world—so listen, Wendla....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Under her apron.</i>] I’m listening.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—[<i>Incoherent.</i>] But it’s no use, +child! That’s all! I can’t justify it.—I know I +deserve to be put in prison,—to have you taken +from me....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Under her apron.</i>] Pluck up heart, +Mother!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Well, then, listen....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Trembling.</i>] O God, O God!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—To have a child—you understand +me, Wendla?⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Quick, mother! I can’t bear it much +longer!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—To have a child—one must +love the man—to whom one is married—<span class="gesperrt">love</span> him, +I say,—as one can only love a man! You must love +him so utterly—with all your heart—that—that—it +can’t be <span class="gesperrt">told</span>! You must love him, Wendla, as you +at your age can’t possibly love anyone yet.... +Now you know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Getting up.</i>] Great—God—in +Heaven!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Now you know what tests lie +before you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—And that is all?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—God help me, yes, all!—Now +pick up the basket there and go down to Ina. +You’ll get some chocolate there, and cakes with it.—Come +here—let me just look you over—laced +boots, silk gloves, sailor-blouse, a rose in your hair.... +But your little dress is really getting too short +now, Wendla!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Have you got meat for dinner already, +motherkin?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—God bless you and keep you!—I +must find time to sew another breadth of ruffles +round your skirt.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene III.</span>—<i>A toilet—not to be thought of as +equipped with modern plumbing.</i> <span class="smcap">Hansy Rilow</span> +<i>enters, a light in his hand; bolts the door and +opens the lid</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—Hast thou prayed to-night, Desdemona? +[<i>He draws from his bosom a reproduction of the +Venus of Palma Vecchio.</i>] I shouldn’t say you +looked like “Our Father Who Art in Heaven,” +darling:—awaiting contemplatively whoever may be +coming, just as in that delicious moment of dawning +rapture when I beheld thee lying in Schlesinger’s +shop-window—these supple limbs just as beguiling +still, these softly swelling hips, these young, upstanding +breasts!—Oh, how giddy with joy must the great +master have felt when the fourteen-year-old original +lay stretched on the divan before his eyes!</p> + +<p>And wilt thou sometimes visit me in dreams? With +eager arms will I receive thee, and kiss thee till thy +breath is gone. Thou wilt take possession of me as +the lawful heiress takes possession of her desolated +castle. Gate and door spring open as by invisible +hands, and below in the park the fountain joyously +begins to plash!</p> + +<p>“It is the cause! It is the cause!”—That I am +not lightly moved to murder thee, thou may’st learn +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> +from the fearful throbbing in my breast. My throat +contracts at the thought of my lonely nights. I +swear to thee, dear, upon my soul, it is not satiety +inspires me! Who would dare boast that he was +satiated with <span class="gesperrt">thee</span>?</p> + +<p>But thou dost suck the marrow from my bones! +Thou crook’st my back, and rob’st my eyes of their +last gleam of youth. You claim too much of me +with your inhuman coyness, you wear me out with +your unmoving limbs!—It’s you or I!—and <i>I</i> who +have prevailed!</p> + +<p>If I should count them up—those vanished ones +with all of whom I have fought this same fight here!—Psyche +by Thumann—one legacy yet from that +dried-up Mlle. Angelique, that rattlesnake in the +Eden of my childhood; Io by Correggio; Galathea by +Lossow; then an Amor of Bouguereau’s; Ada by +J. van Beers—that Ada whom I had to abduct +from a secret drawer in father’s desk, to add her to +my harem; a quivering, thrilling Leda by Makart, +that I found by chance among my brother’s college +lecture-notes; seven, O thou doomed in thy perfect +flower, who have rushed before thee down this path +into Tartarus! Let that give thee comfort, and seek +not to heighten my pangs into agony with these +supplicating looks!</p> + +<p>Thou diest not for <span class="gesperrt">thy</span> sins, but for <span class="gesperrt">mine</span>! +Need to defend myself against myself drives me +with bleeding heart to do this seventh murder on +a mate. There <span class="gesperrt">is</span> something tragic in the rôle +of Bluebeard. I guess that all his murdered wives +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> +together suffered less than he did in the strangling +of each single one.</p> + +<p>But my conscience will grow calmer and my body +stronger when thou, she-devil, residest no longer +in the red-silk cushions of my jewel-casket. Then +in thy stead I will have the Lorelei of Bodenhausen +or the Forsaken Lass of Linger or the Loni of +Defregger occupy that voluptuous pleasure-chamber—provided +I shall have recovered the quicker for +this! A bare three months more, perhaps, and your +unveiled Jehoshaphat, sweet soul, would have begun +devouring my poor brain as the sun a butter-ball. +It was high time to effect the separation from bed +and board!</p> + +<p>Brrr! I feel a Heliogabalus in me! Moritura me +salutat!—O girl, girl, why do you press your knees +together?—why still even now,—in the face of inscrutable +eternity?—One spasm, and I will let thee +live! One feminine movement, one sign of sensuality, +of sympathy, girl! and I will frame thee in gold and +hang thee above my bed. Art thou not conscious +that it is thy <span class="gesperrt">purity</span>, nothing more, begets my +excesses? Woe, woe to the unhuman!</p> + +<p>Anyone can see that she’s had the advantage of +a model education!—Well, <span class="gesperrt">so have <i>I</i> too</span>.</p> + +<p>Hast thou prayed to-night, Desdemona?</p> + +<p>My heart contracts in convulsions—— Silly!—Holy +St. Agnes died for her continence too, and was +not half so naked as thou!—One more kiss on your +virginal body, your child-like, budding breast, your +sweetly rounded—cruel, unyielding knees....</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span></p> + +<p>It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul.</p> + +<p>Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars!</p> + +<p>It is the cause!⁠——</p> + +<p>[<i>The picture falls into the depths. He shuts +the lid.</i>]</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene IV.</span>—<i>A hayloft. Murky light, the smell of +fresh hay</i>, <span class="smcap">Melchior</span> <i>lying in it</i>. <span class="smcap">Wendla</span> +<i>comes up the ladder</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—So <span class="gesperrt">here’s</span> where you hid! Everybody’s +looking for you. The wagon’s gone out +again. You must help. There’s a storm coming +up.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Get away from me!—Get away +from me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—What’s the matter with you?—Why +do you hide your face?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Get out! Get out!—Or I’ll throw +you down on the barn-floor!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Now I certainly won’t go. [<i>She kneels +beside him.</i>] Why won’t you come out on the hayfield +with us, Melchior? Here it’s so sultry and +dark! What if we <span class="gesperrt">do</span> get wet to the skin—we +don’t care!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—The hay smells so wonderful.—The +sky outside must be as black as a pall.—I can’t see +anything but the gleaming poppy at your breast,—and +your heart, I hear it beating!⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Don’t kiss me, Melchior!—Don’t +kiss me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Your heart—I hear it beating⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—People love each other—when they +kiss—— Don’t! Don’t!⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Oh, believe me, there’s no such thing +as love!—Self-seeking, egoism,—that’s all there is!—I +love you as little as you love me.⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Don’t!———— Don’t, Melchior!⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>— ... Wendla!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, Melchior!——don’t—don’t⁠——</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene V.</span>—<span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span> <i>sits and writes</i>.</p> + +<blockquote class='bq-scene'> +<p class='no-indent'>[<i>Or else she may be shown in a dark room, in +silhouette against the window, reading her letter +over by its failing light.</i>]</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—My dear Moritz Stiefel!</p> + +<p>I take up my pen with a heavy heart after twenty-four +hours of considering and reconsidering everything +that you write me. The money for passage to +America I am not able, I give you my solemn word, +to furnish you. In the first place I have not that +much at my disposal, and in the second, even if I had, +it would be doing you the greatest wrong I can +imagine to put into your hands the means of carrying +out so rash and critical a venture. You would do +me bitter injustice, Moritz Stiefel, if you saw in +this refusal of mine any sign of failing affection. +On the contrary, it would be the grossest failure in +my duty as your friend and counselor for me to +be willing to let your momentary loss of judgment +cause me too to lose my head and blindly follow +my first, most natural impulses. I am willing and +ready, if you wish me to, to write to your parents +and try to convince them that throughout the course +of this last term you have done all you could and +drawn so heavily upon your strength that a severe +attitude towards what has happened to you would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span> +not only be unwarranted but, more seriously, might +have the gravest effect upon your mental and physical +health.</p> + +<p>Your implied threat that you will take your own +life in case your flight is not made feasible has—to +speak frankly, Moritz,—rather taken me aback. No +matter how undeserved a misfortune may be, we +should never let ourselves be driven to ignoble +measures. The way in which you seem to wish to +make me—who have never shown you anything but +kindness—answerable for a possible shocking outrage +on your part, might, to a person inclined to think +evil, look very much like blackmail. I must confess +that this mode of acting from you, who usually are +so well aware of what a man owes himself, was the +very last I should have expected. For the present, +I cherish the firm conviction that you were still +suffering too much from the first shock to be able +to realize fully what you were doing.</p> + +<p>And so I am confidently hoping that these words +of mine will find you already in a more composed +state of mind. Take the affair as it stands. To my +way of thinking, it is wholly inadmissible that a +young man should be judged by his school marks. +We have too many examples of very bad scholars +who have become remarkable men, and conversely of +excellent scholars who have not distinguished themselves +in life. In any case I assure you that so far +as I am concerned your mishap will not cause any +change in your relations with Melchior. It will +always give me pleasure to see my son in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> +company of a young man who—let the world judge +of him as it will—deserved and won not only his +but my most cordial sympathy.</p> + +<p>And so—up with your chin, Moritz Stiefel! Such +crises, of this kind or of that, come upon us all +and must just be got over. If everyone so placed +should snatch forthwith at dagger and poison, there +might easily soon be no more men and women in the +world. Let us hear from you soon again, and believe +me cordially and steadfastly</p> + +<p class="right pr3">Your maternal friend,</p> +<p class='right pr1'><span class="smcap">Fanny G.</span></p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene VI.</span>—<i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Bergmann</span> <i>Garden in the radiance +of the morning sun</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—[<i>Discovered.</i>] Why have you stolen +out of the house?—To look for violets!—Because +mother sees me smiling.—And why can’t you stop, +and shut your lips tight any more?—I don’t know.—Oh, +I don’t know—I can’t find words....</p> + +<p>The path is like a plush carpet underfoot—not +one little stone, not a thorn.—My feet don’t touch +the ground.... Oh, how I did sleep last night.</p> + +<p>Here’s where they used to be. [<i>Kneels.</i>] They +make me feel as solemn as a nun at communion.—Dear +violets!—All right, motherling! I’ll put on +my penitence-dress!—Oh, God, if somebody would +only come whom I could hug and tell!</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene VII.</span>—<i>Twilight. The sky is lightly overcast. +The path winds through low growth and sedgegrass. +Not far away the river sounds.</i> <span class="smcap">Moritz</span> +<i>sits facing the audience, his back to some bushes +and the path</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—It is better so.—I don’t fit in. Let them +mount and climb upon each other’s heads.—I will +pull the door to behind me, and step into the open. +I won’t pay so much just to let myself be pushed +around.</p> + +<p>I didn’t put myself forward. Why should I put +myself forward now?—I have no compact with God. +Let them distort the thing any way they have a mind +to. I was pressed.—I don’t say my parents are +responsible. After all, they had to be prepared +for the worst. They were old enough to know +what they were doing. I was an infant when I +came into the world—otherwise even I might have +been cunning enough to become another person. +Why should I pay the penalty for all the others’ +being there already!</p> + +<p>I suppose I must have fallen on my head.... +If anyone gives me a present of a mad dog, I give +him his mad dog back; and if he won’t take his mad +dog back, then I am humane and....</p> + +<p>Yes, I just must have fallen on my head!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span></p> + +<p>One is born quite by accident, and yet, after the +most mature consideration, one is not supposed +to—— It’s enough to make one shoot one’s self +dead!</p> + +<p>At least the weather shows that it sympathizes. +All day it’s looked like rain, but it’s still holding +off.—A rare peace is brooding over nature: nowhere +anything sharp or exciting; heaven and earth like +a transparent spider’s-web. And everything seems +to feel so well. The landscape lovely as a lullaby—“Schlafe, +mein Prinzchen, schlaf’ ein,” as Fraülein +Snandulia sang. Too bad she holds her elbows +awkwardly!—It was at the feast of St. Cecilia I +danced for the last time. Snandulia only dances at +parties. Her silk dress was cut so low, back and +front—behind down to the belt at her waist, and in +front low enough to take away your wits.—She +can’t have had a chemise on....</p> + +<p>That would be something that might stop me yet!—More +just for curiosity.—It must be an extraordinary +sensation—a feeling as if one were being +swept down a torrent—— I shan’t tell anybody +that I’ve come back with the thing undone. I shall +act as if I had taken part in all that.... It’s +rather mortifying, to have been human and not got +to know the most human thing of all.—You come +from Egypt, my dear sir, and have not seen the +<span class="gesperrt">pyramids</span>?!</p> + +<p>I don’t want to cry again to-day. I don’t want +to think any more about my funeral—— Melchior +will lay a wreath upon my casket; Pastor Kahlbauch +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> +will console my parents; old Sonnenstich will +cite parallels from history.—A gravestone I probably +won’t get. I should have liked an urn of +snowy marble on a black syenite base,—but, praise +God, I shan’t miss it! Memorials are for the living, +not for the dead.</p> + +<p>I should need a year to take leave of everything +in my thoughts. I don’t want to cry again. I +am so happy that I can look back without bitterness. +How many lovely evenings I have spent with +Melchior!—under the river willows, at the forester’s +hut, on the highroad out there where the five lindens +stand, up on castle hill among the peaceful ruins +of Runenburg—— When the hour has come, I +shall think with all my might of whipped cream. +Whipped cream doesn’t sustain you, but it’s filling +and leaves a pleasant taste.... And I had +thought mankind was infinitely worse. I haven’t +found a soul that wouldn’t have wanted to do his +best; and many a one I have pitied on my account.</p> + +<p>I pass to the altar like the youth in ancient +Etruria whose dying rattle buys his brothers’ prosperity +through the coming year.—One by one I go +through all the mysterious shudders of deliverance. +I gulp with sorrow at my fate.—Life has given +me the cold shoulder. From up there I see grave, +friendly looks beckon me: the headless queen, the +headless queen—sympathy with soft arms awaiting +me.... Your tenders are for children; I carry my +free pass within myself. Sinks the shell, off sails +the butterfly: the dream besets us no more.—You +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> +should play no mad games with the fraud! The mist +dissolves: life is a matter of taste. [<i>His shoulder is +suddenly grabbed from behind by</i> <span class="smcap">Ilse</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—[<i>In torn clothes, a gay kerchief round her +head.</i>] What have you lost?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—[<i>Starting to his feet.</i>] Ilse!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—What are you looking for here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—What d’you frighten me so for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—What is it? What have you lost?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—But why did you startle me so awfully?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—I’ve just come from the city.—I’m going +home.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I don’t know, what I’ve lost.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Then it’s no good your looking. [<span class="smcap">Moritz</span> +<i>swears</i>.] It’s four days since I was home.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Sneaking like a cat!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—That’s ’cause I’ve got my dancing-slippers +on.—Mother <span class="gesperrt">will</span> make eyes!—Come along to the +house with me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Where have you been bumming around +again?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—In <span class="gesperrt">Priapia</span>!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Priapia?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—At Nohl’s, at Fehrendorf’s, at Padinsky’s,—with +Lenz, Rank, Spühler,—with everybody you +can think of!—Kling, kling,—<span class="gesperrt">she</span> will jump!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Are they painting you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Fehrendorf’s painting me as St. Stylites, +standing on a Corinthian capital. Fehrendorf, I +must tell you, is a mess.⁠<a id="FNanchor_3_3" href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Last time I stepped on +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> +one of his tubes. Squashed it. He wipes his brush +on my hair. I give him one on the ear. He throws +his palette at my head. I knock the easel over. He +gets after me with the maulstick over couch and +tables and chairs, all round the studio. Behind +the stove lay a sketch! Be good, or I’ll tear it!—He +swore amnesty, and then for a finishing touch he +kissed me—kissed me, oh, something terrible!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Where do you spend the night when you +stay in town?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Last night we were at Nohl’s; night before +at Boyokevitch’s; Sunday with Oikonomopulos. At +Padinsky’s there was champagne. Valabregez had +sold his “Man Sick with the Plague.” Adolar drank +out of the ash-tray. Lenz sang “The Murd’ress of +Her Child,” and Adolar played the guitar to pieces. +I was so drunk they had to put me to bed.—You’re +still going to school all the time, Moritz?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—No, no—this term, I’m getting out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—You’re right. Oh, how the time flies when +you’re earning money!—D’you remember how we +used to play robbers?—Wendla Bergmann and you +and I and the rest, when you all came out in the +evening and drank new, warm goat’s milk at our +house?—What’s Wendla doing? I remember seeing +her at the flood.—What’s Melchi Gabor doing?—Does +he still gaze so deeply into things?—In singing-lesson +we used to stand opposite each other.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—He philosophizes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Wendla came to see us a while ago, and +brought mother some preserves. I was sitting that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> +day for Isidor Landauer. He’s using me for Holy +Mary, the Mother of God, with the Christ-child. +He’s a ninny, and disgusting. Whew! like a weathercock!—Have +you got a “morning after” headache?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—From last night. We swilled like hippopotamuses. +It was five o’clock when I staggered +home.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—One only needs to look at you.—Were there +girls there?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Arabella, the bar-maid,—a Spanish girl. +The landlord left us all, the whole night through, +alone with her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—One only needs to look at you, Moritz.—I +never have these morning-afters! Last Carnival +I went for three days and three nights without getting +into a bed, or even out of my clothes. From +masquerade ball to café; noontimes at the Bellavista, +evenings at the cabaret, nights to another ball! Lena +was along, and fatty Viola.—The third night, Henry +found me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Had he been looking for you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—He’d stumbled over my arm. I was lying +senseless in the gutter-snow.—So then I joined up +with him. For two weeks I never left his lodgings. +That was a horrible time!—Mornings I had to throw +on his Persian dressing-gown, and evenings walk +about the room in a black page’s costume—white lace +at the collar, cuffs, and knees. Every day he’d photograph +me in a new arrangement: one time on the back +of the sofa, as Ariadne, another time as Leda, another +as Ganymede, and once on all fours as a female +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> +Nebuchadnezzar. And then he would rave about +killing—about shooting, suicide, and charcoal fumes. +Early mornings he’d bring a pistol into bed, load it +full of cartridges and poke it into my breast: one +wink, and I’ll fire!—Oh, he would have fired, Moritz; +he would have fired!—Then he’d stick the thing in his +mouth like a bean-shooter. Maybe that would wake +my instinct for self-preservation! And then—Brrr! +the bullet would have gone through my spine.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Is Henry still alive?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—How do I know?—Over the bed was a mirror +let into the ceiling. The little room looked +tower-high and bright as an opera-house. You saw +yourself actually hanging downwards from the sky. +I had the most frightful dreams at night.—God, +O God, when would it be day again!—Good night, +Ilse. When you sleep you’re beautiful for murder!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Is this Henry still alive?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—God willing, no!—One day when he went to +get some absinthe I threw my cloak on and slipped +out onto the street. The Carnival was over. The +police snapped me up. What was I after in men’s +clothes?—They took me to headquarters, and there +came Nohl, Fehrendorf, Padinsky, Spühler, Oikonomopulos, +the whole Priapia, and bailed me out. +In a cab they transported me to Adolar’s studio. +Ever since I’ve been true to the gang. Fehrendorf +is a monkey, Nohl is a pig, Boyokevitch an owl, +Loison a hyena, Oikonomopulos a camel—but that’s +why I love them one and all the same, and don’t care +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span> +to tie up to anyone else, though the world were full +of archangels and millionaires!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I must go back, Ilse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Come with me as far as our house.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—What for?—What for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—[<i>Kidding him.</i>] To drink fresh, warm +goat’s milk!—I’ll singe your forelock and hang a +little bell around your neck. And we still have a +rocking-horse that you can play with.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I must get back. I still have the Sassanids, +the Sermon on the Mount and the parallelepipedon +on my conscience.—Good night, Ilse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Sweet dreams!—Do you ever go down to +the wigwam any more, where Melchi Gabor buried +my tomahawk?—Brrr! Before you catch on, I’ll lie +in the dust-bin! [<i>She hurries off.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—One word, it would have cost.—[<i>Calls.</i>] +Ilse!—Ilse!—— Praise God, she doesn’t hear!</p> + +<p>—I am not in the mood.—For that, one needs a +clear head and a joyful heart.—Too bad, too bad +the chance is lost!</p> + +<p>... I shall say that I have had huge crystal +mirrors over my beds—and have trained an unruly +filly—and made her prance before me across the carpet +in long black silk stockings and patent-leather +shoes, and long black kid gloves and black velvet +around her neck;—and how I stifled her in my pillows, +in an access of madness.... I shall smile +when the talk is of lust.... I shall⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="gesperrt">scream!—I shall scream!—Oh to be +you, Ilse!—Priapia!—Unconsciousness!—That +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> +takes away my power!—This +favorite of fortune, this +sunny creature, this daughter of +joy upon my dolorous path!—Oh!—Oh!</span></p> + +<p>[<i>He staggers across the path and falls under the +high, dark, cavernous bushes on the further side, +crawling towards the river.</i>]</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>So have I found it again without trying, the grassy +bank? The mulleins seem to have grown since yesterday. +The vista between the willows is the same still. +The river is flowing heavily like melted lead. Don’t +let me forget.... [<i>He draws</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor’s</span> <i>letter +from his pocket, lights a match, and burns it</i>.]—How +the sparks fly—back and forth—up and down!—Souls!—Shooting +stars!⁠——</p> + +<p>Before I lit the match you could still see the +grasses and a strip of the horizon.—Now it’s gotten +dark. Now I’m not going home any more.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="SA_ACT_III"> + ACT III + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene I.</span>—<i>The Faculty Room. Two small, high windows, +one of them walled up. Portraits of +Pestalozzi and J. J. Rousseau on the walls. +Long, narrow, green table, with a gaspipe and +six flaring burners over it. At one end, on a +platform</i>, <span class="smcap">Principal Sonnenstich</span>⁠<a id="FNanchor_4_4" href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> <i>sits. Behind +the table sit, quite close together, in a grotesque +row</i>, <span class="smcap">Professors Affenschmalz</span> (<i>nearest</i> +<span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>), <span class="smcap">Knochenbruch</span>, <span class="smcap">Fliegentod</span>, +<span class="smcap">Hungergurt</span>, <span class="smcap">Zungenschlag</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Knüppeldick</span>. +<span class="smcap">Habebald</span>, <i>the beadle or proctor of the +school, cowers near the door</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—May one of the gentlemen perhaps +have something further to remark?—Gentlemen!—If +we find ourselves unable to avoid the necessity of +moving the rustication of our crime-laden pupil before +a superior Board of Education, it is for the very +weightiest reasons that we cannot help it. We cannot +if only to do our best to atone for the misfortune +that has already burst upon us; still less if we would +insure our institution for the future against further +calamities of the same order. We cannot if we are +to discipline our crime-laden pupil for the demoralizing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> +influence that he has exerted upon his classmates; +we cannot, most conclusively, if so we may prevent +him from exerting the like influence upon the remainder +of his classmates. We are compelled to it—and +this, gentlemen, is perhaps the most fundamental +ground of all, against which no protest <span class="gesperrt">can</span> prevail,—because +it is for us to protect our institution from +the ravages of a suicide-<span class="gesperrt">epidemic</span>, such as has +already broken out at various schools like ours and +has so far defied all efforts to attach the schoolboy +to those conditions of existence best adapted to his +education into cultivated manhood.—May one of the +gentlemen still have something to remark?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Knüppeldick</span>—[<i>Furthest away; middle-aged.</i>] +I can no longer repel the conviction that it may at +last be about time to open a window somewhere.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zungenschlag</span>—[<i>Next him, bearded, choleric.</i>] +There—there prevails here an at-at-atmosphere like +that in subterranean cata-catacombs, like tha-tha-that +in the archive-repositories of the quo-quondam +star-chamber tribunal at We-Wetzlar!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Habebald!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Habebald</span>—Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Open a window. We have, Heaven +be praised, atmosphere enough out-of-doors.—May +one of the gentlemen have anything further to remark?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fliegentod</span>—[<i>The Secretary, with the minutebook; +bearded, ponderous.</i>] If my worthy colleagues +wish to have a window opened, I have nothing, personally, +to object against it; only might I ask that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span> +they will not wish to have that window opened which +is directly at my back?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Habebald!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Habebald</span>—Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Open the other window!—May one +of the gentlemen have something still further to +remark?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hungergurt</span>—[<i>Small, mild, spectacled; between</i> +<span class="smcap">Fliegentod</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Zungenschlag</span>.] Without any +wish on my part to aggravate the controversy, might +I recall the fact that the other window has been +walled up since the autumn holidays?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Habebald!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Habebald</span>—Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Leave the other window closed!—I +see myself compelled, gentlemen, to bring the matter +to a vote. I request those colleagues who are <span class="gesperrt">for</span> +opening the only window that can enter into the question, +to indicate it by standing. [<i>The three furthest +from him stand.</i>] One, two three. [<i>Counting the +seated ones, too.</i>] One, two, three. Habebald!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Habebald</span>—Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Leave the one window likewise +closed.—I for my part am of the opinion that our +atmosphere leaves nothing to be desired!—May one +of the gentlemen still have something to remark?—Gentlemen!—Let +us make the supposition that we +omit to move the rustication of our crime-laden +pupil before a superior Board of Education. <span class="gesperrt">We</span> +will then be held accountable, by the Ministry of +Education, for the disaster that has befallen us. Of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> +the various schools that have been visited by this +suicide-epidemic, those in which twenty-five per cent +of the pupils have fallen victims to the ravages of the +suicide-epidemic have been temporarily <span class="gesperrt">closed</span> by +the Ministry of Education. To preserve our Institution +from this most staggering blow is our duty, as +the guardians and safekeepers of our institution. It +grieves us deeply, gentlemen and colleagues, that we +are in no position to let our crime-laden pupil’s +qualifications in other respects count as mitigating +circumstances. A mild procedure, which might be +justifiable towards our crime-laden pupil singly, is +at this time, when the very existence of our institution +is imperilled in the most dangerous manner conceivable, +certainly <span class="gesperrt">not</span> justifiable! We see ourselves +reduced to the necessity of passing judgment on the +guilty lest we, the innocent, be judged.—Habebald!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Habebald</span>—Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Bring him up. [<span class="smcap">Habebald</span> <i>goes +out</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zungenschlag</span>—If it is settled that the pre-prevailing +a-a-a-atmosphere leaves little or nothing to +be desired, I should like to move that during the summer +vacation the other window as well should be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be-be +walled up!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fliegentod</span>—If our dear colleague Zungenschlag +does not find our sanctum satisfactorily ventilated, I +should like to set the machinery in motion toward +having a ventilator installed in our dear colleague +Zungenschlag’s high and cavernous brow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zungenschlag</span>—Th-th-that is too much for me +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> +to put up with!—Ru-rudenesses are more than I need +to put up with!—I am in possession of my five +senses...!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—I must request our colleagues, +Messrs. Fliegentod and Zungenschlag, to preserve +decorum. I think I hear our crime-laden pupil already +on the stairs. [<span class="smcap">Habebald</span> <i>opens the door, +whereupon</i> <span class="smcap">Melchior</span>, <i>pale but composed, steps before +the assemblage</i>.] Step up nearer to the table.—When +Mr. Stiefel had been informed of his son’s +impious and wicked act, he searched in his grief and +perplexity among the effects that his son Moritz had +left behind him, in hopes that so he might happen +to find the moving cause of that abominable outrage. +So doing, he stumbled, in an irrelevant place, upon a +piece of writing which, without yet making the abominable +outrage understandable in itself, yet offers, +I regret to say, an explanation only too conclusive +of the moral obliquity in the criminal which must +have underlain his act. I am speaking of a twenty-page +treatise in dialogue form entitled “Coition,” accompanied +by life-sized drawings, rank with the most +shameless obscenities, and responding to the most +perverted demands that a depraved debauchee could +possibly make upon lascivious literature⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I have⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—You have to keep quiet.—Mr. +Stiefel handed this manuscript over to us, and we +promised the distracted father at any cost to identify +its author. The handwriting was accordingly compared +with the hands of each one of the dead profligate’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> +schoolmates, and it proved, in the unanimous +judgment of the whole faculty and in perfect accord +with the specialist’s opinion of our esteemed colleague +in calligraphy, to have the closest conceivable similarity +to yours⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I have⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—You have to keep quiet.—Notwithstanding +the crushing fact that this resemblance +has been marked by unimpeachable authorities, we +believe that we may refrain for the moment from taking +any further steps till we have first circumstantially +interrogated the guilty student concerning his +crime against morals, in conjunction with the instigation +to self-murder arising from it, with which he is +accordingly charged.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I have⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—You have to answer to the particular +questions which I shall put to you, in order, one +after the other, with a simple, modest “Yes” or “No.”—Habebald!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Habebald</span>—Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—The documents!—I trust that our +Secretary, Mr. Fliegentod, will from now on record +the proceedings as nearly verbatim as possible. [<i>To</i> +<span class="smcap">Melchior</span>.] Do you recognize this manuscript?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Do you know what this manuscript +contains?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Is the writing in this manuscript +yours?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Does this obscene manuscript originate +from you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Yes.—I beg you, Mr. Sonnenstich, to +show me one obscenity in it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—You are to answer the particular +questions I put to you with a simple, modest “Yes” +or “No”!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I have written no more and no less +than what is very well known to you to be fact.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Insolence.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I ask you to show me one offense +against morals in that paper!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Do you imagine I’d have a mind to +act the clown for you? Habebald!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I have⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—You have as little respect for the +dignity of your assembled teachers as you have decent +sensibility for mankind’s inbred feeling for the +modesty of the shamefastness of the moral order of +the world!—Habebald!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Habebald</span>—Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—It’s in fact the Langenscheidt for +the learning in three hours of agglutinative Volapük!⁠<a id="FNanchor_5_5" href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I have⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—I instruct our Secretary, Mr. Fliegentod, +to close the minutes!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I have⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—You have to keep quiet!—Habebald.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Habebald</span>—Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—Take him down!</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene II.</span>—<i>A graveyard seen through pouring rain. +Gray stone wall about five feet high, and quite +close to it, parallel with it, an open grave, behind +which stands</i> <span class="smcap">Pastor Kahlbauch</span>, <i>umbrella +in left hand and prayer-book in right, +flanked by</i> <span class="smcap">Moritz’s</span> <i>father, his friend</i> <span class="smcap">Ziegenmelker</span>, +<i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Uncle Probst</span>, <i>on the right, and</i> +<span class="smcap">Principal Sonnenstich</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Professor +Knochenbruch</span>, <i>with a string of schoolboys, +on the left. At a little distance, by a half-collapsed +monument, are</i> <span class="smcap">Ilse</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Martha</span>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Pastor Kahlbauch</span>— ... For he who rejects +the mercy wherewith the Eternal Father has blest +man born in sin, he shall die a spiritual death. He +who in wilful, carnal denial of God’s proper honor +liveth for evil and serveth it, he shall die the death +of the body. He, however, who wantonly throws +from him the cross which the All-merciful has laid +upon him for his sins, verily, verily, I say unto you, +he will die the everlasting death!—[<i>He closes the +book and puts it in his pocket, takes a shovel from +the wall-face and with it pushes some mud into the +grave, and hands the shovel to</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Stiefel</span>.]—Let +<span class="gesperrt">us</span>, however, faithful pilgrims upon the thorny way, +praise the Lord, the All-bountiful, and render him +thanks for his inscrutable elections. For as truly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> +as <span class="gesperrt">this</span> soul did die a threefold death, so truly will +God the Lord induct the righteous man into bliss +and the Life Everlasting.—Amen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Stiefel</span>—[<i>His voice thick with tears.</i>] The +boy was none of mine!—The boy was none of mine!—The +boy never pleased me from childhood up! +[<i>He throws a shovelful of mud into the grave, and +gives the shovel back.</i> <span class="smcap">Pastor Kahlbauch</span> <i>hands +it to</i> <span class="smcap">Professor Sonnenstich</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—[<i>Throws a shovelful of mud into +the grave.</i>] Self-murder as the most serious conceivable +offense against the moral order of the world +is the most perfect conceivable demonstration <span class="gesperrt">of</span> the +moral order of the world, in that the suicide relieves +the moral order of the world from passing judgment +upon him, and establishes its existence. [<i>He passes +the shovel to</i> <span class="smcap">Professor Knochenbruch</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Prof. Knochenbruch</span>—[<i>Throws a shovelful of +mud into the grave.</i>] Defective—depraved—delinquent—decayed—and +detrited! [<i>He walks around +the grave and hands the shovel to</i> <span class="smcap">Uncle Probst</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Uncle Probst</span>—[<i>Throws a shovelful of mud into +the grave.</i>] Not from my very mother would I have +believed a child could act so basely toward his parents! +[<i>Hands the shovel to</i> <span class="smcap">Ziegenmelker</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ziegenmelker</span>—[<i>Throws a shovelful of mud into +the grave.</i>] Toward a father who for twenty years +now has had no thought, early or late, but for his +child’s welfare! [<i>Puts the shovel back against the +wall.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Pastor Kahlbauch</span>—[<i>Pressing</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Stiefel’s</span> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span><i>hand</i>.] We know that for them that love God all +things work together for good. 1 Corinth. 12, 15.—Think +of the sorrowing mother, and strive by redoubled +love to make up to her for her loss. [<i>He +squeezes out past the Professors and boys.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sonnenstich</span>—[<i>Pressing</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Stiefel’s</span> <i>hand</i>.] +We would probably not have been able to promote +him, anyway. [<span class="smcap">Stiefel</span> <i>passes him</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Knochenbruch</span>—[<i>Pressing</i> <span class="smcap">Mr. Stiefel’s</span> +<i>hand</i>.] And if we had promoted him, next spring +he would most assuredly have failed to pass.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Uncle Probst</span>—[<i>Coming round in front and +pressing</i> <span class="smcap">Stiefel’s</span> <i>hand</i>.] Now your first duty is +to think of yourself. You’re the father of a family!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ziegenmelker</span>—[<i>Doing likewise.</i>] Rely on me. +I’ll steer you!—Beastly weather! enough to make +one’s guts crawl. Whoever doesn’t get after that +right away with a stiff drink ’ll be taken off with +heart-failure! [<i>Leads him toward</i> <span class="smcap">Pastor Kahlbauch</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Stiefel</span>—[<i>Blowing his nose.</i>] The boy was +none of mine.... The boy was none of mine.... +[<span class="smcap">Kahlbauch</span> <i>takes his other arm. All the men pass +off.—The rain lets up.</i> <span class="smcap">Hansy Rilow</span> <i>slips in behind +the grave</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy Rilow</span>—[<i>Throwing in a shovelful of mud.</i>] +Rest in peace, old fellow!—Greet my immortal +brides from me, immolated memories; and commend +me most humbly to the dear Lord’s mercy—poor +dumbbell you!—They’ll put up a scarecrow on your +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> +grave here yet, in memory of your angel simpleness....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—Has the pistol been found?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—No one need hunt for a pistol!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—Did you see him, Robert?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—A God-damned swindle, I call it.—Who +did see him?—Who!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—Yeah, that’s the sore point!—They’d +thrown a cloth over him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—Was his tongue hanging out?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—His eyes!—That’s why they’d thrown +the cloth over.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—[<i>Shuddering.</i>] Grrr!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—Do you know for sure that he hanged +himself?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—I’ve heard that his whole head was +gone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—Nonsense! Rot!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Robert</span>—Why, I’ve had the noose in my hands!—I +never saw a hanged body yet that you wouldn’t +have covered up.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—He couldn’t have taken his leave in a +vulgarer way.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—What the devil,—hanging is said to be +quite handsome!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—I’ve got five marks still owing me from +him. We had a bet. He swore he’d keep his place.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—It’s your fault that he’s lying there. You +called him a boaster.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—Poppycock! <i>I</i>’ve got to grind thru the +nights, too. If he’d learned the history of ancient +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> +Greek literature, he wouldn’t have had to hang himself! +[<i>Turns to go.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—Have you done your composition, Otto?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—Just the introduction.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—I haven’t the least idea what to write.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">George</span>—What, weren’t you there when Affenschmalz +gave us the choice of subject?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—I’m going to fake up something out of +Democritus.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—I want to see if Meyer’s Abridged has +anything left I can use.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Otto</span>—[<i>As all disappear.</i>] Have you done your +Virgil for to-morrow?—[<i>When they are gone</i>, <span class="smcap">Martha</span> +<i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Ilse</span> <i>come to the grave</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Quick! quick!—There come the grave-diggers +off there.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Hadn’t we better wait, Ilse?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—What for?—We’ll bring new ones, and +more, and more!—There are enough growing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—You’re right, Ilse!—[<i>She throws an +ivy-wreath into the grave.</i> <span class="smcap">Ilse</span> <i>opens her apron +and lets a shower of fresh anemones rain upon the +coffin</i>.]—I’ll dig up our roses. What if I <span class="gesperrt">am</span> beaten +for it?—Here they’ll bloom well.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—I will water them as often as I go past. +I’ll bring forget-me-nots over from the brook, and +irises from the house.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—It ought to be glorious!—glorious!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—I was just over the bridge up there when +I heard the shot.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Poor heart!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—And I know the reason too, Martha.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Did he tell you something?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Parallelepipedon!—But don’t tell anybody.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—I won’t.—There’s my hand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—Here is the pistol.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—That’s why it couldn’t be found!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—I took it right out of his hand when I went +past in the morning.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Give it to me, Ilse!—Please, give it +to me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—No, I’m going to keep it for remembrance.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Martha</span>—Is it true, Ilse, that he’s lying in there +without a head?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ilse</span>—He must have loaded it with water!—The +mulleins were spattered all over with blood. His +brains hung round on the osiers.</p> + +<p><span class="allsmcap">CURTAIN</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene III.</span>—<span class="smcap">Mr.</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span> <i>face each other, +the window between them, lighting them</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>— ... They were in need of a scapegoat. +They couldn’t disregard the accusations +that were springing up on every side against <span class="gesperrt">them</span>. +And now that my son has had the ill luck to fall foul +of the old pedants at the precise moment, now am +I, his own mother, to help to complete his executioners’ +work?—God preserve me from it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—I have looked on at your ingenious +educational methods for fourteen years in silence. +They were contrary to my ideas. I had always lived +under the persuasion that a child was not a plaything, +that a child had a claim upon our most earnest +efforts. But I said to myself, if the grace and +esprit of one parent are able to take the place of +the other’s serious principles, why, they may be +preferable to the serious principles.—I am not blaming +you, Fanny; but don’t stand in my way when +I am trying to make good to the boy the wrong +that both you and I have done him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—I will stand in your way as long as +a drop of blood runs warm in my veins! In a House +of Correction my child will be lost. A criminal nature +may perhaps be bettered in such institutions.—I +don’t know. A child naturally good will there as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> +certainly become criminal as a plant degenerates +when deprived of air and sun. I am conscious of +no wrong done him. I thank God to-day as always +that He showed me the way to awaken in my child +an upright character and noble mind. What has +he done then that’s so dreadful?—I haven’t the least +idea of trying to exculpate him!—For being turned +out of school he needs no exculpation; and if he +<span class="gesperrt">were</span> at fault, he has paid for it.—You may know +better about all that; you may be perfectly right +theoretically. But I cannot let my only child be +driven and forced to his destruction!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—That does not depend upon us, +Fanny. That is a risk that we took upon ourselves +along with our happiness. He that is too feeble for +the march is left by the wayside. And it is surely +not so bad as it might be, if the inevitable comes in +time. May Heaven defend us from it! Our duty +is to steady the waverer as long as reason can find +means to do it.—That he has been expelled from +school is not his fault. If he had <span class="gesperrt">not</span> been expelled +from school, that wouldn’t have been his fault, +either.—You take things too lightly. You see only +inquisitive trifling where fundamental lesions of character +are really involved. You women are not qualified +to judge such things. Anyone who can write +what Melchior writes must be degenerate at the innermost +core of his being. His essence is tainted. +No nature that’s half-way healthy permits itself +that sort of thing. We are all of us flesh and blood: +every one of us strays from the strict, true path. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> +But what he has written represents a <span class="gesperrt">principle</span>. +What he has written is no chance, casual slip, but +documentary proof, of ghastly clarity, of that +frankly affected <span class="gesperrt">purpose</span>, that natural propensity, +that bent toward the immoral because it <span class="gesperrt">is</span> +immoral!—it manifests that exceptional spiritual +corruption that we jurists designate as moral imbecility.—Whether +his condition can be in any way +remedied, I am not able to say. If we would retain +one glimmer of hope,—and, before all, consciences as +his parents free from remorse,—we must apply ourselves +with decision and in all earnestness to the +task.—Let us cease contention, Fanny! I am sensible +how hard for you it is. I know you idolize +him, because he suits so perfectly your gifted temperament. +But be stronger than yourself. Show +yourself for once at last unselfish toward your son!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—God help me, how can I prevail +against that!—One must be a <span class="gesperrt">man</span>, to be able to +say such things! One must be a man to let oneself +be so blinded by the dead letter! One must be a man +to close his eyes to what stares him in the face!—I +have acted toward Melchior conscientiously and +carefully from the first day I found him susceptible +to impressions from his environment. Are we responsible +for <span class="gesperrt">accident</span>? <span class="gesperrt">You</span> may be struck +down to-morrow by a falling tile, and along will come +your friend, your father, and instead of tending +your wounds set his foot upon your head!—I will +not let my child be ruined before my very eyes! +Would I be his mother if I did?—It is unthinkable! +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> +It is utterly out of the question. What in the world +did he write then, after all? Isn’t it the most blatant +proof of his innocence, of his ignorance, of his childish +immaturity, that he <span class="gesperrt">can</span> write such things?—You +can have no inkling of knowledge of human +nature, you must be an utterly soulless bureaucrat, +or unbelievably narrow, to smell out moral corruption +here!—Say what you like: if you put Melchior +in the House of Correction, we must separate—and +then let me see if nowhere in the world I can find help +and means to snatch my child from his downfall!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—You will have to reconcile yourself +to it—if not to-day, to-morrow. To discount misfortune +comes hard to everybody. I will stand by +you, and when your courage threatens to fail I will +spare no pains, no sacrifice, to ease your heart. I +see the future so lowering, so gloomy,—it only lacked +that you too should yet be lost to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—I shall never see him again; I shall +never see him again. He will never stand the degradation, +he will never come to terms with filth. He +will break the constraint put on him: the terrible +example is fresh before his eyes.—And if I do see +him again—O God, O God!—that happy, spring-like +heart, his ringing laugh,—everything, everything,—his +child-like resolution to battle manfully +for right and good,—oh, that unspoiled spirit like +the morning sky, as I have cherished it in him, clear +and pure, as my highest good....—Hold <span class="gesperrt">me</span> to +account, if the wrong cries for reparation! Hold +<span class="gesperrt">me</span> to account! Do what you will with me! <i>I</i> bear +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> +the blame!—But keep your fearful hands off the +child!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—It is <span class="gesperrt">he</span> who has gone wrong.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—<span class="gesperrt">He has not gone wrong!</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—<span class="gesperrt">He has</span> gone wrong!—I would have +given anything to have spared your boundless love +this!—A woman came to me this morning distracted, +scarcely able to speak, with this letter in her hand—a +letter to her fifteen-year-old daughter.⁠<a id="FNanchor_6_6" href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> She had +opened it, she said, from simple curiosity; the child +was not at home.—In this letter Melchior explains to +the fifteen-year-old girl that his treatment of her +leaves him no peace, that he has sinned against her, +etc., etc., and will naturally take the responsibility +for everything. She is not to worry, even if she should +feel consequences. He is already on the way to procure +help—his expulsion will make that easier for +him. The misstep they have made may yet lead to +her happiness—and what more senseless twaddle you +please!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—Impossible!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—The letter is forged. It’s a case of +imposture. Someone is trying to turn his notorious +expulsion to account. I have not yet spoken with +the lad—but just look at the hand! Look at the +writing!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—An unheard-of, shameless piece of +knavery!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—[<i>With double meaning.</i>] I fear so.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—No! No! Never in the world!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—All the better for us, then.—The +woman asked me, wringing her hands, what she ought +to do. I told her she ought not to let her fifteen-year-old +daughter scramble around haylofts. The +letter she fortunately left with me.—Now if we send +Melchior to another school where he won’t even be +under <span class="gesperrt">parental</span> supervision, we shall have the +same thing happening in three weeks—a new expulsion—his +joyous, spring-like heart will get accustomed +to them by degrees.—Tell me, Fanny, where +<span class="gesperrt">am</span> I to put the lad?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—In the House of Correction⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—In the...?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>— ... House of Correction!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Gabor</span>—He will find there, first of all, what +was wrongfully withheld from him at home: iron discipline, +fundamental principles, and a moral restraint +to which he will have to submit under all circumstances.—And +I may add that the House of Correction +is not the abode of horror you imagine from +the name. Chief weight there is laid upon the development +of Christian thought and feeling. The +lad will there, at last, learn to aim at what’s <span class="gesperrt">good</span>, +not what’s <span class="gesperrt">interesting</span>, and in his actions take +account not of his natural impulses but of the law.—Half +an hour ago I received a telegram from my +brother which, I think, confirms what the woman +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> +told me. Melchior has confided in him and asked +him for two hundred marks with which to fly to +England....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Gabor</span>—[<i>Covers her face.</i>] Merciful +Heaven!</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene IV.</span>—<i>The House of Correction. The setting +may be the same as for the Faculty Room, without +any pictures or furniture.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><span class="smcap">Melchior</span> <i>is shown in company with</i> +<span class="smcap">Diethelm</span>, <span class="smcap">Reinhold</span>, <span class="smcap">Ruprecht</span>, <span class="smcap">Helmuth</span>, +<i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Gaston</span>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Diethelm</span>—Here’s a twenty-pfennig piece.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reinhold</span>—What’s that for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Diethelm</span>—I’ll put it on the floor. You get in a +circle round it. Whoever hits it, gets it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruprecht</span>—Aren’t you in on this too, Melchior?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—No, thank you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Helmuth</span>—The Joseph!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gaston</span>—He can’t any more. He’s here to recover +his health.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—[<i>To himself.</i>] It isn’t wise for me +to stay out. Everyone keeps an eye on me. I must +join in—or my creature will go to the devil.—The +confinement makes them abuse themselves.—I may +break my neck: I’ll be glad. I may get away: I’ll +be glad too. I can only gain, either way.—Ruprecht +is getting to be my friend: he knows all about +things here. I’ll treat him to the chapters of +Judah’s daughter-in-law Tamar, of Moab, of Lot +and his daughters, of Queen Vashti and of Abishag +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span> +the Shunammite.—He’s got the sorriest face in the +lot!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruprecht</span>—I’m getting it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Helmuth</span>—It’ll come yet!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gaston</span>—Day after to-morrow, maybe!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Helmuth</span>—Now!—Look!—O God, O God!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">All</span>—Summa—summa cum laude!!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruprecht</span>—[<i>Picking up the coin.</i>] Many +thanks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Helmuth</span>—Come here with that, you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruprecht</span>—Dirty beast!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Helmuth</span>—Jail-bird!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ruprecht</span>—[<i>Strikes him in the face.</i>] There! +[<i>Runs away.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Helmuth</span>—[<i>Running after him.</i>] I’ll kill you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Rest</span>—[<i>Rushing after them.</i>] Get after +him! Hustle! Hey! Hey! Hey!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—[<i>Alone, looking at the window.</i>] +There’s where the lightning-rod goes down. You +must wind a handkerchief round it.—When I think +of <span class="gesperrt">her</span> the blood always shoots to my head. And +Moritz weighs on me like lead.—I’ll go to a newspaper +office: pay me by the hundred, I’ll sell +papers—collect news—write—local—ethical—psychophysical.... +It’s no longer so easy to starve:—lunch-wagons, +soft-drink places.—The house is +sixty feet high and the stucco is crumbly.... She +hates me—she hates me because I’ve robbed her of +her freedom. No matter how I act, it remains—rape.—All +I can do is to hope, gradually, in the +course of years....—In a week it’ll be new moon. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> +To-morrow I’ll grease the hinges. By Saturday at +the latest I must know who has the key.—Sunday +evening at prayers, a cataleptic fit—please God no +one else gets sick!—Everything lies as clearly as if +it had happened before me. I can get over the window-sill +easily—a swing—a grip—but one must wrap +a handkerchief around it.—There comes the Head +Inquisitor. [<i>He goes off.</i> <span class="smcap">Dr. Prokrustes</span> <i>and a</i> +<span class="smcap">Locksmith</span> <i>enter on the other side</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Prokrustes</span>— ... It’s true the windows are +in the third story and nettles are planted underneath; +but what does degeneracy care for nettles?—Last +winter one climbed out of a skylight on us, +and we had all the fuss of picking up and carting +away and burying....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Locksmith</span>—Do you want the grating of +wrought iron?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Prokrustes</span>—Wrought iron—and since it +can’t be set in, riveted.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene V.</span>—<span class="smcap">Wendla’s</span> <i>room</i>. <span class="smcap">Wendla</span> <i>in bed</i>. <span class="smcap">Mrs. +Bergmann</span> <i>at its foot</i>. <span class="smcap">Ina</span> <i>leaning at the +window</i>. <span class="smcap">Dr. von Brausepulver</span> <i>discoursing</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Dr. von Brausepulver</span>—How old are you exactly?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Fourteen and a half.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. von Brausepulver</span>—I have been prescribing +Blaud’s pills for fifteen years, and in a great +many cases have observed the most inspiring improvement. +I prefer them to cod-liver oil or tonics +with iron. Begin with three to four pills per day, +and increase the quantity as fast as you can assimilate +it. I had prescribed for the Baroness +Elfriede von Witzleben an increase of one pill every +third day. The Baroness misunderstood me and increased +the dose three pills each day. In less than +three weeks the Baroness was able to go to Pyrmont +with her lady mother to complete the cure. Tiring +walks and extra meals we can dispense with. Instead, +promise me, my dear, that you will try to +move about all the more energetically, and not be +ashamed to ask for nourishment as soon as your +appetite reappears. Then these oppressed feelings +round the heart will soon pass off—and the headache, +the chills, the dizziness—and our terrible bilious +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span> +attacks. Baroness Elfriede von Witzleben +within a week of beginning the cure was enjoying +a whole broiled chicken with baked new potatoes for +breakfast.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—May I offer you a glass of +wine, Doctor?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. von Brausepulver</span>—Thank you, dear Mrs. +Bergmann, my carriage is waiting. Don’t take it +so much to heart. In a few weeks our dear little +patient will be as fresh and lively again as a gazelle,—be +sure of it!—Good day, Mrs. Bergmann. Good +day, my dear. Good day, ladies. Good day. [<i>He +goes, accompanied by</i> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ina</span>—[<i>At the window.</i>] Well, your plane-tree is +turning already—quite gay again. Can you see it +from your bed?—A brief display, hardly worth being +glad about, as one watches it come and go.—I must +be going soon now, too. August will be waiting for +me at the post office, and I must see the dressmaker +first. Mucki is getting his first little trousers, and +Karl is to have some new leggings for the winter.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Often I feel so happy, Ina!—all gladness +and sunshine. I wouldn’t have dreamed that +anyone could feel so blissful round the heart. I +want to go out and walk across the meadows in the +evening glow and hunt for primroses along the river, +and sit down at the bank and dream.... And then +comes the <span class="gesperrt">toothache</span>, and I think I must be +going to die first thing in the morning: I get hot and +cold, everything goes black before my eyes, and then +the uncanny thing flutters in me.—Every time I wake +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span> +up I see mother crying. Oh, that hurts me so—I +can’t tell you, Ina!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ina</span>—Hadn’t I better lift your pillow higher?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—[<i>Coming back.</i>] He thinks +the nausea will get better too; and then you can just +quietly get up again.... It’s my belief too that +it’ll be better if you get up again soon, Wendla.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ina</span>—By the next time I drop in, perhaps you’ll +be dancing round the house again.—Good-bye, +mother. I’ve just got to get to the dressmaker’s. +God keep you, Wendla dear. [<i>Kisses her.</i>] Get +better very, very soon.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Good-bye, Ina.—Bring me some primroses +when you come again. Good-bye. Kiss your +youngster for me.... [<span class="smcap">Ina</span> <i>goes</i>.]—What else +did he say, mother, when he was out there?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—He didn’t say anything. He +said the Baroness von Witzleben was also subject +to fainting-spells. It was almost always that way +with chlorosis.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Did he say, mother, that I had +chlorosis?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—You’re to drink milk and eat +meat and vegetables when your appetite has come +back.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, mother, mother, I don’t believe I +have chlorosis!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—You have chlorosis, child. Lie +still, Wendla, lie still. You have chlorosis.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—No, mother, no! I know I haven’t! +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span> +I feel it! I haven’t got chlorosis—I’ve got the +dropsy....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—You have chlorosis. Yes, he +did say you had chlorosis. Quiet down, girlie. It +will get better.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—It won’t get better. I have the dropsy. +I must die, mother.—Oh, mother, I must die!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—You must not die, child! You +must not die!... Merciful Heaven, you must not +die!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—But why do you cry, then, so miserably?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—You must not die—child! +You haven’t got dropsy. You have a <span class="gesperrt">baby</span>, girl! +You have a baby!—Oh, why, why did you do that +to me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—I didn’t do anything⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Oh, don’t deny it now, Wendla!—I +know, I know. See, I couldn’t have said a word +to you,—Wendla, my Wendla!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—But that is quite impossible, mother! +I’m not married!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Great God, that’s just it—that +you’re not married! That is just the frightful +thing about it!—Wendla, Wendla, Wendla, what +did you do!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Why, really, I don’t remember any +more! We were lying in the hay.... I haven’t +loved a soul in the world but you—only you, mother.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—My darling⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, mother, why didn’t you tell me +everything?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—Child, child, let’s not make each +other’s hearts still heavier. Control yourself! +Don’t despair, my child!—What, tell that to a fourteen-year-old +girl? Why, I should sooner have expected +the sun to go out! I haven’t done anything +different with you than my dear good mother did +with me.—Oh, let us trust in the good God, Wendla; +let us hope for pity, and bear our lot! See, there’s +still time: nothing has happened <span class="gesperrt">yet</span>, child; and +if we just don’t get cowardly now, the good God +won’t forsake us either.—Be brave, Wendla, be +<span class="gesperrt">brave</span>!—One may be sitting at the window so with +her hands in her lap, because so far everything has +turned out good,—and then something bursts in on +her and makes her heart feel like breaking on the +spot.... Wha-what are you trembling for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Somebody knocked.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—I didn’t hear anything, dear +heart. [<i>Goes to the door and opens it.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wendla</span>—Oh, I heard it very clearly.—Who is +outside?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Bergmann</span>—No one.—Schmidt’s mother +from Garden Street.—You come just right, Mother +Schmidtin.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene VI.</span>—<i>Vintagers, men and women, are in the +Vineyard. In the west the sun is sinking behind +the mountain peaks. A clear sound of bells +comes up from the valley.—At the uppermost +vine-trellis, under the overhanging cliffs</i>, <span class="smcap">Hansy +Rilow</span> and <span class="smcap">Ernest Roebel</span> <i>sprawl in the drying +grass</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—I have overworked.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—Let’s not be sad.—Too bad how the minutes +fly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—You see them hanging and can no more—and +to-morrow they’ll be pressed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—Being tired is as unbearable to me as +being hungry.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—Oh, I can no more!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—Just this one shining muscatel!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—There’s a limit to my elasticity.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—If I bend the spray, it’ll swing back and +forth between our mouths. We’ll neither of us have +to stir—just bite off the grapes and let the stalk +spring back to the vine.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—One no sooner resolves on something +than lo! the strength that had vanished is renewed +in him again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—And add the flaming firmament—and the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> +evening bells,—my hopes for the future rise scarcely +higher than this.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—I often see myself as a Reverend Pastor +already, with a genial, motherly housewife, a voluminous +library, and offices and honors everywhere. +Six days you have, to ruminate, and on the seventh +you open your mouth. When you go walking, +school-children take your hand, and when you come +home the coffee is steaming, the cakes are brought +in, and thru the garden door the girls come up with +apples.—Can you imagine anything happier?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—I have visions of half-shut lashes, half-opened +lips, and Turkish draperies.—I don’t believe +in pathos. You see, our elders pull long faces +to cover their stupidities from us. Among themselves +they call each other blockheads as we do. I +know that.—When I’m a millionaire, I’ll set up a +memorial to dear God.—Think of the future as a +milk pudding with sugar and spice. One fellow upsets +it and bawls. Another stirs it all up in a mess +and toils. Why not skim it?—or don’t you believe +that that art can be learned?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—Let us skim!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—What’s left ’ll be chicken-feed.—I’ve +pulled my head out of so many nooses now already....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—Let us skim, Hansy!—Why do you +laugh?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—Are you beginning again already?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—One of us has got to begin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—When we think back thirty years hence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> +to an evening such as this, it may seem to us beautiful +beyond words.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—And how beautiful everything <span class="gesperrt">is</span>, now, +quite of itself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—So why not?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—If one happened to be alone, one might +even weep.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—Don’t let us be sad. [<i>Kisses him on the +mouth.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—[<i>Returning the kiss.</i>] I left the house +with the idea of just merely speaking to you and +going back again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—I was expecting you.—Virtue isn’t a bad +clothing, but it belongs on imposing figures.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ernest</span>—It still hangs loose around our limbs. +I should have been uneasy if I hadn’t found you.—I +love you, Hansy, as I’ve never loved a living soul....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hansy</span>—Let’s not be sad.—When we think back, +thirty years hence,—why, we may laugh at ourselves!—And +now it is all so beautiful! The mountains +are glowing, the grapes droop into our mouths, +and the evening breeze whispers along the rocks like +a little playful wheedling— ...</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span></p> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene VII.</span>—<i>The graveyard, in a clear November +night. On bush and tree rustles the withered +foliage. Jagged clouds speed by under the +moon.</i>—<span class="smcap">Melchior</span> <i>clambers over the wall above</i> +<span class="smcap">Moritz’s</span> <i>grave—set much farther up-stage +than in Scene II—and jumps down, knocking +over</i> <span class="smcap">Moritz’s</span> <i>cross</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—The pack won’t follow me into this +place.—While they’re searching brothels, I can +catch my breath and see how far I’ve gotten....</p> + +<p>Coat in tatters, pockets empty,—even from the +most harmless I have something to fear.—During +the day I must try to get farther on in the wood....</p> + +<p>I have kicked down a cross.—The little flowers +would have been frozen to-night!—All around the +earth is bare....</p> + +<p>In the realm of the dead!</p> + +<p>To climb out of the skylight was not so hard as +the road before me.—This was the only thing that +I was not prepared for....</p> + +<p>I hang above the abyss—everything swallowed up +and gone!—Oh, that I had stayed back there!</p> + +<p>Why she thru my fault?—Why not the guilty one!—Inscrutable +Providence!—I would have broken +stones and gone hungry...!</p> + +<p>What is left now to keep me straight?—Crime +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span> +will follow on crime. I am abandoned to the mire. +Not even the strength left to wind things up....</p> + +<p>I was not bad!—I was not bad!—I was not +bad!...</p> + +<p>Never has mortal wandered over graves so filled +with envy!—Pah! I should never screw up the courage!—Oh, +if insanity would but seize on me—this +very night!</p> + +<p>I must look over there among the latest ones.—The +wind whistles past every stone with a different +note—a heart-chilling symphony! The rotten +wreaths blow apart and dangle on their long strings +piecemeal round the marble crosses—a forest of +scarecrows!—Scarecrows on all the graves, each +more horrible than the next, house-high, putting the +devils to flight.—The golden letters glitter so +coldly.... The weeping willow moans, and gropes +with gigantic fingers over the inscriptions!...</p> + +<p>A praying cherub—a bare slab⁠——</p> + +<p>Now a cloud casts its shadow down here.—How +fast it flies, crying!—like a host pursued it rushes +up in the east.—Not a star in the sky!⁠——</p> + +<p>Evergreen round the plot?—Evergreen?—a +girl?...</p> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="i_101" style="max-width: 35em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_101.jpg" alt="Wendla Bergmann's grave marker"> +</figure> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span></p> + +<p class='no-indent'>And I am her murderer!—I am her murderer!—Despair +is left me—only despair!—I may not cry +here. I must get away—away! [<span class="smcap">Moritz Stiefel</span>, +<i>with his head under his arm, comes stumping +over the graves</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—One moment, Melchior. It may be long +before the chance recurs. You’ve no idea how +everything depends on the time and place....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Where did <span class="gesperrt">you</span> come from?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—From over there—from the wall. You +knocked down my cross. I lie by the wall.—Give +me your hand, Melchior....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You are <span class="gesperrt">not</span> Moritz Stiefel!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Give me your hand. I’m certain sure +you’ll thank me. It’ll never be so easy for you +again. This is a rarely fortunate meeting.—I came +up especially⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Don’t you sleep?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Not what you call sleeping.—We sit on +church steeples, on lofty gables,—wherever we +want....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Ever restless?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—For fun.—We scoot around young +birch-trees, round lonely forest shrines. Over gatherings +of people we hover, over sites of misfortune, +over gardens and festival places. In the dwelling-houses +we crouch in the chimney-corner and behind +the bed-curtains.—Give me your hand!—We have +little to do with each other but we see and hear +everything that happens in the world. We know +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span> +that everything is folly that men strive for and +achieve,—and laugh at it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—What good does that do?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—What’s it need to do?—We are out of +reach—nor good nor evil can touch us any more. +We stand high, high above the earth-folk, each for +himself alone. We have nothing to do with each +other because that bores us. None of us still has +anything at heart whose loss he could feel. We are +equally immeasurably far above both grief and rejoicing. +We are content with ourselves, and that +is all!—The living we despise beyond words: we can +hardly pity them. They amuse us with their doings, +because, being alive, they are not really to be pitied. +We smile, each to himself, over their tragedies, and +meditate.—Give me your hand! If you will give me +your hand, you will fall over with laughing at the +emotion with which you give me your hand....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Doesn’t that disgust you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—We stand too high above it for that. +We smile!—At my funeral I was among the mourners. +I got a lot of entertainment from it. That is +sublimity, Melchior! I made more noise than any +of them, and slipped off to the wall to hold my sides +for laughter. Our unapproachable sublimity is in +fact the only standpoint that lets us assimilate the +dirt.... I suppose I was laughed at too before I +soared aloft!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I have no desire to laugh at myself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>— ... The living as such are truly not +to be pitied.—I admit I should never have thought +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span> +so either. And now it’s beyond my comprehension +how one can be so naïve. Now I see thru the fraud +so clearly that not the tiniest cloud is left.—How can +you hesitate, Melchior? Give me your hand. In a +turn of the head you’ll be standing sky-high above +yourself.—Your living is a grievous omission, a sin +of negligence....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Can you dead forget?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—We can do everything. Give me your +hand! We can be sorry for the young, for the way +they take their timidity for idealism, and the old, +whose stoical superiority comes near to breaking +their hearts. We see the Kaiser shake for dread of +a street-song, and the beggar for dread of the trump +of doom. We look straight thru the actor’s make-up, +and see the poet in the dark don his. We behold +the contented man in his beggary, and in the weariness +of his burdened soul the capitalist. We observe +people in love, and see them blush before each +other in the presentiment that they are frauds defrauded. +Parents we see bringing children into the +world in order that they may call to them “How fortunate +you are to have such parents!”—and we +see the children go forth and do the like. We can +eavesdrop on the innocent in their lonely cravings, +and the five-groschen drab at her reading of +Schiller.... God and the devil we see making fools +of themselves before each other, and cherish in our +hearts the unshakable conviction that both are +drunk.... A quiet—a content—Melchior!—You +need only reach me your little finger.—You may get +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span> +to be snow-white before such a favorable moment +appears to you again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—If I shake hands on it, Moritz, it will +be from self-contempt. I see myself proscribed. +What lent me courage, lies in the grave. I can no +longer think myself worthy of noble impulses—and +perceive nothing, nothing, that might yet stand in +the way of my descent.—I am, in my own opinion, +the most detestable creature in the universe....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—What are you waiting for? [<span class="smcap">A Muffled +Gentleman</span> <i>enters, and addresses</i> <span class="smcap">Melchior</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—The fact is, you’re +shivering with hunger. You’re in no sort of condition +to decide.—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Moritz</span>.] Go.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Who are you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—That will come out.—[<i>To</i> +<span class="smcap">Moritz</span>.] Vanish!—What have you here to +do?—Why haven’t you got your head on?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I shot myself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Then stay where you +belong! You’re altogether done with. Don’t bother +us here with your charnel stench. Inconceivable—why, +just look at your fingers! Pah, what the +devil! they’re crumbling down already!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Don’t send me away, please!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Who are you, good sir?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Don’t send me away, I beg you! Let +me take part in things here a little while yet. I will +not oppose you in anything.—It’s so chilly down +there!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Then why do you +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> +brag about <span class="gesperrt">sublimity</span>?—You know well enough +that that’s humbug—sour grapes! Why do you +wilfully <span class="gesperrt">lie</span>, you coinage of the brain?—If you value +the favor so highly, stay for all of me; but look out +for any more hot-air boasting, my friend, and kindly +keep your rotting hand out of the game!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Are you going to tell me who you are, +or not?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—No.—I propose that +you entrust yourself to me. First, I should see to +your getting away.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You are—my father?!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Would you not recognize +your worthy father by his voice?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—No.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—The gentleman, your +father, is seeking comfort at this moment in the +capable arms of your mother.—I open the world to +you. Your momentary want of balance springs from +your wretched situation. With a hot supper in your +belly, you can laugh at it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—[<i>To himself.</i>] They can’t both be +the devil!—[<i>Aloud.</i>] After what I have been guilty +of, no hot supper can give my peace of mind back +to me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—That depends on +the supper!—So much I can tell you: that the little +girl would have borne her child first rate! She was +perfectly built. She simply succumbed to Mother +Schmidtin’s abortives.—I will take you among men. +I will give you an opportunity to expand your horizon +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span> +beyond your wildest dreams. I will make you +acquainted with everything interesting, without exception, +that the world has to offer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Who are you? Who are you?—I +can’t consign myself to a person I don’t know!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—You’ll never learn +to know me unless you entrust yourself to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Do you think so?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Fact!—And anyway +you have no choice.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—I can at any moment give my friend +here my hand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Your friend is a +charlatan. Nobody smiles, who has one penny left +in his pocket. The sublimated humorist is the +wretchedest, most pitiable creature in creation!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Let the humorist be what he will. +Tell me who <span class="gesperrt">you</span> are, or I’ll give the humorist my +hand!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Well?!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—He is right, Melchior. I have been putting +on airs. Let him treat you, and make full use +of him. No matter how muffled he may be, he is, at +least, that!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Do you believe in God?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—That depends.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Do you want to tell me who discovered +gunpowder?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Berthold Schwarz—alias +Constantine Anklitzen—round 1330, a Franciscan +monk at Freiburg-im-Breisgau.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—What would I give to have had him let +it alone!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—You would merely +have hanged yourself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—What do you think about morality?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Look here!—am I +your schoolboy?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Ask me what you are!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Don’t quarrel!—Please don’t quarrel! +What good will come of that?—What are we sitting, +one dead and two live men, here together in the +churchyard at two in the morning for, if we want +to fall out like tipplers!—It was for my pleasure +that I was allowed to remain and witness the proceedings. +If you want to quarrel, I’ll take my head +under my arm and go.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You’re still the same old runaway!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—The ghost isn’t so +wrong. One shouldn’t ignore one’s dignity.—By +morality I understand the real product of two +imaginary quantities. The imaginary quantities are +should and would.⁠<a id="FNanchor_7_7" href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> The product is called morality, +and its reality is unquestionable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Oh, if you had only told me that sooner! +My morality harried me to death. For my dear +parents’ sake I clutched at deadly weapons. “Honor +thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be +long upon the land.” In my case the text has phenomenally +stultified itself!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Indulge in no illusions, +my dear friend. Your precious parents would +no more have died of it than you. Strictly speaking, +they would in fact have stormed and blustered merely +from the necessities of health.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—You may be right so far:—but I can +tell you positively, good sir, that if I had given +Moritz my hand just now without more ado, the +blame would have rested simply and solely on my +morality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—But that’s just the +reason you’re <span class="gesperrt">not</span> Moritz!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—All the same I don’t believe the difference +is so material—at least, not so conclusive, that +you might not perchance have met me too, esteemed +Unknown, as I trotted that time through the alder-thickets +with the pistol in my pocket.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—And don’t you remember +me? Why, even at the final moment, you +still were standing between <span class="gesperrt">Death</span> and <span class="gesperrt">Life</span>.—But +here, in my opinion, is not exactly the place +to prolong so deeply probing a debate.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—It is indeed growing cold, gentlemen!—Though +they did dress me in my Sunday suit, +I have on under it neither shirt nor drawers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Good-bye, dear Moritz. Where this +person is taking me, I don’t know; but he is somebody⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Don’t lay it up against me, Melchior, +that I tried to make away with you! It was old +attachment.—I’d be willing to have to wail and weep +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span> +all my life if I could now accompany you out of +here once more!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—In the end, each has +his share—<span class="gesperrt">you</span> the consoling consciousness of having +nothing—<span class="gesperrt">thou</span> the enervating doubt of everything.—[<i>To</i> +<span class="smcap">Moritz</span>.] Farewell.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—Farewell, Moritz! Accept my cordial +thanks for appearing to me once more. How +many glad, untroubled days have we not spent with +one another in these fourteen years! I promise you, +Moritz, let chance what will,—tho in the years +to come I turn ten times a different man,—be my +path upwards or downwards,—you I shall never +forget⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Thanks, thanks, dear friend.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Melchior</span>—And when some day I am an old man, +grizzle-haired, then perhaps it will be <span class="gesperrt">you</span> that +once again stand closer to me than all those living +with me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—I thank you.—Luck to your journey, +gentlemen.—Lose no more time!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Muffled Gentleman</span>—Come, child! [<i>He +links arms with</i> <span class="smcap">Melchior</span>, <i>and makes off with him +over the graves</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Moritz</span>—Here I sit now with my head in my +arm.—The moon hides her face, unveils again, and +looks not a hair the wiser.—So now I’ll turn back to +my little plot, straighten the cross up that the madcap +kicked so recklessly down on me, and when all +is in order I’ll lay myself out on my back again, +warm myself with decay, and smile....</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> <i>Asperula odorata.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_2" href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="label">[2]</a> In the original, P.... and V...., with four dots, not five, +after the V.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_3" href="#FNanchor_3_3" class="label">[3]</a> Literally, a cut-up noodle.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_4" href="#FNanchor_4_4" class="label">[4]</a> Sonnenstich means sunstroke: one pictures a round, red +face enringed with bristling gray hair, and an explosive manner.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_5" href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="label">[5]</a> This sentence, in the lack of any authentic stage-direction, +remains dark. “The Langenscheidt” is evidently a book, but +why is it here suddenly referred to, or what is done with it?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_6" href="#FNanchor_6_6" class="label">[6]</a> Note Wedekind’s subtlety: Mr. Gabor doesn’t remember +Wendla’s precise age, and makes her as old as he can, to +minimize Melchior’s transgression,—well before the days of +Freud.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_7" href="#FNanchor_7_7" class="label">[7]</a> In German, <i>sollen</i> and <i>wollen</i>, verbs representing <span class="gesperrt">duty</span> +and <span class="gesperrt">desire</span>.</p></div></div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="EARTH-SPIRIT"> + EARTH-SPIRIT + </h2> +</div> + +<p class='center bold'>(<span class="smcap">Erdgeist</span>)</p> + +<p class='center bold mt1'>A Tragedy in Four Acts</p> + +<div class='poetry-container'> +<div class='poetry'> +<div class='stanza'> +<div class='verse indentq'>“I was created out of ranker stuff</div> +<div class='verse'>By Nature, and to the earth by Lust am drawn.</div> +<div class='verse'>Unto the spirit of evil, not of good,</div> +<div class='verse'>The earth belongs. What deities send to us</div> +<div class='verse'>From heaven are only universal goods;</div> +<div class='verse'>Their light gives gladness, but makes no man rich;</div> +<div class='verse'>In their domain no pelf is seized and held.</div> +<div class='verse'>The stone of price, all-treasured gold, from false</div> +<div class='verse'>And evil-natured powers must be won,</div> +<div class='verse'>Who riot underneath the light of day.</div> +<div class='verse'>Not without sacrifice their favor is gained,</div> +<div class='verse'>And no man liveth who from serving them</div> +<div class='verse'>Hath extricated undefiled his soul.”</div> +</div> +<p class="right">[Spoken by Wallenstein in Schiller’s</p> +<p class='right pr2'><i>Wallenstein’s Death</i>, Act II.]</p> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak"> + CHARACTERS + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='no-indent'> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Schön</span>, <i>newspaper owner and editor</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Alva</span>, <i>his son, a writer</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>, M.D.<br> + <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>, <i>an artist</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Prince Escerny</span>, <i>an African explorer</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Escherich</span>, <i>a reporter</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>, <i>a beggar</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>, <i>an acrobat</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>, <i>a schoolboy</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span>, <i>a coachman</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Lulu</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Henriette</span>, <i>a servant</i> +</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="PROLOGUE"> + PROLOGUE + </h3> +</div> + +<p>[<i>At rise is seen the entrance to a tent, out of +which steps an animal-tamer, with long, black curls, +dressed in a white cravat, a vermilion dress-coat, +white trousers and white top-boots. He carries in his +left hand a dog-whip and in his right a loaded revolver, +and enters to the sound of cymbals and kettledrums.</i>]</p> + +<p class='no-indent mt1'> + Walk in! Walk in to the menagerie,<br> + Proud gentlemen and ladies lively and merry.<br> + With avid lust or cold disgust, the very<br> + Beast without Soul bound and made secondary<br> + To human genius, to stay and see!<br> + Walk in, the show’ll begin!—As customary,<br> + One child to each two persons comes in free.<br> + <br> + Here battle man and brute in narrow cages,<br> + Where one in mockery his long whip lashes,<br> + The other, growling as when thunder rages,<br> + Against the man’s throat murderously dashes,—<br> + Where now the crafty, now the strong prevails,<br> + Now man, now beast, against the flooring quails.<br> + The animal rears,—the human on all fours!<br> + One ice-cold look of dominance—The<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> + beast submissive bows before that glance,<br> + And the proud heel upon his neck adores.<br> + <br> + Bad are the times! Ladies and gentlemen<br> + Who once before my cage in thronging crescents<br> + Crowded, now honor operas, and then<br> + Ibsen, with their so highly valued presence.<br> + My boarders here are so in want of fodder<br> + That they reciprocally devour each other.<br> + How well off at the theater is a player,<br> + Sure of the meat upon his ribs, no matter<br> + How terrible the hunger round his platter,<br> + And colleagues’ inner cupboards yawning bare!—<br> + But if to heights of art we would aspire,<br> + We may not reckon merit by its hire.<br> + <br> + What see you, whether in light or sombre plays?<br> + <span class="gesperrt">House-animals</span>, whose morals all must praise,<br> + Who vent pale spites in vegetarian ways,<br> + And revel in a singsong to-and-fro<br> + Just like those others—in the seats below.<br> + This hero has a head by one dram swirled;<br> + That, is in doubt whether his love be right;<br> + A third you hear despairing of the world,—<br> + Full five acts long you hear him wail his plight,<br> + And no man ends him with a merciful sleight!<br> + But the <span class="gesperrt">real</span> beast, the <span class="gesperrt">beautiful</span>, <span class="gesperrt">wild</span> beast,<br> + Your eyes on <span class="gesperrt">that</span>, <i>I</i>, ladies, only, feast!<br> + <br> + You see the Tiger, that habitually<br> + Devours whatever falls before his bound;<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> The Bear, who, gluttonous from the first sally,<br> + Sinks at his late night-meal dead to the ground;<br> + You see the Monkey, little and amusing,<br> + From sheer ennui his petty powers abusing,—<br> + He has some talent, of all greatness scant,<br> + So, impudently, coquettes with his own want!<br> + Upon my soul, within my tent and trammel—<br> + See, right behind the curtain, here—’s a Camel!<br> + And all my creatures fawn about my feet<br> + When my revolver cracks— +</p> + +<p class='sdir'>[<i>He shoots into the audience.</i>]</p> + +<p class='no-indent'> + <span style="margin-left: 16.0em;">Behold!</span><br> + Brutes tremble all around me. I am cold:<br> + The <span class="gesperrt">man</span> stays cold,—you, with respect, to greet.<br> + <br> + Walk in!—You hardly trust yourselves in here?—<br> + Then very well, judge for yourselves! Each sphere<br> + Has sent its crawling creatures to your telling:<br> + Chameleons and serpents, crocodiles,<br> + Dragons, and salamanders chasm-dwelling,—<br> + I know, of course, you’re full of quiet smiles<br> + And don’t believe a syllable I say.— +</p> + +<p class='sdir mt1'>[<i>He lifts the entrance-flap and calls into the +tent.</i>]</p> + +<p class='mt1 no-indent'> + Hi, Charlie!—bring our <span class="gesperrt">Serpent</span> just this way! +</p> + +<p class='sdir mt1'>[<i>A stage-hand with a big paunch carries out +the actress of</i> <span class="gesperrt"><span class="smcap">Lulu</span></span> <i>in her Pierrot costume, +and sets her down before the animal-tamer</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span></p> + +<p class='no-indent mt1'> + She was created to incite to sin,<br> + To lure, seduce, corrupt, drop poison in,—<br> + To murder, without being once suspected.</p> +<p class='sdir'>[<i>Tickling</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>chin</i>.]</p> +<p class='no-indent'> + My pretty beast, only be <span class="gesperrt">unaffected</span>,<br> + Not vain, not artificial, not perverse,<br> + Even if the critics therefore turn adverse.<br> + Thou hast no right to spoil the shape most fitting,<br> + Most <span class="gesperrt">true</span>, of <span class="gesperrt">woman</span>, with meows and spitting!<br> + Nor with buffoonery and wry device<br> + To foul the <span class="gesperrt">childish simpleness</span> of <span class="gesperrt">Vice</span><br> + Thou shouldst—to-day I speak emphatically—<br> + Speak <span class="gesperrt">naturally</span> and not unnaturally,<br> + For the first principle, of earliest force<br> + In every art, has been Be matter-of-course!</p> + +<p class='sdir mt1'>[<i>To the public.</i>]</p> +<p class='no-indent'> + There’s nothing special now to see in her,<br> + But wait and watch what later will occur!<br> + She coils about the Tiger stricter—stricter—<br> + He roars and groans!—Who’ll be the final victor?—<br> + Hop, Charlie, march! Carry her to her cage, +</p> + +<p class='sdir mt1'>[<i>The stage-hand picks up</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>slantwise in +his arms; the animal-tamer pats her on the +hips</i>.]</p> + +<p class='no-indent mt1'> + Sweet innocence—my dearest appanage! +</p> + +<p class='sdir mt1'>[<i>The stage-hand carries</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>back into the +tent</i>.]</p> + +<p class='no-indent mt1'> + And now the best thing yet remains to say:<br> + My poll between the teeth of a beast of prey!<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span> + Walk in! The show’s not new, yet every heart<br> + Takes pleasure in it still! I’ll wrench apart<br> + This wild beast’s jaws—I dare—and he’ll not dare<br> + To close and bite! Let him be ne’er so fair,<br> + So wild and brightly flecked, he feels respect<br> + For my poor poll! I offer it him direct:<br> + One <span class="gesperrt">joke</span>, and my two temples crack!—but, lo,<br> + The lightning of my eyes I will forego,<br> + Staking my <span class="gesperrt">life</span> against a <span class="gesperrt">joke</span>! and throw<br> + My whip, my weapons, down. I am in my skin!<br> + I yield me to this beast!—His name do ye know?<br> + —The honored public! that has just walked in! +</p> + +<p class='sdir mt1'>[<i>The animal-tamer steps back into the tent, +accompanied by cymbals and kettledrums.</i>]</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="ES_ACT_I"> + ACT I + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>A roomy studio. Entrance door at the rear, +left. Another door at lower left to the bedroom. +At centre, a platform for the model, with a +Spanish screen behind it, shielding it from the +rear door, and a Smyrna rug in front. Two +easels at lower right. On the upper one is the +picture of a young girl’s head and shoulders. +Against the other leans a reversed canvas. Below +these, toward centre, an ottoman, with a +tiger-skin on it. Two chairs along the left wall. +In the background, right, a step-ladder.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>sits on the foot of the ottoman, inspecting +critically the picture on the further +easel</i>. <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>stands behind the ottoman, his +palette and brushes in his hands</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Do you know, I’m getting acquainted +with a brand-new side of the lady.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I have never painted anyone whose expression +changed so continuously. I could hardly +keep a single feature the same two days running.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Pointing to the picture and observing +him.</i>] Do you find that in it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I have done everything I could think of +to induce at least some repose in her mood by my +conversation during the sittings.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Then I understand the difference. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>[<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>dips his brush in the oil and draws it over +the features of the face</i>.] Do you think that makes +it look more like her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—We can do no more than take our art +as scientifically as possible.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Tell me⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Stepping back.</i>] The color had sunk +in pretty well, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Looking at him.</i>] Have you ever in +your life loved a woman?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Goes to the easel, puts a color on it, +and steps back on the other side.</i>] The dress hasn’t +been given relief enough yet. We don’t rightly perceive +yet that a living body is under it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I make no doubt that the workmanship is +good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—If you’ll step this way....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Rising.</i>] You must have told her regular +ghost-stories.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—As far back as you can.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Stepping back, knocks down the canvas +that was leaning against the lower easel.</i>] Excuse +me⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Picking it up.</i>] That’s all right.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Surprised.</i>] What is that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Do you know her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—No. [<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>sets the picture on the +easel. It is of a lady dressed as Pierrot with a long +shepherd’s crook in her hand.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—A costume-picture.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But, really, you’ve succeeded with <span class="gesperrt">her</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You know her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—No. And in that costume⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—It isn’t nearly finished yet. [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> +<i>nods</i>.] What would you have? While she is posing +for me I have the pleasure of entertaining her husband.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—What?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—We talk about art, of course,—to complete +my good fortune!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But how did you come to make such a +charming acquaintance?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—As they’re generally made. An ancient, +tottering little man drops in on me here to +know if I can paint his wife. Why, of course, were +she as wrinkled as Mother Earth! Next day at ten +prompt the doors fly open, and the fat-belly drives +this little beauty in before him. I can feel even now +how my knees shook. Then comes a sap-green lackey, +stiff as a ramrod, with a package under his arm. +Where is the dressing-room? Imagine my plight. I +open the door there. [<i>Pointing left.</i>] Just luck +that everything was in order. The sweet thing vanishes +into it, and the old fellow posts himself outside +as a bastion. Two minutes later out she steps in +this Pierrot. [<i>Shaking his head.</i>] I never saw anything +like it. [<i>He goes left and stares in at the bedroom.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Who has followed him with his eyes.</i>] +And the fat-belly stands guard?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Turning round.</i>] The whole body in +harmony with that impossible costume as if it had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span> +come into the world in it! Her way of burying her +elbows in her pockets, of lifting her little feet from +the rug,—the blood often shoots to my head....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—One can see that in the picture.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Shaking his head.</i>] People like us, +you know⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Here the model is mistress of the conversation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She has never yet opened her mouth.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Is it possible?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Allow me to show you the costume. +[<i>Goes out left.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Before the Pierrot.</i>] A devilish beauty. +[<i>Before the other picture.</i>] There’s more depth here. +[<i>Coming down-stage.</i>] He is still rather young for +his age. [<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>comes back with a white satin +costume</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What sort of material is that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Feeling it.</i>] Satin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—And all in one piece.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—How does one get into it then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—That I can’t tell you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Taking the costume by the legs.</i>] What +enormous trouser-legs!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—The left one she pulls up.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Looking at the picture.</i>] Above the +knee!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She does that entrancingly!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—And transparent stockings?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Those have got to be painted, specially.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Oh, you can do that.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—And with it all a coquetry!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—What brought you to that horrible suspicion?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—There are things never dreamt of in +our school-philosophy. [<i>He takes the costume back +into his bedroom.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Alone.</i>] When one is asleep....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Comes back; looks at his watch.</i>] If +you’d like to make her acquaintance, moreover,⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—No.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—They must be here in a moment.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—How much longer will the lady have to +sit?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I shall probably have to bear the pains +of Tantalus three months longer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I mean the other one.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I beg your pardon. Three times more +at most. [<i>Going to the door with him.</i>] If the lady +will just leave me the upper part of the dress +then....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—With pleasure. Let us see you at my +house again soon. [<i>He collides in the doorway with</i> +<span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] For Heaven’s sake!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—May I introduce....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] What are you doing +here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Kissing</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>hand</i>.] Mrs. Goll....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re not going already?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—But what wind blows you here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I’ve been looking at the picture of my +intended⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Coming forward.</i>] Your—intended—is +here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—So you’re having work done here, too?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Before the upper picture.</i>] Look at it! +Enchanting! Entrancing!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>Looking round him.</i>] Have you got +her hidden somewhere round here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—So that is the sweet young prodigy who’s +made a new person out of you....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—She sits in the afternoon mostly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—And you don’t tell anyone about it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Turning round.</i>] Is she really so solemn?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Probably the after-effects of the seminary +still, dear lady.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>Before the picture.</i>] One can see +that you have been transformed profoundly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But now you mustn’t let her wait any +longer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—In a fortnight I think our engagement +will come out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Let’s lose no time. +Hop!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] Just think, we came at a +trot over the new bridge. I was driving, myself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>prepares to leave</i>.] No, +no. We two have more to talk about. Get along, +Nellie. Hop!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Now it’s going to be about me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Our Apelles is already wiping his +brushes.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I had imagined this would be much more +amusing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But you have always the satisfaction of +preparing for us the greatest and rarest pleasure.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Going left.</i>] Oh, just wait!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Before the bedroom door.</i>] If madame +will be so kind.... [<i>Shuts the door after her +and stands in front of it.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—I christened her Nellie, you know, in +our marriage-contract.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Did you?—Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—What do you think of it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Why not call her rather Mignon?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—That would have been good, too. +I didn’t think of that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Do you consider the name so important?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Hm.... You know, I have no children.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But you’ve only been married a couple +of months.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Thanks, I don’t want any.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Having taken out his cigarette-case.</i>] +Have a cigarette?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>Helps himself.</i>] I’ve plenty to do +with this one. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>.] Say, what’s your +little danseuse doing now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Turning round on</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>.] You and +a danseuse?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—The lady was sitting for me at that +time only as a favor. I made her acquaintance on +a flying trip of the Cecilia Society.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] Hm.... I think +we’re getting a change of weather.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—The toilet isn’t going so quickly, is it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—It’s going like lightning! Woman has +got to be a virtuoso in her job. So must we all, each +in his job, if life isn’t to turn to beggary. [<i>Calls.</i>] +Hop, Nellie!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Inside.</i>] Just a second!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] I can’t get onto these +blockheads. [<i>Referring to</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I can’t help envying them. These blockheads +know of nothing holier than an altar-cloth, and +feel richer than you and me with 30,000-mark incomes. +Besides, you’re no person to judge a man +who has lived since childhood from palette to mouth. +Take it upon yourself to finance him: it’s an arithmetic +example! I haven’t the moral courage, and +one can easily burn one’s fingers, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Pierrot</span>, <i>steps out of the bedroom</i>.] +Here I am!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Turns; after a pause.</i>] Superb!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Nearer.</i>] Well?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You shame the boldest fancy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—How do you like me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—A picture before which art must despair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Ah, you think so, too?</p> + +<p>Schön—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Have you any notion what +you’re doing?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’m perfectly aware of myself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Then you might be a little more discreet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But I’m only doing what’s my duty.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You are powdered?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What do you take me for!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—I’ve never seen such a white skin as +she’s got. I’ve told our Raphael here, too, to do +just as little with the flesh tints as possible. I can’t +get up any enthusiasm for this modern daubing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>By the easels, preparing his paints.</i>] +At any rate, it’s thanks to impressionism that present-day +art can stand up beside the old masters +without blushing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Oh, it may be quite the thing for a +brute being led to slaughter.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—For Heaven’s sake don’t get excited! +[<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>falls on</i> <span class="smcap">Goll’s</span> <i>neck and kisses him</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—They can see your undershirt. You +must pull it lower.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I would soonest have left it off. It only +bothers me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—He should be able to paint it out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Taking the shepherd’s crook that leans +against the Spanish screen, and mounting the platform, +to</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] What would you say now, if you +had to stand at attention for two hours?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I’d sell my soul to the devil for the chance +to exchange with you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>Sitting, left.</i>] Come over here. +Here is my post of observation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Plucking her left trouser-leg up to the +knee, to</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>.] So?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Yes....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Plucking it a thought higher.</i>] So?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Yes, yes....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>, <i>who has seated himself +on the chair next him, with a gesture</i>.] I find that +she shows up even better from here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Without stirring.</i>] I beg pardon! I +show up equally well from every side.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] The right knee further +forward, please.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>With a gesture.</i>] The body does show +finer lines perhaps.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—The lighting is at least half-way bearable +to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Oh, you must throw on lots of it! +Hold your brush a bit longer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Certainly, Dr. Goll.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Treat her as a piece of still-life.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Certainly, Doctor. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] +You used to hold your head a wee mite higher, Mrs. +Goll.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Raising her head.</i>] Paint my lips a little +open.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Paint snow on ice. If you get warm +doing that, then instantly your art gets inartistic!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Certainly, Doctor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Art, you know, must so reproduce nature +that one can get at least some <span class="gesperrt">spiritual</span> +enjoyment from it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Opening her mouth a little, to</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>.] +So—look. I’ll hold it half opened, so.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Every time the sun comes out, the wall +opposite throws warm reflections in here.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] You must keep your +pose and behave as if our Velasquez here were nonexistent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Well, a painter <span class="gesperrt">isn’t</span> a man, anyway.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I don’t think you ought to judge the +whole craft from nothing more than one notable exception.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Stepping back from the easel.</i>] However, +I rather wish I had had to hire a different studio +last fall.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Goll</span>.] What I wanted to ask you—have +you seen the little Murphy girl yet as a +Peruvian pearl-fisher?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—I see her to-morrow for the fourth +time. Prince Polossov took me. His hair has already +got dark yellow again with delight.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—So you find her quite fabulous, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Who ever wants to judge of that beforehand?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I think someone knocked.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Pardon me a moment. [<i>Goes and +opens the door.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] You can safely smile at +him less bashfully!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—To him it means nothing at all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—And if it did!—What are we two sitting +here for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva Schön</span>—[<i>Entering, still behind the Spanish +screen.</i>] May one come in?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—My son!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Oh! It’s Mr. Alva!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Don’t mind. Just come along in.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Stepping forward, shakes hands with</i> +<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Goll</span>.] Glad to see you. [<i>Turning +toward</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Do I see aright? Oh, if only I +could engage you for my title part!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t think I could dance nearly well +enough for your show!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Ah, but you have a dancing-master whose +like cannot be found on any stage in Europe.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But what brings you here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Maybe you’re having somebody or +other painted here, too, in secret!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] I wanted to take you to +the dress rehearsal.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>As</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>rises</i>.] Oho, do you have +’em dance to-day in full costume already?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Of course. Come along, too. In five minutes +I must be on the stage. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Poor me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—I’ve forgotten—what’s the name of +your ballet?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Dalailama.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—I thought <span class="gesperrt">he</span> was in a madhouse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You’re thinking of Nietzsche, Doctor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—You’re right; I got ’em mixed up.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I have helped Buddhism to its legs.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—By his legs is the stage-poet known.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Corticelli dances the youthful Buddha as +tho she had seen the light of the world by the Ganges.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—So long as her mother lived, she danced +with her legs.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Then when she got free she danced with +her intelligence.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Now she dances with her heart.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—If you’d like to see her⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Thank you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Come along with us!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Impossible.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Anyway, we have no time to lose.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Come with us, Doctor. In the third act +you see Dalailama in his cloister, with his monks⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—The only thing I care about is the +young Buddha.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Well, what’s hindering you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—I can’t. I can’t do it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—We’re going to Peter’s, after it. There +you can express your admiration.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Don’t press me any further, please.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You’ll see the tame monkey, the two Brahmans, +the little girls....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—For heaven’s sake, keep away from +me with your little girls!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Reserve us a proscenium box for Monday, +Mr. Alva.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—How could you doubt that I would, dear +lady!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—When I come back this Hellebreugel +will have messed up the whole picture on me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Well, it could be painted over.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—If I don’t explain to this Caravacci +every stroke of his brush⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Your fears are unfounded, I think....</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Next time, gentlemen!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—The Brahmans are getting impatient. The +daughters of Nirvana are shivering in their tights.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Damned splotchiness!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—We’ll get jumped on if we don’t bring +you with us.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—In five minutes I’ll be back. [<i>Stands +down right, behind</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>and compares the picture +with</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>regretfully</i>.] Duty calls me, +gracious lady!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>.] You must model it +a bit more here. The hair is bad. You aren’t paying +enough attention to your business!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Come on.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—Now, just hop it! Ten horses will +not drag me to Peter’s.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Following</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Goll</span>.] We’ll +take my carriage. It’s waiting downstairs. [<i>Exeunt.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Leans over to the right, and spits.</i>] +Pack!—If only life could end!—The bread-basket!—paunch +and mug!—my artist’s pride has got its +back up. [<i>After a look at</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] This company!—[<i>Gets +up, goes up left, observes</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>from all +sides, and sits again at his easel</i>.] The choice would +be a hard one to make. If I may request Mrs. Goll +to raise the right hand a little higher.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Grasps the crook as high as she can +reach; to herself.</i>] Who would have thought that +was possible!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I am quite ridiculous, you think?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He’s coming right back.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I can do no more than paint.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—There he is!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Rising.</i>] Well?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Don’t you hear?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Someone is coming....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I knew it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—It’s the janitor. He’s sweeping the +stairs.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Thank Heaven!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Do you perhaps accompany the doctor +to his patients?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Everything <span class="gesperrt">but</span> that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Because, you are not accustomed to +being alone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—We have a housekeeper at home.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She keeps you company?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—She has a lot of taste.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—She dresses me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Do you go much to balls?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Never.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Then what do you need the dresses +for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—For dancing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You really dance?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Czardas ... Samaqueca ... Skirt-dance.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Doesn’t—that—disgust you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You find me ugly?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You don’t understand me. But who +gives you lessons then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Who?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—He?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He plays the violin⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Every day one learns something new.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I learned in Paris. I took lessons from +Eugénie Fougère. She let me copy her costumes, +too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What are <span class="gesperrt">they</span> like?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—A little green lace skirt to the knee, all in +ruffles, low-necked, of course, very low-necked and +awfully tight-laced. Bright green petticoat, then +brighter and brighter. Snow-white underclothes +with a hand’s-breadth of lace....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I can no longer⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then paint!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Scraping the canvas.</i>] Aren’t you +cold at all?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—God forbid! No. What made you ask? +Are you so cold?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Not to-day. No.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Praise God, one can breathe!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—How so?... [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>takes a deep +breath</i>.] Don’t do that, please! [<i>Springs up, +throws away his palette and brushes, walks up and +down.</i>] The bootblack has only her feet to attend +to, at least! And his color doesn’t eat into his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span> +money, either. If I go without supper to-morrow, +no little society lady will be asking me if I know +anything about oyster-patties!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Is he going out of his head?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Takes up his work again.</i>] What +ever drove the fellow to this test?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’d like it better, too, if he had stayed +here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—We are truly the martyrs of our calling!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I didn’t wish to cause you pain.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Hesitating, to</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] If you—the +left trouser-leg—a little higher⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Steps to the platform.</i>] Permit +me....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What do you want?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I’ll show you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You mustn’t.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You are nervous.... [<i>Tries to seize +her hand.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Throws the crook in his face.</i>] Let me +alone! [<i>Hurries to the entrance door.</i>] You’re a +long way yet from getting me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You can’t understand a joke.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Oh, yes, I can. I understand everything. +Just you leave me be. You’ll get nothing at all from +me by force. Go to your work. You have no right +to molest me. [<i>Flees behind the ottoman.</i>] Sit +down behind your easel!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Trying to get around the ottoman.</i>] +As soon as I’ve punished you—you wayward, capricious⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But you must have me, first! Go away. +You can’t catch me. In long clothes I’d have fallen +into your clutches long ago—but in the Pierrot!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Throwing himself across the ottoman.</i>] +I’ve got you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Hurls the tiger-skin over his head.</i>] +Good night! [<i>Jumps over the platform and climbs +up the step-ladder.</i>] I can see away over all the +cities of the earth.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Unrolling himself from the rug.</i>] +This old skin!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I reach up into heaven, and stick the stars +in my hair.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Clambering after her.</i>] I’ll shake it +till you fall off!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—If you don’t stop, I’ll throw the ladder +down. [<i>Climbing higher.</i>] Will you let go of my +legs? God save the Poles! [<i>Makes the ladder fall +over, jumps onto the platform, and as</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> +<i>picks himself up from the floor, throws the Spanish +screen down on his head. Hastening down-stage, by +the easels.</i>] I told you that you weren’t going to +get me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Coming forward.</i>] Let us make +peace. [<i>Tries to embrace her.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Keep away from me, or—— [<i>She throws +the easel with the finished picture at him, so that both +fall crashing to the floor.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Screams.</i>] Merciful Heaven!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Up-stage, right.</i>] You knocked the hole +in it yourself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I am ruined! Ten weeks’ work, my +journey, my exhibition! Now there is nothing more +to lose! [<i>Plunges after her.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Springs over the ottoman, over the fallen +step-ladder, and over the platform, down-stage.</i>] A +grave! Don’t fall into it! [<i>She stamps thru the +picture on the floor.</i>] She made a new man out of +him! [<i>Falls forward.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Stumbling over the Spanish screen.</i>] +I am merciless now!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Up-stage.</i>] Leave me in peace now. +I’m getting dizzy. O Gott! O Gott!... [<i>Comes +forward and sinks down on the ottoman.</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> +<i>locks the door; then seats himself next to her, grasps +her hand, and covers it with kisses—then pauses, +struggling with himself.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>opens her eyes wide</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He may come back.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—How d’you feel?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—As if I had fallen into the water....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I love you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—One time, I loved a student.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Nellie⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—With four-and-twenty scars⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I love you, Nellie.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—My name isn’t Nellie. [<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>kisses +her</i>.] It’s Lulu.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I would call you Eve.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Do you know what time it is?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Looking at his watch.</i>] Half past +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> +ten. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>takes the watch and opens the case</i>.] +You don’t love me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Yes, I do.... It’s five minutes after half +past ten.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Give me a kiss, Eve!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Takes him by the chin and kisses him. +Throws the watch in the air and catches it.</i>] You +smell of tobacco.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Call me Walter.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It would be uncomfortable to⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You’re just making believe!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re making believe yourself, it seems +to me. <i>I</i> make believe? What makes you think +that? I’ve <span class="gesperrt">never needed to do that</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Rises, disconcerted, passing his hand +over his forehead.</i>] God in Heaven! The world is +strange to me⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Screams.</i>] Only don’t kill me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Instantly whirling round.</i>] <span class="gesperrt">Thou +hast never yet loved!</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Half raising herself.</i>] <span class="gesperrt">You have +never yet loved</span>...!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>Outside.</i>] Open the door!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Already sprung to her feet.</i>] Hide me! +O God, hide me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>Pounding on the door.</i>] Open the +door!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Holding back</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>as he goes toward +the door</i>.] He will strike me dead!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—[<i>Hammering.</i>] Open the door!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sunk down before</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>, <i>gripping his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> +knees.</i>] He’ll beat me to death! He’ll beat me to +death!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Stand up.... [<i>The door falls crashing +into the studio.</i> <span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span> <i>with bloodshot eyes +rushes upon</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>brandishing his +stick</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Goll</span>—You dogs! You.... [<i>Pants, +struggles for breath a few seconds, and falls headlong +to the ground.</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz’s</span> <i>knees tremble</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>has fled to the door. Pause.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Mister—Doctor—Doc—Doctor +Goll⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>In the door.</i>] Please, tho, first put the +studio in order.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Dr. Goll! [<i>Leans over.</i>] Doc—[<i>Steps +back.</i>] He’s cut his forehead. Help me to +lay him on the ottoman.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Shudders backward in terror.</i>] No. +No....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Trying to turn him over.</i>] Dr. Goll.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He doesn’t hear.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—But you, help me, please.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—The two of us together couldn’t lift him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Straightening up.</i>] We must send +for a doctor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He is fearfully heavy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Getting his hat.</i>] Please, tho, be so +good as to put the place a little to rights while +I’m away. [<i>He goes out.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He’ll spring up all at once. [<i>Intensely.</i>] +Bussi!—He just won’t notice anything. [<i>Comes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span> +down-stage in a wide circle.</i>] He sees my feet, and +watches every step I take. He has his eye on me +everywhere. [<i>Touches him with her toe.</i>] Bussi! +[<i>Flinching, backward.</i>] It’s serious with him. The +dance is over. He’ll send me to prison. What shall +I do? [<i>Leans down to the floor.</i>] A strange, wild +face! [<i>Getting up.</i>] And no one to do him the +last services—isn’t that sad! [<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>returns</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Still not come to himself?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Down right.</i>] What shall I do?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Bending over</i> <span class="smcap">Goll</span>.] Doctor Goll.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I almost think it’s serious.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Talk decently!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He wouldn’t say that to me. He makes +me dance for him when he doesn’t feel well.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—The doctor will be here in a moment.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Doctoring won’t help <span class="gesperrt">him</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—But people do what they can, in such +cases!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He doesn’t believe in it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Don’t you want to—at any rate—put +something on?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Yes,—right off.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What are you waiting for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Please....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What is it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Shut <span class="gesperrt">his</span> eyes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You make me shiver.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Not nearly so much as you make <span class="gesperrt">me</span>!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re a born criminal.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Aren’t you the least bit touched by +this moment?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It hits me, too, some.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Please, just you keep still now!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It hits you some, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You really didn’t need to add that, at +such a moment!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—<span class="gesperrt">Please</span>...!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Do what you think necessary. I don’t +know how.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Left of</i> <span class="smcap">Goll</span>.] He’s looking at me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Right of</i> <span class="smcap">Goll</span>.] And at me, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re a coward!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Shuts</i> <span class="smcap">Goll’s</span> <i>eyes with his handkerchief</i>.] +It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever been +condemned to that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Didn’t you do it to your mother?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[Nervously.] No.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You were away, perhaps.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—No!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Or else you were afraid?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Violently.</i>] No!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Shivering, backward.</i>] I didn’t mean to +insult you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She’s still alive.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then you still have somebody.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She’s as poor as a beggar.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I know what that is.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Don’t laugh at me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Now I am rich⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—It gives me cold shudders—— [<i>Goes +right.</i>] She can’t help it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>To herself.</i>] What’ll I do?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>To himself.</i>] Absolutely uncivilized! +[<i>They look at each other mistrustfully.</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> +<i>goes over to her and grips her hand</i>.] Look me in +the eyes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Apprehensively.</i>] What do you want?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Takes her to the ottoman and makes +her sit next to him.</i>] Look me in the eyes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I see myself in them as Pierrot.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Shoves her from him.</i>] Confounded +dancer-ing!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I must change my clothes⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Holds her back.</i>] One question⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I can’t answer it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Can you speak the truth?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Do you believe in a Creator?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Can you swear by anything?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t know. Leave me alone. You’re +mad.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What do you believe in, then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Have you no soul, then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Have you ever once loved——?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Gets up, goes right, to himself.</i>] +She doesn’t know!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Without moving.</i>] I don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Glancing at</i> <span class="smcap">Goll</span>.] He knows.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Nearer him.</i>] What do you want to +know?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Angrily.</i>] Go, get dressed! [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>goes into the bedroom</i>. <i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Goll</span>.] Would I could +change with you, you dead man! I give her back to +you. I give my youth to you, too. I lack the courage +and the faith. I’ve had to wait patiently too +long. It’s too late for me. I haven’t grown up big +enough for happiness. I have a hellish fear of it. +Wake up! I didn’t touch her. He opens his mouth. +Mouth open and eyes shut, like the children. With +me it’s the other way round. Wake up, wake up! +[<i>Kneels down and binds his handkerchief round the +dead man’s head.</i>] Here I beseech Heaven to make +me <span class="gesperrt">able</span> to be happy—to give me the strength and +the freedom of soul to be just a weeny mite happy! +For <span class="gesperrt">her</span> sake, <span class="gesperrt">only for her sake</span>. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>comes out of the bedroom, completely dressed, her +hat on, and her right hand under her left arm</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Raising her left arm, to</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>.] +Would you hook me up here? My hand trembles.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="ES_ACT_II"> + ACT II + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>A very ornamental parlor. Entrance-door +rear, left. Curtained entrances right and left, +steps leading up to the right one. On the back +wall over the fireplace</i>, <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>Pierrot picture +in a magnificent frame. Right, above the steps, +a tall mirror; facing it, right centre, a chaise +longue. Left, an ebony writing-table. Centre, +a few chairs around a little Chinese table.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>stands motionless before the mirror, in +a green silk morning-dress. She frowns, passes +a hand over her forehead, feels her cheeks, and +draws back from the mirror with a discouraged, +almost angry, look. Frequently turning round, +she goes left, opens a cigarette-case on the writing-table, +lights herself a cigarette, looks for a +book among those that are lying on the table, +takes one, and lies down on the chaise longue +opposite the mirror. After reading a moment, +she lets the book sink, and nods seriously to herself +in the glass; then resumes reading.</i> +<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>enters, left, palette and brushes in +hand, and bends over</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>kisses her on the +forehead, and goes up the steps, right</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Turning in the doorway.</i>] Eve!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Smiling.</i>] At your orders?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Seems to me you look extra charming +to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>With a glance at the mirror.</i>] Depends +on what you expect.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Your hair breathes out a morning +freshness....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’ve just come out of the water.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Approaching her.</i>] I’ve an awful lot +to do to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You tell yourself you have.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Lays his palette and brushes down on +the carpet, and sits on the edge of the couch.</i>] +What are you reading?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Reads.</i>] “Suddenly she heard an anchor +of refuge come nodding up the stairs.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Who under the sun writes so absorbingly?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Reading.</i>] “It was the postman with a +money-order.” [<span class="smcap">Henriette</span>, <i>the servant, comes in, +upper left, with a hat-box on her arm and a little +tray of letters which she puts on the table</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henriette</span>—The mail. I’m going to take your +hat to the milliner, madam. Anything else?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—No. [<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>signs to her to go out, +which she does, slyly smiling</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What were all the things you dreamt +about last night?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’ve asked me that twice already this +morning.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Rises, takes up the letters.</i>] News +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span> +makes me tremble. Every day I fear the world may +go to pieces. [<i>Giving</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>a letter</i>.] For you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sniffs at the paper.</i>] Madame Corticelli. +[<i>Hides it in her bosom.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Skimming a letter.</i>] My Sama-queca-dancer +sold—for fifty thousand marks!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Who’s that from?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Sedelmeier in Paris. That’s the third +picture since our marriage. I hardly know how to +escape my good fortune!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Pointing to the letters.</i>] There are +more there.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Opening an engagement announcement.</i>] +See. [<i>Gives it to</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Reads.</i>] “Sir Henry von Zarnikow has +the honor to announce the engagement of his daughter, +Charlotte Marie Adelaide, to Doctor Ludwig +Schön.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>As he opens another letter.</i>] At last! +He’s been an eternal while evading a public engagement. +I can’t understand it—a man of his standing +and influence. What can be in the way of his marriage?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What is that that you’re reading?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—An invitation to take part in the international +exhibition at St. Petersburg. I have no +idea what to paint for it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Some entrancing girl or other, of course.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Will you be willing to pose for it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—God knows there are other pretty girls +enough in existence!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—But with no other model—tho she be +as racy as hell—can I so fully show the depth and +range of my powers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then I must, I suppose. Mightn’t it go +as well, perhaps, lying down?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Really, I’d like best to leave the composition +to your taste. [<i>Folding up the letters.</i>] +Don’t let’s forget to congratulate Schön to-day, anyway. +[<i>Goes left and shuts the letters in the writing-table.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But we did that a long time ago.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—For his bride’s sake.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You can write to him again if you want.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—And now to work! [<i>Takes up his +brushes and palette, kisses</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>goes up the steps, +right, and turns around in the doorway</i>.] Eve!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Lets her book sink, smiling.</i>] Your +pleasure?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Approaching her.</i>] I feel every day +as if I were seeing you for the very first time.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re a terror.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You make me one. [<i>He sinks on his +knees by the couch and caresses her hand.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Stroking his hair.</i>] You’re using me up +fast.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—You are mine. And you are never +more ensnaring than when you ought for God’s sake +to be, just once, real ugly for a couple of hours! +Since I’ve had you, I have had nothing further. I’ve +lost hold of myself entirely.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Don’t be so passionate! [<i>Bell rings in +the corridor.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Pulling himself together.</i>] Confound +it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—No one at home!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Perhaps it’s the art-dealer⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—And if it’s the Chinese Emperor!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—One moment. [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Visionary.</i>] Thou? Thou? [<i>Closes +her eyes.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Coming back.</i>] A beggar, who says +he was in the war. I have no small change on me. +[<i>Taking up his palette and brushes.</i>] It’s high +time, too, that I should finally go to work. [<i>Goes +out, right.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>touches herself up before the +glass, strokes back her hair, and goes out, returning +leading in</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I’d thought he was more of a swell—a +little more glory to him. He’s sort of embarrassed. +He quaked a little in the knees when he saw +<span class="gesperrt">me</span> in front of him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Shoving a chair round for him.</i>] How +can you beg from him, too?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I’ve dragged my seventy-seven +spring-times here just for that. You told me he +kept at his painting in the mornings.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He hadn’t got quite awake yet. How +much do you need?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Two hundred, if you have that much +handy. Personally, I’d like three hundred. Some +of my clients have evaporated.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Goes to the writing-table and rummages +in the drawers.</i>] Whew, I’m tired!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Looking round him.</i>] This helped +bring me, too. I’ve been wanting a long time to see +how things were looking with you now.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Well?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—It gives one cold shivers. [<i>Looking +up.</i>] Like with me fifty years ago. Instead of the +loafing chairs we still had rusty old sabres then. +Devil, but you’ve brought it pretty far! [<i>Scuffing.</i>] +Carpets....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Giving him two bills.</i>] I like best to +walk on them bare-footed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Scanning</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>portrait</i>.] Is +that you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Winking.</i>] Pretty fine?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—If that’s the sort of thing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Have something sweet?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Getting up.</i>] Elixir de Spaa.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—That doesn’t help me—— Does he +drink?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Taking a decanter and glasses from a +cupboard near the fireplace.</i>] Not yet. [<i>Coming +down-stage.</i>] The cordial has such various effects!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—He comes to blows?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He goes to sleep. [<i>She fills the two +glasses.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—When he’s drunk, you can see right +into his insides.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’d rather not. [<i>Sits opposite</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>.] +Talk to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—The streets keep on getting longer, +and my legs shorter.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—And your harmonica?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Wheezes, like me with my asthma. +I just keep a-thinking it isn’t worth the trouble to +make it better. [<i>They clink glasses.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Emptying her glass.</i>] I’d been thinking +that at last you were⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—At last I was up and away? I +thought so, too. But no matter how early the sun +goes down, still we aren’t let lie quiet. I’m hoping +for winter. Perhaps then my [<i>coughing</i>]—my—my +asthma will invent some opportunity to carry +me off.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Filling the glasses.</i>] Do you think they +could have forgotten you up there?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Would be possible, for it certainly +isn’t going like it usually does. [<i>Stroking her +knee.</i>] Now you tell—not seen you a long time—my +little Lulu.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Jerking back, smiling.</i>] Life is beyond +me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What do you know about it? You’re +still so young!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That you call me Lulu.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Lulu, isn’t it? Have I ever called +you anything else?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I haven’t been called Lulu since man can +remember.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Some other kind of name?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Lulu sounds to me quite antediluvian.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Children! Children!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—My name now is⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—As if the principle wasn’t always the +same!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You mean⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What is it now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—<span class="gesperrt">Eve</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Leapt, hopped, skipped, jumped....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That’s what I answer to.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Gazing round.</i>] This is the way I +dreamt it for you. It’s your natural bent. [<i>Seeing</i> +<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>sprinkling herself with perfume</i>.] What’s +that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Heliotrope.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Does that smell better than you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sprinkling him.</i>] That needn’t bother +you any more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Who would have dreamt of this royal +luxury before!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—When I think back—Ugh!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Stroking her knee.</i>] How’s it +going with you, then? You still keep at the French?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I lie and sleep.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—That’s genteel. That always looks +like something. And afterwards?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I stretch—till it cracks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—And when it has cracked?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What do you mind about that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What do I mind about that? What +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span> +do I mind? I’d rather live till the last trump and +renounce all heavenly joys than leave my Lulu deprived +of anything down here behind me. What do +I mind about that? It’s my sympathy. To be sure, +my better self <span class="gesperrt">is</span> already transfigured—but I still +have some understanding of this world.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I haven’t.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—You’re too well off.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Shuddering.</i>] Idiot....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Better than with the old dancing-bear?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sadly.</i>] I don’t dance any more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—He got his call all right.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Now I am—— [<i>Stops.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Speak out from your heart, child! +I believed in you when there was no more to be seen +in you than your two big eyes. What are you now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—A beast....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—The deuce you—— And what kind +of a beast? A fine beast! An elegant beast! A +glorified beast!—Well, let them bury me quickly! +We’re through with prejudices—even with the one +against the corpse-washer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You needn’t be afraid that you will be +washed once more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Doesn’t matter, either. One gets +dirty again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sprinkling him.</i>] It would call you back +to life again!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—We are mud.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I beg your pardon! I rub grease into +myself every day and then powder on top of it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Probably worth while, too, on the +dressed-up mucker’s account.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It makes the skin like satin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—As if it weren’t just dirt all the +same!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Thank you. I wish to be worth nibbling +at!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—We are. Give a big dinner down below +there pretty soon. Keep open house.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Your guests will hardly overeat themselves +at it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Patience, girl! Your worshippers +won’t put you in alcohol, either. It’s “schöne +Melusine” as long as it keeps reacting. Afterwards? +They don’t take it at the zoölogical garden. [<i>Rising.</i>] +The gentle beasties might get stomach-cramps.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Getting up.</i>] Have you enough?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Enough and some to spare for planting +a juniper on my grave.—I’ll find my own way +out. [<i>Exit.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>follows him, and presently returns +with</i> <span class="smcap">Dr. Schön</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—What’s your father doing here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What’s the matter?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—If I were your husband that man would +never cross my threshold.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You can be intimate with me. He’s not +here. [<i>Referring to</i> <span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Thank you, I’d rather not.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t understand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I know you don’t. [<i>Offering her a seat.</i>] +That is just the point I’d like to speak to you about.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sitting down uncertainly.</i>] Then why +didn’t you yesterday?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Please, nothing now about yesterday. I +did tell you two years ago.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Nervously.</i>] Oh, yes,—hm!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Please be kind enough to cease your visits +to my house.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—May I offer you an elixir⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Thanks. No elixir. Have you understood +me? [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>shakes her head</i>.] Good. You +have the choice. You force me to the most extreme +measures:—either act in accordance with your station⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Or?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Or—you compel me—I may have to turn +to that person who is responsible for your behavior.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—How can you imagine that——?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I shall request your husband, himself to +keep watch over your doings. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>rises, goes up +the steps, right</i>.] Where are you going?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Calls thru the curtains.</i>] Walter!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Springing up.</i>] Are you mad?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Turning round.</i>] Aha!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I have made the most superhuman efforts +to raise you in society. You can be ten times as +proud of your name as of your intimacy with me.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Comes down the steps and puts her arm +around</i> <span class="smcap">Schön’s</span> <i>neck</i>.] Why are you still afraid, +now that you’re at the zenith of your hopes?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—No comedy! The zenith of my hopes? +I am at last engaged: I have still to hope that I may +bring my bride into a clean house.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sitting.</i>] She has developed delightfully +in the two years!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—She no longer looks thru one so earnestly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—She is now, for the first time, a woman. +We can meet each other wherever seems suitable to +you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—We shall meet each other nowhere but in +the presence of your husband!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You don’t believe yourself what you say.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Then <span class="gesperrt">he</span> must believe it, at least. Go +on and call him! Thru his marriage to you, thru all +that I’ve done for him, he has become my friend.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Rising.</i>] Mine, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—And that way I’ll cut down the sword +over my head.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You have, indeed, put chains upon me. +But I owe my happiness to you. You will get +friends by the crowd as soon as you have a pretty +young wife again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You judge women by yourself! He’s got +the sense of a child or he would have tracked out +your doublings and windings long ago.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I only wish he would! Then, at last he’d +get out of his swaddling-clothes. He puts his trust +in the marriage contract he has in his pocket. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span> +Trouble is past and gone. One can now give oneself +and let oneself go as if one were at home. That isn’t +the sense of a <span class="gesperrt">child</span>! It’s banal! He has no +education; he sees nothing; he sees neither me nor +himself; he is blind, blind, blind....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Half to himself.</i>] When <span class="gesperrt">his</span> eyes +open!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Open his eyes for him! I’m going to ruin. +I’m neglecting myself. He doesn’t know me at all. +What am I to him? He calls me darling and little +devil. He would say the same to any piano-teacher. +He makes no pretensions. Everything is all right, to +him. That comes from his never in his life having +felt the need of intercourse with women.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—If that’s true!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He admits it perfectly openly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—A man who has painted them, rags and +tags and velvet gowns, since he was fourteen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Women make him anxious. He trembles +for his health and comfort. But he isn’t afraid of +<span class="gesperrt">me</span>!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—How many girls would deem themselves +God knows how blessed in your situation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Softly pleading.</i>] Seduce him. Corrupt +him. You know how. Take him into bad company—you +know the people. I am nothing to him but +a woman, just woman. He makes me feel so ridiculous. +He will be prouder of me. He doesn’t know +any differences. I’m thinking my head off, day and +night, how to shake him up. In my despair I dance +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> +the can-can. He yawns; and drivels something +about obscenity.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Nonsense. He is an artist, though.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—At least he believes he is.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—That’s the chief thing!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—When <i>I</i> pose for him.... He believes, +too, that he’s a famous man.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—We <span class="gesperrt">have</span> made him one.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He believes everything. He’s as diffident +as a thief, and lets himself be lied to, till one loses +all respect! When we first got to know each other +I made him believe I had never loved before—[<span class="smcap">Schön</span> +<i>falls into an easy-chair</i>.] Otherwise he +would really have taken me for some sort of reprobate!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You make God knows what exorbitant demands +on <span class="gesperrt">legitimate</span> relations!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I make no exorbitant demands. Often I +even dream still of Goll.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—He was, at any rate, not banal!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He is there, as if he had never been away. +Only he walks as tho in his socks. He isn’t angry +with me; he’s awfully sad. And then he is fearful, +as tho he were there without the permission of the +police. Otherwise, he feels at ease with us. Only +he can’t quite get over my having thrown away so +much money since⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You yearn for the whip once more?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Maybe. I don’t dance any more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Teach him to do it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—A waste of trouble.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Out of a hundred women, ninety educate +their husbands to suit themselves.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He loves me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—That’s fatal, of course.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He loves me⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—That is an unbridgeable abyss.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He doesn’t know me, but he loves me! If +he had anything approaching a true idea of me, he’d +tie a stone around my neck and sink me in the sea +where it’s deepest.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Let’s finish this. [<i>He gets up.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—As you say.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I’ve married you off. Twice I have married +you off. You live in luxury. I’ve created a +position for your husband. If that doesn’t satisfy +you, and he laughs in his sleeve at it,—I don’t indulge +in ideal expectations, but—leave me out of the +game, out of it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Resolutely.</i>] If I belong to any person +on this earth, I belong to you. Without you I’d +be—I won’t say where. You took me by the hand, +gave me food to eat, had me dressed,—when I was +going to steal your watch. Do you think that can +be forgotten? Anybody else would have called the +police. You sent me to school, and had me learn +manners. Who but you in the whole world has ever +had any kindness for me? I’ve danced and posed, +and was glad to be able to earn my living that way. +But <span class="gesperrt">love</span> at command, I can’t!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Raising his voice.</i>] Leave <span class="gesperrt">me</span> out! +Do what you will. I haven’t come to raise a row; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span> +I’ve come to shake myself free of it. My engagement +is costing me sacrifices enough! I had imagined +that with a healthy young husband—and a +woman of your years can hope for none better—you +would, at last, have been contented. If you are +under obligations to me, don’t throw yourself a third +time in my way! Am I to wait yet longer before putting +my pile in security? Am I to risk letting the +final success of all my concessions during the last +two years slip from me? What good is it to me to +have you married, when you can be seen going in +and out of my house at every hour of the day?—Why +the devil didn’t Dr. Goll stay alive just one +year more! With him you were in safe keeping. +Then I’d have had my wife long since under my roof!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—And what would you have had then? The +kid gets on your nerves. The child is too uncorrupted +for you. She’s been much too carefully +brought up. What should I have against your marriage? +But you’re making a big mistake if you +think that your imminent marriage warrants you +in expressing your contempt of me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Contempt?—I shall soon give the child +the right idea. If anything is contemptible, it’s +your intrigues!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Laughing.</i>] Am I jealous of the child? +That never once entered my head.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Then why talk about the child? The +child is not even a whole year younger than you are. +Leave me my freedom to live what life I still have. +No matter how the child’s been brought up, she’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> +got her five senses just like you.... [<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> +<i>appears, right, brush in hand</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What’s the matter here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] Well? Go on. Talk.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What’s the matter with you two?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Nothing that touches you⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Sharply.</i>] Quiet!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He’s had enough of me. [<span class="smcap">Schwarz</span> <i>leads +her off, to the right</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Turning over the leaves in one of the +books on the table.</i>] It had to come out—I must +have my hands free at last!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Coming back.</i>] Is that any way to +jest?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Pointing to a chair.</i>] Please.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What is it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Please.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Seating himself.</i>] Well?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Seating himself.</i>] You have married +half a million....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Is it gone?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Not a penny.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Explain to me the peculiar scene....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You have married half a million⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—No one can make a crime of that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You have created a name for yourself. +You can work unmolested. You need to deny yourself +no wish⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What have you two got against me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—For six months you’ve been revelling in +all the heavens. You have a wife whom the world +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> +envies you, and she deserves a man whom she can +respect⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Doesn’t she respect me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—No.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Depressed.</i>] I come from the dark +depths of society. She is above me. I cherish no +more ardent wish than to become her equal. [<i>Offers</i> +<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>his hand</i>.] Thank you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Pressing it, half embarrassed.</i>] Don’t +mention it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>With determination.</i>] Speak!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Keep a little more watch on her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I—on her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—We are not children! We don’t trifle! +We live!—She demands that she be taken seriously. +Her value gives her a perfect right to be.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What does she do, then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You have married half a million!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Rises; beside himself.</i>] She——?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Takes him by the shoulder.</i>] No, that’s +not the way! [<i>Forces him to sit.</i>] We have a very +grave matter here to discuss.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What does she do?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—First count over on your fingers all you +have to thank her for, and then⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—What does she do—man!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—And then make yourself responsible for +your failings,—no one else.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—With whom? With whom?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—If we should shoot each other⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Since when, then?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Evasive.</i>] —I have not come here to +make a scandal, but to rescue you <span class="gesperrt">from</span> scandal.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Shaking his head.</i>] You have misunderstood +her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Embarrassed.</i>] That gets us nowhere. +I can’t see you go on living in blindness. The girl +deserves to be a respectable woman. Since I have +known her she has improved as she developed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Since you have known her? Since +when have you known her then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Since about her twelfth year.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Bewildered.</i>] She never told me that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—She used to sell flowers in front of the +Alhambra Café. Every evening between twelve and +two she would press in among the guests, bare-footed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She told me nothing of that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—She did right there. I’m telling you, so +you may see that hers is not a case of moral degeneracy. +The girl is, on the contrary, of extraordinarily +good disposition.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She said she had grown up with an +aunt.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—That was the woman I gave her to. She +was her best pupil. The mothers used to make her +an example to their children. She has the feeling +for duty. It is simply and solely your mistake if +you have till now neglected to appeal to the best +in her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Sobbing.</i>] O God!⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>With emphasis.</i>] No O God! Of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span> +happiness you have enjoyed nothing can be changed. +The past is past. You overrate yourself against +your better knowledge if you persuade yourself you +will lose. You stand to gain. But with “O God” +nothing is gained. I have never done you a greater +kindness: I speak out plainly and offer you my help. +Don’t show yourself unworthy of it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>From now on more and more broken +up.</i>] When I first knew her, she told me she had +never loved before.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—When a widow says <span class="gesperrt">that</span>—— It does +her credit that she chose you for a husband. Make +the same claims on yourself and your happiness is +without a blot.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She says he had her wear short dresses.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But he married her! That was her master-stroke. +How she brought the man to it is beyond +me. But you must know by now. You are enjoying +the fruits of her diplomacy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Where did Dr. Goll get to know her? +How?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Through me! It was after my wife’s +death, when I was making the first advances to my +present fiancée. She thrust herself between us. +She had set her heart on becoming my wife.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>As if seized with a horrible suspicion.</i>] +And then when her husband died?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You married half a million!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Wailing.</i>] Oh, to have stayed where +I was! To have died of hunger!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Superior.</i>] Do you think, then, that <i>I</i> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> +make no compromises? Who is there that does not +compromise? You have married half a million. +You are to-day one of our foremost artists. Such +things can’t be done without money. You are not +the man to sit in judgment on her. You can’t possibly +treat an origin like Mignon’s according to the +notions of bourgeois society.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Quite distraught.</i>] Whom are you +speaking of?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Of her father! You’re an artist, I say: +your ideals are on a different plane from those of a +wage-worker.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I don’t understand a word of all that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I am speaking of the inhuman conditions +out of which, thanks to her good management, the +girl has developed into what she is!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Who?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Who? Your wife.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—<span class="gesperrt">Eve</span>?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I called her Mignon.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I thought her name was Nellie?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Dr. Goll called her so.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I called her Eve⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—What her real name is I don’t know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Absently.</i>] Perhaps she knows.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—With a father like hers, she is, with all +her faults, an utter miracle. I don’t understand +you⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—He died in a madhouse⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—He was here just now!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Who was here?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Her father.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Here—in my home?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—He squeezed by me as I came in. And +there are the two glasses still.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She says he died in the madhouse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Encouragingly.</i>] Let her feel your authority! +Only make her render you unconditional +obedience, and she asks no more. With Dr. Goll she +was in heaven, and there was no joking him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Shaking his head.</i>] She said she +had never loved⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But start with yourself. Pull yourself +together!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—She has sworn⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You can’t expect a sense of duty in her +before you know your own task.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—By her mother’s grave!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—She never knew her mother, let alone the +grave. Her mother hasn’t got a grave.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—I don’t fit in society. [<i>He is in desperation.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—What’s the matter?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—Pain—horrible pain!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Gets up, steps back; after a pause.</i>] +Guard her for yourself, because she’s yours.—The +moment is decisive. To-morrow she may be lost to +you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Pointing to his breast.</i>] Here, here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You have married half——[<i>Reflecting.</i>] +She is lost to you if you let this moment slip!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—If I could weep! Oh, if I could cry +out!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>With a hand on his shoulder.</i>] You’re +suffering⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—[<i>Getting up, apparently quiet.</i>] You +are right, quite right.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Gripping his hand.</i>] Where are you +going?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schwarz</span>—To speak with her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Right! [<i>Accompanies him to the door, +left. Coming back.</i>] That was tough work. +[<i>After a pause, looking right.</i>] He had taken her +into the studio before, tho...? [<i>A fearful +groan, left. He hurries to the door and finds it +locked.</i>] Open! Open the door!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Stepping thru the hangings, right.</i>] +What’s⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Open it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Comes down the steps.</i>] That is horrible.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Have you an ax in the kitchen?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He’ll open it right off⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I can’t kick it in.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—When he’s had his cry out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Kicking the door.</i>] Open! [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] +Bring me an ax.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Send for the doctor⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You are not yourself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It serves you right. [<i>Bell rings in the +corridor.</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>stare at each other. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> +Then</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>slips up-stage and stands in the doorway</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I mustn’t let myself be seen here now.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Perhaps it’s the art-dealer. [<i>The bell +rings again.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But if we don’t answer it—— [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>steals toward the door; but</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>holds her</i>.] Stop. +It sometimes happens that one is not just at hand—[<i>He +goes out on tiptoe.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>turns back to the +locked door and listens</i>. <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>returns with</i> +<span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] Please be quiet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Very excited.</i>] A revolution has broken +out in Paris!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Be quiet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] You’re as pale as death.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Rattling at the door.</i>] Walter! Walter! +[<i>A death-rattle is heard behind the door.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—God pity you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Haven’t you brought an ax?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—If there’s one there—— [<i>Goes slowly out, +upper left.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He’s just keeping us in suspense.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—A revolution has broken out in Paris?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Up in the office the editors are tearing +their hair. Not one of them knows what to write +about it. [<i>The bell rings in the corridor.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Kicking against the door.</i>] Walter!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Shall I run against it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I can do that. Who may be coming +now? [<i>Standing up.</i>] That’s what it is to enjoy +life and let others take the consequences!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Coming back with a kitchen-ax.</i>] Henriette +has come home.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Shut the door behind you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Give it here. [<i>Takes the ax and pounds +with it between the jamb and the lock.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You must hold it nearer the end.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—It’s cracking— [<i>The lock gives</i>; <span class="smcap">Alva</span> +<i>lets the ax fall and staggers back. Pause.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>, <i>pointing to the door</i>.] After +you. [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>flinches, drops back</i>.] Are you getting—dizzy? +[<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>wipes the sweat from his +forehead and goes in</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>From the couch.</i>] Ghastly!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Stopping in the doorway, finger on lips, +cries out sharply.</i>] Oh! Oh! [<i>Hurries to</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] +I can’t stay here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Horrible!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Taking his hand.</i>] Come.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Where to?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I can’t be alone. [<i>Goes out with</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>, +<i>right</i>. <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>comes back, a bunch of keys in his +hand, which shows blood. He pulls the door to, behind +him, goes to the writing-table, opens it, and +writes two notes.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Coming back, right.</i>] She’s changing +her clothes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—She has gone?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—To her room. She’s changing her clothes. +[<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>rings</i>. <span class="smcap">Henriette</span> <i>comes in</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You know where Dr. Bernstein lives?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henriette</span>—Of course, Doctor. Right next door.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Giving her one note.</i>] Take that over +to him, please.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henriette</span>—In case the doctor is not at home?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—He is at home. [<i>Giving her the other +note.</i>] And take this to police headquarters. Take +a cab. [<span class="smcap">Henriette</span> <i>goes out</i>.] I am judged!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—My blood has congealed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Toward the left.</i>] The fool!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He waked up to something, perhaps?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—He has been too much absorbed in himself. +[<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>appears on the steps, right, in dustcoat +and hat</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Where are you going now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Out. I see it on all the walls.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Where are his papers?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—In the desk.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>At the desk.</i>] Where?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Lower right-hand drawer. [<i>She kneels +and opens the drawer, emptying the papers on the +floor.</i>] Here. There is nothing to fear. He had +no secrets.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Now I can just withdraw from the world.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Still kneeling.</i>] Write a pamphlet about +him. Call him Michelangelo.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—What good’ll that do? [<i>Pointing left.</i>] +There lies my engagement.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—That’s the curse of your game!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Shout it through the streets!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Pointing to</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] If you had treated +that girl fairly and justly when my mother died⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—My engagement is bleeding to death there!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Getting up.</i>] I shan’t stay here any +longer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—In an hour they’ll be selling extras. I +dare not go across the street!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Why, what can you do to help it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—That’s just it! They’ll stone me for it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You must get away—travel.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—To leave the scandal a free field!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>By the couch.</i>] Ten minutes ago he was +lying here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—This is the reward for all I’ve done for +him! In one second he wrecks my whole life for me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Control yourself, please!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>On the couch.</i>] There’s no one here +but us!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But look at <span class="gesperrt">us</span>!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] What do you want to tell +the police?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Nothing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He didn’t want to remain a debtor to his +destiny.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He always had thoughts of death immediately.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—He had thoughts that an ordinary +human can only dream of.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He had paid dearly for it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He had what we don’t have!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Suddenly violent.</i>] I know your motives! +I have no cause to consider you! If you try +every means to prevent having any brothers and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span> +sisters, that’s all the more reason why I should +get more children.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You’ve a poor knowledge of men.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You get out an extra yourself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>With passionate indignation.</i>] He had +no moral sense! [<i>Suddenly controlling himself +again.</i>] Paris in revolution——?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Our editors act as though they’d been +struck. Everything has stopped dead.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—That’s got to help me over this!—Now +if only the police would come. The minutes are +worth more than gold. [<i>The bell rings in the corridor.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—There they are—— [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>starts to the +door</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>jumps up</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Wait, you’ve got blood⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Where?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Wait, I’ll wipe it. [<i>Sprinkles her handkerchief +with heliotrope and wipes the blood from</i> +<span class="smcap">Schön’s</span> <i>hand</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—It’s your husband’s blood.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It leaves no trace.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Monster!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You will marry me, all the same. [<i>The +bell rings in the corridor.</i>] Only have patience, +children. [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>goes out and returns with</i> <span class="smcap">Escherich</span>, +<i>a reporter</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—[<i>Breathless.</i>] Allow me to—to introduce +myself⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You’ve run?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—[<i>Giving him his card.</i>] From police +headquarters. A suicide, I understand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Reads.</i>] “Fritz Escherich, correspondent +of the ‘News and Novelties.’” Come along.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—One moment. [<i>Takes out his notebook +and pencil, looks around the parlor, writes +a few words, bows to</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>writes, turns to +the broken door, writes</i>.] A kitchen-ax. [<i>Starts +to lift it.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Holding him back.</i>] Excuse me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—[<i>Writing.</i>] Door broken open with +a kitchen-ax. [<i>Examines the lock.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>His hand on the door.</i>] Look before +you, my dear sir.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—Now if you will have the kindness to +open the door—— [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>opens it</i>. <span class="smcap">Escherich</span> +<i>lets book and pencil fall, clutches at his hair</i>.] Merciful +Heaven! God!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Look it all over carefully.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—I can’t look at it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Snorting scornfully.</i>] Then what did +you come here for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—To—to cut up—to cut up his throat +with a razor!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Have you seen it all?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—That must feel⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Draws the door to, steps to the writing-table.</i>] +Sit down. Here is paper and pen. Write.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—[<i>Mechanically taking his seat.</i>] I +can’t write⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Behind his chair.</i>] Write! Persecution—mania....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escherich</span>—[<i>Writes.</i>] Per-secu-tion—mania. +[<i>The bell rings in the corridor.</i>]</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="ES_ACT_III"> + ACT III + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>A theatrical dressing-room, hung with red. +Door upper right. Across upper left corner, a +Spanish screen. Centre, a table set endwise, on +which dance costumes lie. Chair on each side +of this table. Lower right, a smaller table, with +a chair. Lower left, a high, very wide, old-fashioned +arm-chair. Above it, a tall mirror, +with a make-up stand before it holding puff, +rouge, etc., etc.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>is at lower right, filling two glasses +with red wine and champagne</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Never since I began to work for the +stage have I seen the public so wildly enthusiastic.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Voice from behind the screen.</i>] Don’t +give me too much red wine. Will he see me to-day?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Father?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Yes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I don’t know if he’s in the theater.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Doesn’t he want to see me at all?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He has so little time.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—His <span class="gesperrt">bride</span> occupies him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Speculations. He gives himself no rest. +[<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>enters</i>.] You? We’re just speaking of +you.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Is he there?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You’re changing?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Peeping over the Spanish screen, to</i> +<span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] You write in all the papers that I’m the +most gifted danseuse who ever trod the stage, a second +Taglioni and I don’t know what else—and you +haven’t once found me gifted enough to convince +yourself of the fact.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I have so much to write. You see, I was +convincing to others: there are hardly any seats +left.—You must keep rather more in the proscenium.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I must first accustom myself to the light.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She has kept strictly to her part.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] You must get more out of +your performers! You don’t know enough yet about +the technique. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] What do you come as +now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—As a flower-girl.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] In tights?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—No. In a skirt to the ankles.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—It would have been better if you hadn’t +bothered with symbolism.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I look at a dancer’s feet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—The point is, what the public looks at. +A vision like <span class="gesperrt">her</span> has no need, praise God, of your +symbolic mummery.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—The public doesn’t look as if it were being +bored!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Of course not; because I have been working +the press in her favor for the last six months. +Has the Prince been here?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Nobody’s been here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Well, that’s what you get for letting a +dancer come on thru two acts in raincoats.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Who is the Prince?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Shall we see each other afterwards?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Are you alone?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—With acquaintances. At Peter’s?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—At twelve?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—At twelve. [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’d given up hoping that he’d ever come.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Don’t let yourself be misled by his grumpy +growls. If you’ll only be careful not to spend all +your strength before the last number begins—[<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>steps out in a classical, sleeveless dress, white +with a red border, a bright wreath in her hair and +a basket of flowers in her hands</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He doesn’t seem to have noticed at all how +cleverly you have deployed your performers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I won’t blow in sun, moon and stars in the +first act!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sipping.</i>] You disclose me by degrees.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—And I was well aware that you knew all +about changing costumes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—If I’d tried to sell my flowers <span class="gesperrt">so</span> before +the Alhambra café, they’d have had me behind lock +and key right off the very first night.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Why? You were a child!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Do you remember how I looked the first +time I came into your room?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You wore a dark blue dress with black +velvet.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—They had to stick me somewhere and didn’t +know where.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—My mother had been lying sick for two +years already then.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You were playing theater, and asked me +if I wanted to play, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—To be sure! We played theater!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I see you still—the way you shoved the +figures back and forth.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—For a long time my most terrible memory +was when all at once I saw clearly into your relations⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You got icy curt towards me then.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Oh, God— I saw in you something so +infinitely far above me. I had perhaps more veneration +for you than for my mother. Think—when +my mother died—I was seventeen—I went and stood +before my father and demanded that he make you +his wife on the spot or we’d have to fight a duel.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He told me that at the time.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Since I’ve grown older, I can only pity him. +He will never comprehend me. There he is making up +a story for himself about a little diplomatic game +that puts me in the rôle of laboring against his marriage +with the Countess.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Does she still look out upon the world +as innocently as ever?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She loves him. I’m convinced of that. +Her family has done everything to induce her to +turn back. I don’t think any sacrifice in the world +would be too great for her to make for his sake.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Holds out her glass to him.</i>] A little +more, please.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Giving it to her.</i>] You’re drinking too +much.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He shall learn to believe in my success! +He doesn’t believe in art at all. He only believes +in newspapers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He believes in nothing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He brought me into the theater so that +eventually someone might be found rich enough to +marry me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Well, all right. Why need that trouble us?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I am to feel pleased if I can dance myself +into a millionaire’s heart.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—God forbid that anyone should snatch you +from us!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’ve composed the music for it, tho.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You know that it was always my desire +to write a piece for you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I am not at all suited to the stage, however.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You came into the world a dancer!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then why don’t you make your pieces as +interesting as life is, at least?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Because if we did no man would believe us.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—If I hadn’t known more about acting than +people on the stage pretend to, what might not have +happened to me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I provided your part with all the impossibilities +imaginable, though.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Nobody in the real world is taken in by +hocus-pocus like that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—It’s enough for me that the public finds +itself most tremendously stirred up.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But <i>I</i>’d like to find myself most tremendously +stirred up. [<i>Drinks.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You don’t seem to be in need of much more +for that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Can you wonder, since every one of my +scenes has an ulterior purpose? There are some +men down there debating with themselves very +earnestly already.—I can feel that without looking.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—What does it feel like?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—No one of them has any notion of the +others. Each thinks that he alone is the unhappy +victim.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But how can you feel that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—One gets such an icy thrill running up +one’s body.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You are incredible. [<i>An electric bell rings +over the door.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—My cape.... I shall keep in the proscenium!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Putting a wide shawl round her shoulders.</i>] +Here is your cape.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He shall have nothing more to fear for his +shameless boosting.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Keep yourself under control!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—God grant that I dance the last sparks of +intelligence out of their heads. [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Yes, a more interesting piece could be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> +written about her. [<i>Sits, right, and takes out his +notebook. Writes. Looks up.</i>] First act: Dr. +Goll. Rotten already! I can call up Dr. Goll from +purgatory or wherever he’s doing penance for his +orgies, but <i>I</i>’ll be made to answer for his sins. +[<i>Long-continued but much deadened applause and +bravos outside.</i>] That storm sounds like a menagerie +when the meat appears at the cage!—Second act: +Walter Schwarz. Still more impossible! How our +souls do strip off their last coverings in the light +of such lightning-strokes!—Third act?—Is it really +to go on this way? [<i>The attendant opens the door +from outside and lets</i> <span class="smcap">Escerny</span> <i>enter. He acts as +tho he were at home, and without greeting</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> +<i>takes the chair near the mirror.</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>continues, +not heeding him.</i>] It can not go on this way in the +third act!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—Up to the middle of the third act it +didn’t seem to be going so well to-day as sometimes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I was not on the stage.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—Now she’s in full career again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She’s lengthening each number.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—I once had the pleasure of meeting the +artiste at Dr. Schön’s house.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—My father introduced her to the public +through certain critiques in his paper.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—[<i>Bowing slightly.</i>] I was conferring +with Dr. Schön about the publication of my discoveries +at Lake Tanganyika.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Bowing slightly.</i>] From what he has let +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> +drop there can be no doubt that he takes the liveliest +interest in your book.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—One very good thing about the artiste +is that the audience seems not to exist for her at all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—As a child she learned the quick changing +of clothes; but I was surprised to discover in her +so important a danseuse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—When she dances her solo she grows +intoxicated with her own beauty,—she seems to be +mortally love-sick of it herself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Here she comes. [<i>Gets up and opens the +door. Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Without wreath or basket, to</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] +You’re called for. I was three times before the curtain. +[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Escerny</span>.] Dr. Schön is not in your box?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—Not in mine.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Didn’t you see him?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He is probably away again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—He has the furthest lower box on the +left.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It seems he is ashamed of me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—There wasn’t a good seat left for him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] Ask him, though, if he likes +me better now.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I’ll send him up.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—He applauded.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Did he really?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Give yourself some rest. [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’ve got to change again now.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—But your dresser isn’t here?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I can do it quicker alone. Where did you +say Dr. Schön was sitting?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—I saw him in the left parquet-box +farthest back.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’ve still five costumes now before me; +dancing-girl, ballerina, queen of the night, Ariel, and +Lascaris.... [<i>She goes behind the Spanish +screen.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—Would you think it possible that at +our first encounter I expected nothing more than +to make the acquaintance of a young lady of the +literary world?... [<i>He sits at the left of the +centre table, and remains there to the end of the +scene.</i>] Have I perhaps erred in my judgment of +your nature, or did I rightly interpret the smile +which the thundering storms of applause called forth +on your lips?—That you are secretly pained at the +necessity of profaning your art before people of +doubtful disinterestedness? [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>makes no answer</i>.] +That you would gladly exchange the shimmer +of publicity at every moment for a quiet, sunny +happiness in distinguished seclusion? [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>makes +no answer</i>.] That you feel you possess enough dignity +and rank to fetter a man to your feet—in order +to enjoy his utter helplessness?... [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>makes no +answer</i>.] That in a comfortable, richly furnished +villa you would feel in a more fitting place than here,—with +unlimited means, to live completely as your +<span class="gesperrt">own mistress</span>? [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>steps forth in a short, +bright, pleated petticoat and white satin bodice, black +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span> +shoes and stockings, and spurs with bells at her +heels</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Busy with the lacing of her bodice.</i>] If +there’s just one evening I don’t go on, I dream the +whole night that I’m dancing and feel the next day +as if I’d been racked.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—But what difference could it make to +you to see before you instead of this mob <span class="gesperrt">one</span> spectator, +specially elect?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That would make no difference. I don’t +see anybody anyway.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—A lighted summer-house—the splashing +of the water near at hand.... I am forced in my +exploring-trips to the practice of a quite inhuman +tyranny⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Putting on a pearl necklace before the +mirror.</i>] A good school!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—And if I now long to deliver myself +unreservedly into the power of a woman, that is a +natural need for relaxation.... Can you imagine +a greater life-happiness for a woman than to have +a man entirely in her power?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Jingling her heels.</i>] Oh, yes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—[<i>Disconcerted.</i>] Among men of culture +you will not find one who can help losing his +head over you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Your wishes, however, no one can quite +fulfil without deceiving you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—To be deceived by a girl like you must +be ten times more enrapturing than to be uprightly +loved by anybody else.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You have not known what it was to be +uprightly loved by any girl yet in all your life! +[<i>Turning her back to him and pointing.</i>] Would you +undo this knot for me? I’ve laced myself too tight. +I am always so excited getting dressed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—[<i>After repeated efforts.</i>] I’m sorry; +I can’t.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then leave it. Perhaps I can. [<i>Goes +left.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—I confess that I am lacking in deftness. +Maybe I was a poor student in my relations with +women.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—And probably you don’t have much opportunity +in Africa, either?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—[<i>Seriously.</i>] Let me confess to you +frankly that my isolation in the world embitters many +an hour.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—The knot is almost done....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—What draws me to you is not your +dancing. It’s your physical and spiritual refinement, +as revealed in every one of your movements. No +one who takes the interest I do in works of art could +be deceived as to that. For ten evenings I’ve been +studying your spiritual life in your dance, until +to-day when you entered as the flower-girl I became +perfectly clear. Yours is a grand nature—unselfish; +you can see no one suffer; you embody the joy of life. +As a wife you will make a man happy above all things.... +You are all open-heartedness. You would be +a poor actor. [<i>The bell rings again.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Having somewhat loosened her laces, +takes a deep breath and jingles her spurs.</i>] Now I +can breathe again. The curtain is going up. [<i>She +takes from the centre table a skirt-dance costume—of +bright yellow silk, without a waist, closed at +the neck, reaching to the ankles, with wide, loose +sleeves—and throws it over her.</i>] I must dance.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—[<i>Rises and kisses her hand.</i>] Allow me +to remain here a little while longer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Please stay.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—I need a little solitude. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>goes +out</i>.] What is to be aristocratic? To be eccentric, +like me? Or to be perfect in body and mind, like +this girl? [<i>Applause and bravos outside.</i>] She +gives me back my faith in humanity,—gives me back +my life. Should not this woman’s children be more +princely, body and soul, than children whose mother +has no more vitality in her than I have felt in me +until to-day? [<i>Sitting, right; ecstatically.</i>] The +dance has ennobled her body.... [<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>enters</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—One is never sure a moment that some miserable +chance won’t throw the whole performance +out for good. [<i>He throws himself into the big chair, +left, so that the two men are in exactly reversed positions +from their former ones. Both converse somewhat +boredly and apathetically.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—But the audience has never shown itself +so responsive before.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She’s finished the skirt-dance.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—I hear her coming....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She isn’t coming. She has no time. She +changes her costume in the wings.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—She has two ballet-costumes, if I’m not +mistaken?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I find the white one more becoming to her +than the rose-color.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—Do you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Don’t you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—I find she looks too bodiless in the white +tulle.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I find she looks too animal in the rose +tulle.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—I don’t find that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—The white tulle brings out the child-like +side of her nature more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—The rose tulle brings out the womanly +side of her nature more. [<i>The electric bell rings +over the door.</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>jumps up</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—For heaven’s sake, what is wrong?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—[<i>Getting up too.</i>] What’s the matter? +[<i>The electric bell continues ringing till after they +go out.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Something’s gone wrong there⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Escerny</span>—How can you get so frightened all of +a sudden?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—That must be a hellish confusion! [<i>He +runs out.</i> <span class="smcap">Escerny</span> <i>follows him. The door remains +open. Faint dance-music heard. Pause.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>enters +in a long cloak, and shuts the door to behind her. +She wears a rose-colored ballet costume with flower-garlands. +She walks across the stage and sits down +in the big arm-chair near the mirror. After a pause</i> +<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>returns</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You had a faint?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Please lock the door.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—At least come down to the stage.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Did you see him?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—See whom?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—With his fiancée?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—With his—— [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>, <i>who enters</i>.] +You might have spared yourself that jest!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—What’s the matter with her? [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] +How can you play the scene straight at me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I feel as if I’d been whipped.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>After bolting the door.</i>] You will dance—as +sure as I’ve taken the responsibility for you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Before your fiancée?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Have you a right to trouble yourself before +whom? You’ve been engaged here. You receive +your salary....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Is that your affair?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You dance for anyone who buys a ticket. +Whom I sit with in my box has nothing to do with +your business!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I wish you’d stayed sitting in your box! +[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Tell me, please, what I am to do. [<i>A +knock at the door.</i>] There is the manager. [<i>Calls.</i>] +Yes, in a moment! [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] You won’t compel +us to break off the performance?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Onto the stage with you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Let me have just a moment! I can’t now. +I’m utterly miserable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—The devil take the whole theater crowd!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Put in the next number. No one will notice +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> +if I dance now or in five minutes. There’s no strength +in my feet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But you will dance then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—As well as I can.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—As badly as you like. [<i>A knock at the +door again.</i>] I’m coming.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>When</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>is gone</i>.] You are right to +show me where I belong. You couldn’t do it better +than by letting me dance that skirt-dance before +your fiancée.... You do me the greatest service +when you point out to me where my place is.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Sardonically.</i>] For you with your +origin it’s incomparable luck to still have the chance +of appearing before respectable people!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Even when my shamelessness makes them +not know where to look.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Nonsense!—Shamelessness?—Don’t make +a necessity of virtue! Your shamelessness is what +balances your every step with gold. One cries +“bravo,” another “fie”—it’s all the same to you! +Can you wish for a more brilliant triumph than +when a respectable girl can hardly be kept in the +box? Has your life any other aim? As long as +you still have a spark of self-respect, you are no +perfect dancer. The more terribly you make people +shudder, the higher you stand in your profession!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—And it is absolutely indifferent to me what +they think of me. I don’t, in the least, want to be +any better than I am. I’m content with myself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>In moral indignation.</i>] That is your +true nature. That’s straight!—Corruption!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I wouldn’t have known that I had had a +spark of self-respect⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Suddenly distrustful.</i>] No harlequinading⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—O Lord—I know very well what I’d have +become if you hadn’t saved me from it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Are you anything different then to-day?—heh?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—God be thanked, no!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Just so!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Laughs.</i>] And how awfully glad of it +I am!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Spits.</i>] Will you dance now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—In anything, before anyone!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Then down to the stage!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Begging like a child.</i>] Just a minute +more! Please! I can’t stand up straight yet. +They’ll ring.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You have become what you are in spite +of everything I sacrificed for your education and +your welfare.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Had you overrated your ennobling influence?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Spare me your witticisms.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—The Prince was here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Well?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He takes me with him to Africa.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Africa?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Why not? Didn’t you make me a dancer +just so that someone might come and take me away +with him?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—But not to Africa, though!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then why didn’t you calmly let me fall in +a faint, and mutely thank the Lord for it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Because, more’s the pity, I had no reason +for believing in your faint!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Making fun of him.</i>] You couldn’t bear +it any longer out front there?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Because I had to bring home to you what +you are and to whom you are not to look up.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You were afraid, though, that my legs +might possibly have been really injured?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I know too well you are indestructible.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—So you know that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Bursting out.</i>] Don’t look at me so +impudently!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—No one is keeping you here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I’m going as soon as the bell rings.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—As soon as you have the energy! Where +is your energy? You have been engaged three years. +Why don’t you marry? You recognize no obstacles. +Why do you try to put the blame on me? You +ordered me to marry Dr. Goll: I forced Dr. Goll +to marry me. You ordered me to marry the painter: +I made the best of a bad bargain. Artists are your +creatures, princes your protégés. Why don’t you +marry?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Raging.</i>] Do you imagine <span class="gesperrt">you</span> stand in +the way?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>From here to the end of the act triumphant.</i>] +If you knew how happy your rage is making +me! How proud I am that you take every means to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span> +humble me! You push me down as low—as low as +a woman can be debased to, for then, you hope, you +can sooner get over me. But you have suffered unspeakably +yourself from everything you said just +now to me. I see it in your eyes. Already you are +near the end of your composure. Go! For your +innocent fiancée’s sake, leave me alone! One minute +more and your mood will change, and then you’ll +make a scene with me of another kind, that you can’t +answer for now.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I fear you no longer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Me? Fear yourself! I do not need you. +I beg you to go! Don’t give me the blame. You +know that I don’t need to faint to destroy your +future. You have unlimited confidence in my honorableness. +You believe not only that I’m an +ensnaring daughter of Eve; you believe, too, that +I’m a very good-natured creature. I am neither the +one nor the other. The bad thing for you is that you +think I am.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Desperate.</i>] Leave my thoughts alone! +You have two husbands under the sod. Take the +Prince, dance <span class="gesperrt">him</span> into the ground. I am through +with you. I know where the angel in you leaves off +and the devil begins. If I take the world as it’s made, +the Creator must bear the responsibility, not I! To +me life is not an amusement!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—And, therefore, you make claims upon life +greater than anyone can make.... Tell me, who +of us two is more full of claims and demands, you +or I?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Be silent! I don’t know how or what +I think. When I hear you, I don’t think any more. +In a week I’ll be married. I conjure you, by the +angel that is in you, during that time come no more +to my sight!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I will lock my doors.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Go on and boast! God knows that since +I began wrestling with the world and with life I have +cursed no one like you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That comes from my lowly origin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—From your depravity!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—With a thousand pleasures I take the blame +on myself! You must feel clean now; you must think +yourself a model of austerity now, a paragon of +unflinching principle—or else you can’t marry the +child at all in her boundless inexperience⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Do you want me to grab you and⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Yes! Yes! What must I say to make +you? Not for the world now would I exchange +with the innocent child! Besides, the girl loves you +as no woman has ever loved you yet!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Silence, beast! Silence!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Marry her—and then she’ll dance in her +childish wretchedness before <span class="gesperrt">my</span> eyes, instead of +I before hers!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Raising his fists.</i>] God forgive me⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Strike me! Where is your riding-whip? +Strike me on the legs⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Grasping his temples.</i>] Away, away! +[<i>Rushes to the door, recollects himself, turns +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span> +around.</i>] Can I go before the girl now, this way? +Home!—If I could only slip out of the world!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Be a man! Look yourself in the face +once:—you have no trace of a conscience; you shrink +back from no wickedness; in the most cold-blooded +way you are meaning to make the girl that loves +you unhappy. You conquer half the world; you do +what you please;—and you know as well as I +that⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Sunk in the chair, right centre, utterly +exhausted.</i>] Stop.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That you are too weak—to tear yourself +away from me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Groaning.</i>] Oh! Oh! You make me +weep.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—This moment makes <span class="gesperrt">me</span> I cannot tell you +how glad.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—My age! My position!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He cries like a child—the terrible man +of might. Now go so to your bride and tell her +what kind of a girl I am at heart—not a bit jealous!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Sobbing.</i>] The child! The innocent +child!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—How can the incarnate devil get so weak +all of a sudden!——But now go, please. You are +nothing more now to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I cannot go to her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Out with you. Come to me again when +you have got back your strength.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Tell me in God’s name what I must do.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Gets up; her cloak remains on the chair. +Shoving aside the costumes on the centre table.</i>] +Here is writing-paper⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I can’t write....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Upright behind him, her arm on the back +of his chair.</i>] Write! “My dear Countess....”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Hesitating.</i>] I call her Adelheid....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>With emphasis.</i>] “My dear Countess....”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—My sentence of death! [<i>He writes.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—“Take back your promise. I cannot +reconcile it with my conscience——” [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>drops +the pen and glances up at her entreatingly</i>.] Write +“conscience”! “—to fetter you to my unhappy +lot....”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Writing.</i>] You are right. You are +right.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—“I give you my word that I am unworthy +of your love——” [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>turns round again</i>.] +Write “love”! “These lines are the proof of it. +For three years I have tried to tear myself free; I +have not the strength. I am writing you at the side +of the woman who commands me. Forget me. Dr. +Ludwig Schön.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Groaning.</i>] O God!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Half startled.</i>] No, no O God! [<i>With +emphasis.</i>] “Dr. Ludwig Schön.” Postscript: “Do +not attempt to save me.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Having written to the end, quite collapses.</i>] +Now—comes the—execution.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="ACT_IV"> + ACT IV + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>A splendid hall in German Renaissance style, +with a heavy ceiling of carved oak. The lower +half of the walls of dark carved wood; the upper +half on both sides hung with faded Gobelins. At +rear, a curtained gallery from which, at right, +a monumental staircase descends to halfway +down stage. At centre, under the gallery, the +entrance-door, with twisted posts and pediment. +At left, a high and spacious fireplace with a +Chinese folding screen before it. Further down, +left, a French window onto a balcony with heavy +curtains, closed. Down right, door hung with +Genoese velvet. Near it, a broad ottoman, with +an arm-chair on its left. Behind, near the foot +of the stairs</i>, <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>Pierrot-picture on a decorative +stand and in a gold frame made to look +antique. In the centre of the hall, down-stage, +a heavy square table, with three high-backed upholstered +chairs round it and a vase of white +flowers on it.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span> <i>sits on the ottoman, in +a soldier-like, fur-trimmed waist, high, upstanding +collar, enormous cufflinks, a veil over her +face, and her hands clasped convulsively in her +muff</i>. <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>stands down right</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>in a +big-flowered morning-dress, her hair in a simple +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> +knot in a golden circlet, sits in the arm-chair +left of the ottoman</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] You can’t think how +glad I shall be to see you at our lady artists’ ball.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Is there no sort of possibility of a person +like me smuggling in?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—It would be high treason if any of us +lent herself to such an intrigue.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Crossing to the centre table, behind the +ottoman.</i>] The glorious flowers!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Fräulein von Geschwitz brought me those.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Don’t mention it.—Oh, you’ll be in +man’s costume, won’t you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Do you think that becomes me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—You’re a dream here. [<i>Signifying +the picture.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—My husband doesn’t like it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Is it by a local man?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You will hardly have known him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—No longer living?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Down left, with a deep voice.</i>] He had +enough.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re in bad temper. [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>controls +himself</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Getting up.</i>] I must go, Mrs. +Schön. I can’t stay any longer. This evening we +have life-class, and I have still so much to get ready +for the ball. Good-bye, Dr. Schön. [<i>Exit, up-stage.</i> +<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>accompanies her</i>. <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>looks around +him</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Pure Augean stable. That, the end of +my life. Show me one corner that’s still clean! The +pest in the house. The poorest day-laborer has his +tidy nest. Thirty years’ work, and this my family +circle, the home of my—— [<i>Glancing round.</i>] +God knows who is overhearing me again now! +[<i>Draws a revolver from his breast pocket.</i>] Man is, +indeed, uncertain of his life! [<i>The cocked revolver +in his right hand, he goes left and speaks at the closed +window-curtains.</i>] That, my family circle! The +fellow still has courage! Shall I not rather shoot +<span class="gesperrt">myself</span> in the head? Against deadly enemies one +fights, but the—— [<i>Throws up the curtains, but +finds no one hidden behind them.</i>] The dirt—the +dirt.... [<i>Shakes his head and crosses right.</i>] Insanity +has already conquered my reason, or else—exceptions +prove the rule! [<i>Hearing</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>coming he +puts the revolver back in his pocket</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>comes +down to him</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Couldn’t you get away for this afternoon?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Just what did that Countess want?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t know. She wants to paint me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Misfortune in human guise, paying her +respects!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Couldn’t you get away, then? I would +so like to drive through the grounds with you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Just the day when I must be at the +Exchange. You know that I’m not free to-day. All +my property is drifting on the waves.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’d sooner be dead and buried than let +my life be embittered so by my property.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Who takes life lightly does not take death +hard.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—As a child I always had the most horrible +fear of death.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—That is just why I married you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>With her arms round his neck.</i>] You’re +in bad humor. You invent too many worries. For +weeks and months I’ve seen nothing of you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Stroking her hair.</i>] Your light-heartedness +should cheer up my old days.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Indeed, you didn’t marry me at all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Whom else did I marry then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I married you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—How does that alter anything?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I was always afraid it would alter a great +deal.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—It has, indeed, crushed a great deal underfoot.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But not one thing, praise God!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Of that I should be covetous.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Your love for me. [<span class="smcap">Schön’s</span> <i>face twitches, +he signs to her to go out in front of him. Both +exeunt lower right</i>. <span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span> <i>cautiously +opens the rear door, ventures forth, and listens. +Hearing voices approaching in the gallery above +her, she starts suddenly.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Oh, dear, there’s somebody——[<i>Hides +behind the fire-screen.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Steps out from the curtains onto +the stairs, turns back.</i>] Has the youngster left his +heart behind him in the Nightlight Café?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Between the curtains.</i>] He is still too +small for the great world, and can’t walk so far on +foot yet. [<i>He disappears.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Coming down the stairs.</i>] God be +thanked we’re home again at last! What damned +skunk has waxed the stairs again? If I have to have +my joints set in plaster again before being called +home, she can just stick me up between the palms +here and present me to her relations as the Venus +de’ Medici. Nothing but steep rocks and stumbling +blocks!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Comes down the stairs, carrying</i> +<span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span> <i>in his arms</i>.] This thing has a royal +police-captain for a father and not as much spunk +in his body as the raggedest hobo!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—If there was nothing more to it than +life and death, then you’d soon learn to know me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Even with his lover’s woe, little brother +don’t weigh more than sixty kilos. On the truth +o’ that I’ll let ’em hang me any time.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Throw him up to the ceiling and +catch him by the feet. That’ll snap his young blood +into the proper fizz right from the start.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—[<i>Kicking his legs.</i>] Hooray, hooray, +I shall be expelled from school!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Setting him down at the foot of the +stairs.</i>] You’ve never been to any sensible school +yet.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Here many a man has won his spurs +before you. Only, no timidity! First, I’ll set before +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> +you a drop of what can’t be had anywhere for money. +[<i>Opens a cupboard under the stairs.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Now if she doesn’t come dancing in +on the instant, I’ll wallop you two so you’ll still rub +your tails in the hereafter.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Seated left of the table.</i>] The strongest +man in the world little brother will wallop! Let +mama put long trousers on you first. [<span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span> +<i>sits opposite him</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I’d rather you lent me your mustache.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Maybe you want her to throw you out +of the door straight off?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—If I only knew now what the devil +I was going to say to her!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—That she knows best herself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Putting two bottles and three +glasses on the table.</i>] I started in on one of them +yesterday. [<i>Fills the glasses.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Guarding</i> <span class="smcap">Hugenberg’s</span>.] Don’t give +him too much, or we’ll both have to pay for it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Supporting himself with both hands +on the table-top.</i>] Will the gentlemen smoke?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—[<i>Opening his cigar-case.</i>] Havana-imported!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Helping himself.</i>] From papa police-captain?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Sitting.</i>] Everything in the house +is mine. You only need to ask.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I made a poem to her yesterday.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—What did you make to her?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What did he make to her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—A poem.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>.] A poem.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—He’s promised me a dollar if I can +spy out where he can meet her alone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Just who does live here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Here <span class="gesperrt">we</span> live!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Jour fix—every stock-market day! +Our health. [<i>They clink.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Should I read it to her first, maybe?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>.] What’s he mean?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—His poem. He’d like to stretch her out +and torture her a little first.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Staring at</i> <span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>.] His eyes! +His eyes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—His eyes, yes. They’ve robbed her of +sleep for a week.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>.] You can have yourself +pickled.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—We can both have ourselves pickled! +Our health, gossip Death!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Clinking with him.</i>] Health, jack-in-the-box! +If it’s still better later on, I’m ready +for departure at any moment; but—but—— [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>enters right, in an elegant Parisian ball-dress, much +décolleté, with flowers in breast and hair</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But children, children, I expect company!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—But I can tell you what, those things +must cost something over there! [<span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span> <i>has +risen</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>sits on the arm of his chair</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’ve fallen into pretty company.—I +expect visitors, children!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I guess I’ve got to stick something +in there myself, too. [<i>He searches among the flowers +on the table.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Do I look well?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What are those you’ve got there?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Orchids. [<i>Bending over</i> <span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>.] +Smell.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Do you expect Prince Escerny?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Shaking her head.</i>] God forbid!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—So somebody else again——!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—The Prince has gone traveling.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—To put his kingdom up for auction?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He’s exploring a fresh string of tribes in +the neighborhood of Africa. [<i>Rises, hurries up the +stairs, and steps into the gallery.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>.] He really wanted +to marry her originally.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Sticking a lily in his buttonhole.</i>] +I, too, wanted to marry her originally.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—You wanted to marry her originally?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Didn’t you, too, want to marry her +originally?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—You bet I wanted to marry her originally!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Who has not wanted to marry her +originally!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I could never have done better!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She hasn’t let anybody be sorry that +he didn’t marry her.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>— ... Then she’s not your child?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Never occurs to her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—What is her father’s name then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She’s just boasted of me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—What is her father’s name then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What’s he say?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—What her father’s name is.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She never had one.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Comes down from the gallery and sits +again on</i> <span class="smcap">Hugenberg’s</span> <i>chair-arm</i>.] What have I +never had?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">All Three</span>—A father.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Yes, sure—I’m a wonder-child. [<i>To</i> +<span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>.] How are you getting along with +<span class="gesperrt">your</span> father? Contented?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—He smokes a respectable cigar, anyway, +the police-captain.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Have you locked up upstairs?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—There is the key.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Better have left it in the lock.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Why?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—So no one can unlock it from outside.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Isn’t he at the stock-exchange?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Oh, yes, but he suffers from persecution-mania.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I take him by the feet, and yup!—there +he stays sticking to the roof.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He hunts you into a mouse-hole with the +corner of his eye.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—What does he hunt? Who does he +hunt? [<i>Baring his arm.</i>] Just look at this biceps!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Show me. [<i>Goes left.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Hitting himself on the muscle.</i>] +Granite. Wrought-iron!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Feeling by turns</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo’s</span> <i>arm and +her own</i>.] If you only didn’t have such long +ears⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span>—[<i>Entering, rear centre.</i>] Doctor⁠<a id="FNanchor_8_8" href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +Schön!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—The rogue! [<i>Jumps up, starts behind +the fire-screen, recoils.</i>] God preserve me! [<i>Hides, +lower left, behind the curtains.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Give me the key! [<i>Takes it and +drags himself up the stairs.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span> <i>having slid under the table</i>.] +Show him in!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—[<i>Under the front edge of the tablecloth, +listening; to himself.</i>] If he doesn’t stay—we’ll +be alone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Poking him with her toe.</i>] Sh! [<span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span> +<i>disappears</i>. <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>is shown in by</i> <span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>In evening dress.</i>] Methinks the matinée +will take place by burning lamplight. I’ve—— [<i>Notices</i> +<span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>painfully climbing the stairs</i>.] +What the —— is that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—An old friend of your father’s.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Quite unknown to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—They were in the campaign together. He’s +awfully badly⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Is my father here then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He drank a glass with him. He had to go +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span> +to the stock market. We’ll have lunch before we go, +won’t we?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—When does it begin?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—After two. [<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>still follows</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> +<i>with his eyes</i>.] How do you like me? [<span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> +<i>disappears thru the gallery</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Had I not better be silent to you on that +point?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I only mean my appearance.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Your dressmaker manifestly knows you +better than I—may permit myself to know you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—When I saw myself in the glass I could +have wished to be a man—my man!...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You seem to envy your man the delight +you offer to him. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>is at the right</i>, <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>at +the left, of the centre table. He regards her with +shy satisfaction.</i> <span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span> <i>enters, rear, covers +the table and lays two plates, etc., a bottle of Pommery, +and hors d’œuvres.</i>] Have you a toothache?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Across to</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] Don’t.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span>—Doctor Schön...?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He seems so puckered-up and tearful to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span>—[<i>Thru his teeth.</i>] One is only a +man after all. [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>When both are seated.</i>] What I always +think most highly of in you is your firmness of character. +You’re so perfectly sure of yourself. Even +when you must have been afraid of falling out with +your father on my account, you always stood up +for me like a brother just the same.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Let’s drop that. It’s just my fate—[<i>Moves +to lift up the tablecloth in front.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Quickly.</i>] That was me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Impossible!—It’s just my fate, with the +most trivial thoughts always to attain the best.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You deceive yourself if you make yourself +out worse than you are.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Why do you flatter me so? It is true that +perhaps there is no man living, so bad as I—who +has brought about so much good.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—In any case you’re the only man in the +world who’s protected me without lowering me in my +own eyes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Do you think that so easy? [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>appears +in the gallery cautiously parting the hangings +between the middle pillars. He starts, and whispers, +“My own son!”</i>] With gifts from God like +yours, one turns those around one to criminals without +ever dreaming of it. I, too, am only flesh and +blood, and if we hadn’t grown up with each other +like brother and sister⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—And that’s why I only give myself to you +alone quite without reserve. From you I have nothing +to fear.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I assure you there are moments when one +expects to see one’s whole inner self cave in. The +more self-suppression a man loads onto himself, the +easier he breaks down. Nothing will save him from +it except——[<i>Stops to look under the table.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Quickly.</i>] What are you looking for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I conjure you, let me keep my confession +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> +of faith to myself! As an inviolable sanctity you +were more to me than with all your gifts you could +be to anyone else in your life!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—How extraordinarily different your mind +is, on that, from your father’s! [<span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span> <i>enters, +rear, changes the plates and serves broiled chicken +with salad</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To him.</i>] Are you sick?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] Let him be!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He’s trembling as if he had fever.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span>—I am not yet so used to waiting....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You must have something prescribed for +you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span>—[<i>Thru his teeth.</i>] I’m a coachman +usually——[<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Whispering from the gallery.</i>] So, he +too. [<i>Seats himself behind the rail, able to cover +himself with the hangings.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What sort of moments are those of which +you spoke, where one expects to see his whole inner +self tumble in?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I <span class="gesperrt">didn’t want</span> to speak of them. I +should not like to lose, in joking over a glass of +champagne, what has been my highest happiness for +ten years.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I have hurt you. I don’t want to begin +on that again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Do you promise me that for always?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—My hand on it. [<i>Gives him her hand +across the table.</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>takes it hesitatingly, grips +it in his, and presses it long and ardently to his lips</i>.] +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span> +What are you doing? [<span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>sticks his head out +from the curtains, left</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>darts an angry look +at him across</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>, <i>and he draws back</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Whispering from the gallery.</i>] And +there is still another!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Holding the hand.</i>] A soul—that in the +hereafter will rub the sleep out of its eyes.... Oh, +this hand....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Innocently.</i>] What do you find in it?...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—An arm....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What do you find in it?...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—A body....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Guilelessly.</i>] What do you find in it?...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Stirred up.</i>] Mignon!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Wholly ingenuously.</i>] What do you find +in it?...</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Passionately.</i>] Mignon! Mignon!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Throws herself on the ottoman.</i>] Don’t +look at me so—for God’s sake! Let us go before +it is too late. You’re an infamous wretch!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I told you, didn’t I, I was the basest villain....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I see that!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I have no sense of honor, no pride....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You think I am your equal!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You?—you are as heavenly high above me +as—as the sun is over the abyss! [<i>Kneeling.</i>] Destroy +me! I beg you, put an end to me! Put an +end to me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Do you <span class="gesperrt">love</span> me then?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I will pay you with everything that was +mine!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Do you love me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Do you love me—Mignon?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I? Not a soul.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I love you. [<i>Hides his face in her lap.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Both hands in his hair.</i>] I poisoned +your mother—— [<span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>sticks his head out from +the curtains, left, sees</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>sitting in the gallery +and signs to him to watch</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>. <span class="smcap">Schön</span> +<i>points his revolver at</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>; <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>signs to him +to point it at</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>. <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>cocks the revolver and +takes aim</i>. <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>draws back behind the curtains</i>. +<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>sees him draw back, sees</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>sitting in the +gallery, and gets up</i>.] His father! [<span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>rises, +lets the hangings fall before him</i>. <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>remains +motionless on his knees. Pause.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>A newspaper in his hand, takes</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> +<i>by the shoulder</i>.] Alva! [<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>gets up as though +drunk with sleep</i>.] A revolution has broken out in +Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—To Paris ... let me go to Paris⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Up in the office the editors are tearing +their hair. Not one of them knows what to write +about it. [<i>He unfolds the paper and accompanies</i> +<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>out, rear</i>. <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>rushes out from the curtains +toward the stairs</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Barring his way.</i>] You can’t get out +here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Let me through!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’ll run into his arms.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—He’ll shoot me thru the head!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He’s coming.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Stumbling back.</i>] Devil, death and +demons! [<i>Lifts the tablecloth.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—No room!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Damned and done for! [<i>Looks around +and hides in the doorway, right.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Comes in, centre; locks the door; and +goes, revolver in hand, to the window down left, of +which he throws up the curtains.</i>] Where is <span class="gesperrt">he</span> +gone?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>On the lowest step.</i>] Out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Down over the balcony?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He’s an acrobat.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—That could not be foreseen. [<i>Turning +against</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] You who drag me thru the muck +of the streets to a tortured death!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Why did you not bring me up better?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—You destroying angel! You inexorable +fate!—To turn murderer or else to drown in filth; +to take ship like a fleeing convict, or hang myself +over the mire!—You joy of my old age! You hangman’s +noose!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>In cold blood.</i>] Oh, shut up, and kill +me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Everything I possess I have made over +to you, and asked nothing but the respect that every +servant pays to my house. Your credit is exhausted!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I can answer for my account for years +to come. [<i>Coming forward from the stairs.</i>] How +do you like my new gown?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Away with you, or my brains will crack +to-morrow and my son swim in his blood! You infect +me like an incurable pest in which I shall groan +away the rest of my life. I <span class="gesperrt">will</span> cure myself! Do +you understand? [<i>Pressing the revolver on her.</i>] +This is your physic. Don’t break down; don’t +kneel! You yourself shall apply it. You or I—which +is it to be? [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>her strength threatening +to desert her, has sunk down on the couch, turning +the revolver this way and that</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It doesn’t go off.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Do you still recall how I snatched you +out of the clutches of the police?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You have great confidence⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Because I’m not afraid of a street-girl? +Shall I guide your hand for you? Have you no +mercy towards yourself? [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>points the revolver +at him</i>.] No false alarms! [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>fires a shot into +the ceiling</i>. <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>springs out of the portières, +up the stairs and away thru the gallery</i>.] What +was that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Innocently.</i>] Nothing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Lifting the portières.</i>] What flew out +of here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re suffering from persecution-mania.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Have you got still more men hidden here? +[<i>Tearing the revolver from her.</i>] Is yet another +man calling on you? [<i>Going left.</i>] I’ll regale your +men! [<i>Throws up the window-curtains, flings the +fire-screen back, grabs</i> <span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span> <i>by the +collar and drags her forward</i>.] Did you come down +the chimney?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>In deadly terror, to</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Save +me from him!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Shaking her.</i>] Or are you, too, an acrobat?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Whimpering.</i>] You hurt me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Shaking her.</i>] Now you will <span class="gesperrt">have</span> to +stay to dinner. [<i>Drags her right, shoves her into +the next room and locks the door after her.</i>] We +want no town-criers. [<i>Sits next to</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>and makes +her take the revolver again.</i>] There’s still enough +for you in it. Look at me! I cannot assist the +coachman in my house to decorate my forehead for +me. Look at me! I pay my coachman. Look at +me! Am I doing the coachman a favor if I can’t +bear the vile stable-stench?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Have the carriage got ready! Please! +We’re going to the opera.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—We’re going to the devil! Now I am +coachman. [<i>Turning the revolver in her hand from +himself to</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>breast</i>.] Do you believe that anyone, +abused as you have abused me, would hesitate +between an old age of slavish infamy and the merit +of freeing the world from <span class="gesperrt">you</span>? [<i>Holds her down +by the arm.</i>] Come, get through. It shall be the +happiest remembrance of my life. Pull the trigger!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You can get a divorce.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Only that was left! In order that to-morrow +the next man may find his pastime where +I have shuddered from pit to pit, suicide upon my +neck and <span class="gesperrt">you</span> before me! You dare suggest that? +That part of my life I have poured into you, am I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> +to see it tossed before wild beasts? Do you see your +bed with the sacrifice—the victim—on it? The lad +is homesick for you. Did you let yourself be divorced? +You trod him under your feet, knocked out +his brains, caught up his blood in gold-pieces. I +let myself be divorced? <span class="gesperrt">Can</span> one be divorced when +two people have grown into one another and half +the man must go too? [<i>Reaching for the revolver.</i>] +Give it here!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Don’t!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—I’ll spare you the trouble.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Tears herself loose, holding the revolver +down; in a determined, self-possessed tone.</i>] If +men have killed themselves for my sake, that doesn’t +lower my value. You knew quite as well why you +made me your wife as I knew why I took you for +husband. You had deceived your best friends with +me; you could not well go on deceiving yourself with +me. If you bring me your old age in sacrifice, you +have had my whole youth in return. You understand +ten times better than I do which is the more +valuable. I have never in the world wished to seem +to be anything different from what I am taken for, +and I have never in the world been taken for anything +different from what I am. You want to force +me to fire a bullet into my heart. I’m not sixteen +any more, but to fire a bullet in my heart I am still +much too young!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Pursuing her.</i>] Down, murderess! +Down with you! To your knees, murderess! +[<i>Crowding her to the foot of the stairs.</i>] Down, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span> +and never dare to stand again! [<i>Raising his hand.</i> +<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>has sunk to her knees</i>.] Pray to God, murderess, +that he give you strength. Sue to heaven +that strength for it may be lent you! [<span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span> +<i>jumps up from under the table, knocking a chair +aside, and screams “Help!”</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>whirls toward +him, turning his back to</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>who instantly fires +five shots into him and continues to pull the trigger</i>. +<span class="smcap">Schön</span>, <i>tottering over, is caught by</i> <span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span> <i>and +let down in the chair</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—And—there—is—one—more⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Rushing to</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span>.] All merciful——!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Out of my sight! Alva!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Kneeling.</i>] The one man I loved!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Harlot! Murderess!—Alva! Alva!—Water!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Water; he’s thirsty. [<i>Fills a glass with +champagne and sets it to</i> <span class="smcap">Schön’s</span> <i>lips</i>. <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>comes +thru the gallery, down the stairs</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Father! O God, my father!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I shot him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—She is innocent!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] You! It miscarried.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Tries to lift him.</i>] You must get to +bed; come.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—Don’t take hold of me so! I’m drying +up. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>comes with the champagne-cup; to her</i>.] +You are still like yourself. [<i>After drinking.</i>] +Don’t let her escape. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] You are the +next.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>.] Help me carry him +to bed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—No, no, please, no. Wine, murderess⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>.] Take hold of him on +that side. [<i>Pointing right.</i>] Into the bedroom. +[<i>They lift</i> <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>upright and lead him right</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>stays near the table, the glass in her hand</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schön</span>—[<i>Groaning.</i>] O God! O God! O God! +[<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>finds the door locked, turns the key and opens +it</i>. <span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span> <i>steps out</i>. <span class="smcap">Schön</span> <i>at the +sight of her straightens up, stiffly</i>.] The Devil. +[<i>He falls backward onto the carpet.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>throws +herself down, takes his head in her lap, and kisses +him</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He has got thru. [<i>Gets up and starts +toward the stairs.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Don’t stir!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—I thought it was you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Throwing herself before</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] You +can’t give me up to the law! It is <span class="gesperrt">my</span> head that is +struck off. I shot him because he was about to shoot +me. I have loved nobody in the world but him! +Alva, demand what you will, only don’t let me fall +into the hands of justice. Take pity on me. I am +still young. I will be true to you as long as I live. +I will be wholly yours, yours only! Look at me, +Alva. Man, look at me! Look at me! [<i>Knocking +on the door outside.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—The police. [<i>Goes to open it.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I shall be expelled from school.</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_8" href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="label">[8]</a> That is, since Act III Alva has won his Ph.D.</p></div></div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PANDORAS_BOX"> + PANDORA’S BOX + </h2> +</div> + +<p class='center bold'>(<span class="smcap">Die Büchse der Pandora</span>)</p> + +<p class='center bold mt1'>A Tragedy in Three Acts</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218"></a><a id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak"> + CHARACTERS + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='no-indent'> + <span class="smcap">Lulu</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Alva Schön, Ph.D.</span>, <i>a writer</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Rodrigo Quast</span>, <i>acrobat</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Alfred Hugenberg</span>, <i>escaped from a reform-school</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span></p> +<div> +<table class='left'> +<tr> +<td class='pr1'> + <span class="smcap">Bianetta</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Ludmilla Steinherz</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Magelone</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>, <i>her daughter</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Count Casti-Piani</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>, <i>a banker</i> <br> + <span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>, <i>a journalist</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Bob</span>, <i>a groom, aged 15</i><br> + <span class="smcap">A Detective</span> +</td> +<td class='vam x-tight'> +⎫<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎬<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎪<br> +⎭ +</td> +<td class='vam'>In Act II</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +<div> +<table class='left'> +<tr> +<td class='pr1'> + <span class="smcap">Mr. Hunidei</span> <br> + <span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>, <i>imperial prince of Uahubee</i><br> + <span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>, <i>tutor</i> <br> + <span class="smcap">Jack</span> +</td> +<td class='vam very-tight'> +⎫<br> +⎪<br> +⎬<br> +⎪<br> +⎭ +</td> +<td class='vam'>In Act III</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p class='center mt1'>The first act takes place in Germany, the second in<br> +France, the third in England.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220"></a><a id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="PB_ACT_I"> + ACT I + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>The hall of “Earth-Spirit,” Act IV, +feebly lighted by an oil lamp on the centre table. +Even this is dimmed by a heavy shade.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> +<i>picture is gone from the easel, which still stands +by the foot of the stairs. The fire-screen and +the chair by the ottoman are gone too. Down +left is a small tea-table, with a coffee-pot and a +cup of black coffee on it, and an arm-chair +next it.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><i>In this chair, deep in cushions, with a plaid +shawl over her knees, sits</i> <span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span> +<i>in a tight black dress</i>. <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>, <i>clad as a servant, +sits on the ottoman. At the rear</i>, <span class="smcap">Alva +Schön</span> <i>is walking up and down before the entrance +door</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—He lets people wait for him as if he +were a concert conductor!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—I beg of you, don’t speak!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Hold my tongue? with a head as full +of thoughts as mine is!—I absolutely can’t believe +she’s changed so awfully much to her advantage +there!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—She is more glorious to look at than +I have ever seen her!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—God preserve me from founding my life-happiness +upon <span class="gesperrt">your</span> taste and judgment! If the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span> +disease has hit her as it has you, I’m smashed and +thru! You’re leaving the contagious ward like a +rubber-lady who’s had an accident and taken to +hunger-striking. You can scarcely blow your nose +any more. First you need a quarter-hour to sort +your fingers, and then you have to be mighty careful +not to break off the tip.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—What puts <span class="gesperrt">us</span> under the ground +gives <span class="gesperrt">her</span> health and strength again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—That’s all right and fine enough. But +I don’t think I’ll be travelling off with her this evening.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—You will let your bride journey all +alone, after all?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—In the first place, the old fellow’s going +with her to protect her in case anything serious——My +escort could only be suspicious. And secondly, +I must wait here till my costumes are ready. I’ll +get across the frontier soon enough all right,—and +I hope in the meantime she’ll put on a little embonpoint, +too. Then we’ll get married, provided I can +present her before a respectable public. I love the +practical in a woman: what theories they make up +for themselves are all the same to me. Aren’t they +to you too, Doctor?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I haven’t heard what you were saying.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’d never have got my person mixed +up in this plot at all if she hadn’t kept tickling my +bare pate, before her sentence. If only she doesn’t +start exercising again too hard the moment she’s +out of Germany! I’d like best to take her to London +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span> +for six months, and let her fill up on plum-cakes. In +London one expands just from the sea air. And +then, too, in London one doesn’t feel with every +swallow of beer as if the hand of fate were at one’s +throat.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I’ve been asking myself for a week now +whether a person who’d been sentenced to prison +could still be made to go as the chief figure in a modern +drama.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—If the man would only come, now!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ve still got to redeem my properties +out of the pawn-shop here, too. Six hundred kilos +of the best iron. The baggage-rate on ’em is always +three times as much as my own ticket, so that the +whole junket isn’t worth a trousers button. When +I went into the pawn-shop with ’em, dripping with +sweat, they asked me if the things were genuine!—I’d +have really done better to have had the costumes +made abroad. In Paris, for instance, they see at the +first glance where one’s best points are, and bravely +lay them bare. But you can’t learn that sitting +cross-legged; it’s got to be studied on classically +shaped people. In this country they’re as scared +of naked skin as they are abroad of dynamite bombs. +Two years ago at the Alhambra Theater I was stuck +for a fifty-marks fine because people could see I had +a few hairs on my chest, not enough to make a respectable +toothbrush! But the Fine Arts Minister +opined that the little schoolgirls might lose their +joy in knitting stockings because of it; and since +then I have myself shaved once a month.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—If I didn’t need every bit of my creative +power now for the “World-Conqueror,” I might like +to test the problem and see what could be done with +it. That’s the curse of our young literature: we’re +so much too literary. We know only such questions +and problems as come up among writers and cultured +people. We cannot see beyond the limits of our own +professional interests. In order to get back on the +trail of a great and powerful art we must live as +much as possible among men who’ve never read a +book in their lives, who are moved by the simplest +animal instincts in all they do. I’ve tried already, +with all my might, to work according to those principles—in +my “Earth-Spirit.” The woman who was +my model for the chief figure in that, breathes to-day—and +has for a year—behind barred windows; and +on that account for some incomprehensible reason +the play was only brought to performance by the +Society for Free Literature. As long as my father +was alive, all the stages of Germany stood open to +my creations. That has been vastly changed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ve had a pair of tights made of the +tenderest blue-green. If <span class="gesperrt">they</span> don’t make a success +abroad, I’ll sell mouse-traps! The trunks are +so delicate I can’t sit on the edge of a table in ’em. +The only thing that will disturb the good impression +is my awful bald head, which I owe to my active +participation in this great conspiracy. To lie in +the hospital in perfect health for three months would +make a fat pig of the most run-down old hobo. Since +coming out I’ve fed on nothing but Karlsbad pills. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span> +Day and night I have orchestra rehearsals in my +intestines. I’ll be so washed out before I get across +the frontier that I won’t be able to lift a bottle-cork.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—How the attendants in the hospital +got out of her way yesterday! That was a refreshing +sight. The garden was still as the grave: in +the loveliest noon sunlight the convalescents didn’t +venture out of doors. Away back by the contagious +ward she stepped out under the mulberry trees and +swayed on her ankles on the gravel. The doorkeeper +had recognized me, and a young doctor who +met me in the corridor shrunk up as tho a revolver +shot had struck him. The Sisters vanished into the +big rooms or stayed stuck against the walls. When +I came back there was not a soul to be seen in the +garden or at the gate. No better chance could have +been found, if we had had the curséd passports. And +now the fellow says he isn’t going with her!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I understand the poor hospital-brothers. +One has a bad foot and another has a swollen +cheek, and there bobs up in the midst of them the +incarnate death-insurance-agentess! In the Hall of +the Knights, as the blessed division was called from +which I organized my spying, when the news got +around there that Sister Theophila had departed this +life, not one of the fellows could be kept in bed. +They scrambled up to the window-bars, if they had +to drag their pains along with them by the hundredweight. +I never heard such swearing in my life!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Allow me, Fräulein von Geschwitz, to come +back to my proposition once more. Tho she shot +my father in this very room, still I can see in the +murder, as in the punishment, nothing but a horrible +misfortune that has befallen <span class="gesperrt">her</span>; nor do I think +that my father, if he had come through alive, would +have withdrawn his support from her entirely. +Whether your plan for freeing her will succeed still +seems to me very doubtful, tho I wouldn’t like to +discourage you; but I can find no words to express +the admiration with which your self-sacrifice, your +energy, your superhuman scorn of death, inspires +me. I don’t believe any man ever risked so much +for a woman, let alone for a friend. I am not aware, +Fräulein von Geschwitz, how rich you are, but the +outlay for what you have accomplished must have +shattered your fortune. May I venture to offer you +a loan of 20,000 marks—which I should have no +trouble raising for you in cash?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—How we did rejoice when Sister +Theophila was really dead! From that day on we +were free from supervision. We changed our beds +as we liked. I had done my hair like hers, and copied +every tone of her voice. When the professor +came he called <span class="gesperrt">her</span> “gnädiges Fräulein” and said +to me, “It’s better living here than in prison!”... +When the Sister suddenly was missing, we looked at +each other in suspense: we had both been sick five +days: now was the deciding moment. Next morning +came the assistant.—“How is Sister Theophila?”—“Dead!”—We +communicated behind his back, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span> +when he had gone we sank in each other’s arms: +“God be thanked! God be thanked!”—What pains +it cost me to keep my darling from betraying how +well she already was! “You have nine years of +prison before you,” I cried to her early and late. +And now they probably wouldn’t let her stay in the +contagious ward three days more!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I lay in the hospital full three months +to spy out the ground, after toilfully peddling together +the qualities necessary for such a long stay. +Now I act the valet here with you, Dr. Schön, so +that no strange servants may come into the house. +Where is the bridegroom who’s ever done so much +for his bride? My fortune has also been shattered.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—When you succeed in developing her into +a respectable artiste you will have put the world in +debt to you. With the temperament and the beauty +that she has to give out from the inmost depths of +her nature she can make the most blasé public hold +its breath. And then, too, she will be protected, by +<span class="gesperrt">acting</span> passion, from a second time becoming a +criminal in reality.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ll soon drive her kiddishness out of +her!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—There he comes! [<i>Steps louden in +the gallery. Then the curtains part at the head of +the stairs and</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>in a long black coat with +a white sun-shade in his right hand comes down. +Thruout the play his speech is interrupted with frequent +yawns.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Confound the darkness! Outdoors +the sun burns your eyes out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Wearily unwrapping herself.</i>] I’m +coming!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Her ladyship has seen no daylight for +three days. We live here like in a snuff-box.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Since nine o’clock this morning I’ve +been round to all the old-clothes-men. Three brand-new +trunks stuffed full of old trousers I’ve expressed +to Buenos Aires via Bremerhaven. My legs are +dangling on me like the tongue of a bell. It’s going +to be a different life for me from now on!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Where are you going to get off to-morrow +morning?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I hope not straight into Ox-butter +Hotel again!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I can tell you a fine hotel. I lived there +with a lady lion-tamer. The people were born in +Berlin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Upright in the arm-chair.</i>] Come +and help me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Hurries to her and supports her.</i>] +And you’ll be safer from the police there than on a +high tight-rope!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—He means to let you go with her +alone this afternoon.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Maybe he’s still suffering from his +chilblains!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Do you want me to start my new engagement +in bath-robe and slippers?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Hm—Sister Theophila wouldn’t +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span> +have gone to heaven so promptly either, if she hadn’t +felt so affectionate towards our patient.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—When one has to serve thru a honeymoon +with her, she’ll have a very different value. +Anyway, it can’t hurt her if she gets a little fresh +air beforehand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>A pocketbook in his hand, to</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>, +<i>who is leaning on a chair-back by the centre table</i>.] +This holds 10,000 marks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Thank you, no.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Please take it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>.] Come along, at +last!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Patience, Fräulein. It’s only a +stone’s throw across Hospital Street. I’ll be here +with her in five minutes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You’re bringing her here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I’m bringing her here. Or do you +fear for your health?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You see that I fear nothing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—According to the latest wire, the doctor +is on his way to Constantinople to have his “Earth-Spirit” +produced before the Sultan by harem-ladies +and eunuchs.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Opening the centre door under the gallery.</i>] +It’s shorter for you thru here. [<i>Exeunt</i> +<span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span>. <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>locks +the door</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—You were going to give more money to +the crazy skyrocket!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—What has that to do with you?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I get paid like a lamp-lighter, tho I +had to demoralize all the Sisters in the hospital. +Then came the assistants’ and the doctors’ turn, and +then⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Will you seriously inform me that the medical +professors let themselves be influenced by you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—With the money those gentlemen cost +me I could become President of the United States!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But Fräulein von Geschwitz has reimbursed +you for every penny that you spent. So +much I know, and you’re still getting five hundred +marks a month from her besides. It is often pretty +hard to believe in your love for the unhappy murderess. +When I asked Fräulein von Geschwitz just +now to accept my help, it certainly was not done to +stir up <span class="gesperrt">your</span> insatiable avarice. The admiration +which I have learnt to have for Fräulein von +Geschwitz in this affair, I am far from feeling +towards you. It is not at all clear to me what +claims of any kind you can make upon me. That +you chanced to be present at the murder of my +father has not yet created the slightest bond of relationship +between you and me. On the contrary, I +am firmly convinced that if the heroic undertaking +of Countess Geschwitz had not come your way you +would be lying somewhere to-day, without a penny, +drunken in the gutter.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—And do you know what would have become +of you if you hadn’t sold for two millions the +tuppenny paper your father ran? You’d have +hitched up with the stringiest sort of ballet-girl and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span> +been to-day a stable-boy in the Humpelmeier Circus. +What work do you do? You’ve written a +drama of horrors in which my bride’s calves are the +two chief figures and which no high-class theater will +produce. You walking pajamas! You fresh ragbag, +you! Two years ago I balanced two saddled +cavalry-horses on this chest. How that’ll go now, +after this [<i>clasping his bald head</i>], is a question sure +enough. The foreign girls will get a fine idea of +German art when they see the sweat come beading +thru my tights at every fresh kilo-weight! I shall +make the whole auditorium stink with my exhalations!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You’re weak as a dish-clout!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Would to God you were right! or did +you perhaps intend to insult me? If so, I’ll set the +tip of my toe to your jaw so that your tongue’ll +crawl along the carpet over there!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Try it! [<i>Steps and voices outside.</i>] +Who is that...?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—You can thank God that I have no public +here before me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Who can that be!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—That is my beloved. It’s a full year +now since we’ve seen each other.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But how should they be back already! +Who can be coming there? I expect no one.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Oh, the devil, unlock it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Hide yourself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ll get behind the portières. I’ve stood +there once before, a year ago. [<i>Disappears, right.</i> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span><span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>opens the rear door, whereupon</i> <span class="smcap">Alfred Hugenberg</span> +<i>enters, hat in hand</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—With whom have I—.... You? Aren’t +you——?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Alfred Hugenberg.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—What can I do for you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I’ve come from Münsterburg. I +ran away this morning.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—My eyes are bad. I am forced to keep the +blinds closed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I need your help. You will not refuse +me. I’ve got a plan ready.—Can anyone +hear us?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—What do you mean? What sort of a +plan?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Are you alone?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Yes. What do you want to impart to me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I’ve had two plans already that I +let drop. What I shall tell you now has been worked +out to the last possible chance. If I had money I +should not confide it to you; I thought about that a +long time before coming.... Don’t you want to +let me explain my scheme to you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Will you kindly tell me just what you are +talking about?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—She cannot possibly be so indifferent +to you that I must tell you that. The evidence +<span class="gesperrt">you</span> gave the coroner helped her more than everything +the defending counsel said.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I beg to decline the supposition.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—You would say that; I understand +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span> +that, of course. But all the same you were her best +witness.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—<span class="gesperrt">You</span> were! You said my father was +about to force her to shoot herself.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—He was, too. But they didn’t believe +me. I wasn’t put on my oath.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Where have you come from now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—From a reform-school I broke out +of this morning.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—And what do you have in view?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I’m trying to get into the confidence +of a turnkey.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—What do you mean to live on?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I’m living with a girl who’s had a +child by my father.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Who is your father?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—He’s a police captain. I know the +prison without ever having been inside it; and nobody +in it will recognize me as I am now. But I +don’t count on that at all. I know an iron ladder +by which one can get from the first court to the roof +and thru an opening there into the attic. There’s +no way up to it from inside. But in all five wings +boards and laths and great heaps of shavings are +lying under the roofs, and I’ll drag them all together +in the middle and set fire to them. My pockets +are full of matches and all the things used to +make fires.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But then you’ll burn up there!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Of course, if I’m not rescued. But +to get into the first court I must have the turnkey +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span> +in my power, and for that I need money. Not that +I mean to bribe him; that wouldn’t go. I must lend +him money to send his three children to the country, +and then at four o’clock in the morning when +the prisoners of respected families are discharged, +I’ll slip in the door. He’ll lock-up behind me and +ask me what I’m after, and I’ll ask him to let me +out again in the evening. And before it gets light, +I’m up in the attic.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—How did you escape from the reform-school?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Jumped out the window. I need +two hundred marks for the rascal to send his family +to the country.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Stepping out of the portières, right.</i>] +Will the Herr Baron have coffee in the music-room +or on the veranda?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—How did that man come here? Out +of the same door! He jumped out of the same +door!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I’ve taken him into my service. He is dependable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—[<i>Grasping his temples.</i>] Fool that +I am! Oh, fool!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Oh, yah, we’ve seen each other here before! +Cut away now to your vice-mama. Your +kid brother might like to uncle his brothers and sisters. +Make your sir-papa the grandfather of his +children! You’re the only thing we’ve missed. If +you once get into my sight in the next two weeks, +I’ll beat your bean up for porridge.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Be quiet, you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—I’m a fool!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—What do you want to do with your +fire? Don’t you know the lady’s been dead three +weeks?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Did they cut off her head?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—No, she’s got that still. She was +mashed by the cholera.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—That is not true!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—What do you know about it! There, +read it: here! [<i>Taking out a paper and pointing +to the place.</i>] “The murderess of Dr. Schön....” +[<i>Gives</i> <span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span> <i>the paper. He reads</i>:]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—“The murderess of Dr. Schön has +in some incomprehensible way fallen ill of the cholera +in prison.” It doesn’t say that she’s dead.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Well, what else do you suppose she is? +She’s been lying in the churchyard three weeks. +Back in the left-hand corner behind the rubbish-heap +where the little crosses are with no names on +them, there she lies under the first one. You’ll know +the spot because the grass hasn’t grown on it. Hang +a tin wreath there, and then get back to your nursery-school +or I’ll denounce you to the police. I +know the female that beguiles her leisure hours with +you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] Is it true that she’s +dead?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Thank God, yes!—Please, do not keep me +here any longer. My doctor has forbidden me to +receive visitors.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—My future life means so little now! +I would gladly have given the last scrap of what life +is worth to me for her happiness. Heigh-ho! One +way or another I’ll sure go to the devil now!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—If you dare in any way to approach me +or the doctor here or my honorable friend Schigolch +too near, I’ll inform on you for intended arson. You +need three good years of prison to learn where not +to stick your fingers in! Now get out!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hugenberg</span>—Fool!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Get out! [<i>Throws him out the door. +Coming down.</i>] I wonder you didn’t put your purse +at that rogue’s disposal, too!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I won’t stand your damned jabbering! +The boy’s little finger is worth more than all you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ve had enough of this Geschwitz’s +company! If my bride is to become a corporation +with limited liability, somebody else can go in ahead +of me. I propose to make a magnificent trapeze-artiste +out of her, and willingly risk my life to do +it. But then I’ll be master of the house, and will +myself indicate what cavaliers she is to receive!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—The boy has what our age lacks: a hero-nature; +therefore, of course, he is going to ruin. Do +you remember how before sentence was passed he +jumped out of the witness-box and yelled at the justice: +“How do you know what would have become of +<span class="gesperrt">you</span> if you’d had to run around the cafés barefoot +every night when you were ten years old?”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—If I could only have given him one in +the jaw for that right away! Thank God, there +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span> +are jails where scum like that gets some respect for +the law pounded into them.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—One like him might have been my model +for my “World-conqueror.” For twenty years literature +has presented nothing but demi-men: men +who can beget no children and women who can bear +none. That’s called “The Modern Problem.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ve ordered a hippopotamus-whip two +inches thick. If that has no success with her, you +can fill my cranium with potato-soup. Be it love +or be it whipping, female flesh never inquires. Only +give it some amusement, and it stays firm and fresh. +She is now in her twentieth year, has been married +three times and has satisfied a gigantic horde of lovers, +and her heart’s desires are at last pretty plain. +But the man’s got to have the seven deadly sins on +his forehead, or she honors him not. If he looks as +if a dog-catcher had spat him out on the street, +then, with such women-folks, he needn’t be afraid of +a prince! I’ll rent a garage fifty feet high and break +her in there; and when she’s learnt the first diving-leap +without breaking her neck I’ll pull on a black +coat and not stir a finger the rest of my life. With +her practical equipment it costs a woman not half +the trouble to support her husband as the other way +round, if only the man looks after the mental work +for her, and doesn’t let the sense of the family go +to wreck.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I have learnt how to master humanity and +drive it in harness before me like a well-broken four-in-hand,—but +that boy sticks in my head. Really, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span> +I can still take private lessons in the scorn of the +world from that schoolboy!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—She’ll just comfortably let her hide be +papered with thousand-mark bills! I’ll extract +salaries out of the directors with a centrifugal pump. +I know their kind. When they don’t need a man, +let him shine their shoes for them; but when they +must have an artiste they’ll cut her down from the +very gallows with their own hands and with the most +binding compliments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—In my circumstances there’s nothing left +in the world that I should fear—but death. Yet in +feelings and sensations I am the poorest beggar.—However, +I can no longer scrape up the moral courage +to exchange my established position for the excitements +of the wild, adventurous life!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—She had sicked Papa Schigolch and me +out on a hunt together to rout her out some strong +antidote for insomnia. We each got a twenty-mark +piece for expenses. There in the Nightlight Café +we see the youngster sitting like a criminal on the +prisoner’s bench. Schigolch sniffed at him from all +sides, and remarked, “He is still virgin.” [<i>Up in +the gallery, dragging steps are heard.</i>] There she +is! The future magnificent trapeze-artiste of the +present age! [<i>The curtains part at the stair-head, +and</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>appears, supported by</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>and +in</i> <span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz’s</span> <i>black dress, slowly and +wearily descending</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Hui, old moldy! We’ve still to get +over the frontier to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Glaring stupidly at</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Thunder +of heaven! Death!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Speaks, to the end of the act, in the gayest +tones.</i>] Slowly! You’re pinching my arm!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—How did you ever get the shamelessness +to break out of prison with such a wolf’s face?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Stop your snout!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ll run for the police! I’ll give information! +This scarecrow let herself be seen in +tights? The padding alone would cost two months’ +salary!—You’re the most perfidious swindler that +ever had lodging in Ox-butter Hotel!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Kindly refrain from insulting the lady!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Insulting, you call that? For this +gnawed bone’s sake I’ve worn myself away! I can’t +earn my own living! I’ll be a clown if I can still +stand firm under a broomstick! But let the lightning +strike me on the spot if I don’t worm ten thousand +marks a year for life out of your tricks and +frauds! I can tell you that! A pleasant trip! +I’m going for the police! [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Run, run.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He’ll take good care of himself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—We’re rid of <span class="gesperrt">him</span>!—And now some +black coffee for the lady!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>At the table left.</i>] Here is coffee, ready +to pour.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I must look after the sleeping-car +tickets.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Brightly.</i>] Oh, freedom! Thank God +for freedom!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I’ll be back for you in half an hour. +We’ll celebrate our departure in the station-restaurant. +I’ll order a supper that’ll keep us going till +to-morrow.—Good morning, Doctor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Good evening.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Pleasant rest!—Thanks, I know +every door-handle here. So long! Have a good +time! [<i>Exit, centre.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I haven’t seen a room for a year and a +half. Curtains, chairs, pictures....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Won’t you drink it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’ve swallowed enough black coffee these +five days. Have you any brandy?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I’ve got some elixir de Spaa.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That reminds one of old times. [<i>Looks +round the hall while</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>fills two glasses</i>.] +Where’s my picture gone?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I’ve got it in my room, so no one shall +see it here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Bring it here, do!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Haven’t you got over your vanity even in +prison?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—How anxious at heart you get when you +don’t see yourself for months! One day I got a +brand-new dust-pan. When I swept up at seven in +the morning I held the back of it up before my face. +Tin doesn’t flatter, but I took pleasure in it all the +same.—Get the picture out of your room. Shall I +come, too?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—No, Heaven’s sake! You must spare yourself!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’ve been sparing myself long enough now! +[<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>goes out, right, to get the picture</i>.] He has +heart-trouble; but to have to plague one’s self with +imagination fourteen months!... He kisses with +the fear of death on him, and his two knees shake like +a frozen vagabond’s. In God’s name!... In this +room—if only I had not shot his father in the back!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Returns with the picture of</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>in the +Pierrot-dress</i>.] It’s covered with dust. I had leant +it against the fireplace, face to the wall.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You didn’t look at it all the time I was +away?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I had so much business to attend to, with +the sale of our paper and everything. Countess +Geschwitz would have liked to have hung it up in her +house, but she had to be prepared for search-warrants. +[<i>He puts the picture on the easel.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Merrily.</i>] Now the poor monster is getting +personally acquainted with the life of joy in +Hotel Ox-butter!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Even now I don’t understand how events +hang together.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Oh, Geschwitz arranged it all very cleverly. +I do admire her inventiveness. But the cholera must +have raged fearfully in Hamburg this summer; and +on that she based her plan for freeing me. She took +a course in hospital nursing here, and when she had +the necessary documents she journeyed to Hamburg +with them and nursed the cholera patients. At the +first opportunity that offered she put on the underclothes +that a sick woman had just died in and which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span> +really ought to have been burnt. The same morning +she traveled back here and came to see me in prison. +In my cell, while the wardress was outside, we two, +as quick as we could, exchanged underclothes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—So that was the reason why the Countess +and you fell sick of the cholera the same day!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Exactly, that was it! Geschwitz of +course was instantly brought from her house to the +contagious ward in the hospital. But with me, too, +they couldn’t think of any other place to take me. +So there we lay in one room in the contagious ward +behind the hospital, and from the first day Geschwitz +put forth all her art to make our two faces as like +each other as possible. Day before yesterday she +was let out as cured. Just now she came back and +said she’d forgotten her watch. I put on her clothes, +she slipped into my prison frock, and then I came +away. [<i>With pleasure.</i>] Now she’s lying over there +as the murderess of Dr. Schön.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—So far as outward appearance goes you +can hold your own with the picture as well as ever.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’m a little peaked in the face, but otherwise +I’ve lost nothing. Only one gets incredibly +nervous in prison.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You looked horribly sick when you came in.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I had to, to get our necks out of the +noose.—And you? What have you done in this year +and a half?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I’ve had a succès d’estime in literary circles +with a play I wrote about you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Who’s your sweetheart now?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—An actress I’ve rented a house for in Karl +Street.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Does she love you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—How should I know that? I haven’t seen +the woman for six weeks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Can you stand that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You will never grasp it—but with me +there’s the closest alternation between my sensuality +and my creative powers. So, as regards you, for +example, I have to make the choice of either setting +you forth artistically or of loving you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>In a fairy-story tone.</i>] I used to dream, +once, every other night, that I’d fallen into the +hands of a sadist.... Come, give me a kiss!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—It’s shining in your eyes like the water +in a deep well one has just thrown a stone into.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Come!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Kisses her.</i>] Your lips have got pretty +thin, sure enough.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Come! [<i>Pushes him into a chair and seats +herself on his knee.</i>] Do you shudder at me?—In +Hotel Ox-butter we all got a lukewarm bath every +four weeks. The wardresses took that opportunity +to search our pockets as soon as we were in the +water. [<i>She kisses him passionately.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Oh, oh!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re afraid that when I’m away you +couldn’t write any more poems about me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—On the contrary, I shall write a dithyramb +upon your glory.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’m only sore about the hideous shoes I’m +wearing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—They do not encroach upon your charms. +Let us be thankful for the favor of this moment.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I don’t feel at all like that to-day.—Do +you remember the costume ball where I was dressed +like a knight’s squire? How those wine-full women +ran after me that time? Geschwitz crawled round, +round my feet, and begged me to step on her face with +my cloth shoes.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Come, dear heart!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>In the tone with which one quiets a restless +child.</i>] Quietly! I shot your father.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I do not love you less for that. One kiss!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Bend your head back. [<i>She kisses him +with deliberation.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You hold back the fire of my soul with +the most dexterous art. And your breast breathes +so virginly too. Yet if it weren’t for your two great, +dark, child’s eyes, I must needs have thought you +the cunningest whore that ever hurled a man to +destruction.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>In high spirits.</i>] Would God I were! +Come over the border with us to-day! Then we +can see each other as often as we will, and we’ll get +more pleasure from each other than now.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Through this dress I feel your body like +a symphony. These slender ankles, this cantabile. +This rapturous crescendo. And these knees, this +capriccio. And the powerful andante of lust!—How +peacefully these two slim rivals press against each +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span> +other in the consciousness that neither equals the +other in beauty—till their capricious mistress wakes +up and the rival lovers separate like the two hostile +poles. I shall sing your praises so that your senses +shall whirl!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Merrily.</i>] Meanwhile I’ll bury my hands +in your hair. [<i>She does so.</i>] But here we’ll be disturbed.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You have robbed me of my reason!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Aren’t you coming with me to-day?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But the old fellow’s going with you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He won’t turn up again.—Is not that the +divan on which your father bled to death?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Be still. Be still....</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="PB_ACT_II"> + ACT II + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>A spacious salon in white stucco. In the +rear wall, between two high mirrors, a wide folding +doorway showing in the rear room a big +card-table surrounded by Turkish upholstered +chairs. In the left wall two doors, the upper +one to the entrance-hall, the lower to the dining-room. +Between them a rococo console with a +white marble top, and above it</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>Pierrot-picture +in a narrow gold frame let into the wall. +Two other doors, right; near the lower one a +small table. Wide and brightly covered chairs +stand about, with thin legs and fragile arms; +and in the middle is a sofa of the same style +(Louis XV).</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><i>A large company is moving about the salon +in lively conversation. The men</i>—<span class="smcap">Alva</span>, <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>, +<span class="smcap">Marquis Casti-Piani</span>, <span class="smcap">Banker Puntschu</span>, +<i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Journalist Heilmann</span>—<i>are in +evening dress</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>wears a white Directoire +dress with huge sleeves and white lace falling +freely from belt to feet. Her arms are in white +kid gloves, her hair done high with a little tuft +of white feathers.</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span> <i>is in a bright +blue hussar-waist trimmed with white fur and +laced with silver braid, a tall tight collar with +a white bow, and stiff cuffs with huge ivory links</i>. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span><span class="smcap">Magelone</span> <i>is in bright rainbow-colored shot +silk with very wide sleeves, long narrow waist, +and three ruffles of spiral rose-colored ribbons +and violet bouquets. Her hair is parted in the +middle and drawn low over her temples. On her +forehead is a mother-of-pearl ornament, held by +a fine chain under her hair.</i> <span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>, <i>her +daughter, twelve years old, has bright-green +satin gaiters which yet leave visible the tops of +her white silk socks, and a white-lace-covered +dress with bright-green narrow sleeves, pearl-gray +gloves, and free black hair under a big +bright-green hat with white feathers</i>. <span class="smcap">Bianetta</span> +<i>is in a loose-sleeved dress of dark-green velvet, +the bodice sewn with pearls, and the skirt full, +without a waist, embroidered at the hem with +great false topazes set in silver</i>. <span class="smcap">Ludmilla +Steinherz</span> <i>is in a glaring summer frock striped +red and blue</i>.</p> + +<p class='scene2'><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>stands, centre, a full glass in his +hand</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Ladies and gentlemen—I beg your pardon—please +be quiet—I drink—permit me to drink—for +this is the birthday party of our amiable +hostess—[<i>taking</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>arm</i>] of Countess Adelaide +d’Oubra—damned and done for!—I drink therefore — — and +so forth, go to it, ladies! [<i>All surround</i> +<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>and clink with her</i>. <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>presses</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo’s</span> +<i>hand</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I congratulate you.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’m sweating like a roast pig.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Let’s see if everything’s in +order in the card-room. [<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>exeunt, +rear</i>. <span class="smcap">Bianetta</span> <i>speaks to</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bianetta</span>—They were telling me just now you +were the strongest man in the world.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—That I am. May I put my strength at +your disposal?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—I love sharp-shooters better. Three +months ago a sharp-shooter appeared in the Casino, +and every time he went “bang!” I felt like this. +[<i>She wriggles her hips.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Who speaks thruout the act in a +bored and weary tone, to</i> <span class="smcap">Magelone</span>.] Say, dearie, +how does it happen we see your nice little princess +here for the first time to-night? [<i>Meaning</i> <span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—Do you really find her so delightful?—She +is still in the convent. She must be back in +school again on Monday.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—What did you say, Mama?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—I was just telling the gentlemen that +you got the highest mark in geometry last week.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—Some pretty hair she’s got!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Just look at her feet: the way she +walks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—By God, she’s a thoroughbred!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—[<i>Smiling.</i>] But, my dear sirs, take +pity on her! She’s nothing but a child still!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—That’d trouble me damned little! +[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>.] I’d give ten years of my life if +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span> +I could initiate the young lady into the ceremonies +of our secret society!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—But you won’t get me to consent to +that for a million. I won’t have the child’s youth +ruined, the way mine was!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Confessions of a lovely soul! [<i>To</i> +<span class="smcap">Magelone</span>.] Would you not grant your permission +even for a set of real diamonds?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—Don’t brag! You’ll give as few real +diamonds to me as to my child. You know that +best yourself. [<span class="smcap">Kadidia</span> <i>goes into the rear room</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—But is nobody at all going to play, +this evening?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—Why, of course, Comtesse. I’m +counting on it very much, for one!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bianetta</span>—Then let’s take our places right away. +The gentlemen will soon come then.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—May I ask you to excuse me just a +second more? I must say a word to my friend.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Offering his arm to</i> <span class="smcap">Bianetta</span>.] +May I have the honor to be your partner? You +always hold such a lucky hand!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—Now just give me your other arm and +then lead us into the gambling-hell. [<i>The three go +off so, rear.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—Say, Mr. Puntschu, have you still got +a few Jungfrau-shares for me, maybe?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—Jungfrau-shares? [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>.] +The lady means the stock of the funicular railway on +the Jungfrau. The Jungfrau, you know,—the Virgin—is +a mountain and they’re going to build a wire +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span> +railway up it. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Magelone</span>.] You understand,—just +so there may be no confusion;—and how easy +that would be in this select circle!—Yes, I still have +some four thousand Jungfrau-shares, but I should +like to keep those for myself. There won’t be such +another chance soon of making a little fortune out +of hand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—I’ve only one lone share of this Jungfrau-stock +so far. I should like to have more, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—I’ll try, Mr. Heilmann, to look after +some for you. But I tell you beforehand you’ll have +to pay drug-store prices for them!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—My fortune-teller advised me to look +about me in time. All my savings are in Jungfrau-shares +now. If it doesn’t turn out well, Mr. Puntschu, +I’ll scratch your eyes out!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—I am perfectly sure of my affairs, +my dearie!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Who has come back from the card-room, +to</i> <span class="smcap">Magelone</span>.] I can guarantee your fears are +absolutely unfounded. I paid very dear for my +Jungfrau-stock and haven’t regretted it a minute. +They’re going up steadily from day to day. There +never was such a thing before.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—All the better, if you’re right. [<i>Taking</i> +<span class="smcap">Puntschu’s</span> <i>arm</i>.] Come, my friend, let’s try +our luck now at baccarat. [<i>All go out, rear, except</i> +<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>, <i>who scribbles something on +a piece of paper and folds it up, then notices</i> +<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Hm, madam Countess—— [<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span><i>starts and shrinks</i>.] Do I look as dangerous as +that? [<i>To himself.</i>] I must make a bon mot. +[<i>Aloud.</i>] May I perhaps make so bold⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—You can go to the devil!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>As he leads</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>in</i>.] You will +allow me a word or two.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Not noticing</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>, <i>who presses his +note into her hand</i>.] Oh, as many as you like.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>As he bows and goes out, rear.</i>] I beg +you will excuse me....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>.] Leave us alone!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>.] Have I vexed you +again somehow?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Since</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span> <i>does not stir</i>.] +Are you deaf? [<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>, <i>sighing deeply, goes +out, rear</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Just say straight out how much you want.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—With money you can no longer +serve me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What makes you think that we have no +more money?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—You handed out the last bit of it to +me yesterday.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—If you’re sure of that then I suppose +it’s so.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—You’re down to bedrock, you and +your writer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then why all these words?—If you want +to have me for yourself you need not first threaten +me with execution.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I know that. But I’ve told you +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span> +more than once that you are not the sort I fall for. +I haven’t plundered you because you loved me, but +loved you in order to fleece you. Bianetta is more +to my taste from top to bottom than you. You set +out the choicest lot of sweetmeats, and when one has +frittered his time away at them he finds he’s hungrier +than before. You’ve loved too long, even for our +relations here. With a healthy young man, you +only ruin his nervous system. But you’ll fit all the +more perfectly in the position I have sought out for +you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re crazy! Have I commissioned you +to find a position for me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I told you, though, that I was an +employment-agent.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You told me you were a police spy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—One can’t live on that alone. I was +an employment-agent originally, till I blundered over +a minister’s daughter I’d got a position for in Valparaiso. +The little darling in her childhood’s +dreams had imagined the life to be even more intoxicating +than it is, and complained about it to +Mama. On that, they nabbed me; but by reliable +demeanor I soon enough won the confidence of the +criminal police and they sent me here on a hundred +and fifty marks a month, because they were tripling +our contingent here on account of these everlasting +bomb-explosions. But who can get along in Paris +on a hundred and fifty marks a month? My colleagues +get women to support them; but, of course, +I found it more convenient to take up my former +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span> +calling again; and of the numberless adventuresses +of the best families of the entire world, whom chance +brings together here, I have already forwarded many +a young creature hungry for life to the place of her +natural vocation.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Decisively.</i>] I’m no good for that business.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Your views on that question make +no difference whatever to me. The department of +justice will pay anyone who delivers the murderess +of Dr. Schön into the hands of the police a thousand +marks. I only need to whistle for the constable +who’s standing down at the corner to have earned +a thousand marks. Against that, the House of +Oikonomopulos in Cairo bids sixty pounds for you—twelve +hundred marks—two hundred more than +the Attorney General. And, besides, I am still so +far a friend of mankind that I prefer to help my +loves to happiness, not hurl them into misery.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>As before.</i>] The life in such a house can +never in the world make a woman of my sort happy. +When I was fifteen, I might have liked it. I was +desperate then—thought I should never be happy. +I bought a revolver, and ran one night barefoot +through the deep snow over the bridge to the park +to shoot myself there. But then by good luck I lay +three months in the hospital without once getting +sight of a man, and in that time my eyes were opened +and I got to know myself. Night after night in my +dreams I saw the man for whom I was created and +who was created for me, so that when I was let out +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span> +on the men again I was a silly goose no longer. Since +then I can see on a man, in a pitch-dark night and +a hundred feet away, whether we’re meant for each +other; and if I sin against that insight I feel the +next day dirtied, body and soul, and need weeks to +get over the loathing I have for myself. And now +you imagine I’ll give myself to every and any Tom +and Harry!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Toms and Harries don’t patronize +Oikonomopulos of Cairo. His custom consists of +Scottish lords, Russian dignitaries, Indian governors, +and our jolly Rhineland captains of industry. I +must only guarantee that you speak French. With +your gift for languages you’ll quickly enough learn +as much English, besides, as you’ll need to get on +with. And you’ll reside in a royally furnished +apartment with an outlook on the minarets of the +El Azhar Mosque, and walk around all day on Persian +carpets as thick as your fist, and dress every +evening in a fabulous Paris gown, and drink as much +champagne as your customers can pay for, and, +finally, you’ll even remain, up to a certain point, your +own mistress. If the man doesn’t please you, you +needn’t play up to him at all. Just let him give in +his card, and then——[<i>Shrugs, and snaps his fingers.</i>] +If the ladies didn’t get used to that the whole +business would be simply impossible, because every +one of them after the first few weeks would go headlong +to the devil.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Her voice shaking.</i>] I do believe that +since yesterday you’ve got a screw loose somewhere. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span> +Am I to understand that the Egyptian will pay fifteen +hundred francs for a person whom he’s never +seen?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I took the liberty of sending him +your pictures.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Those pictures that I gave you, you’ve +sent to him?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—You see he can value them better +than I. The picture in which you stand before the +mirror as Eve he’ll probably hang up at the house-door, +after you’ve got there.... And then there’s +one thing more for you to notice: with Oikonomopulos +in Cairo you’ll be safer from your bloodhounds +than if you crept into a Canadian wilderness. +It isn’t so easy to transport an Egyptian courtesan +to a German prison,—first, on account of the mere +expense, and second, from fear of treading too close +upon eternal Justice.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Proudly, in a clear voice.</i>] What have +I to do with your eternal Justice! You can see as +plain as your five fingers I shan’t let myself be locked +up in any such amusement-place!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Then will you permit me to whistle +up the policeman?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>In wonder.</i>] Why don’t you simply ask +me for twelve hundred marks, if you want the money?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I want for no money! And I also +don’t ask for it because you’re dead broke.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—We still have thirty thousand marks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—In Jungfrau-stock! I never have +anything to do with stock. The Attorney General +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span> +pays in the imperial currency, and Oikonomopulos +pays in English gold. You can be on board early +to-morrow. The passage doesn’t last much more +than five days. In two weeks at most you’re in +safety. Here you are nearer to prison than anywhere. +It’s a wonder which I, as one of the secret +police, cannot understand, that you two have been +able to live for a full year unmolested. But just +as <i>I</i> came on the track of your antecedents, so any +day, with your mighty consumption of men, one of +my colleagues may make the happy discovery. Then +I may just wipe my mouth, and you spend the most +enjoyable years of your life in prison. If you will +kindly decide quickly. The train goes at 12:30. +If we haven’t struck a bargain before eleven, I +whistle up the policeman. If we have, I pack you, +just as you stand, into a carriage, drive you to the +station, and to-morrow night escort you on board +ship.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But is it possible you can be serious in all +this?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Don’t you understand that your +bodily rescue is the only thing left me to do?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’ll go with you to America or to China, +but I can’t let myself be sold of my own accord! +That is worse than prison!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Drawing a letter from his pocket.</i>] +Just read this effusion! I’ll read it to you. Here’s +the postmark “Cairo,” so you won’t believe I work +with forged documents. The girl is a Berliner, was +married two years and to a man whom you would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span> +have envied her, a former comrade of mine. He +travels now for some Hamburg colonial company....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Merrily.</i>] Then perhaps he <span class="gesperrt">visits</span> his +wife occasionally?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—That is not incredible. But hear +this impulsive expression of her feelings. My white-slave +traffic seems to me absolutely no more honorable +than the first judge you happened on would +think it, but a cry of joy like this lets me feel a +certain moral satisfaction for a moment. I am proud +to earn my money by scattering happiness with full +hands. [<i>Reads.</i>] “Dear Mr. Meyer”—that’s my +name as a white-slave trader—“when you go to Berlin, +please go right away to the conservatory on the +Potsdamer Strasse and ask for Gusti von Rosenkron—the +most beautiful woman that I’ve ever seen anywhere—delightful +hands and feet, naturally small +waist, straight back, full body, big eyes and short +nose—just the sort you like best. I have written to +her already. She has no prospects with her singing. +Her mother hasn’t a penny. Sorry she’s already +twenty-two, but she’s pining for love. Can’t marry, +because absolutely without means. I have spoken +with Madame. They’d like to take another German, +if she’s well educated and musical. Italians and +Frenchwomen can’t compete with us;—not cultured +enough. If you should see Fritz”—Fritz is the husband; +he’s getting a divorce, of course,—“tell him +it was all a bore. He didn’t know any better, neither +did I.” Now come the exact details⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Goaded.</i>] I cannot sell the only thing +that ever was my own!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Let me read some more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>As before.</i>] This very evening, I’ll hand +over to you our entire wealth.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Believe me, for God’s sake, I’ve <span class="gesperrt">got</span> +your last red cent! If we haven’t left this house before +eleven, you and your lot will be transported +to-morrow in a police-car to Germany.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You <span class="gesperrt">can’t</span> give me up!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Do you think that would be the +worst thing I “can” have done in my life?... I +must, in case we go to-night, have just a brief word +with Bianetta. [<i>He goes into the card-room, leaving +the door open behind him.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>stares before her, +mechanically crumpling up the note that</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> +<i>stuck into her hand, which she has held in her fingers +thruout the dialogue</i>. <span class="smcap">Alva</span>, <i>behind the card-table, +gets up, a bill in his hand, and comes into the +salon</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] Brilliantly! It’s going brilliantly! +Geschwitz is wagering her last shirt. +Puntschu has promised me ten more Jungfrau-shares. +Steinherz is making her little gains and profits. +[<i>Exit, lower right.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I in a bordel? [<i>She reads the paper she +holds, and laughs madly.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Coming back with a cash-box in his +hand.</i>] Aren’t you going to play, too?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Oh, yes, surely—why not?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—By the way, it’s in the “Berliner Tageblatt” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span> +to-day that Alfred Hugenberg has hurled himself +over the stairs in prison.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Is he too in prison?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Only in a sort of house of detention. +[<i>Exit, rear.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>is about to follow, but</i> <span class="smcap">Countess +Geschwitz</span> <i>meets her in the doorway</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—You are going because I come?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Resolutely.</i>] No, God knows. But when +you come then I go.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—You have defrauded me of all the +good things of this world that I still possessed. You +might at the very least preserve the outward forms +of politeness in your intercourse with me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>As before.</i>] I am as polite to you as to +any other woman. I only beg you to be equally so +to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Have you forgotten the passionate +endearments you used, while we lay together in the +hospital, to seduce me into letting myself be locked +into prison for you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Well, why else did you bring me down with +the cholera beforehand? I swore very different +things to myself, even while it was going on, from +what I had to promise you! I am shaken with horror +at the thought that that should ever become reality!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Then you cheated me consciously, +deliberately!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Gaily.</i>] And what have you been cheated +of, eh? Your physical advantages have found so +enthusiastic an admirer here, that I ask myself if +I won’t have to give piano lessons once more, to keep +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span> +alive! No seventeen-year-old child could make a +man madder with love than you, a pervert, are making +him, poor fellow, by your shrewishness.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Of whom are you speaking? I don’t +understand a word.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>As before.</i>] I’m speaking of your acrobat, +of Rodrigo Quast. He’s an athlete: he balances +two saddled cavalry horses on his chest. Can a +woman desire anything more glorious? He told me +just now that he’d jump into the water to-night if +you did not take pity on him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—I do not envy you your cleverness at +torturing the helpless victims sacrificed to you by +their inscrutable destiny. I cannot envy you at all. +My own misery has not yet wrung from me the pity +that I feel for you. <i>I</i> feel free as a god when I +think to what creatures <span class="gesperrt">you</span> are enslaved.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Whom do you mean?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Casti-Piani, upon whose forehead the +most degenerate baseness is written in letters of fire!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Be silent! I’ll kick you, if you speak ill +of <span class="gesperrt">him</span>. He loves me so uprightly that your most +venturous self-sacrifices are beggary in comparison! +He gives me such proofs of self-denial as reveal <span class="gesperrt">you</span> +for the first time in all your loathsomeness! You +didn’t get finished in your mother’s womb, neither +as woman nor as man. You have no human nature +like the rest of us. The stuff didn’t go far enough +for a man, and for a woman you got too much brain +in your noddle. That’s the reason you’re crazy! +Turn to Miss Bianetta! She can be had for everything +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span> +for pay! Press a gold-piece into her hand +and she’ll be yours. [<i>All the company save</i> <span class="smcap">Kadidia</span> +<i>throng in out of the card-room</i>.] For the Lord’s +sake, what has happened?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—Nothing whatever! We’re thirsty, +that’s all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—Everybody has won. We can’t believe +it.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bianetta</span>—Seems to me I have won quite a +fortune!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—Don’t boast of it, my child. That +isn’t lucky.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—But the bank has won, too! How is +that <span class="gesperrt">possible</span>?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—It is colossal, where all the money comes +from!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Let us not ask! Enough that we +need not spare the champagne.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—I can pay for a supper in a respectable +restaurant afterwards, anyway!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—To the buffet, ladies! Come to the buffet! +[<i>All exeunt, lower left.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Holding</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>back</i>.] Un momong, +my heart. Have you read my billet-doux?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Threaten me with discovery as much as +you like! I have no more twenty thousands to dispose +of.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Don’t lie to me, you punk! You’ve still +got forty thousand in Jungfrau-stock. Your so-called +spouse has just been bragging of it himself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then turn to <span class="gesperrt">him</span> with your blackmailing! +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span> +It’s all one to me what he does with his money.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Thank you! With that blockhead I’d +need twice twenty-four hours to make him grasp what +I was talking about. And then come his explanations, +that make one deathly sick; and meanwhile +my bride-to-be writes me to call it off, and I can +just hang a hurdy-gurdy over my shoulder.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What, have you got engaged here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Maybe I ought to have asked your permission +first? What were my thanks here for having +freed you from prison at the cost of my health? +You abandoned me! I might have had to turn porter +if this girl hadn’t taken me up! At my entrance, +the very first evening, somebody threw a velvet-covered +arm-chair at my head! This country is too +decadent to value genuine shows of strength any +more. If I’d been a boxing kangaroo they’d have +interviewed me and put my picture in all the papers. +Thank Heaven, I’d already made the acquaintance of +my Celestine. She’s got the savings of twenty years +deposited with the government; and she loves me +just for myself. She doesn’t aim at vile vulgarities +and nothing else like you. She’s had three children +by an American bishop—all of the greatest promise. +Early day after to-morrow we’re going to get married +at the registrar’s.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You have my blessing.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Your blessing can be stolen from me. +I’ve told my bride I had twenty thousand in stock +at the bank.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Amused.</i>] And after that he boasts the +woman loves him for himself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—She honors in me the man of feeling, not +the man of force as you and all the others have done. +That’s well over now. First they’d tear the clothes +from one’s body and then waltz around with the +chambermaid. I’ll be a skeleton before I’ll let myself +in again for such diversions!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then why the devil do you especially pursue +poor Geschwitz with your proposals?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Because the thing is of noble blood. +I’m a man of the world, and can do distinguished +conversation better than any of you. But now [<i>with +a gesture</i>] my talk is hanging out of my mouth! +Will you get me the money before to-morrow evening, +or won’t you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I have no money.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ll have hen-droppings in my head +before I’ll let myself be put off with that! He’ll give +you his last cent if you’ll only do your damned debt +and duty by him once! You lured the poor lad here, +and now he can see where to scare up a suitable +engagement for his accomplishments.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What is it to you if he wastes his money +with women or at cards?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Do you absolutely <span class="gesperrt">want</span>, then, to +throw the last penny that his father earned by his +paper into the jaws of this rapacious pack? You’ll +make four people happy if you’ll strain a point and +sacrifice yourself for a philanthropic purpose! Has +it got to be only Casti-Piani <span class="gesperrt">forever</span>?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Lightly.</i>] Shall I ask him perhaps to +light you down the stairs?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—As you wish, Countess! If I don’t get +the twenty thousand marks by to-morrow evening, +I make a statement to the police and your salon +comes to an end. Auf Wiedersehen! [<span class="smcap">Heilmann</span> +<i>enters, breathless, upper right</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re looking for Miss Magelone? She’s +not here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—No, I’m looking for something else⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Taking him to the entry-door, opposite +him.</i>] Second door on the left.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>.] Did you learn that from +your bride?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—[<i>Bumping into</i> <span class="smcap">Puntschu</span> <i>in the +doorway</i>.] Excuse me, my angel!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—Ah, it’s you. Miss Magelone’s waiting +for you in the lift.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—You go up with her, please. I’ll be +right back. [<i>He hurries out, left.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>goes out +at lower left</i>. <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>follows her</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—Some heat, that! If I don’t cut off +<span class="gesperrt">your</span> ears, you’ll cut ’em off me! If I can’t hire +out my Jehoshaphat,⁠<a id="FNanchor_9_9" href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> I’ve just got to help myself +with my brains! Won’t they get wrinkled, my +brains! Won’t they get indisposed! Won’t they +need to bathe in Eau de Cologne! [<span class="smcap">Bob</span>, <i>a groom +in a red jacket, tight leather breeches, and twinkling +riding-boots, fifteen years old, brings in a telegram</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bob</span>—Mr. Puntschu, the banker!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—[<i>Breaks open the telegram and murmurs</i>:] +“Jungfrau Funicular Stock fallen to——” +Ay, ay, so goes the world! [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Bob</span>.] Wait! +[<i>Gives him a tip.</i>] Tell me—what’s your name?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bob</span>—Well, my name is Freddy, but they call me +Bob, because that’s the fashion now.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—How old are you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bob</span>—Fifteen.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—[<i>Enters hesitatingly from lower left.</i>] I +beg your pardon, can you tell me if Mama is here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—No, my dear. [<i>Aside.</i>] Devil, she’s +got breeding!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—I’m hunting all over for her; I can’t +find her anywhere.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—Your mama will turn up again soon, +as true as my name’s Puntschu! [<i>Looking at</i> <span class="smcap">Bob</span>.] +And that pair of breeches! God of Justice! It gets +uncanny! [<i>He goes out, upper right.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—Haven’t <span class="gesperrt">you</span> seen my mama, perhaps?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bob</span>—No, but you only need to come with me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—Where is she then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bob</span>—She’s gone up in the lift. Come along.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—No, no, I can’t go up with you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bob</span>—We can hide up there in the corridor.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—No, no, I can’t come, or I’ll be scolded. +[<span class="smcap">Magelone</span>, <i>terribly excited, rushes in, upper left, +and possesses herself of</i> <span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—Ha, there you are at last, you common +creature!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—[<i>Crying.</i>] O Mama, Mama, I was +hunting for you!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—Hunting for me? Did I tell you to +hunt for me? What have you had to do with this +fellow? [<span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>, <span class="smcap">Alva</span>, <span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>, <span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>, +<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>enter, lower left</i>. <span class="smcap">Bob</span> <i>has +slipped away</i>.] Now don’t bawl before all the people +on me; look out, I tell you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>As they all surround</i> <span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>.] But +you’re crying, sweetheart! Why are you crying?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—By God, she’s really been crying! +Who’s done anything to hurt you, little goddess?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—[<i>Kneels before her and folds her in +her arms.</i>] Tell me, cherub, what bad thing has +happened. Do you want a cookie? Do you want +some chocolate?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—It’s just nerves. The child’s getting +them much too soon. It would be best, anyway, if +no one paid any attention to her!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—That sounds like you! You’re a +pretty mother! The courts’ll take the child away +from you yet and appoint me her guardian! [<i>Stroking</i> +<span class="smcap">Kadidia’s</span> <i>cheeks</i>.] Isn’t that so, my little goddess?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—I should be glad if we could start the +baccarat again at last! [<i>All go into the dining-room +again.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>is held back at the door by</i> <span class="smcap">Bob</span>, <i>who +comes from the upper entrance</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>When</i> <span class="smcap">Bob</span> <i>has whispered to her</i>.] Certainly! +Let him come in! [<span class="smcap">Bob</span> <i>opens the hall door +and lets</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>enter, in evening dress, his patent-leather +shoes much worn, and keeping on his +shabby opera hat</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>With a look at</i> <span class="smcap">Bob</span>.] Where did +you get him from?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—The circus.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—How much does he get?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Ask him if it interests you. [<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Bob</span>.] +Shut the doors. [<span class="smcap">Bob</span> <i>goes out lower left, shutting +the door behind him</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Sitting down.</i>] The truth is, I’m +in need of money. I’ve hired a flat for my mistress.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Have you taken another mistress here, +too?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She’s from Frankfort. In her youth +she was mistress to the King of Naples. She tells me +every day she was once very bewitching.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Outwardly with complete composure.</i>] +Does she need the money very badly?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She wants to fit up her own apartments. +Such sums are of no account to <span class="gesperrt">you</span>. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>is suddenly overcome with a fit of weeping</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Flinging herself at</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>.] O God +Almighty!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Patting her.</i>] Well? What is it +now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Sobbing violently.</i>] It’s too horrible!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Draws her onto his knee and holds +her in his arms like a little child.</i>] Hm—You’re +trying to do too much, child. You must go to bed, +now and then, with a story.—Cry, that’s right, cry +it all out. It used to shake you just so fifteen years +ago. Nobody has screamed since then, the way you +could scream! You didn’t wear any white tufts +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span> +on your head then, nor any transparent stockings +on your legs: you had neither shoes nor stockings +then.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Crying.</i>] Take me home with you! +Take me home with you to-night! Please! We’ll +find carriages enough downstairs!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I’ll take you with me; I’ll take you +with me.—What is it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It’s going round my neck! I’m to be +shown up!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—By whom? Who’s showing you up?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—The acrobat.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>With the utmost composure.</i>] I’ll +look after him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Look after him! <span class="gesperrt">Please</span>, look after +him! Then do with me what you will!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—If he comes to me, he’s done for. My +window is over the water. But [<i>shaking his head</i>] +he won’t come; he won’t come.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What number do you live at?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—376, the last house before the hippodrome.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’ll send him there. He’ll come with the +crazy woman that creeps about my feet. He’ll come +this very evening. Go home and let them find it +comfortable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Just let them come.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—To-morrow bring me the gold rings he +wears in his ears.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Has he got rings in his ears?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You can take them out before you let him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span> +down. He doesn’t notice anything when he’s drunk.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—And then, child—what then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then I’ll give you the money for your mistress.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I call that pretty stingy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—And whatever else you want! Whatever +I have.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—It’ll soon be ten years since we knew +each other.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Is that all?—But you’ve got a mistress.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—My Frankforter is no longer of to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But then swear!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Haven’t I always kept my word to +you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Swear that you’ll look after him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I’ll look after him.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Swear it to me! Swear it to me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Puts his hand on her ankle.</i>] By +everything that’s holy! To-night, if he comes⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—By everything that’s holy!—How that +cools me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—How this heats me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Oh, do drive straight home. They’ll come +in half an hour! Take a carriage!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I’m going.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Quick! Please!— —All-powerful⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Why do you stare at me so again +already?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Nothing— ...</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Well? Is your tongue frozen on +you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—My garter’s broken.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What if it is? Is that all?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What does that augur?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What does it? I’ll fasten it for you +if you’ll keep still.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That augurs misfortune!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Yawning.</i>] Not for you, child. +Cheer up, I’ll look after him! [<i>Exit.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>puts +her left foot on a foot-stool, fastens her garter, and +goes out into the card-room. Then</i> <span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span> <i>is cuffed +in from the dining-room, lower left, by</i> <span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—You can treat me decently anyway!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Still perfectly unemotional.</i>] +Whatever would induce me to do that? I wish to +know what you said to her here a little while ago.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Then you can be very fond of me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Will you bandy words with me, dog? +You demanded that she go up in the lift with you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—That’s a shameless, perfidious lie!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—She told me so herself. You +threatened to denounce her if she didn’t go with you.—Shall +I shoot you on the spot?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—The shameless hussy! As if anything +like that could occur to me!—Even if I should want +to have her, God knows I don’t first need to threaten +her with prison!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Thank you. That’s all I wanted to +know. [<i>Exit, upper left.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Such a hound! A fellow I could throw +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span> +up onto the roof so he’d stick like a Limburger +cheese!—Come back here, so I can wind your guts +round your neck. That would be even better!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Enters, lower left; merrily.</i>] Where were +you? I’ve been hunting for you like a pin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—I’ve shown <span class="gesperrt">him</span> what it means to start +anything with me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Whom?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Your Casti-Piani! What made you tell +him, you slut, that I wanted to seduce you?!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Did you not demand that I give myself +to my late husband’s son for twenty thousand in +Jungfrau-shares?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Because it’s your duty to take pity on +the poor young fellow! You shot away his father +before his nose in the prime of his life! But your +Casti-Piani will think it over before he comes into +<span class="gesperrt">my</span> sight again. I gave him one in the basket that +made his tripe fly to heaven like Roman candles. If +that’s the best substitute you have for me, then I’m +sorry I ever enjoyed your favor!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Lady Geschwitz is in the fearfullest case. +She twists herself up in fits. She’s at the point of +jumping into the water if you let her wait any +longer.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—What’s the beast waiting for?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—For you to take her with you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Then give her my regards, and she can +jump into the water.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—She’ll lend me twenty thousand marks to +save me from destruction if you will preserve her +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span> +from it herself. If you’ll take her off to-night, I’ll +deposit twenty thousand marks to-morrow in your +name at any bank you say.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—And if I don’t take her off with me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Denounce me! Alva and I are dead broke.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Devil and damnation!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You make four people happy if you strain +a point and sacrifice yourself for a worthy end.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—It won’t go; I know that, beforehand. +I’ve tried the thing out thoroughly. Who’d have +expected such a creditable feeling in that bag +o’ bones! What interested me in her was her being +an aristocrat. My behavior was as gentleman-like, +and more, as you could find among German circus-people. +If I’d only just pinched her in the calves +once!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Watchfully.</i>] She is still a virgin.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Sighing.</i>] If there’s a God in heaven, +you’ll get paid for your jokes some day! I prophesy +that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Geschwitz waits. What shall I tell her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—My very best wishes, and I am perverse.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I will deliver that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Wait a second. Is it certain sure I +get twenty thousand marks from her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Ask herself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—Then tell her I’m ready. I await her +in the dining-room. I must just first look after a +barrel of caviare. [<i>Exit, left.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>opens the rear +door and calls in a clear voice “Martha!”</i> <span class="smcap">Countess +Geschwitz</span> <i>enters, closing the door behind her</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Pleased.</i>] Dear heart, you can save me +from death to-night.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—How?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—By going to a certain house with the acrobat.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—What for, dear?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—He says you must belong to him this very +night or he’ll denounce me to-morrow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—You know I can’t belong to any man. +My fate has not permitted that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—If you don’t please him, that’s his own fix. +Why has he fallen in love with you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—But he’ll get as brutal as a hangman. +He’ll revenge himself for his disappointment and beat +my head in. I’ve been through that already.... +Can you not possibly spare me this ultimate test?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What will you gain by his denouncing me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—I have still enough left of my fortune +to take us to America together in the steerage. +There you’d be safe from all your pursuers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Pleased and gay.</i>] I want to stay here. +I can never be happy in any other city. You must +tell him that you can’t live without him. Then he’ll +feel flattered and be gentle as a lamb. You must pay +the coachman, too: give him this paper with the address +on it. 376 is a fourth-class hotel where they’re +expecting you with him this evening.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Shuddering.</i>] How can such a +monstrosity save your life? I don’t understand that. +You have conjured up to torture me the most terrible +fate that can fall upon outlawed me!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Watchful.</i>] Perhaps the encounter will +cure you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Sighing.</i>] O Lulu, if an eternal +retribution does exist, I hope I may not have to answer +then for you. I cannot make myself believe that +no God watches over us. Yet you are probably +right that there is nothing there, for how can an +insignificant worm like me have provoked his wrath +so as to experience only horror there where all living +creation swoons for bliss?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You needn’t complain. When you <span class="gesperrt">are</span> +happy you’re a hundred thousand times happier than +one of us ordinary mortals ever is!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—I know that too! I envy no one! +But I am still waiting. You have deceived me so +often already.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I am yours, my darling, if you quiet Mr. +Acrobat till to-morrow. He only wants his vanity +placated. You must beseech him to take pity on you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—And to-morrow?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I await you, my heart. I shall not open +my eyes till you come: see no chambermaid, receive +no hairdresser, not open my eyes before you are +with me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Then let him come.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But you must throw yourself at his head, +dear! Have you got the house-number?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Three-seventy-six. But quick now!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Calls into the dining-room.</i>] Ready, my +darling?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—[<i>Entering.</i>] The ladies will pardon +my mouth’s being full.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Seizing his hand.</i>] I implore you, +have mercy on my need!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodrigo</span>—A la bonne heure! Let us mount the +scaffold! [<i>Offers her his arm.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Good night, children! [<i>Accompanies +them into the corridor ... then quickly returns +with</i> <span class="smcap">Bob</span>.] Quick, quick, Bob! We must get away +this moment! You escort me! But we must change +clothes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bob</span>—[<i>Curt and clear.</i>] As the gracious lady +bids.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Oh what, gracious lady! You give me +your clothes and put on mine. Come! [<i>Exeunt +into the dining-room. Noise in the card-room, the +doors are torn open, and</i> <span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>, <span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>, +<span class="smcap">Alva</span>, <span class="smcap">Bianetta</span>, <span class="smcap">Magelone</span>, <span class="smcap">Kadidia</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span> +<i>enter</i>, <span class="smcap">Heilmann</span> <i>holding a piece of paper with a +glowing Alpine peak at its top</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>.] Will you accept +this share of Jungfrau-stock, sir?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—But that paper has no exchange, my +friend.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—You rascal! You just don’t want to +give me my revenge!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Bianetta</span>.] Have you any +idea what it’s all about?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—Puntschu has taken all his money from +him, and now gives up the game.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—Now he’s got cold feet, the filthy Jew!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—How have I given up the game? How +have I got cold feet? The gentleman has merely +to lay plain cash! Is this my banking-office I’m +in? He can proffer me his trash to-morrow morning!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—Trash you call that? The stock to +my knowledge is at 210!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—Yesterday it was at 210, you’re right. +To-day, it’s just nowhere. And to-morrow you’ll +find nothing cheaper or more tasteful to paper your +stairs with.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But how is that possible? Then we +<span class="gesperrt">would</span> be down and out!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—-Well, what am <i>I</i> to say, who have +lost my whole fortune in it! To-morrow morning +I shall have the pleasure of taking up the struggle +for an assured existence for the thirty-sixth time!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—[<i>Pressing forward.</i>] Am I dreaming +or do I really understand the Jungfrau-stock has +fallen?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—Fallen even lower than you! Tho +you can use ’em for curl-paper.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—O God in Heaven! Ten years’ work! +[<i>Falls in a faint.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—Wake up, Mama! Wake up!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bianetta</span>—Say, Mr. Puntschu, where will you +eat this evening, since you’ve lost your whole fortune?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Puntschu</span>—Wherever you like, young lady! +Take me where you will, but quickly! Here it’s getting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span> +quite alarming. [<i>Exeunt</i> <span class="smcap">Puntschu</span> <i>and</i> +<span class="smcap">Bianetta</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—[<i>Squeezing up his stock and flinging +it to the ground.</i>] That is what one gets from this +pack!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—Why did you speculate on the Jungfrau +too? But just send a few little notes on the +company here to the German police, and you may +still win something in the end.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—I’ve never tried that yet, but if you +want to help me——?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—Let’s go to an all-night restaurant. +Do you know the Five-footed Calf?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—I’m very sorry⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—Or the Sucking Lamb, or the Smoking +Dog? They’re all right near here. We’ll be +all by ourselves there, and before dawn we’ll have a +little article ready.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Heilmann</span>—Don’t you sleep?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>—Oh, of course; but not at night. +[<i>Exeunt</i> <span class="smcap">Heilmann</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Ludmilla</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Who has been trying to resuscitate</i> +<span class="smcap">Magelone</span>.] Ice-cold hands! Ah, what a splendid +woman! We must undo her waist. Come, Kadidia, +undo your mother’s waist! She’s so fearfully tight-laced.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—[<i>Without stirring.</i>] I’m afraid. +[<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>enters lower left in a jockey-cap, red jacket, +white leather breeches and riding boots, a riding cape +over her shoulders</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Have you any cash, Alva?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Looking up.</i>] Have you gone crazy?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—In two minutes the police’ll be here. We +are denounced. You can stay, of course, if you’re +eager to!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Springing up.</i>] Merciful Heaven! [<i>Exeunt</i> +<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—[<i>Shaking her mother, in tears.</i>] +Mama, Mama! Wake up! They’ve all run away!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—[<i>Coming to herself.</i>] And youth +gone! And my best days behind me! Oh, this life!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—But I’m young, Mama! Why shouldn’t +I earn any money? I don’t want to go back to the +convent! Please, Mama, keep me with you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—God bless you, sweetheart! You +don’t know what you say——Oh, no, I shall look +around for a vaudeville engagement, and sing the +people my misfortunes with the Jungfrau-stock. +Things like that are always applauded.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—But you’ve got no voice, Mama!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—Ah, yes, that’s true!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—Take me with you into vaudeville!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Magelone</span>—No, it would break my heart!—But, +well, if it can’t be otherwise, and you’re so made for +it,—I can’t change things!—Yes, we can go to the +Olympia together to-morrow!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kadidia</span>—O Mama, how glad that makes me feel! +[<i>A plain-clothes detective enters, upper left.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Detective</span>—In the name of the law—I arrest +you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Following him, bored.</i>] What +sort of nonsense is that? <span class="gesperrt">That</span> isn’t the right one!</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak" id="PB_ACT_III"> + ACT III + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>An attic room, without windows, but with +two skylights, under one of which stands a bowl +filled with rain-water. Down right, a door +thru a board partition into a sort of cubicle +under the slanting roof. Near it, a wobbly +flower-table with a bottle and a smoking oil-lamp +on it. Upper right, a worn-out couch. +Door centre; near it, a chair without a seat. +Down left, below the entrance door, a torn gray +mattress. None of the doors can shut tight.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><i>The rain beats on the roof</i>. <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>in +a long gray overcoat lies on the mattress</i>; +<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>on the couch, wrapped in a plaid whose +straps still hang on the wall above him</i>.</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—The rain’s drumming for the parade.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Cheerful weather for her first appearance! +I dreamt just now we were dining together at the +Olympia. Bianetta was with us there again. The +tablecloth was dripping on all four sides with champagne.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Ya, ya. And I was dreaming of a +Christmas pudding. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>appears with her rather +short hair falling to her shoulders, barefoot, in a +torn black dress</i>.] Where have you been, child? +Curling your hair first?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She only does that to revive old memories.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—If one could only get warmed up a little, +from one of you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Are you going to enter barefoot on your +pilgrimage?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—The first step always costs all kinds +of moaning and groaning. Twenty years ago it was +no whit better, and what she has learned since then! +The coals only have to be blown. When she’s been +at it a week, not ten locomotives will hold her in our +miserable attic.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—The bowl is running over.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What shall I do with the water?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Pour it out the window. [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>gets up +on the chair and empties the bowl thru the skylight</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It looks as if the rain were going to let +up at last.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—You’re wasting the time when the +clerks go home after supper.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Would to God I were lying somewhere +where no step would wake me any more!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Would that I were, too! Why prolong +this life? Let’s rather starve to death together this +very evening in peace and concord! Aren’t we at +the last stage now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Why don’t <span class="gesperrt">you</span> go out and get us something +to eat? You’ve never earned a penny in your +whole life!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—In this weather, when no one would kick +a dog from his door?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But me! I, with the little blood I have +left in my limbs, I am to stop your mouths!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I don’t touch a farthing of the money!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Let her go, just! I long for one +more Christmas pudding; then I’ve had enough.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—And I long for one more beefsteak and a +cigarette; then die! I was just dreaming of a +cigarette, such as has never yet been smoked!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She’ll rather see us finished before +her eyes, than go and do herself a little pleasure.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—The people on the street will sooner leave +cloak and coat in my hands than go with me for nothing! +If you hadn’t sold my clothes, I at least +wouldn’t need to be afraid of the lamp-light. I’d like +to see the woman who could earn anything in the +rags I’m wearing on my body!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I have left nothing human untried. As +long as I had money I spent whole nights making +up tables with which one couldn’t help winning +against the cleverest card-sharps. And yet evening +after evening I lost more than if I had shaken out +gold by the pailful. Then I offered my services to +the courtesans; but they don’t take anyone that the +courts haven’t first branded, and they see at the first +glance if one’s related to the guillotine or not.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Ya, ya.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I spared myself no disillusionments; but +when I made jokes, they laughed at <span class="gesperrt">me</span>, and when I +behaved as respectable as I am, they boxed my ears, +and when I tried being smutty, they got so chaste +and maidenly that my hair stood up on my head +for horror. Him who has not prevailed over society, +they have no confidence in.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Won’t you kindly put on your boots +now, child? I don’t think I shall grow much older +in this lodging. It’s months since I had any feeling +in the ends of my toes. Toward midnight, I’ll +drink a bit more down in the pub. The lady that +keeps it told me yesterday I still had a serious chance +of becoming her lover.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—In the name of the three devils, I’ll go +down! [<i>She puts to her mouth the bottle on the +flower-table.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—So they can smell your stink a half-hour +off!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I shan’t drink it all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—You won’t go down. You’re my woman. +You shan’t go down. I forbid it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—What would you forbid your woman when +you can’t support yourself?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Whose fault is that? Who but my woman +has laid me on the sick-bed?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Am <i>I</i> sick?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Who has trailed me thru the dung? Who +has made me my father’s murderer?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Did <span class="gesperrt">you</span> shoot him? He didn’t lose much, +but when I see you lying there I could hack off both +my hands for having sinned against my judgment! +[<i>She goes out, into her room.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She infected me from her Casti-Piani. It’s +a long time since she was susceptible to it herself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Little devils like her can’t begin putting +up with it too soon, if angels are ever going to +come out of them.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She ought to have been born Empress of +Russia. Then she’d have been in the right place. A +second Catherine the Second! [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>re-enters with +a worn-out pair of boots, and sits on the floor to put +them on</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—If only I don’t go headfirst down the +stairs! Ugh, how cold! Is there anything in the +world more dismal than a daughter of joy?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Patience, patience! It’s just a question +of getting the right push into the business.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It’ll be all right with me! No one need +pity me any more. [<i>Puts the bottle to her lips.</i>] +That fires one!—O accursed! [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—When we hear her coming, we must +creep into my cubby-hole awhile.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I’m damned sorry for her! When I think +back.... I grew up with her in a way, you know.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She’ll hold out as long as I live, anyway.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—We treated each other at first like brother +and sister. Mama was still living then. I met her +by chance one morning when she was dressing. Dr. +Goll had been called for a consultation. Her hairdresser +had read my first poem, that I’d had printed +in “Society”: “Follow thy pack far over the mountains; +it will return again, covered with sweat and +dust——”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Oh, ya!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—And then she came, in rose-colored muslin, +with nothing under it but a white satin slip—for +the Spanish ambassador’s ball. Dr. Goll seemed to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span> +feel his death near. He asked me to dance with her, +so she shouldn’t cause any mad acts. Papa meanwhile +never turned his eyes from us, and all thru +the waltz she was looking over my shoulder, only at +him.... Afterwards she shot him. It is unbelievable.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I’ve only got a strong doubt whether +anyone will bite any more.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I shouldn’t like to advise anyone to! +[<span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>grunts</i>.]—At that time, tho she was a +fully developed woman, she had the expression of +a five-year-old, joyous, utterly healthy child. And +she was only three years younger than me then—but +how long ago it is now! For all her immense +superiority in matters of practical life, she let me +explain “Tristan and Isolde” to her—and how entrancingly +she could listen! Out of the little sister +who even in her marriage still felt like a schoolgirl, +came the unhappy, hysterical artist’s wife. Out of +the artist’s wife came then the spouse of my murdered +father, and out of <span class="gesperrt">her</span> came, then, my mistress. +Well, so that is the way of the world. Who +will prevail against it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—If only she doesn’t skid away from +the gentlemen with honorable intentions and bring +us up instead some vagabond she’s exchanged her +heart’s secrets with.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I kissed her for the first time in her +rustling bridal dress. But afterwards she didn’t remember +it.... All the same, I believe she had +thought of me even in my father’s arms. It can’t +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span> +have been often with him: he had his best time behind +him, and she deceived him with coachman and +bootblack; but when she did give herself to him, +then <i>I</i> stood before her soul. That was the way, +without my realizing it, that she acquired this dreadful +power over me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—There they are! [<i>Heavy steps are +heard mounting the stairs.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Starting up.</i>] I will not endure it! I’ll +throw the fellow out!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Wearily picks himself up, takes</i> +<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>by the collar and cuffs him toward the left</i>.] +Forward, forward! How is the young man to confess +his trouble to her with us two sprawling round +here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—But if he demands other things—low +things—of her?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—If, well, if! What more will he demand +of her? He’s only a man like the rest of us!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—We must leave the door open.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Pushing</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>in, right</i>.] Nonsense! +Lie down!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I’ll hear it soon enough. Heaven spare +him!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Closing the door, from inside.</i>] +Shut up!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Faintly.</i>] He’d better look out! [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>enters, followed by</i> <span class="smcap">Hunidei</span>, <i>a gigantic figure with +a smooth-shaven, rosy face, sky-blue eyes, and a +friendly smile. He wears a tall hat and overcoat and +carries a dripping umbrella.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Here’s where I live. [<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> <i>puts his +finger to his lips and looks at</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>significantly. +Then he opens his umbrella and puts it on the floor, +rear, to dry.</i>] Of course, I know it isn’t very comfortable +here. [<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> <i>comes forward and puts +his hand over her mouth</i>.] What do you mean me +to understand by that? [<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> <i>puts his hand +over her mouth, and his finger to his lips</i>.] I don’t +know what that means. [<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> <i>quickly stops her +mouth</i>. <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>frees herself</i>.] We’re quite alone +here. No one will hear us. [<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> <i>lays his finger +on his lips, shakes his head, points at</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, <i>opens +his mouth as if to speak, points at himself and +then at the door</i>.] Good Lord, he’s a monster! +[<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> <i>stops her mouth; then goes rear, folds up +his overcoat and lays it over the chair near the door; +then comes down with a broad smile, takes</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>’s +<i>head in both his hands and kisses her on the forehead. +The door, right, half opens.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Behind the door.</i>] He’s got a +screw loose.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He’d better look out!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She couldn’t have brought up anything +drearier!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Stepping back.</i>] I hope you’re going +to give me something! [<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> <i>stops her mouth +and presses a gold-piece in her hand, then looks at +her uncertain, questioningly, as she examines it and +throws it from one hand to the other</i>.] All right, +it’s good. [<i>Puts it in her pocket.</i> <span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> +<i>quickly stops her mouth, gives her a few silver coins, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span> +and glances at her commandingly</i>.] Oh, that’s nice +of you! [<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> <i>leaps madly about the room, +brandishing his arms and staring upward in despair</i>. +<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>cautiously nears him, throws an arm round him +and kisses him on the mouth. Laughing soundlessly, +he frees himself from her and looks questioningly +around. She takes up the lamp and opens the door +to her room. He goes in smiling, taking off his hat. +The stage is dark save for what light comes thru the +cracks of the door.</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>creep out +on all fours</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—They’re gone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>Behind him.</i>] Wait.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—One can hear nothing here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—You’ve heard that often enough!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I will kneel before her door.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Little mother’s sonny! [<i>Presses +past</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>, <i>gropes across the stage to</i> <span class="smcap">Hunidei</span>’s +<i>coat, and searches the pockets</i>. <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>crawls to</i> +<span class="smcap">Lulu</span>’s <i>door</i>.] Gloves, nothing more! [<i>Turns the +coat round, searches the inside pockets, pulls a book +out that he gives to</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] Just see what that is. +[<span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>holds the book to the light</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Wearily deciphering the title-page.</i>] +Warnings to pious pilgrims and such as wish to be +so. Very helpful. Price, 2s. 6d.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—It looks to me as if God had left +<span class="gesperrt">him</span> pretty completely. [<i>Lays the coat over the +chair again and makes for the cubby-hole.</i>] There’s +nothing <span class="gesperrt">to</span> these people. The country’s best time’s +behind it!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Life is never as bad as it’s painted. [<i>He, +too, creeps back.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Not even a silk muffler he’s got and +yet in Germany we creep on our bellies before this +rabble.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Come, let’s vanish again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—She only thinks of herself, and takes +the first man that runs across her path. Hope the +dog remembers her the rest of his life! [<i>They disappear, +left, shutting the door behind them.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>re-enters, setting the lamp on the table</i>. <span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> +<i>follows</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Will you come to see me again? [<span class="smcap">Hunidei</span> +<i>stops her mouth. She looks upward in a sort of despair +and shakes her head</i>. <span class="smcap">Hunidei</span>, <i>putting his +coat on, approaches her grinning; she throws her +arms around his neck; he gently frees himself, kisses +her hand, and turns to the door. She starts to accompany +him, but he signs to her to stay behind and +noiselessly leaves the room.</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> +<i>re-enter</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Tonelessly.</i>] How he has stirred me up!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—How much did he give you?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>As before.</i>] Here it is! All! Take it! +I’m going down again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—We can still live like princes up here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He’s coming back.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Then let’s just retire again, quick.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—He’s after his prayer-book. Here it is. +It must have fallen out of his coat.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Listening.</i>] No, that isn’t he. That’s +someone else.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Someone’s coming up. I hear it quite +plainly.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Now there’s someone tapping at the door. +Who can it be?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Probably a good friend he’s recommended +us to. Come in! [<span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span> +<i>enters, in poor clothes, with a canvas roll in her +hand</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] If I’ve come at a bad +time, I’ll turn around again. The truth is, I haven’t +spoken to a living soul for ten days. I must just +tell you right off, I haven’t received any money. My +brother never answered me at all.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—And now your ladyship would like +to stretch her feet out under <span class="gesperrt">our</span> table?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Tonelessly.</i>] I’m going down again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Where are you going, in this finery?—Tho +penniless, I have come not wholly empty-handed. +I bring you something else. On my way +here an old-clothes-man offered me twelve shillings for +it, yes—but I could not force myself to part from +it. You can sell it if you want to, tho.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What is it?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Let us see it. [<i>Takes the canvas and unrolls +it. Visibly rejoiced.</i>] Oh, by God, it’s Lulu’s +portrait!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Screaming.</i>] Monster, you brought that +here? Get it out of my sight! Throw it out of +the window!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Suddenly with renewed life, deeply +pleased.</i>] Why, I should like to know? Looking +on this picture I regain my self-respect. It makes +my fate comprehensible to me. Everything we have +endured gets clear as day. [<i>In a somewhat elegiac +strain.</i>] Let him who feels secure in his respectable +citizenship when he sees these blossoming pouting +lips, these child-eyes, big and innocent, this rose-white +body abounding in life,—let him cast the first +stone at us!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—We must nail it up. It will make +an excellent impression on our patrons.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Energetic.</i>] There’s a nail sticking all +ready for it in the wall.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—But how did you come upon this acquisition?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—I secretly cut it out of the wall in +your house, there, after you were gone.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Too bad the color’s got rubbed off round +the edges. You didn’t roll it up carefully enough. +[<i>Fastens it to a high nail in the wall.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—It’s got to have another one underneath +if it’s going to hold. It makes the whole flat +look more elegant.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Let me alone; I know how I’ll do it. [<i>He +tears several nails out of the wall, pulls off his left +boot, and with its heel nails the edges of the picture +to the wall.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—It’s just got to hang awhile again, +to get its proper effect. Whoever looks at that’ll +imagine afterwards he’s been in an Indian harem.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Putting on his boot again, standing up +proudly.</i>] Her body was at its highest point of development +when that picture was painted. The lamp, +dear child! Seems to me it’s got extraordinarily +dark.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—-He must have been an eminently +gifted artist who painted that!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Perfectly composed again, stepping before +the picture with the lamp.</i>] Didn’t you know +him, then?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—No. It must have been long before +my time. I only occasionally heard chance remarks +of yours, that he had cut his throat from persecution-mania.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Comparing the picture with</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>.] The +child-like expression in the eyes is still absolutely +the same in spite of all she has lived thru since. [<i>In +joyous excitement.</i>] But the dewy freshness that +covers her skin, the sweet-smelling breath from her +lips, the rays of light that beam from her white forehead, +and this challenging splendor of young flesh +in throat and arms⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—All that’s gone with the rubbish +wagon. She can say with self-assurance: That was +me once! The man she falls into the hands of to-day’ll +have no conception of what we were when we +were young.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Cheerfully.</i>] God be thanked, we don’t +notice the gradual decline when we see a person all +the time. [<i>Lightly.</i>] The woman blooms for us in +the moment when she hurls the man to destruction +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span> +for the rest of his life. That is, so to say, her nature +and her destiny.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Down in the street-lamp’s shimmer +she’s still a match for a dozen walking spectres. The +man who still wants to make connections at this hour +looks out more for heart-qualities than mere physical +good points. He decides for the pair of eyes +from which the least thievery sparkles.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Now as pleased as</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] I shall see +if you’re right. Adieu.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>In sudden anger.</i>] You shall not go +down again, as I live!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Where do you want to go?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Down to fetch up a man.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Lulu!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She’s done it once to-day already.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Lulu, Lulu, where you go I go, too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—If you want to put your bones up +for sale, kindly hunt up a district of your own!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Lulu, I shall not stir from your side! +I have weapons upon me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Confound it all, her ladyship means +to fish with our bait!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re killing me. I can’t stand it here +any more. [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—You need fear nothing. I am with +you. [<i>Follows her.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—[<i>Whimpering, throws himself on his +couch.</i> <span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>swears, loudly and grumbling</i>.] +I guess there’s not much more good to expect on +this side!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—We ought to have held the creature +back by the throat. She’ll scare away everything +that breathes with her aristocratic death’s head.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—She’s flung me onto a sick-bed and larded +me with thorns outside and in!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>On</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span> <i>still</i>.] All the +same, she’s got enough spirit in her for ten men, +she has!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—No mortally wounded man’ll ever be more +thankful for his coup-de-grâce than I!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—If she hadn’t enticed the acrobat +into my place that time, we’d still have had <span class="gesperrt">him</span> +round our necks to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I see it trembling above my head as Tantalus +saw the branch with the golden apples!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—[<i>On his mattress.</i>] Won’t you turn +up the lamp a little?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I wonder, can a simple, natural man in +the wilderness suffer so unspeakably, too?—God, +God, what have I made of my life!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—What’s the beastly weather made of +my ulster!—When <i>I</i> was five-and-twenty, I knew +how to help myself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—Not everyone has had the joy of my +sunny, glorious youth!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—I guess it’s going right out. When +they come back it’ll be as dark in here again as in +the womb.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—With the clearest consciousness of my purpose +I sought the companionship of people who’d +never read a book in their lives. With self-denial, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span> +with exaltation, I clung to the elements, that I might +be carried to the loftiest heights of poetic fame. +The reckoning was false. I am the martyr of my +calling. Since the death of my father I have not +written a single verse!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—If only they haven’t stayed together! +Nobody but a silly boy will go with two, no matter +what.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—They’ve not stayed together!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—That’s what I hope. If need be, +she’ll keep the creature off from her with kicks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—One, risen from the dregs, is the most celebrated +man of his nation; another, born in the purple, +lies in the mud and cannot die!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Here they come!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—And what blessed hours of mutual joy in +creation they had lived thru with each other!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—That they can rightly do for the +first time now!—We must hide again.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I stay here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Just what do you pity them for?—He +who spends his money has his good reasons for it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alva</span>—I have no longer the moral courage to let +my comfort be disturbed for a miserable sum of +money! [<i>He wraps himself up in his plaid.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Noblesse oblige! A respectable man +does what he owes his position. [<i>He hides, left.</i> +<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>opens the door, saying “Come right in, dearie,” +and there enters</i> <span class="smcap">Prince Kungu Poti</span>, <i>heir-apparent +of Uahubee, in a light suit, white spats, tan button-boots, +and a gray tall hat. His speech, interrupted +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span> +with frequent hiccoughs, abounds with the peculiar +African hiss-sounds.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—God damn—it’s dark on the stairs!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It’s lighter here, sweetheart. [<i>Pulling +him forward by the hand.</i>] Come on!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—But it’s cold here, awful cold!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Have some brandy?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—Brandy? You bet—always! +Brandy’s good!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Giving him the bottle.</i>] I don’t know +where the glass is.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—Doesn’t matter. [<i>Drinks.</i>] +Brandy! Lots of it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You’re a nice-looking young man.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—My father’s the emperor of Uahubee. +I’ve got six wives here, two Spanish, two English, +two French. Well—I don’t like my wives. Always +I must take a bath, take a bath, take a +bath....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—How much will you give me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—Gold! You trust me, you’ll have +gold! One gold-piece. I always give gold-pieces.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You can give it to me later, but show it +to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—I never pay beforehand.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But you can show it to me, tho!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—Don’t understand, don’t understand! +Come, Ragapsishimulara! [<i>Seizing</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>round the waist</i>.] Come on!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Defending herself with all her strength.</i>] +Let me be! Let me be! [<span class="smcap">Alva</span>, <i>who has risen painfully +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span> +from his couch, sneaks up to</i> <span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span> <i>from +behind and pulls him back by the collar</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kungu Poti</span>—[<i>Whirling round.</i>] Oh! Oh! +This is a murder-hole! Come, my friend. I’ll put +you to sleep! [<i>Strikes him over the head with a +loaded cane.</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span> <i>groans and falls in a heap</i>.] +Here’s a sleeping-draught! Here’s opium for you! +Sweet dreams to you! Sweet dreams! [<i>Then he +gives</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>a kiss; pointing to</i> <span class="smcap">Alva</span>.] He dreams +of you, Ragapsishimulara! Sweet dreams! [<i>Rushing +to the door.</i>] Here’s the door! [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But I’ll not stay here?!—Who can stand +it here now!—Rather down onto the street! [<i>Exit.</i> +<span class="smcap">Schigolch</span> <i>comes out</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—Blood!—Alva!—He’s got to be put +away somewhere. Hop!—Or else our friends’ll get +a shock from him—Alva! Alva!—He that isn’t +quite clear about it—— One thing or t’other; or +it’ll soon be too late! I’ll give him legs! [<i>Strikes +a match and sticks it into</i> <span class="smcap">Alva’s</span> <i>collar</i>....] He +will have his rest. But no one sleeps here.—[<i>Drags +him by the head into</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>room. Returning, he +tries to turn up the light.</i>] It’ll be time for me, too, +right soon now, or they’ll get no more Christmas +puddings down there in the tavern. God knows when +she’ll be coming back from her pleasure tour! [<i>Fixing +an eye on</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>picture</i>.] She doesn’t understand +business! She can’t live off love, because her +life is love.—There she comes. I’ll just talk straight +to her once—— [<span class="smcap">Countess Geschwitz</span> <i>enters</i>.] ... +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span> +If you want to lodge with us to-night, kindly take +a little care that nothing is stolen here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—How dark it is here!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—It gets much darker than this.—The +doctor’s already gone to rest.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—She sent me ahead.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schigolch</span>—That was sensible.—If anyone asks +for me, I’m sitting downstairs in the pub.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>After he has gone.</i>] I will sit behind +the door. I will look on at everything and not +quiver an eyelash. [<i>Sits on the broken chair.</i>] +Men and women don’t know themselves—they know +not what they are. Only one who is neither man +nor woman knows them. Every word they say is +untrue, a lie. And they do not know it, for they are +to-day so and to-morrow so, according as they have +eaten, drunk, and loved, or not. Only the body remains +for a time what it is, and only the children +have reason. The men and women are like the animals: none +knows what it does. When they are +happiest they bewail themselves and groan, and in +their deepest misery they rejoice over every tiny +morsel. It is strange how hunger takes from men +and women the strength to withstand misfortune. +But when they have fed full they make this world a +torture-chamber, they throw away their lives to satisfy +a whim, a mood. Have there ever once been +men and women to whom love brought happiness? +And what is their happiness, save that they sleep +better and can forget it all? My God, I thank thee +that thou hast not made me as these. I am not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span> +man nor woman. My body has nothing common +with their bodies. Have I a human soul? Tortured +humanity has a little narrow heart; but I know it’s +no virtue of mine if I resign all, sacrifice all.... +[<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>opens the door, and</i> <span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span> <i>enters</i>. +<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>, <i>unnoticed, remains motionless by the +door</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Gaily.</i>] Come right in! Come!—you’ll +stay with me all night?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—[<i>His accent is very broad and flat.</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_10_10" href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>] +But I have no more than five shillings on me. I +never take more than that when I go out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That’s enough, seeing it’s you! You have +such faithful eyes! Come, give me a kiss! [<i>She +flings herself down on the couch.</i> <span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span> <i>begins +to swear in his native tongue</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_11_11" href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>] Please, don’t say +that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—By the devil, this is really the first +time I’ve ever gone with a girl! You can believe +me. Mass, I hadn’t thought it would be like this!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Are you married?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—Heaven and Hail, why do you think I +am married?—No, I’m a tutor; I read philosophy +at the University. The truth is, I come of a very +old country family. When I was a student, I only +got two gulden a week for pocket-money, and I could +make better use of that than for girls!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—So you have never been with a woman?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—Just so, yeah! But I want it now. +I got engaged this evening to a country-woman of +mine. She’s a governess here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Is she pretty?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—Yeah, she’s got a hundred thousand.—I +am very much excited, as it seems to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Tossing back her hair and getting up.</i>] +I <span class="gesperrt">am</span> in luck! [<i>Takes the lamp.</i>] Well, if you +please, Mr. Tutor? [<i>They go into her room.</i> +<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span> <i>draws a small black revolver from her +pocket and sets it to her forehead</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—Come, come,—beloved! [<span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span> +<i>tears open the door again</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—[<i>Plunging in.</i>] Insane seraphs! +Someone’s lying in there!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Lamp in hand, holds him by the sleeve.</i>] +Stay with me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—A dead man! A corpse!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Stay with me! Stay with me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—[<i>Tearing away.</i>] A corpse is lying +in there! Horrors! Hail! Heaven!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Stay with me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—Where d’s it go out? [<i>Sees</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>.] +And there is the devil!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Please, stop, stay!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Hilti</span>—Devil, devilled devilry.—Oh, thou +eternal——[<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Rushing after him.</i>] Stop! Stop!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Alone, lets the revolver sink.</i>] Better, +hang! If now she sees me lying in my blood, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span> +she’ll not weep a tear for me! I have always been +to her but the docile tool that she could use for +the most difficult tasks. From the first day she has +abhorred me from the depths of her soul.—Shall I +not rather jump from the bridge? Which could be +colder, the water or her heart? I would dream till +I was drowned.——Better, hang!——Stab?—Hm, +there would be no use in that—— How often have I +dreamt that she kissed me! But a minute more; an +owl knocks there at the window, and I wake up——Better, +hang! Not water; water is too clean for +me. [<i>Starting up.</i>] There!—There! There it is!—Quick +now, before she comes! [<i>Takes the plaid-straps +from the wall, climbs on the chair, fastens +them to a hook in the doorpost, puts her head thru +them, kicks the chair away, and falls to the ground.</i>] +Accursed life!—Accursed life!—Could it be before +me still?—Let me speak to your heart just once, +my angel! But you are cold!—I am not to go yet! +Perhaps I am even to have been happy once.—Listen +to him, Lulu! I am not to go yet! [<i>She +drags herself before</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu’s</span> <i>picture, sinks on her +knees and folds her hands</i>.] My adoréd angel! +My love! My star!—Have mercy upon me, pity +me, pity me, pity me! [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>opens the door, and</i> +<span class="smcap">Jack</span> <i>enters—a thick-set man of elastic movements, +with a pale face, inflamed eyes, arched and heavy +brows, a drooping mustache, thin imperial and +shaggy whiskers, and fiery red hands with gnawed +nails. His eyes are fixed on the ground. He wears +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span> +a dark overcoat and a little round felt hat. Entering, +he notices</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—Who is that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—That’s my sister, sir. She’s crazy. I +don’t know how to get rid of her.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—Your mouth looks beautiful.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—It’s my mother’s.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—Looks like it. How much do you want? +I haven’t got much money.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Won’t you spend the night with me here?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—No, haven’t got the time. I must get home.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—You can tell them at home to-morrow that +you missed the last ’bus and spent the night with a +friend.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—How much do you want?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’m not after lumps of gold, but, well, a +little something.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—[<i>Turning.</i>] Good night! Good night!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Holds him back.</i>] No, no! Stay, for +God’s sake!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—[<i>Goes past</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span> <i>and opens the cubicle</i>.] +Why should I stay here till morning? Sounds +suspicious! When I’m asleep they’ll turn my pockets +out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—No, I won’t do that! No one will! Don’t +go away again for that! I beg you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—How much do you want?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Then give me the half of what I said!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—No, that’s too much. You don’t seem to +have been at this long?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—To-day is the first time. [<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>, +<i>still on her knees, has half risen toward</i> <span class="smcap">Jack</span>; <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> +<i>yanks her back by the straps around her neck</i>.] Lie +down and be quiet!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—Let her alone! She isn’t your sister. She +is in love with you. [<i>Strokes</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz’s</span> <i>head like +a dog’s</i>.] Poor beast!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Why do you stare at me so all at once?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—I got your measure by the way you walked. +I said to myself: That girl must have a well-built +body.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—But how can you tell a thing like that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—I even saw that you had a pretty mouth. +But I’ve only got a florin on me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—Well, what difference does that make! +Just give that to me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—But you’ll have to give me half back, so +I can take the ’bus to-morrow morning.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I have nothing on me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—Just look, though. Hunt thru your +pockets!—Well, what’s that? Let’s see it!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Showing him.</i>] That’s all I have.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—Give it to me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—I’ll change it to-morrow, and then give +you half.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—No, give it all to me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Giving it.</i>] In God’s name! But now +you come! [<i>Takes up the lamp.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—We need no light. The moon’s out.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Puts the lamp down.</i>] As you say. +[<i>She falls on his neck.</i>] I won’t harm you at all! +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span> +I love you so! Don’t let me beg you any longer!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—All right; I’m with you. [<i>Follows her into +the cubby-hole. The lamp goes out. On the floor +under the two skylights appear two vivid squares of +moonlight. Everything in the room is clearly seen.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>As in a dream.</i>] This is the last +evening I shall spend with these people. I’m going +back to Germany. My mother’ll send me the money. +I’ll go to a university. I must fight for woman’s +rights; study law.... [<span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>shrieks, and tears +open the door</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Barefoot, in chemise and petticoat, holding +the door shut behind her.</i>] Help! Help! +[<span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span> <i>rushes to the door, draws her revolver, +and crying “Let go!” pushes</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span> <i>aside. As she +aims at the door</i>, <span class="smcap">Jack</span>, <i>bent double, tears it open +from inside, and runs a knife into</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz’s</span> <i>body. +She fires one shot, at the roof, and falls with suppressed +crying, crumpling up.</i> <span class="smcap">Jack</span> <i>tears her revolver +from her and throws himself against the exit-door</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—God damn! I never saw a prettier mouth! +[<i>Sweat drips from his hairy face. His hands are +bloody. He pants, gasping violently, and stares at +the floor with eyes popping out of his head.</i> <span class="smcap">Lulu</span>, +<i>trembling in every limb, looks wildly round. Suddenly +she seizes the bottle, smashes it on the table, +and with the broken neck in her hand rushes upon</i> +<span class="smcap">Jack</span>. <i>He swings up his right foot and throws her +onto her back. Then he lifts her up.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—No, no!—Mercy!—Murder!—Police! Police!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—Be still. You’ll never get away from me +again. [<i>Carries her in.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lulu</span>—[<i>Within, right.</i>] No.—No!—No!—Ah!—Ah!... +[<i>After a pause</i>, <span class="smcap">Jack</span> <i>re-enters. +He puts the bowl on the table.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span>—That <span class="gesperrt">was</span> a piece of work! [<i>Washing +his hands.</i>] I <span class="gesperrt">am</span> a damned lucky chap! [<i>Looks +round for a towel.</i>] Not even a towel, these folks +here! Hell of a wretched hole! [<i>He dries his hands +on</i> <span class="smcap">Geschwitz’s</span> <i>petticoat</i>.] This invert is safe +enough from me! [<i>To her.</i>] It’ll soon be all up +with you, too. [<i>Exit.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geschwitz</span>—[<i>Alone.</i>] Lulu!—My angel!—Let +me see thee once more! I am near thee—stay near +thee—forever! [<i>Her elbows give way.</i>] O +cursed—!! [<i>Dies.</i>]</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_9" href="#FNanchor_9_9" class="label">[9]</a> For the meaning of this see page 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_10" href="#FNanchor_10_10" class="label">[10]</a> In the original he comes from Basle, Switzerland. English +with a Dutch accent might offer the best equivalent.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_11" href="#FNanchor_11_11" class="label">[11]</a> “Hiemäl, Härgoht, Töüfäl, Kräuzpataliohn,” such is the +weird appearance of all his German.</p></div></div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span></p> + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="DAMNATION"> + DAMNATION! + </h2> +</div> + +<p class='center bold'>(<span class="smcap">Tod und Teufel</span>)</p> + +<p class='center mt1 bold'>A Death-Dance in Three Scenes</p> + +<div class="poetry-container-right mt4"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν</div> + <div class="verse indent0">ὅτι οἱ πόρναι</div> + <div class="verse indent0">προάγουσιν ὑμᾶς</div> + <div class="verse indent0">εἰς τῆν βασιλείαν</div> + <div class="verse indent0">τοῦ Θεοῦ.”</div> + <div class="verse indent8">ὁ Ἰησοῦς.</div> +<p class="right" style='margin-right: -1.5em;'>(<i>Matth.</i> 21. 31.)</p> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_306"></a><a id="Page_307"></a>[307]</span></p> + + <h3 class="nobreak"> + CHARACTERS + </h3> +</div> + +<p class='no-indent' > + <span class="smcap">Marquis Casti-Piani</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Fräulein Elfriede von Malchus</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Herr König</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Lisiska</span><br> + <span class="smcap">Three Girls</span> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_308"></a><a id="Page_309"></a>[309]</span></p> + + +<p class='scene1'><span class="smcap">Scene</span>—<i>A room with three doors, and windows with +the blinds drawn. On each side, facing each +other, two arm-chairs upholstered in red. In +both down-stage corners are little trellis screens +behind which the actor is hidden from the stage +tho not from the audience. Red upholstered +stools in both these corners.</i></p> + +<p class='scene2'><span class="smcap">Elfriede von Malchus</span> <i>sits in one of the +arm-chairs. She is evidently uneasy. She +wears a modern “reformed” dress with hat, +cloak, and gloves.</i></p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—How much longer are they going to +keep me waiting? [<i>Long pause. She remains sitting +motionless.</i>] How much longer are they going +to keep me waiting! [<i>Long pause as before.</i>] +How much longer are they going to keep me waiting +here!! [<i>After a moment, she gets up, takes off her +cloak and lays it on the chair, takes off her hat and +puts it on the cloak, and then walks up and down +twice with manifest excitement. Stopping, she +cries again</i>:] How much longer will they keep me +waiting here??!! [<i>On her last word, the</i> <span class="smcap">Marquis +Casti-Piani</span> <i>enters thru the centre door. He is a +tall, bald-headed man, with a high forehead, great +black, melancholy eyes, strong, hooked nose, and +thick, drooping black mustache. He wears a black +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span> +coat, a dark, fancy waistcoat, dark gray trousers, +patent-leather shoes and a black cravat with a diamond +pin.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Bowing.</i>] What can I do for you, +madam?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I have already explained it to the—lady, +as clearly as I can possibly explain it, <span class="gesperrt">why</span> I +am here.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—The—lady told me why you were +here. The lady told me also that you were a member +of the International Union for the Suppression +of the White Slave Traffic.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—<span class="gesperrt">That</span> I <span class="gesperrt">am</span>! I <span class="gesperrt">am</span> a member of the +International Union for the Suppression of the +White Slave Traffic. But even if I did <span class="gesperrt">not</span> belong +to it I could not possibly have spared myself this +search! For nine months I’ve been on the track of +this unfortunate, and everywhere I’ve been so far +she’d just been carried off to another city. But she +is in this house! She’s here at this moment! The—lady +who was here just now admitted that, without +any beating round the bush. She promised me +she would send the girl here to this room, so that I +could speak with her in private and undisturbed. +I am waiting here now for the girl, and for no one +else. I have no desire and no need to go through a +second cross-examination.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I beg you, madam, not to excite +yourself further. The girl felt she should present +herself to you—respectably dressed. The lady +asked me to tell you that, for she feared that in your +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span> +agitation you might be tempted to take some needlessly +violent measure. And she asked me to do +what I could to help you through the embarrassment +which waiting in these surroundings would naturally +cause you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Walking up and down.</i>] Pray keep +your amiable conversation to yourself! There is +nothing new for me now in the atmosphere of this +place. The first time I entered such a house, I had +to fight physical nausea. Only then did I realize +what tremendous self-suppression my entrance into +the Union for the Suppression of the White Slave +Traffic had involved me in. Till then I had taken +part in our activities as an idle pastime, solely to +avoid growing old and gray in uselessness.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—This confession awakens in me so +much sympathy that I feel tempted to ask you for +your credentials as an active member of the International +Union for the Suppression of the White +Slave Traffic. We know from experience that a lot +of people crowd into that calling who have quite +other ends in view than the rescue of fallen girls. +If you are earnestly bent on attaining your high +purposes, the strict precautions we are compelled +to use will assuredly meet your approval.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I have been a member of our Union +for nearly three years now. My name is—Fräulein +von Malchus.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Elfriede von Malchus?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—Yes, Elfriede von Malchus.—How do +you know my first name?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[312]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Why, we read the annual reports of +the Union. If I remember right, you were a distinguished +speaker at last year’s annual meeting in +Cologne?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I am sorry to say that for two whole +years I did nothing but write and speak and speak +and write, without ever working up courage to attack +the white slave traffic directly, until finally the +white slave traffic found a victim under my own roof, +in my own family!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—If I am rightly advised, however, +only your own papers, books, and magazines were to +blame for this misfortune. Apparently you did not +keep them carefully enough away from the young +person for whose rescue you are here at this moment?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—There you are absolutely right! I +grieve to confess I cannot contradict you there! +Night after night, when I had stretched under the +bed-clothes, content with myself and the world, for +a ten-hour sleep undisturbed by any earthly emotion, +that seventeen-year-old girl crept into my study +without my ever dreaming of it and glutted her love-starved +imagination with the most seductive pictures +of sensual pleasure, and the fearfullest vice, from +my piles of books on the suppression of the white +slave traffic. Silly goose that I was, in spite of my +twenty-eight years, I never saw the next morning +that the girl had sat up all night! I had never in +my life known a sleepless night! When I went to +work again in the morning I never once asked myself +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[313]</span> +how my papers could have got into such atrocious +confusion!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—If I mistake not, my dear young +lady, the girl had been engaged by your parents to +do the lighter housework?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—To her destruction! Yes! Mama as +well as Papa was enchanted with her propriety and +modesty. To Papa, who is a ministerial official and +a bureaucrat of the purest water, her presence in +our house was like a sunbeam. At her sudden disappearance, +Papa as well as Mama stopped calling +my activities for the Union an old maid’s eccentricity. +They called it an outright crime.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—The girl is the illegitimate child of +a wash-woman?—Do you perhaps know who her +father was?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—No, I never asked her about that.—But +pray who are you? How do you come to know +all this?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Hm—the girl had read in one of +your Union’s publications that certain advertisements +were published in the daily papers by which, +under certain well-known false pretenses, the white-slavers +decoyed young girls into their clutches in +order to introduce them to the love-market. Accordingly, +the girl looked up an insertion of that +kind in the first paper that came to hand, and on +finding one, wrote a very correct letter of application +for the position falsely advertised in the insertion. +In this way I made her acquaintance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[314]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—And you dare tell me that—with such +cynicism!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I dare tell you that, my dear young +lady, with just such objectivity.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>In the utmost excitement, with fists +clenched.</i>] So the monster who delivered up this +girl to a life of shame was you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>With a disconsolate smile.</i>] If +you guessed, my dear young lady, the hidden springs +of your diabolical excitement, you would be wise +enough, perhaps, to keep perfectly calm in the presence +of such a monster as <i>I</i> seem to you to be.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Curt.</i>] I don’t understand that. I +don’t know what you mean!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—You—are—still—a virgin?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Gasping.</i>] How dare you put such +a question to me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Who in God’s wide world will forbid +me!—But we’ll leave that. In any case, you have +not married. You are, as you just informed me +yourself, twenty-eight years old. These facts may +be sufficient to prove to you that in comparison with +other women, not to speak of that child of nature +for whose rescue you have come here,—you are only +to a very slight degree open to sensuous influences.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—You may be right in that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I speak, of course, only with the +understanding that I shall not annoy you with this +discussion. I am very far from thinking you unhealthily +or unnaturally constituted. But do you +know, my young lady, how you have satisfied those +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[315]</span> +sensuous cravings that you have?—to be sure, as +you admit, extremely weak?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—Well?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—By joining the International Union +for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Restraining her anger.</i>] Who are +you, my dear sir!—I came here to free an unfortunate +girl from the claws of vice! I did not come +here to listen to lectures, in very bad taste, from +you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Nor did I suppose you did. But +you see, when viewed from this standpoint, we are +more allied to one another than you in your proud +little bourgeois virtue ever dreamt. On <span class="gesperrt">you</span> nature +has conferred but an extremely scant sensuous susceptibility. +The storms of life have long since made +a horribly chilly desert of <span class="gesperrt">me</span>. But what fighting +the white slave traffic is to <span class="gesperrt">your</span> sensual life, that, +to mine, if you will still grant me something of the +kind,—is the white slave traffic itself!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Aroused.</i>] Don’t dissemble so +shamelessly, you vile creature! Do you think you +can lull me to sleep with your fantastic <span class="gesperrt">sense</span>-hocus-pocus?—me, +who’ve run after that girl from one +den of vice to another like a hunted brute?! I’m +not here now as a member of the Union for the Suppression +of the White Slave Traffic. I’m here as +an unhappy criminal who has unintentionally +plunged an innocent young life into suffering and +despair. I shall never be happy again as long as +I live if I can’t snatch this child from her ruin now. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[316]</span> +You would have me believe an impure curiosity drives +me into this house. You’re a liar! You don’t believe +your own words! And it was not unsatisfied +sensuality that made you barter this girl away, but +money-greed! You lured and sold this girl because +it was good business!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Good business! Naturally! But +good business is based on profits for both parties. +I may say that I do no business which is <span class="gesperrt">not</span> good. +Every business that is not good is immoral!—Or +do you believe perhaps that the love-business is a +<span class="gesperrt">bad</span> business for the woman?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—How do you mean?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I mean simply this—I don’t know +whether you’re just in the mood at this moment to +listen to me with some attentiveness?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—Save your introduction, for God’s +sake!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Well then, I mean this: When a +man finds himself in dire need there is often no +choice left him but stealing or starving. But when +a woman is in need, she has a third choice: the possibility +of selling her love. This way out remains +for the woman only because in granting her body +she need not experience any emotion. Now since the +world was created, woman has made use of this +advantage. To speak of nothing else, man is by +nature vastly superior to woman from the sheer +fact that the woman suffers in childbirth⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—That’s the screaming incongruity exactly! +That’s what I’m always saying. To <span class="gesperrt">bear</span> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[317]</span> +children is pain and care, but to <span class="gesperrt">beget</span> them passes +as an amusement. And nevertheless benevolent Creation +(which suffers from crazy fits in many other +respects, too) has laid the burden of pain and care +on the weaker sex!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—On that, young lady, we’re quite of +the same opinion. And now you want to rob your +unfortunate sisters of the little advantage over the +male which—“crazy Creation” did confer on them: +the advantage of being able, in extreme need, to sell +their sexual favors,—by representing this sale as an +inexpiable shame! I’ll say you’re a fine champion +of woman’s rights!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Almost in tears.</i>] That possibility +of selling ourselves weighs on our oppressed sex as +an unspeakable misfortune, an everlasting curse!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—But—God in heaven knows—it +isn’t <span class="gesperrt">our</span> fault that the buying and selling of love +weighs on the female sex as an everlasting curse! We +traders have no dearer aim than that this love-business +should be as open and unmolested as any other +honest trade! We have no loftier ideal than that +prices in the love-business should be as high as they +can possibly be made to be. Hurl your accusations, +if you would fight the oppression of your unfortunate +sex, in the face of conventional society! If you +would defend your sisters’ natural rights, attack first +of all the International Union for the Suppression +of the White Slave Traffic!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Boiling over.</i>] I won’t let you humbug +me here any longer! I am firmly convinced that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[318]</span> +you have no serious intention of setting the girl free. +While I play the fool here listening to your sociological +lectures, the poor thing’ll be hustled into a cab +somehow, packed off to the station and transported +to some place where she’ll be safe all her life from +members of the Union for the Suppression of the +White Slave Traffic.—Very well, I know what I have +to do! [<i>Takes hat.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Smiling.</i>] If you guessed, dear +lady, how your outburst of rage beautified your bourgeois +appearance, you would not be in such a hurry +to depart.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—Let me out! It’s high time!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Where are you thinking of going +now?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—You know quite as well as I do where +I am going now!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Takes her by the throat, chokes +her, and forces her into one of the chairs.</i>] You’ll +stay here. I’ve still got a word to say to you! Try +to scream, go ahead, try it! We are accustomed +here to every possible outcry. Shriek as loud as +you can shriek!—[<i>Letting her go.</i>] I shall be surprised +if I don’t bring you to reason before you run +straight from this house to the police!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Gasping, toneless.</i>] It’s the first time +in my life violence like that has been offered me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—You have done so awfully much in +your useless life for the uplift of the daughters of +joy! Now for once do something useful for the uplift +of <span class="gesperrt">joy</span>! Then you needn’t feel sorry for the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[319]</span> +poor creatures any more. Because the joy-business +is branded as the vulgarest, shamefullest of all professions, +girls and women of good society give themselves +to a man for nothing rather than let their +favors be paid for! Thereby these girls and women +degrade their sex in the same way as a tailor degrades +his craft if he gives clothes to his customers for +nothing!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Still as though stunned.</i>] I don’t +understand one word of all that! I went to school +when I was five and stayed there till I was fourteen. +Then I had to sit on a school-bench three more years +before taking my teacher’s examinations. As long +as I was young, our house was frequented by gentlemen +of the best society. I had a proposal from one +man who had inherited an estate of twenty square +miles and who would have followed me to the ends +of the world if I had wanted him to. But I felt I +couldn’t love him. Perhaps it wasn’t right of me. +Perhaps I was only lacking that minimum of passion +which is essential to marriage under any circumstances.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Have you calmed down at last?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—Just explain one more thing to me. +If the girl in the course of the life she’s living +here, brings a child into the world, who will take +care of that child?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—You take care of it! Or as a feminist, +have you perhaps something on earth more +important to do? So long as any woman under +God’s sun must still be afraid of becoming a mother, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[320]</span> +all the “emancipation” in the world is nothing but +empty gabble! Motherhood is a necessity of nature +for a woman, like breathing and sleeping. And this +innate right has been most barbarously restricted +by conventional society. A natural child is almost +as big a disgrace as the love-business itself! <span class="gesperrt">Whore</span> +here and <span class="gesperrt">whore</span> there! The mother of an illegitimate +child is no more spared the name of whore than +is a girl in this house. If ever anything in your woman’s +movement inspired me with loathing, it was the +<span class="gesperrt">morality</span> that you inject into your disciples on +life’s way. Do you imagine the love-business would +ever in the world’s history have been described as a +disgrace if the man could have competed with the +woman in the love-market? Envy! Nothing but commercial +envy! Nature accorded to the woman the +monopoly of being able to trade in her love. Therefore +conventional society, which is governed by man, +would like nothing better than over and over again +to represent that trade as the most shameful of +crimes!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Stands up and lays her cloak over +the chair. Walking up and down.</i>] I confess I am +at this moment quite unable to tell whether your +opinions on that point are right or not. But how +in the world is it possible for a man of your culture, +of your social views, of your intellectual eminence, to +throw his life away among the vilest elements of +society! God knows it may have been only your +beastly brutality that has made me take your assertions +seriously. But I feel very sure you’ve given +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[321]</span> +me things to think about for a long time to come, +things I’d never in my life have thought of myself. +Every winter for years I’ve heard from twelve to +twenty lectures by all the male and female authorities +on the woman movement; but I can’t remember +ever having heard a word that went to the bottom +of the business the way your statements do.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>In a singsong.</i>] Let us always +realize quite clearly, my dear lady, that we all are +as though walking in our sleep on a ridge-pole, and +that any unexpected enlightenment can be the breaking +of our necks.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Staring at him.</i>] What do you mean +by <span class="gesperrt">that</span>?—There’s something monstrous in your +mind?!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Very quietly.</i>] I said it only in +regard to your views, which so far have let you +feel so innocently safe in throwing round epithets +like <span class="gesperrt">respectable</span> and <span class="gesperrt">vile</span> as if you were +specially commissioned of God to sit in judgment +on your fellow-mortals.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Staring at him.</i>] You’re a great +man.—You’re a high-minded man!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Your words probe the mortal +wound that I brought with me into the world and that +I shall probably die of, some day. [<i>Throws himself +into a chair.</i>] I am—a moralist!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—And would you bewail your fate on +that account?! Because the power of making other +men happy was given you? [<i>After a short inner +struggle, she throws herself at his feet.</i>] Marry me, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[322]</span> +marry me, for mercy’s sake! Before I saw <span class="gesperrt">you</span> I was +never able to imagine the possibility of giving myself +to a man! I am absolutely inexperienced; that +I can swear to you by the sacredest oaths. Till +this moment I never guessed what the word <span class="gesperrt">love</span> +meant. With you, here, I feel it for the first time. +Love lifts the lover up above his miserable self. I’m +an everyday average woman, but my love for you +makes me so free and fearless that nothing is impossible +to me. Continue, in God’s name, from crime +to crime! I will go before you! Go to prison! +I will go before you! Go from prison to the scaffold! +I will go before you. Don’t, I beseech you, don’t +let this fortunate opportunity escape! Marry me, +marry me, marry me! So shall help come to us +two poor children of men!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Stroking her head, without looking +at her.</i>] Whether you love me or don’t love me, you +dear animal, is all one to me. Of course, you cannot +know how many thousand times I have already had +to undergo just such outbursts of emotion. Far be +it from me to undervalue love. But alas, love must +also serve as the vindication of all those innumerable +women who merely satisfy their sensual wants, without +asking the least return, and by their unrecompensed +abandon only ruin the market.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—Marry me! There is still time for you +to begin a new life! Marriage will reconcile you with +society. You can be editor of a socialist paper, +you can be a representative in the Reichstag! Marry +me, and then even you will learn for once in your +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[323]</span> +life what superhuman sacrifices a woman is capable +of in her boundless love!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Still without looking at her, stroking +her hair.</i>] The best your superhuman sacrifices +could do would be to turn my stomach. All my life +I have loved tigresses. With bitches I was never +anything but a stick of wood. My only consolation +is that marriage, which you glorify so rapturously +and for which bitches are bred, is a civilized institution. +Civilized institutions arise only that they may +be surmounted. The race will win beyond marriage +just as it has surmounted slavery. The <span class="gesperrt">free +love-market</span>, where the tigress triumphs, is +founded on a <span class="gesperrt">primordial law</span> of <span class="gesperrt">unalterable +nature</span>. And how proud and high will +woman stand in the world, so soon as she has conquered +the right to sell herself, unbranded, at the +highest price a man will bid for her! Illegitimate +children will be better cared for then by the mother, +than legitimate ones are now by the father. Then the +pride and ambition of woman will no longer lie in +the man who allots her her place, but in the world, +where she struggles up to the highest position that +her value can give her. Then what a glorious fresh +vital sound the words “daughter of joy” will have! +In the story of paradise it is written that Heaven +endowed woman with the power to seduce. Woman +seduces whom she will. Woman seduces when she will. +She does not wait for love. And conventional society +combats this hellish danger to our sacred civilization, +by bringing woman up in an artificial darkness of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[324]</span> +mind and soul. The growing girl must not know +what it means <span class="gesperrt">to be a woman</span>. All our institutions +might go to smash if she did! No hangman’s +dodge is too base for the defense of conventional +society! With every advance of civilization the +love-business expands. The cleverer the world gets, +the bigger is the love-market. And our celebrated +civilization, in the name of morality, condemns these +millions of daughters of joy to starvation, or robs +them in the name of morality of their self-respect +and life-vindication, yea, hurls them down to the +level of beasts, all in the name of morality! How +many centuries more will an <span class="gesperrt">immorality</span> which +cries to Heaven ravage this world with the sword and +ax of morality!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Voicelessly whimpering.</i>] Marry me! +You stand above and beyond the world! For the +first time, to-day I offer my hand to a man!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Stroking her hair without looking +at her.</i>] Materialism! Commercialism!—What +would the world know about morality at all, if man +could commandeer love as he bosses politics!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I hope for no higher happiness from +our marriage than the privilege of kneeling so before +you all my life and listening to your words!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Have you ever asked yourself what +marriage means?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—Till this moment I’ve had no occasion +to do so. [<i>Rising.</i>] Tell me! I shall do everything +to come up to your requirements.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Draws her onto his knee.</i>] Come +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[325]</span> +here, my child. I’ll explain it to you. [<span class="smcap">Elfriede</span> <i>is +prudish for a moment</i>.] Please keep still.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I have never sat on a man’s knee.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Give me a kiss. [<i>She kisses him.</i>] +Thanks. [<i>Holding her off.</i>] You’d like to know +what marriage is?—Tell me, which is stronger: a man +who has <span class="gesperrt">one</span> dog or a man who has <span class="gesperrt">none</span>?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—The man who has the dog is stronger.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—And now tell me again, which is +stronger: a man who has one dog or a man who +has <span class="gesperrt">two</span> dogs?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I guess the man who has one dog is +stronger, for of course, two dogs couldn’t very well +help getting jealous of each other.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—That would be the least consideration. +But he would have to feed <span class="gesperrt">two</span> dogs or else +they’d run away, while <span class="gesperrt">one</span> dog takes care of himself +and also if there is need protects his master from +robbers.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—And by this abominable comparison +you would explain the unselfish inseparable union +of man and wife? Merciful God, what a life you must +have had!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—The man with one wife is economically +stronger than if he had none; but he is also +economically stronger than if he had to take care +of two or more wives. That is the cornerstone of +marriage. Woman would never have dreamt of this +ingenious device!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—You poor pitiable man! Did you ever +know a home and family? Did you ever have a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[326]</span> +mother to nurse you when you were sick, to read you +stories when you were convalescing, for you to confide +in when there was something in your heart, and +who helped you always and always, even when you +had thought for the longest time that there was no +more help for you on God’s earth?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—What I lived through as a child no +human creature could live through without having +his will and energy broken and ruined. Can you +imagine yourself a young man of sixteen and still +whipped because the logarithm of Pi won’t go into +his head? And the man who whipped me was my +father! And I whipped back! I beat my father +to death! He died after I’d beaten him once.—But +these are trifles. You see what sort of creatures I live +with here. I have never heard among these creatures +the insults that were my mother’s share all through +my childhood and which her spitefulness earned +afresh for her each day. But those are trifles. The +slaps, blows and kicks with which father, mother and +a dozen teachers vied with one another to demean +my defenseless body, were trifling in comparison with +the slaps, blows and kicks with which the vicissitudes +of life have vied with one another to degrade my +defenseless <span class="gesperrt">soul</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Kisses him.</i>] If you could guess how +much I love you for all those frightful experiences!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—The life of man is tenfold death +<span class="gesperrt">before</span> death. Not merely for me. For you! +For everything that breathes! For the ordinary +man, life consists of pains, aches and tortures which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[327]</span> +his <span class="gesperrt">body</span> suffers. And if a man struggles up to a +higher plane, in the hope of escaping the sufferings +of the body, then for him life consists of pains, aches +and tortures which the soul endures and beside which +the torments of the body were a kindness. How <span class="gesperrt">horrible</span> +this life is is shown by mankind’s having had +to think out a Being that consisted of nothing but +goodness, but love, but kindness,—and by all humanity’s +having to pray daily, hourly to this Being, +in order to endure its life at all!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Caressing him.</i>] When you marry +me, pains of the body and soul-pains alike will have +an end! You need not plague yourself any longer +with all these frightful questions. My mama has +a private fortune of sixty thousand marks, and after +all their twenty-five years of happy married life, +Papa hasn’t an inkling of it. Doesn’t the prospect +lure you, of marrying me and having sixty thousand +marks cash suddenly at your disposal?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Pushing her off nervously.</i>] You +don’t understand how to caress, young lady! You +act like an ass that’s trying to be a setter. Your +hands irritate me! That’s not because you haven’t +learnt anything. It’s because of your having sprung +from the enslaved love-life of conventional society. +There’s nothing thoroughbred in your body. You +lack the necessary delicacy! Delicacy, modesty, +shame! You lack the feeling for the <span class="gesperrt">effect</span> of +your caresses, a feeling that every thoroughbred +child is born with.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[328]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Springing up.</i>] And you dare to tell +me that in this house?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Rising simultaneously.</i>] That I +dare tell you in this house!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—In this house? That I lack the necessary +delicacy, the necessary <span class="gesperrt">shame</span>?!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—That you lack the necessary delicacy +and sense of shame! In this house of ill-fame +I tell you that! Get it into your head, once and +for all, with what <span class="gesperrt">fine tact</span> these creatures +apply themselves to their defamed calling! The girl +most lately come into this house knows more about +the soul of man than the most famous professor of +psychology in the most renowned university. You, +young lady, would assuredly experience the same +disappointments here as you have always had. The +woman who is created for the love-market can be +recognized at the first glance. Her frank and +regular features shine with <span class="gesperrt">innocent rapture</span> +and blissful <span class="gesperrt">innocence</span>.—[<i>Regarding</i> +<span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>.] In <span class="gesperrt">your</span> face, with all due respect, +I can find no trace of either rapture or innocence.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Hesitating.</i>] Don’t you believe, my +lord, that with my iron will, my energy, and my +insuperable enthusiasm for the beautiful, I might +yet acquire the delicacy and the fine tact of which +you speak?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—No, no, madam!—please, no! Get +rid of those notions on the spot!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I am so deeply convinced of the moral +significance of everything you say that the <span class="gesperrt">utmost +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[329]</span> +sacrifice</span> by which I could overcome my bourgeois +helplessness would not be too great for me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—No, no. I won’t agree to that! +That would be horrible. Life is horrible enough. +No, no, madam! Keep your fearful fingers off the +one divine ray that pierces the shuddering night of +our tortured earthly existence! What am I living +for? Why do I take part in this civilization of +ours? No, no! The one pure flower of heaven +in life’s thorn-thicket, befouled with sweat and blood, +shall not be trampled out under clumsy feet! Believe +me, I beg you, that I would have shot a bullet +through my head half a century ago if it had not +been that above the wail shrieking to heaven from +birth-pangs, woes of life and death-agonies, still +gleamed this <span class="gesperrt">one bright star</span>!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—The utmost mental exertion fails to +give me even an inkling of your meaning! What is +that ray that pierces the night of our existence? +What is the <span class="gesperrt">one pure flower of heaven</span> +that must not be trampled into the dirt?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Taking</i> <span class="smcap">Elfriede’s</span> <i>hand and whispering +mysteriously</i>.] Sensual pleasure, gracious +lady!—The laughing, sunny enjoyment of the senses! +<span class="gesperrt">Sensual joy is the ray</span>, the <span class="gesperrt">flower of +heaven</span>, because it is the one unclouded bliss, the +one pure rapture undefiled, that earthly existence +offers us. Believe me when I say that for half a +century nothing has kept me in this world but selfless +worship of this one full-throated laughing joy, this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[330]</span><span class="gesperrt">sensual pleasure</span> that repays mankind for +all the torments of existence!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I think somebody’s coming.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Lisiska, probably!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—Lisiska? Who is Lisiska?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—The girl who studied those books on +the suppression of the white slave traffic in your +house! In a moment you can convince yourself if +I have said too much! We are prepared for such +occasions, thank heaven. [<i>Takes her down right.</i>] +Sit down behind this screen. From here, even <span class="gesperrt">you</span> +can for once in your life watch the <span class="gesperrt">clear, unsullied</span> +bliss of two people whom the <span class="gesperrt">joy of +the senses</span> draws together! [<span class="smcap">Elfriede</span> <i>seats +herself on the stool behind the screen, right</i>. <span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span> +<i>goes to the centre door, glances out, and then +retires behind the screen, left, and sits</i>. <span class="smcap">Herr König</span> +<i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Lisiska</span> <i>enter, centre. He is a young man of +twenty-five, in a gay sport-suit with knee-breeches.</i> +<span class="smcap">Lisiska</span> <i>is dressed in a simple white garment reaching +to the calf, black stockings, patent-leather slippers, +and a white bow in her loose black hair</i>.]</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + I have not come to while my time away,<br> + A sensualist in the circle of your charms,<br> + And will with gratitude and friendship pay<br> + If quickly sober’d I can leave your arms. +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Speak not so friendly in my ear.<br> + Here you are lord, and command us here.<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[331]</span> + Hesitate not to color my pallid<br> + And bloodless cheeks with buffets untallied!<br> + That for a whore like me<br> + Is an unheard-of fee!<br> + Helpless lamenting, sobbing and wailing<br> + Need not cause you the slightest quailing.<br> + Shallow’s the bliss from such abuse!<br> + Pile pitiless blow upon blow without truce!<br> + If your fist should smash in my face entire<br> + Even that would not slake my desire! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + I am not prepared for such words, such a test....<br> + Is this a merry welcome for the guest?<br> + You speak as if in purgatory already<br> + Here, you atoned for lust enjoyed and gone. +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Oh, no! Untamed the Monster, Lust, doth eddy,<br> + Raging forever in flesh, blood and bone!<br> + Think you I, the devil’s spouse,<br> + Would ever have happened into this house<br> + If my heart’s horrible hammering stopped<br> + When Rapture seized me and shone?<br> + Rapture evaporates, dropped<br> + On a hot stone!<br> + And Lust, an unstilled throe,<br> + A hungering woe,<br> + Plunges, to find death, into this<br> + And every abyss!<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[332]</span> + Are you not cruel, good sir, in your joys?<br> + I should be sorry!<br> + But what do you care for my noise?<br> + Strike me, your quarry! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + If that dark urge is really yours, to go<br> + From the last depths to something yet below,—<br> + I could shed tears that from the spring-time crew<br> + Of amorous girls I picked and chose just you.<br> + Out of your eyes, so innocent, so gay,<br> + There gleamed on me a <span class="gesperrt">bliss without alloy</span>.... +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Do you wish that our time pass away—<br> + And we have no joy?<br> + Down there, over our rules and tenets,<br> + Mother Adele sits, watch in hand:<br> + Counts and reckons, immovable, bland,<br> + My enjoyment’s minutes!</p> +<p class='sdir2'> + [<i>Pause.</i>] +</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + You have grown tired of ecstasy at length<br> + And hope for lassitude from tears and pain,—<br> + For some deep calm to overcome the strength<br> + Of your hot craving day and night in vain. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[333]</span></p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + If I sleep, then please with a sudden hard<br> + Punch in the ribs wake me up, well-jarred! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + That note was false! A flaw is in the reed!<br> + —How can a human being understand that?!<br> + Whistle at happiness—at life—you can that,—<br> + But <span class="gesperrt">sleep</span>? No! that was blasphemy indeed! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + I am not your property,<br> + You need not protect me;<br> + Spare not then so anxiously<br> + The joys that still affect me;<br> + Seek no means to comfort me;<br> + Kindness knows not how to;<br> + Who beats me up most mercilessly,—<br> + He’s the one I bow to.</p> +<p class='ml8'>You ask me<br> +Whether or no<br> +I still can blush?<br> +Unmask me<br> +With a quick blow,<br> +And mark the flush! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Cold sweat runs down me, chill’d in skull and spine,<br> + Shuddering!—Let me out!... Half in a dream<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[334]</span> + I hoped to pluck the sweet fruits of love’s vine.<br> + You offer thorns to me instead!... You seem<br> + A young wild thing; how came it that you strayed—<br> + Impossible!—from flower-paths to these briars? +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Leave not my sore desires<br> + All unallayed!<br> + Turn not heartless away from your slave!<br> + Before me I have my grave,<br> + And my only hope is to leave behind<br> + No more of this world than I needs must.<br> + Think you, we only come to such lust<br> + Because in this house we are kept confined?<br> + No, it is but the senses’ torturing thirst<br> + Holds us here accursed!<br> + But this, too, was reckoned without insight:<br> + Night by night<br> + I see it, blinding-clear:—that even<br> + In this house no heaven<br> + Of peace to the senses is given! +</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>In her hiding-place, to herself, with +astonishment.</i>] God Almighty! That is just the +<span class="gesperrt">exact contrary</span> of what I’ve imagined it for +ten long years!</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[335]</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>In his hiding-place, to himself, with +horror.</i>] Devil! Devil! Devil! That is the +<span class="gesperrt">exact contrary</span> of what I’ve imagined about +sensual joy for fifty years!</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Don’t go away from me! Hear me, hard-hearted!<br> + I was an innocent child, and started<br> + Life earnestly, full of duty and zeal!<br> + I could never carelessly smile,—but <span class="gesperrt">feel</span>—?!...<br> + From my teachers, even my brothers and sisters,<br> + I often heard awed admiring whispers,<br> + And my parents would both presage:<br> + “You’ll be the delight of our old age.”<br> + Then with a sudden blast<br> + That was past!<br> + And once-awakened lust<br> + Grew over all bounds, all “oughts,”<br> + Over all my thoughts,<br> + Over all my heart’s feeling of trust,<br> + So that I marvel’d, driven<br> + Infatuate, master’d, what it implied,<br> + That I saw no lightning strike at my side<br> + Nor heard any thunder from heaven.<br> + Then it came to me—hope, that our life had been given<br> + For joy to us, joy never glutted nor dried. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[336]</span></p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + And this high hope you found was not fulfilled?<br> + —I speak, I know, as a blind man of—of—— +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + No—it was only a hellish <span class="gesperrt">drive</span><br> + Whence no joy remained alive. +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + But when so many girls have died of love—<br> + Was it with all of them—Desire unstilled?<br> + —But then, how should such hordes of women press<br> + By thousands down <span class="gesperrt">your</span> path of dire excess? +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Have you no will to glory<br> + In the stripes upon my body?<br> + For what was it made so soft,—<br> + For what was it so tender created?<br> + Speechless looks have dilated<br> + O’er stroke upon stroke here, oft!<br> + Flagging desires anew to inflame<br> + Boasting I tell from whom they came. +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Be still, I tell you! One more word thereon<br> + And I’ll have stayed too long!... ’Tis plain to see<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[337]</span> + In your pale features how tempestuously<br> + Youth fled from you!... Your innocence once gone,<br> + Did he who robbed you of it leave you in shame? +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + No—but another came,<br> + Found glee and blame;<br> + For always I swore eternal troth<br> + To the young fools, and broke the oath.<br> + Always I hoped my curse<br> + Must disappear with another man.<br> + Each time it was bitterness or worse.<br> + No rest could be found for me, or can,<br> + For ’twas always only the hellish drive<br> + Out of which no joy came forth alive! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + So to this house you came at last, and lead<br> + A life of riot and revel here indeed!<br> + Music resounds, champagne drips from the tables,<br> + Laughter roars through the graying dawn full oft,<br> + Nought the long working-day knows but the soft<br> + Sound of hot tongues’ husht lisping of love’s fables.—<br> + What a low, common beggar I must be<br> + To you—proud queen of joy and ecstasy!<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[338]</span> + I came with what was mine from you to purchase<br> + A plain, straightforward interchange of pleasure.<br> + I could tear my hair with rage! For without measure<br> + Hideous is the lust that here besmirches<br> + Those libertines your friends and you their game!<br> + They set no stops to their inhuman glee!<br> + Hasten and wreathe <span class="gesperrt">their</span> limbs! A purer aim<br> + And element upbuoys and quickens me!<br> + I sought refreshment, and have no desire<br> + To smear myself in the earth’s deepest mire! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Oh, stay! If you desert me now, ’tis harder,—<br> + ’Tis night around me again! Don’t go away!<br> + Like a lip-lash already each word you say<br> + Flicks me, and stings my craving with pricking whips:<br> + Would you might loathe and hate me with such ardor<br> + That it would be your fists and not your lips<br> + Whose blow on blow aches through my body’s smart!<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[339]</span> + Once you’ve been pressed to my heart<br> + Then go back whence you came,<br> + Smilingly write my name<br> + In your notebook ... —while with me<br> + There will stay but the ghastly curse—to be<br> + Once more in the grip of the hellish drive<br> + Out of which no joy remained alive! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + I can’t believe my senses now!—It seems,<br> + You’ve fallen in <span class="gesperrt">love</span> with me? Oh, cruel!—Spurned<br> + By women, I have wept aloud and yearned<br> + Thru many—how many—nights of tortured dreams!<br> + Is the first love in all my life now faltering<br> + Toward me upon bought lips?!—Are you not bound<br> + To give to every stranger, without paltering,<br> + His will,—and hopes of comfort would you found<br> + On me?—to me lay passionately bare<br> + Your soul, whose lurid charms shall hold me fast?<br> + If e’er my lot so close to yours were cast<br> + I should be seized with horror past compare! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + For God’s sake, don’t believe in my love!<br> + ’Tis my duty here to affect the dove!<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[340]</span> + Think to yourself just once what it means<br> + When suddenly someone parts the screens!—<br> + Rake up love’s coals, be alive and elated;<br> + There is a <span class="gesperrt">man</span> by God created!—<br> + —Do you want me to play that wretched game<br> + With <span class="gesperrt">you</span> here?<br> + To feel but loathing when your high’st flame<br> + Burns thru here?!<br> + But if you thoroly with your Hunnish<br> + Fists my body and limbs will punish,—<br> + That, if you find pleasure in it,<br> + Can unite us till my dying minute! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + White robe of innocence! Spirit unstained<br> + By even this house! Your purity makes blind<br> + My eyes; your beauty takes my heart and mind<br> + With infinite gazing.—Rioting unrestrained<br> + In fierce self-martyrdom without repose—<br> + You fight the soul’s unfathomable woes,—<br> + Death in your face, and in your heart hot hate<br> + For all earth’s vain delights turned desolate!</p> +<p class='sdir2'>[<i>He kneels.</i>]</p> +<p class='ml3'> + Let me be friend, be brother to you! Whether<br> + You give your body up to me—lies deep<br> + Beneath us!—so have you exalted me!<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[341]</span> + To your slim knees here solemnly I vow<br> + That only as soul cleaves to soul art thou<br> + My own—so only am I thine—together!<br> + Out of hell’s agony to heaven’s steep<br> + You soared, and now unconscious of the sweep,<br> + Of lusts that ebb and flow beneath your height<br> + Must bleed your life out in sublimity<br> + Thru me shall that be shown to all men’s sight!<br> + From my chaste poetry the world shall learn<br> + To weigh the wrong and misery of sold love!<br> + I swear it by the eternal stars above,<br> + The purest light that in our night can burn.<br> + Give me a pledge, avow to me openly:—<br> + Have you by love been gladden’d? once? or ever? +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—[<i>Raising him.</i>]</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + If you killed me now straight off, I could never<br> + Say it differently!<br> + It was always only the hellish drive<br> + Whence no joy remained alive.<br> + Thus, once for all, it is in this place:<br> + Here is the rendezvous<br> + Of all to whom love is a pang without grace<br> + And a hankering ever new!<br> + What other chance callers may appear<br> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[342]</span> + Aren’t taken in earnest by us here!<br> + Men such as you<br> + Are few<br> + For they count for nothing where<br> + We house, whom men compare<br> + With beasts unheeded.—<br> + But now have I yet succeeded<br> + In bringing you round to grant<br> + Comfort to my wild want? +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Herr König</span>—</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + What wilderness of paths your hand may lead me,<br> + Still gleams a star above us that will speed me! +</p> + +<p class='mth'><span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>—[<i>Hugs and kisses him.</i>]</p> + +<p class='ml3'> + Then come, love! pliable at last, for trysts<br> + In ancient, ne’er-disturbed tranquillity,<br> + As uttermost lust’s calm bliss long known to me!<br> + Oh, if I only died under your fists!</p> +<p class='sdir2'>[<i>Both exeunt, right.</i>] +</p> + +<p class='mt1'><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Breaking out of his hiding-place, +wildly.</i>] What was that?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Breaking out likewise, passionately.</i>] +What was that! Worthless parasite that I am! +What did my withered brain ever think the joy of +the senses was! Self-immolation, glowing martyrdom, +that’s what the life in this house is! And I, in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[343]</span> +my lying arrogance, in my threadbare virtue, supposed +this house a breeding-place of depravity!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I am smashed and shattered!!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—All my youth, that the good God gave +me overflowing with the desire and the power to love,—I +have wantonly dragged it through the gray, soul-smothering +dirt of the streets! Coward that I was, +the sacredness of sensual passion seemed to me the +basest reprobacy!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Stunned.</i>] That was the blinding-bright +enlightenment that unforeseen breaks his neck +who walks in his sleep on the ridge-pole!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Passionately.</i>] That was the blinding-bright +enlightenment!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—What am I still doing in the world, +if even sensual pleasure is nothing but a hellish flaying +of man, nothing but a satanic butchery of mankind, +like all the rest of our earthly existence?! So +<span class="gesperrt">that’s</span> the true aspect of the <span class="gesperrt">one divine +ray</span> that pierces the horrible night of our tormented +life! Oh, if only I had shot a bullet through my +head half a century ago! Then I would have been +spared this pitiful bankruptcy of my bilked and +swindled spiritual wealth.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—What is there still for you to do in +the world? I can tell you! You trade in girls. You +boast you trade in girls. Anyway, you have the +closest relations with all the places that count in the +white slave trade. Sell me! I beseech you, sell me +into a house like this! You can make a very lucrative +bargain of me! I have never loved; and, surely, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[344]</span> +that doesn’t lower my value! I won’t bring you any +disgrace! You shall add, by me, to the honor in +which your customers hold you! I promise! I will +guarantee myself to you with any oath you ask me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Half-crazed.</i>] What will keep me +from breaking my neck? What will help me across +the icy shudders of death?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I will help you across! <i>I!</i> Sell me! +Then you’ll be saved!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Who are <span class="gesperrt">you</span>?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I want to find my death in the joy of +the senses. I want to give myself up to be slaughtered +on the altar of sensuous love!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Am I to sell you—<span class="gesperrt">you</span>?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—I want to die the martyr’s death that +this girl who was just here is dying! Have <i>I</i> no natural +human rights the same as others?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Heaven preserve me from it! +[<i>With mounting emphasis.</i>] This—this—this is the +<span class="gesperrt">derisive laughter of Hell</span>, that rings +above my plunge into death!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Sinking to his feet.</i>] Sell me! +Sell me!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—The most terrible times of my life +arise before me. Once before, I sold in the love-market +a girl whom nature had not intended for it! +For that crime against nature I spent six full years +behind <span class="gesperrt">prison bars</span>. Of course she, too, was +one of those temperamentless creatures in whose +<span class="gesperrt">faces</span> one can see “big feet.”</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Clasping his knees.</i>] On my soul I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[345]</span> +implore you, sell me! You were right. My activity +in combating the white slave traffic was unsatisfied +sensuality. But my sensuousness is <span class="gesperrt">not</span> weak! Ask +me for proofs. Shall I kiss you madly, insanely?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>In utmost despair.</i>] And this ear-piercing +howl of suffering at my feet? What <span class="gesperrt">is</span> +that! This echoing shriek for help from birth-pangs, +woes of life, and death-agonies I will no +longer endure. I cannot stand this earth’s continuous +crying any longer!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Wringing her hands.</i>] <span class="gesperrt">To you +yourself</span>, if you will, I will yield up my virginity! +<span class="gesperrt">To you yourself</span>, if you will, I will give my +first love-night!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—[<i>Shrieking.</i>] The last straw! [<i>A +shot.</i> <span class="smcap">Elfriede</span> <i>utters a piercing yell</i>. <span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>, +<i>the smoking revolver in his right hand, his left +pressed convulsively to his breast, totters to one of +the arm-chairs and breaks down in it</i>.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—I—I beg your pardon—Baroness. +I’ve—I’ve hurt myself.—That was not—not gallant +of me⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Bending over him.</i>] God have mercy, +you haven’t hit yourself with it?!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—Don’t—don’t hurt my ears—shrieking! +Be loving—loving—loving—if you can⁠——</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Stands up in horror, both hands in +her hair, stares at him and screams.</i>] No! No! No! +I <span class="gesperrt">can’t</span> be loving with this sight before me! I +<span class="gesperrt">can’t</span> be loving! [<i>Directly after the shot, three +slim young girls, dressed exactly like</i> <span class="smcap">Lisiska</span>, <i>have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[346]</span> +curiously one after the other stepped out of the +three doors. Hesitatingly they approach</i> <span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>, +<i>and, with the minimum of action or emotion, +gesturing silently among themselves, they essay to +ease his death-struggles. He looks up and sees +them.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span>—And that—and that—ve-vengeance? +Spirits of vengeance?—No! No!—That—that is +Marushka! I see you now. That is Euphemia!—That, +Theophila!— —Marushka! Kiss me, Marushka! +[<i>The slenderest of the three girls bends +over</i> <span class="smcap">Casti-Piani</span> <i>and kisses him on the mouth</i>.] No! +[<i>In anguish.</i>] No! No! That wasn’t anything!—Kiss—kiss +me differently! [<i>She kisses him again.</i>]—So!—So, +so, so!—I have de-deceived you [<i>slowly +raising himself, supported by</i> <span class="smcap">Marushka</span>]—deceived +you all! The joy of the senses—torture—bloody +agony!— —At last—at last—deliverance! +[<i>He stands, straight and stiff, as though seized with +catalepsy, his eyes very wide open.</i>] We—we must +receive—His Worship— —standing.... [<i>He +falls dead.</i>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>—[<i>Drowned in tears, to the three girls.</i>] +Well?—Is none of you girls brave enough to do it? +You were more to this man than I was permitted +to be! [<i>The three girls shake their heads and withdraw +shyly, frightened, but cold and impassive.</i> <span class="smcap">Elfriede</span>, +<i>sobbing, turns to the corpse</i>:] Then forgive +me miserable! While you were alive, you abhorred +me with all your soul! Forgive me that I come near +you now! [<i>Kisses him passionately on the mouth. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[347]</span> +Breaking into a flood of tears</i>.] This last disillusion, +even in your fearfullest blackest pessimism you can +never have conceived,—that a <span class="gesperrt">virgin</span> was to close +your eyes! [<i>She closes his eyes and sinks, weeping +piteously, at his feet.</i>]</p> + +<p class='curtain'>CURTAIN</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class='chapter'> +<div class="transnote mt2"> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes"> + Transcriber’s Notes + </h2> + +<ul> +<li>Obvious typographic erros silently corrected.</li> + +<li>Variations in hyphenation and punctuation kept as in the original.</li> + +<li>Footnotes numbered consecutively and relocated to the end of each + play. +</li> +</ul> +</div></div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76872 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/76872-h/images/colophon.jpg b/76872-h/images/colophon.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fee2839 --- /dev/null +++ b/76872-h/images/colophon.jpg diff --git a/76872-h/images/cover.jpg b/76872-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a23e41e --- /dev/null +++ b/76872-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/76872-h/images/i_101.jpg b/76872-h/images/i_101.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9dd2550 --- /dev/null +++ b/76872-h/images/i_101.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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