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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 *** |