name is Loth.
_HELEN bows. Her gesture smacks of the dancing school._
HOFFMANN
[_His voice is heard through the closed door._] My dear people: don't be
formal! I'll be with you in a moment. Loth, my sister-in-law, Helen
Krause! And, sister, my friend, Alfred Loth! Please consider yourselves
introduced.
HELEN
Oh, what a way of....
LOTH
I don't take it ill of him. As I have often been told, I am myself more
than half a barbarian when correct manners are concerned. But if I
intruded upon you, I....
HELEN
Not in the least; oh, not in the least, believe me. [_A pause of
constraint._] Indeed, indeed, it is most kind of you to have looked up my
brother-in-law. He often complains that ... rather, regrets that the
friends of his youth have forgotten him so entirely.
LOTH
Yes, it just happened so this time. I've always been in Berlin and
thereabouts and had no idea what had become of Hoffmann. I haven't been
back in Silesia since my student days at Breslau.
HELEN
And so you came upon him quite by chance.
LOTH
Yes, quite--and, what is more, in the very spot where I've got to pursue
my investigations.
HELEN
Investigations in Witzdorf! In this wretched little hole. Ah, you're
jesting. It isn't possible.
LOTH
You say: wretched? Yet there is a very unusual degree of wealth here.
HELEN
Oh, of course, in that respect....
LOTH
I've been continually astonished. I can assure you that such farms are
not to be found elsewhere; they seem literally steeped in abundance.
HELEN
You are quite right. There's more than one stable here in which the cows
and horses feed from marble mangers and racks of German silver! It is all
due to the coal which was found under our fields and which turned the
poor peasants rich almost in the twinkling of an eye. [_She points to the
picture in the background._] Do you see--my grandfather was a freight
carter. The little property here belonged to him, but he could not get a
living out of his bit of soil and so he had to haul freight. That's a
picture of him in his blue blouse; they still wore blouses like that in
those days. My father, when he was young, wore one too.--No! When I said
"wretched" I didn't mean that. Only it's so desolate here. There's
nothing, nothing for the mind. Life is empty ... it's enough to kill one.
_MIELE and EDWARD pass to and fro, busy laying the table to the right
in the background._
LOTH
Aren't there balls or parties once in a while?
HELEN
Not even that! The farmers gamble, hunt, drink ... What is there to be
seen all the long day? [_She has approached the window and points out._]
_Such_ figures, mainly.
LOTH
H-m! Miners.
HELEN
Some are going to the mine, some are coming from the mine: all day, all
day ... At least, I seem always to see them. Do you suppose I even care
to go into the street alone? At most I slip through the back gate out
into the fields. And they are such a rough set! The way they stare at
one--so menacing and morose as if one were actually guilty of some crime.
Sometimes, in winter, when we go sleighing, they come in the darkness, in
great gangs, over the hills, through the storm, and, instead of making
way, they walk stubbornly in front of the horses. Then, sometimes the
farmers use the handles of their whips; it's the only way they can get
through. And then the miners curse behind us. Ugh! I've been so terribly
frightened sometimes!
LOTH
And isn't it strange that I have come here for the sake of these very
people of whom you are so much afraid.
HELEN
Oh, surely not....
LOTH
Quite seriously. These people interest me more than any one else here.
HELEN
No one excepted?
LOTH
No one.
HELEN
Not even my brother-in-law?
LOTH
No! For my interest in these people is different and of an altogether
higher nature. But you must forgive me ... You can't be expected to
follow me there.
HELEN
And why not? Indeed, I understand you very well ... [_She drops a letter
inadvertently which LOTH stoops to pick up._] Don't bother ... it's of no
importance; only an indifferent boarding-school correspondence.
LOTH
So you went to boarding-school?
HELEN
Yes, in Herrnhut. You mustn't think that I'm so wholly ... No, no, I do
understand.
LOTH
You see, these workingmen interest me for their own sake.
HELEN
To be sure. And a miner like that is very interesting, if you look upon
him in that way. Why, there are places where you never see one; but If
you have them daily before your eyes ...
LOTH
Even if you have them daily before your eyes, Miss Krause. Indeed. I
think that is necessary if one is to discover what is truly interesting
about them.
HELEN
Dear me! If it's so hard to discover--I mean what is interesting about
them!
LOTH
Well; it is interesting, for instance that these people, as you say,
always look so menacing and so morose.
HELEN
Why do you think that _that_ is particularly interesting?
LOTH
Because it is not the usual thing. The rest of us look that way only
sometimes and by no means always.
HELEN
Yes, but why do they always look so ... so full of hatred and so surly?
There must be some reason for that.
LOTH
Just so. And it is this very reason that I am anxious to discover.
HELEN
Oh, don't!... Now you're making fun of me! What good would it do you,
even if you knew that?
LOTH
One might perhaps find ways and means to remove the cause that makes
these people so joyless and so full of hatred; one might perhaps make
them happier.
HELEN
[_Slightly confused._] I must confess freely that now ... And yet perhaps
just now I begin to understand you a little. Only it is so strange, so
new, so utterly new ...
HOFFMANN
[_Entering through the door at the right. He has a number of letters in
his hand._] Well, here I am again.--Edward, see to it that these letters
reach the post-office before eight o'clock. [_He hands the letters to the
servant, who withdraws._] Well, dear people, now we can eat! Outrageously
hot here! September and such heat! [_He lifts a bottle of champagne from
the cooler. _] Veuve Cliquot! Edward knows my secret passions! [_He turns
to LOTH._] You've had quite a lively argument, eh? [_Approaches the
table, which has now been laid and which groans under delicacies. Rubbing
his hands._] Well, that looks very good indeed! [_With a sly look in
LOTH'S direction._] Don't you think it does?--By the way, sister! We're
going to have company: William Kahl. He has been seen in the yard.
_HELEN makes a gesture of disgust._
HOFFMANN
My dear girl! You almost act as if I ... How can I help it? D'you suppose
I invited him? [_Heavy steps are heard in the outer hall._] Ah!
"Misfortune strides apace!"
_KAHL enters without having first knocked. He is twenty-four years
old: a clumsy peasant who is evidently concerned, so far as possible,
to make a show not only as a refined but, more especially, as a
wealthy man. His features are coarse; his predominant expression is
one of stupid cunning. He wears a green jacket, a gay velvet
waist-coat, dark trousers and patent-leather top-boots. His
head-covering is a green forester's hat with a cock's feather. His
jacket has buttons of stag's horn and stag's teeth depend from his
watch-chain. He stammers._
KAHL
G-good evening everybody!
[_He sees LOTH, is much embarrassed and, standing still, cuts a
rather sorry figure._
HOFFMANN
[_Steps up to him and shakes hands with him encouragingly._] Good
evening, Mr. Kahl.
HELEN
[_Ungraciously._] Good evening.
KAHL
[_Strides with heavy steps diagonally across the room to HELEN and takes
her hand._] Evenin' t'you, Nellie.
HOFFMANN
[_To LOTH._] Permit me to introduce our neighbour's son, Mr. Kahl.
[_KAHL grins and fidgets with his hat. Constrained silence._
HOFFMANN
Come, let's sit down, then. Is anybody missing? Ah, our mama! Miele,
request Mrs. Krause to come to supper.
[_MIELE leaves by the middle door._
MIELE
[_Is heard in the hall, calling out._] Missus! Missus!! You're to come
down--to come'n eat!
[_HELEN and HOFFMANN exchange a look of infinite comprehension and
laugh. Then, by a common impulse, they look at LOTH._
HOFFMANN
[_To LOTH._] Rustic simplicity!
_MRS. KRAUSE appears, incredibly overdressed. Silk and costly jewels.
Her dress and bearing betray hard arrogance, stupid pride and
half-mad vanity._
HOFFMANN
Ah, there is mama! Permit me to introduce to you my friend Dr. Loth.
MRS. KRAUSE
[_Half-curtsies, peasant-fashion._] I take the liberty! [_After a brief
pause._] Eh, but Doctor, you mustn't bear me a grudge, no, you mustn't at
all. I've got to excuse myself before you right away--[_she speaks with
increasing fluency_]--excuse myself on account o' the way I acted a while
ago. You know, y'understan', we' get a powerful lot o' tramps here right
along ... 'Tain't reasonable to believe the trouble we has with them
beggars. And they steals exackly like magpies. It ain't as we're stingy.
We don't have to be thinkin' and thinkin' before we spends a penny, no,
nor before we spends a pound neither. Now, old Louis Krause's wife, she's
a close one, worst kind you see, she wouldn't give a crittur that much!
Her old man died o' rage because he lost a dirty little two-thousand,
playin' cards. No, we ain't that kind. You see that sideboard over there.
That cost me two hundred crowns, not countin' the freight even. Baron
Klinkow hisself couldn't have nothin' better.
_MRS. SPILLER has entered shortly after MRS. KRAUSE. She is small,
slightly deformed and gotten up in her mistress's cast-off garments.
While MRS. KRAUSE is speaking she looks up at her with a certain
devout attention. She is about fifty-five years old. Every time she
exhales her breath she utters a gentle moan, which is regularly
audible, even when she speaks, as a soft_--m.
MRS. SPILLER
[_In a servile, affectedly melancholy, minor tone. Very softly._] His
lordship has exactly the identical sideboard--m--.
HELEN
[_To MRS. KRAUSE._] Mama, don't you think we had better sit down first
and then--
MRS. KRAUSE
[_Turns with lightning-like rapidity to HELEN and transfixes her with a
withering look; harshly and masterfully._] Is that proper?
[_She is about to sit down but remembers that grace has not been
said. Mechanically she folds her hands without, however, mastering
her malignity._
MRS. SPILLER
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest. May thy gifts to us be blest.
[_All take their seats noisily. The embarrassing situation is tided
over by the passing and repassing of dishes, which takes some time._
HOFFMANN
[_To LOTH._] Help yourself, old fellow, won't you? Oysters?
LOTH
I'll try them. They're the first I've ever eaten.
MRS. KRAUSE
[_Has just sucked down an oyster noisily._] This season, you mean.
LOTH
No, I mean at all.
[_MRS. KRAUSE and MRS. SPILLER exchange a look._
HOFFMANN
[_To KAHL, who is squeezing a lemon with his teeth._] Haven't seen you
for two days, Mr. Kahl. Have you been busy shooting mice?
KAHL
N-naw ...
HOFFMANN
[_To LOTH._] Mr. Kahl, I must tell you, is passionately fond of hunting.
KAHL
M-m-mice is i-infamous amphibies.
HELEN
[_Bursts out._] It's too silly. He can't see anything wild or tame
without killing it.
KAHL
Las' night I sh-shot our ol' s-sow.
LOTH
Then I suppose that shooting is your chief occupation.
MRS. KRAUSE
Mr. Kahl, he just does that fer his own private pleasure.
MRS. SPILLER
Forest, game and women--as his Excellency the Minister von Schadendorf
often used to say.
KAHL
'N d-day after t-t'morrow we're g-goin' t' have p-pigeon sh-sh-shooting.
LOTH
What is that--pigeon shooting?
HELEN
Ah, I can't bear such things. Surely it's a very merciless sport. Rough
boys who throw stones at window panes are better employed.
HOFFMANN
You go too far, Helen.
HELEN
I don't know. According to my feeling it's far more sensible to break
windows, than to tether pigeons to a post and then shoot bullets into
them.
HOFFMANN
Well, Helen, after all, you must consider ...
LOTH
[_Using his knife and fork with energy._] It is a shameful barbarity.
KAHL
Aw! _Them_ few pigeons!
MRS. SPILLER
[_To LOTH._] Mr. Kahl, you know, has m-more than two-hundred of them in
his dove-cote.
LOTH
All hunting is barbarity.
HOFFMANN
But an ineradicable one. Just now, for instance, five hundred live foxes
are wanted in the market, and all foresters in this neighbourhood and in
other parts of Germany are busy snaring the animals.
LOTH
What are all those foxes wanted for?
HOFFMANN
They are sent to England, where they will enjoy the honour of being
hunted from their very cages straight to death by members of the
aristocracy.
LOTH
Mohammedan or Christian--a beast's a beast.
HOFFMANN
May I pass you some lobster, mother?
MRS. KRAUSE
I guess so. They're good this here season.
MRS. SPILLER
Madame has such a delicate palate.
MRS. KRAUSE
[_To LOTH._] I suppose you ain't ever et lobsters neither, Doctor?
LOTH
Yes, I have eaten lobsters now and then--in the North, by the sea, in
Warnemuende, where I was born.
MRS. KRAUSE
[_To KAHL._] Times an' times a person don't know what _to_ eat no more.
Eh, William.
KAHL
Y-y're r-right there, cousin, G-God knows.
EDWARD
[_Is about to pour champagne into LOTH'S glass._] Champagne, sir.
LOTH
[_Covers his glass with his hand._] No, thank you.
HOFFMANN
Come now, don't be absurd.
HELEN
What? Don't you drink?
LOTH
No, Miss Krause.
HOFFMANN
Well, now, look here, old man. That is, you must admit, rather tiresome.
LOTH
If I were to drink I should only grow more tiresome.
HELEN
That is most interesting, Doctor.
LOTH
[_Untactfully._] That I grow even more tiresome when I drink wine?
HELEN
[_Somewhat taken aback._] No, oh, no. But that you do not drink ... do
not drink at all, I mean.
LOTH
And why is that particularly interesting?
HELEN
[_Blushing._] It is not the usual thing.
[_She grows redder and more embarrassed._
LOTH
[_Clumsily._] You are quite right, unhappily.
MRS. KRAUSE
[_To LOTH._] It costs us fifteen shillin's a bottle. You needn't be
scared to drink it. We gets it straight from Rheims; we ain't givin' you
nothin' cheap; we wouldn't want it ourselves.
MRS. SPILLER
Ah, you can believe--m-me, Doctor: if his Excellency, the Minister von
Schadendorf, had been able to keep _such_ a table ...
KAHL
I couldn't live without my wine.
HELEN
[_To LOTH._] Do tell us why you don't drink?
LOTH
I'll do that very gladly, I ...
HOFFMANN
Oh, pshaw, old fellow. [_He takes the bottle from the servant in order to
press the wine upon LOTH._] Just think how many merry hours we used to
spend in the old days ...
LOTH
Please don't take the trouble ...
HOFFMANN
Drink to-day--this one time.
LOTH
It's quite useless.
HOFFMANN
As a special favour to me.
[_HOFFMANN is about to pour the wine; LOTH resists. A slight conflict
ensues._
LOTH
No, no ... as I said before ... No!... no, thank you.
HOFFMANN
Don't be offended, but that, surely, is a mere foolish whim.
KAHL
[_To MRS. SPILLER._] A man that don't want nothin' has had enough.
[_MRS. SPILLER nods resignedly._
HOFFMANN
Anyhow, if you let a man have his will what more can you do for him. But
I can tell you this much: without a glass of wine at dinner ...
LOTH
And a glass of beer at breakfast ...
HOFFMANN
Very well; why not? A glass of beer is a very healthy thing.
LOTH
And a nip of brandy now and then ...
HOFFMANN
Ah, well, if one couldn't get that much out of life! You'll never succeed
in making an ascetic of me. You can't rob life of every stimulus.
LOTH
I'm not so sure of that. I am thoroughly content with the normal stimuli
that reach my nervous system.
HOFFMANN
And a company that sit together with dry throats always has been and
always will be a damnably weary and boresome one--with which, as a rule,
I'd care to have very little to do.
MRS. KRAUSE
An' all them aristocrats drinks a whole lot.
MRS. SPILLER
[_Devoutly confirming her mistress' remark by an inclination of her
body._] It is easy for gentlemen to drink a great deal of wine.
LOTH
[_To HOFFMANN._] My experience is quite to the contrary. As a rule, I am
bored at a table where a great deal is drunk.
HOFFMANN
Oh, of course, it's got to be done in moderation.
LOTH
What do you call moderation?
HOFFMANN
Well, so long as one is in possession of one's senses ...
LOTH
Aha! Then you do admit that, in general, the consumption of alcohol does
endanger the possession of one's senses? And for that reason, you see, I
find tavern parties such a bore.
HOFFMANN
Are you afraid of losing possession of your senses so easily?
KAHL
T'-t'other d-day I drank a b-bottle o' R-Rhine-wine, _an'_ another o'
ch-champagne. An' on top o' that an-n-nother o' B-Bordeaux--an' I wan't
drunk by half.
LOTH
[_To HOFFMANN._] Oh no. You know well enough that it was I who took you
fellows home when you'd been taking too much. And I still have the same
tough old system. No, I'm not afraid on that account.
HOFFMANN
Well, then, what is it?
HELEN
Yes, why is it really that you don't drink? Do tell us!
LOTH
[_To HOFFMANN._] In order to satisfy you then: I do not drink to-day, if
for no other reason but because I have given my word of honour to avoid
spirituous liquors.
HOFFMANN
In other words, you've sunk to the level of a temperance fanatic.
LOTH
I am a total abstainer.
HOFFMANN
And for how long, may one ask, have you gone in for this--
LOTH
For life.
HOFFMANN
[_Throws down his knife and fork and half starts up from his chair._]
Well, I'll be ... [_He sits down again._] Now, frankly, you must forgive
me, but I never thought you so--childish.
LOTH
You may call it so if you please.
HOFFMANN
But how in the world did you get into that kind of thing?
HELEN
Surely, for such a resolution you must have a very weighty cause--it
seems so to me, at least.
LOTH
Undoubtedly such a reason exists. You probably do not know, Miss Krause,
nor you either, Hoffmann, what an appalling part alcohol plays in modern
life ... Read Bunge, if you desire to gain an idea of it. I happen to
remember the statements of a writer named Everett concerning the
significance of alcohol in the life of the United States. His facts cover
a space of ten years. In these ten years, according to him, alcohol has
devoured directly a sum of three thousand millions of dollars and
indirectly of six hundred millions. It has killed three hundred thousand
people, it has driven thousands of others into prisons and poor-houses;
it has caused two thousand suicides at the least. It has caused the loss
of at least ten millions through fire and violent destruction; it has
rendered no less than twenty thousand women, widows, and no less than one
million children, orphans. Worst of all, however, are the far-reaching
effects of alcohol which extend to the third and fourth generation.--Now,
had I pledged myself never to marry, I might perhaps drink, but as it
is--My ancestors, as I happen to know, were all not only healthy and
robust but thoroughly temperate people. Every movement that I make, every
hardship that I undergo, every breath that I draw brings what I owe them
more deeply home to me. And that, you see, is the point; I am absolutely
determined to transmit undiminished to my posterity this heritage which
is mine.
MRS. KRAUSE
Look here, son-in-law, them miners o' ours do drink a deal too much. I
guess that's true.
KAHL
They swills like pigs.
HELEN
And such, things are hereditary?
LOTH
There are families who are ruined by it--families of dipsomaniacs.
KAHL
[_Half to MRS. KRAUSE; half to HELEN._] Your old man--he's goin' it
pretty fast, too.
HELEN
[_White as a sheet, vehemently._] Oh, don't talk nonsense.
MRS. KRAUSE
Eh, but listen to the impident hussy. You might think she was a princess!
You're tryin' to play bein' a grand lady, I s'ppose! That's the way she
goes fer her future husband. [_To LOTH, pointing to KAHL._] That's him,
you know; they're promised; it's all arranged.
HELEN
[_Jumping up._] Stop! or ... _Stop_, mother, or I ...
MRS. KRAUSE
Well, I do declare! Say, Doctor, is that what you call eddication, eh?
God knows, I treat her as if she was my own child, but that's a little
too much.
HOFFMANN
[_Soothingly._] Ah, mother, do me the favour....
MRS. KRAUSE
No-o! I don't see why. Such a goose like that ... That's an end o' all
justice ... such a sl...!
HOFFMANN
Oh, but mother, I must really beg of you to control--
MRS. KRAUSE
[_Doubly enraged._] Instead o' sich a crittur takin' a hand on the
farm.... God forbid! She pulls her sheets 'way over her ears. But her
Schillers and her Goethes and sich like stinkin' dogs--that can't do
nothin' but lie; they c'n turn her head. It's enough to make you sick!
[_She stops, quivering with rage._
HOFFMANN
[_Trying to pacify her._] Well, well--she will be all right now ...
perhaps it wasn't quite right ... perhaps....
[_He beckons to HELEN, who in her excitement has drawn aside, and the
girl, fighting down her tears, returns to her place._
HOFFMANN
[_Interrupting the painful silence that has followed, to LOTH._] Ah, yes
... what were we talking about? To be sure, of good old alcohol. [_He
raises his glass._] Well, mother, let us have peace. Come,--we'll drink a
toast in peace, and honour alcohol by being peaceful. [_MRS. KRAUSE,
although somewhat rebelliously, clinks glasses with him._] What, Helen,
and your glass is empty.... I say, Loth, you've made a proselyte.
HELEN
Ah ... no ... I....
MRS. SPILLER
But, dear Miss Helen, that looks sus--
HOFFMANN
You weren't always so very particular.
HELEN
[_Pertly._] I simply have no inclination to drink to-day. That's all.
HOFFMANN
Oh, I beg your pardon, very humbly indeed ... Let me see, what were we
talking about?
LOTH
We were saying that there were whole families of dipsomaniacs.
HOFFMANN
[_Embarrassed anew._] To be sure, to be sure, but ... er....
[_Growing anger is noticeable in the behaviour of MRS. KRAUSE. KAHL
is obviously hard put to it to restrain his laughter concerning
something that seems to furnish him immense inner amusement. HELEN
observes KAHL with burning eyes and her threatening glance has
repeatedly restrained him from saying something that is clearly on
the tip of his tongue. LOTH, peeling an apple with a good deal of
equanimity, has taken no notice of all this._
LOTH
What is more, you seem to be rather blessed with that sort of thing
hereabouts.
HOFFMANN
[_Almost beside himself._] Why? How? Blessed with what?
LOTH
With drunkards, of course.
HOFFMANN
H-m! Do you think so ... ah ... yes ... I dare say--the miners....
LOTH
Not only the miners. Here, in the inn, where I stopped before I came to
you, there sat a fellow, for instance, this way.
[_He rests both elbows on the table, supports his head, with his
hands and stares at the table._
HOFFMANN
Really?
[_His embarrassment has now reached its highest point; MRS. KRAUSE
coughs; HELEN still commands KAHL with her eyes. His whole body
quivers with internal laughter, but he is still capable of enough
self-command not to burst out._
LOTH
I'm surprised that you don't know this, well, one might almost say, this
matchless example of his kind. It's the inn next door to your house. I
was told that the man is an immensely rich farmer of this place who
literally spends his days and years in the same tap-room drinking
whiskey. Of course he's a mere animal to-day. Those frightfully vacant,
drink-bleared eyes with which he stared at me!
[_KAHL, who has restrained himself up to this point, breaks out in
coarse, loud, irrepressible laughter, so that LOTH and HOFFMANN, dumb
with astonishment, stare at him._
KAHL
[_Stammering out through his laughter._] By the Almighty, that was....
Oh, sure, sure--that was the ol' man.
HELEN
[_Jumps up, horrified and indignant. She crushes her napkin and flings it
on the table._] You are.... [_With a gesture of utter loathing._] Oh, you
are....
[_She withdraws swiftly._
KAHL
[_Violently breaking through the constraint which arises from his
consciousness of having committed a gross blunder._] Oh, pshaw!... It's
too dam' foolish! I'm goin' my own ways. [_He puts on his hat and says,
without turning back:_] Evenin'.
MRS. KRAUSE
[_Calls out after him._] Don' know's I c'n blame you, William. [_She
folds her napkin and calls_:] Miele! [_MIELE enters._] Clear the table!
[_To herself, but audibly._] Sich a goose!
HOFFMANN
[_Somewhat angry._] Well, mother, honestly, I must say....
MRS. KRAUSE
You go and...!
[_Arises; exits quickly._
MRS. SPILLER
Madame--m--has had a good many domestic annoyances to-day--m--. I will
now respectfully take my leave.