DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Well, as I said ... and I've already gathered a lot of very significant
material that will be of some service to me! Sh! I've got the bad habit
of raising my voice. [_He falls silent, listens, goes to the door and
comes back._] But what took you among these gold farmers?
LOTH
I would like to study the local conditions.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[_In a repressed tone._] What a notion! [_Still more softly._] I can give
you plenty of material there too.
LOTH
To be sure. You must be thoroughly informed as to the conditions here.
How do things look among the families around here?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Miserable! There's nothing but drunkenness, gluttony, inbreeding and, in
consequence,--degeneration along the whole line.
LOTH
With exceptions, surely?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hardly.
LOTH
[_Disquieted._] Didn't the temptation ever come to you to ... to marry a
daughter of one of these Witzdorf gold farmers?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The devil! Man, what do you take me for? You might as well ask whether I
...
LOTH
[_Very pale._] But why ... why?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Because ... Anything wrong with you?
[_He regards LOTH steadily for several moments._
LOTH
Certainly not. What should be wrong?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[_Has suddenly become very thoughtful. He stops in his walking suddenly
and whistles softly, glances at LOTH and then mutters to himself._]
That's bad!
LOTH
You act very strangely all of a sudden.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Sh!
[_He listens carefully and then leaves, the room quickly by the
middle door._
HELEN
[_Comes at the end of several seconds from the middle door. She cries
out._] Alfred!--Alfred!... You're here. Oh, thank God!
LOTH
Well, dear, did you suppose I had run away?
[_They embrace each other._
HELEN
[_Bends back. With unmistakable terror in her face._] Alfred!
LOTH
What is it, dearest?
HELEN
Nothing, nothing ...
LOTH
But there must be something.
HELEN
You seemed so cold ... Oh, I have such foolish fancies....
LOTH
How are things going upstairs?
HELEN
The doctor is quarreling with the midwife.
LOTH
Isn't it going to end soon?
HELEN
How do I know? But when it ends, when it ends--then....
LOTH
What then?... Tell me, please, what were you going to say?
HELEN
Then we ought soon to go away from here. At once! Oh, right away!
LOTH
If you think that would really be best, Nellie--
HELEN
It is! it is! We mustn't wait! It's the best thing--for you and for me.
If you don't take me soon, you'll just leave me quite, and then, and then
... It would just be all over with me.
LOTH
How distrustful you are, Nellie.
HELEN
Don't say that, dearest. Anybody would trust you, would just have to
trust you!... When I am your own, oh, then ... then, you surely wouldn't
leave me. [_As if beside herself._] I beseech you! Don't go away! Only
don't leave me! Don't--go, Alfred! If you go away without me, I would
just have to die, just have to die!
LOTH
But you are strange!... And you say you're not distrustful! Or perhaps
they're worrying you, torturing you terribly here--more than ever ... At
all events we'll leave this very night. I am ready. And so, as soon as
you are--we can go.
HELEN
[_Falling around his neck with a cry of joyous gratitude._]
Dear--dearest!
[_She kisses him madly and hurries out._
_DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG comes in through the middle door and catches a
glimpse of HELEN disappearing into the conservatory._
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Who was that?--Ah, yes! [_To himself._] Poor thing!
[_He sits down beside the table with a sigh, finds his old cigar,
throws it aside, takes a new cigar from the case and starts to knock
it gently against the edge of the table. Thoughtfully he looks away
across it._
LOTH
[_Watching him._] That's just the way you used to loosen every cigar
before smoking it eight years ago.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
It's possible--[_When he has lit and begun to smoke the cigar._] Listen
to me!
LOTH
Yes; what is it?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I take it that, so soon as the affair is over, you'll come along with me.
LOTH
Can't be done. I'm sorry.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Once in a while, you know, one does feel like talking oneself out
thoroughly.
LOTH
I feel that need quite as much, as you do. But you can see from just that
how utterly out of my power it is to go ...
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
But suppose I give you my emphatic and, in a way, solemn assurance that
there is a specific, an extremely important matter that I'd like--no,
that I must discuss with you to-night, Loth!
LOTH
Queer! You don't expect me to take that in deadly earnest. Surely
not!--You've waited to discuss that matter so many years and now it can't
wait one more day? You know me--I'm not pretending.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So I am right! Well, well ...
[_He gets up and walks about._
LOTH
What are you right about?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[_Standing still before LOTH _and looking straight into his eyes._] So
there is really something between you and Helen Krause?
LOTH
Who said--?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
How in the world did you fall in with this family?
LOTH
How do you know that, Schimmel?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
It wasn't _so_ hard to guess.
LOTH
Well then, for heaven's sake, don't say a word, because ...
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So you're quite regularly betrothed?
LOTH
Call it that. At all events, we're agreed.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
But what I want to know is: how did you fall in with this particular
family?
LOTH
Hoffmann's an old college friend of mine. Then, too, he was a
member--though only a corresponding one--of my colonisation society.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I heard about that business at Zuerich.--So he was associated with you.
That explains the wretched half-and-half creature that he is.
LOTH
That describes him, no doubt.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
He isn't even _that_, really.--But, look here, Loth! Is that your honest
intention? I mean this thing with the Krause girl.
LOTH
Of course it is! Can you doubt it? You don't think me such a scoundrel--?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Very well! Don't exert yourself! You've probably changed in all this long
time. And why not? It needn't be entirely a disadvantage. A little bit of
humour couldn't harm you. I don't see why one must look at all things in
that damnably serious way.
LOTH
I take things more seriously than ever. [_He gets up and walks up and
down with SCHIMMELPFENNIG, always keeping slightly behind the latter._]
You can't possibly know, and I can't possibly explain to you, what this
thing means to me.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hm!
LOTH
Man, you have no notion of the condition I'm in. One doesn't know it by
simply longing for it. If one did, one would simply go mad with yearning.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Let the devil try to understand how you fellows come by this senseless
yearning.
LOTH
You're not safe against an attack yourself yet.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I'd like to see that!
LOTH
You talk as a blind man would of colour.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I wouldn't give a farthing for that bit of intoxication. Ridiculous! And
to build a life-long union on such a foundation. I'd rather trust a heap
of shifting sand.
LOTH
Intoxication! Pshaw! To call it that is simply to show your utter
blindness to it. Intoxication is fleeting. I've had such spells, I admit.
This happens to be something different.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hm!
LOTH
I'm perfectly sober all through it. Do you imagine that I surround my
darling with a kind of a--well, how shall I put it--a kind of an aureole?
Not In the least. She lias her faults; she isn't remarkably beautiful, at
least--well, she's certainly not exactly homely either. Judging her quite
objectively--of course it's entirely a matter of taste--I haven't seen
such a sweet girl before in my life. So when you talk of mere
intoxication--nonsense! I am as sober as possible. But, my friend, this
is the remarkable thing: I simply can't imagine myself without her any
longer. It seems to me like an amalgam, as when two metals are so
intimately welded together that you can't say any longer, here's the one,
there's the other. And it all seems so utterly inevitable. In
short--maybe I'm talking rot--or what I say may seem rot to you, but so
much is certain: a man who doesn't know _that_ is a kind of cool-blooded
fishy creature. That's the kind of creature I was up till now, and that's
the kind of wretched thing you are still.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
That's a very complete set of symptoms. Queer how you fellows always
slide up to the very ears into the particular things that you've long ago
rejected theoretically--like yourself into marriage. As long as I've
known you, you've struggled with this unhappy mania for marriage.
LOTH
It's instinct with me, sheer instinct. God knows, I can wriggle all I
please--there it is.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
When all's said and done one can fight down even an instinct.
LOTH
Certainly, if there's a good reason, why not?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Is there any good reason for marrying?
LOTH
I should say there is. It has a purpose; it has for me! You don't know
how I've succeeded in struggling along hitherto. I don't want to grow
sentimental. Perhaps I didn't feel it quite so keenly either; perhaps I
wasn't so clearly conscious of it as I am now, that in all my endeavour I
had taken on something desolate, something machine-like. No spirit, no
fire, no life! Heaven knows whether I had any faith left! And all that
has come back to me to-day--with such strange fullness, such primal
energy, such joy ... Pshaw, what's the use ... You don't understand.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The various things you fellows need to keep you going--faith, love, hope.
I consider all that trash. The thing is simply this: humanity lies in its
death throes and we're merely trying to make the agony as bearable as we
can by administering narcotics.
LOTH
Is that your latest point of view?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
It's five or six years old by this time and I see no reason to change it.
LOTH
I congratulate you on it.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Thank you.
_A long pause ensues._
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
[_After several disquieted and unsuccessful beginnings._] The trouble is
just this. I feel that I'm responsible ... I absolutely owe you an
elucidation. I don't believe that you will be able to marry Helen Krause.
LOTH
[_Frigidly._] Oh, is that what you think?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Yes, that's my opinion. There are obstacles present which just you would
...
LOTH
Look here! Don't for heaven's sake have any scruples on that account. The
conditions, as a matter of fact, aren't so complicated as all that. At
bottom they're really terribly simple.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Simply terrible, you'd better say.
LOTH
I was referring simply to the obstacles.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So was I, very largely. But take it all in all, I can't imagine that you
really know the conditions as they are.
LOTH
Please, Schimmel, express yourself more clearly.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
You must absolutely have dropped the chief demand which you used to make
in regard to marriage, although you did give me to understand that you
laid as much weight as ever on the propagation of a race sound in mind
and body.
LOTH
Dropped my demand...? Dropped it? But why should I?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I see. Then there's nothing else left me but to ... Then you don't know
the conditions here. You do not know, for instance, that Hoffmann had a
son who perished through alcoholism at the age of three.
LOTH
Wha ... what d'you say?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I'm sorry, Loth, but I've got to tell you. You can do afterward as you
please. But the thing was no joke. They were visiting here just as they
are now. They sent for me--half an hour too late. The little fellow had
bled to death long before I arrived.
_LOTH drinks in the DOCTOR'S _words with every evidence of profound
and terrible emotion._
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The silly little chap grabbed for the vinegar bottle, thinking his
beloved rum was in it. The bottle fell and the child tumbled on the
broken glass. Down here, you see, the _vena saphena_, was completely
severed.
LOTH
Whose, _whose_ child was that?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The child of Hoffmann and of the same woman who again, up there ... And
she drinks too, drinks to the point of unconsciousness, drinks whatever
she can get hold of!
LOTH
So it's not, it's not inherited from Hoffmann?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Not at all. That's the tragic aspect of the man! He suffers under it as
much as he is capable of suffering. To be sure, he knew that he was
marrying into a family of dipsomaniacs. The old farmer simply spends his
life in the tavern.
LOTH
Then, to be sure--I understand many things--No, everything, rather ...
everything! [_After a heavy silence._] Then her life here, Helen's life,
is a ... how shall I express it? I have no words for it; it's ...
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Utterly horrible. I can judge of that. And I understood from the
beginning how you should cling to her. But, as I said ...
LOTH
It's enough. I understand ... But doesn't...? Couldn't one perhaps
persuade Hoffmann to do something? She ought to be removed from all this
foulness.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Hoffmann?
LOTH
Yes, Hoffmann.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
You don't know him. I don't believe that he has ruined her already, but
he has ruined her reputation even now.
LOTH
[_Flaring up._] If that's true, I'll murder...! D'you really believe
that? Do you think Hoffmann capable...?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Of anything! I think him capable of anything that might contribute to his
own pleasure.
LOTH
Then she is--the purest creature that ever breathed ...
_LOTH slowly takes up his hat and cane and hangs his mallet over his
shoulder._
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
What do you think of doing, Loth?
LOTH
... I mustn't meet her ...
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
So you're determined?
LOTH
Determined to what?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
To break the connection.
LOTH
How is it possible for me to be other than determined?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I may add, as a physician, that cases are known in which such inherited
evils have been suppressed. And of course you would give your children a
rational up-bringing.
LOTH
Such cases may be known.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
And the chances are not so small but that ...
LOTH
That kind of thing can't help me, Schimmel. There are just three
possibilities in this affair: Either I marry her and then ... no, that
way out simply doesn't exist. Or--the traditional bullet. Of course, that
would mean rest, at least. But we haven't reached that point yet awhile;
can't indulge in that luxury just yet. And so: live! fight!--Farther,
farther! [_His glance falls on the table and he observes the
writing-materials that have been placed there by EDWARD. He sits down,
hesitates and says:_] And yet...?
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I promise you that I'll represent the situation to her as clearly as
possible.
LOTH
Yes, yes! You see--I can't do differently. [_He writes, places his paper
in an envelope and addresses it. Then he arises and shakes hands with
SCHIMMELPFENNIG._] For the rest--I depend on you.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
You're coming over to my house, aren't, you? Let my coachman drive you
right over.
LOTH
Look here! Oughtn't one to try, at least, to get her out of the power of
this ... this person? ... As things are she is sure to become his victim.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
My dear, good fellow! I'm sorry for you. But shall I give you a bit of
advice? Don't rob her of the--little that you still leave her.
LOTH
[_With a deep sigh._] Maybe you're right--perhaps certainly.
_Hasty steps are heard descending the stairs. In the next moment
HOFFMANN rushes in._
HOFFMANN
Doctor, I beg you, for heaven's sake ... she is fainting ... the pains
have stopped ... won't you at last ...
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
I'm coming up. [_To LOTH significantly._] We'll see each other later. Mr.
Hoffmann, I must request you ... any interference or disturbance might
prove fatal ... I would much prefer to have you stay here.
HOFFMANN
You ask a great deal, but ... well!
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG
No more than is right.
[_He goes._
_HOFFMANN remains behind._
HOFFMANN
[_Observing LOTH._] I'm just trembling in every limb from the excitement.
Tell me, are you leaving?
LOTH
Yes.
HOFFMANN
Now in the middle of the night?
LOTH
I'm only going as far as Schimmelpfennig's.
HOFFMANN
Ah, yes. Well ... as things have shaped themselves, it's of course no
pleasure staying with us any longer ... So, good luck!
LOTH
I thank you for your hospitality.
HOFFMANN
And how about that plan of yours?
LOTH
What plan?
HOFFMANN
I mean that essay of yours, that economic description of our district. I
ought to say ... in fact, as a friend, I would beg of you as insistently
as possible ...
LOTH
Don't worry about that any more. I'll be far away from here by to-morrow.
HOFFMANN
That is really--
[_He interrupts himself._
LOTH
Kind of you, you were going to say.
HOFFMANN
Oh, I don't know. Well, in a certain respect, yes! And anyhow you must
forgive me; I'm so frightfully upset. Just count on me. Old friends are
always the best! Good-bye, good-bye.
[_He leaves through the middle door._
LOTH
[_Before going to the door, turns around once more with a long glance as
if to imprint the whole room on his memory. Then to himself:_] I suppose
I can go now ...
[_After a last glance he leaves._
_The room remains empty for some seconds. The sound of muffled voices
and the noise of footfalls is heard. Then HOFFMANN appears. As soon
as he has closed the door behind him, he takes out his note-book and
runs over some account with exaggerated calm. He interrupts himself,
listens, becomes restless again, advances to the door and listens
there. Suddenly some one runs down the stair and HELEN bursts in._
HELEN
[_Still without._] Brother! [_At the door._] Brother!
HOFFMANN
What's the _matter_?
HELEN
Be brave: still-born!
HOFFMANN
O my God!
[_He rushes out._
HELEN _alone._
_She looks about her and calls softly:_ Alfred! Alfred! _As she
receives no answer, she calls out again more quickly:_ Alfred!
Alfred! _She has hurried to the door of the conservatory through
which she gazes anxiously. She goes into the conservatory, but
reappears shortly._ Alfred! _Her disquiet increases. She peers out of
the window._ Alfred! _She opens the window and mounts a chair that
stands before it. At this moment there resounds clearly from the yard
the shouting of the drunken farmer, her father, who is coming home
from the inn,_ Hay-hee! Ain' I a han'some feller? Ain' I got a
fine-lookin' wife? Ain' I got a couple o' han'some gals? Hay-hee!
_HELEN utters a short cry and runs, like a hunted creature, toward
the middle door. From there she discovers the letter which LOTH has
left lying on thee table. She runs to it, tears it open, feverishly
takes in the contents, of which she audibly utters separate words._
"Insuperable!" ... "Never again." ... _She lets the letter fall and
sways._ It's over! _She steadies herself, holds her head with both
hands and cries out in brief and piercing despair._ It's over! _She
rushes out through the--middle door. The farmer's voice without,
drawing nearer._ Hay-hee! Ain' the farm mine? Ain' I got a han'some
wife? Ain' I a han'some feller? _HELEN, still seeking LOTH
half-madly, comes from the conservatory and meets EDWARD, who has
come to fetch something from HOFFMANN'S room. She addresses him:_
Edward! _He answers:_ Yes, Miss Krause. _She continues:_ I'd like to
... like to ... Dr. Loth ... _EDWARD answers:_ Dr. Loth drove away in
Dr. Schimmelpfennig's carriage. _He disappears into HOFFMANN'S room._
True! _HELEN cries out and holds herself erect with difficulty. In
the next moment a desperate energy takes hold of her. She runs to the
foreground and seizes the hunting knife with its belt which is
fastened to the stag's antlers above the sofa. She hides the weapon
and stays quietly in the dark foreground until EDWARD, coming from
HOFFMANN'S room, has disappeared through the middle door. The
farmer's voice resounds more clearly from moment to moment._ Hay-hee!
Ain' I a han'some feller? _At this sound, as at a signal, HELEN
starts and runs, in her turn, into HOFFMANN'S room. The main room is
empty but one continues to hear the farmer's voice:_ Ain' I got the
finest teeth? Ain' I got a fine farm? _MIELE comes through the middle
door and looks searchingly about. She calls:_ Miss Helen! Miss Helen!
_Meanwhile the farmer's voice:_ The money 'sh mi-ine! _Without
further hesitation MIELE has disappeared into HOFFMANN'S room, the
door of which she leaves open. In the next moment she rushes out with
every sign of insane terror. Screaming she spins around
twice--thrice--screaming she flies through the middle door. Her
uninterrupted screaming, softening as it recedes, is audible for
several seconds. Last there is heard the opening and resonant
slamming of the heavy house door, the tread of the farmer stumbling
about in the hall, and his coarse, nasal, thick-tongued drunkard's
voice echoes through the room:_ Hay-hee! Ain' I got a couple o'
han'some gals?
CURTAIN
THE WEAVERS
_I DEDICATE THIS DRAMA TO MY FATHER
ROBERT HAUPTMANN.
You, dear father, know what feelings lead me to dedicate this work to
you, and I am not called upon to analyse them here.
Your stories of my grandfather, who in his young days sat at the
loom, a poor weaver like those here depicted, contained the germ of
my drama. Whether it possesses the vigour of life or is rotten at the
core, it is the best, "so poor a man as Hamlet is" can offer.
Your
GERHART_
COMPLETE LIST OF CHARACTERS
DREISSIGER, _fustian manufacturer._
MRS. DREISSIGER.
PFEIFER, _manager in DREISSIGER'S employment._
NEUMANN, _cashier in DREISSIGER'S employment._
AN APPRENTICE _in DREISSIGER'S employment._
JOHN, _coachman in DREISSIGER'S employment._
A MAID _in DREISSIGER'S employment._
WEINHOLD, _tutor to DREISSIGER'S sons._
PASTOR KITTELHAUS.
MRS. KITTELHAUS.
HEIDE, _Police Superintendent._
KUTSCHE, _policeman._
WELZEL, _publican._
MRS. WELZEL.
ANNA WELZEL.
WIEGAND, _joiner._
A COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER.
A PEASANT.
A FORESTER.
SCHMIDT, _surgeon._
HORNIG, _rag dealer._
WITTIG, _smith._
WEAVERS.
BECKER.
MORITZ JAEGER.
OLD BAUMERT.
MOTHER BAUMERT.
BERTHA BAUMERT
EMMA BAUMERT
FRITZ, EMMA'S _son (four years old)._
AUGUST BAUMERT.
OLD ANSORGE.
MRS. HEINRICH.
OLD HILSE.
MOTHER HILSE.
GOTTLIEB HILSE.
LUISE, GOTTLIEB'S _wife._
MIELCHEN, _their daughter (six years old)._
REIMANN, _weaver._
HELEN, _weaver._
A WEAVER'S WIFE.
_A number of weavers, young and old, of both sexes._
The action passes in the Forties, at Kaschbach, Peterswaldau and
Langenbielau, in the Eulengebirge.
THE FIRST ACT
_A large whitewashed room on the ground floor of DREISSIGER'S house
at Peterswaldau, where the weavers deliver their finished webs and
the fustian is stored. To the left are uncurtained windows, in the
back mall there is a glass door, and to the right another glass door,
through which weavers, male and female, and children, are passing in
and out. All three walls are lined with shelves for the storing of
the fustian. Against the right wall stands a long bench, on which a
number of weavers have already spread out their cloth. In the order
of arrival each presents his piece to be examined by PFEIFER,
DREISSIGER'S manager, who stands, with compass and magnifying-glass,
behind a large table, on which the web to be inspected is laid. When
PFEIFER has satisfied himself, the weaver lays the fustian on the
scale, and an office apprentice tests its weight. The same boy stores
the accepted pieces on the shelves. PFEIFER calls out the payment due
in each case to NEUMANN, the cashier, who is seated at a small
table._