ashes.
ADOLPH. I hate you! I curse you!
GUSTAV. Good symptoms! There is still some strength left in you.
And now I'll pull you up on the ice again. Listen now! Do you want
to listen to me, and do you want to obey me?
ADOLPH. Do with me what you will--I'll obey you!
GUSTAV. [Rising] Look at me!
ADOLPH. [Looking at GUSTAV] Now you are looking at me again with
that other pair of eyes which attracts me.
GUSTAV. And listen to me!
ADOLPH. Yes, but speak of yourself. Don't talk of me any longer: I
am like an open wound and cannot bear being touched.
GUSTAV. No, there is nothing to say about me. I am a teacher of
dead languages, and a widower--that's all! Take my hand.
ADOLPH. What terrible power there must be in you! It feels as if I
were touching an electrical generator.
GUSTAV. And bear in mind that I have been as weak as you are now.--
Stand up!
ADOLPH. [Rises, but keeps himself from falling only by throwing
his arms around the neck of GUSTAV] I am like a boneless baby, and
my brain seems to lie bare.
GUSTAV. Take a turn across the floor!
ADOLPH. I cannot!
GUSTAV. Do what I say, or I'll strike you!
ADOLPH. [Straightening himself up] What are you saying?
GUSTAV. I'll strike you, I said.
ADOLPH. [Leaping backward in a rage] You!
GUSTAV. That's it! Now you have got the blood into your head, and
your self-assurance is awake. And now I'll give you some
electriticy: where is your wife?
ADOLPH. Where is she?
GUSTAV. Yes.
ADOLPH. She is--at--a meeting.
GUSTAV. Sure?
ADOLPH. Absolutely!
GUSTAV. What kind of meeting?
ADOLPH. Oh, something relating to an orphan asylum.
GUSTAV. Did you part as friends?
ADOLPH. [With some hesitation] Not as friends.
GUSTAV. As enemies then!--What did you say that provoked her?
ADOLPH. You are terrible. I am afraid of you. How could you know?
GUSTAV. It's very simple: I possess three known factors, and with
their help I figure out the unknown one. What did you say to her?
ADOLPH. I said--two words only, but they were dreadful, and I
regret them--regret them very much.
GUSTAV. Don't do it! Tell me now?
ADOLPH. I said: "Old flirt!"
GUSTAV. What more did you say?
ADOLPH. Nothing at all.
GUSTAV. Yes, you did, but you have forgotten it--perhaps because
you don't dare remember it. You have put it away in a secret
drawer, but you have got to open it now!
ADOLPH. I can't remember!
GUSTAV. But I know. This is what you said: "You ought to be
ashamed of flirting when you are too old to have any more lovers!"
ADOLPH. Did I say that? I must have said it!--But how can you know
that I did?
GUSTAV. I heard her tell the story on board the boat as I came
here.
ADOLPH. To whom?
GUSTAV. To four young men who formed her company. She is already
developing a taste for chaste young men, just like--
ADOLPH. But there is nothing wrong in that?
GUSTAV. No more than in playing brother and sister when you are
papa and mamma.
ADOLPH. So you have seen her then?
GUSTAV. Yes, I have. But you have never seen her when you didn't--
I mean, when you were not present. And there's the reason, you
see, why a husband can never really know his wife. Have you a
portrait of her?
(Adolph takes a photograph from his pocketbook. There is a look of
aroused curiosity on his face.)
GUSTAV. You were not present when this was taken?
ADOLPH. No.
GUSTAV. Look at it. Does it bear much resemblance to the portrait
you painted of her? Hardly any! The features are the same, but the
expression is quite different. But you don't see this, because
your own picture of her creeps in between your eyes and this one.
Look at it now as a painter, without giving a thought to the
original. What does it represent? Nothing, so far as I can see,
but an affected coquette inviting somebody to come and play with
her. Do you notice this cynical line around the mouth which you
are never allowed to see? Can you see that her eyes are seeking
out some man who is not you? Do you observe that her dress is cut
low at the neck, that her hair is done up in a different way, that
her sleeve has managed to slip back from her arm? Can you see?
ADOLPH. Yes--now I see.
GUSTAV. Look out, my boy!
ADOLPH. For what?
GUSTAV. For her revenge! Bear in mind that when you said she could
not attract a man, you struck at what to her is most sacred--the
one thing above all others. If you had told her that she wrote
nothing but nonsense, she would have laughed at your poor taste.
But as it is--believe me, it will not be her fault if her desire
for revenge has not already been satisfied.
ADOLPH. I must know if it is so!
GUSTAV. Find out!
ADOLPH. Find out?
GUSTAV. Watch--I'll assist you, if you want me to.
ADOLPH. As I am to die anyhow--it may as well come first as last!
What am I to do?
GUSTAV. First of all a piece of information: has your wife any
vulnerable point?
ADOLPH. Hardly! I think she must have nine lives, like a cat.
GUSTAV. There--that was the boat whistling at the landing--now
she'll soon be here.
ADOLPH. Then I must go down and meet her.
GUSTAV. No, you are to stay here. You have to be impolite. If
her conscience is clear, you'll catch it until your ears tingle.
If she is guilty, she'll come up and pet you.
ADOLPH. Are you so sure of that?
GUSTAV. Not quite, because a rabbit will sometimes turn and run in
loops, but I'll follow. My room is nest to this. [He points to the
door on the right] There I shall take up my position and watch you
while you are playing the game in here. But when you are done,
we'll change parts: I'll enter the cage and do tricks with the
snake while you stick to the key-hole. Then we meet in the park to
compare notes. But keep your back stiff. And if you feel yourself
weakening, knock twice on the floor with a chair.
ADOLPH. All right!--But don't go away. I must be sure that you are
in the next room.
GUSTAV. You can be quite sure of that. But don't get scared
afterward, when you watch me dissecting a human soul and laying
out its various parts on the table. They say it is rather hard on
a beginner, but once you have seen it done, you never want to miss
it.--And be sure to remember one thing: not a word about having
met me, or having made any new acquaintance whatever while she was
away. Not one word! And I'll discover her weak point by myself.
Hush, she has arrived--she is in her room now. She's humming to
herself. That means she is in a rage!--Now, straight in the back,
please! And sit down on that chair over there, so that she has to
sit here--then I can watch both of you at the same time.
ADOLPH. It's only fifteen minutes to dinner--and no new guests
have arrived--for I haven't heard the bell ring. That means we
shall be by ourselves--worse luck!
GUSTAV. Are you weak?
ADOLPH. I am nothing at all!--Yes, I am afraid of what is now
coming! But I cannot keep it from coming! The stone has been set
rolling--and it was not the first drop of water that started it--
nor wad it the last one--but all of them together.
GUSTAV. Let it roll then--for peace will come in no other way.
Good-bye for a while now! [Goes out]
(ADOLPH nods back at him. Until then he has been standing with the
photograph in his hand. Now he tears it up and flings the pieces
under the table. Then he sits down on a chair, pulls nervously at
his tie, runs his fingers through his hair, crumples his coat
lapel, and so on.)
TEKLA. [Enters, goes straight up to him and gives him a kiss; her
manner is friendly, frank, happy, and engaging] Hello, little
brother! How is he getting on?
ADOLPH. [Almost won over; speaking reluctantly and as if in jest]
What mischief have you been up to now that makes you come and kiss
me?
TEKLA. I'll tell you: I've spent an awful lot of money.
ADOLPH. You have had a good time then?
TEKLA. Very! But not exactly at that crèche meeting. That was
plain piffle, to tell the truth.--But what has little brother
found to divert himself with while his Pussy was away?
(Her eyes wander around the room as if she were looking for
somebody or sniffing something.)
ADOLPH. I've simply been bored.
TEKLA. And no company at all?
ADOLPH. Quite by myself.
TEKLA. [Watching him; she sits down on the sofa] Who has been
sitting here? ADOLPH. Over there? Nobody.
TEKLA. That's funny! The seat is still warm, and there is a hollow
here that looks as if it had been made by an elbow. Have you had
lady callers?
ADOLPH. I? You don't believe it, do you?
TEKLA. But you blush. I think little brother is not telling the
truth. Come and tell Pussy now what he has on his conscience.
(Draws him toward herself so that he sinks down with his head
resting in her lap.)
ADOLPH. You're a little devil--do you know that?
TEKLA. No, I don't know anything at all about myself.
ADOLPH. You never think about yourself, do you?
TEKLA. [Sniffing and taking notes] I think of nothing but myself--
I am a dreadful egoist. But what has made you turn so philosophical
all at once?
ADOLPH. Put your hand on my forehead.
TEKLA. [Prattling as if to a baby] Has he got ants in his head
again? Does he want me to take them away, does he? [Kisses him on
the forehead] There now! Is it all right now?
ADOLPH. Now it's all right. [Pause]
TEKLA. Well, tell me now what you have been doing to make the time
go? Have you painted anything?
ADOLPH. No, I am done with painting.
TEKLA. What? Done with painting?
ADOLPH. Yes, but don't scold me for it. How can I help it that I
can't paint any longer!
TEKLA. What do you mean to do then?
ADOLPH. I'll become a sculptor.
TEKLA. What a lot of brand new ideas again!
ADOLPH. Yes, but please don't scold! Look at that figure over
there.
TEKLA. [Uncovering the wax figure] Well, I declare!--Who is that
meant for?
ADOLPH. Guess!
TEKLA. Is it Pussy? Has he got no shame at all?
ADOLPH. Is it like?
TEKLA. How can I tell when there is no face?
ADOLPH. Yes, but there is so much else--that's beautiful!
TEKLA. [Taps him playfully on the cheek] Now he must keep still or
I'll have to kiss him.
ADOLPH. [Holding her back] Now, now!--Somebody might come!
TEKLA. Well, what do I care? Can't I kiss my own husband, perhaps?
Oh yes, that's my lawful right.
ADOLPH. Yes, but don't you know--in the hotel here, they don't
believe we are married, because we are kissing each other such a
lot. And it makes no difference that we quarrel now and then, for
lovers are said to do that also.
TEKLA. Well, but what's the use of quarrelling? Why can't he
always be as nice as he is now? Tell me now? Can't he try? Doesn't
he want us to be happy?
ADOLPH. Do I want it? Yes, but--
TEKLA. There we are again! Who has put it into his head that he is
not to paint any longer?
ADOLPH. Who? You are always looking for somebody else behind me
and my thoughts. Are you jealous?
TEKLA. Yes, I am. I'm afraid somebody might take him away from me.
ADOLPH. Are you really afraid of that? You who know that no other
woman can take your place, and that I cannot live without you!
TEKLA. Well, I am not afraid of the women--it's your friends that
fill your head with all sorts of notions.
ADOLPH. [Watching her] You are afraid then? Of what are you
afraid?
TEKLA. [Getting up] Somebody has been here. Who has been here?
ADOLPH. Don't you wish me to look at you?
TEKLA. Not in that way: it's not the way you are accustomed to
look at me.
ADOLPH. How was I looking at you then?
TEKLA. Way up under my eyelids.
ADOLPH. Under your eyelids--yes, I wanted to see what is behind
them.
TEKLA. See all you can! There is nothing that needs to be hidden.
But--you talk differently, too--you use expressions--[studying
him] you philosophise--that's what you do! [Approaches him
threateningly] Who has been here?
ADOLPH. Nobody but my physician.
TEKLA. Your physician? Who is he?
ADOLPH. That doctor from Strömstad.
TEKLA. What's his name?
ADOLPH. Sjöberg.
TEKLA. What did he have to say?
ADOLPH. He said--well--among other things he said--that I am on
the verge of epilepsy--
TEKLA. Among other things? What more did he say?
ADOLPH. Something very unpleasant.
TEKLA. Tell me!
ADOLPH. He forbade us to live as man and wife for a while.
TEKLA. Oh, that's it! Didn't I just guess it! They want to
separate us! That's what I have understood a long time!
ADOLPH. You can't have understood, because there was nothing to
understand.
TEKLA. Oh yes, I have!
ADOLPH. How can you see what doesn't exist, unless your fear of
something has stirred up your fancy into seeing what has never
existed? What is it you fear? That I might borrow somebody else's
eyes in order to see you as you are, and not as you seem to be?
TEKLA. Keep your imagination in check, Adolph! It is the beast
that dwells in man's soul.
ADOLPH. Where did you learn that? From those chaste young men on
the boat--did you?
TEKLA. [Not at all abashed] Yes, there is something to be learned
from youth also.
ADOLPH. I think you are already beginning to have a taste for
youth?
TEKLA. I have always liked youth. That's why I love you. Do you
object?
ADOLPH. No, but I should prefer to have no partners.
TEKLA. [Prattling roguishly] My heart is so big, little brother,
that there is room in it for many more than him.
ADOLPH. But little brother doesn't want any more brothers.
TEKLA. Come here to Pussy now and get his hair pulled because he
is jealous--no, envious is the right word for it!
(Two knocks with a chair are heard from the adjoining room, where
GUSTAV is.)
ADOLPH. No, I don't want to play now. I want to talk seriously.
TEKLA. [Prattling] Mercy me, does he want to talk seriously?
Dreadful, how serious he's become! [Takes hold of his head and
kisses him] Smile a little--there now!
ADOLPH. [Smiling against his will] Oh, you're the--I might almost
think you knew how to use magic!
TEKLA. Well, can't he see now? That's why he shouldn't start any
trouble--or I might use my magic to make him invisible!
ADOLPH. [Gets up] Will you sit for me a moment, Tekla? With the
side of your face this way, so that I can put a face on my figure.
TEKLA. Of course, I will.
[Turns her head so he can see her in profile.]
ADOLPH. [Gazes hard at her while pretending to work at the figure]
Don't think of me now--but of somebody else.
TEKLA. I'll think of my latest conquest.
ADOLPH. That chaste young man?
TEKLA. Exactly! He had a pair of the prettiest, sweetest
moustaches, and his cheek looked like a peach--it was so soft and
rosy that you just wanted to bite it.
ADOLPH. [Darkening] Please keep that expression about the mouth.
TEKLA. What expression?
ADOLPH. A cynical, brazen one that I have never seen before.
TEKLA. [Making a face] This one?
ADOLPH. Just that one! [Getting up] Do you know how Bret Harte
pictures an adulteress?
TEKLA. [Smiling] No, I have never read Bret Something.
ADOLPH. As a pale creature that cannot blush.
TEKLA. Not at all? But when she meets her lover, then she must
blush, I am sure, although her husband or Mr. Bret may not be
allowed to see it.
ADOLPH. Are you so sure of that?
TEKLA. [As before] Of course, as the husband is not capable of
bringing the blood up to her head, he cannot hope to behold the
charming spectacle.
ADOLPH. [Enraged] Tekla!
TEKLA. Oh, you little ninny!
ADOLPH. Tekla!
TEKLA. He should call her Pussy--then I might get up a pretty
little blush for his sake. Does he want me to?
ADOLPH. [Disarmed] You minx, I'm so angry with you, that I could
bite you!
TEKLA. [Playfully] Come and bite me then!--Come!
[Opens her arms to him.]
ADOLPH. [Puts his hands around her neck and kisses her] Yes, I'll
bite you to death!
TEKLA. [Teasingly] Look out--somebody might come!
ADOLPH. Well, what do I care! I care for nothing else in the world
if I can only have you!
TEKLA. And when, you don't have me any longer?
ADOLPH. Then I shall die!
TEKLA. But you are not afraid of losing me, are you--as I am too
old to be wanted by anybody else?
ADOLPH. You have not forgotten my words yet, Tekla! I take it all
back now!
TEKLA. Can you explain to me why you are at once so jealous and so
cock-sure?
ADOLPH. No, I cannot explain anything at all. But it's possible
that the thought of somebody else having possessed you may still
be gnawing within me. At times it appears to me as if our love
were nothing but a fiction, an attempt at self-defence, a passion
kept up as a matter of honor--and I can't think of anything that
would give me more pain than to have _him_ know that I am unhappy.
Oh, I have never seen him--but the mere thought that a person
exists who is waiting for my misfortune to arrive, who is daily
calling down curses on my head, who will roar with laughter when I
perish--the mere idea of it obsesses me, drives me nearer to you,
fascinates me, paralyses me!
TEKLA. Do you think I would let him have that joy? Do you think I
would make his prophecy come true?
ADOLPH. No, I cannot think you would.
TEKLA. Why don't you keep calm then?
ADOLPH. No, you upset me constantly by your coquetry. Why do you
play that kind of game?
TEKLA. It is no game. I want to be admired--that's all!
ADOLPH. Yes, but only by men!
TEKLA. Of course! For a woman is never admired by other women.
ADOLPH. Tell me, have you heard anything--from him--recently?
TEKLA. Not in the last sis months.
ADOLPH. Do you ever think of him?
TEKLA. No!--Since the child died we have broken off our
correspondence.
ADOLPH. And you have never seen him at all?
TEKLA. No, I understand he is living somewhere down on the West
Coast. But why is all this coming into your head just now?
ADOLPH. I don't know. But during the last few days, while I was
alone, I kept thinking of him--how he might have felt when he was
left alone that time.
TEKLA. Are you having an attack of bad conscience?
ADOLPH. I am.
TEKLA. You feel like a thief, do you?
ADOLPH. Almost!
TEKLA. Isn't that lovely! Women can be stolen as you steal
children or chickens? And you regard me as his chattel or personal
property. I am very much obliged to you!
ADOLPH. No, I regard you as his wife. And that's a good deal more
than property--for there can be no substitute. TEKLA. Oh, yes! If
you only heard that he had married again, all these foolish
notions would leave you.--Have you not taken his place with me?
ADOLPH. Well, have I?--And did you ever love him?
TEKLA. Of course, I did!
ADOLPH. And then--
TEKLA. I grew tired of him!
ADOLPH. And if you should tire of me also?
TEKLA. But I won't!
ADOLPH. If somebody else should turn up--one who had all the
qualities you are looking for in a man now--suppose only--then you
would leave me?
TEKLA. No.
ADOLPH. If he captivated you? So that you couldn't live without
him? Then you would leave me, of course?
TEKLA. No, that doesn't follow.
ADOLPH. But you couldn't love two at the same time, could you?
TEKLA. Yes! Why not?
ADOLPH. That's something I cannot understand.
TEKLA. But things exist although you do not understand them. All
persons are not made in the same way, you know.
ADOLPH. I begin to see now!
TEKLA. No, really!
ADOLPH. No, really? [A pause follows, during which he seems to
struggle with some--memory that will not come back] Do you know,
Tekla, that your frankness is beginning to be painful?
TEKLA. And yet it used to be my foremost virtue In your mind, and
one that you taught me.
ADOLPH. Yes, but it seems to me as if you were hiding something
behind that frankness of yours.
TEKLA. That's the new tactics, you know.
ADOLPH. I don't know why, but this place has suddenly become
offensive to me. If you feel like it, we might return home--this
evening!
TEKLA. What kind of notion is that? I have barely arrived and I
don't feel like starting on another trip.
ADOLPH. But I want to.
TEKLA. Well, what's that to me?--You can go!
ADOLPH. But I demand that you take the next boat with me!
TEKLA. Demand?--What arc you talking about?
ADOLPH. Do you realise that you are my wife?
TEKLA. Do you realise that you are my husband?
ADOLPH. Well, there's a difference between those two things.
TEKLA. Oh, that's the way you are talking now!--You have never
loved me!
ADOLPH. Haven't I?
TEKLA. No, for to love is to give.
ADOLPH. To love like a man is to give; to love like a woman is to
take.--And I have given, given, given!
TEKLA. Pooh! What have you given?
ADOLPH. Everything!
TEKLA. That's a lot! And if it be true, then I must have taken it.
Are you beginning to send in bills for your gifts now? And if I
have taken anything, this proves only my love for you. A woman
cannot receive anything except from her lover.
ADOLPH. Her lover, yes! There you spoke the truth! I have been
your lover, but never your husband.
TEKLA. Well, isn't that much more agreeable--to escape playing
chaperon? But if you are not satisfied with your position, I'll
send you packing, for I don't want a husband.
ADOLPH. No, that's what I have noticed. For a while ago, when you
began to sneak away from me like a thief with his booty, and when
you began to seek company of your own where you could flaunt my
plumes and display my gems, then I felt, like reminding you of
your debt. And at once I became a troublesome creditor whom you
wanted to get rid of. You wanted to repudiate your own notes, and
in order not to increase your debt to me, you stopped pillaging my
safe and began to try those of other people instead. Without
having done anything myself, I became to you merely the husband.
And now I am going to be your husband whether you like it or not,
as I am not allowed to be your lover any longer,
TEKLA. [Playfully] Now he shouldn't talk nonsense, the sweet
little idiot!
ADOLPH. Look out: it's dangerous to think everybody an idiot but
oneself!
TEKLA. But that's what everybody thinks.
ADOLPH. And I am beginning to suspect that he--your former
husband--was not so much of an idiot after all.
TEKLA. Heavens! Are you beginning to sympathise with--him?
ADOLPH. Yes, not far from it,
TEKLA. Well, well! Perhaps you would like to make his acquaintance
and pour out your overflowing heart to him? What a striking
picture! But I am also beginning to feel drawn to him, as I am
growing more and more tired of acting as wetnurse. For he was at
least a man, even though he had the fault of being married to me.
ADOLPH. There, you see! But you had better not talk so loud--we
might be overheard.
TEKLA. What would it matter if they took us for married people?
ADOLPH. So now you are getting fond of real male men also, and at
the same time you have a taste for chaste young men?
TEKLA. There are no limits to what I can like, as you may see. My
heart is open to everybody and everything, to the big and the
small, the handsome and the ugly, the new and the old--I love the
whole world.
ADOLPH. Do you know what that means?
TEKLA. No, I don't know anything at all. I just _feel_.
ADOLPH. It means that old age is near.
TEKLA. There you are again! Take care!
ADOLPH. Take care yourself!
TEKLA. Of what?
ADOLPH. Of the knife!
TEKLA. [Prattling] Little brother had better not play with such
dangerous things.
ADOLPH. I have quit playing.
TEKLA. Oh, it's earnest, is it? Dead earnest! Then I'll show you
that--you are mistaken. That is to say--you'll never see it, never
know it, but all the rest of the world will know It. And you'll
suspect it, you'll believe it, and you'll never have another
moment's peace. You'll have the feeling of being ridiculous, of
being deceived, but you'll never get any proof of it. For that's
what married men never get.
ADOLPH. You hate me then?
TEKLA. No, I don't. And I don't think I shall either. But that's
probably because you are nothing to me but a child.
ADOLPH. At this moment, yes. But do you remember how it was while
the storm swept over us? Then you lay there like an infant in arms
and just cried. Then you had to sit on my lap, and I had to kiss
your eyes to sleep. Then I had to be your nurse; had to see that
you fixed your hair before going out; had to send your shoes to
the cobbler, and see that there was food in the house. I had to
sit by your side, holding your hand for hours at a time: you were
afraid, afraid of the whole world, because you didn't have a
single friend, and because you were crushed by the hostility of
public opinion. I had to talk courage into you until my mouth was
dry and my head ached. I had to make myself believe that I was
strong. I had to force myself into believing in the future. And so
I brought you back to life, when you seemed already dead. Then you
admired me. Then I was the man--not that kind of athlete you had
just left, but the man of will-power, the mesmerist who instilled
new nervous energy into your flabby muscles and charged your empty
brain with a new store of electricity. And then I gave you back
your reputation. I brought you new friends, furnished you with a
little court of people who, for the sake of friendship to me, let
themselves be lured into admiring you. I set you to rule me and my
house. Then I painted my best pictures, glimmering with reds and
blues on backgrounds of gold, and there was not an exhibition then
where I didn't hold a place of honour. Sometimes you were St.
Cecilia, and sometimes Mary Stuart--or little Karin, whom King
Eric loved. And I turned public attention in your direction. I
compelled the clamorous herd to see yon with my own infatuated
vision. I plagued them with your personality, forced you literally
down their throats, until that sympathy which makes everything
possible became yours at last--and you could stand on your own
feet. When you reached that far, then my strength was used up, and
I collapsed from the overstrain--in lifting you up, I had pushed
myself down. I was taken ill, and my illness seemed an annoyance
to you at the moment when all life had just begun to smile at you--
and sometimes it seemed to me as if, in your heart, there was a
secret desire to get rid of your creditor and the witness of your
rise. Your love began to change into that of a grown-up sister,
and for lack of better I accustomed myself to the new part of
little brother. Your tenderness for me remained, and even
increased, but it was mingled with a suggestion of pity that had
in it a good deal of contempt. And this changed into open scorn as
my talent withered and your own sun rose higher. But in some
mysterious way the fountainhead of your inspiration seemed to dry
up when I could no longer replenish it--or rather when you wanted
to show its independence of me. And at last both of us began to
lose ground. And then you looked for somebody to put the blame on.
A new victim! For you are weak, and you can never carry your own
burdens of guilt and debt. And so you picked me for a scapegoat
and doomed me to slaughter. But when you cut my thews, you didn't
realise that you were also crippling yourself, for by this time
our years of common life had made twins of us. You were a shoot
sprung from my stem, and you wanted to cut yourself loose before
the shoot had put out roots of its own, and that's why you
couldn't grow by yourself. And my stem could not spare its main
branch--and so stem and branch must die together.
TEKLA. What you mean with all this, of course, is that you have
written my books.
ADOLPH. No, that's what you want me to mean in order to make me
out a liar. I don't use such crude expressions as you do, and I
spoke for something like five minutes to get in all the nuances,
all the halftones, all the transitions--but your hand-organ has
only a single note in it.
TEKLA. Yes, but the summary of the whole story is that you have
written my books.
ADOLPH. No, there is no summary. You cannot reduce a chord into a
single note. You cannot translate a varied life into a sum of one
figure. I have made no blunt statements like that of having
written your books.
TEKLA. But that's what you meant!
ADOLPH. [Beyond himself] I did not mean it.
TEKLA. But the sum of it--
ADOLPH. [Wildly] There can be no sum without an addition. You get
an endless decimal fraction for quotient when your division does
not work out evenly. I have not added anything.
TEKLA. But I can do the adding myself.
ADOLPH. I believe it, but then I am not doing it.
TEKLA. No. but that's what you wanted to do.
ADOLPH. [Exhausted, closing his eyes] No, no, no--don't speak to
me--you'll drive me into convulsions. Keep silent! Leave me alone!
You mutilate my brain with your clumsy pincers--you put your claws
into my thoughts and tear them to pieces!
(He seems almost unconscious and sits staring straight ahead while
his thumbs are bent inward against the palms of his hands.)
TEKLA. [Tenderly] What is it? Are you sick?
(ADOLPH motions her away.)
TEKLA. Adolph!
(ADOLPH shakes his head at her.)
TEKLA. Adolph.
ADOLPH. Yes.
TEKLA. Do you admit that you were unjust a moment ago?
ADOLPH. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I admit!
TEKLA. And do you ask my pardon?
ADOLPH. Yes, yes, yes, I ask your pardon--if you only won't speak
to me!
TEKLA. Kiss my hand then!
ADOLPH. [Kissing her hand] I'll kiss your hand--if you only don't
speak to me!
TEKLA. And now you had better go out for a breath of fresh air
before dinner.
ADOLPH. Yes, I think I need it. And then we'll pack and leave.
TEKLA. No!
ADOLPH. [On his feet] Why? There must be a reason.
TEKLA. The reason is that I have promised to be at the concert to-
night.
ADOLPH. Oh, that's it!
TEKLA. Yes, that's it. I have promised to attend--
ADOLPH. Promised? Probably you said only that you might go, and
that wouldn't prevent you from saying now that you won't go.
TEKLA. No, I am not like you: I keep my word.
ADOLPH. Of course, promises should be kept, but we don't have to
live up to every little word we happen to drop. Perhaps there is
somebody who has made you promise to go.
TEKLA. Yes.
ADOLPH. Then you can ask to be released from your promise because
your husband is sick.
TEKLA, No, I don't want to do that, and you are not sick enough to
be kept from going with me.
ADOLPH. Why do you always want to drag me along? Do you feel safer
then?
TEKLA. I don't know what you mean.
ADOLPH. That's what you always say when you know I mean something
that--doesn't please you.
TEKLA. So-o! What is it now that doesn't please me?
ADOLPH. Oh, I beg you, don't begin over again--Good-bye for a
while!
(Goes out through the door in the rear and then turns to the
right.)
(TEKLA is left alone. A moment later GUSTAV enters and goes
straight up to the table as if looking for a newspaper. He
pretends not to see TEKLA.)
TEKLA. [Shows agitation, but manages to control herself] Oh, is it
you?
GUSTAV. Yes, it's me--I beg your pardon!
TEKLA. Which way did you come?
GUSTAV. By land. But--I am not going to stay, as--
TEKLA. Oh, there is no reason why you shouldn't.--Well, it was
some time ago--
GUSTAV. Yes, some time.
TEKLA. You have changed a great deal.
GUSTAV. And you are as charming as ever, A little younger, if
anything. Excuse me, however--I am not going to spoil your
happiness by my presence. And if I had known you were here, I
should never--
TEKLA. If you don't think it improper, I should like you to stay.
GUSTAV. On my part there could be no objection, but I fear--well,
whatever I say, I am sure to offend you.
TEKLA. Sit down a moment. You don't offend me, for you possess
that rare gift--which was always yours--of tact and politeness.
GUSTAV. It's very kind of you. But one could hardly expect--that
your husband might regard my qualities in the same generous light
as you.
TEKLA. On the contrary, he has just been speaking of you in very
sympathetic terms.
GUSTAV. Oh!--Well, everything becomes covered up by time, like
names cut in a tree--and not even dislike can maintain itself
permanently in our minds.
TEKLA. He has never disliked you, for he has never seen you. And
as for me, I have always cherished a dream--that of seeing you
come together as friends--or at least of seeing you meet for once
in my presence--of seeing you shake hands--and then go your
different ways again.
GUSTAV. It has also been my secret longing to see her whom I used
to love more than my own life--to make sure that she was in good
hands. And although I have heard nothing but good of him, and am
familiar with all his work, I should nevertheless have liked,
before it grew too late, to look into his eyes and beg him to take
good care of the treasure Providence has placed in his possession.
In that way I hoped also to lay the hatred that must have
developed instinctively between us; I wished to bring some peace
and humility into my soul, so that I might manage to live through
the rest of my sorrowful days.
TEKLA. You have uttered my own thoughts, and you have understood
me. I thank you for it!
GUSTAV. Oh, I am a man of small account, and have always been too
insignificant to keep you in the shadow. My monotonous way of
living, my drudgery, my narrow horizons--all that could not
satisfy a soul like yours, longing for liberty. I admit it. But
you understand--you who have searched the human soul--what it cost
me to make such a confession to myself.
TEKLA. It is noble, it is splendid, to acknowledge one's own
shortcomings--and it's not everybody that's capable of it. [Sighs]
But yours has always been an honest, and faithful, and reliable
nature--one that I had to respect--but--
GUSTAV. Not always--not at that time! But suffering purifies,
sorrow ennobles, and--I have suffered!
TEKLA. Poor Gustav! Can you forgive me? Tell me, can you?
GUSTAV. Forgive? What? I am the one who must ask you to forgive.
TEKLA. [Changing tone] I believe we are crying, both of us--we who
are old enough to know better!
GUSTAV. [Feeling his way] Old? Yes, I am old. But you--you grow
younger every day.
(He has by that time manoeuvred himself up to the chair on the
left and sits down on it, whereupon TEKLA sits down on the sofa.)
TEKLA. Do you think so?
GUSTAV. And then you know how to dress.
TEKLA. I learned that from you. Don't you remember how you figured
out what colors would be most becoming to me?
GUSTAV. No.
TEKLA. Yes, don't you remember--hm!--I can even recall how you
used to be angry with me whenever I failed to have at least a
touch of crimson about my dress.
GUSTAV. No, not angry! I was never angry with you.
TEKLA. Oh, yes, when you wanted to teach me how to think--do you
remember? For that was something I couldn't do at all.
GUSTAV. Of course, you could. It's something every human being
does. And you have become quite keen at it--at least when you
write.
TEKLA. [Unpleasantly impressed; hurrying her words] Well, my dear
Gustav, it is pleasant to see you anyhow, and especially in a
peaceful way like this.
GUSTAV. Well, I can hardly be called a troublemaker, and you had a
pretty peaceful time with me.
TEKLA. Perhaps too much so.
GUSTAV. Oh! But you see, I thought you wanted me that way. It was
at least the impression you gave me while we were engaged.
TEKLA. Do you think one really knows what one wants at that time?
And then the mammas insist on all kinds of pretensions, of course.
GUSTAV. Well, now you must be having all the excitement you can
wish. They say that life among artists is rather swift, and I
don't think your husband can be called a sluggard.
TEKLA. You can get too much of a good thing.
GUSTAV. [Trying a new tack] What! I do believe you are still
wearing the ear-rings I gave you?
TEKLA. [Embarrassed] Why not? There was never any quarrel between
us--and then I thought I might wear them as a token--and a
reminder--that we were not enemies. And then, you know, it is
impossible to buy this kind of ear-rings any longer. [Takes off
one of her ear-rings.]
GUSTAV. Oh, that's all right, but what does your husband say of
it?
TEKLA. Why should I mind what he says?
GUSTAV. Don't you mind that?--But you may be doing him an injury.
It is likely to make him ridiculous.
TEKLA. [Brusquely, as if speaking to herself almost] He was that
before!
GUSTAV. [Rises when he notes her difficulty in putting back the
ear-ring] May I help you, perhaps?
TEKLA. Oh--thank you!
GUSTAV. [Pinching her ear] That tiny ear!--Think only if your
husband could see us now!
TEKLA. Wouldn't he howl, though!
GUSTAV. Is he jealous also?
TEKLA. Is he? I should say so!
[A noise is heard from the room on the right.]
GUSTAV. Who lives in that room?
TEKLA. I don't know.--But tell me how you are getting along and
what you are doing?
GUSTAV. Tell me rather how you are getting along?
(TEKLA is visibly confused, and without realising what she is
doing, she takes the cover off the wax figure.)
GUSTAV. Hello! What's that?--Well!--It must be you!
TEKLA. I don't believe so.
GUSTAV. But it is very like you.
TEKLA. [Cynically] Do you think so?
GUSTAV. That reminds me of the story--you know it--"How could
your majesty see that?"
TEKLA, [Laughing aloud] You are impossible!--Do you know any new
stories?
GUSTAV. No, but you ought to have some.
TEKLA. Oh, I never hear anything funny nowadays.
GUSTAV. Is he modest also?
TEKLA. Oh--well--
GUSTAV. Not an everything?
TEKLA. He isn't well just now.
GUSTAV. Well, why should little brother put his nose into other
people's hives?
TEKLA. [Laughing] You crazy thing!
GUSTAV. Poor chap!--Do you remember once when we were just
married--we lived in this very room. It was furnished differently
in those days. There was a chest of drawers against that wall
there--and over there stood the big bed.
TEKLA. Now you stop!
GUSTAV. Look at me!
TEKLA. Well, why shouldn't I?
[They look hard at each other.]
GUSTAV. Do you think a person can ever forget anything that has
made a very deep impression on him?
TEKLA. No! And our memories have a tremendous power. Particularly
the memories of our youth.
GUSTAV. Do you remember when I first met you? Then you were a
pretty little girl: a slate on which parents and governesses had
made a few scrawls that I had to wipe out. And then I filled it
with inscriptions that suited my own mind, until you believed the
slate could hold nothing more. That's the reason, you know, why I
shouldn't care to be in your husband's place--well, that's his
business! But it's also the reason why I take pleasure in meeting
you again. Our thoughts fit together exactly. And as I sit here
and chat with you, it seems to me like drinking old wine of my own
bottling. Yes, it's my own wine, but it has gained a great deal in
flavour! And now, when I am about to marry again, I have purposely
picked out a young girl whom I can educate to suit myself. For the
woman, you know, is the man's child, and if she is not, he becomes
hers, and then the world turns topsy-turvy.
TEKLA. Are you going to marry again?
GUSTAV. Yes, I want to try my luck once more, but this time I am
going to make a better start, so that it won't end again with a
spill.
TEKLA. Is she good looking?
GUSTAV. Yes, to me. But perhaps I am too old. It's queer--now when
chance has brought me together with you again--I am beginning to
doubt whether it will be possible to play the game over again.
TEKLA. How do you mean?
GUSTAV. I can feel that my roots stick in your soil, and the old
wounds are beginning to break open. You are a dangerous woman,
Tekla!
TEKLA. Am I? And my young husband says that I can make no more
conquests.
GUSTAV. That means he has ceased to love you.
TEKLA. Well, I can't quite make out what love means to him.
GUSTAV. You have been playing hide and seek so long that at last
you cannot find each other at all. Such things do happen. You have
had to play the innocent to yourself, until he has lost his
courage. There _are_ some drawbacks to a change, I tell you--there
are drawbacks to it, indeed.
TEKLA. Do you mean to reproach--
GUSTAV. Not at all! Whatever happens is to a certain extent
necessary, for if it didn't happen, something else would--but now
it did happen, and so it had to happen.
TEKLA. _You_ are a man of discernment. And I have never met anybody
with whom I liked so much to exchange ideas. You are so utterly
free from all morality and preaching, and you ask so little of
people, that it is possible to be oneself in your presence. Do you
know, I am jealous of your intended wife!
GUSTAV. And do you realise that I am jealous of your husband?
TEKLA. [Rising] And now we must part! Forever!
GUSTAV. Yes, we must part! But not without a farewell--or what do
you say?
TEKLA. [Agitated] No!
GUSTAV. [Following after her] Yes!--Let us have a farewell! Let us
drown our memories--you know, there are intoxications so deep that
when you wake up all memories are gone. [Putting his arm around
her waist] You have been dragged down by a diseased spirit, who is
infecting you with his own anaemia. I'll breathe new life into
you. I'll make your talent blossom again in your autumn days, like
a remontant rose. I'll---
(Two LADIES in travelling dress are seen in the doorway leading to
the veranda. They look surprised. Then they point at those within,
laugh, and disappear.)
TEKLA. [Freeing herself] Who was that?
GUSTAV. [Indifferently] Some tourists.
TEKLA. Leave me alone! I am afraid of you!
GUSTAV. Why?
TEKLA. You take my soul away from me!
GUSTAV. And give you my own in its place! And you have no soul for
that matter--it's nothing but a delusion.
TEKLA. You have a way of saying impolite things so that nobody can
be angry with you.
GUSTAV. It's because you feel that I hold the first mortgage on
you--Tell me now, when--and--where?
TEKLA. No, it wouldn't be right to him. I think he is still in
love with me, and I don't want to do any more harm.
GUSTAV. He does not love you! Do you want proofs?
TEKLA, Where can you get them?
GUSTAV. [Picking up the pieces of the photograph from the floor]
Here! See for yourself!
TEKLA. Oh, that's an outrage!
GUSTAV. Do you see? Now then, when? And where?
TEKLA. The false-hearted wretch!
GUSTAV. When?
TEKLA. He leaves to-night, with the eight-o'clock boat.
GUSTAV. And then--
TEKLA. At nine! [A noise is heard from the adjoining room] Who can
be living in there that makes such a racket?
GUSTAV. Let's see! [Goes over and looks through the keyhole]
There's a table that has been upset, and a smashed water caraffe--
that's all! I shouldn't wonder if they had left a dog locked up in
there.--At nine o'clock then?
TEKLA. All right! And let him answer for it himself.--What a depth
of deceit! And he who has always preached about truthfulness,
and tried to teach me to tell the truth!--But wait a little—how
was it now? He received me with something like hostility--didn't
meet me at the landing--and then--and then he made some remark
about young men on board the boat, which I pretended not to hear—-
but how could he know? Wait--and then he began to philosophise
about women--and then the spectre of you seemed to be haunting
him--and he talked of becoming a sculptor, that being the art
of the time--exactly in accordance with your old speculations!
GUSTAV. No, really!
TEKLA. No, really?--Oh, now I understand! Now I begin to see what
a hideous creature you are! You have been here before and stabbed
him to death! It was you who had been sitting there on the sofa;
it was you who made him think himself an epileptic--that he had to
live in celibacy; that he ought to rise in rebellion against his
wife; yes, it was you!--How long have you been here?
GUSTAV. I have been here a week.
TEKLA. It was you, then, I saw on board the boat?
GUSTAV. It was.
TEKLA. And now you were thinking you could trap me?
GUSTAV. It has been done.
TEKLA. Not yet!
GUSTAV. Yes!
TEKLA. Like a wolf you went after my lamb. You came here with a
villainous plan to break up my happiness, and you were carrying it
out, when my eyes were opened, and I foiled you.
GUSTAV. Not quite that way, if you please. This is how it happened
in reality. Of course, it has been my secret hope that disaster
might overtake you. But I felt practically certain that no
interference on my part was required. And besides, I have been far
too busy to have any time left for intriguing. But when I happened
to be moving about a bit, and happened to see you with those young
men on board the boat, then I guessed the time had come for me to
take a look at the situation. I came here, and your lamb threw
itself into the arms of the wolf. I won his affection by some sort
of reminiscent impression which I shall not be tactless enough to
explain to you. At first he aroused my sympathy, because he seemed
to be in the same fix as I was once. But then he happened to touch
old wounds--that book, you know, and "the idiot"--and I was seized
with a wish to pick him to pieces, and to mix up these so
thoroughly that they couldn't be put together again--and I
succeeded, thanks to the painstaking way in which you had done the
work of preparation. Then I had to deal with you. For you were the
spring that had kept the works moving, and you had to be taken
apart--and what a buzzing followed!--When I came in here, I didn't
know exactly what to say. Like a chess-player, I had laid a number
of tentative plans, of course, but my play had to depend on your
moves. One thing led to the other, chance lent me a hand, and
finally I had you where I wanted you.--Now you are caught!
TEKLA. No!
GUSTAV. Yes, you are! What you least wanted has happened. The
world at large, represented by two lady tourists--whom I had not
sent for, as I am not an intriguer--the world has seen how you
became reconciled to your former husband, and how you sneaked back
repentantly into his faithful arms. Isn't that enough?
TEKLA. It ought to be enough for your revenge--But tell me, how
can you, who are so enlightened and so right-minded--how is it
possible that you, who think whatever happens must happen, and
that all our actions are determined in advance--
GUSTAV. [Correcting her] To a certain extent determined.
TEKLA. That's the same thing!
GUSTAV. No!
TEKLA. [Disregarding him] How is it possible that you, who hold me
guiltless, as I was driven by my nature and the circumstances into
acting as I did--how can you think yourself entitled to revenge--?
GUSTAV. For that very reason--for the reason that my nature and
the circumstances drove me into seeking revenge. Isn't that giving
both sides a square deal? But do you know why you two had to get
the worst of it in this struggle?
(TEKLA looks scornful.)
GUSTAV. And why you were doomed to be fooled? Because I am
stronger than you, and wiser also. You have been the idiot--and
he! And now you may perceive that a man need not be an idiot
because he doesn't write novels or paint pictures. It might be
well for you to bear this in mind.
TEKLA. Are you then entirely without feelings?
GUSTAV. Entirely! And for that very reason, you know, I am capable
of thinking--in which you have had no experience whatever-and of
acting--in which you have just had some slight experience.
TEKLA. And all this merely because I have hurt your vanity?
GUSTAV. Don't call that MERELY! You had better not go around
hurting other people's vanity. They have no more sensitive spot
than that.
TEKLA. Vindictive wretch--shame on you!
GUSTAV. Dissolute wretch--shame on you!
TEKLA. Oh, that's my character, is it?
GUSTAV. Oh, that's my character, is it?--You ought to learn
something about human nature in others before you give your own
nature free rein. Otherwise you may get hurt, and then there will
be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
TEKLA. You can never forgive:--
GUSTAV. Yes, I have forgiven you!
TEKLA. You!
GUSTAV. Of course! Have I raised a hand against you during all
these years? No! And now I came here only to have a look at you,
and it was enough to burst your bubble. Have I uttered a single
reproach? Have I moralised or preached sermons? No! I played a
joke or two on your dear consort, and nothing more was needed to
finish him.--But there is no reason why I, the complainant,
should be defending myself as I am now--Tekla! Have you nothing at
all to reproach yourself with?
TEKLA. Nothing at all! Christians say that our actions are
governed by Providence; others call it Fate; in either case, are
we not free from all liability?
GUSTAV. In a measure, yes; but there is always a narrow margin
left unprotected, and there the liability applies in spite of all.
And sooner or later the creditors make their appearance.
Guiltless, but accountable! Guiltless in regard to one who is no
more; accountable to oneself and one's fellow beings.
TEKLA. So you came here to dun me?
GUSTAV. I came to take back what you had stolen, not what you had
received as a gift. You had stolen my honour, and I could recover
it only by taking yours. This, I think, was my right--or was it
not?
TEKLA. Honour? Hm! And now you feel satisfied?
GUSTAV. Now I feel satisfied. [Rings for a waiter.]
TEKLA. And now you are going home to your fiancee?
GUSTAV. I have no fiancee! Nor am I ever going to have one. I am
not going home, for I have no home, and don't want one.
(A WAITER comes in.)
GUSTAV. Get me my bill--I am leaving by the eight o'clock boat.
(THE WAITER bows and goes out.)
TEKLA. Without making up?
GUSTAV. Making up? You use such a lot of words that have lost
their--meaning. Why should we make up? Perhaps you want all three
of us to live together? You, if anybody, ought to make up by
making good what you took away, but this you cannot do. You just
took, and what you took you consumed, so that there is nothing
left to restore.--Will it satisfy you if I say like this: forgive
me that you tore my heart to pieces; forgive me that you disgraced
me; forgive me that you made me the laughing-stock of my pupils
through every week-day of seven long years; forgive me that I set
you free from parental restraints, that I released you from the
tyranny of ignorance and superstition, that I set you to rule my
house, that I gave you position and friends, that I made a woman
out of the child you were before? Forgive me as I forgive you!--
Now I have torn up your note! Now you can go and settle your
account with the other one!
TEKLA. What have you done with him? I am beginning to suspect--
something terrible!
GUSTAV. With him? Do you still love him?
TEKLA. Yes!
GUSTAV. And a moment ago it was me! Was that also true?
TEKLA. It was true.
GUSTAV. Do you know what you are then?
TEKLA. You despise me?
GUSTAV. I pity you. It is a trait--I don't call it a fault--just
a trait, which is rendered disadvantageous by its results. Poor
Tekla! I don't know--but it seems almost as if I were feeling a
certain regret, although I am as free from any guilt--as you! But
perhaps it will be useful to you to feel what I felt that time.--
Do you know where your husband is?
TEKLA. I think I know now--he is in that room in there! And he has
heard everything! And seen everything! And the man who sees his
own wraith dies!
(ADOLPH appears in the doorway leading to the veranda. His face is
white as a sheet, and there is a bleeding scratch on one cheek.
His eyes are staring and void of all expression. His lips are
covered with froth.)
GUSTAV. [Shrinking back] No, there he is!--Now you can settle with
him and see if he proves as generous as I have been.--Good-bye!
(He goes toward the left, but stops before he reaches the door.)
TEKLA. [Goes to meet ADOLPH with open arms] Adolph!
(ADOLPH leans against the door-jamb and sinks gradually to the
floor.)
TEKLA. [Throwing herself upon his prostrate body and caressing
him] Adolph! My own child! Are you still alive--oh, speak, speak!--
Please forgive your nasty Tekla! Forgive me, forgive me, forgive
me!--Little brother must say something, I tell him!--No, good God,
he doesn't hear! He is dead! O God in heaven! O my God! Help!
GUSTAV. Why, she really must have loved _him_, too!--Poor creature!
(Curtain.)
PARIAH
INTRODUCTION
Both "Creditors" and "Pariah" were written in the winter of 1888-
89 at Holte, near Copenhagen, where Strindberg, assisted by his
first wife, was then engaged in starting what he called a
"Scandinavian Experimental Theatre." In March, 1889, the two plays
were given by students from the University of Copenhagen, and with
Mrs. von Essen Strindberg as _Tekla_. A couple of weeks later the
performance was repeated across the Sound, in the Swedish city of
Malmö, on which occasion the writer of this introduction, then a
young actor, assisted in the stage management. One of the actors
was Gustav Wied, a Danish playwright and novelist, whose exquisite
art since then has won him European fame. In the audience was Ola
Hansson, a Swedish novelist and poet who had just published a
short story from which Strindberg, according to his own
acknowledgment on playbill and title-page, had taken the name and
the theme of "Pariah."
Mr. Hansson has printed a number of letters (_Tilskueren_,
Copenhagen, July, 1912) written to him by Strindberg about that
time, as well as some very informative comments of his own.
Concerning the performance of Malmö he writes: "It gave me a very
unpleasant sensation. What did it mean? Why had Strindberg turned
my simple theme upsidedown so that it became unrecognisable? Not a
vestige of the 'theme from Ola Hansson' remained. Yet he had even
suggested that he and I act the play together, I not knowing that
it was to be a duel between two criminals. And he had at first
planned to call it 'Aryan and Pariah'--which meant, of course,
that the strong Aryan, Strindberg, was to crush the weak Pariah,
Hansson, _coram populo_."
In regard to his own story Mr. Hansson informs us that it dealt
with "a man who commits a forgery and then tells about it, doing
both in a sort of somnambulistic state whereby everything is left
vague and undefined." At that moment "Raskolnikov" was in the air,
so to speak. And without wanting in any way to suggest imitation,
I feel sure that the groundnote of the story was distinctly
Dostoievskian. Strindberg himself had been reading Nietzsche and
was--largely under the pressure of a reaction against the popular
disapproval of his anti-feministic attitude--being driven more and
more into a superman philosophy which reached its climax in the
two novels "Chandalah" (1889) and "At the Edge of the Sea" (1890).
The Nietzschean note is unmistakable in the two plays contained in
the present volume.
But these plays are strongly colored by something else--by
something that is neither Hansson-Dostoievski nor Strindberg-
Nietzsche. The solution of the problem is found in the letters
published by Mr. Hansson. These show that while Strindberg was
still planning "Creditors," and before he had begun "Pariah," he
had borrowed from Hansson a volume of tales by Edgar Allan Poe. It
was his first acquaintance with the work of Poe, though not with
American literature--for among his first printed work was a
series of translations from American humourists; and not long ago
a Swedish critic (Gunnar Castrén in _Samtiden_, Christiania, June,
1912) wrote of Strindberg's literary beginnings that "he had
learned much from Swedish literature, but probably more from Mark
Twain and Dickens."
The impression Poe made on Strindberg was overwhelming. He returns
to it in one letter after another. Everything that suits his mood
of the moment is "Poesque" or "E. P-esque." The story that seems
to have made the deepest impression of all was "The Gold Bug,"
though his thought seems to have distilled more useful material
out of certain other stories illustrating Poe's theories about
mental suggestion. Under the direct influence of these theories,
Strindberg, according to his own statements to Hansson, wrote the
powerful one-act play "Simoom," and made _Gustav_ in "Creditors"
actually _call forth_ the latent epileptic tendencies in _Adolph_.
And on the same authority we must trace the method of: psychological
detection practised by _Mr. X._ in "Pariah" directly to "The Gold
Bug."
Here we have the reason why Mr. Hansson could find so little of
his story in the play. And here we have the origin of a theme
which, while not quite new to him, was ever afterward to remain a
favourite one with Strindberg: that of a duel between intellect
and cunning. It forms the basis of such novels as "Chandalah" and
"At the Edge of the Sea," but it recurs in subtler form in works
of much later date. To readers of the present day, _Mr. X._--that
striking antithesis of everything a scientist used to stand for in
poetry--is much less interesting as a superman _in spe_ than as an
illustration of what a morally and mentally normal man can do with
the tools furnished him by our new understanding of human ways and
human motives. And in giving us a play that holds our interest as
firmly as the best "love plot" ever devised, although the stage
shows us only two men engaged in an intellectual wrestling match,
Strindberg took another great step toward ridding the drama of its
old, shackling conventions.
The name of this play has sometimes been translated as "The
Outcast," whereby it becomes confused with "The Outlaw," a much
earlier play on a theme from the old Sagas. I think it better,
too, that the Hindu allusion in the Swedish title be not lost, for
the best of men may become an outcast, but the baseness of the
Pariah is not supposed to spring only from lack of social
position.
PARIAH
AN ACT
1889
PERSONS
MR. X., an archaeologist, Middle-aged man.
MR. Y., an American traveller, Middle-aged man.
SCENE
(A simply furnished room in a farmhouse. The door and the windows
in the background open on a landscape. In the middle of the room
stands a big dining-table, covered at one end by books, writing
materials, and antiquities; at the other end, by a microscope,
insect cases, and specimen jars full of alchohol.)
(On the left side hangs a bookshelf. Otherwise the furniture is
that of a well-to-do farmer.)
(MR. Y. enters in his shirt-sleeves, carrying a butterfly-net and
a botany-can. He goes straight up to the bookshelf and takes down
a book, which he begins to read on the spot.)
(The landscape outside and the room itself are steeped in
sunlight. The ringing of church bells indicates that the morning
services are just over. Now and then the cackling of hens is heard
from the outside.)
(MR. X. enters, also in his shirt-sleeves.)
(MR. Y. starts violently, puts the book back on the shelf
upside-down, and pretends to be looking for another volume.)
MR. X. This heat is horrible. I guess we are going to have a
thunderstorm.
MR. Y. What makes you think so?
MR. X. The bells have a kind of dry ring to them, the flies are
sticky, and the hens cackle. I meant to go fishing, but I couldn't
find any worms. Don't you feel nervous?
MR. Y. [Cautiously] I?--A little.
MR. X. Well, for that matter, you always look as if you were
expecting thunderstorms.
MR. Y. [With a start] Do I?
MR. X. Now, you are going away tomorrow, of course, so it is not
to be wondered at that you are a little "journey-proud."--
Anything new?--Oh, there's the mail! [Picks up some letters from
the table] My, I have palpitation of the heart every time I open a
letter! Nothing but debts, debts, debts! Have you ever had any
debts?
MR. Y. [After some reflection] N-no.
MR. X. Well, then you don't know what it means to receive a lot of
overdue bills. [Reads one of the letters] The rent unpaid--the
landlord acting nasty--my wife in despair. And here am I sitting
waist-high in gold! [He opens an iron-banded box that stands on
the table; then both sit down at the table, facing each other]
Just look--here I have six thousand crowns' worth of gold which I
have dug up in the last fortnight. This bracelet alone would bring
me the three hundred and fifty crowns I need. And with all of it I
might make a fine career for myself. Then I could get the
illustrations made for my treatise at once; I could get my work
printed, and--I could travel! Why don't I do it, do you suppose?
MR. Y. I suppose you are afraid to be found out.
MR. X. That, too, perhaps. But don't you think an intelligent
fellow like myself might fix matters so that he was never found
out? I am alone all the time--with nobody watching me--while I am
digging out there in the fields. It wouldn't be strange if I put
something in my own pockets now and then.
MR. Y. Yes, but the worst danger lies in disposing of the stuff.
MR. X. Pooh! I'd melt it down, of course--every bit of it--and
then I'd turn it into coins--with just as much gold in them as
genuine ones, of course--
MR. Y. Of course!
MR. X. Well, you can easily see why. For if I wanted to dabble in
counterfeits, then I need not go digging for gold first. [Pause]
It is a strange thing anyhow, that if anybody else did what I
cannot make myself do, then I'd be willing to acquit him--but I
couldn't possibly acquit myself. I might even make a brilliant
speech in defence of the thief, proving that this gold was _res
nullius_, or nobody's, as it had been deposited at a time when
property rights did not yet exist; that even under existing rights
it could belong only to the first finder of it, as the ground-owner
has never included it in the valuation of his property; and so on.
MR. Y. And probably it would be much easier for you to do this if
the--hm!--the thief had not been prompted by actual need, but by a
mania for collecting, for instance--or by scientific aspirations--
by the ambition to keep a discovery to himself. Don't you think
so?
MR. X. You mean that I could not acquit him if actual need had
been the motive? Yes, for that's the only motive which the law
will not accept in extenuation. That motive makes a plain theft of
it.
MR. Y. And this you couldn't excuse?
MR. X. Oh, excuse--no, I guess not, as the law wouldn't. On the
other hand, I must admit that it would be hard for me to charge a
collector with theft merely because he had appropriated some
specimen not yet represented in his own collection.
MR. Y. So that vanity or ambition might excuse what could not be
excused by need?
MR. X. And yet need ought to be the more telling excuse--the only
one, in fact? But I feel as I have said. And I can no more change
this feeling than I can change my own determination not to steal
under any circumstances whatever.
MR. Y. And I suppose you count it a great merit that you cannot--
hm!--steal?
MR. X. No, my disinclination to steal is just as irresistible as
the inclination to do so is irresistible with some people. So it
cannot be called a merit. I cannot do it, and the other one cannot
refrain!--But you understand, of course, that I am not without a
desire to own this gold. Why don't I take it then? Because I
cannot! It's an inability--and the lack of something cannot be
called a merit. There!
[Closes the box with a slam. Stray clouds have cast their shadows
on the landscape and darkened the room now and then. Now it grows
quite dark as when a thunderstorm is approaching.]
MR. X. How close the air is! I guess the storm is coming all
right.
[MR. Y. gets up and shuts the door and all the windows.]
MR. X. Are you afraid of thunder?
MR. Y. It's just as well to be careful.
(They resume their seats at the table.)
MR. X. You're a curious chap! Here you come dropping down like a
bomb a fortnight ago, introducing yourself as a Swedish-American
who is collecting flies for a small museum--
MR. Y. Oh, never mind me now!
MR. X. That's what you always say when I grow tired of talking
about myself and want to turn my attention to you. Perhaps that
was the reason why I took to you as I did--because you let me
talk about myself? All at once we seemed like old friends. There
were no angles about you against which I could bump myself, no
pins that pricked. There was something soft about your whole
person, and you overflowed with that tact which only well-educated
people know how to show. You never made a noise when you came home
late at night or got up early in the morning. You were patient in
small things, and you gave in whenever a conflict seemed
threatening. In a word, you proved yourself the perfect companion!
But you were entirely too compliant not to set me wondering about
you in the long run--and you are too timid, too easily frightened.
It seems almost as if you were made up of two different
personalities. Why, as I sit here looking at your back in the
mirror over there--it is as if I were looking at somebody else.
(MR. Y. turns around and stares at the mirror.)
MR. X. No, you cannot get a glimpse of your own back, man!--In
front you appear like a fearless sort of fellow, one meeting his
fate with bared breast, but from behind--really, I don't want to
be impolite, but--you look as if you were carrying a burden, or as
if you were crouching to escape a raised stick. And when I look at
that red cross your suspenders make on your white shirt--well, it
looks to me like some kind of emblem, like a trade-mark on a
packing-box--
MR. Y. I feel as if I'd choke--if the storm doesn't break soon--
MR. X. It's coming--don't you worry!--And your neck! It looks as
if there ought to be another kind of face on top of it, a face
quite different in type from yours. And your ears come so close
together behind that sometimes I wonder what race you belong to.
[A flash of lightning lights up the room] Why, it looked as if
that might have struck the sheriff's house!
MR. Y. [Alarmed] The sheriff's!
MR. X. Oh, it just looked that way. But I don't think we'll get
much of this storm. Sit down now and let us have a talk, as you
are going away to-morrow. One thing I find strange is that you,
with whom I have become so intimate in this short time--that yon
are one of those whose image I cannot call up when I am away from
them. When you are not here, and I happen to think of you, I
always get the vision of another acquaintance--one who does not
resemble you, but with whom you have certain traits in common.
MR. Y. Who is he?
MR. X. I don't want to name him, but--I used for several years to
take my meals at a certain place, and there, at the side-table
where they kept the whiskey and the otter preliminaries, I met a
little blond man, with blond, faded eyes. He had a wonderful
faculty for making his way through a crowd, without jostling
anybody or being jostled himself. And from his customary place
down by the door he seemed perfectly able to reach whatever he
wanted on a table that stood some six feet away from him. He
seemed always happy just to be in company. But when he met anybody
he knew, then the joy of it made him roar with laughter, and he
would hug and pat the other fellow as if he hadn't seen a human
face for years. When anybody stepped on his foot, he smiled as if
eager to apologise for being in the way. For two years I watched
him and amused myself by guessing at his occupation and character.
But I never asked who he was; I didn't want to know, you see, for
then all the fun would have been spoiled at once. That man had
just your quality of being indefinite. At different times I made
him out to be a teacher who had never got his licence, a non-
commissioned officer, a druggist, a government clerk, a detective--
and like you, he looked as if made out of two pieces, for the
front of him never quite fitted the back. One day I happened to
read in a newspaper about a big forgery committed by a well-known
government official. Then I learned that my indefinite gentleman
had been a partner of the forger's brother, and that his name was
Strawman. Later on I learned that the aforesaid Strawman used to
run a circulating library, but that he was now the police reporter
of a big daily. How in the world could I hope to establish a
connection between the forgery, the police, and my little man's
peculiar manners? It was beyond me; and when I asked a friend
whether Strawman had ever been punished for something, my friend
couldn't answer either yes or no--he just didn't know! [Pause.]
MR. Y. Well, had he ever been--punished?
MR. X. No, he had not. [Pause.]
MR. Y. And that was the reason, you think, why the police had such
an attraction for him, and why he was so afraid of offending
people?
MR. X. Exactly!
MR. Y. And did you become acquainted with him afterward?
MR. X. No, I didn't want to. [Pause.]
MR. Y. Would you have been willing to make his acquaintance if he
had been--punished?
MR. X. Perfectly!
(MR. Y. rises and walks back and forth several times.)
MR. X. Sit still! Why can't you sit still?
MR. Y. How did you get your liberal view of human conditions? Are
you a Christian?
MR. X. Oh, can't you see that I am not?
(MR. Y. makes a face.)
MR. X. The Christians require forgiveness. But I require
punishment in order that the balance, or whatever you may call it,
be restored. And you, who have served a term, ought to know the
difference.
MR. Y. [Stands motionless and stares at MR. X., first with wild,
hateful eyes, then with surprise and admiration] How--could--you--
know--that?
MR. X. Why, I could see it.
MR. Y. How? How could you see it?
MR. X, Oh, with a little practice. It is an art, like many others.
But don't let us talk of it any more. [He looks at his watch,
arranges a document on the table, dips a pen in the ink-well, and
hands it to MR. Y.] I must be thinking of my tangled affairs.
Won't you please witness my signature on this note here? I am
going to turn it in to the bank at Malmo tomorrow, when I go to
the city with you.
MR. Y. I am not going by way of Malmo.
MR. X. Oh, you are not?
MR. Y. No.
MR. X. But that need not prevent you from witnessing my signature.
MR. Y. N-no!--I never write my name on papers of that kind--
MR. X.--any longer! This is the fifth time you have refused to
write your own name. The first time nothing more serious was
involved than the receipt for a registered letter. Then I began to
watch you. And since then I have noticed that you have a morbid
fear of a pen filled with ink. You have not written a single
letter since you came here--only a post-card, and that you wrote
with a blue pencil. You understand now that I have figured out the
exact nature of your slip? Furthermore! This is something like the
seventh time you have refused to come with me to Malmo, which
place you have not visited at all during all this time. And yet
you came the whole way from America merely to have a look at
Malmo! And every morning you walk a couple of miles, up to the old
mill, just to get a glimpse of the roofs of Malmo in the distance.
And when you stand over there at the right-hand window and look
out through the third pane from the bottom on the left side, yon
can see the spired turrets of the castle and the tall chimney of
the county jail.--And now I hope you see that it's your own
stupidity rather than my cleverness which has made everything
clear to me.
MR. Y. This means that you despise me?
MR. X. Oh, no!
MR. Y. Yes, you do--you cannot but do it!
MR. X. No--here's my hand.
(MR. Y. takes hold of the outstretched hand and kisses it.)
MR. X. [Drawing back his hand] Don't lick hands like a dog!
MR. Y. Pardon me, sir, but you are the first one who has let me
touch his hand after learning--
MR. X. And now you call me "sir!"--What scares me about you is
that you don't feel exonerated, washed clean, raised to the old
level, as good as anybody else, when you have suffered your
punishment. Do you care to tell me how it happened? Would you?
MR. Y. [Twisting uneasily] Yes, but you won't believe what I say.
But I'll tell you. Then you can see for yourself that I am no
ORDINARY criminal. You'll become convinced, I think, that there
are errors which, so to speak, are involuntary--[twisting again]
which seem to commit themselves--spontaneously--without being
willed by oneself, and for which one cannot be held responsible--
May I open the door a little now, since the storm seems to have
passed over?
MR. X. Suit yourself.
MR. Y. [Opens the door; then he sits down at the table and begins
to speak with exaggerated display of feeling, theatrical gestures,
and a good deal of false emphasis] Yes, I'll tell you! I was a
student in the university at Lund, and I needed to get a loan from
a bank. I had no pressing debts, and my father owned some
property--not a great deal, of course. However, I had sent the
note to the second man of the two who were to act as security,
and, contrary to expectations, it came back with a refusal. For a
while I was completely stunned by the blow, for it was a very
unpleasant surprise--most unpleasant! The note was lying in front
of me on the table, and the letter lay beside it. At first my eyes
stared hopelessly at those lines that pronounced my doom--that is,
not a death-doom, of course, for I could easily find other
securities, as many as I wanted--but as I have already said, it
was very annoying just the same. And as I was sitting there quite
unconscious of any evil intention, my eyes fastened upon the
signature of the letter, which would have made my future secure if
it had only appeared in the right place. It was an unusually well-
written signature--and you know how sometimes one may absent-
mindedly scribble a sheet of paper full of meaningless words. I
had a pen in my hand--[picks up a penholder from the table] like
this. And somehow it just began to run--I don't want to claim that
there was anything mystical--anything of a spiritualistic nature
back of it--for that kind of thing I don't believe in! It was a
wholly unreasoned, mechanical process--my copying of that
beautiful autograph over and over again. When all the clean space
on the letter was used up, I had learned to reproduce the
signature automatically--and then--[throwing away the penholder
with a violent gesture] then I forgot all about it. That night I
slept long and heavily. And when I woke up, I could feel that I
had been dreaming, but I couldn't recall the dream itself. At
times it was as if a door had been thrown ajar, and then I seemed
to see the writing-table with the note on it as in a distant
memory--and when I got out of bed, I was forced up to the table,
just as if, after careful deliberation, I had formed an
irrevocable decision to sign the name to that fateful paper. All
thought of the consequences, of the risk involved, had disappeared—
no hesitation remained--it was almost as if I was fulfilling
some sacred duty--and so I wrote! [Leaps to his feet] What could
it be? Was it some kind of outside influence, a case of mental
suggestion, as they call it? But from whom could it come? I
was sleeping alone in that room. Could it possibly be my primitive
self--the savage to whom the keeping of faith is an unknown thing--
which pushed to the front while my consciousness was asleep--
together with the criminal will of that self, and its inability to
calculate the results of an action? Tell me, what do you think of
it?
MR. X. [As if he had to force the words out of himself] Frankly
speaking, your story does not convince me--there are gaps in it,
but these may depend on your failure to recall all the details--
and I have read something about criminal suggestion--or I think I
have, at least--hm! But all that is neither here nor there! You
have taken your medicine--and you have had the courage to
acknowledge your fault. Now we won't talk of it any more.
MR. Y. Yes, yes, yes, we must talk of it--till I become sure of my
innocence.
MR. X. Well, are you not?
MR. Y. No, I am not!
MR. X. That's just what bothers me, I tell you. It's exactly what
is bothering me!--Don't you feel fairly sure that every human
being hides a skeleton in his closet? Have we not, all of us,
stolen and lied as children? Undoubtedly! Well, now there are
persons who remain children all their lives, so that they cannot
control their unlawful desires. Then comes the opportunity, and
there you have your criminal.--But I cannot understand why you
don't feel innocent. If the child is not held responsible, why
should the criminal be regarded differently? It is the more
strange because--well, perhaps I may come to repent it later.
[Pause] I, for my part, have killed a man, and I have never
suffered any qualms on account of it.
MR. Y. [Very much interested] Have--you?
MR. X, Yes, I, and none else! Perhaps you don't care to shake
hands with a murderer?
MR. Y. [Pleasantly] Oh, what nonsense!
MR. X. Yes, but I have not been punished,
ME. Y. [Growing more familiar and taking on a superior tone] So
much the better for you!--How did you get out of it?
MR. X. There was nobody to accuse me, no suspicions, no witnesses.
This is the way it happened. One Christmas I was invited to hunt
with a fellow-student a little way out of Upsala. He sent a
besotted old coachman to meet me at the station, and this fellow
went to sleep on the box, drove the horses into a fence, and upset
the whole _equipage_ in a ditch. I am not going to pretend that my
life was in danger. It was sheer impatience which made me hit him
across the neck with the edge of my hand--you know the way--just
to wake him up--and the result was that he never woke up at all,
but collapsed then and there.
MR. Y. [Craftily] And did you report it?
MR. X. No, and these were my reasons for not doing so. The man
left no family behind him, or anybody else to whom his life could
be of the slightest use. He had already outlived his allotted
period of vegetation, and his place might just as well be filled
by somebody more in need of it. On the other hand, my life was
necessary to the happiness of my parents and myself, and perhaps
also to the progress of my science. The outcome had once for all
cured me of any desire to wake up people in that manner, and I
didn't care to spoil both my own life and that of my parents for
the sake of an abstract principle of justice.
MR. Y. Oh, that's the way you measure the value of a human life?
MR. X. In the present case, yes.
MR. Y. But the sense of guilt--that balance you were speaking of?
MR. X. I had no sense of guilt, as I had committed no crime. As a
boy I had given and taken more than one blow of the same kind, and
the fatal outcome in this particular case was simply caused by my
ignorance of the effect such a blow might have on an elderly
person.
MR. Y. Yes, but even the unintentional killing of a man is
punished with a two-year term at hard labour--which is exactly
what one gets for--writing names.
MR. X. Oh, you may be sure I have thought of it. And more than one
night I have dreamt myself in prison. Tell me now--is it really as
bad as they say to find oneself behind bolt and bar?
MR. Y. You bet it is!--First of all they disfigure you by cutting
off your hair, and if you don't look like a criminal before, you
are sure to do so afterward. And when you catch sight of yourself
in a mirror you feel quite sure that you are a regular bandit.
MR. X. Isn't it a mask that is being torn off, perhaps? Which
wouldn't be a bad idea, I should say.
MR. Y. Yes, you can have your little jest about it!--And then they
cut down your food, so that every day and every hour you become
conscious of the border line between life and death. Every vital
function is more or less checked. You can feel yourself shrinking.
And your soul, which was to be cured and improved, is instead put
on a starvation diet--pushed back a thousand years into outlived
ages. You are not permitted to read anything but what was written
for the savages who took part in the migration of the peoples. You
hear of nothing but what will never happen in heaven; and what
actually does happen on the earth is kept hidden from you. You are
torn out of your surroundings, reduced from your own class, put
beneath those who are really beneath yourself. Then you get a
sense of living in the bronze age. You come to feel as if you were
dressed in skins, as if you were living in a cave and eating out
of a trough--ugh!
MR. X. But there is reason back of all that. One who acts as if he
belonged to the bronze age might surely be expected to don the
proper costume.
MR. Y. [Irately] Yes, you sneer! You who have behaved like a man
from the stone age--and who are permitted to live in the golden
age.
MR. X. [Sharply, watching him closely] What do you mean with that
last expression--the golden age?
MR. Y. [With a poorly suppressed snarl] Nothing at all.
MR. X. Now you lie--because you are too much of a coward to say
all you think.
MR. Y. Am I a coward? You think so? But I was no coward when I
dared to show myself around here, where I had had to suffer as I
did.--But can you tell what makes one suffer most while in there?--
It is that the others are not in there too!
MR. X. What others?
MR. Y. Those that go unpunished.
MR. X. Are you thinking of me?
MR. Y. I am.
MR. X. But I have committed no crime.
MR. Y. Oh, haven't you?
MR. X. No, a misfortune is no crime.
MR. Y. So, it's a misfortune to commit murder?
MR. X. I have not committed murder.
MR. Y. Is it not murder to kill a person?
MR. X. Not always. The law speaks of murder, manslaughter, killing
in self-defence--and it makes a distinction between intentional
and unintentional killing. However--now you really frighten me,
for it's becoming plain to me that you belong to the most
dangerous of all human groups--that of the stupid.
MR. Y. So you imagine that I am stupid? Well, listen--would you
like me to show you how clever I am?
MR. X. Come on!
MR. Y. I think you'll have to admit that there is both logic and
wisdom in the argument I'm now going to give you. You have
suffered a misfortune which might have brought you two years at
hard labor. You have completely escaped the disgrace of being
punished. And here you see before you a man--who has also suffered
a misfortune--the victim of an unconscious impulse--and who has
had to stand two years of hard labor for it. Only by some great
scientific achievement can this man wipe off the taint that has
become attached to him without any fault of his own--but in order
to arrive at some such achievement, he must have money--a lot of
money--and money this minute! Don't you think that the other one,
the unpunished one, would bring a little better balance into these
unequal human conditions if he paid a penalty in the form of a
fine? Don't you think so?
MR. X. [Calmly] Yes.
MR. Y. Then we understand each other.--Hm! [Pause] What do you
think would be reasonable?
MR. X. Reasonable? The minimum fine in such a case is fixed by the
law at fifty crowns. But this whole question is settled by the
fact that the dead man left no relatives.
MR. Y. Apparently you don't want to understand. Then I'll have to
speak plainly: it is to me you must pay that fine.
MR. X. I have never heard that forgers have the right to collect
fines imposed for manslaughter. And, besides, there is no
prosecutor.
MR. Y. There isn't? Well--how would I do?
MR. X. Oh, _now_ we are getting the matter cleared up! How much do
you want for becoming my accomplice?
MR. Y. Six thousand crowns.
MR. X. That's too much. And where am I to get them?
(MR. Y. points to the box.)
MR. X. No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to become a
thief.
MR. Y. Oh, don't put on any airs now! Do you think I'll believe
that you haven't helped yourself out of that box before?
MR. X. [As if speaking to himself] Think only, that I could let
myself be fooled so completely. But that's the way with these soft
natures. You like them, and then it's so easy to believe that they
like you. And that's the reason why I have always been on my guard
against people I take a liking to!--So you are firmly convinced
that I have helped myself out of the box before?
MR. Y. Certainly! MR. X. And you are going to report me if you
don't get six thousand crowns?
MR. Y. Most decidedly! You can't get out of it, so there's no use
trying.
MR. X. You think I am going to give my father a thief for son, my
wife a thief for husband, my children a thief for father, my
fellow-workers a thief for colleague? No, that will never happen!--
Now I am going over to the sheriff to report the killing myself.
MR. Y. [Jumps up and begins to pick up his things] Wait a moment!
MR. X. For what?
MR. Y. [Stammering] Oh, I thought--as I am no longer needed--it
wouldn't be necessary for me to stay--and I might just as well
leave.
MR. X. No, you may not!--Sit down there at the table, where you
sat before, and we'll have another talk before you go.
MR. Y. [Sits down after having put on a dark coat] What are you up
to now?
MR. X. [Looking into the mirror back of MR. Y.] Oh, now I have it!
Oh-h-h!
MR. Y. [Alarmed] What kind of wonderful things are you discovering
now?
MR. X. I see in the mirror that you are a thief--a plain, ordinary
thief! A moment ago, while you had only the white shirt on, I
could notice that there was something wrong about my book-shelf. I
couldn't make out just what it was, for I had to listen to you and
watch you. But as my antipathy increased, my vision became more
acute. And now, with your black coat to furnish the needed color
contrast For the red back of the book, which before couldn't be
seen against the red of your suspenders--now I see that you have
been reading about forgeries in Bernheim's work on mental
suggestion--for you turned the book upside-down in putting it back.
So even that story of yours was stolen! For tins reason I think
myself entitled to conclude that your crime must have been
prompted by need, or by mere love of pleasure.
MR. Y. By need! If you only knew--
MR. X. If _you_ only knew the extent of the need I have had to face
and live through! But that's another story! Let's proceed with
your case. That you have been in prison--I take that for granted.
But it happened in America, for it was American prison life you
described. Another thing may also be taken for granted, namely,
that you have not borne your punishment on this side.
MR. Y. How can you imagine anything of the kind?
MR. X. Wait until the sheriff gets here, and you'll learn all
about it.
(MR. Y. gets up.)
ME. X. There you see! The first time I mentioned the sheriff, in
connection with the storm, you wanted also to run away. And when a
person has served out his time he doesn't care to visit an old
mill every day just to look at a prison, or to stand by the
window--in a word, you are at once punished and unpunished. And
that's why it was so hard to make you out. [Pause.]
MR. Y. [Completely beaten] May I go now?
MR. X. Now you can go.
MR. Y. [Putting his things together] Are you angry at me?
MR. X. Yes--would you prefer me to pity you?
MR. Y. [Sulkily] Pity? Do you think you're any better than I?
MR. X. Of course I do, as I AM better than you. I am wiser, and I
am less of a menace to prevailing property rights.
MR. Y. You think you are clever, but perhaps I am as clever as
you. For the moment you have me checked, but in the next move I
can mate you--all the same!
MR. X. [Looking hard at MR. Y.] So we have to have another bout!
What kind of mischief are you up to now?
MR. Y. That's my secret.
MR. X. Just look at me--oh, you mean to write my wife an anonymous
letter giving away MY secret!
MR. Y. Well, how are you going to prevent it? You don't dare to
have me arrested. So you'll have to let me go. And when I am gone,
I can do what I please.
MR. X. You devil! So you have found my vulnerable spot! Do you
want to make a real murderer out of me?
MR. Y. That's more than you'll ever become--coward!
MR. X. There you see how different people are. You have a feeling
that I cannot become guilty of the same kind of acts as you. And
that gives you the upper hand. But suppose you forced me to treat
you as I treated that coachman?
[He lifts his hand as if ready to hit MR. Y.]
MR. Y. [Staring MR. X. straight in the face] You can't! It's too
much for one who couldn't save himself by means of the box over
there.
ME. X. So you don't think I have taken anything out of the box?
MR. Y. You were too cowardly--just as you were too cowardly to
tell your wife that she had married a murderer.
MR. X. You are a different man from what I took you to be--if
stronger or weaker, I cannot tell--if more criminal or less,
that's none of my concern--but decidedly more stupid; that much is
quite plain. For stupid you were when you wrote another person's
name instead of begging--as I have had to do. Stupid you were when
you stole things out of my book--could you not guess that I might
have read my own books? Stupid you were when you thought yourself
cleverer than me, and when you thought that I could be lured into
becoming a thief. Stupid you were when you thought balance could
be restored by giving the world two thieves instead of one. But
most stupid of all you were when you thought I had failed to
provide a safe corner-stone for my happiness. Go ahead and write
my wife as many anonymous letters as you please about her husband
having killed a man--she knew that long before we were married!--
Have you had enough now?
MR. Y. May I go?
MR. X. Now you _have_ to go! And at once! I'll send your things
after you!--Get out of here!
(Curtain.)