for the Faculty Room, without any pictures or furniture._
MELCHIOR _is shown in company with_ DIETHELM, REINHOLD, RUPRECHT,
HELMUTH, _and_ GASTON.
DIETHELM--Here’s a twenty-pfennig piece.
REINHOLD--What’s that for?
DIETHELM--I’ll put it on the floor. You get in a circle round it.
Whoever hits it, gets it.
RUPRECHT--Aren’t you in on this too, Melchior?
MELCHIOR--No, thank you.
HELMUTH--The Joseph!
GASTON--He can’t any more. He’s here to recover his health.
MELCHIOR--[_To himself._] It isn’t wise for me to stay out. Everyone
keeps an eye on me. I must join in--or my creature will go to the
devil.--The confinement makes them abuse themselves.--I may break my
neck: I’ll be glad. I may get away: I’ll be glad too. I can only gain,
either way.--Ruprecht is getting to be my friend: he knows all about
things here. I’ll treat him to the chapters of Judah’s daughter-in-law
Tamar, of Moab, of Lot and his daughters, of Queen Vashti and of
Abishag the Shunammite.--He’s got the sorriest face in the lot!
RUPRECHT--I’m getting it!
HELMUTH--It’ll come yet!
GASTON--Day after to-morrow, maybe!
HELMUTH--Now!--Look!--O God, O God!...
ALL--Summa--summa cum laude!!
RUPRECHT--[_Picking up the coin._] Many thanks.
HELMUTH--Come here with that, you!
RUPRECHT--Dirty beast!
HELMUTH--Jail-bird!
RUPRECHT--[_Strikes him in the face._] There! [_Runs away._]
HELMUTH--[_Running after him._] I’ll kill you!
THE REST--[_Rushing after them._] Get after him! Hustle! Hey! Hey! Hey!
MELCHIOR--[_Alone, looking at the window._] There’s where the
lightning-rod goes down. You must wind a handkerchief round
it.--When I think of =her= the blood always shoots to my head.
And Moritz weighs on me like lead.--I’ll go to a newspaper
office: pay me by the hundred, I’ll sell papers--collect
news--write--local--ethical--psychophysical.... It’s no longer so
easy to starve:--lunch-wagons, soft-drink places.--The house is sixty
feet high and the stucco is crumbly.... She hates me--she hates me
because I’ve robbed her of her freedom. No matter how I act, it
remains--rape.--All I can do is to hope, gradually, in the course of
years....--In a week it’ll be new moon. To-morrow I’ll grease the
hinges. By Saturday at the latest I must know who has the key.--Sunday
evening at prayers, a cataleptic fit--please God no one else gets
sick!--Everything lies as clearly as if it had happened before me. I
can get over the window-sill easily--a swing--a grip--but one must wrap
a handkerchief around it.--There comes the Head Inquisitor. [_He goes
off._ DR. PROKRUSTES _and a_ LOCKSMITH _enter on the other side_.]
DR. PROKRUSTES-- ... It’s true the windows are in the third story and
nettles are planted underneath; but what does degeneracy care for
nettles?--Last winter one climbed out of a skylight on us, and we had
all the fuss of picking up and carting away and burying....
THE LOCKSMITH--Do you want the grating of wrought iron?
DR. PROKRUSTES--Wrought iron--and since it can’t be set in, riveted.
CURTAIN