tree rustles the withered foliage. Jagged clouds speed by under
the moon._--MELCHIOR _clambers over the wall above_ MORITZ’S
_grave--set much farther up-stage than in Scene II--and jumps
down, knocking over_ MORITZ’S _cross_.
MELCHIOR--The pack won’t follow me into this place.--While they’re
searching brothels, I can catch my breath and see how far I’ve
gotten....
Coat in tatters, pockets empty,--even from the most harmless I have
something to fear.--During the day I must try to get farther on in the
wood....
I have kicked down a cross.--The little flowers would have been frozen
to-night!--All around the earth is bare....
In the realm of the dead!
To climb out of the skylight was not so hard as the road before
me.--This was the only thing that I was not prepared for....
I hang above the abyss--everything swallowed up and gone!--Oh, that I
had stayed back there!
Why she thru my fault?--Why not the guilty one!--Inscrutable
Providence!--I would have broken stones and gone hungry...!
What is left now to keep me straight?--Crime will follow on crime. I
am abandoned to the mire. Not even the strength left to wind things
up....
I was not bad!--I was not bad!--I was not bad!...
Never has mortal wandered over graves so filled with envy!--Pah! I
should never screw up the courage!--Oh, if insanity would but seize on
me--this very night!
I must look over there among the latest ones.--The wind whistles past
every stone with a different note--a heart-chilling symphony! The
rotten wreaths blow apart and dangle on their long strings piecemeal
round the marble crosses--a forest of scarecrows!--Scarecrows on all
the graves, each more horrible than the next, house-high, putting the
devils to flight.--The golden letters glitter so coldly.... The weeping
willow moans, and gropes with gigantic fingers over the inscriptions!...
A praying cherub--a bare slab----
Now a cloud casts its shadow down here.--How fast it flies,
crying!--like a host pursued it rushes up in the east.--Not a star in
the sky!----
Evergreen round the plot?--Evergreen?--a girl?...
[Illustration:
· _Here Rests in God_ ·
WENDLA BERGMANN
BORN · MAY · 5 · 1878
DIED _of_ CHLOROSIS
OCTOBER · 27 · 1892
· _Blessed are the Pure in Heart_ ·
]
And I am her murderer!--I am her murderer!--Despair is left me--only
despair!--I may not cry here. I must get away--away! [MORITZ STIEFEL,
_with his head under his arm, comes stumping over the graves_.]
MORITZ--One moment, Melchior. It may be long before the chance recurs.
You’ve no idea how everything depends on the time and place....
MELCHIOR--Where did =you= come from?
MORITZ--From over there--from the wall. You knocked down my cross. I
lie by the wall.--Give me your hand, Melchior....
MELCHIOR--You are =not= Moritz Stiefel!
MORITZ--Give me your hand. I’m certain sure you’ll thank me. It’ll
never be so easy for you again. This is a rarely fortunate meeting.--I
came up especially----
MELCHIOR--Don’t you sleep?
MORITZ--Not what you call sleeping.--We sit on church steeples, on
lofty gables,--wherever we want....
MELCHIOR--Ever restless?
MORITZ--For fun.--We scoot around young birch-trees, round lonely
forest shrines. Over gatherings of people we hover, over sites of
misfortune, over gardens and festival places. In the dwelling-houses
we crouch in the chimney-corner and behind the bed-curtains.--Give me
your hand!--We have little to do with each other but we see and hear
everything that happens in the world. We know that everything is folly
that men strive for and achieve,--and laugh at it.
MELCHIOR--What good does that do?
MORITZ--What’s it need to do?--We are out of reach--nor good nor evil
can touch us any more. We stand high, high above the earth-folk, each
for himself alone. We have nothing to do with each other because that
bores us. None of us still has anything at heart whose loss he could
feel. We are equally immeasurably far above both grief and rejoicing.
We are content with ourselves, and that is all!--The living we despise
beyond words: we can hardly pity them. They amuse us with their doings,
because, being alive, they are not really to be pitied. We smile, each
to himself, over their tragedies, and meditate.--Give me your hand! If
you will give me your hand, you will fall over with laughing at the
emotion with which you give me your hand....
MELCHIOR--Doesn’t that disgust you?
MORITZ--We stand too high above it for that. We smile!--At my funeral I
was among the mourners. I got a lot of entertainment from it. That is
sublimity, Melchior! I made more noise than any of them, and slipped
off to the wall to hold my sides for laughter. Our unapproachable
sublimity is in fact the only standpoint that lets us assimilate the
dirt.... I suppose I was laughed at too before I soared aloft!
MELCHIOR--I have no desire to laugh at myself.
MORITZ-- ... The living as such are truly not to be pitied.--I admit
I should never have thought so either. And now it’s beyond my
comprehension how one can be so naïve. Now I see thru the fraud so
clearly that not the tiniest cloud is left.--How can you hesitate,
Melchior? Give me your hand. In a turn of the head you’ll be standing
sky-high above yourself.--Your living is a grievous omission, a sin of
negligence....
MELCHIOR--Can you dead forget?
MORITZ--We can do everything. Give me your hand! We can be sorry for
the young, for the way they take their timidity for idealism, and the
old, whose stoical superiority comes near to breaking their hearts. We
see the Kaiser shake for dread of a street-song, and the beggar for
dread of the trump of doom. We look straight thru the actor’s make-up,
and see the poet in the dark don his. We behold the contented man in
his beggary, and in the weariness of his burdened soul the capitalist.
We observe people in love, and see them blush before each other in the
presentiment that they are frauds defrauded. Parents we see bringing
children into the world in order that they may call to them “How
fortunate you are to have such parents!”--and we see the children go
forth and do the like. We can eavesdrop on the innocent in their lonely
cravings, and the five-groschen drab at her reading of Schiller.... God
and the devil we see making fools of themselves before each other, and
cherish in our hearts the unshakable conviction that both are drunk....
A quiet--a content--Melchior!--You need only reach me your little
finger.--You may get to be snow-white before such a favorable moment
appears to you again.
MELCHIOR--If I shake hands on it, Moritz, it will be from
self-contempt. I see myself proscribed. What lent me courage, lies in
the grave. I can no longer think myself worthy of noble impulses--and
perceive nothing, nothing, that might yet stand in the way of my
descent.--I am, in my own opinion, the most detestable creature in the
universe....
MORITZ--What are you waiting for? [A MUFFLED GENTLEMAN _enters, and
addresses_ MELCHIOR.]
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--The fact is, you’re shivering with hunger.
You’re in no sort of condition to decide.--[_To_ MORITZ.] Go.
MELCHIOR--Who are you?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--That will come out.--[_To_ MORITZ.]
Vanish!--What have you here to do?--Why haven’t you got your head on?
MORITZ--I shot myself.
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Then stay where you belong! You’re altogether
done with. Don’t bother us here with your charnel stench.
Inconceivable--why, just look at your fingers! Pah, what the devil!
they’re crumbling down already!
MORITZ--Don’t send me away, please!...
MELCHIOR--Who are you, good sir?
MORITZ--Don’t send me away, I beg you! Let me take part in things here
a little while yet. I will not oppose you in anything.--It’s so chilly
down there!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Then why do you brag about =sublimity=?--You
know well enough that that’s humbug--sour grapes! Why do you wilfully
=lie=, you coinage of the brain?--If you value the favor so highly,
stay for all of me; but look out for any more hot-air boasting, my
friend, and kindly keep your rotting hand out of the game!
MELCHIOR--Are you going to tell me who you are, or not?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--No.--I propose that you entrust yourself to me.
First, I should see to your getting away.
MELCHIOR--You are--my father?!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Would you not recognize your worthy father by
his voice?
MELCHIOR--No.
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--The gentleman, your father, is seeking comfort
at this moment in the capable arms of your mother.--I open the world
to you. Your momentary want of balance springs from your wretched
situation. With a hot supper in your belly, you can laugh at it.
MELCHIOR--[_To himself._] They can’t both be the devil!--[_Aloud._]
After what I have been guilty of, no hot supper can give my peace of
mind back to me!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--That depends on the supper!--So much I can
tell you: that the little girl would have borne her child first rate!
She was perfectly built. She simply succumbed to Mother Schmidtin’s
abortives.--I will take you among men. I will give you an opportunity
to expand your horizon beyond your wildest dreams. I will make you
acquainted with everything interesting, without exception, that the
world has to offer.
MELCHIOR--Who are you? Who are you?--I can’t consign myself to a person
I don’t know!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--You’ll never learn to know me unless you entrust
yourself to me.
MELCHIOR--Do you think so?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Fact!--And anyway you have no choice.
MELCHIOR--I can at any moment give my friend here my hand.
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Your friend is a charlatan. Nobody smiles,
who has one penny left in his pocket. The sublimated humorist is the
wretchedest, most pitiable creature in creation!
MELCHIOR--Let the humorist be what he will. Tell me who =you= are, or
I’ll give the humorist my hand!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Well?!
MORITZ--He is right, Melchior. I have been putting on airs. Let him
treat you, and make full use of him. No matter how muffled he may be,
he is, at least, that!
MELCHIOR--Do you believe in God?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--That depends.
MELCHIOR--Do you want to tell me who discovered gunpowder?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Berthold Schwarz--alias Constantine
Anklitzen--round 1330, a Franciscan monk at Freiburg-im-Breisgau.
MORITZ--What would I give to have had him let it alone!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--You would merely have hanged yourself!
MELCHIOR--What do you think about morality?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Look here!--am I your schoolboy?
MELCHIOR--Ask me what you are!
MORITZ--Don’t quarrel!--Please don’t quarrel! What good will come of
that?--What are we sitting, one dead and two live men, here together
in the churchyard at two in the morning for, if we want to fall out
like tipplers!--It was for my pleasure that I was allowed to remain
and witness the proceedings. If you want to quarrel, I’ll take my head
under my arm and go.
MELCHIOR--You’re still the same old runaway!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--The ghost isn’t so wrong. One shouldn’t ignore
one’s dignity.--By morality I understand the real product of two
imaginary quantities. The imaginary quantities are should and would.[7]
The product is called morality, and its reality is unquestionable.
MORITZ--Oh, if you had only told me that sooner! My morality harried
me to death. For my dear parents’ sake I clutched at deadly weapons.
“Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the
land.” In my case the text has phenomenally stultified itself!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Indulge in no illusions, my dear friend. Your
precious parents would no more have died of it than you. Strictly
speaking, they would in fact have stormed and blustered merely from the
necessities of health.
MELCHIOR--You may be right so far:--but I can tell you positively, good
sir, that if I had given Moritz my hand just now without more ado, the
blame would have rested simply and solely on my morality.
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--But that’s just the reason you’re =not= Moritz!
MORITZ--All the same I don’t believe the difference is so material--at
least, not so conclusive, that you might not perchance have met me too,
esteemed Unknown, as I trotted that time through the alder-thickets
with the pistol in my pocket.
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--And don’t you remember me? Why, even at the
final moment, you still were standing between =Death= and =Life=.--But
here, in my opinion, is not exactly the place to prolong so deeply
probing a debate.
MORITZ--It is indeed growing cold, gentlemen!--Though they did dress me
in my Sunday suit, I have on under it neither shirt nor drawers.
MELCHIOR--Good-bye, dear Moritz. Where this person is taking me, I
don’t know; but he is somebody----
MORITZ--Don’t lay it up against me, Melchior, that I tried to make away
with you! It was old attachment.--I’d be willing to have to wail and
weep all my life if I could now accompany you out of here once more!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--In the end, each has his share--=you= the
consoling consciousness of having nothing--=thou= the enervating doubt
of everything.--[_To_ MORITZ.] Farewell.
MELCHIOR--Farewell, Moritz! Accept my cordial thanks for appearing to
me once more. How many glad, untroubled days have we not spent with one
another in these fourteen years! I promise you, Moritz, let chance what
will,--tho in the years to come I turn ten times a different man,--be
my path upwards or downwards,--you I shall never forget----
MORITZ--Thanks, thanks, dear friend.
MELCHIOR--And when some day I am an old man, grizzle-haired, then
perhaps it will be =you= that once again stand closer to me than all
those living with me.
MORITZ--I thank you.--Luck to your journey, gentlemen.--Lose no more
time!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Come, child! [_He links arms with_ MELCHIOR,
_and makes off with him over the graves_.]
MORITZ--Here I sit now with my head in my arm.--The moon hides her
face, unveils again, and looks not a hair the wiser.--So now I’ll turn
back to my little plot, straighten the cross up that the madcap kicked
so recklessly down on me, and when all is in order I’ll lay myself out
on my back again, warm myself with decay, and smile....
CURTAIN
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Asperula odorata._
[2] In the original, P.... and V...., with four dots, not five, after
the V.
[3] Literally, a cut-up noodle.
[4] Sonnenstich means sunstroke: one pictures a round, red face
enringed with bristling gray hair, and an explosive manner.
[5] This sentence, in the lack of any authentic stage-direction,
remains dark. “The Langenscheidt” is evidently a book, but why is it
here suddenly referred to, or what is done with it?
[6] Note Wedekind’s subtlety: Mr. Gabor doesn’t remember Wendla’s
precise age, and makes her as old as he can, to minimize Melchior’s
transgression,--well before the days of Freud.
[7] In German, _sollen_ and _wollen_, verbs representing =duty= and
=desire=.
EARTH-SPIRIT
(ERDGEIST)
A Tragedy in Four Acts
“I was created out of ranker stuff
By Nature, and to the earth by Lust am drawn.
Unto the spirit of evil, not of good,
The earth belongs. What deities send to us
From heaven are only universal goods;
Their light gives gladness, but makes no man rich;
In their domain no pelf is seized and held.
The stone of price, all-treasured gold, from false
And evil-natured powers must be won,
Who riot underneath the light of day.
Not without sacrifice their favor is gained,
And no man liveth who from serving them
Hath extricated undefiled his soul.”
[Spoken by Wallenstein in Schiller’s
_Wallenstein’s Death_, Act II.]
CHARACTERS
DR. SCHÖN, _newspaper owner and editor_
ALVA, _his son, a writer_
DR. GOLL, M.D.
SCHWARZ, _an artist_
PRINCE ESCERNY, _an African explorer_
ESCHERICH, _a reporter_
SCHIGOLCH, _a beggar_
RODRIGO, _an acrobat_
HUGENBERG, _a schoolboy_
FERDINAND, _a coachman_
LULU
COUNTESS GESCHWITZ
HENRIETTE, _a servant_
PROLOGUE
[_At rise is seen the entrance to a tent, out of which steps an
animal-tamer, with long, black curls, dressed in a white cravat, a
vermilion dress-coat, white trousers and white top-boots. He carries in
his left hand a dog-whip and in his right a loaded revolver, and enters
to the sound of cymbals and kettledrums._]
Walk in! Walk in to the menagerie,
Proud gentlemen and ladies lively and merry.
With avid lust or cold disgust, the very
Beast without Soul bound and made secondary
To human genius, to stay and see!
Walk in, the show’ll begin!--As customary,
One child to each two persons comes in free.
Here battle man and brute in narrow cages,
Where one in mockery his long whip lashes,
The other, growling as when thunder rages,
Against the man’s throat murderously dashes,--
Where now the crafty, now the strong prevails,
Now man, now beast, against the flooring quails.
The animal rears,--the human on all fours!
One ice-cold look of dominance--The
beast submissive bows before that glance,
And the proud heel upon his neck adores.
Bad are the times! Ladies and gentlemen
Who once before my cage in thronging crescents
Crowded, now honor operas, and then
Ibsen, with their so highly valued presence.
My boarders here are so in want of fodder
That they reciprocally devour each other.
How well off at the theater is a player,
Sure of the meat upon his ribs, no matter
How terrible the hunger round his platter,
And colleagues’ inner cupboards yawning bare!--
But if to heights of art we would aspire,
We may not reckon merit by its hire.
What see you, whether in light or sombre plays?
=House-animals=, whose morals all must praise,
Who vent pale spites in vegetarian ways,
And revel in a singsong to-and-fro
Just like those others--in the seats below.
This hero has a head by one dram swirled;
That, is in doubt whether his love be right;
A third you hear despairing of the world,--
Full five acts long you hear him wail his plight,
And no man ends him with a merciful sleight!
But the =real= beast, the =beautiful=, =wild= beast,
Your eyes on =that=, _I_, ladies, only, feast!
You see the Tiger, that habitually
Devours whatever falls before his bound;
The Bear, who, gluttonous from the first sally,
Sinks at his late night-meal dead to the ground;
You see the Monkey, little and amusing,
From sheer ennui his petty powers abusing,--
He has some talent, of all greatness scant,
So, impudently, coquettes with his own want!
Upon my soul, within my tent and trammel--
See, right behind the curtain, here--’s a Camel!
And all my creatures fawn about my feet
When my revolver cracks--
[_He shoots into the audience._]
Behold!
Brutes tremble all around me. I am cold:
The =man= stays cold,--you, with respect, to greet.
Walk in!--You hardly trust yourselves in here?--
Then very well, judge for yourselves! Each sphere
Has sent its crawling creatures to your telling:
Chameleons and serpents, crocodiles,
Dragons, and salamanders chasm-dwelling,--
I know, of course, you’re full of quiet smiles
And don’t believe a syllable I say.--
[_He lifts the entrance-flap and calls into the tent._]
Hi, Charlie!--bring our =Serpent= just this way!
[_A stage-hand with a big paunch carries out the actress of_
=LULU= _in her Pierrot costume, and sets her down before the
animal-tamer_.]
She was created to incite to sin,
To lure, seduce, corrupt, drop poison in,--
To murder, without being once suspected.
[_Tickling_ LULU’S _chin_.]
My pretty beast, only be =unaffected=,
Not vain, not artificial, not perverse,
Even if the critics therefore turn adverse.
Thou hast no right to spoil the shape most fitting,
Most =true=, of =woman=, with meows and spitting!
Nor with buffoonery and wry device
To foul the =childish simpleness= of =Vice=
Thou shouldst--to-day I speak emphatically--
Speak =naturally= and not unnaturally,
For the first principle, of earliest force
In every art, has been Be matter-of-course!
[_To the public._]
There’s nothing special now to see in her,
But wait and watch what later will occur!
She coils about the Tiger stricter--stricter--
He roars and groans!--Who’ll be the final victor?--
Hop, Charlie, march! Carry her to her cage,
[_The stage-hand picks up_ LULU _slantwise in his arms; the
animal-tamer pats her on the hips_.]
Sweet innocence--my dearest appanage!
[_The stage-hand carries_ LULU _back into the tent_.]
And now the best thing yet remains to say:
My poll between the teeth of a beast of prey!
Walk in! The show’s not new, yet every heart
Takes pleasure in it still! I’ll wrench apart
This wild beast’s jaws--I dare--and he’ll not dare
To close and bite! Let him be ne’er so fair,
So wild and brightly flecked, he feels respect
For my poor poll! I offer it him direct:
One =joke=, and my two temples crack!--but, lo,
The lightning of my eyes I will forego,
Staking my =life= against a =joke=! and throw
My whip, my weapons, down. I am in my skin!
I yield me to this beast!--His name do ye know?
--The honored public! that has just walked in!
[_The animal-tamer steps back into the tent, accompanied by
cymbals and kettledrums._]
ACT I
SCENE--_A roomy studio. Entrance door at the rear, left. Another door
at lower left to the bedroom. At centre, a platform for the model,
with a Spanish screen behind it, shielding it from the rear door,
and a Smyrna rug in front. Two easels at lower right. On the upper
one is the picture of a young girl’s head and shoulders. Against
the other leans a reversed canvas. Below these, toward centre, an
ottoman, with a tiger-skin on it. Two chairs along the left wall.
In the background, right, a step-ladder._
SCHÖN _sits on the foot of the ottoman, inspecting critically the
picture on the further easel_. SCHWARZ _stands behind the ottoman,
his palette and brushes in his hands_.
SCHÖN--Do you know, I’m getting acquainted with a brand-new side of the
lady.
SCHWARZ--I have never painted anyone whose expression changed so
continuously. I could hardly keep a single feature the same two days
running.
SCHÖN--[_Pointing to the picture and observing him._] Do you find that
in it?
SCHWARZ--I have done everything I could think of to induce at least
some repose in her mood by my conversation during the sittings.
SCHÖN--Then I understand the difference. [SCHWARZ _dips his brush in
the oil and draws it over the features of the face_.] Do you think that
makes it look more like her?
SCHWARZ--We can do no more than take our art as scientifically as
possible.
SCHÖN--Tell me----
SCHWARZ--[_Stepping back._] The color had sunk in pretty well, too.
SCHÖN--[_Looking at him._] Have you ever in your life loved a woman?
SCHWARZ--[_Goes to the easel, puts a color on it, and steps back on the
other side._] The dress hasn’t been given relief enough yet. We don’t
rightly perceive yet that a living body is under it.
SCHÖN--I make no doubt that the workmanship is good.
SCHWARZ--If you’ll step this way....
SCHÖN--[_Rising._] You must have told her regular ghost-stories.
SCHWARZ--As far back as you can.
SCHÖN--[_Stepping back, knocks down the canvas that was leaning against
the lower easel._] Excuse me----
SCHWARZ--[_Picking it up._] That’s all right.
SCHÖN--[_Surprised._] What is that?
SCHWARZ--Do you know her?
SCHÖN--No. [SCHWARZ _sets the picture on the easel. It is of a lady
dressed as Pierrot with a long shepherd’s crook in her hand._]
SCHWARZ--A costume-picture.
SCHÖN--But, really, you’ve succeeded with =her=.
SCHWARZ--You know her?
SCHÖN--No. And in that costume----
SCHWARZ--It isn’t nearly finished yet. [SCHÖN _nods_.] What would you
have? While she is posing for me I have the pleasure of entertaining
her husband.
SCHÖN--What?
SCHWARZ--We talk about art, of course,--to complete my good fortune!
SCHÖN--But how did you come to make such a charming acquaintance?
SCHWARZ--As they’re generally made. An ancient, tottering little
man drops in on me here to know if I can paint his wife. Why, of
course, were she as wrinkled as Mother Earth! Next day at ten prompt
the doors fly open, and the fat-belly drives this little beauty in
before him. I can feel even now how my knees shook. Then comes a
sap-green lackey, stiff as a ramrod, with a package under his arm.
Where is the dressing-room? Imagine my plight. I open the door there.
[_Pointing left._] Just luck that everything was in order. The sweet
thing vanishes into it, and the old fellow posts himself outside as a
bastion. Two minutes later out she steps in this Pierrot. [_Shaking his
head._] I never saw anything like it. [_He goes left and stares in at
the bedroom._]
SCHÖN--[_Who has followed him with his eyes._] And the fat-belly stands
guard?
SCHWARZ--[_Turning round._] The whole body in harmony with that
impossible costume as if it had come into the world in it! Her way of
burying her elbows in her pockets, of lifting her little feet from the
rug,--the blood often shoots to my head....
SCHÖN--One can see that in the picture.
SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] People like us, you know----
SCHÖN--Here the model is mistress of the conversation.
SCHWARZ--She has never yet opened her mouth.
SCHÖN--Is it possible?
SCHWARZ--Allow me to show you the costume. [_Goes out left._]
SCHÖN--[_Before the Pierrot._] A devilish beauty. [_Before the other
picture._] There’s more depth here. [_Coming down-stage._] He is still
rather young for his age. [SCHWARZ _comes back with a white satin
costume_.]
SCHWARZ--What sort of material is that?
SCHÖN--[_Feeling it._] Satin.
SCHWARZ--And all in one piece.
SCHÖN--How does one get into it then?
SCHWARZ--That I can’t tell you.
SCHÖN--[_Taking the costume by the legs._] What enormous trouser-legs!
SCHWARZ--The left one she pulls up.
SCHÖN--[_Looking at the picture._] Above the knee!
SCHWARZ--She does that entrancingly!
SCHÖN--And transparent stockings?
SCHWARZ--Those have got to be painted, specially.
SCHÖN--Oh, you can do that.
SCHWARZ--And with it all a coquetry!
SCHÖN--What brought you to that horrible suspicion?
SCHWARZ--There are things never dreamt of in our school-philosophy.
[_He takes the costume back into his bedroom._]
SCHÖN--[_Alone._] When one is asleep....
SCHWARZ--[_Comes back; looks at his watch._] If you’d like to make her
acquaintance, moreover,----
SCHÖN--No.
SCHWARZ--They must be here in a moment.
SCHÖN--How much longer will the lady have to sit?
SCHWARZ--I shall probably have to bear the pains of Tantalus three
months longer.
SCHÖN--I mean the other one.
SCHWARZ--I beg your pardon. Three times more at most. [_Going to the
door with him._] If the lady will just leave me the upper part of the
dress then....
SCHÖN--With pleasure. Let us see you at my house again soon. [_He
collides in the doorway with_ DR. GOLL _and_ LULU.] For Heaven’s sake!
SCHWARZ--May I introduce....
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] What are you doing here?
SCHÖN--[_Kissing_ LULU’S _hand_.] Mrs. Goll....
LULU--You’re not going already?
DR. GOLL--But what wind blows you here?
SCHÖN--I’ve been looking at the picture of my intended----
LULU--[_Coming forward._] Your--intended--is here?
DR. GOLL--So you’re having work done here, too?
LULU--[_Before the upper picture._] Look at it! Enchanting! Entrancing!
DR. GOLL--[_Looking round him._] Have you got her hidden somewhere
round here?
LULU--So that is the sweet young prodigy who’s made a new person out of
you....
SCHÖN--She sits in the afternoon mostly.
DR. GOLL--And you don’t tell anyone about it?
LULU--[_Turning round._] Is she really so solemn?
SCHÖN--Probably the after-effects of the seminary still, dear lady.
DR. GOLL--[_Before the picture._] One can see that you have been
transformed profoundly.
LULU--But now you mustn’t let her wait any longer.
SCHÖN--In a fortnight I think our engagement will come out.
DR. GOLL--[_To_ LULU.] Let’s lose no time. Hop!
LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Just think, we came at a trot over the new bridge.
I was driving, myself.
DR. GOLL--[_As_ SCHÖN _prepares to leave_.] No, no. We two have more to
talk about. Get along, Nellie. Hop!
LULU--Now it’s going to be about me!
DR. GOLL--Our Apelles is already wiping his brushes.
LULU--I had imagined this would be much more amusing.
SCHÖN--But you have always the satisfaction of preparing for us the
greatest and rarest pleasure.
LULU--[_Going left._] Oh, just wait!
SCHWARZ--[_Before the bedroom door._] If madame will be so kind....
[_Shuts the door after her and stands in front of it._]
DR. GOLL--I christened her Nellie, you know, in our marriage-contract.
SCHÖN--Did you?--Yes.
DR. GOLL--What do you think of it?
SCHÖN--Why not call her rather Mignon?
DR. GOLL--That would have been good, too. I didn’t think of that.
SCHÖN--Do you consider the name so important?
DR. GOLL--Hm.... You know, I have no children.
SCHÖN--But you’ve only been married a couple of months.
DR. GOLL--Thanks, I don’t want any.
SCHÖN--[_Having taken out his cigarette-case._] Have a cigarette?
DR. GOLL--[_Helps himself._] I’ve plenty to do with this one. [_To_
SCHWARZ.] Say, what’s your little danseuse doing now?
SCHÖN--[_Turning round on_ SCHWARZ.] You and a danseuse?
SCHWARZ--The lady was sitting for me at that time only as a favor. I
made her acquaintance on a flying trip of the Cecilia Society.
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Hm.... I think we’re getting a change of
weather.
SCHÖN--The toilet isn’t going so quickly, is it?
DR. GOLL--It’s going like lightning! Woman has got to be a virtuoso
in her job. So must we all, each in his job, if life isn’t to turn to
beggary. [_Calls._] Hop, Nellie!
LULU--[_Inside._] Just a second!
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] I can’t get onto these blockheads. [_Referring
to_ SCHWARZ.]
SCHÖN--I can’t help envying them. These blockheads know of nothing
holier than an altar-cloth, and feel richer than you and me with
30,000-mark incomes. Besides, you’re no person to judge a man who has
lived since childhood from palette to mouth. Take it upon yourself to
finance him: it’s an arithmetic example! I haven’t the moral courage,
and one can easily burn one’s fingers, too.
LULU--[_As_ PIERROT, _steps out of the bedroom_.] Here I am!
SCHÖN--[_Turns; after a pause._] Superb!
LULU--[_Nearer._] Well?
SCHÖN--You shame the boldest fancy.
LULU--How do you like me?
SCHÖN--A picture before which art must despair.
DR. GOLL--Ah, you think so, too?
Schön--[_To_ LULU.] Have you any notion what you’re doing?
LULU--I’m perfectly aware of myself!
SCHÖN--Then you might be a little more discreet.
LULU--But I’m only doing what’s my duty.
SCHÖN--You are powdered?
LULU--What do you take me for!
DR. GOLL--I’ve never seen such a white skin as she’s got. I’ve told
our Raphael here, too, to do just as little with the flesh tints as
possible. I can’t get up any enthusiasm for this modern daubing.
SCHWARZ--[_By the easels, preparing his paints._] At any rate, it’s
thanks to impressionism that present-day art can stand up beside the
old masters without blushing.
DR. GOLL--Oh, it may be quite the thing for a brute being led to
slaughter.
SCHÖN--For Heaven’s sake don’t get excited! [LULU _falls on_ GOLL’S
_neck and kisses him_.]
DR. GOLL--They can see your undershirt. You must pull it lower.
LULU--I would soonest have left it off. It only bothers me.
DR. GOLL--He should be able to paint it out.
LULU--[_Taking the shepherd’s crook that leans against the Spanish
screen, and mounting the platform, to_ SCHÖN.] What would you say now,
if you had to stand at attention for two hours?
SCHÖN--I’d sell my soul to the devil for the chance to exchange with
you.
DR. GOLL--[_Sitting, left._] Come over here. Here is my post of
observation.
LULU--[_Plucking her left trouser-leg up to the knee, to_ SCHWARZ.] So?
SCHWARZ--Yes....
LULU--[_Plucking it a thought higher._] So?
SCHWARZ--Yes, yes....
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN, _who has seated himself on the chair next him,
with a gesture_.] I find that she shows up even better from here.
LULU--[_Without stirring._] I beg pardon! I show up equally well from
every side.
SCHWARZ--[_To_ LULU.] The right knee further forward, please.
SCHÖN--[_With a gesture._] The body does show finer lines perhaps.
SCHWARZ--The lighting is at least half-way bearable to-day.
DR. GOLL--Oh, you must throw on lots of it! Hold your brush a bit
longer.
SCHWARZ--Certainly, Dr. Goll.
DR. GOLL--Treat her as a piece of still-life.
SCHWARZ--Certainly, Doctor. [_To_ LULU.] You used to hold your head a
wee mite higher, Mrs. Goll.
LULU--[_Raising her head._] Paint my lips a little open.
SCHÖN--Paint snow on ice. If you get warm doing that, then instantly
your art gets inartistic!
SCHWARZ--Certainly, Doctor.
DR. GOLL--Art, you know, must so reproduce nature that one can get at
least some =spiritual= enjoyment from it!
LULU--[_Opening her mouth a little, to_ SCHWARZ.] So--look. I’ll hold
it half opened, so.
SCHWARZ--Every time the sun comes out, the wall opposite throws warm
reflections in here.
DR. GOLL--[_To_ LULU.] You must keep your pose and behave as if our
Velasquez here were nonexistent.
LULU--Well, a painter =isn’t= a man, anyway.
SCHÖN--I don’t think you ought to judge the whole craft from nothing
more than one notable exception.
SCHWARZ--[_Stepping back from the easel._] However, I rather wish I had
had to hire a different studio last fall.
SCHÖN--[_To_ GOLL.] What I wanted to ask you--have you seen the little
Murphy girl yet as a Peruvian pearl-fisher?
DR. GOLL--I see her to-morrow for the fourth time. Prince Polossov took
me. His hair has already got dark yellow again with delight.
SCHÖN--So you find her quite fabulous, too.
DR. GOLL--Who ever wants to judge of that beforehand?
LULU--I think someone knocked.
SCHWARZ--Pardon me a moment. [_Goes and opens the door._]
DR. GOLL--[_To_ LULU.] You can safely smile at him less bashfully!
SCHÖN--To him it means nothing at all.
DR. GOLL--And if it did!--What are we two sitting here for?
ALVA SCHÖN--[_Entering, still behind the Spanish screen._] May one come
in?
SCHÖN--My son!
LULU--Oh! It’s Mr. Alva!
DR. GOLL--Don’t mind. Just come along in.
ALVA--[_Stepping forward, shakes hands with_ SCHÖN _and_ GOLL.] Glad to
see you. [_Turning toward_ LULU.] Do I see aright? Oh, if only I could
engage you for my title part!
LULU--I don’t think I could dance nearly well enough for your show!
ALVA--Ah, but you have a dancing-master whose like cannot be found on
any stage in Europe.
SCHÖN--But what brings you here?
DR. GOLL--Maybe you’re having somebody or other painted here, too, in
secret!
ALVA--[_To_ SCHÖN.] I wanted to take you to the dress rehearsal.
DR. GOLL--[_As_ SCHÖN _rises_.] Oho, do you have ’em dance to-day in
full costume already?
ALVA--Of course. Come along, too. In five minutes I must be on the
stage. [_To_ LULU.] Poor me!
DR. GOLL--I’ve forgotten--what’s the name of your ballet?
ALVA--Dalailama.
DR. GOLL--I thought =he= was in a madhouse.
SCHÖN--You’re thinking of Nietzsche, Doctor.
DR. GOLL--You’re right; I got ’em mixed up.
ALVA--I have helped Buddhism to its legs.
DR. GOLL--By his legs is the stage-poet known.
ALVA--Corticelli dances the youthful Buddha as tho she had seen the
light of the world by the Ganges.
SCHÖN--So long as her mother lived, she danced with her legs.
ALVA--Then when she got free she danced with her intelligence.
DR. GOLL--Now she dances with her heart.
ALVA--If you’d like to see her----
DR. GOLL--Thank you.
ALVA--Come along with us!
DR. GOLL--Impossible.
SCHÖN--Anyway, we have no time to lose.
ALVA--Come with us, Doctor. In the third act you see Dalailama in his
cloister, with his monks----
DR. GOLL--The only thing I care about is the young Buddha.
ALVA--Well, what’s hindering you?
DR. GOLL--I can’t. I can’t do it.
ALVA--We’re going to Peter’s, after it. There you can express your
admiration.
DR. GOLL--Don’t press me any further, please.
ALVA--You’ll see the tame monkey, the two Brahmans, the little girls....
DR. GOLL--For heaven’s sake, keep away from me with your little girls!
LULU--Reserve us a proscenium box for Monday, Mr. Alva.
ALVA--How could you doubt that I would, dear lady!
DR. GOLL--When I come back this Hellebreugel will have messed up the
whole picture on me.
ALVA--Well, it could be painted over.
DR. GOLL--If I don’t explain to this Caravacci every stroke of his
brush----
SCHÖN--Your fears are unfounded, I think....
DR. GOLL--Next time, gentlemen!
ALVA--The Brahmans are getting impatient. The daughters of Nirvana are
shivering in their tights.
DR. GOLL--Damned splotchiness!
SCHÖN--We’ll get jumped on if we don’t bring you with us.
DR. GOLL--In five minutes I’ll be back. [_Stands down right, behind_
SCHWARZ _and compares the picture with_ LULU.]
ALVA--[_To_ LULU, _regretfully_.] Duty calls me, gracious lady!
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHWARZ.] You must model it a bit more here. The hair
is bad. You aren’t paying enough attention to your business!
ALVA--Come on.
DR. GOLL--Now, just hop it! Ten horses will not drag me to Peter’s.
SCHÖN--[_Following_ ALVA _and_ GOLL.] We’ll take my carriage. It’s
waiting downstairs. [_Exeunt._]
SCHWARZ--[_Leans over to the right, and spits._] Pack!--If only life
could end!--The bread-basket!--paunch and mug!--my artist’s pride has
got its back up. [_After a look at_ LULU.] This company!--[_Gets up,
goes up left, observes_ LULU _from all sides, and sits again at his
easel_.] The choice would be a hard one to make. If I may request Mrs.
Goll to raise the right hand a little higher.
LULU--[_Grasps the crook as high as she can reach; to herself._] Who
would have thought that was possible!
SCHWARZ--I am quite ridiculous, you think?
LULU--He’s coming right back.
SCHWARZ--I can do no more than paint.
LULU--There he is!
SCHWARZ--[_Rising._] Well?
LULU--Don’t you hear?
SCHWARZ--Someone is coming....
LULU--I knew it.
SCHWARZ--It’s the janitor. He’s sweeping the stairs.
LULU--Thank Heaven!
SCHWARZ--Do you perhaps accompany the doctor to his patients?
LULU--Everything =but= that.
SCHWARZ--Because, you are not accustomed to being alone.
LULU--We have a housekeeper at home.
SCHWARZ--She keeps you company?
LULU--She has a lot of taste.
SCHWARZ--What for?
LULU--She dresses me.
SCHWARZ--Do you go much to balls?
LULU--Never.
SCHWARZ--Then what do you need the dresses for?
LULU--For dancing.
SCHWARZ--You really dance?
LULU--Czardas ... Samaqueca ... Skirt-dance.
SCHWARZ--Doesn’t--that--disgust you?
LULU--You find me ugly?
SCHWARZ--You don’t understand me. But who gives you lessons then?
LULU--Him.
SCHWARZ--Who?
LULU--Him.
SCHWARZ--He?
LULU--He plays the violin----
SCHWARZ--Every day one learns something new.
LULU--I learned in Paris. I took lessons from Eugénie Fougère. She let
me copy her costumes, too.
SCHWARZ--What are =they= like?
LULU--A little green lace skirt to the knee, all in ruffles,
low-necked, of course, very low-necked and awfully tight-laced. Bright
green petticoat, then brighter and brighter. Snow-white underclothes
with a hand’s-breadth of lace....
SCHWARZ--I can no longer----
LULU--Then paint!
SCHWARZ--[_Scraping the canvas._] Aren’t you cold at all?
LULU--God forbid! No. What made you ask? Are you so cold?
SCHWARZ--Not to-day. No.
LULU--Praise God, one can breathe!
SCHWARZ--How so?... [LULU _takes a deep breath_.] Don’t do that,
please! [_Springs up, throws away his palette and brushes, walks up and
down._] The bootblack has only her feet to attend to, at least! And
his color doesn’t eat into his money, either. If I go without supper
to-morrow, no little society lady will be asking me if I know anything
about oyster-patties!
LULU--Is he going out of his head?
SCHWARZ--[_Takes up his work again._] What ever drove the fellow to
this test?
LULU--I’d like it better, too, if he had stayed here.
SCHWARZ--We are truly the martyrs of our calling!
LULU--I didn’t wish to cause you pain.
SCHWARZ--[_Hesitating, to_ LULU.] If you--the left trouser-leg--a
little higher----
LULU--Here?
SCHWARZ--[_Steps to the platform._] Permit me....
LULU--What do you want?
SCHWARZ--I’ll show you.
LULU--You mustn’t.
SCHWARZ--You are nervous.... [_Tries to seize her hand._]
LULU--[_Throws the crook in his face._] Let me alone! [_Hurries to the
entrance door._] You’re a long way yet from getting me.
SCHWARZ--You can’t understand a joke.
LULU--Oh, yes, I can. I understand everything. Just you leave me be.
You’ll get nothing at all from me by force. Go to your work. You have
no right to molest me. [_Flees behind the ottoman._] Sit down behind
your easel!
SCHWARZ--[_Trying to get around the ottoman._] As soon as I’ve punished
you--you wayward, capricious----
LULU--But you must have me, first! Go away. You can’t catch me. In long
clothes I’d have fallen into your clutches long ago--but in the Pierrot!
SCHWARZ--[_Throwing himself across the ottoman._] I’ve got you!
LULU--[_Hurls the tiger-skin over his head._] Good night! [_Jumps over
the platform and climbs up the step-ladder._] I can see away over all
the cities of the earth.
SCHWARZ--[_Unrolling himself from the rug._] This old skin!
LULU--I reach up into heaven, and stick the stars in my hair.
SCHWARZ--[_Clambering after her._] I’ll shake it till you fall off!
LULU--If you don’t stop, I’ll throw the ladder down. [_Climbing
higher._] Will you let go of my legs? God save the Poles! [_Makes the
ladder fall over, jumps onto the platform, and as_ SCHWARZ _picks
himself up from the floor, throws the Spanish screen down on his head.
Hastening down-stage, by the easels._] I told you that you weren’t
going to get me.
SCHWARZ--[_Coming forward._] Let us make peace. [_Tries to embrace
her._]
LULU--Keep away from me, or---- [_She throws the easel with the
finished picture at him, so that both fall crashing to the floor._]
SCHWARZ--[_Screams._] Merciful Heaven!
LULU--[_Up-stage, right._] You knocked the hole in it yourself!
SCHWARZ--I am ruined! Ten weeks’ work, my journey, my exhibition! Now
there is nothing more to lose! [_Plunges after her._]
LULU--[_Springs over the ottoman, over the fallen step-ladder, and over
the platform, down-stage._] A grave! Don’t fall into it! [_She stamps
thru the picture on the floor._] She made a new man out of him! [_Falls
forward._]
SCHWARZ--[_Stumbling over the Spanish screen._] I am merciless now!
LULU--[_Up-stage._] Leave me in peace now. I’m getting dizzy. O Gott! O
Gott!... [_Comes forward and sinks down on the ottoman._ SCHWARZ _locks
the door; then seats himself next to her, grasps her hand, and covers
it with kisses--then pauses, struggling with himself._ LULU _opens her
eyes wide_.]
LULU--He may come back.
SCHWARZ--How d’you feel?
LULU--As if I had fallen into the water....
SCHWARZ--I love you.
LULU--One time, I loved a student.
SCHWARZ--Nellie----
LULU--With four-and-twenty scars----
SCHWARZ--I love you, Nellie.
LULU--My name isn’t Nellie. [SCHWARZ _kisses her_.] It’s Lulu.
SCHWARZ--I would call you Eve.
LULU--Do you know what time it is?
SCHWARZ--[_Looking at his watch._] Half past ten. [LULU _takes the
watch and opens the case_.] You don’t love me.
LULU--Yes, I do.... It’s five minutes after half past ten.
SCHWARZ--Give me a kiss, Eve!
LULU--[_Takes him by the chin and kisses him. Throws the watch in the
air and catches it._] You smell of tobacco.
SCHWARZ--Call me Walter.
LULU--It would be uncomfortable to----
SCHWARZ--You’re just making believe!
LULU--You’re making believe yourself, it seems to me. _I_ make believe?
What makes you think that? I’ve =never needed to do that=.
SCHWARZ--[_Rises, disconcerted, passing his hand over his forehead._]
God in Heaven! The world is strange to me----
LULU--[_Screams._] Only don’t kill me!
SCHWARZ--[_Instantly whirling round._] =Thou hast never yet loved!=
LULU--[_Half raising herself._] =You have never yet loved=...!
DR. GOLL--[_Outside._] Open the door!
LULU--[_Already sprung to her feet._] Hide me! O God, hide me!
DR. GOLL--[_Pounding on the door._] Open the door!
LULU--[_Holding back_ SCHWARZ _as he goes toward the door_.] He will
strike me dead!
DR. GOLL--[_Hammering._] Open the door!
LULU--[_Sunk down before_ SCHWARZ, _gripping his knees._] He’ll beat
me to death! He’ll beat me to death!
SCHWARZ--Stand up.... [_The door falls crashing into the studio._ DR.
GOLL _with bloodshot eyes rushes upon_ SCHWARZ _and_ LULU, _brandishing
his stick_.]
DR. GOLL--You dogs! You.... [_Pants, struggles for breath a few
seconds, and falls headlong to the ground._ SCHWARZ’S _knees tremble_.
LULU _has fled to the door. Pause._]
SCHWARZ--Mister--Doctor--Doc--Doctor Goll----
LULU--[_In the door._] Please, tho, first put the studio in order.
SCHWARZ--Dr. Goll! [_Leans over._] Doc--[_Steps back._] He’s cut his
forehead. Help me to lay him on the ottoman.
LULU--[_Shudders backward in terror._] No. No....
SCHWARZ--[_Trying to turn him over._] Dr. Goll.
LULU--He doesn’t hear.
SCHWARZ--But you, help me, please.
LULU--The two of us together couldn’t lift him.
SCHWARZ--[_Straightening up._] We must send for a doctor.
LULU--He is fearfully heavy.
SCHWARZ--[_Getting his hat._] Please, tho, be so good as to put the
place a little to rights while I’m away. [_He goes out._]
LULU--He’ll spring up all at once. [_Intensely._] Bussi!--He just won’t
notice anything. [_Comes down-stage in a wide circle._] He sees my
feet, and watches every step I take. He has his eye on me everywhere.
[_Touches him with her toe._] Bussi! [_Flinching, backward._] It’s
serious with him. The dance is over. He’ll send me to prison. What
shall I do? [_Leans down to the floor._] A strange, wild face!
[_Getting up._] And no one to do him the last services--isn’t that sad!
[SCHWARZ _returns_.]
SCHWARZ--Still not come to himself?
LULU--[_Down right._] What shall I do?
SCHWARZ--[_Bending over_ GOLL.] Doctor Goll.
LULU--I almost think it’s serious.
SCHWARZ--Talk decently!
LULU--He wouldn’t say that to me. He makes me dance for him when he
doesn’t feel well.
SCHWARZ--The doctor will be here in a moment.
LULU--Doctoring won’t help =him=.
SCHWARZ--But people do what they can, in such cases!
LULU--He doesn’t believe in it.
SCHWARZ--Don’t you want to--at any rate--put something on?
LULU--Yes,--right off.
SCHWARZ--What are you waiting for?
LULU--Please....
SCHWARZ--What is it?
LULU--Shut =his= eyes.
SCHWARZ--You make me shiver.
LULU--Not nearly so much as you make =me=!
SCHWARZ--I?
LULU--You’re a born criminal.
SCHWARZ--Aren’t you the least bit touched by this moment?
LULU--It hits me, too, some.
SCHWARZ--Please, just you keep still now!
LULU--It hits you some, too.
SCHWARZ--You really didn’t need to add that, at such a moment!
LULU--=Please=...!
SCHWARZ--Do what you think necessary. I don’t know how.
LULU--[_Left of_ GOLL.] He’s looking at me.
SCHWARZ--[_Right of_ GOLL.] And at me, too.
LULU--You’re a coward!
SCHWARZ--[_Shuts_ GOLL’S _eyes with his handkerchief_.] It’s the first
time in my life I’ve ever been condemned to that.
LULU--Didn’t you do it to your mother?
SCHWARZ--[Nervously.] No.
LULU--You were away, perhaps.
SCHWARZ--No!
LULU--Or else you were afraid?
SCHWARZ--[_Violently._] No!
LULU--[_Shivering, backward._] I didn’t mean to insult you.
SCHWARZ--She’s still alive.
LULU--Then you still have somebody.
SCHWARZ--She’s as poor as a beggar.
LULU--I know what that is.
SCHWARZ--Don’t laugh at me!
LULU--Now I am rich----
SCHWARZ--It gives me cold shudders---- [_Goes right._] She can’t help
it!
LULU--[_To herself._] What’ll I do?
SCHWARZ--[_To himself._] Absolutely uncivilized! [_They look at each
other mistrustfully._ SCHWARZ _goes over to her and grips her hand_.]
Look me in the eyes!
LULU--[_Apprehensively._] What do you want?
SCHWARZ--[_Takes her to the ottoman and makes her sit next to him._]
Look me in the eyes.
LULU--I see myself in them as Pierrot.
SCHWARZ--[_Shoves her from him._] Confounded dancer-ing!
LULU--I must change my clothes----
SCHWARZ--[_Holds her back._] One question----
LULU--I can’t answer it.
SCHWARZ--Can you speak the truth?
LULU--I don’t know.
SCHWARZ--Do you believe in a Creator?
LULU--I don’t know.
SCHWARZ--Can you swear by anything?
LULU--I don’t know. Leave me alone. You’re mad.
SCHWARZ--What do you believe in, then?
LULU--I don’t know.
SCHWARZ--Have you no soul, then?
LULU--I don’t know.
SCHWARZ--Have you ever once loved----?
LULU--I don’t know.
SCHWARZ--[_Gets up, goes right, to himself._] She doesn’t know!
LULU--[_Without moving._] I don’t know.
SCHWARZ--[_Glancing at_ GOLL.] He knows.
LULU--[_Nearer him._] What do you want to know?
SCHWARZ--[_Angrily._] Go, get dressed! [LULU _goes into the bedroom_.
_To_ GOLL.] Would I could change with you, you dead man! I give her
back to you. I give my youth to you, too. I lack the courage and the
faith. I’ve had to wait patiently too long. It’s too late for me. I
haven’t grown up big enough for happiness. I have a hellish fear of it.
Wake up! I didn’t touch her. He opens his mouth. Mouth open and eyes
shut, like the children. With me it’s the other way round. Wake up,
wake up! [_Kneels down and binds his handkerchief round the dead man’s
head._] Here I beseech Heaven to make me =able= to be happy--to give
me the strength and the freedom of soul to be just a weeny mite happy!
For =her= sake, =only for her sake=. [LULU _comes out of the bedroom,
completely dressed, her hat on, and her right hand under her left arm_.]
LULU--[_Raising her left arm, to_ SCHWARZ.] Would you hook me up here?
My hand trembles.
CURTAIN
ACT II
SCENE--_A very ornamental parlor. Entrance-door rear, left. Curtained
entrances right and left, steps leading up to the right one. On
the back wall over the fireplace_, LULU’S _Pierrot picture in a
magnificent frame. Right, above the steps, a tall mirror; facing
it, right centre, a chaise longue. Left, an ebony writing-table.
Centre, a few chairs around a little Chinese table._
LULU _stands motionless before the mirror, in a green silk
morning-dress. She frowns, passes a hand over her forehead, feels
her cheeks, and draws back from the mirror with a discouraged,
almost angry, look. Frequently turning round, she goes left, opens
a cigarette-case on the writing-table, lights herself a cigarette,
looks for a book among those that are lying on the table, takes
one, and lies down on the chaise longue opposite the mirror. After
reading a moment, she lets the book sink, and nods seriously to
herself in the glass; then resumes reading._ SCHWARZ _enters,
left, palette and brushes in hand, and bends over_ LULU, _kisses
her on the forehead, and goes up the steps, right_.
SCHWARZ--[_Turning in the doorway._] Eve!
LULU--[_Smiling._] At your orders?
SCHWARZ--Seems to me you look extra charming to-day.
LULU--[_With a glance at the mirror._] Depends on what you expect.
SCHWARZ--Your hair breathes out a morning freshness....
LULU--I’ve just come out of the water.
SCHWARZ--[_Approaching her._] I’ve an awful lot to do to-day.
LULU--You tell yourself you have.
SCHWARZ--[_Lays his palette and brushes down on the carpet, and sits on
the edge of the couch._] What are you reading?
LULU--[_Reads._] “Suddenly she heard an anchor of refuge come nodding
up the stairs.”
SCHWARZ--Who under the sun writes so absorbingly?
LULU--[_Reading._] “It was the postman with a money-order.” [HENRIETTE,
_the servant, comes in, upper left, with a hat-box on her arm and a
little tray of letters which she puts on the table_.]
HENRIETTE--The mail. I’m going to take your hat to the milliner, madam.
Anything else?
LULU--No. [SCHWARZ _signs to her to go out, which she does, slyly
smiling_.]
SCHWARZ--What were all the things you dreamt about last night?
LULU--You’ve asked me that twice already this morning.
SCHWARZ--[_Rises, takes up the letters._] News makes me tremble. Every
day I fear the world may go to pieces. [_Giving_ LULU _a letter_.] For
you.
LULU--[_Sniffs at the paper._] Madame Corticelli. [_Hides it in her
bosom._]
SCHWARZ--[_Skimming a letter._] My Sama-queca-dancer sold--for fifty
thousand marks!
LULU--Who’s that from?
SCHWARZ--Sedelmeier in Paris. That’s the third picture since our
marriage. I hardly know how to escape my good fortune!
LULU--[_Pointing to the letters._] There are more there.
SCHWARZ--[_Opening an engagement announcement._] See. [_Gives it to_
LULU.]
LULU--[_Reads._] “Sir Henry von Zarnikow has the honor to announce the
engagement of his daughter, Charlotte Marie Adelaide, to Doctor Ludwig
Schön.”
SCHWARZ--[_As he opens another letter._] At last! He’s been an eternal
while evading a public engagement. I can’t understand it--a man of his
standing and influence. What can be in the way of his marriage?
LULU--What is that that you’re reading?
SCHWARZ--An invitation to take part in the international exhibition at
St. Petersburg. I have no idea what to paint for it.
LULU--Some entrancing girl or other, of course.
SCHWARZ--Will you be willing to pose for it?
LULU--God knows there are other pretty girls enough in existence!
SCHWARZ--But with no other model--tho she be as racy as hell--can I so
fully show the depth and range of my powers.
LULU--Then I must, I suppose. Mightn’t it go as well, perhaps, lying
down?
SCHWARZ--Really, I’d like best to leave the composition to your
taste. [_Folding up the letters._] Don’t let’s forget to congratulate
Schön to-day, anyway. [_Goes left and shuts the letters in the
writing-table._]
LULU--But we did that a long time ago.
SCHWARZ--For his bride’s sake.
LULU--You can write to him again if you want.
SCHWARZ--And now to work! [_Takes up his brushes and palette, kisses_
LULU, _goes up the steps, right, and turns around in the doorway_.] Eve!
LULU--[_Lets her book sink, smiling._] Your pleasure?
SCHWARZ--[_Approaching her._] I feel every day as if I were seeing you
for the very first time.
LULU--You’re a terror.
SCHWARZ--You make me one. [_He sinks on his knees by the couch and
caresses her hand._]
LULU--[_Stroking his hair._] You’re using me up fast.
SCHWARZ--You are mine. And you are never more ensnaring than when you
ought for God’s sake to be, just once, real ugly for a couple of hours!
Since I’ve had you, I have had nothing further. I’ve lost hold of
myself entirely.
LULU--Don’t be so passionate! [_Bell rings in the corridor._]
SCHWARZ--[_Pulling himself together._] Confound it!
LULU--No one at home!
SCHWARZ--Perhaps it’s the art-dealer----
LULU--And if it’s the Chinese Emperor!
SCHWARZ--One moment. [_Exit._]
LULU--[_Visionary._] Thou? Thou? [_Closes her eyes._]
SCHWARZ--[_Coming back._] A beggar, who says he was in the war. I have
no small change on me. [_Taking up his palette and brushes._] It’s high
time, too, that I should finally go to work. [_Goes out, right._ LULU
_touches herself up before the glass, strokes back her hair, and goes
out, returning leading in_ SCHIGOLCH.]
SCHIGOLCH--I’d thought he was more of a swell--a little more glory to
him. He’s sort of embarrassed. He quaked a little in the knees when he
saw =me= in front of him.
LULU--[_Shoving a chair round for him._] How can you beg from him, too?
SCHIGOLCH--I’ve dragged my seventy-seven spring-times here just for
that. You told me he kept at his painting in the mornings.
LULU--He hadn’t got quite awake yet. How much do you need?
SCHIGOLCH--Two hundred, if you have that much handy. Personally, I’d
like three hundred. Some of my clients have evaporated.
LULU--[_Goes to the writing-table and rummages in the drawers._] Whew,
I’m tired!
SCHIGOLCH--[_Looking round him._] This helped bring me, too. I’ve been
wanting a long time to see how things were looking with you now.
LULU--Well?
SCHIGOLCH--It gives one cold shivers. [_Looking up._] Like with me
fifty years ago. Instead of the loafing chairs we still had rusty old
sabres then. Devil, but you’ve brought it pretty far! [_Scuffing._]
Carpets....
LULU--[_Giving him two bills._] I like best to walk on them bare-footed.
SCHIGOLCH--[_Scanning_ LULU’S _portrait_.] Is that you?
LULU--[_Winking._] Pretty fine?
SCHIGOLCH--If that’s the sort of thing.
LULU--Have something sweet?
SCHIGOLCH--What?
LULU--[_Getting up._] Elixir de Spaa.
SCHIGOLCH--That doesn’t help me---- Does he drink?
LULU--[_Taking a decanter and glasses from a cupboard near the
fireplace._] Not yet. [_Coming down-stage._] The cordial has such
various effects!
SCHIGOLCH--He comes to blows?
LULU--He goes to sleep. [_She fills the two glasses._]
SCHIGOLCH--When he’s drunk, you can see right into his insides.
LULU--I’d rather not. [_Sits opposite_ SCHIGOLCH.] Talk to me.
SCHIGOLCH--The streets keep on getting longer, and my legs shorter.
LULU--And your harmonica?
SCHIGOLCH--Wheezes, like me with my asthma. I just keep a-thinking it
isn’t worth the trouble to make it better. [_They clink glasses._]
LULU--[_Emptying her glass._] I’d been thinking that at last you
were----
SCHIGOLCH--At last I was up and away? I thought so, too. But no matter
how early the sun goes down, still we aren’t let lie quiet. I’m hoping
for winter. Perhaps then my [_coughing_]--my--my asthma will invent
some opportunity to carry me off.
LULU--[_Filling the glasses._] Do you think they could have forgotten
you up there?
SCHIGOLCH--Would be possible, for it certainly isn’t going like it
usually does. [_Stroking her knee._] Now you tell--not seen you a long
time--my little Lulu.
LULU--[_Jerking back, smiling._] Life is beyond me!
SCHIGOLCH--What do you know about it? You’re still so young!
LULU--That you call me Lulu.
SCHIGOLCH--Lulu, isn’t it? Have I ever called you anything else?
LULU--I haven’t been called Lulu since man can remember.
SCHIGOLCH--Some other kind of name?
LULU--Lulu sounds to me quite antediluvian.
SCHIGOLCH--Children! Children!
LULU--My name now is----
SCHIGOLCH--As if the principle wasn’t always the same!
LULU--You mean----
SCHIGOLCH--What is it now?
LULU--=Eve=.
SCHIGOLCH--Leapt, hopped, skipped, jumped....
LULU--That’s what I answer to.
SCHIGOLCH--[_Gazing round._] This is the way I dreamt it for you. It’s
your natural bent. [_Seeing_ LULU _sprinkling herself with perfume_.]
What’s that?
LULU--Heliotrope.
SCHIGOLCH--Does that smell better than you?
LULU--[_Sprinkling him._] That needn’t bother you any more.
SCHIGOLCH--Who would have dreamt of this royal luxury before!
LULU--When I think back--Ugh!
SCHIGOLCH--[_Stroking her knee._] How’s it going with you, then? You
still keep at the French?
LULU--I lie and sleep.
SCHIGOLCH--That’s genteel. That always looks like something. And
afterwards?
LULU--I stretch--till it cracks.
SCHIGOLCH--And when it has cracked?
LULU--What do you mind about that?
SCHIGOLCH--What do I mind about that? What do I mind? I’d rather
live till the last trump and renounce all heavenly joys than leave
my Lulu deprived of anything down here behind me. What do I mind
about that? It’s my sympathy. To be sure, my better self =is= already
transfigured--but I still have some understanding of this world.
LULU--I haven’t.
SCHIGOLCH--You’re too well off.
LULU--[_Shuddering._] Idiot....
SCHIGOLCH--Better than with the old dancing-bear?
LULU--[_Sadly._] I don’t dance any more.
SCHIGOLCH--He got his call all right.
LULU--Now I am---- [_Stops._]
SCHIGOLCH--Speak out from your heart, child! I believed in you when
there was no more to be seen in you than your two big eyes. What are
you now?
LULU--A beast....
SCHIGOLCH--The deuce you---- And what kind of a beast? A fine
beast! An elegant beast! A glorified beast!--Well, let them bury me
quickly! We’re through with prejudices--even with the one against the
corpse-washer.
LULU--You needn’t be afraid that you will be washed once more.
SCHIGOLCH--Doesn’t matter, either. One gets dirty again.
LULU--[_Sprinkling him._] It would call you back to life again!
SCHIGOLCH--We are mud.
LULU--I beg your pardon! I rub grease into myself every day and then
powder on top of it.
SCHIGOLCH--Probably worth while, too, on the dressed-up mucker’s
account.
LULU--It makes the skin like satin.
SCHIGOLCH--As if it weren’t just dirt all the same!
LULU--Thank you. I wish to be worth nibbling at!
SCHIGOLCH--We are. Give a big dinner down below there pretty soon. Keep
open house.
LULU--Your guests will hardly overeat themselves at it.
SCHIGOLCH--Patience, girl! Your worshippers won’t put you in alcohol,
either. It’s “schöne Melusine” as long as it keeps reacting.
Afterwards? They don’t take it at the zoölogical garden. [_Rising._]
The gentle beasties might get stomach-cramps.
LULU--[_Getting up._] Have you enough?
SCHIGOLCH--Enough and some to spare for planting a juniper on my
grave.--I’ll find my own way out. [_Exit._ LULU _follows him, and
presently returns with_ DR. SCHÖN.]
SCHÖN--What’s your father doing here?
LULU--What’s the matter?
SCHÖN--If I were your husband that man would never cross my threshold.
LULU--You can be intimate with me. He’s not here. [_Referring to_
SCHWARZ.]
SCHÖN--Thank you, I’d rather not.
LULU--I don’t understand.
SCHÖN--I know you don’t. [_Offering her a seat._] That is just the
point I’d like to speak to you about.
LULU--[_Sitting down uncertainly._] Then why didn’t you yesterday?
SCHÖN--Please, nothing now about yesterday. I did tell you two years
ago.
LULU--[_Nervously._] Oh, yes,--hm!
SCHÖN--Please be kind enough to cease your visits to my house.
LULU--May I offer you an elixir----
SCHÖN--Thanks. No elixir. Have you understood me? [LULU _shakes her
head_.] Good. You have the choice. You force me to the most extreme
measures:--either act in accordance with your station----
LULU--Or?
SCHÖN--Or--you compel me--I may have to turn to that person who is
responsible for your behavior.
LULU--How can you imagine that----?
SCHÖN--I shall request your husband, himself to keep watch over your
doings. [LULU _rises, goes up the steps, right_.] Where are you going?
LULU--[_Calls thru the curtains._] Walter!
SCHÖN--[_Springing up._] Are you mad?
LULU--[_Turning round._] Aha!
SCHÖN--I have made the most superhuman efforts to raise you in society.
You can be ten times as proud of your name as of your intimacy with me.
LULU--[_Comes down the steps and puts her arm around_ SCHÖN’S _neck_.]
Why are you still afraid, now that you’re at the zenith of your hopes?
SCHÖN--No comedy! The zenith of my hopes? I am at last engaged: I have
still to hope that I may bring my bride into a clean house.
LULU--[_Sitting._] She has developed delightfully in the two years!
SCHÖN--She no longer looks thru one so earnestly.
LULU--She is now, for the first time, a woman. We can meet each other
wherever seems suitable to you.
SCHÖN--We shall meet each other nowhere but in the presence of your
husband!
LULU--You don’t believe yourself what you say.
SCHÖN--Then =he= must believe it, at least. Go on and call him! Thru
his marriage to you, thru all that I’ve done for him, he has become my
friend.
LULU--[_Rising._] Mine, too.
SCHÖN--And that way I’ll cut down the sword over my head.
LULU--You have, indeed, put chains upon me. But I owe my happiness to
you. You will get friends by the crowd as soon as you have a pretty
young wife again.
SCHÖN--You judge women by yourself! He’s got the sense of a child or he
would have tracked out your doublings and windings long ago.
LULU--I only wish he would! Then, at last he’d get out of his
swaddling-clothes. He puts his trust in the marriage contract he has in
his pocket. Trouble is past and gone. One can now give oneself and let
oneself go as if one were at home. That isn’t the sense of a =child=!
It’s banal! He has no education; he sees nothing; he sees neither me
nor himself; he is blind, blind, blind....
SCHÖN--[_Half to himself._] When =his= eyes open!
LULU--Open his eyes for him! I’m going to ruin. I’m neglecting myself.
He doesn’t know me at all. What am I to him? He calls me darling and
little devil. He would say the same to any piano-teacher. He makes no
pretensions. Everything is all right, to him. That comes from his never
in his life having felt the need of intercourse with women.
SCHÖN--If that’s true!
LULU--He admits it perfectly openly.
SCHÖN--A man who has painted them, rags and tags and velvet gowns,
since he was fourteen.
LULU--Women make him anxious. He trembles for his health and comfort.
But he isn’t afraid of =me=!
SCHÖN--How many girls would deem themselves God knows how blessed in
your situation.
LULU--[_Softly pleading._] Seduce him. Corrupt him. You know how. Take
him into bad company--you know the people. I am nothing to him but a
woman, just woman. He makes me feel so ridiculous. He will be prouder
of me. He doesn’t know any differences. I’m thinking my head off, day
and night, how to shake him up. In my despair I dance the can-can. He
yawns; and drivels something about obscenity.
SCHÖN--Nonsense. He is an artist, though.
LULU--At least he believes he is.
SCHÖN--That’s the chief thing!
LULU--When _I_ pose for him.... He believes, too, that he’s a famous
man.
SCHÖN--We =have= made him one.
LULU--He believes everything. He’s as diffident as a thief, and lets
himself be lied to, till one loses all respect! When we first got to
know each other I made him believe I had never loved before--[SCHÖN
_falls into an easy-chair_.] Otherwise he would really have taken me
for some sort of reprobate!
SCHÖN--You make God knows what exorbitant demands on =legitimate=
relations!
LULU--I make no exorbitant demands. Often I even dream still of Goll.
SCHÖN--He was, at any rate, not banal!
LULU--He is there, as if he had never been away. Only he walks as tho
in his socks. He isn’t angry with me; he’s awfully sad. And then he is
fearful, as tho he were there without the permission of the police.
Otherwise, he feels at ease with us. Only he can’t quite get over my
having thrown away so much money since----
SCHÖN--You yearn for the whip once more?
LULU--Maybe. I don’t dance any more.
SCHÖN--Teach him to do it.
LULU--A waste of trouble.
SCHÖN--Out of a hundred women, ninety educate their husbands to suit
themselves.
LULU--He loves me.
SCHÖN--That’s fatal, of course.
LULU--He loves me----
SCHÖN--That is an unbridgeable abyss.
LULU--He doesn’t know me, but he loves me! If he had anything
approaching a true idea of me, he’d tie a stone around my neck and sink
me in the sea where it’s deepest.
SCHÖN--Let’s finish this. [_He gets up._]
LULU--As you say.
SCHÖN--I’ve married you off. Twice I have married you off. You live
in luxury. I’ve created a position for your husband. If that doesn’t
satisfy you, and he laughs in his sleeve at it,--I don’t indulge in
ideal expectations, but--leave me out of the game, out of it!
LULU--[_Resolutely._] If I belong to any person on this earth, I belong
to you. Without you I’d be--I won’t say where. You took me by the hand,
gave me food to eat, had me dressed,--when I was going to steal your
watch. Do you think that can be forgotten? Anybody else would have
called the police. You sent me to school, and had me learn manners.
Who but you in the whole world has ever had any kindness for me? I’ve
danced and posed, and was glad to be able to earn my living that way.
But =love= at command, I can’t!
SCHÖN--[_Raising his voice._] Leave =me= out! Do what you will. I
haven’t come to raise a row; I’ve come to shake myself free of it.
My engagement is costing me sacrifices enough! I had imagined that
with a healthy young husband--and a woman of your years can hope for
none better--you would, at last, have been contented. If you are under
obligations to me, don’t throw yourself a third time in my way! Am I
to wait yet longer before putting my pile in security? Am I to risk
letting the final success of all my concessions during the last two
years slip from me? What good is it to me to have you married, when you
can be seen going in and out of my house at every hour of the day?--Why
the devil didn’t Dr. Goll stay alive just one year more! With him you
were in safe keeping. Then I’d have had my wife long since under my
roof!
LULU--And what would you have had then? The kid gets on your nerves.
The child is too uncorrupted for you. She’s been much too carefully
brought up. What should I have against your marriage? But you’re making
a big mistake if you think that your imminent marriage warrants you in
expressing your contempt of me!
SCHÖN--Contempt?--I shall soon give the child the right idea. If
anything is contemptible, it’s your intrigues!
LULU--[_Laughing._] Am I jealous of the child? That never once entered
my head.
SCHÖN--Then why talk about the child? The child is not even a whole
year younger than you are. Leave me my freedom to live what life I
still have. No matter how the child’s been brought up, she’s got her
five senses just like you.... [SCHWARZ _appears, right, brush in hand_.]
SCHWARZ--What’s the matter here?
LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Well? Go on. Talk.
SCHWARZ--What’s the matter with you two?
LULU--Nothing that touches you----
SCHÖN--[_Sharply._] Quiet!
LULU--He’s had enough of me. [SCHWARZ _leads her off, to the right_.]
SCHÖN--[_Turning over the leaves in one of the books on the table._] It
had to come out--I must have my hands free at last!
SCHWARZ--[_Coming back._] Is that any way to jest?
SCHÖN--[_Pointing to a chair._] Please.
SCHWARZ--What is it?
SCHÖN--Please.
SCHWARZ--[_Seating himself._] Well?
SCHÖN--[_Seating himself._] You have married half a million....
SCHWARZ--Is it gone?
SCHÖN--Not a penny.
SCHWARZ--Explain to me the peculiar scene....
SCHÖN--You have married half a million----
SCHWARZ--No one can make a crime of that.
SCHÖN--You have created a name for yourself. You can work unmolested.
You need to deny yourself no wish----
SCHWARZ--What have you two got against me?
SCHÖN--For six months you’ve been revelling in all the heavens. You
have a wife whom the world envies you, and she deserves a man whom she
can respect----
SCHWARZ--Doesn’t she respect me?
SCHÖN--No.
SCHWARZ--[_Depressed._] I come from the dark depths of society. She
is above me. I cherish no more ardent wish than to become her equal.
[_Offers_ SCHÖN _his hand_.] Thank you.
SCHÖN--[_Pressing it, half embarrassed._] Don’t mention it.
SCHWARZ--[_With determination._] Speak!
SCHÖN--Keep a little more watch on her.
SCHWARZ--I--on her?
SCHÖN--We are not children! We don’t trifle! We live!--She demands that
she be taken seriously. Her value gives her a perfect right to be.
SCHWARZ--What does she do, then?
SCHÖN--You have married half a million!
SCHWARZ--[_Rises; beside himself._] She----?
SCHÖN--[_Takes him by the shoulder._] No, that’s not the way! [_Forces
him to sit._] We have a very grave matter here to discuss.
SCHWARZ--What does she do?
SCHÖN--First count over on your fingers all you have to thank her for,
and then----
SCHWARZ--What does she do--man!
SCHÖN--And then make yourself responsible for your failings,--no one
else.
SCHWARZ--With whom? With whom?
SCHÖN--If we should shoot each other----
SCHWARZ--Since when, then?
SCHÖN--[_Evasive._] --I have not come here to make a scandal, but to
rescue you =from= scandal.
SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] You have misunderstood her.
SCHÖN--[_Embarrassed._] That gets us nowhere. I can’t see you go on
living in blindness. The girl deserves to be a respectable woman. Since
I have known her she has improved as she developed.
SCHWARZ--Since you have known her? Since when have you known her then?
SCHÖN--Since about her twelfth year.
SCHWARZ--[_Bewildered._] She never told me that.
SCHÖN--She used to sell flowers in front of the Alhambra Café. Every
evening between twelve and two she would press in among the guests,
bare-footed.
SCHWARZ--She told me nothing of that.
SCHÖN--She did right there. I’m telling you, so you may see that hers
is not a case of moral degeneracy. The girl is, on the contrary, of
extraordinarily good disposition.
SCHWARZ--She said she had grown up with an aunt.
SCHÖN--That was the woman I gave her to. She was her best pupil. The
mothers used to make her an example to their children. She has the
feeling for duty. It is simply and solely your mistake if you have till
now neglected to appeal to the best in her.
SCHWARZ--[_Sobbing._] O God!----
SCHÖN--[_With emphasis._] No O God! Of the happiness you have enjoyed
nothing can be changed. The past is past. You overrate yourself against
your better knowledge if you persuade yourself you will lose. You stand
to gain. But with “O God” nothing is gained. I have never done you a
greater kindness: I speak out plainly and offer you my help. Don’t show
yourself unworthy of it!
SCHWARZ--[_From now on more and more broken up._] When I first knew
her, she told me she had never loved before.
SCHÖN--When a widow says =that=---- It does her credit that she chose
you for a husband. Make the same claims on yourself and your happiness
is without a blot.
SCHWARZ--She says he had her wear short dresses.
SCHÖN--But he married her! That was her master-stroke. How she brought
the man to it is beyond me. But you must know by now. You are enjoying
the fruits of her diplomacy.
SCHWARZ--Where did Dr. Goll get to know her? How?
SCHÖN--Through me! It was after my wife’s death, when I was making the
first advances to my present fiancée. She thrust herself between us.
She had set her heart on becoming my wife.
SCHWARZ--[_As if seized with a horrible suspicion._] And then when her
husband died?
SCHÖN--You married half a million!
SCHWARZ--[_Wailing._] Oh, to have stayed where I was! To have died of
hunger!
SCHÖN--[_Superior._] Do you think, then, that _I_ make no compromises?
Who is there that does not compromise? You have married half a million.
You are to-day one of our foremost artists. Such things can’t be done
without money. You are not the man to sit in judgment on her. You can’t
possibly treat an origin like Mignon’s according to the notions of
bourgeois society.
SCHWARZ--[_Quite distraught._] Whom are you speaking of?
SCHÖN--Of her father! You’re an artist, I say: your ideals are on a
different plane from those of a wage-worker.
SCHWARZ--I don’t understand a word of all that.
SCHÖN--I am speaking of the inhuman conditions out of which, thanks to
her good management, the girl has developed into what she is!
SCHWARZ--Who?
SCHÖN--Who? Your wife.
SCHWARZ--=Eve=?
SCHÖN--I called her Mignon.
SCHWARZ--I thought her name was Nellie?
SCHÖN--Dr. Goll called her so.
SCHWARZ--I called her Eve----
SCHÖN--What her real name is I don’t know.
SCHWARZ--[_Absently._] Perhaps she knows.
SCHÖN--With a father like hers, she is, with all her faults, an utter
miracle. I don’t understand you----
SCHWARZ--He died in a madhouse----
SCHÖN--He was here just now!
SCHWARZ--Who was here?
SCHÖN--Her father.
SCHWARZ--Here--in my home?
SCHÖN--He squeezed by me as I came in. And there are the two glasses
still.
SCHWARZ--She says he died in the madhouse.
SCHÖN--[_Encouragingly._] Let her feel your authority! Only make her
render you unconditional obedience, and she asks no more. With Dr. Goll
she was in heaven, and there was no joking him.
SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] She said she had never loved----
SCHÖN--But start with yourself. Pull yourself together!
SCHWARZ--She has sworn----
SCHÖN--You can’t expect a sense of duty in her before you know your own
task.
SCHWARZ--By her mother’s grave!
SCHÖN--She never knew her mother, let alone the grave. Her mother
hasn’t got a grave.
SCHWARZ--I don’t fit in society. [_He is in desperation._]
SCHÖN--What’s the matter?
SCHWARZ--Pain--horrible pain!
SCHÖN--[_Gets up, steps back; after a pause._] Guard her for yourself,
because she’s yours.--The moment is decisive. To-morrow she may be lost
to you.
SCHWARZ--[_Pointing to his breast._] Here, here.
SCHÖN--You have married half----[_Reflecting._] She is lost to you if
you let this moment slip!
SCHWARZ--If I could weep! Oh, if I could cry out!
SCHÖN--[_With a hand on his shoulder._] You’re suffering----
SCHWARZ--[_Getting up, apparently quiet._] You are right, quite right.
SCHÖN--[_Gripping his hand._] Where are you going?
SCHWARZ--To speak with her.
SCHÖN--Right! [_Accompanies him to the door, left. Coming back._] That
was tough work. [_After a pause, looking right._] He had taken her into
the studio before, tho...? [_A fearful groan, left. He hurries to the
door and finds it locked._] Open! Open the door!
LULU--[_Stepping thru the hangings, right._] What’s----
SCHÖN--Open it!
LULU--[_Comes down the steps._] That is horrible.
SCHÖN--Have you an ax in the kitchen?
LULU--He’ll open it right off----
SCHÖN--I can’t kick it in.
LULU--When he’s had his cry out.
SCHÖN--[_Kicking the door._] Open! [_To_ LULU.] Bring me an ax.
LULU--Send for the doctor----
SCHÖN--You are not yourself.
LULU--It serves you right. [_Bell rings in the corridor._ SCHÖN _and_
LULU _stare at each other. Then_ SCHÖN _slips up-stage and stands in
the doorway_.]
SCHÖN--I mustn’t let myself be seen here now.
LULU--Perhaps it’s the art-dealer. [_The bell rings again._]
SCHÖN--But if we don’t answer it---- [LULU _steals toward the door;
but_ SCHÖN _holds her_.] Stop. It sometimes happens that one is not
just at hand--[_He goes out on tiptoe._ LULU _turns back to the locked
door and listens_. SCHÖN _returns with_ ALVA.] Please be quiet.
ALVA--[_Very excited._] A revolution has broken out in Paris!
SCHÖN--Be quiet.
ALVA--[_To_ LULU.] You’re as pale as death.
SCHÖN--[_Rattling at the door._] Walter! Walter! [_A death-rattle is
heard behind the door._]
LULU--God pity you.
SCHÖN--Haven’t you brought an ax?
LULU--If there’s one there---- [_Goes slowly out, upper left._]
ALVA--He’s just keeping us in suspense.
SCHÖN--A revolution has broken out in Paris?
ALVA--Up in the office the editors are tearing their hair. Not one of
them knows what to write about it. [_The bell rings in the corridor._]
SCHÖN--[_Kicking against the door._] Walter!
ALVA--Shall I run against it?
SCHÖN--I can do that. Who may be coming now? [_Standing up._] That’s
what it is to enjoy life and let others take the consequences!
LULU--[_Coming back with a kitchen-ax._] Henriette has come home.
SCHÖN--Shut the door behind you.
ALVA--Give it here. [_Takes the ax and pounds with it between the jamb
and the lock._]
SCHÖN--You must hold it nearer the end.
ALVA--It’s cracking-- [_The lock gives_; ALVA _lets the ax fall and
staggers back. Pause._]
LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN, _pointing to the door_.] After you. [SCHÖN
_flinches, drops back_.] Are you getting--dizzy? [SCHÖN _wipes the
sweat from his forehead and goes in_.]
ALVA--[_From the couch._] Ghastly!
LULU--[_Stopping in the doorway, finger on lips, cries out sharply._]
Oh! Oh! [_Hurries to_ ALVA.] I can’t stay here.
ALVA--Horrible!
LULU--[_Taking his hand._] Come.
ALVA--Where to?
LULU--I can’t be alone. [_Goes out with_ ALVA, _right_. SCHÖN _comes
back, a bunch of keys in his hand, which shows blood. He pulls the door
to, behind him, goes to the writing-table, opens it, and writes two
notes._]
ALVA--[_Coming back, right._] She’s changing her clothes.
SCHÖN--She has gone?
ALVA--To her room. She’s changing her clothes. [SCHÖN _rings_.
HENRIETTE _comes in_.]
SCHÖN--You know where Dr. Bernstein lives?
HENRIETTE--Of course, Doctor. Right next door.
SCHÖN--[_Giving her one note._] Take that over to him, please.
HENRIETTE--In case the doctor is not at home?
SCHÖN--He is at home. [_Giving her the other note._] And take this to
police headquarters. Take a cab. [HENRIETTE _goes out_.] I am judged!
ALVA--My blood has congealed.
SCHÖN--[_Toward the left._] The fool!
ALVA--He waked up to something, perhaps?
SCHÖN--He has been too much absorbed in himself. [LULU _appears on the
steps, right, in dustcoat and hat_.]
ALVA--Where are you going now?
LULU--Out. I see it on all the walls.
SCHÖN--Where are his papers?
LULU--In the desk.
SCHÖN--[_At the desk._] Where?
LULU--Lower right-hand drawer. [_She kneels and opens the drawer,
emptying the papers on the floor._] Here. There is nothing to fear. He
had no secrets.
SCHÖN--Now I can just withdraw from the world.
LULU--[_Still kneeling._] Write a pamphlet about him. Call him
Michelangelo.
SCHÖN--What good’ll that do? [_Pointing left._] There lies my
engagement.
ALVA--That’s the curse of your game!
SCHÖN--Shout it through the streets!
ALVA--[_Pointing to_ LULU.] If you had treated that girl fairly and
justly when my mother died----
SCHÖN--My engagement is bleeding to death there!
LULU--[_Getting up._] I shan’t stay here any longer.
SCHÖN--In an hour they’ll be selling extras. I dare not go across the
street!
LULU--Why, what can you do to help it?
SCHÖN--That’s just it! They’ll stone me for it!
ALVA--You must get away--travel.
SCHÖN--To leave the scandal a free field!
LULU--[_By the couch._] Ten minutes ago he was lying here.
SCHÖN--This is the reward for all I’ve done for him! In one second he
wrecks my whole life for me!
ALVA--Control yourself, please!
LULU--[_On the couch._] There’s no one here but us!
ALVA--But look at =us=!
SCHÖN--[_To_ LULU.] What do you want to tell the police?
LULU--Nothing.
ALVA--He didn’t want to remain a debtor to his destiny.
LULU--He always had thoughts of death immediately.
SCHÖN--He had thoughts that an ordinary human can only dream of.
LULU--He had paid dearly for it.
ALVA--He had what we don’t have!
SCHÖN--[_Suddenly violent._] I know your motives! I have no cause to
consider you! If you try every means to prevent having any brothers and
sisters, that’s all the more reason why I should get more children.
ALVA--You’ve a poor knowledge of men.
LULU--You get out an extra yourself!
SCHÖN--[_With passionate indignation._] He had no moral sense!
[_Suddenly controlling himself again._] Paris in revolution----?
ALVA--Our editors act as though they’d been struck. Everything has
stopped dead.
SCHÖN--That’s got to help me over this!--Now if only the police would
come. The minutes are worth more than gold. [_The bell rings in the
corridor._]
ALVA--There they are---- [SCHÖN _starts to the door_. LULU _jumps up_.]
LULU--Wait, you’ve got blood----
SCHÖN--Where?
LULU--Wait, I’ll wipe it. [_Sprinkles her handkerchief with heliotrope
and wipes the blood from_ SCHÖN’S _hand_.]
SCHÖN--It’s your husband’s blood.
LULU--It leaves no trace.
SCHÖN--Monster!
LULU--You will marry me, all the same. [_The bell rings in the
corridor._] Only have patience, children. [SCHÖN _goes out and returns
with_ ESCHERICH, _a reporter_.]
ESCHERICH--[_Breathless._] Allow me to--to introduce myself----
SCHÖN--You’ve run?
ESCHERICH--[_Giving him his card._] From police headquarters. A
suicide, I understand.
SCHÖN--[_Reads._] “Fritz Escherich, correspondent of the ‘News and
Novelties.’” Come along.
ESCHERICH--One moment. [_Takes out his notebook and pencil, looks
around the parlor, writes a few words, bows to_ LULU, _writes, turns to
the broken door, writes_.] A kitchen-ax. [_Starts to lift it._]
SCHÖN--[_Holding him back._] Excuse me.
ESCHERICH--[_Writing._] Door broken open with a kitchen-ax. [_Examines
the lock._]
SCHÖN--[_His hand on the door._] Look before you, my dear sir.
ESCHERICH--Now if you will have the kindness to open the door----
[SCHÖN _opens it_. ESCHERICH _lets book and pencil fall, clutches at
his hair_.] Merciful Heaven! God!
SCHÖN--Look it all over carefully.
ESCHERICH--I can’t look at it!
SCHÖN--[_Snorting scornfully._] Then what did you come here for?
ESCHERICH--To--to cut up--to cut up his throat with a razor!
SCHÖN--Have you seen it all?
ESCHERICH--That must feel----
SCHÖN--[_Draws the door to, steps to the writing-table._] Sit down.
Here is paper and pen. Write.
ESCHERICH--[_Mechanically taking his seat._] I can’t write----
SCHÖN--[_Behind his chair._] Write! Persecution--mania....
ESCHERICH--[_Writes._] Per-secu-tion--mania. [_The bell rings in the
corridor._]
CURTAIN