driven from Vienna by John Sobieski in 1683 is now a small
park, "_Tuerkenschanz-Park_," located in Doebling, one of the
northwestern quarters of Greater Vienna. Only a little ways
south of this park, and overlooking it, stands the
Astronomical Observatory, not far from which Schnitzler has
been living for a number of years. Numerous references to
localities in this play indicate that he has placed the Wegrat
home in that very villa quarter of Waehring, where he himself
is so thoroughly at home.
MRS. WEGRAT
Is she in Vienna?
WEGRAT
Just passing through. She intends to call on you.
SALA
Has she still got an engagement at Hamburg?
WEGRAT
No, she has left the stage, she told me, and is now living in the
country with her married sister.
JOHANNA
I saw her once in a play of yours, Mr. von Sala.
SALA
Then you must have been a very small girl indeed.
JOHANNA
She played a Spanish princess.
SALA
Unfortunately. For princesses were not at all in her line. She has
never in her life been able to treat verse properly.
REUMANN
And you can still bear that in mind, Mr. von Sala--that some lady on
some occasion happened to handle your verse badly?
SALA
Well, why shouldn't I, my dear Doctor? If you were living at the center
of the earth, you would know that all things are of equal weight. And
were you floating in the center of the universe, you would suspect that
all things are of equal importance.
MRS. WEGRAT
How does she look anyhow?
WEGRAT
She is still very pretty.
SALA
Has she preserved her resemblance to that portrait of hers which is
hanging in the Museum?
FELIX
What portrait is that?
JOHANNA
Is her portrait really in the Museum?
SALA
Oh, you know it. In the catalogue it is labeled "Actress"--just
"Actress." A young woman in the costume of a harlequin, over which she
has draped a Greek toga, while at her feet lie a confused heap of
masks. With her staring glance turned toward the spectators, she stands
there all alone on an empty, dusky stage, surrounded by odd pieces of
misfit scenery--one wall of a room, a forest piece, part of an old
dungeon....
FELIX
And the background shows a southern landscape with palms and plane
trees...?
SALA
Yes, and it is partly raised so that still farther off you can see a
pile of furniture, steps, goblets, chandeliers--all glittering in full
daylight.
FELIX
But that's Julian Fichtner's picture?
SALA
Exactly.
FELIX
I had not the slightest idea that the figure of that woman was meant
for Irene Herms.
WEGRAT
Twenty-five years have passed since he painted that picture. It caused
a tremendous sensation at the time. It was his first big success. And
to-day I suppose there are lots of people who no longer remember his
name.--Come to think of it, I asked Irene Herms about him. But strange
to say, not even his "perennial best girl" could tell where in this
world he happens to be straying.
FELIX
I talked with him only a few days ago.
WEGRAT
What? You have seen Julian Fichtner? He was in Salzburg?--When?
FELIX
Only about three or four days ago. He looked me up, and we spent the
evening together.
[_Mrs. Wegrat throws a quick glance at Dr. Reumann._
WEGRAT
How is he doing? What did he tell you?
FELIX
He has turned rather gray, but otherwise he didn't seem to have changed
at all.
WEGRAT
How long can it be now since he left Vienna? Two years, isn't it?
MRS. WEGRAT
A little more.
FELIX
He has traveled far and wide.
SALA
Yes, now and then I have had a postcard from him.
WEGRAT
So have we. But I thought you and he were corresponding regularly.
SALA
Regularly? Oh, no.
JOHANNA
Isn't he a friend of yours?
SALA
As a rule I have no friends. And if I have any, I repudiate them.
JOHANNA
But you used to be quite intimate with him.
SALA
He with me rather than I with him.
FELIX
What do you mean by that, Mr. von Sala?
JOHANNA
Oh, I can understand it. I suppose you have had the same experience
with most people.
SALA
Something very much like it, at least.
JOHANNA
Yes, one can see it from what you write, too.
SALA
I hope so. Otherwise it might just as well have been written by
somebody else.
WEGRAT
Did he say when he would be back in Vienna?
FELIX
Soon, I think. But he didn't say very definitely.
JOHANNA
I should like to see Mr. Fichtner again. I am fond of that kind of
people.
WEGRAT
What do you mean by "that kind of people"?
JOHANNA
Who are always arriving from some far-off place.
WEGRAT
But as a rule he never arrived from far-off places when you knew him,
Johanna.... He was living right here.
JOHANNA
What did it matter whether he was living here or elsewhere?--Even when
he came to see us daily, it was always as if he had just arrived from
some great distance.
WEGRAT
Oh, of course....
FELIX
I had often the same feeling.
WEGRAT
Well, it's strange how he has been knocking about in the world--these
last few years at least.
SALA
Don't you think his restlessness goes farther back? Were you not
students together in the Academy?
WEGRAT
Yes. And to know him properly, you must have known him then. There was
something fascinating about him as a young man, something that dazzled.
Never have I known anybody whom the term "of great promise" fitted so
completely.
SALA
Well, he has kept a whole lot of it.
WEGRAT
But think of all he might have achieved!
REUMANN
I believe that what you might achieve you do achieve.
WEGRAT
Not always. Julian was undoubtedly destined for higher things. What he
lacked was the capacity for concentration, the inward calm. He could
never feel at home for good anywhere. And the misfortune has been that
in his own works, too, he has lived only as a transient, so to speak.
FELIX
He showed me a couple of sketches he had made recently.
WEGRAT
Good?
FELIX
To me there was something gripping about them.
MRS. WEGRAT
Why gripping? What kind of pictures were they?
FELIX
Landscapes. And as a rule very pleasant ones at that.
JOHANNA
Once in a dream I saw a Spring landscape, very sunlit and soft, and yet
it made me weep.
SALA
Yes, the sadness of certain things lies much deeper than we commonly
suspect.
WEGRAT
So he's working again? Then, perhaps, we may expect something out of
the ordinary.
SALA
In the case of anybody who has been an artist once you are never safe
against surprises.
WEGRAT
That's it, Mr. von Sala. That's where the great difference lies. In the
case of an official you can feel perfectly safe on that score. (_With
cheerful self-contempt_) Such a one paints every year his nice little
picture for the exhibition, and couldn't possibly do anything else.
REUMANN
It is still open to question who do most for the advancement of life
and art: officials like you, Professor, or--our so-called men of
genius.
WEGRAT
Oh, I have not the least intention to play the modest one. But as to
men of genius--we had better not talk of them at all. There you are
dealing with a world by itself, lying outside of all discussion--as do
the elements.
REUMANN
My opinion, I must confess, is utterly different.
WEGRAT
Oh, it's of no use discussing anybody but those who have distinct
limitations. And what I have found is--that he who knows his own
limitations best is the better man. And on this point I have pretty
good reason for self-respect.--Do you feel chilly, Gabrielle?
MRS. WEGRAT
No.
WEGRAT
But you had better pull the shawl a little closer about you, and then
we should have a little exercise--in so far as it's possible in here.
MRS. WEGRAT
All right.--Please, Doctor, give me your arm. You haven't paid the
least attention to your patient yet.
REUMANN
At your service!
[_The rest start ahead, Johanna walking with her brother, and Wegrat
with Sala. Dr. Reumann and Mrs. Wegrat seem about to follow, when she
suddenly stops._
MRS. WEGRAT
Did you notice his eyes light up--I mean, the eyes of Felix, when they
were talking of _him?_ It was most peculiar.
REUMANN
Men of Mr. Fichtner's type appear undoubtedly very interesting to young
people. They seem to carry with them an odor of romance.
MRS. WEGRAT (_shaking her head_)
And he looked him up.... It is perfectly clear that he went to Salzburg
just to see him again. I suppose he is beginning to feel a little
deserted.
REUMANN
Why not pay a visit to a young friend when one happens to be near the
place where he is living? I can see nothing peculiar in that.
MRS. WEGRAT
Perhaps you are right. Perhaps I might have looked at the matter in the
same way not long ago. But now, in the face of.... No, Doctor, I am not
going to be sentimental.
REUMANN
I don't object to sentiment, but to nonsense.
MRS. WEGRAT (_smiling_)
Thank you.--However, I have occasion to think of many different things.
And it is no reason for taking it too seriously, my dear friend. You
know, of course, that I told you everything merely that I might have a
kind and sensible man with whom to discuss the past--and not at all to
be absolved of any guilt.
REUMANN
To give happiness is more than being free of guilt. And as this has
been granted you, it is clear that you have made full atonement--if
you'll pardon the use of such a preposterously extravagant term.
MRS. WEGRAT
How can you talk like that?
REUMANN
Well, am I not right?
MRS. WEGRAT
Just as if I couldn't feel how all of us, deceivers and deceived, must
seem equally contemptible to you in particular!
REUMANN
Why to me in particular...? What you call contempt, madam--supposing I
did feel anything like it--would, after all, be nothing but disguised
envy. Or do you think I lack the desire to conduct my life as I see
most other people conducting theirs? I simply haven't the knack. If I
am to be frank, madam--the deepest yearning of all within me is just to
be a rogue: a fellow who can dissemble, seduce, sneer, make his way
over dead bodies. But thanks to a certain shortcoming in my
temperament, I am condemned to remain a decent man--and what is still
more painful perhaps: to hear everybody say that I am one.
MRS. WEGRAT (_who has been listening with a smile_)
I wonder whether you have told the truth about what is keeping you here
in Vienna?
REUMANN
Certainly. Indeed, I have no other reason. I have no right to have any
other. Don't let us talk any more of it.
MRS. WEGRAT
Are we not such good friends that I can talk calmly with you of
everything? I know what you have in mind. But I believe that it might
be in your power to drive certain illusions and dreams out of the soul
of a young girl. And it would be such a comfort to me if I could leave
you for good among these people, all of whom are so near to me, and who
yet know nothing whatever about each other--who are hardly aware of
their mutual relationships even, and who seem fated to flitter away
from each other to God knows where.
REUMANN
We'll talk of those things, madam, when it's time to do so.
MRS. WEGRAT
Of course, I regret nothing. I believe I have never regretted anything.
But I have a feeling that something is out of order. Perhaps it's
nothing but that strange glimmer in the eyes of Felix which has caused
all this unrest within me. But isn't it peculiar--uncanny almost--to
think that a man like him may go through the world with all his senses
open and yet never know whom he has to thank for being in the world?
REUMANN
Don't let us indulge in generalities, Mrs. Wegrat. In that way you can
set the most solid things shaking and swaying until the steadiest eyes
begin to grow dizzy. My own conclusion is this: that a lie which has
proved strong enough to sustain the peace of a household can be no less
respectable than a truth which could do nothing but destroy the image
of the past, fill the present with sorrow, and confuse the vision of
the future. (_He goes out with Mrs. Wegrat_)
JOHANNA (_entering with Sala_)
In this way one always gets back to the same spot. I suppose your
garden is bigger, Mr. von Sala?
SALA
My garden is the whole wide woods--that is, for people whose fancy is
not restrained by a light fence.
JOHANNA
Your villa has grown very pretty.
SALA
Oh, you know it then?
JOHANNA
A little while ago I saw it again for the first time in three years.
SALA
But three years ago they hadn't put in the foundations yet.
JOHANNA
To me it was already standing there.
SALA
How mysterious....
JOHANNA
Not at all. If you will only remember. Once we made an excursion to
Dornbach[3]--my parents, and Felix, and I. There we met you and Mr.
Fichtner, and it happened on the very spot where your house was to be
built. And now everything looks just as you described it to us then.
[3] A suburb near the western limits of Vienna and not far
from the location indicated for the Wegrat home.
SALA
But how did you happen to be in that vicinity?
JOHANNA
Since mamma was taken sick I have often had to take my walks alone....
SALA
And when was it you passed by my house?
JOHANNA
Not long ago--to-day.
SALA
To-day?
JOHANNA
Yes. I went all around it.
SALA
Oh? All around it?--Did you also notice the little gate that leads
directly into the woods?
JOHANNA
Yes.--But from that spot the house is almost invisible. The leafage is
very thick.--Where have you placed those busts of the Roman emperors?
SALA
They stand on columns at the opening of an avenue of trees. Right by is
a small marble bench, and in front of the bench a little pool has been
made.
JOHANNA (_nodding_)
Just as you told us that time.... And there is a greenish gray glitter
on the water--and in the morning the shadow from the beech tree falls
across it.... I know. (_She looks up at him and smiles; both go out
together_)
CURTAIN
THE SECOND ACT
_In the home of Julian Fichtner. A pleasant, rather distinguished room
in a state of slight disorder. Books are piled on two chairs, while on
another chair stands an open traveling bag. Julian is seated at a
writing desk, from the drawers of which he is taking out papers. Some
of these he destroys, while others are thrown into the waste-paper
basket._
VALET (_announcing_)
Mr. von Sala. (_He goes out_)
SALA (_enters. His custom to walk up and down while talking asserts
itself strikingly during the following scene. Now and then he sits down
for a moment, often only on the arm of a chair. At times he stops
beside Julian, putting his hand on the latter's shoulder while
speaking. Two or three times during the scene he puts his hand to the
left side of his chest, in a manner suggesting discomfort of some kind.
But this gesture is not sharply accentuated_)
JULIAN
I am delighted. (_They shake hands_)
SALA
So you got back early this morning?
JULIAN
Yes.
SALA
And mean to stay...?
JULIAN
Haven't decided yet. Things are a little upset, as you see. And I fear
they'll never be quite in shape again. I intend to give up this place.
SALA
Too bad. I have become so accustomed to it. In what direction are you
going to move?
JULIAN
It's possible that I don't take any new quarters at all for a while,
but just keep on moving about as I have been doing the last few years.
I am even considering to have my things sold at auction.
SALA
That's a thought which gets no sympathy from me.
JULIAN
Really, I haven't got much sympathy for it myself. But the material
side of the question has to be considered a little, too. I have been
spending too much these last years, and it has to be evened up somehow.
Probably I'll settle down again later on. Sometime one must get back to
peace and work, I suppose.--Well, how goes it with you? What are our
friends and acquaintances doing?
SALA
So you haven't seen anybody yet?
JULIAN
Not one. And you are the only one I have written about my being here.
SALA
And you have not yet called on the Wegrats?
JULIAN
No. I even hesitate to go there.
SALA
Why?
JULIAN
After a certain age it would perhaps be better never to put your foot
in any place where your earlier years were spent. It is so rare to find
things and people the same as when you left them. Isn't that so?--Mrs.
Gabrielle is said to have changed considerably in the course of her
sickness. That's what Felix told me at least. I should prefer not to
see her again. Oh, you can understand that, Sala.
SALA (_rather surprised_)
Of course, I understand. How long is it you have had no news from
Vienna?
JULIAN
I have constantly started ahead of my mail. Not a single letter has
overtaken me during the last fortnight. (_Alarmed_) What has happened?
SALA
Mrs. Gabrielle died a week ago.
JULIAN
Oh! (_He is deeply moved; for a while he walks back and forth; then
he resumes his seat and says after a pause_) Of course, it was to be
expected, and yet....
SALA
Her death came easily.... You know how those left behind always pretend
to know such things with certainty. Anyhow, she fell asleep quietly one
night and never woke up again.
JULIAN (_in low voice_)
Poor Gabrielle!--Did you see anything of her toward the end?
SALA
Yes, I went there almost daily.
JULIAN
Oh, did you?
SALA
Johanna asked me. She was literally afraid of being alone with her
mother.
JULIAN
Afraid?
SALA
The sick woman inspired her with a sort of horror. She has calmed down
a little now.
JULIAN
What a strange creature.... And how does our friend, the professor,
bear up under his loss? Resigned to the will of God, I suppose?
SALA
My dear Julian, the man has a position. I fear we cannot grasp that, we
who are Gods by the grace of the moment--and also less than men at
times.
JULIAN
Of course, Felix is not here?
SALA
I talked with him less than an hour ago, and informed him that you were
here. It made him very happy to have you call on him in Salzburg.
JULIAN
It looked so to me. And he did me a lot of good. For that matter, I
have really thought of settling down in Salzburg.
SALA
For ever?
JULIAN
For a while. On account of Felix, too. His unspoiled nature affects me
very pleasantly--it makes me actually feel younger. Were he not my son,
I might almost envy him--and not on account of his youth alone. (_With
a smile_) Thus there is nothing left for me but to love him. I must say
that I feel a little ashamed at having to do it incognito, so to speak.
SALA
Are not these feelings a little belated in their appearance?
JULIAN
Oh, I suppose they were there long before I knew. And, you know, I saw
the youngster for the first time when he was ten or eleven years old,
and it was only then I learned that he was my son.
SALA
It must have been a strange meeting between you and Mrs. Gabrielle, ten
years after you had committed that piece of hideous perfidy--as our
ancestors used to put it.
JULIAN
It wasn't strange even. It came about quite naturally. Shortly after my
return from Paris I happened to meet Wegrat on the street. Of course,
we had heard of each other from time to time, and we met as old
friends. There are people who seem born to a fate of that kind.... And
as for Gabrielle....
SALA
She had forgiven you, of course?
JULIAN
Forgiven...? It was more or less than that. Only once did we talk of
the past--she without reproach, and I without regret: as if the whole
story had happened to somebody else. And after that never again. I
might have thought some miracle had wiped those earlier days out of her
memory. In fact, as far as I am concerned, there seemed to be no real
connection between that quiet matron and the creature I had once loved.
And as for the youngster--well, you know--at first I didn't care more
for him than I might have cared for any other pretty and gifted
child.--Of course, ten years ago my life had a different aspect. I was
still clinging to so many things which since then have slipped away
from me. It was only in the course of time that I became more and more
drawn to the house, until at last I began to feel at home there.
SALA
I hope you never took offense at my gradual discovery of the true state
of affairs.
JULIAN
You, at any rate, didn't think me very sensible....
SALA
Why not? I too find that family life in itself is quite attractive.
Only it ought, after all, to be experienced in one's own family.
JULIAN
You know very well that I have frequently felt something like actual
shame at the incongruity of that relationship. It was in fact one of
the things that drove me away. Of course, there were a lot of other
things that pressed on me at the time. Especially that I couldn't make
a real success out of my work.
SALA
But you hadn't been exhibiting anything for a long time.
JULIAN
It wasn't external success I had in mind. I could never get into the
right mood any more, and I hoped that traveling would help me again, as
it had done so often in earlier years.
SALA
And how did you fare? We have heard so little of you here. You might
really have written me a little more frequently and fully. For you
know, of course, that I care a great deal more for you than for most
other people. We have such a knack of giving each other the right
cue--don't you think? There are sentimental people who speak of such a
relation as friendship. And it is not impossible that we used to
address each other by our Christian names some time during the last
century, or that you may even have wept your fill on my shoulder. I
have missed you more than once during these two years--honestly! On my
lonely walks I have quite frequently thought of our pleasant chats in
the Dornbach park, where we were in the habit of disposing temporarily
of (_quoting_) "what is most lofty and profound in this our
world."--Well, Julian, from where do you come anyhow?
JULIAN
From the Tyrol? During the Summer I made long tours on foot. I have
even turned mountain climber in my old days. I spent a whole week at
one of those pasturing grounds in the Alps.... Yes, I have been up to
all sorts of things. It's a wonder what you can do when you are all
alone.
SALA
And you have really been all alone?
JULIAN
Yes.
SALA
All these last years?
JULIAN
If I don't count a few nonsensical interruptions--yes.
SALA
But there should have been no difficulty in that respect.
JULIAN
I know. But I cannot rest satisfied with what is still offered me of
that kind of thing. I have been badly spoiled, Sala. Up to a certain
period my life passed away in a constant orgy of tenderness and
passion, and of power, you might say. And that is all over. Oh, Sala,
what pitiful fictions I have had to steal, and beg, and buy, during
these last years! It gives me nausea to look back at it, and it
horrifies me to look ahead. And I ask myself: can there really be
nothing left of all that glow with which I once embraced the world but
a sort of silly wrath because it's all over--because I--_I_--am no
less subject to human laws than anybody else?
SALA
Why all this bitterness, Julian? There is still a great deal to be had
out of this world, even when some of the pleasures and enjoyments of
our earlier years have begun to appear tasteless or unseemly. And how
can you, of all people, miss that feeling, Julian?
JULIAN
Snatch his part from an actor and ask him if he can still take pleasure
in the beautiful scenery surrounding him.
SALA
But you have begun to work again while you were traveling?
JULIAN
Hardly at all.
SALA
Felix told us that you had brought some sketches from your trunk in
order to show him.
JULIAN
He spoke of them?
SALA
Yes, and nothing but good.
JULIAN
Really?
SALA
And as you showed those things to him, you must have thought rather
well of them yourself.
JULIAN
That was not the reason why I let him see them. (_Walking back and
forth_) I must tell you--at the risk of having you think me a perfect
fool.
SALA
Oh, a little more or less won't count. Speak out.
JULIAN
I wanted him at least not to lose faith in me. Can you understand that?
After all, he is nearer to me than the rest. Of course, I know--to
everybody, even to you, I am one who has gone down, who is finished--one
of those whose only talent was his youth. It doesn't bother me very
much. But to Felix I want to be the man I was once--just as I still
_am_ that man. When he learns sometime that I am his father, he must be
proud of it.
SALA
When he learns it...?
JULIAN
I have no intention to keep it hidden from him forever. Now, when his
mother is dead, less than ever. Last time I talked to him, it became
clear to me, not only that it would be right, but that it would almost
be a duty, to tell him the truth. He has a mind for essentials. He will
understand everything. And I shall have a human being who belongs to
me, who knows that he belongs to me, and for whose sake it is worth
while to keep on living in this world. I shall live near him, and be
with him a good deal. Once more I shall have my existence put on a
solid basis, so to speak, and not hung in mid-air, as it is now. And
then I shall be able to work again--work as I did once--as when I was a
young man. Work, that is what I am going to do--and all of you will
turn out to have been wrong--all of you!
SALA
But to whom has it occurred to doubt you? If you could only have heard
us talk of you a little while ago, Julian. Everybody expects that,
sooner or later, you--will find yourself again completely.
JULIAN