more important to do?--I may be wrong, but it seems to me that we have,
mother.--I've had no notion until to-day of what Rose means to me.
Otherwise I'd have acted very differently, of course. Now it's got to be
seen if there's anything that can be retrieved. And for that very reason,
mother, I was going to beg you not to be petty, and I wanted first of all
to try to see whether you could gain some comprehension of what really
happened. Up to the moment when it was agreed that that tottery manikin
was to marry Rose--our relations were strictly honourable. But when that
marriage was determined on--it was all over.--It may be that my ideas are
becoming confused. I had seen the girl grow up ... some of our love for
little Kurt clung to her. First of all I wanted to protect her from
misfortune, and finally, one day, all of a sudden, the way such things
happen ... even old Plato has described that correctly in the passage in
Phaedrus about the two horses:--the bad horse ran away with me and then
... then the sea burst in and the dykes crashed down.
MRS. FLAMM
'Tis a real interesting story that you've told me, an' even tricked out
with learned allusions. An' when you men do that--you think there's no
more to say. A poor woman can look out then to see how to get even! Maybe
you did it all just to make Rose happy, an' sacrificed yourself into the
bargain ... There's no excuse for such things!
FLAMM
Very well, mother. Then we'll adjourn the session. Remember though, that
when Kurt died, I couldn't bear to see the girl around the house. Who
kept her and persuaded her to come back?
MRS. FLAMM
Because I didn't want life to become so dead around us. I didn't keep her
for my sake.
FLAMM
And I have said nothing for your sake.
MRS. FLAMM
Every tear is wasted that one might shed for you an' your kind. But you
can spare me your speeches, Flamm.
_The MAID brings in the afternoon coffee._
THE MAID
Rose Bernd's out in the kitchen.
MRS. FLAMM
Come, girl! Wheel me out! [_To FLAMM._] You can help shove me aside.
Somewhere in the world there'll be a little room for me! I won't be in
the way. You can call her in when I'm gone.
FLAMM
[_Sternly, to the MAID._] Tell the girl to wait for a moment. [_The MAID
leaves the room._] Mother, you have to say a word to her! I can't.... My
hands are tied.
MRS. FLAMM
An' what am I to say to her, Flamm?
FLAMM
Mother, you know that better than I! You know very well ... you spoke of
it yourself.... For heaven's sake, don't be petty at this moment! She
mustn't go from our door in any such fashion!
MRS. FLAMM
I can't clean her boots, Flamm!
FLAMM
And I don't want you to! It isn't a question of that! But you sent for
her yourself.--You can't change so completely in a moment as to forget
all compassion and sympathy. What did you say to me a while ago? And if
the lass goes to the devil ... you know I'm not such a scoundrel that I'd
care to drag out my life any longer. It's one thing or the other--don't
forget that!
MRS. FLAMM
Well, Christie ... you men are not worth it, to be sure. An' yet, in the
end, what is a body to do?--The heart bleeds! 'Tis our own fault. Why
does a woman deceive herself again an' again, when she's old enough an'
sensible enough to know better! An' don't deceive yourself about this
thing either, Christie.... I'm willin'! I can do it! I'll talk to her!
Not for your sake, but because it's right. But don't imagine that I can
make whole what you've broken.--You men are like children in that
respect!
_The MAID comes back._
THE MAID
She don't want to wait no more!
MRS. FLAMM
Send her in!
_The MAID withdraws again._
FLAMM
Be sensible, mother! On my word of honour....
MRS. FLAMM
You needn't give it! You needn't break it!
_FLAMM leaves the room. MRS. FLAMM sighs and picks up her crochet
work again. Thereupon ROSE BERND enters._
ROSE
[_Showily dressed in her Sunday clothes. Her features are peaked and
there is a feverish gleam in her eyes._] Good-day, madam.
MRS. FLAMM
Good-day! Sit down. Well, Rose, I've asked you to come here ... I suppose
you've kept in mind what we talked about that time. There's many a thing
that's changed since then!... In many respects, anyhow! But that made me
want to talk to you all the more. That day, to be sure, you said I
couldn't help you, that you wanted to fight it all out alone! An' to-day
a good bit has grown clear to me--your strange behaviour that time, an'
your unwillingness to let me help you.--But I don't see how you're goin'
to get along all alone. Come, drink a cup o' coffee. [_ROSE sits down on
the edge of a chair by the table._] August was here to see me a while
ago. If I had been in your shoes, lass, I'd have risked it long ago an'
told him the truth. [_Looking sharply at her._] But now, the way things
has gone--I can't even advise you to do it! Isn't that true?
ROSE
Oh, but why, madam?
MRS. FLAMM
'Tis true, the older a person gets, the less can she understand mankind
an' their ways. We've all come into the world the same way, but there's
no mention to be made o' that! From the Emperor an' the archbishop down
to the stable boy--they've all gotten their bit o' life one way ... one
way ... an' 'tis the one thing they can't besmirch enough. An' if the
stork but flies past the chimney-top--the confusion of people is great.
Then they run away in every direction. A guest like that is never
welcome!
ROSE
Oh, madam, all that would ha' been straightened up this long time, if it
hadn't ha' been for this criminal an' scoundrel here ... this liar ...
this Streckmann ...
MRS. FLAMM
No, girl. I don't understand that. How can you bear to say that the man
lies? 'Tis your shape that almost tells the story now!
ROSE
He lies! He lies! That's all I know.
MRS. FLAMM
But in what respect does he lie?
ROSE
In every respeck an' in every way!
MRS. FLAMM
I don't believe you've really thought it all out! Do you remember who I
am? Think, lass, think! In the first place you confessed it all to me,
and furthermore, I know more than what you said: I know all that you
didn't say.
ROSE
[_Shivering with nervousness but obdurate._] An' if you was to kill me, I
couldn't say what I don't know.
MRS. FLAMM
Is that so? Oh! Is that your policy now? I must say I didn't take you for
a girl of that kind! It comes over me unexpectedly! I hope you talked a
little plainer than that when you were questioned in court.
ROSE
I said just the same thing there that I'm tellin' you.
MRS. FLAMM
Girl, come to your senses! You're talking dreadful folly! People don't
lie that way before the Judge! Listen to what I'm tellin' you! Drink a
bit o' coffee, an' don't be frightened! Nobody's pursuing you, an' I
won't eat you up either!--You haven't acted very well toward me: no one
could say that you had! You might at least have told me the truth that
day; maybe an easier way out could ha' been found. 'Tis a hard matter
now! An' yet, we won't be idle, an' even to-day, maybe, some way o'
savin' you can be found! Some way it may be possible yet! Well then!...
An' especially ... this much is certain ... an' you can trust to that
surely ... you shan't, either of you, ever suffer any need in this world!
Even if your father abandons you and August, maybe, goes his own way,
I'll provide for you an' for your child.
ROSE
I don't hardly know what you mean, madam!
MRS. FLAMM
Well, girl, then I'll tell you straight out! If you don't know that an'
have forgotten it, then it's simply because you have a bad conscience!
Then you've been guilty of something else! An', if you _has_ another
secret, it's connected with nobody but with Streckmann. Then, he's the
fellow that's bringin' trouble upon you!
ROSE
[_Violently._] No, how can you think such a thing o' me! You say that ...
oh, for the good Lord's sake ... how has I deserved it o' you!... If only
my little Kurt ... my dear little fellow ...
[_She wrings her hands hysterically in front of the child's picture._
MRS. FLAMM
Rose, let that be, I beg o' you! It may be that you've deserved well o'
me in other days. We're not arguin' about that now! But you're so
changed, so ... I can never understand how you've come to change so!
ROSE
Why didn't my little mother take me to herself! She said she would when
she died.
MRS. FLAMM
Come to your senses, lass. You're alive. What is your trouble?
ROSE
It has nothin' to do with Streckmann! That man has lied his soul black.
MRS. FLAMM
What did he lie about? Did he make his statements under oath?
ROSE
Oath or no oath! I says he lies, lies ...
MRS. FLAMM
An' did you have to take an oath too?
ROSE
I don't know.--I'm not such a wicked lass ... If that was true,'twould be
a bitter crime!... An' that August lost his eye ... it wasn't I that was
the cause o' it. The pains that poor man had to suffer ... they follows
me day an' night. An' he might well despise me if they didn't. But you
try an' work an' pray to save somethin' from the flames o' the world ...
an' men comes an' they breaks your strength.
_FLAMM enters in intense excitement._
FLAMM
Who is breaking your strength? Look at mother here! On the contrary, we
want to save you!
ROSE
'Tis too late now! It can't be done no more.
FLAMM
What does that mean?
ROSE
Nothin'!--I can't wait no longer. Good-bye, I'll go my ways.
FLAMM
Here you stay! Don't move from this spot! I was at the door and heard
everything, and now I want to know the whole truth.
ROSE
But I'm tellin' you the truth!
FLAMM
About Streckmann too?
ROSE
There wasn't nothin' between us. He lies!
FLAMM
Does he say that there was something between you?
ROSE
I say nothin' but that he lies!
FLAMM
Did he swear to that lie?
_ROSE is silent._
FLAMM
[_Regards ROSE long and searchingly. Then:_] Well, mother, think as
charitably of me as you can. Try to forgive me as much as possible. I
know with the utmost certainty that that matter doesn't concern me in the
least any longer! I simply laugh at it! I snap my fingers at it.
MRS. FLAMM
[_To ROSE._] Did you deny everything?
ROSE
...
FLAMM
I spoke the truth in court, of course. Streckmann doesn't lie at such
times neither. Perjury is a penitentiary crime--a man doesn't lie under
such circumstances!
MRS. FLAMM
An' didn't you tell the truth, girl? You lied when you were under oath,
maybe?--Haven't you any idea what that means an' what you've done? How
did you happen to do that? How could you think o' such a thing?
ROSE
[_Cries out brokenly._] I was so ashamed!
MRS. FLAMM
But Rose ...
FLAMM
Every word is wasted! Why did you lie to the judge?
ROSE
I was ashamed, I tell ye!... I was ashamed!
FLAMM
And I? And mother? And August? Why did you cheat us all? And you probably
cheated Streckmann in the end too? And I wonder with whom else you
carried on!... Yes, oh, yes; you have a very honest face. But you did
right to be ashamed!
ROSE
He baited me an' he hunted me down like a dog!
FLAMM
[_Laughing._] Oh, well, that's what you women make of us--dogs. This man
to-day; that man to-morrow! 'Tis bitter enough to think! You can do what
you please now; follow what ways you want to!--If I so much as raise a
finger in this affair again, it'll be to take a rope and beat it about my
ass's ears until I can't see out of my eyes!
_ROSE stares at FLAMM in wide-eyed horror._
MRS. FLAMM
What I said, Rose, stands for all that! You two'll always be provided
for.
ROSE
[_Whispering mechanically._] I was so ashamed! I was so ashamed!
MRS. FLAMM
Do you hear what I say, Rose?--[ROSE _hurries out._] The girl's
gone!--'Tis enough to make one pray for an angel to come down....
FLAMM
[_Stricken to the heart, breaks out in repressed sobbing._] God forgive
me, mother, but ... I can't help it.
THE CURTAIN FALLS
FIFTH ACT
_The living room in old BERND'S cottage. The room is fairly large; it
has grey walls and an old-fashioned whitewashed ceiling supported by
visible beams. A door in the background leads to the kitchen, one at
the left to the outer hall. To the right are two small windows. A
yellow chest of drawers stands between the two windows; upon it is
set an unlit kerosene lamp; a mirror hangs above it on the wall. In
the left corner a great stove; in the right a sofa, covered with
oil-cloth, a table with a cloth on it and a hanging lamp above it.
Over the sofa on the wall hangs a picture with the Biblical subject:
"Suffer little children to come unto me"; beneath it a photograph of
BERND, showing him as a conscript, and several of himself and his
wife. In the foreground, to the left, stands a china closet, filled
with painted cups, glasses, etc. A Bible is lying on the chest of
drawers; over the door to the hall hangs a chromolithograph of
"Christ with the crown of thorns." Mull curtains hang in front of the
windows. Each of four or five chairs of yellow wood has its own
place. The whole room makes a neat but very chilly impression.
Several Bibles and hymnals lie on the china closet. On the door-post
of the door to the hall hangs a collecting-box._
_It is seven o'clock in the evening of the same day on which the
events in Act Four have taken place. The door that leads to the hall
as well as the kitchen door stands open. A gloomy dusk fills the
house._
_Voices are heard outside, and a repeated knocking at the window.
Thereupon a voice speaks through the window._
THE VOICE
Bernd! Isn't there a soul at home? Let's be goin' to the back door!
_A silence ensues. Soon, however, the back door opens and voices and
steps are heard in the hall. In the door that leads to the hall
appear KLEINERT and ROSE BERND. The latter is obviously exhausted and
leans upon him._
ROSE
[_Weak and faint._] No one's at home. 'Tis all dark.
KLEINERT
I can't be leavin' you alone this way now!
ROSE
An' why not, Kleinert? There's nothin' the matter with me!
KLEINERT
Somebody else can believe that--that there's nothin' wrong! I wouldn't
ha' had to pick you up in that case!
ROSE
Eh, but I'd only gotten a bit dizzy. Truly ... 'tis better now. I really
don't need you no more.
KLEINERT
No, no, lass; I can't leave you this way!
ROSE
Oh, yes, father Kleinert! I do thank you, but 'tis well! There's nothin'
wrong with me! I'm on my feet an' strong again! It comes over me that way
sometimes; but 'tis nothin' to worry over.
KLEINERT
But you lay half dead yonder behind the willow! An' you writhed like a
worm.
ROSE
Kleinert, go your ways.... I'll be lightin' a light! An' I must light a
fire, too ... go your ways ... the folks will be comin' to their
supper!... Oh, no, Kleinert, Kleinert! But I'm that tired! Oh, I'm so
terrible tired! No one wouldn't believe how tired I am.
KLEINERT
An' then you want to be lightin' a fire here? That's nothin' for you! Bed
is the place where you ought to be!
ROSE
Kleinert, go your ways, go! If father, an' if August ... they mustn't
know nothin'! For my sake, go! Don't do nothin' that'll only harm me!
KLEINERT
I don't want to do nothin' that'll harm you!
ROSE
No, no, I know it! You was always good to me! [_She has arisen from the
chair at the right on which, she had sunk down, gets a candle from behind
the oven and lights it._] Oh, yes, yes, I'm well off again.--There's
nothin' wrong.--You can be easy in your mind.
KLEINERT
You're just sayin' that!
ROSE
Because 'tis really so!
_MARTHEL comes in from the fields with bare arms and feet._
ROSE
An' there's Marthel, too!
MARTHEL
Rose, is that you? Where have you been all day?
ROSE
I dreamed I was at the court.
KLEINERT
No, no; she was really at the court! Take a bit o' care o' your sister,
Marthel. Look after her at least till your fatter comes back. 'Tisn't
well with the girl.
ROSE
Marthel, hurry! Light the fire, so's we can start to put on the
potatoes.--Where's father?
MARTHEL
On August's land.
ROSE
An' August?
MARTHEL
I don't know where he is. He was out on the field to-day.
ROSE
Have you got new potatoes?
MARTHEL
I have an apron full!
[_Immediately behind the kitchen door she pours out the potatoes on
the floor._
ROSE
Fetch me a pan and a saucepan, so's I can begin the peelin'. I can't get
nothin' for myself.
KLEINERT
D'you want me to be givin' a message anywhere?
ROSE
To whom? To the grave-digger, maybe?... No, no, godfather, not on my
account. 'Tis a special bit o' ground where I'll find rest.
KLEINERT
Well, good-bye!
ROSE
Good-bye to you!
MARTHEL
[_Cheerily._] Come again, godfather!
_KLEINERT as usual with his pipe in his mouth, departs shaking his
head._
MARTHEL
[_Lighting the fire._] Don't you feel well, Rosie?
ROSE
Oh, yes; well enough! [_Softly wringing her hands, she speaks to the
crucifix._] Jesus, Mary, have mercy on me!
MARTHEL
Rose!
ROSE
What?
MARTHEL
What's the matter with you?
ROSE
Nothin'. Bring me a pan an' the potatoes.
MARTHEL
[_Has started the fire to burning and now brings ROSE an earthenware bowl
of potatoes and a paring knife._] Oh, but Rosie, I'm that frightened! You
look so ...!
ROSE
How does I look? Tell me that? How? Has I got spots on my hands? Is it
branded over my eyes? Everythin's kind o' ghastly to me this day.
[_Laughing a ghastly laugh._] Lord! I can't see the face o' you! Now I
see one hand! Now I see two eyes! Just dots now! Martha, maybe I'm
growin' blind!
MARTHEL
Rosie, did somethin' happen to you?
ROSE
God protect you from what's happened to me.... You'd better be wishin'
yourself an early death! Because, even if a body dies to this world, they
do say that he passes into rest. Then you don't have to live an' draw
breath no more.--How did it go with little Kurt Flamm? I've clean forgot
... I'm dizzy ... I'm forgettin' ... I've forgotten everythin' ... life's
that hard ... If I could only keep on feelin' this way ... an' never wake
up again ...! What's the reason o' such things comin' to pass in this
world?
MARTHEL
[_Frightened._] If only father would come home!
ROSE
Martha, come! Listen to me! You mustn't tell father that I was here or
that I am here ... Martha, sure you'll promise me that, won't you?...
Many a thing I've done for the love o' you ... Martha! You haven't
forgotten that, nor you mustn't forget it, even if things grows dark
around me now.
MARTHEL
Will you drink a bit of coffee? There's a drop left in the oven.
ROSE
An' don't be frightened! I'll go upstairs in the room an' lie down a wee
bit ... just a bit. Otherwise I'm all right ... otherwise there's nothin'
that ails me.
MARTHEL
An' I'm not to say nothin' to father?
ROSE
Not a word!
MARTHEL
An' not to August neither?
ROSE
Not a syllable! Lass, you've never known your mother an' I've raised you
with fear an' heartache.--Many's the night I've watched through in terror
because you was ill! I wasn't as old as you when I carried you about on
my arm till I was near breakin' in two! Here you was--at my breast! An'
if you go an' betray me now, 'tis all over between us!
MARTHEL
Rosie, 'tis nothin' bad is it ... nothin' dangerous, I mean?
ROSE
I don't believe it is! Come, Martha, help me a bit, support me a bit!...
A body is left too lonely in this world ... too deserted! If only a body
wasn't so lonely here ... so lonely on this earth!
[_ROSE and MARTHEL pass out through the hall door._
_For some moments the room remains empty. Then old BERND appears in
the kitchen. He puts down his basket and the potato hoe and looks
about him, earnestly and inquiringly. Meanwhile MARTHEL re-enters the
living-room from the hall._
MARTHEL
Is it you, father?
BERND
Is there no hot water! You know I have to have my foot bath! Isn't Rose
here yet?
MARTHEL
She isn't here yet, father!
BERND
What? Hasn't she come back from court yet? That isn't possible hardly!
'Tis eight o'clock. Was August here?
MARTHEL
Not yet.
BERND
Not yet either? Well, maybe she's with him then.--Have you seen that
great cloud, Marthel, that was comin' over from the mountain about six
o'clock, maybe?
MARTHEL
Yes, father; the world got all dark!
BERND
There'll come a day o' greater darkness than this! Light the lamp on the
table for me an' put the Good Book down next to it. The great thing is to
be in readiness. Marthel, are you sure you keep thinkin' o' the life
eternal, so that you can stand up before your Judge on that day? Few is
the souls that think of it here! Just now as I was comin' home along the
water's edge, I heard some one cryin' out upon me from behind, as they
often does. "Bloodsucker!" cried he. An' was I a bloodsucker when I was
overseer on the domain? Nay, I did my duty,--that was all! But the powers
of evil is strong! If a man is underhanded, an' closes his eyes to evil,
an' looks on quietly upon cheatin'--then his fellows likes him well.--But
I leans upon the Lord Jesus. We human bein's all need that support.
'Tisn't enough just to do good works! Maybe if Rose had given more
thought to that, maybe we'd ha' been spared many a visitation an' a deal
o' heaviness an' bitterness. [_A CONSTABLE appears in the doorway._]
Who's comin' there?
CONSTABLE
I have a summons to serve, I must speak to your daughter.
BERND
My oldest daughter?
CONSTABLE
[_Reads from the document._] To Rose Bernd.
BERND
My daughter hasn't come back from court yet. Can I give her the letter?
CONSTABLE
No; I've got to make a personal search, too. I'll be back at eight in the
mornin'.
_AUGUST appears hastily._
BERND
There's August, too.
AUGUST
Isn't Rose here?
BERND
No; an' the sergeant here is askin' after her, too. I thought you an' she
was together.
CONSTABLE
I has to make a search into one matter an' also to serve this paper.
AUGUST
Always an' forever this Streckmann business. 'Tis not only the loss of my
eye--now we has these everlastin' troubles an' annoyances. It seems, God
forgive me, to come to no end.
CONSTABLE
Good evenin'. To-morrow mornin' at eight!
[_Exit._
AUGUST
Marthel, go into the kitchen a bit of a while.--Father, I've got to speak
with you. Go, Marthel; go an' shut the door. But Marthel, didn't you see
anythin' o' Rose?
MARTHEL
No, nothin'! [_Surreptitiously she beckons to him with her hand._] I'll
tell you something August.
AUGUST
Close the door, lass. I have no time now. [_He himself closes the kitchen
door._] Father, you'll have to withdraw your suit.
BERND
Anythin' but that, August. I can't do that!
AUGUST
'Tis not Christian. Yon must withdraw.
BERND
I don't believe that 'tis not Christian!--For why? 'Tis a piece of infamy
to cut off a girl's honour that way. 'Tis a crime that needs to be
punished.
AUGUST
I hardly know how to begin, father Bernd.... You've been too hasty in
this matter....
BERND
My wife who's in her grave demands that of me! An' my honour demands it
... the honour o' my house and o' my lass. An' yours, too, if you come to
think.
AUGUST
Father Bernd, father Bernd, how am I to speak to you if you're so set on
not makin' peace? You've spoke o' so many kinds of honour. But we're not
to seek our honour or glory in this world, but God's only an' no other!
BERND
'Tis otherwise in this matter. Here woman's honour is God's too! Or have
you any complaint to make against Rose?
AUGUST
I've said to you: I make no complaint!
BERND
Or is your own conscience troublin' you on her account?
AUGUST
You know me in that respeck, father Bernd. Before I'd depart from the
straight an' narrow way ...
BERND
Well, then. I know that! I always knew that! An' so justice can take its
course.
AUGUST
[_Wiping the sweat from his forehead._] If only we knew where Rose is!
BERND
Maybe she isn't back from the court at Striegau yet!
AUGUST
An examination like that don't take very long. She meant to be home by
five o'clock.
BERND
Maybe she went to buy some things on the way. Wasn't she to get several
things yet? I thought you were wantin' one thing or another.
AUGUST
But she didn't take along any money. An' the things we was needin' for
the shop--curtains for the windows an' the door--we intended to buy those
together.
BERND
I was thinkin' that she'd come with you!
AUGUST
I went to meet her on the road--more'n a mile, but I heard an' saw
nothin' of her. Instead o' that, I met Streckmann.
BERND
I calls that meetin' the devil!
AUGUST
Ah, father, that man has a wife an' children too! His sins are no fault
o' theirs! What good does it do me that he's got to go to gaol? If a man
repents ... that's all I asks!
BERND
That bad man don't know repentance!
AUGUST
It looked very much as if he did.
BERND
Did you speak to him?
AUGUST
He gave me no peace. He ran along next to me an' talked an' talked. There
wasn't a soul to be seen far an' wide! In the end I felt sorry for him; I
couldn't help it.
BERND
You answered him! What did he say?
AUGUST
He said you should withdraw your suit.
BERND
I couldn't rest quiet in my grave if I did! 'Twouldn't matter if it
concerned me! I can bear it; I can laugh at it! I'm not only a man but a
Christian! But 'tis a different thing with my child! How could I look you
in the face if I let that shameful thing stick to her! An' now,
especially, after that terrible misfortune! Look, August, that can't be!
That mustn't be!--Everybody's always been at our heels, because we lived
different from the rest o' the world! Hypocrites they called us an'
bigots, an' sneaks an' such names! An' always they wanted to trump up
somethin' against us! What a feast this here thing would be to 'em! An'
besides ... How did I bring up the lass? Industrious an' with the fear o'
God in her heart so that if a Christian man marries her, he can set up a
Christian household! That's the way! That's how I gives her out o' my
care! An' am I goin' to let that poison cling to her? Rather would I be
eatin' bread an' salt all my days than take a penny from you then!
AUGUST