No man has a right to be self-righteous! An' even if I wanted to be, I
couldn't! I can't spare you the knowledge no longer, father. Our Rose has
been but a weak human bein' like others.
BERND
How do you mean that, August?
AUGUST
Father, don't ask me no more,
BERND
[_Has sat down on a chair by the table in such a way that his face is
turned to the wall. At AUGUST'S last words he has looked at him with
eyes, wide-open and estranged. Then he turns to the table, opens the
Bible with trembling hands, and turns its leaves hither and thither in
growing excitement. He ceases and looks at AUGUST again. Finally he folds
his hands over the book and lets his head sink upon them while his body
twitches convulsively. In this posture he remains for a while, Then he
straightens himself up._] No. I don't understand you rightly! Because,
you see, if I did understand you rightly ... that'd be really ... an' I
wouldn't know ... my God, the room swims with me ... why, I'd have to be
deaf an' blind!--Nay, August, an' I'm not deaf an' blind! Don't let
Streckmann impose on you! He'll take any means to get out o' the trap
that he's in now. It's comin' home to him, an' he wants to sneak out at
any cost! An' so he's incitin' you against the lass. No, August, ...
truly, August ... not on that bridge ... you mustn't start for to cross
that bridge!... Anybody can see through his villainy! ... He's laid traps
enough for the lass. An' if one way don't succeed, he'll try another!...
Now he's hit on this here plan.--Maybe he'll separate you two! It's
happened in this world, more than once or twice that some devil with his
evil schemes has tore asunder people that God meant for each other. They
always grudged the girl her good fortune. Good: I'm willin'! I won't
throw Rose after you! We've satisfied our hunger up to now! But if you'll
heed my word: I'll put my right hand in the fire for....
AUGUST
But Mr. Flamm took oath.
BERND
Ten oaths against me ... twenty oaths against me!... Then he has sworn
falsely an' damned hisself in this world an' in the world to come!
AUGUST
Father Bernd....
BERND
Now wait a bit before ever you say another word! Here I take the books!
Here I take my hat! Here I take the collecting box o' the missions. An'
all these things I puts together here. An' if that's true what you've
been sayin'--if there's so much in it as a grain o' truth--then I'll go
this minute to the pastor an' I'll say: Your reverence, this is how
things is: I can't be a deacon no more; I can't take care o' the treasury
for missions no more! Good-bye! And then nobody would see me no more! No,
no, no, for the love o' God! But now go on! Say your say! But don't
torture me for nothin'.
AUGUST
I had the same thought, too. I want to sell my house an' my land! Maybe
one could find contentment somewhere else.
BERND
[_In unspeakable astonishment._] You want to sell your house an' your
land, August? How do all these strange things come about all of a sudden!
It's enough ... A body might be tempted to make the sign o' the cross,
even though we're not Catholics.--Has the whole world gone mad? Or is the
Day o' Judgment at hand? Or maybe, 'tis but my last hour that has come.
Now answer me, August, how is it? As you hope for a life to come, how is
it?
AUGUST
However it is, father Bernd, I won't desert her.
BERND
You can do about that as you please. That don't concern me! I don't want
to know if a man'd like a wench o' that kind in his house or not. Not me!
I'm not that kind of a man. Well now ...?
AUGUST
I can't say nothin' more than this--somethin' must ha' happened to her!
Whether 'twas with Flamm or with Streckmann....
BERND
That makes two of 'em ...!
AUGUST
I can't tell exactly ...!
BERND
Well, then I'll be goin' to the pastor! Brush me off, August, clean me a
bit! I feel as if I had the itch on my body!
[_He steps into the hall._
_At the same moment MARTHEL rushes out of the kitchen and speaks to
AUGUST in intense terror._
MARTHEL
I believe a misfortune has happened to Rose! She's upstairs! She's been
home this long time!
BERND
[_Returns, changed somewhat by a fright which he has felt._] Somebody
must be upstairs.
AUGUST
Marthel is just sayin' that Rose is there.
MARTHEL
I hear her. She's comin' down the stairs.
BERND
God forgive me the sin! I don't want to see her.
_He sits down at the table, as before, holds his thumbs over his ears
and bends his head deep over the Bible. ROSE appears in the door. She
has her house skirt on and a loose bodice of cotton cloth. She keeps
herself erect by sheer force of will. Her hair hangs down, partly
loose, partly braided. There is in her face an expression of
terrible, fatalistic calm and of bitter defiance. For several moments
she lets her eyes wander over the room, over OLD BERND sitting there
with his Bible, over AUGUST who has slowly turned from the door and
pretends to be looking intently out of the window. Then, groping for
some support, she begins to talk with desperate energy._
ROSE
Good-evenin' to all o' ye!--?--Good evenin'.
AUGUST
[_After some hemming._] The same to you.
ROSE
[_With bitter iciness._] If you don't want me, I can go again.
AUGUST
[_Simply._] Where else do you want to go to? An' where have you been?
ROSE
He that asks much, hears much. More sometimes than he'd like
to.--Marthel, come over here to me a bit. [_MARTHEL goes. Rose has seated
herself not far from the stove and takes the younger girl's hand. Then
she says:_] What's the matter with father?
MARTHEL
[_Embarrassed, timid, speaks softly._] I don't know that neither.
ROSE
What's the matter with father? You can speak right out! An' with you,
August? What is the matter with you?... You've got cause, that you have,
August, to despise me. I don't deny that. No....
AUGUST
I don't despise no one in this world.
ROSE
But I do! All of 'em ... all ... all!
AUGUST
Those is dark words to me that you're speakin'.
ROSE
Dark? Yes! I know it. The world's dark! An' you hear the roarin' o' wild
beasts in it. An' then, later, it gets brighter ... but them are the
flames o' hell that make it bright.--Martha....
BERND
[_Who has been listening a little, arises and frees MARTHEL'S wrist from
ROSE'S grasp._] Don't poison the little lass's mind. Take your hand
away!--March off to bed! [_MARTHEL goes weeping._] A man would like to be
deaf, to be blind! A man'd like to be dead.
[_He becomes absorbed again in his Bible._
ROSE Father!--I'm alive!--I'm sittin' here!--That's somethin'!--Yes,
that's something when you considers!--I think, father, you might
understand that! This is a world ...! Nobody can never do nothin' more to
me! O Jesus, my Saviour--! All o' you, all o' you--you live together in a
bit o' chamber an' you don't know what goes on outside in the world! I
know it now ... I've learned it in bitterness an' wailin'! I had to get
out o' that little chamber! An' then--somehow--the walls gave way, one
wall an' another ... an' there I stood, outside, in the storm ... an'
there--was nothin' under me an' nothin' above me ... nothin'. You're all
like children compared to me.
AUGUST
[_Frightened._] But, Rose, if it's true what Streckmann says, then you've
committed perjury!...
ROSE
[_Laughing bitterly._] I don't know. 'Tis possible ... I can't just
remember this moment. The world is made up o' lies an' deception.
BERND
[_Sighs._] O God ... my refuge evermore.
AUGUST
Is it so easy that you take the swearin' o' false oaths?
ROSE
That's nothin'! Nothin'! How could that be anythin'? There's somethin'
that lies, out there, under a willow ... That's ... somethin' ... The
rest don't concern me! There ... there ... I wanted to look up at the
stars! I wanted to cry out an' to call out! No heavenly Father stirred to
help me.
BERND
[_Frightened, trembling._] You're blasphemin' our heavenly Father? Has it
gone so far with you? Then I don't know you no more!
ROSE
[_Approaching him on her knees._] 'Tis gone so far! But you know me
anyhow, father! You cradled me on your knees, an' I've stood by you too
many a time.--Now somethin' has come over us all--I've fought against it
and struggled against it....
BERND
[_Deeply perplexed._] What is it?
ROSE
I don't know ... I don't know!
[_Trembling and kneeling, she crouches and stares at the floor._
AUGUST
[_Overwhelmed and taken out of himself by the pity of the sight._] Rosie,
get up! I won't desert you! Get up, I can't bear to see you lyin' there!
We're all sinners together! An' anyone who repents so deep, is bound to
be forgiven. Get up, Rose, Father, raise her up! We're not among them
that condemns--not I, at least. There's nothin' in me o' the Pharisee! I
see how it goes to her heart! Come what will, I'll stand by you! I'm no
judge ... I don't judge. Our Saviour in Heaven didn't judge neither.
Truly, he bore our sickness for us, an' we thought he was one that was
tortured an' stricken, by God! Maybe we've all been guilty of error. I
don't want to acquit myself neither. I've been thinkin'. Before the lass
hardly knew me, she had to say her yea an' amen! What do I care about the
world? It don't concern me.
ROSE
August, they clung to me like burrs ... I couldn't walk across the street
safe ... All the men was after me!... I hid myself ... I was that scared!
I was so afraid o' men!... It didn't help! 'Twas worse an' worse! After
that I fell from one snare into another, till I hardly came to my senses
no more.
BERND
You used to have the strictest notion o' such things. You condemned the
Leichner girl an' despised the Kaiser wench! You boasted--you'd like to
see someone come across your path! You struck the miller's journeyman in
the face! A girl as does that, you said, don't deserve no pity; she can
go an' hang herself! An' now you speak o' snares.
ROSE
I know better now.
AUGUST
Come what will, I'll stand by you, Rose. I'll sell my land! We'll go out
into the world! I have an uncle in Brazil, across the ocean. We'll get
our bit o' livin' somehow--one way or t'other. Maybe 'tis only now that
we're ripe an' ready to take up our life together.
ROSE
O Jesus, Jesus, what did I do? Why did I go an' creep home? Why didn't I
stay with my little baby?
AUGUST
With whom?
ROSE
[_Gets up._] August, it's all over with me! First there was a burnin' in
my body like flames o' fire! Then I fell into a kind o' swoon! Then there
came one hope: I ran like a mother cat with her kitten in her mouth! But
the dogs chased me an' I had to drop it....
BERND
Do you understand one word, August?
AUGUST
No, not o' this....
BERND
Do you know how I feel? I feel as if one abyss after another was openin',
was yawnin' for us here. What'll we hear before the end?
ROSE
A curse! A curse will ye have to hear: I see you! I'll meet you! On the
Day o' Judgment I'll meet you! I'll tear out your gullet an' your jaws
together! You'll have to give an accountin'! You'll have to answer me,
there!
AUGUST
Whom do you mean, Rosie?
ROSE
_He_ knows ... _he_ knows.
[_A great exhaustion overtakes her and, almost swooning, she sinks
upon a chair. A silence follows._
AUGUST
[_Busying himself about her._] What is it that's come over you? Suddenly
you're so....
ROSE
I don't know.--If you'd asked me earlier, long ago, maybe ... to-day I
can't tell you!--There wasn't nobody that loved me enough.
AUGUST
Who can tell which love is stronger--the happy or the unhappy love.
ROSE
Oh, I was strong, strong, so strong! Now I'm weak! Now it's all over with
me.
_The CONSTABLE appears._
THE CONSTABLE
[_With a quiet voice._] They say your daughter is at home. Kleinert said
she was here.
AUGUST
It's true. We didn't know it a while ago.
THE CONSTABLE
Then I might as well get through now. There's somethin' to be signed
here.
[_Without noticing ROSE in the dim room, he lays several documents on
the table._
AUGUST
Rose, here's somethin' you're to sign.
_ROSE laughs with horrible and hysterical irony._
THE CONSTABLE
If you're the one, Miss, it's no laughin' matter.--Please!
ROSE
You can stay a minute yet.
AUGUST
An' why?
ROSE
[_With flaming eyes, a malice against the whole world in her voice._]
I've strangled my child.
AUGUST
What are you sayin'? For the love of God, what are you sayin'?
THE CONSTABLE
[_Draws himself up, looks at her searchingly, but continues as though he
had not heard._] It'll be somethin' connected with the Streckmann
'affair.
ROSE
[As before, harshly, almost with a bark.] Streckmann? He strangled my
child.
BERND
Girl, be still. You're out o' your mind.
THE CONSTABLE
Anyhow, you have no child at all--?
ROSE
What? I has none? Could I ha' strangled it with my hands?... I strangled
my baby with these hands!!!
THE CONSTABLE
You're possessed! What's wrong with you?
ROSE
My mind's clear. I'm not possessed. I woke up clear in my mind, so
clear.... [_Coldly, mildly, but with cruel firmness._] It _was_ not to
live! I didn't want it to live! I didn't want it to suffer my agonies! It
was to stay where it belonged.
AUGUST
Rose, think! Don't torment yourself! You don't know what you're sayin'
here! You'll bring down misery on us all.
ROSE
You don't know nothin' ... that's it ... You don't see nothin'. You was
all blind together with your eyes open. He can go an' look behind the
great willow ... by the alder-trees ... behind the parson's field ... by
the pool ... there he can see the wee thing....
BERND
You've done somethin' so awful?
AUGUST
You've been guilty o' somethin' so unspeakable?
_ROSE faints. The men look upon her confounded and helpless. AUGUST
supports her._
THE CONSTABLE
'Twould be best if she came along with me to headquarters. There she can
make a voluntary confession. If what she says isn't just fancies, it'll
count a good deal in her favour.
AUGUST
[_From the depth of a great experience._] Those are no fancies, sergeant.
That girl ... what she must have suffered!
THE CURTAIN FALLS
THE RATS
A BERLIN TRAGI-COMEDY
PERSONS
HARRO HASSENREUTER, _formerly a theatrical manager._
MRS. HARRO HASSENREUTER.
WALBURGA, _their daughter._
PASTOR SPITTA.
ERICH SPITTA, _postulant for Holy Orders, his son._
ALICE RÜTTERBUSCH, _actress._
NATHANAEL JETTEL, _court actor._
KÄFERSTEIN, DR. KEGEL, _Pupils of HASSENREUTER._
JOHN, _foreman mason._
MRS. JOHN.
BRUNO MECHELKE, _her brother._
PAULINE PIPERCARCKA, _a servant girl._
MRS. SIDONIE KNOBBE.
SELMA, _her daughter._
QUAQUARO, _house-steward._
MRS. KIELBACKE.
POLICEMAN SCHIERKE.
TWO INFANTS.
THE FIRST ACT
_The attic of a former cavalry barracks in Berlin, A windowless room
that receives all its light from a lamp which burns suspended over a
round table. From the back wall opens a straight passage which
connects the room with the outer door--a door with iron hasps and a
primitive signal bell which any one desiring to enter rings by means
of a bell rope. A door in the right wall leads to an adjoining room,
one in the left wall leads to the stairs into the loft immediately
under the roof. Into this store room, as well as into the space
visible to the spectator, the former theatrical manager, HARRO
HASSENREUTER has gathered his collection of properties. In the
prevalent gloom it is difficult to decide whether the place is the
armour room of an old castle, a museum of antiquities or the shop of
a costumer. Stands with helmets and breast-plates are put up on
either side of the passage; a row of similar stands almost covers the
two sides of the front room. The stairs wind upward between two
mailed figures. At the head of the stairs is a wooden trap-door. In
the left foreground, against the wall, is a high desk. Ink, pens, old
ledgers, a tall stool, as well as several chairs with tall backs and
the round table make it clear that the room serves the purposes of an
office. On the table is a decanter for water and several glasses;
above the desk hang a number of photographs. These photographs
represent HASSENREUTER in the part of Karl Moor (in Schiller's
"Robbers"), as well as in a number of other parts. One of the mailed
dummies wean a huge laurel wreath about its neck. The laurel wreath
is tied with a riband which bears, in gilt letters, the following
inscription: "To our gifted manager Hassenreuter, from his grateful
colleagues." A series of enormous red bows shows the inscriptions:
"To the inspired presenter of Karl Moor ... To the incomparable,
unforgettable Karl Moor" ... etc., etc. The room is utilised as far
as its space will permit for the storing of costumes. Wherever
possible, German, Spanish and English garments of every age hang on
hooks. Swedish riding boots, Spanish rapiers and German broadswords
are scattered about. The door to the left bears the legend: Library.
The whole room displays picturesque disorder, Trumpery of all
kinds--weapons, goblets, cups--is scattered about. It is Sunday
toward the end of May._
_At the table in the middle of the room are sitting, MRS. JOHN
(between thirty-five and forty) and a very young servant girl,
PAULINE PIPERCARCKA. PAULINE, vulgarly overdressed--jacket, hat,
sunshade--sits straight upright. Her pretty, round little face shows
signs of long weeping. Her figure betrays the fact that she is
approaching motherhood. She draws letters on the floor with the end
of her sunshade._
MRS. JOHN
Well, sure now! That's right! That's what I says, Pauline.
PAULINE
All right. So I'm goin' to Schlachtensee or to Halensee. I gotta go and
see if I c'n meet him!
[_She dries her tears and is about to rise._
MRS. JOHN
[_Prevents PAULINE from getting up._] Pauline! For God's sake, don't you
be doin' that! Not that there, for nothin' in the world! That don't do
nothin' but raise a row an' cost money an' don't bring you in nothin'.
Look at the condition you're in! An' that way you want to go an' run
after that there low lived feller?
PAULINE
Then my landlady c'n wait an' wait for me to-day. I'll jump into the
Landwehr canal an' drownd myself.
MRS. JOHN
Pauline! An' what for? What for, I'd like to know? Now you just listen to
me for a speck of a minute, just for God's sake, for the teeniest speck
of one an' pay attention to what I'm goin' to propose to you! You know
yourself how I says to you, out on Alexander square, right by the
chronomoneter--says I to you right out, as I was comin' out o' the market
an' sees your condition with half an eye. He don't want to acknowledge
nothin', eh? That's what I axed you right out!--That happens to many gals
here, to all of 'em--to millions! An' then I says to you ... what did I
say? Come along, I says, an' I'll help you!
PAULINE
O' course, I don't never dare to show myself at home lookin' this way.
Mother, she'd cry it out at the first look. An' father, he'd knock my
head against the wall an' throw me out in the street. An' I ain't got no
more money left neither--nothin' but just two pieces o' gold that I got
sewed up in the linin' o' my jacket. That feller didn't leave me no crown
an' he didn't leave me no penny.
MRS. JOHN
Miss, my husband, he's a foreman mason. I just wants you to pay attention
... just for heaven's sake, pay attention to the propositions that I'm
goin' to make to you. They'll help us both. You'll be helped out an' the
same way I'll be. An' what's more, Paul, that's my husband, he'll be
helped, because he'd like, for all the world, to have a child, an' our
only one, little Adelbert, he went an' died o' the croup. Your child'll
be as well taken care of as an own child. Then you c'n go an' you c'n
look up your sweetheart an' you c'n go back into service an' home to your
people, an' the child is well off, an' nobody in the world don't need to
know nothin'.
PAULINE
I'll do it just outa spite--that's what! An' drownd myself! [_She
rises._] An' a note, a note, I'll leave in my jacket, like this: You
drove your Pauline to her death with your cursed meanness! An' then I'll
put down his name in full: Alois Theophil Brunner, instrument-maker. Then
he c'n see how he'll get along in the world with the murder o' me on his
conscience.
MRS. JOHN
Wait a minute, Miss! I gotta unlock the door first.
_MRS. JOHN acts, as though she were about to conduct PAULINE to the
door._
_Before the two women reach the passage, BRUNO MECHELKE enters with
slow and suspicious demeanour by the door at the left and remains
standing in the room. BRUNO is short rather than tall, but with a
powerful bull's neck and athletic shoulders. His forehead is low and
receding, his close-clipped hair like a brush, his skull round and
small. His face is brutal and his left nostril has been ripped open
sometime and imperfectly healed. The fellow is about nineteen years
old. He bends forward, and his great, lumpish hands are joined to
muscular arms. The pupils of his eyes are small, black and piercing.
He is trying to repair a rat trap._
_BRUNO whistles to his sister as he would to a dog._
MRS. JOHN
I'm comin' now, Bruno! What d'you want?
BRUNO
[_Apparently absorbed by the trap._] Thought I was goin' to put up traps
here.
MRS. JOHN
Did you put the bacon in? [_To PAULINE._] It's only my brother. Don't be
scared, Miss.
BRUNO
[_As before._] I seen the Emperor William to-day. I marched along wi' the
guard,
MRS. JOHN
[_To PAULINE, who stands fearful and moveless in BRUNO'S presence._]
'Tain't nothin' but my brother. You c'n stay.--[_To BRUNO._] Boy, what're
you lookin' that way for again? The young lady is fair scared o' you.
BRUNO
[_As before, without looking up._] Brrr-rr-rr! I'm a ghost.
MRS. JOHN
Hurry an' go up in the loft an' set your traps.
BRUNO
[_Slowly approaching the table._] Aw, that business ain't no good 'cept
to starve on! When I goes to sell matches, I gets more outa it.
PAULINE
Good-bye, Mrs. John.
MRS. JOHN
[_Raging at her brother._] Are you goin' to leave me alone?
BRUNO
[_Knuckling under._] Aw, don' go on so. I'm leavin'.
_Obediently he withdraws into the adjoining room. MRS. JOHN locks the
door behind him with a determined gesture._
PAULINE
That's a feller I wouldn't like to meet in the _Tiergarten_. Not by night
an' not by day neither.
MRS. JOHN
If I sets Bruno on anyone an' he gets at him, God help him!
PAULINE
Good-bye. I don't like this here place. If you wants to see me again,
Mrs. John, I'd rather meet you at a bench on the _Kreuzberg_.
MRS. JOHN
Pauline, I brought up Bruno with sorrow and trouble by day an' by night.
An' I'll be twenty times better to your child. So when it's born,
Pauline, I'll take it, an' I swears to you by my father an' mother what
died in the Lord an' what I goes to visit the graves of out in Rüdersdorf
one Sunday a year an' puts candles on 'em an' don' let nobody keep me
back--I swears to you that little crittur'll live on the fat o' the land
just like a born prince nor a born princess couldn't be treated no
better.
PAULINE
I'm goin' and with my last penny I'm goin' to buy vitriol--I don' care
who it hits! An' I'll throw it in the face o' the wench that he goes with
... I don' care who it hits ... right in the middle o' the mug. I don'
care! It c'n burn up his fine-lookin' phiz! I don' care! It c'n burn off
his beard an' burn out his eyes if he goes with other women! What did he
do? Cheated me! Ruined me! Took my money! Robbed me o' my honour! That's
what the damn' dog did--seduced me an' lied to me an' left me an' kicked
me out into the world! I don' care who it hits! I wants him to be blind!
I wants the stuff to burn his nose offa his face! I wants it to burn him
offa the earth!
MRS. JOHN
Pauline, as I hopes to be happy hereafter, I tells you, from the minute
where that there little one is born ... it's goin' to be treated like ...
well, I don' know what!... as if it was born to be put in silks an' in
satins. All you gotta do is to have some confidence--that's what! You
just say: Yes. I got it all figgered out. It c'n be done, it c'n be
done--that's what I tells you! An' no doctor an' no police an' no
landlady don't has to know nothin'. An' then, first of all, you gets paid
a hundred an' twenty crowns what I saved scrubbin' an' charrin' here for
manager Hassenreuter.
PAULINE
I might strangle it when it's born, rather 'n sell it!
MRS. JOHN
Who's talkin' about sellin'?
PAULINE
Look at the frights an' the misery I've stood from October las' to this
very day. My intended gives me the go; my landlady puts me out! They
gives me notice at a lodgin's. What does I do that I has to be despised
an' cursed an' kicked aroun'?
MRS. JOHN
That's what I says. That's cause the devil is still gettin' the better of
our Lord Jesus.
_Unnoticed and busy with the trap as before BRUNO has quietly
re-entered by the door._
BRUNO
[_With a strange intonation, sharply and yet carelessly._] Lamps!
PAULINE
That feller scares me. Lemme go!
MRS. JOHN