Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive
Transcriber's Note:
1. Page scan source:
http://www.archive.org/details/joyoflivingthe00suderich
2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
THE JOY OF LIVING
(_ES LEBE DAS LEBEN_)
A PLAY IN FIVE ACTS
BY
HERMANN SUDERMANN
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY
EDITH WHARTON
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK:::::::::::::::::1906
_Copyright, 1902, by Charles Scribner's Sons_
Published, November, 1902
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
_Translator's Note_
_The translation of dramatic dialogue is attended with special
difficulties, and these are peculiarly marked in translating from
German into English. The German sentence carries more ballast than
English readers are accustomed to, and while in translating narrative
one may, by means of subordinate clauses, follow the conformation of
the original, it is hard to do so in rendering conversation, and
virtually impossible when the conversation is meant to be spoken on the
stage. To English and American spectators the long German speeches are
a severe strain on the attention, and even in a translation intended
only for the "closet" a too faithful adherence to German construction
is not the best way of doing justice to the original._
_Herr Sudermann's dialogue is more concise than that of many other
German dramatists; yet in translation his sentences and speeches need
to be divided and recast: to preserve the spirit, the letter must be
modified. This is true not only of the construction of his dialogue but
also of his forms of expression. Wherever it has been possible, his
analogies, his allusions, his "tours de phrase," have been scrupulously
followed; but where they seemed to obscure his meaning to English
readers some adaptation has been necessary. Apart from these trifling
changes, the original has been closely followed; and such modifications
as have been made were suggested solely by the wish to reproduce Herr
Sudermann's meaning more closely than a literal translation would have
allowed._
CHARACTERS
Count Michael von Kellinghausen.
Beata, his wife.
Ellen, their daughter.
Baron Richard von Voelkerlingk.
Leonie, his wife.
Norbert, their son, reading for the Bar.
Baron Ludwig von Voelkerlingk (_Secretary of State, Richard's
step-brother_).
Prince Usingen.
Baron von Brachtmann.
Herr von Berkelwitz-Gruenhof.
Dr. Kahlenberg (_Privy Councillor at the Board of Physicians_).
Holtzmann (_candidate for Holy Orders, private Secretary to Baron
Richard von Voelkerlingk_).
Meixner.
A Physician.
Conrad, servant at Count Kellinghausen's.
George, Baron Richard's servant.
Another Servant.
_The scene is laid in Berlin--the first three and the fifth acts at the
house of Count Kellinghausen; the fourth act at Baron Richard
Voelkerlingk's._
_Period: about 1899_.
ACT I
THE JOY OF LIVING