Part 4
Now for certain I'm not going.--(_Kneels down by him._) Why won't you come out with me into the meadow, Melchior?----Here it is hot and dark. Suppose we do get wet to the skin, what difference will that make to us!
MELCHIOR.
The hay smells so fine.----The sky outside must be as black as a pall----I only see the brilliant poppy on your breast----and I hear your heart beating----
WENDLA.
Don't kiss me, Melchior!----Don't kiss me!
MELCHIOR.
Your heart----I hear beating----
WENDLA.
People love----when they kiss----Don't, don't!
MELCHIOR.
Oh, believe me, there's no such thing as love! Everything is selfishness, everything is egotism!----I love you as little as you love me.
WENDLA.
Don't----don't, Melchior!----
MELCHIOR.
Wendla!
WENDLA.
Oh, Melchior!----Don't, don't----
FIFTH SCENE.
FRAU GABOR.
(_Sits writing._)
_Dear Herr Stiefel_:--After twenty-four hours of consideration and reconsideration of all you have written me, I take up my pen with a heavy heart. I cannot furnish you with the necessary amount for the voyage to America--I give you my word of honor. In the first place, I have not that much to my credit, and in the second place, if I had, it would be the greatest sin imaginable for me to put into your hands the means of accomplishing such an ill-considered measure. You will be doing me a bitter wrong, Herr Stiefel, if you see a sign of lack of love in my refusal. On the contrary, it would be the greatest neglect of my duty as your motherly friend were I to allow myself to be affected by your temporary lack of determination, so that I also lost my head and blindly followed my first fleeting impulse. I am very ready--in case you desire it--to write to your parents. I should seek to convince your parents that you have done what you could during this quarter, that you have exhausted your strength, that a rigorous judgment of your case would not only be inadvisable, but might be in the greatest degree prejudicial to your mental and bodily health.
That you imply a threat to take your own life in case flight is impossible for you, to speak plainly, has somewhat surprised me. No matter how undeserving is a misfortune, Herr Stiefel, one should never choose improper means to escape it. The way in which you, to whom I have always done only good, want to make me responsible for a possible frightful action on your part, has something about it which, in the eyes of an evil-thinking person, might be misconstrued very easily. I must confess that this outbreak of yours--you who know so well what one owes to oneself--is the last thing for which I was prepared. However, I cherish the strong conviction that you are laboring yet too much under the shock of your first fright to be able to understand completely your action.
And, therefore, I hope with confidence that these words of mine will find you already in better spirits. Take up the matter as it stands. In my opinion it is unwise to judge a young man by his school record. We have too many examples of bad students becoming distinguished men, and, on the other hand, of brilliant students not being at all remarkable in life. At any rate, I can assure you that your misfortune, as far as it lies with me, shall make no difference in your association with Melchior. On the contrary, it will afford me the greatest pleasure to see my son going with a young man who, let the world judge him as it will, is able to win my fullest sympathy.
And, therefore, hold your head high, Herr Stiefel!----Such a crisis as this comes to all of us and will soon be surmounted. If all of us had recourse to dagger or poison in such cases, there would soon be no men left in the world. Let me hear from you right soon again, and accept the heartfelt greetings of your unchanged
Motherly friend,
FANNY G.
SCENE SIXTH.
_Bergmann's garden in the morning sunlight._
WENDLA.
Why have you slipped out of the room?----To hunt violets!----Because Mother seems to laugh at me.----Why can't you bring your lips together any more?----I don't know.----Indeed I don't know, I can't find words----The path is like a velvet carpet, no pebbles, no thorns.----My feet don't touch the ground.----Oh, how I slept last night!
Here they are.----I become as grave as a nun at communion.----Sweet violets!----Peace, little mother, I will put on my long dress.----Oh God, if somebody would come upon whose neck I could fall and tell!
SCENE SEVEN.
_Evening twilight. Light clouds in the sky. The path straggles through low bushes and coarse grass. The flow of the stream is heard in the distance._
MORITZ.
Better and better.----I am not fit. Another may be able to climb to the top. I pull the door to behind me and step into the open.----I don't care enough about it to let myself be turned back.
I haven't succeeded in forcing my way. How shall I force my way now!----I have no contract with God. Let them make out of the thing what they will. I have been forced.----I do not hold my parents answerable. At the same time, the worst must fall upon them. They were old enough to know what they were doing. I was a weakling when I came into the world----or else I would have been wise enough to become another being. Why should I be forced to pay for the fact that the others were here already!
I must have fallen on my head----If anybody makes me a present of a mad dog I'll give him back a mad dog. And if he won't take back his mad dog, then I am human and----
I must have fallen on my head!
Man is born by chance and should not, after mature consideration----It is to shoot oneself dead!
The weather at least has shown itself considerate. The whole day it looked like rain and yet it has held off.----A rare peace rules in nature. Nowhere anything dazzling, exciting. Heaven and earth are like a transparent fabric. And everything seems so happy. The landscape is as sweet as the melody of a lullaby.----aEurooeSleep, little prince, sleep on,aEuro¯ as FrA¤ulein Snandulia sang. It's a shame she holds her elbows so awkwardly!----I danced for the last time at the CA¤cilienfest. Snandulia only dances with good matches.----Her silk dress was cut low in front and in the back. In the back, down to her girdle and in the front down----unconscionably low.----She couldn't have worn a chemise.------That might be something able to affect me yet.----More than half curiosity.----It must be a wonderful sensation----a feeling as if one were being carried through the rapids----I should never tell anybody that I was experiencing something untried before----I would act as if I had done it all.--There is something shameful in growing up to be a man without having learned the chief function of masculinity.----You come from Egypt, honorable sir, and have not seen the pyramids?!
I will not cry again to-day. I will not think of my burial again.----Melchior will lay a wreath on my coffin. Pastor Kahlbauch will console my parents. Rector Sonnenstich will cite examples from history.----It is possible that I shall not have a tombstone. I had wanted a snow-white marble urn on a pedestal of black syenite.----Thank God, I shall not miss them. Monuments are for the living, not for the dead.
I should need a whole year to say farewell to everything in my thoughts. I will not cry again. I am so happy to be able to look back without bitterness. How many beautiful evenings I have passed with Melchior!----under the osiers; at the forester's house; on the highway where the five lindens stand; on the Schlossberg, among the restful ruins of the Runenburg.----When the hour comes, I will think with all my might of whipped cream. Whipped cream doesn't stay firm. It falls and leaves a pleasant after-taste.----I had thought men were infinitely worse. I haven't found one who didn't want to do his best. Many have suffered with me on my own account.
I wander to the altar like the ancient Etrurian youth whose dying rattle bought his brothers' prosperity for the coming year.----I experience bit by bit the mysterious awe of liberation. I sob with sorrow over my lot.----Life has turned its cold shoulder to me. I see earnest, friendly glances luring me there in the distance, the headless queen, the headless queen--compassion awaiting me with open arms----Your commands concern minors; I carry my free ticket in myself. If the shell sinks, the butterfly flits from it; the delusion no longer holds.----You should drive no mad bargain with the swindle! The mists close in; life is bitter on the tongue.
ILSE.
(_In torn clothing, a bright cloth about her head, grabs him by the shoulder from behind._)
What have you lost?
MORITZ.
Ilse!
ILSE.
What are you hunting here?
MORITZ.
Why did you frighten me so?
ILSE.
What are you hunting?----What have you lost?
MORITZ.
Why did you frighten me so fearfully?
ILSE.
I'm coming from town.----I'm going home.
MORITZ.
I don't know what I've lost.
ILSE.
Then seeking won't help you.
MORITZ.
Sakerment, sakerment!
ILSE.
I haven't been home for four days.
MORITZ.
Restless as a cat!
ILSE.
Because I have on my dancing slippers----Mother will make eyes!----Come to our house with me!
MORITZ.
Where have you been strolling again?
ILSE.
With the Priapia!
MORITZ.
Priapia?
ILSE.
With Nohl, with Fehrendorf, with Padinsky, with Lenz, Rank, SpA1/4hler--with all of them possible! Kling, kling----things were lively!
MORITZ.
Do they paint you?
ILSE.
Fehrendorf painted me as a pillar saint. I am standing on a Corinthian capital. Fehrendorf, I tell you, is a gibbering idiot. The last time, I trod on one of his tubes. He wiped his brush on my hair. I fetched him a box on the ear. He threw his palette at my head. I upset the easel. He chased me all about the studio, over divans, tables and chairs, with his mahlstick. Behind the stove stood a sketch;----Be good or I'll tear it! He swore amnesty, and--and then kissed me promptly and frightfully, frightfully, I tell you.
MORITZ.
Where do you spend the night when you stop in town?
ILSE.
Yesterday we were at Nohl's.----The day before with Bojokewitsch--Sunday with Oikonomopulos. We had champagne at Padinsky's. Valabregez had sold his aEurooeWoman Dead of the Pest.aEuro¯ Adolar drank out of the ash tray. Lenz sang the aEurooeChild's Murderer,aEuro¯ and Adolar pounded the guitar out of shape. I was so drunk they had to put me to bed.----Do you go to school yet, Moritz?
MORITZ.
No, no,----I take my leave of it this quarter.
ILSE.
You are right. Ah, how time passes when one earns money!----Do you remember how we used to play robbers?----Wendla Bergmann and you and I and the others, when you used to come out in the evening and drink warm goat's milk at our house?----What is Wendla doing? I haven't seen her since the flood----What is Melchi Gabor doing?----Does he seem as deep thinking as ever?----We used to stand opposite each other during singing.
MORITZ.
He philosophizes.
ILSE.
Wendla came to see us a while ago and brought Mother some presents. I sat that day for Isidor Landauer. He needed me for the Holy Mary, the Mother of God, with the Christ Child. He is a ninny and disagreeable. Hu, like a weathercock!----Have you a katzenjammer?
MORITZ.
From last night!----We soaked like hippopotami. I staggered home at five o'clock.
ILSE.
One need only to look at you.----Were there any girls there?
MORITZ.
Arabella, the beer nymph, an Andalusian. The landlord let all of us spend the whole night alone with her.
ILSE.
One only need look at you, Moritz!----I don't know what a katzenjammer's like. During the last carnival I went three days and three nights without going to bed or taking my clothes off. From the ball to the cafA(C), noon at Bellavista; evenings, Tingle-Tangle; night, to the ball. Lena was there, and the fat Viola.----The third night Heinrich found me.
MORITZ.
Had he been looking for you?
ILSE.
He tripped over my arm. I lay senseless in the snow in the street.----That's how I went with him. For fourteen days I didn't leave his lodgings----a dreadful time! In the morning I had to throw on his Persian nightgown and in the evening go about the room in the black costume of a page; white lace ruffles at my neck, my knees and my wrists. Every day he photographed me in some new arrangement----once on the sofa as Ariadne, once as Leda, once as Ganymede, once on all fours as a feminine Nebuchadnezzar. Then he longed for murder, for shooting, suicide and coal gas. Early in the morning he brought a pistol into bed, loaded it full of shot and put it against my breast! A twitch and I'll pull!----Oh, he would have fired, Moritz, he would have fired!----Then he put the thing in his mouth like a blow-pipe.----That awoke the feeling of self-preservation. And then----brrr!----the shot might have gone through my spine.
MORITZ.
Is Heinrich living yet?
ILSE.
How do I know!----Over the bed was a large mirror set into the ceiling. The room seemed as high as a tower and as bright as an opera house. One saw one's self hanging down bodily from heaven. I had frightful dreams at night----O God, O God, if it were only day!----Good-night, Ilse, when you are asleep you will be pretty to murder!
MORITZ.
Is this Heinrich living yet?
ILSE.
Please God, no!----One day, when he went for absinthe, I put on the mantle and ran out into the street. The carnival was over; the police arrested me; what was I doing in man's clothes?----They took me to the Central Station. Nohl, Fehrendorf, Padinsky, SpA1/4hler, Oikonomopulos, the whole Priapia came there and bailed me out. They transported me in a cab to Adolar's studio. Since then I've been true to the herd. Fehrendorf is an ape, Nohl is a pig, Bojokewitsch an owl, Loison a hyena, Oikonomopulos a camel----therefore I love one and all of them the same and wouldn't attach myself to anyone else, even if the world were full of archangels and millionaires!
MORITZ.
I must go back, Ilse.
ILSE.
Come as far as our house with me!
MORITZ.
What for?----What for?----
ILSE.
To drink warm goat's milk! I will singe your hair and hang a little bell around your neck.----Then we have another kid with which you can play.
MORITZ.
I must go back. I have yet the Sassanides, the Sermon on the Mount and the parallelepipedon on my thoughts.----Good-night, Ilse!
ILSE.
Sleep well!----Do you ever go to the wigwam where Melchi Gabor buried my tomahawk?----Brrr! until you are married I'll lie in the straw.
(_Runs out._)
MORITZ.
(_Alone._)
It might have cost only a word.----(_He calls_)----Ilse?----Ilse!---- Thank God she doesn't hear me any more.----I am not in the humor.----One needs a clear head and a happy heart for it.----What a lost opportunity!----I would have said that I had many crystal mirrors over my bed----that I had trained an unbroken filly----that I had her proudly march in front of me on the carpet in long black silk stockings and black patent leather shoes, long black gloves, black velvet about her neck----had strangled her in a moment of madness with my cushions. I would laugh when the talk turned on passion----I would cry out!----Cry out!----Cry out! It is you, Ilse!----Priapia!----Loss of memory!----That takes my strength!----This child of fortune, this sunny child----this joyous maiden on my dolorous path!----O!----O!------ ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
(_In the bushes by the bank._)
Have I found it again unwillingly--the seat of turf. The mulleins seem to have grown since yesterday. The outlook between the willows is still the same----The water runs as heavy as melted lead. I mustn't forget. (_He takes Frau Gabor's letter from his pocket and burns it._)----How the sparks fly--here and there, downward and upward----souls!----shooting stars!
Before I struck a light one could see the grass and a streak on the horizon.----Now it is dark. Now I shall never return home again.
## ACT III
SCENE FIRST.
_The Board Room--On the walls pictures of Pestalozzi and Jean Jacques Rousseau._
_Professors Affenschmalz, KnA1/4ppeldick, Hungergurt, Knochenbruch, Zungenschlag and Fliegentod are seated around a green-covered table, over which are burning several gas jets. At the upper end, on a raised seat, is Rector Sonnenstich. Beadle Habebald squats near the door._
SONNENSTICH.
Has any gentleman something further to remark?----Gentlemen! We cannot help moving the expulsion of our guilty pupil before the National Board of Education; there are the strongest reasons why we cannot: We cannot, because we must expiate the misfortune which has fallen upon us already; we cannot, because of our need to protect ourselves from similar blows in the future; we cannot, because we must chastise our guilty pupil for the demoralizing influence he exerted upon his classmates; we cannot, above all, because we must hinder him from exerting the same influence upon his remaining classmates. We cannot ignore the charge--and this, gentlemen, is possibly the weightiest of all----on any pretext concerning a ruined career, because it is our duty to protect ourselves from an epidemic of suicide similar to that which has broken out recently in various grammar schools, and which until to-day has mocked all attempts of the teachers to shackle it by any means known to advanced education----Has any gentleman something further to remark?
KNAoePPELDICK.
I can rid myself of the conception no longer that it is time at last to open a window here.
ZUNGENSCHLAG.
Th- th- there is an a- a- at- atmosphere here li- li- like th- th- that of the cata- catacombs, like that in the document room of the former Cha-Cha-Chamber of Justice at Wetzlar.
SONNENSTICH.
Habebald!
HABEBALD.
At your service, Herr Rector.
SONNENSTICH.
Open a window. Thank God there's fresh air enough outside.----Has any other gentleman anything to say?
FLIEGENTOD.
If my associate wants to have a window opened, I haven't the least objection to it. Only I should like to ask that the window opened is not the one directly behind my back!
SONNENSTICH.
Habebald!
HABEBALD.
At your service, Herr Rector.
SONNENSTICH.
Open the other window!----Has any other gentleman anything to remark?
HUNGERGURT.
Without wishing to increase the controversy, I should like to recall the important fact that the other window has been walled up since vacation.
SONNENSTICH.
Habebald!
HABEBALD.
At your service, Herr Rector.
SONNENSTICH.
Leave the other window shut!----I find it necessary, gentlemen, to put this matter to a vote. I request those who are in favor of having the only window which can enter into this discussion opened to rise from their seats. (_He counts._) One, two, three----one, two, three----Habebald!
HABEBALD.
At your service, Herr Rector.
SONNENSTICH.
Leave that window shut likewise! I, for my part, am of the opinion that the air here leaves nothing to be desired!----Has any gentleman anything further to remark?----Let us suppose that we omitted to move the expulsion of our guilty pupil before the National Board of Education, then the National Board of Education would hold us responsible for the misfortune which has overwhelmed us. Of the various grammar schools visited by the epidemic of self-murder, those in which the devastation of self-murder has reached 25 per cent. have been closed by the National Board of Education. It is our duty, as the guardians and protectors of our institute, to protect our institute from this staggering blow. It grieves us deeply, gentlemen, that we are not in a position to consider the other qualifications of our guilt-laden pupil as mitigating circumstances. An indulgent treatment, which would allow our guilty pupil to be vindicated, would not in any conceivable way imaginable vindicate the present imperiled existence of our institute. We see ourselves under the necessity of judging the guilt-laden that we may not be judged guilty ourselves.----Habebald!
HABEBALD.
At your service, Herr Rector!
SONNENSTICH.
Bring him up! (_Exit Habebald._)
ZUNGENSCHLAG.
If the pre-present atmosphere leaves little or nothing to desire, I should like to suggest that the other window be walled up during the summer va- va- va- vacation.
FLIEGENTOD.
If our esteemed colleague, Zungenschlag, does not find our room ventilated sufficiently, I should like to suggest that our esteemed colleague, Zungenschlag, have a ventilator set into his forehead.
ZUNGENSCHLAG.
I do- do- don't have to stand that!----I- I- I- I- do- do- don't have to st- st- st- stand rudeness!----I have my fi- fi- five senses!
SONNENSTICH.
I must ask our esteemed colleagues, Fliegentod and Zungenschlag, to preserve decorum. It seems to me that our guilt-laden pupil is already on the stairs.
(_Habebald opens the door, whereupon Melchior, pale but collected, appears before the meeting._)
SONNENSTICH.
Come nearer to the table!----After Herr Stiefel became aware of the profligate deed of his son, the distracted father searched the remaining effects of his son Moritz, hoping if possible, to find the cause of the abominable deed, and discovered among them, in an unexpected place, a manuscript, which, while it did not make us understand the abominable deed, threw an unfortunate and sufficient light upon the moral disorder of the criminal. This manuscript, in the form of a dialogue entitled aEurooeThe Nuptial Sleep,aEuro¯ illustrated with life-size pictures full of shameless obscenity, has twenty pages of long explanations that seek to satisfy every claim a profligate imagination can make upon a lewd book.----
MELCHIOR.
I have----
SONNENSTICH.
You have to keep quiet!----After Herr Stiefel had questioningly handed us this manuscript and we had promised the distracted father to discover the author at any price, we compared the handwriting before us with the collected handwriting of the fellow-students of the deceased profligate, and concluded, in the unanimous judgment of the teaching staff, as well as with the full coincidence of a valued colleague, the master of calligraphy, that the resemblance to your----
MELCHIOR.
I have----
SONNENSTICH.
You have to keep quiet!----In spite of this likeness, recognized as crushing evidence by incontrovertible authority, we believe that we should allow ourselves to go further and to take the widest latitude in examining the guilty one at first hand, in order to make him answerable to this charge of an offense against morals, and to discover its relationship to the resultant suicide.----
MELCHIOR.
I have----
SONNENSTICH.
You have to answer the exact questions which I shall put to you, one after the other, with a plain and modest aEurooeyesaEuro¯ or aEurooeno.aEuro¯----Habebald!
HABEBALD.
At your service, Herr Rector!
SONNENSTICH.
The minutes!----I request our writing master, Herr Fliegentod, from now on to take down the proceedings as nearly verbatim as possible.----(_to Melchior._) Do you know this writing?
MELCHIOR.
Yes.
SONNENSTICH.
Do you know whose writing it is?
MELCHIOR.
Yes.
SONNENSTICH.
Is the writing in this manuscript yours?
MELCHIOR.
Yes.
SONNENSTICH.
Are you the author of this obscene manuscript?
MELCHIOR.
Yes----I request you, sir, to show me anything obscene in it.
SONNENSTICH.
You have to answer with a modest aEurooeyesaEuro¯ or aEurooenoaEuro¯ the exact questions which I put to you!
MELCHIOR.
I have written neither more nor less than what are well-known facts to all of you.
SONNENSTICH.
You shameless boy!
MELCHIOR.
I request you to show me an offense against morals in this manuscript!
SONNENSTICH.
Are you counting on a desire on my part to be a clown for you?----Habebald----!
MELCHIOR.
I have----
SONNENSTICH.
You have as little respect for the dignity of your assembled teachers as you have a proper appreciation of mankind's innate sense of shame which belongs to a moral world!----Habebald!
HABEBALD.
At your service, Herr Rector!
SONNENSTICH.
It is past the time for the three hours' exercise in agglutive Volapuk.
MELCHIOR.
I have----
SONNENSTICH.
I will request our secretary, Herr Fliegentod, to close the minutes.
MELCHIOR.
I have----
SONNENSTICH.