Part 7
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--The gentleman, your father, is seeking comfort at this moment in the capable arms of your mother.--I open the world to you. Your momentary want of balance springs from your wretched situation. With a hot supper in your belly, you can laugh at it.
MELCHIOR--[_To himself._] They can’t both be the devil!--[_Aloud._] After what I have been guilty of, no hot supper can give my peace of mind back to me!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--That depends on the supper!--So much I can tell you: that the little girl would have borne her child first rate! She was perfectly built. She simply succumbed to Mother Schmidtin’s abortives.--I will take you among men. I will give you an opportunity to expand your horizon beyond your wildest dreams. I will make you acquainted with everything interesting, without exception, that the world has to offer.
MELCHIOR--Who are you? Who are you?--I can’t consign myself to a person I don’t know!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--You’ll never learn to know me unless you entrust yourself to me.
MELCHIOR--Do you think so?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Fact!--And anyway you have no choice.
MELCHIOR--I can at any moment give my friend here my hand.
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Your friend is a charlatan. Nobody smiles, who has one penny left in his pocket. The sublimated humorist is the wretchedest, most pitiable creature in creation!
MELCHIOR--Let the humorist be what he will. Tell me who =you= are, or I’ll give the humorist my hand!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Well?!
MORITZ--He is right, Melchior. I have been putting on airs. Let him treat you, and make full use of him. No matter how muffled he may be, he is, at least, that!
MELCHIOR--Do you believe in God?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--That depends.
MELCHIOR--Do you want to tell me who discovered gunpowder?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Berthold Schwarz--alias Constantine Anklitzen--round 1330, a Franciscan monk at Freiburg-im-Breisgau.
MORITZ--What would I give to have had him let it alone!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--You would merely have hanged yourself!
MELCHIOR--What do you think about morality?
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Look here!--am I your schoolboy?
MELCHIOR--Ask me what you are!
MORITZ--Don’t quarrel!--Please don’t quarrel! What good will come of that?--What are we sitting, one dead and two live men, here together in the churchyard at two in the morning for, if we want to fall out like tipplers!--It was for my pleasure that I was allowed to remain and witness the proceedings. If you want to quarrel, I’ll take my head under my arm and go.
MELCHIOR--You’re still the same old runaway!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--The ghost isn’t so wrong. One shouldn’t ignore one’s dignity.--By morality I understand the real product of two imaginary quantities. The imaginary quantities are should and would.[7] The product is called morality, and its reality is unquestionable.
MORITZ--Oh, if you had only told me that sooner! My morality harried me to death. For my dear parents’ sake I clutched at deadly weapons. “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land.” In my case the text has phenomenally stultified itself!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Indulge in no illusions, my dear friend. Your precious parents would no more have died of it than you. Strictly speaking, they would in fact have stormed and blustered merely from the necessities of health.
MELCHIOR--You may be right so far:--but I can tell you positively, good sir, that if I had given Moritz my hand just now without more ado, the blame would have rested simply and solely on my morality.
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--But that’s just the reason you’re =not= Moritz!
MORITZ--All the same I don’t believe the difference is so material--at least, not so conclusive, that you might not perchance have met me too, esteemed Unknown, as I trotted that time through the alder-thickets with the pistol in my pocket.
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--And don’t you remember me? Why, even at the final moment, you still were standing between =Death= and =Life=.--But here, in my opinion, is not exactly the place to prolong so deeply probing a debate.
MORITZ--It is indeed growing cold, gentlemen!--Though they did dress me in my Sunday suit, I have on under it neither shirt nor drawers.
MELCHIOR--Good-bye, dear Moritz. Where this person is taking me, I don’t know; but he is somebody----
MORITZ--Don’t lay it up against me, Melchior, that I tried to make away with you! It was old attachment.--I’d be willing to have to wail and weep all my life if I could now accompany you out of here once more!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--In the end, each has his share--=you= the consoling consciousness of having nothing--=thou= the enervating doubt of everything.--[_To_ MORITZ.] Farewell.
MELCHIOR--Farewell, Moritz! Accept my cordial thanks for appearing to me once more. How many glad, untroubled days have we not spent with one another in these fourteen years! I promise you, Moritz, let chance what will,--tho in the years to come I turn ten times a different man,--be my path upwards or downwards,--you I shall never forget----
MORITZ--Thanks, thanks, dear friend.
MELCHIOR--And when some day I am an old man, grizzle-haired, then perhaps it will be =you= that once again stand closer to me than all those living with me.
MORITZ--I thank you.--Luck to your journey, gentlemen.--Lose no more time!
THE MUFFLED GENTLEMAN--Come, child! [_He links arms with_ MELCHIOR, _and makes off with him over the graves_.]
MORITZ--Here I sit now with my head in my arm.--The moon hides her face, unveils again, and looks not a hair the wiser.--So now I’ll turn back to my little plot, straighten the cross up that the madcap kicked so recklessly down on me, and when all is in order I’ll lay myself out on my back again, warm myself with decay, and smile....
CURTAIN
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Asperula odorata._
[2] In the original, P.... and V...., with four dots, not five, after the V.
[3] Literally, a cut-up noodle.
[4] Sonnenstich means sunstroke: one pictures a round, red face enringed with bristling gray hair, and an explosive manner.
[5] This sentence, in the lack of any authentic stage-direction, remains dark. “The Langenscheidt” is evidently a book, but why is it here suddenly referred to, or what is done with it?
[6] Note Wedekind’s subtlety: Mr. Gabor doesn’t remember Wendla’s precise age, and makes her as old as he can, to minimize Melchior’s transgression,--well before the days of Freud.
[7] In German, _sollen_ and _wollen_, verbs representing =duty= and =desire=.
EARTH-SPIRIT
(ERDGEIST)
A Tragedy in Four Acts
“I was created out of ranker stuff By Nature, and to the earth by Lust am drawn. Unto the spirit of evil, not of good, The earth belongs. What deities send to us From heaven are only universal goods; Their light gives gladness, but makes no man rich; In their domain no pelf is seized and held. The stone of price, all-treasured gold, from false And evil-natured powers must be won, Who riot underneath the light of day. Not without sacrifice their favor is gained, And no man liveth who from serving them Hath extricated undefiled his soul.”
[Spoken by Wallenstein in Schiller’s _Wallenstein’s Death_, Act II.]
CHARACTERS
DR. SCHÖN, _newspaper owner and editor_ ALVA, _his son, a writer_ DR. GOLL, M.D. SCHWARZ, _an artist_ PRINCE ESCERNY, _an African explorer_ ESCHERICH, _a reporter_ SCHIGOLCH, _a beggar_ RODRIGO, _an acrobat_ HUGENBERG, _a schoolboy_ FERDINAND, _a coachman_ LULU COUNTESS GESCHWITZ HENRIETTE, _a servant_
PROLOGUE
[_At rise is seen the entrance to a tent, out of which steps an animal-tamer, with long, black curls, dressed in a white cravat, a vermilion dress-coat, white trousers and white top-boots. He carries in his left hand a dog-whip and in his right a loaded revolver, and enters to the sound of cymbals and kettledrums._]
Walk in! Walk in to the menagerie, Proud gentlemen and ladies lively and merry. With avid lust or cold disgust, the very Beast without Soul bound and made secondary To human genius, to stay and see! Walk in, the show’ll begin!--As customary, One child to each two persons comes in free.
Here battle man and brute in narrow cages, Where one in mockery his long whip lashes, The other, growling as when thunder rages, Against the man’s throat murderously dashes,-- Where now the crafty, now the strong prevails, Now man, now beast, against the flooring quails. The animal rears,--the human on all fours! One ice-cold look of dominance--The beast submissive bows before that glance, And the proud heel upon his neck adores.
Bad are the times! Ladies and gentlemen Who once before my cage in thronging crescents Crowded, now honor operas, and then Ibsen, with their so highly valued presence. My boarders here are so in want of fodder That they reciprocally devour each other. How well off at the theater is a player, Sure of the meat upon his ribs, no matter How terrible the hunger round his platter, And colleagues’ inner cupboards yawning bare!-- But if to heights of art we would aspire, We may not reckon merit by its hire.
What see you, whether in light or sombre plays? =House-animals=, whose morals all must praise, Who vent pale spites in vegetarian ways, And revel in a singsong to-and-fro Just like those others--in the seats below. This hero has a head by one dram swirled; That, is in doubt whether his love be right; A third you hear despairing of the world,-- Full five acts long you hear him wail his plight, And no man ends him with a merciful sleight! But the =real= beast, the =beautiful=, =wild= beast, Your eyes on =that=, _I_, ladies, only, feast!
You see the Tiger, that habitually Devours whatever falls before his bound; The Bear, who, gluttonous from the first sally, Sinks at his late night-meal dead to the ground; You see the Monkey, little and amusing, From sheer ennui his petty powers abusing,-- He has some talent, of all greatness scant, So, impudently, coquettes with his own want! Upon my soul, within my tent and trammel-- See, right behind the curtain, here--’s a Camel! And all my creatures fawn about my feet When my revolver cracks-- [_He shoots into the audience._] Behold! Brutes tremble all around me. I am cold: The =man= stays cold,--you, with respect, to greet.
Walk in!--You hardly trust yourselves in here?-- Then very well, judge for yourselves! Each sphere Has sent its crawling creatures to your telling: Chameleons and serpents, crocodiles, Dragons, and salamanders chasm-dwelling,-- I know, of course, you’re full of quiet smiles And don’t believe a syllable I say.--
[_He lifts the entrance-flap and calls into the tent._]
Hi, Charlie!--bring our =Serpent= just this way!
[_A stage-hand with a big paunch carries out the actress of_ =LULU= _in her Pierrot costume, and sets her down before the animal-tamer_.]
She was created to incite to sin, To lure, seduce, corrupt, drop poison in,-- To murder, without being once suspected. [_Tickling_ LULU’S _chin_.] My pretty beast, only be =unaffected=, Not vain, not artificial, not perverse, Even if the critics therefore turn adverse. Thou hast no right to spoil the shape most fitting, Most =true=, of =woman=, with meows and spitting! Nor with buffoonery and wry device To foul the =childish simpleness= of =Vice= Thou shouldst--to-day I speak emphatically-- Speak =naturally= and not unnaturally, For the first principle, of earliest force In every art, has been Be matter-of-course!
[_To the public._] There’s nothing special now to see in her, But wait and watch what later will occur! She coils about the Tiger stricter--stricter-- He roars and groans!--Who’ll be the final victor?-- Hop, Charlie, march! Carry her to her cage,
[_The stage-hand picks up_ LULU _slantwise in his arms; the animal-tamer pats her on the hips_.]
Sweet innocence--my dearest appanage!
[_The stage-hand carries_ LULU _back into the tent_.]
And now the best thing yet remains to say: My poll between the teeth of a beast of prey! Walk in! The show’s not new, yet every heart Takes pleasure in it still! I’ll wrench apart This wild beast’s jaws--I dare--and he’ll not dare To close and bite! Let him be ne’er so fair, So wild and brightly flecked, he feels respect For my poor poll! I offer it him direct: One =joke=, and my two temples crack!--but, lo, The lightning of my eyes I will forego, Staking my =life= against a =joke=! and throw My whip, my weapons, down. I am in my skin! I yield me to this beast!--His name do ye know? --The honored public! that has just walked in!
[_The animal-tamer steps back into the tent, accompanied by cymbals and kettledrums._]
ACT I
SCENE--_A roomy studio. Entrance door at the rear, left. Another door at lower left to the bedroom. At centre, a platform for the model, with a Spanish screen behind it, shielding it from the rear door, and a Smyrna rug in front. Two easels at lower right. On the upper one is the picture of a young girl’s head and shoulders. Against the other leans a reversed canvas. Below these, toward centre, an ottoman, with a tiger-skin on it. Two chairs along the left wall. In the background, right, a step-ladder._
SCHÖN _sits on the foot of the ottoman, inspecting critically the picture on the further easel_. SCHWARZ _stands behind the ottoman, his palette and brushes in his hands_.
SCHÖN--Do you know, I’m getting acquainted with a brand-new side of the lady.
SCHWARZ--I have never painted anyone whose expression changed so continuously. I could hardly keep a single feature the same two days running.
SCHÖN--[_Pointing to the picture and observing him._] Do you find that in it?
SCHWARZ--I have done everything I could think of to induce at least some repose in her mood by my conversation during the sittings.
SCHÖN--Then I understand the difference. [SCHWARZ _dips his brush in the oil and draws it over the features of the face_.] Do you think that makes it look more like her?
SCHWARZ--We can do no more than take our art as scientifically as possible.
SCHÖN--Tell me----
SCHWARZ--[_Stepping back._] The color had sunk in pretty well, too.
SCHÖN--[_Looking at him._] Have you ever in your life loved a woman?
SCHWARZ--[_Goes to the easel, puts a color on it, and steps back on the other side._] The dress hasn’t been given relief enough yet. We don’t rightly perceive yet that a living body is under it.
SCHÖN--I make no doubt that the workmanship is good.
SCHWARZ--If you’ll step this way....
SCHÖN--[_Rising._] You must have told her regular ghost-stories.
SCHWARZ--As far back as you can.
SCHÖN--[_Stepping back, knocks down the canvas that was leaning against the lower easel._] Excuse me----
SCHWARZ--[_Picking it up._] That’s all right.
SCHÖN--[_Surprised._] What is that?
SCHWARZ--Do you know her?
SCHÖN--No. [SCHWARZ _sets the picture on the easel. It is of a lady dressed as Pierrot with a long shepherd’s crook in her hand._]
SCHWARZ--A costume-picture.
SCHÖN--But, really, you’ve succeeded with =her=.
SCHWARZ--You know her?
SCHÖN--No. And in that costume----
SCHWARZ--It isn’t nearly finished yet. [SCHÖN _nods_.] What would you have? While she is posing for me I have the pleasure of entertaining her husband.
SCHÖN--What?
SCHWARZ--We talk about art, of course,--to complete my good fortune!
SCHÖN--But how did you come to make such a charming acquaintance?
SCHWARZ--As they’re generally made. An ancient, tottering little man drops in on me here to know if I can paint his wife. Why, of course, were she as wrinkled as Mother Earth! Next day at ten prompt the doors fly open, and the fat-belly drives this little beauty in before him. I can feel even now how my knees shook. Then comes a sap-green lackey, stiff as a ramrod, with a package under his arm. Where is the dressing-room? Imagine my plight. I open the door there. [_Pointing left._] Just luck that everything was in order. The sweet thing vanishes into it, and the old fellow posts himself outside as a bastion. Two minutes later out she steps in this Pierrot. [_Shaking his head._] I never saw anything like it. [_He goes left and stares in at the bedroom._]
SCHÖN--[_Who has followed him with his eyes._] And the fat-belly stands guard?
SCHWARZ--[_Turning round._] The whole body in harmony with that impossible costume as if it had come into the world in it! Her way of burying her elbows in her pockets, of lifting her little feet from the rug,--the blood often shoots to my head....
SCHÖN--One can see that in the picture.
SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] People like us, you know----
SCHÖN--Here the model is mistress of the conversation.
SCHWARZ--She has never yet opened her mouth.
SCHÖN--Is it possible?
SCHWARZ--Allow me to show you the costume. [_Goes out left._]
SCHÖN--[_Before the Pierrot._] A devilish beauty. [_Before the other picture._] There’s more depth here. [_Coming down-stage._] He is still rather young for his age. [SCHWARZ _comes back with a white satin costume_.]
SCHWARZ--What sort of material is that?
SCHÖN--[_Feeling it._] Satin.
SCHWARZ--And all in one piece.
SCHÖN--How does one get into it then?
SCHWARZ--That I can’t tell you.
SCHÖN--[_Taking the costume by the legs._] What enormous trouser-legs!
SCHWARZ--The left one she pulls up.
SCHÖN--[_Looking at the picture._] Above the knee!
SCHWARZ--She does that entrancingly!
SCHÖN--And transparent stockings?
SCHWARZ--Those have got to be painted, specially.
SCHÖN--Oh, you can do that.
SCHWARZ--And with it all a coquetry!
SCHÖN--What brought you to that horrible suspicion?
SCHWARZ--There are things never dreamt of in our school-philosophy. [_He takes the costume back into his bedroom._]
SCHÖN--[_Alone._] When one is asleep....
SCHWARZ--[_Comes back; looks at his watch._] If you’d like to make her acquaintance, moreover,----
SCHÖN--No.
SCHWARZ--They must be here in a moment.
SCHÖN--How much longer will the lady have to sit?
SCHWARZ--I shall probably have to bear the pains of Tantalus three months longer.
SCHÖN--I mean the other one.
SCHWARZ--I beg your pardon. Three times more at most. [_Going to the door with him._] If the lady will just leave me the upper part of the dress then....
SCHÖN--With pleasure. Let us see you at my house again soon. [_He collides in the doorway with_ DR. GOLL _and_ LULU.] For Heaven’s sake!
SCHWARZ--May I introduce....
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] What are you doing here?
SCHÖN--[_Kissing_ LULU’S _hand_.] Mrs. Goll....
LULU--You’re not going already?
DR. GOLL--But what wind blows you here?
SCHÖN--I’ve been looking at the picture of my intended----
LULU--[_Coming forward._] Your--intended--is here?
DR. GOLL--So you’re having work done here, too?
LULU--[_Before the upper picture._] Look at it! Enchanting! Entrancing!
DR. GOLL--[_Looking round him._] Have you got her hidden somewhere round here?
LULU--So that is the sweet young prodigy who’s made a new person out of you....
SCHÖN--She sits in the afternoon mostly.
DR. GOLL--And you don’t tell anyone about it?
LULU--[_Turning round._] Is she really so solemn?
SCHÖN--Probably the after-effects of the seminary still, dear lady.
DR. GOLL--[_Before the picture._] One can see that you have been transformed profoundly.
LULU--But now you mustn’t let her wait any longer.
SCHÖN--In a fortnight I think our engagement will come out.
DR. GOLL--[_To_ LULU.] Let’s lose no time. Hop!
LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Just think, we came at a trot over the new bridge. I was driving, myself.
DR. GOLL--[_As_ SCHÖN _prepares to leave_.] No, no. We two have more to talk about. Get along, Nellie. Hop!
LULU--Now it’s going to be about me!
DR. GOLL--Our Apelles is already wiping his brushes.
LULU--I had imagined this would be much more amusing.
SCHÖN--But you have always the satisfaction of preparing for us the greatest and rarest pleasure.
LULU--[_Going left._] Oh, just wait!
SCHWARZ--[_Before the bedroom door._] If madame will be so kind.... [_Shuts the door after her and stands in front of it._]
DR. GOLL--I christened her Nellie, you know, in our marriage-contract.
SCHÖN--Did you?--Yes.
DR. GOLL--What do you think of it?
SCHÖN--Why not call her rather Mignon?
DR. GOLL--That would have been good, too. I didn’t think of that.
SCHÖN--Do you consider the name so important?
DR. GOLL--Hm.... You know, I have no children.
SCHÖN--But you’ve only been married a couple of months.
DR. GOLL--Thanks, I don’t want any.
SCHÖN--[_Having taken out his cigarette-case._] Have a cigarette?
DR. GOLL--[_Helps himself._] I’ve plenty to do with this one. [_To_ SCHWARZ.] Say, what’s your little danseuse doing now?
SCHÖN--[_Turning round on_ SCHWARZ.] You and a danseuse?
SCHWARZ--The lady was sitting for me at that time only as a favor. I made her acquaintance on a flying trip of the Cecilia Society.
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Hm.... I think we’re getting a change of weather.
SCHÖN--The toilet isn’t going so quickly, is it?
DR. GOLL--It’s going like lightning! Woman has got to be a virtuoso in her job. So must we all, each in his job, if life isn’t to turn to beggary. [_Calls._] Hop, Nellie!
LULU--[_Inside._] Just a second!
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN.] I can’t get onto these blockheads. [_Referring to_ SCHWARZ.]
SCHÖN--I can’t help envying them. These blockheads know of nothing holier than an altar-cloth, and feel richer than you and me with 30,000-mark incomes. Besides, you’re no person to judge a man who has lived since childhood from palette to mouth. Take it upon yourself to finance him: it’s an arithmetic example! I haven’t the moral courage, and one can easily burn one’s fingers, too.
LULU--[_As_ PIERROT, _steps out of the bedroom_.] Here I am!
SCHÖN--[_Turns; after a pause._] Superb!
LULU--[_Nearer._] Well?
SCHÖN--You shame the boldest fancy.
LULU--How do you like me?
SCHÖN--A picture before which art must despair.
DR. GOLL--Ah, you think so, too?
Schön--[_To_ LULU.] Have you any notion what you’re doing?
LULU--I’m perfectly aware of myself!
SCHÖN--Then you might be a little more discreet.
LULU--But I’m only doing what’s my duty.
SCHÖN--You are powdered?
LULU--What do you take me for!
DR. GOLL--I’ve never seen such a white skin as she’s got. I’ve told our Raphael here, too, to do just as little with the flesh tints as possible. I can’t get up any enthusiasm for this modern daubing.
SCHWARZ--[_By the easels, preparing his paints._] At any rate, it’s thanks to impressionism that present-day art can stand up beside the old masters without blushing.
DR. GOLL--Oh, it may be quite the thing for a brute being led to slaughter.
SCHÖN--For Heaven’s sake don’t get excited! [LULU _falls on_ GOLL’S _neck and kisses him_.]
DR. GOLL--They can see your undershirt. You must pull it lower.
LULU--I would soonest have left it off. It only bothers me.
DR. GOLL--He should be able to paint it out.
LULU--[_Taking the shepherd’s crook that leans against the Spanish screen, and mounting the platform, to_ SCHÖN.] What would you say now, if you had to stand at attention for two hours?
SCHÖN--I’d sell my soul to the devil for the chance to exchange with you.
DR. GOLL--[_Sitting, left._] Come over here. Here is my post of observation.
LULU--[_Plucking her left trouser-leg up to the knee, to_ SCHWARZ.] So?
SCHWARZ--Yes....
LULU--[_Plucking it a thought higher._] So?
SCHWARZ--Yes, yes....
DR. GOLL--[_To_ SCHÖN, _who has seated himself on the chair next him, with a gesture_.] I find that she shows up even better from here.
LULU--[_Without stirring._] I beg pardon! I show up equally well from every side.
SCHWARZ--[_To_ LULU.] The right knee further forward, please.
SCHÖN--[_With a gesture._] The body does show finer lines perhaps.
SCHWARZ--The lighting is at least half-way bearable to-day.
DR. GOLL--Oh, you must throw on lots of it! Hold your brush a bit longer.
SCHWARZ--Certainly, Dr. Goll.
DR. GOLL--Treat her as a piece of still-life.
SCHWARZ--Certainly, Doctor. [_To_ LULU.] You used to hold your head a wee mite higher, Mrs. Goll.
LULU--[_Raising her head._] Paint my lips a little open.
SCHÖN--Paint snow on ice. If you get warm doing that, then instantly your art gets inartistic!
SCHWARZ--Certainly, Doctor.
DR. GOLL--Art, you know, must so reproduce nature that one can get at least some =spiritual= enjoyment from it!
LULU--[_Opening her mouth a little, to_ SCHWARZ.] So--look. I’ll hold it half opened, so.
SCHWARZ--Every time the sun comes out, the wall opposite throws warm reflections in here.
DR. GOLL--[_To_ LULU.] You must keep your pose and behave as if our Velasquez here were nonexistent.
LULU--Well, a painter =isn’t= a man, anyway.