Chapter XIV: Act III (1)

SCENE--_An attic room, without windows, but with two skylights, under
one of which stands a bowl filled with rain-water. Down right,
a door thru a board partition into a sort of cubicle under the
slanting roof. Near it, a wobbly flower-table with a bottle and
a smoking oil-lamp on it. Upper right, a worn-out couch. Door
centre; near it, a chair without a seat. Down left, below the
entrance door, a torn gray mattress. None of the doors can shut
tight._

_The rain beats on the roof_. SCHIGOLCH _in a long gray overcoat
lies on the mattress_; ALVA _on the couch, wrapped in a plaid
whose straps still hang on the wall above him_.

SCHIGOLCH--The rain’s drumming for the parade.

ALVA--Cheerful weather for her first appearance! I dreamt just now we were dining together at the Olympia. Bianetta was with us there again. The tablecloth was dripping on all four sides with champagne.

SCHIGOLCH--Ya, ya. And I was dreaming of a Christmas pudding. [LULU _appears with her rather short hair falling to her shoulders, barefoot, in a torn black dress_.] Where have you been, child? Curling your hair first?

ALVA--She only does that to revive old memories.

LULU--If one could only get warmed up a little, from one of you!

ALVA--Are you going to enter barefoot on your pilgrimage?

SCHIGOLCH--The first step always costs all kinds of moaning and groaning. Twenty years ago it was no whit better, and what she has learned since then! The coals only have to be blown. When she’s been at it a week, not ten locomotives will hold her in our miserable attic.

ALVA--The bowl is running over.

LULU--What shall I do with the water?

ALVA--Pour it out the window. [LULU _gets up on the chair and empties the bowl thru the skylight_.]

LULU--It looks as if the rain were going to let up at last.

SCHIGOLCH--You’re wasting the time when the clerks go home after supper.

LULU--Would to God I were lying somewhere where no step would wake me any more!

ALVA--Would that I were, too! Why prolong this life? Let’s rather starve to death together this very evening in peace and concord! Aren’t we at the last stage now?

LULU--Why don’t =you= go out and get us something to eat? You’ve never earned a penny in your whole life!

ALVA--In this weather, when no one would kick a dog from his door?

LULU--But me! I, with the little blood I have left in my limbs, I am to stop your mouths!

ALVA--I don’t touch a farthing of the money!

SCHIGOLCH--Let her go, just! I long for one more Christmas pudding; then I’ve had enough.

ALVA--And I long for one more beefsteak and a cigarette; then die! I was just dreaming of a cigarette, such as has never yet been smoked!

SCHIGOLCH--She’ll rather see us finished before her eyes, than go and do herself a little pleasure.

LULU--The people on the street will sooner leave cloak and coat in my hands than go with me for nothing! If you hadn’t sold my clothes, I at least wouldn’t need to be afraid of the lamp-light. I’d like to see the woman who could earn anything in the rags I’m wearing on my body!

ALVA--I have left nothing human untried. As long as I had money I spent whole nights making up tables with which one couldn’t help winning against the cleverest card-sharps. And yet evening after evening I lost more than if I had shaken out gold by the pailful. Then I offered my services to the courtesans; but they don’t take anyone that the courts haven’t first branded, and they see at the first glance if one’s related to the guillotine or not.

SCHIGOLCH--Ya, ya.

ALVA--I spared myself no disillusionments; but when I made jokes, they laughed at =me=, and when I behaved as respectable as I am, they boxed my ears, and when I tried being smutty, they got so chaste and maidenly that my hair stood up on my head for horror. Him who has not prevailed over society, they have no confidence in.

SCHIGOLCH--Won’t you kindly put on your boots now, child? I don’t think I shall grow much older in this lodging. It’s months since I had any feeling in the ends of my toes. Toward midnight, I’ll drink a bit more down in the pub. The lady that keeps it told me yesterday I still had a serious chance of becoming her lover.

LULU--In the name of the three devils, I’ll go down! [_She puts to her mouth the bottle on the flower-table._]

SCHIGOLCH--So they can smell your stink a half-hour off!

LULU--I shan’t drink it all.

ALVA--You won’t go down. You’re my woman. You shan’t go down. I forbid it!

LULU--What would you forbid your woman when you can’t support yourself?

ALVA--Whose fault is that? Who but my woman has laid me on the sick-bed?

LULU--Am _I_ sick?

ALVA--Who has trailed me thru the dung? Who has made me my father’s murderer?

LULU--Did =you= shoot him? He didn’t lose much, but when I see you lying there I could hack off both my hands for having sinned against my judgment! [_She goes out, into her room._]

ALVA--She infected me from her Casti-Piani. It’s a long time since she was susceptible to it herself!

SCHIGOLCH--Little devils like her can’t begin putting up with it too soon, if angels are ever going to come out of them.

ALVA--She ought to have been born Empress of Russia. Then she’d have been in the right place. A second Catherine the Second! [LULU _re-enters with a worn-out pair of boots, and sits on the floor to put them on_.]

LULU--If only I don’t go headfirst down the stairs! Ugh, how cold! Is there anything in the world more dismal than a daughter of joy?

SCHIGOLCH--Patience, patience! It’s just a question of getting the right push into the business.

LULU--It’ll be all right with me! No one need pity me any more. [_Puts the bottle to her lips._] That fires one!--O accursed! [_Exit._]

SCHIGOLCH--When we hear her coming, we must creep into my cubby-hole awhile.

ALVA--I’m damned sorry for her! When I think back.... I grew up with her in a way, you know.

SCHIGOLCH--She’ll hold out as long as I live, anyway.

ALVA--We treated each other at first like brother and sister. Mama was still living then. I met her by chance one morning when she was dressing. Dr. Goll had been called for a consultation. Her hairdresser had read my first poem, that I’d had printed in “Society”: “Follow thy pack far over the mountains; it will return again, covered with sweat and dust----”

SCHIGOLCH--Oh, ya!

ALVA--And then she came, in rose-colored muslin, with nothing under it but a white satin slip--for the Spanish ambassador’s ball. Dr. Goll seemed to feel his death near. He asked me to dance with her, so she shouldn’t cause any mad acts. Papa meanwhile never turned his eyes from us, and all thru the waltz she was looking over my shoulder, only at him.... Afterwards she shot him. It is unbelievable.

SCHIGOLCH--I’ve only got a strong doubt whether anyone will bite any more.

ALVA--I shouldn’t like to advise anyone to! [SCHIGOLCH _grunts_.]--At that time, tho she was a fully developed woman, she had the expression of a five-year-old, joyous, utterly healthy child. And she was only three years younger than me then--but how long ago it is now! For all her immense superiority in matters of practical life, she let me explain “Tristan and Isolde” to her--and how entrancingly she could listen! Out of the little sister who even in her marriage still felt like a schoolgirl, came the unhappy, hysterical artist’s wife. Out of the artist’s wife came then the spouse of my murdered father, and out of =her= came, then, my mistress. Well, so that is the way of the world. Who will prevail against it?

SCHIGOLCH--If only she doesn’t skid away from the gentlemen with honorable intentions and bring us up instead some vagabond she’s exchanged her heart’s secrets with.

ALVA--I kissed her for the first time in her rustling bridal dress. But afterwards she didn’t remember it.... All the same, I believe she had thought of me even in my father’s arms. It can’t have been often with him: he had his best time behind him, and she deceived him with coachman and bootblack; but when she did give herself to him, then _I_ stood before her soul. That was the way, without my realizing it, that she acquired this dreadful power over me.

SCHIGOLCH--There they are! [_Heavy steps are heard mounting the stairs._]

ALVA--[_Starting up._] I will not endure it! I’ll throw the fellow out!

SCHIGOLCH--[_Wearily picks himself up, takes_ ALVA _by the collar and cuffs him toward the left_.] Forward, forward! How is the young man to confess his trouble to her with us two sprawling round here?

ALVA--But if he demands other things--low things--of her?

SCHIGOLCH--If, well, if! What more will he demand of her? He’s only a man like the rest of us!

ALVA--We must leave the door open.

SCHIGOLCH--[_Pushing_ ALVA _in, right_.] Nonsense! Lie down!

ALVA--I’ll hear it soon enough. Heaven spare him!

SCHIGOLCH--[_Closing the door, from inside._] Shut up!

ALVA--[_Faintly._] He’d better look out! [LULU _enters, followed by_ HUNIDEI, _a gigantic figure with a smooth-shaven, rosy face, sky-blue eyes, and a friendly smile. He wears a tall hat and overcoat and carries a dripping umbrella._]

LULU--Here’s where I live. [HUNIDEI _puts his finger to his lips and looks at_ LULU _significantly. Then he opens his umbrella and puts it on the floor, rear, to dry._] Of course, I know it isn’t very comfortable here. [HUNIDEI _comes forward and puts his hand over her mouth_.] What do you mean me to understand by that? [HUNIDEI _puts his hand over her mouth, and his finger to his lips_.] I don’t know what that means. [HUNIDEI _quickly stops her mouth_. LULU _frees herself_.] We’re quite alone here. No one will hear us. [HUNIDEI _lays his finger on his lips, shakes his head, points at_ LULU, _opens his mouth as if to speak, points at himself and then at the door_.] Good Lord, he’s a monster! [HUNIDEI _stops her mouth; then goes rear, folds up his overcoat and lays it over the chair near the door; then comes down with a broad smile, takes_ LULU’s _head in both his hands and kisses her on the forehead. The door, right, half opens._]

SCHIGOLCH--[_Behind the door._] He’s got a screw loose.

ALVA--He’d better look out!

SCHIGOLCH--She couldn’t have brought up anything drearier!

LULU--[_Stepping back._] I hope you’re going to give me something! [HUNIDEI _stops her mouth and presses a gold-piece in her hand, then looks at her uncertain, questioningly, as she examines it and throws it from one hand to the other_.] All right, it’s good. [_Puts it in her pocket._ HUNIDEI _quickly stops her mouth, gives her a few silver coins, and glances at her commandingly_.] Oh, that’s nice of you! [HUNIDEI _leaps madly about the room, brandishing his arms and staring upward in despair_. LULU _cautiously nears him, throws an arm round him and kisses him on the mouth. Laughing soundlessly, he frees himself from her and looks questioningly around. She takes up the lamp and opens the door to her room. He goes in smiling, taking off his hat. The stage is dark save for what light comes thru the cracks of the door._ ALVA _and_ SCHIGOLCH _creep out on all fours_.]

ALVA--They’re gone.

SCHIGOLCH--[_Behind him._] Wait.

ALVA--One can hear nothing here.

SCHIGOLCH--You’ve heard that often enough!

ALVA--I will kneel before her door.

SCHIGOLCH--Little mother’s sonny! [_Presses past_ ALVA, _gropes across the stage to_ HUNIDEI’s _coat, and searches the pockets_. ALVA _crawls to_ LULU’s _door_.] Gloves, nothing more! [_Turns the coat round, searches the inside pockets, pulls a book out that he gives to_ ALVA.] Just see what that is. [ALVA _holds the book to the light_.]

ALVA--[_Wearily deciphering the title-page._] Warnings to pious pilgrims and such as wish to be so. Very helpful. Price, 2s. 6d.

SCHIGOLCH--It looks to me as if God had left =him= pretty completely. [_Lays the coat over the chair again and makes for the cubby-hole._] There’s nothing =to= these people. The country’s best time’s behind it!

ALVA--Life is never as bad as it’s painted. [_He, too, creeps back._]

SCHIGOLCH--Not even a silk muffler he’s got and yet in Germany we creep on our bellies before this rabble.

ALVA--Come, let’s vanish again.

SCHIGOLCH--She only thinks of herself, and takes the first man that runs across her path. Hope the dog remembers her the rest of his life! [_They disappear, left, shutting the door behind them._ LULU _re-enters, setting the lamp on the table_. HUNIDEI _follows_.]

LULU--Will you come to see me again? [HUNIDEI _stops her mouth. She looks upward in a sort of despair and shakes her head_. HUNIDEI, _putting his coat on, approaches her grinning; she throws her arms around his neck; he gently frees himself, kisses her hand, and turns to the door. She starts to accompany him, but he signs to her to stay behind and noiselessly leaves the room._ SCHIGOLCH _and_ ALVA _re-enter_.]

LULU--[_Tonelessly._] How he has stirred me up!

ALVA--How much did he give you?

LULU--[_As before._] Here it is! All! Take it! I’m going down again.

SCHIGOLCH--We can still live like princes up here.

ALVA--He’s coming back.

SCHIGOLCH--Then let’s just retire again, quick.

ALVA--He’s after his prayer-book. Here it is. It must have fallen out of his coat.

LULU--[_Listening._] No, that isn’t he. That’s someone else.

ALVA--Someone’s coming up. I hear it quite plainly.

LULU--Now there’s someone tapping at the door. Who can it be?

SCHIGOLCH--Probably a good friend he’s recommended us to. Come in! [COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _enters, in poor clothes, with a canvas roll in her hand_.]

GESCHWITZ--[_To_ LULU.] If I’ve come at a bad time, I’ll turn around again. The truth is, I haven’t spoken to a living soul for ten days. I must just tell you right off, I haven’t received any money. My brother never answered me at all.

SCHIGOLCH--And now your ladyship would like to stretch her feet out under =our= table?

LULU--[_Tonelessly._] I’m going down again.

GESCHWITZ--Where are you going, in this finery?--Tho penniless, I have come not wholly empty-handed. I bring you something else. On my way here an old-clothes-man offered me twelve shillings for it, yes--but I could not force myself to part from it. You can sell it if you want to, tho.

SCHIGOLCH--What is it?

ALVA--Let us see it. [_Takes the canvas and unrolls it. Visibly rejoiced._] Oh, by God, it’s Lulu’s portrait!

LULU--[_Screaming._] Monster, you brought that here? Get it out of my sight! Throw it out of the window!

ALVA--[_Suddenly with renewed life, deeply pleased._] Why, I should like to know? Looking on this picture I regain my self-respect. It makes my fate comprehensible to me. Everything we have endured gets clear as day. [_In a somewhat elegiac strain._] Let him who feels secure in his respectable citizenship when he sees these blossoming pouting lips, these child-eyes, big and innocent, this rose-white body abounding in life,--let him cast the first stone at us!

SCHIGOLCH--We must nail it up. It will make an excellent impression on our patrons.

ALVA--[_Energetic._] There’s a nail sticking all ready for it in the wall.

SCHIGOLCH--But how did you come upon this acquisition?

GESCHWITZ--I secretly cut it out of the wall in your house, there, after you were gone.

ALVA--Too bad the color’s got rubbed off round the edges. You didn’t roll it up carefully enough. [_Fastens it to a high nail in the wall._]

SCHIGOLCH--It’s got to have another one underneath if it’s going to hold. It makes the whole flat look more elegant.

ALVA--Let me alone; I know how I’ll do it. [_He tears several nails out of the wall, pulls off his left boot, and with its heel nails the edges of the picture to the wall._]

SCHIGOLCH--It’s just got to hang awhile again, to get its proper effect. Whoever looks at that’ll imagine afterwards he’s been in an Indian harem.

ALVA--[_Putting on his boot again, standing up proudly._] Her body was at its highest point of development when that picture was painted. The lamp, dear child! Seems to me it’s got extraordinarily dark.

GESCHWITZ---He must have been an eminently gifted artist who painted that!

LULU--[_Perfectly composed again, stepping before the picture with the lamp._] Didn’t you know him, then?

GESCHWITZ--No. It must have been long before my time. I only occasionally heard chance remarks of yours, that he had cut his throat from persecution-mania.

ALVA--[_Comparing the picture with_ LULU.] The child-like expression in the eyes is still absolutely the same in spite of all she has lived thru since. [_In joyous excitement._] But the dewy freshness that covers her skin, the sweet-smelling breath from her lips, the rays of light that beam from her white forehead, and this challenging splendor of young flesh in throat and arms----

SCHIGOLCH--All that’s gone with the rubbish wagon. She can say with self-assurance: That was me once! The man she falls into the hands of to-day’ll have no conception of what we were when we were young.

ALVA--[_Cheerfully._] God be thanked, we don’t notice the gradual decline when we see a person all the time. [_Lightly._] The woman blooms for us in the moment when she hurls the man to destruction for the rest of his life. That is, so to say, her nature and her destiny.

SCHIGOLCH--Down in the street-lamp’s shimmer she’s still a match for a dozen walking spectres. The man who still wants to make connections at this hour looks out more for heart-qualities than mere physical good points. He decides for the pair of eyes from which the least thievery sparkles.

LULU--[_Now as pleased as_ ALVA.] I shall see if you’re right. Adieu.

ALVA--[_In sudden anger._] You shall not go down again, as I live!

GESCHWITZ--Where do you want to go?

ALVA--Down to fetch up a man.

GESCHWITZ--Lulu!

ALVA--She’s done it once to-day already.

GESCHWITZ--Lulu, Lulu, where you go I go, too.

SCHIGOLCH--If you want to put your bones up for sale, kindly hunt up a district of your own!

GESCHWITZ--Lulu, I shall not stir from your side! I have weapons upon me.

SCHIGOLCH--Confound it all, her ladyship means to fish with our bait!

LULU--You’re killing me. I can’t stand it here any more. [_Exit._]

GESCHWITZ--You need fear nothing. I am with you. [_Follows her._]

ALVA--[_Whimpering, throws himself on his couch._ SCHIGOLCH _swears, loudly and grumbling_.] I guess there’s not much more good to expect on this side!

SCHIGOLCH--We ought to have held the creature back by the throat. She’ll scare away everything that breathes with her aristocratic death’s head.

ALVA--She’s flung me onto a sick-bed and larded me with thorns outside and in!

SCHIGOLCH--[_On_ GESCHWITZ _still_.] All the same, she’s got enough spirit in her for ten men, she has!

ALVA--No mortally wounded man’ll ever be more thankful for his coup-de-grâce than I!

SCHIGOLCH--If she hadn’t enticed the acrobat into my place that time, we’d still have had =him= round our necks to-day.

ALVA--I see it trembling above my head as Tantalus saw the branch with the golden apples!

SCHIGOLCH--[_On his mattress._] Won’t you turn up the lamp a little?

ALVA--I wonder, can a simple, natural man in the wilderness suffer so unspeakably, too?--God, God, what have I made of my life!

SCHIGOLCH--What’s the beastly weather made of my ulster!--When _I_ was five-and-twenty, I knew how to help myself!

ALVA--Not everyone has had the joy of my sunny, glorious youth!

SCHIGOLCH--I guess it’s going right out. When they come back it’ll be as dark in here again as in the womb.

ALVA--With the clearest consciousness of my purpose I sought the companionship of people who’d never read a book in their lives. With self-denial, with exaltation, I clung to the elements, that I might be carried to the loftiest heights of poetic fame. The reckoning was false. I am the martyr of my calling. Since the death of my father I have not written a single verse!

SCHIGOLCH--If only they haven’t stayed together! Nobody but a silly boy will go with two, no matter what.

ALVA--They’ve not stayed together!

SCHIGOLCH--That’s what I hope. If need be, she’ll keep the creature off from her with kicks.

ALVA--One, risen from the dregs, is the most celebrated man of his nation; another, born in the purple, lies in the mud and cannot die!

SCHIGOLCH--Here they come!

ALVA--And what blessed hours of mutual joy in creation they had lived thru with each other!

SCHIGOLCH--That they can rightly do for the first time now!--We must hide again.

ALVA--I stay here.

SCHIGOLCH--Just what do you pity them for?--He who spends his money has his good reasons for it!

ALVA--I have no longer the moral courage to let my comfort be disturbed for a miserable sum of money! [_He wraps himself up in his plaid._]

SCHIGOLCH--Noblesse oblige! A respectable man does what he owes his position. [_He hides, left._ LULU _opens the door, saying “Come right in, dearie,” and there enters_ PRINCE KUNGU POTI, _heir-apparent of Uahubee, in a light suit, white spats, tan button-boots, and a gray tall hat. His speech, interrupted with frequent hiccoughs, abounds with the peculiar African hiss-sounds._]

KUNGU POTI--God damn--it’s dark on the stairs!

LULU--It’s lighter here, sweetheart. [_Pulling him forward by the hand._] Come on!

KUNGU POTI--But it’s cold here, awful cold!

LULU--Have some brandy?

KUNGU POTI--Brandy? You bet--always! Brandy’s good!

LULU--[_Giving him the bottle._] I don’t know where the glass is.

KUNGU POTI--Doesn’t matter. [_Drinks._] Brandy! Lots of it!

LULU--You’re a nice-looking young man.

KUNGU POTI--My father’s the emperor of Uahubee. I’ve got six wives here, two Spanish, two English, two French. Well--I don’t like my wives. Always I must take a bath, take a bath, take a bath....

LULU--How much will you give me?

KUNGU POTI--Gold! You trust me, you’ll have gold! One gold-piece. I always give gold-pieces.

LULU--You can give it to me later, but show it to me.

KUNGU POTI--I never pay beforehand.

LULU--But you can show it to me, tho!

KUNGU POTI--Don’t understand, don’t understand! Come, Ragapsishimulara! [_Seizing_ LULU _round the waist_.] Come on!

LULU--[_Defending herself with all her strength._] Let me be! Let me be! [ALVA, _who has risen painfully from his couch, sneaks up to_ KUNGU POTI _from behind and pulls him back by the collar_.]

KUNGU POTI--[_Whirling round._] Oh! Oh! This is a murder-hole! Come, my friend. I’ll put you to sleep! [_Strikes him over the head with a loaded cane._ ALVA _groans and falls in a heap_.] Here’s a sleeping-draught! Here’s opium for you! Sweet dreams to you! Sweet dreams! [_Then he gives_ LULU _a kiss; pointing to_ ALVA.] He dreams of you, Ragapsishimulara! Sweet dreams! [_Rushing to the door._] Here’s the door! [_Exit._]

LULU--But I’ll not stay here?!--Who can stand it here now!--Rather down onto the street! [_Exit._ SCHIGOLCH _comes out_.]

SCHIGOLCH--Blood!--Alva!--He’s got to be put away somewhere. Hop!--Or else our friends’ll get a shock from him--Alva! Alva!--He that isn’t quite clear about it---- One thing or t’other; or it’ll soon be too late! I’ll give him legs! [_Strikes a match and sticks it into_ ALVA’S _collar_....] He will have his rest. But no one sleeps here.--[_Drags him by the head into_ LULU’S _room. Returning, he tries to turn up the light._] It’ll be time for me, too, right soon now, or they’ll get no more Christmas puddings down there in the tavern. God knows when she’ll be coming back from her pleasure tour! [_Fixing an eye on_ LULU’S _picture_.] She doesn’t understand business! She can’t live off love, because her life is love.--There she comes. I’ll just talk straight to her once---- [COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _enters_.] ... If you want to lodge with us to-night, kindly take a little care that nothing is stolen here.

GESCHWITZ--How dark it is here!

SCHIGOLCH--It gets much darker than this.--The doctor’s already gone to rest.

GESCHWITZ--She sent me ahead.

SCHIGOLCH--That was sensible.--If anyone asks for me, I’m sitting downstairs in the pub.

GESCHWITZ--[_After he has gone._] I will sit behind the door. I will look on at everything and not quiver an eyelash. [_Sits on the broken chair._] Men and women don’t know themselves--they know not what they are. Only one who is neither man nor woman knows them. Every word they say is untrue, a lie. And they do not know it, for they are to-day so and to-morrow so, according as they have eaten, drunk, and loved, or not. Only the body remains for a time what it is, and only the children have reason. The men and women are like the animals: none knows what it does. When they are happiest they bewail themselves and groan, and in their deepest misery they rejoice over every tiny morsel. It is strange how hunger takes from men and women the strength to withstand misfortune. But when they have fed full they make this world a torture-chamber, they throw away their lives to satisfy a whim, a mood. Have there ever once been men and women to whom love brought happiness? And what is their happiness, save that they sleep better and can forget it all? My God, I thank thee that thou hast not made me as these. I am not man nor woman. My body has nothing common with their bodies. Have I a human soul? Tortured humanity has a little narrow heart; but I know it’s no virtue of mine if I resign all, sacrifice all.... [LULU _opens the door, and_ DR. HILTI _enters_. GESCHWITZ, _unnoticed, remains motionless by the door_.]

LULU--[_Gaily._] Come right in! Come!--you’ll stay with me all night?

DR. HILTI--[_His accent is very broad and flat._[10]] But I have no more than five shillings on me. I never take more than that when I go out.

LULU--That’s enough, seeing it’s you! You have such faithful eyes! Come, give me a kiss! [_She flings herself down on the couch._ DR. HILTI _begins to swear in his native tongue_.[11]] Please, don’t say that.

DR. HILTI--By the devil, this is really the first time I’ve ever gone with a girl! You can believe me. Mass, I hadn’t thought it would be like this!

LULU--Are you married?

DR. HILTI--Heaven and Hail, why do you think I am married?--No, I’m a tutor; I read philosophy at the University. The truth is, I come of a very old country family. When I was a student, I only got two gulden a week for pocket-money, and I could make better use of that than for girls!

LULU--So you have never been with a woman?

DR. HILTI--Just so, yeah! But I want it now. I got engaged this evening to a country-woman of mine. She’s a governess here.

LULU--Is she pretty?

DR. HILTI--Yeah, she’s got a hundred thousand.--I am very much excited, as it seems to me.

LULU--[_Tossing back her hair and getting up._] I =am= in luck! [_Takes the lamp._] Well, if you please, Mr. Tutor? [_They go into her room._ GESCHWITZ _draws a small black revolver from her pocket and sets it to her forehead_.]

GESCHWITZ--Come, come,--beloved! [DR. HILTI _tears open the door again_.]

DR. HILTI--[_Plunging in._] Insane seraphs! Someone’s lying in there!

LULU--[_Lamp in hand, holds him by the sleeve._] Stay with me!

DR. HILTI--A dead man! A corpse!

LULU--Stay with me! Stay with me!

DR. HILTI--[_Tearing away._] A corpse is lying in there! Horrors! Hail! Heaven!

LULU--Stay with me!

DR. HILTI--Where d’s it go out? [_Sees_ GESCHWITZ.] And there is the devil!

LULU--Please, stop, stay!

DR. HILTI--Devil, devilled devilry.--Oh, thou eternal----[_Exit._]

LULU--[_Rushing after him._] Stop! Stop!

GESCHWITZ--[_Alone, lets the revolver sink._] Better, hang! If now she sees me lying in my blood, she’ll not weep a tear for me! I have always been to her but the docile tool that she could use for the most difficult tasks. From the first day she has abhorred me from the depths of her soul.--Shall I not rather jump from the bridge? Which could be colder, the water or her heart? I would dream till I was drowned.----Better, hang!----Stab?--Hm, there would be no use in that---- How often have I dreamt that she kissed me! But a minute more; an owl knocks there at the window, and I wake up----Better, hang! Not water; water is too clean for me. [_Starting up._] There!--There! There it is!--Quick now, before she comes! [_Takes the plaid-straps from the wall, climbs on the chair, fastens them to a hook in the doorpost, puts her head thru them, kicks the chair away, and falls to the ground._] Accursed life!--Accursed life!--Could it be before me still?--Let me speak to your heart just once, my angel! But you are cold!--I am not to go yet! Perhaps I am even to have been happy once.--Listen to him, Lulu! I am not to go yet! [_She drags herself before_ LULU’S _picture, sinks on her knees and folds her hands_.] My adoréd angel! My love! My star!--Have mercy upon me, pity me, pity me, pity me! [LULU _opens the door, and_ JACK _enters--a thick-set man of elastic movements, with a pale face, inflamed eyes, arched and heavy brows, a drooping mustache, thin imperial and shaggy whiskers, and fiery red hands with gnawed nails. His eyes are fixed on the ground. He wears a dark overcoat and a little round felt hat. Entering, he notices_ GESCHWITZ.]

JACK--Who is that?

LULU--That’s my sister, sir. She’s crazy. I don’t know how to get rid of her.

JACK--Your mouth looks beautiful.

LULU--It’s my mother’s.

JACK--Looks like it. How much do you want? I haven’t got much money.

LULU--Won’t you spend the night with me here?

JACK--No, haven’t got the time. I must get home.

LULU--You can tell them at home to-morrow that you missed the last ’bus and spent the night with a friend.

JACK--How much do you want?

LULU--I’m not after lumps of gold, but, well, a little something.

JACK--[_Turning._] Good night! Good night!

LULU--[_Holds him back._] No, no! Stay, for God’s sake!

JACK--[_Goes past_ GESCHWITZ _and opens the cubicle_.] Why should I stay here till morning? Sounds suspicious! When I’m asleep they’ll turn my pockets out.

LULU--No, I won’t do that! No one will! Don’t go away again for that! I beg you!

JACK--How much do you want?

LULU--Then give me the half of what I said!

JACK--No, that’s too much. You don’t seem to have been at this long?

LULU--To-day is the first time. [GESCHWITZ, _still on her knees, has half risen toward_ JACK; LULU _yanks her back by the straps around her neck_.] Lie down and be quiet!

JACK--Let her alone! She isn’t your sister. She is in love with you. [_Strokes_ GESCHWITZ’S _head like a dog’s_.] Poor beast!

LULU--Why do you stare at me so all at once?

JACK--I got your measure by the way you walked. I said to myself: That girl must have a well-built body.

LULU--But how can you tell a thing like that?

JACK--I even saw that you had a pretty mouth. But I’ve only got a florin on me.

LULU--Well, what difference does that make! Just give that to me!

JACK--But you’ll have to give me half back, so I can take the ’bus to-morrow morning.

LULU--I have nothing on me.

JACK--Just look, though. Hunt thru your pockets!--Well, what’s that? Let’s see it!

LULU--[_Showing him._] That’s all I have.

JACK--Give it to me!

LULU--I’ll change it to-morrow, and then give you half.

JACK--No, give it all to me.

LULU--[_Giving it._] In God’s name! But now you come! [_Takes up the lamp._]

JACK--We need no light. The moon’s out.

LULU--[_Puts the lamp down._] As you say. [_She falls on his neck._] I won’t harm you at all! I love you so! Don’t let me beg you any longer!

JACK--All right; I’m with you. [_Follows her into the cubby-hole. The lamp goes out. On the floor under the two skylights appear two vivid squares of moonlight. Everything in the room is clearly seen._]

GESCHWITZ--[_As in a dream._] This is the last evening I shall spend with these people. I’m going back to Germany. My mother’ll send me the money. I’ll go to a university. I must fight for woman’s rights; study law.... [LULU _shrieks, and tears open the door_.]

LULU--[_Barefoot, in chemise and petticoat, holding the door shut behind her._] Help! Help! [GESCHWITZ _rushes to the door, draws her revolver, and crying “Let go!” pushes_ LULU _aside. As she aims at the door_, JACK, _bent double, tears it open from inside, and runs a knife into_ GESCHWITZ’S _body. She fires one shot, at the roof, and falls with suppressed crying, crumpling up._ JACK _tears her revolver from her and throws himself against the exit-door_.]

JACK--God damn! I never saw a prettier mouth! [_Sweat drips from his hairy face. His hands are bloody. He pants, gasping violently, and stares at the floor with eyes popping out of his head._ LULU, _trembling in every limb, looks wildly round. Suddenly she seizes the bottle, smashes it on the table, and with the broken neck in her hand rushes upon_ JACK. _He swings up his right foot and throws her onto her back. Then he lifts her up._]

LULU--No, no!--Mercy!--Murder!--Police! Police!

JACK--Be still. You’ll never get away from me again. [_Carries her in._]

LULU--[_Within, right._] No.--No!--No!--Ah!--Ah!... [_After a pause_, JACK _re-enters. He puts the bowl on the table._]

JACK--That =was= a piece of work! [_Washing his hands._] I =am= a damned lucky chap! [_Looks round for a towel._] Not even a towel, these folks here! Hell of a wretched hole! [_He dries his hands on_ GESCHWITZ’S _petticoat_.] This invert is safe enough from me! [_To her._] It’ll soon be all up with you, too. [_Exit._]

GESCHWITZ--[_Alone._] Lulu!--My angel!--Let me see thee once more! I am near thee--stay near thee--forever! [_Her elbows give way._] O cursed--!! [_Dies._]

CURTAIN

FOOTNOTES:

[9] For the meaning of this see page 51.

[10] In the original he comes from Basle, Switzerland. English with a Dutch accent might offer the best equivalent.

[11] “Hiemäl, Härgoht, Töüfäl, Kräuzpataliohn,” such is the weird appearance of all his German.

DAMNATION!

(TOD UND TEUFEL)

A Death-Dance in Three Scenes

“Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν
ὅτι οἱ πόρναι
προάγουσιν ὑμᾶς
εἰς τῆν βασιλείαν
τοῦ Θεοῦ.”
ὁ Ἰησοῦς.
(_Matth._ 21. 31.)

CHARACTERS

MARQUIS CASTI-PIANI
FRÄULEIN ELFRIEDE VON MALCHUS
HERR KÖNIG
LISISKA
THREE GIRLS

SCENE--_A room with three doors, and windows with the blinds drawn. On
each side, facing each other, two arm-chairs upholstered in red.
In both down-stage corners are little trellis screens behind which
the actor is hidden from the stage tho not from the audience. Red
upholstered stools in both these corners._

ELFRIEDE VON MALCHUS _sits in one of the arm-chairs. She is
evidently uneasy. She wears a modern “reformed” dress with hat,
cloak, and gloves._

ELFRIEDE--How much longer are they going to keep me waiting? [_Long pause. She remains sitting motionless._] How much longer are they going to keep me waiting! [_Long pause as before._] How much longer are they going to keep me waiting here!! [_After a moment, she gets up, takes off her cloak and lays it on the chair, takes off her hat and puts it on the cloak, and then walks up and down twice with manifest excitement. Stopping, she cries again_:] How much longer will they keep me waiting here??!! [_On her last word, the_ MARQUIS CASTI-PIANI _enters thru the centre door. He is a tall, bald-headed man, with a high forehead, great black, melancholy eyes, strong, hooked nose, and thick, drooping black mustache. He wears a black coat, a dark, fancy waistcoat, dark gray trousers, patent-leather shoes and a black cravat with a diamond pin._]

CASTI-PIANI--[_Bowing._] What can I do for you, madam?

ELFRIEDE--I have already explained it to the--lady, as clearly as I can possibly explain it, =why= I am here.

CASTI-PIANI--The--lady told me why you were here. The lady told me also that you were a member of the International Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic.

ELFRIEDE--=That= I =am=! I =am= a member of the International Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. But even if I did =not= belong to it I could not possibly have spared myself this search! For nine months I’ve been on the track of this unfortunate, and everywhere I’ve been so far she’d just been carried off to another city. But she is in this house! She’s here at this moment! The--lady who was here just now admitted that, without any beating round the bush. She promised me she would send the girl here to this room, so that I could speak with her in private and undisturbed. I am waiting here now for the girl, and for no one else. I have no desire and no need to go through a second cross-examination.

CASTI-PIANI--I beg you, madam, not to excite yourself further. The girl felt she should present herself to you--respectably dressed. The lady asked me to tell you that, for she feared that in your agitation you might be tempted to take some needlessly violent measure. And she asked me to do what I could to help you through the embarrassment which waiting in these surroundings would naturally cause you.

ELFRIEDE--[_Walking up and down._] Pray keep your amiable conversation to yourself! There is nothing new for me now in the atmosphere of this place. The first time I entered such a house, I had to fight physical nausea. Only then did I realize what tremendous self-suppression my entrance into the Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic had involved me in. Till then I had taken part in our activities as an idle pastime, solely to avoid growing old and gray in uselessness.

CASTI-PIANI--This confession awakens in me so much sympathy that I feel tempted to ask you for your credentials as an active member of the International Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. We know from experience that a lot of people crowd into that calling who have quite other ends in view than the rescue of fallen girls. If you are earnestly bent on attaining your high purposes, the strict precautions we are compelled to use will assuredly meet your approval.

ELFRIEDE--I have been a member of our Union for nearly three years now. My name is--Fräulein von Malchus.

CASTI-PIANI--Elfriede von Malchus?

ELFRIEDE--Yes, Elfriede von Malchus.--How do you know my first name?

CASTI-PIANI--Why, we read the annual reports of the Union. If I remember right, you were a distinguished speaker at last year’s annual meeting in Cologne?

ELFRIEDE--I am sorry to say that for two whole years I did nothing but write and speak and speak and write, without ever working up courage to attack the white slave traffic directly, until finally the white slave traffic found a victim under my own roof, in my own family!

CASTI-PIANI--If I am rightly advised, however, only your own papers, books, and magazines were to blame for this misfortune. Apparently you did not keep them carefully enough away from the young person for whose rescue you are here at this moment?

ELFRIEDE--There you are absolutely right! I grieve to confess I cannot contradict you there! Night after night, when I had stretched under the bed-clothes, content with myself and the world, for a ten-hour sleep undisturbed by any earthly emotion, that seventeen-year-old girl crept into my study without my ever dreaming of it and glutted her love-starved imagination with the most seductive pictures of sensual pleasure, and the fearfullest vice, from my piles of books on the suppression of the white slave traffic. Silly goose that I was, in spite of my twenty-eight years, I never saw the next morning that the girl had sat up all night! I had never in my life known a sleepless night! When I went to work again in the morning I never once asked myself how my papers could have got into such atrocious confusion!

CASTI-PIANI--If I mistake not, my dear young lady, the girl had been engaged by your parents to do the lighter housework?

ELFRIEDE--To her destruction! Yes! Mama as well as Papa was enchanted with her propriety and modesty. To Papa, who is a ministerial official and a bureaucrat of the purest water, her presence in our house was like a sunbeam. At her sudden disappearance, Papa as well as Mama stopped calling my activities for the Union an old maid’s eccentricity. They called it an outright crime.

CASTI-PIANI--The girl is the illegitimate child of a wash-woman?--Do you perhaps know who her father was?

ELFRIEDE--No, I never asked her about that.--But pray who are you? How do you come to know all this?

CASTI-PIANI--Hm--the girl had read in one of your Union’s publications that certain advertisements were published in the daily papers by which, under certain well-known false pretenses, the white-slavers decoyed young girls into their clutches in order to introduce them to the love-market. Accordingly, the girl looked up an insertion of that kind in the first paper that came to hand, and on finding one, wrote a very correct letter of application for the position falsely advertised in the insertion. In this way I made her acquaintance.

ELFRIEDE--And you dare tell me that--with such cynicism!

CASTI-PIANI--I dare tell you that, my dear young lady, with just such objectivity.

ELFRIEDE--[_In the utmost excitement, with fists clenched._] So the monster who delivered up this girl to a life of shame was you!

CASTI-PIANI--[_With a disconsolate smile._] If you guessed, my dear young lady, the hidden springs of your diabolical excitement, you would be wise enough, perhaps, to keep perfectly calm in the presence of such a monster as _I_ seem to you to be.

ELFRIEDE--[_Curt._] I don’t understand that. I don’t know what you mean!

CASTI-PIANI--You--are--still--a virgin?

ELFRIEDE--[_Gasping._] How dare you put such a question to me!

CASTI-PIANI--Who in God’s wide world will forbid me!--But we’ll leave that. In any case, you have not married. You are, as you just informed me yourself, twenty-eight years old. These facts may be sufficient to prove to you that in comparison with other women, not to speak of that child of nature for whose rescue you have come here,--you are only to a very slight degree open to sensuous influences.

ELFRIEDE--You may be right in that.

CASTI-PIANI--I speak, of course, only with the understanding that I shall not annoy you with this discussion. I am very far from thinking you unhealthily or unnaturally constituted. But do you know, my young lady, how you have satisfied those sensuous cravings that you have?--to be sure, as you admit, extremely weak?

ELFRIEDE--Well?

CASTI-PIANI--By joining the International Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic.

ELFRIEDE--[_Restraining her anger._] Who are you, my dear sir!--I came here to free an unfortunate girl from the claws of vice! I did not come here to listen to lectures, in very bad taste, from you.

CASTI-PIANI--Nor did I suppose you did. But you see, when viewed from this standpoint, we are more allied to one another than you in your proud little bourgeois virtue ever dreamt. On =you= nature has conferred but an extremely scant sensuous susceptibility. The storms of life have long since made a horribly chilly desert of =me=. But what fighting the white slave traffic is to =your= sensual life, that, to mine, if you will still grant me something of the kind,--is the white slave traffic itself!

ELFRIEDE--[_Aroused._] Don’t dissemble so shamelessly, you vile creature! Do you think you can lull me to sleep with your fantastic =sense=-hocus-pocus?--me, who’ve run after that girl from one den of vice to another like a hunted brute?! I’m not here now as a member of the Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. I’m here as an unhappy criminal who has unintentionally plunged an innocent young life into suffering and despair. I shall never be happy again as long as I live if I can’t snatch this child from her ruin now. You would have me believe an impure curiosity drives me into this house. You’re a liar! You don’t believe your own words! And it was not unsatisfied sensuality that made you barter this girl away, but money-greed! You lured and sold this girl because it was good business!

CASTI-PIANI--Good business! Naturally! But good business is based on profits for both parties. I may say that I do no business which is =not= good. Every business that is not good is immoral!--Or do you believe perhaps that the love-business is a =bad= business for the woman?

ELFRIEDE--How do you mean?

CASTI-PIANI--I mean simply this--I don’t know whether you’re just in the mood at this moment to listen to me with some attentiveness?

ELFRIEDE--Save your introduction, for God’s sake!

CASTI-PIANI--Well then, I mean this: When a man finds himself in dire need there is often no choice left him but stealing or starving. But when a woman is in need, she has a third choice: the possibility of selling her love. This way out remains for the woman only because in granting her body she need not experience any emotion. Now since the world was created, woman has made use of this advantage. To speak of nothing else, man is by nature vastly superior to woman from the sheer fact that the woman suffers in childbirth----

ELFRIEDE--That’s the screaming incongruity exactly! That’s what I’m always saying. To =bear= children is pain and care, but to =beget= them passes as an amusement. And nevertheless benevolent Creation (which suffers from crazy fits in many other respects, too) has laid the burden of pain and care on the weaker sex!

CASTI-PIANI--On that, young lady, we’re quite of the same opinion. And now you want to rob your unfortunate sisters of the little advantage over the male which--“crazy Creation” did confer on them: the advantage of being able, in extreme need, to sell their sexual favors,--by representing this sale as an inexpiable shame! I’ll say you’re a fine champion of woman’s rights!

ELFRIEDE--[_Almost in tears._] That possibility of selling ourselves weighs on our oppressed sex as an unspeakable misfortune, an everlasting curse!

CASTI-PIANI--But--God in heaven knows--it isn’t =our= fault that the buying and selling of love weighs on the female sex as an everlasting curse! We traders have no dearer aim than that this love-business should be as open and unmolested as any other honest trade! We have no loftier ideal than that prices in the love-business should be as high as they can possibly be made to be. Hurl your accusations, if you would fight the oppression of your unfortunate sex, in the face of conventional society! If you would defend your sisters’ natural rights, attack first of all the International Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic!

ELFRIEDE--[_Boiling over._] I won’t let you humbug me here any longer! I am firmly convinced that you have no serious intention of setting the girl free. While I play the fool here listening to your sociological lectures, the poor thing’ll be hustled into a cab somehow, packed off to the station and transported to some place where she’ll be safe all her life from members of the Union for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic.--Very well, I know what I have to do! [_Takes hat._]

CASTI-PIANI--[_Smiling._] If you guessed, dear lady, how your outburst of rage beautified your bourgeois appearance, you would not be in such a hurry to depart.

ELFRIEDE--Let me out! It’s high time!

CASTI-PIANI--Where are you thinking of going now?

ELFRIEDE--You know quite as well as I do where I am going now!

CASTI-PIANI--[_Takes her by the throat, chokes her, and forces her into one of the chairs._] You’ll stay here. I’ve still got a word to say to you! Try to scream, go ahead, try it! We are accustomed here to every possible outcry. Shriek as loud as you can shriek!--[_Letting her go._] I shall be surprised if I don’t bring you to reason before you run straight from this house to the police!

ELFRIEDE--[_Gasping, toneless._] It’s the first time in my life violence like that has been offered me!

CASTI-PIANI--You have done so awfully much in your useless life for the uplift of the daughters of joy! Now for once do something useful for the uplift of =joy=! Then you needn’t feel sorry for the poor creatures any more. Because the joy-business is branded as the vulgarest, shamefullest of all professions, girls and women of good society give themselves to a man for nothing rather than let their favors be paid for! Thereby these girls and women degrade their sex in the same way as a tailor degrades his craft if he gives clothes to his customers for nothing!

ELFRIEDE--[_Still as though stunned._] I don’t understand one word of all that! I went to school when I was five and stayed there till I was fourteen. Then I had to sit on a school-bench three more years before taking my teacher’s examinations. As long as I was young, our house was frequented by gentlemen of the best society. I had a proposal from one man who had inherited an estate of twenty square miles and who would have followed me to the ends of the world if I had wanted him to. But I felt I couldn’t love him. Perhaps it wasn’t right of me. Perhaps I was only lacking that minimum of passion which is essential to marriage under any circumstances.

CASTI-PIANI--Have you calmed down at last?

ELFRIEDE--Just explain one more thing to me. If the girl in the course of the life she’s living here, brings a child into the world, who will take care of that child?

CASTI-PIANI--You take care of it! Or as a feminist, have you perhaps something on earth more important to do? So long as any woman under God’s sun must still be afraid of becoming a mother, all the “emancipation” in the world is nothing but empty gabble! Motherhood is a necessity of nature for a woman, like breathing and sleeping. And this innate right has been most barbarously restricted by conventional society. A natural child is almost as big a disgrace as the love-business itself! =Whore= here and =whore= there! The mother of an illegitimate child is no more spared the name of whore than is a girl in this house. If ever anything in your woman’s movement inspired me with loathing, it was the =morality= that you inject into your disciples on life’s way. Do you imagine the love-business would ever in the world’s history have been described as a disgrace if the man could have competed with the woman in the love-market? Envy! Nothing but commercial envy! Nature accorded to the woman the monopoly of being able to trade in her love. Therefore conventional society, which is governed by man, would like nothing better than over and over again to represent that trade as the most shameful of crimes!

ELFRIEDE--[_Stands up and lays her cloak over the chair. Walking up and down._] I confess I am at this moment quite unable to tell whether your opinions on that point are right or not. But how in the world is it possible for a man of your culture, of your social views, of your intellectual eminence, to throw his life away among the vilest elements of society! God knows it may have been only your beastly brutality that has made me take your assertions seriously. But I feel very sure you’ve given me things to think about for a long time to come, things I’d never in my life have thought of myself. Every winter for years I’ve heard from twelve to twenty lectures by all the male and female authorities on the woman movement; but I can’t remember ever having heard a word that went to the bottom of the business the way your statements do.

CASTI-PIANI--[_In a singsong._] Let us always realize quite clearly, my dear lady, that we all are as though walking in our sleep on a ridge-pole, and that any unexpected enlightenment can be the breaking of our necks.

ELFRIEDE--[_Staring at him._] What do you mean by =that=?--There’s something monstrous in your mind?!

CASTI-PIANI--[_Very quietly._] I said it only in regard to your views, which so far have let you feel so innocently safe in throwing round epithets like =respectable= and =vile= as if you were specially commissioned of God to sit in judgment on your fellow-mortals.

ELFRIEDE--[_Staring at him._] You’re a great man.--You’re a high-minded man!

CASTI-PIANI--Your words probe the mortal wound that I brought with me into the world and that I shall probably die of, some day. [_Throws himself into a chair._] I am--a moralist!

ELFRIEDE--And would you bewail your fate on that account?! Because the power of making other men happy was given you? [_After a short inner struggle, she throws herself at his feet._] Marry me, marry me, for mercy’s sake! Before I saw =you= I was never able to imagine the possibility of giving myself to a man! I am absolutely inexperienced; that I can swear to you by the sacredest oaths. Till this moment I never guessed what the word =love= meant. With you, here, I feel it for the first time. Love lifts the lover up above his miserable self. I’m an everyday average woman, but my love for you makes me so free and fearless that nothing is impossible to me. Continue, in God’s name, from crime to crime! I will go before you! Go to prison! I will go before you! Go from prison to the scaffold! I will go before you. Don’t, I beseech you, don’t let this fortunate opportunity escape! Marry me, marry me, marry me! So shall help come to us two poor children of men!