CREDITORS
A TRAGICOMEDY
By August
Strindberg
1889
PERSONS
TEKLA
ADOLPH, her
husband, a painter
GUSTAV, her
divorced husband, a high-school teacher (who is
travelling under
an assumed name)
SCENE
(A parlor in a
summer hotel on the sea-shore. The rear wall has a
door opening on
a veranda, beyond which is seen a landscape. To
the right of the
door stands a table with newspapers on it. There
is a chair on
the left side of the stage. To the right of the
table stands a
sofa. A door on the right leads to an adjoining
room.)
(ADOLPH and
GUSTAV, the latter seated on the sofa by the table to
the right.)
ADOLPH. [At work
on a wax figure on a miniature modelling stand;
his crutches are
placed beside him]--and for all this I have to
thank you!
GUSTAV. [Smoking
a cigar] Oh, nonsense!
ADOLPH. Why,
certainly! During the first days after my wife had
gone, I lay
helpless on a sofa and did nothing but long for her.
It was as if she
had taken away my crutches with her, so that I
couldn't move
from the spot. When I had slept a couple of days, I
seemed to come
to, and began to pull myself together. My head
calmed down
after having been working feverishly. Old thoughts
from days gone
by bobbed up again. The desire to work and the
instinct for
creation came back. My eyes recovered their faculty
of quick and
straight vision--and then you showed up.
GUSTAV. I admit
you were in a miserable condition when I first met
you, and you had
to use your crutches when you walked, but this is
not to say that
my presence has been the cause of your recovery.
You needed a
rest, and you had a craving for masculine company.
ADOLPH. Oh,
that's true enough, like everything you say. Once I
used to have men
for friends, but I thought them superfluous after
I married, and I
felt quite satisfied with the one I had chosen.
Later I was
drawn into new circles and made a lot of
acquaintances,
but my wife was jealous of them--she wanted to keep
me to herself:
worse still--she wanted also to keep my friends to
herself. And so
I was left alone with my own jealousy.
GUSTAV. Yes, you
have a strong tendency toward that kind of
disease.
ADOLPH. I was
afraid of losing her--and I tried to prevent it.
There is nothing
strange in that. But I was never afraid that she
might be
deceiving me--
GUSTAV. No,
that's what married men are never afraid of.
ADOLPH. Yes,
isn't it queer? What I really feared was that her
friends would
get such an influence over her that they would begin
to exercise some
kind of indirect power over me--and THAT is
something I
couldn't bear.
GUSTAV. So your
ideas don't agree--yours and your wife's?
ADOLPH. Seeing
that you have heard so much already, I may as well
tell you
everything. My wife has an independent nature--what are
you smiling at?
GUSTAV. Go on!
She has an independent nature--
ADOLPH. Which
cannot accept anything from me--
GUSTAV. But from
everybody else.
ADOLPH. [After a
pause] Yes.--And it looked as if she especially
hated my ideas
because they were mine, and not because there was
anything wrong
about them. For it used to happen quite often that
she advanced
ideas that had once been mine, and that she stood up
for them as her
own. Yes, it even happened that friends of mine
gave her ideas
which they had taken directly from me, and then
they seemed all
right. Everything was all right except what came
from me.
GUSTAV. Which
means that you are not entirely happy?
ADOLPH. Oh yes,
I am happy. I have the one I wanted, and I have
never wanted
anybody else.
GUSTAV. And you
have never wanted to be free?
ADOLPH. No, I
can't say that I have. Oh, well, sometimes I have
imagined that it
might seem like a rest to be free. But the moment
she leaves me, I
begin to long for her--long for her as for my own
arms and legs.
It is queer that sometimes I have a feeling that
she is nothing
in herself, but only a part of myself--an organ
that can take
away with it my will, my very desire to live. It
seems almost as
if I had deposited with her that centre of
vitality of
which the anatomical books tell us.
GUSTAV. Perhaps,
when we get to the bottom of it, that is just
what has
happened.
ADOLPH. How
could it be so? Is she not an independent being, with
thoughts of her
own? And when I met her I was nothing--a child of
an artist whom
she undertook to educate.
GUSTAV. But
later you developed her thoughts and educated her,
didn't you?
ADOLPH. No, she
stopped growing and I pushed on.
GUSTAV. Yes,
isn't it strange that her "authoring" seemed to fall
off after her
first book--or that it failed to improve, at least?
But that first
time she had a subject which wrote itself--for I
understand she
used her former husband for a model. You never knew
him, did you?
They say he was an idiot.
ADOLPH. I never
knew him, as he was away for six months at a time.
But he must have
been an arch-idiot, judging by her picture of
him. [Pause] And
you may feel sure that the picture was correct.
GUSTAV. I
do!--But why did she ever take him?
ADOLPH. Because
she didn't know him well enough. Of course, you
never DO get
acquainted until afterward!
GUSTAV. And for
that reason one ought not to marry until--
afterward.--And
he was a tyrant, of course?
ADOLPH. Of
course?
GUSTAV. Why, so
are all married men. [Feeling his way] And you not
the least.
ADOLPH. I? Who
let my wife come and go as she pleases--
GUSTAV. Well,
that's nothing. You couldn't lock her up, could you?
But do you like
her to stay away whole nights?
ADOLPH. No,
really, I don't.
GUSTAV. There,
you see! [With a change of tactics] And to tell the
truth, it would
only make you ridiculous to like it.
ADOLPH.
Ridiculous? Can a man be ridiculous because he trusts his
wife?
GUSTAV. Of
course he can. And it's just what you are already--and
thoroughly at
that!
ADOLPH.
[Convulsively] I! It's what I dread most of all--and
there's going to
be a change.
GUSTAV. Don't
get excited now--or you'll have another attack.
ADOLPH. But why
isn't she ridiculous when I stay out all night?
GUSTAV. Yes,
why? Well, it's nothing that concerns you, but that's
the way it is.
And while you are trying to figure out why, the
mishap has
already occurred.
ADOLPH. What
mishap?
GUSTAV. However,
the first husband was a tyrant, and she took him
only to get her
freedom. You see, a girl cannot have freedom
except by
providing herself with a chaperon--or what we call a
husband.
ADOLPH. Of
course not.
GUSTAV. And now
you are the chaperon.
ADOLPH. I?
GUSTAV. Since
you are her husband.
(ADOLPH keeps a
preoccupied silence.)
GUSTAV. Am I not
right?
ADOLPH.
[Uneasily] I don't know. You live with a woman for years,
and you never
stop to analyse her, or your relationship with her,
and then--then
you begin to think--and there you are!--Gustav, you
are my friend.
The only male friend I have. During this last week
you have given
me courage to live again. It is as if your own
magnetism had
been poured into me. Like a watchmaker, you have
fixed the works
in my head and wound up the spring again. Can't
you hear,
yourself, how I think more clearly and speak more to the
point? And to
myself at least it seems as if my voice had
recovered its
ring.
GUSTAV. So it
seems to me also. And why is that?
ADOLPH. I
shouldn't wonder if you grew accustomed to lower your
voice in talking
to women. I know at least that Tekla always used
to accuse me of
shouting.
GUSTAV. And so
you toned down your voice and accepted the rule of
the slipper?
ADOLPH. That
isn't quite the way to put it. [After some
reflection] I
think it is even worse than that. But let us talk of
something
else!--What was I saying?--Yes, you came here, and you
enabled me to
see my art in its true light. Of course, for some
time I had
noticed my growing lack of interest in painting, as it
didn't seem to
offer me the proper medium for the expression of
what I wanted to
bring out. But when you explained all this to me,
and made it clear
why painting must fail as a timely outlet for
the creative
instinct, then I saw the light at last--and I
realised that
hereafter it would not be possible for me to express
myself by means
of colour only.
GUSTAV. Are you
quite sure now that you cannot go on painting--
that you may not
have a relapse?
ADOLPH.
Perfectly sure! For I have tested myself. When I went to
bed that night
after our talk, I rehearsed your argument point by
point, and I
knew you had it right. But when I woke up from a good
night's sleep
and my head was clear again, then it came over me in
a flash that you
might be mistaken after all. And I jumped out of
bed and got hold
of my brushes and paints--but it was no use!
Every trace of
illusion was gone--it was nothing but smears of
paint, and I
quaked at the thought of having believed, and having
made others
believe, that a painted canvas could be anything but a
painted canvas.
The veil had fallen from my eyes, and it was just
as impossible for
me to paint any more as it was to become a child
again.
GUSTAV. And then
you saw that the realistic tendency of our day,
its craving for
actuality and tangibility, could only find its
proper form in
sculpture, which gives you body, extension in all
three
dimensions--
ADOLPH.
[Vaguely] The three dimensions--oh yes, body, in a word!
GUSTAV. And then
you became a sculptor yourself. Or rather, you
have been one
all your life, but you had gone astray, and nothing
was needed but a
guide to put you on the right road--Tell me, do
you experience
supreme joy now when you are at work?
ADOLPH. Now I am
living!
GUSTAV. May I
see what you are doing?
ADOLPH. A female
figure.
GUSTAV. Without
a model? And so lifelike at that!
ADOLPH.
[Apathetically] Yes, but it resembles somebody. It is
remarkable that
this woman seems to have become a part of my body
as I of hers.
GUSTAV. Well,
that's not so very remarkable. Do you know what
transfusion is?
ADOLPH. Of
blood? Yes.
GUSTAV. And you
seem to have bled yourself a little too much. When
I look at the
figure here I comprehend several things which I
merely guessed
before. You have loved her tremendously!
ADOLPH. Yes, to
such an extent that I couldn't tell whether she
was I or I she.
When she is smiling, I smile also. When she is
weeping, I weep.
And when she--can you imagine anything like it?--
when she was
giving life to our child--I felt the birth pangs
within myself.
GUSTAV. Do you
know, my dear friend--I hate to speak of it, but
you are already
showing the first symptoms of epilepsy.
ADOLPH.
[Agitated] I! How can you tell?
GUSTAV. Because
I have watched the symptoms in a younger brother
of mine who had
been worshipping Venus a little too excessively.
ADOLPH. How--how
did it show itself--that thing you spoke of?
[During the
following passage GUSTAV speaks with great animation,
and ADOLPH
listens so intently that, unconsciously, he imitates
many of GUSTAV'S
gestures.]
GUSTAV. It was
dreadful to witness, and if you don't feel strong
enough I won't
inflict a description of it on you.
ADOLPH.
[Nervously] Yes, go right on--just go on!
GUSTAV. Well,
the boy happened to marry an innocent little
creature with
curls, and eyes like a turtle-dove; with the face of
a child and the
pure soul of an angel. But nevertheless she
managed to usurp
the male prerogative--
ADOLPH. What is
that?
GUSTAV.
Initiative, of course. And with the result that the angel
nearly carried
him off to heaven. But first he had to be put on
the cross and
made to feel the nails in his flesh. It was
horrible!
ADOLPH.
[Breathlessly] Well, what happened?
GUSTAV.
[Lingering on each word] We might be sitting together
talking, he and
I--and when I had been speaking for a while his
face would turn
white as chalk, his arms and legs would grow
stiff, and his
thumbs became twisted against the palms of his
hands--like
this. [He illustrates the movement and it is imitated
by ADOLPH] Then
his eyes became bloodshot, and he began to chew--
like this. [He
chews, and again ADOLPH imitates him] The saliva
was rattling in
his throat. His chest was squeezed together as if
it had been
closed in a vice. The pupils of his eyes flickered
like gas-jets.
His tongue beat the saliva into a lather, and he
sank--slowly--down--backward--into
the chair--as if he were
drowning. And
then---
ADOLPH. [In a
whisper] Stop now!
GUSTAV. And
then--Are you not feeling well?
ADOLPH. No.
GUSTAV. [Gets a
glass of water for him] There: drink now. And
we'll talk of
something else.
ADOLPH. [Feebly]
Thank you! Please go on!
GUSTAV.
Well--when he came to he couldn't remember anything at
all. He had
simply lost consciousness. Has that ever happened to
you?
ADOLPH. Yes, I
have had attacks of vertigo now and then, but my
physician says
it's only anaemia.
GUSTAV. Well,
that's the beginning of it, you know. But, believe
me, it will end
in epilepsy if you don't take care of yourself.
ADOLPH. What can
I do?
GUSTAV. To begin
with, you will have to observe complete
abstinence.
ADOLPH. For how
long?
GUSTAV. For half
a year at least.
ADOLPH. I cannot
do it. That would upset our married life.
GUSTAV. Good-bye
to you then!
ADOLPH. [Covers
up the wax figure] I cannot do it!
GUSTAV. Can you
not save your own life?--But tell me, as you have
already given me
so much of your confidence--is there no other
canker, no
secret wound, that troubles you? For it is very rare to
find only one
cause of discord, as life is so full of variety and
so fruitful in
chances for false relationships. Is there not a
corpse in your
cargo that you are trying to hide from yourself?--
For instance,
you said a minute ago that you have a child which
has been left in
other people's care. Why don't you keep it with
you?
ADOLPH. My wife
doesn't want us to do so.
GUSTAV. And her
reason? Speak up now!
ADOLPH. Because,
when it was about three years old, it began to
look like him,
her former husband.
GUSTAV. Well?
Have you seen her former husband?
ADOLPH. No,
never. I have only had a casual glance at a very poor
portrait of him,
and then I couldn't detect the slightest
resemblance.
GUSTAV. Oh,
portraits are never like the original, and, besides,
he might have
changed considerably since it was made. However, I
hope it hasn't
aroused any suspicions in you?
ADOLPH. Not at
all. The child was born a year after our marriage,
and the husband
was abroad when I first met Tekla--it happened
right here, in
this very house even, and that's why we come here
every summer.
GUSTAV. No, then
there can be no cause for suspicion. And you
wouldn't have
had any reason to trouble yourself anyhow, for the
children of a
widow who marries again often show a likeness to her
dead husband. It
is annoying, of course, and that's why they used
to burn all
widows in India, as you know.--But tell me: have you
ever felt
jealous of him--of his memory? Would it not sicken you
to meet him on a
walk and hear him, with his eyes on your Tekla,
use the word
"we" instead of "I"?--We!
ADOLPH. I cannot
deny that I have been pursued by that very
thought.
GUSTAV. There
now!--And you'll never get rid of it. There are
discords in this
life which can never be reduced to harmony. For
this reason you
had better put wax in your ears and go to work. If
you work, and
grow old, and pile masses of new impressions on the
hatches, then
the corpse will stay quiet in the hold.
ADOLPH. Pardon
me for interrupting you, but--it is wonderful how
you resemble
Tekla now and then while you are talking. You have a
way of blinking
one eye as if you were taking aim with a gun, and
your eyes have
the same influence on me as hers have at times.
GUSTAV. No,
really?
ADOLPH. And now
you said that "no, really" in the same indifferent
way that she
does. She also has the habit of saying "no, really"
quite often.
GUSTAV. Perhaps
we are distantly related, seeing that all human
beings are said
to be of one family. At any rate, it will be
interesting to
make your wife's acquaintance to see if what you
say is true.
ADOLPH. And do
you know, she never takes an expression from me.
She seems rather
to avoid my vocabulary, and I have never caught
her using any of
my gestures. And yet people as a rule develop
what is called
"marital resemblance."
GUSTAV. And do
you know why this has not happened in your case?--
That woman has
never loved you.
ADOLPH. What do
you mean?
GUSTAV. I hope
you will excuse what I am saying--but woman's love
consists in
taking, in receiving, and one from whom she takes
nothing does not
have her love. She has never loved you!
ADOLPH. Don't
you think her capable of loving more than once?
GUSTAV. No, for
we cannot be deceived more than once. Then our
eyes are opened
once for all. You have never been deceived, and so
you had better
beware of those that have. They are dangerous, I
tell you.
ADOLPH. Your
words pierce me like knife thrusts, and I fool as if
something were
being severed within me, but I cannot help it. And
this cutting
brings a certain relief, too. For it means the
pricking of
ulcers that never seemed to ripen.--She has never
loved me!--Why,
then, did she ever take me?
GUSTAV. Tell me
first how she came to take you, and whether it was
you who took her
or she who took you?
ADOLPH. Heaven
only knows if I can tell at all!--How did it
happen? Well, it
didn't come about in one day.
GUSTAV. Would
you like to have me tell you how it did happen?
ADOLPH. That's
more than you can do.
GUSTAV. Oh, by
using the information about yourself and your wife
that you have
given me, I think I can reconstruct the whole event.
Listen now, and
you'll hear. [In a dispassionate tone, almost
humorously] The
husband had gone abroad to study, and she was
alone. At first
her freedom seemed rather pleasant. Then came a
sense of
vacancy, for I presume she was pretty empty when she had
lived by herself
for a fortnight. Then he appeared, and by and by
the vacancy was
filled up. By comparison the absent one seemed to
fade out, and
for the simple reason that he was at a distance--you
know the law
about the square of the distance? But when they felt
their passions
stirring, then came fear--of themselves, of their
consciences, of
him. For protection they played brother and
sister. And the
more their feelings smacked of the flesh, the more
they tried to
make their relationship appear spiritual.
ADOLPH. Brother
and sister? How could you know that?
GUSTAV. I
guessed it. Children are in the habit of playing papa
and mamma, but
when they grow up they play brother and sister--in
order to hide
what should be hidden!--And then they took the vow
of chastity--and
then they played hide-and-seek--until they got
in a dark corner
where they were sure of not being seen by
anybody. [With
mock severity] But they felt that there was ONE
whose eye
reached them in the darkness--and they grew frightened--
and their fright
raised the spectre of the absent one--his figure
began to assume
immense proportions--it became metamorphosed:
turned into a
nightmare that disturbed their amorous slumbers; a
creditor who knocked
at all doors. Then they saw his black hand
between their
own as these sneaked toward each other across the
table; and they
heard his grating voice through that stillness of
the night that
should have been broken only by the beating of
their own pulses.
He did not prevent them from possessing each
other but he
spoiled their happiness. And when they became aware
of his invisible
interference with their happiness; when they took
flight at
last--a vain flight from the memories that pursued them,
from the
liability they had left behind, from the public opinion
they could not
face--and when they found themselves without the
strength needed
to carry their own guilt, then they had to send
out into the
fields for a scapegoat to be sacrificed. They were
free-thinkers,
but they did not have the courage to step forward
and speak openly
to him the words: "We love each other!" To sum it
up, they were
cowards, and so the tyrant had to be slaughtered. Is
that right?
ADOLPH. Yes, but
you forget that she educated me, that she filled
my head with new
thoughts--
GUSTAV. I have
not forgotten it. But tell me: why could she not
educate the
other man also--into a free-thinker?
ADOLPH. Oh, he
was an idiot!
GUSTAV. Oh, of
course--he was an idiot! But that's rather an
ambiguous term,
and, as pictured in her novel, his idiocy seems
mainly to have
consisted in failure to understand her. Pardon me a
question: but is
your wife so very profound after all? I have
discovered
nothing profound in her writings.
ADOLPH. Neither
have I.--But then I have also to confess a certain
difficulty in
understanding her. It is as if the cogs of our brain
wheels didn't
fit into each other, and as if something went to
pieces in my
head when I try to comprehend her.
GUSTAV. Maybe
you are an idiot, too?
ADOLPH. I don't
THINK so! And it seems to me all the time as if
she were in the
wrong--Would you care to read this letter, for
instance, which
I got today?
[Takes out a
letter from his pocket-book.]
GUSTAV.
[Glancing through the letter] Hm! The handwriting seems
strangely
familiar.
ADOLPH. Rather
masculine, don't you think?
GUSTAV. Well, I
know at least ONE man who writes that kind of
hand--She
addresses you as "brother." Are you still playing
comedy to each
other? And do you never permit yourselves any
greater
familiarity in speaking to each other?
ADOLPH. No, it
seems to me that all mutual respect is lost in that
way.
GUSTAV. And is
it to make you respect her that she calls herself
your sister?
ADOLPH. I want
to respect her more than myself. I want her to be
the better part
of my own self.
GUSTAV. Why
don't you be that better part yourself? Would it be
less convenient
than to permit somebody else to fill the part? Do
you want to
place yourself beneath your wife?
ADOLPH. Yes, I
do. I take a pleasure in never quite reaching up to
her. I have
taught her to swim, for example, and now I enjoy
hearing her
boast that she surpasses me both in skill and daring.
To begin with, I
merely pretended to be awkward and timid in order
to raise her
courage. And so it ended with my actually being her
inferior, more
of a coward than she. It almost seemed to me as if
she had actually
taken my courage away from me.
GUSTAV. Have you
taught her anything else?
ADOLPH. Yes--but
it must stay between us--I have taught her how to
spell, which she
didn't know before. But now, listen: when she
took charge of
our domestic correspondence, I grew out of the
habit of
writing. And think of it: as the years passed on, lack of
practice made me
forget a little here and there of my grammar. But
do you think she
recalls that I was the one who taught her at the
start? No--and
so I am "the idiot," of course.
GUSTAV. So you
are an idiot already?
ADOLPH. Oh, it's
just a joke, of course!
GUSTAV. Of
course! But this is clear cannibalism, I think. Do you
know what's
behind that sort of practice? The savages eat their
enemies in order
to acquire their useful qualities. And this woman
has been eating
your soul, your courage, your knowledge---
ADOLPH. And my
faith! It was I who urged her to write her first
book---
GUSTAV. [Making
a face] Oh-h-h!
ADOLPH. It was I
who praised her, even when I found her stuff
rather poor. It
was I who brought her into literary circles where
she could gather
honey from our most ornamental literary flowers.
It was I who
used my personal influence to keep the critics from
her throat. It
was I who blew her faith in herself into flame;
blew on it until
I lost my own breath. I gave, gave, gave--until I
had nothing left
for myself. Do you know--I'll tell you everything
now--do you know
I really believe--and the human soul is so
peculiarly
constituted--I believe that when my artistic successes
seemed about to
put her in the shadow--as well as her reputation--
then I tried to
put courage into her by belittling myself, and by
making my own
art seem inferior to hers. I talked so long about
the
insignificant part played by painting on the whole--talked so
long about it,
and invented so many reasons to prove what I said,
that one fine
day I found myself convinced of its futility. So all
you had to do
was to breathe on a house of cards.
GUSTAV. Pardon
me for recalling what you said at the beginning of
our talk--that
she had never taken anything from you.
ADOLPH. She doesn't
nowadays. Because there is nothing more to
take.
GUSTAV. The
snake being full, it vomits now.
ADOLPH. Perhaps
she has been taking a good deal more from me than
I have been
aware of?
GUSTAV. You can
be sure of that. She took when you were not
looking, and
that is called theft.
ADOLPH. Perhaps
she never did educate me?
GUSTAV. But you
her? In all likelihood! But it was her trick to
make it appear
the other way to you. May I ask how she set about
educating you?
ADOLPH. Oh,
first of all--hm!
GUSTAV. Well?
ADOLPH. Well,
I---
GUSTAV. No, we
were speaking of her.
ADOLPH. Really,
I cannot tell now.
GUSTAV. Do you
see!
ADOLPH.
However--she devoured my faith also, and so I sank further
and further
down, until you came along and gave me a new faith.
GUSTAV.
[Smiling] In sculpture?
ADOLPH.
[Doubtfully] Yes.
GUSTAV. And have
you really faith in it? In this abstract,
antiquated art
that dates back to the childhood of civilisation?
Do you believe
that you can obtain your effect by pure form--by
the three
dimensions--tell me? That you can reach the practical
mind of our own
day, and convey an illusion to it, without the use
of
colour--without colour, mind you--do you really believe that?
ADOLPH.
[Crushed] No!
GUSTAV. Well, I
don't either.
ADOLPH. Why,
then, did you say you did?
GUSTAV. Because
I pitied you.
ADOLPH. Yes, I
am to be pitied! For now I am bankrupt! Finished!--
And worst of
all: not even she is left to me!
GUSTAV. Well,
what could you do with her?
ADOLPH. Oh, she
would be to me what God was before I became an
atheist: an
object that might help me to exercise my sense of
veneration.
GUSTAV. Bury
your sense of veneration and let something else grow
on top of it. A
little wholesome scorn, for instance.
ADOLPH. I cannot
live without having something to respect---
GUSTAV. Slave!
ADOLPH.--without
a woman to respect and worship!
GUSTAV. Oh,
HELL! Then you had better take back your God--if you
needs must have
something to kow-tow to! You're a fine atheist,
with all that
superstition about woman still in you! You're a fine
free-thinker,
who dare not think freely about the dear ladies! Do
you know what
that incomprehensible, sphinx-like, profound
something in
your wife really is? It is sheer stupidity!--Look
here: she cannot
even distinguish between th and t. And that, you
know, means
there is something wrong with the mechanism. When you
look at the
case, it looks like a chronometer, but the works
inside are those
of an ordinary cheap watch.--Nothing but the
skirts-that's
all! Put trousers on her, give her a pair of
moustaches of
soot under her nose, then take a good, sober look at
her, and listen
to her in the same manner: you'll find the
instrument has
another sound to it. A phonograph, and nothing
else--giving yon
back your own words, or those of other people--
and always in
diluted form. Have you ever looked at a naked woman-
-oh yes, yes, of
course! A youth with over-developed breasts; an
under-developed
man; a child that has shot up to full height and
then stopped
growing in other respects; one who is chronically
anaemic: what
can you expect of such a creature?
ADOLPH.
Supposing all that to be true--how can it be possible that
I still think
her my equal?
GUSTAV.
Hallucination--the hypnotising power of skirts! Or--the
two of you may
actually have become equals. The levelling process
has been
finished. Her capillarity has brought the water in both
tubes to the
same height.--Tell me [taking out his watch]: our
talk has now
lasted six hours, and your wife ought soon to be
here. Don't you
think we had better stop, so that you can get a
rest?
ADOLPH. No,
don't leave me! I don't dare to be alone!
GUSTAV. Oh, for
a little while only--and then the lady will come.
ADOLPH. Yes, she
is coming!--It's all so queer! I long for her,
but I am afraid
of her. She pets me, she is tender to me, but
there is
suffocation in her kisses--something that pulls and
numbs. And I
feel like a circus child that is being pinched by the
clown in order
that it may look rosy-cheeked when it appears
before the
public.
GUSTAV. I feel
very sorry for you, my friend. Without being a
physician, I can
tell that you are a dying man. It is enough to
look at your
latest pictures in order to see that.
ADOLPH. You
think so? How can you see it?
GUSTAV. Your
colour is watery blue, anaemic, thin, so that the
cadaverous
yellow of the canvas shines through. And it impresses
me as if your
own hollow, putty-coloured checks were showing
beneath--
ADOLPH. Oh,
stop, stop!
GUSTAV. Well,
this is not only my personal opinion. Have you read
to-day's paper?
ADOLPH.
[Shrinking] No!
GUSTAV. It's on
the table here.
ADOLPH.
[Reaching for the paper without daring to take hold of it]
Do they speak of
it there?
GUSTAV. Read
it--or do you want me to read it to you?
ADOLPH. No!
GUSTAV. I'll
leave you, if you want me to.
ADOLPH. No, no,
no!--I don't know--it seems as if I were beginning
to hate you, and
yet I cannot let you go.--You drag me out of the
hole into which
I have fallen, but no sooner do you get me on firm
ice, than you
knock me on the head and shove me into the water
again. As long
as my secrets were my own, I had still something
left within me,
but now I am quite empty. There is a canvas by an
Italian master,
showing a scene of torture--a saint whose
intestines are
being torn out of him and rolled on the axle of a
windlass. The
martyr is watching himself grow thinner and thinner,
while the roll
on the axle grows thicker.--Now it seems to me as
if you had
swelled out since you began to dig in me; and when you
leave, you'll
carry away my vitals with you, and leave nothing but
an empty shell
behind.
GUSTAV. How you
do let your fancy run away with you!--And
besides, your
wife is bringing back your heart.
ADOLPH. No, not
since you have burned her to ashes. Everything is
in ashes where
you have passed along: my art, my love, my hope, my
faith!
GUSTAV. All of
it was pretty nearly finished before I came along.
ADOLPH. Yes, but
it might have been saved. Now it's too late--
incendiary!
GUSTAV. We have
cleared some ground only. Now we'll sow in the
ashes.
ADOLPH. I hate
you! I curse you!
GUSTAV. Good
symptoms! There is still some strength left in you.
And now I'll
pull you up on the ice again. Listen now! Do you want
to listen to me,
and do you want to obey me?
ADOLPH. Do with
me what you will--I'll obey you!
GUSTAV. [Rising]
Look at me!
ADOLPH. [Looking
at GUSTAV] Now you are looking at me again with
that other pair
of eyes which attracts me.
GUSTAV. And
listen to me!
ADOLPH. Yes, but
speak of yourself. Don't talk of me any longer: I
am like an open
wound and cannot bear being touched.
GUSTAV. No,
there is nothing to say about me. I am a teacher of
dead languages,
and a widower--that's all! Take my hand.
ADOLPH. What
terrible power there must be in you! It feels as if I
were touching an
electrical generator.
GUSTAV. And bear
in mind that I have been as weak as you are now.-
-Stand up!
ADOLPH. [Rises,
but keeps himself from falling only by throwing
his arms around
the neck of GUSTAV] I am like a boneless baby, and
my brain seems
to lie bare.
GUSTAV. Take a
turn across the floor!
ADOLPH. I
cannot!
GUSTAV. Do what
I say, or I'll strike you!
ADOLPH.
[Straightening himself up] What are you saying?
GUSTAV. I'll
strike you, I said.
ADOLPH. [Leaping
backward in a rage] You!
GUSTAV. That's
it! Now you have got the blood into your head, and
your
self-assurance is awake. And now I'll give you some
electriticy:
where is your wife?
ADOLPH. Where is
she?
GUSTAV. Yes.
ADOLPH. She
is--at--a meeting.
GUSTAV. Sure?
ADOLPH.
Absolutely!
GUSTAV. What
kind of meeting?
ADOLPH. Oh,
something relating to an orphan asylum.
GUSTAV. Did you
part as friends?
ADOLPH. [With
some hesitation] Not as friends.
GUSTAV. As
enemies then!--What did you say that provoked her?
ADOLPH. You are
terrible. I am afraid of you. How could you know?
GUSTAV. It's
very simple: I possess three known factors, and with
their help I
figure out the unknown one. What did you say to her?
ADOLPH. I
said--two words only, but they were dreadful, and I
regret
them--regret them very much.
GUSTAV. Don't do
it! Tell me now?
ADOLPH. I said:
"Old flirt!"
GUSTAV. What
more did you say?
ADOLPH. Nothing
at all.
GUSTAV. Yes, you
did, but you have forgotten it--perhaps because
you don't dare
remember it. You have put it away in a secret
drawer, but you
have got to open it now!
ADOLPH. I can't
remember!
GUSTAV. But I
know. This is what you said: "You ought to be
ashamed of
flirting when you are too old to have any more lovers!"
ADOLPH. Did I
say that? I must have said it!--But how can you know
that I did?
GUSTAV. I heard
her tell the story on board the boat as I came
here.
ADOLPH. To whom?
GUSTAV. To four
young men who formed her company. She is already
developing a
taste for chaste young men, just like--
ADOLPH. But
there is nothing wrong in that?
GUSTAV. No more
than in playing brother and sister when you are
papa and mamma.
ADOLPH. So you
have seen her then?
GUSTAV. Yes, I
have. But you have never seen her when you didn't--
I mean, when you
were not present. And there's the reason, you
see, why a
husband can never really know his wife. Have you a
portrait of her?
(Adolph takes a
photograph from his pocketbook. There is a look of
aroused
curiosity on his face.)
GUSTAV. You were
not present when this was taken?
ADOLPH. No.
GUSTAV. Look at
it. Does it bear much resemblance to the portrait
you painted of
her? Hardly any! The features are the same, but the
expression is
quite different. But you don't see this, because
your own picture
of her creeps in between your eyes and this one.
Look at it now
as a painter, without giving a thought to the
original. What
does it represent? Nothing, so far as I can see,
but an affected
coquette inviting somebody to come and play with
her. Do you
notice this cynical line around the mouth which you
are never
allowed to see? Can you see that her eyes are seeking
out some man who
is not you? Do you observe that her dress is cut
low at the neck,
that her hair is done up in a different way, that
her sleeve has
managed to slip back from her arm? Can you see?
ADOLPH. Yes--now
I see.
GUSTAV. Look
out, my boy!
ADOLPH. For
what?
GUSTAV. For her
revenge! Bear in mind that when you said she could
not attract a
man, you struck at what to her is most sacred--the
one thing above
all others. If you had told her that she wrote
nothing but
nonsense, she would have laughed at your poor taste.
But as it
is--believe me, it will not be her fault if her desire
for revenge has
not already been satisfied.
ADOLPH. I must
know if it is so!
GUSTAV. Find
out!
ADOLPH. Find
out?
GUSTAV. Watch--I'll
assist you, if you want me to.
ADOLPH. As I am
to die anyhow--it may as well come first as last!
What am I to do?
GUSTAV. First of
all a piece of information: has your wife any
vulnerable
point?
ADOLPH. Hardly!
I think she must have nine lives, like a cat.
GUSTAV.
There--that was the boat whistling at the landing--now
she'll soon be
here.
ADOLPH. Then I
must go down and meet her.
GUSTAV. No, you
are to stay here. You have to be impolite. If
her conscience
is clear, you'll catch it until your ears tingle.
If she is
guilty, she'll come up and pet you.
ADOLPH. Are you
so sure of that?
GUSTAV. Not
quite, because a rabbit will sometimes turn and run in
loops, but I'll
follow. My room is nest to this. [He points to the
door on the
right] There I shall take up my position and watch you
while you are
playing the game in here. But when you are done,
we'll change
parts: I'll enter the cage and do tricks with the
snake while you
stick to the key-hole. Then we meet in the park to
compare notes.
But keep your back stiff. And if you feel yourself
weakening, knock
twice on the floor with a chair.
ADOLPH. All
right!--But don't go away. I must be sure that you are
in the next
room.
GUSTAV. You can
be quite sure of that. But don't get scared
afterward, when
you watch me dissecting a human soul and laying
out its various
parts on the table. They say it is rather hard on
a beginner, but
once you have seen it done, you never want to miss
it.--And be sure
to remember one thing: not a word about having
met me, or
having made any new acquaintance whatever while she was
away. Not one
word! And I'll discover her weak point by myself.
Hush, she has
arrived--she is in her room now. She's humming to
herself. That
means she is in a rage!--Now, straight in the back,
please! And sit
down on that chair over there, so that she has to
sit here--then I
can watch both of you at the same time.
ADOLPH. It's
only fifteen minutes to dinner--and no new guests
have
arrived--for I haven't heard the bell ring. That means we
shall be by
ourselves--worse luck!
GUSTAV. Are you
weak?
ADOLPH. I am
nothing at all!--Yes, I am afraid of what is now
coming! But I
cannot keep it from coming! The stone has been set
rolling--and it
was not the first drop of water that started it--
nor wad it the
last one--but all of them together.
GUSTAV. Let it
roll then--for peace will come in no other way.
Good-bye for a
while now! [Goes out]
(ADOLPH nods
back at him. Until then he has been standing with the
photograph in
his hand. Now he tears it up and flings the pieces
under the table.
Then he sits down on a chair, pulls nervously at
his tie, runs
his fingers through his hair, crumples his coat
lapel, and so
on.)
TEKLA. [Enters,
goes straight up to him and gives him a kiss; her
manner is
friendly, frank, happy, and engaging] Hello, little
brother! How is
he getting on?
ADOLPH. [Almost
won over; speaking reluctantly and as if in jest]
What mischief
have you been up to now that makes you come and kiss
me?
TEKLA. I'll tell
you: I've spent an awful lot of money.
ADOLPH. You have
had a good time then?
TEKLA. Very! But
not exactly at that creche meeting. That was
plain piffle, to
tell the truth.--But what has little brother
found to divert
himself with while his Pussy was away?
(Her eyes wander
around the room as if she were looking for
somebody or
sniffing something.)
ADOLPH. I've
simply been bored.
TEKLA. And no
company at all?
ADOLPH. Quite by
myself.
TEKLA. [Watching
him; she sits down on the sofa] Who has been
sitting here?
ADOLPH. Over there? Nobody.
TEKLA. That's
funny! The seat is still warm, and there is a hollow
here that looks
as if it had been made by an elbow. Have you had
lady callers?
ADOLPH. I? You
don't believe it, do you?
TEKLA. But you
blush. I think little brother is not telling the
truth. Come and
tell Pussy now what he has on his conscience.
(Draws him
toward herself so that he sinks down with his head
resting in her
lap.)
ADOLPH. You're a
little devil--do you know that?
TEKLA. No, I
don't know anything at all about myself.
ADOLPH. You
never think about yourself, do you?
TEKLA. [Sniffing
and taking notes] I think of nothing but myself--
I am a dreadful
egoist. But what has made you turn so
philosophical
all at once?
ADOLPH. Put your
hand on my forehead.
TEKLA.
[Prattling as if to a baby] Has he got ants in his head
again? Does he
want me to take them away, does he? [Kisses him on
the forehead]
There now! Is it all right now?
ADOLPH. Now it's
all right. [Pause]
TEKLA. Well,
tell me now what you have been doing to make the time
go? Have you
painted anything?
ADOLPH. No, I am
done with painting.
TEKLA. What?
Done with painting?
ADOLPH. Yes, but
don't scold me for it. How can I help it that I
can't paint any
longer!
TEKLA. What do
you mean to do then?
ADOLPH. I'll
become a sculptor.
TEKLA. What a
lot of brand new ideas again!
ADOLPH. Yes, but
please don't scold! Look at that figure over
there.
TEKLA.
[Uncovering the wax figure] Well, I declare!--Who is that
meant for?
ADOLPH. Guess!
TEKLA. Is it
Pussy? Has he got no shame at all?
ADOLPH. Is it
like?
TEKLA. How can I
tell when there is no face?
ADOLPH. Yes, but
there is so much else--that's beautiful!
TEKLA. [Taps him
playfully on the cheek] Now he must keep still or
I'll have to
kiss him.
ADOLPH. [Holding
her back] Now, now!--Somebody might come!
TEKLA. Well,
what do I care? Can't I kiss my own husband, perhaps?
Oh yes, that's
my lawful right.
ADOLPH. Yes, but
don't you know--in the hotel here, they don't
believe we are
married, because we are kissing each other such a
lot. And it
makes no difference that we quarrel now and then, for
lovers are said
to do that also.
TEKLA. Well, but
what's the use of quarrelling? Why can't he
always be as
nice as he is now? Tell me now? Can't he try? Doesn't
he want us to be
happy?
ADOLPH. Do I
want it? Yes, but--
TEKLA. There we
are again! Who has put it into his head that he is
not to paint any
longer?
ADOLPH. Who? You
are always looking for somebody else behind me
and my thoughts.
Are you jealous?
TEKLA. Yes, I
am. I'm afraid somebody might take him away from me.
ADOLPH. Are you
really afraid of that? You who know that no other
woman can take
your place, and that I cannot live without you!
TEKLA. Well, I
am not afraid of the women--it's your friends that
fill your head
with all sorts of notions.
ADOLPH.
[Watching her] You are afraid then? Of what are you
afraid?
TEKLA. [Getting
up] Somebody has been here. Who has been here?
ADOLPH. Don't
you wish me to look at you?
TEKLA. Not in
that way: it's not the way you are accustomed to
look at me.
ADOLPH. How was
I looking at you then?
TEKLA. Way up
under my eyelids.
ADOLPH. Under
your eyelids--yes, I wanted to see what is behind
them.
TEKLA. See all
you can! There is nothing that needs to be hidden.
But--you talk
differently, too--you use expressions--[studying
him] you
philosophise--that's what you do! [Approaches him
threateningly]
Who has been here?
ADOLPH. Nobody
but my physician.
TEKLA. Your
physician? Who is he?
ADOLPH. That
doctor from Stromstad.
TEKLA. What's
his name?
ADOLPH. Sjoberg.
TEKLA. What did
he have to say?
ADOLPH. He
said--well--among other things he said--that I am on
the verge of
epilepsy--
TEKLA. Among
other things? What more did he say?
ADOLPH.
Something very unpleasant.
TEKLA. Tell me!
ADOLPH. He
forbade us to live as man and wife for a while.
TEKLA. Oh,
that's it! Didn't I just guess it! They want to
separate us!
That's what I have understood a long time!
ADOLPH. You
can't have understood, because there was nothing to
understand.
TEKLA. Oh yes, I
have!
ADOLPH. How can
you see what doesn't exist, unless your fear of
something has
stirred up your fancy into seeing what has never
existed? What is
it you fear? That I might borrow somebody else's
eyes in order to
see you as you are, and not as you seem to be?
TEKLA. Keep your
imagination in check, Adolph! It is the beast
that dwells in
man's soul.
ADOLPH. Where
did you learn that? From those chaste young men on
the boat--did
you?
TEKLA. [Not at
all abashed] Yes, there is something to be learned
from youth also.
ADOLPH. I think
you are already beginning to have a taste for
youth?
TEKLA. I have
always liked youth. That's why I love you. Do you
object?
ADOLPH. No, but
I should prefer to have no partners.
TEKLA.
[Prattling roguishly] My heart is so big, little brother,
that there is
room in it for many more than him.
ADOLPH. But
little brother doesn't want any more brothers.
TEKLA. Come here
to Pussy now and get his hair pulled because he
is jealous--no, envious
is the right word for it!
(Two knocks with
a chair are heard from the adjoining room, where
GUSTAV is.)
ADOLPH. No, I
don't want to play now. I want to talk seriously.
TEKLA.
[Prattling] Mercy me, does he want to talk seriously?
Dreadful, how serious
he's become! [Takes hold of his head and
kisses him]
Smile a little--there now!
ADOLPH. [Smiling
against his will] Oh, you're the--I might almost
think you knew
how to use magic!
TEKLA. Well,
can't he see now? That's why he shouldn't start any
trouble--or I
might use my magic to make him invisible!
ADOLPH. [Gets
up] Will you sit for me a moment, Tekla? With the
side of your
face this way, so that I can put a face on my figure.
TEKLA. Of
course, I will.
[Turns her head
so he can see her in profile.]
ADOLPH. [Gazes
hard at her while pretending to work at the figure]
Don't think of
me now--but of somebody else.
TEKLA. I'll
think of my latest conquest.
ADOLPH. That
chaste young man?
TEKLA. Exactly!
He had a pair of the prettiest, sweetest
moustaches, and
his cheek looked like a peach--it was so soft and
rosy that you
just wanted to bite it.
ADOLPH.
[Darkening] Please keep that expression about the mouth.
TEKLA. What
expression?
ADOLPH. A
cynical, brazen one that I have never seen before.
TEKLA. [Making a
face] This one?
ADOLPH. Just
that one! [Getting up] Do you know how Bret Harte
pictures an
adulteress?
TEKLA. [Smiling]
No, I have never read Bret Something.
ADOLPH. As a
pale creature that cannot blush.
TEKLA. Not at
all? But when she meets her lover, then she must
blush, I am
sure, although her husband or Mr. Bret may not be
allowed to see
it.
ADOLPH. Are you
so sure of that?
TEKLA. [As
before] Of course, as the husband is not capable of
bringing the
blood up to her head, he cannot hope to behold the
charming
spectacle.
ADOLPH.
[Enraged] Tekla!
TEKLA. Oh, you
little ninny!
ADOLPH. Tekla!
TEKLA. He should
call her Pussy--then I might get up a pretty
little blush for
his sake. Does he want me to?
ADOLPH.
[Disarmed] You minx, I'm so angry with you, that I could
bite you!
TEKLA.
[Playfully] Come and bite me then!--Come!
[Opens her arms
to him.]
ADOLPH. [Puts
his hands around her neck and kisses her] Yes, I'll
bite you to
death!
TEKLA.
[Teasingly] Look out--somebody might come!
ADOLPH. Well,
what do I care! I care for nothing else in the world
if I can only
have you!
TEKLA. And when,
you don't have me any longer?
ADOLPH. Then I
shall die!
TEKLA. But you
are not afraid of losing me, are you--as I am too
old to be wanted
by anybody else?
ADOLPH. You have
not forgotten my words yet, Tekla! I take it all
back now!
TEKLA. Can you
explain to me why you are at once so jealous and so
cock-sure?
ADOLPH. No, I
cannot explain anything at all. But it's possible
that the thought
of somebody else having possessed you may still
be gnawing
within me. At times it appears to me as if our love
were nothing but
a fiction, an attempt at self-defence, a passion
kept up as a
matter of honor--and I can't think of anything that
would give me
more pain than to have HIM know that I am unhappy.
Oh, I have never
seen him--but the mere thought that a person
exists who is
waiting for my misfortune to arrive, who is daily
calling down
curses on my head, who will roar with laughter when I
perish--the mere
idea of it obsesses me, drives me nearer to you,
fascinates me,
paralyses me!
TEKLA. Do you
think I would let him have that joy? Do you think I
would make his
prophecy come true?
ADOLPH. No, I
cannot think you would.
TEKLA. Why don't
you keep calm then?
ADOLPH. No, you
upset me constantly by your coquetry. Why do you
play that kind
of game?
TEKLA. It is no
game. I want to be admired--that's all!
ADOLPH. Yes, but
only by men!
TEKLA. Of
course! For a woman is never admired by other women.
ADOLPH. Tell me,
have you heard anything--from him--recently?
TEKLA. Not in
the last sis months.
ADOLPH. Do you
ever think of him?
TEKLA.
No!--Since the child died we have broken off our
correspondence.
ADOLPH. And you
have never seen him at all?
TEKLA. No, I
understand he is living somewhere down on the West
Coast. But why
is all this coming into your head just now?
ADOLPH. I don't
know. But during the last few days, while I was
alone, I kept
thinking of him--how he might have felt when he was
left alone that
time.
TEKLA. Are you
having an attack of bad conscience?
ADOLPH. I am.
TEKLA. You feel
like a thief, do you?
ADOLPH. Almost!
TEKLA. Isn't
that lovely! Women can be stolen as you steal
children or
chickens? And you regard me as his chattel or personal
property. I am
very much obliged to you!
ADOLPH. No, I
regard you as his wife. And that's a good deal more
than
property--for there can be no substitute. TEKLA. Oh, yes! If
you only heard
that he had married again, all these foolish
notions would
leave you.--Have you not taken his place with me?
ADOLPH. Well,
have I?--And did you ever love him?
TEKLA. Of
course, I did!
ADOLPH. And
then--
TEKLA. I grew
tired of him!
ADOLPH. And if
you should tire of me also?
TEKLA. But I
won't!
ADOLPH. If
somebody else should turn up--one who had all the
qualities you
are looking for in a man now--suppose only--then you
would leave me?
TEKLA. No.
ADOLPH. If he
captivated you? So that you couldn't live without
him? Then you
would leave me, of course?
TEKLA. No, that
doesn't follow.
ADOLPH. But you
couldn't love two at the same time, could you?
TEKLA. Yes! Why
not?
ADOLPH. That's
something I cannot understand.
TEKLA. But
things exist although you do not understand them. All
persons are not
made in the same way, you know.
ADOLPH. I begin
to see now!
TEKLA. No,
really!
ADOLPH. No,
really? [A pause follows, during which he seems to
struggle with
some--memory that will not come back] Do you know,
Tekla, that your
frankness is beginning to be painful?
TEKLA. And yet
it used to be my foremost virtue In your mind, and
one that you
taught me.
ADOLPH. Yes, but
it seems to me as if you were hiding something
behind that
frankness of yours.
TEKLA. That's
the new tactics, you know.
ADOLPH. I don't
know why, but this place has suddenly become
offensive to me.
If you feel like it, we might return home--this
evening!
TEKLA. What kind
of notion is that? I have barely arrived and I
don't feel like
starting on another trip.
ADOLPH. But I
want to.
TEKLA. Well,
what's that to me?--You can go!
ADOLPH. But I
demand that you take the next boat with me!
TEKLA.
Demand?--What arc you talking about?
ADOLPH. Do you
realise that you are my wife?
TEKLA. Do you
realise that you are my husband?
ADOLPH. Well,
there's a difference between those two things.
TEKLA. Oh,
that's the way you are talking now!--You have never
loved me!
ADOLPH. Haven't
I?
TEKLA. No, for
to love is to give.
ADOLPH. To love
like a man is to give; to love like a woman is to
take.--And I
have given, given, given!
TEKLA. Pooh! What
have you given?
ADOLPH.
Everything!
TEKLA. That's a
lot! And if it be true, then I must have taken it.
Are you
beginning to send in bills for your gifts now? And if I
have taken
anything, this proves only my love for you. A woman
cannot receive
anything except from her lover.
ADOLPH. Her
lover, yes! There you spoke the truth! I have been
your lover, but
never your husband.
TEKLA. Well,
isn't that much more agreeable--to escape playing
chaperon? But if
you are not satisfied with your position, I'll
send you
packing, for I don't want a husband.
ADOLPH. No,
that's what I have noticed. For a while ago, when you
began to sneak
away from me like a thief with his booty, and when
you began to
seek company of your own where you could flaunt my
plumes and
display my gems, then I felt, like reminding you of
your debt. And
at once I became a troublesome creditor whom you
wanted to get
rid of. You wanted to repudiate your own notes, and
in order not to
increase your debt to me, you stopped pillaging my
safe and began
to try those of other people instead. Without
having done
anything myself, I became to you merely the husband.
And now I am
going to be your husband whether you like it or not,
as I am not
allowed to be your lover any longer,
TEKLA.
[Playfully] Now he shouldn't talk nonsense, the sweet
little idiot!
ADOLPH. Look
out: it's dangerous to think everybody an idiot but
oneself!
TEKLA. But
that's what everybody thinks.
ADOLPH. And I am
beginning to suspect that he--your former
husband--was not
so much of an idiot after all.
TEKLA. Heavens!
Are you beginning to sympathise with--him?
ADOLPH. Yes, not
far from it,
TEKLA. Well,
well! Perhaps you would like to make his acquaintance
and pour out
your overflowing heart to him? What a striking
picture! But I
am also beginning to feel drawn to him, as I am
growing more and
more tired of acting as wetnurse. For he was at
least a man,
even though he had the fault of being married to me.
ADOLPH. There,
you see! But you had better not talk so loud--we
might be
overheard.
TEKLA. What
would it matter if they took us for married people?
ADOLPH. So now
you are getting fond of real male men also, and at
the same time
you have a taste for chaste young men?
TEKLA. There are
no limits to what I can like, as you may see. My
heart is open to
everybody and everything, to the big and the
small, the
handsome and the ugly, the new and the old--I love the
whole world.
ADOLPH. Do you
know what that means?
TEKLA. No, I
don't know anything at all. I just FEEL.
ADOLPH. It means
that old age is near.
TEKLA. There you
are again! Take care!
ADOLPH. Take
care yourself!
TEKLA. Of what?
ADOLPH. Of the
knife!
TEKLA.
[Prattling] Little brother had better not play with such
dangerous
things.
ADOLPH. I have
quit playing.
TEKLA. Oh, it's
earnest, is it? Dead earnest! Then I'll show you
that--you are
mistaken. That is to say--you'll never see it, never
know it, but all
the rest of the world will know It. And you'll
suspect it,
you'll believe it, and you'll never have another
moment's peace.
You'll have the feeling of being ridiculous, of
being deceived,
but you'll never get any proof of it. For that's
what married men
never get.
ADOLPH. You hate
me then?
TEKLA. No, I
don't. And I don't think I shall either. But that's
probably because
you are nothing to me but a child.
ADOLPH. At this
moment, yes. But do you remember how it was while
the storm swept
over us? Then you lay there like an infant in arms
and just cried.
Then you had to sit on my lap, and I had to kiss
your eyes to
sleep. Then I had to be your nurse; had to see that
you fixed your
hair before going out; had to send your shoes to
the cobbler, and
see that there was food in the house. I had to
sit by your side,
holding your hand for hours at a time: you were
afraid, afraid
of the whole world, because you didn't have a
single friend,
and because you were crushed by the hostility of
public opinion.
I had to talk courage into you until my mouth was
dry and my head
ached. I had to make myself believe that I was
strong. I had to
force myself into believing in the future. And so
I brought you
back to life, when you seemed already dead. Then you
admired me. Then
I was the man--not that kind of athlete you had
just left, but
the man of will-power, the mesmerist who instilled
new nervous
energy into your flabby muscles and charged your empty
brain with a new
store of electricity. And then I gave you back
your reputation.
I brought you new friends, furnished you with a
little court of
people who, for the sake of friendship to me, let
themselves be
lured into admiring you. I set you to rule me and my
house. Then I
painted my best pictures, glimmering with reds and
blues on
backgrounds of gold, and there was not an exhibition then
where I didn't
hold a place of honour. Sometimes you were St.
Cecilia, and
sometimes Mary Stuart--or little Karin, whom King
Eric loved. And
I turned public attention in your direction. I
compelled the
clamorous herd to see yon with my own infatuated
vision. I
plagued them with your personality, forced you literally
down their
throats, until that sympathy which makes everything
possible became
yours at last--and you could stand on your own
feet. When you
reached that far, then my strength was used up, and
I collapsed from
the overstrain--in lifting you up, I had pushed
myself down. I
was taken ill, and my illness seemed an annoyance
to you at the
moment when all life had just begun to smile at you-
-and sometimes
it seemed to me as if, in your heart, there was a
secret desire to
get rid of your creditor and the witness of your
rise. Your love
began to change into that of a grown-up sister,
and for lack of
better I accustomed myself to the new part of
little brother.
Your tenderness for me remained, and even
increased, but
it was mingled with a suggestion of pity that had
in it a good
deal of contempt. And this changed into open scorn as
my talent
withered and your own sun rose higher. But in some
mysterious way
the fountainhead of your inspiration seemed to dry
up when I could
no longer replenish it--or rather when you wanted
to show its
independence of me. And at last both of us began to
lose ground. And
then you looked for somebody to put the blame on.
A new victim!
For you are weak, and you can never carry your own
burdens of guilt
and debt. And so you picked me for a scapegoat
and doomed me to
slaughter. But when you cut my thews, you didn't
realise that you
were also crippling yourself, for by this time
our years of
common life had made twins of us. You were a shoot
sprung from my
stem, and you wanted to cut yourself loose before
the shoot had
put out roots of its own, and that's why you
couldn't grow by
yourself. And my stem could not spare its main
branch--and so
stem and branch must die together.
TEKLA. What you
mean with all this, of course, is that you have
written my
books.
ADOLPH. No,
that's what you want me to mean in order to make me
out a liar. I
don't use such crude expressions as you do, and I
spoke for
something like five minutes to get in all the nuances,
all the
halftones, all the transitions--but your hand-organ has
only a single
note in it.
TEKLA. Yes, but
the summary of the whole story is that you have
written my
books.
ADOLPH. No,
there is no summary. You cannot reduce a chord into a
single note. You
cannot translate a varied life into a sum of one
figure. I have
made no blunt statements like that of having
written your
books.
TEKLA. But
that's what you meant!
ADOLPH. [Beyond
himself] I did not mean it.
TEKLA. But the
sum of it--
ADOLPH. [Wildly]
There can be no sum without an addition. You get
an endless
decimal fraction for quotient when your division does
not work out
evenly. I have not added anything.
TEKLA. But I can
do the adding myself.
ADOLPH. I
believe it, but then I am not doing it.
TEKLA. No. but
that's what you wanted to do.
ADOLPH.
[Exhausted, closing his eyes] No, no, no--don't speak to
me--you'll drive
me into convulsions. Keep silent! Leave me alone!
You mutilate my
brain with your clumsy pincers--you put your claws
into my thoughts
and tear them to pieces!
(He seems almost
unconscious and sits staring straight ahead while
his thumbs are
bent inward against the palms of his hands.)
TEKLA.
[Tenderly] What is it? Are you sick?
(ADOLPH motions
her away.)
TEKLA. Adolph!
(ADOLPH shakes
his head at her.)
TEKLA. Adolph.
ADOLPH. Yes.
TEKLA. Do you
admit that you were unjust a moment ago?
ADOLPH. Yes,
yes, yes, yes, I admit!
TEKLA. And do
you ask my pardon?
ADOLPH. Yes,
yes, yes, I ask your pardon--if you only won't speak
to me!
TEKLA. Kiss my
hand then!
ADOLPH. [Kissing
her hand] I'll kiss your hand--if you only don't
speak to me!
TEKLA. And now
you had better go out for a breath of fresh air
before dinner.
ADOLPH. Yes, I
think I need it. And then we'll pack and leave.
TEKLA. No!
ADOLPH. [On his
feet] Why? There must be a reason.
TEKLA. The
reason is that I have promised to be at the concert to-
night.
ADOLPH. Oh,
that's it!
TEKLA. Yes,
that's it. I have promised to attend--
ADOLPH.
Promised? Probably you said only that you might go, and
that wouldn't
prevent you from saying now that you won't go.
TEKLA. No, I am
not like you: I keep my word.
ADOLPH. Of
course, promises should be kept, but we don't have to
live up to every
little word we happen to drop. Perhaps there is
somebody who has
made you promise to go.
TEKLA. Yes.
ADOLPH. Then you
can ask to be released from your promise because
your husband is
sick.
TEKLA, No, I
don't want to do that, and you are not sick enough to
be kept from
going with me.
ADOLPH. Why do
you always want to drag me along? Do you feel safer
then?
TEKLA. I don't
know what you mean.
ADOLPH. That's
what you always say when you know I mean something
that--doesn't
please you.
TEKLA. So-o!
What is it now that doesn't please me?
ADOLPH. Oh, I
beg you, don't begin over again--Good-bye for a
while!
(Goes out
through the door in the rear and then turns to the
right.)
(TEKLA is left
alone. A moment later GUSTAV enters and goes
straight up to
the table as if looking for a newspaper. He
pretends not to
see TEKLA.)
TEKLA. [Shows
agitation, but manages to control herself] Oh, is it
you?
GUSTAV. Yes,
it's me--I beg your pardon!
TEKLA. Which way
did you come?
GUSTAV. By land.
But--I am not going to stay, as--
TEKLA. Oh, there
is no reason why you shouldn't.--Well, it was
some time ago--
GUSTAV. Yes,
some time.
TEKLA. You have
changed a great deal.
GUSTAV. And you
are as charming as ever, A little younger, if
anything. Excuse
me, however--I am not going to spoil your
happiness by my
presence. And if I had known you were here, I
should never--
TEKLA. If you
don't think it improper, I should like you to stay.
GUSTAV. On my
part there could be no objection, but I fear--well,
whatever I say,
I am sure to offend you.
TEKLA. Sit down
a moment. You don't offend me, for you possess
that rare gift--which
was always yours--of tact and politeness.
GUSTAV. It's
very kind of you. But one could hardly expect--that
your husband
might regard my qualities in the same generous light
as you.
TEKLA. On the
contrary, he has just been speaking of you in very
sympathetic
terms.
GUSTAV.
Oh!--Well, everything becomes covered up by time, like
names cut in a
tree--and not even dislike can maintain itself
permanently in
our minds.
TEKLA. He has
never disliked you, for he has never seen you. And
as for me, I
have always cherished a dream--that of seeing you
come together as
friends--or at least of seeing you meet for once
in my
presence--of seeing you shake hands--and then go your
different ways
again.
GUSTAV. It has
also been my secret longing to see her whom I used
to love more
than my own life--to make sure that she was in good
hands. And
although I have heard nothing but good of him, and am
familiar with
all his work, I should nevertheless have liked,
before it grew
too late, to look into his eyes and beg him to take
good care of the
treasure Providence has placed in his possession.
In that way I
hoped also to lay the hatred that must have
developed
instinctively between us; I wished to bring some peace
and humility
into my soul, so that I might manage to live through
the rest of my
sorrowful days.
TEKLA. You have
uttered my own thoughts, and you have understood
me. I thank you
for it!
GUSTAV. Oh, I am
a man of small account, and have always been too
insignificant to
keep you in the shadow. My monotonous way of
living, my
drudgery, my narrow horizons--all that could not
satisfy a soul
like yours, longing for liberty. I admit it. But
you
understand--you who have searched the human soul--what it cost
me to make such
a confession to myself.
TEKLA. It is
noble, it is splendid, to acknowledge one's own
shortcomings--and
it's not everybody that's capable of it. [Sighs]
But yours has
always been an honest, and faithful, and reliable
nature--one that
I had to respect--but--
GUSTAV. Not
always--not at that time! But suffering purifies,
sorrow ennobles,
and--I have suffered!
TEKLA. Poor
Gustav! Can you forgive me? Tell me, can you?
GUSTAV. Forgive?
What? I am the one who must ask you to forgive.
TEKLA. [Changing
tone] I believe we are crying, both of us--we who
are old enough
to know better!
GUSTAV. [Feeling
his way] Old? Yes, I am old. But you--you grow
younger every
day.
(He has by that
time manoeuvred himself up to the chair on the
left and sits
down on it, whereupon TEKLA sits down on the sofa.)
TEKLA. Do you
think so?
GUSTAV. And then
you know how to dress.
TEKLA. I learned
that from you. Don't you remember how you figured
out what colors
would be most becoming to me?
GUSTAV. No.
TEKLA. Yes,
don't you remember--hm!--I can even recall how you
used to be angry
with me whenever I failed to have at least a
touch of crimson
about my dress.
GUSTAV. No, not
angry! I was never angry with you.
TEKLA. Oh, yes,
when you wanted to teach me how to think--do you
remember? For
that was something I couldn't do at all.
GUSTAV. Of
course, you could. It's something every human being
does. And you
have become quite keen at it--at least when you
write.
TEKLA.
[Unpleasantly impressed; hurrying her words] Well, my dear
Gustav, it is
pleasant to see you anyhow, and especially in a
peaceful way
like this.
GUSTAV. Well, I
can hardly be called a troublemaker, and you had a
pretty peaceful
time with me.
TEKLA. Perhaps
too much so.
GUSTAV. Oh! But
you see, I thought you wanted me that way. It was
at least the
impression you gave me while we were engaged.
TEKLA. Do you
think one really knows what one wants at that time?
And then the
mammas insist on all kinds of pretensions, of course.
GUSTAV. Well,
now you must be having all the excitement you can
wish. They say
that life among artists is rather swift, and I
don't think your
husband can be called a sluggard.
TEKLA. You can
get too much of a good thing.
GUSTAV. [Trying
a new tack] What! I do believe you are still
wearing the
ear-rings I gave you?
TEKLA.
[Embarrassed] Why not? There was never any quarrel between
us--and then I
thought I might wear them as a token--and a
reminder--that
we were not enemies. And then, you know, it is
impossible to
buy this kind of ear-rings any longer. [Takes off
one of her
ear-rings.]
GUSTAV. Oh,
that's all right, but what does your husband say of
it?
TEKLA. Why
should I mind what he says?
GUSTAV. Don't
you mind that?--But you may be doing him an injury.
It is likely to
make him ridiculous.
TEKLA.
[Brusquely, as if speaking to herself almost] He was that
before!
GUSTAV. [Rises
when he notes her difficulty in putting back the
ear-ring] May I
help you, perhaps?
TEKLA. Oh--thank
you!
GUSTAV. [Pinching
her ear] That tiny ear!--Think only if your
husband could
see us now!
TEKLA. Wouldn't
he howl, though!
GUSTAV. Is he
jealous also?
TEKLA. Is he? I
should say so!
[A noise is
heard from the room on the right.]
GUSTAV. Who
lives in that room?
TEKLA. I don't
know.--But tell me how you are getting along and
what you are
doing?
GUSTAV. Tell me
rather how you are getting along?
(TEKLA is
visibly confused, and without realising what she is
doing, she takes
the cover off the wax figure.)
GUSTAV. Hello!
What's that?--Well!--It must be you!
TEKLA. I don't
believe so.
GUSTAV. But it
is very like you.
TEKLA.
[Cynically] Do you think so?
GUSTAV. That
reminds me of the story--you know it--"How could
your majesty see
that?"
TEKLA, [Laughing
aloud] You are impossible!--Do you know any new
stories?
GUSTAV. No, but
you ought to have some.
TEKLA. Oh, I
never hear anything funny nowadays.
GUSTAV. Is he
modest also?
TEKLA.
Oh--well--
GUSTAV. Not an
everything?
TEKLA. He isn't
well just now.
GUSTAV. Well,
why should little brother put his nose into other
people's hives?
TEKLA.
[Laughing] You crazy thing!
GUSTAV. Poor
chap!--Do you remember once when we were just
married--we
lived in this very room. It was furnished differently
in those days.
There was a chest of drawers against that wall
there--and over
there stood the big bed.
TEKLA. Now you
stop!
GUSTAV. Look at
me!
TEKLA. Well, why
shouldn't I?
[They look hard
at each other.]
GUSTAV. Do you
think a person can ever forget anything that has
made a very deep
impression on him?
TEKLA. No! And
our memories have a tremendous power. Particularly
the memories of
our youth.
GUSTAV. Do you
remember when I first met you? Then you were a
pretty little
girl: a slate on which parents and governesses had
made a few
scrawls that I had to wipe out. And then I filled it
with
inscriptions that suited my own mind, until you believed the
slate could hold
nothing more. That's the reason, you know, why I
shouldn't care
to be in your husband's place--well, that's his
business! But
it's also the reason why I take pleasure in meeting
you again. Our
thoughts fit together exactly. And as I sit here
and chat with
you, it seems to me like drinking old wine of my own
bottling. Yes,
it's my own wine, but it has gained a great deal in
flavour! And
now, when I am about to marry again, I have purposely
picked out a
young girl whom I can educate to suit myself. For the
woman, you know,
is the man's child, and if she is not, he becomes
hers, and then
the world turns topsy-turvy.
TEKLA. Are you
going to marry again?
GUSTAV. Yes, I
want to try my luck once more, but this time I am
going to make a
better start, so that it won't end again with a
spill.
TEKLA. Is she
good looking?
GUSTAV. Yes, to
me. But perhaps I am too old. It's queer--now when
chance has
brought me together with you again--I am beginning to
doubt whether it
will be possible to play the game over again.
TEKLA. How do
you mean?
GUSTAV. I can
feel that my roots stick in your soil, and the old
wounds are
beginning to break open. You are a dangerous woman,
Tekla!
TEKLA. Am I? And
my young husband says that I can make no more
conquests.
GUSTAV. That
means he has ceased to love you.
TEKLA. Well, I
can't quite make out what love means to him.
GUSTAV. You have
been playing hide and seek so long that at last
you cannot find
each other at all. Such things do happen. You have
had to play the innocent
to yourself, until he has lost his
courage. There
ARE some drawbacks to a change, I tell you--there
are drawbacks to
it, indeed.
TEKLA. Do you
mean to reproach--
GUSTAV. Not at
all! Whatever happens is to a certain extent
necessary, for
if it didn't happen, something else would--but now
it did happen,
and so it had to happen.
TEKLA. YOU are a
man of discernment. And I have never met anybody
with whom I
liked so much to exchange ideas. You are so utterly
free from all
morality and preaching, and you ask so little of
people, that it
is possible to be oneself in your presence. Do you
know, I am
jealous of your intended wife!
GUSTAV. And do
you realise that I am jealous of your husband?
TEKLA. [Rising]
And now we must part! Forever!
GUSTAV. Yes, we
must part! But not without a farewell--or what do
you say?
TEKLA.
[Agitated] No!
GUSTAV.
[Following after her] Yes!--Let us have a farewell! Let us
drown our
memories--you know, there are intoxications so deep that
when you wake up
all memories are gone. [Putting his arm around
her waist] You
have been dragged down by a diseased spirit, who is
infecting you
with his own anaemia. I'll breathe new life into
you. I'll make
your talent blossom again in your autumn days, like
a remontant
rose. I'll----
(Two LADIES in
travelling dress are seen in the doorway leading to
the veranda.
They look surprised. Then they point at those within,
laugh, and
disappear.)
TEKLA. [Freeing
herself] Who was that?
GUSTAV.
[Indifferently] Some tourists.
TEKLA. Leave me
alone! I am afraid of you!
GUSTAV. Why?
TEKLA. You take
my soul away from me!
GUSTAV. And give
you my own in its place! And you have no soul for
that
matter--it's nothing but a delusion.
TEKLA. You have
a way of saying impolite things so that nobody can
be angry with
you.
GUSTAV. It's
because you feel that I hold the first mortgage on
you--Tell me
now, when--and--where?
TEKLA. No, it
wouldn't be right to him. I think he is still in
love with me,
and I don't want to do any more harm.
GUSTAV. He does
not love you! Do you want proofs?
TEKLA, Where can
you get them?
GUSTAV. [Picking
up the pieces of the photograph from the floor]
Here! See for
yourself!
TEKLA. Oh,
that's an outrage!
GUSTAV. Do you
see? Now then, when? And where?
TEKLA. The
false-hearted wretch!
GUSTAV. When?
TEKLA. He leaves
to-night, with the eight-o'clock boat.
GUSTAV. And
then--
TEKLA. At nine!
[A noise is heard from the adjoining room] Who can
be living in there
that makes such a racket?
GUSTAV. Let's
see! [Goes over and looks through the keyhole]
There's a table
that has been upset, and a smashed water caraffe--
that's all! I
shouldn't wonder if they had left a dog locked up in
there.--At nine
o'clock then?
TEKLA. All
right! And let him answer for it himself.--What a
depth of deceit!
And he who has always preached about
truthfulness,
and tried to teach me to tell the truth!--But wait
a little--how
was it now? He received me with something like
hostility--didn't
meet me at the landing--and then--and then he
made some remark
about young men on board the boat, which I
pretended not to
hear--but how could he know? Wait--and then he
began to
philosophise about women--and then the spectre of you
seemed to be
haunting him--and he talked of becoming a sculptor,
that being the
art of the time--exactly in accordance with your
old
speculations!
GUSTAV. No,
really!
TEKLA. No,
really?--Oh, now I understand! Now I begin to see what
a hideous
creature you are! You have been here before and stabbed
him to death! It
was you who had been sitting there on the sofa;
it was you who
made him think himself an epileptic--that he had to
live in
celibacy; that he ought to rise in rebellion against his
wife; yes, it was
you!--How long have you been here?
GUSTAV. I have
been here a week.
TEKLA. It was
you, then, I saw on board the boat?
GUSTAV. It was.
TEKLA. And now
you were thinking you could trap me?
GUSTAV. It has
been done.
TEKLA. Not yet!
GUSTAV. Yes!
TEKLA. Like a
wolf you went after my lamb. You came here with a
villainous plan
to break up my happiness, and you were carrying it
out, when my
eyes were opened, and I foiled you.
GUSTAV. Not
quite that way, if you please. This is how it happened
in reality. Of
course, it has been my secret hope that disaster
might overtake
you. But I felt practically certain that no
interference on
my part was required. And besides, I have been far
too busy to have
any time left for intriguing. But when I happened
to be moving
about a bit, and happened to see you with those young
men on board the
boat, then I guessed the time had come for me to
take a look at
the situation. I came here, and your lamb threw
itself into the
arms of the wolf. I won his affection by some sort
of reminiscent
impression which I shall not be tactless enough to
explain to you.
At first he aroused my sympathy, because he seemed
to be in the
same fix as I was once. But then he happened to touch
old wounds--that
book, you know, and "the idiot"--and I was seized
with a wish to
pick him to pieces, and to mix up these so
thoroughly that
they couldn't be put together again--and I
succeeded,
thanks to the painstaking way in which you had done the
work of
preparation. Then I had to deal with you. For you were the
spring that had
kept the works moving, and you had to be taken
apart--and what
a buzzing followed!--When I came in here, I didn't
know exactly
what to say. Like a chess-player, I had laid a number
of tentative
plans, of course, but my play had to depend on your
moves. One thing
led to the other, chance lent me a hand, and
finally I had
you where I wanted you.--Now you are caught!
TEKLA. No!
GUSTAV. Yes, you
are! What you least wanted has happened. The
world at large,
represented by two lady tourists--whom I had not
sent for, as I
am not an intriguer--the world has seen how you
became
reconciled to your former husband, and how you sneaked back
repentantly into
his faithful arms. Isn't that enough?
TEKLA. It ought
to be enough for your revenge--But tell me, how
can you, who are
so enlightened and so right-minded--how is it
possible that
you, who think whatever happens must happen, and
that all our
actions are determined in advance--
GUSTAV. [Correcting
her] To a certain extent determined.
TEKLA. That's
the same thing!
GUSTAV. No!
TEKLA.
[Disregarding him] How is it possible that you, who hold me
guiltless, as I
was driven by my nature and the circumstances into
acting as I
did--how can you think yourself entitled to revenge--?
GUSTAV. For that
very reason--for the reason that my nature and
the
circumstances drove me into seeking revenge. Isn't that giving
both sides a
square deal? But do you know why you two had to get
the worst of it
in this struggle?
(TEKLA looks
scornful.)
GUSTAV. And why
you were doomed to be fooled? Because I am
stronger than
you, and wiser also. You have been the idiot--and
he! And now you
may perceive that a man need not be an idiot
because he
doesn't write novels or paint pictures. It might be
well for you to
bear this in mind.
TEKLA. Are you
then entirely without feelings?
GUSTAV.
Entirely! And for that very reason, you know, I am capable
of thinking--in
which you have had no experience whatever-and of
acting--in which
you have just had some slight experience.
TEKLA. And all
this merely because I have hurt your vanity?
GUSTAV. Don't
call that MERELY! You had better not go around
hurting other
people's vanity. They have no more sensitive spot
than that.
TEKLA.
Vindictive wretch--shame on you!
GUSTAV.
Dissolute wretch--shame on you!
TEKLA. Oh,
that's my character, is it?
GUSTAV. Oh,
that's my character, is it?--You ought to learn
something about
human nature in others before you give your own
nature free
rein. Otherwise you may get hurt, and then there will
be wailing and
gnashing of teeth.
TEKLA. You can
never forgive:--
GUSTAV. Yes, I
have forgiven you!
TEKLA. You!
GUSTAV. Of
course! Have I raised a hand against you during all
these years? No!
And now I came here only to have a look at you,
and it was
enough to burst your bubble. Have I uttered a single
reproach? Have I
moralised or preached sermons? No! I played a
joke or two on
your dear consort, and nothing more was needed to
finish him.--But
there is no reason why I, the complainant,
should be
defending myself as I am now--Tekla! Have you nothing at
all to reproach
yourself with?
TEKLA. Nothing
at all! Christians say that our actions are
governed by
Providence; others call it Fate; in either case, are
we not free from
all liability?
GUSTAV. In a
measure, yes; but there is always a narrow margin
left
unprotected, and there the liability applies in spite of all.
And sooner or
later the creditors make their appearance.
Guiltless, but
accountable! Guiltless in regard to one who is no
more;
accountable to oneself and one's fellow beings.
TEKLA. So you
came here to dun me?
GUSTAV. I came
to take back what you had stolen, not what you had
received as a
gift. You had stolen my honour, and I could recover
it only by
taking yours. This, I think, was my right--or was it
not?
TEKLA. Honour?
Hm! And now you feel satisfied?
GUSTAV. Now I
feel satisfied. [Rings for a waiter.]
TEKLA. And now
you are going home to your fiancee?
GUSTAV. I have
no fiancee! Nor am I ever going to have one. I am
not going home,
for I have no home, and don't want one.
(A WAITER comes
in.)
GUSTAV. Get me
my bill--I am leaving by the eight o'clock boat.
(THE WAITER bows
and goes out.)
TEKLA. Without
making up?
GUSTAV. Making
up? You use such a lot of words that have lost
their--meaning.
Why should we make up? Perhaps you want all three
of us to live
together? You, if anybody, ought to make up by
making good what
you took away, but this you cannot do. You just
took, and what
you took you consumed, so that there is nothing
left to
restore.--Will it satisfy you if I say like this: forgive
me that you tore
my heart to pieces; forgive me that you disgraced
me; forgive me
that you made me the laughing-stock of my pupils
through every
week-day of seven long years; forgive me that I set
you free from
parental restraints, that I released you from the
tyranny of
ignorance and superstition, that I set you to rule my
house, that I
gave you position and friends, that I made a woman
out of the child
you were before? Forgive me as I forgive you!--
Now I have torn
up your note! Now you can go and settle your
account with the
other one!
TEKLA. What have
you done with him? I am beginning to suspect--
something
terrible!
GUSTAV. With
him? Do you still love him?
TEKLA. Yes!
GUSTAV. And a
moment ago it was me! Was that also true?
TEKLA. It was
true.
GUSTAV. Do you
know what you are then?
TEKLA. You
despise me?
GUSTAV. I pity
you. It is a trait--I don't call it a fault--just
a trait, which
is rendered disadvantageous by its results. Poor
Tekla! I don't
know--but it seems almost as if I were feeling a
certain regret,
although I am as free from any guilt--as you! But
perhaps it will
be useful to you to feel what I felt that time.--
Do you know
where your husband is?
TEKLA. I think I
know now--he is in that room in there! And he has
heard
everything! And seen everything! And the man who sees his
own wraith dies!
(ADOLPH appears
in the doorway leading to the veranda. His face is
white as a
sheet, and there is a bleeding scratch on one cheek.
His eyes are
staring and void of all expression. His lips are
covered with
froth.)
GUSTAV.
[Shrinking back] No, there he is!--Now you can settle with
him and see if
he proves as generous as I have been.--Good-bye!
(He goes toward
the left, but stops before he reaches the door.)
TEKLA. [Goes to
meet ADOLPH with open arms] Adolph!
(ADOLPH leans
against the door-jamb and sinks gradually to the
floor.)
TEKLA. [Throwing
herself upon his prostrate body and caressing
him] Adolph! My
own child! Are you still alive--oh, speak, speak!-
-Please forgive
your nasty Tekla! Forgive me, forgive me, forgive
me!--Little
brother must say something, I tell him!--No, good God,
he doesn't hear!
He is dead! O God in heaven! O my God! Help!
GUSTAV. Why, she
really must have loved HIM, too!--Poor creature!
(Curtain.)
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