August Strindberg

“ CHRISTINE. My coat and hat are in there. Good bye for now. [Goes out R.]
ELIS. Good-bye, my friend, [Pause] forever. [He rushes out L.]
ELEONORA. God help us, what have I done now? The police are after the guilty one, and if I am discovered—then— [With a shriek] they'll send me back there. [Pause.] But I mustn't be selfish. Oh, poor mother and poor Elis!
BENJAMIN [Childishly] . Eleonora, you must tell them that I did it.
ELEONORA. Could you make another's guilt yours, you child?
BENJAMIN. That's easy, when one knows he's innocent.
ELEONORA. One should never deceive. ”

“ ELEONORA. Hush! Let's talk of other things! Poor Elis! Poor all of us! But it is Easter, and we ought to suffer. Isn't there a recital tomorrow? [Benjamin nods his head.] And they give Haydn's Seven Words on the Cross! "Mother, behold thy son!" [She weeps with face in hands.]
BENJAMIN. What kind of illness have you had?
ELEONORA. An illness that is not mortal unless it is God's will! I expected good, and evil came; I expected light, and darkness came. How was your childhood, Benjamin?
BENJAMIN. Oh, I don't know. Kind of tiresome! And yours?
ELEONORA. I never had any. I was born old. ”

“ Oh, Axel, you can't know how I feel my position. What am I to you? Of what use am I in your house? Oh, I blush when I think about it!
AXEL. What, what, what! Aren't you my wife?
BERTHA. Yes, but—
AXEL. Well, then?
BERTHA. But you support me.
AXEL. Well, isn't that the right thing to do?
BERTHA. It was formerly—according to the old scheme of marriage, but we weren't to have it like that. We were to be comrades.
AXEL. What talk! Isn't a man to support his wife?
BERTHA. I don't want it. And you, Axel, you must help me. ”

“ BERTHA. What's that?
AXEL [Vexed] . Shame, I said. [Rises.] Are you trying to teach me how to paint?
BERTHA. Why not?
AXEL. Because you have still much to learn from me. But I can learn nothing from you.
BERTHA. It seems to me that the gentleman is not very respectful to his wife. One should bear in mind the respect one owes to—
ABEL. Now you're old-fashioned. What particular respect does a man owe a woman if they are to be equals?
BERTHA [To Abel] . So you think it's all right for a man to be coarse with his wife?
ABEL. Yes, when she is impudent to him.
AXEL. That's right! ”

“ AXEL. No, I would never have thought that. Look here, don't you believe in woman, eh?
DR. ÖSTERMARK. No, sir! I do not. But I love her.
AXEL. In your way—yes!
DR. ÖSTERMARK. In my way—yes. How about your way?
AXEL. We have arranged a sort of comradeship, you see, and friendship is higher and more enduring than love.
DR. ÖSTERMARK. H'm—so Bertha paints too. How? Well?
AXEL. Fairly well.
DR. ÖSTERMARK. We were good friends in the old days, she and I,—that is, we always quarreled a little.—Some visitors. Hush! It is Carl and his wife!
AXEL [Rising] . And Bertha isn't at home! ”

“ CHRISTINE. This is too much!
ELIS. Our creditor, he who can take our home and all our belongings away from us. He, Lindkvist, who has come here and ensconced himself in the middle of his web like a spider, to watch the flies—
CHRISTINE. Let us run away!
ELIS [At window] . No—no running away! Now when you grow weak I become strong—now he is coming up the street—and he casts his evil eye over toward his prey.
CHRISTINE. Stand aside, at least.
ELIS [Straightening himself] . No, he amuses me. His face lights up with pleasure, as tho' he could already see his victims in his trap. Come on! ”

“ ELIS. Well, perhaps you're right. It is best so. She is as well off there as she could be anywhere. When I think of how she used to go about here casting gloom over every attempt at happiness, how her fate weighed us down like a nightmare, then I am tempted to feel almost glad about it. I believe the greatest misfortune that could happen would be to see her cross this threshold. Selfish brute that I am!
CHRISTINE. Human being that you are!
ELIS. And yet—I suffer—suffer at the thought of her misery and my father's.
CHRISTINE. It seems as tho' some were born to suffer. ”

“ LINDKVIST. Human nature is as uncertain as things and thought. Peter was faithless—I don't deny it, and I won't defend him—in that. But the heart of mankind is fathomless, and there is always some gold to be found. Peter was a faithless friend, but a friend nevertheless.
ELIS. A faithless—
LINDKVIST. Faithless—yes, but a friend, as I said. This faithless friend has unwittingly done you a great service.
ELIS [Sneeringly] . Even that.
LINDKVIST. [Moving nearer to Elis] . As ye sow, so shall ye reap!
ELIS. It's not true of evil.
LINDKVIST. It's true of everything in life. ”

“ BERTHA. That's not true; the luncheon only cost twelve francs.
AXEL. That is to say, you put eight in your pocket. Then you have received three hundred francs for the picture that you sold.
BERTHA. "What a woman earns by her work, she also controls." That's what the law states.
AXEL. That's not a paradox, then? Not monomania?
BERTHA. No, it seems not.
AXEL. Of course, we must not be petty; you control your earnings, and have controlled mine, in an unspeakable way; still, don't you think that, as comrades, you should have told me about the sale? ”

“ ELIS. How lucky that I was not at that dinner yesterday—I would surely have made a speech against the Governor, and so I would have spoiled everything for us.
CHRISTINE. Do you realize that now?
ELIS. Thanks for your advice, Christine. You knew your Peter.
CHRISTINE. My Peter?—
ELIS. I meant—my Peter.—But—look—he is here again, woe unto us!
[One can see the shadow of Lindkvist on the curtain, who is nearing slowly. The shadow gets larger and larger, until it is giant-like. They stand in fear and tremble.]
ELIS. Look,—the giant—the giant that wants to swallow us. ”

“ AXEL. Like all others? I should hope so!
BERTHA. And you have become so superior lately. You didn't use to be like that.
AXEL. It must be because I am superior! Doing something that we men have never done before!
BERTHA. What! What are you saving! Shame on you!
WILLMER. There, there, good friends! No, but, dear friends—Bertha, control yourself.
[He gives her a look which she tries to make out.]
BERTHA [Changing] . Axel, let's be friends! And hear me a moment. Do you think that my position in your house—for it is yours—is agreeable to me? ”

“ BERTHA. I beg for a man's love, I, a woman, and he shoves me away from him!
AXEL. Why not? We should also have leave to say no for once, although we are not always very hard to please.
BERTHA. A woman offers herself to a man and is refused!
AXEL. Feel now how millions have felt, when they have begged on their knees for the mercy of being allowed to give what the other accepts. Feel it for your whole sex, and then tell them how it felt.
BERTHA [Rising] . Good night. The day after tomorrow, then.
AXEL. You still want the party tomorrow, then?
BERTHA. Yes, I want the party tomorrow. ”

“ ELEONORA. Don't mention that word. What do we know about it, for that matter,—more than that it is disease and punishment? One must never touch evil, for then one will surely catch it. Look at Elis, haven't you noticed how changed he is since he started to read those papers?
BENJAMIN. About the law-suit?
ELEONORA. Yes. It is as if evil had crept into his soul; it is reflected in his face and eyes. Christine feels this, and not to be contaminated by it, she encases herself in an armor of ice. And those papers—if I could only burn them! They are filled with meanness, falsehood and revenge. ”

“ ELEONORA. Shall we not weep in the vale of tears?
BENJAMIN. H'm.
ELEONORA. You would rather laugh all the time, and that's why trouble comes your way. But it's when you are serious that I like you best. Remember that. [Pause.]
BENJAMIN. Do you think that we will get out of this trouble, Eleonora?
ELEONORA. Yes, most of it will take care of itself, when Good Friday is over, but not all of it—today the birch rod, tomorrow the Easter eggs—today snow—tomorrow thaw. Today death—tomorrow life—resurrection. ”

“ BENJAMIN. But tomorrow that man will come and take the things.
ELEONORA. Let him come. Then we'll go out under the sky, away from everything—away from all the old home things that father gathered for us, that I have seen since I was a child. Yes, one should never own anything that ties one down to earth. Out, out on the stony ways to wander with bruised feet, for that road leads upward. That's why it's the hard road.
BENJAMIN. Now you are so serious again!
ELEONORA. We must be today. But do you know what will be hardest to part with? ”

“ BERTHA. But who have accepted salon medals!
AXEL. Which are not worn on their coats.
BERTHA. What do you say to this, Gaga?
WILLMER. As long as distinctions exist, one does one's self harm to go about with the mark of infamy, and the example no one is likely to follow. Take them away for all of me—I certainly can't get them away from the others.
AXEL. Yes, and when my comrades who are more deserving than I do not wear them, I would lower them by wearing the emblem.
BERTHA. But it doesn't show under your overcoat. No one will know, and you won't brand any one. ”

“ BENJAMIN. Do you know, I, too, seem to have thought everything that you say.
ELEONORA. I am sure you have. What made you think that the coin I left at the florist's would be lost?
BENJAMIN. Because what shouldn't happen always does happen.
ELEONORA. Have you noticed that too? Hush, some one is coming. [Looks toward back.] I hear—Elis, oh, how good! My only friend on earth! [She darkens.] But—he didn't expect me! And he will not be glad to see me—no, he won't be, I am sure he won't be. Benjamin, have a pleasant face and be cheerful when my poor brother comes in. ”

“ And now you buy the centurions' work for ten francs an hour in a studio, and with money that we have acquired by our work.
BERTHA. You are not honorable now, Axel.
AXEL. When was I honorable? When I allowed you to use me like an old shoe? But now you are my superior—and now I can't strive to be honorable any longer. Do you know that this adversity will also change our economic relations? I cannot think of painting any more, but must give up my life's dream and become a pot-boiler in earnest.
BERTHA. You needn't do that; when I can sell, I will support myself. ”

“ ELEONORA. Why should the giant come and scare children?
LINDKVIST. So that the children will be good.
ELEONORA. That's true. The giant is right. [She kisses Lindkvist's coat sleeve.] Thanks, dear giant.
LINDKVIST. You should say Mr. Giant, I should think.
ELEONORA. Oh, no. That's not your real name—
LINDKVIST [Laughing] . Good-bye, children. Now you can throw the rod in the fire.
ELEONORA. No, we must keep it. Children are so forgetful.
LINDKVIST. How well you know children, little one! [He goes out.]
ELEONORA. We are going to the country, Benjamin. Within two months! ”

“ BERTHA. Oh, the world knows that already. But tell me, why don't you suffer when a comrade, a man comrade, is accepted, although he has less merit than you?
AXEL. I'll have to think about that. You see our feeling toward you women has never been critical—we've taken you as a matter of course, and so I've never thought about our relations as against each other. Now when the shoe pinches, it strikes me that we are not comrades, for this experience makes me feel that you women do not belong here. [Indicating the studio.] A comrade is a more or less loyal competitor; we are enemies. ”

“ CHRISTINE. Can you feel all that—here in town?
ELIS. Here? It's true we are here, but I was up there, in the North, where our home lies. Oh, how did we ever get into this dreadful city where the people all hate each other and where one is always alone? Yes, it was our daily bread that led the way, but with the bread came the misfortunes: father's criminal act and little sister's illness. Tell me, do you know whether mother has ever been to see father since he's been in prison? ”

“ MRS. HEYST. But I can. Eleonora, the child of sorrow, has found happiness, tho' it's not of this world. Her unrest has turned to peace, which she sheds upon others. Sane or not, she has found wisdom. She knows how to carry life's burdens better than I do, better than all of us. Am I sane, for that matter? Was I sane when I thought my husband innocent altho' I knew that he was convicted by the evidence, and that he confessed? And you, Elis—are you sane when you can't see that Christine loves you, when you believe that she hates you? ”