August Strindberg

“ CURT. Is it not dreadful to be alone among a lot of enemies as you are?
ALICE. It is not pleasant.
CAPTAIN. It isn't dreadful at all. I have never had anything but enemies all my life, and they have helped me on instead of doing me harm. And when my time to die comes, I may say that I owe nothing to anybody, and that I have never got a thing for nothing. Every particle of what I own I have had to fight for.
ALICE. Yes, Edgar's path has not been strewn with roses——
CAPTAIN. No, with thorns and stones—pieces of flint—but a man's own strength: do you know what that means? ”

“ ALICE. Do you know what is meant by a vampire? They say it is the soul of a dead person seeking a body in which it may live as a parasite. Edgar is dead—ever since he fell down on the floor that time. You see, he has no interests of his own, no personality, no initiative. But if he can only get hold of some other person he hangs on to him, sends down roots into him, and begins to flourish and blossom. Now he has fastened himself on you.
CURT. If he comes too close I'll shake him off.
ALICE. Try to shake off a burr! Listen: do you know why he does not want Judith and Allan to play? ”

“ BARON. It is the actual reality, and you have nobody but yourself to blame for it.
BARONESS. Myself? But did I make myself? Did I put evil tendencies, hatred, and wild passions into myself? No! And who was it that denied me the power and will to combat all those things?—When I look at myself this moment, I feel that I am to be pitied. Am I not?
BARON. Yes, you are! Both of us are to be pitied. We tried to avoid the rocks that beset marriage by living unmarried as husband and wife ”

“ Since he has quit drinking and become temperate, he is another man: calm, reserved, considerate——
ALICE. I know it, and if that man had always kept sober he would have been a menace to humanity. It is perhaps fortunate for the rest of mankind that he made himself ridiculous and harmless through his whiskey.
CURT. The spirit in the bottle has chastised him—But have you noticed since death put its mark on him that he has developed a dignity which elevates? And is it not possible that with this new idea of immortality may have come a new outlook upon life?
ALICE. You are deceiving yourself. ”

“ ALICE. No, it is the most unreasoning hatred, without cause, without purpose, but also without end. And can you imagine why he is principally afraid of death? He fears that I may marry again.
CURT. Then he loves you.
ALICE. Probably. But that does not prevent him from hating me.
CURT. [As if to himself] It is called love-hatred, and it hails from the pit!—Does he like you to play for him?
ALICE. Yes, but only horrid melodies—for instance, that awful "The Entry of the Boyars." When he hears it he loses his head and wants to dance.
CURT. Does he dance?
ALICE. Oh, he is very funny at times. ”

“ THE LAWYER. Woe to us then!—But let us forestall hatred. I promise never again to speak of any untidiness—although it is torture to me!
THE DAUGHTER. And I shall eat cabbage though it means agony to me.
THE LAWYER. A life of common suffering, then! One's pleasure, the other one's pain!
THE DAUGHTER. Men are to be pitied!
THE LAWYER. You see that?
THE DAUGHTER. Yes, but for heaven's sake, let us avoid the rocks, now when we know them so well.
THE LAWYER. Let us try! Are we not decent and intelligent persons? Able to forbear and forgive? ”

“ BARONESS. The child? Were you thinking of the child when you dragged me in the mire before this rabble?
BARON. Helen!—Like wild beasts we have clawed each other bloody. We have laid our disgrace open to all these who take pleasure in our ruin, for in this room we have not a single friend. Our child will after this never be able to speak of his parents as respectable people; he will not be able to start life with a recommendation from father and mother; he will see the home shunned, the old parents isolated and despised, and so the time must come when he will flee us! ”

“ CURT. Is that a truth?
CAPTAIN. And you don't know that a man's own strength——
CURT. Yes, I know that from the night when your own strength failed you, and you lay flat on the floor.
CAPTAIN. [Raising his voice] A deserving man like myself —yes, look at me—For fifty years I have fought—against a world—but at last I have won the game, by perseverance, loyalty, energy, and—integrity!
ALICE. You should leave that to be said by others!
CAPTAIN. The others won't say it because they are jealous. However—we are expecting company—my daughter Judith will to-day meet her intended—Where is Judith? ”

“ CURT. Why did you marry?
ALICE. Who can tell? Because he took me, seduced me! I don't know. And then I was longing to get up on the heights——
CURT. And deserted your art?
ALICE. Which was despised! But you know, he cheated me! He held out hopes of a pleasant life, a handsome home—and there was nothing but debts; no gold except on the uniform—and even that was not real gold. He cheated me!
CURT. Wait a moment! When a young man falls in love, he sees the future in a hopeful light: that his hopes are not always realized, one must pardon. ”

“ Judith! Judith!
ALICE. [Drawing nearer to CURT] Now I go—with you!
CURT. [Pushes her back with such force that she sinks to her knees] Go back to the hell whence you came! Good-bye for ever! [Goes to the door.
CAPTAIN. Don't leave me Curt; she will kill me!
ALICE. Don't desert me, Curt—don't desert us!
CURT. Good-bye! [Goes out.
ALICE. [With a sudden change of attitude] The wretch! That's a friend for you!
CAPTAIN. [Softly] Forgive me, Alice, and come here—come quick!
ALICE. [Over to the CAPTAIN] That's the worst rascal and hypocrite I have met in my life! Do you know, you are a man after all! ”

“ Your courage is that of despair, or that of a person sentenced to death. And when you leave here, you will collapse. Then you will no longer be able to load your sorrow and guilt on me, and you will be suffering from remorse. Do you know why I have not killed you?
BARONESS. Because you did not dare!
BARON. No! Not even the thought of hell could have held me back—for I don't believe in it. But this was the thought that did it: even if you get the child, you will be gone in five years. That is what the doctor tells me. And then the child might be left without either father or mother. ”

“ Because the child stays our hands! You cry, but I cannot! Not even when my thought runs ahead to the night that is waiting for me in a home laid waste! And you, poor Helen, who must go back to your mother! That mother whom you once left with such eagerness in order to get a home of your own. To become her daughter once more—and perhaps find it worse than being a wife! One year! Two years! Many years! How many more do you think we can bear to suffer?
BARONESS. I shall never go back to my mother. ”

“ You don't want to kiss her mouth, for you feel that you would die if you did. When your thoughts run to her, you feel as if death were approaching. And it is death, child—that sort of death—which brings life. But you don't understand it yet! I smell violets—it is herself. [Steps closer to ALLAN and takes the handkerchief gently away from him.] It is she, it is she everywhere, none but she! Oh, oh, oh! [ALLAN cannot help burying his face in ALICE's bosom] Poor boy! ”

“ BARONESS. Oh no! For then my family will bring suit to get the child away from you. I don't die when I die!
BARON. Evil never dies! That is so! But can you explain why you grudge me the child, and grudge the child me, whom it needs? Is it sheer malice—a craving for revenge that punishes the child? [The BARONESS remains silent] Do you know, I remarked to the Pastor that I thought possibly you might have some doubts concerning the child's parentage, and that this might be a reason why you would not let me have the child, lest my happiness be built on a false foundation. ”

“ Without wedding ceremony, but with a marriage contract! And then it went to pieces. I forgave your faithlessness, and for the child's sake we lived together in voluntary separation—and freedom! But I grew tired of introducing my friend's mistress as my wife—and so we had to get a divorce. Can you guess—do you know against whom we have been fighting? You call him God, but I call him nature. And that was the master who egged us on to hate each other, just as he is egging people on to love each other. And now we are condemned to keep on tearing each other as long as a spark of life remains. ”

“ ALLAN. He's so uncertain. Sometimes he seems to have a grudge against me.
CURT. Oh, no! You just go here and make people "seem" this or that. Don't brood, but look after your own affairs, do what is proper, and leave others to their own concerns.
ALLAN. So I do, but—they won't leave me alone. They pull you in—as the cuttlefish down at the landing—they don't bite, but they stir up vortices that suck——
CURT. You have some tendency to melancholia, I think. Don't you feel at home here with me? Is there anything you miss? ”

“ Oh, the tower is opening its gates, and the sentry with the drawn sabre will no longer be guarding me, but him—Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre! Him, him, him, the sentry is going to guard!
CURT. [Has been watching her with an intoxicated look in his eyes] Alice, are you, too, a devil?
ALICE. [Jumps up on a chair and pulls down the wreaths] These we will take along when we depart—the laurels of triumph! And fluttering ribbons! A little dusty, but eternally green—like my youth—I am not old, Curt?
CURT. With shining eyes] You are a devil! ”

“ CURT. Do you mean to imply that he was playing a hoax on us up to the very moment of death?
ALICE. No—but now, when he is dead, I feel a strange inclination to speak well of him.
CURT. Well, let us do so!
LIEUTENANT. Miss Judith's father was a good and noble man.
ALICE. [To CURT] Listen to that!
CURT. "They know not what they do." How many times did I not ask you whether he knew what he was doing? And you didn't think he knew. Therefore, forgive him!
ALICE. Riddles! Riddles! But do you notice that there is peace in the house now? The wonderful peace of death. ”

“ LIEUTENANT. [In from the background] I beg your pardon! I thought that——
JUDITH. Tell me, Lieutenant, will you be my friend and ally?
LIEUTENANT. If you'll do me the honour——
JUDITH. Yes—a word only—don't desert Allan when disaster overtakes him.
LIEUTENANT. What disaster?
JUDITH. You'll soon see—this very day perhaps. Do you like Allan?
LIEUTENANT. The young man is my best pupil, and I value him personally also on account of his strength of character—Yes, life has moments when strength is required [with emphasis] to bear up, to endure, to suffer, in a word! ”

“ As my mistress, your victory would have been unchallenged, and your infidelities would only have seemed the bouquet of my new wine.
BARONESS. Yes, your love was always material.
BARON. Material as everything spiritual, and spiritual as all that is material! My weakness for you, which gave strength to my feeling, made you believe yourself the stronger, when you were simply coarser, more ill-natured, and more unscrupulous than I.
BARONESS. You the stronger? You, who never want the same thing two minutes in a stretch! You, who as a rule never know what you want! ”

“ CURT. Not at all. But I have not provided you with a wife—on the contrary.
CAPTAIN. [Without letting his flow of words be checked] Don't you think life is queer anyhow?
CURT. I suppose so.
CAPTAIN. And to grow old—it is no fun, but it is interesting. Well, my age is nothing to speak of, but it does begin to make itself felt. All your friends die off, and then you become so lonely.
CURT. Lucky the man who can grow old in company with a wife.
CAPTAIN. Lucky? Well, it is luck, for the children go their way, too. You ought not to have left yours.
CURT. Well, I didn't. ”

“ ALICE. You have become aware of it? Look at those boots. With those he would have trampled the earth flat, had he been allowed to do so. With those he has trampled down other people's fields and gardens. With those he has trampled on some people's toes and other people's heads—Man-eater, you have got your bullet at last!
CURT. He would be comical were he not so tragical; and there are traces of greatness in all his narrow-mindedness—Have you not a single good word to say about him? ”

“ ALICE. If they accept him!
CAPTAIN. Him? Who has the making of a War Minister in him!
CURT. From one thing to another. There is to be a quarantine station here—against plague, cholera, and that sort of thing. And the doctor will be my superior, as you know—what sort of man is he?
CAPTAIN. Man? He is no man! He's an ignorant rascal!
CURT. [To ALICE] That is very unpleasant for me.
ALICE. Oh, it is not quite as bad as Edgar makes it out, but I must admit that I have small sympathy for the man——
CAPTAIN. A rascal, that's what he is. ”

“ JUDITH. Because I know you appreciate my company—Yes, you manage always to pass by my window. You have always some errand that brings you into the city with the same boat that I take. You cannot go for a sail without having me to look after the jib.
ALLAN. But a young girl shouldn't say that kind of things!
JUDITH. Do you mean to say that I am a child?
ALLAN. Sometimes you are a good child, and sometimes a bad woman. Me you seem to have picked to be your sheep.
JUDITH. You are a sheep, and that's why I am going to protect you.
ALLAN. [Rising] The wolf makes a poor shepherd! ”

“ ALLAN. I have never been better off, but—there is something here that smothers me.
CURT. Here by the sea? Are you not fond of the sea?
ALLAN. Yes, the open sea. But along the shores you find eelgrass, cuttlefish, jellyfish, sea-nettles, or whatever they are called.
CURT. You shouldn't stay indoors so much. Go out and play tennis.
ALLAN. Oh, that's no fun!
CURT. You are angry with Judith, I guess?
ALLAN. Judith?
CURT. You are so exacting toward people—it is not wise, for then you become isolated. ”