August Strindberg

“ LAURA. What can I do? I will swear by God and all I hold sacred that you are Bertha's father.
CAPTAIN. What use is that when you have often said that a mother can and ought to commit any crime for her child? I implore you as a wounded man begs for a death blow, to tell me all. Don't you see I'm as helpless as a child? Don't you hear me complaining as to a mother? Won't you forget that I am a man, that I am a soldier who can tame men and beasts with a word? Like a sick man I only ask for compassion. ”

“ JEAN. Do you know that you are wonderful?
JULIE. Perhaps. But you are too. Everything is wonderful for that matter. Life, people—everything. Everything is wreckage, that drifts over the water until it sinks, sinks. I have the same dream every now and then and at this moment I am reminded of it. I find myself seated at the top of a high pillar and I see no possible way to get down. I grow dizzy when I look down, but down I must. But I'm not brave enough to throw myself; I cannot hold fast and I long to fall—but I don't fall. And yet I can find no rest or peace until I shall come down to earth ”

“ CAPTAIN [Draws her to him] . Bertha, dear, dear child, you are my child! Yes, Yes; it cannot be otherwise. It is so. The other was only sickly thoughts that come with the wind like pestilence and fever. Look at me that I may see my soul in your eyes!—But I see her soul, too! You have two souls and you love me with one and hate me with the other. But you must only love me! You must have only one soul, or you will never have peace, nor I either. You must have only one mind, which is the child of my mind and one will, which is my will. ”

“ THORFINN. Woman cannot think.
ORM. No, not with her head, but with her heart. That's why she has a smaller head but a bigger breast than we.
THORFINN. Forebodings of evil torture me.
ORM. Poor Thorfinn.
THORFINN. My child! Orm! When she comes do you bid her drink from the horn to Asa-Odin.
ORM. The fox scents against, the wind. I understand.
THORFINN. Be ready—they come.
ORM. Be not hard with the child, Thorfinn, or you will have me to reckon with.
[Valgerd and Gunlöd enter. The latter heavy with sleepiness.]
GUNLÖD. Welcome home, father.
THORFINN. Do you speak truthfully? ”

“ CAPTAIN. Can't you manage one woman, eh?
NÖJD. Of course I can,—but—well, you see, it's queer, but one never wants to lay hands on a woman.
CAPTAIN. Why not? Haven't they laid hands on me?
NÖJD. Yes, but I can't, Captain. It's just as if you asked me to strike the Pastor. It's second nature, like religion, I can't!
[Laura comes in, she motions Nöjd to go.]
CAPTAIN. Omphale, Omphale! Now you play with the club while Hercules spins your wool.
LAURA [Goes to sofa] . Adolf, look at me. Do you believe that I am your enemy?
CAPTAIN. Yes, I do. I believe that you are all my enemies! ”

“ ORM. Thorfinn! That is to say, you regret your harshness toward your child?
THORFINN [Angry] . I regret nothing. And as far as the child is concerned you had better hold your tongue!
ORM. Hear you, Thorfinn—have you ever thought about what your life has been?
THORFINN. Thinking is for old women—doing has been my life.
ORM. What do you intend to do now?
THORFINN. What do I intend to do now?
ORM. Yes.
THORFINN [Shaken, is silent.]
ORM. You see how even a little thought struck you—think then if a big thought should come. Why don't you dare to look back? ”

“ LAURA. What! You are crying, man!
CAPTAIN. Yes, I am crying although I am a man. But has not a man eyes! Has not a man hands, limbs, senses, thoughts, passions? Is he not fed with the wine food, hurt by the same weapons, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter as a woman? If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? And if you poison us, do we not die? Why shouldn't a man complain, a soldier weep? Because it is unmanly? Why is it unmanly?
LAURA. Weep then, my child, as if you were with your mother once more. ”

“ VALGERD. When the floating ice melts, then shall spring be here.
GUNLÖD. The Northern Lights melt no ice.
VALGERD. Nor your tears.
GUNLÖD. You never saw me weep.
VALGERD. But I have heard you. As long as you do that, you are a child.
GUNLÖD. I am not a child.
VALGERD. If you would be a woman, suffer in silence.
GUNLÖD. I'll cast sorrow from me, mother.
VALGERD. No, no—bury it, as your deepest treasure. The seed must not lie on top of the earth if it would sprout and ripen. You have a deep sorrow. It should bear great gladness—and great peace. ”

“ VALGERD. Oh, stay and say a word of farewell!
THORFINN. Woman, you tear down my strength with your feelings. Let me go! The play has begun!
VALGERD. Say farewell, at least.
THORNFINN [Restraining his feelings with effort] . Farewell, child. [Goes out.]
VALGERD. That man no one will bend.
GUNLÖD. God will!
VALGERD. His hardness is great.
GUNLÖD. God's mercy is greater!
VALGERD. Farewell, my child.
GUNLÖD. Do you dare leave me behind, alone?
VALGERD [Embracing Gunlöd] . Are you prepared?
GUNLÖD. The holy virgin prays for me.
VALGERD. I trust in the God of love. ”

“ Is Bertha to leave home now?
CAPTAIN. Yes, she is to start in a fortnight.
LAURA. That is your decision?
CAPTAIN. Yes.
LAURA. Then I must try to prevent it.
CAPTAIN. You cannot.
LAURA. Can't I? Do you really think I would trust my daughter to wicked people to have her taught that everything her mother has implanted in her child is mere foolishness? Why, afterward, she would despise me all the rest of her life!
CAPTAIN. Do you think that a father should allow ignorant and conceited women to teach his daughter that he is a charlatan?
LAURA. It means less to the father. ”

“ JEAN. I know that the law demands nothing of a woman who seduces a man.
JULIE [Again not heeding him] . Do you see any way out of it but to travel?—wed—and separate?
JEAN. And if I protest against this misalliance?
JULIE. Misalliance!
JEAN. Yes, for me. For you see I have a finer ancestry than you, for I have no fire-bug in my family.
JULIE. How do you know?
JEAN. You can't prove the contrary. We have no family record except that which the police keep. But your pedigree I have read in a book on the drawing room table. Do you know who the founder of your family was? ”

“ Who is the fleshly father of the spiritual child?
LAURA. And as for your suspicions about the child, they are absolutely groundless.
CAPTAIN. That's just what makes it so horrible. If at least there were any grounds for them, it would be something to get hold of, to cling to. Now there are only shadows that hide themselves in the bushes, and stick out their heads and grin; it is like fighting with the air, or firing blank cartridges in a sham fight. A fatal reality would have called forth resistance, stirred life and soul to action ”

“ CAPTAIN. Margret! Forgive me, but believe me when I say that there is no one here who wishes me well but you. Help me, for I feel that something is going to happen here. What it is, I don't know, but something evil is on the way. [Scream from within.] What's that? Who's that screaming?
[Berths enters from inner room.]
BERTHA. Father! Father! Help me; save me.
CAPTAIN. My dear child, what is it? Speak!
BERTHA. Help me. She wants to hurt me.
CAPTAIN. Who wants to hurt you? Tell me! Speak!
BERTHA. Grandmother! But it's my fault for I deceived her.
CAPTAIN. Tell me more. ”

“ Where is the child?
VALGERD [Troubled] . She is in the loft.
THORFINN. Call her hither.
VALGERD. She's not well.
THORFINN [Looks sharply at Valgerd] . She shall—come!
VALGERD. You don't mean that.
THORFINN. Did you hear the word?
VALGERD. It is not your last.
THORFINN. A man has but one, though woman must always have the last.
VALGERD [Weakly] . You mock me.
THORFINN. You are angry I believe.
VALGERD. You laugh so much tonight.
[Goes out.]
THORFINN. Orm! A thought comes to me.
ORM. If it's a great one you had better hide it. Great thoughts are scarce these days. ”

“ CAPTAIN. What did you say? Was I to go to bed when I was dressed—damnation! what have you done to me? [Tries to get free.] Ah! you cunning devil of a woman! Who would have thought you had so much wit. [Lies down on sofa.] Trapped, shorn, outwitted, and not to be able to die!
NURSE. Forgive me, Mr. Adolf, forgive me, but I wanted to keep you from killing your child.
CAPTAIN. Why didn't you let me? You say life is hell and death the kingdom of heaven, and children belong to heaven.
NURSE. How do you know what comes after death? ”

“ I want to go with the flames, and in the smoke shall my spirit rise to Ginde to receive charity and peace.
GUNLÖD. And I to be alone afterward! Oh, let me follow you.
VALGERD. No, child, you are young. You may yet flourish in a milder clime. But the old fir tree dies on its roots.
GUNLÖD. Father, father, you must not die. I will save you!
THORFINN. You?
GUNLÖD. Your kinsman Gunnar lies off Hjärleif's headland with his men. Send one of the thralls to him by a roundabout route and he will come.
THORFINN. So! It wax out of that well that you drew your courage. ”

“ LAURA. You.
CAPTAIN. No, I am not. Here is a buried crime that begins to stench, and what a hellish crime! You women have been compassionate enough to free the black slaves, but you have kept the white ones. I have worked and slaved for you, your child, your mother, your servants; I have sacrificed promotion and career; I have endured torture, flagellation, sleeplessness, worry for your sake, until my hair has grown gray; and all that you might enjoy a life without care, and when you grew old, enjoy life over again in your child. ”

“ LAURA. Then it must be broken. What did Nöjd want here?
CAPTAIN. That is an official secret.
LAURA. Which the whole kitchen knows!
CAPTAIN. Good, then you must know it.
LAURA. I do know it.
CAPTAIN. And have your judgment ready-made?
LAURA. My judgment is the judgment of the law.
CAPTAIN. But it is not written in the law who the child's father is.
LAURA. No, but one usually knows that.
CAPTAIN. Wise minds claim that one can never know.
LAURA. That's strange. Can't one ever know who the father of a child is?
CAPTAIN. No; so they claim. ”

“ LAURA. Give me your hand, friend.
CAPTAIN. My band! The hand that you have bound! Omphale! Omphale!—But I feel your shawl against my mouth; it is as warm and soft as your arm, and it smells of vanilla, like your hair when you were young! Laura, when you were young, and we walked in the birch woods, with the primroses and the thrushes—glorious, glorious! Think how beautiful life was, and what it is now. You didn't want to have it like this, nor did I, and yet it happened. Who then rules over life?
LAURA. God alone rules—
CAPTAIN. The God of strife then! ”

“ Adolf? Do you think I can forget that you were my child when you were little?
CAPTAIN. Well, you dear, have I forgotten it? You have been like a mother to me, and always have stood by me when I had everybody against me, but now, when I really need you, you desert me and go over to the enemy.
NURSE. The enemy!
CAPTAIN, Yes, the enemy! You know well enough how things are in this house! You have seen everything from the beginning.
NURSE. Indeed I have seen! But, God knows, why two people should torment the life out of each other ”

“ JULIE. What harm would that do?
JEAN. Simply that it would give them a chance to gossip. And if Miss Julie only knew how their tongues wagged just now—then—
JULIE. What did they say? Tell me. And sit down now.
JEAN [Sitting] . I don't wish to hurt you, but they used an expression—threw hints of a certain kind—but you are not a child, you can understand. When one sees a lady drinking alone with a man—let alone a servant—at night—then—
JULIE. Then what? And for that matter, we are not alone. Kristin is here.
JEAN. Sleeping! Yes. ”

“ Now I am dishonored and can live no longer, for a man cannot live without honor.
LAURA. But a woman?
CAPTAIN. Yes, for she has her children, which he has not. But, like the rest of mankind, we lived our lives unconscious as children, full of imagination, ideals, and illusions, and then we awoke; it was all over. But we awoke with our feet on the pillow, and he who waked us was himself a sleep-walker. When women grow old and cease to be women, they get beards on their chins; I wonder what men get when they grow old and cease to be men. ”

“ Why can't you both—
[Laura comes in.]
LAURA. Oh, so Bertha is here. Then perhaps we may have her own opinion as the question of her future has to be decided.
CAPTAIN. The child can hardly have any well-grounded opinion about what a young girl's life is likely to be, while we, on the contrary, can more easily estimate what it may be, as we have seen so many young girls grow up.
LAURA. But as we are of different opinions Bertha must be the one to decide.
CAPTAIN. No, I let no one usurp my rights, neither women nor children. Bertha, leave us. ”

“ JEAN. For the last time—what do you mean? Shall I weep, shall I jump over your riding whip, shall I kiss you, lure you to Lake Como for three weeks, and then—what do you want anyway? This is getting tiresome. But that's the way it always is when you get mixed up in women's affairs. Miss Julie, I see that you are unhappy, I know that you suffer, but I can't understand you. Among my kind there is no nonsense of this sort; we love as we play when work gives us time. We haven't the whole day and night for it like you. ”

“ JEAN [Warningly.] Miss Julie!
JULIE. Yes, Monsieur Jean!
JEAN. Attention. Je ne suis qu'un homme!
JULIE. Will you sit still! So, now it is gone! Kiss my hand and thank me!
[Jean rises.]
JEAN. Miss Julie, listen to me. Kristin has gone to bed now—will you listen to me—
JULIE. Kiss my hand first.
JEAN. Listen to me—
JULIE. Kiss my hand first.
JEAN. Yes, but blame yourself.
JULIE. For what?
JEAN. For what? Are you a child at twenty-five? Don't you know that it is dangerous to play with fire?
JULIE. Not for me. I am insured!
JEAN. No, you are not. ”

“ JEAN. No, Miss Julie, they don't love you. They take your food and spit upon your kindness, believe me. Listen to them, listen to what they're singing! No! Don't listen!
JULIE [Listening] . What are they singing?
JEAN. It's something suggestive, about you and me.
JULIE. Infamous! Oh horrible! And how cowardly!
JEAN. The pack is always cowardly. And in such a battle one can only run away.
JULIE. Run away? Where? We can't get out and we can't go to Kristin.
JEAN. Into my room then. Necessity knows no law. You can depend on me for I am your real, genuine, respectful friend. ”

“ You struck me, Thorfinn—I swore revenge—I shall humble you with a kind deed.
GUNLÖD [Unseen by Valgerd has entered and falls on her mother's neck] . Thanks, mother.
VALGERD [Disconcerted] . Haven't you gone—
GUNLÖD. Now I shall go. [Gunlöd goes.]
VALGERD [Alone by the window-hole] . You shout for help, you mighty man, who always helped yourself. [Trumpets are heard.] Where is now your might—where is your kingdom— [A gust of wind blows out the lighted torch. Valgerd, terribly frightened, takes torch and lights it.] Oh, he will perish! What shall I do? Pray? To whom? Odin? Njard? Ogir? ”

“ And to think of the Count! Think of him who has had so much sorrow all his days? No, I don't want to stay in this house any longer! And to think of it being with such as you! If it had been the Lieutenant—
JEAN. What's that?
KRISTIN. Yes! He was good enough, to be sure, but there's a difference between people just the same. No, this I can never forget. Miss Julie who was always so proud and indifferent to men! One never would believe that she would give herself—and to one like you! She who was ready to have Diana shot because she would run after the gatekeeper's mongrels. ”

“ THORFINN. You may well ask that.
ORM. It—was a messenger from that old woman who felled Thor—the age!
THORFINN. You talk like an old woman.
ORM. This age does not want to use force, but you have violated it and it strikes you.
THORFINN. This age cannot suffer strength, therefore it worships weakness.
ORM. When you came to this island you swore peace. You have broken your oath, you have violated your honor, therefore you must die like a felon.
THORFINN. Do you too call me a felon?
ORM. Yes.
THORFINN. Would you dare to break an oath? Would you dare to in called a felon? ”

“ KRISTIN. Yes, it's sick. Diana sneaked out with the gatekeeper's mongrels and now something is wrong. Miss Julie can't stand that.
JEAN. Miss Julie has a great deal of pride about some things—but not enough about others! Just like her mother in her lifetime; she thrived best in the kitchen or the stable, but she must always drive tandem—never one horse! She would go about with soiled cuffs but she had to have the Count's crest on her cuff buttons. And as for Miss Julie, she doesn't take much care of her appearance either. I should say she isn't refined. ”