August Strindberg

“ STRANGER. Because it may be your destiny.
LADY. No such idea ever crossed my mind; it was largely sympathy I felt for you.... Never, in all my life, have I met anyone like you. I have only to look at you for the tears to start to my eyes. Tell me, what have you on your conscience? Have you done something wrong, that's never been discovered or punished?
STRANGER. You may well ask! No, I've no more sins on my conscience than other free men. Except this: I determined that life should never make a fool of me.
LADY. You must let yourself be fooled, more or less, to live at all. ”

“ LADY. Don't turn your back on the sunlight. Look at this lovely country; you'll feel calmer.
STRANGER. I can't bear that poorhouse. It seems to have been built there solely for me. And a demented woman always stands there beckoning.
LADY. Do you think they treat you badly here?
STRANGER. In a way, no. They feed me with tit-bits, as if I were to be fattened for the butcher. But I can't eat because they grudge it me, and I feel the cold rays of their hate. To me it seems there's an icy wind everywhere, although it's still and hot. ”

“ LADY. God is with me; so what have I to fear from human beings?
STRANGER. Aren't you tormented by those people at the pool?
LADY (turning towards them) . I can't see them. I can't see anything horrible now.
STRANGER. Ingeborg! I have made you evil, yet you're on the way to make me good! It was my dream, you know, to seek redemption through a woman. You don't believe it! But it's true. In the old days nothing was of value to me if I couldn't lay it at a woman's feet. Not as a tribute to an overbearing mistress,... but as a sacrifice to the beautiful and good. ”

“ STRANGER. Oh yes. I've learned to hate. Can one love what does evil?
MOTHER. I've little learning, as you know; but I read yesterday in an encyclopaedia that the Eumenides are not evilly disposed.
STRANGER. That's true; but it's a lie they're friendly. I only know one friendly fury. My own!
MOTHER. Can you call Ingeborg a fury?
STRANGER. Yes. She is one; and as a fury, she's remarkable. Her talent for making me suffer excels my most infernal inventions; and if I escape from her hands with my life, I'll come out of the fire as pure as gold. ”

“ Now! I suffer as much as if I were all mankind. I suffer and have no right to complain....
BEGGAR. Then suffer, and the more you suffer the earlier pain will leave you.
STRANGER. No. Mine are eternal sufferings....
BEGGAR. And only a minute's passed.
STRANGER. I can't bear it.
BEGGAR. Then you must look for help.
STRANGER. What's coming now? Isn't it the end yet?
(It grows light above the bridge. CAESAR comes in and throws himself from the parapet; then the DOCTOR appears on the right, with bare head and a wild look. He behaves as if he would throw himself into the stream too.) ”

“ STRANGER. He's revenged himself so thoroughly, that he awakes no qualms of conscience! (The DOCTOR goes out, left. The SISTER enters, right, as if searching for someone.) Who's that?
BEGGAR. His unmarried sister, who's unprovided for, and has now no home to go to. She's grown desperate since her brother was driven out of his wits by sorrow and went to pieces.
STRANGER. That's a harder fate. Poor creature, what can one do? Even if I felt her sufferings, would that help her?
BEGGAR. No. It wouldn't.
STRANGER. Why do qualms of conscience come after, and not beforehand? ”

“ Reconciliation with mankind, through a woman.
TEMPTER. Through a woman who taught you to hate.
STRANGER. Yes, because she bound me to earth—like the round shot a slave drags on his foot, so that he can't escape.
TEMPTER. You talk of woman. Always woman.
STRANGER. Yes. Woman. The beginning and the end—for us men anyhow. In relationship to one another they are nothing.
TEMPTER. So that's it; nothing in themselves; but everything for us, through us! Our honour and our shame; our greatest joy, our deepest pain; our redemption and our fall; our wages and our punishment ”

“ Why is the smithy black and the mill white? Because one's sooty and the other covered with flour; yet when I saw the blacksmith by the light of his forge and the white miller's wife, it reminded me of an old poem. Look at those giant faces.... There's your werewolf from whom I saved you. There he is, in profile, see!
LADY. Yes, but it's only the rock.
STRANGER. Only the rock, and yet it's he.
LADY. Shall I tell you why we can see him?
STRANGER. You mean—it's our conscience? Which pricks us when we're hungry and tired, and is silent when we've eaten and rested. ”

“ Mankind will feel itself calumniated! Enough, until my twenty-fifth year I fought the good fight; and I fell because.... Well, I was called Joseph, and I was Joseph! I grew jealous of my virtue, and felt injured by the glances of a lewd woman.... And at last, cunningly seduced, I fell. Then I became a slave of my passions; often and often I sat by Omphalos and span, until I sank into the deepest degradation and suffered, suffered, suffered! But in reality it was only my body that was degraded; my soul lived her own life—her own pure life, I can say—on her own account. ”

“ I demand this torture, that my punishment may be in just proportion to my sin, so that I shall not be forced to drag myself along under the burden of my guilt. So down into the snake pit, as soon as may be!
LADY. Could I come with you?
STRANGER. There's no need. My sufferings will be enough for both.
LADY. Then I'll call you my deliverer. And the curse I once laid on you will turn into a blessing. Look! It's spring once more.
STRANGER. So I see. The Christmas rose there has begun to wither.
LADY. But don't you feel spring in the air?
STRANGER. The cold within isn't so great. ”

“ I'd rather give you good advice. Go to the Convent of St. Saviour's, there you'll find a man who can free you from the evil you fear.
STRANGER. What, in the convent, where they curse and bind?
LADY. And deliver also!
STRANGER. Frankly, I think you're trying to deceive me; I don't trust you any more.
LADY. Nor I, you! So look on this as your farewell visit.
STRANGER. That was my intention; but first I wanted to find out if we're of the same mind....
LADY. You see, we can build no happiness on the sorrows of others; so we must part. That's the only way to lessen his sufferings. ”

“ STRANGER. I've stopped taking account of others, since I saw that the Powers that guide the destinies of mankind brook no accomplices. The crime I committed in this life was that I wanted to set men free....
BEGGAR. Set men free from their duties, and criminals from their feeling of guilt, so that they could really become unscrupulous! You're not the first, and not the last to dabble in the Devil's work. Lucifer a non lucendo! But when Reynard grows old, he turns monk—so wisely is it ordained—and then he's forced to split himself in two and drive out Beelzebub with his own penance. ”

“ MOTHER. Don't you want to get back to your gold making?
STRANGER. I can't make head or tail of it! But there's still hope my worst dream was nothing but a dream.
MOTHER. You really look as if you were walking in your sleep.
STRANGER. Do I? Oh, I wish I were! The one thing I fear I'd fear no longer.
MOTHER. He who guides your destiny seems to know your weakest spots.
STRANGER. And when there was only one left, he found that too; happily for me only in a dream! Blind Powers! Powerless Ones! ”

“ What does it matter—a curse more or less?
LADY. In my family those whom we curse, are struck.
STRANGER. I don't believe it. But I do believe that evil emanates from this house. May it recoil upon it! That is my prayer! Now, according to custom, it would be my duty to shoot myself; but I can't, so long as I have other duties. You see, I can't even die, and so I've lost my last treasure—what, with reason, I call my religion. I've heard that man can wrestle with God, and with success; but not even job could fight against Satan. ”

“ There are moments when I feel as if I bore all the sin and sorrow, all the filth and shame of the whole world. There are moments when I believe we are condemned to sin and do bad actions as a punishment! (Pause.) Not long ago I lay sick of a fever, and amidst all that happened to me, I dreamed that I saw a crucifix without the Crucified. And when I asked the Dominican—for there was a Dominican among many others—what it could mean, he said: 'You will not allow Him to suffer for you. Suffer then yourself!' That's why mankind have grown so conscious of their own sufferings. ”

“ STRANGER. This werewolf never leaves us.
DOCTOR (looking at his watch) . You must excuse me for about an hour. I've a patient to visit. I hope the time won't hang on your hands.
STRANGER. I'm used to waiting, for what never comes....
DOCTOR (to the MADMAN) . Come along, Caesar. I must lock you up in the cellar. (He goes out with the MADMAN.)
STRANGER (to the LADY) . What does that mean? Someone's pursuing me! You told me your husband was well disposed towards me, and I believed you. But he can't open his mouth without wounding me. Every word pricks like a goad. ”

“ STRANGER. But you're tired. Sit down. (The LADY sits down at the table. The STRANGER throws the bottle and glass into the river.) Well, what are you going to live for now?
LADY (sadly) . I don't know.
STRANGER. Where will you go?
LADY (sobbing) . I don't know.
STRANGER. So you're in despair? You see no reason for living and no end to your misery! How like me you are! What a pity there's no monastery for both sexes, so that we could pair off together. Is the werewolf still alive? ”

“ CAESAR. Quiet, whilst I'm speaking.... Sometimes he believes himself to be a werewolf, and says he'd like to eat a little child that's not yet born, and that's really his according to the right of priority.... (He goes on his way.)
LADY (to the STRANGER) . Can you exorcise this demon?
STRANGER. I can do nothing against devils who brave the sunshine.
LADY. Yesterday you made an arrogant remark, and now you shall have it back. You said it wasn't fair for invisible ones to creep in by night and strike in the darkness, they should come by day when the sun's shining. Now they've come! ”

“ BEGGAR. You believe nothing but evil. That's why you get nothing but evil. Try to believe what is good. Try!
STRANGER. I will. But if I'm deceived, I've the right to....
BEGGAR. You've no right to do that.
STRANGER (as if to himself ) . Who is it reads my secret thoughts, turns my soul inside out, and pursues me? Why do you persecute me?
BEGGAR. Saul! Saul! Why persecutest thou Me?
(The STRANGER goes out with a gesture of horror. The chord of the funeral march is heard again. The LADY enters.) ”

“ BEGGAR. The Society, I suppose; or the Drunkard's Government.
STRANGER. Then I can go?
BEGGAR. Yes. But there's one thing....
STRANGER. Well, what is it?
BEGGAR. Remember, an enlightened man of the world mustn't let himself be taken by surprise.
STRANGER. I begin to divine....
BEGGAR. The announcement's on the front page.
STRANGER. That means: she's already married again, and my children have a stepfather. Who is he?
BEGGAR. Whoever he is, don't murder him; for he's not to blame for taking in a forsaken woman. ”

“ Cinnabar is quicksilver and sulphur.
CONFESSOR. Yes. Mercury must be burnt, if it comes too near to Venus! Have we said enough now?
STRANGER. So these are sulphur springs?
CONFESSOR. Yes. And the sulphur flames purify or burn everything rotten! So when the source of life's grown tainted, one is sent to the sulphur springs....
STRANGER. How does the source of life grow tainted?
CONFESSOR. When Aphrodite, born of the pure seafoam, wallows in the mire.... When Aphrodite Urania, the heaven-born, degrades herself to Pandemos, the Venus of the streets.
STRANGER. Why is desire born? ”

“ My eyes are opened and I know what's good and what's evil, as I've never known before. And now I see how evil you are, and why I am to be called Eve. She was a mother and brought sin into the world: it was another mother who brought expiation. The curse of mankind was called down on us by the first, a blessing by the second. In me you shall not destroy my whole sex. ”

“ Who's here? Who is the Terrible One who follows me and cripples my thoughts? Did you see no one?
LADY. No. No one.
STRANGER. But I can feel his presence. (He puts his hand to his heart.) Can't you hear, far, far away, someone saying a rosary?
LADY. Yes, I can hear it. But it's not the Angels' Greeting. It's the Curse of Deuteronomy! Woe unto us!
STRANGER. Then it must be in the convent of St. Saviour. ”

“ Strindberg's great trilogy The Road to Damascus presents many mysteries to the uninitiated. Its peculiar changes of mood, its gallery of half unreal characters, its bizarre episodes combine to make it a bewilderingly rich but rather 'difficult' work. It cannot be recommended to the lover of light drama or the seeker of momentary distraction. The Road to Damascus does not deal with the superficial strata of human life, but probes into those depths where the problems of God, and death, and eternity become terrifying realities. ”

“ STRANGER. If Father Uriel had held to his first faith in 1810, men would have called him conservative or old-fashioned; but now, as he's followed the developments of his time and has therefore discarded his youthful faith, men will call him a renegade—that's to say: whatever he does mankind will blame him.
PRIOR. Do you heed what men say? Father Clemens, may I tell him how you heeded what men said? (PATER CLEMENS rises and makes a gesture of assent.) Father Clemens is our greatest figure painter. In the world outside he's known by another name, a very famous one. ”

“ LADY. So you needn't think so ill of yourself because it was you who punished my faithlessness and another's lack of conscience.
STRANGER. His sin cannot justify mine. Of course it's untrue, like everything else; and you only say it to console me.
CONFESSOR. What an unhappy soul he is....
STRANGER. A damned one too!
CONFESSOR. No! (To the LADY.) Say something good of him.
LADY. He won't believe it, if I do; he only believes evil!
CONFESSOR. Then I shall have to say it. A beggar once came and asked him for a drink of water ”

“ I'll breathe on your sick conscience so that it heals like a wound. Who am I? A man who has done what no one else has ever done; who will overthrow the Golden Calf and upset the tables of the money-changers. I hold the fate of the world in my crucible; and in a week I can make the richest of the rich a poor man. Gold, the most false of all standards, has ceased to rule; every man will now be as poor as his neighbour, and the children of men will hurry about like ants whose heap has been disturbed. ”

“ BEGGAR. Listen, madam, I'll guarantee this man will pay.
WAITRESS. So you'd like to play tricks on me too! Officer! One moment, please.
POLICEMAN. What's all this about? Payment, I suppose. Come to the station; we'll arrange things there. (He writes something in his note-book.)
STRANGER. I'd rather do that than stay here and quarrel.... (To the BEGGAR.) I don't mind a joke, but I never expected such cruel reality as this.
BEGGAR. Anything's to be expected, once you challenge persons as powerful as you have! Let me tell you this in confidence. ”