Hermann Sudermann

“ But, Lothar, the coffee, the coffee.
Lothar. One must be willing to sacrifice for the sake of his Honor, my friend. I am glad I could do you this service, Kurt--What would you have done without me? Well, until to-night. ”

“ Robert. You never had a sister!
Trast.--Tell me, must I, the aristocrat, learn what abasement means from you, a plebeian? My boy, don't forswear your parents. Don't say that they are worse than you or I.--They are different, that's all. Their sensations are sensations that are strange to you, the point of view they hold is simply beyond your comprehension. Therefore to criticize them is not only narrow-minded, but presumptuous--And you may as well know soon as late: in your struggle with your people you have been wrong from beginning to end! ”

“ And he gave me over to his young wife.--Gentlemen, if ever in my life my self-control was put to test it was in that hour--And when I returned to the hall, what did I find? The attendants under arms, threatening voices and half-drawn swords. "You must die!" cried my host, "you have given a deadly insult to the honor of my house. You have scorned to accept the most sacred thing I could offer you."--You see, gentlemen, I am still living, for eventually the deficient sense of honor of the barbaric European was forgiven. ”

“ A man can steal honor just the same as he can steal a purse. No one can prevent that!--But if we let someone buy our honor with cold money, then we have no honor at all--and it serves us right-- (Heinecke turns to Michalski, touching his forehead) Heaven knows I understand it all! ”

“ As business men, we can understand each other perfectly. Gentlemen, Herr Brandt Junior, heir to the worthy firm of importers, Brandt and Stengel, with which I am pleased to have business relations, has just given me a little statement in private on the theme of "Honor." Permit me to make the answer public. (They sit down) In confidence, there is no such thing as honor, (All are astonished) Don't be frightened. It won't hurt you.
Lothar. And what we call honor?
Trast. What we commonly call honor is nothing more than the shadow we throw in the sunlight of publicity. ”

“ Trast. I should like a few words with you, Herr Muhlingk.
Kurt. Sorry, but I am very pressed for time; my father is waiting for me!
Trast. (Aside) Oho!-- (To Kurt) It's a personal favor.
Kurt. I have no secrets from my friends, Count. (They sit down)
Trast. Someone, a great friend of mine, has suffered deeply because of his honor. On my advice and as a favor to me he has foregone sending you a challenge.
Kurt. You are mistaken, Count; Herr Heinecke received satisfaction. ”

“ Frau Heinecke draws out the arm-chairs and polishes the mirror.)
Alma. (From the mirror) Is your count young or old? (Robert makes no answer) My eyes are red!--Red as fire, aren't they, Auguste? And he may be young! (She goes out, left)
Michalski. Come, Auguste, we won't disturb the great gentlemen!
Heinecke. Herr Count, I'll say, take a seat in this arm-chair, I'll say! Oh, we know how to act with the nobility!
Frau Heinecke. There was a baron here once--a gentleman friend of Herr Kurt. Don't you remember, Father? He came to ask after Alma--But a count! we never had a count! ”

“ Trast. (Breaking out into laughter) Gentlemen, I thank you heartily for the little lesson--I certainly deserved it--for the worst crime under heaven is to be illogical! And one thing I see above everything else. No matter how much a man is elevated above the modern Honor he must still remain her slave, even if it is only when he wants to help a poor devil of a friend out of a hole--Gentlemen, I have the honor-- Pardon! I haven't the honor! ”

“ Michalski. You're right there, Father!
Heinecke. I certainly am right!--You run along and chase your sparrows, my boy. I'll keep the bird I've got.
Michalski. Bravo!
Robert. And you, Mother?-- (She turns away) You too?--God, what have I left?--Alma, what about you? I offer you everything. Only help me! (He takes her hand. She struggles a little. He draws her toward the center) You've given yourself away. Well, perhaps that's your right. But you won't sell yourself--you can't sell your love in the public market. Alma, tell them that! ”

“ Trast, that wasn't nice!
Frau Heinecke. Ain't I right?
Trast. (Takes her hands in his) A mother is always right. She has suffered and loved too much to be anything else. (Shakes her hand)
Frau Heinecke. But, Count! You shake hands with a poor old woman!
Trast. I have sinned against the mothers, and I must beg forgiveness. And my own not the least. There are worse sons, than yours, my dear woman.
(Robert takes out a leather portfolio, looks through it, and lays it aside. Then he takes out a revolver which he tests.)
Trast. (Aside) Ah, a revolver! ”

“ Trast. (Continuing) Gentlemen, I don't want to be considered immoral. The study of the puzzles of civilization is a thing apart.--You see it lies in the nature of your so-called honor, that it may only be possessed by the certain few, the demi-gods; for it is an emotional luxury that loses value in direct proportion as it is appropriated by the rabble.
Kurt. But that is a paradox. Count. Is it not permitted to everyone to be a man of honor?
Trast. On the contrary. Then the poorest devil in the alley might dispute the honor of a gentleman. ”

“ Robert. Trast, you say that!
Trast. I take the liberty--You come back from a foreign country where you have been associating with triple-plated gentlemen, and then you expect your people, in order to please you, to change the very skins they live in; although they've fitted perfectly all these years! That is immodest, my boy! And your sister has really received back her honor from the family Muhlingk; the honor which she can make use of. For everything on this earth has its price and value. The honor of the Avenue may be paid for with blood--may be, I said. ”

“ Frau Heinecke. (Folding her hands) We're poor folks, my boy! (Robert sinks down with a strange laugh on the work-stool. Michalski and Auguste gather about Heinecke and Frau Heinecke; Alma sits smiling, with folded hands) God have mercy on us! There's something wrong with him! (Puts her hand on his shoulder) My Boy, take a little advice from your poor old mother. Don't step on your good fortune's toes, for pride dies on the straw.
Robert. Straw wouldn't be the worst. Mother--I shall die on the grave's edge, or in the gutter like a street cur! ”

“ I'm afraid that I can't afford the luxury of a sense of honor. (Crying out) Oh, how vile I am!
Heinecke. Something wrong, my boy?
Frau Heinecke. It's because of Alma. He hasn't even been to bed.
Heinecke. Yes, Alma! That's what a man grows gray in honor for. But I always said it: the Avenue'll bring us trouble some day.
Frau Heinecke. (To Heinecke) Father, don't cry! (They embrace)
Robert. (To himself) But someone's heart must break!
Heinecke. Oh, I'm not crying! I'm master of this house! I know what I've got to do! Poor cripple has his honor, too. Think I'll stand for it! My daughter! ”

“ Alma. (Angrily) Let me go!
Auguste. He's breaking the kid's arm.
Alma. You've got nothing to say to me any more. (She breaks away)
Robert. Little sister!
Alma. And I'm going to the masked ball, too! Ask mother if I ain't.
Robert. Mother!
Frau Heinecke. Why shouldn't the poor child have a little fun once in a while?
Robert. (Overcome) So we've gone that far?
Michalski. (Sitting in chair, mockingly) Yes, we've gone that far!
Robert. You--Procuror! Get out of that chair! (Michalski remains seated, Robert takes hold of the back of the chair) Get up, I say, and get out of here, both of you! ”

“ Frau Heinecke. Poor child!
Alma. "Oh, yes. Ma!" [5] I've been studying English, too! I'm awfully cultured.--Oh, what I've learned!
Heinecke. Yes sir! D'ye see!
Alma. And above all--we only live once--have a good time, that's the main thing! Are you happy, too, brother?
Robert. Certainly, when I have reason to be.
Alma. The great art is to be happy without any reason. Why are we young? Oh, it's good to live! Every day something new!--And Berlin is so lovely! ”

“ Yes--what other significance has a girl's honor--and that's what we're concerned with now--than to bring a sort of dowry of pure-heartedness and honesty to her husband. She is there for one purpose and that is marriage! Just be so good as to make a few inquiries in the society from which you come and see if your sister, with the money that has dropped into her lap, can't make a much better match than she otherwise could!
Robert. Trast, you are cruel, you are crude!
Trast. Crude like Nature, cruel like Truth! ”

“ Muhlingk. You think so? Sit down, my child--I shall let my customary mildness still govern me and try to bring you to reason, although perhaps a stricter method would be more in place--Look at this old gray head. A great deal of honor has been piled up there and still in my whole life I have never meddled with this so-called sense of honor--ah, what a person has to endure without even saying "Hum" when he expects to succeed in life. Here is a young man from whom you say, I have taken his honor. Taking for granted that you are right--where does a young fellow like that get his honor? ”

“ Kurt. (Kisses her hand) My best thanks, Mama;--Now I can show myself to Berlin mounted and spurred!--You can admire me, too, Lori!
Leonore. (Without looking up from her book) Yes, my dear.
Kurt. Lothar Brandt and Hugo Stengel wanted to come out to see the beast. Perhaps that doesn't interest you either, Lori?
Leonore. They will probably come often. They haven't anything else to do. (Looking at the clock--aside) Oh, how the time drags! (The servant goes out)
Frau Muhlingk. You must not speak so harshly about these gentlemen, my child. You know Lothar wants to pay court to you. ”

“ Trast. Listen--drop the pathetic note--The matter is simple enough for us. We've studied caste in its native wilds. The same castes exist here. They aren't established by food-laws, or marriage-rules and religious etiquette; those were simple. The chasm that can't be bridged is the difference of feeling--each caste has its own sense of honor, its own nice distinctions, its own ideas, yes, even its own speech. Unhappy is the man who has fallen out of his own caste and hasn't the courage to cut himself off from it entirely. ”

“ Sudermann is clearly a man whose best work is over. "Honor" led dramatists to treat the theater more seriously, it taught them to construct plays with a story, and showed that a thesis play is not necessarily a "conversation"; his attention to detail instilled a desire for greater truthfulness in the delineation of character. "Honor" and its immediate successors present a series of pictures of lower, middle, and upper class German society of the day which are and will in the future prove of great value for the student of the times and of the drama. ”

“ Nothing but worry for daily bread destroys all judgment and all dignity. And now you let yourselves be blinded by a little money!--but believe me, it will never give you pleasure. Nothing will be left but disgust! ”

“ In Germany "honor" is not so much a personal matter as a fixed code applicable to situations, and an individual who finds himself in a certain situation must have recourse to the code, not his own convictions. Sudermann in this play sets himself the task of opposing the current conception of honor, and in Trast's mouth he places what arguments he wishes to have advanced. Trast is what the French call the "raisonneur": he who reasons. ”

“ Looks for all the world like a target!
Heinecke. With a heart in the middle! You old--!
Frau Heinecke. Hold your tongue!-- (To Frau Hebenstreit) You know how he is!
(Heinecke takes a hammer and tacks and climbs on chair to tack up the placard.)
Frau Hebenstreit. I wonder where your son got all his fine manners anyway? Not from his family, did he?
Frau Heinecke. No, nor mine either. It was seventeen years ago, when our boss on the avenue got his title of Councillor of Commerce--there was a great time: carriages and fireworkings and free beer for all the workmen in the factory. ”

“ It is quite two months, Gnadiges Fraulein, that I have done what you might really call sleeping.
Kurt. And that was on a billiard table.
Lothar. Oh, our respected Kurt meant that as a joke! But if you knew what it meant to be a martyr to amusement, you would understand what we mean.
Leonore. I have made such an effort to understand you that I already begin to feel sorry for you.
Hugo. (Aside to Lothar) I believe the girl is making fun of us.
Lothar. (Aside, arrogantly) Every woman tries to be a coquette.
Kurt. (Who has gone over to Lenore, aside) You don't need to be so disagreeable.
Leonore. ”

“ Frau Heinecke. Oh, that will make him feel bad.
Heinecke. He loved the Herr Councillor like his own father!
Muhlingk. Really! I'm glad to hear it! But that is not what brought me here, good people; you have a daughter.
Auguste. (Advancing) At your service!
Muhlingk, What can I do for you?
Auguste. (Deferentially) I am the daughter.
Muhlingk. Ah! very good, very good. But I was not referring to you. The girl's name is Alma.
Frau Heinecke. That's it. And a mighty pretty girl, if I do say it myself.
Muhlingk. Ah! it is always pleasing to see children who make their parents happy. ”

“ Auguste. Shh!
Heinecke. (From the window) Johann says Herr Kurt is going to drive to the city at three, and he wants to know if you'd like to go along.
(Alma and Auguste exchange glances.)
Robert. What does that mean?
Auguste. Simple enough! Herr Kurt has his carriage, and since he's an obliging young man he gave Alma a standing invitation to ride to the city with him.
Robert. What? She allowed that? You, sister, you accepted that?
Alma. A poor girl ought to be glad enough to ride in a carriage once in a while!
Frau Heinecke. And you save car-fare!
Robert. Good heavens! ”