Author’s Dedication
TO THE MASKED MAN
Act I
Scene First
A Dwelling Room.
Wendla.
Why have you made my dress so long, Mother?
Frau Bergmann.
You are fourteen years old to-day.
Wendla.
Had I known you were going to make my dress so long, I would rather not have been fourteen.
Frau Bergmann.
The dress is not too long, Wendla. What do you want? Can I help it that my child is two inches taller every spring? As a grown-up maiden you cannot go about in short dresses.
Wendla.
At any rate, my short dress becomes me better than this nightgown.—Let me wear it again, Mother, only through this summer. This penitential robe will fit me just as well whether I am fifteen or fourteen. Let’s put it aside until my next birthday, now I should only tear the flounces.
Frau Bergmann.
I don’t know what to say. I want to take special care of you just now, child. Other girls are hardy and plump at your age. You are the contrary.——Who knows what you will be when the others have developed?
Wendla.
Who knows—possibly I shall not be at all.
Frau Bergmann.
Child, child, how do such thoughts come to you!
Wendla.
Don’t, dear Mother, don’t be sad.
Frau Bergmann.
(Kissing her.)
My own darling!
Wendla.
They come to me at night when I can’t sleep. I am not made sad by them, and I believe that I sleep better after them. Is it sinful, Mother, to have such thoughts?
Frau Bergmann.
Go hang the long dress up in the closet. Put on your short dress again, in God’s name!—I will put another depth of ruffles on it.
Wendla.
(Hanging the dress in the closet.)
No, I would rather be twenty at once——!
Frau Bergmann.
If only you are not too cold!——The dress was long enough for you in its time, but——
Wendla.
Now, when summer is coming?——Mother, when one is a child, one doesn’t catch diphtheria in one’s knees! Who would be so cowardly. At my age one doesn’t freeze—least of all in the legs. Would it be any better for me to be too warm, Mother? Give thanks to God if some day your darling doesn’t tear out the sleeves and come to you at twilight without her shoes and stockings!—If I wore my long dress I should dress like an elfin queen under it.—Don’t scold, Mother! Nobody sees it any more.