Act V
The same room as in the second act, but it is now arranged for the auction. Benches are placed in the middle of the room. On the table behind which the auctioneer is to preside stand the silver coffee-set, the clock, vases, candelabra, etc.
The portraits of the JUDGE and the OLD LADY have been taken down and are leaning against the table.
The NEIGHBOUR and AMELIA are on the stage.
AMELIA. [Dressed as a scrub-woman] Before my mother left, she ordered me to clean the hallway and the stairs. It is winter now, and cold, and I cannot say that it has been any pleasure to carry out her order——
NEIGHBOUR. So you didn’t get any pleasure out of it? Well, my child, I must say that you demand rather too much of yourself. But as you have obeyed, and stood the test, your time of trial shall be over, and I will let you know your life’s secret.
AMELIA. Speak out, neighbour, for I dare hardly trust my good resolutions much longer.
NEIGHBOUR. Well, then! The woman you have been calling mother is your stepmother. Your father married her when you were only one year old. And the reason you have never seen your mother is that she died when you were born.
AMELIA. So that was it!—How strange to have had a mother and yet never to have seen her! Tell me—did you ever see her?
NEIGHBOUR. I knew her.
AMELIA. How did she look?
NEIGHBOUR. Well, how did, she look?—Her eyes were blue as the blossom of the flax—her hair was yellow as the dry stalks of wheat——
AMELIA. And tall and slender—and her hand was small and white as if it had touched nothing but silk in all her days—and her mouth was shaped like a heart, and her lips looked as if none but good words had ever passed them.
NEIGHBOUR. How can you know all that?
AMELIA. Because that is the image which appears in my dreams when I have not been good—And then she raises her hand as if to warn me, and on one of her fingers there is a ring with a green stone that seems to radiate light. It is she!—Tell me, neighbour, is there a picture of her in the place?
NEIGHBOUR. There used to be one, but I don’t know whether it’s still here.
AMELIA. So this one is my stepmother? Well, God was good when he let me keep my mother’s image free from stain—and hereafter I shall find it quite natural that this other woman is cruel to me.
NEIGHBOUR. Cruel stepmothers exist to make children kind. And you were not kind, Amelia, but you have become so, and for that reason I shall now give you a Christmas present in advance.
He takes the portrait of the OLD LADY out of its frame, when in its place appears a picture in water-colours corresponding to the description given above.
AMELIA. [Kneeling in front of the picture] My mother—mother of my dreams! [Rising] But how can I keep the picture when it is to be sold at auction?
NEIGHBOUR. You can, because the auction has already taken place.
AMELIA. Where and when was it held?
NEIGHBOUR. It was held elsewhere—in a place not known to you—and to-day the things are merely to be taken away.
AMELIA. What a lot of queer things are happening! And how full of secrets the house is!—But tell me, where is my stepmother? I have not seen her in a long time.
NEIGHBOUR. I suppose it must be told: she is in a place from which nobody returns.
AMELIA. Is she dead?
NEIGHBOUR. She is dead. She was found frozen to death in a swamp into which she had stumbled.
AMELIA. Merciful God have pity on her soul!
NEIGHBOUR. So he will in time, especially if you pray for her.
AMELIA. Of course I will.
NEIGHBOUR. How good you have become, my child—as a result of her becoming so bad!
AMELIA. Don’t say so now when she is dead——
NEIGHBOUR. Right you are! Let her rest in peace!
AMELIA. But where is my father?
NEIGHBOUR. That’s a secret to all of us. But it is sweet of you to ask for him before you ask for your own Adolph.
AMELIA. Adolph—yes, where is he? The children are crying for him, and Christmas is near.—Oh, what a Christmas this will be to us!
NEIGHBOUR. Leave to each day its own trouble—and now take your Christmas present and go. The affairs connected with the auction are to be settled, and then you’ll hear news.
AMELIA. [Takes the portrait of her mother] I go, but no longer alone—and I have a feeling that something good is about to happen, but what I cannot tell.
[She goes out to the right.
NEIGHBOUR. But I know! Yet you had better go, for what is about to happen here should not be seen by children.
He opens the door in the rear and rings a bell to summon the people to the auction. The people enter in the following order: THE POOR, a large number of them; the SAILOR; the CHIMNEY-SWEEP; the NEIGHBOUR, who takes his place in front of the rest; the WIDOW and the FATHERLESS CHILDREN; the SURVEYOR; THE OTHER ONE, carrying the auctioneer’s hammer and a pile of documents.
THE OTHER ONE. [Takes his place at the table and raps with the hammer] At a compulsory auction held at the court-house for the disposal of property left by the late circuit judge, the items now to be described were bid in by the Court on behalf of absent creditors, and may now be obtained and taken away by their respective owners.
JUDGE. [Enters, looking very aged and miserable] In the name of the law—hold!
THE OTHER ONE. [Pretends to throw something at the JUDGE, who stands aghast and speechless] Don’t speak of the law! Here the Gospel is preached—but not for you, who wanted to buy heaven with stolen money.—First: the widow and her fatherless children. There is the silver set which the judge accepted from you for his false report as executor. In his stained hands the silver has turned black, but I hope that in yours it will once more turn white.—Then we come to the ward, who had to become a chimney-sweep, after being cheated out of his inheritance. Here are the receipted bills and the property due to you from your guardian. And you need not thank him for his accounting.—Here stands the surveyor who, although he was innocent, had to serve two years in prison because he had made an illegal partition—the maps handed to him for the purpose having been falsified in advance. What can you do for him, Judge? Can you undo what has happened, or restore his lost honour?
JUDGE. Oh, that fellow—give him a bill and he’ll be satisfied! His honour wasn’t worth a penny, anyhow.
THE OTHER ONE. [Slaps the JUDGE on the mouth, while the rest spit at him and mutter with clinched fists] Here is the brother of the sailor who was beheaded in spite of his innocence. Can you restore his brother to life? No! And you cannot pay for his life with yours, as it is not worth as much.—And finally we come to the neighbour whom you cheated out of his property in a perfectly legal way. Not familiar with the tricks of the law, the neighbour has, contrary to prevailing practice, placed the judge’s son-in-law in charge of the property as life tenant, wiping out his previous indebtedness and making him also legal heir to the property.
JUDGE. I appeal to a higher court!
THE OTHER ONE. This case has passed through all the instances except the highest, and that far you cannot reach with your stamped papers. For if you tried, all these poor people whom you have robbed of their living would cry out: Guilty!—Thus we are done with all that could be properly disposed of. What remains here still undisposed of goes to the poor: clocks, vases, jewelry and other valuables that have served as bribes, graft, tips, souvenirs—all in a perfectly legal way because evidence and witnesses were wanting. You poor, take back your own! Your tears have washed the guilt from the ill-gotten goods. [The POOR begin to plunder] And now remains the last item to be sold by me. This pauper here, formerly a judge, is offered to the lowest bidder for board at the expense of the parish. How much is offered? [Silence] No offer? [Silence] First, second, third time—no offer? [To the JUDGE] There, you see! Nobody wants you. Well, then, I have to take you myself and send you to your well-earned punishment.
JUDGE. Is there no atonement?
THE OTHER ONE. Yes, punishment atones.—Take him into the woods and stone him in accordance with the law of Moses—for no other law was ever known to him. Away with him! [The people pounce on the JUDGE and jostle him.
The scene changes to the “waiting-room.” The same setting as in the second scene of the fourth act: a kettle-shaped chasm surrounded by steep black rocks. (The same people are on the stage.)
In the background appear a pair of huge scales for the weighing of newcomers.
The JUDGE and the OLD LADY are seated opposite each other at a small table.
JUDGE. [Staring in front of himself as if lost in a dream] Hush!—I had a dream! They were throwing stones at me—and yet I felt no pain—and then everything turned black and vacant until this moment—How long it may have lasted, I cannot tell—Now I am beginning to hear again—and to feel. It feels as if I were being carried—oh, how cold it is—they are washing me, I think—I am lying in something that has six sides like a cell in a honeycomb and that smells like a carpenter shop—I am being carried, and a bell is ringing—Wait! Now I am riding, but not in a street-car, although the bell is ringing all the time—Now I am sinking down, down, as if I were drowning—boom, boom, boom: three knocks on the roof—and then the lessons begin—the teacher is leading—and now the boys are singing—What can it be?—And then they are knocking on the roof again, incessantly—boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom—silence—it’s over! [He wakes up] Where am I? I choke! It’s so stuffy and close here!—Oh, it’s you!—Where are we? Whose bust is that?
OLD LADY. They say it is the new god.
JUDGE. But he looks like a goat.
OLD LADY. Perhaps it is the god of the goats?
JUDGE. “The goats on the left side—” What is that I am recalling?
PRINCE. It is the god Pan.
JUDGE. Pan?
PRINCE. Exactly! Just exactly! And when, in the night, the shepherds—no, not those shepherds—catch sight of a hair of his hide they are seized with panic——
JUDGE. [Rising] Woe! I don’t want to stay here! Woe! Can’t I get out of here? I want to get out!
[He runs around, looking vainly for a way out.
THE OTHER ONE. [Enters dressed as a Franciscan friar] You’ll find nothing but entrances—no exits!
JUDGE. Are you Father Colomba?
THE OTHER ONE. No, I am The Other One.
JUDGE. As a monk?
THE OTHER ONE. Don’t you know that The Other One turns monk when he grows old; and don’t you think it is well that he does so some time? But, seriously speaking—for here everything is serious—this is my holiday attire, which I am permitted to wear only this one day of the year in order that I may remember what I have had and what I have lost.
JUDGE. [Alarmed] What day of the year is it to-day?
THE OTHER ONE. [Bending his head with a sigh] It is Christmas Eve!
JUDGE. [Approaching the OLD LADY] Think of it, it is Christmas Eve?—And you know I don’t dare to ask where we are—I dare not—but let us go home, home to our children, to our own—— [He cries.
OLD LADY. Yes, let us go from here, home to ourselves, that we may start a new life in peace and harmony——
THE OTHER ONE. It is too late!
OLD LADY. Oh, dear, sweet fellow—help us, have mercy on us, forgive us!
THE OTHER ONE. It is too late!
JUDGE. [Taking the OLD LADY by the hand] I am choking with dread! Don’t ask him where we are; I don’t want to know! But one thing I do want to know: will there ever be an end to this?
THE OTHER ONE. Never!—That word “end” is not known to us here.
JUDGE. [Crushed] No end! [Looking around] And does the sun never enter this place of damp and cold?
THE OTHER ONE. Never, for those who dwell here have not loved the sun!
JUDGE. It is true: I have cursed the sun.—May I confess my sins?
THE OTHER ONE. No, you must keep them to yourself until they begin to swell and stop up your throat.
OLD LADY. [Kneeling] O—I don’t know how to pray!
She rises and walks restlessly back and forth, wringing her hands.
THE OTHER ONE. Because for you there is no one to whom you might pray.
OLD LADY. [In despair] Children—send somebody to give me a word of hope and pardon.
THE OTHER ONE. It will not be done. Your children have forgotten you—they are now rejoicing at your absence.
A picture appears on the rocky wall in the rear: the home, with ADOLPH, AMELIA, ERIC, and THYRA around the Christmas tree; in the background, the PLAYMATE.
JUDGE. You say they are seated at the Christmas table rejoicing at our misfortune?—No, now you lie, for they are better than we!
THE OTHER ONE. What new tune is that? I have always heard that you were a righteous man——
JUDGE. I? I was a great sinner—the greatest one that ever was!
THE OTHER ONE. Hm! Hm!
JUDGE. And if you say anything of the children you are guilty of a sin. I know that they are praying for us.
OLD LADY. [On her knees] I can hear them tell their rosaries: hush—I hear them!
THE OTHER ONE. You are completely mistaken. What you hear is the song of the workmen who are tearing down the mausoleum.
JUDGE. The mausoleum! Where we were to have rested in peace!
PRINCE. Shaded by a dozen wreaths.
JUDGE. Who is that?
PRINCE. [Pointing to the OLD LADY] She is my sister, and so you must be my brother-in-law.
JUDGE. Oh—that lazy scamp!
PRINCE. Look here! In this place we are all lazy scamps.
JUDGE. But we are not all hunchbacks!
PRINCE. [Strikes him a blow on the mouth] Don’t touch the hunch or there will be hell to pay!
JUDGE. What a way to treat a man of my ability and high social position! What a Christmas!
PRINCE. Perhaps you expected your usual creamed codfish and Christmas cake?
JUDGE. Not exactly, but there ought to be something to feed on——
PRINCE. Here we are keeping a Christmas fast, you see.
JUDGE. How long will it last?
PRINCE. How long? We don’t measure time here, because it has ceased to exist, and a minute may last a whole eternity.
OLD LADY. We suffer only what our deeds have deserved—so don’t complain——
PRINCE. Just try to complain, and you’ll see what happens.—We are not squeamish here, but bang away without regard for legal forms.
JUDGE. Are they beating carpets out there—on a day like this?
PRINCE. No, it is an extra ration of rod all around as a reminder for those who may have forgotten the significance of the day.
JUDGE. Do they actually lay hands on our persons? Is it possible that educated people can do things like that to each other?
PRINCE. This is a place of education for the badly educated; and those who have behaved like scoundrels are treated like such.
JUDGE. But this passes all limits!
PRINCE. Yes, because here we are in the limitless! Now get ready! I have already been out there and had my portion.
JUDGE. [Appalled] What humiliation! That’s to strip you of all human worth!
PRINCE. Ha ha! Human worth! Ha ha!—Look at the scales over there. That’s where the human worth is—and invariably found wanting.
JUDGE. [Sits down at the table] I could never have believed——
PRINCE. No, you could only believe in your caul and your own righteousness. And yet you had both Moses and the Prophets and more besides—for the very dead walked for your benefit.
JUDGE. The children! The children! Is it not possible to send them a word of greeting and of warning?
PRINCE. No! Eternally, no!
The WITCH comes forward with a big basketful of stereoscopes.
JUDGE. What is it?
WITCH. Christmas gifts for the righteous. Stereoscopes, you know. [Handing out one] Help yourself. They don’t cost anything.
JUDGE. There’s a kind soul at last. And a little attention to a man of my age and rank does honour both to your tact and to your heart——
WITCH. That’s very nice of you, Judge, but I hope you don’t mind my having given some thought to the others, too.
JUDGE. [Disappointed] Are you poking fun at me, you damned old hag?
WITCH. [Spitting in his face] Hold your tongue, petti-fogger!
JUDGE. What company I have got into!
WITCH. Is it not good enough for you, you old perjurer, you grafter, you forger, you robber of orphans, you false pleader? Now have a look in the peep-show and take in the great spectacle: “From the Cradle to the Grave.” There is your whole biography and all your victims—just have a look now. That’s right!
JUDGE looks in the stereoscope; then he rises with horror stamped on his face.
WITCH. I hope this slight attention may add to the Christmas joy!
She hands a stereoscope to the OLD LADY, and proceeds thereafter to give one to each person present.
JUDGE. [Sitting at the table, where now the OLD LADY takes a seat opposite him] What do you see?
OLD LADY. Everything is there; everything!—And do you notice that everything is black? All life that seemed so bright is now black, and even moments which I thought full of innocent joy have an appearance of something nauseating, foul, almost criminal. It is as if all my memories had decayed, including the fairest among them——
JUDGE. You are right. There is not one memory that can bring light into this darkness. When I look at her who was the first love of my youth, I see nothing but a corpse. When I think of my sweet Amelia, there appears—a harlot. The little ones make faces at me like gutter-snipes. My court has become a pigsty; the vineyard, a rubbish-heap full of thistles; and the mausoleum—Oh, horrors!—an outhouse! When I think of the green woods, the leafage appears snuff-coloured and the trunks look bleached as mast tops. The blue river seems to flow out of a dung-heap and the blue arch above it looks like a smoky roof—Of the sun itself I can recall nothing but the name; and what was called the moon—the lamp that shed its light on bays and groves during the amorous nights of my youth—I can remember only as—no, I cannot remember it at all. But the words are left, although they have only sound without sense.—Love, wine, song! Flowers, children, happiness!—Don’t the words sound pretty? And it is all that is left!—Love? What was it, anyhow?
OLD LADY. What was it?—Two cats on a back-yard fence.
JUDGE. [Sheepishly] Yes, that’s it! That’s what it was! Three dogs on a sidewalk. What a sweet recollection!
OLD LADY. [Pressing his hand] Yes, it is sweet!
JUDGE. [Looking at his watch] My watch has stopped. I am so hungry—and I am thirsty, too, and I long for a smoke. But I am also tired and want to sleep. All my desires are waking. They claw at me and hound me, but not one of them can I satisfy. We are lost! Lost, indeed!
OLD LADY. And I long for a cup of tea more than I can tell!
JUDGE. Hot green tea—that’s just what I should like now—with a tiny drop of rum in it.
OLD LADY. No, not rum! I should prefer some cakes——
PRINCE. [Who has drawn near to listen] Sugared, of course? I fear you’ll have to whistle for them.
OLD LADY. Oh, this dreadful language hurts me more than anything, else.
PRINCE. That’s because you don’t know yet how something else is going to hurt you.
JUDGE. What is that?
OLD LADY. No, don’t! We don’t want to know! Please!
PRINCE. Yes, I am going to tell. It begins with——
OLD LADY. [Puts her fingers in her ears and cries out] Mercy! Don’t, don’t, don’t!
PRINCE. Yes, I will—and as my brother-in-law is curious, I’ll tell it to him. The second letter is——
JUDGE. This uncertainty is worse than torture—Speak out, you devil, or I’ll kill you!
PRINCE. Kill, ha ha! Everybody is immortal here, body and soul, what little there is left. However, the third letter is—and that’s all you’ll know!
MAN IN GREY. [A small, lean man with grey clothes, grey face, black lips, grey beard, and grey hands; he speaks in a very low voice] May I speak a word with you, madam?
OLD LADY. [Rising in evident alarm] What is it about?
MAN IN GREY. [Smiling a ghastly, malicious smile] I’ll tell—out there.
OLD LADY. [Crying] No, no; I won’t!
MAN IN GREY. [Laughing]; It isn’t dangerous. Come along! All I want is to speak to you. Come now!
[They go toward the background and disappear.
PRINCE. [To the JUDGE] A little Christmas entertainment is wholesome.
JUDGE. Do you mean to maltreat a woman?
PRINCE. Here all injustices are abolished, and woman is treated as the equal of man.
JUDGE. You devil!
PRINCE. That’s all right, but don’t call me hunchback, for that touches my last illusion.
THE OTHER ONE. [Steps up to the table] Well, how do you like our animal magnetism? It can work wonders on black-guards!
JUDGE. I understand nothing of all this.
THE OTHER ONE. That’s just what is meant, and it is very nice of you to admit that there are things you don’t understand.
JUDGE. Granting that I am now in the realm of the dead——
THE OTHER ONE. Say “hell,” for that is what it’s called.
JUDGE. [Stammering] Th-then I should like to remind you that He who once descended here to redeem all lost——
PRINCE. [At a sign from THE OTHER ONE he strikes the JUDGE in the face] Don’t argue!
JUDGE. They won’t even listen to me! It is beyond despair! No mercy, no hope, no end!
THE OTHER ONE. Quite right! Here you find only justice and retribution—especially justice: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth! Just as you wanted it!
JUDGE. But among men there is pardon—and that you don’t have here.
THE OTHER ONE. Monarchs alone possess the right to pardon. And as a man of law you ought to know that a petition for pardon must be submitted before it can be granted.
JUDGE. For me there can be no pardon!
THE OTHER ONE. [Gives the PRINCE a sign to step aside] You feel, then, that your guilt is too great?
JUDGE. Yes.
THE OTHER ONE. Then I’ll speak kindly to you. There is an end, you see, if there is a beginning. And you have made a beginning. But the sequel will be long and hard.
JUDGE. Oh, God is good!
THE OTHER ONE. You have said it!
JUDGE. But—there is one thing that cannot be undone—there is one!
THE OTHER ONE. You are thinking of the monstrance which should have been of gold but was of silver? Well, don’t you think that He who changed water into wine may also change silver into gold?
JUDGE. [On his knees] But my misdeed is too great, too great to be forgiven.
THE OTHER ONE. Now you overestimate yourself again. But rise up. We are about to celebrate Christmas in our own fashion.—The light of the sun cannot reach here, as you know—nor that of the moon. But on this night, and on this alone, a star rises so far above the rocks that it is visible from here. It is the star that went before the shepherds through the desert—and that was the morning star.
[He claps his hands together.
The bust of Pan sinks into the ground. The OLD LADY returns, looking reassured and quietly happy. With a suggestion of firm hope in mien and gesture, she goes up to the JUDGE and takes his hand. The stage becomes filled with shadows that are gazing up at the rocks in the rear.
CHORUS I. [Two sopranos and an alto sing behind the stage, accompanied only by string instruments and a harp.]
Puer natus est nobis;
Et filius datus est nobis,
Cujus imperium super humerum ejus;
Et vocabitur nomen ejus
Magni consilii Angelus.
CHORUS II. [Soprano, alto, tenor, basso.]
Cantate Domino canticum novum
Quia mirabilia fecit!
The star becomes visible above the rocks in the rear. All kneel down. A part of the rock glides aside, revealing a tableau: the crib with the child and the mother; the shepherds adoring at the left, the three Magi at the right.
CHORUS III. [Two sopranos and two altos.]
Gloria in excelsis Deo
Et in terra pax
Hominibus bonæ voluntatis!
Curtain.