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Frank Wedekind
THE MARQUIS OF KEITH
A Play in Five Acts(1)
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Translated by Ian Johnston
Vancouver Island University, British Columbia
2017
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
This translation is based upon
the German text of Der Marquis von Keith, Second Edition, published in Munich in
1907 by Albert Langen. In the following English text all stage directions and
character descriptions are taken from the German text. Unless otherwise stated,
all endnotes (indicated by an underlined number in brackets) are provided by the translator. The translator wishes to
acknowledge the useful assistance of Beatrice Gottlieb’s translation of the
first edition of the play (1901). For any comments or questions about this
English text, please contact Ian Johnston.
In the German text, some of the minor characters speak
in the local Münich dialect, which is significantly different from the
colloquial German of the others. This translation make no attempt to replicate
the difference between that dialect and the normal speech of the main
characters.
Teachers, students, and performing arts companies are
free to use this text without advance permission and without charge. Commercial
publication of this translation is, however, not permitted without the consent
of the translator. A Word file of this text is available free of charge from the
translator. For further information contact
Ian Johnston.
To access the German text (HTML) please use the following
link:
Marquis von Keith (Second Edition).
For a Rich Text Format of the English text, please use the following link:
Marquis von
Keith [RTF]
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
CONSUL CASIMIR, an important
businessman
HERMANN CASIMIR, Consul Casimir’s son (15 years old,
played by a girl)
MARQUIS VON KEITH
ERNST SCHOLZ
MOLLY GRIESINGER
ANNA, Countess Werdenfels, a widow
SARANIEFF, a painter
ZAMRJAKI, a composer
SOMMERSBERG, a literary figure
RASPE, a police inspector
OSTERMEIER, owner of a brewery
KRENZL, a builder
GRANDAUER, an owner of a restaurant
MADAME OSTERMEIER
MADAME KRENZL
BARONESS VON ROSENKRON, a divorcée
BARONESSS VON TOTLEBEN, a divorcée
SASHA (played by a girl)
SIMBA
A BUTCHER’S ASSISTANT
A BAKERY WOMAN
A PORTER
PATRONS OF THE HOFBRÄUHAUS(2)
The action takes place in Munich in late summer, 1899.
ACT ONE
[A study with paintings
hanging on the walls. On the back wall, stage right, there is a door to the hall
and, stage left, a door to a waiting room. In the side wall downstage right a
door leads to the living room, and by the side wall downstage left there is a
writing table with some rolled up plans on it. There is a telephone on the wall
close to the desk. Downstage right there is a settee with a small table in front
of it. In the central area upstage, a little towards the back, stands a larger
table. There are bookcases containing books, musical instruments, folders, and
notes.(3)
The Marquis von Keith is sitting at the writing
table engrossed in one of the plans. He is about twenty-seven years old, of
medium height, with a slim, bony physique. He would have an ideal figure, if he
did not possess a limp in his left leg.(4) His distinctive facial
features express nervousness and, at the same time, are rather harsh. He has
piercing grey eyes, a small blond mustache, short, unruly, straw-blond hair
carefully parted in the middle. His clothing displays a fine social elegance,
with no hint of foppishness. He has the rough red hands of a clown.
Molly Griesinger enters from the living room
and places a tray of food on the table in front of the settee. She is an
unprepossessing creature with brown hair, who appears rather shy and browbeaten.
She is wearing a simple house dress. However, she has large, black, soulful
eyes.]
MOLLY
Here, my dearest—some tea and caviar and cold cuts for you. You were already up at nine o’clock this morning.
VON KEITH [without stirring]
Thank you, my dear child.
MOLLY
You must be ravenously hungry. Have you had any news today about whether the Magic Palace is even going to be built?(5)
VON KEITH
Don’t you see I’m busy working?
MOLLY
You’re always working when I come in. That’s why I have to find out about you and what you’re up to from your lady friends.
VON KEITH [turning around in his chair]
I knew a woman who would cover both her ears when I spoke about plans. She used to say “Come and tell me when you have done something!”
MOLLY
That’s what makes me sad—you’ve already known all kinds of women.
[The door bell rings]
Merciful God, who might that be?
[Molly exits into the hall to open the front door.]
VON KEITH [to himself]
Poor unfortunate creature!
[Molly returns holding a calling card.]
MOLLY
A young gentleman wishes to speak with you. I said you were busy working.
VON KEITH [after reading the card]
The very person I wanted to see!
[Molly escorts Hermann Casimir into the room and then goes into the living room. Hermann is a fifteen-year-old student in a very stylish cycling outfit.]
HERMANN CASIMIR
Good morning, Herr Baron.
VON KEITH
What brings you here?
HERMANN
It would probably be best if I came straight to the point. Yesterday evening I was at the Café Luitpold with Saranieff and Zamrjaki. I told them I was in desperate need of a hundred marks. Saranieff suggested I try asking you.(6)
VON KEITH
All Munich thinks I am an American railway magnate!
HERMANN
Zamrjaki said you always have money.
VON KEITH
I've been supporting Zamrjaki because he’s the greatest musical genius since Richard Wagner was alive. But these highway robbers are surely not appropriate company for you?
HERMANN
I find these highway robbers interesting. I know the gentlemen from an anarchist meeting.
VON KEITH
It must be a pleasant surprise to your father that you making your start in life hanging around revolutionary gatherings.
HERMANN
Why doesn’t my father let me get away from Munich?
VON KEITH
Because you’re still too young for the big, wide world.
HERMANN
But I think someone my age can learn infinitely more from experiencing something real rather than fidgeting around at a school desk until he is legally old enough.
VON KEITH
But real experience would only rob you of the abilities you brought into the world with your own flesh and blood. That’s especially true as far as you’re concerned, the son and sole heir of our greatest German financial genius. What does your father say about me?
HERMANN
My father does not speak to me at all.
VON KEITH
But he talks to other people.
HERMANN
Possibly. I spend hardly any time at home.
VON KEITH
That’s wrong of you. When I was in America, I followed your father’s financial dealings. He’s a man who thinks it quite impossible for anyone else to be as clever as he is. That’s why he’s been so stubborn up to this point in refusing to participate in my project.
HERMANN
For the life of me, I can’t imagine how I could ever enjoy a life like the one my father leads.
VON KEITH
Your father simply lacks the ability to interest you in his profession.
HERMANN
But in this world it’s not just a matter of existing—what’s crucial is really learning about life, learning about the world.
VON KEITH
Your desire to learn about the world will lead you to an ignominious end. You should strive, above all, to appreciate as much as possible the social relationships into which you were born. That will stop you being so cheerful about debasing yourself.
HERMANN
You mean because I'm trying to borrow money? But I’m sure there are things more worthwhile than being rich.
VON KEITH
That’s the wisdom they teach you in school books. But these good things are only called higher because they grow out of one’s possessions and are only possible because of what one owns. You are free to dedicate yourself to an artistic or scholarly mission in life because your father has made a fortune. But if you do that and, in the process, ignore the world’s most important principle, then you’ll squander your inheritance. Swindlers will gobble it up.
HERMANN
If Jesus Christ had chosen to act according to this world principle . . . . !
VON KEITH
Please don’t forget that Christianity liberated two-thirds of humanity from slavery! There’s no idea—whether social, scientific, or artistic—that does not involve anything except property and worldly goods. That’s why the anarchists are their sworn enemies. And don’t imagine that on this point the world is ever going to change. Human beings adjust or are destroyed. [He moves over to sit at the writing table.] I will give you the one hundred marks. Drop by my house sometime when you don’t have a pressing need for money. How long is it now since your mother died?
HERMAN
It will be three years in the spring.
VON KEITH [handing Hermann a sealed note]
You must go with this to Countess Werdenfels, twenty-three Briennerstrasse. Give her my kind regards. It so happens I have no cash on me today.
HERMANN
Thank you, Herr Baron.
VON KEITH [leading Hermann out the door and closing it
behind him]
It was a great pleasure.
[Von Keith turns back to the writing table and rummages among the plans.]
VON KEITH
His father treats me like a dog catcher. I need to organize a concert as soon as possible. Then public opinion will force him to join my project. If worst comes to worst, it will have to go ahead without him.
[There is a knock at the door.]
VON KEITH
Come in!
[Enter Anna, the widowed Countess Werdenfels. She is a voluptuously beautiful woman about thirty years old, with white skin, a snub nose, bright eyes, and luxuriant auburn hair.]
VON KEITH [going to meet her]
Here you are, my queen! I’ve just sent young Casimir to you with a small request.
ANNA
That was young Herr Casimir?
[Anna offers her lips to von Keith, and he gives her a casual kiss.]
VON KEITH
He’ll come back again soon when he finds you’re not at home.
ANNA
He doesn’t look a bit like his father.
VON KEITH
Let’s not talk about his father. I have just approached some people whose social ambition make me confident they will burn with enthusiasm for my proposal.
ANNA
People claim that old Casimir patronizes young actresses and singers.
VON KEITH [gazing passionately at Anna]
Anna, as soon as I see you in front of me, I’m another man, as if you were the living guarantor of my good luck. Would you like some breakfast? There’s tea here and caviar and cold cuts.
[Anna sits down on the settee and eats some food.]
ANNA
I have a lesson at eleven o’clock. I’m only here for a moment. Madame Bianchi told me that in a year I could be the foremost female singer of Wagner in Germany.
VON KEITH [lighting a cigarette]
Perhaps in one year you’ll even have progressed to the point where the most important Wagner sopranos seek your patronage.
ANNA
That would be fine with me, although with my limited female understanding, I can’t imagine how I could reach such a height so quickly.
VON KEITH
That’s not something I can explain to you before it happens. I simply let myself drift along aimlessly until I arrive on a shore where I feel sufficiently at home to say to myself: we can build some shacks here!
ANNA
In that at least I am your most loyal accomplice. For some time now I have felt so much sheer joy in life that at times I think of suicide.
VON KEITH
Some men steal what they want. To others it comes as a gift. When I moved out into the world, my most ambitious hope was to die a village schoolteacher somewhere in Upper Silesia.(7)
ANNA
Back then it would have been really hard for you to imagine that one day Munich would lie at your feet.
VON KEITH
I knew about Munich only from my geography class. So if nowadays I do not enjoy an entirely spotless reputation, people should not forget the depths I’ve risen from.
ANNA
Every evening I offer God a fervent prayer that He transfer some of your amazing energy to me.
VON KEITH
That’s nonsense. I have no energy at all.
ANNA
But you do have a basic vital need to run your head through walls.
VON KEITH
My talent is limited by the unfortunate fact that I can’t breathe in a middle-class atmosphere. If, in spite of that, I get what I want, I’ll never give myself the slightest credit. Other men are planted at a certain level and vegetate there an entire lifetime without coming into conflict with the world.
ANNA
You, on the other hand, fell from Heaven with your character fully developed.
VON KEITH
I am a bastard. My father was a very prominent intellectual, especially in mathematics and matters of similar precision. My mother was a gypsy.
ANNA
If only I at least had your talent for reading people’s secrets from their faces! Then I’d want to grind their noses into the ground with my toes.
VON KEITH
Skills like that arouse more mistrust than anyone can use. That’s why, ever since I’ve been in this world, middle-class society has nurtured a secret fear of me. But without intending to, this same middle-class society makes me successful because of its reservations. The higher I get, the more they trust me. In fact, I’m still waiting to get to the place where the value of each ingredient in the mixture of philosopher and horse-thief will be fully appreciated.
ANNA
In the entire city people are really talking of nothing but your Magic Palace.
VON KEITH
The Magic Palace serves only as a focus for channelling my energies. Besides, I know myself far too well to assume I’ll now be spending my life checking box-office receipts.
ANNA
But what is to become of me? Perhaps you think I’m keen to take singing lessons forever? Yesterday you said the Magic Palace was being built especially for me.
VON KEITH
Yes, but not so that you could prance around on your hind legs for the rest of your life, letting those brats in the press torment you. Only you need to have more bright spots in your past.
ANNA
Well, I admit I can’t boast of my family tree, the way Madam von Rosenkron and Madam von Totleben can.
VON KEITH
That’s no reason for you to still be jealous of those two.
ANNA
I should hope not! Is there any woman whose feminine qualities I should envy?
VON KEITH
I had to take on those two ladies with the concert agency. They were a legacy from my predecessor. As soon as I’ve made my position quite secure, they can earn a living writing novels or peddling radishes.
ANNA
I’m more concerned about the laced-up boots I wear when I stroll along than I am about your love for me. Do you know why? Because you’re the most inconsiderate person in the world. You care about nothing except your own sensual pleasures! That’s why, if you leave me, the only thing I could truly feel for you is pity. So you should be careful you’re not the one who’ll be abandoned first.
VON KEITH [caressing Anna]
Behind me I have a life full of changes, but now I’m thinking seriously about building myself a house, a home, preferably with lofty rooms, a park, and an open flight of stairs. And there should be no shortage of beggars to decorate the driveway. I’ve divorced myself from the past and have no desire to return. Too many times it was a matter of life and death. I wouldn’t advise any friend of mine to model his career on mine.
ANNA
But you are indestructible!
VON KEITH
Yes, that’s truly the quality I have to thank for just about everything I’ve accomplished up to this point. If we two had been born in different worlds, Anna, I believe we would nevertheless have had to find each other.
ANNA
It’s true that I, too, am indestructible.
VON KEITH
Even if Providence had not determined we were meant for each other thanks to the magical way we share the same tastes, the one thing we still have in common . . .
ANNA
. . . eternal good health.
VON KEITH [sitting next to her and stroking her]
As far as women are concerned, I find intelligence, health, sensuality, and beauty inseparable ideas. Each one of them automatically leads to the other three. If our children inherit an enriched combination of these characteristics . . .
[Sascha, a thirteen-year-old errand boy in a braided jacket and knee pants, enters from the hall and sets an armful of newspapers on the central table.]
What does Councillor Ostermeier say?(8)
SASHA
The Herr Councillor gave me a letter. It’s with the newspapers.
[Sascha exits to the waiting room.]
VON KEITH [opening the letter]
A stroke of luck! I have your presence here to thank for it. [He reads from the letter] “. . . I have already been informed about your plan on a number of occasions and am keenly interested in it. Meet me at noon today in the Café Maximillian . . . .” That puts the world in the palm of my hand! Now if old Casimir still won’t join me, I can turn my back on him, and by collaborating with these worthy citizens, I retain sole undisputed control.
ANNA [getting up]
Can you give me a thousand marks?
VON KEITH
Are you out of money again?
ANNA
The rent is due.
VON KEITH
You can wait until tomorrow. Don’t worry at all about the rent.
ANNA
Whatever you say. On his deathbed Count Werdenfels made me a prophecy—sooner or later I would learn about the harshest aspects of life.
VON KEITH
If he’d appreciated somewhat more you, perhaps he might still be alive.
ANNA
So far his prophecy has not come true.
VON KEITH
I’ll send you the money tomorrow at noon.
ANNA [as von Keith escorts her out]
No, please don’t. I’ll come and get it myself.
[The stage is empty for a moment. Then Molly Greisinger enters from the living room and clears away the breakfast dishes. Von Keith returns from the hall.]
VON KEITH [calling]
Sascha! [He takes one of the paintings from the wall.] This will have to help me through the next two weeks!
MOLLY
So you still hope we can keep the house running like this?
SASCHA [entering from the waiting room]
You called, Herr Baron?
VON KEITH [handing Sascha the painting]
Go over to Tannhäuser’s place. Tell him to put the Saranieff in his window. I’ll give it to him for three thousand marks.
SASCHA
Very good, Herr Baron.
VON KEITH
I’ll be there myself in five minutes. Wait!
[Von Keith takes a card with “3000 marks” written on it from the writing table and sets it under the frame of the painting.]
VON KEITH
Three thousand marks!
[Von Keith moves over to the writing table.]
VON KEITH
Before I go, I just need to write a quick newspaper article about it.
[Sascha exits with the painting.]
MOLLY
If only we could for once see a glimmer of real success from all this brave talk!
VON KEITH [writing]
“The ideal of beauty in the modern landscape.”
MOLLY
If this Saranieff could really paint, you wouldn’t have to write newspaper articles about him.
VON KEITH [turning around]
Excuse me?
MOLLY
I know—you’re busy working again.
VON KEITH
What is it you want to talk about?
I’ve received a letter from Bückeburg.(9)
VON KEITH
From your mother?
MOLLY [taking the letter out of her pocket and reading]
“You are welcome here with us at any time. You could move into the two front rooms on the third floor. Then you could have some peace and quiet and wait until your affairs in Munich are settled.”
VON KEITH
But don’t you see, my dear child—you undermine my credit with scribbled notes like this?
MOLLY
We have no bread to put on the table tomorrow.
VON KEITH
Then we’ll dine at the Hotel Continental.
MOLLY
I wouldn’t be able to eat a morsel—I’d be afraid the bailiff would take away our beds during the meal.
VON KEITH
He’s still thinking about it. Why is your little head full of nothing but ideas of eating and drinking? You’d find your life endlessly more enjoyable if you had a little more appreciation for its bright side. You nurture an insatiable love of misfortune.
MOLLY
No. As I see it, you’re the one who craves misfortune! Other people’s lives are so easy. They don’t need to think about it. And so they live for each other in their comfortable home where their happiness is not threatened. But you, with all your talents, work like a madman, ruining your health, and for days on end there is not a penny in the house.
VON KEITH
But you’ve still had enough to eat each day! You don’t spend anything on clothes, but that’s not really my fault. As soon as I’ve written this article, I’ll have three thousand marks. Then take a cab and buy everything you can think of on the spur of the moment.
MOLLY
He’s as likely to pay you three thousand marks for that painting as I am to put on silk stockings for your benefit.
VON KEITH [getting up reluctantly]
You’re a jewel!
MOLLY [flinging herself at him]
Have I hurt you, my darling? Forgive me! Please! What I just told you—that’s the absolute truth. I’m convinced of it.
VON KEITH
If the money is enough only until tomorrow evening, I won’t be sad about the sacrifice.
MOLLY [crying]
I knew how hateful it was of me. So just beat me!
VON KEITH
The Magic Palace is as good as guaranteed.
MOLLY
Then at least let me kiss your hand. I beg you—let me kiss your hand.
VON KEITH
If only I can still keep my nerve for the next few days.
MOLLY
Not even that! How can you be so inhuman?
VON KEITH [taking his hands out of his pockets]
Perhaps it’s high time you started thinking about yourself. If you don’t, the truth of what’s happening will come as a big surprise.
MOLLY [covering his hand with kisses]
Why won’t you beat me? I fully deserved it!
VON KEITH
You’re deluding yourself about your happiness with every means a woman has at her disposal.
MOLLY [jumping up indignantly]
Don’t imagine I’m scared by your flirtations. The bond that ties both of us together is too strong. If that ever breaks, then I won’t hold onto you anymore. But as long as you are poor, you belong to me.
VON KEITH
You fear my success more than you fear death—that will be your downfall, Molly. If I have a free hand tomorrow, you won’t put up with me a moment longer.
MOLLY
If you realize that, then everything’s fine.
VON KEITH
But I’m not facing any hardships now.
MOLLY
Just let me at least keep on working for you until you have a free hand.
VON KEITH [sitting down again at the writing table]
Do what you can’t stop doing! You know there’s nothing I find more unappealing in a woman than when she works.
MOLLY
I won’t turn myself into a pet monkey or parrot for your sake. If I stand at the washtub instead of going half naked to masquerade balls with you, I probably won’t ruin you.
VON KEITH
There’s something superhuman about your stubbornness.
MOLLY
I believe it’s greater than you could ever understand.
VON KEITH
Unfortunately it wouldn’t have helped you even if I did understand.
MOLLY [in triumph]
I don’t need to rub your nose in it, but I’ll set it out for you in black and white, if you want me to! If I made the slightest effort to act differently with you and wanted to think myself better than God made me, I would not be any happier, because you do love me.
VON KEITH
But that’s obvious.
MOLLY [in triumph]
Because you can’t live without my love! So have a free hand—as free as you wish! Whether I stay with you or not depends on whether I have any energy to spare for your love of other women. So let them tart themselves up and idolize you as much as they like. That saves me the trouble of play acting. You rush to clutch your ideals as quickly as you can. I know that well enough. If you ever got around to actually doing something about your ideals—not that there’s much chance of that—I’d let myself be buried alive.
VON KEITH
If only you were at least willing to enjoy the happiness life offers you!
MOLLY [affectionately]
What am I being offered, my sweet love? In America these fears were always there—they never stopped. Things always came to nothing in the last three days. In Santiago you were not elected president and came within a hair of being shot because on the critical evening we had no brandy on the table. Do you still remember how you cried “A dollar, a dollar, a republic for one dollar!”
VON KEITH [jumping up angrily and going to the settee]
I came into the world a cripple. I don’t feel I’m damned to slavery because of it any more than the fact I happened to be born a beggar ever stops me believing that all the most expensive pleasures in life are my rightful inheritance.
MOLLY
As long as you live, you’ll only be thinking about the enjoyments of life.
VON KEITH
Only death can change anything I’m saying to you now. And death is not brave enough to attack me. It’s afraid it could make itself ridiculous. If I die without having lived, then I’ll roam around as a ghost.
MOLLY
You’re just suffering delusions of grandeur.
VON KEITH
But I still understand my responsibilities! You were a foolish fifteen-year-old child and eloped with me to America right out of school. If we split up now and you remain left to your own resources, you’ll end up in the worst imaginable conditions.
MOLLY [flinging her arms around his neck]
Then come to Bückeburg. My parents haven’t seen their Molly for three years. They’ll be so happy they’ll throw half of what they own at you. And how nice it would be if we two could have a life together!
VON KEITH
In Bückeburg?
MOLLY
All our troubles would be over!
VON KEITH [moving away]
I’d sooner collect cigar butts in the cafes.
[Sascha comes back into the room.]
SASCHA
Herr Tannhäuser says he cannot put the painting in the window. Herr Tannhäuser says he already has a dozen painting by Herr Saranieff.
MOLLY
I knew that before you left!
VON KEITH
That’s why you are with me!
[Von Keith goes to the writing table and tears up the writing paper.]
VON KEITH
Then at least I no longer need to write a newspaper article about it.
[Sascha places the painting on the table and goes into the waiting room.]
MOLLY
You know, these Saranieffs and Zamrjakis are completely different kinds of people than we are. They understand how to empty people’s pockets. We are both just too naive for the big, wide world.
VON KEITH
Your empire has not yet arrived. Leave me alone. For now Bückeburg will just have to wait.
[A bell sound in the corridor. Molly clasps her hands together gleefully.]
MOLLY
It’s the bailiff!
[Molly runs out to open the door.]
VON KEITH [looking at his watch]
What’s still left to offer up to fortune . . . ?
[Molly enters, escorting Ernst Scholz into the room.
He is a slender man, about twenty-seven years old, with an extremely
aristocratic appearance. He has black curly hair, a full pointed beard, strong
elongated eyebrows, and large watery blue eyes, which express a certain
helplessness.]
MOLLY
The gentleman will not give me his name.
VON KEITH
Gaston! Where have you come from?
SCHOLZ
For me your welcome is a good omen. I’ve changed so much I assumed you’d hardly recognize me.
[Molly starts to take the breakfast dishes with her but, after a glance at Scholz, is worried that she may disturb the two men. So she exits into the living room without the dishes.]
VON KEITH
You do seem rather tired. But then existence is certainly not a childish game.
SCHOLZ
Least of all for me. That’s why I’m here. I’ve come to Munich only because you’re here.
VON KEITH
Thank you for coming. What I’ve got left over from my business belongs to you.
SCHOLZ
I know that your life has been a difficult struggle. However, at the moment what I’m particularly looking for is a personal association with you. I’d very much like to entrust myself for a while to your spiritual guidance—but only under one condition, that in exchange you allow me to help you out financially, as much as you require.
VON KEITH
Why are you doing this? I’m just about to become director of a huge corporation. Is everything going well for you, too? If I remember rightly, we last saw each other four years ago.
SCHOLZ
At the lawyers’ conference in Brussels.
VON KEITH
You had just passed your state’s exams.
SCHOLZ
At the time you were already writing for every imaginable daily newspaper. Do you happen to remember how I criticized you for your cynicism at the ball in the Palace of Justice in Brussels?
VON KEITH
You were in love with the daughter of the Danish ambassador and furiously angry when I claimed that women were by nature much more materialistic than we men could ever be in our enjoyment of the most expensive luxuries.
SCHOLZ
Even today to me you are still an unscrupulous monster, just as you were during our entire boyhood. But you were perfectly correct.
VON KEITH
No one has ever given me a more flattering compliment in my life!
SCHOLZ
I’m worn out. Although I detest your entire outlook on life from the depths of my soul, today I’m trusting you with the riddle of my existence, which for me is insoluble.
VON KEITH
Well, God be praised! You are finally turning away from your gloom towards the sun!
SCHOLZ
I’ve not reached this conclusion by simply surrendering like some sort of coward. No, I’ve been searching for some ultimate way of solving the riddle once and for all on my own—but it’s futile.
VON KEITH
So much the better for you once this search is behind you. During the Cuban revolution I was supposed to be executed with twelve conspirators. Naturally, at the first shot I fall down and remain dead until they want to bury me. Since that day I have truly felt in charge of my life for the first time. [Jumping up] When we are born we inherit no obligations, and the most we can do is throw away this life. A man who still keeps on living after his death stands outside the rules. Back then, in Brussels, you were intending to devote yourself to government service, weren’t you?
SCHOLZ
I entered our Ministry of Railways.
VON KEITH
Given your enormous wealth, I wondered why you didn’t prefer a life where you were your own lord and master of your own inclinations.
SCHOLZ
I had resolved, over and above everything else, to become a useful member of human society. Of course, had I been born the son of a day labourer that would’ve been completely self-evident.
VON KEITH
In this world a person cannot be more useful to his fellow men than when he sets off on the most wide-ranging search for things that will work to his own advantage. The further my interests reach, the greater the number of people who derive the necessities of life from me. Whoever imagines he is achieving something by doing his job and feeding his children is simply lying to himself. The children thank their Creator if they are not brought into this world, and a hundred poor devils are clamouring for his job!
SCHOLZ
But I couldn’t see any compelling reason why I, just because I am a wealthy man, should spend my time here on earth like a layabout, just strolling around the world. I have no artistic talents, and I did not consider myself insignificant enough to make marriage and raising children my purpose in life.
VON KEITH
But you left public service?
SCHOLZ [lowering his head]
Because while in my official position I was
responsible for a terrible accident.
VON KEITH
When I came back from America, someone I’d met a year earlier in Constantinople told me you had spent two years travelling but were now living at home again and intending to get married.
SCHOLZ
I called off my engagement three days ago. Up to now I have been only half a man. Since the day I became free to do what I want I’ve been unswervingly guided by the conviction that I could not enjoy life until I justified my existence with honest work. This unilateral feeling has brought me to the point where I’m now seeking unadulterated material pleasures purely out of a sense of duty, nothing else, as if I were serving a prison sentence. But every time I want to open my arms to life, I’m paralyzed by the memory of those unfortunate people who lost their lives in the most terrible way entirely on account of my excessive diligence.
VON KEITH
How did that happen?
SCHOLZ
I changed one of the railway regulations. There was always a danger that the precise details of this rule might be impossible to follow. Of course, my fears were exaggerated, but every day I saw the disaster coming closer. I lacked the mental balance that keeps people from decent family homes alert to the realities of life. The first day after the introduction of my new regulation there was a collision between two express trains. Nine men, three women, and two children lost their lives. I inspected the site of the disaster. It’s not my fault I’m still alive after seeing that.
VON KEITH
After that you went travelling?
SCHOLZ
I went to England and Italy, but I felt even more cut off from all vital urges. In pleasant and amusing surroundings where deafeningly loud music was playing, I would hear a sudden piercing scream because, without being aware of it, I’d thought once again of that accident. I have also lived in the Orient, like an owl that has been driven out. To tell the truth, since the day of that disaster I’ve become even more convinced I can buy back my joy in life only by self-sacrifice. But for that I need some way to enter into life. I hoped to find such a way a year ago when I became engaged to the most truly wonderful girl from the humblest possible origins. I intended to marry her.
VON KEITH
You really wanted to make the creature Countess Trautenau?
SCHOLZ
I’m no longer Count Trautenau. That’s something beyond your comprhension. The press really emphasized the contrast between my rank and name and the disaster I’d brought about. So I felt I had a duty to my family to call myself something else. For the past two years I have been Ernst Scholz. That’s why my engagement was no surprise to anyone. But that, too, would have only turned into one more disaster. In her heart there was no spark of love, in mine only the need to sacrifice myself . . . the relationship was an endless chain of the most trivial misunderstandings . . . . I have now given the girl a dowry so she is an eligible catch for any member of her class. She was so happy. She couldn’t get over the fact she had her freedom again. And now I must finally learn the difficult art of forgetting myself. People face death with a clear awareness in their eyes, but no one is really alive if he cannot forget himself.
VON KEITH [throwing himself into an armchair]
My father would be turning in his grave with shock at the thought of you seeking my advice.
SCHOLZ
That’s how life knocks what we learn in school right out of our heads. To be honest, your father played a part in my one-sided intellectual development.
VON KEITH
My father was as selfless and diligent as a private tutor and mentor of a Count Trautenau simply has to be. You were his model student. I was his whipping boy.
SCHOLZ
Don’t you remember how fondly our chambermaids in the castle used to kiss you—and with real affection if I happened to be standing close by? [Getting up] I’ll use the next two to three years for the sole purpose [in tears] of educating myself to be a lover of pleasure.
Let start tonight by going to Nymphenburg—to the dance hall!(10) It’s totally inappropriate for types like us to go there, but with all the rain and sleet pouring on my head, I can’t help feeling like bathing in mud again.
SCHOLZ
I’m not too keen on the noise of the crowd.
VON KEITH
You won’t hear any loud words, only the dull roar of the ocean as its depths churn. Munich is Arcadia as well as Babylon—both at the same time. The dumb Saturnalian frenzy that seizes the soul here at every opportunity also offers its own charms for the most jaded appetites.
SCHOLZ
How could I have a jaded appetite? Up to this point I have literally not yet enjoyed anything in my life.
VON KEITH
We’ll have to keep the crowds on the dance floor at a distance. When I show up in places like that, they’re like flies swarming to a rotting carcass. But I can guarantee you’ll forget yourself. And in three months, when you think back on our evening tonight, you’ll still be oblivious of yourself.
SCHOLZ
I have in all seriousness asked myself whether my immense wealth is perhaps the only reason for my distress.
VON KEITH [scandalized]
That’s blasphemy!
SCHOLZ
In fact, I wondered whether I should give up my wealth, just as I had renounced my title. But as long as I am alive, giving that up could only work to my family’s benefit. If necessary, once riches have ruined my life and I am on my death bed, I can dispose of what I own in a useful way. If from my young days on I’d had to struggle for a living, then, given how morally serious and conscientious I am, today I’d probably be in the middle of a glittering career, instead of a pariah.
VON KEITH
Or else you’d be wallowing in the most common love twaddle with your lower-class girl and polishing the boots of men from your own class.
SCHOLZ
I’d be happy to exchange my lot in life for that anytime.
VON KEITH
Don’t flatter yourself that this railway accident stands between you and your life. You’re stuffing yourself with these horrible memories only because you’re too awkward to procure more delicate nourishment.
SCHOLZ
You could be right about that. That’s why I’d like to entrust myself to your spiritual guidance.
VON KEITH
This evening we’ll find something to nibble on. Unfortunately at the moment I cannot invite you to have breakfast with me. At twelve o’clock I have a business meeting with an important local financier. But I’ll give you a short note to my friend Raspe. Spend the afternoon with him. Let’s meet at six o’clock at the Hofgarten Café.
[Von Keith goes to the writing table and writes a note]
SCHOLZ
What business are you in?
VON KEITH
I am an art dealer, I write for the newspapers, I run a concert agency—none of it worth talking about. You’ve come just in time to witness the development of a large-scale concert hall, which is being built exclusively for my own artists.
SCHOLZ [taking the painting from the table and looking at it]
You have a beautiful collection of paintings.
VON KEITH [jumping up]
I wouldn’t take ten thousand marks for that—a Saranieff. [He turns the painting around in Scholz’s hands.] You have to hold it the other way round.
SCHOLZ
I understand nothing about art. In my travels I’ve never been in a single museum.
VON KEITH [handing Scholz the note]
This man is an international police official, so don’t be too candid with him at first. A charming man. But people never know whether they should keep an eye on me or whether I’m here to keep an eye on them.
SCHOLZ
Thank you for your hospitable welcome. So until this evening at six in the Hofgarten Café.
VON KEITH
Then we’ll go to Nymphenburg. Thank you for finally having confidence in me.
[Von Keith accompanies Scholz out of the room. The scene remains empty for a moment. Then Molly Griesinger comes from the living room and collects the breakfast dishes from the table. As she is doing that,Von Keith returns]
VON KEITH [calling]
Sascha! [He goes over to the telephone and calls] Seventeen, thirty-five—Inspector Raspe!
SASCHA [coming from the waiting room]
You called, Herr Baron.
VON KEITH
My hat! My overcoat!
[Sascha hurries out to the hall.]
MOLLY
Don’t have any dealings with that patron, I’m begging you. He wouldn’t have come to us if he didn’t want to make use of us.
VON KEITH [speaking into the telephone]
Thank God you’re there! Wait ten minutes. You’ll see. [He talks to Molly as Sascha helps him into his overcoat.] I’m in a hurry to get to the editorial office.
MOLLY
What should I tell Mama?
VON KEITH [to Sascha]
A carriage!
SASCHA
Right away, Herr Baron.
[Sascha exits]
VON KEITH
Give her my most profound respects. [He goes to the writing desk] The plans—the letter from Ostermeier—tomorrow morning Munich has to know that the Magic Palace is going to be built!
MOLLY
So you’re not coming to Bückeburg?
VON KEITH [putting the rolled up plans under his arm, taking his hat from the table centre stage, and putting it on his head]
I do wonder how he’s going to turn himself into a man who lives for pleasure!
[Von Keith rushes out to the front door]
ACT TWO
[In the Marquis von Keith’s study. The middle table is set for breakfast—champagne and a large plate of oysters. The Marquis von Keith sits at the writing table, with his left foot up on a stool, as Sascha, kneeling in front of him, buttons his boot with a button hook. Ernst Scholz is standing behind the settee and trying out a guitar, which he has taken from the wall.]
VON KEITH
What time did you get back to your hotel this morning?
SCHOLZ [with a blissful smile]
At ten o’clock.
VON KEITH
Did I not do the right thing leaving you alone with that charming creature?
SCHOLZ [smiling happily]
After our conversations yesterday evening about art and modern literature, I wonder whether I should not let that girl be my teacher. That’s why I was all the more surprised when she asked if she could serve your guests at the garden party where you want to take Munich by storm.
VON KEITH
She simply considers that an honour. In any case, there’s still time to discuss the garden party. Tomorrow I’m going to Paris for a few days.
SCHOLZ
That’s really inconvenient for me.
VON KEITH
So come with me. I want to have one of my artists sing in front of Madame Marquesi, before she appears in public here.
SCHOLZ
In past I endured mental torments in Paris. Do I have to re-live them now?
VON KEITH
Didn’t what happened last night help you put those behind you? All right, then, during my absence you must spend time with the painter Saranieff. He’ll probably run into us at some point today.
SCHOLZ
The young girl told me about this Saranieff—his studio is a chamber of horrors, full of the most ghastly atrocities human beings have ever committed. And then she chatted in the most delightful way about her childhood, how she spent the entire summer sitting in cherry trees in Tirol, and on winter evenings she’d go sleigh riding with the village children until dark. How can this girl consider it such an honour to appear as a waitress at your garden party?
VON KEITH
The creature considers it an honour because doing so will give her an opportunity to fight against the ultimate contempt with which all middle-class society treats her.
SCHOLZ
But what justifies this contempt? How many hundreds of female lives in the best social circles are ruined because the stream of life in them dries up, whereas in her case it’s overflowing its banks. Her truly blissful happiness is no sin—not like that soul-destroying bickering my parents had to put up with living with each other for twenty years.
VON KEITH
What is sin?
SCHOLZ
Yesterday I thought I had a completely clear answer to that question. But today I can say without hesitation what thousands and thousands of well-to-do people like me have felt: a person who has failed at life looks with bitter envy on a creature whose life is debauched and immoral.
VON KEITH
They would not despise the happiness of this creature so much if it were not the most unprofitable thing they can imagine. Sin is a mythological label for bad business. Good business can occur only within the existing social order. No one knows that better than I do. I am the Marquis von Keith. All Munich talks about me. But today my European reputation places me outside the pale of society just as much as this creature. That is the only reason I’m giving the garden party. I regret very much that I cannot welcome the child as a guest. It will be much more socially acceptable if she shows up there as one of my servants.
SASCHA [standing up]
Is Herr Baron ordering a carriage?
VON KEITH
Yes.
[Sascha exits towards the front door.]
VON KEITH [stamping his feet to get his boots to fit comfortably]
Did you read that yesterday the Magic Palace Company was formed?
SCHOLZ
I haven’t looked at a newspaper since yesterday.
[Von Keith and Scholz sit down at the breakfast table.]
VON KEITH
The entire enterprise rests on a brewer, a builder, and an owner of a restaurant. They are the caryatids holding up the pediment of the temple.
SCHOLZ
By the way, your friend police inspector Raspe is a charming man.
VON KEITH
He’s a scoundrel. But I like him for another reason.
SCHOLZ
He explained to me that he was originally a student of theology, but he lost his faith by studying too much. He tried to find it again the way the prodigal son did.
VON KEITH
He kept sinking lower and lower, until finally the department of public prosecutions gathered him into its arms and gave him his lost faith back with a two-year sentence behind lock and key.
SCHOLZ
That girl simply could not understand why I have not yet learned how to ride a bicycle. She thought I had been very sensible not to ride one in Asia and Africa because of the wild animals, but I could have started in Italy!
VON KEITH
My dear friend, I’ll warn you again not to be too revealing. Truth is our most precious commodity in life, and we cannot use it sparingly enough.
SCHOLZ
Is that why you have taken on the name Marquis von Keith?
VON KEITH
I have just as much right to call myself the Marquis von Keith as you do to call yourself Ernst Scholz. I am the adopted son of Lord Keith, who in the year 1863 . . . .
[Sascha enters from the hall, leading Saranieff into the room. The latter is wearing a black frock coat with sleeves a little too long for his arms, light trousers somewhat too short for his legs, cheap shoes, and bright red gloves. His medium length, straight black hair is cut evenly all around. He wears a pince-nez with a black ribbon à la Murillo and has eyes full of eager anticipation. His profile is very expressive. He has a small Spanish moustache. After greeting von Keith, he hands his top hat to Sascha.]
SASCHA [announcing the guest]
Herr Professor Saranieff!
SARANIEFF
My dear friend, from the bottom of my heart I wish you luck. Finally the ropes are cut, and the balloon can rise!
VON KEITH
My sponsors are expecting me. I have hardly any time to invite you to breakfast.
SARANIEFF [sitting at the table]
I’ll forgive you the lack of an invitation.
VON KEITH
Sascha, one more place setting!
[Sascha hangs up the hat in the hall and exits into the living room.]
SARANIEFF
I was just wondering why the name of the great Casimir is not listed among the members of the Magic Palace board of directors.
VON KEITH
Because I don’t want to lose the credit for being the creator of my own work. [Introducing his guests] The painter Herr Saranieff . . . Count Trautenau.
SARANIEFF [taking a glass and a plate, serving himself, and turning to Scholz]
I know you already, Count, inside and out. [To von Keith] Simba has just been at my place. Right now she’s sitting for one of my Böcklin paintings.
VON KEITH [to Scholz]
Böcklin was a great painter himself, you know. [To Saranieff] There’s no need for you to brag about this kind of mischief.(11)
SARANIEFF
Make me famous, and I’ll not need to play these tricks anymore. I’ll pay you thirty percent for life. Zamerjaki’s mind is already wobbling like a rotten fence post because he so eager to find an honorable way to become immortal.
VON KEITH
I’m interested in his music. In a real composer the mind is merely an obstacle.
SCHOLZ
To desire to become immortal a man must surely already possess a truly extraordinary lust for life.
SARANIEFF [to Scholz]
By the way, our Simba told me you’re an extremely interesting man.
SCHOLZ
I don’t think she runs into a sourpuss like me every day.
SARANIEFF
She considers you one of the Symbolists. [To von Keith] And then she went on and on about an upcoming celebration with some outstanding fireworks to mark the launch of the Magic Palace.
VON KEITH
You can’t dazzle a dog with fireworks, but the most reasonable man feels offended if you don’t offer him such a display. Incidentally, I’m going to Paris for a few days.
SARANIEFF
They probably wish to hear your views on a mutual defence treaty between Germany and France?
VON KEITH
Don’t say a word about it!
SCHOLZ
I had no idea you’re involved in politics as well.
SARANIEFF
Perhaps you can come up with something the Marquis von Keith is not involved in?
VON KEITH
I don’t want anyone to accuse of me of having had no concern for the age I lived in.
SCHOLZ
Don’t people have enough to do with their own affairs, if they take life seriously?
SARANIEFF
You certainly take it damned seriously! Didn’t a laundress at the foot of the pyramid in the village of Gizeh get one of your shirt collars mixed up?
SCHOLZ
You seem to be really well informed about me. Will you permit me to visit you some time in your studio?
SARANIEFF
If you’re agreeable, we can have a coffee at my place right away. You’ll find your Simba still there.
SCHOLZ
Simba? Simba? You keep taking about Simba. But the girl told me her name was Kathi!
SARANIEFF
Her real name is Kathi, but the Marquis von Keith christened her Simba.
SCHOLZ [to von Keith]
I suppose that’s a reference to her amazing red hair?
VON KEITH
No matter how much I’d like to, I can give you no information about that.
SARANIEFF
She’s made herself comfortable on my Persian settee and at the moment is sleeping off her hangover from yesterday.
[Molly Griesinger enters from the living room and sets a place in front of Saranieff]
SARANIEFF
My heartfelt thanks, dear lady. You see that I have already eaten everything. Forgive me that I have not yet taken the opportunity to kiss your hand.
MOLLY
Save your compliments for worthier occasions!
[A bell rings in the corridor. Molly exits to open the front door.]
VON KEITH [looking at his watch and getting up]
Gentlemen, you must excuse me. [He calls out.] Sascha!
SARANIEFF [wiping his mouth]
Hang on—we’ll come with you.
[Saranieff and Scholz stand up. Sascha enters from the waiting room with overcoats and helps von Keith and Scholz put theirs on.]
SCHOLZ [to von Keith]
Why didn’t you tell me you were married?
VON KEITH
Allow me to fix your cravat. [Von Keith adjusts Scholz’s cravat.] You must take a little more care with your appearance.
[Molly comes back from the hall escorting Hermann Casimir into the room.]
MOLLY
Young Casimir wishes to see you.
VON KEITH [to Hermann]
Did you give the Countess my respects yesterday?
ERMANN
She was expecting money from you herself!
VON KEITH
Wait here a moment for me. I’ll be right back. [To Scholz and Saranieff] Are you ready, gentlemen?
SARANIEFF [taking his hat from Sascha]
With you through thick and thin!
SASCHA
The carriage is waiting, Herr Baron.
VON KEITH
You sit with the driver!
[Scholz, Saranieff, von Keith, and Sascha leave.]
MOLLY [collecting the breakfast dishes]
I find it surprising that you’re searching for something in this madhouse. It would really be more sensible for you to stay at home with your mother.
HERMANN [wishing to leave the room immediately]
My mother is no longer alive, madam. But I do not wish to disturb you.
MOLLY
For Heaven’s sake, just stay then! You’re not bothering anyone here. But what cruel parents, not to protect their child from associating with such riff-raff! Like you, I had a happy family home and was no older or wiser than you when I jumped into the abyss, without thinking what I was doing.
HERMANN [very agitated]
Heaven help me—I have to make up my mind about where I’m going! I’ll be ruined if I stay here in Munich any longer. But the Herr Marquis will refuse to help me, if he suspects what I have in mind. I beg you, madam, do not betray me!
MOLLY
If you had any idea of what I really feel inside, you wouldn’t worry about me having any interest in your affairs. I only hope things don’t turn out even worse for you than they have for me! If my mother had let me work the way I do now instead of sending me out to skate every free afternoon, today I’d still have some happiness to look forward to in my life!
HERMANN
But if you are so abysmally unhappy and realize that you could still enjoy some happiness, then why—why don’t you get a divorce?
MOLLY
For God’s sake, don’t talk about things you don’t understand! If people want to set about getting a divorce, first of all they have to be married.
HERMANN
Forgive me—I thought you were married.
MOLLY
God knows I don’t want to complain about anyone. But to get married, the whole world first insists you need papers. And having papers—that’s beneath his dignity! [A bell rings from the corridor] From morning to night this place is like a post office.
[Molly exits into the hallway.]
HERMANN [composing himself]
How could I prattle on like that?
[Molly enters, leading Countess Werdenfels into the room]
MOLLY
Perhaps you could wait here for my husband. He’ll probably be here very soon. May I introduce you two?
ANNA
Thank you. We know each other.
MOLLY
Of course. Then you don’t need me here.
[Molly exits into the living room. Anna sits down next to Hermann on the settee by the writing table and places her hand on his.]
ANNA
Now, my dear young friend, tell me candidly and in detail why you need so much money while you’re still at school?
HERMANN
That’s something I won’t tell you.
ANNA
But I’m so eager to find out!
HERMANN
I believe you are.
ANNA
You’re being stubborn!
HERMANN [removing his hand from hers]
I won’t let myself be manipulated in this way!
ANNA
Who’s manipulating you? Don’t flatter yourself! You see, I divide people into two large classes. One group is the go-getters and the other the fuddy-duddies.
HERMANN
And, of course, in your view I’m a fuddy-duddy.
ANNA
Well, if you don’t dare say why you need all that money . . . .
HERMANN
Of course, I don’t—I’m a fuddy-duddy.
ANNA
No, you’re a go-getter. I noticed that the moment I saw you.
HERMANN
I’m that, as well. Otherwise I’d be happy to remain in Munich.
ANNA
But you’re keen to go out into the world!
HERMANN
And you’d like to know where. To Paris, to London . . .
ANNA
These days Paris not at all fashionable anymore.
HERMANN
I not all that keen on Paris.
ANNA
Why wouldn’t you prefer to remain here in Munich. Your father is rolling in money . . .
HERMANN
Because people don’t experience anything here! I’ll rot away in Munich, especially if I have to sit at a school desk any longer. One of my former classmates wrote to me from Africa that when you feel unhappy in Africa, you still feel ten times happier than you do in Munich.
ANNA
I’ll tell you something—your friend is a fuddy-duddy. You shouldn’t go to Africa. Instead you should remain with us in Munich and live a little.
HERMANN
But that’s quite impossible here!
[Molly escorts police inspector Raspe into the room. Raspe is in his early twenties. He is wearing lightly coloured summer clothes and a straw hat and has the childish innocent features of an angel by Guido Reni, with short blond hair and a budding moustache.(12) When he senses he is being observed, he puts a pince-nez with blue glass over his eyes.]
MOLLY
If you’re willing to wait a moment, my husband will be back shortly. May I introduce you . . .
RASPE
My dear lady, I am not at all certain whether Herr Baron would be well served if you introduced me.
MOLLY
All right, I won’t! For Heaven’s sake!
[Molly exits into the living room.]
ANNA
Your caution, incidentally, is completely unnecessary. We already know each other.
RASPE [sitting down on the settee]
Hmm . . . I’ll have to ransack my memory . . .
ANNA
Once you’ve sorted out what you remember, I would ask you not to introduce me.
RASPE
But how is it possible that I have never heard a word about you here?
ANNA
That’s only because my name has changed. People have told me about you. You spent two years in absolute isolation.
RASPE
And you, of course, did not mention that you had known me at the height of my fame.
ANNA
What man in his glory years has not been well known!
RASPE
You are quite right. Pity is blasphemous. What could I do? I became the victim of the insane confidence everyone had in me.
ANNA
But now you are up and running again.
RASPE
Now I use the insane trust everyone has in me for the benefit of my fellow man. By the way, could you tell me any details about this man who wants to live for pleasure?
ANNA
Unfortunately I can’t. I have not been introduced to him yet.
RASPE
That really surprises me. A certain Herr Scholz, who wishes to study how to become a hedonist here in Munich.
ANNA
And that’s the reason the Marquis von Keith introduces him to a police inspector?
RASPE
He’s completely harmless. I had no idea what I should do with him at first. To further his education I took him to the Hofbräuhaus. That’s nearby, right in the neighbourhood.
[Molly opens the door and shows Consul Casimir into the room. He is a man in his mid-forties, rather stocky and extremely well dressed. He has a full face with generous black sideburns, a full moustache, bushy eyebrows, and hair parted carefully in the middle.]
MOLLY
My husband is not at home.
[Molly exits. Without greeting anyone Casimir goes directly up to Hermann.]
CASIMIR
There’s the door . . . I have to track you down to this den of thieves!
HERMANN
You wouldn’t be searching for me here if you weren’t afraid for your business!
CASIMIR [threatening Hermann]
You want to keep quiet! I'll make you leave!
HERMANN [pulling a revolver out of his pocket]
Don’t touch me, Papa! Don’t touch me! I’ll shoot myself if you lay a hand on me!
CASIMIR
I’ll make you pay for this when you get home!
RASPE
Who lets himself be treated like a dumb animal?
CASIMIR
Should I allow myself to be insulted here as well?
ANNA [moves up to Casimir]
Excuse me, sir. This is getting dangerously out of control. First, you need to calm down. [To Hermann] Be reasonable. Go with your father.
HERMANN
There’s nothing for me at home. He doesn’t even notice if I drink myself senseless, because I have no idea why I am in this world.
ANNA
Then be calm and say what you’re intending to do. But don’t threaten your father with that revolver. Give me the thing.
HERMANN
How could I do that?
ANNA
You won’t regret it. I’ll give it back to you once you calm down. Do you think I’m a liar?
[Hermann hesitates and then gives Anna the revolver.]
ANNA
Now ask your father for his forgiveness. If you have a spark of honour in you, you cannot expect your father to make the first move.
HERMANN
But I will not be completely humiliated!
ANNA
First, ask for forgiveness. You know well enough that after that your father can be reasoned with.
HERMANN
I . . . I . . . beg you to . . .
[Hermann falls to his knees sobbing]
ANNA [attempting to get Hermann to stand up]
You should be ashamed! Look your father in the eye!
CASIMIR
His mother’s nerves!
ANNA
Show your father he can have faith in you. Now, go home, and when you have calmed down, discuss your plans and ambitions with your father.
[Anna leads Hermann out of the room]
CASIMIR [to Raspe]
Who is that lady?
RASPE
Today is the first time I’ve seen her in the past two years. Back then she was a saleslady in a shop in Perusastraße. If I remember correctly, her name was Huber. However, if you want more detailed information . . .
CASIMIR
Thank you. Your humble servant, sir.
[Casimir exits. Molly comes out of the living room in order to remove the breakfast dishes]
RASPE
Excuse me, madam. Did the Baron really intend to come home before dinner?
MOLLY
For Heaven’s sake, I beg you not to ask me such ridiculous questions!
[Anna returns from the hall]
ANNA [to Molly]
Is there something I can take out for you?
MOLLY
You want to know if there might be something . . . . [putting the tray back on the table] Whoever wants to can clear off the table. I didn’t eat there.
[Molly exits into the living room.]
RASPE
You handled that business with the young man perfectly.
ANNA [sitting down again at the writing table]
I envy that carriage his father is taking him home in.
RASPE
Tell me, what really happened to Count Werdenfels? Two years ago he was giving one champagne banquet after another.
ANNA
I bear his name.
RASPE
I might have guessed as much! Would you please extend to the Count my most sincere congratulations on his choice.
ANNA
That I can no longer do.
RASPE
Of course. Obviously you are separated.
ANNA
Yes, obviously. [Loud voices are heard from the corridor.] I’ll tell you about it some other time.
[Von Keith enters with Ostermeier, Krenzl, and Grandauer. All three of them are more or less paunchy, bleary eyed, bourgeois citizens of Munich. Sascha follows them into the room.]
VON KEITH
This is a splendid opportunity for me to introduce you right now to one of our most eminent artistes. Sascha, take these dishes away!
[Sascha collect the breakfast dishes and exits into the living room.]
VON KEITH [making the introductions]
Herr Ostermeier, the owner of a brewery, Herr Krenzl, the builder, and Herr Grandauer, the owner of a restaurant—the caryatids of the Magic Palace—Countess Werdenfels. But you do not have much time, gentlemen, and you wish to see the plans.
[Von Keith takes the plans from the writing table and rolls them out on the central table]
OSTERMEIER
Take your time, my dear friend. Five minutes will not make any difference.
VON KEITH [to Grandauer]
Would you please hold this. What you see here is the large concert hall with a retractable ceiling and skylight, so that it can serve as an exhibition centre in the summer. Next to it is smaller performing space which I will design for popular taste, using the most up-to-date artistic style—you know, a space that is half dance hall and half morgue. The most modern fashion is always the cheapest and most effective way to advertise.
OSTERMEIER
Hmmm—you’ve not forgotten the toilets?
VON KEITH
You can see here the most thorough details of the cloakroom and toilet facilities. Here, Herr Krenzl, is the front elevation—the driveway, the tympanum, the caryatids.(13)
KRENZL
But I wouldn’t want to be one of those caryatids!
VON KEITH
My dear sir, that’s just one of my jokes!
KRENZL
What would my old lady say if I wanted to be up there, as a carved caryatid, especially on a Magic Palace!
GRANDAUER
As you know, my main concern as a restaurateur is to have enough room.
VON KEITH
My dear Herr Grandauer, the entire ground floor is designed as space for the restaurant.
GRANDAUER
For eating and drinking people can’t be packed in together as tightly as they are for an artistic treat.
VON KEITH
For afternoon coffee, my dear Herr Grandauer, you have here a terrace on the first floor with a splendid view of the lands along the Isar.(14)
OSTERMEIER
I’d like to ask you, my dear friend, if you could let us see the initial statement of your financial position.
VON KEITH [producing a written document]
Four thousand shares at five thousand per share amounts to roughly twenty million marks. I start with the assumption, gentlemen, that each of us subscribes for forty preferred shares and pays for them immediately. The calculated dividend, as you see here, is exceptionally low.
KRENZL
So then the only question still remaining is whether the city authorities give us the necessary approval.
VON KEITH
And for that we intend to issue, in addition to the shares, a number of profit-sharing certificates. Some of these we are going to make available to the city for charitable purposes. It is proposed that members of the board receive ten percent of the net profit before deductions for depreciation and cash reserves.
OSTERMEIER
All nice and legal. One cannot ask for more.
VON KEITH
We’ll have to do something to deal with the stock market. That’s why I’m going to Paris tomorrow. Two weeks from today we will have our founding celebration at my villa in Briennerstraße.
[Anna winces at the mention of her house]
OSTERMEIER
If you could only persuade Councillor Casimir to throw his lot in with us by the time of the founding celebration.
KRENZL
That would be a shrewd move. If we had Casmir, then the municipal council would approve everything.
VON KEITH
Gentlemen, I am hoping we’ll be able to call a general meeting before the party. Then you’ll see whether I have found a way to act on your suggestions about Councillor Casimir.
OSTERMEIER [shaking von Keith’s hand]
In that case, I wish you a delightful journey, my dear friend. Let us hear something from you in Paris. [Bowing towards Anna] Permit me to take my leave. My compliments.
GRANDAUER
I’ll take my leave, as well. Permit me to wish you good afternoon.
KRENZL
With my deepest respects. Goodbye.
[Von Keith leads the men out and returns to the room.]
ANNA
What on earth are you thinking by arranging to have your founding celebration at my house?
VON KEITH
In Paris I will have a concert gown made for you. When you wear it you will no longer need a voice to sing. [To Raspe] From you, police inspector, I expect that at our founding party you will enchant the wives of the three caryatids with the full charm of your personality.
RASPE
The ladies will have nothing to complain about as far as I’m concerned.
VON KEITH [giving Raspe money]
Here is three hundred marks for you. I will bring fireworks back with me from Paris. It will be a spectacle like nothing the city of Munich has ever seen.
RASPE [pocketing the money]
He got the idea from that man who is now living for pleasure.
VON KEITH [to Anna]
I use each mortal being according to his talents, and I must recommend some caution in dealing with my close friend police inspector Raspe.
RASPE
When anyone is like you and looks as though he has been cut down from the gallows, then there is no art to getting through life honestly. I’d like to see where you would be today with my angelic face.
VON KEITH
If I’d had your face, I’d have married a princess.
ANNA [to Raspe]
If I remember correctly, at the time I first met you, you had a French name.
RASPE
I no longer have a French name, now that I’ve become a useful member of human society. Permit me to take my leave.
[Raspe exits.]
ANNA
But my household is not equipped to give large suppers!
VON KEITH [calling]
Sascha!
SASCHA [entering from the waiting room]
Herr Baron?
VON KEITH
Are you willing to help with the service arrangements for the garden party at my friend’s house?
SASCHA
That would be a pleasure, Herr Baron.
[Sascha exits.]
VON KEITH
May I introduce you today to my oldest boyhood friend, Count Trautenau?
ANNA
I have no luck with counts.
VON KEITH
That doesn’t matter. There’s only one thing I request of you: do not discuss my domestic situation with him. He is a real moralist—by nature and by conviction. He has already taken me to task today about my family life.
ANNA
Good God, isn’t he the one who want to educate himself in how to enjoy the pleasures of life?
VON KEITH
It’s a mockery of who he is! Ever since I’ve known him, his life has been nothing but sacrifice, without ever noticing that he has two souls in his breast.
ANNA
O no, not that! In my view people already have one too many. But isn’t his name Scholz?
VON KEITH
One of his souls is called Ernst Scholz—the other is Count Trautenau.
ANNA
Thanks for the invitation, but I don’t want anything to do with people who have not sorted out who they are.
VON KEITH
He is a paragon of those who understand themselves. The world has absolutely nothing enjoyable to offer him anymore, unless he begins again at the bottom.
ANNA
It would be better if the man climbed higher up the staircase!
VON KEITH
What has made you so upset?
ANNA
The fact that you want to set me up with this dreadful monster!
VON KEITH
He’s as gentle as a lamb.
ANNA
Thank you for that! But I will not receive this disaster incorporated into my private rooms.
VON KEITH
You don’t understanding me at all. In my present situation, I cannot cope without his confidence in me. So I don’t want to expose myself to his disapproval. If he doesn’t meet you, so much the better for me—I’ll not have to be afraid of any criticism from him.
ANNA
Who can figure out where your scheming ends!
VON KEITH
What were you thinking?
ANNA
I thought you were intending to use me as a prostitute for your friend.
VON KEITH
You think I’d do that?
ANNA
A minute ago you said you exploit every mortal creature according to his talents. And no one would ever question that I have the talent to be a whore.
VON KEITH [wrapping his arms around Anna]
Anna, tomorrow I am travelling to Paris, not to do something about the stock market or to buy fireworks, but because I have to breathe some fresh air and stretch out my arms, if I am not to lose my advantageous position here in Munich. Anna, would I be taking you to Paris with me, if you were not everything to me? You know, Anna, not a single night goes when I don’t dream about you with a diadem in your hair? If I had to fetch a star from the firmament for you, I would not hesitate. I would discover a way.
ANNA
All right then, use me as your slut. Then you’ll really see whether I earn you anything!
VON KEITH
At this moment the only thought I have in mind is the concert gown I am going to have made for you by Saint Hilaire . . . .
[Sascha enters from the hall.]
SASCHA
A Herr Sommersberg would like to pay his respects.
VON KEITH
Show him in. [To Anna describing the gown] Pink silk with a cascade of silver sequins from the shoulders to the ankles, so tightly laced and cut so low in the front and back the gown will look like a glittering ornament on your slender body!
[Sommersberg enters. He is in his late thirties, with deep furrows on his face. His unkempt hair and beard are streaked with grey. A heavy winter coat conceals his shabby clothing. His is wearing torn leather gloves.]
SOMMERBERG
I am the author of “Songs of a Happy Man.” I don’t look like it.
VON KEITH
I once looked like that.
SOMMERSBERG
I wouldn’t have found the courage to turn to you, but, to tell the truth, I have had almost nothing to eat for the past two days.
VON KEITH
That has happened to me a hundred times. How can I help you?
SOMMERSBERG
A small favour—some lunch . . . .
VON KEITH
There’s nothing more than that I can do for you?
SOMMERSBERG
I’m a sick man.
VON KEITH
But you have half your life still ahead of you!
SOMMERSBERG
I have squandered my life trying to live up to the high expectations people had of me.
VON KEITH
Perhaps you’ll still find a current that will take you out into the open sea. Or do you fear for your life?
SOMMERSBERG
I can’t swim, and here in Munich it’s not difficult to just give up.
VON KEITH
Come to our founding celebration, two weeks today—in Briennerstraße. You could make some useful connections there. [He give Sommersberg some money] Here’s a hundred marks. Keep enough money in reserve so you can rent a dinner jacket for the party.
SOMMERSBERG [hesitating as he takes the money]
I feel as if I’m letting you down . . . .
VON KEITH
Don’t let yourself down! That way you’ll be doing something good for the next poor devil who visits me.
SOMMERSBERG
Thank you, Herr Baron.
[Sommersberg exits]
VON KEITH
You’re welcome. It’s nothing!
[Von Keith shuts the door behind Sommersberg and takes Anna in his arms.]
VON KEITH
And now, my queen, we’re off to Paris!
ACT THREE
[A garden room illuminated with electric lights. A
wide glass door in the right sidewall leads out to the garden. A door in the
middle of the back wall leads into the dining room, where people are eating.
With the door open, the upper end of the table is visible. In the wall on the
left side there is a doorway with a hanging curtain, which leads to the games
room. From that room there is also access to the dining room. Near the curtained
doorway there is a small upright piano. Downstage right there stands a lady’s
writing table, downstage left a loveseat sofa, a chair, tables, and so on. In
the right corner upstage a door leads to the hall.
In the dining room people are drinking a toast. As the
glasses clink, Sommersberg, dressed in a cheap suit, and von Keith, in formal
evening wear, enter the salon through the middle door.]
VON KEITH [closing the door behind him]
Have you written a draft of the telegram?
SOMMERSBERG [reading from a paper in his hand]
“The founding of the Munich Magic Palace Corporation yesterday brought together notable citizens of the convivial city on the Isar for an extremely lively garden party at the villa of Marquis von Keith in Briennerstraße. A splendid display of fireworks enchanted those living in the adjacent streets until after midnight. To this enterprise, launched under such favourable auspices, we would like to wish . . .”
VON KEITH
Excellent! Who should I send to take it to the telegraph office?
SOMMERSBERG
Let me deal with that. After all that champagne it will do me good to breathe some fresh air.
[Sommersberg goes out by the hall. At the same moment Ernst Scholz enters the room. He is in formal evening clothes and wearing an overcoat.]
VON KEITH
You’ve kept people waiting a long time!
SCHOLZ
I’ve only come to tell you that I can’t stay here.
VON KEITH
People are making me a laughing stock! Old Casimir has already left me in the lurch, but at least he sent me a telegram wishing me good luck.
SCHOLZ
I do not belong with people. You complain that you live outside society. I am outside the human race.
VON KEITH
Don’t you now enjoy everything a man can only dream about?
SCHOLZ
What pleasures do I enjoy! The paroxysms of delight I wallow in leave me unable to recognize anymore the difference between me and a group of fellow barbarians. Of course, I have learned to swoon over Rubens and Richard Wagner. Misery, which used to arouse my pity before, has already become almost unendurable because it’s so ugly. I marvel all the more attentively at the artistic achievements of dancers and acrobats. If only all this had taken me one step further! At best, people may treat me like a human being, because I have money, but as soon as I want to be one, I hit my head against invisible walls.
VON KEITH
If you envy the lucky beggars who grow wherever there is a place for them and are blown away as soon as the wind changes, then don’t come to me for pity. The world is a damnably crafty beast, and it’s not easy to get the better of it. But once you succeed at that, then you are immune to every misfortune.
SCHOLZ
If you are satisfied with phrases like that, then there’s really no point in me seeking your company.
[Scholz wishes to leave but von Keith holds him back.]
VON KEITH
Those are not phrases! Today no disaster can harm me anymore. We know each other too well, disaster and I. For me a disaster is a favourable opportunity, like everything else. Any ass can suffer misfortune. The art consists in understanding how to exploit it properly.
SCHOLZ
You hang onto the world the way a whore clings to her pimp. It is incomprehensible to you that when someone lives only for himself he becomes as disgusting as a rotting carcass.
VON KEITH
Then in the devil’s name be content with your heavenly career! Once you have left this purgatory of earthly abominations and joys behind, then, like a Church Father, you can look down on me—a pathetic suffering sinner.
SCHOLZ
If only I had the rights I was born with as a human being! I’d prefer to be a wild animal slinking through the wilderness than to have to apologize for my existence at every step! I cannot remain here. Yesterday I met Countess Werdenfels. I simply do not understand how I could have offended her. Perhaps I unconsciously lapsed into the tone I generally use when I’m talking to our Simba.
VON KEITH
I have already received more slaps in the face from women than I have hairs on my head! But not one of them ever made fun of me behind my back because of it.
SCHOLZ
I am a man without any education in these matters—and with a woman for whom I have the very highest respect!
VON KEITH
Someone like you, who from boyhood on has had to wrestle every inch of the way with a spiritual conflict, can be the master of his age and ruler of the world long after we others have been eaten by worms.
SCHOLZ
And then there’s young Simba, who’s shown up this evening as a waitress at your party. The most adept diplomat could not cope with such a delicate situation.
VON KEITH
Simba doesn’t know you!
SCHOLZ
I’m not afraid Simba will offend me. What I do fear is that I’ll upset her by neglecting her without the slightest reason.
VON KEITH
How could you upset Simba by doing that? She understands class differences a hundred times better than you do.
SCHOLZ
I have come to understand all about class differences. They are, God knows, the chains which most forcibly compel a person to become aware of his complete powerlessness.
VON KEITH
Perhaps you think I never have to struggle against powerlessness? If my behaviour is as correct as the orbit of the planets and if my clothes are exceptionally elegant, I cannot change these plebeian hands, anymore than an idiot can change into an eminent scholar. Given my intellectual gifts, if I did not have these hands, I’d have earned a better reputation in society long ago. Come, it’s safer if you leave your overcoat in the next room.
SCHOLZ
Leave me alone! Today I cannot talk calmly to the Countess.
VON KEITH
Then stick with the two divorced women. They are suffering from conflicts similar to your own.
SCHOLZ
Two women at the same time?
VON KEITH
Neither one is over twenty-five—perfect beauties, ancient Nordic nobility, and so hypermodern in their principles, they make me look like an antique wheel-lock musket.
SCHOLZ
I think that I, too, am not all that far from being a modern person.
[Scholz exits into the games room. Von Keith is about to follow him, but at that moment Saranieff enters from the hall.]
SARANIEFF
Tell me, can one still get something to eat?
VON KEITH
Please leave that coat of yours outside. I have not yet eaten anything all day.
SARANIEFF
They’re not so fussy about that here. First I have to ask you something important.
[Saranieff hangs his hat and coat in the hall. Meanwhile Sascha comes out of the games room on his way to the dining room carrying a full champagne cooler. He is wearing tails and satin knee breeches.]
VON KEITH
Sascha, when you set off the fireworks later on, be very careful of the large mortar tube—it’s loaded with all the fires of hell.
SASCHA
I’m not worried, Herr Baron!
[Sascha exits into the dining room closing the door behind him. Saranieff returns from the hall.]
SARANIEFF
Do you have any money?
VON KEITH
But you’ve just sold a painting! That’s why I sent my boyhood friend to see you.
SARANIEFF
What am I supposed to do with that squeezed-out lemon? You’ve already taken the shirt off his back. He has to wait three days before he can pay me a penny.
VON KEITH [giving Saranieff a note]
There’s a thousand marks.
[Simba enters. She is a typical Munich girl, with clear skin, a light step, and luxurious red hair; she is dressed in a tasteful black dress with a white pinafore. She enters from the dining room carrying a tray of half-empty wine glasses.]
SIMBA
The Councillor would still like the Baron to say a few words.
[Von Keith takes a glass from her and goes through the open dining room door to the table. Simba exits into the games room.]
VON KEITH
Ladies and gentlemen, this evening’s celebrations mark the beginning of a new era for Munich, one that will put all past ages in the shade. We are creating a cultural centre in which all the various forms of world art should find a welcoming home. If what we are undertaking has prompted general astonishment, you should remember that in every age only truly amazing acts have been crowned with great success. I empty my glass in honour of that vital element that has ordained that Munich will be a city of the arts and in honour of the citizens of Munich and their beautiful women.
[As the glasses are still clinking, Sascha comes out of the dining room, closes the door behind him, and exits into the games room. Simba enters from the games room with a cheese dome, intending to go into the dining room. Saranieff stops her.]
SARANIEFF [holding her back]
Simba! Have you gone blind! Don’t you see, Simba, how that pleasure-seeking fellow is about to escape your snare and let himself be caught by that countess from Perusastraße?
SIMBA
Why are you staying outside here? Go in, and sit at the table.
SARANIEFF
You mean sit myself down with the caryatids! Simba! Do you want to cram all the lovely money your fun-loving friend has in his pockets down the gullet of that mad Marquis von Keith?
SIMBA
Go! Leave me alone! I have to wait on them.
SARANIEFF
The caryatids don’t need any more cheese! They should finish eating and wipe their mouths. [He takes the cheese dome, puts it on the table, and sets Simba on his knees]. Simba! Don’t you like me anymore? Am I to beg for twenty-mark coins from the Marquis of Keith, wailing and gnashing my teeth, when you can scoop up thousand-mark notes fresh from the source?
SIMBA
Thanks a lot! Nobody in the world has irritated me as much as this fun-loving fellow with his compassion, his stupid pity! The man wants to convince me that I’m a martyr to civilization! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Me a martyr of civilization! I said to him “Tell that to the society ladies.” That what I said. They’re happy to be called martyrs of civilization, because without that they’re nothing. When I drink champagne and have fun, I enjoy it so much. Afterwards I’m a martyr of civilization!
SARANIEFF
Simba! If I were a woman with your qualities, for every moist look this pleasure-seeker would have to pay me an ancestral castle.
SIMBA
It’s just the way he talks! “Why am I a man?” he asks me. As if there aren’t already enough ghosts in the world! Do I ask people why I’m a girl?
SARANIEFF
You’re also not asking why your damned prejudice is letting fifteen million slip away from us!
SIMBA
O those poor millions! Since I’ve known this pleasure-seeker, I have seen him laugh only once. I told him he had to learn how to ride a bicycle. So he learned. So then we go for a bicycle ride to Schleissheim, and while we’re in the words, a storm blows up. I think the world is coming to an end. Then for the first time since I met him, he begins to laugh. My, my, how he laughed. I say to him, “Now you’re really a man enjoying himself.” With every flash of lightning he keeps laughing. The more lightning and thunder, the more he laughs like an idiot. “Move,” I tell him, “don’t stand under that tree—the lighting will strike you there.” “The lightning will never touch me,” he says and roars with laughter!
SARANIEFF
Simba! Simba! You could have become an imperial countess on the spot!
SIMBA
Thanks a lot! I could have become a Social Democrat. World progress, the happiness of the human race—those are what he specializes in. No, I’m not with the Social Democrats. They are too moralistic for me. If they ever come to power, that’ll be the end of champagne suppers. Tell me, have you seen my sweetheart?
SARANIEFF
Have I seen your sweetheart?! But I’m your sweetheart!
SIMBA
All sorts of people could think that! You know I have to be careful he doesn’t have too much to drink, or else the Marquis won’t hire him for the new Magic Palace.
[Sommersberg enters from the hall.]
SIMBA
There he is! Where have you been hiding all this time?
SOMMERSBERG
I’ve been sending a telegram to the newspapers.
SARANIEFF
The graves are opening! Sommersberg! Aren’t you ashamed to rise from the dead to become secretary of this Magic Palace?
SOMMERSBERG [pointing to Simba]
This angel has given the world back to me.
SIMBA
Come on, my lovely, don’t talk like that. He comes to me and asks where he can get some money. I tell him, go straight to Marquis von Keith. If he doesn’t have any, then you won’t find a penny in the entire city of Munich.
[Raspe enters from the games room. He is dressed in very elegant formal clothes, with a small chain and medal on his chest]
RASPE
Simba, it’s an absolute scandal you’re keeping the entire Magic Palace Company waiting for cheese.
SIMBA [grabbing the cheese dome]
Jesus Maria! I’m on my way right now!
SARANIEFF
You should stay with those old bags you’re been paid to entertain!
SIMBA [taking Raspe’s arm]
Leave the boy alone! You’d both be overjoyed if you were as good looking as him!
SARANIEFF
Simba, you are a born whore!
SIMBA
What am I?
SARANIEFF
You’re a born whore!
SIMBA
Tell me again.
SARANIEFF
You’re a born whore!!
SIMBA
No, I’m not a born whore. I’m a born cheese server.
[Simba exits with Raspe into the games room.]
SOMMERSBERG
I personally dictate her love letters for her.
SARANIEFF
Then I have to thank you as well for destroying my idle dreams.
[Sascha enters from the games room with a lantern that has been lit.]
SARIANEFF
Damn it, you’re all dressed up! Is marrying a countess on your mind, as well?
SASCHA
I’m going now to set off the fireworks in the garden. When I light up the big mortar tube, just watch. The Herr Marquis says it is filled with all the fires of hell.
[Sascha exits into the garden.]
SARANIEFF
His master’s worried he could be could be flying through the air if he personally set off that mortar tube with fireworks inside. Fortune knows very well why she does not let him get up on the horse. As soon as he sits in the saddle, he pushes the animal so savagely there’s no more meat left on its bones. [The middle door opens and the guests start leaving the dining room.] Come on, Sommersberg, now we’ll let our Simba serve us a meal fit for a king.
[The guests stream into the salon. In front is Raspe between Frau Ostermeier and Frau Krenzl, followed by von Keith, with Ostermeier, Krenzl, and Grandauer, and then Zamrjaki with Baroness von Rosenkron and Baroness von Totleben. Scholz and Anna enter last. Saranieff and Sommersberg sit down at the table in the dining room.]
RASPE
May I join you eminent royal ladies in a cup of delicious coffee?
FRAU OSTERMEIER
I must say, such a gracious cavalier—it’s impossible to find men like you at all in south Germany.
FRAU KRENZL
Our aristocratic young gentlemen from the imperial riding school could well take you as their role model.
RASPE
Every minute I could swear on my word of honour that this is the most wonderful moment of my life!
[Raspe exits with the two ladies into the games room.]
OSTERMEIER [to von Keith]
At any rate, it’s nice of old Casimir to send a telegram wishing us good luck. But you know, my dear friend, old Casimir is a cautious man!
VON KEITH
That’s nothing! It doesn’t matter! By the time of our first general meeting we’ll have old Casimir with us. Would you gentlemen like a cup of coffee?
[Ostermeier, Krenzl, and Grandauer exit into the games room. Von Keith intends to follow them, but Baroness von Rosenkron detains him.]
BARONESS VON ROSENKRON
Promise me, Marquis, that you’ll allow me to train as a dancer for the Magic Palace!
BARONESS VON TOTLEBEN
And me, too, as an equestrienne!
VON KEITH
I promise you, ladies, we will not open the Magic Palace without the two of you goddesses. What’s the matter with you, Zamrjaki? You’re as white as a ghost . . . .
ZAMRJAKI [a slender, small conservatory musician with long black parted hair; he speaks with a Polish accent]
I am working day and night on my symphony. [Leading von Keith to one side] Permit me, Herr Marquis, to ask you something. I would like to request advance of twenty marks from the wages of the conductor of the Magic Palace orchestra.
VON KEITH
With the greatest of pleasure. [Von Keith gives him money.] Could you play us a preview from your new symphony in my Magic Palace concert sometime soon?
ZAMRJAKI
I will play the scherzo. The scherzo will be a great success.
BARONESS VON ROSENKRON [at the glass door leading to the garden]
Look at that! A sea of light! Martha, just take a look! Come, Zamrjaki, escort us into the garden!
ZAMRJAKI
I’m coming, ladies. I’m coming.
[Zamrjaki, Baroness von Rosenkron, and Baroness von Totleben exit into the garden.]
VON KEITH [following them]
Watch out, children. Keep your distance from the large mortar tube. It’s loaded with my most dazzling rockets!
[Von Keith exits into the garden. Simba closes the middle door from inside the dining room. Anna and Scholz remain in the salon by themselves.]
ANNA
I didn’t have an earthly idea what I could ever have taken amiss. This tactlessness you talk about—have you not perhaps experienced it with some other woman?
SCHOLZ
That is quite out of the question. You must understand this: I am as happy as a man who has been lying in prison since his earliest childhood and who now, for the first time in his life, is breathing fresh air. That is why with every step I take I’m still so unsure of myself, trembling with anxiety about my happiness.
ANNA
I can imagine that’s very appealing—to enjoy living in the dark with one’s eyes closed!
SCHOLZ
You see, Countess, if I succeed in dedicating my existence to some charitable endeavour, then I will be unable to offer sufficient thanks to my Creator.
ANNA
I thought you wanted to educate yourself to be a man of pleasure here in Munich?
SCHOLZ
Learning to be a man of pleasure is for me only a means to an end. I give you my most sacred assurances on that point! Do not think of me as some kind of hypocrite because of it! Ah, there is still so much good to fight for in this world! I’ll quickly find where I belong. The more the blows rain down, the more precious my skin will be to me. It has been so unspeakably burdensome to me up to now. And about one thing I am perfectly certain: should I ever succeed in making myself useful to my fellow human beings, I will never take any credit for it! Let my path take me up or down, I obey only the cruel inexorable drive for survival.
ANNA
Perhaps what happened with all famous men is that they became famous only because associating with ordinary, everyday people like us got on their nerves.
SCHOLZ
You still do not understand me, Countess. As soon as I have found an area where I can work, I will be the most unassuming and grateful companion. Here in Munich I have already started riding a bicycle. Doing that made me feel as if I had not seen the world since the days of my earliest childhood. Every tree, every patch of water, the mountains, the sky—it was all like an immense revelation I once had a premonition about in another life. Could I perhaps call on you sometime to go for a bicycle ride?
ANNA
How does tomorrow morning suit you—at seven o’clock? Or are you perhaps not a friend of early rising?
SCHOLZ
Tomorrow morning at seven! I see my life spreading out before me like a landscape of endless spring!
ANNA
Be careful you don’t keep me waiting around for nothing.
[Zamrjaki, Baroness von Rosenkron, and Baroness von Totleben come back from the garden. Simba enters from the games room.]
BARONESS VON ROSENKRON
Brrrr—it’s cold. Martha, we’ll have to take our shawls with us next time. Play us a cancan, Zamrjaki! [To Scholz] Do you dance the cancan?
SCHOLZ
I’m afraid I do not, madam.
BARONESS VON ROSENKRON [to Baroness von Totleben]
Then let’s dance together!
[Zamrjaki sits down at the piano and starts playing a waltz]
BARONESS VON ROSENKRON
Do you call that a cancan, Herr Conductor?
ANNA [to Simba]
Do you waltz?
SIMBA
If Madam asks me to . . . .
ANNA
Come on then!
[Baroness von Rosenkron, Baroness von Totlebn, Anna, and Simba waltz to the music]
BARONESS VON ROSENKRON
A faster tempo, please!
[Von Keith comes back from the garden and turns off most of the electric lamps, so that the salon is now only dimly lit.]
ZAMRJAKI [irritated and breaking off his piano playing]
With every bar I’m moving closer to my symphony!
BARONESS VON TOTLEBEN
Why has it become so dark all of a sudden?
VON KEITH
So my fireworks make more of an impression. [Von Keith opens the door to the games room.] Ladies and gentlemen, I would ask you . . .
[Raspe, Herr and Frau Ostermeier, Herr and Frau Krenzl come into the salon. Simba exits.]
VON KEITH
I am pleased to be able to inform you that within next few weeks the first of our grand Magic Palace concerts will take place. At this point they will publicize our undertaking for the people of Munich. At the concert Countess Werdenfels will introduce us by singing a few songs with the very latest modern arrangements, while Conductor Zamrjaki will personally direct some selections from his symphonic poem “The Wisdom of the Brahmin.”
[There is a round of general applause. In the garden a firework rises up with a hissing sound, throwing a reddish glow into the salon. Von Keith turns the electric lights completely off and opens the glass door.]
VON KEITH
Into the garden, ladies and gentlemen! Into the garden
if you wish to see anything!
[A second firework takes off, as the guests leave the salon. Von Keith wishes to follow them but is detained by Anna. The scene remains dark.]
ANNA
Why did you decide to announce I’d be taking part in your Magic Palace concert?
VON KEITH
If you intend to wait until your teacher declares you ready to appear in public, you will be old and grey without ever having sung a note. [Von Keith throws himself into an arm chair.] Finally . . . finally the neck-breaking tightrope walk is coming to an end! For ten years I’ve had to waste my energies on it, just to avoid losing my balance. From now on things are moving upwards!
ANNA
Where am I to find the audacity to step out in front of a Munich public with my singing?
VON KEITH
Don’t you want to be Germany’s premiere Wagner soprano in two years?
ANNA
I said that as a joke.
VON KEITH
But how could I know?
ANNA
Other concerts take months of advance preparation.
VON KEITH
I haven’t put up with thousands of hardships in my life in order to act as other men do. Anyone who doesn’t like your singing will find your brilliant concert gown from Paris intoxicating.
ANNA
If only other men would look at me with your eyes.
VON KEITH
I’ll provide the public with the right glasses.
ANNA
You see and hear figments of your imagination as soon as you look at me. You exaggerate my looks just as you do my artistic talent.
VON KEITH [jumping up]
People hardly ever suspect that I overvalue women, but I recognized who you are at first sight. No wonder! I had been searching for you for ten years in two different parts of the world. You had met me several times already, but you were either in the clutches of a bandit like myself or I was so down on my luck there was no practical purpose stepping into your limelight.
ANNA
When your love for me makes you lose your judgment, is that reason enough for me to heap the scorn of this entire city on myself?
VON KEITH
For my sake other women have taken on very different burdens!
ANNA
But I’m not infatuated with you!
VON KEITH
Every woman says that! Surrender yourself to your inevitable happiness. I will instill the self-assurance you need for your first performance, even if I have to force you out onstage ahead of me with a loaded revolver.
ANNA
If you treat me like a piece of meat, things between us will soon be over.
VON KEITH
Trust in the fact that I am a man who takes life damn seriously. If I’m happy to bathe in champagne, I can also make up for that by denying myself every enjoyment in life, in a way no one else can. But I cannot endure three days of my existence if during that time I do not come one step closer to my goal!
ANNA
Then it’s probably high time you finally reached your goal!
VON KEITH
Anna, do you really thing I would arrange the Magic Palace concert if I was not absolutely certain it would bring you the most glittering triumph? Let me tell you something—I am a man who believes . . .
[In the garden a firework rises up with a hiss.]
VON KEITH
. . . There’s nothing I have a more confident faith in than this—our struggles and sacrifices lead to their own reward in this world!
ANNA
Anyone who wears himself out like you do probably has to believe that.
VON KEITH
If we don’t get the rewards, our children will!
ANNA
But you don’t have any yet!
VON KEITH
You will give them to me, Anna. Children with my intelligence, bodies brimming with good health, and with aristocratic hands. That why I’ll build you a royal home, as is appropriate for a woman like you. And I’ll give you a husband at your side who has the power to grant every wish that speaks from your large dark eyes.
[Von Keith kisses Anna passionately. In the garden a firework goes off, and for a moment bathes the two of them in a dark red glow.]
VON KEITH
Go into the garden. The caryatids are now thirsting to be able to bend their knees before our god-like image.
ANNA
Aren’t you coming, too?
[Von Keith turns two of the electric lights on, so that the salon is dimly lit.]
VON KEITH
I’m just going to write a quick note for the press about our concert. It has to be in the newspapers tomorrow morning. In it I’ll congratulate you in advance for your splendid triumph.
[Anna exits into the garden. Von Keith sits down at the table and scribbles some words. Molly Griesinger enters quickly from the hall. She has a bright shawl over her head and is very agitated.]
MOLLY
I must speak to you—just for a minute.
VON KEITH
Take as long as you like, my child. You’re not disturbing me at all. But I did say you wouldn’t be able to bear being alone in the house.
MOLLY
I pray to heaven we suffer a dreadful misfortune. That is the single thing that can still save us!
VON KEITH
Why don’t you come with me then, when I ask you to?
MOLLY [shivering]
To the people you associate with?
VON KEITH
The company in these rooms is the business which enables the two of us to live. But you can’t bear that I’m here with my thoughts and not at home with you.
MOLLY
Does that surprise you? Look, when you’re among these people, you’re a completely different person. You’re someone I’ve never known, never loved—a man I’d never in my life have followed for a single step, to say nothing of the way I’ve sacrificed home, family, happiness, and everything. You are so good, so great, so loving. But among these people, for me you are worse than death!
VON KEITH
Go home and clean yourself up a bit. Sascha will go with you. You mustn’t be alone this evening.
MOLLY
Right now I’m in exactly the right mood to get myself all dressed up. Your behaviour makes me anxious, as if the world must end tomorrow. I have the feeling I must do something—anything—to protect us from a terrible disaster.
VON KEITH
Since yesterday I’m earning a yearly salary of a hundred thousand marks. You don’t need to be afraid anymore that we have to die of hunger.
MOLLY
Don’t make jokes like that. You’re abusing me. I can hardly bring myself to say what I’m afraid of.
VON KEITH
Then just tell me what I can do to calm you down. I’ll do it right away.
MOLLY
Come with me! Come with me out of this den of cutthroats, where everyone has set his sights on only one thing—destroying you. As far as these people are concerned, I blamed you. That’s true. But I did it because I couldn’t face your childish blindness anymore. You’re so stupid, as stupid as the night is dark! Yes, you are! You let yourself be duped by the lowest, most common swindlers and sit there quietly while they slit your throat.
VON KEITH
It is better, my child, to suffer injustice than to act unjustly.
MOLLY
Yes, if you were at least aware of it! But they are really careful not to open your eyes. These people flatter you—saying that you’re God knows what kind of miracle of cunning and diplomacy. Because your vanity doesn’t aim at anything higher than being just that. And as they say this, they’re slowly and cold bloodedly putting the noose around your neck!
VON KEITH
What’s this horrible thing you’re so afraid of?
MOLLY [whimpering]
I can’t say it. I can’t express it.
VON KEITH
Please tell me. Then you’ll laugh about it.
MOLLY
I’m afraid . . . what I fear is . . .
[A muffled sound comes from the garden. Molly shrieks and falls to her knees]
VON KEITH [raising her up]
That was the large mortar tube. You must calm down. Come, drink a couple of glasses of champagne. Then the two of us will watch the fireworks together . . . .
MOLLY
For two weeks fireworks have been burning in my inside. You were in Paris! Who were you with in Paris? I swear to you by everything holy, I will forget how I trembled for you and everything I suffered, if you come with me now.
VON KEITH [kisses her]
Poor creature!
MOLLY
A pittance! Yes, yes, I’m leaving now . . . .
VON KEITH
You’re staying here. What are you thinking? Dry your tears! Someone’s coming here from the garden . . . .
MOLLY [throwing her arms passionately around his neck and kissing him]
You dear man! You great man! You good man! [She frees herself smiling.] Today I just wanted to see you for once with your companions. You know I’m sometimes a little . . . . [She twists her fist in front of her forehead.]
VON KEITH [wanting to detain her]
You stay here, girl . . .
[Molly rushes out through the door to the hall. Scholz comes through the glass door leading to the garden. He is limping and holding his knee.]
SCHOLZ [looking very happy]
Please don’t be alarmed. Turn out the light so people out there can’t see me. No one in your company noticed anything.
[Scholz drags himself to a chair and lowers himself into it.]
VON KEITH
What’s happened to you?
SCHOLZ
First, turn the light out. It’s nothing really. The large mortar tube exploded. A piece of it hit me in the kneecap.
VON KEITH [after turning the light off and darkening the stage.]
That could only happen to you!
SCHOLZ [blissfully happy]
The pain is beginning to go already. Believe me, I am the happiest creature under the heavenly sun. However, I will not be able to show up tomorrow morning for the cycling expedition with Countess Werdenfels. But what does that matter? [In a tone of rejoicing] I have overcome the evil spirits. Happiness lies before me. I belong to life! From this day forward I am a different man . . .
[A rocket takes off in the garden and bathes Scholz’s facial features in a dull red glow.]
VON KEITH
For God’s sake, I would have hardly recognized you just now.
[Scholz jumps up from the chair and hops on one foot while he holds onto the other knee with both hands, shouting for joy as he moves around the room.]
SCHOLZ
For ten years I considered myself ostracized, an outcast! I realize now everything was only my imagination! All merely imagination! Nothing but imagination!
ACT FOUR
[In the Countess of Werdenfall’s garden room. It is midmorning. Several enormous laurel wreaths lie on armchairs. An ostentatious bouquet stands in a vase on the table. Anna, Countess of Werdenfels, in an attractive morning dress, is talking with police inspector Raspe and Hermann Casimir. She is holding a sheet of coloured letter-writing paper.]
ANNA [to Hermann]
I thank you, my young friend, for the beautiful verses you wrote about me yesterday evening after our first Magic Palace concert. Thank you, too, for your lovely flowers. [To Raspe] As for you, sir, I find it extremely odd that you arrive at my house this very morning bringing these alarming rumours about your friend and benefactor.
RASPE
Marquis von Keith is neither my friend nor my benefactor. Two years ago, during my trial, I asked him to give evidence on my behalf as a psychiatric expert. He could have saved me eighteen months in prison. Instead of that he ran off to America with a fifteen-year-old adolescent.
[Simba, dressed in a tasteful maid’s uniform, enters from the hall and hands Anna a card.]
SIMBA
This gentlemen requests the honour of a visit.
ANNA [to Hermann]
Good heavens, it’s your father.
HERMANN [terrified, glancing at Raspe]
How could my father guess I was here at your house?
RASPE
He didn’t get any information from me.
ANNA [lifting the curtain to the games room]
Go in there. I’ll send him away quickly.
[Herman exits into the games room.]
RASPE
It’s probably better I take my leave as well.
ANNA
Yes. Please do.
RASPE [bowing to Anna]
My dear lady!
[Raspe exits.]
ANNA [to Simba]
Ask the gentlemen to come in.
[Simba leads Consul Casimir into the room, followed by a footman. Casimir takes a bouquet of flowers from the footman. Simba exits.]
CONSUL KASIMIR [offering Anna the flowers]
Permit me, madam, to offer you my sincere congratulations for your triumph yesterday. Your first appearance has taken all Munich by storm. But you cannot have made a more lasting impression on anyone in your audience than you did on me.
ANNA
That may be so, but I must say I find it astonishing that you are telling me this in person.
CASIMIR
Do you have a few minutes? I have a purely practical question to discuss.
ANNA [inviting Casimir to sit]
You are probably following a false trail.
CASIMIR [after they both have sat down]
We’ll see in a moment or two. I wanted to ask you whether you would be willing to become my wife.
ANNA
I don’t understand.
CASIMIR
That’s why I’m here, so that we can understand each other about this matter. Allow me to say at the start that you would, of course, have to abandon the attractive artistic future you launched yesterday evening.
ANNA
Perhaps you have not thoroughly though through this step.
CASIMIR
At my age, madam, a man does not take any step without thinking it through. Later yes—or earlier. Would you let me know what other reservations you might have?
ANNA
You do understand that I cannot give you an answer to questions like that?
CASIMIR
Of course, I understand that. However, I am obviously talking about a situation in which you may be perfectly free to make decisions about yourself and your future.
ANNA
At the moment I can’t imagine the possibility such a situation arising.
CASIMIR
You see, today I am the most respected man in Munich, and tomorrow I could be sitting under lock and key. I would not blame my best friend if he occasionally wondered whether he could stand by me should such a stroke of fate occur.
ANNA
Would you not blame your wife if she thought about that question?
CASIMIR
Of course, I would—my mistress never. I do not wish to hear any answer from you at the moment. I am talking only about a situation where you have been left in the lurch or where events occur which release you from every obligation—in short, when you are at a loss and do not know what to do.
ANNA
At that point you would want to make me your wife?
CASIMIR
Naturally, this must sound almost mad to you. That is a tribute to your modesty. But in these matters a person has to justify his reasons only to himself. I still have, as you perhaps know, two small children at home, girls three and six years old. And, as you can well imagine, there are still other reasons . . . . As far as you are concerned, I take full responsibility for guaranteeing that you will not disappoint my expectations—even in spite of yourself.
ANNA
I admire your self-confidence.
CASIMIR
You can rely on me completely.
ANNA
But after a success like yesterday evening! It seemed as if an entirely new spirit had come over the public in Munich.
CASIMIR
Believe me, I truly envy the founder of the Magic Palace his fine intuitive talent. And, incidentally, I must extend to you my compliments particularly for the choice of your concert gown yesterday. You displayed such an elegant confidence about the way it showed off your figure so impressively that I must admit it was hardly possible for me to follow your singing performance with the attention it deserved.
ANNA
Please do not think that I in any way exaggerate the importance of the applause which my artistic efforts received.
CASIMIR
I would not blame you in the slightest if you did. But your teacher tells me that success like yours yesterday evening has already led to sudden misfortune for many people. Please do not forget one thing: What would the most celebrated singer on the stage be if rich men did not consider it their moral duty to listen to her without getting any return on their investment? No matter how glittering the performance fee may still be in particular cases, in reality it is always a charitable gift which enables these people to earn a living.
ANNA
The enthusiastic public reception of each performance left me feeling quite numb.
CASIMIR [getting up]
Until that miserable symphony of this Herr Zamrjaki. By the way, I have no doubt at all that in time we will reach a point where the noise produced by this Herr Zamrjaki will be honoured as divine artistic revelation. So let us allow the world to run its course, hope for the best, and be prepared for the worst. Permit me, madam, to take my leave.
[Casimir exits. Anna puts her hands against her temples, goes towards the games room, lifts the curtain, and steps back.]
ANNA
The door wasn’t even closed!
[Hermann Casimir enters from the games room.]
HERMANN
I would never have dreamed a person could go through such an experience!
ANNA
Go now, so your father finds you at home.
HERMANN [noticing the second bouquet]
The flowers are from him? I seem to have inherited that, too. Only he didn’t pay as much as I did.
ANNA
Where are you even getting the money for such idiotic expenses?
HERMANN [meaningfully]
From the Marquis von Keith!
ANNA
Please leave now! You are worn out from lack of sleep. Did you go on partying a long time yesterday?
HERMANN
I helped save the life of the composer Zamrjaki.
ANNA
Do you think that was an accomplishment worthy of you?
HERMANN
It’s not as if I have anything better to do.
ANNA
It is certainly good of you to have feelings for unhappy people, but you should not sit with them at the same table. Misfortune is infectious.
HERMANN [meaningfully]
The Marquis von Keith told me the same thing.
ANNA
Go now! Please!
[Simba enters from the hall and brings over a calling card.]
SIMBA
The gentleman would like to pay his respects.
ANNA [reading the card]
“Representative of the South German Concert Agency.” Tell him to come back in two weeks.
[Simba exits.]
HERMANN
What answer will you give my father?
ANNA
It’s high time you left! You are becoming impertinent.
HERMANN
I’m going to London, even if I have to steal money for the trip. My father is no longer going to have to keep complaining about me.
ANNA
That will benefit you more than anyone.
HERMANN [apprehensively]
I owe that to my two little sisters.
[Hermann exits.]
ANNA [thinks for a moment then calls out]
Kathi!
[Simba enters from the dining room.]
SIMBA
Madam?
ANNA
I wish to get dressed.
[A bell rings in the corridor.]
SIMBA
Right away, Madam.
[Simba goes to the door to open it. Anna exits into the games room. Right after that Simba escorts Ernst Scholz into the room. Scholz moves with the help of an elegant walking stick, limping on a stiff knee and carrying a large bouquet of flowers.]
ERNST SCHOLZ [to Simba]
I have not yet had an opportunity, my dear child, to thank you for your tactful and sensitive behaviour the other evening at the garden party.
SIMBA [speaking formally]
Does Herr Baron wish me to announce him to madam?
[Von Keith enters from the hall. He is wearing a light-coloured overcoat and holding a bundle of newspapers.]
VON KEITH [setting his overcoat to one side]
It’s heavenly providence I meet you here. [To Simba] What are you still doing here?
SIMBA
Madam has taken me into her service as a housemaid.
VON KEITH
You see, I have brought you good luck. Announce us!
SIMBA
Very good, Herr Baron.
[Simba exits into the games room.]
VON KEITH
The morning papers are already publishing the most enthusiastic reviews of our concert yesterday.
[Von Keith sits down at the small table downstage left and skims through the newspapers.]
SCHOLZ
Have you finally had any report where your wife is staying?
VON KEITH
She is with her parents in Bückeburg. Why did you disappear so suddenly during the banquet yesterday evening?
SCHOLZ
I had the most intense need to be alone. How are things with your wife?
VON KEITH
All right. Her father is about to go bankrupt.
SCHOLZ
You’ll still have enough left over to protect her family from that extremity.
VON KEITH
Do you have any idea how much that concert yesterday cost me?
SCHOLZ
You seem to take these things too casually!
VON KEITH
Do you really want me to help you hatch the eggs of immortality?
SCHOLZ
I would count myself fortunate if I could give you some of my excessive sense of duty.
VON KEITH
God protect me from that! I need all imaginable flexibility now, to exploit the full significance of this success.
SCHOLZ [assertively]
Thanks to you, today I confront life with a calm and confident gaze. And so I consider it my duty to speak to you just as openly as you did to me two weeks ago.
VON KEITH
But there’s a difference—I have not asked you for your advice.
SCHOLZ
For me that is merely one more reason for unreserved honesty. Because of my excessive eagerness to do my duty, I am to blame for the deaths of twenty people. But you conduct yourself as if a man had no duties at all to his fellow men. And you quite literally enjoy yourself playing with other people’s lives!
VON KEITH
In my case they all get away with only a black eye.
SCHOLZ [with growing self-assurance]
Because you personally are a lucky man! But you lack any awareness that others have exactly the same rights to enjoy their lives as you do. What human beings see as their highest accomplishments, the things people are completely justified in calling morality—those things you do not understand in the slightest.
VON KEITH
You remain true to yourself. You come to Munich with the stated purpose of educating yourself to be a man of pleasure, but because of some blunder you turn yourself into a preacher of morality.
SCHOLZ
Thanks to the varied impulses of life in Munich, I’ve reached a self-evaluation which is modest but nonetheless all the more trustworthy. In these two weeks I have experienced such a powerful inner transformation that, if you wish to hear me out, I, too, can certainly speak as a preacher of morality.
VON KEITH [annoyed]
My good luck makes your blood boil!
SCHOLZ
I don’t believe in your good luck! I am so inexpressibly happy I would like to embrace the entire world, and I truly and sincerely wish you the same thing. But you will never be happy as long as you still keep making jokes in your childish way about the highest values of life. Before I came to Munich, I understood how to value relationships between men and women, but only in their spiritual sense, and I still considered sensual enjoyment something vulgar. That was incorrect. But in your entire life you have never valued a woman as anything higher than a sensual pleasure. As long as your understanding of things refuses to take into account the moral order of the world, as mine has done, all your happiness will continue to stand on feet of clay.
VON KEITH [matter-of-factly]
Things are not like that at all. I can thank the last two weeks for my material freedom and thus have finally reached a point where I can enjoy my life. And you can thank the last two weeks for your spiritual freedom and thus have finally reached a point where you can enjoy your life.
SCHOLZ
Only with this difference—all my enjoyment of life involves becoming a useful member of human society.
VON KEITH [springing up]
But why should a person become a useful member of human society?
SCHOLZ
Because without that he has no justification for his existence!
VON KEITH
I don’t need a justification for my existence. I did not ask anyone for my existence, and therefore I conclude that the justification for my existence is living any way I wish.
SCHOLZ
So you have no qualms at all about leaving your wife in squalor, a woman who in her three years with you has endured all your dangers and hardships.
VON KEITH
What am I to do? My expenses are so horrendous I don’t have a penny left over for my own use. With the first installment of my salary I paid my share of the founding capital. For a moment I considered taking the money I had at my disposal for defraying the costs of the initial preparations. But I cannot. Or would you advise me to do that?
SCHOLZ
Given time, I can still let you have ten or twenty thousand marks, if you can’t help yourself any other way. Today I just happened to receive a financial transfer of ten thousand marks from the man who manages my assets.
[Scholz take a note from his wallet and holds it out to von Keith]
VON KEITH [snatching the note from Scholz’s hand]
Please don’t come straight back to me tomorrow morning saying you want the money back!
SCHOLZ
I don’t need it at the moment. The remaining ten thousand marks I have to have sent from my banker in Breslau.
[Anna enters from the games room. She is dressed in elegant street clothes.]
ANNA
Excuse me, gentlemen, for keeping you waiting.
SCHOLZ [holding out his flowers]
I could not deny myself the pleasure, madam, of congratulating you, from the bottom of my heart, on the first day of your promising artistic career.
ANNA [putting the flowers in a vase]
Thank you. In my excitement yesterday evening I completely forgot to ask you how you are coping with your injuries.
SCHOLZ
Good heavens, they are not worth talking about. My doctor says in a week I could scramble up Zugspitze if I feel like it. But what I did find painful yesterday evening were the noisy jeers in response to Conductor Zamrajaki’s symphony.
VON KEITH [seated at the writing desk]
All I can do is give people an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities. Whoever fails to meet the challenge remains by the wayside. I’ll find enough conductors in Munich.
SCHOLZ
Didn’t you yourself say he was the greatest musical genius since Richard Wagner was alive?
VON KEITH
Well, I wouldn’t call my own horse a spavined nag! Every second I have to guarantee the accuracy of my accounts. [He stands up.] Just now I was with the caryatids at the city council. At issue was the question whether building the Magic Palace is something Munich needs. The question was unanimously approved. A city like Munich cannot even imagine what its needs are!
SCHOLZ [to Anna]
I assume Madam presumably now has worldwide career plans to discuss with her lucky manager.
ANNA
Unfortunately not. We have nothing to discuss. Are you intending to leave us already?
SCHOLZ
Perhaps you will permit me to pay my respects again within the next few days?
ANNA
Yes, please do. You are always welcome.
[Scholz shakes von Keith’s hand and leaves.]
VON KEITH
The morning papers are already publishing the most enthusiastic reviews of your performance yesterday . . .
ANNA
Have you finally had any news where Molly is?
VON KEITH
She is at her parents’ home in Bückeburg, wallowing in an ocean of petit-bourgeois sentimentality.
ANNA
Next time we will not let her frighten us again so much. By the way, she was really necessary to prove to you how you really have no need for her at all.
VON KEITH
Thank God you understand that the overpowering passion of love is a book with seven seals. If feeling like that is incapable of making someone happy, at the very least it wants to set fire to the house over one’s head.
ANNA
Still, you should instill in people a somewhat greater trust in your business enterprises! There no particular enjoyment to be had sitting around day and night on top of a volcano!
VON KEITH
How did I get to the point today where I have to listen to moral lectures from every direction?
ANNA
Because the way you act makes you look as if you must be on narcotics all the time! You never rest. I find that as soon as one is in doubt whether to do this or that, the best thing is to do nothing at all. The fact that a person simply does something always exposes him to every imaginable problem. I do as little as I possibly can, and all my life that has made me happy. You cannot blame anyone for mistrusting you when day and night you chase after your own happiness like a ravenous wolf.
VON KEITH
I can’t help being insatiable.
ANNA
But sometimes there are people sitting in sleighs with loaded rifles. And they take pot shots.
VON KEITH
I am impervious to bullets. I still have two in my body—Spanish bullets from my time in Cuba. Anyway, I have an absolute guarantee of good luck.
ANNA
That’s going too far!
VON KEITH
Too far for the common herd to understand, at any rate! It must be twenty years since young Trautenau and I stood in our short frock coats at the altar of the whitewashed village church. My father was playing the organ. The village priest handed each of us a sheet with a picture and a biblical quotation on it. Since then I have hardly ever seen the inside of a church, but that slogan at my confirmation has proved so true for me that often I find no limit to my amazement. And today, if an obstacle stands in my way, I will just smile with contempt every time as I think back on that saying: “We know that for those who love God, all things work together for the best.”
ANNA
For those who love God? Are you still even capable of this love?
VON KEITH
So far as my love of God is concerned, I have explored all existing religions and have not found in any of them a difference between the love of God and the love of one’s own well being. The love of God in all of them is always only a symbolic way of expressing in an abridged form the love of one’s own person.
[Simba enters from the hall.]
SIMBA
Would the Herr Marquis please come outside for a moment. Sascha is there.
VON KEITH
Why doesn’t the young man come in?
[Sascha enters with a telegram.]
SASCHA
I didn’t know whether I should come in or not, because the Herr Baron said I should not bring in a telegram when he had company.
VON KEITH [rips open the telegram, crumples it up, and throws it away]
Damn it—not again! My overcoat!
ANNA
From Molly?
VON KEITH
No! For God’s sake I hope no one finds out!
ANNA
Isn’t she with her parents in Bückeburg?
VON KEITH [as Sascha is helping him into his overcoat]
No!
ANNA
But you just said . . .
VON KEITH
Is it my fault she isn’t in Bückeburg? Just as one starts to have some real success, everything goes haywire!
[Von Keith and Sascha exit.]
SIMBA [picking up the telegram and giving it to Anna]
The Herr Marquis forgot the telegram.
ANNA
Do you know where Sascha comes from originally?
Sascha comes from Swabia. His mother’s a housekeeper.(15)
ANNA
But then his name can’t be Sascha, can it?
SIMBA
He was originally called Sepperl, but the Herr Marquis christened him Sascha.
ANNA
Bring me my hat.
[A bell rings in the corridor.]
SIMBA
At once, Madam.
[Simba exists to open the door.]
ANNA [reading the telegram]
“ . . . Molly not with us. Please send return telegram if you have heard from her. Terribly anxious . . . .”
[Simba returns.]
SIMBA
Herr Baron forgot his gloves.
ANNA
Which baron?
SASCHA
I mean the one looking to enjoy life.
ANNA [quickly searching for the gloves]
Mary and Joseph, where are those gloves . . . !
[Ernst Scholz enters.]
SCHOLZ
Will you permit me two words more, Madam.
ANNA
I’m just about to go out. [To Simba] My hat—and quickly!
[Simba exits.]
SCHOLZ
My friend’s presence prevented me from speaking frankly. . .
ANNA
Perhaps you would prefer to wait for a more suitable opportunity.
SCHOLZ
I hoped to be able to wait a few days before hearing your decision. My feelings, Countess, have simply overpowered me. So that you are in no doubt that what I am offering is aimed only at your happiness, permit me to confess that I love you—more than I could ever put into words.
ANNA
Well, what would you be offering?
SCHOLZ
Until such time as you would be an artist earning the fruits of an unchallenged reputation, there will still be many obstacles in your way . . .
ANNA
I know that, but I will probably not be singing anymore.
SCHOLZ
You no longer intend to be a singer? How many unhappy artists would give half their lives if that would enable them to purchase your talent!
ANNA
Other than that, do you have anything to tell me?
SCHOLZ
Once again I have unwittingly offended you. You naturally were expecting I would offer you my hand . . .
ANNA
Isn’t that what you wanted to do?
SCHOLZ
I was going to ask you whether you would like to become my mistress. I cannot honour you more highly as my wife than I could esteem you as my mistress. [From this point on he speaks with the reckless and offensive attitude of someone insane.] Whether as my wife or as my mistress I offer you my life. I offer you all I possess. You know, it was only with the greatest effort of will that I reconciled myself to the moral attitudes which are normal here in Munich. If my happiness should shatter because of a victory I have achieved over myself so that I could share in the happiness of my fellow human beings, that would be an outrageous, idiotic farce!
ANNA
I thought your sole concern was to become a useful member of human society!
SCHOLZ
I dreamt of world happiness the way a prisoner behind bars dreams of melting glaciers. Now I still nurture only a single hope—that I can make the woman I love beyond all words so happy, she never regrets her choice.
ANNA
I’m sorry I have to tell you this, but I have no feelings for you.
SCHOLZ
You are indifferent to me? No woman has ever given me more proof of her affection than you have.
ANNA
That is not my fault. Your friend described you to me as a philosopher who does not concern himself at all with reality.
SCHOLZ
But it was reality that dragged me away from my philosophy. I am not one of those who spend their entire lives boasting about the idleness of earthly things and then, when they are deaf and lame, death has to drive off by kicking them out.
ANNA
The Marquis von Keith’s confirmation verses help him get over every misfortune! He considers that quotation an infallible magic spell which allows him to escape the police and the bailiff.
SCHOLZ
I do not demean myself to the extent of believing in omens. If this soldier of fortune is right, then I consider my confirmation an equally inviolable magic spell for my misfortune. Back then our pastor gave me the saying “Many are called, but few chosen.” But that doesn’t trouble me. If I had the most reliable proof that I myself do not belong among the chosen, that could only strengthen me in my unyielding struggle against my fate.
ANNA
Please spare me your unyielding struggle!
SCHOLZ
I swear to you that I would rather do without sound reasoning altogether than let myself be convinced by my reason that certain people should from the very start be denied all happiness in life through no fault of their own.
ANNA
Complain about that to the Marquis von Keith!
SCHOLZ
I’m not complaining at all! The longer the school of hard knocks lasts, the stronger one’s capacity for spiritual resistance grows. It is an enviable exchange which men like myself experience. My soul is indestructible!
ANNA
I congratulate you for it.
SCHOLZ
That is the source of my invincibility. The less you care for me, the greater and stronger my love for you becomes within me, and the sooner I will witness the moment when you say “I fought against you with everything available to me, but I love you.”
ANNA
Heaven protect me from such a moment!
SCHOLZ
Heaven will not protect you! When a man with my power of will, which cannot be broken by any misfortune, focuses all his senses and efforts on a single purpose, then there are only two possible outcomes: either he reaches his goal, or he loses his reason.
ANNA
It seems to me you are certainly right about that.
SCHOLZ
I am ready to take my chances. Everything depends on which is more capable of resistance, your lack of feeling or my powers of reason. I am counting on the worst outcome and will not look back until I reach my goal. For if I cannot create a happy life for myself out of the blissful joy which fills me at this moment, then there is no longer any hope for me. The opportunity will not present itself again.
ANNA
With all my heart I thank you for reminding me of that.
[Anna sits down at the writing table.]
SCHOLZ
This is the last time the world in all its splendour lies before me!
ANNA [writing a note]
That applies to me as well! [Calling out] Kathi! [To herself] For me, too, this opportunity will not offer itself again.
SCHOLZ [suddenly coming to himself]
Why are you mistrustful, madam? Why mistrustful? You are mistaken, Countess! You harbour a terrible suspicion . . .
ANNA
Don’t you see that you are still detaining me? [She calls.] Kathi!
SCHOLZ
I cannot possibly leave you like this! Give me an assurance that you do not doubt my mental clarity!
[Simba enters with Anna’s hat.]
ANNA
What took you so long?
SIMBA
I was afraid to come in.
SCHOLZ
Simba, you know better than anyone that I am in full possession of my five senses . . .
SIMBA [pushing Scholz back]
Go away! Don’t talk like such a fool!
ANNA
Leave my maid alone. [To Simba] Do you know the address of Herr Consul Casimir?
SCHOLZ [suddenly petrified]
I have the mark of Cain on my forehead . . .
ACT FIVE
[In the Marquis von Keith’s study all the door are wide open. Hermann Casimir is sitting at the middle table. Von Keith is calling into the living room.]
VON KEITH
Sascha!
[When von Keith receives no answer, he goes towards the waiting room]
VON KEITH [to Hermann]
Excuse me. [He calls into the waiting room.] Sascha! [He moves downstage and speaks to Hermann.] So you are going to London with your father’s consent. I can provide you with the best recommendations to take to London. [He throws himself onto the settee]. First of all, I advise you to leave your German sentimentality at home. No one attracts any attention in London anymore with social democracy and anarchism. What you need to bear in mind is this: The only proper way to take advantage of your fellowmen is to accept what is good about them. Therein lies the art of being loved, the art of being proved correct. The more profitably you swindle your fellow man, the more careful you must be to make sure that you have right on your side. Never try to take advantage at the expense of a knowledgeable person—but only at the expense of scoundrels and idiots. And now I will leave you with the philosopher’s stone—the most glittering business in this world is morality. I have not yet progressed to the point where I have gone into that business myself, but I could not be the Marquis von Keith if I let slip an opportunity to do so.
[A bell sounds in the corridor.]
VON KEITH [calling]
Sascha! [He gets up] That urchin going to get a box on the ear.
[Von Keith goes into the hall and returns with Councillor Ostermeier]
VON KEITH
You couldn’t possibly have come at a more opportune moment, my dear Herr Ostermeier . . .
OSTERMEIER
My dear friend, my colleagues on the board of directors have entrusted me . . .
VON KEITH
I have a proposal to discuss with you. It will increase our profits a hundredfold.
OSTERMEIER
Do you want me to deliver a report in the general meeting that today I have once again not been able to gain access to your account books in order to inspect them?
VON KEITH
You are imagining things, my dear Herr Ostermeier! Would you like to tell me calmly and matter-of-factly what this is about?
OSTERMEIER
It’s about your account books, my dear friend.
VON KEITH [annoyed]
I rack my brains for these bleary eyed, pig-headed . . .
OSTERMEIER
So he’s right. [He turns to leave.] Your faithful servant!
VON KEITH [pulling open a drawer in the writing table]
Here, please help yourself. Feast yourself on account books! [Turning towards Ostermeier] Who is right?
OSTERMEIER
A certain Herr Raspe—a police inspector. Yesterday evening in the American Bar he wagered five bottle of Pommery champagne that you didn’t keep any financial records.
VON KEITH [beating his chest]
I do not keep financial records.
OSTERMEIER
Then show me your copybook.
VON KEITH
Since the founding of the company, where could I have found the time I would need to organize an office?
OSTERMEIER
Then show me your copybook.
VON KEITH [striking himself in the chest]
I have no copybook.
OSTERMEIER
Then show me the deposit slips the bank issued you.
VON KEITH
Have I held back your payments in order to collect the interest?
OSTERMEIER
My dear friend, don’t get alarmed. If you have no account books, then you jotted down your expenses somewhere or other. Every office boy does that.
VON KEITH [throwing his notebook on the table]
There—you can have my notebook.
OSTERMEIER [opening the notebook and reading]
“Pink silk and cascading silver sequins from the shoulders to the ankles . . .” That’s all there is!
VON KEITH
If you want to shove a spoke in my wheel now, after I’ve had one success after another, then you can be absolutely sure that you’ll not see any of your money again, either in this world or the next!
OSTERMEIER
Shares in the Magic Palace are not that bad, my friend. We’ll be seeing our money again. Your obedient servant, sir!
[Ostermeier turns to leave. Von Keith holds him back.]
VON KEITH
Your petty snooping around is threatening the project! Forgive me, my dear sir. I get agitated because where the Magic Palace is concerned I feel the way a father does about his child.
OSTERMEIER
Then you need have no worries at all on account of your child. The Magic Palace is secure and will be built.
VON KEITH
Without me?
OSTERMEIER
If need be, my dear friend, without you.
VON KEITH
You can’t do that!
OSTERMEIER
That may be, but you’re the very last person who’ll stand in our way!
VON KEITH
That would be a disgusting, underhanded trick!
OSTERMEIER
That’s a good one! Because we no longer wish to let you cheat us, you insult us by calling us swindlers!
VON KEITH
If you think you’ve been cheated, then sue me to pay back your money!
OSTERMEIER
A fine idea, my dear friend, if we did not belong to the board of directors.
VON KEITH
What are you thinking! You sit on the board of directors in order to support me in my work.
OSTERMEIER
That’s why I’ve come to see you. But there’s no work going on here.
VON KEITH
My dear Herr Ostermeier, you cannot expect me as a man of honour to allow myself to put up with such shabby treatment. So take over running the business, and let me be the artistic director of the enterprise. I admit there are inaccuracies in my conduct of the business, but I condoned these only because I was convinced they would not happen again and, once I had consolidated my position, I would not allow myself to be culpable in the slightest anymore.(16)
OSTERMEIER
Yesterday, when I was here with the other gentlemen, we could have had a word about that. But you just chattered on and on to us till the cows came home. Even today I would still say to you let’s try again—if you had at least shown us you were an honest man. But when we hear nothing but lies over and over again, then . . .
VON KEITH [striking himself in the chest]
Then tell the gentlemen I am building the Magic Palace, just as surely as the idea for it came from my brain. But if you build it—and tell this to your gentlemen—then I will blast the Magic Palace, as well as its board of directors and shareholders, into pieces.
OSTERMEIER
I will report this in detail, my friend. You know I don’t like to offend anyone in any way, let alone shove him . . . . Your obedient servant, sir.
[Ostermeier exits]
VON KEITH [staring after him]
. . . shove him out on his ass. I thought something like this was up. [To Hermann] Don’t leave me by myself right now, or else I’ll shrivel up so much I’m afraid there’d be nothing left of me. Could it be possible? [With tears in his eyes] After so many fireworks! Am I once again to be whipped from one country to another like an outcast? No! No! I must not allow myself be pushed up against the wall! This is the last time in this life the world lies before me in all its splendour. [Standing fully erect] No! I am not toppling over quite yet. I will bounce back and amaze all Munich—and while the city is still reeling I will land straight on its head, to the sound of drums and trumpets, so that everyone standing around scatters, and I’ll smash everything to bits. Then we’ll see who’s first to get back on his feet!
[The Countess of Werdenfels enters]
VON KEITH [hurrying towards her]
My queen . . .
ANNA [to Hermann]
Would you leave us alone for a moment.
[Von Keith leads Hermann into the living room]
VON KEITH [closing the door behind him]
You look so full of energy.
ANNA
That’s quite possible. Since our Magic Palace concert I’ve received half a dozen marriage proposals every day.
VON KEITH
I don’t give a damn about that!
ANNA
But I do.
VON KEITH [with a sneer]
So have you fallen in love with him?
ANNA
Who are you talking about?
VON KEITH
That pleasure-seeking fellow.
ANNA
You’re making fun of me.
VON KEITH
Who are you talking about?
ANNA [pointing to the living room]
His father.
VON KEITH
And you want to have a chat with me about that?
ANNA
No. I only wanted to ask you whether you’ve finally had some sign of life from Molly.
VON KEITH
No. But what’s going on with Casimir?
ANNA
What’s happening with Molly? Are you keeping her disappearance a secret?
VON KEITH [anxiously]
To tell you the truth, I’m less afraid some accident has happened to her than I am her disappearance will pull the ground out from under my feet. If that doesn’t show any humanity, then I’ve made up for it by sitting for three nights at the telegraph office. My major crime against her consists of the fact that, since we’ve known each other, she’s never heard an angry word from me. She’s consumed with longing for her petit-bourgeois world in which people, heads forced together, are humiliated, work like slaves, and love each other. No free gaze, no free breath of air! Nothing but love! As much as possible and of the most ordinary kind.
ANNA
If Molly isn’t found, what then?
VON KEITH
I can be quite sure that once the house has collapsed down around my head, she will return, remorseful and smiling, and say, “I’ll never do it again.” She will have attained her goal. I can pack up my things.
ANNA
And what will happen to me then?
VON KEITH
Up to this point you’ve been the big winner in our enterprise, and will, I hope, get even more from it. You can’t lose anything because you didn’t invest anything in it.
ANNA
Are you sure of that?
VON KEITH
Wait . . . you’re saying . . .
ANNA
Yes, yes!
VON KEITH
So what answer did you give him?
ANNA
I wrote to him I couldn’t answer him yet.
VON KEITH
You wrote and told him that?
ANNA
I wanted to talk things over with you first.
VON KEITH [taking Anna by the wrist and pushing her away from him]
If your only concern is that you have to discuss the matter with me, then marry him!
ANNA
Anyone who thinks so contemptuously about feelings as you do must still be able to talk calmly and reasonably about purely practical matters.
VON KEITH
Leave my feeling out of it! I’m angry that you do not have more pride in your race and are selling your birthright for a mess of pottage!
ANNA
Whatever isn’t you is a mess of pottage, as far as you're concerned!
VON KEITH
I know my weaknesses, but those men are domesticated animals. One of them has no forehead and another lacks a spine! Are you going to bring into the world some little monsters incapable of seeing anything for a week? If you are finished with me, then I will quite happily give you what still remains in you of my spiritual fire to use in your career. But if you abandon your art and cower down behind a sack of money, then you are now worth no more than the grass that will one day be growing out of your grave.
ANNA
If only you at least had the slightest inkling of what has happened to Molly!
VON KEITH
Don’t keep on abusing me! [Calling] Sascha!
ANNA
If you insist that the two of us should separate . . .
VON KEITH
Of course, I insist on that.
ANNA
Then give back my letters!
VON KEITH [sneering]
Are you intending to write your memoirs?
ANNA
No, but they could fall into the wrong hands.
VON KEITH [springing up]
Sascha!
ANNA
What do you want with Sascha? I’ve given him a job.
VON KEITH
Why did you do that?
ANNA
Because he came to me. I’ve done it often enough. If the worst comes to the worst, the boy knows where he can find gainful employment.
VON KEITH [sinking into the chair at the writing table]
My Sascha! [Wipes a tear from his eye] You haven’t forgotten him either! If you leave the room now, Anna, I’ll break apart like an ox in the slaughterhouse. Grant me a reprieve!
ANNA
I have no time to lose.
VON KEITH
Only the time I need to get used to being without you, Anna! I need to have a clear mind, now more than ever . . .
ANNA
Will you give me back my letters?
VON KEITH
You’re horrible! But you’re doing that out of sheer pity. At least I should be able to curse you when you are no longer my mistress.
ANNA
As long as you live, you’ll never learn to judge women properly.
VON KEITH [stretching himself up proudly]
I will not deny my faith, not even under torture. You are happy moving on—that’s human. But what you were to me, you still remain.
ANNA
Then give me back my letters.
VON KEITH
No, no, my child! Your letters I’ll keep for myself! Otherwise, once I’m on my deathbed, I might wonder whether you were perhaps only a phantom I conjured up. [Kissing Anna’s hand] Good luck!
ANNA
Farewell!
[Anna exits. Von Keith is alone, suffering chest cramps]
VON KEITH
Ah . . . Ah! This is deadly!
[Von Keith staggers to the writing table, takes a handful of letters out of a drawer and hurries towards the door]
VON KEITH
Anna! Anna!
[In the open doorway Von Keith is met by Ernst Scholz, who is walking without difficulty. No one would notice a trace of his injury.]
VON KEITH [moving back after colliding with Scholz]
. . . I was just going to see you in your hotel.
SCHOLZ
There’s no point anymore. I’m leaving.
VON KEITH
Then give me the twenty thousand marks you promised me yesterday.
SCHOLZ
I have no more money for you.
VON KEITH
The caryatids are destroying me! They are going to take away my position as director!
SCHOLZ
That reinforces my decision.
VON KEITH
It’s only a matter of overcoming a temporary crisis!
SCHOLZ
My assets are more valuable than you. My money ensures that the members of my family will still have a lofty and free position of power forever! Meanwhile, you will never reach a point where you can do anything useful for humanity.
VON KEITH
You parasite, where do you get the nerve to accuse me of being useless?
STOLZ
Let’s end this argument. I am finally making the great sacrifice that so many people have to make at some point in their lives.
VON KEITH
What’s that?
SCHOLZ
I’ve torn myself away from my illusions.
VON KEITH [scornfully]
Are you wallowing once again in the love of a young girl from the lower classes?
SCHOLZ
I have torn myself free of everything. I’m going into a private sanatorium.
VON KEITH [shouting]
You cannot commit a more contemptible atrocity than betraying your own self!
SCHOLZ
I understand your anger very well. In the last three days I have struggled through the most ghastly battle that an earthborn creature can be subjected to.
VON KEITH
So that you can act the coward and crawl away! And call yourself a conqueror by destroying your own value as a human being?
SCHOLZ [irritated]
I am not destroying my value as a human being! You have no reason to abuse me or make jokes at my expense. If someone is forced against his will to let someone impose on him the limitations in which I find myself he may lose his value as a human being. But in that case he remains relatively fortunate. He is preserving his illusions. But the man who settles his account with reality with a disinterested gaze, as I am doing, does not forfeit either the esteem or the sympathy of his fellow human beings.
VON KEITH [shrugging his shoulders]
If I were you, I’d still take a little time to think about this decision.
SCHOLZ
I have given it a lot of thought. It is the final duty my destiny has left for me to fulfil.
VON KEITH
Once you’re in, it’s not so easy to get out again.
SCHOLZ
If I still had the slightest hope of ever coming out, then I would not be going in. The renunciation I have taken on as my burden, the self-conquest and joyful anticipation I was able to wring from my soul, I have used to change my fate. I have, alas, no longer any doubt at all that my nature is different from other people’s.
VON KEITH [with the greatest pride]
Thank God I have never had any doubt that my nature is different from other people’s.
SCHOLZ [very calmly]
Whether God’s to be blamed or to be thanked, so far I have thought of you as the most devious of rogues. I have also abandoned this illusion. A rogue has luck, just as an honest man, when he is in irreversible difficulties, still has his good conscience. You have no more luck than I do, and you are unaware of it. That’s the terrible danger hovering over you.
VON KEITH
There’s no danger hovering over me, other than the fact that tomorrow I won’t have any money!
SCHOLZ
For your entire life you will not have any money tomorrow. I would like to be sure you were safe from the hopeless consequences of your blindness. That’s the reason I’ve come to see you once again. I am devoutly convinced that the best thing for you is to come with me.
VON KEITH [suspiciously]
Where to?
SCHOLZ
Into the sanitarium.
VON KEITH
Give me the thirty thousand marks and I’ll come with you.
SCHOLZ
If you accompany me, you’ll not need money anymore. You’ll find a more comfortable home than you have probably ever known. We’ll have a horse and carriage, play billiards . . .
VON KEITH [clutching Scholz]
Give me the thirty thousand marks! Do you want me to throw myself down here in front of you? I could be arrested here right on the spot!
SCHOLZ
Are you really that far gone already? [Pushing von Keith back] I do not give such sums of money to a lunatic!
VON KEITH [yelling]
You’re the one who’s mad!
SCHOLZ [calmly]
I’ve come to my senses.
VON KEITH [sneering]
If you want to let yourself be taken into a lunatic asylum because you have come to your senses, then go ahead!
SCHOLZ
You belong with those who have to be taken there by force!
VON KEITH
No doubt you will be assuming your noble title again, once you’re in the asylum?
SCHOLZ
Haven’t you gone bankrupt on two continents in every imaginable way one possibly can in a middle-class life?
VON KEITH [spitefully]
If you think it’s your moral duty to free the world of your superfluous existence, then you could find a more radical means than going on rides and playing billiards!
SCHOLZ
I made that attempt some time ago.
VON KEITH [yelling at Scholz]
Then what are you still doing here?
SCHOLZ [gloomily]
In that, as in everything else, I was unsuccessful.
VON KEITH
I suppose you overlooked something and shot someone else!
SCHOLZ
A bullet between my shoulders, close to the spinal cord. It was surgically removed. Today is probably the last time in your life someone will offer you a helping hand. You now know what sort of experiences still lie ahead of you.
VON KEITH [throwing himself on his knee in front of Scholz and clutching his hand]
Give me the forty thousand marks. It’ll be my salvation!
SCHOLZ
That will not save you from the penitentiary.
VON KEITH [getting up shocked]
Be quiet!
SCHOLZ [pleading]
Come with me, and you’ll be safe. We grew up together. I do not see why we should not also wait for the end together. Middle-class society condemns you as a criminal and subjects you all the inhuman methods of medieval torture . . .
VON KEITH [whining]
If you have no intention of helping me, then go. I beg you—go!
SCHOLZ [tears in his eyes]
Don’t turn your back on your only recourse. I know that you did not personally choose your miserable fate anymore than I did mine.
VON KEITH
Go away! Go!
SCHOLZ
Come with me. Come on. In me you will have a companion as meek as a lamb. It would be a faint glimmer of light in the darkness of my life if I could snatch my childhood playmate from his dreadful fate.
VON KEITH
Go away. I’m begging you.
SCHOLZ
Entrust yourself to my guidance from now on, as I intended to entrust myself to you . . .
VON KEITH [desperately calling out]
Sascha! Sascha!
SCHOLZ
Don’t forget where you have a friend who will always welcome you.
[Scholz exits.]
VON KEITH [creeping around searching]
Molly!—Molly! For the first time in my life I’m whimpering on my knees in front of a woman! [Suddenly hearing a sound from the living room] There . . . ! There . . . ! [He opens the door of the living room] . . . Ah, is that you?
[Hermann Casimir comes out of the living room.]
VON KEITH
I cannot invite you to remain here any longer. I am . . . not very well. First I must—for one night—sleep on things in order to become master of the situation again. I hope your trip . . .
[The sound of heavy footsteps and of many voices comes from the staircase.]
VON KEITH
Do you hear that . . . the noise! Those sounds! It’s not good news . . .
HERMANN
So shut the door.
VON KEITH
I can’t! It’s impossible! It’s her . . .
[A number of guests from the Hofbrauhaus carry Molly’s dead body into the room. She is dripping wet and her clothes are torn to pieces. Her loosened hair conceals her face.]
BUTCHER’S ASSISTANT
Here’s her pimp! [Speaking to those behind him] Is this him? In here! [To von Keith] Look at what’s happened here! Take a look at what we’ve fished out! Look at what we’re bringing you! Look at this, if you’ve got the guts!
PORTER
We pulled her from the city pond—out from under the iron grating! She could have been lying in the water a week!
BAKERY WOMAN
While this filthy crook runs around with that shameless bunch. He hasn’t paid for bread for six weeks! He let the poor woman go begging at all the shops pleading for something to eat! It would have got tears from a stone the way she looked at the end.
[Von Keith moves back towards his writing table as the crowd carrying the body pushes around him.]
VON KEITH
I beg you, please just calm down!
BUTCHER’S ASSISTANT
Keep your mouth shut, you con artist! Or I’ll smack your face, and you won’t be able to get up! Look at this! Is it her or not? Look here, I said.
[Behind his back Von Keith has picked up from the writing table Hermann’s revolver, which Countess Werdenfels had earlier left lying there.]
VON KEITH
Don’t touch me, if you don’t want me to use this weapon!
THE BUTCHER’S ASSISTANT
What’s the crippled bastard saying?! What’s he saying? Give me that revolver! Haven’t you done enough to her, you dog? Give it here, I say . . . !
[The butcher’s assistant struggles with von Keith, who manages to get close to the door. At that moment Consul Casimir comes into the doorway. Hermann Casimir meanwhile has gone over to the corpse. He and the bakery woman carry the body over to the settee.]
VON KEITH [defending himself like a desperate man and calling out]
Police! Police! [He notices Casimir and clutches him] Save me, for God’s sake! I’m going to be lynched!
CONSUL CASIMIR [to the crowd of people]
Now listen here, if this keeps up, you’ll see a different side of me! Leave the woman on the settee! Keep moving, I tell you. You’re being kicked out the door!
[Hermann is going to move out with the crowd, but Casimir pulls him downstage by his arm.]
CONSUL CASIMIR
Stop, my friend. You will be taking a splendid lesson with you on your journey to London.
[The people from the Hofbrauhaus have left the room]
CASIMIR [to von Keith]
I was intending to ask you to leave Munich within twenty-four hours, but now I’m convinced that the best thing for you is to leave on the next train.
VON KEITH [still holding the revolver in his left hand]
I . . . this misfortune . . . It’s not my fault . . .
CASIMIR
That’s something you have to sort out for yourself. But you are responsible for forging my signature on the telegram of congratulations you sent to your founders’ party in Briennerstrasse.
VON KEITH
I am unable to travel . . .
CASIMIR [handing von Keith a piece of paper]
You are going to sign this receipt. It indicates that I have paid back the sum of ten thousand marks owed to you by Countess Werdenfels.
[Von Keith goes to the writing table and signs the paper.]
CASIMIR [counting out money from his wallet]
As your successor in the directorship of the Magic Palace Society, I would like to request, in the interest of a prosperous development of our enterprise, that you do not appear in Munich in the near future.
[Von Keith stands at the writing table, gives Casimir the receipt, and mechanically takes the money in exchange.]
CASIMIR [putting the note in his pocket]
Have a pleasant trip! [To Hermann] Get yourself out of here!
[Hermann timidly slinks out of the room. Casimir follows him. Von Keith, holding the revolver in his left hand and the money in his right, takes a few steps towards the settee but shrinks back in horror. Then he looks at the revolver, hesitates, and looks at both the money and the revolver in turn. Then, with a grin, he sets the revolver on the middle table behind him.]
Life is a slippery downhill slide . . . (17)
ENDNOTES
(1) The play is sometimes given the subtitle “Scenes from
Munich,” Wedekind’s original title. The play was first published in 1900 and
first performed the following year. [Back to Text]
(2) The Hofbräuhaus was (and still is) a very old and
famous brewery, drinking hall, and restaurant in Munich, dating from the 16th
century.
[Back to Text]
(3) Note that all stage directions are from the actor’s
(not the audience’s) point of view. Hence, stage right is to the audience’s
left, downstage is closer to the audience, upstage is further away from the
audience, and so on (Wedekind’s text has a shorter note explaining this point).
[Back to Text]
(4) Some interpreters of the play diagnose this ailment
as a club foot (hence von Keith’s later difficulty in putting on his boots).
[Back to Text]
(5) Wedekind’s German word for von Keith’s project is
Feenpalast, often translated as Fairy-palace: “A palace built and inhabited by
fairies; a palace in a fairy tale; (also) a building likened to such a palace,
especially in the extravagance of its architecture or decoration.” (Oxford
Living Dictionaries). I have used the phrase Magic Palace throughout. In this
text the expression refers, as we soon learn, to a large concert hall and
entertainment centre.
[Back to Text]
(6) An approximate idea of the value of money in this
play: in 1906 the average weekly wage for a skilled woodworker (wheelwright,
joiner) was approximately 25 marks for a work week of between 50 and 60
hours—i.e., roughly half a mark per hour (Wages and Hours of Labor in German
Woodworking Industries in 1906).
[Back to Text]
(7) Upper Silesia, a rural region in central Europe,
became part of the German empire in 1871. After World Wars I and II almost all
of the area was ceded to Poland. It is now divided into a Polish region and a
small Czech region.
[Back to Text]
(8) The German word here translated as
Councillor [Kommerzienrat]
is an honorary title for a leading businessman.
[Back to Text]
(9) Bückeberg was a small provincial town in lower
Saxony, synonymous here (according to some commentators) with a dull provincial life.
[Back to Text]
(10) The Nymphenburg is a famous palace with large
gardens in Munich, once the summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria. There
were an number of pavilions in the gardens.
[Back to Text]
(11) Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901) was a Swiss painter who
worked in Munich in the 1850’s. The suggestion here is that Saranieff is
boasting about his ability as a forger.
[Back to Text]
(12) Guido Reni (1575-1642) was an Italian painter.
[Back
to Text]
(13) A tympanum is a decorated wall surface above an
entrance way (usually a triangular or semi-circular area).
[Back to Text]
(14) The Isar is a major river flowing through Munich.
[Back to Text]
(15) Schwabia is a rural area in south-west Bavaria,
quite close to Munich. [Back to Text]
(16) The published German text mistakenly assigns this
speech to Ostermeier.
[Back to Text]
(17) In German the final line reads:
Das Leben ist ein
Rutschbahn (Life is a Rutschbahn). The word Rutschbahn usually means a slide
or chute (as in a playground or swimming pool). Some critics suggest it could
mean a roller coaster ride or simply (and very generally) full of ups and downs.
Whatever the precise meaning here, Wedekind’s stage direction indicates that von
Keith is grinning as he says it. See Ward B. Lewis, The Ironic Dissident: Frank Wedekind in the View of His Critics
(Camden House: Columbia, 1997), 63-64.
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