Five more American plays by Christian Lanciai

Description The first is a dramatization of the well-known greatest American sea novel, which was actually based on a true story, the only one here to be so. Thornton Wilder’s famous novel of 1927 was entirely created on conjecture, although based on a historical event; the third is a black comedy entirely improvised on a possible scene at one of the luxury bars on the “Titanic”; no one knows what W. Somerset Maugham based his last great novel “without a hero” on; while Sutton Vane’s play has been filmed twice, both versions taking great liberties with his text, this one even more so. He was an Englishman like W. Somerset Maugham, an invalid with permanent nervous damages after the First World War, but since both films on his play were American, and it’s about a ship bound for America with several Americans, it is as American as it is international, like most of the others are as well.

Five More American Plays by Christian Lanciai

The Whale The Bridge of San Luis Rey Titanic Cocktail The Razor’s Edge The Ship of Destiny

3 46 66 85 118

The Whale Sea drama in five acts after Herman Melville’s novel

by Christian Lanciai (1999)

The characters : Gardiner, captain of the "Rachel" his mate his lookout Ishmael, sailor Queequeg, harpoonist Father Mapple Captain Peleg Captain Bildad Captain Ahab First mate Starbuck Second mate Stubb Third mate Flask a brutal sailor another sailor a bored sailor Bulkington two Italians Elijah, prophet of misfortune Tashtego, harpoonist Daggoo, harpoonist Fedallah, captain Ahab’s harpoonist three sailors from Nantucket a Dutchman a Sicilian an Icelander a Chinese a Maltese a Frenchman an Englishman a Spaniard Archy Cabaco captain Mayhew Gabriel, a prophet of misfortune captain Bloomer doctor Bungler Pip, cabin boy the Pequod carpenter and other sailors The action is before the middle of the 19th century in Nantucket and on board the American whalers "Pequod" and (in the prologue and epilogue) "Rachel" apart from the sea itself. Copyright Christian Lanciai 1999

Prologue. On board a large ship. Captain Gardiner (dejectedly) No hope? No catch? Nothing new? Nothing in sight? mate Sorry, Sir. How long will we go on? A lookout (above) Wait! I see something! Gardiner (wakes up) What is it? Lookout Straight leeward. It’s too small to be a whaling boat. But there is something floating and a man moving. He is winking! Mate A shipwrecked! Gardiner Luff! (grabs a binocularbar) Where could he come from? There has been no storm here. Throw him a line! Soon we’ll hear what he can tell us about. Mate We have him! Gardiner Haul him on board! (a badly exhausted all wet sailor is hoisted across the rails.) Speak, my friend, if you can! What ship? Ishmael (with effort) Call me Ismael. The whaler Pequod. Who has saved me? (Captain and the mate look surprised at each other.) Gardiner Pequod? What happened? Ishmael It’s a long story. I have been lying in the sea for more than a day, saved by my friend the harpoonist Queequeg’s coffin. We were rammed by the whale. (passes out) Gardiner Rammed by the whale? The entire ship lost, rammed by the damned whale! Take him down! Give him some rum! We must hear more about this at once! (Ishmael is brought down to the cabin.) Come on, mate! All tragic events in the world have to be documented, to make it easier to avoid them! Come now, and let’s hear the whole story! (goes down with the mate.) Act I scene 1. Nantucket. The interior of a ruffled sailor church. Sailors of very different sorts occur sparsely. Some are heavily under the influence and some are snoring. Ishmael Is the parson late? Stubb It doesn’t look any better. (sucks his pipe.) He is always late. (shows around) But people keep waiting anyway. a brutal sailor He will not come today. He has had too many funerals. Stubb What do you mean by that, Johnson? Sailor He always gets invited afterwards. He is popular, you know, and people know how he fancies grogs. Ishmael (to the Maori on his side) Shall we leave, Queequeg? Queequeg (with his harpoon on his knee) A good harpoonist always waits for his whale. (takes a firm hold of his harpoon.)

Stubb Your pal would be something for Pequopd. Ishmael I am actually looking for a whaler. Stubb (indicates Queequeg with his pipe) A harpoonist like that is exactly what captain Ahab is looking for. sailor Don’t mention captain Ahab! Not here in church! (a door opens, and father Mapple appears with a Bible under his arm, deeply pondedring some problem.) another Quiet! Father Mapple is coming! sailor Now we’ll see the devil as father Mapple preaches! the other Quiet! (Stubb quietly resets the pipe in his mouth, while father Mapple occupies the pulpit. He examines the outspread motley congregation.) Mapple You sitting starboard, move larboard! And you sitting larboard, move starboard! (All wake up and start pulling together, some belching and swearing.) Mapple Quiet now, as I preach! This is no Sunday school! And today you will all see the devil, for the word of today (raises his Bible like a threat) is about no one less than the prophet Jonah! And he was a sailor who went under, just like you! And you will all now venture on diverse doomed ships, so you had better mark my words! You will perhaps never hear another sermon! And Jonah is the only sailor in the entire Bible who knew his business! So learn from him while you are still alive, for he is the only sailor in the entire Bible who survived! These are words and no shanties! A bored voice Get to the point sometime, father Mapple. Mapple (turns some pages in his Bible) Yes, hem, Jonah, you see, was the prophet who tried to escape from God, but he escaped in vain, for he had no one to escape to! (lowers his voice dramatically) But as you all well know, sailors are sensitive, and they know when they have a scoundrel on board who shouldn’t be there! (All listen.) They felt, that Jonah’s laundry was not quite clean! So when a storm broke loose they immediately understood it was because of Jonah! And what do you think happened as they heaved him over board? (dramatic pause) Dead calm at once! That proved to them the insanity of Jonah’s venture. a voice There is never dead calm at sea directly after a storm. Mapple (at once) There was in Jonah’s time! It says so in the Bible! Sailor Refute that if you can, you bootlegger! You can’t beat father Mapple on his own ground! The voice (a ruffian, rising) Are you asking for trouble? (The sailor rises at once, fit for fight.) Bulkington No fighting in church! Mapple My friends, my brothers, my sons! What is there to fight about? The poor prophet Jonah was after all saved! (All lose their bearings.) The bored one Get on with it, father Mapple. Mapple He was swallowed by a whale, and that whale later spit him up on land! God’s grace is unfathomable!

An Italian sailor (to another) Wasn’t it the same thing that happened to Geppetto in Pinocchio? The other Yes, but who was first? Italian I think father Mapple was first. Mapple Quiet over there! Let me just finish my sermon! Jonah made it, because he understood the vanity of escaping from God, so instead he then escaped to God! In the same way you can all manage if you don’t escape from something when you go at sea but instead travel to something! That was the real meaning of my sermon. (closes his Bible, puts it at once under his arm and leaves the pulpit abruptly.) Stubb (takes out his pipe from his mouth) Was that all, father Mapple? (Father Mapple doesn’t seem to hear but walks towards the exit forgetful of everything else.) Stubb (raises his voice) Have you no word of comfort to those who will sail with captain Ahab? Mapple (stiffens and turns around. All are dead quiet. Mapple watches Stubb straight in his eyes.) I once had some words of comfort to those who sail with the devil himself but not to those who sail with captain Ahab. (walks out.) Stubb (loud) Still captain Ahab is the most skilful whaling captain of all. sailor Yes, he is more skilful than the devil (leaves.) Queequeg Strong words, Ishmael. I like that. That captain is for me. Ishmael It certainly sounds like a challenge. Stubb (smoking) There are three whalers in Nantucket. I suggest you examine all three before you choose captain Ahab. Ishmael What’s wrong with captain Ahab? Stubb You will see when you see him. (leaves, quietly smoking) Ishmael What are we waiting for? Captain Ahab and destiny is waiting for us! And that captain needs a good harpoonist! (pats Queequeg’s arm in confidence. They leave together.)

Scene 2. On the deck of Pequod. Harbour surroundings. Peleg What fools do you think will sign up for this old barge? Bildad We accept any fools if they just sell themselves cheap enough. Peleg Do you think anyone would sell his life willingly to captain Ahab? Bildad We don’t need to show our good captain. And never forget, that the last fool isn’t born yet. Peleg Yes, I suppose that’s what we are living on. Ishmael (appears on the quay with Queequeg) Wait here, Queequeg. I’ll get on board and check the situation. Queequeg (with his harpoon) Is this the Pequod? Ishmael That’s what it looks like. Queequeg She looks fine. I like her. Ishmael Then we accept her. (pats his arm and walks on board)

(sees captain Peleg) Are you the captain? Peleg J I am captain Peleg. (winks at Bildad who immediately plunges into his Bible) What can I do for you? Ishmael I would be interested in signing on. Peleg (examining him) Any experience? Ishmael Only of traders. Peleg (shakes his head) That’s not enough. This is a whaler. Ishmael I know. I want to learn about whaling. Peleg That’s the highest ambition you can have as a sailor. No harm in that. But you should know something about what you are getting into. Have you seen captain Ahab? Ishmael I was hoping to find him here. Peleg He is at home with his wife. Have you never seen him? Ishmael No. Peleg (blinks at Bildad, nudges him confidently, aside) A greenhorn. What would you give for him? Bildad (raises his eyes to Ishmael, assesses him in a moment) One seven hundred and seventyseventh part. Peleg One seven hundred and seventyseventh part? Are you mad? Bildad Consider, captain Peleg, all our shareholders. Every widow and childless mother must have her part of the profit. Peleg But be at least a bit human, Bildad! This sailor has muscles after all! You can’t give him the salary of a galley slave! Bildad One seven hundred and seventyseventh part. That’s all he is worth. Peleg (to Ishmael) I offer you a three hundredth part. Then my estimated partner may say what he likes. Bildad Captain Peleg, will you then utterly ruin us? Peleg Shut up, you old greedy bloodsucker! (to Ishmael) You’ll have to excuse him. He is not just a quaker but has also read himself distracted on the Bible. Bildad Even you are a quaker, if I remember correctly, my worthy brother! Peleg Say nothing bad about quakers, if they would just refrain from quaking like you, brother. (to Ishmael) We accept you for a three hundredth part. Pity you are not a harpoonist. Then you would have had better terms. Ishmael But I do have a harpoonist with me! Peleg Get him here then! What are you waiting for? Ishmael (calling) Queequeg! The coast is clear! (Queequeg arrives on board, ready with his harpoon.) Bildad (examines him from his book) We can’t have cannibals. Ishmael Queequeg is no cannibal. Bildad Don’t you think I recognize a cannibal when I see him? Queequeg Me harpoonist, no cannibal. Peleg Convince us.

Queequeg Watch tar spot on railings over there! (throws his harpoon immediately very close across Bildad’s head) If that tar spot be the eye of the whale, that whale now be dead. (hauls his harpoon with pride) Peleg On the spot, on my honour! Did you see, Bildad? Bildad (shaken) His precision saved my life. Peleg (admiringly) What a momentous precision! Bildad But he is no quaker. Ishmael Neither am I. Bildad He is no Christian. Peleg What do you know about that? Ishmael He belongs to the same community as you and I. Bildad (incredulous) Which one, if I may ask? Ishmael (simply) The first congregational church, of course! Bildad I have never seen him in that community. Have you, captain Peleg? Peleg What community is that? Ishmael The same, that all men born by women belong to, encompassing the entire world engaged in adoring God. (takes confidently Queequeg around his shoulders) And this harpoonist of precision is no exception from that rule. Peleg (strikes) We accept him for a ninetieth. Bildad (still incredulous) Can he even sign his name? We can’t accept him if he cannot sign his name. Peleg You Bible maniac of a whining old maid, don’t be so pathetic! He could sign a cross, couldn’t he? We accept him! Bildad It’s on your responsibility, captain Peleg! Consider the widows! Peleg You know very well that nothing is better for business than a sure hand at the harpoon! Here is the surest in the world! What more can you ask for? Bildad You advance too quickly in your careless generosity, captain Peleg! There are rules! Peleg Go to hell, you biblical bitch cunt, or I will throw you over board! Ishmael No, don’t do that for our sake, father Peleg. Peleg You are far too kind and credulous, you greenhorn. Don’t you think captain Bildad can take an ordinary scolding? He has been a captain of the Pequod just as I. But now captain Ahab is our man, and he drives on even harder than we. Ishmael What is actually the matter with captain Ahab? Bildad You’ll see when you see him. Peleg (serious) He has a wooden leg. A whale cut off his right leg, mauled it between his teeth. Captain Ahab can never forget that pain. Ishmael I hope he doesn’t let others suffer for it. Bildad Only the whales, my friend, only the whales. Ishmael So he avenges himself on the whales? Queequeg We will help him! Peleg That’s the right spirit, my friend! Just draw a cross here, and captain Ahab’s whales are all yours! (Queequeg signs.)

Bildad (examines) Clarify the name, please. Ishmael I can write for him. (writes) Peleg Then we are all set! Welcome on board an unforgettable voyage around the world on the Pequod with captan Ahab! (offers his hand. Queequeg shakes it immediately, Ishmael afterwards but not without some hesitation.) Ishmael Why do I get the creeps? Bildad (with mischievous joy) You’ll find out, my friend. You have found your destiny. (smiles cunningly.) Ishmael Come, Queequeg. We have to collect our things. (leaves with Queequeg.) Bildad You have got two more stuck on the fly-paper. Peleg We need more. Don’t make it too good, worthy brother. Bildad Even if all fools come here to sign on our death ship, there will be more fools born in the world. We never run out of them. Peleg And that serves us and our business. (gives Bildad a friendly nudge. They giggle with satisfaction.)

Scene 3. On the quay. Ishmael Do you still like Pequod? Queequeg Good ship. Good captains. Good reputation. Ishmael You sensed nothing suspect? Queequeg My instinct perfect! No faults were missing! Ishmael (pats his arm with a smile) Good, Queequeg! I trust your instinct. (lower) But have you seen that weirdo following us? (A declined sailor whom they have passed is following them.) Queequeg Perhaps he wants something. Ishmael (turning around abruptly) Is there anything you want from us, my good man? Elijah Excuse me. I thought I understood you have signed on the Pequod. Ishmael That is correct. Elijah Will you then be sailing with captain Ahab? Ishmael Who else? Elijah Is he still alive? Ishmael Shouldn’t he be? Elijah No, he shouldn’t. Ishmael Why? Elijah So you know nothing about him? Ishmael What should we know that we don’t? Elijah What is it you don’t know? Ishmael That’s what we don’t know. Elijah So you know nothing. Queequeg (to Ishmael) Is he balmy, or? Ishmael It doesn’t look any better.

Elijah Have you signed on? Ishmael Yes. Elijah Are you aware of what you signed? Ishmael A contract. What else? Elijah Did it say anything about your souls? Ishmael We don’t mix our souls with our business. Elijah So you pledged your souls with the old Thunderbolt. Queequeg Old Thunderbolt to you yourself! Elijah No, wait! You don’t know anything! You don’t suspect anything! Old Thunderbolt is captain Ahab. You must obey him, for he is a consumer of souls. So you know nothing? Ishmael No, old man, we know nothing. Elijah Going round the Cape Horn once he lay like dead for three days, but he rose again from the dead. In Santa Cruz he once had a fight for life or death with a Spaniard in front of the altar in the cathedral. And the silver bowl in which he spat? Do you know anything about that? Ishmael We only know that a whale took off his leg. Elijah (darkly) It was not just any whale. It was Leviathan himself. Ishmael Who is Leviathan? Elijah He has many names. Another is the Devil. Queequeg (shakes his harpoon) I kill him with my harpoon! Elijah You can’t kill the one without killing the other. Ishmael (offended) What the hell do you mean? Elijah (pulls out his amputated arm, with a bayonet for a prothesis) I mean that I know what I am talking of! Captain Ahab is sick, as sick as I, and he can never get well again, until this arm gets well again! I am sorry for your sake, but now I have warned you! (totters away from them.) Queequeg Who was he? Ishmael Who knows? (calls after him) Halt, old sailor! (he halts.) Who are you? Elijah My name is Elijah. Sorry I disturbed you. (stumbles away) Ishmael (to Queequeg) On board the Pequod we might learn more about him. Come now, let’s go! (They leave.)

Peleg Starbuck Peleg Starbuck Peleg Starbuck Bildad

Act II scene 1. On board. (Captain Peleg and captain Bildad receiving all the sailors.) Welcome on board, Mr Starbuck! Thank you, Sir. Is all well with captain Ahab? At least we got him on board. Still ailing? Getting better. Let’s hope so. You sound doubtful Mr Starbuck.

Starbuck I am doubtful I take no chances. Peleg And that’s why you are first mate. Starbuck I am aware of my responsibility. Is captain Ahab? Bildad Or else he wouldn’t be your captain. Starbuck I wish you could be more convincing, captain Bildad. (leaves. Stubb coming up.) Peleg Welcome on board, second mate! Stubb Thank you, Sir. Is captain Ahab on board? Bildad Or else we wouldn’t be weighing anchor. Stubb Why doesn’t he appear? Bildad Remove your pipe out of your mouth when you are speaking, mate Stubb. Stubb (removes his pipe) That doesn’t make me speak any better, but perhaps you will hear better. I asked why we don’t see captain Ahab. Starbuck (interferes) He is sick in his cabin, Stubb. Stubb Is he ill? Starbuck No, he is only seasick. Peleg That’s good, Stubb. You can replace your pipe in your mouth and go to your place. Welcome on board, mate Flask. Flask Where is captain Ahab? Bildad In his cabin getting better. Everything is in order, third mate. Flask I sincerely hope so. Starbuck And where are our harpoonists? Peleg Here is your harpoonist, Starbuck. (Ishmael and Queequeg come on board.) Starbuck The most striking harpoonist in the world! I know a good professional when I see him. I would never wish for any other harpoonist in the world. Ishmael I can assure you, Sir, that he never misses his point. Stubb We shall need such experts when captain Ahab leave us behind! Starbuck I know that Queequeg is the right man to follow even captain Ahab. Flask (looks around) Where is my man? Peleg Daggoo has arrived, Mr Flask. Flask I sincerely hope so. Daggoo (a large black and very tall negro suddenly appears, with a deep booming voice) At your service, Mr Flask. Flask There you are! Bravo! Let’s get down to the cabin! (leaves with Daggoo.) Bildad (confidently to Ishmael) Your friend will have much pagan company on board. Ishmael I sincerely hope so. Stubb And what about mine? Peleg Tashtego is in the vicinity. I have seen him. Tashtego! (A tall handsome Indian with very long hair appears.) Here is Tashtego. Stubb In fine shape, I see. Prepare for many whales this year, Tashtego. Tashtego (bows) My friend Stubb knows he can always trust me like his pipe. Stubb Always so courteous! Thanks goodness for every gentleman on board.

Ishmael But where is captain Ahab? Peleg (suddenly angry) Who needs captain Ahab? You have captain Peleg and captain Bildad to pilot you out! Captain Ahab is busy in his cabin with private affairs! Move your legs instead and weigh the anchor! You are here on board only to work, young man! Starbuck When we are well rid of these old scarecrows and all land is out of sight, I dare say captain Ahab will dare to come out of his den. Peleg Get a move on now! Man the anchor gear, for all that’s worth! The wind is in the bold man’s favour! You cannot get any better weather for a start! (All get busy, sails are hoisted, everyone gets to work.) sailors (singing) For hey and ho, with a song and a beer! Turn the rudder, and make for the skies, my dear! Full ahead with all sails set for joining the rear with the sea and the skies and a jolly good cheer, there is nothing else we’re waiting for in the rear, so let the billows blow their foam to match our ringing cheer! Peleg (calling) Get the anchors! Set the sails! Get going, you slowpokes! Get the show on the sea! Tashtego (to Queequeg) He plays the captain. Queequeg He is not captain? Tashtego Melancholy captain. On pension. Queequeg And the other? Tashtego Even more melancholy. Sailors (singing) Let it go fast with the wind for the sky! Make speed and get moving as we have to get high with the toil in the wind for the sky! The captain gives orders but drinks the pee of his cabin, while we have our grogs in the open for nothin’, so what are we waiting for? We’re reaching the sky! Peleg (kicking sailors in their bottoms) Make speed, you rogues! All sloth is forbidden at sea! Bulkington The pilot boat is waiting, captain. Peleg But we are not waiting for you! Get going! Ishmael (to Starbuck) Has captain Bildad ever piloted other ships than his own? Starbuck Bang on, brother. He never wants to pay pilots on ships he owns himself. Ishmael You know the quakers. Starbuck I am a quaker myself. Bildad (resigned, as he must leave) That will do, captain Peleg, that will do. Peleg Yes, we’ll leave the rest to captain Ahab. We have done our bit. – In three years, comrades, we will celebrate your return with a sumptuous smoking hot supper for you in old Nantucket! Bulkington Don’t forget our rum toddies, captain Peleg!

Peleg Never in my life! Trust us! And happy journey! Good luck, Starbuck! Good luck, Stubb! Take well care of our ship! Stubb We will boil all the whales in the world in oil for you and come home loaded! Peleg We are looking forward to it! In three years! Come on, Bildad! (Bildad and Peleg go down from the second railing to the pilot boat and are gone.) Ishmael (at the gunrail) Then it’s only us and the sea. Starbuck And captain Ahab. Ishmael Is he really on board? I still have never seen him. Starbuck I can sense him on board although I haven’t seen him myself. His soul is more vibrant and alive than his body. Ishmael An old sailor ashore said something about it. His name was Elijah, he had only one arm and a bayonet instead of the other. Starbuck Yes, he has sailed with captain Ahab. I know him. Forget him. Ishmael Why? Starbuck He is a prophet of misfortune. Ishmael Can we then get anywhere by repressing the unpleasant? No, mate Starbuck, we have to accept the unpleasant if we are to survive it. Starbuck Then you are indeed prophetic yourself. I am just superstitious but have very long and sensitive antennae. Don’t expect anything good from captain Ahab. He is born unblessed. Ishmael What does that mean? Starbuck It’s hard to define. He has a quarrel with eternity, perhaps something akin to the dilemma of the flyhing Dutchman. Ishmael What kind of a journey is this? I thought we were going for whales. Starbuck This matter of the whales is just secondary. Just you wait. Captain Ahab always brings surprises. For him whaling is just an excuse for challenging eternity. Tashtego (approaching Ishmael, indicating) There he is now. (Ahab has unnoticeably entered quarter deck, a grizzled, harrowed, small and limping man.) Ishmael He looks like coming directly from a bonfire. Tashtego Close enough. Do you see the white streak going down his neck? It continues all the way down to his toes. He was hit by lightning once by Cape Horn but survived. Stubb (joins them, quietly sucking his pipe) He got away by pure terror and became worse than ever. Ishmael He doesn’t look like a tyrant. Starbuck What does he look like then? Ishmael I can imagine him cross and choleric but not oppressive. Stubb (to Starbuck) Our friend Ishmael is green. He was never in a whaler with captain Ahab. Ishmael I hope that day will come. Stubb Yes, you hope for that now. When it has arrived you will praise your lucky star that you survived.

Ishmael Is he that risky? Stubb My poor friend, you don’t know what you are talking about. Can’t you divine anything in the unfathomable depths of that extinct volcano? (indicates Ahab prudently with his pipe, who is tottering around on his wooden leg or watching the vast eternal horizon, as if he had some demand on it.) That is the most unblessed spirit in the world. Nothing good can come out of such a being. And we are all fools with captain Peleg and captain Bildad, the owners, who all share the belief that we could make money out of his unblessedness. Ishmael I can only sense an endless resource of energy. But it has some difficulty in finding outlet. Stubb Do you think so? When it finally breaks out, nothing can stop it, not even all the storms of Cape Horn. Ishmael Such a small insignificant man? Stubb I warn you. He is all soul and very unblessed as such. Don’t knock on the shell. You could have your head bitten off by the crocodile of the egg. Starbuck Do you dare to knock on the shell, Stubb? Stubb The crocodile will come out sooner or later anyway, so you had better not try it. Look how worriedly he walks about, although his ivory leg must give him constant outrageous pains. Starbuck That’s the pain that keeps him and his hatred burning. Ishmael Hatred? Starbuck And more than hatred. You cannot guess. Ishmael You all seem to have more fear than respect of him. Stubb Our respect is total of his skill. Our fear is like of that scarecrow he is physically. Ishmael And still you dare not knock on the shell. Stubb (knocks his pipe) Just you wait. (advances towards Ahab.) Starbuck When he knocks his pipe like that, it usually signifies harder combats with whales. Ishmael Is captain Ahab then a whale? Starbuck At least there is a whale within him, and that whale is the worst of all. Stubb (accosts captain Ahab) Captain, with all respect, Sir, but you walk around at night so anxiously. Ahab You shouldn’t worry about that, Mr Stubb. Stubb I don’t. Ahab So what’s the matter with you? Stubb Captain, it worries the sailors, who sleep under deck, since you walk so hard and bumpingly on your ivory leg. Ahab Go to hell, you damned whining grumbler! My ivory leg is my own affair! Stubb I just wished to suggest a constructive remedy of the problem. How about winding some rag of oakum around the ivory heel?

Ahab Enough! I should throw you to the sharks, so you could sense how it feels to have your bones crushed between their jaws! Do you then take me for a cannon ball, to be wadded in that fashion? Beware! You had better go down and hide in your grave at night, where such as you sleep in their wrappings to get used to the last one. Get lost, you dog, and keep quiet in your kennel! Stubb With respect, Sir, but you don’t speak to me like that. Starbuck (tol Ishmael) He goes too far. Ishmael I am waiting for the whale. Ahab You miserable keelson rat! Are you asking for a regular outbreak on my side? I would by the devil throw you over board to the sharks if you didn’t know how to kill whales. I regret that I unfortunately need you. Summon all men on quarterdeck! Stubb All men on quarterdeck, Sir? Ahab Dull of hearing and understanding he is as well, to top his incapacity and impertinence! Starbuck, all men aft! Stubb Sir, with respect, but you do that only on emergency. Ahab Shut up! It’s not about punishing you but the sea! Starbuck (obeys) All men aft! (the call rolls on) All men aft! All men aft! Ahab (to the rig) Ohoy, lookouts! Get down! (The entire crew comes gathering from below and down from the rig. All gather under murmuring respect and in fearful expectation of captain Ahab’s next move. He just walks to and fro on main deck, now and then casting an eye over the crew like as if to take aim at an enemy and goes on walking up and down. The suspense increases with the silence.) Stubb (to Flask) He has summoned us to watch a walking performance. Flask I thought you had learned not to joke with the captain. Ahab (suddenly) Men, what do you do when you catch sight of a whale? Some voices We sound the alarm! We give the warning! We spread the word! Ahab (approvingly) That’s right! (after a pause) And then? A smart sailor We lower the boats and chase him! Ahab And what do you sing as you lower the boats? Many (together) A dead whale or a smashed boat! Ahab (eagerly) Exactly! You know your trade! You know why you are here! But there is more to it than that! Stubb Yes, then we have all the rough and dirty work. Flask The chase is just the pleasant sport. All the rest is just routine. Ahab (ignores them) Do you see this Spanish golden ounce of a coin? (takes up a large golden coin for general display) It is worth sixteen dollars! Can you all see it? (the wonder and expectations of the crew increase.) You outlooks have many times heard me give the order to watch out for a white whale. Do you all see the golden coin? (all mumble in the affirmative) Mr Starbuck, give me a hammer! (Starbuck takes a hammer, gives it over to the captain, who makes way for the main mast, all the time holding up the coin, which he also rubs on his

clothes. He receives the hammer and puts up the coin to the main mast.) The first one who spots the white whale and gives me the signal shall have this invaluable coin! (nails the coin to the mast.) many Hurray! Hurray! (those with caps swing them and southwesters.) Tashtego A white whale? Daggoo This is something for us! Queequeg There is only one white whale. It’s Moby Dick. Stubb Moby Dick? Flask Moby Dick? Tashtego Captain, is the white whale you mean the same that they call Moby Dick? Ahab Tashtego, do you know the white whale then? Tashtego (thinking) Doesn’t he wave his tail in a funny way as he goes down? Daggoo Is he the one with such a strange blast? The largest and fastest of all cachalots? Queequeg I know him. Many harpoons are nailed in him, and many of them are twisted like corkscrews. Ahab (gets more and more enthusiastic and roused) Yes! Yes! You know him! You all know who he is! You know the devil I mean! Yes, Tashtego, he beats and stamps in the same way as a struggling destroyer in a gale! He is deformed like me! Yes, Daggoo, he is the largest whale in the world and blows up to the sky, and his blast is always thick! Yes, Queequeg, he is branded by dozens of harpoons, which he has all crumpled into corkscrews! You know him! You know what an enemy we are dealing with! Starbuck (getting more and more worried) Captain, is it the same whale that took your leg? Ahab (shrill) How do you know? (calming down) Yes, Starbuck, he is the one, the whale that reduced me to a cripple and turned me into a wreck. It was that devil who mutilated me for life! So I have every good reason to chase him around the Cape of Good Hope and Australia and Cape Horn and many times again until I get him and may see him blow out his black blood! He is ours, and we shall get him! Are you with me, brave mates? many Yes! Yes! Ahab Can you shake my hand on it? many (throng to him to shake his hand) Yes! Yes! several The sharpest harpoon for Moby Dick! others Keep watch night and day for the white whale! Ahab Thanks, my friends, thank you! (shakes the hands of many) Steward, fill up the great grog jug! We must all drink on this oath! No break or peace for Moby Dick until he is dead! (Only Starbuck takes no part in the general excitement.) But what’s the matter with you, Starbuck? Are you not with me? Could it be that you are afraid of the white whale? Starbuck (casual but worried) I am not afraid of any whale, captain. But we are not here to chase a singular whale around the world but to hunt as many whales as possible.

We are not here to serve the desire of revenge of a captain on an irrational animal but to apply our profession to come home again with a work well done. The oil of your white whale, captain, does not fill many barrels on the Nantucket market and could cost you your dismissal. Ahab Damned materialist! Can’t you see any further than your limited saucy snuff sense then, you poor pedant? Can’t you see, that my revenge is greater than the whole world and never can be measured in money? Starbuck Captain, an irrational animal cut off your leg without knowing what it did, without any intention and perhaps even by some instinct of self-defence. You have no right to insist on revenge on an animal and even less any right to risk the lives of an entire crew on such a venture. Ahab Don’t you get anything, you squirming worm? Are you still stuck on land? This whale is a monster and the incarnation of the greatest evil in the world! That whale has locked me up in a prison! Have I then no right to break out of it and get indemnity for the pains and tortures of endless years? No one should have to accept and swallow an injustice in this free and human world! He is the challenge of my life, and I have the right to accept it! Of course we will catch and cook many whales on the way, but no harpoon will be sharp enough for Moby Dick, and that whale shall be the final target of our journey! Not until we have laid down this the greatest and most evil of game will your captain be satisfied with his journey and feel at ease with his work, and you too! Not until then we have fully deserved our wages! Starbuck May God keep us safe from your fanaticism, captain Ahab! Ahab Have I then no right to be fanatical with my chronic sufferings? Remember, that it was the whale who turned me that way! That whale will never give me any peace until he is slaughtered by the harpoon! That whale is mine, and I have the right to take him! Starbuck Take him then, captain, yourself, but I have the right to take some responsibility for the crew! Ahab The crew! Look at it! They are all with me! They all want the golden coin! They all think, that one more whale will make no greater difference! No one is afraid of Moby Dick except you with your female heart! Look at Stubb! He is laughing! Look at the Chilean over there! He is frothing of lust for fight when he thinks of the challenge! You stand alone, Starbuck, against the whole hurricane of the fighting spirits of all these brave intrepid men! It’s just a matter of killing a fish! What scruples could you as a professional whaler have against that? Starbuck It’s not against the whale. It’s against you. Ahab Then judge me afterwards and not in advance! Starbuck (retires in some resignation) God help us all. Ahab The jug! The jug! (enter the steward with filled grog jugs.) Double rations for everyone today! Let the jug go around! Drink deep and pass it on! We all have something to live for, since we face the greatest challenge of nature, and we have the right means of overcoming it! Fill it up, steward! Harpoonists, show me your harpoons! Come forth, and hand them over to me for inspection! This is an old

tradition from ancient times! (The three harpoonists present their lances.) Cross them here in front of me, and I will lay my hands on them. (They do so) Hereby I swear with all of you to never rest or have a full sleep until we have Moby Dick’s skeleton purged of all his mortal meat! Stubb (to Flask) He never sleeps anyway. Flask His life is like a fever. Ahab Are you with me on my oath? Almost all Yes! Ahab Starbuck, Stubb and Flask, these are your harpoonists and their harpoons! Do you promise to stand me by? Flask Yes. Stubb But not without my pipe. Starbuck And not without the welfare of the crew in the first place. Ahab Good, Starbuck, when the white whale comes I will get into the whaleboat and you will remain on board! Is that agreed? Starbuck (resigned and sceptical) As you wish, captain. Ahab So swear then all of you! Swear death to Moby Dick! May God hunt us all into perdition, if we don’t hunt Moby Dick to his death! Drink and swear! Starbuck (by himself) A dreadful oath. Stubb (detached) A laughable captain. Flask But he is serious! Ahab Drink and swear! most We swear! Ahab Then it’s just the sun left waiting to descend on it all. Thank you, my friends! Now I know that I can trust you all! Drink and cajole and have a party tonight, for we have something to celebrate, since we have something to live for! (retires. The jug goes around in many rounds, someone produces a harmonica and a tambourin, there is dancing and drinking, and the mood is very exhilarated.) Ahab (aside) It was easier than I thought. I got everyone with me except Starbuck, who thinks I am insane, but I am only demonic, and if I am insane I know to control my madness. He doesn’t see that I have every right in the world to tear asunder my mutilator. Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth, life for life and blood for blood! That whale deserves to be hunted round the world by the long arm of justice! Nature must learn, that justice is above nature! Isn’t that fair? Is it madness? Let someone convince me if it be possible, and if I am convinced I will gladly lay down my harpoon, but never before! Didn’t God give man the right to master nature, and what is then nature to master man? If nature has the right to win against man, then there is no God, and then man has no value and no more right to exist than any irrational animal. Come again then, Starbuck, with your human common sense and try to convince me that I was not right! Starbuck (by himself) They make merry and noise. They dance and party. They drink and laugh. What ignorance! A mad captain holds all our fates in his hand, and they just take it for granted in innocent acceptance and celebrate it with superficial joy.

What horrendous, outrageous, shockingly gross naivety! How can man deal with nature except by humility alone? But they all happily follow their blind mad leader to perdition, since they are so happy to have a leader relieving them of having to think by themselves! What kind of an insidious death trap have I landed in together with hysterical hyenas who laugh at the carrion without realising that the way of the carrion is to turn them all into the same carrion? Yes, go on laughing, Stubb, at the folly of captain Ahab and stay away from it, but that’s not the right method to remedy and cure it in time. It’s not the right way to relieve him of the power to bring us all to destruction. (leaves) crew (singing) Farewell, Spanish girls and ladies, farewell, my dearest beloved! So brutally separated so soon by our knave of a bloody captain! Nantucket sailor Don’t be squeamish now, boys, it’s not good for your digestion! Join instead with something rowdy! Come on and join me! (starts singing. The others join the chorus:) Our captain stood upon the deck, a spy-glass in his hand, a-viewing of those gallant whales that blew at every strand. Oh, your tubs in your boats, my boys, and by your braces stand! And we’ll have one of those fine whales. Just hold the line, make ready in the boats, and keep alert by all the braces! The biggest whale is what we want, before the sun sets, for our supper! Row with all your might, go for it, mate! The whale will not be waiting late! Flask Sound eight bells over there! Nantucket sailor 2 Stop the singing! Eight bells! dutchman They sleep heavily tonight. It must be that grog, but it’s a good night, I say, and those who don’t go drowsy off will get high instead. Some merriment will never do any harm, and our Starbuck is as solemn as if he was the one who walked on Ahab’s leg. But Ahab turns a youth again if only he sees ways for his revenge. But he never will get back his leg, not even if he finally gets his revenge with interest. Icelander So what are we striving for then? If he gets down his whale and drained and hanged he won’t get any richer for that but will have nothing else left to do. He will just drive himself out of work. Dutchman But the goal! That’s everything. If you just have a goal to strive for, that’s more than all the salary. But the point is not to reach the goal, for if it is attained, as you say, you then have nothing left to reach for.

Icelander As if the world was not wasted and exploited enough already of all exhausted enterprises. Dutchman I guess it’s all the failed targets that made so much go wrong. Frenchman And for the sake of Moby Dick we’ll now have to do without girls for three years. Sicilian Be comforted. Moby Dick is probably just one of those mythic monsters. Chinese With corkscrews for harpoons? With a twisted tail? With captain Ahab’s leg in his belly? Sicilian Yes, doesn’t that sound exactly like tall tales and fables? We are perhaps all just ingredients to a fable. Tashtego We are all captain Ahab’s fable. Sicilian I think we are in for bad weather. That’s the sailor’s reality. Nantucket sailor 3 I heard captain Ahab tell the mate to meet a gale like you treat a tornado with a cannon shot. That’s what I call a captain with a sense of reality. Nantucket 1 No one has questioned captain Ahab’s qualifications as a skipper. It’s only Moby Dick that has twisted his mind. maltese I would like to see those corkscrew harpoons. How do you wring a harpoon into a corkscrew? Tashtego It’s not the whale. It’s the currents of the ocean. Our greatest enemy and Ahab’s is not the whale but the sea. The whale exists only in Ahab’s sick fantasies. maltese I believe you are right. Englishman But surely we could hunt down that whale for him? After all, it’s only a whale. Queequeg Of course. (Lightning and thunder.) maltese Here comes the storm. Here comes the darkness. Daggoo What is darkness? Who is afraid of darkness is afraid of me, for I was made of it. Spaniard So the lightning in the darkness was just Daggoo’s teeth. Daggoo (rushes up) Swallow your own, if you are a man enough to stand for your word! Spaniard (accepts the challenge) I will cut you up, you black demon, great in strength, big in words but thoroughly stupid to the bone and soul! many A fight! A fight! Tashtego (aside) What’s the rumbling noise of the heathens? They call it pleasure. Then I will rather save my sweat. Theirs is smelling far enough, and they are wasting it. maltese It’s because of the grog. Englishman Take his knife! Fair play! Close the ring around them! Only knuckles! (Lightning and thunder.) Tashtego One battle down here and another up there – gods and men, just trouble-makers all of them. Flask Take in the topsails! Make ready to reef the topsails!

maltese No white whale tonight. Just darkness and storm. Stubb The gale is over us! Get to work, all of you! Here the real fun begins! Nantucket 1 (to Ishmael) That’s what he always says when it’s getting serious. Ishmael At least he put an end to the fight. Tashtego No, you green one, it was him up there who released some wind. Ishmael Captain Ahab? maltese Maybe. To him we are all just farts. Sicilian But he needs us for his white whale. Tashtego Yes, he needs us as farts in his fable. Archy How real is actually that whale? Nantucket 2 I assure you, that the white whale is as real as the wherewolves and vampires of Transylvania. Archy You sound far too serious. Cabaco He has had one grog too many. Every seasoned navy boot knows, that white whales don’t exist. Captain Ahab pulls that story just to key up the crew and make the voyage more exciting. Thanks to the golden coin we will find and cook more whales than ever. Nantucket 2 You don’t know what you are talking about, Cabaco. Cabaco For sure I do! Nantucket 2 You don’t at all! Archy Shut up! One at a time! Nantucket 2 (rising) The whale is not just white but even has a hump! It’s large enough to swallow an entire whaleboat! And there are many such whales! Don’t forget New Zealand Jack and Timor Tom, who could bring down entire ships! Cabaco How? Nantucket 2 By ramming them! Cabaco Just head on – like that? (drives his fist into his hand) Nantucket 2 Exactly. Daggoo It’s true, I heard many tell about it. Only a few got away by pure fright. Ishmael It sounds perilous. And such a whale captain Ahab wants to catch? Tashtego Only he can catch such a whale. He has tried before and has sworn to try again. Daggoo He is not the one to give in. Tashtego But there will be many whales on the way. Cabaco is right. Now everyone is on edge for alertness, and we might perhaps get a hundred whales harpooned before we see the smoke of Moby Dick. Cabaco But how could a whale be white? Tashtego How could a whale have a hump? How could a whale be larger than all others? How could a whale attack a ship in the calculated intention to bring her down? There is much you don’t know about nature, Cabaco. Nature thinks different than we humans, but it thinks. If we pierce a hundred cachalots with our harpoons and boil them, is it then so strange that a more intelligent cachalot reacts and goes for a counter attack? If captain Ahab plants a harpoon in Moby Dick making him cringe

in pain, is it then so strange that he mauls captain Ahab’s leg? If we are hostile against cachalots and kill them, is it then so incomprehensible that that they grow hostile against their torturers? Daggoo Tashtego is right. The animals have the right of self-defence. spaniard Just like the bull on the arena. There the odds are made even. Tashtego No, they are a hundred to one. We strike and kill a hundred whales, but only Moby Dick goes for a counter attack. Man is the bully and tyrant of nature, and she uses her inhuman supremacy with most outrageous tyranny. Archy I don’t think captain Ahab thinks the animals have the right of self defense. Tashtego He is mad and has to account for his madness. Cabaco They say he was brought in a strait-jacket round the Cape Horn after he lost his leg. Daggoo It is true. He had to be kept tied up and gagged for three days to prevent him for biting the whole crew to death. Nantucket 2 But he has learned to control his madness. He allows us our hundred whales, and Starbuck will never let him run amuck with the ship. Cabaco Good for us that we have Starbuck. .Nantucket 2 He is our insurance against Moby Dick and against captain Ahab. Tashtego I think the storm is over now. Daggoo It was just a gale. (Lights return.) Tashtego I’ll have a look around from up the rig. Cabaco Let us know if you see Moby Dick. Tashtego (climbs the rig) I ’d rather see other whales. Archy What do you think, Ishmael? Does that whale exist? Ishmael I am afraid we are all equally at a loss concerning the white whale. Queequeg (demonstrating his harpoon) Until we see it! Then we’ll get sharpened! Ishmael Right’o, Queequeg! Keep your harpoon ready! Tashtego (above) Ohoy! A whale in sight! Archy Just don’t tell me it’s that Moby Dick. Tashtego (like before) It’s a whole crowd! Stubb (enters suddenly) To the boats! To the boats! Now the real fun begins! Ahab (appearing suddenly on main deck) Whale? Where? Flask Straight ahead, captain! Watch that white appearance rising over there above the waves! It must even be Moby Dick! Ahab Moby Dick! Yours and my destiny is approaching! Where do you see that damned whalefish? Flask He disappeared in the waves. But lo! There he is again! Tashtego (from above) White whale straight ahead! White whale straight ahead! Ahab (suddenly furious) Mr Stubb! Get the boats up again at once! Stubb (doesn’t understand) Captain? Ahab You poor bunglers! Can’t you see it’s just an infernal squid! It has arms and tentacles! Can’t you see the difference between a whale and a squid, you

impotent trash fish! And you call yourselves whalers! What kind of a lunatic herd have I got stuck with! False alarm! Start again from the beginning! Tashtego (coming down) Sorry, captain. I only saw the white body rising above the waves. Ahab You saw wrong! Get some spectacles! Or binoculars! Starbuck (to Ishmael) A squid means bad luck. Ishmael Why? Starbuck It is evil. It has no backbone. It is quiet. It drinks its victims. You can fight a cachalot. No one can fight a squid, since if you cut off its tentacles, there will only be new ones growing out. And the ones you succeed in cutting off go on living and turn to invulnerable sea worms. Ahab Don’t talk nonsense, Starbuck! The squid is the main course for the sperm whale! Where there are giant squids like this one there are giant sperm whales like Moby Dick! It was almost right, only completely wrong. Starbuck That’s what I mean, captain. Ahab I know what you mean. You want to demoralise the crew so that I don’t get my whale. Starbuck On the contrary. I want us to catch as many whales as possible. Ahab For me there is only one whale. Starbuck For me there are any whales but that whale. Ahab Then we compliment each other. One does not exclude the other. Carry on like that, Starbuck, and we will both get satisfied. Starbuck (to Ishmael) Sometimes I actually believe, that not even Moby Dick could stop that captain. Ishmael That might then be Moby Dick’s death. Starbuck Yes, only the last whale’s death could stop captain Ahab. But I want to live, Ishmael. Ishmael We all do. Starbuck Yes, all except captain Ahab. He alone wants to die for his cause. Ishmael Let him die then, and we will go on from that. Starbuck Yes, I suppose that’s how it will pass. Queequeg (suddenly) Where squids show up, there are sperm whales. There! (points out in excitememnt) Starbuck You are right, Queequeg. The squid led us right. Ahab Our first whale! Get the boats out! Stubb, he is yours! Haul him in at once! Stubb Ay ay, Sir! Lower the boats! (pus the pipe back in his mouth before he climbs into his boat, which is lowered with a full crew.) Ahab Now it begins, Starbuck! You shall have your hundred, and I will have my own. Is that agreed? (offers his hand) Starbuck (hesitatesr) Captain, we don’t rule our destinies. Neither you can warrant me a hundred nor I your one white whale. Ahab The will, Starbuck! The good will is all that counts! Starbuck Is your will good, captain? (turns and leaves.)

Ahab (by himself) Starbuck is the only one who defies me. Well, if I can spite destiny, I can also bypass him. He is after all my subordinate. Well thrown, Tashtego! Handsomely guided, Stubb! We have our first whale on a silver plate! And there will be many more practice games before we reach the finale, the greatest! Moby Dick, be as worried and disturbed in your sleep as I, for I am closing in on you getting closer every minute! All my sleepless nights of pains and torments will reach an end by our combat, in which you, the supreme evil of the universe, shall die! Thus I will finally be left in peace from your haunting terror, you only natural being to challenge man’s supremacy over nature! A lookout (from above) Ship ohoy! Tashtego It’s the Jerobeam from Nantucket. Nantucket 1 A brother ship from home! Nantucket 3 It must bring some news for us. Ahab Heave to! Make ready for gam! Starbuck They carry a plague flag. They have some infection on board. Ahab That won’t bother us. Let them come on board! I must know if they have seen my white whale. Captain Mayhew (outside the rail) Ohoy, Pequod! Captain Mayhew from Jerobeam requests permission to come on board! Ahab Come on board, captain Mayhew! What are you waiting for? (Captain Mayhew, Gabriel and some other sailors from Jerobeam come on.) Mayhew Thank you! Is that captain Ahab? Ahab Welcome on board, captain Mayhew. (They shake hands.) Stubb (to Flask) It’s him! Flask Who? Stubb I have seen him before. He is a dangerous fanatic. He is called the Prophet but his name is Gabriel. He has a fatal capacity for gaining influence over crews and captains. Mayhew We have a severe epidemic on board, but we who are here present are all perfectly well. Naturally no one of you must visit our ship. Ahab Have you seen the white whale? Mayhew The white whale? Ahab Moby Dick! (Mayhew stares in terror at Gabriel.) Gabriel The white whale! The devastating tail! I forbade captain Mayhew to have anything to do with the white whale! But he still went chasing it! Disaster, death and terror! Ahab (eagerly to Mayhew) What happened? Gabriel No one can assault the divine whale! Captain Mayhew has learned that with a vengeance! Ahab Speak out of your beard, man. What happened? Mayhew (hesitating) We had a mate, Macey.... Ahab And?

Gabriel (prophetically) I forbade anyone to attack the white whale! But first mate Macey refused to listen to me and had his just punishment! He planted his harpoon in the white whale, and that was the last thing he did. Ahab (impatiently) To the point! Mayhew The whale gave a flick with his tail, and Macey was flung high up in the air and down into the sea some thirty meters off. When we fished him up he was stone dead. No one can understand how he died. Gabriel (triumphant) It was the revenge of the white whale! Starbuck (aside) Could then a whale choose a special person and kill him only in the whaleboat and spare the others? Stubb (snorting) A yarn. Mayhew No, it’s unfortunately the truth. That was exactly how it happened. Gabriel There are witnesses! Ahab We believe you, captain Mayhew. That whale is not to be trifled with. But I believe we have some mail for you. Get the mailbag, Mr Flask. Mayhew I was just going to ask. We brought some letters addressed to Pequod... Mate Starbuck? Starbuck It’s from my wife. (opens his letter) Mayhew Toby Bench? (Flask brings the mailbag to Ahab.) A sailor That’s me. It’s from my mother. (receives his letter) Mayhew Matthew Folger? Stubb He is ill. I can take it for him. (takes it.) Mayhew That’s all. Ahab We only have one letter for Jerobeam. That’s what I tought. It’s addressed to a certain mate Harry Macey. (silence. All look at him. Ahab looks around without understanding.) What’s the matter? Mayhew (serious) Captain Ahab, the letter is for the very man we lost by your white whale. Ahab (to himself) I’ll be damned! Gabriel (raises an index to the sky) The white whale has chosen you for its victim, captain Ahab! This will be your last voyage! Ahab (angry) Go to hell, you mad fool! No wonder you have an epidemic on board with such freaks around! Is your crew contaminated by this man’s insanity? Gabriel You are the one who is insane, captain Ahab! I can see it in you! Ahab Leave my ship immediately! At once! (Captain Mayhew leaves hurriedly with his mates. Gabriel is the last one to go.) Gabriel You have sworn your soul to the devil, captain Ahab! This ship is damned! Ahab You make me damned by your infernal bullshit, you crazy idiot! Here! Take your dead mate’s letter with you! (sticks it on him) Gabriel No thank you! May his curse remain here on board! (throws the letter down on the deck of Pequod and leaves.) Starbuck (after a moment of silence) A bad omen, captain Ahab.

Ahab (takes finally up the letter and throws it over board) Shut up! (leaves) (stops in front of the golden coin on the main mast) You shine, you devil, tempting like the whale of death himself. Do you have power to evoke from hell the most supreme of evil? Gold is always a seducer to extravagance, to crime and to perdition, it could conjure any evil, and the human tribe of innocence and fools walks always self-destructively into its trap and grave. You are the road for Moby Dick and us to death, and you will hang on there until we know if you will be the grave of all or if I get my fair revenge. (totters on.) (Starbuck reaches the coin.) Starbuck What did he sing for you, you lousy cat gold of mendacity? You are the seal of his deceit and his bribe for which he bought our souls. We sold ourselves for gold to chase poor whales and torture them to death, just innocent and harmless mammals, who exactly like ourselves just want to live and love and suffer freely for our lust. What is our whole whale industry if not just murder, slaughter and outrageous torture of the noblest animals of innocence? And out there is the white whale waiting for us, and you are the shameless witness of that we’ve been turned into its slaves. What is your message to us? I can hear it most distinctly. “Fools you are! As long as you be chasing me you will not even know if you be coming back to have some wages! I am just a mirage, and for my sake you are chasing death, most consciously and voluntarily! Alas, what a most irrational unreasonable creature is not man!” Hang on there as a seal on all our folly with the maddest maniac of the seas for our inevitable leader. (drives his fist into the main mast in a kind of resigned despair and leaves. Enter Stubb.) Stubb Weeks and months pass by to make full years. We managed the Atlantic and have passed through all the Indian Ocean and continue now towards Japan. We killed some whales and cooked them, hoarding treasures of expensive oils and spermaceti, and we are at ease, all satisfied and happy, but for the old one-legged captain, who wants nothing less than the supreme reward and prize: his justice and revenge. Forget it, old king Ahab. Hang on there, you false compass of deceptive gold, until your dying day, for your hanging there means that we are still alive.

That is all right with me. Just let us mind and do our work, you white divinity and phantom of a whale, and stay away from us, and we shall only be too pleased to leave you also in consummate peace forever. Tashtego (from above) Captain Ahab! A ship! Ahab An Englishman. Bring her up alongside! Brace the main sail! (A ship comes up alongside on the other side of the rail.) Bloomer (from the other ship) Ohoy, captain! Ahab Ohoy! Captain Ahab on the Pequod from Nantucket! Bloomer Captain Bloomer on Samuel Enderby from London! Ahab Come over here and let’s have a handshake! Bloomer Come over here instead! My hand is hard to shake! (shows an ivory arm with the end of a club.) Ahab We are in the same boat! (lifts and demonstrates his ivory leg) Bloomer I’ll be damned! A whale? Ahab The biggest of tooth whales. Bloomer Here also! Wait! I’ll come over! Haul me across! (Captain Bloomer is brought over to Pequod with doctor Bungler.) Was it the white whale Moby Dick! Was he the one who pulled your leg? Ahab He took it away with half my life! Bloomer (admiring Ahab’s leg) A well designed ivory bone. What do you say, doctor Bungler? Bungler (examines it carefully) I couldn’t have fashioned it better myself. Ahab How did it happen? Tell me! Bloomer Doctor Bungler here can recount it better than I, for I was unconscious all the time, wasn’t I, doctor Bungler? Bungler You made the rough work, captain. I only adjusted it. Ahab To the point! What happened? Bloomer It was a crowd of whales. Suddenly another whale turned up, that was bigger than all the rest, a white giant whale with deep furrows and scarred brow and and marble hump… Ahab It’s him! It was Moby Dick! Bloomer And several harpoons were already stuck in him. He was so great and tempting, that I deserted the other whales for him. But that scoundrel was there to save the others! He tried to tear off the line of the harpoon in another! Then the line got stuck in his teeth, and as soon as we had sent our spear into him he dived, raised his tail high in the sky and let it down smashing our whaleboat. One harpoon got stuck in my arm and tore off all flesh down to the hand. That was the end of it. When I woke up I was on the operation table. Doctor Bungler did the rest. Bungler There was nothing to do. It was the worst wound I have ever seen. I tried to save the arm, but it turned black. Then there was just to remove it and give him another.

Ahab (furious) That whale owes you an arm and me a leg! Bloomer You are welcome to demand your leg of him, captain, but I allow him to keep my arm. I have no desire to meet him again. Ahab In which direction did he go? Bungler You are eager, captain. Let me just inform you, that whales never know what they are doing. They are just big, bulky and clumsy. It’s not their fault. Of course you can demand both captain Bloomer’s right arm and your right leg of him, but do you really think he would humour you in that request? No, he is just completely indifferent and will remain as large, bulky and clumsy as before and will perhaps take your second leg and your left arm for all your trouble. What will you do then without arms and legs? I think captain Bloomer is wise here in letting the whale remain big and bulky and clumsy in peace. He does not wish for any more harpoons in his back, and you would certainly not wish to lose more limbs. Neither would your crew. Isn’t that reasonable? Ahab Go to blazes, you miserable jellyfish! In which direction did the whale vanish, I asked? Bungler Captain Bloomer, this man is a phenomenon. His blood is almost boiling. No thermometer could manage this. I feel his bolting pulse even down to the deck planks. Ahab Get off my ship! We have work to do! Bungler Good luck, captain! Don’t let us interfere! You are most welcome to go on hunting on your own! Come on, captain Bloomer! A wild goose chase is nothing to this ambition to ride the whirlwind! (Bloomer and Bungler start returning to their own ship, which then disappears aft.) Ahab (while they are leaving, to himself) Bunglers! Amateurs! Imbeciles! Landlubbers! Bitch cunts! Greenhorns! Englishmen! Bah! (goes down to the cabin) Stubb (to Bloomer and Bungler) We are sorry about our captain’s bad temper. Bungler Don’t worry, mate! It will get worse. Bloomer We understand him. Bungler Captain Bloomer has many times rewarded my constant efforts to make his artificial arm perfect by using it as a sledge-hammer on me. Bloomer Don’t blame me! Blame Moby Dick! Bungler I blame the fixation on him by you captains. Bloomer Let that whale cut off one of your limbs, doctor, and you will say the same as so many: I’ll never forget that whale! Bungler That’s exactly the mistake I will never commit. Keep that whale away from me! And my duty is to also keep it away from you, captain, and you from the whale. Stubb Unfortunately we have no doctor on board, only a smith and carpenter. Bungler That’s what your rude captain misses: someone to react on. Stubb Alas, our all too kind first mate fills up that job. Bungler Stand by, second mate! You will be needed as a reserve! Stubb Alas, I am afraid you are right.

Bloomer Good luck, Pequod, with or without your white whale! But your chances are better without! (they depart) Stubb They know what they are talking about, and they are damned right. When the day comes, and if needed, I will take a stand for Starbuck against captain Ahab. What about you, Flask? Flask Me and the crew as well. Stubb We are a clear majority against one insane and lonely man. The problem is the formalities, since he is our captain.

Act III scene 1. The cabin. Ahab (by the charts on the table) I have chased you across two oceans. Only the third remains, the greatest and deepest. But I know where you are, you demon. I keep tracing you like a bloodhound. (enter Starbuck.) Yes, what is it? Get back up on deck! You are disturbing! Starbuck I apologise for disturbing, captain, but some barrel is leaking in the store. We must try to find the leak. Ahab And lose a lot of time on rehash? Are you mad, you idiot! Starbuck I can’t see that we have any choice. Ahab Then you are blind! We have a white whale to hunt down! And the entire crew has once and for all sworn to hunt it down! Starbuck Captain Ahab, don’t speak to me like to an imbecile idiot, because I am not, and you as a sailor know that I am not. We must find and repair the damage. It’s obligatory routine. Ahab Get lost, you traitor! I have more important things to think of! Starbuck Captain, the oil for which we toiled for a year is leaking. We have to set up tackles to take up the barrels. Ahab Let them leak! We can’t waste a week on fixing some barrel bands, not now, when we are so close! Starbuck In one day we could lose more oil than we can gather in a year. Ahab Nag! Nag! Nag! Get lost! I will not set up any tackles! Starbuck What will the shipowners then have to say when we get home? Ahab I don’t care! They are not my conscience, and neither are you. My conscience is in the keel of Pequod, it keeps Pequod advancing forward and can’t stop! Now you must leave! Starbuck (advancing a step) Captain, a younger man than I would not as easily forbear your folly. I can do it only because I know you to be an unhappy man. Ahab Are you impertinent as well? (takes instantly up a rifle and aims straight at him) Out! Starbuck (not budging an inch) Captain, I have showed much endurance. I know you and understand you. How about at least trying to understand someone else than yourself?

Ahab Enough nonsense! Get out on deck! Starbuck You have threatened me with fire arms but not insulted me. For an answer I just tell you: May Ahab beware of Ahab. (leaves.) Ahab (lowers his rifle) He understands me, that devil! May Ahab beware of Ahab! There is something in it. – Starbuck, come back! (Starbuck returns.) You are far too good a man to have such an old marl nail of a captain over you. You are right, Starbuck. Let’s save what we can of our cargo. Furl the t’gallantsails and close-reef the topsails, fore and aft; back the mainyard; up Burtons and break out in the main-hold. You have your orders. Starbuck Thanks, captain. (leaves) Ahab Without seamen like him we would never survive to find the white whale. (returns to his charts.)

Scene 2. On deck. Full storm. Stubb (in full storm armour) Save the boats! Get them higher! Tie them faster! Save them from the waves! Save our future! Flask It’s no use, Mr Stubb. The breakers could smash them anyway. Stubb Not as long as we can do something about it! Not until you give up, Mr Flask, is everything lost. Flask You sound half way up to captain Ahab. Stubb I stand over him today, for he is below deck. Flask Where is Mr Starbuck? Stubb Getting the rig in order. I don’t envy him. Flask Can the rig be brought in order? Stubb No. Flask I thought so. An unrewarding task. Stubb Especially when the sails are already torn to rags. Attention! (They get down and hold on. A terrible breaker is heard and the crash of splintered wood.) Flask That’s one whaleboat less, Mr Stubb. Stubb Which one? Flask Captain Ahab’s own. Stubb Thank goodness. I guess his boat got enough of his white whale hunt. Flask Do you think that will stop him? Stubb He will if he is reasonable and gets the message of the time. But unfortunately he is hopelessly mad. (sings:) King Ahab as a mad king went to sea but was too young to understand it and found life at sea too heavy an ordeal and so became just king of fools, for heigh and ho! the sea got all the better of him and he will never be the same again!

Flask Stubb

What an irreverent chant! Mad Ahab below deck has gone to hiding in a sack to never try again to spout more excrement against the wind to spite the storm, for heigh and ho! he will be spited by the sea! Flask No, fie on you, Mr Stubb! Starbuck (enters) Don’t stand here singing, you loudmouths, when others are risking their lives in the rig for your sake! Stubb We are just drifting with the sea. Starbuck No, we are trying to sail! We never drift on board the Pequod! Stubb Now you sound like Ahab. Starbuck Better to cooperate with him than to become his victims. Stubb Do you think that is possible without becoming his victims? Starbuck It will work until you only have worse alternatives left. Flask Have you seen, Mr Starbuck, that Ahab’s own whaleboat has been smashed? Starbuck Indeed, so it is! Stubb He has no whale any more. He may not hunt for whales any more. Flask Tell that to him. Stubb Not I. You will have to do it, Starbuck. Starbuck Most remarkable. Stubb What? That he will have no whale this year? Starbuck The gale comes from the east, the very direction which captain Ahab took today to chase the white whale. And his whaleboat has been smashed aft at the very place where he always takes a stand. Stubb He took the wrong course but was unfortunately not himself in the right position in his whaleboat. Starbuck This new wind would be perfect for us to return directly home to Nantucket the same way we came. The Japanese whale season is over, and the cargo we already have is quite enough. (Sudden thunder, and a lightning reveals a figure of half deck precisely above them. It is Ahab in full storm outfit. All three are terrified since they first don’t see who it is.) Starbuck Who goes there? Ahab Old Thunder! Who else? Flask You should get down below, Sir. This is no night for you. Ahab Shut up! Do you think the yarn weavers of Nantucket call me Thunder for nothing? Stormy weather like this electrifies me, and I enjoy it! Strike me, lightnings, as you did once before, and refill me with sacred energy to chase Moby Dick round the world! (Thunder and lightning, roaring winds and crashes by breakers of the sea.) Flask He is mad. Stubb No, only lyrical.

Flask Still he is not affected. Stubb He is worse than that. Like the devil he only gets high and elated by all the misfortunes of the world. Flask God save our souls! (Some spooky lights come from above. It’s Saint Elmo’s fire on the topmasts.) Starbuck The corpusants! The corpusants! Ahab Light us ahead through the night towards the storm into the depths of your darkness, Moby Dick! Stubb A happy auspice, if Ahab didn’t turn it to the opposite. Ahab A happy auspice! Now I know my whale will not escape! Starbuck Captain, behold your boat! Your own boat has been smashed to pieces just at your place in the aft! (Ahab totters in fury up to the boat and grabs his harpoon, which also is set on fire like the masts.) Ahab Do you honestly think that could stop me? (olds out the harpoon like a frightening torch.) Starbuck Come to your senses, captain, while there is still time! This is an unhappy journey. Refrain from your destructively morbid and selfish intention! By this storm wind we could race home to Nantucket in record time! Our stocks are replenished, and our profit is considerable! So let’s turn home and then start on a new and better journey! (The crew gathers around them.) Stubb (to Flask) All sense on board is collected in Starbuck. Flask (back) But madness stands above him. Ahab Are you mad, boy? Every single sail has been torn asunder! Do you think you could fool me and my crew? They have no sails left to brace! We can’t get out of our course, since our destiny forces us to follow it! (brandishes his flaming harpoon) And you have all sworn the oath! You have all promised me to follow Moby Dick! The coin is still there as a witness and a sacred vow! Starbuck, I have given you your hundred whales. You now have to allow me the single one I have asked for. Starbuck How? Your whaleboat is in splinters, and your own horrifying harpoon is consumed by Satan’s own fire of fear from hell! Ahab Thus I blow out all human and inhuman fear. (blows out the flame, which is extinguished at once.) No one can be safer, Starbuck, fellow sailors and crew, than the ones who may serve under captain Ahab. (goes calmly down below.) Flask There is something supernatural about him. Tashtego The great spirit lives in him, but I don’t know if it is good or evil. Starbuck To your duties, mates! We have many sails to repair before this storm is over!

Scene 3. The cabin. Captain Ahab lies in his cassock in troubled sleep. A prudent knock on the door. Enter Starbuck. Starbuck (cautiously) Captain? (enters. Notices that he is asleep and hesitates. He catches sight of the rifle. He takes it up and finds it loaded. Slowly he turns it against Ahab.) Shoot you in your sleep, you mad seducer? I came here to give a report, but he is asleep in the foul unjust sleep of the unblessed. He has overcome the elements, and he knows it. We are heading straight for Moby Dick, and he will sail us all down all the way to final death if he gets what he wants. With this very musket he threatened my life. Shall I then assume power and turn executioner and save more than thirty lives by sacrificing this old man? The temptation is overwhelming. (lowers the musket.) But it would be indefensible. I only have my instinct for evidence, and although it convinces me enough it could never convince the others. Shoot him and answer for the murder? That would be an alternative. (points it again.) But no. (puts it away.) I was not born to take any human life. The fate of the good and the wise is only to become victims to the inhuman folly of arbitrariness. Who was it that said: ”No irrationality among all the animals of the world is not large enough not to be infinitely transcended by man’s insanity”? Take me, white whale, and let me die with you as a victim to such a cruelty of human folly as captain Ahab’s fanaticism represents. Sleep in peace, captain, until the whale drags you down into the abyss of the unblessedness of every sailor’s eternally open grave. We all belong there, and we are equal there, while only the myth will survive both you, your nonentity and Moby Dick. I don’t have to be an executioner. Ahab (in his sleep) Moby Dick! Now I’ve got you! Starbuck (throws a despizing glance at him) Catch your whale in your sleep, captain Ahab. You will never catch any myth in reality. (leaves)

Act IV scene 1. On deck. Stubb I don’t think we’ll get rid of that whale until we fix him, Flask. Flask We ought to encounter him any day now unless we are unlucky. Stubb You mean we will be lucky if we meet him? Flask Of course, if I will be the one to see him first, for then the gold will be mine. Stubb So you also fell into the trap of the seduction of that cat gold. Welcome to your funeral. I hope you will get some use of the money if you ever get ashore. Pip No one will get that gold coin except captain Ahab, for captain Ahab doesn’t sleep any more. Stubb What are you suggesting, Pip? Pip He just gazes for that whale, broods on the whale, lives for that whale and forgets the whole world for that whale.

Stubb That’s no news, Pip. Pip What about this then: he doesn’t shave any more because of that whale. Stubb What do the captain’s toilet habits have to do with the whale? Does he think the whale will show up just because he doesn’t shave? Flask We all knew that the captain was a fool but not that he was a megalomaniac. Stubb Didn’t you get it until now, Flask? What is folly if not megalomania? And where is that human being who is not a megalomaniacal fool? Flask You mean that we deserve the captain we’ve got? Stubb To the highest degree, as long as we obey him. Flask And what about Cabaco, who fell over board? Stubb He got away. But cleverest on board is little Pip here, who twice tried to jump over board. Pip Don’t call me Pip. He doesn’t exist any more. Pip jumped the whaleboat. Pip is missing. Pip was left alone to die in the middle of the sea. Stubb He has been like that all since it happened. When he in terror jumped the whaleboat the first time I promised him, that if it ever happened again I would not fish him up again. It happened again, and he knew what he was doing. Fortunatelty enough, the Pequod fished him up. Since then he has been like that: deranged but wisest on board. Flask Who does he think he is if not Pip? Stubb No one. He just denies himself and refuses to be anyone at all. Flask Another kind of madness than that of captain Ahab. Perhaps the direct contrary. Stubb It is the contrary. Captain Ahab is mad, but Pip is wisest on board. Ahab (totters by) Are you standing here idling again with your mouths full of bullshit as usual? Stubb We are watching out for the whale, captain. Ahab I can see that. But it doesn’t show. And if anyone will be the first to see him, it will be me, for I am in telepathic contact with him and follow him like a bloodhound! What about Cabaco’s lifebuoy? Stubb Cabaco never got back to the surface. He must have slept or had a heart attack on his lookout. And the lifebuoy went down. It was too old and leaky. So it wouldn’t even have helped Cabaco. It followed him down willingly all by itself. Ahab So we have no lifebuoy. Stubb Yes, Queequeg has given us his coffin. Ahab His coffin? But he is alive? Stubb He was dying and wanted a coffin. When the coffin was finished he decided to live after all. No one else has died, so the coffin is vacant. Cabaco brought the lifebuoy with him for his coffin. So Queequeg’s coffin will be our lifebuoy. Ahab A clever solution. Expose it aft, so that everyone can see that Pequod carries its own lifebuoy, even if it is a coffin.

Pip Who is alive? Not Pip. He was a coward. He could not bear the slaughter of the whale, so he deserted, and we don’t pick up coward deserters here in the middle of the ocean. Ahab (to Stubb) Who made him thus? Stubb The sea. He was lying there alone for a day and night after not having been able to manage his second whale hunt. Pequod found him and picked him up, but since then he is balmy. Ahab Where would you say that Pip is then, little boy? Is he still out there in the sea? Pip He is long since left behind. Stubb promised never to pick him up again if he jumped off into the sea a second time, and Stubb is a man for his word. So was Pip, who took the consequences. Ahab And who are you if you are not Pip? Pip His empty soul without a body or his empty body without a soul. You must be able to notice that his eyes are completely void. Ahab (roused in his compassion, embraces him) Come to me, Pip. From now on you shall stay with me in my cabin. The worst maniac on board could need another maniac for his only proper and sensible company. But beware of me, Pip, for I could sometimes be madder than what’s acceptable. Pip (pats his hand) Your hand is like a slide-rope, Sir, like something for weak souls to cling to. Ahab Alas, I am but a straw in the river for such as you. But it will hold as long as it holds, even if its time gets constantly more limited. Come, let’s go down and make yourself at home. (goes down with Pip to the cabin.) Maltese There you are, two particular nutcases, one mad out of his strength and force, the other lost in feeblemindedness. They go well together. Ishmael (to Stubb) Ship ohoy, Sir. Stubb (applying his binoculars) Yes, I can see. It’s the Rachel from Nantucket. A large and handsome vessel, commanded by captain Gardiner. He and captain Ahab know each other. He is one of the most accomplished whalers of Nantucket. Notify captain Ahab, Flask. Flask He is already on his way. Ahab (coming in) A ship? A large ship? Is it Rachel? Stubb It is the Rachel, Sir. Ahab (using his binoculars Heave to! Rachel if anyone must have seen Moby Dick. But why are there so many sailors aloft? Stubb Captain Gardiner is coming on board. (A large dark vessel is coming up alongside the Pequod. Captain Gardiner comes on board the Pequod alone, a serious and impressing man) Ahab Greetings colleague! What news of Moby Dick? Gardiner We happened to him yesterday. You haven’t by any chance seen any whaleboat adrift? Ahab No. What happened?

Gardiner We had a splendid day for hunting whales yesterday. Then the white whale turned up, and we launched a whaleboat and got a harpoon into him. But he then went off in a racing speed. That was the last thing we saw of him and of the whaleboat. Ahab (elated) So Moby Dick is still alive! I may still have the honour and glory of hunting him down! Gardiner Slow down, old man. I need your help. That is why I come on board. Ahab What’s on? Gardiner We need your help in finding our missing whaleboat. We have been searching indefatigably since yesterday, the whole night and morning. But Rachel is slow of movement and reaction. Let me borrow your Pequod for some days. Ahab Some days? Gardiner She is faster. We would have better chances with Pequod. Help us in finding our lost whaleboat. Stubb (to Flask) He is as mad as captain Ahab but of sentimentality. No captain would risk a ship to search for a whaleboat. Ahab Captain Gardiner, that is entirely out of the question. Gardiner You don’t understand. My own son was on board. (Some emotion among the men.) Stubb His own son, Flask! Then we can’t refuse helping him. Gardiner I beg of you, captain Ahab, for only forty-eight hours. There is still a chance of finding him, but the hourglass of possibilities is running out by every minute. Pequod is fast and easy to manoeuvre. We need your help, captain Ahab. I will be glad to recompense you. You may decide the amount yourself. You must help me. Ahab Captain Gardiner, I am sorry, but I have other things to do. We can’t waste two days on a vain search for a lost whaleboat just because your son was in it, not now in our own moment of truth. We have a more demanding quest of our own to mind. Search for your son in your whaleboat, and if it is still afloat your son will be alive, and you will find him. But we lack your motivation. I must ask you to leave my ship. Gardiner (bending in hopeless despair but keeping his face, shrinks and leaves the deck of Pequod without another word, sad and resigned, but turns around from the gangway: ) You have a child yourself, captain Ahab. Can’t you understand me? Ahab I wish I could understand myself, captain Gardiner. I will not ask you to forgive me, because I know you will not be able to. God help you, captain Gardiner, but I can’t. (Captain Gardiner leaves. The gangway is removed, and Rachel falls aft and vanishes.) Stubb (irritatated, to Flask) What inhuman hardness! Flask Just for the sake of a monster. The white whale has gone to his head. Stubb Definitely. And only by killing it could we remove that tumour from Ahab’s life, if even that would work. I fear that captain Ahab is a hopeless case. Flask Only Starbuck could save him.

Stubb Yes, we must leave him to Starbuck. (All leave the stage unnoticeably except Ahab on half deck by the rail. He looks down into the water. Starbuck comes up behind him.) Ahab Oh, it’s you, Starbuck. Starbuck Captain. Ahab It’s a mild heaven and a mild day. On a day like this I killed my first whale. It was forty years ago. For forty years I have carried on hunting and killing whales for dear life, and what did I get for it? An ivory leg for a stamp of invalidity, a black and bitter soul and humanly a total burnt-out case. During these forty years I have been perhaps three years ashore in total, and fifty years old I committed the unpardonable crime against a woman to marry her. Thereby I made her a widow, since I left her after our wedding night. What kind of a life is that, Starbuck? What urges us so ruthlessly away from nature and all sense and everything that would be identified as a good and sensible life? Starbuck But she is not a widow, captain. She is alive, and you have a small son. I am also happily married and have a small son. Isn’t that kind of life worth returning to? We both have a life, and the entire crew has a future ahead. Why then risk everything on an impossible insane enterprise? Ahab You heard the report from Bachelor, Starbuck. You saw her smashed whaleboat. You saw her heave her only corpse over board. Five men dead for Moby Dick, Starbuck, and only one of them could be buried! Starbuck Leave that devildom alone! This is exactly the right kind of day to turn back, when all feel they have something to live for. Then they hearken the voice of sense, and they find the sense of peace. Turn around, captain, turn back to Nantucket, to your home, your wife and your duties to your tender son! Ahab And allow Moby Dick to go on smashing boats, break hearts and limbs and bury seamen alive without a grave? I hold his heart in my hand, Starbuck, (shows his fist,) I know him! I have the life of the evil one in my hand, and I can do something about it! You must understand me, Starbuck. Come closer. I can’t fail the only true mission I ever had in life. Do I look very old? I know I am, but that is nothing to how I feel. But you are still young and and still have your best years ahead of you, noble Starbuck. (wipes a tear.) This is how much I can do to satisfy you but no more. Don’t go down any more into one of those boats, Starbuck. Stay on board and take care of the men and the ship while I hunt the white whale to his death. I don’t want to see you lose any arm or limb. Accept that insurance, Starbuck, but leave me to my destiny. Starbuck Captain, you are unreasonable! Ahab No, my friend, it’s the destiny. It’s the teacher of every man, and we must follow him, for we have no other choice, for destiny is all we have to guide us. Only he who is true to his destiny can be said to have received and accepted life in the right way. Starbuck And if destiny is nought but death? Your way is self-destructive, captain! Ahab We don’t know that yet. But if it is so, it’s only so for myself.

Starbuck We are all in the same boat, captain, and you are in command! Accept your responsibility! Ahab I give you the responsibility, Starbuck, for Pequod and its cargo of a hundred boiled whales – a wealth without comparison. I only take responsibility for my destiny, which is the white whale. Starbuck (has difficulty in controlling himself, in despair) Captain, you will wake up to life too late when it has passed you by. (leaves in despair) Ahab What does he mean? Sometimes he makes me suspicious, as if he was ahead of me all the time and was leading me instead of the contrary. If his prophecy comes true we shall see what it means. But someone once prophesied to me, that only hemp could put my life to an end. Would I then be hanged in a gallows? For what? So not even Moby Dick could do me in. So I would be reasonably immortal. I always suspected that. There’s your prophecy against mine, Starbuck. But he has left. Well, he will remain on board and out of danger. He is safe from me and from all possible curses of mine. But what’s that smell I feel in the air? (sniffs in the air) A whale! Spermaceti! We are in its waters. He can’t be more than ten miles away. Get on your positions, lookouts! Sharpen your eyes! Concentrate! This unmistakeable scent reveals more about the whale than any lookout can see. I am on his track! This is my life’s eternal nightmare! Everyone on deck! (stamps the deck) At last we have reached the moment of truth! (People come pouring up, gathering by the rails and climbing the rig.) Can’t you see anything, lookouts? Tashtego (from above) Nothing yet. Ahab Damned cyclopic eyes, sailing moles and sea elephants! They can’t see anything! Then I will give them eyes to see with! Stubb! Flask! Hoist me up the rig at once! (goes to the device for hoisting him up.) His silver track in this smiling sea is as clear as any footmarks in the sand. He should be at some distance leeward… (He is still being hoisted when he cries out in triumph:) There he is! There he blows! There is his hump, as white as a mountain of snow! There is our monster! It’s Moby Dick! Get me down! (He is taken down.) The coin is mine! Can you see him, lookouts? Daggoo (from above) Yes, it’s him all right, without a doubt. He looks like an iceberg but is moving with speed. Ahab Launch the boats at once and put me in the first! Three boats is enough to start with. Starbuck! You stay on board! You are the captain of Pequod in my absence. Stand by the braces! Now launch all the boats at last! Shiver all sails! Get on with it! Hurry on! Hoist me into that boat there at once! Fedallah, you are coming with me. Is my new harpoon here at hand, the devil harpoon baptized in blood? Then we are all set! Make speed! (Ahab’s boat is launched.) Starbuck (down the rail) Good luck, captain! Ahab’(s voice, down below) Death to Moby Dick! Starbuck There he goes, the demented fool, drunk with his chronical megalomania, who once nevertheless had a heart and some humanity. Blasphemies is all he can produce now, all his life energy is just bitterness, revenge, morbidity and

sick rumination, but there is still life in him. (calling up) What’s happening, Tashtego? Tashtego (coming down, making himself visible) They chase the white whale, but he swims away from them. Now Moby Dick went down. They seem at a loss. They look down into the water pointing in different directions. Stubb takes it easy, and Flask keeps rowing in this direction and that. Ahab’s boat is lying still. But what’s happening now? Suddenly they start rowing in a panic! The whale is coming up above them! He takes Ahab’s boat in his jaws! They stand no chance! The whale cuts the boat in the middle! Starbuck Set all sails! Straight ahead at the spot of disaster! There is no time to lose! Tashtego Everything is chaos over there now, many are in the water, wreckage and half boats, they flounder, now Flask arrives there and also Stubb, and the whale calmly swims away from there. Starbuck Can you see the captain? Tashtego He is in the middle of the mess. He lives and appears mad of rage. Starbuck That’s the main thing. Get the lines out! Make ready to receive casualties! A stretcher for captain Ahab! (Crew members all wet through come back across the rails in bad conditions. Ahab is also hoisted on board. His ivory leg is broken off.) Ahab The harpoon! The harpoon! Could we save the harpoon? Queequeg The harpoon is still there. It was never thrown. Starbuck How are you, captain? Ahab How many are missing? Stubb (has come on board) Just Fedallah, Sir. Ahab Fedallah? My own harpoonist? Where is he? Ishmael He must have got entangled in the lines. (The sad remains of a whaleboat all chewed up are taken on board.) Stubb What about that, Starbuck? Moby Dick spat that thistle out of his mouth. Ahab Who is so heartless as to laugh at a wreck? Starbuck Yes, captain, this is a bad omen. Stop hunting the whale now. Fedallah is lost. One boat is lost, but all the others got away including yourself. Ahab I can’t turn back, Starbuck, with my mission unaccomplished! I will chase him around the world ten times if I have to! I weaken to your sentimentality with your scruples about women and children, but when it comes to the whale there can be no compromises! Do you see the golden coin, men? many Yes. Ahab It will stay there until the hunt is finished! It’s mine, but only until further! And he who spots the whale on the day when he is killed, he shall have it! And if it happens to be me, I will give you ten pieces like that each! Are you with me? all (enthusiastically) Yes! Ahab Now take a break and rest before the chase is resumed. – Carpenter, I need a new leg.

carpenter Will it do with a wooden one? I could use a piece of the boat. Ahab As a temporary solution then. Carpenter Yes, captain. It will be finished tonight. Ahab Well, Starbuck, any objections? Starbuck You know my position. Ahab And therefore you’ll stay on board also as we go on. The hunt is mine! And it has only started! The whale is mine! Starbuck I will say nothing more, captain, until the hunt is over. Ahab Wise, diplomatic and detached as ever, Starbuck? (pats him easily) You will in time make a better captain than I. Starbuck I only want everyone to live. Fedallah is dead. You only want to kill. Ahab This will be my last death, Starbuck. Then I am finished. (leaves) Starbuck (to himself) The last death will be the worst – but hardly for the white whale. Stubb Don’t gall the captain any more. We’ll have a glass and forget everything when the whale is dead. Starbuck How many victims do you think the whale will claim before captain Ahab succeeds in killing him? Stubb I am a realist. One so far. Starbuck I am also a realist, and I tell you there will be more. But it’s not the whale who claims them. It’s captain Ahab. Stubb Shall we do something about it? Shall we sacrifice captain Ahab? Starbuck He will sooner or later sacrifice himself for the maddest absurdity. Stubb And I prefer to sacrifice the whale. I think that is the most realistic thing to do. (leaves) Starbuck (sighs heavily staring down into the depths.) (Someone strikes eight bells of the evening watch. The stage gets dark and disappears.)

Act V scene 1. The same. Ahab in the whaleboat being lowered down. Ahab Starbuck! Starbuck Captain? Ahab For the third time my soul breaks loose to catch up with the end of my journey. Starbuck That’s how you want it, captain. Ahab Some ships leave their harbours never to return. Starbuck That’s an unavoidable fact, captain. Ahab Some die when life has reached its lowest ebb, while others die when the tide is at the highest. I feel myself just like the foam of an exhausted wave of which nothing else remains but to be blown away by the wind in the last remaining fluff. Press my hand, noble Starbuck. Starbuck Captain, remain on board. Further misfortunes can still be avoided.

Ahab You will remain on board to avoid them, Starbuck. I cannot avoid my own misfortune. I have taken on the white whale and its curse and misfortune alone. Flask and Stubb follow me as seconds, but if things turn out for the worst I will send them back. Starbuck Our eyes will follow you whatever happens. Ahab I am glad that I didn’t shoot you, Starbuck. I am glad that we became friends. Starbuck I say the same to you, captain. (They press each other’s hands oine last time.) Ahab Launch! Starbuck There he goes down into the farthest depth of the eternally open grave of the sea for every sailor. Queequeg is with him now instead of Fedallah. And where is Fedallah? Where are all the victims of the white whale and captain Ahab? Dead, anonymous, forgotten all and obliterated in the greatest of all mass graves. Lookout! Do you see the whale? Tashtego Clearly. The three boats are quickly overtaking it. But it suddenly turns against them and heads straight against them with terrible speed! They cannot get away. Only captain Ahab’s boat is left alone, but they have problems with sharks. Starbuck Sharks? Tashtego The sharks seem to cling to their oars by biting their oarblades and not letting them go. Starbuck Head towards Stubb’s and Flask’s new founderings. Any disaster? Tashtego No. They all seem alive, but the boats are turned to firewood by Moby Dick’s enormous tail. Starbuck We’ll fish them up, and they may start again from the beginning. Get out the rescue lines! (Stubb comes on board all wet.) Any casualties? Stubb (shaking it off) A few broken bones here and there. Some splintered wood in someone’s flesh here and there. Some crooked and broken harpoon in the thighs of someone here and there. But no disasters. Moby Dick knows how to move the rudder. Starbuck Ahab’s boat is left completely in peace. Daggoo But we have seen Fedallah. Starbuck Where? Daggoo All lashed up, dead and torn asunder by harpoon lines on the back of the white whale. Starbuck Could Ahab see it? Daggoo Yes. He lost his harpoon. Stubb Moby Dick now has three harpoons in him from our boats, but he only gets more furious and energetic. Flask (has come on board all wet) The whale or Ahab – that is the question. Stubb Both are of some supernatural toughness. Starbuck But what is the whale doing now? Stubb He ignores Ahab’s boat completely.

Tashtego He is coming towards us! Stubb He actually does. And he intends to ram us. Flask Can Pequod take it? Stubb The hit of such a club with such force is more than any ship could stand. Starbuck Now I see the fulfilment of Ahab’s and our destiny coming up in a most horrible unpredictable fashion. Flask We have no chance! Our bow cannot take a thrust like this! Stubb And we don’t even have time for a drink. Starbuck Oh horrendous damnation that Ahab has sent us! If I had guessed something like this disaster, I would have averted it by any means! But now it is too late! Stubb This is an encounter more advanced than the poor flying Dutchman! This vessel is not likely to go through us and is no phantom! Duck! Take cover! (An enormous thrust with a crash like an avalanche is heard. All gets dark, general panic, hysterical cries and screams, gurgling noise of waters, and so on.)

Scene 2. The lifeboat. Ahab with Queequeg, Ishmael and a few more. Ahab Was that your scheme, outrageously incalculable whale? To trick me into a whaleboat in order to ram the ship? You have ignored me as if I didn’t exist. But I have still got one harpoon left. (raises it.) Ishmael Captain! Pequod will go down in a matter of minutes! We must get out of the whirlpools! Ahab With the oarblades consumed by the sharks? Don’t give me such nonsense! I have more important things now to concentrate my last powers on. Queequeg How could the whale forget us? It didn’t get its pains and harpoons from the brave ship. We were the ones who sent him his spears. Ishmael But he didn’t se eus, because we were in front of him. The whale has a pretty bad sight, and he only saw the ship. Maltese Unless it was calculation and pure evil. Ahab Alas, you splendid rig, my stalwart hull, you firm deck and proud helm, do you have to go down without me? What’s left for me then after this the loneliest possible life the loneliest possible death? Who could guess at such a bottomless and oceanic irony? But I still have got my last weapon. Unto death I am still bound to you, you matchless lifetime curse of a marble monster of beauty! I will evidently never get rid of you, my life’s persecutor and cruellest taskmaster! Shall we find peace together in the grave, me with this the supreme evil of the world? Or shall I ride you in eternity like a nightmare, like Fedallah? Nothing matters any longer. You cold iceberg phantom, I shall never give up my weapon but to kill you! (throws the harpoon) Queequeg The line! The line!

Ahab Ishmael Queequeg Ahab

Wait, I’ll sort it out He is diving! Cut the line! No! It’s our last chance against Moby Dick! (Suddenly Ahab is snatched out of the boat and vanishes.) Queequeg There was a loop on the line! It got round his neck! Ishmael So he follows Fedallah and Moby Dick down into the deep, strangled like a Turkish sultan. Maltese And we follow Pequod down into the same deep. We are stuck in the whirlpool. Queequeg The whirlpool! The whirlpool! Maltese We are coming, Starbuck! We follow you! Ishmael Captain Ahab! You’ll not die alone! Stubb and Flask! Wait for us! Maltese We are coming in full speed! (Their voices are drowned by the enormous noise of the whirlpool tempest. Then everything goes dark and silent.

Epilogue. In the cabin of Rachel. Gardiner But how on earth did you survive? Ishmael I fell out of the boat. Thereby I was the last one to be sucked down by the whirlpool. And exactly as it started to drag me down I saw my friend the harpoonist Queequeg’s coffin come up floating. That was our only lifebuoy. My friend’s coffin thus became the salvation of my life. Mate And the white whale? Ishmael I don’t think captain Ahab succeeded in killing him in spite of all his exorbitant efforts. Gardiner So his entire journey was in vain, the profit went all down the drain, all the efforts and dire labours to gather oil and spermaceti from butchered and cooked whales… Ishmael Yes, captain. Starbuck was right. He should have murdered captain Ahab while he could. But no one could guess at what means the whale would find to defend himself. Gardiner And Starbuck was really the only defendant and lawyer of the whale. Ishmael The most tragic victim of the supreme injustice, which not even the irrational whale was guilty of. Mate A strange tale of destiny. Ishmael You didn’t find any other survivors?

Mate Not a single one. Gardiner Not even my son. Ishmael Captain, we have something in common. Gardiner Yes, we have. Ishmael May I sleep now? Gardiner No more grog? Nothing else you wish for? Ishmael No. Just to sleep. Gardiner (puts tenderly his hand on him) Sleep then, my son. (rising) Come, mate. (takes him aside) Disrupt the search for our lost whaleboat. I will never find my son. It has been four days now. Let’s learn from captain Ahab and give up in good time and not allow stubbornness to press us into dangerous presumption. styrman Instead of your son we found the last surviving sailor from Pequod. Gardiner Yes. I searched for a lost son but only found another shipwrecked orphan. Let that be enough. Too many lives are lost, but let’s rejoice about the only one we managed to rescue. (takes his mate round the arm. They go out.)

The End.

Sarvsalö, June 1999, (11-22.6.1999), translated in May 2021 (completed 15.5.)

The Bridge of San Luis Rey Dramatization of Thornton Wilder’s famous novel of 1927, by Christian Lanciai (2016)

The characters: Don Jacinto Brother Juniper La Perichole a nun Captain Alvarado Monks of the inquisition Doña Clara

The action takes place in Peru after Friday July 20th 1714.

Act I scene 1. Don Jacinto I understand it was a disaster, but what good does it do to go on worrying about it? Juniper But I can’t understand it and want so much to understand it. Don Jacinto It’s nothing to understand. What happened, happened, it’s just to recognize the facts and bury the casualties. Juniper But what did they do to deserve it? Don Jacinto Don’t bother about it. Then it might go on troubling your mind. Juniper But Don Jacinto, we are both priests and highly educated theologians. The aim of our education is for us to see a meaning about everything, since the divinity we serve is around us everywhere. Don Jacinto But here it is only about a most ordinary accident. Things like this happen every day. God can’t be held accountable for accidents. Already St. Thomas Aquinas makes that clear. Juniper Are you joking? Are you pulling my leg? A most ordinary accident! That bridge has been holding for five hundred years and was regarded as almost the safest in all the Andes. And then suddenly it breaks without the slightest reason just as five of the most innocent persons of the country are crossing it, of which one even is a small boy! Don Jacinto Innocent? They were ordinary people, and none of them was any special paragon of God’s foremost children. The Marquesa for example was outrageously rich and notorious for her drinking. She even appeared drunk at the theatre. Juniper While the shameless actress got away. She should also have crossed the bridge at that moment but stayed at home just on that very day for some interference by destiny. Don Jacinto And uncle Pio. He was well known as a libertine. Juniper Are you suggesting that all five of them deserved being hurled down the abyss? Don Jacinto Not at all. But no one can help it that they were. Juniper But there is a mystery here. Don Jacinto Where is the mystery? Juniper That all five of them were so absolutely innocent. The small child, who was carried by the mute cook, who just had lost his brother, the young nun without a wicked thought in her life, the Marquesa, who was the benefactress of the entire country, and the self-sacrificing uncle Pio. To the mystery is added the fact that the bridge exactly as they passed over it broke under their very feet, while it had sustained the heaviest possible loads of caravans for many centuries without even squeaking. Don Jacinto What is your point? Juniper I want to investigate the mystery. I want to find out what they had in common, if they had anything else in common than their innocence. I want to explore

those powers of destiny that brought them together on this fateful day. I wish to understand this enigmatical metaphysical context, which appears as the most inexplicable matter that ever happened to us. Don Jacinto I am afraid you will not get anywhere. Juniper Still I intend to try. Don Jacinto What will you do? Juniper I will document their lives as carefully as possible. I will collect them in a book and then see if I can draw any conclusion of the summary. Don Jacinto I warn you. You could reach some result that would not serve anyone. Juniper The truth cannot harm anyone. Don Jacinto And do you think you could explore some kind of divine truth in this massive tragedy? Juniper I think there is a possibility. Don Jacinto I cannot wish you any good luck, but you will be obliged to account for the results to your superiors. Juniper Of course. It will be my joy to account for any results that I could reach. Don Jacinto For your own sake I hope you will not reach any results. Juniper What are you afraid of? Don Jacinto Nothing, but I am afraid for your sake. I am afraid you might set your soul at risk. Juniper I have never been afraid of anything, neither to risk my life nor my soul on my quest for the truth. Don Jacinto I have warned you. I wash my hands. Farewell, Don Juniper. Juniper We will be back, Don Jacinto. (He leaves.) What is he afraid of? I can’t understand it. What danger and what harm could lie hidden in charting the lives of innocent people in the effort to understand their destinies? No, there could be no harm in it. It could only lead to good results by knowledge and enlightenment, and at best we could even learn something out of this formidable mystery.

Scene 2. A convent in the mountains. Perichole (masked, with a veil) I don’t want to see him. Nun But he wishes you no harm. Perichole I don’t know him. What does he want? Nun He wants to talk with you about the casualties. Perichole Why? They are lost. Nothing can bring them back. Nun He if anyone could comfort you. Perichole No, no one could comfort me, for I bear no grief, for it has already consumed itself and me, so I have nothing left. Nun He has come here the long way just to see you. Perichole As if I was anything worth seeing.

Nun The least thing you owe him for his self-sacrifice is some courtesy. Perichole You make me curious about him. Who is he really? Nun He is the monk who should have crossed the bridge with the others but was detained and saw the others perish. Perichole That makes him interesting. Then he must brood on the same problem as I: ’why them and not me’. Nun I think that is his problem. Perichole Show him in. (The nun leaves.) Does he try to see something metaphysical in what happened? He could hardly just be interested in me. (enter Juniper.) Welcome, brother. What gives me the honour? Juniper Like myself you belong to those who unjustly survived while the wrong people seem to have perished. Perichole Perfectly right. What can you do about it? Juniper Nothing. But the fact that I survived gives me by my conscience the obligation to the lost ones to do anything to do them justice. Perichole How? They are dead. You can do nothing for them. Juniper Since the dead never can thank you or return anything for what good you do for them, it’s the greatest benefaction in life to do something for them. Perichole And what do you suppose you could do for them? Juniper Perhaps exonerate them. Neither uncle Pio nor the Marquesa had the best reputation in the country. Perichole (looks away) I treated her shamefully. Juniper For which she doesn’t appear to have felt any resentment. Perichole I once visited her only to ask her forgiveness. She would not hear of it and instead drowned me in blessings and gifts. There was no limit to her generosity. Juniper She appears to have shown the same to several fallen women. Perichole Her daughter could not stand her but ran away and went home to Spain. The old foolish frump only lived for her correspondence with her. Juniper Why do you call her a frump? Perichole She was a parody of herself. She was the richest woman in the country but also the most ridiculous and naïve. She didn’t understand herself how cruel I was against her, when I made a fool of her at the theatre. Instead she made it worse by making a show of her intoxicated condition, the poor old beldam. She could have been the queen of Peru but only made a fool of herself. Juniper But her good qualities were considerable. Perichole That’s just what was wrong with her. She only had good qualities. She was the most tender of all mothers towards a daughter who did not deserve her love. She was grandiosely sentimental and could never get enough of exposing her own overwhelming feelings. She was a monster of love. But everybody laughed at her, no one could take her seriously, since her outward appearance was so incongruous with her inner qualities.

Juniper You mean that the beauty, sincerity and honesty of her soul was lost in her physical abnormity and notorious drinking habits. Perichole Just about. Juniper How serious was really her so called drunkenness? We all grant ourselves a glass occasionally, but did she actually and seriously drink more than the rest of us? In her opulent grandiosity she gave me the impression of having had a kind of a great past. Perhaps she even was a beauty in her youth and celebrated as such, and she did actually have a daughter, whom she sincerely loved. At least the letters indicate as much. But what reasons did the daughter have to despise her and shun her? Perichole That pear fell a long way off the tree. She had nothing in common with her mother. She was spoiled, pretentious and squeamish and outrageously ungrateful at that. She owed her mother thanks for everything but could never show any gratitude. She went to Spain only to get away from her mother and her overwhelming generosity, which she felt as stifling. But most of all she escaped from her home with its comfort and richness because it bored her. Juniper The typical daughter of a rich parent, in other words. It would have broken any mother’s heart. Perichole The correspondence saved her. Because of that she could continue loving and worshipping her daughter at a distance, since the fact that the daughter was so far away brought the advantage that the Marquesa undisturbedly could go on idealizing her daughter, no matter how little she deserved it. Juniper How unfair that such a warm mother’s heart only was to be rewarded by the contrary of what it deserved. Perichole But the Marquesa was not just gracious, rich and charitable. The origin of her sincere varmth and generosity was rather that she had harder sufferings behind than any greatness as a celebrated beauty. I don’t know if she ever was beautiful. Her appearance did not indicate any trace of anything such. On the contrary, she had always been rather simple and common also outwardly, but her suffering ennobled her in her latter days to become our most significant benefactress. Juniper What kind of suffering was it? Do you know anything? Perichole After having met her myself I became interested in her person and researching her background. She was the only daughter of a hated father, who cheated all the citizens in the city of money as a hatter. He was an ice-cold businessman who only thought of property and money. The Marquesa grew up as a lonely child, since the mother left her early, probably driven by her cruel husband to death in an utterly unhappy marriage. Because of that the Marquesa never wanted to marry, but her family forced her to it, and she was obliged to enter an equally unhappy marriage as her mother. The daughter saved her life, after her only childbirth she could live wholly for her daughter and forget her ignoble husband, but her greatest tragedy was probably that her daughter turned out exactly like her father: cold and calculating, detached and critical of everything that her mother stood for. Still the mother never understood or saw through her daughter’s heartlessness

and inhumanity but continued in the innocence of her blind naïvety to love and adore her, and that was perhaps what saved her after all. Juniper Still she sought her comfort in the bottle. Perichole Otherwise she was well. She never needed any other medicines. Wine was to her like a life elixir of comfort which at least always gave her a good sleep, and the disdain and scorn which this gave reason to in her daughter and the people, who never forgot their hatred of the family because of her father, no one could understand how cruel and unfair it was. Juniper And you yourself took part in it and gloried on stage by your ridicule of her. Perichole The whole city took part in disgracing her. She was a ridiculous rant for everyone to make fun of. When I parodied her on the theatre with herself present on the front row she happened on that very evening to be more under the influence than usual. By her demonstration she endorsed and increased my parody. People exalted, everybody laughed, both at her and at me on stage, while she herself was not even aware of how she was made a fool of. It didn’t bother her at all. I understood that afterwards when I visited her to apologise. Then I suddenly realized the macabre injustice in the mockery of her by the whole town, while at the same time I acquired respect of her greatness as a human being. She was simply born magnanimous. Juniper And that made you repent your entire career. Perichole Not at all. I regretted nothing, except my parody of her, which I retracted and she forgave without hesitation when I asked her. Juniper But why then did you leave Lima and the stage? Perichole Don’t you know? Juniper How could I know? I never go to the theatre. Perichole But you must have heard something. Juniper What should I have heard? Perichole Did I succeed so well concealing my secret? Why do you think I never receive visitors? Why do you think I hide behind a veil? Why do you think I never show my beautiful face any more? Juniper I haven’t the faintest idea. Perichole I got the small pox. As soon as it was clear to me I retired immediately and left the city to isolate myself here up in the mountains beyond all public life. Perhaps it was my punishment for my wanton life as a leading actress with both the viceroy and countless others for my lovers, or for having taking part in ridiculing the Marquesa, but the cruellest punishment was not the illness itself with its disfiguring scars for life, but the fact that I had to survive myself and was refused to perish with the others in the disaster at San Luis Rey. Juniper So you see no meaning in the fact that you got away? Perichole None at all, if it wasn’t an additional punishment, as if I hadn’t been punished enough already. Even my child was punished, since Esteban would have brought it to Lima to be educated. Both went down with the bridge. The question is who was more innocent, Esteban, my child or the Marquesa. Juniper They all three appear to have been utterly innocent.

Perichole Exactly, while I have to live, the only shameless and guilty one in the entire company. Juniper Uncle Pio? Perichole Outrageously wicked and adventurous, a true libertine but at the same time a warm human friend. In spite of his extravagance he was predominantly good and as undeserving as the others of being sacrificed in the fall. Juniper As I see it we are facing an overwhelming mystery. All these five persons who perished in the fall, Esteban, uncle Pio, your child, the Marquesa and her ward sister Pepita from the convent appear more and more like sacrificed saints who in their death found something like their apotheosis. Perichole Would God then have sacrificed them by some terrible injustice? Juniper God had nothing to do with it. It was a matter of theirs, not of His. Perichole Will you write that in your book? Juniper I find this more and more to be the truth, and that I must write down. Perichole What will the authorities say about that? Juniper What could they say about it? Perichole The inquisition could find some reason for objection. Juniper The inquisition belongs to my own holy church. If I make myself guilty of a rehabilitation and exoneration of these five lost innocents, it could only be a labour favoured by the grace of God which the inquisition could only respect. Perichole Not if it appears that either God had nothing to do with it or that he sacrificed five innocents in a death of injustice. Juniper My intention is good and cannot be misinterpreted. Perichole I am afraid that an authority like the inquisition could misinterpret anything by giving it a personal interpretation differing from the intention. Juniper Could they be so blind? Perichole Could you be so blind and naïve as to not be able to see it? Then you are as clueless as the Marquesa. Juniper I can’t deny my work and have to complete it, as my obligation to the souls and destinies of the five casualties. Perichole It is noble of you, but you have to take my warning seriously. Juniper I cannot fail my duty. Perichole It’s your destiny. I hope to God that this will not lead to a similar outrageous injustice as the death of the five innocents. Juniper I am not afraid. Perichole Therefore I am afraid for your sake. Juniper I have no choice. I just have to go to the bottom of this unfathomable tragedy, which could contain some important metaphysical secret with a hidden message for us mortals. Perichole Perhaps the five so violently and suddenly lost try to reach us from the other side with this message? Juniper Do you think it is possible? Would any of them have had any reason?

Perichole Hardly the Marquesa. She was finished. My child still didn’t understand anything. Pepita and uncle Pio? Hardly. Pepita was too simple and uncle Pio too pragmatic. Maybe Esteban… Juniper What about Esteban? Perichole He had a brother who died. They were very remarkable as twins. They were like married to each other and always kept together and even used a language of their own which only they could understand. I was the one who came between them, which led to the death of one of them. Juniper How? Perichole They worked as copyists. They copied notes and songs for the choirs and singers, they copied entire motets and were frequently used as secretaries, and that’s how I came in contact with them. I needed someone to whom I could dictate my secret letters and use as a messenger. Juniper Which one of them? Perichole You could not see any difference between them. Sometimes they switched their roles, so you could never be certain as to who was who. I thought I applied Manuel, but he fell in love with me. This came between their relationship as brothers and caused a disturbance. Then Manuel decided to disrupt his contact with me and would not write any more letters. But I was not ready yet and looked them up again. I found Esteban, but he said he was Manuel. I thought I had got Manuel back, but it was Esteban. There was only one letter. Shortly afterwards Manuel fell ill. He damaged his leg, and there was blood poisoning and gangrene. He died in a few days. Juniper You can’t blame yourself for that. Perichole I don’t. It was an accident, but twins are vulnerable. I think the fast development of Manuel’s illness crisis was a nervous reaction to the shock of that Esteban had made a contact with me which he had broken for the sake of his brother. Juniper How did Esteban react to his death? Perichole He became like a shadow of his former self. He left Cuzco and went down to the harbour of Lima to work there as a longshoreman but soon came back again. He was completely lost without his brother. A captain Alvarado came after him and persuaded him to follow on an extensive expedition. Esteban was difficult to persuade, he thought he could not leave Peru, and then one night he tried to hang himself. Captain Alvarado was in the bar below and heard some suspicious sounds from the attic and instinctively ran up and succeeded in saving the youth just as he had kicked off the chair. When captain Alvarado had saved his life and he was docile and cooperatively apathetic, the captain had no difficulty in persuading him to follow him on a wholesome journey. They left Cuzco together, but the captain could not cross the bridge with his animals but had to take a longer path down into the gorge and use a ferry across the stream. But Esteban walked with the others across the bridge. Juniper Is captain Alvarado still in the country? Perichole I don’t think so. If he is, he is in Lima.

Juniper I will search for him there. He could tell me more about Esteban. Was he the one you entrusted your child? Perichole Yes, it was. Pepita went by the Marquesa to support her, while uncle Pio walked with Esteban. Juniper And I should have walked with them. Why didn’t I? What stopped me? What kept me from going? Why did I remain just standing and gaping totally without reason? Why should these five innocent people perish and I have to watch it without being able to follow them? I feel guilty of a crime of wanting solidarity, and my guilt for alone being alive of them is greater than anyone’s could be of their death. That’s how it feels. Perichole It’s the emptiness after those who suddenly had to break up. It always implies unjustified feelings of guilt. My feelings of guilt were at least reasonable and justified. Juniper Impossible. Perichole I was guilty of the child, and my punishment was its sacrifice. I was guilty of Manuel’s death, and my punishment was that also Esteban was sacrificed. I took part in disgracing the Marquesa and in ridiculing her in public, and my punishment was that she also was sacrificed. Uncle Pio was my relative, who took care of me and protected me all my life, I was always ungrateful to him, and my punishment was that he also was sacrificed. I alone was guilty of all their deaths. Juniper You must not say that. Perichole I have said it. As if I hadn’t already been punished enough for my promiscuous life as the mistress of many by the abhorrent illness that has disfigured me for life, I also have to survive my closest of kin and my own son, who was sacrificed only to enable my guilt to overwhelm me with additional crushing weight. No, brother Juniper, you were exactly as completely innocent as all the unjustly victimized casualties. Juniper Don’t mention them as unjustly sacrificed. It was an accident and nothing else. Perichole Was it? That bridge has held on for five hundred years and was the safest between Lima and Cuzco! Why would it break under just five people, when for centuries caravans have been crossing it? And why would it break just under these five, the fates of which I was part to blame for? And Manuel at that, who already unfairly had met his death as a prelude to the great disaster! That no one could see this as an omen! Juniper This is the great mystery we have to examine. Was it an indication by higher powers, or was it just really a banal accident like any mountain landslide? Perichole That you must certainly be able to observe in its obviousness that it couldn’t be a coincidence, when all these five destinies and mine were so intimately mixed up with each other already. Juniper But what was the meaning? If it just wasn’t a banal accident it must have had some meaning. Can you understand it?

Perichole That’s for you to find out as a theologian. But I fear the result could prove the contrary to theology. Juniper How so? Perichole It’s just a feeling, a manifestation of my instinct and intuition. Didn’t your brother in the order ask you to desist from the investigation from the beginning? Juniper Yes. Perichole He felt the same way. Juniper I can’t just abandon it. Perichole No, you can’t, even if you would be aware that it would lead to terrible consequences. Juniper I don’t understand what you are afraid of. Perichole Neither do I, but there is something. Juniper Let’s pass over to uncle Pio. Perichole Alas, you make all my wounds bleed afresh, one after the other. Juniper This has to be done if the wounds will have any chance to heal. Perichole I treated him most shamefully of all, and yet he was the one who was closest to me. Juniper Closer than all your lovers? Perichole He gave me everything. He was the one who made me. He discovered me and pulled me out of the gutter and taught me everything about the theatre. Without him I would never have become anything more than a gutter harlot. He made me a primadonna. Juniper And what happened then? Why did you leave him and the theatre? Perichole Alas, father Juniper, I was everyone’s mistress. Everybody worshipped me. Uncle Pio turned me into a saint except the contrary, I was the saint of the theatre and love but far from any virtuous saint of chastity. I made a sport of furthering myself in every conceivable field, and I actually succeeded in turning myself into such a brilliant and celebrated actress that I had no competition at all, but you need competition and challenges. Or else you are consumed by boredom. I finally found myself in that death trap and therefore left the theatre, which uncle Pio never could accept. He never tired in his efforts to get me back. He even threatened to send me to Madrid to make an even more brilliant career. I refused. And then I had the small pox. Then I had nothing else to do but to retire to my country house and cut all ties with my previous life. Therefore I also disconnected uncle Pio. But he didn’t give up but came up here into the mountains after me. Juniper Did he know about your illness? Perichole Of course he knew about it. Everybody knew about it. Everybody talked about it and mocked me in my absence. I had after all been the leading beauty of the country and practically its queen, I actually gave birth to three children to the viceroy, he was not my worst lover, and then this goddess of beauty and uncrowned queen of Peru gets the small pox. What a rant!

Juniper But surely he then must have understood that you could not return on stage. Perichole That’s not why he came here. He wanted to take my son away from me. He wanted to bring him up and give him a regular education and take him with him to Lima. But little Jaime was ill. That’s why I would not let him remain at the viceroy’s with his brothers and sisters but thought the fresh mountain air would perhaps make him well, but it didn’t. Juniper So uncle Pio persuaded you to allow him to take your son with him to Lima to care for his health and progress. Perichole It was a good will that I could not refuse, although little Jaime’s case was hopeless. He was an epileptic, and who can cure that? The fits come suddenly and always at the worst possible inconvenience, and there was nothing that little Jaime feared more than to have a fit in public. Uncle Pio took on a hopeless case, which only would give him more troubles and sufferings, but he wanted to do it for my sake. Juniper And they both went down into the abyss. What an irony. Perichole Leave me in peace now, brother Juniper. Go on with your investigation as much as you want, question also captain Alvarado and Don Andrés, but I have nothing more to offer you. I was the only one of all these victims who actually desired my own death, all the others had something to live for, and then I am the only one who has to live on while all the others including poor Manuel, who loved me, were sacrificed for nothing. What on earth could be the meaning of such an absurd irony? Juniper That’s the question. Still I ask your permission to return to you if I would need more complementary details. But I will follow your advice and first have some talks with both Don Andrés and captain Alvarado. Perichole I don’t think they can help you with more than contributing to your most dubious book, which could cause you formidable inconvenience. Juniper Why? Perichole Because you are researching the truth. Nothing could be more devastatiing in its annihilating nakedness. Juniper I take the risk. It is included in my vocation. Perichole It is your funeral. I wash your hands and will prepare myself for the worst fate of all those involved including yours, namely to have to survive you all with both disfigurement, dishonour and incurable remorse without end. Juniper (rising) I will be back, (politely kissing her hand for a farewell) if for nothing else, then for my belief that I am the only one who really could comfort you. (leaves) Perichole (after he is gone) What a naïve fool and perhaps the worst of them all! The Marquesa pathetically gave herself to the illusion about her daughter’s non-existent virtues and good graces, uncle Pio has all his life devoted himself to the adoration and furthering of my unworthiness in an effort to turn it to its contrary, poor Esteban only had his brother to live for and followed him in death, and the virgin Pepita thought she could find a better life outside the convent with the Marquesa and in her

company only found her destruction and death. And then brother Juniper comes here believing he could create some order in this metaphysical chaos of the extreme injustice and godlessness of destiny. I fear that he is the worst fool of them all.

Scen 3. A joint in the harbour of Callao. Captain Alvarado sitting alone by himself at a table but casually associating with the surroundings, when brother Juniper enters and asks his way up to him. Juniper (taking a seat) Captain Alvarado, I presume? Alvarado The same. With whom have I the honour? Juniper Brother Juniper. Alvarado Of course. I remember. You were there on that day. Juniper And you as well. Alvarado I saw them fall down and could do nothing. Juniper Same here. But you saw them from below, while I saw them from above. Alvarado How can I help you? Why have you looked me up? Juniper I was afraid you had already left the country. Alvarado I am on my way, but I decided to wait until after the funeral. One of them, you know, was the richest and in a way the most legendary lady of the country. There will be a great ceremony in the cathedral, and the church will be filled at once. Juniper I searched for you everywhere, and I praise my lucky star that I have found you. Alvarado But what can I do for you? Juniper You were a good friend of Esteban’s and on one occasion saved his life. Alvarado That is correct. He should have sailed with me. Everything was ready and prepared. I would have opened up a new life to him. He was completely set on making a fresh start. And then this happens. Juniper It’s such an extensive and incredible disaster that I have decided to go to the bottom of it. For that reason I am writing a book about the five fates, but many question marks will remain unanswered. Alvarado I am certain of it. The incident was incredible. That bridge has held on since the great age of the Incas and was the safest bridge in the Andes. It was told about it, that as long as it would keep the road between Cuzco and Lima intact, the kingdom of the Incas would never fall. Now it has fallen and really without any reason, it was not worn out and had carried caravans of any heaviness and length, so the question that arises is which empire is about to fall? The Spanish? I don’t think so. Juniper How did you know Esteban? Alvarado Both brothers worked for me here in the harbour at periods. They loaded and unloaded ships. They needed to get away from Lima and from the

mountains sometimes. One of them was working for that primadonna and unluckily fell in love with her. It almost ended in disaster. Juniper It did end in disaster. Manuel died, you know. Alvarado Of blood poisoning. That was not her fault. Juniper It is still impossible not to link his fate with that of La Perichole, just because he was tragically in love with her, which harmed the twin relationship. Alvarado I know. They were inseparable and completely dependent on each other. When Manuel died Esteban became like a shadow of himself, as if it was he who had been separated from life and not his brother. It was heart-rending to see. I couldn’t allow him to go under. He threatened to disappear and dissolve like a shadow. That’s why I took him on, but still he tried to hang himself. Fortunately I kept constant watch over him, I knew that he was at risk and threatened to go over the top any moment, and when he got himself a rope and I heard suspicious sounds from the attic, I knew what was going on. You learn by sailing to identify the least sound from the rig and especially its warning signals. If I had come a moment later he would have been lost. Instead of stretching and breaking his neck, I caught him up. Then he was easy to persuade to at least leave his old life behind. Juniper Did you know the Marquesa and her ward, the young Pepita? Alvarado Not at all. But I knew La Perichole the better. Juniper How come? Alvarado I was never one of her lovers, just like uncle Pio never was. But she was the viceroy’s mistress for years, she had three children with him, two daughters and a sickly boy – yes, you know, he was also among the casualties. They used to give banquets together late at night, and sometimes the viceroy invited special guests, like Don Jacinto, our archbishop, and even me. Uncle Pio was often there as well, and we had extremely entertaining nights together with easy talk about the whole world literature and the theatre – uncle Pio was the most learned man in the country, and Don Jacinto was never far behind, but in the centre was of course always Camila Perichole, or Micaela Villegas as her real name was. She was after all the queen of Peru who always were at the centre of things, and even in intellectual discussions and hot debates she was absolutely brilliant. Uncle Pio had brought her up and practically created her. He pulled her out of the gutter and made her into something that she would never have become by any other means. Juniper How was she in relationship with the Marquesa and her ward Pepita? Alvarado She shamed the Marquesa at the theatre and gave her an even worse reputation than she had herself, people had never laughed so much at the theatre as they did when La Perichole parodied her, the Marquesa as you know lived on her weaknesses, one was the ungrateful daughter who was a worthless nobody, and the other weakness was the bottle. But she was a good wife who did a lot of good, and afterwards Camila repented and went to Canossa to her to apologise. Camila was then overwhelmed by the fact that the Marquesa did not hold the faintest grudge against her no matter how much she had humiliated her, and she melted like wax in the Marquesa’s hands and became her sole admirer. She often spoke with me about

this. She could never give enough of her enormous respect of her warm magnanimity. That was probably a side of the Marquesa that no one else here in the country ever got any insight into. Juniper My most sensitive question to you concerns the bridge. If you yourself refused to cross it with your animals, how could you then permit the others to walk over it? Alvarado It just turned out that way. It was the nearest way and most convenient for them to just walk it. My animals were too heavily loaded and would have tottered on the bridge and perhaps fallen off. It would have been stupid to take that risk. But on foot there was no danger. But why didn’t you follow them? Were you not supposed to? Was there anything that held you back? Juniper I have wondered and brooded about that myself ever since it happened. Why them and not me? The bridge was passed daily by hundreds of people, and not even the viceroy or the archbishop have never hesitated to walk across it. It was like an unwritten law that it was a bridge that never could break. Why then did it break and under these five persons? And why was I spared? Was it to enable me to write their book and unravel the secret of this awesomely mystical destiny? Alvarado Do you have any idea? Juniper I have been sitting for days with La Perichole and discussed the matter with her. She lost her two closest of kin, her uncle and her son, while she was the only one of them, she claims, who had deserved to die and who also gladly would have done so. Uncle Pio looked her up in the mountains just to offer to take care of her son and give him a comfortable and decent life in Lima, his journey and enterprise was a most commendable self-sacrifice, and then he was punished in such a way. And the Marquesa? What had she done except only good? And her ward, a young nun and absolute virgin? And the small child? And Esteban, whom I saw myself taking over the boy from uncle Pio’s shoulders, since uncle Pio was tired and had carried him for long. Even his last act of his life was an act of charity and selfsacrifice, and he had just decided to begin a new life with you and start afresh with a vengeance, when this happens. Even the Marquesa had reconciled herself with her destiny, with La Perichole and raised her admiration and affection and with her daughter far away in Spain and looked forward to life with faith, hope and joy since the daughter was on her way back to her again. It is unfathomable. No matter how hard I have tried to discern some meaning with the matter I have only found the contrary. Alvarado Is the book completed? Juniper Practically. Alvarado The risk is that its commendable truthfulness with the clear indication that none of the lost deserved to die but only the contrary, and that no divine meaning whatsoever could be found in the matter, could be received by the church with some demurral. Juniper Do you also wish to warn me? Alvarado Have others done so?

Juniper La Perichole. Alvarado She is right. I feel the same thing. The careful documentation of this story could mean some danger for you, since the church could misinterpret the intention and meaning. Juniper But there is no meaning except to present a commending testimony about the five casualties. Alvarado As a protest against the injustice of destiny? But you embarked on the task with the intention to discover some kind of metaphysical meaning. If you can’t find any, the project has failed by backfire. Juniper But I owe them the truth of their stories. Alvarado I have warned you, and La Perichole has warned you. Juniper I can’t turn back. I have gone too far out on the bridge to be able to return. Alvarado So you intend to join them? Juniper No one can stop me. I should have followed them from the start. I was spared only to be given the opportunity to testify to their innocence and holiness. Alvarado And thus you become holy yourself. I deplore you. Juniper But the work makes me happy, and I believe the five also were happy when they suddenly were interrupted in the middle of their success. Alvarado We’ll meet in the cathedral, brother. Good luck. I myself intend to leave everything behind never to look back or return. Esteban would have preferred it that way, and also you should have allowed the lost ones to continue their own way in peace. Juniper We shall see. I have done what I had to do, since no one else could do it. Good luck yourself, captain. Alvarado Thanks, brother. (They shake hands there by the table, and brother Juniper breaks it up. The captain remains and continues to poculate and associate casually with the other customers.)

Scene 4. The inquisition. Brother Juniper is brought to trial in a tribunal of hooded inquisitors, led by Don Jacinto, archbishop of Peru. Jacinto We have summoned you here, brother Juniper, just to beg you to answer a few questions concerning your book. Juniper I am at your disposal and have nothing to hide. Jacinto What exactly do you mean by having written and distributed this book? Juniper I wanted to do justice to the casualties by carefully examining their fates, which all were mixed up with each other, trying to find some meaning and hopefully some metaphysical meaning with this tragedy. Jacinto Did you find any? Juniper No, but I haven’t given up yet.

Jacinto So you intend to go on with this matter? Juniper Why not? I have only tried to do some good, and there is no benefaction more highly considered than doing good for the deceased, since they neither can thank you, reward you or give anything in return. Jacinto Your intentions may have been the best ones, and we know you as a pious and benevolent monk who only has done good so far, but still we find the tendency of your work disturbing. Juniper Why? Jacinto Don’t you see yourself that you question the entire theological and divine world order by questioning the meaning of the fall of these five people? Juniper Just because it seemed so meaningless, I searched the more eagerly for some meaning of it. Jacinto But you found none? Juniper Not so far. Jacinto And what possible meaning do you think you could find? Juniper I can’t know as long as I haven’t found it. Jacinto And how could you find it, when all five of them are dead, so that none of them could in any way answer your questions and doubts? Or do you mean you could find some complementary information from any of the survivors? Captain Alvarado has left the country and is not likely to ever return, and the famous actress in question lives completely isolated in her convent and has nothing more to say. How do you think then you could get any more answers to your questioning of the meaning of the incident? Juniper I admit it doesn’t look very hopeful. Jacinto And then we face a problem, my good brother Juniper. You have questioned the divine world order, and your failure in finding any meaning in what has happened threatens and challenges the theological world aspect, so that you could consider it philosophically denied. Do you admit to this? Juniper I admit that there are question marks but that these problems can be solved. Jacinto But you can’t solve them. Thereby your challenge and spite against our world order is a fact, which we cannot accept. In fact, it constitutes a foundation for, I tremble and fear to express the word, atheism. Juniper I do not think so. Jacinto But it is a fact, brother Juniper, that cannot be denied. It is almost pure mathematics. Everything in your book leads to the conclusion that the five deaths were no less than the most meaningless and godless injustice. Juniper Could you claim anything else yourselves? Jacinto You admit it yourself! But such a denial of the divine justice and the ubiquitous divine world order is a crime against the church to which you belong. Juniper You don’t understand. You have misunderstood this book. It is only intended as a documentation of the fates of these five good and innocent people for

the sake of their good names and in the name of universal humanism. I had no other intention with the book. Jacinto But you have admitted yourself that you searched for a divine meaning with their enigmatic fates without finding it. Juniper That is correct, but that does not mean that it has to be non-existent. Jacinto But the fact that you haven’t been able to trace it no matter how hard you tried must be interpreted as an effort to prove its non-existence. Juniper You don’t understand. Jacinto No, brother Juniper, you are the one who doesn’t understand. You don’t see the wholeness of what you have written. You don’t understand that what you have written is an unquestionable formula and proof of that God cannot exist. Juniper That was never my intention! Jacinto But it is the result, which unfortunately cannot be denied, as long as this book exists. Therefore we must destroy it. Juniper Then you once more murder the five innocents who already were lost. Jacinto It is your fault. You are the one who has written the book. We must do it for the sake of the church. Juniper Don’t you see that you in that case actually attack and dig the grave of your own church? Jacinto How so? Juniper By virtual suicide in the destruction of its credibility. Jacinto Brother, don’t you see that you have turned into a heretic? Juniper By documenting the truth? Jacinto By showing its consequences. You don’t admit it yourself, since it wasn’t your original intention, but the result is undeniable. The book that displays this overall picture can not be allowed to exist and neither its author, as long as he can’t deny his work. Juniper What will you do? Jacinto If you stick to the truth of this book, we must burn you with the book at the stake. Juniper You don’t realize what you are doing. Jacinto We have no choice. We are servants of the church and live only for the church which you also did until you made yourself guilty of this book. Juniper Don Jacinto, you are blind and can’t see yourself that you are! Jacinto I warned you from the beginning of digging in this mystery, for I saw that nothing good could come out of it. Now that you anyway have persisted in pursuing your investigation, it appears to the horror of all of us that the sum of your investigation is the denial of the very ground for the existence of the holy church. We are sorry for you, brother Juniper. Juniper No, Don Jacinto, I am the one who feels sorry for you. I always served my church in implicit faith and piety and made sure to only do good throughout my life, which you all can testify to. This book is perhaps my foremost and most enduring benefaction of my life, for no work could be considered more beneficial

than a benefaction for the dead. And I warn you. You will not be able to delete the existence of this book, for if you destroy those copies that you find available, the rest of the copies will be hidden away and preserved and the more certainly lead to new editions. And then this crime of yours against piety and humanism will accuse you and the church. Jacinto (loud) You have heard the heretic’s defence speech! He refuses to retract anything he has written! What is your verdict? The monks He has committed himself to the stake. Juniper I have nothing more to say, for what I have already said will remain even when all of you are gone. I realize there is no hope for you or for your church the way you treat it, which would not have been possible at home in Italy, where I come from, which always refused to establish any inquisition. Jacinto Now you talk nonsense. Didn’t the Holy Father in Rome burn Giordano Bruno at the stake by the inquisition? Juniper Yes, and that was also a mistake which the church will find reasons to bitterly regret, when Giordano Bruno according to his own words will prove himself to have been right in three hundred years. Monks (furious) Heretic! Heretic! Jacinto He has condemned himself! Take him out! (Some of the from top to toe hooded black monks seize Juniper and lead him out during animated discussions and upsets and increasing uproar. Don Jacinto retires.)

Scene 5. A convent. La Perichole sitting as usual veiled alone in deep thought in a beautiful garden, when a young lady enters and approaches her. Clara Camila Perichole? Perichole Yes. Who are you? Clara They told me I could find you here. We had a friend in common. Perichole You don’t seem to belong here at all. Are you from Spain? Clara Yes, I arrived from there last week. Perichole But who are you, and how do you know me? Clara I don’t know you, but my mother knew you. Perichole (beginning to understand) The Marquesa de Montemayor? Clara Yes. She was my mother. Perichole (acquires something dreamy about her, by old memories) She was a noble woman. Everybody made a fool of her including me, but no one understood the width of her magnanimity and noble generosity. Clara Even I treated her wrongly by my abominable ingratitude. After her death not a day has passed without my feeling ashamed of her unjust disdain of her. Perichole Still you do remember her. Many have already forgotten her. Clara You also remember her.

Perichole But after us no one will remember her any more. Clara Was there ever any clarity in how the accident at all could take place? Perichole A pious Italian monk, who had done much good for the Indians in the mountains, made every effort to get to the bottom of all the details of the accident and worked for a long time on a book which would explain everything, but he was burned at the stake, and the book was burned with him. Clara But a book is not destroyed that easily. Usually there are always unknown copies turning up that tend to multiply. Perichole In that case they are suppressed and filed in the Index. He was excommunicated as a heretic, and no one dares to have anything to do with such dangerous matters. No, my little sister, we will never see that book. Perhaps someone will discover it and bring it into daylight in a more enlightened future, but we have to be content with being the only ones who remember your mother. Clara And the others who went down? Did they have any relatives? Perichole Sister Pepita was a simple novice of the convent without a family. Only your mother was close to her. Esteban was alone after the loss of his brother. Only I knew uncle Pio well. And my son is probably not even remembered by his sisters in Spain. I am afraid that we are quite alone with what only we still know and remember about the accident. Clara But what was then the meaning of it? Perichole On the quest for an answer to that question, brother Juniper sacrificed his life. But I know one thing. Your mother really loved you. Clara Yes, I know she did. Perichole And I know that uncle Pio loved me. Esteban loved his brother Manuel, who also loved me and died for his love, and I loved my poor ailing son. And somehow, little sister, (embraces her) this love is still something that remains and the only remaining thing. When also we are dead and forgotten, we still loved one day and that sincerely enough and more than enough to last forever. All the rest may be forgotten, but this can never be forgotten but will always live on. Our names mean nothing, our deeds mean nothing, our fates mean nothing, but once we loved, that means everything. That, little sister, I think is the meaning that brother Juniper searched for and never gave up his quest for, although he was burned at the stake. Clara What you say, elder sister, seems to me to make some sense. Although I never answered my mother’s love, I know and feel still today that she is still alive in it. Perichole Exactly. Let’s live for our love as long as we live, my friend, for that is all we have to live for. (keeps hugging her, and they remain together.)

The End.

Gothenburg, January 30th, 2016, translated in June 2021.

Post script. The bridge at San Luis Rey on the road between Cuzco and Lima breaks on July 20th 1714 while five walking people are crossing it. A sixth person, a certain brother Juniper, who should have walked with them across the bridge, remains for some reason at the bridge-head and watches the entire disaster without being able to do anything. Afterwards he decides to find some sort of a spiritual meaning with the catastrophe by carefully researching the lives of the five casualties and their possible connections with each other. The results are documented in a book, all according to a novel published 1927 by Thornton Wilder, which was filmed three times, the last time as late as in 2004 by an Irish female director which was released in Spain, which film met with no understanding at all, as both the audience and the critics rejected it. Still it remains one of the most beautiful films ever made. The film like the novel is completely dominated by the Marquesa de Montemayor, gorgeously played by Kathy Bates, while we have chosen not to include her in this chamber play except as the more frequently spoken of instead. The novel only casually mentions the trial of brother Juniper, while the film is almost dominated by this, since it runs in portions throughout the film. The viceroy Don Andrés, as historical a person as La Perichole, we have chosen not to include at all. The novel is an indispensable classic not just for its intriguing subject but above all for its exceptionally beautiful language, which is like poetry all the way. It’s not a large book, it’s even less than 150 pages, but it is extremely concisely written and deserves to be read any number of times, since you are bound to discover new important details every time. Experts on it have recommended readers to reread it at least once every year. Here in the play we have chosen to depart from both the form of the novel and the film to instead find an even more concentrated form of its own in a chamber play.

Titanic Cocktail Black Comedy by Christian Lanciai.

The characters : Mr Smith Mr Jones an engineer Mrs Flop Mr Brown a bartender Benjamin Guggenheim a mate another passenger Mrs Davis Mr Davis

All are anonymous except the well known millionaire Guggenmheim. They are all around 40 except the engineer, who is slightly younger, and the young couple Mr and Mrs Davis, who are not far above 30. Only Guggenheim is an older man, around 60.

The Atlantic, the night of April 15th, 1912. The stage is the luxurious first class bar on board the S/S Titanic. Smith I tell you that this ship will go down. It has no sails. Jones And I tell you that you are drunk. Smith Have another drink. Jones You don’t know what you are saying. Haven’t you had enough yet? Smith I tell you that this old barge is worthless. It’s as worthless as the greatest of air balloons. Pow! And it will sink directly like a stone. Engineer Allow me to inform you, that this boat is the safest ship in the world. Smith Yes, the whole world says so. You shouldn’t brag about it. Just hit it in the waterline, and it will go down like any other punctured balloon. Jones This is no balloon. Smith You don’t get what I mean. Don’t you think I know this is no balloon? An air balloon would at least float! This tin box will never float and never keep tight, if anything would happen. Engineer (to Jones) He is obviously wacky. Jones He’s got balloons on the brain. Smith No, I tell you! No balloon could be more risky than this one!

Engineer (to Smith) This is no balloon, Sir. Smith What is it then? A tram? Engineer It’s the S/S Titanic, the safest ship in the world! Smith (imitates) The safest ship in the world! I am fed up with that bullshit. It’s not safer than a runaway train that has lost its way and will only float on the waves for a short moment to then go down and vanish like a stone without a trace. Engineer (at a loss) He is hopeless. Jones (to Smith) How would you have fitted the ship, Sir, if you wanted to make it foolproof? Smith Given it sails, of course! Great Eastern is still alive and floating intact because she had sails! If the engines break down in here we will lie here like a dead wreck in the middle of the Atlantic without being able to move a fin! Engineer It pleases you to be unreasonable, Sir. Smith I am bloody serious. Mrs Flop The gentleman here is not entirely wrong. What would be left of human nature and of all nature if everything in this world was given over completely to the discretion of monstrous machines? Jones Are you also of the conviction, madam, that this craft will capsize? Flop No, I never thought so, but all advanced technology has always given me misgivings. You can’t just take for granted that all technique is infallible. Smith That’s precisely what I mean. A raft is safer than this roaring ironing board, which only keeps floating by the surface tension of the Atlantic. Brown I hear, Sir, that you have studied chemistry. Smith Not at all, but I know something about the sea. Jones (to Brown) He thinks we will go down. Brown Prophets of misfortune are not welcome here. This is after all a maiden voyage. Smith I am no prophet of misfortune! I am a realist! Jones He is just drunk. Brown I see. (turns around in order to leave) Flop Still they say that drunkards speak the truth. Brown (turns back) Will you also insist on bad prophecies? Flop Not at all. I just wish to point out that everything this gentleman says is not all nonsense. Brown What then is not perfect nonsense of what he says? Flop That the ocean actually is greater than even the S/S Titanic. Jones She is right. No one can contradict Mr Smith on that point. Brown But that is nonsense, madam. Of course the Atlantic is greater than a ship crossing her! Smith That’s what I mean! Flop So even drunkards can sometimes be right. Brown But this besotted nitwit claims we run the risk of sinking! What kind of right and reason is that? Do you make such statements during a maiden voyage?

Smith A maiden you can tell anything except the truth. Brown What? Jones (to Brown) Don’t mind him. He is drunk. Brown That does not give him any right to bring irresponsible prophecies! Smith I don’t bring irresponsible prophecies. I tell the truth. Flop You must be allowed to stand up for the truth. Brown You are all besotted. (dons his hat and leaves) Flop (to Smith) Tell me now, Sir, what do you really mean? Smith I need another drink. Bartender (serves him) At your service, Sir, as long as you please to drink. Jones Don’t you get seasick by drinking so much? Smith I am used to worse naval battles than this one. Flop You are? How romantic! Tell us about it! Jones He means naval battles, madam. Flop Yes, what else what he mean by naval battles than naval battles? Jones They call it a naval battle, madam, when drinking gentlemen drink themselves under the table. Flop Do they? I didn’t know. Smith What I mean, madam, is that we are all in the same boat. Flop And what kind of boat would you then be suggesting, Sir? Engineer S/S Titanic, of course! What else? Smith Your psychic intelligence is indeed impressing, Sir. Engineer I leave nothing to chance. Smith Thereby you also risk excluding the possible existence of the human factor. Engineer The human factor is a myth. Smith Myths tend to outlive world history. Engineer What do you mean by that? Smith I mean that it’s a myth that the S/S Titanic is unsinkable, and that myth will outlive S/S Titanic. Jones Here he goes again. Engineer You flatter me, Sir. Smith That was not intended. Engineer Then why did you say it? Smith To insult you. Engineer Well, you have failed, Sir. Have another drink. Smith (to himself) What the hell did I now do wrong? Jones Allow me to sort out the dilemma. You said that the myth of the unsinkability of the S/S Titanic would outlive the S/S Titanic. Our engineer here took it as a confirmation of her unsinkability. Smith He got it all wrong. Jones And what did you mean? Smith That the S/S Titanic will go down! And there are no guarantees that she will not go down already today! (drinks)

Engineer (self-satisfied) Ha-ha-ha! Childish nonsense of a hopeless drunk! Flop One thing struck me today as I took a walk on deck, Sir. Why is this gigantic ship with so many passengers equipped with so few lifeboats? Smith Because our engineer in his technical perfection has rationally sorted them out as redundant on board the most unsinkable vessel in the world. Jones What is your problem with technique, Mr Smith? Smith It is inhuman and unnatural. It’s a monster, and the way man suffers from many faults of character, the wonders of technique can only increase her abuse of her supremacy of nature. Jones Would you then prefer to be a caveman? Smith No, but as inhuman as man has grown today by the boost of technique, I prefer the animals. Jones Why? Smith They are more beautiful and more alive. Engineer A decadent post romantic. Flop I must say, that I feel a certain sympathy for the inebriated Mr Smith. Engineer Old ladies are attracted by men of weakness. Flop (immediately hits him with her handbag) Shame, Sir! Jones (waking up) What’s happening? Smith Our engineer insulted our lady. Jones How rude of you! Engineer I did not insult her! She just slugged me with her handbag! Smith And you in your technical infallibility had of course done nothing to deserve it? Flop He insulted me! Bartender Please, no fighting here at the bar, dear customers. If you want to fight, you will be obliged to go outside. Guggenheim (passes by) What is going one here? Can I be of any assistance? Smith We have here an impertinent engineer who insults old ladies by demonstrating his technical supremacy. Guggenheim (inspects the engineer) He appears militarily more inferior. Engineer I didn’t mean to insult you, madam. Flop Then why did you? Guggenheim My friend, you stand accused. What have you to say for your defence? Engineer I did not defend myself. I defended my ship. Guggenheim Are you the constructor of this ship? Engineer Partly, yes. Guggenheim And what objection could this good lady have against that? Flop He didn’t insult me as much as he insulted Mr Smith. Guggenheim And who is Mr Smith? Smith (presenting himself) Have a drink, Sir! Guggenheim I would love to. But how can you insult a man already under the influence?

Flop He called him a decadent romantic. Guggenheim But that is unpardonable, my friend! Engineer (stupidly) Why? Guggenheim That’s improper and immoral! Engineer How? Jones Another mad eccentric. Guggenheim When you call someone a decadent romantic, you don’t intend it as an insult! You intend it as a compliment! Engineer And why is it immoral? Guggenheim It’s unfair and mean against romanticism! It’s blasphemy! Engineer Pardon me, Sir, but are you in your right mind? Smith You risk new handbags in your face, Sir. Don’t you know who he is? Engineer No? Smith The multi millionaire Guggenheim. Engineer (bowing) I humbly apologise. Guggenheim Are you apologising to me or to my millions? Smith Both, of course, to be on the safe side. Guggenheim You should rather apologise to the lady here. Engineer (upset) Because she handbagged me? Smith Look, you moron, she is a lady and the only one here. Show some respect. Guggenheim You have to forbear with ladies whatever they do. Engineer (making a hard effort, mobilising some humility) I apologise, madam. Flop It’s rather to the gentleman here you should apologise. (meaning Smith.) Engineer (purple red) That blackguard! Never! Smith (throwing the contents of his glass in the engineer’s face) Cool off, my friend. (Guggenheim smiles.) Jones That will hardly make anything better, Mr Smith. Smith At least it’s worth trying. Engineer (furious) I demand redress! I challenge you to a duel! Bartender Outside, gentlemen. Guggenheim My dear engineer, you can’t force someone drunk to a duel. Engineer And why not? Guggenheim Because he is drunk. Engineer What difference does it make? Guggenheim A gentleman can’t aim at another gentleman who can’t aim. Engineer He would have to sober up then, wouldn’t he? He can’t be regarded as a sacred cow, just because he is drinking. Guggenheim My friend, a sober person would never challenge a drunk person to a duel. You are not quite sober. Engineer (calming down at once) You are right. Give me a drink. Flop How wise you are, Mr Guggenheim. Guggenheim Not at all. Only human. Jones Is that how you turned out a millionaire?

Guggenheim Not quite. I used the lack of wisdom and humanity in others. Smith Capitalism has spoken. Guggenheim Yes, common sense capitalism. That’s what made this ship. Smith That’s the boat we are all sitting in. Guggenheim Yes, but you’ll have to admit that it’s elegant. Smith But is it quite seaworthy? In the long run? Guggenheim Why would it not be? Smith I don’t know. I just happen to doubt everything. Guggenheim And our engineer here could not have his life’s work questioned? Is that what started the quarrel? Engineer Anyone who doubts that my ship is floating as long as it is floating is an idiot. Guggenheim That was a clear answer if anything. What do you say to that, doubting Thomas? Smith I say that the engineer’s self-complacency is unbearable and needs some opposition. Guggenheim But do you deny that the S/S Titanic is floating as long as she keeps floating? Smith Just to watch the look on the engineer’s face, it would be a pleasure for me if she suddenly would sink. Guggenheim Are you aware that you in that case would be going down with her? Smith I have nothing to lose. Guggenheim Not even your drink? Smith (looks deep into his glass, thoughtfully) I would get the whole Atlantic instead. Jones The défaitism and unpleasant thoughts of our drinking brother have disturbed us from the beginning, Mr Guggenheim. Guggenheim And apparently upset the engineer beyond his mind. Flop A fact is that we have far too few lifeboats on board. Guggenheim How many would be rescued if the Titanic went down, our expert engineer? Please try to answer with some scientific exactness! Engineer At least all first class passengers. Guggenheim Why so few? Engineer We should actually have had even less lifeboats and even more passengers. Just because the Titanic wasn’t equipped with more lifeboats, we didn’t allow more passengers. Guggenheim went down? Engineer Guggenheim Engineer Flop

Still two thirds of all passengers would be left without a lifeboat if we

You forget one point, Sir. What? The Titanic is unsinkable. (a fierce crashing sound is heard at a distance) What was that?

Guggenheim It sounded like a collision. Jones Did we hit another ship? Engineer In that case she was probably overrun. Ha-ha-ha! (drinks) Smith That’s no laughing matter, mate. Being driven over on the Atlantic isn’t as easy as to get driven over on a street in London. Guggenheim He is right. In London you can have the body identified, if you don’t make it. Jones Here on the Atlantic you will sink like a stone and never get up again. Smith How well you express it, Mr Jones. Jones I was inspired by the depth of the glass. Smith No ocean is deeper than an unfinished drink. (drinks up) Flop But what was it that we struck? Jones We have stopped. Bartender It could have been an iceberg. Flop Iceberg? Bartender Yes. We are on that part of the Atlantic where we are most likely to meet with icebergs. Guggenheim But isn’t it rather irresponsible to go at full speed on a sea where there might be icebergs? Bartender The captain knows what he is doing. Jones I sincerely hope so. Smith What does our engineer think about the idea of icebergs? Engineer Nonsense. Impossible at this time of the year. Guggenheim I hear that our engineer also is an expert on meteorological conditions. Engineer If there would have been a risk of icebergs, we would not have travelled at full speed. I think it’s more likely that we hit some poor sailing-boat. Guggenheim It should have been a larger vessel in that case. Perhaps a beautiful brig, with all large sails set? Smith I will never forgive you, Sir, if we ran down a beautiful fregate. Engineer Don’t get sentimental. In due time we will get to know what happened. If we hit someone, we would surely have stopped to rescue survivors. (a mate comes around.) Guggenheim What has happened, mate? Mate We hit an iceberg. Nothing serious. Jones Why have we stopped? Mate Just to examine eventual damages. Nothing to worry about. (passes on. The others grow thoughtful for a moment.) Smith (after a while of silence, suddenly cries) We are sinking! I can already feel that we are sinking! Jones Calm down, Mr Smith. There is no reason for panic yet. Smith I tell you that we are sinking! Engineer (to Guggenheim) He has gone too deep into the glass. Guggenheim He seems perhaps somewhat over-sensitive.

Flop Intuition is not be explained away. How serious is it, Mr Smith? Smith I tell you, that we are sinking! Guggenheim (by himself) If only that was not just wishful thinking! Flop What did you say, baron Guggenheim? Guggenheim Nothing, madam. Forget it. Flop Have you nothing to live for? Guggenheim Who has who already owns everything and whose only attraction and human value is in his money? Flop You are a very unhappy man, Mr Guggenheim. Guggenheim (shrugs it off) I am just a symptom of a very unhappy age and a very unhappy world. Engineer Why do you think the world is unhappy? Smith Because it is sinking and going down the bog of its own welfare. That’s how we are sinking as well. We are just a symptom of the general condition of the world. Engineer You dare persist in maintaining your absurd deranged hallucinatory fancies about us going down? Smith I know it. Engineer And how do you know, if I may ask? Where is your evidence? Smith I can’t prove it mathematically with pen and paper, if that’s what you mean. Engineer You have no sense of reality, mr drunkard. I have irrefutable evidence that we cannot sink, which perhaps could satisfy some of you who are not yet gone down too deep. Smith Your evidence will make an impression on the world forever, Sir, when we all lie at rest at the bottom of the Atlantic in one big titanic coffin. Engineer Shut up, you opposite of a universal genius! (to the others) Suppose now that this collision with an iceberg actually caused some damage to the hulk. Suppose it has caused some leak. Suppose this leak actually is large and that the water is rushing in faster than we can pump it out. (proud) Well, ladies and gentlemen, the worst that could happen in that case is that one of the bulkheads of the Titanic then would be filled. An empty space in the lower parts of the ship is filled with water, and thereby the ballast will become somewhat heavier. That is all. There are six waterproof bulkheads along the sides of the bottom of the ship. No matter which bulkhead is filled with water, it will make no difference to the carrying capacity of the ship. The Titanic is foolproof. Nothing can sink her, not even an iceberg. Jones Well, Mr Smith, how do you respond to that? Smith I repeat that we are sinking. (drinks) Engineer (vexed) Moron! Drunkard! Idiot! Jones Slow down, Sir. Mr Smith is entitled to his right of expressing his opinion and to keep it. There also those who still believe the earth is flat. Engineer He is still nothing but a fool, a drunkard and a moron! Smith (calm) Our engineer speaks against better knowledge. Engineer Get lost, man! Smith My friends, beware of this scientific genius. It is getting violent.

Engineer "It" is slowly but inevitably losing patience with an incurable stolidity that only keeps provoking to make a nuisance and trouble! Smith The situation is quite unpleasant already as it is, lord engineer, thanks to the absolutely titanic manifestation of security by your infallible science of your ”Titanic”, to have any need of being made even more unpleasant by your increasing aggression. Flop In which way is our situation unpleasant, Mr Smith? Smith I already told you. We are sinking. (drinks) Engineer Here he goes again! Guggenheim Take it easy, my friend. He means no harm. He is only drunk. He is shooting but without aiming. Engineer But every shot is a hit! Smith How can you explain that, lord engineer, with your mathematical infallibility? Flop (aside) They just keep on drinking and don’t know what they are talking about. (gets away) Engineer (tries to calm down) I admit that I perhaps work myself up for nothing. Jones You allow yourself to be provoked for nothing. (the mate returns) Guggenheim What news, mate? Mate (addresses all of them) We ask all passengers to take it very easy. We have hit an iceberg, and we have not yet been able to estimate or remedy all the damages. Just for security we therefore kindly ask all passengers to put on their lifebelts and go up on deck. Guggenheim (discreetly, to the mate) How great are the damages, mate? Mate (quietly back) Captain said it could be serious. That’s all I can say. Jones What is it you cannot say, Sir? Another passenger How bad is it? Mate There is no cause for panic. We only have to make some manoeuvre exercise for security reasons. Smith Do we already have to abandon ship? Guggenheim Shut up, miserable croaker. Mate (embarrassed) As I said, there is no cause for panic. (leaves) Engineer I wonder what has happened. I will go and speak with the captain. Smith Do so. And then come back and tell us, that we will all be drowned like rats, since there are no lifeboats. Guggenheim Keep quiet, my poor friend. Smith Why poor? Guggenheim Because you seem to know more than anyone else knows. Smith Cheers! (drinks) (a besotted couple come by, she dressed in a long necklet) Mrs Davis I heard that someone here knows what no one else knows. Jones I am innocent. Mr Davis Take the opportunity of having your curiosity satisfied, darling.

Mrs Davis Is it true that we are sinking? Smith (solemnly) As true as amen in church. Jones Don’t listen to him. He is drunk Mrs Davis Isn’t that exciting, darling? We are foundering with everyone on board! Mr Davis It really would be exciting if it were true. Mrs Davis But isn’t it rather deep here? How far down would we go? Guggenheim It’s only about 4000 meters deep here, madam. Mrs Davis That’s nothing! It’s not even up the Matterhorn in the opposite direction! Do you remember Matterhorn, darling? Wasn’t it a perfectly dazzling experience? Guggenheim The difference between the Matterhorn and the Atlantic, madam, is that in the Alps you climb up towards the light, but in the Atlantic all lights will fade and end after only a few hundred meters. Then all you have is a black compact night three thousande meters further down, which you travel extremely slowly. Mrs Davis Isn’t it exciting, darling? Mr Davis Extremely. Jones The truth is that we just sent up an engineer to reconnoitre and find out what’s really happened. Mrs Davis So something has actually happened? Jones Yes, we appear to have struck an iceberg. But even if there is a hole in the ship we cannot sink. Mrs Davis How disappointing! Just when I started to embrace the possibility of slowly sinking down a vast and infinite, soft and dark grave. Mr Davis When will that engineer be back? Smith He will not be back. Mr Davis How come? Smith He will get into the first lifeboat that is being launched. Jones Would he then just let us down, his drinking companions? Smith Without further notice. He is after all a scientist. Mr Davis Come, darling. We need a drink. Mrs Davis Yes, you certainly always need some more ice in the stomach. (they place themselves at the bar.) Guggenheim I say, here is after all our friend the engineer! (the engineer returns.) Jones A drink, Sir? Engineer (pale and serious) No, I don’t think so. Smith Are you seasick? Engineer I almost think so. Guggenheim What did you find out? Engineer I think I’ll need that drink after all. (gets a drink) Jones What did you learn? Engineer Nothing certain. They are examining the situation. Mrs Davis Doesn’t it seem perfectly thrilling, darling? Mr Davis Something really seems to be going on.

Jones Tell us what you know, mate. Engineer All security measures that can be applied will be applied. The command will not take any chances. Therefore all passengers have been ordered on deck. Mr Davis In the middle of the night? In this cold? Isn’t that slightly inhuman? Mrs Davis We will stay here, darling. Engineer Other ships have also been contacted and cabled of the emergency. Guggenheim Is it because we can’t get the engines started again? Engineer Probably. Mr Davis Some circus! What the deuce has happened down there in the hulk then? Are the workers on strike? That seems to be so modern nowadays. Mrs Davis Most certainly, darling. Don’t you worry about it. Engineer I think we had all better get up on deck. (dons his hat and leaves.) Smith We are sinking and going down headlong into the Atlantic. Jones Don’t talk so foolish nonsense, you befuddled prattler. Smith That engineer knew more than he was teling. Now we’ll never see him again. Mrs Davis I just hope he will not go away and hang himself. Smith On the contrary. He will save his arse and leave all the children and mothers of the second class to be drowned on board like rats. Jones (angry) Sir, you are going too far with your delirium! Smith Am I, mr Jones? If I am wrong, you will havet o prove it. Guggenheim Perhaps you would go up and try to find out something about our possible dilemma, Mr Jones? Jones Bosh! All the world knows that this ship is safer than any life on land. Mrs Davis (confused) Is there anything wrong with me? Have I been drinking too much again? Look here, Arthur. Is this glass really standing straight? Mr Davis (studies a glass on the bar) I can’t be certain about it, my dear. I am not sober. Smith It has only started. Jones What? Smith The declination. Jones What declination? Smith When a ship starts going down it’s obvious that it has to start declining! When the declination goes so far that you no longer are able to stand on the floor, it will go down. No engineer is necessary to find that out. Guggenheim By my soul, I really think the entire lounge has started declining a little. Mr Davis Darling, I need another drink. Mrs Davis You are so sensible, darling. Jones Your imagination is getting the better of you. You are all so under the influence that you could imagine anything. Smith My dear Sir, even you will stagger and fall when the ship goes down. Jones Nonsense! If I fall it will not be because of any sinking ship but because I am drunk. Bartender, another, please.

Mr Davis How many lifeboats did you say there were? Mrs Davis Don’t worry about that, darling, There will not be enough anyway. Jones Sir, you also seem to take for granted that the Titanic will sink. What nonsense is that? The way your fantasies cheat you into jumping to conclusions you could believe, that you are not just under the influence of alcohol and Mr Smith but that you even had some questionable hereditary disposition. Guggenheim All of us? Jones Yes, all of you! Bartender Except you, of course, Mr Jones. (serves the drink) Jones Yes, of course. Guggenheim For you still believe in science and its comfort and safety. Jones There is no reason to doubt scientific facts. Smith Still you doubt the scientific fact that we are sinking. Jones Blockhead! You can never twist science to suit your twisted purposes. Mrs Davis (indicates a glass) Can you still doubt that the ship is declining? Jones Everyone knows that man’s sense of balance is affected when he drinks alcohol. (drinks) Guggenheim Mr Jones, with respect, but you seem slightly out of balance. Jones (drinks) Is that so strange? (drains his glass) Smith Gradually he will more and more come over to our side. Soon even you will be drunk, Jones. Jones (drinks) Who can get anything else in your company? Guggenheim I had better get into my evening dress if we are going down. Mr Davis Will that be necessary if you are rescued? Guggenheim Sir, I don’t intend to be rescued. Jones He intends to stay on here with me to prove that the ship never will sink. Guggenheim Between ourselves, Sir, I don’t give a damn whether we are going down or not. But the occasion is momentous, and I intend to dress as befits great occasions. (leaves) Jones An odd original. Smith No, a gentleman. Mrs Davis Why the heck would you forget to bring your dinner jacket, darling, when we now even are about to go down? Mr Davis My darling, I couldn’t well have foreseen such an event. Mrs Davis No, you are right as usual, darling. We will have to just enjoy the occasion and have our drinks anyway. Mr Davis I am afraid that’s all we can do, darling. (the mate comes passing by.) Mate Why are you still here loitering at the bar? The first lifeboats have already been launched. Jones What are you saying, Sir? Mate That the first lifeboats already have been launched. Jones Is it true than?

Mate Yes, it is true that the first lifeboats already have been launched. Jones You mean to suggest, that we are sinking? Mate I wouldn’t say that. As long as there is life there is hope. But see for yourselves how your glasses on the table are leaning. We will not take the risk of staying on board if the declination will get worse. A definite slant is soon a fact. (to Mrs Davis) Madam, I recommend you to go up on deck. Women and children will at least be sure to have seats in all the lifeboats. Mrs Davis And what about my husband? Mate Women and children go first. Mrs Davis But we have no children. Mate But you are a woman. Mrs Davis As if I didn’t know. Mate Madam, I have warned you. What you will do with the rest of your life is your own affair. (leaves) Mrs Davis My husband has gone before me all my life. Would I suddenly get ahead of him? Mr Davis Darling, you are excused. Mrs Davis To leave you? Never! Darling, it’s much better here at the bar than out there on the cold deck. We can’t do anything about icebergs anyway. Mr Davis Darling, you are absolutely right. Jones (to the bartender) How long do you intend to remain at the bar? Bartender As long as I can still make money on selling drinks. Jones And then? Bartender Then we’ll see. Smith We appreciate your presence, Sir. Bartender Thanks. My duty makes me much obliged. Jones That’s the spirit. Let me now invite you all for a drink. I think that is what we all need under the circumstances. So, please be my guests. Mr Davis Well advised, Mr? Jones Jones. Davis David is my name. And this is my wife. Jones Delighted, Mrs Davis. Mrs Davis Delighted to be invited, Mr Jones. Jones Imagine that we all would happen to meet here! Smith Yes, at exclusive bars you always run into the most inveterate sinners when you are faced with doomsday. Jones What do you mean by that, Mr Smith? Smith Only what I say. I always mean only what I say. And by that I mean that I am also most grateful for your invitation for a drink. Jones That’s the spirit. Smith You are learning, Mr Jones. Mrs Davis What do you think, darling? Shall we wage on the future after all and try to find a place in one of those absurd lifeboats?

Mr Davis Whatever you say, darling. Mrs Davis But you must follow me in that case. Mr Davis I could always promise to do my best. Mrs Davis (takes his hand) I will never get into a lifeboat unless you take the seat beside me. Mr Davis I will have to try then. Mrs Davis Come on! (they hurry away.) Smith Two more who let us down besides the engineer. Jones Is it then obligatory to stick to a ship going down, Mr Smith? Smith No, but it is a must to grant a bartender his livelihood. Jones You are right in certain aspects, Mr Smith. Bartender There is still time for you to have more drinks, gentlemen. Jones When is closing time? Bartender When the lights go out, if not sooner. Smith That’s what I call a real bartender. Guggenheim (enters in evening dress) Cigars, gentlemen? Jones Thank you. Smith At least you keep up appearances, Sir. Guggenheim What happened to the couple? Smith They went out to see if there was any vacancy in any lifeboat. Guggenheim There is room only for women. Smith In that case they will be back. Guggenheim Don’t be too sure. I saw the engineer sneak into one. He was alone among forty women. Jones Had he dressed up as a woman? Guggenheim Almost. He cried. Jones For what? For all those people who have to die? Guggenheim No. For the fact of his ship is going down. Smith Was it really a surprise to him after all my arguments? Jones Does it have to? Guggenheim (indicating a leaning glass) You can see for yourself. Jones (solemnly) Gentlemen, the slant seems to be a fact. Smith Halleluja! Welcome to embrace the only right conviction, Mr Jones. Jones Thanks. But it was a long and arduous way to reach it. Smith But now when you have arrived, things will happen faster. Jones When a goal is reached, time has always run out. Guggenheim I wonder at what wise philosophers you all have turned into. Jones The vicinity of death turns you wise. Guggenheim Are you then dead already, Mr Jones? Jones As well as. Smith He only still has his drinks to live for. Jones That’s not too bad. Bartender Gentlemen, unfortunately I have to close the bar in five minutes.

Smith Why such a hurry? Bartender I have to observe that the inclination is accelerating. Smith Don’t you worry about that. We will gladly take care of your bottles when you are gone. Bartendern You are welcome to save as many as you can. (gets away in a haste.) Jones He obviously panicked. Guggenheim Perhaps he was in a hurry for the toilet. Smith Or he suddenly remembered that he had missed his rendez-vous with his mistress in the moonlight. Jones It must be something like that. Smith Let’s not miss the opportunity. (jumps across the bar) What will you have, gentlemen? It’s all on the house! Jones A double scotch! Guggenheim A double double! Jones Talk about the good public relations and liberality of the shipping company! Guggenheim They will gladly let their ships founder if just their passengers are happy enough at the bar. Jones That’s what I call generosity! Guggenheim Unfortunately it’s not really good business, but I buy it. (Mrs Flop returns.) Smith Are you still here, Mrs Flop? Flop Why wouldn’t I?? Jones But you are a woman! Flop (insulted) Was that intended as an insult? Jones Not at all, madam. Smith Watch out for the rolling pin in her handbag. Guggenheim Pardon us, madam, but all women except you have by now saved their lives by settling for a lifeboat. Flop And why would I settle for a lifeboat? (the three gentlemen look at each other, speechless.) Jones Pardon, madam, but aren’t you aware that our ship is sinking? Flop (still feeling insulted) And why would it sink? (the three gentlemen remain speechless looking at each other) Have we been torpedoed maybe? Has there been any outbreak of war? Guggenheim (accepts the difficult mission of releasing Mrs Flop from her misconceptions) Not at all, madam. But we have collided with an iceberg that has torn up the entire hulk, and we are going down within an hour. Flop And how could ice tear up a foolproof ship like the Titanic? Isn’t ice something you use for your drinks? Jones Pardon us, madam, but where have you been all the time? Flop I was detained in a small back room where men are not allowed. Guggenheim (resigns, turns away and concentrates on his drink) She missed the entire show.

Jones Pardon us, madam, but can’t you see that everything is declining? Flop And why would it be declining? Smith (after some moments of silence) Give her a drink. That’s what she needs. Jones May we, madam? Flop Since you insist. (is served a drink and is quite happy with the situation.) Jones (to Smith) That’s what I call stoical composure. Smith Or Spartan foolhardiness? Guggenheim Both with a considerable portion of felicitous innocence. Jones Have you ever been married, madam? Flop Are you interested? Smith I don’t think it’s the right moment, Mr Jones, now to seduce old virgins. Jones I was just asking. She took the initiative. Guggenheim Don’t hide away, Jones. You started. Jones I assure you. My question had no hidden agenda. Guggenheim Who would believe it? Flop Cheers, gentlemen! (drinks) (Mr Davis returns.) Jones What now? Was there no room for you in the lifeboat? Davis (out of breath) Everything is chaos out there. There are no lifeboats on board. Do you hear? There are no lifeboats on board! Guggenheim (calmly) Make a complaint to the shipping companySmith Send a bottle mail. Jones It will be sure to arrive before the next decade. Flop Gentlemen, what is really going on here? Are you really suggesting that we might be sinking? Jones No, we are just hallucinating just like you, when you have to admit to yourself that everything actually keeps on declining. Flop But the Titanic couldn’t sink. She was unsinkable. That was the whole idea about her. Smith That was yesterday. Guggenheim (to Davis) Are there really so few lifeboats? Davis My wife got in with extreme difficulty. Most first class women and children are rescued but very few of us men. And there are so many more second and third class passengers. They say they locked down the third class just for security. Guggenheim What kind of people are there? Davis Mostly Irish emigrants. Among them not even women and children will be likely to get any help or chance of escape. Smith We will go down with them but with our honour in flying colours. Davis Yes, that’s about the best way of looking at it. Jones A drink, Sir? Davis I would love to. Jones We have to be quick. Soon the bottles will no longer keep on their shelves. Davis You seem to take it easy.

Guggenheim So do all sensible people. In the card room they are still sitting comfortably at their game of bridge. The orchestra keeps playing ragtime. And they say the ship constructor is in the library contemplating and admiring a picture of his life’s masterpiece while he hasn’t even put on his lifebelt. Smith He takes it easy. Guggenheim That’s the best thing you can do. The ship will go down anyway. Jones It will sink down into eternity taking all our buried secrets down with it. Flop What secrets do you have, Sir? Jones They will go down into eternity. Flop Am I one of them? Jones You might be. (gives her a hug) Flop (giggles) O no, Sir, it ain’t proper! Jones It’s now or never! (kisses her) Flop (giggles) Dear me, what a dabbling dauber! But please, don’t ooze so strongly of whisky! (She withdraws, he follows. They disappear.) Guggenheim That’s what I call practical philosophy. Davis Love, whisky and a splendid environment on board the proudest ship in the world. What more do you need? Smith Life. Davis We have it. Now is the moment we have it. The rest of the world doesn’t know what it is missing. Guggenheim He is right, by golly. (the declination increases.) Smith Gentlemen, something is happening. I suspect there might be a blackout any moment. Davis Do you mean to say that the lights would go out? Smith Out, out, brief candle. Like in Macbeth. Guggenheim He is probably right. Davis And what do you suggest that we should do about it? Smith What about a moment of silence of respect for all the thousands who will go down with the proudest and safest ship in the world? Guggenheim Would we waste an entire minute? Smith It could be our last chance of showing our respect for life. Guggenheim You are drunk, Smith. Smith I have many comments on that. Yes, I am drunk, and it’s intentional. It can’t very well be denied that I am drunk. If anything is for certain, it is that I am drunk. But who is drunk speaks the truth. Davis He is actually right, Sir. We should go down in an honourable way. Guggenheim It would be silly to anticipate the beatifying moment. Smith Rather that than lose it. Guggenheim We’ll lose it anyway. Davis Gentlemen, we have to make up our minds! We can’t adjourn this important issue! This decision cannot be postponed! Guggenheim Shut up your besotted nonsense!

Smith You are the one pushing the argument, Mr Millionaire. Davis Will you fight about it? Guggenheim (resigns) Don’t remind me of all my ridiculous vanity. Between ourselves, I’ll gladly be rid of it. Davis Let’s not quarrel now on the threshold of eternity. Guggenheim But isn’t it human to hesitate about it? Smith You are quite right, Sir. Let’s hesitate as long as possible. Davis (giggles) Smith What are you grinning at? Davis I just came to think of something. Smith What? Davis "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome. That idiotic book, you know. Smith Yes, what about it? Davis Three men in a boat – that’s us. (giggles) Smith He is right. We are exactly as clumsy and helpless. (They all three giggle, while the declination increases. Suddenly all lights go out.) Guggenheim (with a loud voice) Cheers, gentlemen! Smith Cheers! Davis Cheers! (There is a deafening noise of all the bottles in the bar crushing down and in connection with that all posssible noise that could arise in a great passenger ship when it breaks up to go down.)

Cheers.

The Razor’s Edge Dramatization of William Somerset Maugham’s novel

by Christian Lanciai (2013)

The characters: Elliot Templeton William Somerset Maugham Laurence Darrell (Larry) Isabel Bradley Louisa Bradley Henry Maturin Gray Maturin Sophie MacDonald Robert Graves Erich Maria Remarque Dimitry Mereshkovsky Sergei Rachmaninov Ernest Hemingway a serving maid a pimp a waiter Hakim a sailor Guests at balls, cafés and restaurants The action is in Chicago, Paris and Toulon after the First World War and after the crash 1929.

Footnote. W.S.Maugham’s last great and most personal novel, it is in fact his greatest short story, got a special status in my family, since Larry’s destiny and character in many ways became that of my uncle. editor’s note

Act I scene 1. A relaxed cocktail party in Chicago. The band is playing dance music. Elliot Templeton and Somerset Maugham appear each with a drink. Elliot How could this impossible nation ever amount to anything? I assure you, that we are lost from the very start. Somerset Why do you think so? Elliot We are infected by a hopeless vulgarity from the beginning. We can never become real people. It’s not just culture that we are lacking but also everything else, history, traditions, proud memories, peerage and nobility, in brief, something to build on. We lack all grounds for our existence.

Somerset But you have Europe in the background, which you can always return to and go to for comfort. Elliot That’s the most terrible thing of all, that we have lost Europe. What’s left of Europe after the hellish world war? All empires and monarchies that were of any importance have fallen. Russia is lost in a chaos of barbaric violence. Germany has submitted to anarchy. Austria is no more. Italy is torn asunder by extremists, these new-fangled so called fascists, that are only a mob of terror. France already fell 50 years ago and has never risen again from its permanent downfall. Somerset So there is only England. Elliot Bled to death. Disillusioned. Damaged for life by the war. All England suffers from a grenade shock from which it will never recover, like a permanent hangover. Somerset But here in America you still have some sort of economy. Elliot You said it. Some sort of. It is running wild. It is senselessly undisciplined. The only religion here is capitalism, the brief gospel of which is but and consume more! It has to end in disaster. It’s Sodom and Gomorrah. Somerset Your luck then is that you still have Paris and London. Elliot Yes, that’s about all I have. Everything else is gone to blazes. But here is the young couple now. I am suspicious against the young man. Let’s see what you may think of him. Somerset What’s wrong with him? He is good-looking enough. Elliot He is too good-looking. He has also been damaged by the war. – Welcome, Isabel and Larry! Isabel, you are always so dazzlingly stylish! Isabel How nice to see you, Mr Maugham! I thought you had returned to Paris. Somerset No, I have just arrived from there. I am on my way to East Asia. Larry And of all places, you land in Chicago in between! Somerset I happen to have a sister here, and I know Elliot since fifteen years. Isabel I hope you will not get too much bored here. We are so vulgar here in America. That’s what uncle Elliot always keeps saying. Elliot Yes, I say so, for that’s unfortunately how it is. Somerset I heard that you had had some experience from the war, Mr? Larry Darrell. Laurence Darrell. Call me Larry. I served in France as a pilot. Somerset I can’t see anything wrong with you. Larry I had no damages, only afterthoughts. Somerset Who didn’t, after such a long and devastating war. Isabel Larry lost his best friend. Somerset I am sorry. Elliot Don’t get bogged down now in macabre memories, but let’s have a drink. This is actually a party, and almost your engagement party, Isabel. Isabel Yes, we are practically engaged. Somerset Why not definitely? You look as the ideal marrying couple. Isabel Larry wants to take a break before we go on. Elliot The world war made Larry a brooder, and between ourselves I can’t consider it very healthy, especially as it does not seem to pass over.

Larry I simply learned to take it more easy. Here in America everyone is too much in a hurry and all for nothing. That is unhealthy, uncle Elliot. Elliot Enough. Larry has a splendid future ahead, and he is stupid enough to wish to postpone it. Somerset It sounds like a maturity process and a mental deviation. He has perhaps become a European. Elliot Here at last we have our long expected cocktails. And my less longed for sister Louisa. Louisa But Elliot, you are completely sequestrating Mr Maugham! Elliot He is my friend, not yours. Louisa But I am your sister, and he is almost our guest of honour. You must meet our local celebrity Henry Maturin. Elliot (to Maugham) Our local millionaire. Louisa Yes, he raises everything to a higher level by just showing up. Elliot (to Maugham) Almost richest in town and totally without taste. Somerset But still a man like everyone else. Maturin How nice to meet you, Mr Maugham. Somerset I have heard much about you as the one standing for the local welfare here in the district. Maturin You do what you can to favour your neighbourhood. Here is my son Gray. Elliot (to Maugham) The perfect slugger. Somerset His father’s son, no doubt. Maturin And universal heir. He will reach much farther than I. Gray Pleased to meet you, Mr Maugham. Isabel Mother always wants to boast of her richest acquaintances, as if capitalism was something sacred. Somerset At least it has secured a status here in America. Elliot You are listening too much to your fiancé, Isabel. Somerset Is he a communist? Larry As far from it as you can get. I am not interested in money at all. Elliot His father was a professor of Latin languages, and his mother was a Quaker. He has the intellectual spirituality in his blood. Maturin Then I really hope you will accept my offer of a future position in my firm. We could need some linguistic talents there, since they are not very common in America. And you could also need some decent and considerable income when you are marrying Isabel. Larry I have begged for some time to think about it. Maturin Don’t think too long. Elliot And don’t think too deep. Isabel Sophie, there you are! I was just looking for you. This is my dearest friend and oldest classmate Sophie. Sophie I didn’t know if I would dare to show myself here.

Isabel Why not? Sophie When there was such a great author here. Somerset Nonsense. I am really just a short story and documentary writer. I was never serious about anything I wrote. Louisa But the more brilliant as a stylist. Elliot And knowledgeable of human nature. Somerset The human knowledge that I have is mainly from my failure as a doctor. Maturin Gynaecologist? Did you become too intimate? Somerset No, I had simply landed in the wrong business and made a mistake, but you learn chiefly by your mistakes. Elliot Unfortunately I never succeeded with that. No matter how heavy efforts I made, I always failed in all my efforts to make mistakes. Louisa And that’s why you never got married, you incorrigible libertine. Elliot Not even that I could regard as a mistake. Gray Would you dare to have a dance with me, Isabel? Isabel If Larry gives permission. Larry I could dance with Sophie instead, if she would allow me. (The young couples disappear.) Somerset What happened to him in the war? Maturin He was far too young and bluffed his way into the air force. He was wounded twice but never seriously. He was only eighteen, and now he is only twenty. They are far too young to get married. Somerset Then there are reasons enough to wait a bit after the war, aren’t there? Elliot Exactly what I think. Isabel is after all only nineteen. Maturin But that’s the very sort of talent I need, and he is more than just clever. Somerset What about your own son? Maturin He will do well in time but only for mediocrity. He lacks perspective, which is what Larry has got. Elliot Doctor Nelson, his guardian, wants to see him settled down. Or else the risk is that he might become a vagabond. Somerset It’s obvious that Isabel and Larry love each other. They really have a future and good margins by their youth. Give them some time for their engagement for one or two years. Maturin Everything should be settled now. Elliot Between ourselves, Larry has no solidity and can’t get any. Somerset Why do you think so? Elliot He is a dreamer. He lost his parents when he was small. He has grown up in loneliness and mainly associated only with books and philosophy. That girl Sophie he is dancing with is of the same kind, a lonely orphan who can only write poetry and not very well. They go better together than Larry and Isabel. Somerset But your niece loves him. Elliot Yes, that’s the problem.

Maturin If he doesn’t accept my offer they could hardly marry, at least not for some years. Louisa Here our dear young ones are returning. Isabel Now it’s my turn to dance with you, Larry. Larry With pleasure. (They dance away.) Louisa They make a beautiful couple indeed. Elliot They look like the eternally betrothed who never get married. Louisa Elliot! Elliot Am I wrong? We shall see. We need another round of drinks, don’t we, William? (They all leave for the bar in a good humour.)

Scene 2. Isabel Well, when do you wish us to announce our engagement? Larry Are we in a hurry? Isabel Not at all. We have all our life in front of us. Larry Exactly. Everything is served to us like on a silver plate, we love each other, and we have no rivals. It is as if we already owned each other completely without any threats. Isabel What is your angle? Larry We are so young. I would like to wait for two years. Isabel Two years? Larry I love you, Isabel. You must not doubt that for a moment. Isabel I don’t, but what will you do for two years? Did you intend to study and get some kind of a diploma? Or will you enter Henry Martin’s firm? It’s a terrific offer. Our country is at the start of an unheard of development and expansion, and he is right in the middle of it. Larry I have declined his offer. Isabel What? Larry I acquired a taste for Europe, Isabel. I want to go to Paris and live there for two years and get some education in the art of living. Isabel And shall I then wait here for two years? Larry If you want to. Isabel You put my love to test and trial. Larry You are only nineteen, and I am twenty. Everybody consider us too young to marry. Let’s mature first. Isabel You want us to give us a chance to mature? Is that necessary? Larry I don’t know if it’s necessary, but I would like to give ourselves that chance. Isabel As you wish. I will wait for two years but no longer. Go to Paris and make your life there as you wish. I might join you. I know nothing about Europe. Larry Everything is there that we are missing here. Isabel What are we missing?

Larry Perspective. History. Cultivation. Culture. Beauty. Art. Everything that is beautiful and makes life worth living. Isabel Europe is broke. Larry Yes, there is no money, but it’s not vital there as it is here. You can live very cheaply over there. Here everything is only about money, as if there was nothing beyond materialism. There you find everything except materialism, and I miss that asset here. Isabel (looks down) Gray Maturin would have loved to see you as his partner in the bank. He was the one who insisted on his father to take you in. Larry Banks are not for me. Isabel But they are safe. Larry I have my doubts about everything that is considered safe. Isabel What could happen? Larry Even banks can founder. Europe has already foundered and is starting again from scratch. I find greater security in those who have passed through disaster and survived than in those who haven’t yet had that experience. Isabel You are a philosopher. Larry Perhaps. Isabel (embraces him) O Larry, I love you so much! At least give me the hope, that it might not be full two years. You are welcome to come home earlier. Larry Unless you come to Paris. Isabel That is also a possibility. (embraces him) When will you go? Larry As soon as I can. Isabel I hope we will see each other before you go? Larry Every day. Isabel I have to be satisfied with that. Pardon me for crying, but it feels like a divorce. Larry It will pass. Everything will pass over. Isabel (embraces him again) Two years is a long time, almost too long. Larry Not when it has passed. Then it has passed quickly. Time is so relative. Isabel At least we will not age much in two years. Larry No. Only mature. (They embrace again.) Now I must go. Isabel Will we see each other tomorrow? Larry Definitely. (Larry leaves. Isabel cries.)

Scene 3. Louisa What does he mean? How can he do such a thing? Elliot Take it easy, Louisa. He hasn’t disgraced her. Louise She should break the engagement immediately! Maturin Honestly speaking, I don’t really understand your son-in-law to be. He couldn’t have had a better offer or a better starting point for perpetual expansion. His

future would have been secured for good. And then he throws it all over board. What does he mean? Gray He has to follow his own way, father. Maturin But what kind of a blind alley to nowhere is that and away instead of home? Elliot I knew it would take a wretched course. Honestly, I don’t mind. May he disappear in his dreams, and may Isabel find a better husband instead. Sophie There is no better one. Elliot What do you say, William, about this breakneck sudden turn without any reason or sense? Somerset I find it a stunning example of exemplary maturity. Elliot What do you mean? Somerset We were all agreed that they were rather young. He has also realized that fact. Almost no young people get that insight. Usually they want everything at once and rush in too fast, and then it ends in disaster and divorce. Also he couldn’t have waged on a better education than two years in Paris. Gray How does Isabel take it? Louisa She cries. Gray Then someone had better comfort her. Maturin There is a gentleman. It was my son who insisted that I should take on Larry. What a disappointment to both of us! Somerset Let them have their two years, and perhaps she will mature as well. She is after all only nineteen years. Elliot She is inconsolable. She will never get over it. She is like a fresh widow. She will never be able to stand a divorce for two years. She might as well scrap him at once and wage on better candidates. Such a man as Larry Darrell will never reach solvency. Louisa We will never forgive him. Somerset Calm down! They are only youths! Maturin If you throw away your life’s opportunity and decline the best and most beautiful girl of the county, you are unforgivably foolish and nothing else. Somerset I am not so sure. Give him his two years and judge him afterwards. Maturin (to Louisa) Will she really wait for two years? Louisa She says she loves him enough to be able to do it. Elliot I doubt it. I know her. It will never work. Maturin Well, we shall see, but my offer will not last for two years. It was now or never, and he has missed the chance of his life. (breaks up) Louisa She will never get over it. Elliot Oh yes, she will get over it. Just you wait. She will soon have a better fiancé. (Sophie leaves.) Somerset There will certainly be a sequel to this story, and I am sure it will be interesting.

Elliot If I find him when I am in Paris I will let you know what kind of misery and vagabondage he has gone down into. Somerset He will no doubt let us hear from him. He did after all promise to come back after two years. Elliot Do you think it will stick? Never, old boy. He has chosen a downhill course himself, and he will never get up again.

Act II scene 1. Paris. A café in Quartier Latin. Robert Graves The problem is that we have nothing to live for. The world war put an end to all idealism, all ambitions, all meaning of life, all future hopes and faiths, all belief in man and his infallibility, and we who are left are just grey shadows who have outlived ourselves. Look at poor Kipling, who is sitting there in the corner. He is here in France once more to try to find any clue to the mystery of his vanished son, lost without a trace and probably just another of some millions of unknown casualties, but he can’t even get any clear information about that. I have done with my past and give a damn about England and her greatness. The empire is a lost cause, and there is nothing more to do but to scrap it. Remarque All the same you still have got it, while we in Germany have lost absolutely everything. The peace treaty of Versailles forces us into a period of years of misery to which we cannot see any end, and it will only result in a very dangerous direction of angry extremist movements, which has to make us wonder what is worst, the communists or the national socialists. Mereshkovsky Still you retain here in Europe a kind of order, and above all you have democracy. At home in Russia everything is lost. We have nothing left, and an arbitrary dictatorship has seized all power and has started by exterminating all who previously belonged to the intelligent and educated class of society. Now we have no educated people left, and the result is chaos, anarchy, civil war and terrorism established in the ruling government. Ask Rachmaninov over there what he thinks about the situation. He couldn’t even play the piano in Russia any more. Rachmaninov I tried to cooperate with the new order. I stood up for its culture but was only assigned tasks below my competence and could not give concerts any more, so it was just to leave and at least save the life. Hemingway Here you are, Larry, the lost generation, the Europe of ghosts that survived itself, that can’t do anything any more but sit here in Paris in a kind of universal exile and drink and go down sinking in pathetic lamentations. Paris is still the best place in the world to live in, but there is no future here for sure. If I were you I would go further away. Larry I promised my folks to stay here until further, so that they know where they have me. Hemingway Where do you belong? Larry Chicago.

Hemingway The most godforsaken pit of all, the king of gangster cities. And surely your people would never come here to visit you. Larry (discovers Maugham) But here is actually one who is in touch with my people. – Mr Maugham, how very nice to see you! Please come over here! Somerset I am also very pleased to have come across you. I was hoping to see you somewhere. Larry I usually don’t come here since I am most at the university reading. Somerset Are you studying? Larry No, I am only reading for my own interest. Somerset Anything special? Larry At the moment it’s Greek. Somerset An inexhaustible subject. Are you in any touch with your folks at home? Larry Not much. They keep saying that they will come over here, but they never do. Somerset I have heard that the offer of Henry Maturin will be kept open as long as your engagement lasts. Larry The two years will soon be over, and I still have very much to do here. Somerset I can understand that. But Isabel will surely come across and visit you sooner or later, at least for a settlement if for nothing else. Larry She is welcome, but she must accept me as I am. Somerset How are you living? Larry As you see, as simple as possible. I live cheap on a cheap rent and manage more than well on my three thousand a year, so I can even save something. Somerset You were always so unpretentious. Larry In contrast to all other Americans. I couldn’t stand their boasting and urge to advance themselves, where the common law for all was the obligatory dance around the golden calf, the adoration of the reckless capitalistic unscrupulousness as the only salvation and possible correctness, and the worship of the right of vulgarity to dominate everything by its stupidity and ugliness. Somerset You really are most un-American but at the same time sound surprisingly much like Isabel’s uncle Elliot, who detested you and discarded you as a suitable husband for his niece. Even her mother was against an engagement and wanted her to break it when you went to Europe. Is she faithful to you? Larry As far as I know. Somerset I believe so too. You separated in perfect harmony. Well, have you considered the matter? Have you reached maturity? Do you intend to return to her? Larry That’s the question. The world war disturbed my mental balance of my soul, and I haven’t recovered it. Somerset What really happened? Larry Hasn’t Isabel told you? Somerset Yes, but I would like to hear it from the original source. Larry It was in March 1918, and we were in for a longer leave of absence, my best friend Patsy and I, when we received the order to make an inspection flight across

the enemy lines to then report our observations. He was an ace of flying and perfectly self-confident, nothing could happen to him, and I always felt completely safe together with him in the air. But suddenly there were Germans over us and we were involved in an air fight. I had two planes behind me and great trouble with navigating away from them, when I saw Patsy coming to my rescue and shooting down both the Germans, but it was with the greatest difficulty I then succeeded in landing. Patsy got down before me, and when I came out they had got him out of his machine and put him on a stretcher in wait for an ambulance. When he saw me he grinned and said with satisfaction, that he had managed to bring down my two pursuers. I asked him how he was, and he said that it was nothing but admitted to having been hit. Suddenly I realized that he was dying. “I’ll be damned,” he said and laughed, and then he was dead. He was twenty-two years and newly engaged and was getting married after the war. It was as if my soul had been clutched by a cold hand, and I felt my life had been brought to an edge, as if I had landed out on a razor’s edge. He was the most living person I have ever known, and then he was suddenly cold and dead with nothing remaining but an empty shell. It was the supreme cruelty and meaninglessness. Since then I have wondered what life really is for if it isn’t just a tragic mistake by a blind destiny. Somerset You are a typical representative of the lost generation. Larry I couldn’t marry Isabel with a clear conscience in total doubt of any justification for my own existence and still less accept the generous offer of Henry Maturin. I can’t believe in or trust a world of happiness and success and least of all in the America of omnipresent superficial vulgarity. What would be your advice? Somerset Carry on as you are doing. Take one day at a time and reflect. In time something will turn up to show you the way. Larry That’s what I am waiting for, but I am afraid I will have to wait for long.

Scene 2. Chicago. Gray What news about Larry? Isabel Nothing. Gray Haven’t the two years passed yet? Isabel In October. Before that I will go to Paris with mother. She needs a change and be uprooted now as she has turned diabetic, and uncle Elliot is already there. Gray Is he meeting Larry? Isabel Not if he can avoid it, but when we are there he will not likely be able to avoid it any more. He doesn’t even know Larry’s address. Gray Do you know it? Isabel Poste Restante American Express. A totally anonymous address, but he stays in Quartier Latin among the students and emigrants. Mr Maugham has met him among other Americans and Englishmen.

Gray Does that mean that he at least is studying? Isabel Not by any curriculum. Gray Daddy sticks to his word, and his offer remains as long as you are still engaged. But if your engagement is broken you must know that I am here. Isabel Thank you, Gray, but I will stick to Larry as long as possible. Gray I understand that. He is unique. Isabel Yes, he is.

Scene 3. A simple rented room with two windows, a bed, an armchair, a cupboard with a mirror, a heater and books on the mantelpiece. Enter Larry with Isabel. Isabel Is this where you live? Larry Yes. Isabel It’s very basic. Larry As basic as possible. The great advantage is the closeness to Bibliothèque Nationale and the Sorbonne. Isabel Have you lived like this for long? Larry Since I came here. Isabel What kind of people are living here? Larry I hardly know them. Some students in the attic, some old bachelors and a pensioned actress. It’s a very decent and peaceful place. Isabel No nightly customers? Larry One lady is visited by an elderly gentleman every second Thursday, but she may also have temporary guests. She is the only one except me who has a bathroom of her own. Isabel What luxury! Uncle Elliot was sure you were leading a self-indulgent life with heavy traffic. Larry (indicates the mantelpiece) There’s my heaviest vice. Isabel What is it? Larry My Greek dictionary. Isabel Are you studying Greek? Larry Yes. Isabel What for? Larry You can’t imagine the satisfaction and enjoyment of reading the Odyssey in the original language. Isabel What more do you read? Larry Everything remarkable in French literature and rather much Latin but mainly prose. Isabel And what’s the purpose of that? Larry Acquiring knowledge. Isabel It doesn’t sound very practical.

Larry But it is rewarding. I am reaching higher all the time. Isabel And when do you come to Chicago? Larry Honestly, I don’t know. There is so much for me to do here. Isabel Two years have passed. You gave me two years. Larry I need more time. Isabel How long? Five years? Ten years? Larry Perhaps. Isabel And what use will you make of all this wisdom? Larry If I ever manage to acquire any wisdom I should then be wise enough to know what to do with it. Isabel You are an American, Larry. You don’t fit in this dusty wardrobe of Spartan poverty. You don’t fit in a hairshirt and a monk’s cell. You were born to a better life than this. Does money mean nothing to you? Larry Absolutely nothing. Isabel And America? Have you forgotten all about your country? Larry Not at all, but I like it better here. Isabel You are missing the entire show, Larry. Europe is finished. Everything is in America and especially the future. We are growing into the world’s most powerful nation, and you are neglecting your duties to your home country. Can’t you see how irresponsible it is of you to bury yourself in books here in an attic? Larry I am searching, Isabel, and I want to find what I am searching for. Isabel And what about me? Don’t I mean anything any more? Larry You mean everything. I still wish us to be married. Isabel I have waited for two years. How much longer do you want me to wait? Larry We could marry at once if you wish. Isabel Will you not come home then? Larry No. We could marry here. Isabel And live here? In this hovel? I can’t support you. You will have to work. Larry I manage all right here. Isabel On three thousand a year? Larry I manage on half. The rest I save. Isabel We can’t support a family on that, Larry. I want children. Larry No problem. Isabel Do you know the cost of having children? You are so unpractical. I could never accept a life in poverty. I am used to brilliant parties and great dinners, rich associates and beautiful clothes. Your shabby circumstances make me shudder. Larry Isabel! Isabel I want to live, Larry, not be forced into a strait-jacket of narrow circumstances where you are obliged to turn every coin just to survive and manage one more tomorrow. You must work, Larry! It’s your duty to society! Larry So it’s my duty to start in Henry Maturin’s business and force people to buy his papers? Will I serve society that way?

Isabel There has to be bankers, and it’s a very respectable and honest way to make money. Larry There is nothing in Chicago of any interest to me. Even your uncle Elliot denounces the entire world of Chicago as intellectually absolutely worthless and much poorer than my simple place here. Isabel I can’t leave Chicago. I have lived there all my life, and I can’t let my ailing mother down. Larry Do you mean that there could be no marriage unless I come home to Chicago? Isabel Yes, that’s what I mean. Larry I can’t come home, Isabel. That would be my grave. Isabel You have to! I love you! I want you! I don’t want anyone else! You are the only one for me! And I can’t share the life you are leading here like a Trappist monk! Larry So it’s over? Isabel (removes her engagement ring) Here you are, Larry. Thanks for the borrowing. It was fun while it lasted. Larry Keep it as a souvenir. I gave it to you for keeps. Isabel I accepted it as a sincere evidence of your love, which has proved impossible, since you are too superior in your intellectual spirituality, which honestly speaking I don’t understand. Well, I will keep it at least as a sign of an unbroken lasting friendship. Larry Forever. Let’s now join your crass family and be polite enough to endure a conventional dinner in their company. Isabel Sometimes you sound exactly like my uncle Elliot, which strikes me by its identical similarity. I could never understand what he had against you. Larry Perhaps we are too much alike. Perhaps he envies me my greater freedom. He was always completely chained to his business. Isabel Yes, he is, and that’s why he can’t understand your voluntary poverty. Larry Well, we will have to endure each other at least for tonight. Isabel It’s always a pleasure to listen to both of you. (They leave as good friends without problems of the broken engagement.)

Scene 3. A fashionable restaurant in Paris. Elliot That’s the best news this year! I knew he wouldn’t make it! The boy was impossible. He actually threw away his life, when the turned down the best offer a young man ever received! Somerset The problem is that she still loves him. Elliot She will get over it. She will go back to Chicago, take care of her sick mother my sister, join the society life and enter better thoughts. She will probably marry Gray Maturin, who was eager for her all the time. He is an impossible oaf of no education, but he has money and can give her all she wants. Somerset Do you know where Larry has gone?

Elliot I heard the strangest rumours about him. He was planning for Greece but had second thoughts and is said to have started working in a coal mine somewhere up north, just to learn the situation of workers and what hard work means. As you know, he hasn’t worked all his life. Somerset Neither have you. Elliot No, but at least I made money. Why did he never take any academic degree, when he had such an evident penchant for studying? Could you understand it? Somerset It didn’t serve him. He wanted to be independent and find his own way. Elliot Obstinate wilfulness unto damnation. Such ego fanatics never end well. Isabel was lucky to get rid of him. Somerset I don’t think she feels the same way. Elliot Do you really think that he ever loved her, the way he behaved and acted? Somerset I think she was the only one he will ever love. Elliot And that chance he has forfeited by his own behaviour. What an idiot! Still I had the highest thoughts of him since he in contrast to all other hopeless Americans had some endowment. Somerset I am sure we will hear of him again. Elliot That will probably in that case only be reports of new sensational bloomers. ______

Act III Scene 1. Ten years later. A grand stylish apartment in Paris. Enter Isabel with Gray in a wheelchair. Isabel Look how excellently he has arranged things for us! Isn’t he generous? Gray Exorbitantly. I just wonder how he could manage the crash. Isabel He always had a fine instinct for business and always sold out in time. Lucky for us that anyone in the family got out of it alive. Or else we would all have been ruined. Gray We are, my love. I am sorry I couldn’t carry on giving you a decent life. Isabel It wasn’t your fault. All Chicago went under. Thanks to uncle Elliot we can now start all over from the beginning here in Paris and retain our pride and decency in spite of all. We did have ten good years after all. Gray And two wonderful daughters. Isabel We have to be content with having survived. Others jumped from bridges, laid themselves under trains or shot themselves. We can at least manage. Gray Without your care I would not have made it. Isabel You did what you could. Your father went under in the crash, and all you could do was to try to save what could be saved. Gray And it proved to amount to nothing. Isabel And not even your health.

Gray I should have given up like my father. Isabel Fortunately you didn’t. Gray Since you were there to stop me. Isabel That was the least thing for a good wife to do. Maid A gentleman is here to see you, madam. Isabel Who is it? Maid An old friend of the family, he says. He has greetings from your uncle. Isabel Show him in by all means. (She presents Somerset Maugham.) Somerset Your uncle told me that you lived here and asked me to see you. Isabel Mr Maugham! It must be ten years ago! What a happy surprise! Somerset So much has happened since then. Your uncle is one of the few to have managed well. Isabel Isn’t he generous to have offered us his Paris flat? Somerset Have you nothing left in Chicago? Isabel Nothing. Mother died long before the crash, and when the crash came we lost everything. Our choice was between a rice farm in South Carolina that had turned into a swamp and a new life in Paris in smaller circumstances. Somerset You made the right choice. But why are you in a wheelchair, Mr Maturin? Surely you didn’t have more than a nervous breakdown? Isabel It’s his headaches. When it strikes he is completely paralysed and can’t do anything. Somerset It will be a long convalescence for the entire world. Gray I regret, Mr Maugham, the loss of our status. We had everything, and now we have nothing. Somerset Except your uncle, who evidently is looking after you. Isabel Gray couldn’t get any work in Chicago any more because of his incurable attacks of migraine after the breakdown, so all we have to live on now is three thousand a year. Somerset Exactly the same as Larry’s yearly allowance. Isabel I know. Isn’t it ironic? He offered me a life here with him on three thousand a year, I refused to accept such a humiliation, and here we are now in an even worse humiliation. Who could have guessed it? Somerset You still had ten happy years, didn’t you? Gray No one can take them away from us. Isabel Do you know anything about Larry now? Uncle Elliot always used to brag about his extravagances in the wrong direction. Somerset They say he is in Asia. Gray In Asia? What is he doing there? Wasn’t the antiquities of Europe his special interest? Isabel He ought to have left Asia now. He wrote from different addresses over there in India, China and Singapore. I almost suspect he is back in Paris. Somerset I will find out about it.

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Gray I regret my invalidity, Mr Maugham. My life’s intention was to become a paragon citizen of society who made a good job for the common good, and instead I became a burden to everybody by my paralysing headaches. Isabel Don’t be sorry. I am here to look after you. Gray Most of all I became a burden to you. Isabel That’s the last thing you have become. (kisses him) How is uncle Elliot? Somerset He has never been better. He is in high favours shuttling between Paris and the Riviera and enjoying every invitation that he sees any possibility not to miss. He would like to have all of us for dinner. Isabel How nice. But try to search out Larry before we meet. If he is in Paris it would be nice if he came along. Gray I agree. Somerset I will see what I can do. (politely and amicably excusing himself and leaving.) Gray (when he has left) Do you think Larry could be found and return? Isabel He always returns. He knows what he is doing. It’s only we who don’t always understand what he is doing.

Scene 2. A joint. Elliot Imagine that Larry has been found and returned! I never believed it! But why does he want us all to dine in such a shabby place as this? It’s a third-rate eatinghouse! Perhaps he feels it’s typical of Paris, a bistro at the lowest level, a joint for stevedores, pimps and easy women, absinth drinkers and other downhill wrecks and pathetic outcasts, one or other street musician and sparrow woman singing gutter chants… Well, here they are. (enter Larry with Isabel and Gray.) Why on earth did you choose a place like this, Larry? Larry I usually go here. Elliot Why? Larry The food is cheap and good, and the house wine is the best in the neighbourhood. Elliot You are completely bogged down in Quartier Latin. Larry Not without reason. It’s the best part and the very heart of Paris. Elliot How nice to see you again, Gray. You look better. Gray Thank you. Larry has helped me. Elliot How? Isabel By a miracle! He has learned healing in India. Larry Not at all. It is simple fundamental yoga. I only helped Gray to help himself. All responsibility for your health is within yourself, and no one else can help you unless you make an effort yourself. Gray My headache is gone without a trace. I can only regard it as a miracle. Elliot What did he do?

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Isabel He hypnotized Gray into a state of trance, and when he woke up the headache was gone. It sounds very simple and must certainly have been more complicated, but I don’t understand either how he did it. Elliot Whatever did you really busy yourself with over there in India, Larry? Larry I devoted myself to my health, both physically and spiritually, but above all I enriched myself spiritually. Elliot So you learned a lot of mumbo jumbo and black magic and stuff like that and how to climb ropes that stand straight without hanging and how to lie comfortably on spike mats… Larry (laughs) Not at all! I just found myself a suitable teacher. Elliot Some sort of guiding teacher? Larry Yes, a teacher to show me the way. Elliot What way? Larry Up. Elliot There’s the rope trick again. Isabel The way you are talking! Shouldn’t we order soon? Larry It’s already done. I ordered the best on the menu. I am a good friend of the chef. I hope you will like it. Here comes the wine. (A shabby waiter, simply dressed without an apron, brings a decanter. Larry gives a sign and allows Elliot the test.) Elliot (tastes thoroughly) Mmmm. You are right. This is unusually good to be an ordinary house wine. (Larry signs to the waiter to serve the others.) Isabel Tell me more about India, Larry. Nothing could be more exciting. How did you find your teacher? Larry Jesus must have been there, he who said, ‘search and you shall find’. I searched and found, but it was not until I came up into the mountains for real that I really started realizing where I was heading. Isabel And where were you heading? Larry I think that happiness is waiting for me at the end, but that it is of a totally different kind than what you could expect. Elliot India is in the fashion. They gave the Nobel prize to an Indian guru before the war, and Romain Rolland, the great pacifist, is completely lost in Hinduism. The fellowship of Monte Verità is also heading in that direction with the mystic Hermann Hesse for a guide. Isabel Tell us more. Sophie (has entered and seen them, completely decayed) I know those people. Gray (discovers her) Who is that? Isabel My goodness! Sophie MacDonald! Sophie (comes up to them) Hallo! Isabel (rises and embraces her) Sophie! What has happened to you? Sophie Can’t you see? Gray (to Elliot) Is it Sophie who married Bob MacDonald?

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Elliot The same. Her husband was driving when they had a fatal car accident, he and the child were lost while Sophie was unlucky enough to survive but had a long convalescence and rehabilitation. She has never recovered. Sophie Hallo, Larry. Larry (rises and brings her a chair) Sophie No. Larry We insist. We are after all old Chicago chums, you know. Sophie (takes a seat but somewhat embarrassed) It was such a long time ago. So you are still married to Gray, Isabel. Isabel Elliot, you said once that man could never have the same woman for longer than five years. Gray and I are still like newly married after ten years, and we never intend to separate. Gray I agree. You have lived too long without women, Elliot, and know nothing about them. Elliot It’s safest not to know anything about them. Larry How nice to see you again, Sophie. Are you still writing poetry? Sophie No, it was a long time ago. (fills her glass with their wine and drinks) May I? Larry Of course. We just started. You are welcome to have dinner with us. Sophie Thank you, but I am not hungry. (wants to get up when something like a hoodlum enters) Larry No, stay on. Hoodlum I told you not to flirt with the guests! Larry She comes from our own city and is a childhood friend of us all. She is our guest. Sophie (to the hoodlum) Leave me in peace for once! (The hoodlum leaves them but keeps them under observation at some distance.) Isabel Who was that? Elliot You had better ask no questions. Sophie My employer. I shouldn’t have shown myself. Forget me. Isabel Never, Sophie. You stay put. We are still best friends. Sophie (suddenly bursts into tears) Larry (tries to comfort her) It’s all right, Sophie. You are among friends. Sophie (reacts and rises suddenly) No! You don’t know anything about me! Why the devil did I have to be reminded of my old life again? Damn! I just want to forget! (breaks up and goes to the hoodlum, who brings her out) Elliot I am afraid I suddenly lost my appetite. Gray Me too. Isabel Take it easy. She will not come back. Larry (rises) I must make sure that she will manage. (leaves) Elliot That’s all we wanted. I guess there is no point in remaining? He will certainly not come back. Isabel I was so much looking forward to an evening with him to hear him tell about all his adventures.

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Gray The atmosphere is ruined, and our good mood is gone. Isabel Poor Sophie! (rises. The others also rise, and they all leave.) Larry (returning after they have left) Pity! Some other time. (leaves again)

Scene 3. A shabby place. Sophie lying on a bed under the obvious influence of opium, ill and coughing. She rises half way, obviously drunk, has another glass, stretches out again, cries with her hand to her front, in general despair. – Enter Larry, who sees her, rushes to her bed, falls on his knees by her side. Larry Sophie, this is not you. Sophie What are you doing here? Larry I called for a doctor. You are ill. Sophie I know. Leave me alone. Larry No. Sophie (looks at him, sobers up somewhat) Everyone was in love with you when you came home as a war hero. You were to marry Isabel. What happened? Larry I got other things to think about. Sophie Like what? Larry I got other things to do as well. Sophie Like what? Larry Like learning something about life. Sophie For what purpose? Everything must go to hell anyway whatever you do. Larry You are not to be blamed for your fate. You happened to a misfortune. Sophie You don’t have to remind me. Larry But you could raise yourself out of it. Sophie How? Larry (sits down closer to her) Do you remember how we used to write poems to each other like the worst aliens of school? We were outsiders and orphans both of us, and we found each other in a secret penchant for poetry, of which we were almost ashamed, since all the others regarded poetry as ridiculous. But poetry is an elementary secret of life, a key to its innermost entity, an opening door to eternity and the basics of beauty, since it focuses and pinpoints the word, which is the spiritual basis of all life. Sophie Now I recognize you. But what are you doing here? I am a fallen woman, I am lost, I have given up my life and become a prostitute, my pimp owns me, and all I can do is to drink and fuck, the more the better, for the easier I forget myself, my failure and the whole damned reality. Larry You have not failed. Sophie Haven’t I? What is this then? (indicates the scruffy room) Larry A mask to your real self, which still is there. Sophie You believe so? Larry Yes.

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Sophie And what can you do about it? Larry At least remove the mask of your false martyrdom and restore you. Sophie How is that to be done? Larry Come away with me from here. Sophie Where? Larry Home to my place. Live with me. Sophie Like a married couple? Larry Why not? Sophie Do you really want to marry me? Larry Why not? Sophie You are crazy. Larry On the contrary. I know you. I know who you are. I can take care of you and restore you. I can’t give you back your husband and your daughter, but I can help you stand on your own two legs and give you back your self respect. Sophie I don’t think I ever had any. Larry Then it’s about time that you acquired it. Sophie Good lord, you actually mean what you are saying. Larry Why wouldn’t I? Sophie No conditions? No snag? Larry Yes, one. Sophie Well? Larry You must stop drinking. Sophie Do you think it would work? Larry It has to work. Sophie Well, Larry, you win. Fair deal. Let’s try it. I agree to the experiment. If we succeed we could perhaps marry. Larry It’s worth an effort. Sophie (suddenly embracing him) Oh Larry, I have been so terribly lonely so terribly long! No one to speak with, and my French is a bad joke. When I suddenly saw you there all together in one of my customer joints I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a shock. And you rose up and treated me as if we were still all young and fresh, as if nothing had happened, as if I never had been married, as if I never had lost… Larry It’s over now. Restart from the beginning. Sophie I will try. Do think Isabel despises me? Larry Not if you stop drinking. Sophie Very well, I will stop drinking. Larry That’s all you have to do. The rest will be easy. Sophie I almost believe I can trust you, Larry. Larry You can. Sophie (embraces him) Oh Larry, it almost feels as if I had suddenly come home! Larry (embraces her tenderly) That’s the intention.

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Act IV scene 1. Isabel’s home. Somerset Why did you wish to see me so suddenly? Isabel Have you heard the terrible news? Larry is going to marry Sophie. Somerset Why is that so terrible? Isabel It’s impossible! He has gone mad! We happened to the drunk slut at a joint which Larry invited us to without suspecting anything, and Gray was very upset. And now she has seduced our Larry! Somerset I still can‘t see what is so terrible about it. Isabel She is drinking all day and goes to bed with every man suggesting it! Somerset That doesn’t have to make her a bad woman. There are many highly respected citizens who drink and have a vulgar taste. He is perhaps the very man she needs to be cured of her grief. I don’t think he will allow her to drink or be promiscuous any more. Isabel He claims that she has stopped drinking, and that idiot thinks she is cured! Somerset Couldn’t she be then? Isabel I know her since childhood. She was liable already then. And when a woman falls she is definitely lost and can never rise again no matter how hard she tries. And do you think she could stick to such an altruist as Larry? Of course not! He is all too good for her. She will use him as far as possible and then disappear. It’s in her blood. She will make life a hell for Larry. Somerset Give them a chance. Let them try. She was your best friend from the beginning. And why are you dragging me into this? What can I do about it? Isabel You are the only person who has any influence over him. He likes you and listens to you. You must try to avert what could only turn to misery for him. Somerset If I try he will only say that it’s no business of mine, and he would be perfectly right. Isabel But we can’t just stand by and watch him ruining his life! Somerset Gray is his best and oldest friend. Let him try. Besides, you underestimate her potential. Prostitutes can make very good wives, they are grateful and humble to their men, they have an invaluable knowledge of human nature and know exactly how a man is to be treated and pleased. Isabel Do you think I have sacrificed myself to let Larry fall into the hands of a nymphomaniac? Somerset How have you sacrificed yourself? Isabel I gave him up once just to not stand in his way. Somerset Nonsense. You sacrificed him for a diamond ring and a sable-coat. Isabel (on fire at once, hurling first possible object against him. He ducks.) And you are supposed to be an English gentleman! Somerset I never pretended to be. Isabel Get out! I never want to see you again! Somerset Try then to understand Larry a little! After all, you have known him all your life. He is completely different from all of us by not being any egoist at all. It’s

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almost as if he didn’t have an ego. He has always followed his ideals by complete self-sacrifice, and there is no higher and more powerful passion. Now he sees an opportunity to save the soul of a fallen woman, and nothing can stop him from carrying through the experiment. We have to just accept it and wait and see if it will succeed or not. And if it succeeds we would be criminal if we tried to stop it. Isabel It can’t succeed. I can only see her abyss for him. I have always loved him, and no one can love more unselfishly than I love him. I never asked him for anything and I never will. But then I cannot let another destroy him. Somerset I don’t think he can be destroyed. He is too wise for that. Isabel What shall I do then? Somerset If you don’t want to lose him you must make the best of friends with Sophie. Include her in your circle, like you used to do, and let her join your dinners. Treat her like a human being. Why not go out shopping with her? If she is about to be married she will need some new clothes. Isabel Very well, I will try to behave as long as possible. Somerset No second thoughts or invidious intrigues. Isabel I will try not to. Somerset You will see that it will all be successful. Larry is in charge of his life. Isabel What do you think he really found in India? Somerset That’s the great question.

Scene 2. A finer restaurant. Elliot (is already seated when Larry and Sophie enter) Well, there you are, my dear children. I must congratulate you to this important step in life, and especially you, Larry, who never married before. Imagine that even you would finally fall! Larry There are still three days to go. Elliot Three days of freedom, and you don’t even consider concluding them with an honorary bachelor’s party! Larry I am thirty-two and too old for such things. Elliot As a bachelor you never grow too old, but as soon as you are married you immediately get too old. Larry (to Sophie) Old Elliot was always a sarcastic jester but always succeeds in being benevolent after all. Sophie I know. I know him. He saved the lives of Isabel and Gray when they had nowhere to go. Elliot Here they are. Gray How nice to see you! Congratulations, Sophie and Larry! So you will finally get settled, Larry! Larry That‘s what it looks like. Isabel You look splendid, Sophie.

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Sophie I have been on the wagon now for three months. Larry has helped me. Elliot You really look dry, dear me. Well, I myself don’t drink anything else than tonic water, but I still must offer you some cocktails. Larry Thanks, not for us. Gray I am hungry. Shouldn’t we at once attack the food? Elliot As you wish. May I see the wine list, please? (A waiter gives him the wine list.) I simply must make sure that the wine you are having under my supervision is first class. Gray And where will you go for your honeymoon? Sophie We had intended Greece. Larry For ten years I tried to get there, but there was always something coming up in between. Isabel Your wanderings brought you to India instead. Larry Among other places. Gray And thanks to that you could cure me by your secret tricks. You can’t imagine how grateful I am. Now I haven’t had a headache for three months, and as soon as I can get a job I will start working again. It is altogether to your credit alone. Larry Not at all. I just helped you to find yourself and mobilize your own resources. All you need is your own good will, and that is with everyone. Waiter Are you really not going to have anything yourself, Monsieur? I am certain that a few drops of zubrovka wouldn’t harm you. Elliot Zubrovka? Do you have zubrovka? Waiter We just had a shipment from Poland. Elliot It’s so difficult to find nowadays. May I have a look at a bottle. (while the waiter fetches the bottle, to the others) It’s the kidneys. My doctor forbids me to drink any spirits any more, but zubrovka is something really healthy. (The waiter brings the bottle.) The real thing. I can see that at once! It couldn’t be more genuine! It’s a certain grass that the Poles put in the liquor that gives it a very special quality of its own. You have to test it. Gray No thank you, I will stick to brandy. Larry We decline. Isabel Let me try it. Elliot If you do me such an honour, my dear niece, I will keep you company with a few drops, just to make an exception. No doctor will watch me here. Isabel It tastes divine! It’s like mother’s milk. I never tasted anything so good. Elliot Another glass, Isabel? Isabel Oh, I dare not! But it’s divine. I am so glad that I got to know it. Gray, we must get some. Elliot I will send a few bottles home to you. Isabel Thanks, uncle! Gray, you must taste it! It smells like fresh hay and spring flowers and cowberries and lavender, it caresses the palate and is like listening to music in moonlight. Larry Are you drunk?

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Isabel No, only enthusiastic. We must not miss that fashion show later, Sophie, where we must find the right bridal outfit for you! Sophie Yes! It will be great fun! (They continue their communion in perfect harmony.)

Scene 3. Isabel’s apartment. The doorbell. The maid opens. It’s Sophie. Sophie I had an appointment with Isabel. We were going out to buy my dress. Maid She had to go out, but do come in and wait. Sophie What happened? Maid Little Joan had a toothache. They had to go to the dentist. Sophie How long will it take? Maid Perhaps an hour. But do sit down in the meantime. Would you like some coffee? Sophie Thank you, I would love to. (makes herself comfortable. The maid leaves. She lights a cigarette and starts smoking.) I hate waiting. Why today of all days, Isabel? Couldn’t little Joan get her toothache some other day? (looks around restlessly smoking. Catches sight of a bottle on the table.) It must be that zubrovka that uncle Elliot was talking about. It will do no harm to smell it. (opens the bottle and smells it) Indeed! The scents of beatitude itself! It couldn’t be more seductive! (replaces the cork when maid brings the coffee) Maid Help yourself. There is more in the kitchen if you want some more. (leaves again) Sophie (has her coffee while constantly eyeing the bottle. When she has finished the coffee she lights another cigarette and starts walking around to get away from the bottle.) No books to look into! And the pictures I have seen before! She should have returned by now. (watches the clock) And it was planned to be such a joyous day! (sits down again. Can’t keep herself any more, takes the bottle and pours herself a small glass.) A small taste of it can do no harm. (empties it at once) What a bliss! He was right! This is something very special! (pours herself another glass) But what am I doing? Already done! Larry, where are you? You should see me now. I actually haven’t felt so good as this for three months. (empties the second glass) It’s strong as well, strong and wholesome – and irresistibly tasty. But why did she leave the bottle like this so blatantly conspicuous? Well, it’s her own fault. He would send some more bottles. (pours the third glass and empties it at once) I just feel better and better. Larry, I am afraid there can’t be any wedding. I have already fallen down again. Sorry to disappoint you. We didn’t go well together anyway. Ask Isabel why she let the bottle stand here when I arrived and she was gone. It certainly isn’t my fault. (empties the fourth glass and pours another) I might just as well empty the whole bottle and have done with it. It you are to fall, you might as well fall all the way. I should leave then before she comes back. She mustn’t see me like this. She would laugh me to scorn. My dearest childhood friend. I

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should look up Hakim then and improve the indulgence with a pipe. He probably has some new boys and goats in line for me. He always has. I am not finished yet. But the bottle is. (rises with a last cigarette, mimicking Isabel) Thanks for the visit, Sophie. How nice that you liked the zubrovka. I had left it there especially for you. Welcome back and drink some more. It’s only good for you. You don’t have to see me ever again anyway nor Larry. (puts down the last emptied glass, butts the cigarette and leaves.) Maid (comes out after she has left, understands nothing and takes out the coffee tray.)

Scene 4. Somerset What do you mean? Was there no wedding? Elliot The girl disappeared. Just as well. It would have been a disaster in any case. Somerset Tell me what you know. Elliot It was three days before the wedding. Sophie and Isabel had made a date to go and buy the wedding dress. Isabel had to suddenly bring one of the children to the dentist, and meanwhile Sophie had to sit and wait. When Isabel returned, she was gone. She didn’t come home for the night, and then Larry sounded the alarm to let the police search the city. She was found nowhere. He searched everywhere, but she was like devoured by darkness. After three days Larry learned from her concierge that she had packed her bag and gone away, no one knows where. Somerset What do you think really happened? Elliot I haven’t the faintest idea. Somerset How does Larry take it? Elliot He doesn’t want to talk about it. Somerset And Isabel? Elliot Her entire attitude screams ‘what did I tell you’, but her mask is intact. She must rejoice inside about the matter gone to the dogs, but she doesn’t show it. Somerset Something tells me that Sophie must have gone to the Riviera. That’s where Americans always go when they leave Paris. Elliot You may be right. I am moving down there now for the season. Perhaps we will come across her there. Somerset I will tell Isabel and Larry about our plans.

Act V scene 1. An opium den. Hakim Here is all you need. Anything else? Sophie Keep me company. I am afraid. Hakim There is always company for you here. I can get you whatever kind of boys you desire. You always have good customers here. What are you afraid of? Sophie I am afraid that Larry will find me.

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Hakim You did eliminate all traces? And left the hotel? And said that you had gone away? Sophie He is combing all Paris. Hakim He will never find you in my cellar. Sophie Thank heavens for your opium. That saves me. Drinking can go too far sometimes, so that I see my dead child and wake up at the hospital again, as if I had never left it, but the opium is a blessing. Hakim That’s intended. Sophie I shall not stay for long. Soon I will really go down to the Riviera, it’s a high season there at this time of the year among the sailors of Toulon, so there is much to do, and many eager customers with plenty of money to collect, and there Larry will never find me. Hakim Why are you so afraid of him? He only wished you well. Sophie That’s exactly why. He wanted to save me and failed. Hakim Perhaps you should have let him. Sophie Too late now. I am finished. Every morning when I wake up I am in hell and only want to die, for it’s exactly like waking up at the hospital, and all I get to know about my own condition is that my child and my husband are dead while I lie chained in bed and can only receive syringes, as if I hadn’t myself seen my child bloody dead beside me in the wreck of the car and my husband at the wheel all covered in blood and rattling from outrageous pains… I can never get rid of it. It will pursue me until they fish me out of the canal, and poor Larry with all his good intentions only made the awareness of the pain even worse… Thank goodness for good old Isabel and her zubrovka! That set me on the right course again. Hakim Another pipe? Sophie Thank you. That’s exactly what I need. (Hakim prepares another pipe for her, she lies down trying to make herself comfortable and indulges, crying.)

Scene 2. Isabel Give up, Larry. Larry Never in my life. Isabel She was a hopeless case. If once you have lost your only child and refuse to start all over from a new beginning, nothing can save you. She was just a woman, Larry. Larry You mean I should be glad to have got rid of her? Anything might have happened to her, and I have given her my word and cannot go back on it. As long as she lives there is hope. Isabel She was the one who deserted you. Accept it. Realize the cold facts. Be realistic. Your idealism could find better channels. Larry How long will you remain?

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Isabel As soon as Gray has found a good job at home we move back. You have helped him back to life. He will always be grateful to you for that. Larry I am glad that I could be of service. Isabel You saved his life. He was more or less a vegetable and paralysed like a beaten man who could no longer get up, Larry But he could get up, and so can Sophie. Isabel Hardly any longer. Larry I don’t think we will see each other again if you are going so soon. Isabel Where will you go? Larry I will go down to the Riviera. Your uncle is gradually ebbing out down there, and Somerset Maugham is with him. They think Sophie also could turn up there. Isabel You are more driven by your sense of duty and responsibility than by your love. Larry My only love was you. Isabel Like you were mine. Why didn’t it work? Larry You didn’t have patience and said no, and my life was too miserable for you. Besides you had Gray. Isabel Without you he would have become a millstone around my neck. Larry What luck that he didn’t then. Isabel We only owe you our thanks for that. Larry Perhaps we’ll see each other again in America. Isabel Are you planning to come back? Larry Why not. Everything is possible. Isabel There is always some hope. (offers her hand) Larry Au revoir. (kisses it and leaves without anything further.) Isabel No, I will never see him again. And if he comes home to America he will only vanish in the muddled masses and the general stress. He fits better in his secret monastery in the Himalayas. There you can have a clearer view of the world without getting lost in it, like poor Sophie.

Scene 3. A café in Toulon. Maugham passes by and catches sight of Sophie sitting alone by a table with an empty glass. She recognizes him and nods. Sophie Sit down and have a drink. Somerset Yes, if you keep me company. Sophie How are they at home in Paris? Somerset I haven’t seen them since you disappeared. What happened? Sophie I didn’t marry Larry. Somerset Yes, I know that. How come? Sophie When the moment of truth arrived, I couldn’t become a kind of Magdalene figure to his Christ. No thank you, not for me.

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Somerset But you didn’t change your mind until the last moment. Was it cowardice or fear or something else? Sophie Do you want me to talk about it? (Maugham nods.) I hadn’t been drinking anything for three months and hadn’t even smoked. I don’t mean holy water. (giggles) It was a terrible feeling that only grew worse all the time. Sometimes when I was alone I could start yelling. I could bear it somehow together with Larry, but even he could not look after me all the time. Isabel wanted to give me a bridal outfit. I wonder what become of it afterwards. It was super elegant. We had agreed on that I would fetch her and that we would go to Molyneux together. I can say that much to the honour of Isabel, that what she doesn’t know about clothes is not worth knowing. When I came home to them the maid said that she had had to go to the dentist with Joan but that she would soon be back. I went into the salon. The maid brought me some coffee, and the coffee was the only thing that kept me there. On the table there was also a bottle. I had a look at it and saw that it was that Polish trash we had discussed at the Ritz. Somerset Oh, the zubrovka. I remember that Elliot had promised Isabel to send up a few bottles. Sophie You all boasted about its sweet smell and excellent taste, so I became curious. I opened it and smelled it. You were absolutely right, it smelled awfully good. I lighted a cigarette and tried to focus on the coffee. That was excellent as well. They talk so much about French coffee, but I leave it, I prefer the American. That’s the only thing I miss here. But Isabel’s coffee wasn’t bad, I felt rather low, but after a cup it felt better. I watched the bottle which was just standing there. It was a terrible temptation, but I didn’t want to think about it but only lighted another cigarette. I thought Isabel would come any moment, but she didn’t. I became awfully nervous, I don’t like sitting and having to wait. There was no book in the room that I could have a look in. I rose and walked about and watched the pictures, but I couldn’t get my eyes off that darn bottle. Then I thought I could pour a glass and see what it looked like. It had a beautiful colour. Somerset Light green. Sophie Exactly. It was funny, but the colour reminded exactly of the smell. It was the green nuance that you sometimes find in the middle of a white rose. I had to know if it tasted something like that, I felt that a few drops could do no harm, I only intended to take a few drops, but then I heard a noise and thought it was Isabel coming, so I emptied the whole glass as I didn’t want her to take me by surprise. But it wasn’t Isabel. But it felt so heavenly good! I hadn’t felt so good for such a long time. I felt like starting to have a new life. If Isabel had come at that moment I would probably be married to Larry by now. I wonder how it would have worked out. Somerset So she didn’t come? Sophie No, she didn’t come. I was very cross with her. What kind of a behaviour is that to let me sit and wait? And suddenly I saw the glass was filled up again, I had of course refilled it without thinking of it, but I swear that I was unaware of it. It would have been stupid to pour it back into the bottle, so I drank it up. You

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can’t deny that it tasted heavenly. I felt like a new being, I thought I could laugh out aloud, I hadn’t felt like that in three months. Do you remember the old fool recounting that he had seen the Poles emptying large glasses without blinking? Well, I thought I could take as much as any darn Pole. Do it for real, if you have to do it at all, I thought, so I dropped the coffee-grounds in the sink and filled the whole cup. Talk about mother’s milk! Oh, kiss me! Then I don’t remember much more, but probably there was not much left in the bottle when I was finished. I thought I ought to disappear before Isabel got back. But it was a narrow escape. Just as I entered the hall I heard Joan’s voice. I ran up another staircase and waited until they had entered the flat, then I rushed down and got a cab. I told the driver to drive like mad, and when he asked where to I laughed him straight to his face. It was a wonderful feeling of relief. Somerset Did you go home to your place? Sophie Do you think I am an idiot? I knew that Larry would come after me. I didn’t dare to go to any of the old places, so I went to Hakim. There Larry would never find me. Besides I needed a fix. Somerset Who is Hakim? Sophie Hakim is a man from Algiers who can always provide some opium if you put money on the table. We were real good friends. He gets whatever you need or want, a boy, a man, a woman or a nigger. He always has half a dozen Algerians stored. I stayed with him for three days. I don’t know how many customers I had. (giggles) All shapes and colours and sizes. I had much to catch up with. But I was afraid. I didn’t feel safe in Paris. I was afraid Larry would find me out. I also had no money, you had to pay those blackguards for lying with them, so I left, went home and gave the concierge a hundred francs to say that I had gone away if anyone asked for me. I packed my things and took the night train to Toulon. I couldn’t feel quite safe until I was here. Somerset And have you been here all the time since? Sophie You bet. And here I intend to stay. You can get any amount of opium, the sailors bring it from the Orient, it’s good stuff, not the kind of trash they trade in Paris. I got a room at the hotel Commerce et la Marine, you know. It just stinks of opium when you come home at night, (snuffs with relish) at the same time sweet and rank. They are lying smoking in their rooms, which gives you a kind of homely feeling. They never bother about who you are bringing with you. At five in the morning they come knocking at the doors, for then the sailors have to get on board, so you never have any trouble getting rid of them. I saw a book by you by a bookshop down at the harbour. If I had known I would meet you I would have bought it and let you write a dedication. Somerset Perhaps it wouldn’t have been of much pleasure to you. Sophie Why not? I can read, let me tell you. Somerset I believe you can write as well? Sophie Well, I wrote some verses as a child. They were certainly not very outstanding, but I liked them rather well myself. I suppose Larry told you about it.

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Life is of course a hell, but if you want to get anything out of it, it’s damned silly if you let it run out of your hands. Will you write your name in the book if I buy it? Somerset I am leaving tomorrow. If you really want to, I could get you a copy and leave it for you at your hotel. Sophie That would be nice. (A fog-horn.) There’s my own boy. (waves to a company of sailors) You can have him in for a glass, but then you had better vanish. He is a Corsican and as jealous as our old friend Jehovah. Somerset (inspects the arriving sailor) Are you fond of that kind of rough type? Sophie The rougher the better. Somerset With that sort of fellows you might end up with your throat cut. Sophie It wouldn‘t come as a surprise. That would be an efficient end of all the misery. Somerset I have to go now. Sophie How is uncle Elliot? Somerset He is dying. Sophie I hope you will have time to greet him from me one last time. I will probably neither see him nor the others any more. Don’t forget about the book. Somerset Never while I live. (rises, kisses her hand and leaves.)

Scene 4. Sophie’s shabby hotel room in Toulon. Larry (sits down on her bed) The main thing is that we have the situation clear. Happy journey, Sophie, to your next life and a better life, which you certainly deserve. This you have already forgotten, and death is just a release at last from all traumas, sorrows and disappointments and actually just the ideal total new start. Somerset (enters) Has anything happened? Larry We have been summoned to an identification of Sophie MacDonald’s body. They found a photo of me and a book dedicated by you to her. Somerset How painful. How did she end? Larry All naked in the sea with her throat slit open probably by a sharp razor. Somerset Will it at all be possible to identify her? Larry We have no choice. We are the only ones the police could find who were in contact with her. Isabel and Gray have gone back to America, and how is old Elliot? Somerset Dead and buried with all the catholic pomp and circumstance he could raise with his last supreme vanity. Therefore Isabel and Gray could then sell his flat in Paris and are now at large with a new life in Dallas, Texas. Larry Then we shall never see them again. Do you know something that I don’t know? Somerset About what? Larry About why Sophie dropped off? Somerset Unfortunately I know everything about it. What is it you don’t know? Larry I know nothing but can guess a great deal.

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Somerset What are you guessing? Larry That Isabel had a hand in it. Somerset Not just one. She was all hands in it. She was the one who cut Sophie’s neck. Larry How? Somerset I can’t keep anything away from you, Larry, since you honestly tried to marry her and pull her out of her tragedy, and I know that you will never have anything more to do with Isabel and Gray. Therefore I can tell you what I know. When Isabel and Sophie were to meet to buy Sophie’s wedding outfit, they made a date at Isabel’s place. When Sophie arrived, Isabel had left with her daughter to the dentist. As far as I know, Isabel has never before walked out on a settled date. Left on the table for Sophie had been left some coffee and zubrovka. Isabel didn’t come. Sophie smoked but was tempted by the zubrovka and tasted it. Larry My God! Somerset She told me everything. She gorged on it and could never face you any more. Larry Do you think it was intentional by Isabel? Somerset Of course it was intentional. She exposed Sophie to a cruel test which neither anyone else in that situation would have managed. She wasn’t exactly a puritan, as you know. Larry But why did she do it? I can’t understand such a cruelty in Isabel. Somerset She still loves you. She could never let you go or grant you your freedom. Her marriage with Gray was just a marriage of convenience and a result of her American vanity to maintain a dazzling appearance, outwardly a happy marriage with two sweet girls and everything, but without love. All true love is unhappy, like Sophie’s and hers for you. Larry (sitting, clasping his head by his hands) How terrible! These women have pursued me all my life! Somerset We will never be without them, and the best thing we could do about it is to love them. Larry My love comprised more than just women, I actually never had any interest in sex, naturally you engage in it with pleasure as long as you are young and well, but when your knowledge of life deepens you realize that the spiritual love for all life and the universe is more rewarding and lead to better things. Mundane love is mortal, like Sophie and Isabel, whom I will never see again, but spiritual love is endless and immortal. Somerset What are your intentions? Larry To fulfil my duties to Sophie and follow her to her final rest. Then I will probably go to sea again. There are many ships here to choose between in Toulon. Somerset Where will you go? Larry Anywhere. You can learn more about life everywhere, even in New York. I might end up a cab driver in New York. That way you can always stay in close contact with life and people.

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Somerset So let’s go to the identification. Then we will probably not see each other again. Larry I don’t think so either. (Maugham helps Larry to his feet, and they leave together.)

Virhamn 17.6.2013, translation 2.10.2020.

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The Ship of Destiny A chamber play in nine scenes, inspired by Sutton Vane’s ”Outward Journey” (1923) and its major film version 1944 ”Between Two Worlds” by Christian Lanciai (2019)

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The Characters: A harbour-master Louis, exiled Austrian pianist Mabel, a passenger Jerry, American journalist An official Elsa, Louis’ wife Walter, steward Robert Ruben Herbert, doctor Doris Harold Benjamin The action takes place in London during the blitz 1940 and on board a ship.

Scene 1. A terminal. A group of people sit patiently waiting for something to happen. Louis turns up, nervously on edge, looking around as if he sought some way out. An official turns up, observes his nervousness, turns towards the whole group. Harbour-master (to Louis) Just sit down and take it easy. You will all get on board. Louis But I have no visa. I am waiting for my visa. Harbour-master Just sit down in the meantime. (turning to all of them) Don’t worry. A car will come and take you all to the ship. (Sirens are heard and explosions.) Mabel (an elderly lady) It’s a new bomb attack. Harbour-master Don’t worry. You will be among those who will get away. Jerry (slightly under the influence) We wish to get away at once. Where is the car? Harbour-master Don’t worry. It’s on its way. As soon as it arrives, it will take you all to the ship, and you will be safe. Louis But I haven’t got my visa yet. Harbour-master Follow me. I will bring you to the passport control. (Louis follows the harbour-master, who shows him into an office.) (to the man in charge) This man has no visa. Official Do you have a passport? Louis Of course. Here it is. (offers his passport)

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Official (examines the passport) Hem. Austrian citizen. Interesting stamps from France. You have been active in the resistance? Louis Yes, for several years. Unfortunately I had to escape the country in the end. Official At least you got away alive, and you are safe here. And now you wish to proceed to America? Louis Yes, as soon as possible. My wife is American. Official Unfortunately you have to obtain a visa yourself as an Austrian citizen, since Austria is one of the countries we are at war with. Unfortunately this demands some paper exercise. Louis Can’t I leave at once? It would be most desirable. Official Unfortunately not. The process time will take at least six months. Louis I can’t stay and wait here that long. My situation is desperate. I can’t manage here when London is daily subject to paralysing bomb attacks. Official I am sorry. There is nothing we can do. You must be patient. Louis You give me no other alternative. Official You were lucky to get out of France alive. That’s unfortunately the best comfort I can offer you. You must have patience. If you made it out of France alive you will probably also survive all the German blitz attacks on London. Louis I am sorry. My situation is too desperate to allow me any peace or patience. I must travel on at once. Is there nothing you can do? Official I am sorry. Many are in the same position as you. They also have to wait. Louis But the group of people sitting outside? They will be on the same boat. And they will have a car lift directly to the ship. Official They are all British or American citizens. Their documents are in order. They have no citizenship in any enemy country. I am sorry. It will all work out well if you only take it easy and grant yourself the patience that is needed. Louis It will not do! (leaves the office in despair) Harbour-master (returns, talks to the official) Can’t you make an exception? He is an acclaimed concert pianist of international renown from Vienna. If he gets stuck here it might turn out a tragedy. Official He must have patience like all the others. Harbour-master (hurrying after Louis) Sir, I trust you have a home or somewhere to stay? Louis Yes, I have a temporary apartment. Harbour-master Go home then and take it easy. Think it over and relax with a bottle of rum, and then you will wake up in a better mood tomorrow. Louis It’s not that easy. This was my last chance. (hurries on.) Harbour-master (aside) I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid.

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Scene 2. Louis’ temporary apartment, a rather shabby basic place. Louis (enter staggering, a finished man) I am lost. What more have I to live for? Everything is lost. I can’t play any more, my hands are shaking after all the traumas in France. I fled to France after the fall of Austria to the nazi dictatorship, hoping to continue as an active musician in France, which worked out well until the war started. France fell like a house of cards. I joined those who refused to give up, especially Artur Koestler, but he quickly got over to England. I was left as a full time partisan, which cost me my music. My only chance to recover the music is to leave the war, that’s why I must get away from England, but now I am stuck here infinitely by the bureaucracy. That leaves me no other choice. (closes the windows and puts on the gas in the stove, sits down by it in the hope that it will pass quickly. Then there is the doorbell, followed by eager knocks.) Not now! Who could it be? (doesn’t know whether to answer or not, when someone breaks in.) Elsa! Elsa I have been looking for you all over the harbour! In the terminal they said you had gone home. Couldn’t you get a visa? Louis They asked me to wait for six months. I can have a visa in six months. Elsa Can you wait that long? Louis You know I can’t. I must get away from the war. Elsa Didn’t they know who you were? Didn’t they realize that you were an international pianist of world renown and that you just had to get over to America? Louis What’s the use? The war reduced everyone to mortal victims. No one can escape. It doesn’t help how talented you are or what you have done or what reputation or status you have. The war sweeps you all away to nothing. Elsa But it’s not acceptable! Louis I know. Elsa (feels the smell, discovers the switched on tap) But what are you doing? Louis There was no other way, Elsa. I am desperate. I can’t accept or endure the war and the world that has given itself over to it. Elsa It will pass! It’s like a storm that you’ll just have to endure and survive! You must have patience! Louis That’s what the harbour-master said. Do you think that will help? I am lost, Elsa. I can’t take any more. (shows his hand) Look, Elsa! They are shaking! I can’t keep them steady any more! I can’t concentrate since the worries keep assailing me all the time, sabotaging and ruining the music! I can’t face up any more to this reality which is effacing humanity to replace it with the opposite! Elsa But you must not give up! That’s the last thing you may do! Louis I know, but I am not more than human, and I know when I have reached the end of the road. Elsa But there were others also in the terminal. They were all waiting for a car that was to take them to the ship. We were all going on the same ship. We are the only ones missing. There must be a way for us to get on board anyway.

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Louis As stowaways? Elsa As anything! There is always room in the cargo space! Louis It’s too late, Elsa. Elsa It’s never too late! (traffic outside in the middle of all the bomb explosions) Look, Louis! There is our car! Our fellow passengers are all going with it! We must hurry down to catch it! Louis Save yourself, my love, but I am an Austrian citizen and politically an enemy. Elsa Nonsense! Your only citizenship is music! Louis Tell that to the passport control. (A sudden explosion outside.) Elsa (hurries to the window) It was the car! A bomb hit the car! I hope the others got away! Louis Elsa, either you get away now and catch the boat, or else you stay here with me and die with me. Elsa So you have definitely given up? Louis Yes, for this lifetime. My life is ruined by the war, and I am stuck in its death trap, but you can make it. Elsa I will never leave you. Louis Then die with me. I feel the effects of the gas. I am getting drowsy. Elsa (embracing him) Louis! Don’t give up! Live for the music! Louis What music? World politics have killed it for me. (passes out) Elsa (still embracing him) This is not acceptable. It just will not do. But I can’t leave you. (leans against him, putting her cheek to his) If you give up I must follow you, for I refuse to survive alone. Come then, my love, and let’s embark on the journey to eternity. (embracing him, she also passes out.)

Scene 3. On board the ship, on deck. (enter Elsa with Louis) Louis How did we get here? Elsa I don’t know. We just happen to be here. Louis It almost seems unreal Elsa But it’s the right ship, and we are on our way to America. Louis Was it you who got me on board? Elsa I don’t remember. I just remember the explosion outside and the car going up in smoke which all our fellow refugees were supposed to take, but somehow we seem to have managed to get on board anyway. Louis Perhaps the harbour-master found a way. Elsa I never saw him. But we definitely got away under exceptional conditions. Louis As what? Elsa Covertly. The ship is secret. You may not visit other areas on board than our passenger’s deck, and you may not ask the crew or the command any questions. Louis What kind of a command is it? Elsa I don’t know. I haven’t seen anyone belonging to it.

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Louis But there must be some commanding officer in contact with the passengers. Elsa Yes, there must at least always be a steward. Louis I am sure we will run into him. Elsa But even he will probably not be able to answer any questions about the ship’s destination or position. Louis It’s enough that we know we are on our way to America. Elsa Yes, let’s assume that. Nothing else is possible. Louis Shall we go inside and see if we find any one on board? Elsa There must at least be other passengers. Louis Exactly. (They go inside the ship.)

Scene 4. The lobby. Jerry (at the bar when Louis and Elsa enter) Welcome, fellow passengers! You are lucky! The bar is open and well equipped! It’s just to take your choice – everything is included in the ticket. Louis So you also got on board. How about the others who were sitting there waiting? We thought you all were lost in the car that was hit by a bomb. Jerry They are all here. We made it all. We got away. It’s just to celebrate. And here we are now as first class privileged passengers on a cruising ship to America. We couldn’t have it better. Steward (kindly) What will it be, Sir? Louis Are you the steward? Jerry His name is Walter, and he is amiability itself. He is only here to make the passage as agreeable as possible for us. Walter What will it be, madam? Elsa Thank you, I think a brandy would do me some good. Jerry And what about you, fellow refugee? What are you escaping from? Louis Why do you think I am a refugee? I could have stayed in England. Jerry We are all refuges here on board. That’s why we are here. I have carefully examined the ship, that is those parts of it we have access to. We are limited to our deck and our cabins and may not try to get up to the bridge or any other part of the ship that is screened off. You could say that we are prisoners and fenced in, but we have the whole ocean around us, and those parts available to us are the best parts: the bar, the restaurant, the lobby, the salon, our first class cabins – all the best. Elsa It sounds too good to be true. Jerry Yes, doesn’t it? It is too good to possibly be true, but still we can’t deny that we are here. Louis What have you learned about our restrictions of freedom? Jerry The steward is the only member of the crew we are allowed to speak with. We will never be able to even see anyone else. But within the best parts of the ship our freedom is total

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Elsa What about dinner? Jerry Rather soon, I think. It’s included in the ticket. Louis How did you get your tickets? I could never get any visa. Jerry There was no problem. We who should have gone with the car that exploded already had our tickets. How you got on board I don’t know. Louis Neither do we. Jerry What is the last thing you remember? Elsa I and my husband were in my husband’s apartment. He had tried to come with you but had been obliged to wait out an uncertain process time for his visa. I found him there. While we were there we saw your car coming to fetch you and how it was bombed and exploded. We thought you were all in the car. First we considered ourselves lucky who hadn’t joined you in it. Jerry Yes, you are really lucky being with us on board. We are a privileged lot who got away by pure coincidence. But here we are now and safer on sea than any Englishman on land. Louis But there are submarines. We live in the worst terror of the war everywhere and also on the sea. Jerry That’s why we may never show any light when we go out. That’s why the ship goes so quietly and slowly. It’s all about security. Elsa Are you all refugees? Jerry Almost. But in different ways. One is escaping from justice. One is on the run from his creditors. Another is trying to leave his personal problems behind. Elsa And you? Jerry I am not on the run. I am going home. I am a journalist and intend to write an article about the poor shipwrecked people on board. You fit perfectly into the picture. (to Louis) I understand that you have been in the French resistance and acquired some psychic damage by the war and therefore want to get rid of it. Elsa It’s worse than that. He is a pianist and can no longer play because of his hands shaking. Jerry Post-traumatic stress syndrome? Louis Yes, that’s what they call it. Jerry It’s very common nowadays. Most people suffer from it, and most of them perish in it. Elsa That’s why Louis must get away from the war at any cost. Louis I find the sea very soothing and relaxing. Jerry Take the opportunity and enjoy it. It will be a long voyage, since the ship goes as slowly as possible. Louis Yes, you could believe it was a ship hospital. Jerry Perhaps it is, but in that case we will never see the other departments and their patients. (enter Robert) Here is Robert. Robert I thought so, Jerry, that I would find you here at the bar. Jerry Where else could you possible have found me? I knew you would be the first one to turn up here, but these two actually anticipated you.

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Robert Who are they? Louis And who are you? I can’t remember having seen you among the others who were waiting to be driven to the ship. Jerry Allow me to present him. Robert is the maximal refugee. He is the most typical war wreck of all. He had a bad time in the previous war and has never recovered. He could never adjust or make himself compatible with the world after 1918 and has never been able to show himself among people since he is too sensitive by his permanent war damage. Those who suffered a grenade shock in the last war are uncountable and all damaged for life, and Robert is just one of them. How did you get on board, Robert? Robert I should have been bombed in London together with all the other innocents who happened under the bombs, but somehow I got away. I don’t know how I ended up here. I am like a displaced guest at a party who has come to the wrong place and can’t find any bearings in the brave new world which, just because the first world war ended after only four years, decided to launch another even worse world war which would last longer. Believe me, this war will go on until we are all dead. But so far we are obliged to survive and endure the hell no matter how little we wish to, and believe me, we will get the hell paid for being alive when we should be dead. My life has been like that all since the end of the last war. I don’t accept the new world and can’t fit into it. I am impossible in it and stamped as more or less a mad outsider who has no place in this world, while I think I know better. Perhaps there is nothing wrong with me. Perhaps it’s the world that is all wrong. It derailed completely in 1914, and just because it has accepted its derailment and never bothered to try to find its way back, it has introduced an even worse derailment by a new even more disastrous world war. Am I right or am I wrong? I live, and I say what I know and publish my truth, and since I am not dead when I should be I am right. If I had been wrong, and the world would have had the right to discharge me as an anachronism, then I would not be here but dead. But who are you? Elsa This is the world famous concert pianist Louis Loewenhaupt, just like you a victim to the war and a wreck stranded on board this strange ship sailing like a mystery across the sea, and he also suffers from a post-traumatic stress syndrome – he can’t give concerts any more, for his hands are trembling after his war experience in France. We thought we could find a safe refuge in England by our friend Artur Koestler, but then they started bombing London, and Louis almost lost his mind when he was brought across the limit to a panicky desperation. We just had to leave England, since the war now had come to England. Robert You are escaping like everyone else. Louis And like you. Robert But I am not escaping the world. I am escaping history. I deny it and can’t accept it, I curse it for what it has done to the world and humanity, and I consider the course of history a meaningless universal berserk rage, which human reason just can’t accept and tolerate. Anyone who thinks at all just has to detach himself from the world and history. It’s not for humanity any longer and their welfare but for their

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destruction. The world and human civilization have turned self-destructive, and therefore I denounce it and curse it, since I wish to live in spite of all. Louis Do you have friends in America? Robert Not that I know of, but I don’t care. I trust Jerry. Elsa Jerry is just a licentious and generally discarded journalist who only indulges in drinking. Jerry Thanks for that. I feel honoured and as highly rated as Robert here as an incurable war invalid both physically but even more in his soul, for he can never become human again. Robert No, it’s humanity that never can become human again. That’s why I detach myself from humanity, because I want to be human. Jerry A wise decision. Give him a double, Walter. Walter With pleasure. (serves Robert a double whisky) Robert And you, strange complacent lackey, what part are you really playing in this mysterious journey to nowhere? You just keep up a gentle nature and good show but should know everything about the ship that none of us may know. Walter I just stick to my duties. Ask no questions, and you’ll not have to know what you don’t want to know. Robert Is it that simple? Are those your orders? Does the command trust you with following such directions? Walter My friend, I have no choice. I just run my business and do what has to be done. Mind your own, and I will care for you to make you all satisfied. What more can you ask? Robert The ideal steward. What do you know about him, Jerry? Jerry No more than you. He is a good-natured sphinx who serves us more than well and with honour. Elsa Will we have dinner soon, Walter? We are getting hungry. Walter Quite soon. I think they are already preparing the table in the dining hall. Elsa I think we are all rather hungry. We shall probably meet more passengers in there. Jerry Perhaps it’s about time to retire in that direction. What do you say, Walter? Walter Apply a few more drinks, and then you can gradually start moving down to dinner. You have all the time in the world and no schedule to observe, so it’s just for you to take it easy and enjoy. Elsa What more can we ask for? Life on board is getting more and more like something of an ideal existence, in contrast to the blitz of London. Walter That is perhaps intended. Robert (to Jerry) I believe Walter knows something of the utmost importance. Jerry I think he knows everything, but he may not speak about it. Walter My task is to care for you for your own good, nothing else. And it pleases me to do so. Jerry Then we can safely grant ourselves a few more drinks, or what do you say, Robert?

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Robert Absolutely. Jerry Come, Louis and Elsa, and keep us company. You drink, don’t you? Louis I never say no to a glass of white wine. Elsa Neither do I. Jerry That’s the spirit! Pardon me for sticking to whisky. Robert Whisky is the universal medicine as the first elixir of life in the world. I am with you, Jerry. (They all get their drinks.) Jerry Cheers then! (They all toast together.)

Scene 5. The dining hall. The guests gradually enter and take their seats, all with their faces to the audience. When they are seated they all start to serve themselves with food from the buffet, kindly aided by the steward, who is the director. No other personnel are visible. General small talk, until all are comfortably seated with their plates full. Walter You are most welcome all. It’s the sincere wish of the shipping company that you all should be as comfortable as possible during the voyage and never lack anything, least of all food and drink. Louis (rising) Thank you, Walter, but now when we all are here and there seems to be no one else coming I dare to put the question openly to all of you: Is there anyone among you who knows how he or she at all came on board? Mabel We all have our tickets, don’t we? Jerry Louis and his wife came on board without tickets. Walter Allow me to answer your question and dispose of all possible question marks. Yes, you all have your tickets, and you all got on board in the last minute, while Louis Loewenhaupt and his wife almost missed it, but since the ship was unique and specially arranged to transport passengers in extreme emergency across to America from the deadly threat in England with bomb raids day and night over London, the command made an exception and allowed Mr and Mrs Loewenhaupt to join and come along although they did not have any valid visa documents. Ruben Is there anyone who remembers anything of the formalities at the embarkation and the boarding? (All look at each other like searching for an answer from the neighbour, while they all more or less negatively shake their heads.) That’s what I suspected. No one knows anything, and our steward refuses to answer questions. Walter I am not allowed to answer questions. It’s for your own good. Mabel The car that was to take us to the ship exploded, didn’t it? That could have given us all something of a shock. After a serious shock there are few who remember anything of the incident. Ruben You suggest that you all would have been seized by the same shock and more or less got on board like unconscious sleepwalkers?

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Herbert I happen to be a doctor. It’s a well-known fact, that if you happen to a shock the memory of everything that led up to the shock is obliterated until you wake up after the shock. For example, if a boy is struck by a lightning out in the country, he could then walk around all night without knowing where he is or where he is going, until he wakes up after the effects of the shock have ebbed out. Jerry Robert, you were shocked for life in the last world war, since you never got over your grenade shock. Could it have been, that we were too shocked by the bomb hitting the car that was to take us to be aware of what we did afterwards and thus taken ourselves aboard like sleep-walkers? Herbert Robert knows what shocks can do, and I endorse that it could have happened just as you say, Jerry, mostly because no other explanation could be possible. Do you know anything about the passenger procedure before the ship left the port, Walter? Walter I can attest to the fact that you were all led aboard. We simply had to take care of you. Herbert Is the answer enough satisfying, Mr. Loewenhaupt? Louis Somewhat. Elsa And then we would have joined the ship so to say at the fag end. Walter Yes. But the only important thing is that you are alive and well on board. Please provide yourselves now richly. If anything runs out, it will immediately be replenished. Doris That does not explain the mystery how we all could survive the car bomb. Jerry Louis and Elsa were not in the car. Doris But all the rest of us were. Herbert Do you remember the bomb, Doris? Doris I recall the dreadful terror on hearing it coming whistling through the air with a deafening shrill banshee-like scream, and I think we all knew it had to hit us directly or at least hit the ground in the immediate vicinity. Where it finally hit the ground I don’t know and don’t remember. Herbert But you remember that you got out of the car alive? Doris No, I remember nothing after the screech of the bomb. Herbert That confirms my theories. Harold (rising) Since we anyway are investigating the reason for our strange situation here, I must ask you all some questions, since we would not all be here unless we had something in common. At least I am convinced that destiny works in that manner. My first question is: do you also feel like me, or anyone of you, that we have landed in something having its closest resemblance to a Limbo? Mabel Limbo? What’s that? Louis It’s the forecourt to hell. All those end up there for whom there is no place in either hell, heaven or purgatory. There you find all the righteous heathens from the times before Christ. It’s like a vacuum. What is your impression? Harold My feeling of it is of an existence which is neither life nor death.

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Jerry But by golly, we have everything here on board! Our existence here is pure paradise! We may all eat our bellies full and only of the best stuff, we may quench our thirst in unlimited quantities of any drink of any advanced quality, we have a steward like a godsend ideal of a perfect one whose only interest appears to be making life as enjoyable as possible for us as long as we are on board. God knows what kind of hells then will expect us when we disembark. Perhaps the war also will reach America so that we then will have to escape to South America… Harold Which brings me to the next question. You, Jerry, are here alone on board, and none of you brought any family members with you, apart from you, Mr Pianist, who managed to bring your wife along. But all the rest of you seem just like me to be completely alone in life. Is my assumption correct? Do you have any relatives in America that will take care of you when you land? Do you have any relatives left in England that would cry for you if our ship suddenly was torpedoed by a German U-boat? Which of you have any family at all? Doris I am alone. The god s made sure of that. I left England to at last get rid of all my men. Mabel I am a widow with nothing left to live for except a daughter in America. Harold And what about the rest of you? Are you also alone in life? (Most of them nod.) That’s what I thought. Destiny has brought us together on a journey which seems to lead away to nothingness, and none of us can understand or is at all clear about how she landed on board. Most of us seem to have got away by a miracle from a bombed taxi which no one knows whether it succeeded in getting here or not, but we all got on board. We face an overwhelming mystery comprising us all, which could be the task given us by destiny to get to the bottom of. Louis At least to get the better of. Benjamin Mr Loewenhaupt, you appear to be a famous pianist. How would it be if you played something for us? We have a fine grand piano here in the hall, and we lack some entertainment, while everyone knows you are a qualified pianist. How would you feel about the suggestion? Louis I suffer from a nervous damage after the ordeals of the war and its shocks in France, which made my hands tremble chronically, and I can no longer play faultlessly. Jerry Never mind that as long as you play. Louis But it is awkward. I don’t want others to hear when I make mistakes. Herbert (walks up to him) Let me see your hands. (Louis shows his hands.) Pardon me, Mr Loewenhaupt, but I can’t discern the smallest tremble in your hands. Louis (examines his hands himself and closely. After a while:) By my soul, I think the shakings have vanished. Herbert It must be the wholesome sea air. Elsa (comes up and also studies his hands) You are not shaking it all! It’s true! The trouble has passed! Jerry So he can play for us. Benjamin We can’t force him, but he could at least try.

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Louis You asked for it. I take the risk, but will not be responsible for the consequences. (goes out to the grand piano and sits down out of sight starting to play, carefully at first, then more boldly: Chopin’s Ballade in G minor.) Jerry I knew he could play. Benjamin We all knew that. Doris I can’t hear that he is making any mistakes. Herbert If he does he masks them well. All pianists make occasional mistakes, but if they are good no one will notice it except themselves. Elsa I am so glad for his sake. He has recovered the grip and the touch. Now he can go on playing for the entire journey as if the war never was. Mabel If he can play to make us forget the war, no one could play better. Elsa That’s what he is doing. (Louis has interrupted himself after the first exposition and come back in to the others.) Benjamin Don’t stop! Play some more! Louis I have to collect myself in between. I haven’t played this piece for a very long time. I need to practise more. Elsa Here you can practise every day. Louis I know, and I intend to do so. Harold With your music you have brought us straight out to eternity. Louis You can thank Chopin for that. Harold No, we owe our thanks to you, because you are the one who have brought Chopin back alive. Louis He never died. Harold But I hope you will continue keeping him alive. Louis Fortunately there are many more than I all over the world who apply themselves to that activity. Herbert I am very glad for your sake that your nervous shakes are over. Louis It’s like a miracle. It must be due to the good sleep I get at sea. All since I came on board I have slept well every night, while I earlier always had terrible constant nightmares or couldn’t sleep at all. Herbert Like so many others who have been marked by the war. Elsa You haven’t taken your snack yet, Louis. Louis No, I just returned for that purpose. Then it will do with an excellent cup of coffee. Benjamin The divine potage above all. Louis I am inclined to agree with you. Jerry What’s wrong with whisky? Benjamin There is nothing wrong with whisky, but coffee is more beneficial as it is no intoxicant. Jerry Do you mean to say that getting drunk is not beneficial? Could it possible be wrong? Consider our situation! We got away alive from the bombing inferno of Britain but didn’t get rid of the war anyway! We are travelling in secret across the Atlantic with no lights visible as a kind of ghost ship during the night and

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slowly, so that the engines will not raise the curiosity of U-boats, who long for sinking whatever peaceful British ships they can find. We could be sunk in any moment. We don’t even travel in a convoy. And is it then wrong and unhealthy to drink yourself into a pleasant state for a change? When even the ship offers free drinks all the way? Benjamin I didn’t say that. Jerry But you prefer sobering coffee. Benjamin My friend, by all means, drink your fill of whatever you choose, but let me have my coffee. Jerry I didn’t want to stop you from that. Benjamin And I didn’t want to stop you. Jerry Then we are agreed. Benjamin Mr Steward, I can’t enough marvel at the generosity of the ship towards its brave passengers. You offer us an overwhelming dinner buffet and drinks in unlimited quantities and explain it by the excuse that it is included in the ticket, but honestly speaking I doubt it. Our ticket said nothing about dinner and drinks being included. Your generosity almost gives me the impression of being intended on purpose, as if it anyway would be inevitable that we all must die on board or that that this would be our last journey anyway. Can you explain this incomprehensible generosity to me? Walter Honestly speaking I don’t quite understand it myself. I only know my directions, and since they anyway are absolutely positive and constructive I don’t mind following my orders meticulously. Benjamin So you can’t help us solve the mystery? Walter What mystery? Benjamin The one Harold was elucidating, why we all are here, how a common denominator still seems to have brought us together, what really happened with the taxi car which exploded but brought us all on board anyway and anyhow, the fact that no one remembers the check-in, as if we all were clandestinely brought on board, and all the other mystifications on board. You are actually the only member of the command that we ever saw any shade of. Walter It’s part of the regulations. Just because you are prone to ask questions about your predicament you are deprived of all possibilities of any contact with those who run the ship, for security reasons and for your own safety. Benjamin The only thing that I can observe as a certain fact about our journey is that we still are moving forward and going ahead. Walter At least something. Benjamin But will we reach America? Walter We shall see. Benjamin Well, I imagine it will take some days and some extra days, with this snail speed. Walter Fortunately the weather is favourable. I heard some good weather forecasts for the entire journey.

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Benjamin It’s good to know that we at least will not run into any iceberg. Walter That’s the last thing that could happen to us. Benjamin That sounds reassuring. Ruben On the other hand, that’s what they used to say on board the Titanic. Harold (coming forth) What does the steward say? Could he help us to some orientation in the great mystery? Benjamin He is very helpful but only makes matters worse by making the mystery more inextricable. Harold What do you think yourself? How did you get here? Benjamin I escaped my creditors. I was bankrupt, and everyone desired to flay me alive. I had nothing left to give. It was just to run away with the first available Atlantic cruiser. Harold And no family? Benjamin My wife left me ages ago, and my ladies have always left me. Harold A common fate for incorrigible bachelors. Were you happily married? Benjamin Not at all. Harold So it was just as well that she left you. Benjamin Honestly, I didn’t care much about it. It was rather the same to me if she left me or hung on to me. We had had our good time together, and it had run out with time. Harold And your other ladies did the same? Benjamin Yes, but they grew tired much more quickly. Harold I consider all bachelors happy and fortunate for being bachelors and being able to endure it. Don’t you ever feel alone in the lack of female company? Benjamin Doesn’t the Bible expressly say: “It’s not good for man to be alone.” Yes, of course I feel alone, but still I prefer that to be stuck with some shrew. Harold I could almost say the same. Louis (to Elsa) Harold’s performance gave me something to consider. Would you like to follow me outside for a while? Elsa I always welcome every opportunity for a breath of fresh air. Louis Lets’ take a break then. We could continue with the banquet later. Come! (They leave discreetly.)

Scene 6. On deck. Elsa What was it you came to think of? Louis What Harold did in there was to question our entire existence. It made me wonder and start reconsidering. Elsa Did you reach any conclusion? Louis I don’t know yet, and that’s what I wanted to discuss with you. Perhaps you have the same feelings, inklings and apprehensions. I can’t quite get my bearings on them yet.

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Elsa Tell me! Louis Harold’s conclusion was that we all had something in common, our loneliness, our exposure, our lack of families and the strange circumstances that led to our ending up here. Elsa Tell me, no matter how unpleasant it is. Louis We don’t know ourselves how we really ended up here. We don’t remember. It’s the same with the others. They all seem to have come here with that car, but no one knows how they got out of it when it exploded. We actually saw from the window how it was bombed and caught fire. Elsa We couldn’t see if our friends were in it. Louis No, we couldn’t, and that leaves us all possibilities. But then think of our own situation. I had turned on the gas, and the gas was streaming affluently, I would have died if you hadn’t suddenly entered. That interrupted my intention, but did we ever think of turning off the gas? Elsa No. Louis There you are. Elsa But when the car exploded outside, your window broke, and we went there to see what had happened. That should have interrupted gassing the chamber. Louis But consider if we didn’t do it enough. The thought hit me, by Harold’s speech, with pointing out the unreal nature of our common situation on board, which he likened to something like Limbo, that – could we all be dead? Elsa What do you mean? Louis Imagine if we all have ended up in an existence after death? Consider. We should have died from the gas poisoning, we were already rather befuddled when the car exploded, and everyone in the car should have perished with it. What if they did? No one of us was prepared for death, except possibly me, who had been considering suicide already for a long time. But then you came along and brought me better thoughts and so to say recalled me to life and the lust of life. Imagine if we all were left hanging somewhere between life and death? We were all interrupted in our intention to save our lives – and landed here. Elsa Do you suggest a possibility that our existence and all of us are unreal? Louis Yes, I would like to investigate that possibility. Elsa It’s impossible. The fact is that we are all real. We eat and enjoy good food and drinks. Our steward is real although he was neither in the car or up in your apartment with us. We had never seen him before. The purpose of all the protection policies and regulations of the ship is to avoid attention by hostile U-boats and is quite normal. We must not forget the war and its horrible reality. That the command has implemented extra security measures for our protection is also logic. At least they gave us a steward to care for us. And your music. If anything is real, it’s your music. You can play again and better than ever, which you yourself attribute to the wholesome ocean air and that you can sleep well for the first time since very long. No, Louis, everything is convincing no matter how unreal and strange it may appear. It is reality that is extremely absurd and not we.

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Louis But isn’t it a little too good to be true? We came on board without tickets and are still invited for the same enormous buffet and unlimited drinks at the bar like everyone else. And how wondrous hasn’t our journey been so far! The fogs have never lifted, we still haven’t seen the horizon, which creates the illusion like as if we were sailing on clouds all the time, which is further accentuated by that the ship is so quiet and travels with almost uncanny quietness. Everything on board is like a dream. And I know that for certain about dreams, that they can often be experienced as more real than reality. You can feel scents in the dream, you can feel close relationships and material objects, there is always something concrete in the dream that links it to reality no matter how absurd and illogical the intrigue and the story of the dream can be, and it’s the same dreamy character about all the life on board. Elsa I still believe more in the reality of your music than of reality. Don’t we have each other? Aren’t we loving each other? Don’t we feel it when we embrace, and don’t we experience each other as more than real in our intellectual togetherness here out on deck? Don’t we feel and enjoy the fresh air? No, Louis, everything here is real and more real than any dream can be. Louis I hope you are right. Elsa Shall we join the others, before they start wondering where we are, and perhaps get worried that we might have jumped over board? Louis I believe that’s the last thing we will do, especially considering that our investigation of this extraordinary reality has only begun. Elsa Let’s fulfil it and hear what the others could think and say about it. Louis I suspect they are all as confused and wondering about the situation as we are. Elsa I suspect that too. Jerry (showing up) Sorry to intervene. So you believe that we are all dead? Louis No, we just wonder. Jerry Do you think we will ever have any clearance of the matter? Life is after all as unreal and incredible as death. Louis Do you see them as two different dimensions of the same existence? Jerry Something like that. But to explain myself further: the others got worried about your staying out here so long and asked me to go out here and check if you still were present and hadn’t jumped over board. Louis No one would have any reason to do that on a voyage like this. Jerry That’s what I mean. At the same time it would be rather unnecessary, wouldn’t it, if we all were dead already. Louis Do you attach any credibility to that theory? Jerry It is as interesting in its absurdity as our whole existence here on board. It can’t be excluded or discarded, no matter how unreal it is. Elsa It is impossible, since Louis can play the piano. Jerry You find that a proof that we are not dead? It is undeniably a strong argument. But who can’t play the piano in his sleep and with any advanced skill in his dreams?

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Elsa But you all heard how Louis played. Would you all then have had the same dream? Jerry You couldn’t be more convincing, Madame Loewenhaupt. Still I wouldn’t directly exclude the theory that we all could be dead, mostly because it is intriguing and interesting. It will be most rewarding to hear the views of the others on the matter. Louis Shall we go inside and ask? We were already on our way in, weren’t we? Jerry Absolutely. Lets join the others in the bar and keep them company. They all should be there by now. Louis Then also the steward could take part in the discussion. Jerry Exactly! After you, ladies and gentlemen! (They all three go back in.)

Scene 7. At the bar. The banquet scene is over. Instead all are at the bar. Jerry (enters with Louis and Elsa) Hallo, everybody! Our pianist has had an excellent idea! He thinks we are all dead! Benjamin What an absurd idea! Is it true? Mabel That’s what I suspected all the time. I knew I would never see my daughter again; if I reach America she will probably be dead. Doris Are you serious? Louis No, it’s just a theory and possibility, which occurred to me by Harold’s interesting observations and conclusions. I simply followed his train of thought and drew the consequences. Harold I have actually entered the same train of thought myself. Just think of the possibility that we actually all could be dead and that being the reason why we are here? Imagine if we all actually were lost in that car and we simply have suppressed and lost that memory? Robert But the ship is still real, and we are alive. We breathe, and I feel exactly the same pains and damages after the last war as before I came on board, but I know that I did get on board, and I don’t think any of us could deny it. Doris But imagine if we all really are dead and have landed, as Harold suggests, in Limbo, in a no man’s land between life and death. None of us was prepared for death, we were all set on getting on board, and then came that bomb and struck the car in a direct hit. Weren’t we all in that car? Harold Your reasonings are all quite relevant, Miss Davis. No one can deny that you are thinking rationally. Robert But do we have any possibility at all to find out the truth? Benjamin That would be if someone of the command could inform us more explicitly about the matter.

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Elsa The only representative of the command who has been allowed to be in touch with us is our steward here. Harold Well, my good Sir, have you anything to say or comment on our speculations? Walter I think you all had better refill your glasses with a drink of your preference. Jerry A splendid idea! The solution of all problems! Think about it while you drink and feel well, which will bring you on better thoughts! It couldn’t be better! (has his glass refilled) Benjamin I really think we all need a regular grog. Harold But what are your grounds for your interesting theories? Do you have anything to support them with? Louis No, only indications. How our journey is wrapped up in mystifications. The foggy weather which never lifts. We have so far never seen the sea. Our isolation on our own deck without any possibility of contact with other decks, any other official in command than the steward, the strange generosity and care about our welfare without any obvious reason, the nature of unrealness over our whole existence, and not least the fact that we have been allowed to journey forth without a convoy completely unprotected and exposed to any submarine attacks out in an open sea swarming with enemy U-boats, while none has tried to sink us. Jerry Just wait. They will come, sure enough. Benjamin We are going ahead so quietly and in protection of being alone, wherefore we so to say pass unnoticed on this great ocean. The German U-boats are only interested in convoys. Harold But why this singular privilege to enjoy special protection and so to say being specially chosen to be brought inaccessibly and inviolably across the sea of war of only darkness and death towards an unknown destination… Doris Isn’t it America? Harold Yes, it is formally, but we are far from there yet. All these strange not to say unique circumstances make me inclined to in the highest degree take your theory seriously, Mr. Loewenhaupt. Louis It’s still just a theory. Harold But nothing contradicts it – so far. Benjamin So far you haven’t wished to closer comment on our speculations, Walter. Walter The less said about you and the world situation, the better. Benjamin That would indicate that you know something. Walter Yes, I know too much. Benjamin And you can’t reveal anything of what you know even to just please us? Walter You have to bide your time. All things will be resolved with time. Meanwhile, the best advice I can give you is, be happy that you are alive. Jerry That I buy without arguing and intend to celebrate until I pass out for natural reasons. (refills his glass)

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Walter And you do the right thing. I wish your fellow passengers also could devote themselves to the same principle. Jerry Just give them some time, and they will get better thoughts and away from their depressing speculations about death and our situation, and they will forget to worry in vain. Walter That I can truly assure you all, that your situation at least is nothing to worry about. Doris But will we reach America? Walter You will see. Harold Everything here is so symbolic. We are almost like a company representative for all humanity in its present condition between life and death, in the middle of a burning war, in a historic moment that has totally come off course and away from reality, while no one knows where this is supposed to lead us. Jerry Just as well. Ruben Is it? Do you suggest, Jerry, that ignorance about actual facts is something to be regarded positively as something to be desired and to strive for? Jerry I didn’t say that. Ruben But that is what your remark suggests. Jerry Then inform me of actual facts, if you know better. Ruben (addressing all) There is much to support the probability of Harold’s and Louis’ speculations. If we are then to draw the extreme consequences of what has been suggested and what everything seems to indicate, I arrive at the following conclusion: that it might well be so that we all are dead and have landed in a limbo existence between life and death which is neither one nor the other, as it often has been depicted in cases of sudden interruption of life in the middle of their activities ending up in an unblessed existence without being able to communicate with reality to explain what happened to them and to remedy all their unfinished business which they were forced to leave behind. We could very well have happened in such a cosmic vacuum of nothing, of neither life nor death, like ghosts and unblessed spirits, who only have dreams left to comfort themselves with. I don’t profess that to be the case, but if it would be so I don’t think we shall ever reach America. We will be stuck on this mysterious ship forever and never get anywhere, eternally bound for an unknown destination without ever reaching it or learning what the destination or intention was. We will then never have any contact with the command or anyone else in the real world, but we will forever be moving around in these small circles around the bar and our cabins, the dining hall and the salon and never get any further in our speculations. Is that how it is, steward? Walter I am only a steward. I know nothing. Ruben How did you get here yourself? Walter That’s what I always wondered. Ruben Have you ever seen anyone in command? Walter Your questions are too difficult. Ruben That’s no answer to my question.

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Mabel But surely you must be able to answer if you ever had anything to do with anyone in command? Walter I only know that I am here to make your stay here as pleasant and agreeable as possible for you. Ruben How long have you been in this service? Have you had other passengers to take care of besides us? Walter Oh yes, there have been many passages. Ruben To where? Walter To the other side. Ruben Life or the Atlantic? Walter Both. Harold Don’t pester him. It’s obvious that he knows as little as we. Walter Yes, I am a victim to circumstances just like you. Ruben We don’t seem to get any wiser by him. Louis Maybe it’s just as well then to accept that it is as you believe and which everything seems to point at: that we are in Limbo and on our way to nowhere in a mystery between life and death which never can be solved towards a destination that never will become known. We have ended up in a black hole of existence. Harold Yes, it doesn’t look any better, does it? Jerry Then at least drink and be merry. There is still liquor in the bar. Robert Pardon me, but allow me to differ and separate from the majority to sober up just a little, and I will try not to become a bore in my objections to your carelessness, but we still remain completely aware of the reality, don’t we? We know what we have left behind, and just because we here have been awarded some godsend privilege of free liquor, thanks to our amiable steward and the assistance of the merry Jerry, there is a certain liability in denouncing all responsibility to just abandon oneself to light-hearted superficiality. Pardon me for recalling you to reality, which I least of all accept and embrace myself; but you, Mr Loewenhaupt, are still on a personal run from Nazism and have perhaps yourself had some experience of its inhuman horrors of the concentration camps and its ruthless persecution of Jews, where no difference was made between highly educated and qualified experts on music and science, physics and mathematics, philosophy and literature, while they inconsiderately pushed all over the same edge denying any of them any human dignity just because they maybe had one drop of Jewish blood, like even Einstein after the Nazi assumption of total power 1933 was informed, that if he ever returned to Germany he would be hanged in the nearest lamp post, while they demonstratively burned his books and writings on science just because he was a Jew – can you really discharge this reality and take for granted that we live in a dream in a limbo on our way to nowhere out of reality? I can’t deny that I had experienced the great war with all its traumas and survived by a hair’s breadth with permanent nervous damages for the rest of my life, but can you just ignore this inhumanly cruel reality to abandon yourselves to a dream of that reality being just fake and that you are lucky to be rid of it?

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Louis The problem is not just the inhumanity of reality. The core of the problem is that man has turned inhuman. Jerry That sounds interesting. Explain what you mean. Louis We are all humans and claim to be human and the more so for being separated from the inhuman reality and fortunate enough to be exiled into the free zone of some timelessness of eternity, but humanity is still there in the mundane world and still suffers from the tyranny of a monstrous world order that has been dehumanised and denaturalized unto irrecognizability by the imposition of technology, bureaucracy and automatization taking over control of the world, which is subsequently being poisoned by pollution and toxic chemicals by medicines and the destruction of the environment, nature at the same time being brought to suffer by mass extinctions of animals and forests with desertification and the contamination of waters by industrial waste, while even the air we breathe is being polluted by the constantly increasing industrial exhausts and lethal fumes… In brief, man has become inhuman, most people are unaware of it and allow themselves to be brainwashed into dependent slaves and passive zombies, while we here still are fortunate who realize that all humanity has been totally corrupted and ruined by its own derailment and lack of birth control in an increasingly reckless population explosion… Doris Is then all humanity doomed? Louis Look for yourselves! Behold the war! Look at the bombings of London! Look at the ruthless automatization and mass production of weapons of mass destruction which all countries phrenetically devote themselves to! What hope could there be for such an idiotic humanity, which isn’t even aware that they are victims to their own self-destructive stupidity? What can save humanity from its own suicidal stupidity and irresponsibility? Ruben A leading question. The only possible answer could be humanity’s own selfdestruction by their own stupidity and irresponsibility. Robert And believe me. The two world wars, where the first was just an introduction to the second, which is just a foretaste of what will follow which will be infinitely worse, until the greater part of all humanity has perished in its own selfdestructivity, is just a prelude and warning. Jerry You really sound most cheerful and positive. Then I would rather listen to the wisdom of our good steward, who simply advises us to make the best of it and have another drink Benjamin May I ask you, Sir, if you pardon my lack of delicacy, but since you mention all the world’s misery and almost make a catalogue of it, do you have any experience yourself of the ravages and persecutions by the Nazis among opponents and Jews? Do you yourself happen to be in any part Jewish? Louis The answer is no. I am Arian to a hundred percent, but I have seen the ravages and violations among my colleagues, a number of which have been driven to suicide. Benjamin With your ordeals and difficult experience as a resistance fighter in France with apparently as deep scars in your soul as our friend Robert here, have

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you yourself been initiated in the problems of suicide? I mean, have you almost been driven to suicide yourself? Louis I was actually well on my way to commit suicide, when my wife came and disturbed me and interrupted the effort. That’s why we happen to be here. Benjamin Were you going to hang yourself? Louis Not at all. I had turned on the gas in the stove and covered all the windows. Benjamin Suicide is the ultimate exit by desperation. All rational thinking denote it as extremely foolish and condemnable and even as the supreme irresponsibility. Can you see any advantages or defence for it at all? Louis It is a fact that it is only wholesome to associate with suicidal thoughts. It results in a beneficial detachment from yourself to put your whole existence to trial with all you lived for, which is a kind of advanced way of sobering up, you force yourself to a detachment from yourself by placing yourself outside your own existence, and already the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius realized the extreme soundness of always being prepared to leave everything behind by the ultimate demise at any moment. You can’t take anything with you anyway. Death is nothing else than the ultimate purgation, whether you actually venture on it practically or just mentally and spiritually. Benjamin So you have transformed your suicidal thoughts with an actual effort to commit it into a kind of stoic and sober and actually sound suicidal philosophy? Louis I would rather call it a daily association with death. Benjamin What does your wife think of that? Elsa I can share his life but not his thoughts. Benjamin Still you are a prominent musician and carry on your music. Could it have saved your life? Louis Definitely and on several occasions. Even in moments of utter despair, music always remains as an eternal friend who always keeps waiting for you with her beauty and timelessness almost like a voice of God directly out of eternity. If I hadn’t had my music, I would have been lost long ago. Benjamin But you still occasionally associate with suicidal thoughts. Louis Only when moments and circumstances press me to. They are a permanent alternative as an exit of emergency. Elsa I try my best to keep him anchored in reality and to life. Benjamin And so far you have succeeded and done it well, it seems. And Mr Loewenhaupt has actually by the positive aspects of the journey started to play again. We must ask you to play some more. If there is anything suitable for gilding and accompanying a timeless existence and its intimate communion with eternity, it’s beautiful music. Wouldn’t you please take your seat at the piano again, Mr Loewenhaupt? Louis Well, if you insist… Actually I have nothing better to do. Benjamin Please. When we ask you with earnest sincerity. (Louis goes out to take a seat by the piano. All the others take their seats in the salon and make themselves comfortable, preparing themselves to enjoy the entertainment.

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He starts with Schumann’s Fantasy opus 17. The music and the scene slowly fade out.)

Scene 8. The cabin Louis It feels as if the whole world had been affected by a deadly disease, and although it’s no fault of ours we feel guilty, if not for anything else at least for being alive, when we should have been dead with so many others. But the worst thing is that there is nothing we can do about it. Elsa (entering) You shouldn’t sit here alone brooding in isolation, Louis. There is after all fresh air out there. Louis Do you think that would help? Elsa Against what? Against your melancholy? Fresh air is good against everything. Louis Not against the deadly disease of the world. Elsa You are taking on too much. The world’s condition is not your responsibility. You are innocent. Louis We are guilty because we are still alive when we should be dead with all the other innocents who died because they stayed on. Elsa Louis, you are just burying yourself in your grief and melancholy without being aware of how much joy and inspiration you are spreading by still practising your music. Louis You only see the positive side of everything while I cannot shut my eyes to reality and forget it. It is the inescapable nightmare of my life. Elsa It doesn’t get better by your tormenting yourself with it. Louis I am not tormenting myself with it. The nightmare is tormenting me. Elsa And where do you find it? Out here in the open sea? The reality that you feel tormented by only exists in your imagination. It’s an obsession of your mind. Reality is that freedom we still enjoy out here on the open sea in the paradise of our cruise. Louis Which we don’t know if it is real or not. Elsa Louis, try to be rational and realistic. We still have a life, while you are denying it to yourself. Jerry (entering suddenly) So this is where you are hiding! We are playing cards up there. Why don’t you join us? Elsa Is that your only reason for breaking in? Jerry I think you need a drink. May I offer you a drink? (shows his bottle) Louis You and your bottles. Aren’t you afraid to become an alcoholic for all your drinking? Jerry No danger. I am already an accomplished one. It’s part of the profession. I am already professional and can’t be more educated in the field. Elsa You are a clown. Jerry I have paid for it in the ticket. The bar is always open, and we may take what we want. It’s on the company. We are privileged as refugees from the war and

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should avail ourselves of the opportunity. Even in the direst of straits you must at least try to make the best of it. Louis Of course you are right, but I still maintain that you should take whisky with certain moderation, like it’s not good for your health either to take too great amounts of medicine. Jerry Stick to your measures, and I’ll stick to mine. Elsa What did you really come down here for? Jerry We were worried upstairs when you did not show up for dinner. We feared that you might perhaps have committed some common suicide or got stuck in too deep depressions. Louis Our depressions can’t get any deeper, at least not mine, but that’s not why we chose to decline from dinner. Elsa We needed some rest and recuperation. You get cloyed by eating too much, while fasting is always good for your health. Jerry Yes, instead of eating you could always have a drink. (drinks directly from the bottle) Are you sure you don’t want any? Louis A small dram couldn’t do any harm. Jerry That’s the spirit! (pours him a small glass) Elsa That will be on an empty stomach, Louis. Jerry Then it will be the more effective. Elsa Why do you drink, Jerry, really? Is it just to get detached from our impossible situation? Jerry It’s more to get away from worrying too much about it. Under the influence you can at least joke about it. Isn’t it actually rather grotesquely funny? Here we float around the ocean abandoned and alone under no protection like a perfect target for the entire German submarine fleet to torpedo like on invitation, which it for some reason declines to accept, maybe just because we are alone without a convoy, so they just don’t care about a single harmless boat while we easily can sneak across to America, perhaps without ever reaching the other side. What do you think, Louis? Louis I think we will get there in the end, although we travel so dead slow in spite of the war and all those threatening submarines, but actually I don’t mind and don’t care. I already tried to commit suicide a number of times, and I would have succeeded in London if my wife hadn’t interrupted me, so if we get sunk and hit the bottom it suits me just as well as if and when we would reach America and there probably be subjected to harsher conditions than those of the more cultural Europe. After all, there is no Paris and no Vienna in America and not even any London. Jerry Instead we have New York, which can’t be matched by anything in Europe. Louis But I don’t know any person there. Jerry You know me. That’s enough to get connections. New York is swarming with exiled cultural Europeans. You will easily get the right contacts in Carnegie Hall. Louis We’ll see when and if we reach that far. Elsa I am sure we will get there and that you will be able to continue working there, Louis.

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Louis The question is if I want to continue as long as the war goes on. (There is a knock on the door by someone) Jerry Here is the next visitor wondering where we are and how we are doing. Robert So, here you are hiding away! Why don’t you come up? Were you not supposed to go and get them Jerry? Jerry We got stuck here with the bottle. Robert I can see it. But there are more bottles up there. Jerry We are in no hurry as long as this bottle lasts. Elsa Is that your therapy, to handle the war situation and the constant threat of extinction and our critical uncertainty about the real situation? Robert Is there any other possibility? For my part, I consider us all hopelessly lost. We don’t know who has taken us for a ride or why, we don’t know if we are alive or dead, we don’t know anything about our destination, and the ship seems rather be guided by some higher destiny than by an invisible command that refuses to have anything to do with us. Jerry For security reasons, our steward says. Robert I take it as a joke or at best as a fake explanation. I am sure we will never reach America. Then we might as well as Jerry avail ourselves of the situation to explore and exploit the bar. Elsa Isn’t it a little unnecessary to thus give up in advance and ignore the mere possibility of any hope? Robert My lady, I have been through all this before. I know what reality is about. It doesn’t show, but the world is doomed and has been so since long, to be exact since the outbreak of the last world war. There is no hope for man. She is hopelessly selfdestructive. We are sailing across a minefield with lurking hostile u-boats, who are longing to bring us down. Louis Then why don’t they do it? Robert A very good question. Don’t forget that we perhaps don’t exist. We are perhaps all dead already. Our existence here on board is maybe just a dream, perhaps even an illusion, perhaps some vain wishful thinking, a mirage that at any moment could be proved to be just thin air – or actually be proved a reality by a torpedo from a u-boat, and in that case we shall all really be dead indeed. That’s perhaps in fact the only thing we can hope for. Jerry Robert is the wisest of us. He has been in it before. He had his life ruined already in the last war and could never return to normal, so he knows what he is talking about when he sees through a reality that does not exist which is only an illusion, an unreal dream, which we have the possibility to adorn by the actual access to unlimited amounts of liquor of the best quality and with only the best whisky. I consider it an honour, Robert, that we are colleagues in the same boat. Robert Are you also hoping for an awakening by a torpedo? Jerry The fact is, that such a torpedo would actually prove that we really were alive up to this moment and that our existence here on board was not just a dream but a reality that surpassed and transcended the dream.

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Louis I think it’s time for me to refill my glass and keep you company. Jerry That’s the spirit! You are getting wise and learning something, Louis! Louis You only live once. Robert Even that is relative. It has never been proved that you don’t get another chance after death. Many live just for that chance, especially in these times. Many greet death as a liberator, whether they see that chance or not. That’s another kind of realism. Elsa You are getting very metaphysical. Robert Wouldn’t that be the very meaning of our absurd journey, that we should realize and learn something from the metaphysical reality as something superior to mundane things? Jerry Cheers! There is more left if your glasses are empty. Robert Our lady here hasn’t had any drink yet. Elsa Thank you, I’ll wait for my turn. It’s not good to drink on an empty stomach. Jerry On the contrary. That’s when it’s most efficient. Robert Here is another melancholy one. (Harold has just appeared.) Harold They are worried about you upstairs. Jerry Welcome, Sir Harold. You look as if you needed a drink. Robert How did you know we were here? Harold We assumed as much, since we sent down Jerry and Robert to look for you. I heard voices, so I didn’t bother to knock. Jerry What’s the appearance of the black hole we are slipping out through from up there? Harold What black hole? Jerry You likened our journey with gradually disappearing into a black hole, and that black hole ought to be the entire universe. We could hardly get out of it. Harold There is nothing new. We still believe we could obtain some information from the steward, but he just keeps dodging us. Jerry As long as he serves his drinks he is doing his job. Harold But what is his job? To guide us down the black hole? Robert I don’t think we could completely exclude the possibility that we are still part of reality and that our steward is just an ordinary employee, as he claims. Jerry We will have an answer to our question when we get torpedoed, was the agreement we already reached. Harold You sound as if you longed for that incident. Robert At worst we will then be fished out and saved by the submarine crew. Louis Unfortunately we have grown rather defeatist here, Sir Harold. Could you form a brighter aspect of the situation? Harold Neither brighter nor dark enough. The whole world is at mortal peril, since humanity is trying to extirpate itself, but we are alive and still have the possibility to make the best of it. Jerry Have your drink at last, Sir. Are the others all right upstairs? Harold Or else I wouldn’t have dared to leave them.

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Robert This whole situation reminds me of a scene in a film with the Marx brothers, where more and more are coming to visit a cabin, constantly getting more crowded, so that the throng gradually becomes critical. Jerry We are not crowded yet, but if the whisky runs out I am afraid we’ll have to evacuate the cabin. Louis Perhaps we might as well do it at once before it gets too crowded. Jerry Wait a moment longer. At least we’ll have to finish the whisky bottle first. Benjamin (entering) Are you all right here? Jerry Welcome, Benjamin! Don’t we look all right? Benjamin When more and more disappeared down here we started to suspect that you were celebrating a party. Jerry And that’s why you came down to join in. Welcome. You did the very right thing. Benjamin Is there any possibility that you might have found out something about the problem of our journey? Jerry What is the problem? Benjamin That we don’t know anything about it, that we are at the mercy of providence, that no one has informed us about our destination or given us any timetable, and that the ship’s command seems non-existent. Robert Just because we haven’t seen anyone of them it doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t exist. Someone is still running and steering the ship. Benjamin So you haven’t got anywhere closer to the mystery problem. Jerry We don’t have to, as long as we have whisky free of charge. Benjamin Sooner or later there must be some sobriety. Jerry We’ll deal with that problem when it turns up. For my part the booze is welcome to hang on all the way to New York. Benjamin So you still think we will reach that port? Jerry Why shouldn’t we? There is nothing to prove that we won’t as long as we don’t get torpedoed. Benjamin Pardon me, Jerry, but as long as we go on this dead slow and without any escort, the risk to get torpedoed and sunk will constantly grow worse and more imminent. Louis I never had anything against a quick and efficient end on my life. Benjamin Think of the others. You do have fellow passengers. Robert I think we are all rather stoically indifferent to the aspect of death. After all, we have all lived with the constant presence of death all since the blitz started, and we never got out of its immediate and imminent present danger throughout this voyage. (A prudent knock.) Elsa Someone wants to get in. Benjamin It sounds like too prudent a knock to be anyone of us. Robert Open the door then and let’s see who it is. Elsa (opens. The steward is there. All are surprised.)

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Walter Excuse me for disturbing your nice gathering, but unfortunately I bring you some bad news. Louis What has happened? Walter One of your fellow passengers has gone over board. Jerry Who? Walter Ruben Vanderbilt. Benjamin The first one who questioned the reality of our situation, the one who had given up about humanity. Jerry How did you discover it? Walter When he didn’t show up for dinner I went down to see if he was ill. No one opened when I knocked. So I went in. Then I found his note of departure. Robert What does it say? Walter I have it here. I think he would have liked me to read it to you. Robert Please do. Walter (reading from a note) ”Pardon me, but I cannot stand it any more, the uncertainty, the tension, the constant worry about not knowing anything, and I think we have as small a chance as all humanity. I don’t want to be part of it any more. Pardon me.” And his signature. That is all. Jerry What will the company say about that? A suicide on board is very bad publicity. There will undoubtedly be some investigation and interrogation when we reach land. Walter I am afraid so, even if the farewell note says everything. Louis He had every right to take his fate in his own hands. I understand him. Elsa But what will this mean to our journey? Walter That’s why I came down to see you, to inform you, that the others are waiting for you at the bar. They want to talk this over. There seems to be an opportunity. Jerry An opportunity of what? Benjamin Now if ever there are crucial reasons for contact not only with the command but also by radio contact with authorities ashore. Walter That’s the very thing. We have wired the company, and they have offered you a way out of this awkward situation. Benjamin And the command? Walter The command has agreed to the suggestion. You will all have the opportunity of direct escort ashore on much shorter time if you would accept to be transported the rest of the way on a submarine. Jerry (breaking the silence of all considerations) No thank you. I would prefer to remain on board to enjoy the advantages of the cruise. A submarine would only give me claustrophobia. Louis Me too. Walter That’s what the others wished to discuss with you at the bar. Benjamin What is their preference? Walter They have different views, but a majority seems inclined to remain on board.

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Robert Let’s go up then and meet them and conclude the evening with a riveting discussion about our future destiny. Walter Excellent. Just take it easy, gentlemen, and take your time. There is no hurry. The bar is open all night, and the others are also rather uncertain. I shall tell them that you are coming. Robert Thank you, Walter. (The steward leaves.) That was a most unexpected turn of events. Do you really want to go on with this unendurable voyage of destiny? Louis That’s the question. Jerry If there will be only you and me, Louis, do we then wish to be the only passengers on board? Elsa I will stay with you in that case. Benjamin I think Robert is as hesitant as I. Jerry I have another suggestion. The others Well? Jerry I suggest that we all have another glass before going up to the bar. Robert (happier) Excellent suggestion! (The mood gets more relaxed, and Jerry gladly refills all the glasses.)

Scene 9. The bar. Herbert If the condition was serious earlier, it is now critical. Mabel What do you think the others will say? Doris I think most of them would like to stay on board. Herbert And continue this nightmare journey under the constant risk of getting torpedoed? Doris We managed well so far. Herbert Consider, that the submarine alternative would immediately place us all out of risk, while at the same time we would reach New York considerably swifter and safer. Mabel So you don’t think that even the submarine possibility could be a part of our great unreal illusion about reality? Herbert I don’t think the steward is just making things up. Doris Here he is now. Walter They are coming. They just wanted to finish their drinks first. Herbert Were they celebrating something? Walter No, but Jerry had brought a bottle of whisky with him down to them. Mabel Then they are prepared at least. Doris I bet that they all want to remain on board. Jerry doesn’t want to miss his free access to the bar. Mabel Here they are now. (Enter the others.) Doris Well, boys, what do you say? Isn’t it a funny situation?

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Herbert A suicide is no joke, Doris. It’s actually the most serious of all human actions and always caused by the most difficult and incurable of all human conditions. Harold The doctor has spoken. Herbert You must realize the seriousness of the situation. One of us has chosen to bereave himself of his life in despair over the situation in which we all are, alone on an ocean swarming with murderous u-boats, without any contact with the command and with only a steward to take care of us. We know our destination is New York, but we don’t know if we’ll ever reach it, since even this journey has been questioned and caused considerable doubts concerning its reality. Ruben was the one of us who first presented the hypothesis that our journey in fact was a phantom of our imagination and at best pure wishful thinking, since we all very well might have been casualties of that car accident that was bombed on its way out of London, since none of us even has any memory of having been in that car. Walter Perhaps I at last could explain something of the mystery. We have now been in touch with the port authorities of New York, which actually have answered some of your questions about your situation. I was informed, that since the ship anyway had been cleared and bound for New York with a classified cargo demanding absolute secrecy, the company agreed to take on the unfortunate stranded passengers who by a hair’s breadth had escaped being bombed on their way out of London. They offered this ship at their disposal in order to relieve and ease the difficult situation for the company. Benjamin Does that mean that we are the only passengers of the ship? Walter Yes. Benjamin And the crew? Is there any crew? Is there any chance for us to get in touch with the command? Walter As soon as you reach land. Remember that this ship is classified and top secret for its invaluable cargo, which must reach America intact without having been noticed and revealed by anyone. Harold So there is no use even asking what the cargo is all about. Walter No. I don’t know it myself. Harold May one even wonder whether the cargo would give the Germans reasons for sinking this ship? Walter They don’t know about it. No one knows about it. Therefore I can’t answer your question. Robert That reminds me of the ’Lusitania’ incident that was sunk in the last war by the Germans, because it carried smuggled explosives on board, which America tried to get across to England under the pretence that it was an untouchable passenger ship. Benjamin That disaster with thousands of passengers on board became one of the major reasons for America to enter the war. Harold I hope that we at least are not carrying mass weapons of explosives in the cargo? Walter Not to my knowledge. They learned something from the ’Lusitania’.

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Herbert To the point! Do we wish to remain on board or to accept being carried by a u-boat safely all the way across? Louis No u-boat gives access to any piano. I stay on. Elsa Me too. Jerry I don’t want to lose the bar that easily. There is no bar on any u-boat. Robert Even less any whisky. Jerry Exactly. I don’t want to risk losing everything I have got here. Robert I will stay with you to keep you company. Herbert Even if only a few would prefer the submarine alternative, it would still be an opportunity for those few. No one has to go on it against his will. Mabel I am happy in my cabin and wouldn’t have it replaced by considerably stricter conditions on a u-boat, where you would hardly even be allowed any privacy. Doris I take the risk of getting torpedoed, which appears a much more exciting prospect than to have the cruise interrupted and be brought to New York at once. This is an adventure. I don’t want to miss it. Herbert Sir Harold? Harold That might be the deciding point. The human factor will be much more interesting to study on board under constant mortal danger than closed up in a claustrophobic submarine. Herbert Does that mean that no one is accepting the offer? Jerry So it seems, doctor. Louis Perhaps I can understand Ruben better than anyone else here, since I have been a potential suicide myself. It’s true as the doctor says. A suicide is the supreme human tragedy, for like you save an entire world if you save someone’s life, an entire world is lost if someone commits suicide. I will gladly remain on board, and if it is suicidal, at least it isn’t voluntary so. Harold It’s braver to accept a challenge and remain on board under constant mortal danger, than to accept a safe delivery on a u-boat as a more comfortable alternative for a lazy and passive passenger. Benjamin I agree that it could be more rewarding and interesting and even beneficial for the edification of the character to continue following this mortally perilous journey. Jerry I am sorry, doctor. No one wants to follow your sound advice. We would rather remain on board and have our whisky for comfort. Herbert Still it gives great credit and honour to the company for having succeeded in arranging an alternative. Harold Absolutely. Benjamin Won’t you accept it yourself? Herbert A doctor never abandons his patients. We are all in the same boat, and I have assumed a certain responsibility for all of you, especially after the demise of Ruben Vanderbilt. There must not be another suicide. Therefore I stick with you. Robert Do you think there is any risk for another?

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Herbert Ruben was not in any more difficult position than any of us. If he could do it, anyone could. Anyone can have suicidal thoughts, and only if he shares them with others he could be considered out of risk. Almost all who commit suicide and who succeed therewith finally commit it, because they have no one to talk with in the critical decisive moment, when the decision is taken and the act is committed. Robert You sound as if you spoke of experience. Herbert I do. Louis As I said, I understand Ruben and his course of action. What are we humans to the world today? What are we to this world the leading powers of which now for the second time in twenty-five years insist on trying to sacrifice all humanity in a meaningless world war? What is this ship more than a vanishing spot on the sea of eternity? Who cares about us? As Ruben pointed out, none of us has really any relative ashore who cares about us. To the ruling powers of the world, we are just a figure if even that, and if we are lost at sea we will just be a jot in the statistics. They say that Stalin cynically expressed himself about executions, that a murder is a murder but that a million murders is just statistics. Ruben refused to accept himself as just a figure. But as a living man existing on this gradually vanishing boat, what am I with all my enriched Austrian culture and musical knowledge and mastership with a universal world repertoire, what am I to this monstrous automatic mechanised and robotized new world with apocalyptic stagings of mass murders galore more than an ignominious figure, that might not even be included in the statistics? Against this annulment of all things human, Ruben protested with his maximum power and right as an individual in the only possible way as forced into a dead end of a corner of a blind alley by committing suicide, which was his only final possibility of any protest against eternity. Jerry Another insurance against suicide is not to be sober. Only people who are too sober generally commit suicide. Robert Do you mean that only they see any reason for it? Jerry Something like that. The reasons are always there and good enough indeed with a surplus, but under the influence you usually wholesomely forget their existence. Herbert There is actually some truth in what Jerry says. Louis Also music is usually enough uplifting and inspiring, if it is genuine, to disperse the awareness of the universal misery. Instead you are elevated to ideal levels of a better world of spirituality. Benjamin It was some time ago since we last heard you play anything, Mr Loewenhaupt. What about a small recital? Harold Just to disperse all possible tendencies to suicide. Louis What do you wish to hear? Any wishes? Mabel Something romantic. Harold But not Chopin. He is too melancholy. Benjamin And not Bach. He is too dry. Robert Some Mendelssohn or Schumann would be nice.

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Louis Mendelssohn’s music has been banned and forbidden all over the third reich for the sake of his Jewish ancestry. That makes him, a dead composer who died all too soon at the age of only thirty-eight, a martyr to the dominating political establishment of Europe, which thereby desecrates him after his death. Harold That says something about the innate hopeless barbarity of all politics. (Louis goes out to the grand piano, and soon Mendelssohn’s “Lieder ohne Worte” are being heard, while the others make themselves comfortable in listening. The scene leaves them for Louis by the piano, where he sits alone until he is joined by Ruben, who returns most discreetly. Louis observes him without reacting as if taking it for granted that he would show up again.) Louis I recall our discussions, Ruben. Ruben I will not say that they became the reason for my departure, which rather was a consequence of my own insufferable life situation. Louis (stops playing, but the music continues.) I let the music go on to accompany this flashback to our association. We had some rather animated discussions. Ruben It was my fault. I provoked you on purpose. Louis You were no worse critic than all the rest. Ruben Did you ever know Rachmaninov? Louis I never met him, but I admired him. Ruben Yes, he was the most superior pianist of our time, but he was hopelessly stuck in himself and could only play music of his own. Louis Every composer is the best player of his own music. No one else can give it an equally personal interpretation. Pianists exist to play the music of others. Piano composers should not play any music but their own, since no one can understand it better than themselves, while they never can understand the music of others equally well. Ruben It was Rachmaninov’s mannerism that irritated me. Louis He was a romantic idealist. Ruben That’s what I couldn’t understand. Louis There were critics who compared him with Sibelius and called them both the worst composers in the world. Ruben And you have favoured both. I heard you play in Vienna. Louis Any objections? Ruben It was instantly clear to me that you were as outdated as Rachmaninov. When new and young composers started introducing a new revolutionary modernism, Rachmaninov stuck to romanticism and persisted in going on composing romantic music. Louis Still he is rather radical in his musical idiom and often makes himself guilty of hair-raising irregularities. Ruben But he always remained hopelessly tonal. Schoenberg invented a completely new kind of music just to develop it further, and he had lots of followers, not just Alban Berg and Webern but across the entire world, which wallowed like himself in composing modern atonal music.

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Louis Which consistently sounds very bad. There is never any melody and rarely any form. Most atonal compositions end up abruptly in nothingness and always without a finale. That music is just a formless abstraction of nonsense that breaks all musical laws without even ever sounding any good. Ruben So you cut all modern composers across one edge. Still they are the ones who today dominate the world. Louis Don’t remind me of it. So do Hitler and Mussolini, violence and terror, war and all that is inhuman. By scrapping romanticism, discarding beauty, ignoring all forms and establishing nonsense, ugliness and stereotypical functionalism as dominating standards, the human world has derailed so completely, that it will be next to impossible to restore it. It is lost in darkness, and all humanity and civilization must suffer for it. Ruben Still it’s these inhuman monsters who lead the world, while such as you and Rachmaninov are hopelessly outdated with your romantic beauty, which only is good for scrapping and forgetting. You are driven over and discarded and only something to be cleaned up from the streets like old dirt to be cast in the ditch, to be flushed out into oblivion. You idealists don’t realize that your time is over. You have no say any more. Now it’s time for the outrage of politics and the supremacy of ugliness, the ruthlessness of violence and ignorance triumphing over knowledge by the manipulation of the masses by the dictatorships through media. Louis We can’t accept that and will still survive. Ruben Do you think so? Don’t you think that destiny was rather fair in placing us on board a condemned ship like this on the way to nowhere and lost in timelessness, while the ocean is swarming with enemy submarines just waiting to blow us up with torpedoes and certainly will do it before we reach any port, so that we definitely will be dispatched into eternal oblivion? Louis Don’t forget that you yourself are on board. Ruben I have accepted it. I have accepted that I will die here completely beyond all honour and glory, unknown and forgotten in advance, like a leaf blown away into the ocean. But people like you don’t accept death and mortality. You try to insist on going on living with your romantic idealism by believing that you can survive in spite of all. You can’t. We must all accept the facts. Louis We shall see if we live. Ruben But all must die without seeing it. Louis I deplore you, Ruben, for your poverty, since you live without ideals. To have ideals to live for is the greatest riches any man can have. They can exist only in his dreams, but as long as they are there they are the same eternal resource. It does not matter if we die or not. Timelessness is always there and will continue existing anyway. Ruben Do you regard it as a living thing? Louis No, as a living fact. Ruben You are a hopeless case. I leave you to your fate. Louis Do you give up that easily?

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Ruben What do you mean? Louis Have you no understanding at all of ideals? Ruben I only try to be realistic. Louis Must then realism exclude the existence of ideals? Ruben My friend, can’t you be realistic yourself? Can’t you see where the world is heading? Don’t you see that humanity is doomed? They are busy about exterminating all other life on earth except their own kind, a murderous monster that already extirpated a number of species and mostly only accomplished a global destruction of the environment, a parasite on life which only seems to exist to do her very best to finish it off, which syndrome this world war if anything is too obvious a symptom of. You live in a bubble of your dreams of beauty and ideals while the world is going to perdition, and all we can look forward to here on board is to see an end of this universal misery for our own part by a much desired torpedoing, which is sure to happen – I can’t see how we could avoid the global on-going suicidal and homicidal tendency of the world. In the last world war humanity wallowed in the intermittent mass murder of each others’ soldiers for four years, but in this world war they instead frenziedly work on destroying each others’ civilizations and mass murdering civilians by regardless bombings of world cities. Can you see any hope at all for such a suicidal humanity? The only solution to the problems of humanity and the world I could imagine would be, if a new world epidemic would hit humanity, like the Spanish flu after the last world war, which relieved the world of twice as many casualties as the entire war, but of a much more powerful kind, which definitely would teach humanity a lesson by more than just decimations of the bolting population explosion. Five hundred years ago there were only some hundred million people in the world, that did not cause the world much harm except each other, in 1800 we were about half a billion, when Robert Malthus observed the necessity of some control of the population increase, but in this century the world population has started to multiply uncontrollably, since the progress in science and medicine almost has eliminated all natural diseases, so almost the only ones remaining are welfare diseases like cancer. Louis Your argument is inhuman. Ruben No, only matter-of-fact. Louis You just limit yourself by your unreasonable prejudice and preconceived conclusions. Ruben No, I keep my eyes open and try to observe and encompass all reality as it is, while you isolate yourself in your private bubble of aesthetic ideals and an idealism which you blindly allow yourself to be seduced by. Louis You are a pessimist advocating death, but I prefer supporting life. Ruben We shall see which one of us will survive. I don’t think any of us will. Louis And I think we’ll both survive, as the idealistic optimist I am in my faith in beauty. Ruben You are a hopeless case of blinded naivety seduced and blinded by your own life’s delusion.

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Louis Or else I would not be a musician. Ruben Blame yourself for your own funeral. Still you were the one who tried to commit suicide. I always wondered, since we first met here on board, – did you ever regret that it did not succeed? Louis I accepted facts. I was saved whether I liked it or not. But I promise you, that if I would ever try it again, I would carefully leave behind a settlement and meticulous account of all those I would regard as responsible and guilty of forcing me into the ultimate act of protest and giving up. Ruben That would mean most political leaders then. Louis Not only. Hitler of course and others responsible for the world war, but also certain musical profiles, that I would hold responsible for the fall of music. Ruben What do you mean by the fall of music? Louis By representatives like Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Chopin, music was developed and elevated into the noblest thing in existence. This established nobility of music already started to be corrupted by Wagner, but after him the destruction of the nobility of music was carried through by the modernists and merchants of vulgar and popular music. The last representatives of music as the finest and noblest of all arts were Sibelius, Rachmaninov, Puccini and to some extent Richard Strauss, who is still working on keeping it up, but he allowed himself to be corrupted by the Nazis and is involved in an awful lot of trouble to get rid of that stain. It’s this debasement of the nobility of music and thereby the annihilation of the world cultural standard and everything noble in the world order, which has destroyed my life and the world, for which I must hold the leaders of this destruction responsible. Ruben And for that you tried to commit suicide? Louis That was the basic reason, which led to all the other reasons. Ruben Then you are truly a hopeless case, who rather commits suicide than makes compromises. Louis I value my soul more than reality. If reality inflicts on my soul and demands its denial, I will rather sacrifice reality than my soul. Ruben You are not convincing enough for me, but at least you give me something to think of. (leaves) (Louis returns to concentrating on the piano and his music, turning to Rachmaninov’s Paganini variations, (Var. 18)

Gothenburg 5-7 November 2019, with additions 23.12 and April-June 2020.

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