STRANGER. That is the curse....
LADY. Don"t say that! But why haven"t you desired things that transcend this life, that can never be sullied?
STRANGER. Because I doubt if there is a beyond.
LADY. But the elves?
STRANGER. Are merely a fairy story. (Pointing to a seat.) Shall we sit down?
LADY. Yes. Who are you waiting for?
STRANGER. Really, for the post office to open. There"s a letter for me--it"s been forwarded on but hasn"t reached me. (They sit down.) But tell me something of yourself now. (The Lady takes up her crochet work.)
LADY. There"s nothing to tell.
STRANGER. Strangely enough, I should prefer to think of you like that.
Impersonal, nameless--I only do know one of your names. I"d like to christen you myself--let me see, what ought you to be called? I"ve got it. Eve! (With a gesture towards the wings.) Trumpets! (The funeral march is heard again.) There it is again! Now I must invent your age, for I don"t know how old you are. From now on you are thirty-four--so you were born in sixty-four. (Pause.) Now your character, for I don"t know that either. I shall give you a good character, your voice reminds me of my mother--I mean the idea of a mother, for my mother never caressed me, though I can remember her striking me. You see, I was brought up in hate! An eye for an eye--a tooth for a tooth. You see this scar on my forehead? That comes from a blow my brother gave me with an axe, after I"d struck him with a stone. I never went to my father"s funeral, because he turned me out of the house when my sister married.
I was born out of wedlock, when my family were bankrupt and in mourning for an uncle who had taken his life. Now you know my family! That"s the stock I come from. Once I narrowly escaped fourteen years" hard labour--so I"ve every reason to thank the elves, though I can"t be altogether pleased with what they"ve done.
LADY. I like to hear you talk. But don"t speak of the elves: it makes me sad.
STRANGER. Frankly, I don"t believe in them; yet they"re always making themselves felt. Are these elves the souls of the unhappy, who still await redemption? If so, I am the child of an evil spirit. Once I believed I was near redemption--through a woman. But no mistake could have been greater: I was plunged into the seventh h.e.l.l.
LADY. You must be unhappy. But this won"t go on always.
STRANGER. Do you think church bells and Holy Water could comfort me?
I"ve tried them; they only made things worse. I felt like the Devil when he sees the sign of the cross. (Pause.) Let"s talk about you now.
LADY. There"s no need. (Pause.) Have you been blamed for misusing your gifts?
STRANGER. I"ve been blamed for everything. In the town I lived in no one was so hated as I. Lonely I came in and lonely I went out. If I entered a public place people avoided me. If I wanted to rent a room, it would be let. The priests laid a ban on me from the pulpit, teachers from their desks and parents in their homes. The church committee wanted to take my children from me. Then I blasphemously shook my fist... at heaven!
LADY. Why did they hate you so?
STRANGER. How should I know! Yet I do! I couldn"t endure to see men suffer. So I kept on saying, and writing, too: free yourselves, I will help you. And to the poor I said: do not let the rich exploit you.
And to the women: do not allow yourselves to be enslaved by the men.
And--worst of all--to the children: do not obey your parents, if they are unjust. What followed was impossible to foresee. I found that everyone was against me: rich and poor, men and women, parents and children. And then came sickness and poverty, beggary and shame, divorce, law-suits, exile, solitude, and now.... Tell me, do you think me mad?
LADY. No.
STRANGER. You must be the only one. But I"m all the more grateful.
LADY (rising). I must leave you now.
STRANGER. You, too?
LADY. And you mustn"t stay here.
STRANGER. Where should I go?
LADY. Home. To your work.
STRANGER. But I"m no worker. I"m a writer.
LADY. I know. But I didn"t want to hurt you. Creative power is something given you, that can also taken away. See you don"t forfeit yours.
STRANGER. Where are you going?
LADY. Only to a shop.
STRANGER (after a pause). Tell me, are you a believer?
LADY. I am nothing.
STRANGER. All the better: you have a future. How I wish I were your old blind father, whom you could lead to the market place to sing for his bread. My tragedy is I cannot grow old that"s what happens to children of the elves, they have big heads and never only cry. I wish I were someone"s dog. I could follow him and never be alone again. I"d get a meal sometimes, a kick now and then, a pat perhaps, a blow often....
LADY. Now I must go. Good-bye. (She goes out.)
STRANGER (absent-mindedly). Good-bye. (He remains on the seat. He takes off his hat and wipes his forehead. Then he draws on the ground with his stick. A BEGGAR enters. He has a strange look and is collecting objects from the gutter.) White are you picking up, beggar?
BEGGAR. Why call me that? I"m no beggar. Have I asked you for anything?
STRANGER. I beg your pardon. It"s so hard to judge men from appearances.
BEGGAR. That"s true. For instance, can you guess who I am?
STRANGER. I don"t intend to try. It doesn"t interest me.
BEGGAR. No one can know that in advance. Interest commonly comes afterwards--when it"s too late. Virtus post nummos!
STRANGER. What? Do beggars know Latin?
BEGGAR. You see, you"re interested already. Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci. I have always succeeded in everything I"ve undertaken, because I"ve never attempted anything. I should like to call myself Polycrates, who found the gold ring in the fish"s stomach. Life has given me all I asked of it. But I never asked anything; I grew tired of success and threw the ring away. Yet, now I"ve grown old I regret it.
I search for it in the gutters; but as the search takes time, in default of my gold ring I don"t disdain a few cigar stumps....
STRANGER. I don"t know whether this beggar"s cynical or mad.
BEGGAR. I don"t know either.
STRANGER. Do you know who I am?
BEGGAR. No. And it doesn"t interest me.
STRANGER. Well, interest commonly comes afterwards.... You see you tempt me to take the words out of your mouth. And that"s the same thing as picking up other people"s cigars.
BEGGAR. So you won"t follow my example?
STRANGER. What"s that scar on your forehead?