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The Road to Damascus: A Trilogy, a play by August Strindberg |
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Part 2 - Act 2 - Scene 1. Laboratory |
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_ PART II ACT II SCENE I. LABORATORY [A Garden Pavilion in rococo style with high windows. In the middle of the room there is a large writing desk on which are various pieces of chemical and physical apparatus. Two copper wires are suspended from the ceiling to an electroscope that is standing on the middle of the table and which is provided with a number of bells, intended to record the tension of atmospheric electricity.] [On the table to the left a large old-fashioned frictional electric generating machine, with glass plates, brass conductors, and Leyden battery. The stands are lacquered red and white. On the right a large old-fashioned open fireplace with tripods, crucibles, pincers, bellows, etc.] [In the background a door with a view of the country beyond; it is dark and cloudy weather, but the red rays of the sun occasionally shine into the room. A brown cloak with a cape and hood is hanging up by the fireplace; nearby a travelling bag and an alpenstock. The STRANGER and the MOTHER are discovered together.] STRANGER. Where is... Ingeborg? MOTHER. You know that better than I. STRANGER. With the lawyer, arranging a divorce.... MOTHER. Why? STRANGER. I told you. No, it's so far-fetched, you'll think I'm lying to you. MOTHER. Well, tell me! STRANGER. She wants a divorce, because I've refused to turn this man out, although he's deranged. She says it's cowardly of me.... MOTHER. I don't believe it. STRANGER. You see! You only believe what you wish; all the rest is lies. Well, can you find it in accordance with your interests to believe that she's been stealing my letters? MOTHER. I know nothing of that. STRANGER. I'm not asking you whether you know of it, but whether you believe it. MOTHER (changing the subject). What are you trying to do here? STRANGER. I'm making experiments concerning atmospheric electricity. MOTHER. And that's the lighting conductor, that you've connected to the desk! STRANGER. Yes. But there's no danger; for the bells would ring if there were an atmospheric disturbance. MOTHER. That's blasphemy and black magic. Take care! And what are you doing there, in the fireplace? STRANGER. Making gold. MOTHER. You think it possible? STRANGER. You take it for granted I'm a charlatan? I shan't blame you for that; but don't judge too quickly. At any moment I expect to get a sworn statement of analysis. MOTHER. I dare say. But what are you going to do if Ingeborg doesn't come back? STRANGER. She will, this time. Later, perhaps, when the child's here, she'll cut herself adrift. MOTHER. You seem very sure. STRANGER. Yes. As I said, I still am. So long as the bond's not broken you can feel it. When it is, you'll feel that unpleasantly clearly, too. MOTHER. But when you've parted from one another, you may yet both be bound to the child. You can't tell in advance. STRANGER. I've been providing against that by a great interest, that I hope will fill my empty life. MOTHER. You mean gold. And honour! STRANGER. Precisely! For a man the most enduring of all illusions. MOTHER. So you'd build on illusions? STRANGER. On what else should I build, when everything's illusion? MOTHER. If you ever awake from your dream, you'll find a reality of which you've never been able to dream. STRANGER. Then I'll wait till that happens. MOTHER. Wait then. Now I'll go and shut the window, before the thunderstorm breaks. STRANGER (going towards the back of the stage). That's going to be interesting. (A hunting horn is heard in the distance.) Who's sounding that horn? MOTHER. No one knows; and it means nothing good. (She goes out.) STRANGER (busying himself with the electroscope, and turning his back on the open window as he does so; then taking up a book and reading aloud.) 'When Adam's race of giants had increased enough for them to consider their number sufficient to risk an attack on those above, they began to build a tower that was to reach up to Heaven. Those above were then seized with fear and, in order to protect themselves, broke up the assembled multitude by so confusing their tongues and their minds that two people who met could not understand one another, even if they spoke the same language Since then, those above rule by discord: divide and rule. And the discord is upheld by the belief that the truth has been found; but when one of the prophets is believed, he is a lying prophet. If on the other hand a mortal succeeds in penetrating the secret of those above, no one believes him, and he is struck with madness so that no one ever shall. Since then mortals have been more or less demented, particularly those who are held to be wise, but madmen are in reality the only wise men; for they can see, hear and feel the invisible, the inaudible and the intangible, though they cannot relate their experiences to others.' Thus Zohar, the wisest of all the books of wisdom, and therefore one that no one believes. I shall build no tower of Babel, but I shall tempt the Powers into my mousetrap, and send them to the Powers below, the subterranean ones, so that they can be neutralised. It is the higher Schedim, who have come between mortal men and the Lord Zabaoth; and that is why joy, peace and happiness have vanished from the earth. LADY (coming back in despair, throwing herself down in front of the STRANGER and putting her arms round his feet and her head on the ground.) Help me! Help me! And forgive me. STRANGER. Get up. In God's name! Get up. Don't do that. What's happened? LADY. In my anger I've behaved foolishly. I've been caught in my own net. STRANGER (lifting her up). Stand up, foolish child; and tell me what's happened. LADY. I went to the public prosecutor. STRANGER. ... and asked for a divorce.... LADY. ... that was my intention; but when I got there, I laid information against the werewolf for a breach of the peace and attempted murder. STRANGER. But he's guilty of neither! LADY. No, but I laid the information all the same.... And when I was there, he came himself to lay information against me for bearing false witness. Then I went to the lawyer and he told me that I could expect a sentence of at least a month. Think of it, my child will be born in prison! How can I escape from that? Help me. You can. Speak! STRANGER. Yes, I can help you. But, if I do, don't revenge yourself on me afterwards. LADY. How little you know me. But tell me quickly. STRANGER. I must take the blame on myself, and say I sent you. LADY. How generous you are! Am I rid of the whole business now? STRANGER. Dry your eyes, my child, and take comfort. But tell me about something else, that's nothing to do with this. Did you leave this purse here? (The LADY is embarrassed.) Tell me! LADY. Has such a thing ever happened before? STRANGER. Yes. The 'other one' wanted to discover, in this way, whether I stole. The first time it happened I wept, because I was still young and innocent. LADY. Oh no! STRANGER. Now you seem to me the most wretched creature on earth. LADY. Is that why you love me? STRANGER. No. You've been stealing my letters, too! Answer, yes! And that's why you wanted to prove me a thief with this purse. LADY. What have you got there, on the table. STRANGER. Lightning! (There is a flash of lightning, but no thunder.) LADY. Aren't you afraid? STRANGER. Yes, sometimes; but not of what you fear. (The contorted face of the DOCTOR appears outside the window.) LADY. Is there a cat in the room? I feel uneasy. STRANGER. I don't think so. Yet I too have a feeling that there's someone here. LADY (turning and seeing the DOCTOR's face; then screaming and hurrying to the STRANGER for protection.) Oh! There he is! STRANGER. Where? Who? (The DOCTOR'S face disappears.) LADY. There, at the window. It's he! STRANGER. I can see no one. You must be wrong. LADY. No, I saw him. The werewolf! Can't we be rid of him? STRANGER. Yes, we could. But it'd be useless, because he has an immortal soul, which is bound to yours. LADY. If I'd only known that before! STRANGER. It's surely in the Catechism. LADY. Then let us die! STRANGER. That was once my religion; but as I no longer believe that death's the end, nothing remains but to bear everything--to fight, and to suffer! LADY. For how long must we suffer? STRANGER. As long as he suffers and our consciences plague us. LADY. Then we must try and justify ourselves to our consciences; find excuses for our frivolous actions, and discover his weaknesses. STRANGER. Well, you can try! LADY. You say that! Since I've known he's unhappy I can see nothing but his qualities, and you lose when I compare you with him. STRANGER. See how well it's arranged! His sufferings sanctify him, but mine make me abhorrent and laughable! We must face the immutable. We've destroyed a soul, so we are murderers. LADY. Who is to blame? STRANGER. He who's so mismanaged the fate of men. (There is a flash of lightning; the electric bells begin to ring.) LADY. O God! What's that? STRANGER. The answer. LADY. Is there a lightning conductor here? STRANGER. The priest of Baal wishes to coax the lightning from heaven.... LADY. Now I'm frightened, frightened of you. You're terrifying. STRANGER. You see! LADY. Who are you to defy Heaven, and to dare to play with the destinies of men? STRANGER. Get up and collect your thoughts. Listen to me, believe me, and pay me the respect that's my due; and I'll lift both of us high above this frog pond, to which we've both descended. I'll breathe on your sick conscience so that it heals like a wound. Who am I? A man who has done what no one else has ever done; who will overthrow the Golden Calf and upset the tables of the money-changers. I hold the fate of the world in my crucible; and in a week I can make the richest of the rich a poor man. Gold, the most false of all standards, has ceased to rule; every man will now be as poor as his neighbour, and the children of men will hurry about like ants whose heap has been disturbed. LADY. What good will that be to us? STRANGER. Do you think I'll make gold in order to enrich ourselves and others? No. I'll do it to paralyse the present order, to disrupt it, as you'll see! I am the destroyer, the dissolver, the world incendiary; and when all lies in ashes, I shall wander hungrily through the heaps of ruins, rejoicing at the thought that it is all my work: that I have written the last page of world history, which can then be held to be ended. (The face of the DOMINICAN appears at the open window, without being seen by those on the stage.) LADY. Then that was the real meaning of your last book! It was no invention! STRANGER. No. But in order to write it, I had to link myself with the self of another, who could take everything from me that fettered my soul. So that my spirit could once more find a fiery blast, on which to mount to the ether, elude the Powers, and reach the Throne, in order to lay the lamentations of mankind at the feet of the Eternal One.... (The DOMINICAN makes the sign of the cross in the air and disappears.) Who's here? Who is the Terrible One who follows me and cripples my thoughts? Did you see no one? LADY. No. No one. STRANGER. But I can feel his presence. (He puts his hand to his heart.) Can't you hear, far, far away, someone saying a rosary? LADY. Yes, I can hear it. But it's not the Angels' Greeting. It's the Curse of Deuteronomy! Woe unto us! STRANGER. Then it must be in the convent of St. Saviour. LADY. Woe! Woe! STRANGER. Beloved. What is it? LADY. Beloved! Say that word again. STRANGER. Are you ill? LADY. No, but I'm in pain, and yet glad at the same time. Go and ask my mother to make up my bed. But first give me your blessing. STRANGER. Shall I...? LADY. Say you forgive me; I may die, if the child takes my life. Say that you love me. STRANGER. Strange: I can't get the word to cross my lips. LADY. Then you don't love me? STRANGER. When you say so, it seems so to me. It's terrible, but I fear I hate you. LADY. Then at least give me your hand; as you'd give it to someone in distress. STRANGER. I'd like to, but I can't. Someone in me takes pleasure in your agony; but it's not I. I'd like to carry you in my arms and bear your suffering for you. But I may not. I cannot! LADY. You're as hard as stone. STRANGER (with restrained emotion). Perhaps not. Perhaps not. LADY. Come to me! STRANGER. I can't stir from here. It's as if someone had taken possession of my soul; and I'd like to kill myself so as to take the life of the other. LADY. Think of your child with joy.... STRANGER. I can't even do that, for it'll bind me to earth. LADY. If we've sinned, we've been punished! Haven't we suffered enough? STRANGER. Not yet. But one day we shall have. LADY (sinking down). Help me. Mercy! I shall faint! (The STRANGER extends his hand, as if he had recovered from a cramp. The LADY kisses it. The STRANGER lifts her up and leads her to the door of the house.) [Curtain.] _ |
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