August Strindberg
Lucky Pehr
OLD MAN. Hell-fire! who's been here?
A VOICE. Curse not Christmas!
PEHR. What can this mean? It is so strange here to-night—stranger than usual. Father, look at me! Why, that's not his face!
OLD MAN. [Kneeling.] My son! Listen to your father—obey the old man, who wishes you only good; remain within these peaceful walls!
PEHR. It is too late!
OLD MAN. What do I see?—that ring! who gave it to you? [Tries to take the ring from Pehr.]
PEHR. Who are you? You are not my father!
OLD MAN. Your guilty, your unhappy father, who is bound by the witchcraft of the Powers! [Old Man is transformed into a big black cat.]
PEHR. Jesu Maria, help! [Bright rays dart out from Virgin's image; clock strikes twelve.]
PEHR. The witch! The witch! Away, unclean spirit! [Cat vanishes.] And now—[opens tower shutters] for life! [Fingers ring.] To the forest. [Going through window.] Out!
CURTAIN.
ACT TWO
SCENE ONE
Snow-clad woods; diagonally across stage is an ice-covered brook. Dawn. Wind blows through the trees as curtain rises. Pehr on.
PEHR. So this is the forest, whither my thoughts have so often flown through the clear air, and this is the snow! Now I want to throw snowballs, as I've seen school boys do. It is supposed to be something uncommonly amusing. [He takes up some snow and casts a few snowballs.] H-m! That's not so wonderful! Once again—I think it almost stupid.
But what is it that plays up in the tree tops? The wind—Ah, it sounds rather well. Zoo, zoo, zoo! But one grows sleepy if one listens to that long. Zoo, zoo, zoo! Now it sounds like the gnats on a summer's evening. Strange how short everything is out here in Nature! The dullness in the tower—that was long! Now it's not at all pretty or amusing. [Sees brook.] Why, what is this? Ice! What pleasure can one get from that? Ah, now I remember—one can skate on it. I must try that! [He goes out on the brook; slides; ice cracks; he falls from fright and lies there, stunned.]
[Enter Lisa.]
LISA. [Runs up to Pehr.] There he is! Ah—he sleeps! [Sees something that glitters.] What is that? [Picks up ring, which Pehr dropped when he fell.] A ring! He is sleeping in the snow! What can have happened? He is hurt! What can I do? In the very heart of the forest and right in the snow! Not a human being comes this way. He'll freeze to death if he cannot get away. The good fairy sent me here to look up that boy, but she did not tell me that I should find him half dead in a snow drift! If only it were summer, with the sun shining on the green grass-carpet—
[Lisa fingers ring. Transformation: Landscape is changed from winter into summer; brook loses ice-cake and runs forth between the stones; sun shines on the whole.]
LISA. What can be the meaning of this! [Amazed, glances in all directions. Pehr awakens.]
PEHR. [Rubbing his eyes.] Why, what is this—I fly from the church tower, come into a forest of snow, throw snowballs, skate, bump my head on the ice, lose my senses—then I wake up and find that it is summer! Have I been lying here under the snow six months? No, it doesn't seem likely. [Looks at himself in the brook.] I'm as red as a rose. [Bends over water.] But what do I see down in the deep—A blue sky, green trees, white water-lilies, and right in their midst—a girl!—just like the one the youth had his arm around in the Christmas-home: flowing hair, a mouth like a song, eyes like the dove's!—Ah! she nods to me—I'm coming, I'm coming! [About to plunge into the brook, when Lisa gives a cry. He turns.] There she is! A moment ago she was down here.
LISA. So it seems, but do not always believe your eyes.
PEHR. A strange world, this! But let me see if it is the same girl? [Stares at her.] Yes, it is she. [Starts to run toward her, then catches sight of ring.] What! my ring? You robbed me while I lay senseless! Oh, do not believe your eyes, you said. No! for now I have my first lesson—I wanted to embrace an angel, and I find a thief.
LISA. Do not always believe your eyes, Pehr; investigate before you judge.
PEHR. You are right. I shall do so. Girl, who are you? What is your name?
LISA. Lisa is my name, but who I am you must not know until the time is fulfilled. I came here and found you senseless—on the ice I found your ring, the powers of which I did not know.
PEHR. You have saved me from certain death in the snow. Forgive me! Lisa, you shall go with me on my journey, and you shall see a jolly life.
LISA. You are traveling, you say—What is the object of your journey?
PEHR. I seek—like all the rest—happiness.
LISA. You seek happiness! That is a fleeting thing.
PEHR. Ah, say not so! I can have all that I wish for. Have we not been given the most delightful summer in the middle of winter? See how gloriously the sun shines up in the pines! You must know that all this is new to me. Oh, look! [Picks up a few spruce-cones.] What are these?
LISA. The fruit of the trees.
PEHR. Then it is good to eat.
LISA. No; but children play with it.
PEHR. Play—that I have never done! Shall we play, Lisa?
LISA. Yes—but what? Shall we play a game of tag?
PEHR. How does it go?
LISA. Watch me! [She runs behind a tree and throws cones at Pehr.] Now catch me!
PEHR. [Running after her.] But that's not so easily done! [Steps on a cone and hurts his foot.] The damned spruce apples!
LISA. Mustn't curse the fruit of the trees!
PEHR. One can do without such fruit! I prefer the kind I saw on a Christmas-tree. If this spruce could bear such fruit, then—[Instantly spruce bears oranges.] Look, look! Let us taste. [They pick fruit and eat.]
LISA. Well, what think you?
PEHR. Oh! it's rather good—but not quite what I had fancied.
LISA. So it is always—all through life.
PEHR. My dear girl, how wise you are! Lisa, may I put my arm around your waist? [A bird in the tree begins to sing softly.]
LISA. Yes; but what for?
PEHR. May I kiss you also?
LISA. Yes—there's no harm in that, surely. [Bird sings louder.]
PEHR. I'm so warm after the play, Lisa! Shall we bathe in the brook?
LISA. [Covers her eyes with her hands.] Bathe!
PEHR. [Throws off coat.] Yes!
LISA. [Hides behind a tree.] No, no, no! [Bird sings.]
PEHR. Who is that screech-owl up in the tree?
LISA. It is a bird that sings.
PEHR. What does he sing about?
LISA. Hush! I understand bird language; that my godmother taught me.
PEHR. It will be fun hearing about it! [Bird sings.]
LISA. "Not so, not so!" he said just then. [Bird sings again.] Pehr, do you know what he said then?
PEHR. No.
LISA. "Live guiltless! Mine eye seeth thee."
PEHR. Guiltless—what is that?
LISA. I don't know—but dress yourself!
PEHR. It's only nonsense; there's no one here to see us. [Cuckoo calls.] Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
PEHR. What is that rogue calling?
LISA. [Imitates cuckoo.] Cuckoo, cuckoo!
PEHR. What a lot of tiresome formalities there has got to be!
LISA. Can you not enjoy the great, innocent pleasures of Nature?
PEHR. Yes, for a little while—What was that? [Tears off vest.]
LISA. An ant.
PEHR. [Beats right and left with his hat.] Only look at all the horrid pests! Ouch! what was it that stung me? A mosquito!
LISA. Everything here in life is incomplete, Pehr. Remember that, and take the bad with the good.
PEHR. Deuce take the bad! I want the good. [Beats at the air.] Now I'm tired of the for est. Surely one cannot play all one's life! I yearn for activity, and want to be among people. Tell me, Lisa—you, who are such a wise little creature, what do people value most? For that I shall procure for myself.
LISA. Pehr, before I answer you, listen to a sensible word! People will cause you just as much annoyance as the mosquitoes do, but they will not give you the delight to be found in Nature's perennial youth.
PEHR. Nature!—Oh, yes, it is very pretty when seen from a church tower, but it becomes rather monotonous near to. Doesn't everything stand still? Don't the trees stand in the selfsame places where they stood fifty years ago, and won't they be standing there fifty years hence? My eyes are already weary of this splendor! I want movement and noise, and if the people are like mosquitoes, it will be so much easier to keep them at a distance than this company. [Beats about his head with his hat.]
LISA. You'll see, no doubt, you'll see! Experience will teach you better than my word.
PEHR. And now, Lisa, what do people value most in a person?
LISA. I'm ashamed to say it.
PEHR. You must tell me!
LISA. Gold.
PEHR. Gold? But that is something outside the person which does not belong to his being.
LISA. Yes, that is known; but it is so nevertheless.
PEHR. What extraordinary qualities does gold possess?
LISA. All! It is good for everything—and nothing. It gives all that earth has to offer; in itself it is the most perfect of all the earth's products which rust cannot spot—but which can put rust-spots into souls.
PEHR. Well, then! Will you follow me, Lisa?
LISA. I will always follow you—at a distance.
PEHR. At a distance! and why not near me? Lisa, now I shall put my arm around your waist again. [Lisa tears herself away; bird sings.] Why do you run away?
LISA. Ask the bird!
PEHR. I can't understand what he says; you must tell me.
LISA. [Embarrassed.] No, I cannot!
PEHR. Cannot? What is it?
LISA. He is not singing for us now. He sings to his sweetheart, so you must know what he is saying.
PEHR. How should I know that!
LISA. He says like this: [Running off] "I love you, I love you!"
PEHR. Stay! Shall you run away from me? Lisa! Lisa! She's gone! Very well then! Come hither palace and plates and wines and horses and chariots and gold—gold!SCENE TWO.
A luxurious Banquet Hall. Servants bring on a table, with food and wines; other servants carry in a chest containing gold; others, again, a table covered with plates, vases, candle-sticks, etc.—all of gold.
PEHR. [Walks about and looks around.] So this is the rich man's abode! Well, it looks rather promising. Slaves! Give me my best holiday-coat—but it must be of gold. [Servants hand him a gold-cloth coat.] A chair! [They place a gold chair at table.] Now, Pehr, you shall enjoy life! and that is your right. Haven't you been up mornings at four o'clock; and rung for early Mass; haven't you swept the church on Fridays and scoured the stairs on Saturdays; haven't you eaten bread and herring three hundred and sixty-five days in the year and rinsed them down with cold water; haven't you slept on pease-bolt which was so badly threshed that you could feel the pease in your knee-joints? Oh, yes, you have—therefore enjoy yourself! [Wants to sit at table.]
BUTLER. [With staff in hand.] Pardon, Your Grace! The table is not laid.
PEHR. Isn't it?
BUTLER. In a couple of hours the roasts will be ready.
PEHR. I don't want any roasts.
BUTLER. [Intercepts Pehr with staff.] It can never be that one sits down at an unlaid table!
PEHR. Who forbids me in my own house?
BUTLER. Etiquette, Your Grace, does not under any circumstances permit it.
PEHR. Etiquette! What kind of torment is that?
BUTLER. Your Grace, listen to an old man's word! He who in Your Grace's position violates the rules of etiquette is lost.
PEHR. [Frightened.] What a harsh gentleman! I shall have to submit, although I'm beastly hungry—But, wait! Is there nothing that will move that gentleman? I have heard that gold—[Goes over to chest and takes out a handful of gold coins.] Would not—
BUTLER. Your Grace! I stand above the servants; above me stands Your Grace, but above us all stands—Conventionality. Its laws are perpetual, for they have their foundation both in common sense and in what we call historical hypotheses.
PEHR. And the historical hypotheses—cannot they be reached with gold?
BUTLER. They are non-corruptible—in this instance!
PEHR. What's the good of all my wealth if I cannot eat my fill when I'm hungry? I am worse off than the poorest bellringer.
[Butler stations himself at the table, and stands like a statue.]
[Enter Tax Assessor and assistants, who walk about and take an inventory.]
PEHR. Look—here's a new torture! With what shall you gentlemen pester an innocent victim?
TAX ASSESSOR. Taxation, Your Grace.
PEHR. Indeed! So it is you who regulate people's worth. How high is a human being estimated these days?
TAX ASSESSOR. Two per hundred, Your Grace;—all depends on what one is good for.
PEHR. Tell me, can't I withdraw while the gentlemen figure up? for I am both hungry and thirsty.
TAX ASSESSOR. Impossible! It must be done in the owner's presence.
PEHR. O Lord, what trials! But I may be allowed to sit down at least?
TAX ASSESSOR. As you please! [To assistants.] Two dozen plates with beveled edges—write! Six wine-coolers, with handles of finer metal—write! One sugar bowl, with sifting spoon, and two smaller ditto—write! Two dozen knives, with handles of mother-of-pearl—brand new—write!
PEHR. See if I don't go crazy!
TAX ASSESSOR. Dining table of oak, with double leaves—write! Six walnut chairs. [Enter Lawyer.]
PEHR. One more!
LAWYER. Your Grace is summoned to the City Court to have tax No. 2867 legalized before twelve o'clock this day.
PEHR. The Court? Litigation? I never institute proceedings, sir!
LAWYER. It's not a question of litigation—only to verify facts.
PEHR. I don't wish to verify facts.
LAWYER. But to put the case—
PEHR. I don't want to put the case—I want my dinner! Butler, can't I take a sandwich? [Butler raises staff threateningly; enter petty constable.]
PEHR. Are there still more?
PETTY CONSTABLE. Your Grace is summoned to the Bar tomorrow at eleven o'clock for neglecting to keep the street clean.
PEHR. Must I keep the street clean—I, who am such a rich man! What, then, must I not do?
PETTY CONSTABLE. It is the duty of every householder to keep clean in front of his own house.
PEHR. Etiquette, taxation, put the case, keep yard and street clean, hunger and thirst—is that the rich man's lot! Then I would rather be a street sweeper and own myself. And I'm not allowed to turn these gentlemen out, who crowd into my room, and I cannot go my way when I choose!
[Enter petitioner, followed by a servant carrying two baskets of papers.]
PEHR. Mr. Lawyer and Mr. Constable, can't the law protect an unfortunate rich man so that he may have peace in his home, or is the law only for the poor?
LAWYER. Your Grace can no longer be regarded as an individual; for when one through riches has risen to the community's heights, one belongs to the whole.
PEHR. And so one is placed outside the law.
LAWYER. [Smiles; glances about.] Above the law, Your Grace!
PEHR. Ha—! What does this last friend want! Are there any presents in those baskets?
PETITIONER. Your Honorable Grace is appointed Church Warden—
PEHR. [Interrupts.] Called—
PETITIONER. Called to vote day after to-morrow.
PEHR. Eleven o'clock—
PETITIONER. Eleven o'clock-to be present at the election of the new Rector. But before that, Your Grace must take part in the preliminaries which are here inclosed, and which are for the purpose of showing the incompetence of the opposing candidate for the office.
PEHR. Must I read through two baskets full of papers between now and day after to-morrow? No, no!
PETITIONER. Perhaps Your Grace would like to give your vote to our candidate—
PEHR. Without having to read—is that permissible? Thank you, my good friend! Pen and ink!
PETITIONER. [Hands Pehr pen, ink and paper for signature.] Admirable! I thank Your Grace.
PEHR. [Embracing him.] Ah, it is I that must thank you!
BUTLER. [Raps on table three times with staff; servants enter with dishes.] Dinner is served. [All go except Pehr and butler.]
PEHR. [Sits down at table.] At last! [Soft music.] See, now they go when he commands; but when I beg, it's useless!
BUTLER. It is not my command they obey, Your Grace, but the rules of etiquette.
PEHR. And they transcend my will?
BUTLER. Laws are the agreements of many, and must of course come before the individual's will.
PEHR. I declare, he can answer all things! Now I shall enjoy myself at all events. Wine warms the heart, food warms the body—but where's the pleasure in loneliness? Mr. Butler, do the rules of etiquette permit that one has company when one is enjoying oneself?
BUTLER. I almost believe that something in that way is required.
PEHR. Well, then, I want—
[First Friend enters and rushes into Pehr's arms.]
FIRST FRIEND. Friend of my heart! So I see thee again after such a long separation! And you are like yourself—a little thinner than when I last saw you; but how's everything now, dear old chap?
PEHR. [Eyeing him.] Oh, thanks, thanks—very well indeed, as—ahem—you see. Pray take a chair and sit down.
FIRST FRIEND. Why, bless my soul! I've just had dinner, but I'll go into your ante-room and wait there while you finish yours.
PEHR. No, that is just what you shall not do! I remarked a while ago that I thought life so empty when one must sit alone at table. Take a chair and sit down.
FIRST FRIEND. Dear old friend, if you insist I will sit beside you while you dine; but it actually looks as though I had come here for a meal.
PEHR. What matter even if it were so.
FIRST FRIEND. [Protests.] Oh—!
PEHR. Wait a bit—I'm not saying that it is so!
FIRST FRIEND. [Seats himself.] So now you are in clover, as they say. It is pleasant to contemplate that fate can be so kindly, and it must ever rejoice a sensitive soul to see that some one is favored by fickle fortune. Not all—more's the pity!—can praise fickle fortune.
PEHR. Indeed! Have you any grievances?FIRST FRIEND. I?
PEHR. Yes—for I don't want to hear any hard-luck stories now, when I'm eating. Won't you be good enough to favor me by trying a hazel-grouse?
FIRST FRIEND. If you speak of favors, my friend!
PEHR. Then you mustn't say "my friend"; you must call me by name.
FIRST FRIEND. Christopher! You ask a service of poor me—can I then deny you! [He begins to eat, his appetite increases during following repartee. Pehr regards him with open-eyed wonder.]
PEHR. One should never deny another anything?
FIRST FRIEND. Well said! One should never deny oneself anything—one another, I mean.
[Enter Second Friend.]
SECOND FRIEND. [Walking straight up to the table.] Good day, Goran! Do you remember me? [Pehr Stares at him.] No you don't, but I remember you. You see, I never forget my old friends! In the hour of need I look them up. Here you sit and eat and I have nothing to eat, therefore I say right out: Boy, here am I! [Seats himself at table.]
FIRST FRIEND. [To Pehr.] Who is that tramp? He eats as though he had not seen food from Christmas to Easter!
PEHR. Oh, he's a friend of mine.
SECOND FRIEND. [To Pehr.] Who is that beggar? He stuffs himself like a. wolf in the springtime!
