A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Plays: The Father; Countess Julie; The Outlaw; The Stronger

A >> August Strindberg >> Plays: The Father; Countess Julie; The Outlaw; The Stronger




JULIE. You only say that. And for that matter I have no secrets.
You see, my mother was not of noble birth. She was brought up with
ideas of equality, woman's freedom and all that. She had very
decided opinions against matrimony, and when my father courted her
she declared that she would never be his wife--but she did so for
all that. I came into the world against my mother's wishes, I
discovered, and was brought up like a child of nature by my mother,
and taught everything that a boy must know as well; I was to be an
example of a woman being as good as a man--I was made to go about
in boy's clothes and take care of the horses and harness and saddle
and hunt, and all such things; in fact, all over the estate women
servants were taught to do men's work, with the result that the
property came near being ruined--and so we became the laughing
stock of the countryside. At last my father must have awakened from
his bewitched condition, for he revolted, and ran things according
to his ideas. My mother became ill--what it was I don't know, but
she often had cramps and acted queerly--sometimes hiding in the
attic or the orchard, and would even be gone all night at times.
Then came the big fire which of course you have heard about. The
house, the stables--everything was burned, under circumstances that
pointed strongly to an incendiary, for the misfortune happened the
day after the quarterly insurance was due and the premiums sent in
by father were strangely delayed by his messenger so that they
arrived too late. [She fills a wine glass and drinks.]

JEAN. Don't drink any more.

JULIE. Oh, what does it matter? My father was utterly at a loss to
know where to get money to rebuild with. Then my mother suggested
that he try to borrow from a man who had been her friend in her
youth--a brick manufacturer here in the neighborhood. My father
made the loan, but wasn't allowed to pay any interest, which
suprised him. Then the house was rebuilt. [Julie drinks again.] Do
you know who burned the house?

JEAN. Her ladyship, your mother?

JULIE. Do you know who the brick manufacturer was?

JEAN. Your mother's lover?

JULIE. Do you know whose money it was?

JEAN. Just a moment, that I don't know.

JULIE. It was my mother's.

JEAN. The Count's--that is to say, unless there was a contract.

JULIE. There was no contract. My mother had some money which she
had not wished to have in my father's keeping and therefore, she
had entrusted it to her friend's care.

JEAN. Who kept it.

JULIE. Quite right--he held on to it. All this came to my father's
knowledge. He couldn't proceed against him, wasn't allowed to pay
his wife's friend, and couldn't prove that it was his wife's money.
That was my mother's revenge for his taking the reins of the
establishment into his own hands. At that time he was ready to
shoot himself. Gossip had it that he had tried and failed. Well, he
lived it down--and my mother paid full penalty for her misdeed.
Those were five terrible years for me, as you can fancy. I
sympathized with my father, but I took my mother's part, for I
didn't know the true circumstances. Through her I learned to
distrust and hate men, and I swore to her never to be a man's
slave.

JEAN. But you became engaged to the Lieutenant Governor.

JULIE. Just to make him my slave.

JEAN. But that he didn't care to be.

JULIE. He wanted to be, fast enough, but I grew tired of him.

JEAN. Yes--I noticed that--in the stable-yard!

JULIE. What do you mean?

JEAN. I saw how he broke the engagement.

JULIE. That's a lie. It was I who broke it. Did he say he broke it--
the wretch!

JEAN. I don't believe that he was a wretch. You hate men, Miss
Julie.

JULIE. Most of them. Sometimes one is weak--

JEAN. You hate me?

JULIE. Excessively. I could see you shot--

JEAN. Like a mad dog?

JULIE. Exactly!

JEAN. But there is nothing here to shoot with. What shall we do
then?

JULIE [Rousing herself].We must get away from here--travel.

JEAN. And torture each other to death?

JULIE. No--to enjoy, a few days, a week--as long as we can. And
then to die.

JEAN. Die! How silly. I think it's better to start the hotel.

JULIE [Not heeding him]. By the Lake of Como where the sun is
always shining, where the laurel is green at Christmas and the
oranges glow.

JEAN. The Lake of Como is it rain hole, I never saw any oranges
there except on fruit stands. But it's a good resort, and there are
many villas to rent to loving couples. That's a very paying
industry. You know why? They take leases for half a year at least,
but they usually leave in three weeks.

JULIE [Naively]. Why after three weeks?

JEAN. Why? They quarrel of course, but the rent must be paid all
the same. Then you re-let, and so one after another they come and
go, for there is plenty of love, although it doesn't last long.

JULIE. Then you don't want to die with me?

JEAN. I don't want to die at all, both because I enjoy living and
because I regard suicide as a crime to Him who has given us life.

JULIE. Then you believe in God?

JEAN. Yes. Of course I do, and I go to church every other Sunday--
But I'm tired of all this and I'm going to bed.

JULIE. Do you think I would allow myself to be satisfied with such
an ending? Do you know what a man owes to a woman he hits-- --

JEAN [Takes out a silver coin and throws it on the table]. Allow
me, I don't want to owe anything to anyone.

JULIE [Pretending not to notice the insult]. Do you know what the
law demands?

JEAN. I know that the law demands nothing of a woman who seduces a
man.

JULIE [Again not heeding him]. Do you see any way out of it but to
travel?--wed--and separate?

JEAN. And if I protest against this misalliance?

JULIE. Misalliance!

JEAN. Yes, for me. For you see I have a finer ancestry than you,
for I have no fire-bug in my family.

JULIE. How do you know?

JEAN. You can't prove the contrary. We have no family record except
that which the police keep. But your pedigree I have read in a book
on the drawing room table. Do you know who the founder of your
family was? It was a miller whose wife found favor with the king
during the Danish War. Such ancestry I have not.

JULIE. This is my reward for opening my heart to anyone so
unworthy, with whom I have talked about my family honor.

JEAN. Dishonor--yes, I said it. I told you not to drink because
then one talks too freely and one should never talk.

JULIE. Oh, how I repent all this. If at least you loved me!

JEAN. For the last time--what do you mean? Shall I weep, shall I
jump over your riding whip, shall I kiss you, lure you to Lake Como
for three weeks, and then--what do you want anyway? This is getting
tiresome. But that's the way it always is when you get mixed up in
women's affairs. Miss Julie, I see that you are unhappy, I know
that you suffer, but I can't understand you. Among my kind there is
no nonsense of this sort; we love as we play when work gives us
time. We haven't the whole day and night for it like you.

JULIE. You must be good to me and speak to me as though I were a
human being.

JEAN. Be one yourself. You spit on me and expect me to stand it.

JULIE. Help me, help me. Only tell me what to do--show me a way out
of this!

JEAN. In heaven's name, if I only knew myself.

JULIE. I have been raving, I have been mad, but is there no means
of deliverance?

JEAN. Stay here at home and say nothing. No one knows.

JULIE. Impossible. These people know it, and Kristin.

JEAN. They don't know it and could never suspect such a thing.

JULIE [Hesitating]. But--it might happen again.

JEAN. That is true.

JULIE. And the consequences?

JEAN [Frightened]. Consequences--where were my wits not to have
thought of that! There is only one thing to do. Get away from here
immediately. I can't go with you or they will suspect. You must go
alone--away from here--anywhere.

JULIE. Alone? Where? I cannot.

JEAN. You must--and before the Count returns. If you stay, we know
how it will be. If one has taken a false step it's likely to happen
again as the harm has already been done, and one grows more and
more daring until at last all is discovered. Write the Count
afterward and confess all--except that it was I. That he could
never guess, and I don't think he'll be so anxious to know who it
was, anyway.

JULIE. I will go if you'll go with me.

JEAN. Are you raving again? Miss Julie running away with her
coachman? All the papers would be full of it and that the Count
could never live through.

JULIE. I can't go--I can't stay. Help me, I'm so tired--so weary.
Command me, set me in motion--I can't think any more,--can't act--

JEAN. See now, what creatures you aristocrats are! Why do you
bristle up and stick up your noses as though you were the lords of
creation. Very well--I will command you! Go up and dress yourself
and see to it that you have travelling money and then come down.
[She hesitates.] Go immediately.

[She still hesitates. He takes her hand and leads her to door.]

JULIE. Speak gently to me, Jean.

JEAN. A command always sounds harsh. Feel it yourself now.

[Exit Julie.]

[Jean draws a sigh of relief, seats himself by the table, takes out
a notebook and pencil and counts aloud now and then until, Kristin
comes in, dressed for church.]

KRISTIN. My heavens, how it looks here. What's been going on?

JEAN. Oh, Miss Julie dragged in the people. Have you been sleeping
so soundly that you didn't hear anything?

KRISTIN. I've slept like a log.

JEAN. And already dressed for church!

KRISTIN. Ye-es, [Sleepily] didn't you promise to go to early
service with me?

JEAN. Yes, quite so, and there you have my stock and front. All
right.

[He seats himself. Kristin putting on his stock.]

JEAN [Sleepily]. What is the text today?

KRISTIN. St. John's Day! It is of course about the beheading of
John the Baptist.

JEAN. I'm afraid it will be terribly long drawn out--that. Hey,
you're choking me. I'm so sleepy, so sleepy.

KRISTIN. What have you been doing up all night? You are actually
green in the face.

JEAN. I have been sitting here talking to Miss Julie.

KRISTIN. Oh you don't know your place.

[Pause.]

JEAN. Listen, Kristin.

KRISTIN. Well?

JEAN. It's queer about her when you think it over.

KRISTIN. What is queer?

JEAN. The whole thing.

[Pause. Kristin looks at half empty glasses on table.]

KRISTIN. Have you been drinking together, too?

JEAN. Yes!

KRISTIN. For shame. Look me in the eye.

JEAN. Yes.

KRISTIN. Is it possible? Is it possible?

JEAN [After reflecting]. Yes, it is.

KRISTIN. Ugh! That I would never have believed. For shame, for
shame!

JEAN. You are not jealous of her?

KRISTIN. No, not of her. But if it had been Clara or Sophie--then I
would have scratched your eyes out. So that is what has happened--
how I can't understand! No, that wasn't very nice!

JEAN. Are you mad at her?

KRISTIN. No, but with you. That was bad of you, very bad. Poor
girl. Do you know what--I don't want to be here in this house any
longer where one cannot respect one's betters.

JEAN. Why should one respect them?

KRISTIN. Yes, you can say that, you are so smart. But I don't want
to serve people who behave so. It reflects on oneself, I think.

JEAN. Yes, but it's a comfort that they're not a bit better than
we.

KRISTIN. No, I don't, think so, for if they are not better there's
no use in our trying to better ourselves in this world. And to
think of the Count! Think of him who has had so much sorrow all his
days? No, I don't want to stay in this house any longer! And to
think of it being with such as you! If it had been the Lieutenant--

JEAN. What's that?

KRISTIN. Yes! He was good enough, to be sure, but there's a
difference between people just the same. No, this I can never
forget. Miss Julie who was always so proud and indifferent to men!
One never would believe that she would give herself--and to one
like you! She who was ready to have Diana shot because she would
run after the gatekeeper's mongrels. Yes, I say it--and here I
won't stay any longer and on the twenty-fourth of October I go my
way.

JEAN. And then?

KRISTIN. Well, as we've come to talk about it, it's high time you
looked around for something else, since we're going to get married.

JEAN. Well, what'll I look for? A married man couldn't get a place
like this.

KRISTIN. No, of course not. But you could take a gatekeeper's job
or look for it watchman's place in some factory. The government's
plums are few, but they are sure. And then the wife and children
get a pension--

JEAN [With a grimace]. That's all very fine--all that, but it's not
exactly in my line to think about dying for my wife and children
just now. I must confess that I have slightly different aspirations.

KRISTIN. Aspirations? Aspirations--anyway you have obligations.
Think of those, you.

JEAN. Don't irritate me with talk about my obligations. I know my
own business. [He listens.] We'll have plenty of time for all this
some other day. Go and get ready and we'll be off to church.

KRISTIN [Listening]. Who's that walking upstairs?

JEAN. I don't know--unless it's Clara.

KRISTIN [Starting to go]. It could never be the Count who has come
home without anyone hearing him?

JEAN [Frightened]. The Count! I can't believe that. He would have
rung the bell.

KRISTIN. God help us! Never have I been mixed up in anything like
this!

[Exit Kristin. The sun has risen and lights up the scene. Presently
the sunshine comes in through windows at an angle. Jean goes to
door and motions. Enter Julie, dressed for travelling, carrying a
small bird cage covered with a cloth, which she places on a chair.]

JULIE. I am ready!

JEAN. Hush, Kristin is stirring!

[Julie frightened and nervous throughout following scene.]

JULIE. Does she suspect anything?

JEAN. She knows nothing. But, good heavens, how you look!

JULIE. Why?

JEAN. You are pale as a ghost.

JULIE [Sighs]. Am I? Oh, the sun is rising, the sun!

JEAN. And now the troll's spell is broken.

JULIE. The trolls have indeed been at work this night. But, Jean,
listen--come with me, I have money enough.

JEAN. Plenty?

JULIE. Enough to start with. Go with me for I can't go alone--
today, midsummer day. Think of the stuffy train, packed in with the
crowds of people staring at one; the long stops at the stations
when one would be speeding away. No, I cannot, I cannot! And then
the memories, childhood's memories of midsummer day--the church
decorated with birch branches and syringa blossoms; the festive
dinner table with relations and friends, afternoon in the park,
music, dancing, flowers and games--oh, one may fly, fly, but
anguish and remorse follow in the pack wagon.

JEAN. I'll go with you--if we leave instantly--before it's too
late.

JULIE. Go and dress then. [She takes up bird cage.]

JEAN. But no baggage! That would betray us.

JULIE. Nothing but what we can take in the coupé.

[Jean has picked up his hat.]

JEAN. What have you there?

JULIE. It's only my canary. I cannot, will not, leave it behind.

JEAN. So we are to lug a bird cage with us. Are you crazy? Let go
of it.

JULIE. It is all I take from home. The only living creature that
cares for me. Don't be hard--let me take it with me.

JEAN. Let go the cage and don't talk so loud. Kristin will hear us.

JULIE. No, I will not leave it to strange hands. I would rather see
it dead.

JEAN. Give me the creature. I'll fix it.

JULIE. Yes, but don't hurt it. Don't--no, I cannot.

JEAN. Let go. I can.

JULIE [Takes the canary from cage]. Oh, my little siren. Must your
mistress part with you?

JEAN. Be so good as not to make a scene. Your welfare, your life,
is at stake. So--quickly. [Snatches bird from her and goes to
chopping block and takes up meat chopper]. You should have learned
how to chop off a chicken's head instead of shooting with a
revolver. [He chops off the bird's head]. Then you wouldn't swoon
at a drop of blood.

JULIE [Shrieks]. Kill me, too. Kill me! You who can butcher an
innocent bird without a tremble. Oh, how I shrink from you. I curse
the moment I first saw you. I curse the moment I was conceived in
my mother's womb.

JEAN. Come now! What good is your cursing, let's be off.

JULIE [Looks toward chopping block as though obsessed by thought of
the slain bird]. No, I cannot. I must see-- --hush, a carriage is
passing. Don't you think I can stand the sight of blood? You think
I am weak. Oh, I should like to see your blood flowing--to see your
brain on the chopping block, all your sex swimming in a sea of
blood. I believe I could drink out of your skull, bathe my feet in
your breast and eat your heart cooked whole. You think I am weak;
you believe that I love you because my life has mingled with yours;
you think that I would carry your offspring under my heart, and
nourish it with my blood--give birth to your child and take your
name! Hear, you, what are you called, what is your family name? But
I'm sure you have none. I should be "Mrs. Gate-Keeper," perhaps, or
"Madame Dumpheap." You dog with my collar on, you lackey with my
father's hallmark on your buttons. I play rival to my cook--oh--oh--
oh! You believe that I am cowardly and want to run away. No, now I
shall stay. The thunder may roll. My father will return--and find
his desk broken into--his money gone! Then he will ring--that bell.
A scuffle with his servant--then sends for the police--and then I
tell all--everything! Oh, it will be beautiful to have it all over
with--if only that were the end! And my father--he'll have a shock
and die, and then that will be the end. Then they will place his
swords across the coffin--and the Count's line is extinct. The
serf's line will continue in an orphanage, win honors in the gutter
and end in prison.

JEAN. Now it is the king's blood talking. Splendid, Miss Julie!
Only keep the miller in his sack.

[Enter Kristin with prayer-book in hand.]

JULIE [Hastening to Kristin and falls in her arms as though seeking
protection]. Help me, Kristin, help me against this man.

KRISTIN [Cold and unmoved]. What kind of performance is this for a
holy day morning? What does this mean--this noise and fuss?

JULIE. Kristin, you are a woman,--and my friend. Beware of this
wretch.

JEAN [A little embarrassed and surprised]. While the ladies are
arguing I'll go and shave myself.

[Jean goes, R.]

JULIE. You must understand me--you must listen to me.

KRISTIN. No--I can't understand all this bosh. Where may you be
going in your traveling dress?--and he had his hat on! Hey?

JULIE. Listen to me, Kristin, listen to me and I'll tell you
everything.

KRISTIN. I don't want to know anything--

JULIE. You must listen to me--

KRISTIN. What about? Is it that foolishness with Jean? That doesn't
concern me at all. That I won't be mixed up with, but if you're
trying to lure him to run away with you then we must put a stop to
it.

JULIE [Nervously]. Try to be calm now Kristin, and listen to me. I
can't stay here and Jean can't stay here. That being true, we must
leave-- --Kristin.

KRISTIN. Hm, hm!

JULIE [Brightening up]. But I have an idea--what if we three should
go--away--to foreign parts. To Switzerland and set up a hotel
together--I have money you see--and Jean and I would back the whole
thing, you could run the kitchen. Won't that be fine? Say yes, now--
and come with us--there everything would be arranged--say yes!
[Throws her arms around Kristin and coaxes her].

KRISTIN [Cold and reflecting]. Hm--hm!

JULIE [Presto tempo]. You leave never been out and traveled,
Kristin. You shall look about you in the world. Yon can't believe
how pleasant traveling on a train is--new faces continually, new
countries--and we'll go to Hamburg--and passing through we'll see
the zoological gardens--that you will like--then we'll go to the
theatre and hear the opera--and when we reach Munich there will be
the museum--there are Rubins and Raphaels and all the big painters
that you know--you have heard of Munich--where King Ludwig lived--
the King, you know, who went mad. Then we'll see his palace--a
palace like those in the Sagas--and from there it isn't far to
Switzerland--and the Alps, the Alps mind you with snow in
mid-summer. And there oranges grow and laurel--green all the year
round if--[Jean is seen in the doorway R. stropping his razor on
the strop which he holds between his teeth and left hand. He listens
and nods his head favorably now and then. Julie continues, tempo
prestissimo] And there we'll take a hotel and I'll sit taking the
cash while Jean greets the guests--goes out and markets writes
letters--that will be life, you may believe--then the train
whistles--then the omnibus comes--then a bell rings upstairs, then
in the restaurant--and then I make out the bills--and I can salt
them--you can't think how people tremble when they receive their
bill--and you--you can sit like a lady--of course you won't have
to stand over the stove--you can dress finely and neatly when you
show yourself to the people--and you with your appearance--Oh, I'm
not flattering, you can catch a husband some fine day--a rich Englishman
perhaps--they are so easy to--[Slowing up] to catch-- --Then we'll
be rich--and then we'll build a villa by Lake Como--to be sure it
rains sometimes--but [becoming languid] the sun must shine too
sometimes-- -- --although it seems dark-- -- --and if not--we can
at least travel homeward--and come back--here--or some other place.

KRISTIN. Listen now. Does Miss Julie believe in all this?

[Julie going to pieces.]

JULIE. Do I believe in it?

KRISTIN. Yes.

JULIE [Tired]. I don't know. I don't believe in anything any more.
[Sinks down on bench, and takes head in her hand on table.] In
nothing--nothing!

KRISTIN [Turns to R. and looks toward Jean]. So--you intended to
run away?

JEAN [Rather shamefaced comes forward and puts razor on table]. Run
away? That's putting it rather strong. You heard Miss Julie's
project, I think it might be carried out.

KRISTIN. Now listen to that! Was it meant that I should be her cook--

JEAN [Sharply]. Be so good as to use proper language when you speak
of your mistress.

KRISTIN. Mistress?

JEAN. Yes.

KRISTIN. No--hear! Listen to him!

JEAN. Yes, you listen--you need to, and talk less. Miss Julie is
your mistress and for the same reason that you do not respect her
now you should not respect yourself.

KRISTIN. I have always had so much respect for myself--

JEAN. That you never had any left for others!

KRISTIN. I have never lowered my position. Let any one say, if they
can, that the Count's cook has had anything to do with the riding
master or the swineherd. Let them come and say it!

JEAN. Yes, you happened to get a fine fellow. That was your good
luck.

KRISTIN. Yes, a fine fellow--who sells the Count's oats from his
stable.

JEAN. Is it for you to say anything--you who get a commission on
all the groceries and a bribe from the butcher?

KRISTIN. What's that?

JEAN. And you can't have respect for your master and mistress any
longer--you, you!

KRISTIN [Glad to change the subject]. Are you coming to church with
me? You need a good sermon for your actions.

JEAN. No, I'm not going to church today. You can go alone--and
confess your doings.

KRISTIN. Yes, that I shall do, and I shall return with so much
forgiveness that there will be enough for you too. The Savior
suffered and died on the cross for all our sins, and when we go to
Him in faith and a repentant spirit he takes our sins on Himself.

JULIE. Do you believe that, Kristin?

KRISTIN. That is my life's belief, as true as I stand here. And
that was my childhood's belief that I have kept since my youth,
Miss Julie. And where sin overflows, there mercy overflows also.

JULIE. Oh, if I only had your faith. Oh, if--

KRISTIN. Yes, but you see that is not given without God's
particular grace, and that is not allotted to all, that!

JULIE. Who are the chosen?

KRISTIN. That is the great secret of the Kingdom of Grace, and the
Lord has no respect for persons. But there the last shall be first.

JULIE. But then has he respect for the last--the lowliest person?

KRISTIN [Continuing]. It is easier for a camel to pass through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
That's the way it is, Miss Julie. However--now I am going--alone.
And on any way I shall stop in and tell the stable boy not to let
any horses go out in case any one wants to get away before the
Count comes home. Good bye.

[Exit Kristin.]

JEAN. Such a devil. And all this on account of your confounded
canary!

JULIE [Tired]. Oh, don't speak of the canary--do you see any way
out--any end to this?

JEAN [Thinking]. No.

JULIE. What would you do in my place?

JEAN. In your place--wait. As a noble lady, as a woman--fallen--I
don't know. Yes, now I know.

JULIE [She takes up razor from table and makes gestures saying]
This?

JEAN. Yes. But _I_ should not do it, mark you, for there is a
difference between us.

JULIE. Because you are a man and I am a woman? What other
difference is there?

JEAN. That very difference--of man and woman.

JULIE [Razor in hand]. I want to do it--but I can't. My father
couldn't either that time when he should have done it.

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