MODERN AUTHORS' SERIES MOTHERLOVE BY cAUGVST STRINDBERG / MOTHERLOVE MODERN AUTHORS' SERIES MOTHERLOVE (MODERSKARLEK) An Act BY AUGUST STRINDBERG Author of " The Creditor," " Swanwhite," " Frbken Julie," etc. English Version BY FRANCIS J. ZIEGLER PHILADELPHIA BROWN BROTHERS 1910 Copyright, 1910 BY BROWN BROTHERS SRLF ?T MOTHER LOVE (MODERSKARLEK) An Act, by AUGUST STRINDBERG English Version by FRANCIS J. ZIEGLER CHARACTERS. The Mother, formerly a loose woman, forty-two years. The Daughter, actress, twenty years. Lizzie, eighteen years. Wardrobe Mistress of the theatre. MOTHERLOVE. SCENE. The interior of a fisherman's cottage at a seaside re- sort. In the background a veranda opening upon the beach. (The Mother and the Wardrobe Mistress smoking cigars, drinking porter and playing cards. The Daugh- ter stands looking intently out the window.) THE MOTHER. Come, Helen, and make the third kand! THE DAUGHTER. Can't I leave card playing alone for once on such a beautiful summer day ! THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. Always be civil to your mama ! 9 10 MOTHEELOVE. THE MOTHER. Don't sit out there on the veranda and get sunburnt ! THE DAUGHTER. It doesn't burn here ! THE MOTHER. Then pull down the blind ! (To the Wardrobe Mis- tress.) You must shuffle. Be so good. THE DAUGHTER. Can't I go bathing with the girls to-day ? THE MOTHER. "Not without your mama, you know that ! THE DAUGHTER. But the girls know how to swim, and mama does not! THE MOTHER. The question is not who knows how to swim and who doesn't, but Helen knows that she never goes out with- out her mama. THE DAUGHTER. As if I didn't know that ! I have heard it ever since I could understand what you said! MOTHERLOVE. 11 THE WAEDBOBE MISTRESS. That shows that Helen has had a loving mother who wanted the best for her child ! THE MOTHEE. (Reaches her hand to the Wardrobe Mistress.) Thanks ! Thanks for those words, Augusta ! What I was once, that - - but that I have been a tender mother I can say myself with confidence. THE DAUGHTER. It is not worth while, then, asking you if I can go down and play lawn tennis ! THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. One must not be disrespectful to one's mother, young lady, and when one doesn't want to please one's asso- ciates by taking part in their simple amusements it seems, to speak frankly, indelicate to come and ask to be allowed to amuse oneself in other company! THE DAUGHTER. Yes, yes, yes, I know all that ; I know, I know ! THE MOTHER. Are you disagreeable again ! Find something useful 12 MOTHERLOVE. to do and don't sit there so idle! A grown up young lady! THE DAUGHTER. If I am a grown up young lady, why do you treat me like a child ? THE MOTHER. Because you behave like a child ! THE DAUGHTER. You, at least, should not reproach me, you want me that way ! THE MOTHER. See here, Helen, I notice you have grown snappier than usual recently With whom do you associ- ate here ? THE DAUGHTER. With you among others ! THE MOTHER. You begin to have secrets from your mother ! THE DAUGHTER. Yes, it's time I did ! THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. Shame on you, young lady, do you want to squabble with your mother ! MOTHERLOVE. 13 THE MOTHER. We ought to be doing something useful instead of quarreling. For example, come and read me your part. THE DAUGHTER. The manager said I was to read it over to nobody, I would only be taught wrong. THE MOTHER. That is the thanks one gets for trying to help ! And everything I do is foolish, that goes without saying! THE DAUGHTER. Why do you do it then, and why should I take the blame when you do things the wrong way ! THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. You want to reproach your mother for her lack of education! Pooh, how simple! THE DAUGHTER. You say that I want to, Aunt, but I don't do so! But when my mother wants to teach me anything the wrong way I must tell her, unless my engagement is to come to an end and we find ourselves down on our uppers ! 14 MOTHERLOVE. THE MOTHER. And so we have to hear, also, that we live off you! But do you know how much you owe to Aunt Augusta here ? Do you know that it was she who took both of us in when your bad father deserted us; that she cared for us, and that, you owe her a debt which you can never repay ! Do you know that ? (The Daughter is silent.) THE MOTHER. Do you know that ? Answer ! THE DAUGHTER. I won't answer that ! THE MOTHER. Won't you answer ! THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. Calm yourself, Amelia ! The neighbors will hear us and there .will be scandal again. So quiet yourself 1 THE MOTHER. (To the Daughter.") Go get dressed and come walking with UB ! MOTHERLOVE. 15 THE DAUGHTER. I will not go walking to-day ! THE MOTHER. This is the third day that you have refused to go walking with your mother! (Thought f idly.) Can it be possible? Go out on the veranda, Helen, I want to talk to Aunt Augusta. (The Daughter goes out to the veranda.) THE MOTHER. Do you believe it is possible ? THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. What? THE MOTHER. That she has heard anything? THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. That is not possible! THE MOTHER. Anything can happen! Not that I believe anyone could be so cruel as to tell the child to her face. I had a nephew who was thirty-six before he heard that his 16 MOTHEKLOVE. father was a suicide But there is something back of Helen's changed disposition. Eight days ago I noticed that she fretted at my company on the promenade. She wanted to go by herself; she was nervous, unable to speak a word and wanted to come home! That means something ! THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. Ske objected if I understand you correctly to the company of her own mother? THE MOTHER. Yes! THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. No, that is going too far ! THE MOTHER. And, what is worse, can you imagine, she neglected to introduce me when we met some of her acquaintances coming off the steamboat ! THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. Do you know what I think? She has met some- body who came here during the last eight days. We will go down to the post office and look over the newcomers. THE MOTHER. Yes, we will do that! Helen! Take care of the house for a while, we are going to the post office. MOTHERLOVE. 17 THE DAUGHTER. Yes, mama! THE MOTHEE. (To the Wardrobe Mistress.) It is just as if I had dreamed all this THE WARDROBE MISTRESS. Yes, dreams come true, sometimes I know that but not the beautiful ones. (They leave by the right.) (The Daughter beckons. Lizzie enters. She is dressed in lawn tennis costume, all white with a white hat.) LIZZIE. Have they gone? THE DAUGHTER. Yes, for a little while. LIZZIE. ^Yell, what does your mother say ? THE DAUGHTER. I did not dare ask her ! She is in such a bad humor. 18 MOTHEKLOVE. LIZZIE. Poor Helen! Then you can't come with me on the outing! And I would have been so happy If you knew how I loved you! (Kisses her.) THE DAUGHTER. If you knew what your friendship and the intimacy of these days in your house meant to me, who never associated before with decent people. Think what it must be to me to live in a hole where the air is damp, where people who live a questionable existence move about me, whispering, brawling, quarreling; where I never get a friendly word, much less a caress, and where my soul is kept in custody as if it were a criminal Oh, it is my mother of whom I speak, and it hurts, it hurts, it hurts ! And you will only despise me ! LIZZIE. One can't do that who knows what the parents are and THE DAUGHTER. "No, but one must suffer it ! It is certain that one can live until the day of one's death without learning what kind of people one's parents are with whom one has lived. And I believe, too, that when one heari it out doem't believe it ! MOTHERLOVE. 19 LIZZIE. (Embarrased.} Have you heard anything? THE DAUGHTER. Yes, when I had been here three days, I heard some- one through the partition talking about my mother. Do yon know what they said \ LIZZIE. Don't worry about that. THE DAUGHTER. They said that she had been a bad woman ! 1 didn't want to believe it; I won't believe it yet; but I feel that it is true ; everything tends to make it credible and it shames me ! Shames me to show myself out- side with her, believing that people look at us, that the men leer at us it is frightful ! But is it true ? LIZZIE. People lie so much, and I don't know. THE DAUGHTER. Yes, you know, you know something; but you don't 20 MOTHERLOVE. want to tell me, and I thank you for it, but I am just as unhappy, whether you say anything or not ! LIZZIE. My dear friend, put these thoughts out of your head and come to us to-day; you will meet people who can do you good. My father came home this morning and is anxious to see you, for you must know that I have mentioned you in my letters to him, and I believe Cousin Gerhard has also. THE DAUGHTER. You have a father; so had I when I was very, very little- LlZZIE. Where is he now? THE DAUGHTER. He left us, because he was a bad man, according to mother. LIZZIE. One can tell that as little However, I'll tell you something; if you come to us to-day you will meet the manager of the big theatre, and it might be you could secure an engagement. THE DAUGHTER. What did you say? MOTHEKLOVE. 21 LIZZIE. Yes, it is so; be is interested in you - that is to say, Gerhard and I have interested him in you; and you know how little may bring good fortune ; a personal meeting, a good word spoken at the right time. I^ow you cannot say no without standing in your own light. THE DAUGHTER. Dearest, if I want to! You know I do, but I don't go out without mania. LIZZIE. Why not ? Can you give rne a reason ? THE DAUGHTER. 1 don't know ! She taught me to answer that way when I was a child, and the order stands. LIZZIE. Has she made you give a promise ? THE DAUGHTER. No, she didn't need ; she has onjy to say, answer so ! And then I do it ! LIZZIE. Do you think it would be wrong to leave her for a couple of hours ? 22 MOTHEKLOVE. THE DAUGHTER. I don't believe she would miss me, because when I am home she is always finding fault with me; but I should be uncomfortable if I went where she could not accompany me. LIZZIE. Have you thought of the possibility of her being able to accompany you in this case ? THE DAUGHTEE. No, I have not thought of that ! LIZZIE. But should you marry THE DAUGHTER. I shall never marry ! LIZZIE. Did your mother teach you to say that, too ? THE DAUGHTER. Possibly ! Yes, she has always warned me against the men ! LIZZIE. Against a husband? MOTHERLOVE. M THE DAUGHTER. I presume so! LIZZIE. Listen, Helen! You must really emancipate jour- self. THE DAUGHTER. Fy ! I don't want to be an emancipated woman ! LIZZIE. ~No, I didn't mean that kind of one, but jou must break loose from your dependency, because you are grown up, and because it can make life impossible for you. THE DAUGHTER. I don't believe I can do that. Think how close I have been tied to this mother since childhood; not daring to have a thought which was not hers, not a wish which was not her wish. I know it hinders me, that it stands in my way, but I can't do otherwise. LIZZIE. And if your mother died you would be helpless. THE DAUGHTER. I should have to make my way. 24 MOTHEKLOVE. LIZZIE. But you have no associates, no friends ; and one can- not live alone. You must seek a support! Have you never been in love ? THE DAUGHTER. I don't know! I have never been given to thinking of such matters, and mother prevents young men com- ing near me ! Do you think about such things ? LIZZIE. I would if anybody cared for me and I wanted him. THE DAUGHTER. Then you are going to marry your Cousin Gerhard. LIZZIE. I shall never do that, because he doesn't love me ! THE DAUGHTER. Doesn't he? LIZZIE. ]^o ! Because he is in love with you. THE DAUGHTER. With me ? MOTHEKLOVE. 25 LIZZIE. Yes; and I was charged to ask you if he might visit you. THE DAUGHTER. Here ? No, that cannot be ! And do you think that I would want to stand in your way \ And do you think I could cut you out with him, you who are so beautiful, so fine (Takes Lizzie's hand in hers.) Such a hand and such a wrist ! I saw your feet, dearest, when we were in the bathhouse. (Falls on her knees before Lizzie, who has seated herself.) Such a foot, with every nail perfect, with the toes as plump and rosy as a baby's hand. (Kisses Lizzie's foot.) You are a noble woman, made out of different stuff than I am! LIZZIE. Stop that and don't talk nonsense! (Eises.) If you knew ! But THE DAUGHTER. And you must be just as good as you are beautiful ; so we think always down here when we see you up there with that clear, soft countenance, in which need has not marked its fear, nor envy engraved its ugly lines. LIZZIE. Listen, Helen, I might believe you were in love with 26 MOTHERLOVE. THE DAUGHTER. Yes, I am, too ! I try to resemble you somewhat, as the hepatica resembles the anemone, and then I see in you my better self, something that I might be, but never can. You came as gently, as white, as an angel in my way those recent summer days ; now it is autumn, and the day after to-morrow we go back to the city. Then we shall know each other no more And we dare not know each other You can not lift me up, but I could pull you down, and I don't want to do that ! I want you to be so much above me, so far away, that I cannot see your faults. Therefore, farewell, Lizzie, my first and only friend. LIZZIE. No, that is enough ! Helen ! Do you know who I am ! 1 am your sister ! THE DAUGHTER. You? How is that? LIZZIE. You and I have the same father! THE DAUGHTER. And you are my sister, my dear little sister. But what is my father? He must be a, naval com- MOTHEELOVE. 27 mander, because your father is ; how stupid I am ! But he is married then, because Is he good to you ? He wasn't to my mother. LIZZIE. You don't know that ! But aren't you happy now to have found a little sister and one that doesn't cry ? THE DAUGHTER. Oh, yes, I am so happy that I don't know what to say (Embraces her.) But I dare not be entirely happy, because I don't know what is going to happen now! What will mama say, and how will it be when we meet papa ? LIZZIE. Leave your mother to me; she cannot stay away much longer. And keep in the background until you are needed. Come and give me a kiss first, little one ! (They kiss each other.) THE DAUGHTER. My sister! How wonderful that word sounds, as wonderful as the word "father" when one has not pro- nounced it before LIZZIE. Don't let us talk at random, but let us stick to the subject. Do you believe that your mother will say 28 MOTHERLOVE. no now to the invitation to visit us ? To visit your sister and your father? THE DAUGHTER. Without mama ? Oh, she hates vour mv father t/ v so frightfully! LIZZIE. But suppose she has no occasion for it ? If you only knew how full the world is of lies and deceptions ! And errors and misunderstandings. My father has told me of a comrade he had when he first went to sea as a cadet. A gold watch was stolen from the officers' cabin, and, for some reason, heaven knows what, the cadet was suspected. His comrades drew away from him and that embittered him so that he found his sur- roundings unbearable, became mixed up in a fight and was forced to resign. Two years later the thief was discovered, he was a boatswain, but no amends could be made the innocent man, Avho had only been sus j pected. And that lasted all his life, although the sus- picion had been disproved, and the opprobrious nick- name he had received hung to him. It had been built up like a house, the bad character had been so con- structed and riveted that even after the false founda- tions had been taken away the structure remained, swinging in the air like the castle in the Arabian ISTights. You see, that is the way of the world ! But it can be even worse than that, as it was in the case of the instrument maker at Arboga, who was called an in- cendiary, because somebody set fire to his shop, or An- MOTHERLOVE. 29 dersson, who was called Thief Andersson, because he was the victim of a well-known rogue. THE DAUGHTER. By all this you mean that my father was not what I believed him? LIZZIE. That's just what I mean! THE DAUGHTER. I have seen him in my dreams, since I lost the rec- ollection of him Is he not of middle height, with a dark beard and great, blue seaman's eyes ? LIZZIE. Yes, that's near it ! THE DAUGHTER. And then Wait, now, I think of something- Do you see this watch. In the case is a little compass and in the compass is an eye which marks the north ! Who gave me this ? LIZZIE. Your father ! I saw him buv it ! 30 MOTHERLOVE. THE DAUGHTER. Then I have seen him in the theatre so many times when I was acting He sat always in the left pros- cenium box and followed me about with his opera glasses 1 did not dare speak to mother about it, be- cause she was always so angry with me and once he threw me flowers but mama burned them. Do you think it was he ? LIZZIE. It was he, and you can assure yourself that his eyes have followed you all these years, as the eye has watched the needle on the compass. THE DAUGHTER. And you say that I shall see him, that he wants to meet me ! It is like a fairy tale LIZZIE. The fairy tale is ended! I hear your mother com- ing Back with you, I must meet the fire first. THE DAUGHTER. Something awful is going to happen, I feel it ! Why cannot people be in accord and be at peace with each other! Oh, that it were over! If mama will only be good 1 will go outside and pray to God to make her MOTHERLOVE. 31 amiable. But he can't do that, or he won't do it, I don't know why ! LIZZIE. He can and will do it, if you can only have faith ; believe a little in good fortune and in your own power. THE DAUGHTER. Power? For what? To be unfeeling? I cannot be ! And the happiness which is bought with the tears of another cannot endure. LIZZIE. Indeed ! Make way ! THE DAUGHTER. How can you believe that this will end well ! LIZZIE. Keep still ! (Enter the Mother.) LIZZIE. Madame THE MOTHER. Miss, if you please 32 MOTHERLOVE. LIZZIE. Your daughter- THE MOTHER. Yes, I have a daughter, even if I am only a Miss, and many have the same, and I am not ashamed of it. What's this all about ? LIZZIE. My errand was simply to ask you if Miss Helen could take part in an outing arranged by some of the visitors here. THE MOTHER. Didn't Helen answer that herself? LIZZIE. Yes, she told me I should come to you! THE MOTHER. That was not the right answer. Helen, my chiJ