Brecht Collected Plays: 1: Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; Life of Edward II of England; & 5 One Act Plays: "Baal", "Drums in the Night", "In the Jungle of Ci (World Classics) (6 page)

BAAL
: That’s better. There’ll be some life in you yet.

KART
gets up and comes round slowly from the bar to Baal. He is lean, a powerful man
: Baal! Brother! Come with me! Give it up! Out to the hard dusty highroad: at night the air grows purple. To bars full of drunks: let the women you’ve stuffed fall into the black rivers. To cathedrals with small, pale ladies: you ask, dare a man breathe here? To cowsheds where you bed down with the beasts. It’s dark there and the cows moo. And into the forests where axes ring out above and you forget the light of day: God has forgotten you. Do you still remember what the sky looks like? A fine tenor you’ve turned into!
He spreads his arms
. Come, brother! To dance, to sing, to drink! Rain to drench us! Sun to scorch us! Darkness and light! Dogs and women! Are you that degenerate?

BAAL
: Luise! Luise! An anchor! Don’t let me go with him.
Luise goes to him
. Help me, everyone.

JOHANNES
: Don’t let him lead you astray!

BAAL
: My dear chap!

JOHANNES
: Think of your mother, remember your art! Resist!
To Ekart
: You ought to be ashamed. You’re evil.

EKART
: Come, brother! We’ll fly in the open sky as blissful as two white doves. Rivers in the morning light! Graveyards swept by the wind and the smell of endless unmown fields.

JOHANNA
: Be strong, Mr Baal.

EMILIE
holding hini
: I won’t allow it! Do you hear? You can’t throw yourself away!

BAAL
: Not yet, Ekart! There’s still another way. They won’t play, brother.

EKART
: Then go to the devil, you with your soft, fat, sentimental heart!
He goes
.

DRIVERS
: Out with the ten … Damn it! Add up … Let’s pack it in.

JOHANNA
: You’ve won this time, Mr Baal.

BAAL
: I’m sweating all over. Got any time today, Luise?

EMILIE
: Don’t talk like that, Baal! You don’t know what you do to me when you talk like that.

LUISE
: Stop upsetting the lady, Mr Baal. A child could see she’s not herself.

BAAL
: Don’t worry, Luise! Horgauer!

DRIVER
: What do you want?

BAAL
: There’s a lady being badly treated here, she wants love.

Give her a kiss, Horgauer.

JOHANNES
: Baal!

Johanna puts her arm round Emilie
.

DRIVERS
laughing and hitting the table with their fists
: Press on, Andreas … Have a go … high class, blow your nose first … You’re a bastard, Mr Baal.

BAAL
: Are you frigid, Emilie? Do you love me? He’s shy, Emmi. Give him a kiss. If you make a fool of me in front of these people, it’s the finish. One, two …

The driver bends down. Emilie raises her tear-stained face. He kisses her vigorously. Loud laughter
.

JOHANNES
: That was evil, Baal. Drink brings out the evil in him, and then he feels good. He’s too strong.

DRIVERS
: Well done! What’s she come to a place like this for? … That’s the way to treat them … her kind break up families! … Serves her right!
They get up from their card game
. Tell her to go and eat figs!

JOHANNA
: How disgusting! You ought to be ashamed!

BAAL
going up to her
: Why are your knees shaking, Johanna?

JOHANNES
: What do you want with her?

BAAL
a hand on his shoulder
: Must you also write poetry? While life’s so decent? When you shoot down a racing
stream on your back, naked under an orange sky, and you see nothing except the sky turning purple, then black like a hole … when you trample your enemy underfoot … or burst with joy at a funeral … or sobbing with love you eat an apple … or bend a woman across a bed.
Johannes leads Johanna away without saying a word
.

BAAL
leaning on the table
: It’s all a bloody circus. Did you feel it? Did it get under your skin? You have to lure the beast from its cage! Get the beast into the sun! My bill! Let love see the light of day! Naked in the sunshine! Under a clear sky!

DRIVERS
shaking him by the hand
: Be seeing you, Mr Baal! … At your service, sir! … For my part I always did say Mr Baal had a screw loose. What with those songs and the rest! But one thing’s certain, his heart’s in the right place! – You have to treat women the way they deserve. – Well, somebody exposed their precious white bottom here today. – Good-bye, Mr Circus.
They go
.

BAAL
: And good-bye to you, my friends!
Emilie has thrown herself sobbing down on the bench. Baal touches her forehead with the back of his hand
. Emmi! You can calm down now. The worst is over.
He raises her head and brushes her hair from her tear-stained face
. Just forget it!
He throws himself heavily on her and kisses her
.

Sunrise
.

Baal and Johanna sitting on the edge of the bed
.

JOHANNA
: Oh, what have I done! I’m wicked.

BAAL
: Wash yourself instead.

JOHANNA
: I still don’t know how it happened.

BAAL
: Johannes is to blame for everything. Drags you up here and behaves like a clown when he sees why your knees are shaking.

JOHANNA
gets up, lowers her voice
: When he comes back …

BAAL
: Time for a bit of literature.
He lies down again
. First light over Mount Ararat.

JOHANNA
: Shall I get up?

BAAL
: After the flood. Stay in bed.

JOHANNA
: Won’t you open the window?

BAAL
: I like the smell. – What about another helping? What’s gone’s gone.

JOHANNA
: How can you be so vile?

BAAL
lazily on the bed
: White and washed clean by the flood, Baal lets his thoughts fly like doves over the dark waters.

JOHANNA
: Where’s my petticoat… I can’t … like this …

BAAL
handing it to her
: Here! What can’t you … like this, darling?

JOHANNA
: Go home.
She drops it, but then she dresses
.

BAAL
whistling
: God, what a girl! I can feel every bone in my body. Give me a kiss!

JOHANNA
by the table in the middle of the room
: Say something!
Baal is silent
. Do you still love me? Say it.
Baal whistles
. Can’t you say it?

BAAL
looking up at the ceiling
: I’m fed to the teeth!

JOHANNA
: Then what was it last night? And before?

BAAL
: Johannes could make things awkward. And Emilie’s staggering around like a rammed schooner. I could die of starvation here! None of you would lift a finger for me. There’s only one thing you’re out for.

JOHANNA
confused, clearing the table
: And you – didn’t you ever feel differently about me?

BAAL
: Have you washed? Not an ounce of sense. Did you get nothing out of it? Go home! You can tell Johannes I took you home last night and spew gall at him. It’s been raining.
Rolls himself up in his blanket
.

JOHANNA
: Johannes?
She walks wearily to the door and goes
.

BAAL
suddenly turning
: Johanna!
Goes from his bed to the door
. Johanna!
At the window
. There she goes. There she goes.

2
Noon
.

Baal lies on his bed
.

BAAL
humming
:

The evening sky grows dark as pitch

With drink; or often fiery red.

Naked I’ll have you in a ditch …

The two sisters come into the room arm in arm
.

THE OLDER SISTER
: You said we were to come and visit you again.

BAAL
still humming
:

Or on a white and spacious bed.

THE OLDER SISTER
: Well, we came, Mr Baal.

BAAL
: Now they come fluttering in pairs to the dove-cot. Take off your clothes.

THE OLDER SISTER
: Mother heard the stairs creak last week.
She undoes her sister’s blouse
.

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: It was getting light on the landing when we got to our room.

BAAL
: One day I’ll be stuck with you.

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: I’d drown myself, Mr Baal.

THE OLDER SISTER
: We came together …

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: I feel ashamed.

THE OLDER SISTER
: It isn’t the first time …

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: But it was never so light. It’s broad daylight outside.

THE OLDER SISTER
: And it isn’t the second time.

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: You get undressed as well.

THE OLDER SISTER
: I will.

BAAL
: When you’ve done, come on in! It’ll be dark all righ

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: You go first today.

THE OLDER SISTER
: I was first last time …

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: No, it was me …

BAAL
: You’ll both get it at once.

THE OLDER SISTER
standing with her arms round the younger

one
: We’re ready. It’s so light in here!

BAAL
: Is it warm outside?

THE OLDER SISTER
: It’s only April.

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: But the sun’s warm today.

BAAL
: Did you enjoy yourselves last time?

The sisters do not answer
.

THE OLDER SISTER
: A girl threw herself into the river. Johanna Reiher.

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: Into the Laach. I wouldn’t go in there. The current’s too strong.

BAAL
: Into the river? Does anyone know why?

THE OLDER SISTER
: There are rumours. People talk …

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: She went off one afternoon and stayed out all night.

BAAL
: Didn’t she go home in the morning?

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: No, then she went in the river. They haven’t found her yet.

BAAL
: Still afloat …

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: What’s the matter?

THE OLDER SISTER
: Nothing. A chill perhaps.

BAAL
: I’m too lazy today. You can go home.

THE OLDER SISTER
: You can’t do that, Mr Baal. You shouldn’t do that to her.

Knocking at the door
.

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: Somebody’s knocking. It’s mother.

THE OLDER SISTER
: For God’s sake, don’t open!

THE YOUNGER SISTER
: I’m frightened.

THE OLDER SISTER
: Here’s your blouse.

Loud knocking
.

BAAL
: If it’s your mother you’re in for it.

THE OLDER SISTER
dressing quickly
: Wait a minute, don’t open yet. Bolt the door, please, for God’s sake!

LANDLADY
fat, enters
: Ah ha! I thought as much. Two at a time now! Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves? A pair of you in his fishpond? Night and day, that fellow’s bed never gets
cold. Now I’m going to have my say. My attic isn’t a brothel.

Baal turns to the wall
.

LANDLADY
: You’re sleepy, are you? My word, don’t you ever get enough of it? I can see the daylight through you. You look like a ghost. You’re nothing but a bag of bones.

BAAL
moving his arms
: Like swans they fly to my wood.

LANDLADY
clapping her hands
: Nice swans! The way you put things! You could be a poet, you! If your knees don’t rot first.

BAAL
: I indulge in white bodies.

LANDLADY
: White bodies! You’re a poet, you really are! Don’t know what else you are though. And the poor young things! You’re sisters, are you? And snivelling because you’re poor orphans, I suppose. How about a good hiding? For your white bodies?
Baal laughs
. And he laughs. You ruin poor girls by the hundredweight, poor girls you drag here. You disgusting pig! I’m giving you notice. As for you, look sharp and back to your mother! I’m coming with you.

The younger sister sobs loudly
.

THE OLDER SISTER
: It isn’t her fault.

LANDLADY
taking both by the hand
: Now for the waterworks! These girls! Oh well, you’re not the only ones. That one’s up to his neck in swans. There’s plenty besides you he’s made happy, then dumped on the rubbish heap. Off with you now, into the fresh air! There’s no need for tears.
She puts her arms round them both
. I know what he’s like. I know the make. Stop snivelling, else it’ll show in your eyes. Go home to your mother like good girls and don’t do it again.
She pushes them out
. And you, you’ve had your notice. You can set up your swan-sty somewhere else.
She pushes the girls out of the room and goes out herself
.