Erdgeist (Earth-Spirit): A Tragedy in Four Acts — John Shaqi
Erdgeist (Earth-Spirit): A Tragedy in Four ActsWedekind, Frank
General
Erdgeist (Earth-Spirit): A Tragedy in Four Acts
Wedekind, Frank
German drama -- Translations into English; Tragedies (Drama)
SCHWARZ. (Coming back.) A beggar, who says he was in the war. I have no
small change on me. (Taking up his palette and brushes.) It's high
time, too, that I should finally go to work. (Goes out, right.) (Lulu
touches herself up before the glass, strokes back her hair, and goes
out, returning leading in Schigolch.)
SCHIGOLCH. I'd thought he was more of a swell--a little more glory to
him. He's sort of embarrassed. He quaked a little in the knees when he
saw =me= in front of him.
LULU. (Shoving a chair round for him.) How can you beg from him, too?
SCHIGOLCH. That's why I've dragged my seventy-seven summers just here.
You told me he kept at his painting in the mornings.
LULU. He hadn't got quite awake yet. How much do you need?
SCHIGOLCH. Two hundred, if you have that much handy. Personally, I'd
like three hundred. Some of my clients have evaporated.
LULU. (Goes to the writing-table and rummages in the drawer.) Whew, I'm
tired!
SCHIGOLCH. (Looking round him.) That's just what brought me, too. I've
been wanting a long time to see how things were looking now with you.
LULU. Well?
SCHIGOLCH. It just sweeps over you. (Looking up.) Like with me fifty
years ago. Instead of the loafing chairs we still had rusty old sabres
then. Devil, but you've brought it pretty far! (Scuffing.) Carpets....
LULU. (Giving him two bills.) I like best to walk on them bare-footed.
SCHIGOLCH. (Scanning Lulu's portrait.) Is that you?
LULU. (Winking.) Pretty fine?
SCHIGOLCH. If all that's genuine.
LULU. Have something sweet?
SCHIGOLCH. What?
LULU. (Getting up.) Elixir de Spaa.
SCHIGOLCH. That doesn't help me--Does he drink?
LULU. (Taking a decanter and glasses from a cupboard near the
fireplace.) Not yet. (Coming down stage.) The cordial has such various
effects!
SCHIGOLCH. He comes to blows?
LULU. He goes to sleep. (She fills the two glasses.)
SCHIGOLCH. When he's drunk, you can see right into his insides.
LULU. I'd rather =not=. (Sits opposite Schigolch.) Tell me about it.
SCHIGOLCH. The streets keep on getting longer, and my legs shorter.
LULU. And your harmonica?
SCHIGOLCH. Has bad air, like me with my asthma. I just keep a-thinking
it isn't worth the trouble to make it better. (They clink glasses.)
LULU. (Emptying her glass.) I thought you'd come to an end a long time
ago--
SCHIGOLCH. To an end--already up and away? I thought so, too. But no
matter how early the sun goes down, still we aren't let lie quiet. I'm
hoping for winter. Perhaps then my (coughing) --my--my asthma will
invent some opportunity to carry me off.
LULU. (Filling the glasses.) Do you think they could have forgotten you
on the other side?
SCHIGOLCH. Would be possible, for it certainly isn't going like it
usually does. (Stroking her knee.) Now you tell--not seen you a long
time--my little Lulu.
LULU. (Jerking back, smiling.) Life is beyond me!
SCHIGOLCH. What do you know about it? You're still so young!
LULU. That you call me Lulu.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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