Leave not my sore desires All unallayed! Turn not heartless away from your slave! Before me I have my grave, And my only hope is to leave behind No more of this world than I needs must. Think you, we only come to such lust Because in this house we are kept confined? No, it is but the senses’ torturing thirst Holds us here accursed! But this, too, was reckoned without insight: Night by night I see it, blinding-clear:--that even In this house no heaven Of peace to the senses is given! ELFRIEDE--[_In her hiding-place, to herself, with astonishment._] God Almighty! That is just the =exact contrary= of what I’ve imagined it for ten long years! CASTI-PIANI--[_In his hiding-place, to himself, with horror._] Devil! Devil! Devil! That is the =exact contrary= of what I’ve imagined about sensual joy for fifty years! LISISKA-- Don’t go away from me! Hear me, hard-hearted! I was an innocent child, and started Life earnestly, full of duty and zeal! I could never carelessly smile,--but =feel=--?!... From my teachers, even my brothers and sisters, I often heard awed admiring whispers, And my parents would both presage: “You’ll be the delight of our old age.” Then with a sudden blast That was past! And once-awakened lust Grew over all bounds, all “oughts,” Over all my thoughts, Over all my heart’s feeling of trust, So that I marvel’d, driven Infatuate, master’d, what it implied, That I saw no lightning strike at my side Nor heard any thunder from heaven. Then it came to me--hope, that our life had been given For joy to us, joy never glutted nor dried. HERR KÖNIG-- And this high hope you found was not fulfilled? --I speak, I know, as a blind man of--of---- LISISKA-- No--it was only a hellish =drive= Whence no joy remained alive. HERR KÖNIG-- But when so many girls have died of love-- Was it with all of them--Desire unstilled? --But then, how should such hordes of women press By thousands down =your= path of dire excess? LISISKA-- Have you no will to glory In the stripes upon my body? For what was it made so soft,-- For what was it so tender created? Speechless looks have dilated O’er stroke upon stroke here, oft! Flagging desires anew to inflame Boasting I tell from whom they came. HERR KÖNIG-- Be still, I tell you! One more word thereon And I’ll have stayed too long!... ’Tis plain to see In your pale features how tempestuously Youth fled from you!... Your innocence once gone, Did he who robbed you of it leave you in shame? LISISKA-- No--but another came, Found glee and blame; For always I swore eternal troth To the young fools, and broke the oath. Always I hoped my curse Must disappear with another man. Each time it was bitterness or worse. No rest could be found for me, or can, For ’twas always only the hellish drive Out of which no joy came forth alive! HERR KÖNIG--