The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - BestLightNovel.com
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HELEN, MARTHA, _KRAUSE'S daughters by his first marriage._
HOFFMANN, _Engineer, MARTHA'S husband._
WILHELM KAHL, _MRS. KRAUSE'S nephew._
MRS. SPILLER, _MRS. KRAUSE'S companion._
ALFRED LOTH.
DR. SCHIMMELPFENNIG.
BEIPST, _Workingman on KRAUSE'S farm._
GUSTE, LIESE, MARIE _Maid-servants on KRAUSE'S farm._
BAER, _called "Hopping Baer."_
EDWARD, _HOFFMANN'S servant._
MIELE, _MRS. KRAUSE'S housemaid._
THE COACHMAN'S WIFE.
GOLISCH, _a Cowherd._
A PACKET POST CARRIER.
THE FIRST ACT
_The room is low: the floor is covered with excellent rugs. Modern luxury seems grafted upon the bareness of the peasant. On the wall, behind the dining-table, hangs a picture which represents a waggon with four horses driven by a carter in a blue blouse._
_MIELE, a vigorous peasant girl with a red, rather slow-witted face, opens the middle door and permits ALFRED LOTH to enter. LOTH is of middle height, broad-shouldered, thick-set, decided but somewhat awkward in his movements. His hair is blond, his eyes blue, his small moustache thin and very light; his whole face is bony and has an equably serious expression. His clothes are neat but nothing less than fas.h.i.+onable: light summer overcoat, a wallet hanging from the shoulder; cane._
MIELE
Come in, please. I'll call Mr. Hoffmann right off. Won't you take a seat?
[_The gla.s.s-door that leads to the conservatory is violently thrust open, and a peasant woman, her face bluish red with rage, bursts in.
She is not much better dressed than a washerwoman: naked, red arms, blue cotton-skirt and bodice, red dotted kerchief. She is in the early forties; her face is hard, sensual, malignant. The whole figure is, otherwise, well preserved._
MRS. KRAUSE
[_Screams._] The hussies!... That's right!... The vicious critters!...
Out with you! We don't give nothin'!... [_Half to MIELE, half to LOTH._]
He can work, he's got arms. Get out! You don't get nothin' here!
LOTH
But Mrs.... Surely you will ... my name is Loth ... I am ... I'd like to ... I haven't the slightest in....
MIELE
He wants to speak to Mr. Hoffmann.
MRS. KRAUSE
Oho! beggin' from my son-in-law. We know that kind o' thing! He ain't got nothin'; everything he's got he gets from us. Nothin' is his'n.
[_The door to the right is opened and HOFFMANN thrusts his head in._
HOFFMANN
Mother, I must really beg of you! [_He enters and turns to LOTH._] What can I ... Alfred! Old man! Well, I'll be blessed. You? That certainly is ... well, that certainly is a great notion!
[_HOFFMANN is thirty-three years old, slender, tall, thin. In his dress he affects the latest fas.h.i.+on, his hair is carefully tended; he wears costly rings, diamond-studs in his s.h.i.+rt-front and charms on his watch chain. His hair and moustache are black; the latter is luxurious and is most scrupulously cared for. His face is pointed, bird-like, the expression blurred, the eyes dark, lively, at times restless._
LOTH
It's by the merest accident, you know ...
HOFFMANN
[_Excited._] Nothing pleasanter could have ... Do take your things off, first of all! [_He tries to help him off with his wallet._]--Nothing pleasanter or more unexpected could possibly--[_he has relieved LOTH of his hat and cane and places both on a chair near the door_]--could possibly have happened to me just now--[_coming back_]--no, decidedly, nothing.
LOTH
[_Taking off his wallet himself._] It's by the merest chance that I've come upon you.
[_He places his wallet on the table in the foreground._
HOFFMANN
Sit down. You must be tired. Do sit down--please! D'you remember when you used to come to see me you had a way of throwing yourself full-length on the sofa so that the springs groaned. Sometimes they broke, too. Very well, then, old fellow. Do as you used to do.
[_MRS. KRAUSE'S face has taken on an expression of great astonishment. She has withdrawn. LOTH sits down on one of the chairs that stand around the table in the foreground._
HOFFMANN
Won't you drink something? Whatever you say? Beer? Wine? Brandy? Coffee?
Tea? Everything's in the house.
[_HELEN comes reading from the conservatory. Her tall form, somewhat too plump, the arrangement of her blond, unusually luxuriant hair, the expression of her face, her modern gown, her gestures--in brief, her whole appearance cannot quite hide the peasant's daughter._
HELEN
