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Love's
Comedy Act One:
ACT TWO(A Sunday evening. Fashionably dressed ladies and gentlemen are drinking coffee on the veranda. Through the open glass doors many guests can be seen in the garden room. From there we can hear the following):
Enter where love's no longer contraband, This golden circle licenses display Of hugs and kisses, fervently held hands; Free from the fear of frowns and reprimands, The attentive eye, the embarrassing hearsay.
Now, happy pairs, go forth, exult and play. Taste pleasures now permitted far and wide. Your young loves can be nurtured night and day, Watched over, watered, set out in array, For all to view with pleasure and with pride.
MISS SKJARE (in the garden room) : Lind, if I'd known the least thing about it at the time I would have scolded you!
A LADY (Next to her): Yes, it is hard to forgive!
ANOTHER LADY (In the doorway) : Did he write you, Anna?
ANOTHER LADY (In the doorway) : Did he write you, Anna?
AN AUNT: No!
MISS SKJAERE: Not at all like mine!
A LADY (On the veranda) : Anna, how long have you been so secretive? (She runs into the house)
MISS SKJAERE: Tomorrow, you must go out and get a ring.
MANY LADIES (Eagerly): We'll need to measure him.
MISS SKJAERE: No such thing! She must do that herself.
MRS. STRÅMAND (On the veranda, speaking to a lady with sewing) : What's that you're sewing?
THE HOUSEKEEPER (In the doorway) : Would you like more coffee?
A LADY: Thank you – just a drop, dear.
MISS SKJAERE: At least your new coat will be ready to wear Next week, when you begin your visiting.
AN ELDERLY LADY (Inside, by the window) : This means a trip to the department store.
MRS. STRÅMAND: How much is good blouse linen selling for?
A GENTLEMAN (To some ladies on the veranda) : See how Lind is toying with Anna's glove.
SOME OF THE LADIES (Highly delighted) : Lord! Now he's kissing her!
OTHERS (Similarly thrilled, as they run to look): Well I never, - it's true!
LIND (Showing himself, blushing and embarrassed, inside the door) : What a thing to say! (He retires)
MISS SKJAERE: Oh yes you were, I saw you!
STYVER (In the doorway, holding a coffee cup in one hand, a biscuit in the other) : No, ladies, do not accuse what you cannot prove. I'll testify the witnesses are in error.
MISS SKJAERE (Unseen, inside) : Anna, come here and stand before the mirror.
SOME LADIES (Crying out) : You also, Lind!
MISS SKJAERE: Back to back, now. Stand straight.
LADIES ON THE VERANDA: Let's see, now we can measure his full height! (They all dash into the garden room. Laughter and loud conversation can be heard for a while from within.) (FALK during the preceding events has been walking in the garden and now comes to the foreground, stops, and looks in until the excitement subsides.)
FALK: Behold, the poetry of love brought to the slaughter. – There was a calf once butchered clumsily, So the poor victim suffered needlessly. The botcher was given ten days bread and water; But these - these torturers - go scot-free hereafter. (Clenches his fists) I could be tempted – no, no more empty words; I have sworn – from this time forward, only deeds.
LIND (Coming quickly and carefully out through the door) : Thank God, they're discussing fashions; at least this way. I can sneak out –
FALK: Hey! now you're well set up For blisss! Wishes rain down and don't let up, They buzz like a swarm of gnats all through the day.
LIND: I know they all mean well. But I must confess, I could have done with quite a good deal less. The way they keep it up is very tiring; So, for the time being, I've decided on retiring.
FALK: Where are you going?
LIND: Back to our room to nap Knock on the door if you need to wake me up.
FALK: But shouldn't I send Anna after you?
LIND: No, she'll send for me herself if she wants to. We chatted yesterday into the night, Going through most of what was on our minds. In fact, the best for us, I'm starting to find With all this happiness, is rationing it right.
FALK: I think you're right. One shouldn't overdo The daily diet.
LIND: So, let me get away To a pleasant pipe just for a hour or two. I've not had chance to smoke the whole long day. My heart's been pounding at a frantic pace. I was so fearful that she would refuse me.
FALK: Yes, you could do with an interval of grace.
LIND: You can't know how that pipe's going to please me.
(He goes out to the right. MISS SKJAERE and some other ladies come in from the garden room)
MISS SKJAERE: Wasn't that him, leaving?
FALK: Yes, there goes your quarry. SOME LADIES: Escaped from us!
OTHERS: Oh, isn't that a shame!
FALK: Just now he's a little shy – but he'll be tame Before the week's out, so you needn't worry.
MISS SKJAERE (Looking around) Where is he hiding?
FALK: This moment he's retired To our room in the garden house where we both live. (Pleading) But please, grant him a momentary reprieve. Just a brief rest.
MISS SKJAERE: Very well then, he can be spared For a few moments.
FALK: A quarter of a hour, - Then you can set the pack back into motion. Just now he's working on an English oration.
MISS SKJAERE: An English - ?
THE LADIES: You're joking, for sure!
FALK: No, I'm quite serious. He's made up his mind To pursue his calling among the emigrants To America –
MISS SKJAERE (Alarmed) : He can't mean anything of the kind; Has he gone crazy? Call up all the aunts! Fetch Anna, Mrs. Stråmand, Mrs. Halm!
SOME LADIES (Indignantly) : This must be stopped!
OTHERS: Before he does any harm!
MISS SJAERE: Here they come, thank heavens! (To ANNA, who enters from the garden room together with the priest, his wife and children, STYVER, GULDSTAD, MRS. HALM and the other guests) Have you any idea What Lind is contemplating, Anna dear? To leave for the New World – !
ANNA: Oh yes, I know.
MRS. HALM: And you're allowing it?
ANNA (Blushing) I, too, intend to go.
MISS SKJAERE (Outraged) : You let him speak for you?
THE LADIES (Clasping their hands) : Well! Isn't he devious!
FALK: But what if he feels the calling - ?
MISS SKJAERE: Well, good Lord, If he were unattached there'd be no fuss; But his first duty now is to his bride. Now, Anna darling, take time to reflect; You're a big-city girl, you belong right here –
FALK Too soft, that is, to sacrifice to an idea!
MISS SKAERE: For her lover's idea? I cannot recollect Any such obligation she need share. (To the ladies) Let us join forces! (Takes ANNA by the arm) : Now Anna, understand, You need to take this lover of yours in hand.
(They move back and go out to the right in agitated chatter with many of the ladies. The other guests scatter in groups about the garden. FALK detains STRÅMAND, whose wife and children stay hovering close by. GULDSTAD paces to and fro during the following conversation)
FALK: Pastor, give our young novice the help he needs, Before they set Miss Anna up against him.
STRÅMAND (Pontificating) : A woman should follow where her husband leads (Reflecting) However, at lunch, if I rightly understood him, His calling's built on very uncertain ground; The extent of his vocation remains in doubt.
FALK: At least don't judge too hastily, promise that. I can guarantee his commitment‘s very sound. My oath on it: Lind's calling's firmly based.
STRÅMAND (Relieved) : I'm glad to hear the young man's so well placed. For the coming year, we can let the matter rest.
FALK (Impatiently):You're thinking first of what I think of last. I meant his faith, his calling, not his stipend.
STRÅMAND (Smiles indulgently) : Maybe, but it's always easier to bear Witness located in some distant land - Asia, America - when not weighed down with care. I mean, my friend, only if you are single, Without attachments. Then it could be planned. But Lind, now that he's maritally committed, Comes to the task from quite another angle. He's hale and healthy, eminently fitted To start a family almost in no time. (I assume he certainly has that in mind) But as to means my friend - ? “Build not on sand” So saith the Scripture. Another thing entirely If the offering –
FALK: Be assured it won't be meager; I'm sure of that.
STRÅMAND: I see, - well that will surely Help matters, if there are those willing and eager To sacrifice –
FALK: He's totally prepared.
STRÅMAND: He is? Do I understand what you just said? In these cases, offerings are brought to him, He's not the bringer.
MRS. STRÅMAND (Looking into the garden) : Look dear, here they come!
FALK (Stares at him, astonished, for a moment, suddenly understands, and burst into laughter:) Oh, I see! The offerings! Yes, you have in mind Festival offerings, the coin and paper kind.
STRÅMAND: Throughout the year, our church-life can be hard. Christmas and Easter, though, bring their reward.
FALK (Jauntily) : So the ‘calling's' heard where the salary's adequate. When one's set up as a solid family man.
STRÅMAND: When that's assured, he's ready to seek out His calling even to distant Zululand. (Quietly) But now I must rejoin my better half (To one of the little girls) Little Mette, run and fetch my pipe from the shelf The one with the carved head, you understand. (Feels in his pocket) No, just a moment, I have it, here in my hand. (He retires, filling his pipe, accompanied by wife and children)
GULDSTAD: (Approaching) : I take it, it amuses you no end To play the serpent in this lovers' Eden?
FALK: When the fruit of knowledge on the tree's so green Who's going to taste it? (To LIND who approaches from the right) : How are you, my friend?
LIND: Falk, in Heavens name, what's been going on? Our room's a wreck. The reading lamp is broken . The drapes have been torn down, our pen nibs taken And ruined. The stove is drenched in ink and blackened!
FALK (Slaps him on the shoulder) : That foray is my first emancipation. I've spent too long immured here, closely-cloistered, Composing verses by that lamp's weak light. It's time to say goodbye to all of that! The world of God's own light waits to be mastered; My springtime has arrived, my soul is waking. It's the poetry of action now I'm seeking. |
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