Bertolt Brecht: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder 7

by Bertolt Brecht

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: That one actually says ‘please’ when he wants something. ‘Please show my batman my rooms.’

  SIMONE: All the same, he is the enemy.

  Exit Père Gustave into the store room.

  GEORGES: Has your cousin had any more dreams?

  SIMONE: Yes, last night.

  GEORGES: About the Maid again?

  SIMONE nodding: She’s been raised to the nobility.

  GEORGES: That must have been a great time for her.

  SIMONE: Taxes have been remitted in her home town, just like it says in the book.

  GEORGES quite sharply: But the hostelry’s stores haven’t been handed over to the council as promised.

  SIMONE embarrassed: My cousin didn’t say anything about that.

  GEORGES: Aha.

  SIMONE: Monsieur Georges, if a certain person appears as an angel, as sometimes happens in my cousin’s dreams—does it mean the person’s dead?

  GEORGES: Not necessarily. It only means the dreamer is sometimes afraid he might be dead.—What else has your cousin got to do?

  SIMONE: Oh, a whole lot.

  GEORGES: Did something unpleasant happen in that dream?

  SIMONE: Why?

  GEORGES: Because you’ve so little to say about it.

  SIMONE slowly: Nothing unpleasant happened.

  GEORGES: I only ask because it strikes me a certain somebody might take these dreams seriously, Simone, and forget that we’re living in broad daylight and not in a dream.

  SIMONE bursting out: Then I shan’t tell you any more about my cousin’s dreams, Monsieur Georges.

  The woman with the baby and another refugee come into the courtyard.

  SIMONE: They are coming for the food. Break the news to them as gently as you can, Monsieur Georges. She hides and watches the scene.

  GEORGES stepping forward: Madame.

  WOMAN: The tanks have arrived.

  MAN: There are three of them parked outside the Mairie.

  WOMAN: Enormous ones. At least twenty feet long, they are.

  MAN pointing to the German sentry: Careful.

  MADAME SOUPEAU coming out of the hostelry: Georges, Père Gustave! Take the Herr Hauptmann his hors-d’oeuvres in the breakfast room.—What do you people want?

  WOMAN: We’ve come about the provisions, Madame. Twenty-one people have stayed behind in the hall.

  MADAME SOUPEAU: Georges, I’ve told you to keep beggars away from the hostelry.

  MAN: What do you mean: beggars?

  MADAME SOUPEAU: Why don’t you tell your people that from now on they must deal with the German Kommandant, not with me. The good old days are finished.

  WOMAN: Is that what we’re supposed to go back and tell the people in the hall, after we have advised them all to stay so you could get your china off?

  MADAME SOUPEAU: I would advise you not to inform on me, Madame.

  WOMAN: Don’t try to hide behind the Germans.

  MADAME SOUPEAU over her shoulder: Honoré!

  WOMAN: The baby and I could have been with my sister in Bordeaux by now. You promised to see we had enough food, Madame.

  MADAME SOUPEAU: Because you blackmailed me into it, Madame.

  CAPITAINE appearing behind her: After a good deal of looting. But now, my friends, law and order will be restored. Pointing at the German sentries: Would you like me to have you escorted out under guard? Don’t get excited, Marie, remember you have a weak heart.

  WOMAN: You’re a lot of swine.

  MAN holding her back and leading her away: Times will change, Madame.

  MADAME SOUPEAU: It’s starting to stink of sewage here. All the scum of the northern cities flooding into our peaceful villages. We’re getting the habitués of the cheapest wine bars. Sooner or later there’ll be a bloody reckoning.—Père Gustave, breakfast for four!

  CAPITAINEto Georges: Here, you! The Mayor will be coming here. Tell him I want a word with him before he sees the Herr Hauptmann. He leads Madame Soupeau back into the hostelry. When they have both disappeared, Simone runs after the refugees.

  GEORGES: Père Gustave! The hors-d’œuvres for the Herr Hauptmann!

  PÈRE GUSTAVE from the store: I get it. Only the best for the Herr Hauptmann.

  Simone returns breathless.

  GEORGES: What did you tell them?

  SIMONE: That they can tell the people in the hall that they’ll get their food. I’m going to do it tonight.

  GEORGES: Of course, you’ve still got the key.

  SIMONE: It was promised them.

  GEORGES: Better be careful. That’s stealing.

  SIMONE: The Patron said: ‘As long as you’re here, Simone, nothing will fall into German hands, I’m sure!’

  GEORGES: That’s not the way the old lady’s talking.

  SIMONE: Perhaps they’re forcing her.

  The Mayor appears at the gate.

  SIMONE flying towards him: Monsieur le Maire, what are we to do?

  MAYOR: How’s this, Simone? I’ve got good news for you: I’ve put forward your father for a job with the council. You have deserved that, Simone. Then it won’t matter so much that you have lost your job.

  SIMONE whispering: Monsieur le Maire, is it true there are three tanks on the square outside the Mairie? Even more quietly: That petrol is still there, you know.

  MAYOR absently: Yes, that’s bad. Suddenly: What are you still in the hostelry for, Simone, anyway?

  SIMONE: Surely something must be done about the petrol, Monsieur le Maire. Can’t you do something? They’re bound to ask Madame Soupeau about it.

  MAYOR: I don’t think we need to worry about Madame Soupeau, Simone.

  SIMONE: I could do something. I know my way round the brickworks.

  MAYOR vaguely: I hope you’re not thinking of doing anything rash, Simone. The Commune of Saint-Martin is a great responsibility for me, you know.

  SIMONE: Yes, Monsieur le Maire.

  MAYOR: I can’t think why I’m talking to you like this. You’re still a child, Simone. But I think we each of us have to do what we can now, eh?

  SIMONE: Yes, Monsieur le Maire. Suppose the brickworks burnt down...

  MAYOR: For God’s sake. You mustn’t even think of such a thing. And now I have to go in. This is the hardest path I have ever trodden. He is about to go in.

  The Capitaine comes out.

  CAPITAINE: Monsieur Chavez. You’re just in time for breakfast.

  MAYOR: I have had it.

  CAPITAINE: Pity. You don’t seem to have got the picture quite right. Yesterday a number of undesirable incidents occurred here with the connivance of the authorities. It is regrettable that this impudent attempt on the part of certain elements to exploit France’s collapse for their own selfish ends was not stamped on at once. Our German guests expect at least a polite gesture from us. For example the German Kommandant has already been told about the stocks in a particular brickworks. You might bear that in mind, Chavez. Perhaps it will improve your appetite. After you, Monsieur le Maire.

  MAYOR very unsure: After you, mon Capitaine.

  They go into the hostelry. Père Gustave comes out of the store and follows them.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE as he carries in a plate of delicacies: Hope it keeps fine for you, have a good trip. How the moneybags stick together, eh, Georges? They’re selling France like they sell their fancy food! Exit.

  Simone has followed the scene closely. She has sat down.

  GEORGES: Simone! What’s the matter with you? Simone! Simone does not reply. Georges shakes her, but suddenly becomes immobile like a statue. During Simone’s Daydream which follows, Père Gustave’s phrase ‘How the moneybags stick together’ is quietly and mechanically repeated.

  Daydream of Simone Machard

  20 June

  Confused martial music. The hostelry’s back wall becomes transparent. In front of an immense tapestry sit the Mayor (as King Charles), the Capitaine (Duke of Burgundy), the Hauptmann as the English Commander-in-Chief with his sword across his knees, a
nd Madame Soupeau (the Queen Mother Isabeau) all playing cards at a marble-topped table.

  MADAME SOUPEAU: I no longer wish to see that mob, my lord.

  HAUPTMANN: Come, hide behind us, Queen Isabeau. I’ll have the yard cleared, and then law and order will prevail. Trumped you!

  MAYOR: Hark now! Is that a sound of drums I hear?

  Joan’s drum can be heard in the distance.

  CAPITAINE: Play your ace of clubs. I hear nothing.

  The drumming stops.

  MAYOR: No? I fear, Duke, that my Joan has met with trouble and is in need of help.

  CAPITAINE: The ten of hearts. I need peace if I am to sell my wine.

  HAUPTMANN: How much is your fancy food, Madame?

  MADAME SOUPEAU: Whose deal? Ten thousand pieces of silver, my lord.

  MAYOR: But this time I am certain. She is in danger, in mortal danger. I must hasten to her and help her destroy everything. He gets up holding his cards.

  CAPITAINE: Take care. If you go now it will be the last time. You have not got the picture right. How can one play with all these interruptions? Jack of clubs.

  MAYOR sitting down again: Very well then.

  MADAME SOUPEAU boxing his ears: That is for your obstinacy.

  HAUPTMANN: Permit me, Queen Isabeau. He throws some coins on the table, counting: One, two, three...

  GEORGES shaking Simone to wake her from her daydream, while the Hauptmann goes on counting. Simone! You’re dreaming with your eyes wide open.

  SIMONE: Are you coming with me, Monsieur Georges?

  GEORGES staring at his bandaged arm; joyfully: Simone, I can move it again.

  SIMONE: That’s good. But we must go to the brickworks, Monsieur Georges. We haven’t much time. Père Gustave, you must come too. Quickly.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE coming out of the hostelry: Me? They’ve put up a poster: ‘Saboteurs will be executed.’ They’re not joking.

  SIMONE: The Mayor wishes it.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: The Mayor’s a creep.

  SIMONE: But you’ll come with me, Monsieur Georges? It’s for André’s sake. I’d never know how to blow up so much petrol. Does one have to set the whole brickworks alight?

  GEORGES: Didn’t you get it? I can move my arm again.

  SIMONE looking at him: So neither of you wants to come with me?

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: Here’s another of them.

  A German soldier comes into the yard carrying luggage. As soon as Simone sees him she quickly runs off in fear.

  THE GERMAN SOLDIER throws down the luggage, takes off his steel helmet, wipes his brow and tries amiably to communicate by gestures: Hauptmann? Inside?

  GEORGES gesticulating: There. In the hostelry. Cigarette?

  THE GERMAN SOLDIER taking the cigarette and grinning: War shit. Imitates the action of shooting, negative gesture.

  GEORGES laughingly: Bang bang! Makes a raspberry; both laugh.

  THE GERMAN SOLDIER: Hauptmann Arsehole.

  GEORGES: What? What did you say?

  THE GERMAN SOLDIER mimicking the Hauptmann and his monocle: Merde.

  GEORGES catches on, and in turn cheerfully mimicks the Capitaine and Madame Soupeau: Merde the lot.

  They laugh again, then the German soldier picks up his luggage and goes inside.

  GEORGES to Père Gustave: O my, O my, how easily we could get on.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: Better be careful.

  GEORGES: And how. Now that my arm is mending.

  From the hostelry come the Hauptmann, the Capitaine, the Mayor and Madame Soupeau.

  CAPITAINE: Herr Hauptmann, I’m delighted we understand one another so well.

  HAUPTMANN: Madame, I wish to thank you for volunteering to let us use your petrol. Not that the German army is short. But we accept it as a token of good will and co-operativeness.

  MADAME SOUPEAU: It’s not far to the brickworks.

  HAUPTMANN: I will tell the tanks to go there.

  The sky has reddened. The group stands as if petrified. Distant explosions.

  HAUPTMANN: What’s that?

  CAPITAINE hoarsely: The brickworks.

  (b)

  It is night. There is a hammering at the gate. Georges comes out of his room and opens up to find the Patron and the two drivers outside.

  PATRON: How are things, Georges? Is my mother all right? So the hostelry is still standing. I feel as if I’d been through the Flood. Hullo, Simone.

  Simone, scantily dressed, comes from the drivers’ quarters. Robert embraces her. Père Gustave has also appeared.

  ROBERT: Oh, so you’re living in our quarters now? He dances around with her, humming:

  Joe the strangler came back home

  Rosa was still there

  And Mama had a chartreuse

  And Papa a beer.

  PATRON: What’s been happening?

  GEORGES: A German captain has moved in. Madame Soupeau is a bit tired because of the brickworks inquiry. The German captain...

  PATRON: What inquiry?

  SIMONE: Monsieur Henri, everything’s been done as you wanted. I took some more food to the hall last night.

  PATRON: I’m asking you about the brickworks.

  GEORGES hesitantly: It burnt down, Monsieur Henri.

  PATRON: Burnt down?—The Germans? Georges shakes his head. Carelessness? Looks from one to the other. No reply. The authorities?

  GEORGES: No.

  PATRON: That scum from the hall.

  GEORGES: No, Monsieur Henri.

  PATRON: Arson, then. He wails as if he had caught his foot in a snare. Who? No reply. Oh, I see, you’re all in this together. In cold fury: So you’ve taken to crime, how nice. I might have guessed it after the way you showed your gratitude my last day here. ‘You can stuff your china,’ eh, Père Gustave? Very well then, I accept your challenge. We shall see.

  GEORGES: It happened because of the Germans, Monsieur Henri.

  PATRON sarcastically: Oh, I see, it was my brickworks but the arson was against the Germans. You were so blinded by hatred, so set on destruction that you bit the hand that fed you; is that it? Abruptly: Simone!

  SIMONE: Yes, Monsieur Henri.

  PATRON: Now tell me at once who did it.

  SIMONE: Me, Monsieur.

  PATRON: What? You dared …? Pulls her by the arm. Who told you to? Who was behind it?

  SIMONE: Nobody, Monsieur.

  PATRON: Don’t lie to me, do you hear? I won’t stand for …

  GEORGES: Please leave her alone, Monsieur Henri. She isn’t lying.

  PATRON: Who ordered you to?

  SIMONE: I did it for my brother.

  PATRON: Ah, André! He incited you against your Patron, eh? ‘Us underdogs’, eh? I always knew he was a Red. Who helped you?

  SIMONE: Nobody, Monsieur.

  PATRON: And why did you do it?

  SIMONE: Because of the petrol, Monsieur.

  PATRON: And that meant you had to set the entire brickworks alight? Why couldn’t you just have let the petrol out?

  SIMONE: I didn’t know how.

  GEORGES: She’s a child, Monsieur Henri.

  PATRON: Fire-raisers! All of you! Criminals! Get off my property this moment, Père Gustave! Georges, you’re fired! You people are worse than the Germans.

  GEORGES: Very well, Monsieur Henri. He walks over and stands beside Simone.

  PATRON: Didn’t you say something about an inquiry? What about it?

  GEORGES: The Germans are investigating.

  PATRON: You mean it happened after the Germans got here?

  GEORGES: Yes.

  PATRON sits down in disbelief and desperation: That’s the last straw. It means the hostelry is finished! Hides his head in his hands.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: You know, Monsieur Henri, they were saying very good things in Saint-Martin yesterday about the hostelry. ‘Right under the Germans’ noses’, they said.

  PATRON: They’ll court-martial me. That’s what you’ve done for me. Desperately: I’ll be shot.

  SIMONE stepping forw
ard: Monsieur, you’ll not be shot, because it was me that did it. Come with me to the German captain and I’ll admit everything, Monsieur.

  MAURICE: That’s out of the question.

  PATRON: Why is it out of the question? She’s a child. Nobody will touch her.

  MAURICE: Tell the Germans it was her if you like, but we’ll get her away. Get dressed at once, Simone.

  PATRON: That’ll make us her accomplices.

  SIMONE: Maurice, I must stay. André wants me to, I know it.

  PATRON: It all depends whether she did it before the Germans got here or after. If she did it before, it was an act of war and they can’t do a thing to her.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE ingratiatingly: They put up a poster right away saying saboteurs would be shot, Monsieur Henri.

  PATRON to Simone: Did you see that poster?

  SIMONE: Yes, Monsieur Henri.

  PATRON: What did it look like?

  SIMONE: It was printed on red paper.

  PATRON: Is that right? Père Gustave nods. Now I’m going to ask the question the Germans will ask you, Simone. Did you read it after you started the fire? If so, then it was not sabotage, Simone, and they can’t touch you.

  SIMONE: I read it before, Monsieur.

  PATRON: You didn’t get what I was driving at. If you read it afterwards the Germans will probably just hand you over to the Mayor, because then it was a purely French concern, and that means you’ll be out of it, Simone. Do you get that?

  SIMONE: Yes, Monsieur. But I read it before.

  PATRON: She’s confused. Père Gustave, you were in the yard at the time. When did Simone leave?

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: Before the poster was put up, of course, Monsieur Henri.

  PATRON: There you are.

  SIMONE: You’re mistaken, Père Gustave. You told me yourself before I left that the poster said I mustn’t.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: I told you nothing of the sort.

  PATRON: Of course not.

  MAURICE: Don’t you realize, Monsieur Henri, that the child refuses to join in your monkey tricks? She’s not ashamed of what she did.

  SIMONE: But the Patron’s only trying to help me, Maurice.

  PATRON: Exactly. You trust me, don’t you, Simone? So listen carefully. It’s the enemy we’ll be talking to now. That makes all the difference, get me? They’ll ask you lots of questions, but you must only answer in a way that’s good for Saint-Martin and good for the French. Simple enough, eh?