Bertolt Brecht: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder 6

by Bertolt Brecht

  THE SISTER-IN-LAW: Last night old Shin was seen carrying a fat goose into the judge’s kitchen on Mr Shui Ta’s orders. The grease was oozing through the basket.

  THE OLD WOMAN, to Wang: Our poor Shen Teh will never be found again.

  WANG: Yes, it will take the gods to get at the truth.

  THE POLICEMAN: Silence! The court is assembling.

  The three gods appear in magistrates’ robes. As they pass along the front of the stage to go to their places they can be heard whispering.

  THE THIRD GOD: There will be trouble. The certificates were most incompetently forged.

  THE SECOND GOD: And people will be curious about the magistrate’s sudden indisposition.

  THE FIRST GOD: It is natural enough after eating half a goose.

  MRS SHIN: We’ve got new magistrates!

  WANG: And very good ones!

  The third god, last of the three, hears him, turns and smiles at him. The gods take their seats. The first god taps on the table with a hammer. The policeman brings in Shui Ta, who is received with catcalls but maintains an air of arrogance as he enters.

  THE POLICEMAN: This may be a shock to you. Fu Yi Cheng is not on the bench. But the new magistrates look pretty soft too.

  Shui Ta catches sight of the gods and faints.

  THE YOUNG PROSTITUTE: What’s happened? The Tobacco King has fainted.

  THE SISTER-IN-LAW: As soon as he saw the new magistrates!

  WANG: He seems to know them! That’s beyond me.

  THE FIRST GOD: Are you Shui Ta, tobacco merchant?

  SHUI TA, very faintly: Yes.

  THE FIRST GOD: You are charged with having made away with your cousin Miss Shen Teh, in order to gain control of her business. Do you plead guilty?

  SHUI TA: No.

  THE FIRST GOD, thumbing through the papers: The court will begin with the local constable’s evidence as to the characters of the accused and his cousin.

  THE POLICEMAN steps forward: Miss Shen Teh was a girl who made herself pleasant to everyone – live and let live, as they say. Mr Shui Ta, on the other hand, is a man of principle. The young lady’s warm-hearted nature sometimes drove him to strict measures. But unlike the girl he was always on the side of the law, your worships. There were some people whom his cousin had trusted and taken in, and he was able to show them up as a gang of thieves, and another time he barely managed to save Shen Teh from straight perjury. Mr Shui Ta is known to me as a respectable citizen who respects the law.

  THE FIRST GOD: Are there other witnesses in court who wish to testify that the accused is incapable of a crime of the sort attributed to him?

  Mr Shu Fu and Mrs Mi Tzu step forward.

  THE POLICEMAN whispers to the gods: Mr Shu Fu, one of our more prominent citizens!

  MR SHU FU: The town looks up to Mr Shui Ta as an able businessman. He is vice-chairman of the chamber of commerce and has been proposed as a justice of the peace.

  WANG, interrupting: By you! You two are hand in glove with him.

  THE POLICEMAN, whispering: An undesirable character!

  MRS MI TZU: In my capacity as Chairman of the Charitable Welfare Association I should like to point out to the court that Mr Shui Ta is not only turning over the best possible rooms in his tobacco works – all light and healthy – to a considerable number of the homeless, but also makes regular subscriptions to our Disabled Persons’ Institution.

  THE POLICEMAN, whispering: Mrs Mi Tzu, a close friend of our magistrate Fu Yi Cheng!

  THE FIRST GOD: Yes, yes, but now we must also hear whether anyone has a less favourable report to make on the accused.

  There step forward: Wang, the carpenter, the old couple, the unemployed man, the sister-in-law, the young prostitute.

  THE POLICEMAN: The scum of the district.

  THE FIRST GOD: Tell us, what do you know of Shui Ta’s general conduct?

  CRIES, confusedly: He ruined us! He bled me white! Led us into bad ways! Exploited the helpless! Lied! Swindled! Murdered!

  THE FIRST GOD: Accused, what have you to say for yourself?

  SHUI TA: All I did was to save my cousin’s bare means of existence, your worships. I only came when she was in danger of losing her small business. Three times I had to come. I never meant to stay. Circumstances were such that last time I was forced to remain. All the time I have had nothing but trouble. They loved my cousin, and I had to do the dirty work. That is why they hate me.

  THE SISTER-IN-LAW: You bet we do. Look at our boy, your worships. To Shui Ta: Not to mention the sacks.

  SHUI TA: Why not? Why not?

  THE SISTER-IN-LAW, to the gods: Shen Teh put us up, and he had us arrested.

  SHUI TA: You were stealing cakes!

  THE SISTER-IN-LAW: Now he’s pretending he cared about the baker and his cakes! He wanted the shop for himself!

  SHUI TA: The shop wasn’t a dosshouse, you selfish brutes!

  THE SISTER-IN-LAW: But we had nowhere to go!

  SHUI TA: There were too many of you!

  WANG: And these two! He points to the old couple. Are they also too selfish?

  THE OLD WOMAN: We put our savings into Shen Teh’s business. Why did you do us out of our own?

  SHUI TA: Because my cousin was helping an airman to get back into the air again. I was supposed to find the money!

  WANG: She may have wanted that, but you had your eye on that good job in Pekin. The shop wasn’t good enough for you.

  SHUI TA: The rent was too high!

  MRS SHIN: I can confirm that.

  SHUI TA: And my cousin had no idea of business.

  MRS SHIN: That too! Besides, she was in love with the airman.

  SHUI TA: Hadn’t she the right to love?

  WANG: Of course she had! So why did you try to make her marry a man she didn’t love: the barber there?

  SHUI TA: The man she loved was a crook.

  WANG: Him?

  He indicates Sun.

  SUN leaps up: Was it because he was a crook you took him into your office?

  SHUI TA: To help you! To help you improve!

  THE SISTER-IN-LAW: To turn him into a slave-driver!

  WANG: And when you had finished improving him, didn’t you sell him to her? He indicates Mrs Mi Tzu. She was crowing all over the place about it!

  SHUI TA: Because she wouldn’t let me have her workshops unless he tickled her knees!

  MRS MI TZU: Lies! Don’t ever mention my workshops again! I’ll have nothing more to do with you. Murderer!

  She rushes off in a dudgeon.

  SUN, firmly: Your worships, I must put in a word for him!

  THE SISTER-IN-LAW: You’ve got to; he’s your boss.

  THE UNEMPLOYED MAN: He’s the worst slave-driver there ever was. They completely broke him.

  SUN: Your worships, whatever the accused made of me he is not a murderer. A few minutes before his arrest I heard Shen Teh’s voice from the room behind the shop!

  THE FIRST GOD, intrigued: She was alive, was she? Describe exactly what you heard.

  SUN, triumphantly: Crying, your worships, crying!

  THE THIRD GOD: You could recognise it?

  SUN: Absolutely certain. Don’t I know her voice?

  MR SHU FU: Yes, you’ve made her cry often enough!

  SUN: But I’ve also made her happy. And then he wanted – pointing to Shui Ta – to sell her to you.

  SHUI TA, to Sun: Because you didn’t love her!

  WANG: No: for the money!

  SHUI TA: But what was the money needed for, your worships? To Sun: You would have liked her to give up all her friends, but the barber offered his buildings and his money so that she could help the poor. I had to promise her to the barber even to allow her to do good.

  WANG: Why didn’t you allow her to do good when the big cheque was filled in? Why did you shove Shen Teh’s friends in your stinking sweat-shops, your tobacco factory, you tobacco king?

  SHUI TA: It was for the child’s sake!

  THE CARPENTER: And what about
my children? What did you do to them?

  Shui Ta remains silent.

  WANG: That has made you think! The gods gave Shen Teh her shop to be a little source of goodness. And she always tried to do good, and you always came and brought it to nothing.

  SHUI TA, beside himself: Because they’d have stifled the source, you fool.

  MRS SHIN: That’s quite true, your worships!

  WANG: What’s the good of a source that can’t be drawn on?

  SHUI TA: Good deeds are the road to ruin!

  WANG, wildly: And evil deeds are the road to the good life, I suppose? What have you done with the good Shen Teh, you evil man? How many good people are there left, Illustrious Ones? She was certainly good! When that barber broke my hand she wanted to give evidence for me. And now I’m giving evidence for her. She was good, I swear it.

  He raises his hand to swear.

  THE THIRD GOD: What is wrong with your hand, water-seller? It seems stiff.

  WANG points to Shui Ta: He’s to blame, no one else! She was going to give me the money for the doctor, then he came along. You were her mortal enemy!

  SHUI TA: I was her only friend!

  ALL: Where is she?

  SHUI TA: Gone away.

  WANG: Where to?

  SHUI TA: I shan’t tell!

  ALL: What made her go?

  SHUI TA, screaming: You were tearing her to bits!

  There is a sudden silence.

  SHUI TA has collapsed on to his chair: I can’t go on. If the court can be cleared so that only the magistrates are present I will make a confession.

  ALL: Confession! We’ve won!

  THE FIRST GOD taps on the table with his hammer: Clear the court.

  The policeman clears the court.

  MRS SHIN, as she goes out, laughing: They’ve got a surprise coming!

  SHUI TA: Have they gone? All of them? I cannot hold out any longer. Illustrious Ones, I have recognised you!

  THE SECOND GOD: What have you done with our good person of Szechwan?

  SHUI TA: Let me confess the frightful truth. I am your good person!

  He takes off his mask and rips away his costume. Shen Teh stands there.

  THE SECOND GOD: Shen Teh!

  SHEN TEH:

  Yes, it is me. Shui Ta and Shen Teh, I am both of them.

  Your original order

  To be good while yet surviving

  Split me like lightning into two people. I

  Cannot tell what occurred: goodness to others

  And to myself could not both be achieved.

  To serve both self and others I found too hard.

  Oh, your world is arduous! Such need, such desperation!

  The hand which is held out to the starving

  Is quickly wrenched off! He who gives help to the lost

  Is lost for his own part! For who would

  Hold himself back from anger when the hungry are dying?

  Where could I find so much that was needed, if not

  In myself? But that was my downfall! The load of commandments

  Forced me into the sludge. Yet if I broke the rules

  I strode proudly around, and could eat myself full!

  Something is wrong with this world of yours. Why

  Is wickedness so rewarded, and why is so much suffering

  Reserved for the good? Oh, I felt such

  Temptation to treat myself kindly! I felt too

  A secret awareness inside me, for my foster-mother

  Washed me with slops from the gutter! So I acquired

  A sharp eye. And yet pity

  Brought me such pain that I at once felt wolfish anger

  At the sight of misery. Then

  I could feel how I gradually altered and

  My lips grew tight and hard. Bitter as ashes

  The kind word felt in my mouth. And yet

  I should gladly have been an Angel to the slums. For giving

  Was still my delight. A smiling face

  And I walked in the clouds.

  Condemn me: each of my crimes

  Was committed to help out my neighbour

  To love my beloved or

  To save my young son from going without.

  O gods, for your vast projects

  I, poor human, was too small.

  THE FIRST GOD, with every indication of horror: Speak no further, you unhappy creature! What are we to think, who so rejoice to have found you again?

  SHEN TEH: But do you not understand that I am the wicked person whose many crimes you have heard described?

  THE FIRST GOD: The good person, of whom no one speaks anything but good!

  SHEN TEH: No, the wicked person as well!

  THE FIRST GOD: A misunderstanding! A few unfortunate incidents. One or two hard-hearted neighbours! A little too much zeal!

  THE SECOND GOD: But how is she to go on living?

  THE FIRST GOD: She can manage! She is strong, healthy and well-built, and can endure much.

  THE SECOND GOD: But didn’t you hear what she said?

  THE FIRST GOD, emphatically: Muddled, completely muddled! Hard to accept, extremely hard to accept! Are we to admit that our commandments are fatal? Are we to sacrifice them? Grimly: Never! Is the world to be altered? How? By whom? No, everything is as it should be.

  He taps rapidly on the table with his hammer. And now – at a sign from him – music is heard. A rosy glow is seen.

  Now we return to heaven. This little world

  Still fascinates us. All its joys and hurts

  Encouraged us or caused us pain. And still

  We’ll gladly think, away beyond the planets

  Of you, Shen Teh, the good person we sought

  Who makes our spirit manifest down here

  And through this bitter darkness bears the tiny lamp.

  Farewell, good luck!

  At a sign from him the ceiling opens. A pink cloud descends. On it the three gods mount slowly upwards.

  SHEN TEH: Oh no, Illustrious Ones! Do not go away! Don’t leave me! How am I to face the two good old people who lost their shop, or the water-seller with his stiff hand? And how can I protect myself against the barber, whom I don’t love, and how against Sun, whom I do? And my body has been blessed; soon my little son will be there and wanting to eat. I cannot remain here!

  She looks frantically towards the door through which her tormentors will come.

  THE FIRST GOD: You can manage. Only be good, and all will be well!

  Enter the witnesses. They are amazed to see the magistrates floating on their pink cloud.

  WANG: Show your respect! The gods have appeared among us! Three of the mightiest gods have come to Szechwan in search of a good person. They thought they had found one, but …

  THE FIRST GOD: No but! Here she is!

  ALL: Shen Teh!

  THE FIRST GOD: She was not dead, she lay but hidden. She will remain among you, a good person!

  SHEN TEH: But I must have my cousin!

  THE FIRST GOD: Not too often!

  SHEN TEH: Once a week anyway!

  THE FIRST GOD: Once a month: that will be enough!

  SHEN TEH: Oh, do not go away, Illustrious Ones! I haven’t told you all! I need you terribly!

  THE GODS sing:

  TRIO OF THE VANISHING GODS ON THEIR CLOUD

  All too long on earth we lingered.

  Swiftly droops the lovely day:

  Shrewdly studied, closely fingered

  Precious treasures melt away.

  Now the golden flood is dying

  While your shadows onward press

  Time that we too started flying

  Homeward to our nothingness.

  SHEN TEH: Help!

  THE GODS:

  Now let us go: the search at last is o’er

  We have to hurry on!

  Then give three cheers, and one cheer more

  For the good person of Szechwan!

  As Shen Teh stretches desperately towards them they disappear upwa
rds, waving and smiling.

  Epilogue

  A player appears before the curtain and addresses the audience apologetically in an epilogue:

  THE PLAYER:

  Ladies and gentlemen, don’t feel let down:

  We know this ending makes some people frown.

  We had in mind a sort of golden myth

  Then found the finish had been tampered with.

  Indeed it is a curious way of coping:

  To close the play, leaving the issue open.

  Especially since we live by your enjoyment.

  Frustrated audiences mean unemployment.

  Whatever optimists may have pretended

  Our play will fail if you can’t recommend it.

  Was it stage fright made us forget the rest?

  Such things occur. But what would you suggest?

  What is your answer? Nothing’s been arranged.

  Should men be better? Should the world be changed?

  Or just the gods? Or ought there to be none?

  We for our part feel well and truly done.

  There’s only one solution that we know:

  That you should now consider as you go

  What sort of measures you would recommend

  To help good people to a happy end.

  Ladies and gentlemen, in you we trust:

  There must be happy endings, must, must, must!

  The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

  A parable play

  Collaborator: M. STEFFIN

  Translator: RALPH MANHEIM

  Characters

  THE ANNOUNCER

  SHEET, shipyard owner

  OLD DOGSBOROUGH

  YOUNG DOGSBOROUGH

  ARTURO UI, gang leader

  ERNESTO ROMA, his lieutenant

  EMANUELE GIRI, gangster

  The florist GIUSEPPE GIVOLA, gangster

  TED RAGG, reporter on The Star

  DOCKDAISY

  BOWL, Sheet’s chief accountant

  GOODWILL and GAFFLES, members of the city council

  O’CASEY, investigator

  AN ACTOR

  HOOK, wholesale vegetable dealer

  DEFENDANT FISH

  THE DEFENCE COUNSEL

  THE JUDGE

  THE DOCTOR

  THE PROSECUTOR

  A WOMAN

  YOUNG INNA, Roma’s familiar

  A LITTLE MAN

  IGNATIUS DULLFEET

  BETTY DULLFEET, his wife