Free Brecht Collected Plays: 1: Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; Life of Edward II of England; & 5 One Act Plays: "Baal", "Drums in the Night", "In the Jungle of Ci (World Classics) by Bertolt Brecht Page A

la Madonne! Open up!
    MAJA
crawls to the door
: Who’s outside?
    The child cries. Maja opens the door
.
    BAAL
enters with Ekart, soaked to the skin
: Is this where they look after the sick?
    MAJA : Yes, but there’s no bed free.
More insolently
: And I’m ill.
    BAAL : We’ve brought champagne.
Ekart has gone to warm himself by the stove
.
    BOLLEBOLL : Come here! The man who knows what champagne is, is good enough for us.
    THE BEGGAR : There’s high society here today, my boy!
    BAAL
goes up to the table and pulls two bottles from his pocket
: Mmm?
    THE BEGGAR : That’s fishy.
    BOLLEBOLL : I know where you got that champagne. But I won’t give you away.
    BAAL : Here, Ekart! Any glasses?
    MAJA : Cups, kind gentlemen. Cups.
She brings some
.
    GOUGOU : I need a cup of my own.
    BAAL
doubtful
: Are you allowed to drink champagne?
    GOUGOU : Please!
Baal pours him some
.
    BAAL : What’s wrong with you?
    GOUGOU : Bronchitis. Nothing bad. A little inflammation.
    Nothing serious.
    BAAL
to Bolleboll
: And you?
    BOLLEBOLL : Stomach ulcers. Won’t kill me!
    BAAL
to the beggar
: There’s something wrong with you too, I trust?
    THE BEGGAR : I’m mad.
    BAAL : Here’s to you! We understand each other. I’m healthy.
    THE BEGGAR : I knew a man who said he was healthy too. He believed it. He came from the forest and one day hewent back there as there was something he had to think over. He found the forest very strange and no longer familiar, he walked for many days. Always deeper into the forest, because he wanted to see how independent he was and how much endurance there was left in him. But there wasn’t much.
He drinks
.
    BAAL
uneasy
: What a wind! We have to move on tonight, Ekart.
    THE BEGGAR : Yes, the wind. One evening, at sunset, when he was no longer alone, he went through the great stillness between the trees and stood beneath one of the highest.
Drinks
.
    BOLLEBOLL : That was the ape in him.
    THE BEGGAR : Yes, perhaps it was the ape. He leant against it, very closely, and felt the life in it, or thought so. And he said, you are higher than I am and stand firm and you know the earth beneath you, and it holds you. I can run and move better, but I do not stand firm and I do not reach into the depths of the earth and nothing holds me up. Nor do I know the quiet of the endless sky above the still tree-tops.
He drinks
.
    GOUGOU : What did the tree say?
    THE BEGGAR : Yes. And the wind blew. A shudder ran through the tree. And the man felt it. He threw himself down on the ground and he clutched the wild, hard roots and cried bitterly. But he did it to many trees.
    EKART : Did it cure him?
    THE BEGGAR : No. He had an easier death, though.
    MAJA : I don’t understand that.
    THE BEGGAR : Nothing is understood. But some things are felt. If one understands a story it’s just that it’s been told badly.
    BOLLEBOLL : Do you believe in God?
    BAAL
with an effort
: I’ve always believed in myself. But a man
could
turn atheist.
    BOLLEBOLL
laughs loudly
: Now I feel happy. God! Champagne! Love! Wind and rain!
He reaches for Maja
.
    MAJA : Leave me alone. Your breath stinks.
    BOLLEBOLL : And I suppose you haven’t got the pox?
He takes her on his lap
.
    THE BEGGAR : Watch it!
To Bolleboll
: I’m getting drunker and drunker. If I get completely drunk you can’t go out in the rain tonight.
    GOUGOU
to Ekart
: He used to be better looking, that’s how he got her.
    EKART : What about your intellectual superiority? Your psychic ascendancy?
    GOUGOU : She wasn’t like that. She was completely innocent.
    EKART : And what did you do?
    GOUGOU : I was ashamed.
    BOLLEBOLL : Listen! The wind. It’s asking God for peace.
    MAJA
sings
:
    Lullaby baby, away from the storm
    Here we are sheltered and drunken and warm.
    BAAL : Whose child is that?
    MAJA : My daughter, sir.
    THE BEGGAR : A virgo dolorosa.
    BAAL
drinks
: That’s how it used to be, Ekart. And it was all right too.
    EKART : What?
    BOLLEBOLL : He’s forgotten what.
    BAAL : Used