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Page 60
STRANGER. That was once my religion; but as I no longer believe
that death's the end, nothing remains but to bear everything--to
fight, and to suffer!
LADY. For how long must we suffer?
STRANGER. As long as he suffers and our consciences plague us.
LADY. Then we must try and justify ourselves to our consciences;
find excuses for our frivolous actions, and discover his weaknesses.
STRANGER. Well, you can try!
LADY. You say that! Since I've known he's unhappy I can see nothing
but his qualities, and you lose when I compare you with him.
STRANGER. See how well it's arranged! His sufferings sanctify him,
but mine make me abhorrent and laughable! We must face the
immutable. We've destroyed a soul, so we are murderers.
LADY. Who is to blame?
STRANGER. He who's so mismanaged the fate of men.
(There is a flash of lightning; the electric bells begin to ring.)
LADY. O God! What's that?
STRANGER. The answer.
LADY. Is there a lightning conductor here?
STRANGER. The priest of Baal wishes to coax the lightning from
heaven. ...
LADY. Now I'm frightened, frightened of you. You're terrifying.
STRANGER. You see!
LADY. Who are you to defy Heaven, and to dare to play with the
destinies of men?
STRANGER. Get up and collect your thoughts. Listen to me, believe
me, and pay me the respect that's my due; and I'll lift both of us
high above this frog pond, to which we've both descended. I'll
breathe on your sick conscience so that it heals like a wound. Who
am I? A man who has done what no one else has ever done; who will
overthrow the Golden Calf and upset the tables of the money-changers.
I hold the fate of the world in my crucible; and in a week I can
make the richest of the rich a poor man. Gold, the most false of
all standards, has ceased to rule; every man will now be as poor as
his neighbour, and the children of men will hurry about like ants
whose heap has been disturbed.
LADY. What good will that be to us?
STRANGER. Do you think I'll make gold in order to enrich ourselves
and others? No. I'll do it to paralyse the present order, to
disrupt it, as you'll see! I am the destroyer, the dissolver, the
world incendiary; and when all lies in ashes, I shall wander
hungrily through the heaps of ruins, rejoicing at the thought that
it is all my work: that I have written the last page of world
history, which can then be held to be ended.
(The face of the DOMINICAN appears at the open window, without
being seen by those on the stage.)
LADY. Then that was the real meaning of your last book! It was no
invention!
STRANGER. No. But in order to write it, I had to link myself with
the self of another, who could take everything from me that
fettered my soul. So that my spirit could once more find a fiery
blast, on which to mount to the ether, elude the Powers, and reach
the Throne, in order to lay the lamentations of mankind at the feet
of the Eternal One. ... (The DOMINICAN makes the sign of the cross
in the air and disappears.) Who's here? Who is the Terrible One who
follows me and cripples my thoughts? Did you see no one?
LADY. No. No one.
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