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Page 72
MIDWIFE. A child's born. Praise the Lord!
MOTHER. Let the Lord be praised!
SISTERS. Let the Lord be praised!
MIDWIFE (to the STRANGER). Your wife's given you daughter.
MOTHER (to the STRANGER). Don't you want to see your child?
STRANGER. No. I no longer want to tie myself anything on earth. I'm
afraid I'd get to love her, and then you'd tear the heart from my
body. Let me get out of this atmosphere, which is too pure for me.
Don' t let that innocent child come near me, for I'm a man already
damned, already sentenced, and for me there's no joy, no peace, and
no ... forgiveness!
MOTHER. My son, now you're speaking words of wisdom! Truthfully and
without malice: I welcome your decision. There's no place for you
here, and amongst us women you'd be plagued to death. So go in
peace.
STRANGER. There'll be no more peace, but I'll go. Farewell!
MOTHER. Exules filii Evae; on earth you shall be a fugitive and a
vagabond.
STRANGER. Because I have slain my brother.
Curtain.
ACT IV
SCENE I
BANQUETING HALL
[The room in which the banquet took place in Act III. It is dirty,
and furnished with unpainted wooden tables. Beggars, scavengers and
loose women. Cripples are seated here and there drinking by the
light of tallow dips.]
[The STRANGER and the SECOND WOMAN are sitting together drinking
brandy, which stands on the table in front of them in a carafe. The
STRANGER is drinking heavily.]
WOMAN. Don't drink so much!
STRANGER. You see. You've scruples, too!
WOMAN. No. But I don't like to see a man I respect lowering himself
so.
STRANGER. But I came here specially to do so; to take a mud-bath
that would harden my skin against the pricks of life. To find
immoral support about me. And I chose your company, because you're
the most despicable, though you've still retained a spark of
humanity. You were sorry for me, when no one else was. Not even
myself! Why?
WOMAN. Really, I don't know.
STRANGER. But you must know that there are moments when you look
almost beautiful.
WOMAN. Oh, listen to him!
STRANGER. Yes. And then you resemble a woman who was dear to me.
WOMAN. Thank you!
WAITRESS. Don't talk so loud, there's a sick man here.
STRANGER. Tell me, have you ever been in love?
WOMAN. We don't use that word, but I know what you mean. Yes. I had
a lover once and we had a child.
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