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) (18 page)

BULLTROTTER
: You’ll be put up against a wall, mate.

AUGUSTA
: Then let them with the clean cuffs be so good as to strap up their arseholes.

MANKE
: Augusta, you’re crude.

AUGUSTA
: O you swine, you ought to be ashamed, your bowels should be ripped out, you should be hanged too, and them with the clean cuffs be strung up a lamp-post. ‘Can’t you cut the price, ducky, now we’ve lost the war?’ You’ve no business making love if you haven’t got the money, and you’ve no business making war if you don’t know how to. Take your feet down when there are ladies present. Why should I smell your stinking feet, you dirty bugger?

GLUBB
: His cuffs aren’t a bit clean.

THE DRUNK MAN
: What’s that rumbling?

MANKE
: Guns.

THE DRUNK MAN
gives the others a pale grin
: What’s that rattling?

Glubb goes to the window, throws it open, they hear guns racing down the street. All at the window
.

^34>
BULLTROTTER
: That’s the regiment they call the Cockchafers
^<34

AUGUSTA
: Jesus Christ, where are they going?

GLUBB
: To the newspaper offices, girl. They’re the readers.
He shuts the window
.
³⁵

AUGUSTA
: Jesus Christ, who’s coming in?

Kragler swaying in the doorway as if drunk, rocking on the soles of his feet
.

^36>
MANKE
: Are you laying an egg in that doorway?
^<36

AUGUSTA
: Who are you
³⁷
?

KRAGLER
grinning maliciously
: Nobody.

AUGUSTA
drying him
: The sweat’s running down his collar.
³⁸
Been running hard, haven’t you?
³⁹

THE DRUNK MAN
: Got squitters?

KRAGLER
: No, I’ve not got the squitters.
^40>

MANKE
goes across to him
: Well, what have you been up to, my boy? I know the type.

MARIE
appears behind him
: He hasn’t been up to anything. I invited him, Augusta; he hasn’t got anywhere to go. He’s been in Africa. Sit down.

Kragler continues to stand in the doorway.
^<40

MANKE
: Prisoner of war?

MARIE
: And posted missing.

AUGUSTA
: Missing too?

MARIE
: And a prisoner of war.
^41>
And in the meantime they pinched his fiancée.

AUGUSTA
: Come to Mummy, then. Have a seat, gunner.
To Glubb
: Five double kirsches, Karl.

Glubb pours out five glasses, which Manke puts on a small table
.

GLUBB
: Last week they pinched my bicycle.

Kragler goes to the table
.
^<41

AUGUSTA
: Tell us about Africa.
^42>

Kragler drinks without answering
.

BULLTROTTER
: Cough it up. The landlord’s a red.

GLUBB
: What did you say I was?

BULLTROTTER
: A red.

MANKE
: Mind yourself, sir; there’s nothing red about this place, if you don’t mind.

BULLTROTTER
: All right. Not red, then.

AUGUSTA
: And what did you do out there?

KRAGLER
: Shot wogs in the belly. Made roads. – Is it your lungs?

AUGUSTA
: How long for?

KRAGLER
keeps addressing Marie
: Twenty-seven.

MARIE
: Months.

AUGUSTA
: And before that?

KRAGLER
: Before that? I lay in a hole full of mud.

BULLTROTTER
: And what were you doing there?

KRAGLER
: Stinking.

GLUBB
: Yes, you could lie around as much as you wanted.

BULLTROTTER
: What were the tarts like in Africa?

Kragler is silent
.

AUGUSTA
: Don’t be crude.

BULLTROTTER
: And when you got back she wasn’t at home, eh? I suppose you thought she’d go to the barracks every morning and wait around for you among the dogs?

KRAGLER
to Marie
: Shall I hit him?

GLUBB
: No, not yet. Give us a tune on the nickelodeon, that’s what you can do.

KRAGLER
stands up swaying, and salutes
: Sir!
He goes and starts up the nickelodeon
.

BULLTROTTER
: Mush.

AUGUSTA
: It’s just that he feels he’s a corpse. He’s dead but he won’t lie down.

GLUBB
: Yes, yes. He’s been the victim of a slight injustice. He’ll get over it.

BULLTROTTER
: Here, you’re a red, aren’t you? Glubb! Weren’t they saying something about your nephew?

GLUBB
: They were. Not in this house, though.

BULLTROTTER
: No, not in this house. At the Siemens works.

GLUBB
: For a short while.

BULLTROTTER
: For a short while at Siemens’s. He worked a lathe. He worked a lathe for a short while. Worked a lathe till last November, didn’t he?

THE DRUNK MAN
who has done nothing but laugh so far, sings
:

My brothers are all dead

And I was nearly so.

November I was red

But January no.

GLUBB
: Herr Manke, this gentleman doesn’t want to be a nuisance to anybody. See that he isn’t.

KRAGLER
has seized Augusta’s waist and is dancing round with her
:

‘A dog went to the kitchen

To get a bone to chew.

The cook picked up his chopper

And cut that dog in two.’

THE DRUNK MAN
convulsed with laughter
: Worked a lathe for a short while …
^<42

GLUBB
: You’re not to smash my glasses, gunner.

MARIE
: He’s drunk now. It’ll be a relief.
^43>

KRAGLER
: A relief, is it? Console yourself, brother Schnapsvat, just say: it’s not possible.

AUGUSTA
: Drink up, love.

THE DRUNK MAN
: Weren’t they saying something about a nephew?

KRAGLER
: What is a swine in the eyes of the Lord, sister prostitute? He is nothing.

THE DRUNK MAN
: Not in this house.

KRAGLER
: And why? Can we do away with the army or God? Can you do away with torture, Red, with the torments the devil has learnt from the human race? No, you can’t do away with them, but you can serve schnaps
^<43
So drink up and shut the door and don’t let the wind in, which is frozen too, but put wood between.
⁴⁴

BULLTROTTER
: The landlord says you’re the victim of a slight injustice; you’ll get over it, he says.

^45>
KRAGLER
: Will I? Did you say injustice, brother Red? What sort of a word is that? Injustice! A whole lot of little words like that they keep inventing, and blowing in the air, and then they can put their feet up and one gets over it. And big brother clouts his little brother on the jaw, and the cream of society takes the cream off the milk, and everyone gets over it nicely.

THE DRUNK MAN
: Over that nephew. The one they say nothing about in this house.

KRAGLER:

‘The other dogs came running

To dig that dog a grave

And set him this inscription

Upon the stone above:

A dog went to the kitchen …’

Therefore make yourselves at home on our planet, it’s cold here and rather dark, Red; the world’s too old for the millennium and heaven has been let, my friends.

MARIE
: What are we to do, then? He says he wants to
^<45
go to the newspaper offices. There they are, but what’s happening there?

KRAGLER
: A cab driving to the Piccadilly Bar.

AUGUSTA
: Is she inside?

KRAGLER
: With her inside.
^46>
My pulse is quite normal: feel.
Holds out his hand, while drinking with the other
.

MARIE
: He’s called Andy.

KRAGLER
: Andy. Yes, I was called Andy.
He continues absentmindedly to feel his pulse.
^<46

LAAR
: They were mainly fir trees, little fir trees …

GLUBB
: The stone’s starting to talk.
⁴⁷

BULLTROTTER
: And you sold, you
^48>
idiot?

LAAR
: Me?

BULLTROTTER
: Oh, the bank? Interesting, Glubb, but not in this house.

GLUBB
: Are you feeling offended? Well, control yourselves then. All right, then prepare to be controlled.
^<48
Keep calm when they pull the skin off you, gunner, or it may split; it’s the only one you’ve got.
^49>
Still busy with glasses
: Yes, you’re a bit offended
^<49
you’ve been killed off by guns and sabres, shat on a bit, and spat on a bit.
^50>
Well, what about it?

BULLTROTTER
referring to the glasses
: Aren’t they clean yet?

THE DRUNK MAN
: Wash me, Lord, that I may become white! Wash me that I may become white as snow!
Sings
:

My brothers all are dead, yes dead

And I was very nearly so.

November I was red, ah red

But January no …

GLUBB
: That’ll do.

AUGUSTA
: You cowards!

NEWSPAPER WOMAN
enters
:
^<50
Spartacus threatens press offices! Red Rosa speaks at Zoo !
⁵¹
Mob rule for how long? Where are the troops? Ten pfennigs, soldier? Where are the troops: ten pfennigs.
^>
Exit, as there are no customers
.

AUGUSTA
: And Paul not there.
^<

KRAGLER
: That whistling again?
^52>

GLUBB
closes his cupboard, dries his hands
: We’re closing.

MANKE
: Let’s go, Augusta. He’s saying nothing against you, but let’s go.
To Bulltrotter
: Anything the matter, sir? Two marks sixty.

BULLTROTTER
:
^<52
I was at Jutland; that was no picnic either.

⁵³
THE DRUNK MAN
with his arm round Marie
:

The saintly slattern disappears

Swimming with him through floods of tears.
^54>

KRAGLER
: Down to the papers, everyone!

‘A dog went to the kitchen

To get a bone to chew.

The cook picked up his chopper

And cut that dog in two.’
^<
54

LAAR
staggers to the nickelodeon, pulls the drum away and starts a roll, swaying after the others
.

BABUSCH
:
⁵⁵
It’s time for you to go home.

ANNA
: I can’t go back there.
⁵⁶
What’s the use, I waited four years with a photo and took another man. I was frightened at night.

BABUSCH
: I’ve run out of cigars. Aren’t you ever going home?
⁵⁷
They’re flinging torn-up papers in the puddles, screaming at machine-guns, shooting in each other’s ears, imagining they’re building a new world. Here’s another group coming now.

ANNA
: There he is!

As the group approaches there is a great disturbance in the street. Shooting breaks out in many directions
.

ANNA
:
⁵⁸
I’m going to tell him.

BABUSCH
: I’ll stop you.

ANNA
: I’m not an animal. I’ll scream!

BABUSCH
:
⁵⁹
And I’ve run out of cigars.

From between the houses come Glubb, Laar, the drunk man, the two women, the waiter Manke from the Piccadilly Bar, and Andy Kragler
.

KRAGLER
: I’m hoarse. I’ve got Africa in the throat. I’m going to hang myself.

GLUBB
: Why not hang yourself tomorrow and come with us to the newspaper buildings now?

KRAGLER
stares towards Anna
: Yes.

AUGUSTA
: Seen an apparition?

MANKE
: Hey, your hair’s standing on end.

GLUBB
: Is that her?

KRAGLER
: What’s the matter, then; are you stopping here? I’ll have you shot. March, march, double march!

ANNA
goes to meet him
: Andy!

THE DRUNK MAN
: Lift your leg, I spy love!

ANNA
: Andy, stop a moment, it’s me, I wanted to say something.
Silence
. I wanted to remind you of something; stop just a moment, I’m not drunk.
Silence
.
⁶⁰
You’ve no cap, either; it’s cold. I must say something to you privately.
⁶¹