Heinrich Von Kleist - The Broken Jug

THE BROKEN JUG by Heinrich von Kleist Translated by Leanora Lange Honors Thesis Project Spring 2008

FOREWORD This comedy probably has some basis in historical fact, of which, however, I was unable to find any closer information. I took my inspiration for it from a copper print that I saw in Switzerland several years ago. The first thing one noticed was a judge who sat gravely at the judge's bench: before him stood an old woman holding a broken jug; she seemed to demonstrate the injustice that was done to it: the defendant, a young farmer who the judge, as mentioned, was booming at, still defended himself, but weakly: a girl, who probably served as a witness in the case (because who knows at what instance the delicacy occurred), played in the middle of the apron between the mother and the groom; someone who had borne false testimony could not have stood there more contritely: and the court clerk (perhaps he had just looked at the girl) now looked suspiciously at the judge from the corner of his eye, like Creon, in a similar instance, looking at Oedipus. Underneath was the caption: the broken jug. The original, if I am not mistaken, was by a Dutch master. CHARACTERS WALTER, court counselor ADAM, town judge LIGHT, clerk FRAU MARTHA RULL EVE, her daughter VEIT TUEMPEL, a farmer RUPRECHT, his son FRAU BRIGITTA A SERVANT, BAILIFF, MAIDS, etc. The play takes place in a Dutch town near Utrecht. Setting: The judge's chambers. SCENE ONE Adam sits and binds his leg. Light enters. LIGHT: Ah, what in the world, brother Adam! Say, What happened to you? Why, just look at you! ADAM: Yeah, look. To stumble, all you need are feet. On this smooth floor, is there a single stump? But here I stumbled; for each person Carries in himself the stone of stumbling.1 1. In the original text: den jeder trägt / Den ledigen Stein zum Anstoß in sich selbst, a reference to 1 Peter: „ein Stein des Anstoßens und ein Fels des Ärgernisses; denn sie stoßen sich an dem Wort und glauben nicht daran, wozu sie auch gesetzt sind“ (1 Petrus 2:8 German: Luther Bibel, 1912); “And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: where unto also they were appointed” (1 Peter 2:8, King James Bible)

LIGHT: No, tell me, friend! Each person has the stone—? ADAM: Yes, in himself! LIGHT: I’ll be darned! ADAM: What is it? LIGHT: You come from a loose ancestral father Who fell like that at the very beginning And became famous because of his fall; You haven't also— ADAM: Well? LIGHT: Similarly—? ADAM: Have I—? I think—! I fell down here, I'm telling you! LIGHT: Not figuratively? ADAM: No, not figuratively. I would have cut a pretty poor figure. LIGHT: Tell me, when did this incident happen? ADAM: Just now, the very moment that I got Up out of bed. I was still saying my Morning prayers, and already I stumble; Before I even begin my day, God wrenches the feet out from under me. LIGHT: And the left one, too, no doubt? ADAM: The left one? LIGHT: The weighty one here? ADAM: Of course! LIGHT: Righteous God! Who makes the way of the sinner so hard.2 ADAM: The foot! What! Hard! Why? LIGHT: The club foot?3 ADAM: Club foot! A foot is, like any other foot, a club. LIGHT: Agreed! But you’re not doing right by your right. The right cannot boast of this massive—weight, And sooner gets onto slippery slopes. ADAM: What! Where the one goes, the other one follows. LIGHT: And what messed up your face like that? ADAM: My face? LIGHT: What? Are you saying you don’t know? ADAM: I'd have to be lying—what’s it look like? LIGHT: What's it look like? ADAM: Yes, brother dear. LIGHT: Horrible! 2. Reference Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” (King James Bible, http://sch.bibeltext.com/psalms/1.htm); “Wohl dem, der nicht wandelt im Rat der Gottlosen noch tritt auf den Weg der Sünder noch sitzt, wo die Spötter sitzen” (Luther Bibel, http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/l/luther/luther-idx?type=DIV2&byte=2278658) 3. Reference to Oedipus

ADAM: Explain that more clearly. LIGHT: It's been abused, A horror to see. A piece of the cheek is gone. How much? I'd need a butcher’s scale to say. ADAM: Oh, to hell with you! LIGHT (brings a mirror): Here! Persuade yourself! A sheep chased by dogs that pushes itself Through a thorn bush doesn't leave behind more wool Than the flesh that you—God knows where?—left behind. ADAM: Hm! Yes! It's true. It's not very charming. The nose has suffered some too. LIGHT: And the eye. ADAM: Not the eye, brother. LIGHT: Oh, there’s a hit there Lying right across the eye, all bloody, Just as if an angry foreman had made it. ADAM: That's just the cheekbone—Yes, now just look here, I didn't feel any of that at all. LIGHT: That's how it goes in the heat of battle. ADAM: Battle! What!—The damned corner of the stove: That’s what I fought with, if you will. Now I know. I lost my balance, and as if I were Drowning in the air, I grappled about; I grabbed the wet pair of pants that I’d hung up Last night on the stove's rack. Just as I grabbed Them, you understand, I think to myself, You fool, holding onto that, then the band Breaks; now the band4 and the pants and I, we fall, And I smack down onto the oven, headfirst On my forehead, right where the corner Of the stove sticks way out like a nose. LIGHT (laughs): Good, good. ADAM: Damn it! LIGHT: The first fall of Adam That you’ve done getting up out of bed. ADAM: Gracious!—But I wanted to say: what's new? LIGHT: Yes, what's new! I’ll be darned if I hadn't Just almost forgotten to say. ADAM: Well? LIGHT: Prepare yourself for an unexpected Visitor from Utrecht. ADAM: Huh? LIGHT: The court counselor's coming. ADAM: Who's coming? 4. “Bund” in original, explained as“oberer Hosenrand,” or the upper hem of the pants (Sembdner, Helmut. Heinrich von Kleist: Der zerbrochne Krug. Erläuterungen & Dokumente. Stuttgart: Reclam, 1973; hereafter referred to as E&D).

LIGHT: The high court counselor, Walter, is coming. He's on a trip auditing the offices And today he is going to arrive here. ADAM: Today! Are you crazy? LIGHT: True as I live. He was on the border in Holla yesterday; He's already audited their office. A farmer already saw his horses And wagon whizzing by on their way here. ADAM: Today, him, the Court Counselor, here, from Utrecht! To audit us, the brave man who feathers His own nest,5 but hates the same antics. Coming to Huisum, to tyrannize us! LIGHT: If he came to Holla, he'll come to Huisum. Best beware. ADAM: Oh, go on! LIGHT: I'm telling you. ADAM: Go away with your fairy tales, I say. LIGHT: The farmer saw him himself, for Pete's sake. ADAM: Who knows whom the bleary-eyed rascal saw. Those buggers can't tell the difference between A face and the back of a bald man's head. Put a hat square on my cane, hang a coat Around it, and put two boots under it, That tramp would say it's anyone you want. LIGHT: Fine, go on and doubt me for all I care Until he walks in the door. ADAM: Him, walk in! Without sending us a word beforehand. LIGHT: The stupidity! As if it were still The former auditor, Counsel Wachholder! It's Counsel Walter who's auditing now. ADAM: Even if it's Walter! Go, leave me be. The man swore his oath of office, surely, And, like us, practices according to The established customs and precedents. LIGHT: Well, I can assure you, Council Walter Appeared unexpectedly in Holla, Reviewed the cash boxes and registries, And suspended judges and clerks there. Why? That I don't know, ab officio. ADAM: For goodness’s sake! Did the farmer say that? LIGHT: That and still more— ADAM: Well? LIGHT: If you want to know. 5. In original, “der wackre Mann, der selbst / Sein Schäfchen schiert,” meaning a man who looks after his own interests.

This morning they went looking for the judge Who had been put under house arrest, And they found him around back in the barn High up in the ceiling rafters, hanging. ADAM: What did you say? LIGHT: Help came in the meantime, They untied him, rubbed him down, gave him water, And they brought the poor fellow back to life. ADAM: So? They brought him back? LIGHT: But now his house is Locked up, sealed, and officially condemned. It's as if he were already a corpse; His office has been inherited, too. ADAM: Ah, for Pete's sake!—He was a negligent dog— But otherwise an honest guy, it's true, A fellow who was good to be around; But terribly negligent, that I must say. If the Council was in Holla today, He's not well, poor codger, I believe that. LIGHT: The farmer said it’s because of that alone That the Counsel isn't here already; He'll arrive by noon, though, without fail. ADAM: Noon! Fine, brother! Now's the time for friendship. You know how two hands can wash each other6 You'd like to become town judge, too, I know And you deserve it as much as the next. But today is still not the opportune time, Today, still let this cup pass from you.7 LIGHT: Town judge, me! What else do you think of me? ADAM: You are a friend of well-chosen words and speech, And you’ve studied your Cicero better Than a man educated in Amsterdam. Keep your ambition in check, you hear me? There will likely be other occasions When you can show yourself off with your skills. LIGHT: We two good brothers! Get away from me. ADAM: You know, even the great Demosthenes Held his tongue in his time. Follow his example. And though I'm not the king of Macedonia, I can still be grateful in my own fashion. LIGHT: Get out of here with your suspicions, I say. Have I ever—? ADAM: Look, I, I, for my part, I too follow the great Greeks. A speech about Depositions and insurance, too, 6. Colloquialism from Latin: one hand washes the other (E&D). 7. Matthew 26:39: “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Can also be worked out first: Who’d want to turn such a phrase?8 LIGHT: Well, then! ADAM: I’m free from such accusations, For goodness's sake! As for everything else, It's a farce, perhaps, born in the night that Shies away from day’s inquisitive light. LIGHT: I know. ADAM: Goodness! There is no reason that a judge Should be grave and serious all the time, Even when he's not sitting at the bench. LIGHT: I say so too. ADAM: Well then, come, brother. Follow me a stretch to the registry; I'll put the files in order, ‘cause right now They're lying like the tower of Babylon. SCENE TWO A servant enters. Those from before.—Later, two maids. THE SERVANT: God be with you, judge! Court Counselor Walter Send his greetings; he will arrive here soon. ADAM: Ah, righteous God! Is he already done In Holla? THE SERVANT: Yes, he’s already in Huisum. ADAM: Hey! Lisa! Greta! LIGHT: Calm down, now, calm down. ADAM: Brother! LIGHT: Send the servant back with your thanks. THE SERVANT: And tomorrow we’re traveling to Hussah. ADAM: What do I do now? What do I send? (He grabs for his clothes) FIRST MAID (enters): I’m here, sir. 9 LIGHT: You’re putting on your pants? Are you crazy? SECOND MAID (enters): Here I am, judge, sir. LIGHT: Here, take your jacket. ADAM (looking around): Who? The court counselor? LIGHT: Ah, it’s just the maid. ADAM: My bands! Gown! Collar! FIRST MAID: First the vest! ADAM: What?—Take off the jacket! Quick! LIGHT (to the servant): The Counselor Is very welcome here. We’ll be ready 8. In the original text:“solche Periode drehen,” explained as “kunstvolle Sätze bilden” (E&D). 9. Adam mistakenly puts an arm in a pant leg (E&D).

To greet him immediately. Tell him that. ADAM: To hell with it all! Judge Adam sends his Apologies. LIGHT: Apologies! ADAM: Apologies. What, is he already on his way? THE SERVANT: He’s Still in the inn. He sent for the blacksmith; The wagon is broken. ADAM: Good. My regards. The blacksmith’s lazy. Send my apologies. I’d have practically broken my neck. See for Yourself; it’s a spectacle how I look. Sudden shocks make me ill, it’s my nature. Say I’m sick. LIGHT: Are you out of your mind?— The Court Counselor would be quite pleasant. Do you want—? ADAM: Hang it all! LIGHT: What? ADAM: I’ll be damned If it’s not like I just took a laxative! LIGHT: That’s all he needs to show himself the door. ADAM: Margret! Hey! You sack of bones, you! Lisa! THE TWO MAIDS: Here we are. What do you want? ADAM: Go, I say! Cow’s cheese, ham, butter, sausages, and wine. Get them from the registry! And quick now! Not you. The other one. –Slack-jaw! Yes, you! —For God’s sake, Margret! Lisa, you go to the Registry! (The first maid exits) SECOND MAID: Speak so a person can understand you! ADAM: You hold your tongue now—! Go! Get me my wig! March! From the cabinet! Quick! Get going! (The second maid exits) LIGHT (to the servant): I hope that nothing bad has befallen The Court Counselor during the journey? THE SERVANT: Ah, well! We turned over on a narrow pass. ADAM: Rats! My poor, abused foot! I can’t get my boots10— LIGHT: Ah, my dear heavens! Turned over, you say? But no further damage—? THE SERVANT: Nothing serious. The Counselor sprained his hand a little bit. And the drawbar11 broke. ADAM: That he’d broken his neck!

LIGHT: Sprained his hand! Ah, dear God! Did the blacksmith come? THE SERVANT: Yes, for the drawbar. LIGHT: What? ADAM: You mean the doctor. LIGHT: What? THE SERVANT: For the drawbar? ADAM: What—no! For the hand. THE SERVANT: Adieu, gentlemen.—These guys must be nuts. (Exits) LIGHT: I meant the blacksmith. ADAM: You gave yourself away. LIGHT: How so? ADAM: You’re embarrassed. LIGHT: What! (The first maid enters) ADAM: Hey! Lisa! What’ve you got? FIRST MAID: Braunschweiger sausage, sir. ADAM: Those are the guardianship files. LIGHT: Me, embarrassed! ADAM: They need to go back to the registry. FIRST MAID: The sausage? ADAM: Sausage! What! The paper here.12 LIGHT: It was a misunderstanding. SECOND MAID (enters): Your honor, I didn’t find the wig in the cabinet. ADAM: Why not? SECOND MAID: Hm! Because you— ADAM: Well? SECOND MAID: Last night At eleven— ADAM: Well? Let’s hear it? SECOND MAID: Oh, you came Back home, remember, without a wig on. ADAM: Me, without a wig? SECOND MAID: Indeed, your honor. Here’s Lisa; she can testify to that. And your other one is at the wigmaker’s. ADAM: I was—? FIRST MAID: Yes, upon my word, Judge Adam! You were bald-headed when you came back here; You said you’d fallen, don’t you remember? I had to wash the blood off of your head. ADAM: The shameless girl! FIRST MAID: Or else I’m a liar. ADAM: Hold your tongue; there’s not a word of truth there. 10. To complete the phrase: on; the bandage is too big for his to fit in his boots (E&D). 11. The large bar of a wagon that connects the coach to the horses’ harness. 12. The file was used as wrapping paper for the sausages (E&D).

LIGHT: You’ve had that cut since yesterday? ADAM: No, today. The cut was today, the wig yesterday. I wore it all powdered up on my head And simply took it off, accidentally, Along with my hat when I walked in the door. What she was washing—that I do not know. —Why don’t you go to hell, where you belong! To the registry! (First maid exits) Go, Margret! My good friend The sexton will let me borrow his wig; Tell him this morning the cat went and had A litter in mine, the pig! And she’s lying There nursing under the bed, I know it. LIGHT: The cat? What? Are you—? ADAM: As true as I live. Five kittens, yellow, black, and one is white. I’m going to drown the black ones in the Vecht.13 What’s a person to do? Do you want one? LIGHT: In the wig? ADAM: Yes, may God strike me down! I had hung the wig up on the back of A chair right as I had climbed into bed. I bumped the chair in the night, the wig fell— LIGHT: Then the cat took it in its mouth— ADAM: On my word— LIGHT: Carried it under the bed, and gave birth. ADAM: In its mouth? No— LIGHT: No? How else? ADAM: The cat? Come on! LIGHT: No? Or perhaps you? ADAM: In my mouth? I believe—! I shoved it under the bed with my foot When I saw it there. LIGHT: Fine, fine. ADAM: The vermin! They mate and have young anywhere there’s room! SECOND MAID (snickering): So, should I go? ADAM: Yes, and send my greetings To Sister Blackrobe, the sexton’s wife. I’ll send her the wig back today, undamaged —You don’t need to tell him anything. Do you understand? SECOND MAID: I’ll go ask for it now.

13. A branch of the Rhein near Utrecht (E&D).

SCENE THREE Adam and Light. ADAM: Brother, I’ve got a bad feeling about today. LIGHT: Why? ADAM: I feel like everything is spinning. Isn’t today court day? LIGHT: Indeed, it is. The plaintiffs are already at the door. ADAM:—I dreamt that one of them came up and grabbed me And carried me before the court; and at The very same time I sat on the bench, And yelled and cursed and called myself a scoundrel, And sentenced myself to be put in irons. LIGHT: How’s that? You sentenced yourself? ADAM: True as I live. Then the two of us became one and begged And had to spend the night out in the woods. LIGHT: Well? And you think the dream—? ADAM: To hell with it. If it’s not the dream, then there’s some sort of Practical joke on me in the works! LIGHT: What ridiculous fear! Just act properly When the Court Counselor is present, And judge the parties that come before you, So your dream of an aggravated judge Doesn’t come true in another fashion. SCENE FOUR The court counselor Walter enters. Those from before. WALTER: Greetings, Judge Adam. ADAM: Ah, welcome, your honor! Welcome, most honorable judge, to Huisum! Who could have, dear, righteous God, who could have Ever expected such a joyful visit. Not even at eight o’clock this morning Could I have dreamt of such great happiness. WALTER: I’m coming on short notice, I know; and On this trip in the service of the state, I must be content if my hosts at least See me off with a sincere word of farewell. However, in terms of my own greetings, I really do mean well, right when I arrive.

The High Council in Utrecht wants to improve The upkeep of justice in the lowlands,14 Which seems to be lacking in some places, And abuses are to receive strict directives. But my business on this trip is not yet A strict one, I’m simply to watch, not punish, And if not everything is as it should be, I will be happy if it’s tolerable. ADAM: Truly, such noble thoughts must be praised. I have no doubt your honor will be able To censure the old customs here and there; And rightly so; even if they’ve existed In the Netherlands since Kaiser Karl the fifth: Ah, your honor, what couldn’t be thought up? The world, as the saying goes, keeps getting Smarter, and everyone reads Pufendorf15 But Huisum is a small part of the world, Where only its small part of the general Intelligence can enter, no more, no less. Enlighten the justice in Huisum, please, And be persuaded, sir, that you will no Sooner have turned your back when you will find The justice completely satisfactory; But if you find it today in the office Just as you wish, it’d be a miracle, Since the justice still hardly knows what you want. WALTER: Rules are missing, quite right. What’s more, there are Too many. We will have to sift some out. ADAM: Yes, sift them through a large sieve. So much chaff! WALTER: That is the court clerk there? LIGHT: Court Clerk Light, At your honor’s service. It will be Nine years in May that I’ve been in the office. ADAM (brings a chair): Please sit. WALTER: No thanks. ADAM: But you’ve come from Holla. WALTER: Ah, two little miles—how do you know that? ADAM: How? Your honor’s servant— LIGHT: A farmer said it Who just arrived back in town from Holla. WALTER: A farmer? ADAM: At your service. WALTER: —Yes! There was An unpleasant incident that happened there, 14. In contrast to the cities, which are built up higher; countryside (E&D). 15. Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf (1632-1694), “A German jurist, political philosopher, economist, statesman, and historian,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_von_Pufendorf). Also the author of Elementa juris prudentiale universalis along with writings on history (E&D).

That disrupted my good mood, which should have Accompanied us in this business here. Perhaps you’ve heard about it already? ADAM: Could it be true, your honor? That Judge Pfaul,16 Because he was put under house arrest, That such desperation overtook the fool That he hung himself?17 WALTER: It went from bad to worse. What seemed to be disorder, confusion, Then started to look like embezzlement, Which the law, you know, no longer allows. How many cash boxes do you have? ADAM: Five. WALTER: What, five! I had thought—five filled cash boxes? I had thought there were only four— ADAM: Pardon me! With the Rhein-Inundation collection? WALTER: With the Rhein-Inundation collection! But the Rhein isn’t flooding now, and the Donations for it aren’t being collected. —Tell me, you hold court today, do you not? ADAM: Do we—? WALTER: What? LIGHT: Yes, it’s the first of the week. WALTER: And the crowd of people I saw outside In your hall, are they—? ADAM: Those are— LIGHT: They’re the plaintiffs, gathering already. WALTER: Good. I like this situation, gentlemen. If you please, let these people appear. I’ll sit in on the proceedings and see How it is usually done here in Huisum. We’ll do the cash boxes and registry Afterwards, when these cases are finished. ADAM: As you wish.—The bailiff! Hey! Hanfriede!18 SCENE FIVE The two maids enter. Those from before. SECOND MAID: Greetings from the sexton’s wife, Judge Adam. She’d like to send you the wig, but— ADAM: What? No? SECOND MAID: She said there is a service this morning; The sexton was wearing the one himself, And she said the other couldn’t be used; 16. Similar to “faul,” meaning lazy or rotten. 17. The incorrect grammar reflects the lively way the question is to be asked (E&D). 18. First name from northern Germany, from Johann Friedrich (E&D).

It’s to go to the wigmaker today. ADAM: Damn! SECOND MAID: As soon as the sexton comes back, however She said she would send you his right away. ADAM: Upon my word, your honor— WALTER: What’s the matter? ADAM: A coincidence, an unlucky one, Has deprived me of both of my wigs. And now The third one I wanted to borrow is out: I have to hear the cases bald-headed. WALTER: Bald-headed! ADAM: Yes, gracious God! As embarrassed As I am of my appearance as a judge Without the assistance of my wig. —I’ll still have to try and ask at the outpost19 Perhaps the landlord? WALTER: Ask at the outpost! What, can’t anyone else here in the town—? ADAM: No, actually— WALTER: The preacher perhaps. ADAM: The preacher? He— WALTER: Or the schoolmaster. ADAM: Since the elimination of the tithe,20 Which I, in my office, helped bring about, I can’t expect help from either of them. WALTER: Well, Town Judge Adam? Hm? And your court day? Are you thinking of waiting until your hair grows? ADAM: Yes, if I may, I’ll send to the outpost. WALTER:—How far is it to the outpost? ADAM: Ah! A mere Half an hour. WALTER: A half an hour, what! The hour for your session just struck. Hurry! I have to get to Hussah yet today. ADAM: Hurry! Yes— WALTER: Oh, just go powder your head! Where the devil did you lose your wigs anyway? —Do what you can for yourself. I’m in a hurry. ADAM: That too. THE BAILIFF (enters): The bailiff is here! ADAM: Could I offer you A nice breakfast in the meantime, sausages, 19. “Vorwerk: ein vom Hauptgut abgetrennter landwirtschaftlicher Betrieb mit eigenen Wirstschaftsgebäuden” (E&D). Villages had small agricultural outposts that were separated from the main agricultural land. (http://www.boehm-chronik.com/vorwerk.htm) 20. “Ernteabgabe der Bauern an Pfarrer und Schulmeister, gewöhnlich in barem Geld bezahlt” (E&D). In English, “tithe” comes from the Old English “tenth,” referring to the tenth of something (i.e. crops) paid to the church, usually voluntarily, but also sometimes as a formal, set taxation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithe).

A small glass of Danziger wine— WALTER: No thanks. ADAM: No trouble at all! WALTER: Thanks, I already ate. Go on and use the time well; I need it To make a note of something in my book. ADAM: Well, if that is what you wish—Come, Margret! WALTER:—You know you’re terribly injured, Judge Adam. Did you fall? ADAM: —I had a rather hard fall Early this morning as I got out of bed: Such a hard blow, though I was in my room, I thought I was falling into my grave. WALTER: I’m sorry to hear that. It won’t have any Further consequences? ADAM: I don’t think so. And it shouldn’t bother me in my duties. If I may. WALTER: Go! Go! ADAM:(to the bailiff) Call the plaintiffs—march! (Adam, the maid, and the bailiff exit.) SCENE SIX Frau Martha, Eve, Veit, and Ruprecht enter. Walter and Light in the background. FRAU MARTHA: You jug-smashing riff-raff! You vermin, you! You’ll pay for this, you will! VEIT: Just calm down, now, It’ll all be settled before we depart. FRAU MARTHA: Oh yeah, sure. Depart. The smart aleck. This jug of mine, the broken one, depart. Who is going to depart my parted jug? The judge will impart, that the parted jug Will remain apart. I wouldn’t give a Parcel of this jug for such a partial judgement. VEIT: If you can argue your case, you hear me, I’ll replace it. FRAU MARTHA: He’ll replace the jug for me. If I can argue my case, he’ll replace. Replace the jug, just go ahead and try, Place it up on the shelf again! Replace! This jug, that doesn’t have a single leg It could stand or sit or lie down on, replace! VEIT: You hear me! Why are you frothing at the mouth? What more can I do? If one of us broke it,

You’ll be reimbursed. FRAU MARTHA: Reimbursed! As if the talk were of a piece of livestock. Do you think that justice is a potter? And the authorities will come and tie up Their aprons and carry it to the oven? They could put something else in the jug rather Than reimburse me. Reimburse me! RUPRECHT: Let her be, Father. Listen to me. The witch! It’s not the broken jug that’s irking her; It’s the wedding that’s gotten a hole in it, And she aims to patch it up here by force. But I’ve put my foot down, and I’ll say it Again: I’ll be damned if I take the whore. FRAU MARTHA: You vain little brat! Me patch up the wedding! The wedding isn’t worth the caulk it’d take; Unbroken, it’s not worth one shard of this jug. And if the wedding stood spic and span before me Like the jug still did on the shelf last night, I’d grab it now by both of the handles And I’d smash it—bang—right in two on your head. But I wouldn’t patch up the pieces here! Patch up! EVE: Ruprecht! RUPRECHT: Get away—! EVE: Dearest Ruprecht! RUPRECHT: Out of my sight! EVE: I beg of you, Ruprecht. RUPRECHT: The loose, dissolute—! I cannot say what. EVE: Just one word with you in private— RUPRECHT: Nothing! EVE:—You’re going to the regiment now, Ruprecht, Once you start carrying a musket, who knows If I’ll ever see you again in my life. It’s war, remember, war where you’re going: Do you want to leave me with such ill will? RUPRECHT: Ill will? No, God help me, I don’t want that. May God send you all the blessings that he Can spare. But if I come back from this war Alive and with a whole body, and if I lived to be eighty here in Huisum, I’d still say to you till the day I die: whore! You want to swear it yourself before the court. FRAU MARTHA (to Eve): Go away! What did I say? Do you still Want to let yourself be cussed out? The corporal Is the one for you, the worthy Woodleg.

Who leads his regiment with his cane, Not that slack-jaw there, who’ll be baring his Back for the corporal’s beating. Today is The engagement, wedding, and christening too, If I had my way, and I’d even endure My burial if I could just stamp down That overblown cockiness first. EVE: Mother! Forget the jug! Let me go to the city And see if some talented craftsman wouldn’t Put the pieces back together for free. And if it can’t be fixed, take my entire Money case and buy yourself a new one. Who’d want to make such an uproar, create Such calamity, because of a clay jug, Even if it’d come from the time of Herod. FRAU MARTHA: You speak like you understand. Do you want To be put in the stocks, Eve, and ruefully Pay your penance in church the next Sunday? Your good name lay in this pot, and it was Destroyed along with it before the world, If not before God, or before you and me. The judge is my craftsman; what’s needed here Are henchmen, a block, and cracks of the whip, And this riff-raff standing up at the stake, If our honor is to burn bright, pure white, And glaze this jug back together again. SCENE SEVEN Adam enters in his robes, but without a wig. Those from before. ADAM (to himself): Ah, little Eve. And that hulking scoundrel, Ruprecht! Ah, what the devil! The whole clan! —They don’t mean to charge me in my own court? EVE: Dearest Mother, come, I beg of you, Please, let’s escape from this unlucky room. ADAM: Brother! Tell me, what are they bringing to court? LIGHT: How should I know? A bunch of fuss for nothing, Mere trifles: I hear a jug was broken. ADAM: A jug! So! Ah!—Ah, and who broke the jug? LIGHT: You ask me who broke it? ADAM: Yes, dear brother. LIGHT: My goodness, sit down and you’ll find that out. ADAM (secretively): Eve! EVE (similarly): Go away.

ADAM: One word. EVE: I don’t want to know. ADAM: What charges are you bringing? EVE: Go, I say. ADAM: Eve! Please! How am I supposed to take that? EVE: If you don’t—! I’m telling you, leave me be. ADAM (to Light): Brother, listen, my goodness, I can’t take it. The wound on my shin is making me sick You hear this case; I want to go to bed. LIGHT: To bed—? You want—? I believe you’re insane. ADAM: Hang it all. I think I’m going to throw up. LIGHT: I think you’re mad, seriously. Just now—? —As far as I’m concerned. Tell the court counselor. Maybe he’ll let you.—I don’t know what’s with you? ADAM (to Eve again): Eve! I beg of you! For the love of God! What is it you’re charging? EVE: You’ll hear soon enough. ADAM: Is it just the jug there your mother’s holding, That I, far as I—? EVE: Yes, just the broken jug. ADAM: And nothing more? EVE: Nothing more. ADAM: Nothing? Really? EVE: I’m telling you, go away. Leave me be. ADAM: Listen you: be smart, I’m advising you. EVE: You shameless man! ADAM: The name is there, in print, On the certificate: Ruprecht Tumpel. I have it here in my pocket, all finished, Can you hear it crackle, Eve? On my word You can come and fetch it this time next year, To have a mourning skirt and bodice cut, When it’s heard: Ruprecht died in Batavia.21 —From which fever, I don’t know, was it Yellow, scarlet, or traumatic fever? WALTER: Do not speak with the parties, Judge Adam, Before the hearing! Sit down and question them. ADAM: What’d he say?—What did your honor command? WALTER: What did I command? I told you clearly That you should not carry on dubious Private conversations with the parties. This is the place where your office is due, And I expect to see an open court. ADAM (to himself): Curses! I can’t make up my mind—! —Something clattered when I left— LIGHT (startling him): Your honor! Are you—?22 21. Today Jakarta; at that time, the capitol of the Dutch colonies in East India, notorious for its unhealthy climate (E&D). 22. Light means “Are you deaf,” but Adam thinks he’ll say, “Are you the one that broke the jug” (E&D).

ADAM: Me? On my honor, no! 23 I had hung it up there so carefully, It must have been an ox— LIGHT: What? ADAM: What? LIGHT: I asked—! ADAM: You asked if I—? LIGHT: If you’re deaf, I asked you. His honorable counselor there called you. ADAM: I thought—! Who called? LIGHT: The court counselor there. ADAM (to himself): Ah! Hang it all! There are only two ways This could go; either it bends or it breaks. —Right away! What does your honor command? Shall the proceedings now begin? WALTER: You are strangely distracted. What’s the matter? ADAM:—On my honor! Pardon me. A guinea hen Of mine that I bought from an Indian trader Can hardly breathe24: I’m supposed to noodle it, And I was just asking the girl for advice. I’m a fool in such things, you understand, And my guinea hens are like children to me. WALTER: Here. Sit down. Call the plaintiff and question. And you, clerk, write it down in the records. ADAM: Does your honor command that the proceeding Be done according to formalities, Or like it’s usually done in Huisum? WALTER: According to the lawful formalities, As is usual in Huisum, nothing else. ADAM: Good, good. I will be able to serve you. Are you ready, then, clerk? LIGHT: At your service. ADAM: —Well, in that case, justice, take your course! Would the plaintiff come forward. FRAU MARTHA: Here, judge! ADAM: Who are you? FRAU MARTHA: Who—? ADAM: You. FRAU MARTHA: Who am I—? ADAM: Who are you! Of what name, station, address, et cetera. FRAU MARTHA: You must be joking, your honor. ADAM: Joking, what! 23. The wig, namely; This isn’t clear until Eve’s description of the events in the variant. When he was in Eve’s room, Adam hung his wig up on the jugfor lack of a coat rack. When he fled from Ruprecht, he knocked the jug off the shelf by grabbing for his wig (E&D). 24. A frequent illness among fowl, called “Pips” in the original German, (lat. Pituita, mucous obstruction); when an animal does not eat because of this blockage of the nasal cavities, it has to be “noodled,” or fed with noodles (E&D).

I sit in the name of justice, Frau Martha, And justice demands to know who you are. LIGHT (quietly): Oh, forget your crazy question— FRAU MARTHA: You stop by At my window every Sunday, you know, When you go to the outpost! WALTER: Do you know her? ADAM: She lives around the corner here, your honor, If you go through the path in the hedges; The former landlord’s widow, midwife now, An honest woman with a good reputation. WALTER: If you’re so well informed, your honor, then Those kinds of questions are superfluous. Put her name in the record book and write Next to it: well known to the judge in office. ADAM: Yes, that too. You aren’t for formalities. Do now as his honor told you to do. WALTER: Now ask about the object of the case. ADAM: I’m supposed to—? WALTER: Yes, find out the object! ADAM: Pardon, but, likewise, it’s the jug. WALTER: What? Likewise! ADAM: A jug. Just a jug. Put down a jug and write Next to it: well known to the judge in office. LIGHT: I’m just throwing this out there, but do you Really want—? ADAM: My goodness, if I told you to, Then write it down. It’s a jug, isn’t it? FRAU MARTHA: Yes, the jug here— ADAM: There you have it. FRAU MARTHA: The broken one— ADAM: A pesky point of controversy. LIGHT: Please— ADAM: And who broke the jug? Surely the rascal—? FRAU MARTHA: Yes, him, the rascal there— ADAM (to himself): That’s all I need. RUPRECHT: That’s not true, judge. ADAM (to himself): Come, come alive, you old Adam! RUPRECHT: She’s lying out of her mouth— ADAM: Quiet, slack-jaw! You’ll stick your head in irons soon enough. —Put down a jug, clerk, like I said, along With the name of the person who broke it. And now the case will soon be established. WALTER: Judge Adam! Ah! What violent proceedings! ADAM: How so?

LIGHT: Didn’t you want formal—? ADAM: No! I say, Your honor does not hang on formalities. WALTER: If you do not know how to carry out The briefing for the proceedings, Judge Adam, This is not the place to teach it to you. If you can’t provide justice any other way, Then step down: maybe your clerk can do it. ADAM: Pardon! I did it as it’s usually done In Huisum, just as your honor told me to. WALTER: I told you—? ADAM: On my honor! WALTER: I told you To provide justice according to the law, And I believe the law here in Huisum To be the same as elsewhere in the states.25 ADAM: I must then humbly ask your forgiveness! We have here in Huisum, with your permission, Statues, peculiar ones, ones that I confess Are not written out, but rather passed down To us through tried and true tradition. I trust myself to hope that still today I’ve not strayed from this precedent one iota. But I’m at home with your form of justice too, As it may be usually done in the kingdom. Do you demand proof? I can provide justice Like this one minute, and like that the next. WALTER: You’re making a bad impression on me, judge. So be it. Start over from the beginning. ADAM: On my word! Watch, you will be satisfied. —Frau Martha Rull! Bring forward your complaint. FRAU MARTHA: My complaint, as you know, is this jug here; But before I report what happened to it, Please allow me to describe what it was To me before all that. ADAM: You have the floor. FRAU MARTHA: Do you see the jug, honorable gentlemen? Do you see the jug? ADAM: Oh yes, we see it. FRAU MARTHA: You see nothing, if I may, you see the shards. The most beautiful jug is broken in two. Right here at the hole, where now nothing is, Right there, the entire the Dutch provinces26 Were being given over to Phillip of Spain. 25. The states of the Netherlands 26. The description of the jug and its history reflects the history of the Netherlands. E&D: Kleist used as his source a German translation of the Dutch “Allgemeine Geschichte derVereinigtenNiederlande” (General History of the United States of the Netherlands), vol. 8, Leipzig 1756-66, written by Jan Wagenaar. The seven people mentioned in the description of the jug, along with Phillip falling to his knees, and the crying of the witnesses all come from Wagenaar’s description of this event.

Here stood Kaiser Karl the fifth in full dress: Now you can only see his legs standing there. Here, Phillip kneeled and received the crown: He lies in the pot, all but his hind end, And even there he still took a hit. There stood his two aunts, the Hungarian queen And the French queen,27 and they movingly wiped The tears from their eyes; if you see the one Still raising her hand with the handkerchief high, It’s as if she were crying for herself. Here in the entourage is Philibert, For whom the Kaiser took the hit;28 he is Leaning on his sword, but now he must fall Just as Maximilian did: the scoundrel!29 The swords underneath are now broken off. Here in the middle with the holy cap, You could see the Archbishop of Arras;30 The devil took him completely; only His long shadow falls across the cobblestone. Here stood the bodyguards in a circle Close together, with halberds31and spears, Here, houses from the great market in Brussels, Here a curious man still looks out the window: But what he sees now, that I do not know. ADAM: Frau Martha! Spare us these fragments of history If they’re not pertinent to the case. We’re interested here in the hole—not in the Provinces that are given over on it. FRAU MARTHA: Pardon! The jug’s beauty is pertinent! The jug was captured by Childerich, a man Who patched kettles, when Orange overtook Briel with the freedom-fighter Waterguezen.32 A Spaniard had just put the jug, filled with wine, Up to his lips as Childerich came up From behind, threw the Spaniard down, grabbed The jug, emptied it, and kept on going. ADAM: A worthy Watergeuze. 27. Maria, widow of Ludwig II of Hungary, and Eleonore, widow of Francis I of France, were the sisters of Karl V, and thus Phillip’s aunts (E&D). 28. Namely, the hit that broke the jug (E&D). 29. Maximilian was the nephew of Charles I, known as a rake; later became German Emperor Maximilian II (E&D). 30. Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-86), Bishop of Arras (E&D); negotiated the marriage of Philip of Spain to Queen Mary I of England, later appointed as president of the council of state in the Netherlands and incurred the hostility of the people for “retaining Spanish troops and increasing religious persecution” (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition; http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Granvell.html). 31. Medieval weapon consisting of “an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft” 32. The Sea- or Waterguezen (from French “gueux,” or “beggars”), Dutch freedom fighters against the Spanish tyranny, conquered the city of Briel in southern Holland in 1572 under the leadership of William von Lumey—not under William of Orange (E&D).

FRAU MARTHA: The jug was then Passed on to Furchtegott the undertaker; Who drank from the jug only three times, The sober man, and always mixed with water. The first time when he was in his sixties And took a young wife; three years later, When she made him into a happy father; And then, after she bore him fifteen more, He drank for the third time when she died. ADAM: Fine. That’s not bad either. FRAU MARTHA: Then the jug fell To Zacharias, tailor in Tirlemont, Who told my blessed husband with his own mouth What I am now going to tell to you. When the French came and plundered, he threw the jug Along with all his house wares out the window, Jumped out himself, and broke his neck, the clumsy man, And this earthen jug, the jug made of clay, It landed on its feet and remained whole. ADAM: To the point, if you would, Frau Martha! The point! FRAU MARTHA: Then in the fiery blaze of sixty-six, My husband had the jug then, God bless him— ADAM: Hell! Woman! Are you still not finished? FRAU MARTHA: —If I’m not supposed to speak, Judge Adam, Then it’s useless for me to be here, I’ll go And find a court that will listen to me. WALTER: You are supposed to speak here: but not of things Foreign to your case. If you tell us that The jug is valuable to you, then we know As much as we need to know to judge the case. FRAU MARTHA: How much you may need to know here to judge, That I don’t know, and I won’t try to find out; But I do know that in order to plead my case I have to be allowed to say something first. WALTER: Fine then. Finish. What happened to the jug? What?—What happened to the jug in the fire Of anno sixty-six? Will you tell us? What happened to the jug? FRAU MARTHA: What happened to it? Nothing happened to the jug, if you please, Nothing happened to it in sixty-six. It stayed whole, right in the middle of the flames, And I pulled it up out of the ashes Of the house the next morning, glazed and Glistening, as if it’d just come from the kiln. WALTER: Fine, now. Now we know the jug. Now we know

All that’s happened to it and what hasn’t. What’s there to say now? FRAU MARTHA: Well, this jug now, look—this jug, Shattered it’s still worth any other, this jug Worthy of a lady’s mouth, or even Of the lips of the Lady Steward herself, This jug, gentlemen and honorable judges, This jug of mine was broken by that scoundrel. ADAM: Who? FRAU MARTHA: That one there, Ruprecht. RUPRECHT: That’s a lie, Your honor. ADAM: Quiet, you, until you’re questioned. You’ll get your chance to speak yet today too. —Did you write that in the record? LIGHT: Oh, yes. ADAM: Tell the course of events, worthy Frau Martha. FRAU MARTHA: It was eleven o’clock yesterday— ADAM: When? FRAU MARTHA: Eleven. ADAM: In the morning! FRAU MARTHA: No, at night— And I’d just gone to put out my bed lamp When I was startled by loud, men’s voices And a tumult way down in my daughter’s room, As if some enemy were breaking in. I ran down the stairs quick and found the door To the room violently broken into, Angry shouts and curses rang out to me, And when I put a light to the doorway, What do I find, your honors, what do I find? I find the jug lying in shards in the room, A piece in every nook and cranny, The girl’s ringing her hands, and he, the louse there, Crazy and defiant, standing right in the middle. ADAM: You don’t say! FRAU MARTHA: What? ADAM: Lo and behold! FRAU MARTHA: Yes! Then, it was as if in my righteous anger I had grown ten more arms, and with them I suddenly felt strong as a vulture. I put him on the spot there and asked him Just what he was after there late in the night, Smashing the jugs of the house like crazy. And guess what he gave me as an answer,

The shameless, good-for-nothing scoundrel he is! I want to see him on the wheel,33 or else I won’t be able to sleep at night: He said that another man knocked the jug Off of the shelf—another man, if you please, Who just then had escaped from the room: —And then he piled curses on my girl there. ADAM: Oh! Something stinks there—and then? FRAU MARTHA: At this, I look over at the girl questioningly; She’s standing there like a corpse, I say: Eve!— She sits herself down; was it another man, I ask? And Mary and Joseph she cries What does her mother think?—Tell me! Who was it? Who else, she said,—and who else could it have been? And she swore to me that it had been him. EVE: What did I swear? What did I swear to you? Nothing, I swore nothing— FRAU MARTHA: Eve! EVE: No, that’s a lie— RUPRECHT: There you have it. ADAM: You damned dog you, quiet now, If you don’t want a fist in your throat. There’s time for you later, not now. FRAU MARTHA: You wouldn’t have—? EVE: No, Mother! You made that up. Look, I am really and truly sorry That I have to explain this in public: But I didn’t swear anything, not one thing. ADAM: Be reasonable, children. LIGHT: That’s peculiar. FRAU MARTHA: You, oh Eve, you wouldn’t have assured me?— Wouldn’t have called on Mary and Joseph? EVE: Not while I swore! Not swearing! Look, I swear this now, And I call upon Mary and Joseph. ADAM: Ah, my dear people! Ah, Frau Martha! How she frightens and browbeats the good child. When the girl has taken time to think it through Remember now everything that’s happened, —I say what has happened, and what, if she Doesn’t speak as she should, still can happen: Watch now, she’ll say today what she said before, No matter if she can swear to it or not. And leave Mary and Joseph out of it. WALTER: No, Judge Adam, no! Who would want to give The parties such ambiguous warnings. 33. “Aufs Rad” in original; a gruesome death penalty for theives and murderers, not abolished in Prussia until 1811 (E&D).

FRAU MARTHA: If she can look me in the eye and tell me Without shame, the slovenly whore she is, That it was another man, not Ruprecht, Then far as I’m concerned she—I can’t say what. However, I assure you, your honor, Even if I can’t claim that she swore it, She did say it yesterday—That I swear, And I call upon Mary and Joseph. ADAM: Well then, the girl also wants to— WALTER: Judge Adam! ADAM: Your honor?—What’d he say?—Isn’t that right, Eve, sweetie? FRAU MARTHA: Out with it! Didn’t you say that to me? Did you not say that to me yesterday? EVE: Who’s denying that I said it— ADAM: There you have it. RUPRECHT: The strumpet! ADAM: Write that down. VEIT: Pshaw, you ought to be ashamed. WALTER: I do not know what to think, Judge Adam, Of your behavior. You couldn’t pass off The suspicion onto the young man here More eagerly and fervently than you are Right now, had you broken the jug yourself. You will put no more in the record, clerk, Than the girl’s confession just now about The confession from yesterday, not the fact itself.34 Is it the girl’s turn to testify now? ADAM: My goodness, if it isn’t her turn yet, One makes mistakes with such things, your honor. Who should I have questioned now? The defendant? On my honor! I’ll take a good lesson. WALTER: How impartial!—Yes, question the defendant. Question, make an end of it, I beg you: This is the last case you’ll be conducting. ADAM: The last case! What! Indeed! The defendant! Where else, old judge, did you think I was headed? Damn that sickly guinea hen! If only It had croaked from the plague in India! That lump of noodles is stuck in my head! WALTER: What? What kind of a lump is in—? ADAM: The lump of noodles, Forgive me, that I should give to the hen. If the sassy minx won’t swallow the pill, Gracious, I don’t know what it’ll come to. WALTER: Do your duty, I tell you, for Pete’s sake! ADAM: Defendant step forward. 34. Light is not to record the fact that it was another man, but rather just Eve’s confession that she said this the day before (E&D).

RUPRECHT: Here, your honor. Ruprecht, son of Veit the sharecropper, from Huisum. ADAM: Did you hear what Frau Martha Rull just now Brought up against you in the court of law? RUPRECHT: Yes, your honor, I heard it. ADAM: Do you trust yourself To object to what she said just now, hmm? Do you plead guilty, or do you venture Here, like some God-forsaken man, to lie? RUPRECHT: You ask me what I have to object to, Your honor? Ah! With your permission, sir, That she didn’t speak a single word of truth. ADAM: So? And you think you’re going to prove that? RUPRECHT: Oh, yes. ADAM: Frau Martha, worthy Frau Martha, Would you please calm down. It will all work out. WALTER: Why should you worry about Frau Martha? ADAM: Why should I—? By God! As a Christian—35 WALTER: Tell me Just what you’re trying to pull here, judge. Clerk, do you know how to lead these proceedings? ADAM: What! LIGHT: You ask if—well, now, if your honor— ADAM: What’re you gawking at there? What’s your objection? Doesn’t an ass stand there just like an ox? What do you object to there? RUPRECHT: What do I object to? WALTER: You, yes, you should now tell the course of events. RUPRECHT: Goodness, if I could get a word in edgewise. WALTER: It really is intolerable, judge. RUPRECHT: It must have been about ten o’clock at night,— And this January night was warm just Like May—when I say to my father: Father! I want to go see Eve for a spell. Wanted to marry her, I did, you should know, A good, hearty girl she is, I saw that At the harvest: she put elbow grease to it, And the hay flew from her so nimble and quick.36 Then I said: You want to? And she said: Ah! But how you cluck—And later she said: yes. ADAM: Stick to the point, would you. How you cluck! What! I said, do you want to? And she said, yes. RUPRECHT: Yes, on my word, your honor. WALTER: Go on! RUPRECHT: Well— 35. To complete the sentence: As a Christian, shouldn’t I love my neighbor? (E&D) 36. This verse is based on Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener’s “SatirischenBriefen” (Leipzig, 1775):“Du bist ein flinkes Mensch. Ich habe es in der Heuernte gesehen, wie Dir die Arbeit frisch von der Faust ging. So eine Frau möchte ich haben! Willst Du mich, so schlag ein!” (E&D)

Then I said: Father, d’you hear me? You go on. We chatted a bit yet at the window. Welp, he said, go; You’re staying outside, he asked? Yes, my goodness, I say, that’s a promise. Welp, he said, go; be back by eleven. ADAM: Welp, as you say, and you cluck, there’s no end. Welp, are you almost done then? RUPRECHT: Welp, I said, That’s my word, and put on my cap and went; And I wanted to cross over the footbridge, But had to go back through town ‘cause the creek Was high. Ah, I think, of all the things, shoot! By now Martha’s garden door will be shut: The girl only leaves it open ‘til ten, If I’m not there at ten, I’m not coming. ADAM: A slovenly business, that.37 WALTER: And then what? RUPRECHT: Then—as I walked along the linden path Close to Martha’s, where the trees are arched all Thick and dark like the Utrecht cathedral, I hear the garden door creak in the distance. Look there! Eve’s still there! I say to myself, And, all full of joy, I send my eyes off to Where my ears had heard the sound coming from— —And when they come back to me, I scold them For being blind and send them off again For a second time, to get a better look, And yell at the good-for-nothing liars, Instigators, dirty, rotten gossips. And send them a third time and think, That ’cause they did their duty, they’re going to Unwillingly rip themselves out of my head And find themselves another place to work: It is Eve, I recognize her dress, And there’s someone else with her. ADAM: So? Someone else? And who was that, smart-mouth? RUPRECHT: Who? Goodness gracious, that’s asking—38 ADAM: Well then! Seems you’ll have to suffer the consequences. WALTER: On with the testimony! Let him speak! Why do you interrupt him, Judge Adam? RUPRECHT: I swear to God I don’t know who it was, It was pitch black out, and all cats were grey39 You have to know, though, the shoemaker Lebrecht, 37. Adam is apparently annoyed that Eve didn’t shut the door behind him so that Ruprecht wouldn’t have been able to break into the house (E&D). 38. To finish: …too much! (E&D) 39. German idiom:“Bei Nacht sind alle Katzen grau,” or, “at night, all cats are grey” (E&D). It was too dark for Ruprecht to distinguish exactly who it was.

Who just got out of the military, He’s been chasing the girl for a long time. Just last fall I told Eve: Listen, that scamp Sneaks around the house, and I don’t like it. Tell him that you’re no piece of meat for him; Otherwise, I swear I’ll throw him off the roof. She said, you’re torturing me; tell him something, And it’s neither here nor there, nor fish nor fowl, So I went over and threw the louse down. ADAM: So? His name is Lebrecht? RUPRECHT: Yes, Lebrecht. ADAM: Good. That’s a name. Everything’s going to work out. —Did you write the name in the record, clerk? LIGHT: Oh yes, and everything else, your honor. ADAM: Go on then, Ruprecht, my son. RUPRECHT: Well then I just blew my top—’Cause I saw them there At eleven, and I’d always left at ten. I think, wait, there’s still time yet, oh, Ruprecht, You haven’t grown cuckold’s horns yet, no sir— You have to feel your forehead carefully now And see if something horn-like’s budding up. I push myself gently through the garden gate And hide myself in the shrub there, the yew, And I hear a whisper here, a little joke, A jerk to the left, a jerk to the right, Gracious, I think, I’m about to— EVE: You villain! How, oh, how shameful of you! FRAU MARTHA: You scoundrel! I’ll show you next time we’re alone! Just wait! I’ll skin your teeth,40 I will! You don’t know yet How bare they can get! You’ll learn, you will! RUPRECHT: It lasted fifteen minutes or so, I think, What it’ll become, though—well, isn’t today The wedding? Before I finished the thought, Whoosh! they’ve skipped the pastor and gone to her room. EVE: Go, mother, what will happen will happen— ADAM: Quiet there, you, I advise you, the storm clouds Are gathering above you, you babbler! Wait ’til I call on you for testimony. WALTER: Very peculiar, by God! 40. The original German plays on a misuse of a colloquialism, “Haare auf die Zähnehaben,” or to have hair above one’s teeth, i.e. a beard, as a sign of manliness (E&D). Frau Martha misuses the preposition “auf,” though, saying that she has hair not above but rather on her teeth. The translation attempts to imitate this play on English colloquialisms with “teeth.”

RUPRECHT: Then it swelled, Judge Adam, Swelled up like a hemorrhage in me. Air! The button on my jacket sprung off. Air, now! I ripped off the jacket: Air now, I say! And go, and push, and stamp my feet and shout, And when I find the girl’s door bolted shut, Arms out, with force, with one step, it was open. ADAM: You hulk, you! RUPRECHT: Just when it opened with a crack, The jug fell from the shelf there in the room, And whoosh! someone jumps out of the window: I still see the tails of the jacket flap. ADAM: Was that this Lebrecht? RUPRECHT: Who else, your honor? The girl stood there, I tossed her to the side, Hurried to the window, and I find the guy Still hanging on the stakes on the lattice Where the grape vine winds its way up to the roof. And because the latch stayed there in my hand When I knocked in the door, I went and wrenched A pound’s worth of steel onto his bald head: Which, your honor, I was just able to reach. ADAM: It was a latch? RUPRECHT: What? ADAM: I asked if— RUPRECHT: Yes, the door latch. ADAM: That’s why. LIGHT: No doubt you thought it was a dagger? ADAM: A dagger? I—why? RUPRECHT: A dagger? LIGHT: Well of course! One can easily misunderstand: A latch Is very similar to a dagger. ADAM: I think—! LIGHT: On my word! The shaft, your honor? ADAM: The shaft! RUPRECHT: The shaft! That’s not what it was, though. It was the opposite side of the latch. ADAM: It was the opposite side of the latch! LIGHT: So! So! RUPRECHT: But there was a lump of iron On the grip, like on a dagger, I admit. ADAM: Yes, like a grip. LIGHT: Good, like a dagger’s grip. It must have been some sort of vicious weapon After all. I knew that much.

WALTER: Get down to business, gentlemen, if you would! ADAM: Nothing but outlandish nonsense, clerk!—You, go on! RUPRECHT: Now the guy fell, and I went to turn away, When I see him pull himself up in the dark. I think: you’re still alive? I climb out the window, And want to stop him from getting anywhere: When, gentlemen, just as I’m ready to jump, A handful of thick, clumpy sand hit me— —and the guy and night and world and windowsill: God strike me down, if I don’t think That that all falls in like a cave41— As that sand flew, stinging, right in my eyes. ADAM: Damn! Look there! Now, who did that! RUPRECHT: Who? Lebrecht. ADAM: Scoundrel! RUPRECHT: On my honor! If it was him. ADAM: Who else! RUPRECHT: As if I were hit by hailstones Off the slope of a mountain ten fathoms high, I fall from the window into the room: I think I’ll go smashing right through the floor. I don’t break my neck after all, or my Back, or hip, or what have you; in the meantime I could no longer get my hands on the guy, And so I sit up and wipe off my eyes. She comes, and, ah, God! she calls, and Ruprecht! What is it? Goodness, I raised my foot up, And good thing I didn’t see where I kicked. ADAM: Because of the sand? RUPRECHT: The sand in my eyes, yes. ADAM: Damn! It hit! RUPRECHT: Then I stand myself back up, Why should I dishonor my fists here too?42 So I curse her and say you loose strumpet, And I think that that’s good enough for her, But tears, you see, choke up what I’m saying. Then, ’cause Frau Martha came into the room, Lifted up the lamp, and I saw the girl, Standing there shivering pitifully, She, who otherwise looked so strong and sure, I think, it wouldn’t be half bad to be blind. I would have given up my eyes right there Like marbles for anyone to play with. EVE: He’s not worth this, the villain— ADAM: You, be quiet! 41. The original “denk ich nicht, straf mich Gott, / Das alles fällt in einen Sack zusammen” is a pictorial interpretation of the word “zusammensacken,” to sink, slump, or cave in. 42. By hitting a woman (E&D).

RUPRECHT: You know the rest. ADAM: How’s that? What’s the rest now? RUPRECHT: Well, Frau Martha came and frothed at the mouth, And Ralf the neighbor came, and Hinz the neighbor And Auntie Sue and Auntie Lisa both came, And servants and maids and dogs and cats all came, It was a spectacle, and Frau Martha asked The girl there who had broken the jug of hers And she, you know, she said, that it had been me. Goodness, she wasn’t so wrong, your honors. I broke the jug she carried to get water,43 And the shoemaker has a hole in his head.— ADAM: Frau Martha! What do you say to all this? Go on, retort! FRAU MARTHA: What do I say to it? That his speech, your honor, breaks in like a fox And strangles the truth like a clucking hen. Whoever loves justice ought to grab his neck And get rid of this nighttime monster. ADAM: For that you’ll have to show us evidence. FRAU MARTHA: Oh yes, gladly. Here is my witness. Speak! ADAM: Your daughter? No, Frau Martha. WALTER: No? Why not? ADAM: As a witness, your honor? Doesn’t it say in Article four? or five?of the civil code, That as a witness in a case of jugs— Which have been broken by young rascals, That daughters shall not bear their own mothers? WALTER: In your head, knowledge and confusion lie Kneaded together, closely, like a dough; With every slice you give me some of both. The girl will not bear witness yet; she’ll speak. Whether, and for whom, she can and will Bear witness will arise from her statement. ADAM: Yes, she’ll give a statement. Good. Article six. But what she says, no one believes. WALTER: Come forward, my child. ADAM: Hey! Lisa—! Pardon! My mouth is getting quite dry—Margaret! SCENE EIGHT A maid enters. Those from before. ADAM: A glass of water!— THE MAID: Right away! 43. Play on the common saying: “Der Krug geht so lange zu Wasser, bis er bricht,” or a jug will go to water until it breaks (E&D).

ADAM: Could I offer—? WALTER: Thank you. ADAM: French? or Moselle?44 Whatever you want. (Walter nods his head in thanks; the maid brings water and leaves) SCENE NINE Walter. Adam. Frau Martha, etc. without the maid. ADAM: —If I may speak frankly, your honor, this Case seems well-suited for a settlement. WALTER: A settlement? That’s not clear, Judge Adam. Reasonable people can make settlements; But how you want to make a settlement When the case is still far from being resolved, That’s something I would really like to hear. How do you propose to make it, pray tell? Have you already reached a verdict? ADAM: Goodness! If I took philosophy to my aid, Since the law allows me to in a pinch, I’d say it was—Lebrecht— WALTER: Who? ADAM: Or Ruprecht— WALTER: Who? ADAM: Or Lebrecht, who broke the jug. WALTER: Well, who was it then? Lebrecht or Ruprecht? I see that you reach a verdict like A hand digging through a sack full of peas. ADAM: Pardon! WALTER: Quiet, quiet please. ADAM: As you wish. To me, it’d be perfectly right and just, If it had been both of them together. WALTER: Question her there and you’ll find out. ADAM: Gladly. But I’ll be damned if you figure it out. —Do you have the record book ready there? LIGHT: Absolutely. ADAM: Good. LIGHT: I’m folding a new sheet, Anxious to see what will come onto it. ADAM: A new sheet? That’s good, too. WALTER: Speak now, my child. ADAM: Speak, little Eve, do you hear, speak, dear girl! Give God—do you hear, darling—for goodness sake, 44. Wine from France or the Moselle River region (E&D).

Give Him and the world something of the truth. Imagine that you stand here before God And that you must not distress his judgment With blabber and lies that do not pertain To the case. Ah, what! You’re reasonable. A judge is, you know, always a judge, one Needs him today, another tomorrow. If you say that it was Lebrecht: then good; And if you say it was Ruprecht: also good! One way or the other, it will all work out Just as you want it, call me a liar. If you want to gossip about someone else, A third man, perhaps, and name silly names: Then child, you’d better beware; I’ll say no more. Hell, no one in Huisum will believe you, Eve, And no one in the Netherlands either, You know that walls, wise as they are, don’t talk, He’d be able to defend himself, too, And your Ruprecht will get the punishment! WALTER: If you would just please forget your speeches. A person can’t make heads or tails of them. ADAM: Does your honor not understand? WALTER: Go on! You’ve been on the bench long enough already. ADAM: True, I never went to university. I may not make sense to you, sir, from Utrecht, But perhaps it’s different with these folks here: I’ll wager the girl knows what I’m saying. FRAU MARTHA: What’s that supposed to mean? Come out and say it! EVE: Oh, dearest mother! FRAU MARTHA: You—! I’m telling you! RUPRECHT: Goodness, it’s hard to come out and say it, Frau Martha, with our conscience held at our throats.45 ADAM: Quiet now, you smart aleck. FRAU MARTHA: Who was it? EVE: Oh, Jesus! FRAU MARTHA: The slack-jaw! The dirty, rotten villain! Oh, Jesus! As if she were a prostitute. Was it the Lord Jesus? ADAM: Nonsense! Frau Martha! What kind of—46! Let the girl give her statement, would you! Scaring the child—prostitute—idiot! That gets us nowhere. She’ll soon think it through. RUPRECHT: Yes, think it through. ADAM: Rascal there, quiet now. 45. In German, the phrase is playing on the common saying “Das Messer sitzt mir an der Kehle,” or the knife is at my throat, but replaces “knife” with “conscience.” 46. To complete: …talk is that! (E&D)

RUPRECHT: She’ll think of the shoemaker soon enough. ADAM: The devil! Call the bailiff! Hey! Hanfriede! RUPRECHT: Fine, fine! I’ll be quiet, just forget it. She’ll be giving you my name soon enough. FRAU MARTHA: Listen you, don’t go making a spectacle. Listen, I became forty-nine years old With dignity: I’d like to see fifty. My birthday is the third of February; Today is the first. Make it short. Who was it? ADAM: Fine, far as I’m concerned! That’s fine, Frau Martha! FRAU MARTHA: Her father said when he died: Listen, Martha, Find the girl a good, solid man for me; And if she becomes a slovenly strumpet, Go give the undertaker a penny And have him lay me on my back again: Gracious, I think I’ll have turned in my grave. ADAM: Well, that’s not so bad. FRAU MARTHA: If you want to honor Your father and mother now, Eve, as the Fourth commandment says, then say: I let The shoemaker, or someone else, in my room, Do you hear me? But it wasn’t the groom. RUPRECHT: She’s torturing me. Forget the jug, please; I’ll carry it to Utrecht. Such a jug— I only wish I’d broken it in half. EVE: You cold-hearted man! You ought to be ashamed That you don’t say, fine, I did break the jug! Bah, Ruprecht, you ought to be ashamed that You can’t trust me in what I say and do. Didn’t I give you my hand and say yes When you asked me, Eve, will you have me? Do you think you’re no match for the shoemaker? And if you had seen me through the keyhole Drinking from the jug with Lebrecht, then you Should have thought to yourself: Eve is a good girl, Everything will work out for her in the end, And if not in life, then in the afterlife, And when we rise again, it’s another day.47 RUPRECHT: Gracious, Eve, that’s too long a time for me. What I can grasp with my hands, I’ll believe. EVE: Now just suppose that it had been Lebrecht. Why—May I die a thousand deaths if I Hadn’t told you, only you, right away; But why in front of neighbors, servants, maids— Suppose I had a reason to hide it, Why, oh Ruprecht, tell me, why shouldn’t I, 47. Reference to Judgment Day, when the dead are supposed to rise again (E&D).

If I were sure of your trust, say it was you? Why shouldn’t I say it? Why shouldn’t I? RUPRECHT: Ah, for Pete’s sake, say it, it’s fine with me If you won’t face the music yourself. EVE: Oh, you horrid villain! You ungrateful man! Serve you right, if I spared myself punishment! Serve you right, if with one word I give myself Dignity and ruin you forever. WALTER: Well—? And this one word—? Don’t stop on us now. It wasn’t Ruprecht then? EVE: No, your honor, since he wants me to say it, I was only holding back for his sake: Ruprecht didn’t break the jug, believe me, Even if he tries to lie to you himself. FRAU MARTHA: Eve! It wasn’t Ruprecht? EVE: No, mother, no! And if I said so yesterday, I lied. FRAU MARTHA: Listen, I’ll break every bone in your body! (She puts the jug down) EVE: Do what you want. WALTER (threatening): Frau Martha! ADAM: Hey! The bailiff! Throw her out, there, the abominable hag! Why should it have been Ruprecht anyway? What, was she in on the dirty deed? The girl, I think, would be the one who would know: I’ll be damned if it wasn’t Lebrecht. FRAU MARTHA: Was it Lebrecht then, Eve? Was it Lebrecht? ADAM: Speak, now, Eve, wasn’t it Lebrecht, my dear? EVE: The impudent man! The wicked, rotten—! How can he say that it was Lebrecht— WALTER: Girl! How dare you say such things! I say, is that The kind of respect that you owe the judge? EVE: Ah, what! That judge there! Why, he ought to be Standing before court himself, the sinner— —He, who probably knows best who it was! (Turning herself to the town judge) Didn’t you yourself send Lebrecht to Utrecht Just yesterday with his certificate For the army’s conscription commission? How can you say that it was Lebrecht if You know full well that he’s in Utrecht? ADAM: Well, then who else? If it wasn’t Lebrecht, then— Not Ruprecht, not Lebrecht—what’re you doing? RUPRECHT: On my word, Judge Adam, if you’ll allow me,

The girl can’t be lying about that now, I ran into Lebrecht myself yesterday As he left for Utrecht, it was early, Eight o’clock, and if he didn’t catch a cart, That fellow, crooked-legged as he is, Couldn’t have hobbled back by ten at night. It could very well have been someone else. ADAM: What! Crooked-legged! Idiot! The fellow Strides along quick as anyone else Despite the fact. May God strike me down If a sheep dog of considerable size Doesn’t have to trot to keep up with him. WALTER: Tell us the course of events. ADAM: Pardon, your honor! At this point, the girl will hardly serve you well. WALTER: Won’t serve me? She won’t serve me? And why not? ADAM: She’s foolish. You see it. Good, but foolish. Young, practically just confirmed; still ashamed To see a beard from a distance. Such a one Endures things in the dark, and when it’s day, She stands before the judge and denies it. WALTER: You are very indulgent, Judge Adam, Very mild, when it comes to the girl. ADAM: To tell you the truth, honorable counselor, Her father had been a good friend of mine. If your honor would like to be helpful, Then we’ll do no more than our duty here, And we’ll let his girl go on her way. WALTER: I’m feeling quite a strong desire, judge, To get to the very bottom of all this. Be brave, my child; tell us who broke the jug. At this moment, you stand before no one Who couldn’t forgive one little mistake. EVE: My dear, worthy and most honorable judge, Allow me to tell you the course of events. Do not think badly of this refusal. It is a wondrous divine providence That closes my mouth in this case. I am Willing, if you demand it, to confirm With an oath before the holy altar The fact that Ruprecht did not touch that jug. However, in terms of the other events Yesterday, those belong to me alone, And my mother cannot claim or demand The entire strand just because of a Single thread of her own that runs through it.

I cannot report who broke the jug here. I’d have to touch secrets, unrelated To the jug, which are not my own. Sooner or later I’ll confide it to her, But the tribunal here is not the place Where she has the right to ask me about it. ADAM: No, not the right, no. On my honor, no. The girl knows our limits and boundaries. If she wants to swear the oath before the court, The mother’s complaint is cancelled out. There’s nothing further to be done for it. WALTER (to Frau Martha): What do you say to this explanation? FRAU MARTHA: If I do not object adequately, Your honor, please believe, I beg you, That the blow has just flat-out numbed my tongue. There are examples of fallen persons Who dare commit perjury before a court To gain respect before the eyes of the world, But that a false oath could be sworn before The altar to get put in the pillory: The world will see that for the first time today. If it were established that someone other Than Ruprecht snuck into her room yesterday, If it were even possible, your honor Must understand me —I wouldn’t hang around Any longer. I’d show her the door right away, Open it, and tell her, go now, my child, The world is wide, you won’t pay any rent there, And you inherited nice, long hair too By which, come the time, you can hang yourself. WALTER: Calm down, now, Frau Martha. FRAU MARTHA: However, Because I have contrary evidence, Besides her, who refuses to speak, and Because I’m fully convinced that he And nobody else broke this jug of mine, The desire to simply deny it Raises a dark suspicion in me that Last night holds yet another crime Beyond just the destruction of the jug. I must tell you, your honor, that Ruprecht Was just recruited, and in a few days He’ll swear the oath to the flag in Utrecht. The young sons of the country are leaving. Now suppose that he said last night: What d’you think, Eve? Come on. The world is big.

You have the keys to the chests and safes, you know— And she, perhaps she resisted a bit: And that way, I’ll bet, since I bothered her, —Out of revenge for him, out of love still for her— The rest, like it happened, could have come about. RUPRECHT: The dirty sow! What kind of talk is that! Keys to chests and safes— WALTER: Quiet! EVE: You, get out! WALTER: Back to business. It’s the jug we’re discussing. Evidence, evidence that Ruprecht broke it! FRAU MARTHA: Good, your honor. First I want to prove here That Ruprecht broke this jug of mine, and then I want to investigate it at home. There’s a tongue that will bear witness for me And object to every word that he says; I’d have brought her in to speak earlier If I’d had the remotest idea that This one here wouldn’t use her own to speak. But if you would call Frau Brigitta now, Who is his aunt, she’d be enough for me, Because she can argue the main point here. Because she saw him at half till eleven, Take note, that’s before the jug was broken, Exchanging words with Eve in the garden; How the fabrication that he wove here Will be torn in half from head to toe By this single tongue, honorable judges, I leave that to you to recognize. RUPRECHT: Who saw me—? VEIT: Sis’ Briggy? RUPRECHT: With Eve? In the garden? FRAU MARTHA: Him with Eve, in the garden, ten-thirty, Before he, as he claimed, jumped into the room In a surprise attack at eleven. Exchanging words, now cuddling, now tugging, As if he was trying to persuade her. ADAM (to himself): Damn! The devil is good to me. WALTER: Bring the woman. RUPRECHT: Your honors, please, I beg you: There’s not a word of truth; it’s not possible. ADAM: Oh, just wait, you scoundrel!—Hey! Bailiff! Hanfried!— Because it’s when you flee that jugs get smashed— —Clerk, go, get Frau Brigitta and bring her here! VEIT: Listen, you damn scoundrel, what are you doing? I’ll still break all your bones, I will.

RUPRECHT: But why? VEIT: Why didn’t you say you were in the garden Sweet-talking the whore at ten-thirty? Why didn’t you say it? RUPRECHT: Why didn’t I say it? For God’s sake, ’cause it ain’t the truth, Dad! If Auntie Briggy says so, I’ll hang myself. And her by her legs too, far as I’m concerned. VEIT: If she does testify to it, though, —watch out! You and that pure, little Eve there, even if You’re both standing here before the court now, You’re still in cahoots. There’s still some kind of Shameful secret here that she knows, but she Just won’t say ’cause she wants to protect him. RUPRECHT: Secret! What secret? VEIT: Why did you pack up? Huh? Why did you pack up your stuff last night? RUPRECHT: My stuff? VEIT: Jackets, pants, you know, all your clothes; A bundle, the kind a traveler carries With him? RUPRECHT: ’Cause I have to go to Utrecht! ’Cause I have to go to the regiment! Heaven’s sakes—d’you think I—? VEIT: To Utrecht! Sure! To Utrecht! You hurried to get to Utrecht! Day before yesterday you didn’t know If you were leaving on the fifth or the sixth. WALTER: Something that pertains to the case, father? VEIT: —Your honor, I don’t want to claim anything yet, I was at home when the jug was broken, And, to tell you the truth, when I consider The circumstances here closely, I’ve still Not seen or heard a single thing from any Of this that makes my son suspicious. Completely convinced of his innocence, I came here just so I could, after court, Break up the former engagement of his, And demand for him the silver chain Along with the show penny that he honored The girl with last fall at the engagement. But if some runnin’ away and betrayal Is to come upon me in my old age, That’s news to me, sir, like it is to you: Then may the devil come and break his neck. WALTER: Go bring Miss Brigitta here, Judge Adam.

ADAM: —But won’t this case tire your honor out Terribly? It’s getting rather drawn out. Your honor still has my cash boxes yet, And the registry too—what time is it? LIGHT: The half hour just struck. ADAM: Ten-thirty? LIGHT: Eleven. WALTER: Same difference. ADAM: Either the clock’s crazy or you are. (He looks at his watch) I’m a liar—Yes, what do you command? WALTER: I have a mind to— ADAM: End the session? Good—! WALTER: No! I’ve a mind to continue the case. ADAM: You have a mind to—ah, good. Otherwise I would finish the case early tomorrow Upon my word, to your satisfaction. WALTER: You know what it is I want. ADAM: As you wish. Clerk, send the bailiff out; he is to bring Miss Brigitta here immediately. WALTER: And—to save time, which is important to me— Why don’t you record the case a bit yourself. (Light exits) SCENE TEN The persons from before with the exception of Light. Later some maids. ADAM (standing up): In the meantime, if it would please your honor, Perhaps one could get a bit of air—? WALTER: Oh, yes. What I wanted to say— ADAM: Would you allow The parties too, until Brigitta comes—? WALTER: What? The parties? ADAM: Yes, by the door, if you— WALTER (to himself): Curses! (Loud.) Judge Adam, do you know something? Give me a glass of wine in the meantime. ADAM: Gladly, from the bottom of my heart. Margaret! You make me happy, your honor. Margaret! (The maid enters) THE MAID: Here. ADAM: What would you like?—Go on, you people. French?—In the lobby outside.—Or Rhein?

WALTER: From our Rhein. ADAM: Good. —Until I call then. March! WALTER: Where to? ADAM: Go, Margret. One of the sealed ones. What? Just out in the hall outside.—Here.—The key. WALTER: Hm! Stay. ADAM: Go! March, I say!—Go, Margret! And butter, freshly churned, Limburger cheese, And some of the fatty, Pomeranian goose. WALTER: Wait! Just a minute! Don’t go and make such a Fuss, I beg of you, please, Judge Adam. ADAM: Get On that now, for Pete’s sake! Do what I say! WALTER: Are you sending them away? ADAM: Your honor? WALTER: I asked— ADAM: They’re stepping out, with your permission. Just out until Miss Brigitta shows up. What, or is it not—? WALTER: Hmm! As you like it. But is it really worth all the trouble? Do you think it’ll be such a long time Until she comes? ADAM: Today’s wood-gathering day, Your honor. The women are for the most part Out in the spruces to gather kindling. It could well be quite— RUPRECHT: Auntie is at home. WALTER: At home. Then forget it. RUPRECHT: She’ll come real soon. WALTER: She’ll come to us very soon. Bring the wine. ADAM (to himself): Curses! WALTER: Go on. But nothing to eat, please, Except just a piece of dry bread and salt. ADAM (to himself): Just two seconds alone with the girl— (Loud.) What, dry bread! And salt! Go on. WALTER: Certainly. ADAM: Ah, a piece of cheese from Lindberg, at least— Only with cheese can the tongue taste the wine. WALTER: Fine. One piece of cheese then, but nothing more. ADAM: So go. The white kind covered with Damast. It’s not all perfect, but it’s right.48 (The maid exits) That’s the Advantage of us confirmed bachelors: 48. In Kleist’s text:“Schlecht alles zwar, doch recht,” which is a play on Job 1:1 “Es war ein Mann im Lande Uz, der hieß Hiob. Derselbe war schlecht und recht, gottesfürchtig und meidete das Böse” or “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” (E&D; Bible texts: German: Luther, 1545; English: King James Bible, 1611).

What the others have to carefully split With the wife and the children every day, With a friend, at the opportune hour, We can enjoy. WALTER: What I wanted to say— How did you ever get that cut of yours? That is one mean hole in the head, that is! ADAM: —I fell. WALTER: You fell. Aha! So. When? Last night? ADAM: This morning at five-thirty, pardon, early, Just as I got out of bed. WALTER: On what? ADAM: On—your honorable counselor, To tell you the honest truth, on myself. I slammed down headfirst onto the oven, And I still don’t know why. WALTER: From behind? ADAM: How’s that? From behind? WALTER: Or in front? You have two cuts, one in the front and the back. ADAM: From the front and the back.—Margret! (The two maids with wine, etc. They set the table and exit again.) WALTER: How’s that? ADAM: First like this, then like that. First on the corner Of the oven, which hit me in front, and then Again from the oven backwards on the floor Where I hit the back of my head again. (He pours the wine) Is that good? WALTER: (Takes the glass) If you had a wife, I’d believe some wondrous things, Judge Adam. ADAM: And why is that? WALTER: Well, upon my honor, I see you’re scratched up all over the place. ADAM (laughs): No, thank God! That’s not women’s fingernails. WALTER: I believe it. Another bachelor’s perk. ADAM (still laughing): Shrubbery for the silkworms that was placed On the corner of the oven to dry— To your health! (They drink) WALTER: And it was just today too That you had to lose your wig so strangely! That would’ve at least covered the cut for you. ADAM: Yes, yes. Evil always comes in twos. Here—now some of the fat one—could I? WALTER: A bit. From Lindberg?

ADAM: Directly from Lindberg, judge. WALTER: —But how in the devil did that happen? ADAM: What? WALTER: That you suffered the loss of your wig. ADAM: Yes, look. Last night I was sitting reading A case, and because I misplaced my glasses I got into the conflict so deeply That the wig suddenly went all ablaze From the candle’s flame. I think I thought Fire was falling from Heaven onto my Sinful head, so I went to throw the wig Away; but before I could loosen my tie, The thing was burning like Sodom and Gomorrah. I barely saved the three hairs on my head. WALTER: I’ll be damned! And your other one is in town. ADAM: At the wigmaker’s—But about the case. WALTER: Not so quick, please, I ask you, Judge Adam. ADAM: Ah! The hour’s rolling by. Another. Here. (He pours more wine) WALTER: Lebrecht—if what the oddball there said was true— He’s also had a nasty fall himself. ADAM: Yes, upon my honor. (He drinks) WALTER: If the case here, Remains unsolved today, as I almost fear, You’ll easily be able to uncover The culprit in town by his wound, you know. (He drinks) Niersteiner? ADAM: What? WALTER: Or a good Oppenheimer? ADAM: Nierstein. Look there! My word! You understand. From Nierstein, as if I’d gone to get it. WALTER: I tested it three years ago at the press. (Adam pours again) How high is your window?—You! Frau Martha! FRAU MARTHA: My window? WALTER: The window of that room, yes, Where the girl sleeps? FRAU MARTHA: The room’s only on the Second floor, a cellar under it, and the Window isn’t more than nine feet from the ground; But the whole thing’s really very awkward If you try to go jumping out of it. ’Cause two feet from the wall there’s a grapevine That pushes and twists its knotted branches Through a lattice right along the whole wall:

The window itself is knitted up with it. I tell you, a boar, armed with two strong tusks, Would have trouble trying to break through it. ADAM: There weren’t any stuck in there. (He pours himself wine) WALTER: Do you mean? ADAM: Oh, please! (He drinks) WALTER (to Ruprecht): How did you hit the culprit? On the head? ADAM: Here. WALTER: No thanks. ADAM: Give it here. WALTER: It’s still half full. ADAM: I’ll fill it. WALTER: You heard me. ADAM: For good measure. WALTER: Please. ADAM: Come now! Like the Pythagorean triad.49 (He pours him wine) WALTER (to Ruprecht again): How many times did you hit him on the head? ADAM: One is the Lord. Two is the dark Chaos. Three is the world. Give me three glasses any day. In the third you drink the sun in each drop, And the stars of the firmament with the rest. WALTER: How many times did you hit him escaping? You, Ruprecht, I’m asking you! ADAM: You hear him? How many times did you hit the scapegoat? Hmm? For God’s sake, the guy himself surely knows— Did you forget? RUPRECHT: With the latch? ADAM: Yes, whatever. WALTER: From the window, when you threw it down at him? RUPRECHT: Two times, your honors. ADAM: Scoundrel! That he remembers! (He drinks) WALTER: Two times! You could’ve have killed him with two hits Like those— RUPRECHT: If I could’ve killed him, I would have. To me, that would’ve been perfectly just. If he were lying here dead before me, I’d be able to say who it was, not lie. ADAM: Yes, dead! That I believe. But— (He pours more wine) WALTER: Couldn’t you recognize him in the dark? RUPRECHT: Not in the least, your honor. How could I? 49. Supposedly a set of meanings for numbers going back to the Pythagorean school in which ‘one’ means the creator of the world, ‘two’ is the chaotic material, and ‘three’ is the cosmos (E&D). Adam is pushing the number three here, possibly in an attempt to get Ruprecht to say that he hit the culprit three times.

ADAM: Why don’t you open your eyes and look—cheers! RUPRECHT: Open my eyes! I did have them open. The devil threw sand in them! ADAM (in his beard): Oh yes, sand! Why did you open your big, old eyes, then. —Here. To all that we love, your honor! Cheers! WALTER: —To all that just and good and true, Judge Adam! (They drink) ADAM: Well then, kindly finish up now, if you would. (He pours more) WALTER: Judge Adam, you’ve probably been over To Frau Martha’s on occasion. Tell me, Who, outside of Ruprecht, drops by the house. ADAM: Not too often, your honor, actually. I really couldn’t tell you who drops by. WALTER: What? But don’t you visit the widow sometimes For the sake of your late friend, her husband? ADAM: No, actually, only rarely. WALTER: Frau Martha! Have you spoiled it with Judge Adam here? He says he doesn’t call on you anymore? FRAU MARTHA: Hmm! Your honor, spoiled? Not that, exactly. I think he still calls himself my good friend. But that I often see him in my house, For that I cannot quite praise my neighbor. It’s been nine weeks since he last came over, And even then he was just passing by. WALTER: What did you say? FRAU MARTHA: What? WALTER: It’s been nine weeks—? FRAU MARTHA: Nine, Yes, Thursday it’ll be ten. He asked me then For seeds, some carnations and primroses. WALTER: And on Sundays, when he goes to the outpost? FRAU MARTHA: Yes, there—then he peeks in my window, sure, And says good morning to me and my daughter; But then he goes right along on his way. WALTER (to himself): Hmm! If I had known the husband— (He drinks) I’d think, Because you sometimes need the young girl there For your business, that out of thankfulness You’d visit the mother once in a while. ADAM: What’s that, your honor? WALTER: What? You did just say The girl helps you with the hens that get sick Over there in your yard. Didn’t she just

Give you advice on that subject today? FRAU MARTHA: Yes, indeed, your honor, she does do that. The day before yesterday he sent her A hen so sick it was already dying. Last year she saved one that could hardly breathe; She’ll give this one noodles and heal it, too: But he’s still never shown up to say thanks. WALTER (confused): —Pour some more, Judge Adam, if you’d be so kind. Give me some too. We want to drink another. ADAM: At your service. You make me happy. Here. (He pours wine) WALTER: To your health and happiness!—Judge Adam Will come by sooner or later. FRAU MARTHA: You think so? I don’t know. If I could put Niersteiner on the table Like the one you’re drinking, like my husband Had from time to time in the cellar, too, If I could offer him that, it’d be different: But I, poor widow, don’t own anything In my house that attracts him. WALTER: All the better. SCENE ELEVEN Light, Frau Brigitta with a wig in her hand, and the maids enter. Those from before. LIGHT: In here, Miss Brigitta. WALTER: Is that the woman, Clerk Light? LIGHT: Yes, this is Miss Brigitta, your honor. WALTER: Well then, now we can get this case finished up. Take this away, maids. Here. (The maids exit with glasses, etc.) ADAM (during this): Listen, now, Eve, If you get that bitter pill swallowed for me,50 As is proper, I’ll speak to you tonight Over a nice plate of fish. The hussy Has to swallow it whole now, all the way down, If it’s too big, it can gorge itself to death. WALTER (sees the wig): What kind of a wig has Miss Brigitta brought To us? LIGHT: Your honor? WALTER: What that woman there Has for a wig? LIGHT: Hm! WALTER: What? LIGHT: I beg your pardon— 50. Said with double meaning, in relation to the hen and to Eve’s testimony (E&D).

WALTER: Are you going to tell me? LIGHT: If your honor would Please to have the judge question the woman, I have no doubt that who the wig belongs to And further information will unfold. WALTER: —I don’t want to know who it belongs to. How did she get it? Where did she find it? LIGHT: She found the wig in the grapevine’s lattice At Frau Martha Rull’s. It hung there skewered Like a nest in the net of the grapevine, Right under the window where the girl sleeps. FRAU MARTHA: What? At my house? In the lattice? WALTER (secretly): Judge Adam, If you have something to confide to me, I ask you, for the sake of the honor Of the court, be so good and tell me. ADAM: Me tell you—? WALTER: No? Don’t you have—? ADAM: On my honor— (He grabs the wig) WALTER: Are you saying this wig here is not yours? ADAM: This wig here, your honor, is indeed mine! Well, I’ll be darned, that’s exactly the one That I gave to that boy eight days ago To take to up Master Mehl in Utrecht. WALTER: To whom? What? LIGHT: To Ruprecht? RUPRECHT: Me? ADAM: You rogue, did I not Entrust you with the wig eight days ago When you went to Utrecht, so that you would Take it to the hairdresser’s to get it fixed up? RUPRECHT: You—? Oh, yes. You gave me— ADAM: Why didn’t you Drop the wig off like I said, you rascal? Why didn’t you do like I told you to, And drop it off to the master at the shop? RUPRECHT: Why didn’t I—? God up in Heaven! I did drop the wig off at the shop there. Master Mehl took it— ADAM: You dropped it off, hmm? And now it’s hanging in Martha’s lattice? Just wait, scoundrel! You won’t get out of this. There’s some kind of deception behind this, A mutiny, who knows?—Would you allow me To interrogate the woman now?

WALTER: You say that you gave the wig—? ADAM: Your honor, When that young man there was driving to Utrecht This past Thursday with his father’s oxen He came to the office and said, Judge Adam Do you need anything from the city? My son, I said, if you would be so kind, Go have this wig of mine combed back up. But I didn’t say to him, go ahead And keep it for yourself, dress up in it, And leave it hanging in Martha’s grapevine. FRAU BRIGITTA: Your honors, forgive me, but I don’t think It was Ruprecht. Because last night, as I Went to the outpost to visit my aunt, Who’s ill now from childbirth, I heard the girl All muffled, yelling back in the garden: Rage and fear, it seemed, had stolen her voice. Bah, you should be ashamed, you rotten villain, What’re you doing? Go away. I’ll call Mother; As if the Spaniards were taking over. At that: Eve! I called out through the fence. Eve! What’s the matter? What’s going on?—Then silence: Well? Gonna answer?—What do you want, Briggy? What are you doing, I ask?—What would I be.— Is it Ruprecht?—Ah, yes, it’s Ruprecht. Just get along now—Fine, do what you want. They make love, I think, the way others fight. FRAU MARTHA: So—? RUPRECHT: So—? WALTER: Quiet! Let the woman finish. FRAU BRIGITTA: Then as I was coming back from the outpost, It was about midnight, and right as I’m At the linden path in Martha’s garden, Some guy whooshes past me, bald-headed and With a club foot, and he leaves behind him The stink of dampness, pitch, hair, and sulfur. I said a God-be-with-us and turned around, All full of fright, and saw, upon my soul, The bald head, your honors, still running away, Like rotten wood51 shining through the linden path. RUPRECHT: What! Dear God in Heaven!— FRAU MARTHA: Are you mad, Briggy? RUPRECHT: You think it was the devil—? LIGHT: Hush! Hush! FRAU BRIGITTA: Gracious! I know what I saw and I know what I smelled. 51. Which phosphorates in the dark (E&D).

WALTER (becoming impatient): Woman, I don’t want to investigate If it was the devil; you can’t charge him. If you can report about someone else, good, But spare us that about the sinner there. LIGHT: Would your honor allow her to finish. WALTER: Stupid people, you are! FRAU BRIGITTA: Fine, as you wish. But Clerk Light here is a witness for me. WALTER: What? A witness for her? LIGHT: To an extent, yes. WALTER: Honestly, I don’t know— LIGHT: I humbly ask That you not interrupt her in the report. I do not claim that it was the devil; But that about the club foot and bald head And the dampness, if I’m not mistaken, Is completely accurate! Continue! FRAU BRIGITTA: Well, today I was astonished to hear What happened at Frau Martha Rull’s, and so In order to track down that jug-breaker that I ran into last night at the grapevine, I searched over the place where he jumped out, And I found, your honors, a track in the snow— What kind of a track did I find in the snow? On the right: fine, sharp, and slanted to one side, The regular footprint of a human, And on the left: fat and all misshapen, A monstrous, hulking print of a cleft foot. WALTER (annoyed): Blabber, crazy, maniacal, goddamned—! VEIT: It’s not possible, woman! FRAU BRIGITTA: Upon my word! First at the lattice there, where the jump was, Then a big circle of rumpled-up snow, As if a sow was rolling around there; And human foot and cleft foot from here on, And human foot and cleft foot, and human foot and cleft foot, Straight through the garden and into all the world. ADAM: Damn!—Did the scoundrel perhaps get away With using the devil’s disguise—? RUPRECHT: What! Me! LIGHT: Quiet! FRAU BRIGITTA: When he looks for a badger and finds the trail, A huntsman doesn’t triumph as much as I did. Clerk Light, I say, when I saw the worthy man Coming to fetch me for you just now, Clerk Light, spare yourself this session,

You’re not trying the jug-breaker here, I tell you now, he’s sitting in hell, no less: And this here is the path that he took. WALTER: You’ve convinced yourself of that? LIGHT: Your honor, The trail is completely accurate. WALTER: A cleft foot? LIGHT: The foot of a man, really, However, something like the hoof of a horse. ADAM: Gracious, this case appears to be serious. There are many harshly indicted writings That will not admit that there is a God; But, as far as I know, no atheist has yet Succinctly proven there isn’t a devil. The case at hand seems to be worthy of Special discussion. Therefore, I suggest That before we make any decision, We ask at the Haag or at the Synod52 Whether the court is authorized to accept That Beelzebub himself broke the jug. WALTER: That’s a suggestion I’d expect from you. What do you think, clerk? LIGHT: Your honor will not Need the Synod to come to a verdict. —If you’ll permit me!—finish the report, Frau Brigitta. From all the connections, The case should, I hope, come together clearly. FRAU BRIGITTA: After that: Clerk Light, I say, let’s go and Follow the trail a bit so we can see Where the devil could’ve gone and disappeared. Fine, he says, Frau Brigitta, good idea; Perhaps we won’t have to go too far If we end up going to Judge Adam’s. WALTER: Well? And as it turned out—? FRAU BRIGITTA: First off, out in The place on the other side of the garden In the linden path, where the devil crashed Into me, smelling like sulfur, we found A circle, like a dog makes shying off When a cat stands hissing at it. WALTER: And then? FRAU BRIGITTA: Not far from that, we see a memorial53 Of his by a tree that scared me to death. WALTER: A memorial? What? FRAU BRIGITTA: What? Oh, you would not— 52. Meeting of the churches to determine rules and policies (E&D). 53. Adam defecated as a sign of his fright (E&D).

ADAM (to himself): Damn my stomach. LIGHT: Skip that part, now, please, Skip over that, Frau Brigitta, please. WALTER: I want to know where the trail led you! FRAU BRIGITTA: Where? Upon my honor, the quickest way Right here, just as the clerk said. WALTER: Here? Right here? FRAU BRIGITTA: Yes, right from the linden path, Over the field there, along the carp pond, Over the bridge, then right through the graveyard Straight here, I tell you, right to Judge Adam’s. WALTER: Right to Judge Adam’s? ADAM: Right here to me? FRAU BRIGITTA: Yes, to you. RUPRECHT: What, wouldn’t the devil live In the courthouse? FRAU BRIGITTA: On my word, I don’t know If he lives here; but unless I’m a liar, This is indeed where he got off: The path Goes up back all the way up to the step. ADAM: Perhaps he passed through here—? FRAU BRIGITTA: Yes, or passed through. Could be. That could be too. The trail out front— WALTER: There was a trail out front? LIGHT: Pardon, your honor, there wasn’t a trail there. FRAU BRIGITTA: Yes, out front the path’s all trampled over. ADAM: Trampled over. Passed through. Or I’m a villain. Look here, the fellow must have stuck a bit To the laws here. Call me a liar if It doesn’t stink a bit in the registry. If my calculations should be found to be Mixed up, as I don’t doubt they will be, On my honor, I will not take the blame. WALTER: Me either. (to himself) Hmm! I don’t know if it was the left, Was it the right? One of his feet— Judge! Your tobacco box! —If you would. ADAM: The tobacco? WALTER: The tobacco. Bring it here! ADAM: (to Light): Bring the box. WALTER: Why the circumstance? It’s just a step away. ADAM: It’s already done. Give them to his honor. WALTER: I wanted to say something in your ear. ADAM: Maybe we’ll have a chance afterward— WALTER: Fine. (After Light sits down again)

Tell me, gentlemen, is there someone here In the town with misshapen feet? LIGHT: Hm! Indeed there is someone in Huisum— WALTER: So! Who? LIGHT: Would your honor please to ask the judge— WALTER: Judge Adam? ADAM: I know nothing about it. The ten years I’ve been in office in Huisum Far as I know, everything’s grown up right. WALTER: (to Light) Well? Who do you mean? FRAU MARTHA: Bring your feet out, judge! He sticks them so nervously under the table, You’d almost think he’d made the trail himself. WALTER: Who? Do you mean Judge Adam? ADAM: Me? the trail? Am I the devil? Is that a cleft foot? (He shows his left foot) WALTER: Upon my honor. The foot is fine. (Secretly) Make an end of this session immediately. ADAM: If the devil had such a foot, Why, then he could go dancing at the ball. FRAU MARTHA: I say so too. How could the town judge—54 ADAM: Ah, what! Me! WALTER: Finish it, I tell you, quick. FRAU BRIGITTA: The only pesky bit left, your honors, I think, is this ceremonial garb! ADAM: What ceremonial garb—? FRAU BRIGITTA: Here, the wig! Who ever saw the devil wear such a thing? Such a construction, all piled up and oily Like the wig of a deacon at the pulpit! ADAM: In these parts, we don’t completely know what’s Fashionable in hell, Frau Brigitta! It’s said one usually wears one’s own hair. However, here on earth, I’m convinced that He threw the wig on so that he could Blend in with the nobles and dignitaries. WALTER: Worthless man! You ought to be chased out of office For all the people to see! The only thing Protecting you is the honor of the court. Close your session! ADAM: I couldn’t hope to just— WALTER: You’ll not hope. You’ll remove yourself from the case. ADAM: Do you think that I, the judge, could have lost My wig there in the grapevine yesterday? 54. To finish:…have a cleft foot (E&D).

WALTER: Everything you had has gone up in flames, God help you, like Sodom and Gomorrah. LIGHT: What’s more—if I may, your honor! Last night The cat had kittens in his other one. ADAM: Gentlemen, if I am damned here by the Appearances: Please do not rush. This is About my honor or utter disgrace. As long as the girl won’t speak, I don’t see What right you have to incriminate me. I sit here on the judge’s bench of Huisum, And I lay the wig down on the table: Whoever claims this wig belongs to me I’ll challenge before the high court in Utrecht. LIGHT: Hmm! The wig does fit you, though, on my word, As if it had grown right there on your head. (He puts the wig on his head) ADAM: Slander! LIGHT: Doesn’t it? ADAM: It’s so big on me, I could wear it as a coat and still have room! (Adam looks at himself in the mirror) RUPRECHT: Ah, what a god-forsaken schmuck! WALTER: Quiet! FRAU MARTHA: Ah, what a goddamned, villainous judge, he is! WALTER: Once again, would you or should I end the case? ADAM: Yes, what do you want? RUPRECHT (to Eve): Eve, tell me, was it him? WALTER: You shameless man, do you dare not listen? VEIT: Quiet, you, I say. ADAM: Wait, beast! I’ll get you. RUPRECHT: You damned cleft-footed devil! WALTER: Call the bailiff! VEIT: Hold your tongue, I say. RUPRECHT: Wait! I’ll get you yet today. Today you won’t throw any sand in my eyes. WALTER: Do you not have enough wit about you—? ADAM: Yes, if your honor Would allow, I’ll give the sentence right now. WALTER: Good. Do that. ADAM: The case has now been constructed, And Ruprecht there, the varmint, is the culprit. WALTER: Fine. Continue. ADAM: I sentence him to be Put in irons, and because of the improper And undue conduct he showed towards his judge, I’m throwing him in jail and locking him up.

For how long—I have yet to determine. EVE: Ruprecht—? RUPRECHT: Me, thrown in jail? EVE: Put in irons? WALTER: Stop your worrying, children.—Are you finished? ADAM: He may replace the jug, or he may not. WALTER: Fine. The case is closed. And Ruprecht will Appeal to the authorities in Utrecht. EVE: He’s supposed to appeal to Utrecht first? RUPRECHT: What? Me—? WALTER: For Pete’s sake, yes! And until then— EVE: Until then—? RUPRECHT: I’m supposed to go to jail? EVE: Have his neck put in irons? Aren’t you a judge too? Him there, the shameless one sitting over there, It was he himself— WALTER: Quiet, you hear me! Not a hair on his head would’ve been hurt—55 EVE: Get him, Ruprecht! It was Judge Adam himself that broke the jug! RUPRECHT: Ah! Wait, you! FRAU MARTHA: Him? FRAU BRIGITTA: Him there? EVE: Yes, him! Get him, Ruprecht! He came to your Eve yesterday! Go! Grab him! Knock him down like he deserves! WALTER (stands up): Stop right there! Whoever disrupts— EVE: Who cares! Someone deserves iron. Go, Ruprecht! Go, toss him down from the Tribunal! ADAM: Excuse me, gentlemen. (runs away) EVE: Go! RUPRECHT: Stop him! EVE: Quick! ADAM: What! RUPRECHT: Goddamn devil! EVE: You got him? RUPRECHT: God damn it all! It’s just his coat! WALTER: Go! Call the bailiff! RUPRECHT: (hits the coat) Rip! That’s one. And rip! And rip! Another. And another still! For the lack of the hunchback.56 WALTER: You ill-bred man—Order! Order in the court! —As for him, if he doesn’t stop it right now, 55. To finish: …until then; Ruprecht wouldn’t have been harmed. 55. Instead of Adam, he’s hitting and ripping his coat where his back would be.

I’ll put him in those irons, like promised, today. VEIT: Stop it, you lousy scoundrel! SCENE TWELVE Those from before, without Adam. They are all at the front of the stage. RUPRECHT: Ah, Eve! How terribly I’ve insulted you today! Dear God above, and how I did yesterday! Ah, you, my golden girl, my dearest bride! Will you ever be able to forgive me? EVE: (throws herself at the foot of the judge’s bench) Sir! If you do not help us now, we’re lost! WALTER: Lost? Why’s that? RUPRECHT: Dear God! What’s the matter? EVE: Save Ruprecht from the conscription! Because This regiment, sir—Judge Adam told me As a secret—this regiment he said Is going to East India; and, you know, Only one out of three comes back from there! WALTER: What! To East India! Are you insane? EVE: To Bantam, your honor; And that’s the truth! Here is the letter from the government, The silent, secret instructions for the Domestic militia they just sent off. See, your honor, I know all about it. WALTER (takes the letter and reads it): Oh, the unheard of, malicious deceit! The letter’s fake! EVE: Fake? WALTER: Fake, upon my life! Clerk Light, tell me yourself, is this the order That was recently sent here from Utrecht? LIGHT: The order! What! That sinner! That’s just a Little slip he drew up with his own hand! The troops that were recruited are being sent To service within the country; no one Was thinking to send them to East India! EVE: They weren’t, not ever, your honors? WALTER: On my word! And as proof of my word: If it were like you said, I’ll bail Ruprecht out of his service! EVE (stands up); Oh, heavens! How that villain lied to me! He was torturing me with these terrible Worries, and he came to me in the night

To push a paper for Ruprecht on me; Some sort of false health certificate, proof That could free him from service completely; He explained it and assured me and snuck Up to my room to write it up for me: Demanding of me such vulgar, shameful things, Your honor, that no maiden’s mouth dare say! FRAU BRIGITTA: Ah, that villainous, disgraceful liar! RUPRECHT: Forget that horse-footed devil, sweetheart! Look, if it’d been a horse that broke the jug, I’d be just as jealous, as I am now! (They kiss each other) VEIT: I agree! Kiss and make up, and love each other; This May, if you want, we’ll have the wedding! LIGHT (at the window): Come and look how Judge Adam is stamping Through the furrows in the fields up and down As if he were fleeing from the gallows! WALTER: What? Is that Judge Adam? LIGHT: Indeed, it is! SEVERAL: Now he’s coming to the street. Look there! Look How his wig is whipping him on the back! WALTER: Quick, clerk, go after him! Bring him back here! So that he doesn’t go making things worse. He is now suspended from his office, And I ask that you keep the justice here Until further availability. If at least the cash boxes are in order, As I hope, then I won’t make him resign. Go! Do me the favor, and bring him back! (Light goes) FINAL SCENE Those from before, without Light. FRAU MARTHA: Tell me now, your honor, where might I find The seat of the government in Utrecht? WALTER: Why, Frau Martha? FRAU MARTHA(sensitively): Hmm! Why? Well, I don’t know— Isn’t the jug supposed to get justice? WALTER: Forgive me! Indeed. At the large market Every Tuesday and Friday we hold court. FRAU MARTHA: Good! Later this week, I’ll be showing up there. All exit.