THE DANCE OF DEATH
A monologue from the
play by August
Strindberg
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Plays by August Strindberg, v. 1. Trans. Edwin Björkman.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1912. |
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CAPTAIN: So you didn't get free this time after all!
But then, you didn't get me locked up either! Yes, I know you
wanted to put me in prison, but I wipe it out. All who come near
us turn evil and go their way. They are weak, and the evil is
strong! [Pause] How commonplace life has become! Formerly
blows were struck; now you shake your fist at the most! I am
fairly certain that, three months from now, we shall celebrate
our silver wedding--with Curt as best man--and with the Doctor
and Gerda among the guests. The Quartermaster will make the speech
and the Sergeant-Major will lead the cheering. And if I know
the Colonel right, he will come on his own invitation-- Yes,
you may laugh! But do you recall the silver wedding of Adolph--in
the Fusiliers? The bride had to carry her wedding ring on the
right hand, because the groom in a tender moment had chopped
off her left ring finger with his dirk. [Pause] Are you
crying? No, I believe you are laughing! Yes, child, partly we
weep and partly we laugh. Which is the right thing to do?--Don't
ask me! The other day I read in a newspaper that a man had been
divorced seven times--which means that he had been married seven
times--and finally, at the age of ninety-eight, he ran away with
his first wife and married her again. Such is love! If life be
serious, or merely a joke, is more than I can decide. Often it
is most painful when a joke, and its seriousness if after all
more agreeable and peaceful. But when at last you try to be serious,
somebody comes and plays a joke on you--as Curt, for instance!
Do you want a silver wedding? [Silence] Oh, say yes! They
will laugh at us, but what does it matter? We may laugh also,
or keep serious, as the occasion may require.
MORE
MONOLOGUES BY AUGUST STRINDBERG |
