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Ket teszta megy a sivatagban. Melyik a zsido? a metelt=))))))))))))))))))))))

ACT IV A large garden. To the right in the foreground can be seen a couple of high open-work iron gates leading to an alley. The gates are partly concealed by trees and bushes. Immediately above is the tent-shaped veranda of the house in which the KING is living; beyond it the KING's desk and chair. In front is the army cot.

In the middle of the stage is a Tuscan column railing of stone with three pale blue glazed pots. On the middle of the railing is an old white statue of Venus.

To the left can be seen GöRTZ's house with its green shutters and its veranda with benches on it.

At the back a walk along a garden wall with wooden gates decorated with the figures of Spanish knights.

( HULTMANarranging the desk. PROFESSOR fussing with the flower pots)

HULTMAN: Aren't you a professor of medicine, sir?

PROFESSOR: Yes, that's right, I am.

HULTMAN: The King is sickly, especially since Baron GöRTZ left.

PROFESSOR: Ha, ha -- has Baron GöRTZ left?

HULTMAN: Yes, he's over in Copenhagen about money matters and other things, but he's expected back at any moment.

PROFESSOR: Wha -- wha -- what is the matter with His Majesty?

HULTMAN: Sleeplessness, uneasiness, and irritability.

PROFESSOR: Well, well, well! And the princess is in town waiting to see him. . . his own sister!

HULTMAN: So? Sister? There are many kinds of sisters; I have one who's a shrew and a scold. ..

PROFESSOR: His own sister!. . . And newly wed, too. 29 Listen, Hult- man, is it true that the King intends to get married?

HULTMAN: No, I hadn't heard that. . . we don't have time to get married!. . . But it upsets me that it's getting thick with skirts around here.

PROFESSOR: Respect for woman! HULTMAN! Respect!

Hultman: Respect for children, respect for servants, respect for me -- everybody demands respect, but everybody takes care not to respect other people.

PROFESSOR: You're a woman hater, Hultman!

HULTMAN: That's right, although it's only half true, as usual. . . Look. . . there comes Doctor SWEDENBORG with his skirt!

PROFESSOR: The great Polhem's daughter, Emerentia!

HULTMAN: A conceited, stuck-up nitwit who has sworn she'll have the King at her feet! Because she gets students and ensigns to dance to her bidding!

PROFESSOR: Oh no, oh no! But does her sweetheart have the slightest suspicion of her ambitious plans?

HULTMAN: Swedebborg? No! He's blind and deaf like everyone who's drunk with love. . . See, there they are!

(PROFESSOR and HULTMANwithdraw into the tent to the right.)

( SWEDENBORGand EMERENTIA enter from the walk to the right.)

SWEDENBORG: My dear, I have to leave you for a while; my King and my country require my services.

EMERENTIA: But you promised that we could celebrate our engage- ment tomorrow. ..

SWEDENBORG: I promised on the assumption that no higher duties called me. I have to leave this evening. ..

EMERENTIA: Then you don't love me!

SWEDENBORG: What shall I say, what shall I do to show you I love you?

EMERENTIA: Stay until the day after tomorrow!

SWEDENBORG: The King will not let me.

EMERENTIA: Your King, who hates women!

SWEDENBORG: No, but he has his thoughts on other things!

EMERENTIA: May I ask him to let you stay?

SWEDENBORG: No, my dear, the troops are ready to leave, and they're waiting for me!

EMERENTIA: Let them wait!

SWEDENBORG: Let the country and the people wait. . . because of a little girl's whims!

EMERENTIA: A little girl! Watch out!

SWEDENBORG: You have threatened me so often I almost long for the blow! What should I watch out for? That you'll leave me?

EMERENTIA: But you're the one who's leaving me!

SWEDENBORG: Hm! I have to go so that I can come back and stay! But you want to go so you'll never come back! There is a differ- ence!

EMERENTIA: Is the King in there?

SWEDENBORG: Yes, but you're to promise me not to try to get near him.

EMERENTIA: Why?

SWEDENBORG: He isn't receiving!

EMERENTIA: That will be my business!

SWEDENBORG: And mine! Because he would believe that I had sent you, and that would be to my dishonor!

EMERENTIA: That's not the reason; you have another one that you don't want to give!

SWEDENBORG: Promise me you will not try to get to the King!

EMERENTIA: You are afraid!

( SWEDENBORGis silent.)

EMERENTIA: I'm not afraid of dreams!

SWEDENBORG: Strange! You say that you love me; I believe you. . . often; but just the same, every word you speak is like a poisoned needle! Is that love?. ..

EMERENTIA: You call me a poisoned needle. . . You have never loved me!. . . Good-bye! (Goes away on the walk to the right)

SWEDENBORG (distressed): This is love! Earthly love!. . . Heaven above! (Goes to the walk to the left)

(KING comes out of the tent; looks sick and worried. FEIFfol- lows him.)

KING (sits down at the table): FEIF!. . . can GöRTZ be back soon?

FEIF: Yes, Your Majesty!

KING: That Strange man! When he's present, I find him attractive, honest, faithfulness itself; when he's gone I remember him in the most bizarre forms; he acts ghostlike, repulsive, horrible. (Pause) Do you think his calculations are accurate?

FEIF: Your Majesty is a mathematician -- I'm not!

KING: His calculations can't be solved with any known formu- las. ..

FEIF: What do Polhem and SWEDENBORG think?

KING: They don't say anything! (Pause) The whole city says noth- ing; the whole country says nothing! A silence as of death is

beginning to close about us! (Pause) And besides I am sick! (Pause) The streets are empty; no one comes to call! No one protests!. . . No one says anything! (Pause) Say something!

FEIF: I have nothing to say, Your Majesty!

KING: Nothing?. . . Isn't it soon noon?

FEIF: Your Majesty, it is already afternoon.

KING: Heavens yes; I do remember. (Pause) Why don't I ever see Miillern, Sparre, GYLLENBORG any more?

FEIF: They do not dare to disturb you!

KING: Why am I left to myself? Even HULTMAN goes out of the way and sulks!. . . If I send for someone, he's ill! (Pause)And this silence! This silence! Once I did have Luxembourg, who played for me, but he disappeared after Stralsund. . . Get me a spider to play with! (Pause) Do you think the country can stand ten million token coins?

FEIF: Baron GöRTZ felt two million would be the maximum!

KING: Oh!. . . Why doesn't the princess want to come when I've invited her? My sister, I mean!

FEIF: Her Royal Highness made it a condition that her consort, the landgrave of Hesse, could come along.

KING: The one who is waiting for me to die! So he'll get the throne! . . . There are others, I suspect, who are waiting for me to die! (Pause) FEIF! Go up to the residency and ask the princess to come to talk about something of importance to her. . . without the landgrave!

( FEIFgoes out on the left path.)

KING (alone, in despair): My God, my God! Let this cup be taken from me!

(EMERIENTIA appears on the right path; she has a bouquet of roses; primps to be attractive; and then appears before the KING. But when she sees him, the expression on her face changes to one of sympathy and respect.)

KING (who has had his face buried in his hands looks up, and, when he becomes aware of EMERENTIA, he does not seem to know if she

is a dream or a revelation. Then he speaks with embarrassment): Flowers for me! Why do you give me roses?

EMERENTIA: My hero has received enough laurels. ..

KING: And t HORNs! The time of the cypress has probably come!

ENMERENTIA: Not yet! The myrtle 30 first!

KING (as if speaking to a child): Little child, what are you saying?

EMERENTIA: I say?. . . This is what the most beautiful woman in Europe to whom you turned your back once had to say: 31

Charles! Your steadfastness conquers every obstacle; playfully you add heroic deed to heroic deed; I have tried the cunning of a thousand plans in vain; but you remain what you were-in- vincible.

But, young hero, when laurel wreaths cover you, when honor walks ever by your side, happiness alone seems to conceal herself from you. And no pleasures follow in your path.

Tell me why your beautiful eyes, your body which the gods have molded, has not found a more delightful reward?

Forgive my boldness when I have secretly sensed that even the hero can love.

If there is any beauty, who has the power to win the faith of the greatest of mortals, she would sink at your feet. For her our altars would burn. Merely open your arms and receive the god- dess.

KING (has looked at her with glowing eyes): Thank you, my child! For awakening the memory of a happy time that's past. . . The flattery I'll leave at its face value!. . . Tell me what your name is!

EMERENTIA: The name of a little girl -- what can that matter to a great king?

KING: A little girl can restore self-confidence and the desire to live to a troubled king.

EMERENTIA: Why is the great king troubled? KING (in a fatherly tone): You little thing!. . . Can you play chess? EMERENTIA: Yes, Your Majesty! I can!

KING: Then you shall come and play with me!

EMERENTIA: But if I beat the King, he'll be angry.

KING: No, child, that he'll never be! And you can't!

EMERENTIA: Certainly!. . . I've beaten the great mathematician Polhem!

KING: My Polhem! You!. . . Do you know him?

EMERENTIA: As well as my own father.

KING: Then you know SWEDENBORG, too? The dreamer!

EMERENTIA: A little!

KING (stares at her searchingly): Do you like him?

EMERENTIA: He's boring!

KING (his face expresses amazement): Whom do you like then?

(EMERENTIA casts down her eyes.)

KING: Shall I guess?

(EMERENTIA holds her hands over her eyes.)

KING: Let me see your beautiful eyes. ..

(EMERENTIA flattered)

KING: I don't know of anything as lovely as a child's eyes!

(EMERENTIA grimaces in disappointment.)

KING: Yes, you are a child compared to me. ..

EMERENTIA (takes the KING's hand which he withdraws): Like me a little then!

KING: You may be my friend. . . Can you play any instrument?

EMERENTIA: I play the clavichord!

KING: You've learned that from SWEDENBORG.

EMERENTIA: That ugly person!

KING (with a strange expression on his face): Shame!

(EMERENTIA asks with her eyes.)

KING: Shame! I said!. . . Do you like me a little?

(EMERENTIA conceals her face in her hands.)

KING (darkens): Does that mean much?

(EMERENTIA takes the KING's hand and kisses it.)

KING: Was that the child or the woman?

EMERENTIA (falls to her knees at the KING's feet): That was the woman!

KING (gets up, angry): Emerentia Polhem! Get up!

(EMERENTIA looks Up.)

KING: Now you are lying at the king's feet!. . . Get up, and go! You do not deserve the man who loves you, and for that reason you shall never get Emanuel Swedenborg for your husband! (Turns his back to her)

EMERENTIA: Mercy!

KING: Disfavor!. ..

(EMERENTIA, ashamed, steals out on the path to the right.) ( FEIFenters from the left.)

KING: Speak!

FEIF (looking after EMERENTIA): Her Royal Highness will be here at once!

KING: Without the landgrave?

FEIF: Nothing was said about that!

KING: FEIF!. . . you have been married?

FEIF: Yes, Your Majesty!

KING: Well-l?

FEIF: Ta!

KING (smiles): Well-l?

FEIF (shrugging his shoulders): Ta!

KING: That's what you all say, but I never get to know anything!

FEIF: Neither do we!

KING: Maybe there isn't anything. . . to know!. ..

FEIF: Maybe!

(Beating of drums and clatter of weapons)

KING: It's the princess!. . . You may go, FEIF!. . . (Goes up to the path to the right. FEIFgoes into the tent.) ADJUTANT (comes in from the path to the right): Her Royal High- ness! (Pause)

( ULRIKA ELEONORAcomes in from the path to the right.)

KING (goes up to her, offers her his hand, and conducts her to the table): Welcome, dear sister!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Thank you very much, dear brother! (They sit down.)

KING: It is a little messy here, but we're living on a war footing.

(The conversation is carried on with pauses and with mutual embarrassment.)

ULRIKA ELEONORA: War! Let's get a peace footing soon!

KING: Is the landgrave here?

ULRIKA ELEONORA: No, my husband is out hunting!

KING: Well-l! You're happily married, sister?

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Has Baron Görtz gone away?

KING: It has been a long time since you and I saw each other alone.

ULRIKA ELEONORA (picks at EMERENTIA's roses): Roses, I do believe!

KING: What's new in town?

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Is it true that there's going to be a campaign against Norway?

KING: Does that interest the landgrave? (Pause)

( ULRIKA ELEONORA, gives the KING a sharp look by way of an- swer.)

KING: There have been many changes these past years!

( ULRIKA ELEONORAsays nothing, but plays with her fan.)

KING: An unusually beautiful fan!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Have you heard about the latest lampoon, printed in Holland?

KING: Do I have to?

ULRIKA ELEONORA: It is the most vulgar thing I've ever read!

KING: Please don't tell me!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: King David went out on his roof and saw Uriah's wife, Bathsheba; and then he sent Uriah to war! KING: Was denn?

ULRIKA ELEONORA: These are beautiful roses! Lovely fragrance!

KING: Please take them!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: I? Used flowers? No, thank you.

KING (tosses the roses aside): Speak plainly, sister, but don't come with gossip, because I won't answer then!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: I had thought. . . that is. . . I had hoped that my dear brother had so much confidence in his sister that he would not conceal his plans when they concern others' -- his clos- est relative's. .. most sacred interests!

KING: Is it the succession to the throne?

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Don't be brutal even if you are a king!

KING (gets up): Without circumlocution! Otherwise, I'll be off!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Yes, you always go when it concerns. ..

KING: Sister!. . . They say you are unhappily married!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: I? Oh no, I am very happy, very!

KING: They say your husband is a pig! And we don't want a pig on the throne of Sweden.

ULRIKA ELEONORA: But fools! As if your favorite Charles Fredrik isn't a fool! But you like fools -- for example, that Baron Görtz!

KING: Stick to the subject!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Charles Fredrik of Holstein, whom you want to put on the throne, is a good-for-nothing, who's controlled by his valet Ropstock. 32 So it will be a valet who will rule Sweden after you die!

KING: Woman!

ULRIKA ELFONORA: Yes, that's how you are! You are very great, but you are stupid! Yes, you are, but why you're great I don't know! For the past eighteen years you've done nothing but what's stupid, and I don't know the name of a single battlefield but that of Poltava, where you ran away. Only defeats and without honor!. . . That you got for "woman," you woman-hater!

KING: Careful!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Of what?

KING: That my sympathies aren't transferred to your husband, who must have a hot hell. . . as all married men do, so far as that goes!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: There! You came out with it! So your sympathies go out to that beast the landgrave. That I can believe. . . that dishonorable beast, who treats his wife. . . Yes. . . what. . . haven't. .. I, had, to suffer. ..

KING: But you were so happy just now!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Just now?. . . Ha, ha! Just now! he says. ..

KING: Remember I am not married to you!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: How so?

KING: So that you treat me as your brother and your king, and don't give me bedroom lessons as if I were your husband!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: You, married?. . . Well, why aren't you mar- ried? Yes, because you're afraid of women! The hero is afraid!

KING: When I listen to you, I really become afraid! And in these brief moments I have gained the very greatest sympathy for the landgrave! I love him. . . almost!

ULRIKA ELEONORA (weeping in her hand kerchief): Yes, yes, yes. ..

KING: For heaven's sake, don't cry -- scold me instead! Tears are the worst I know!

ULRIKA ELEONORA (changes her manner): Since you love the land- grave, make him successor to the throne!

KING: Let me die first! Time enough to choose my successor then! . . . Sister, perhaps my career will soon have run its course. . . This is probably the last time we shall see each other!

ULRIKA ELEONORA (seriously, gently): Brother, dear, darling, how you do talk!

KING: Yes, to you, my mother's child, I want to confess that the position of the kingdom is hopelessly desperate.

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Why, they've been whispering that for a long time, but they thought that that Görtz. ..

KING: I thought so, too, but. . . he has miscalculated or he doesn't understand finances. . . I knew all his vices, of course, but I depended on his superior intellect and knowledge. . . but even they turned out to be. . . hollow. ..

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Is it that desperate, dear?

KING: Absolutely hopeless!. . . I wish I were dead!

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Can I do anything for you?. . . Is there some- thing. ..

KING: No, my friend! And as for who is to succeed to the throne, leave that in God's hands!. . . Excuse me; I am ill. . . and have to lie down! (Lies down on the cot)

ULRIKA ELEONORA (on her knees beside the bed): What is it, what is the matter, my dear?

KING: "The moments of life are over, smiling I want to die!" Do you remember what that is?. . . Ragnar Lodbrok in the snake- pit! 33 (Pause) They thought I was impenetrable because I did not talk; and I did not talk because I did not drink; because I alone protected my senses among drunkards, they thought I was a fool. (Pause) Ulla! Put your hand on my forehead! Now you are like my mother! The only woman I have ever loved, because she was my mother, and so. . . was not a woman to me! (Pause) There isn't an act that I cannot defend, but I do not take care of my- self! (Pause) The apprentice calls the journeyman a tyrant, and the journeyman calls the master a despot. All people in power seem to be despots. They would all like to have power, all of them, if they might, if they could! (Pause) Yes, you women! I have stood outside windows and looked into homes; that's why I saw more than others, because the ones who are inside see only their own . . . The most delightful, the most bitter!. . . Love is almost identical with hate! (Pause) Now I shall go to sleep! Sleep, the best there is! The next best! (He falls asleep. The saraband is played in the distance.)

( ULRIKA ELEONORAgets up, goes towards the back, and signals to a chamberlain. CHAMBERLAIN enters.)

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Taube, I have the greatest confidence in you for reasons that you alone know! Am I right?

(CHAMBERLAIN bows.)

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Find the landgrave at once! Tell him that the

situation is favorable for us, and that he is to be ready to go to Norway!

(CHAMBERLAIN bows and goes.)

ULRIKA ELEONORA (goes, a few steps behind him, and then comes in again with the deposed Polish king Stanislaus Leczinski's wife, KATARINA LECZINSKA): Katarina Leczinska!. . . The meeting that was never granted you, I grant to you now!

KATARINA: So I'll get to see the man who has been playing with my destiny and that of my people. ..

ULRIKA ELEONORA: Hush! He's sleeping, but you're to wait. ..

KATARINA (steals silently up and looks at the KING): Is this he?

ULRIKA ELEONORA: My poor brother is ill -- he probably won't live long!

KATARINA: Is this he? So far down!. . . As far down as we!

(KING moves and breathes heavily.)

ULRIKA ELEONORA(goes to the right): He's waking up! Let me ex- pect you at the residency! (Goes out)

(KATARINA places herself with her arms akimbo as if she were waiting for the KING's awakening to lay down the law to him.)

KING (awakens; raises himself calmly and with dignity and stands up): Katarina Leczinska! I dreamt about you, perhaps because I was expecting you!. . . Please sit down!

KATARINA: Sire, you were not expecting me!

KING (angry): Do you want to say that I am lying?. . . What do you have to say?

KATARINA: I want to ask you, sire, where my husband and my chil- dren are!

KING: Be so good as to lower your voice when you speak with a monarch.

KATARINA: Be so good as to use another tone when you speak with a woman!

KING: A woman? Bah! That sovereignty I have never acknowl- edged!. . . However, to help you with the audience that I want

to make brief, I will deliver your message so that it doesn't get entangled with talk!. . . Please sit down!

KATARINA (raging): And this I'm to listen to!

KING: You will listen, and the King will talk!. . . So where your husband and your children happen to be does not concern me! . . . But, when I chose Stanislaus, your husband, as king of Po- land, I believed he was born to rule. . . I was mistaken, because he lacked the courage to use the power the nation had given him. He was born to obey. . . so he had to go!. . . He did that with pleasure, incidentally; yes, he ran! Since then I have assigned subsidies to him and his family. . . about one hundred thousand dalers a year. . . without having any obligation to do so! That these means have not been regularly forthcoming is not my fault, nor anyone else's, because there were no means, and, where there isn't any, there isn't any! Now there is! So go to the treasury and take it!

KATARINA: King Stanislaus. ..

KING: Stanislaus could not govern any more than King August who let himself be ruled by women The audience is over! (Rings)

( ADJUTANTenters.)

KING: Let Doctor SWEDENBORG come in!

KATARINA: That is a man!

KING (to the ADJUTANT): Doctor SWEDENBORG! Escort the woman out!

(KATARINA goes. KING puts a hand to his forehead as if he had a headache.)

( SWEDENBORGcomes in; looks worried)

KING: Emanuel! Are you ready to go to Norway with the en- gineer's corps?

SWEDENBORG: Your Majesty!

KING: Tonight, this very evening?. . . I know that your engage- ment was to be announced tomorrow. ..

SWEDENBORG: It's my happiness that's involved. . KING: Happiness?. . . A woman! Always a woman comes and takes away my best man! Emanuel! Your country is calling you; your King begs you; follow us!

SWEDENBORG: The duties of my heart are sacred. ..

KING: Doesn't your heart beat for king and country, first of all?

SWEDENBORG: Your Majesty!

KING (with one knee on an armchair): It's EMERENTIA! Listen to me, who is Emerentia?

SWEDENBORG: She is an angel!

KING (rocks the chair): This is the most inexplicable of all the ail- ments of the mind! Love! Is she an angel?

SWEDENBORG: Yes!

KING: Emanuel! Even if it should cost me your friendship, you are going to hear it!. . . EMERENTIA was here a little while ago!

SWEDENBORG: Here? In spite of my pleadings?

KING: She is not the woman you are going to marry!. . . Gossip had prepared me. . . She had sworn she would have me at her feet. Well, her attempts were rather simple. . . and I'll say noth- ing about them. . . but she lowered herself to speaking ill of you, ridiculing you!

( SWEDENBORGweeps.)

KING: There! Now he's weeping!. . . You know, boys, now I've had enough of your skirt stories. . . Does it hurt so much? (Pats him on his back) Emanuel, pull yourself together and be a man!. . . You, a soothsayer, born for great deeds and great dreams, what do you have to do with either women or wine? Are you going to put your head in a lap and let her clip the hair of your strength?

SWEDENBORG: I have promised her to be faithful. ..

KING: But she broke her promise when she was faithless. . . faith- less as a lady's man like King August. . . Up! Emanuell Honor and duty call you!

FEIF (comes in from the tent): Excuse me, Your Majesty!

KING: What is it?

FEIF: Görtz has returned!

KING: Bring him here!. . . Emanuel, go in there and wait!

( SWEDENBORGis going into the tent.)

KING (to SWEDENBORG): If they don't get them, they weep, and if they get them, they cry, too!. . . A strange game, that! The game of tears or the game of fools!. . . No, wait!. . . Stay here and listen!. . . The one who's coming now is for you, Emanuel . . . Emanuel, that means God be with us!

( SWEDENBORGstays. Görtzcomes in hastily from the left.)

(At the iron-grill gate people now gather; among them are the MAN from Act I, the MALCONTENT, and the WOMAN from Act III. They are all silent, but horrible to look upon.)

KING: Speak! But quickly!

GöRTZ: Everything is lost!

KING: In what respect?

GöRTZ: Ruin, bankruptcy! The country is aflame!. . . They were about to kill me!

KING: Is it the token coins?

GöRTZ: The token coins and their consequences! But who has put out twenty million instead of two?

KING: Twenty? Good God! I thought it was only ten! I have seven on my conscience that I'm certain of! But who has put out the other ten?

GöRTZ: Who? No one knows, but now the river of green copper is spreading out and coloring and poisoning the whole country!

KING: Great God! We have become counterfeiters against our will!

GöRTZ: They're already threatening me with the scaffold!

KING: Not as long as I'm alive!

GöRTZ: But, what's worse. . . the most popular man in the country for the moment is the landgrave of Hesse!

KING: The landgrave? My brother-in-law! How has he become that?

GöRTZ: Hate always ends by loving. . . somebody else! And he is promising. . . freedom! 34 KING: What a word!

(Shabby-looking men and boys begin to gather by the wall at the back. They appear silently, unnoticeably, and sit there one, two, three, but are not noticed yet by the people on the stage.)

GöRTZ (uneasy): Something is happening that makes me uneasy but that I don't understand. . . There's a smell like that of poor people's clothes. ..

KING: Do you see anything? I see nothing, but I hear this terrible silence!. . . Wait a moment, so I can think! (Pause)

KING (sits down -- in despair): Does he promise freedom?

GöRTZ: Your Majesty! Don't desert me! I am not to blame!

KING: We're all a little to blame, no doubt, but the intention was good. . . fairly good this time!. . . What are you afraid of?

( GöRTZlooks about without seeing anything definite. Pause. KING pulls himself together and rings. ADJUTANTenters.)

KING: My sword! My cape! And my hat!

( ADJUTANTgoes after them.)

KING (gets up): Görtz! Now I'm going to the residency to find the landgrave of Hesse whom I have named general of the army. 35

GöRTZ: When did that happen?

KING: Now! Just now!. . . Then I'll be off already this evening for the field. ..

GöRTZ: And I?

KING: You'll go along!

GöRTZ: Against Norway?

KING: Against. . . the enemy. . . whoever wants to be. . . to- ward a victory. . . or certain defeat!(To SWEDENBORG) Now you'll certainly come along?

SWEDENBORG: Now I'll accompany Your Majesty!

KING (points at the statue of Venus): And not that goddess!. . . GöRTZ, conduct us out, your way!

( ADJUTANTenters with sword, hat and cape.)

KING (puts on these; seems to be trying in vain to find words. Pulls on his gloves): I should have said something to Hultman. ..

but, it doesn't matter. . . So, we'll go then! (Goes through GöRTZ' house follotved by GöRTZand SWEDENBORG)

(Now the iron-grill gate is opened, and shabby figures steal in, silent, ghostlike, curious, and fingering everything; the figures by the wall silently join them.)

CURTAIN

(XIV. Erik)		(…) Öntsünk tiszta vizet a pohárba! Hívd be a csürhét és parancsold asztalhoz! Mindet! Hamis ékkövem értéke szerinti foglalatot kapjon! – Küldj ki a piacra és hozd be a koldusokat és a ribancokat a kocsmából. Nils Gyllenstjerna	Komolyan gondolja? Erik			Viccelsz, he? (Odamegy és kivágja a hátsó ajtót; jelt ad; trombitaharsogás; terített asztalokat hoznak be a színpadra; a bal oldali ajtóhoz megy és beinti a népet, amely félrészegen és zavartan megjelenik.) Asztalhoz! Rongyosok! Semmi szemérmeskedés! Nem várunk a menyasszonyra, mert épp az imént ment el! Üljetek le, kutyák! – Ha nem engedelmeskedtek, megöllek!

A nép és az előbbiek Göran Persson anyját kivéve helyet foglalnak az asztaloknál. Göran Persson ülve marad és megvetően nézi a belépőket. Nils Gyllenstjerna Erik lábához teszi a marsallbotját és el.

Erik			Aha, eleged van, tányérnyaló; túl jónak tartod magad, hogy elővezesd a bandát? Nézd a király apósát, a szájába veszi az ujját. – (Felveszi a marsallbotot, kettétöri és a csonkokat Gyllenstjerna után dobja.) Menj a pokolba! Nils Gyllenstjerna	Most megy Felséged utolsó és egyetlen barátja! (El.)