SNOW q Ey A Play in Four Acts by PST m STANISLAW PRZYBYSZEWSKI be je English Version by CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell Universit “Taian ) SNOW~ SNOW A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS BY STANISLAW PRZYBYSZEWSKI ENGLISH VERSION BY O. F. THEIS NICHOLAS L. BROWN NEW YORK MCMXX COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY NICHOLAS L. BROWN All Rights Reserved CHARACTERS WILLY, BRONKA, his wife, EVA, her friend, ARTHUR, Willy’s brother, MOTRUNA, A FOOTMAN. ACT I ACT I The scene represents a large, richly furnished room with two large windows through which a gar- den is seen in the background where a heavy snow- storm is raging. Adjoming the room is an orang- ery, or greenhouse, through whose panes every occurrence can be observed. On the corner is a large, old-fashioned fireplace; beside it lies a heap of brushwood and green hemlock-twigs. ARTHUR nervously throws branch after branch into the glowing fireplace. Bronxa stands at the window and looks very restlessly into the garden, watching the snowstorm. ARTHUR Why are you so restless? Don’t be childish. Why are you so uneasy? Bronxa But heavens alive, Arthur, can’t you see this snow- storm? All day the snow has been falling without end, snow and snow, nothing but snow ... moun- tains of snow have piled up. There isn’t a tree for miles along the road from the city. The coachman 9 10 SNOW may lose his way ; he may upset the sleigh, and any- thing may happen. ARTHUR What much can happen? Willy will fall in the ditch, and he will lie soft enough there. Bronxa How mean you are! ARTHUR Please, don’t be angry. But sometimes I can’t help looking at you two as though you were a pair of children. Your relations seem like an anomaly to one of maturer years. You have been married a year, and you coo and bill as though it were the first day of the honeymoon. Bronxka But it is just this which makes our relations so beautiful. ARTHUR Naturally, of course! But tell me how many love- letters have you had from your Willy in this week that he has been gone? Bronxa Oh, if you only knew what wonderful letters he has written, and the last one, just this last one, is the most beautiful. Oh, how I love these letters! No SNOW 11 human being in all the world has ever spoken such beautiful words of love. ARTHUR (Smiling) To find beautiful words isn’t espe- cially difficult, but Willy really loves you. (Thoughtfully) Yes, he loves you deeply ...I envy both of you your love and happiness... (After a pause) I have grown quite sentimental since I am here with you. Oftener and oftener I dream silvery idyls of moonlight; more and more frequently I think of such a beautiful warm corner far from the world, where by the side of a woman I love and who loves me, I could quietly dream and think and work. I am tired already and sick of this everlasting dragging of myself from city to city, of this drifting over all the world. Besides it is all humbug! Artistic impressions, museums, theatres, circuses, literature, Italy, Paris — all are humbug, humbug, nothing but humbug! Boredom only grows greater, everywhere in the world everything is al- ways the same, and we drag ourselves through the world with nothing but growing and growing boredom in the heart. Bronxa How sad you are, Arthur! In no other. human being have I ever met such infinite sadness. 12 SNOW ARTHUR That may be. Bronka If you only could or would fall in love. Don’t you think . . .? ARTHUR I, fall in love? With whom? At the most with you, and heaven knows it would take much to make me do that. Bronxa (Laughing) Stupid! What would you do with a girl like me? She wouldn’t be your sort. ARTHUR (Likewise jestingly) Exactly, exactly . .. she would be just the one for me. I am tired of the stupid, vain peacock-women who love to play the role of a demon. Not satisfied with this, they must season the whole performance with wearisome and tasteless jugglery of temperament and passion. I am tired of these nauseous, slimy angels of inspira- tion. I am more than tired of the hunchbacked hags of higher learning, and of all the females that labor for the general good. Oh, believe me, Bronka, I have grown tired unto death in my association with that sort, with those . . . they call them the better half of a man’s soul. (He brushes across his fore- head and walks back and forth in the room; then he SNOW 18 throws several branches into the fireplace) What I need is just this, a soft, simple girl . . . (Dreamily) To spend entire evenings by the side of a huge fire- place with one who is absolutely innocent, who knows nothing of either virtue or sin. This happiness of feeling beside yourself a woman who knows nothing of principles, theories, or tendencies, but who is only a heart, a pure and ardent heart! Do you understand that? Surely one would then forget all the humbug and boredom. Browxa What self-deception! You would be happy with a girl like that for two days, and then... then... You can finish this sorry song by yourself in your own soul. ARTHUR Do you think so? Do you really think so? But yet isn’t it strange that I am spending day after day with just such a simple girl, as you call her, that I am confessing to you the most intimate things of my life, that I am sharing every thought with you, and yet have never for a single moment been bored? On the contrary, I have never experienced such happy and peaceful hours, as here with you. (Ina tone of light banter) Do you know, Bronka, I shall really seriously fall in love with you. Bronxa (Imitating his tone) If you had not said all this 14 SNOW so wearily, so sadly, and all the while thinking of something quite different, I might really believe that you were bidding for my favor... ARTHUR (Laughing) Why should I not woo, sweet sister- in-law? The art of being able to intoxicate one’s self and others may be very beautiful and noble . just as if one were to intoxicate one’s self with a bot- tle of fiery Amontillado. Bronxa But I have no desire whatever to drink this fiery Amontillado . . . (Suddenly, distracted) What can it mean that Willy hasn’t come yet? I tell you the coachman has upset the sleigh. ARTHUR Don’t be so restless and impatient. The snow is deep, and besides they can’t drive the horses to death. Bronra Of course, you are right. (Irritated) Besides you — your bored manner and cold melancholy are enough so to depress and alarm anybody, that . . . that... ARTHUR What? ... Say it! Bronra I have grown so restless that I am as likely as not SNOW 15 to run upstairs and wake Eva. I don’t understand why she is always sleeping since she has arrived. ARTHUR Sleeping? Perhaps, she doesn’t sleep. Bronxka Do you believe then that she is avoiding us? ARTHUR Who knows? Perhaps she is convinced that we are more at ease when she is not present. Bronka You are mean. She has always been my best friend. You cannot imagine how happy I was when she came here at my invitation. I haven’t seen her for two years . . . But, do you know, Arthur, she has changed completely. I should never have be- lieved that a human being could change so absolutely in so short a-time. ARTHUR Did I understand you correctly? Has she really changed so completely? Bronxa (Slightly embarrassed) 1 don’t know how to ex- plain it to you... I still have something of the shyness of a boarding-school girl . . . but I can tell you everything, everything, for to me you aren’t like a man at all. 16 SNOW ARTHUR Well said. But tell me something about Eva. I am very curious. Bronxa Very well! She is an orphan, but very rich. And her whole misfortune is that she has always been able to satisfy every whim, and so she has never found complete satisfaction in anything she has done. .. . I really meant to ask you about this... . (Sud- denly) Listen to me, and try to understand me cor- rectly! She and I were together in a boarding- school, bound to each other with a strange love. She loved me to madness, so that her love was sometimes a torment to me. Then at other times she was end- - lessly good; she was a lamb with which I could play for days in a stretch, a slave who read my thoughts in my eyes. Then suddenly she was again capricious, tyrannical, jealous of my every heartbeat. . . . ARTHUR Well? And what then? Bronxa After the death of his wife, her guardian took her out of school, and since then she has become mistress of herself, her wealth, her melancholy, and, perhaps, also of her ennui... You see, Arthur .. . she would be a wife for you. SNOW 17 ARTHUR Hm, hm, but you haven’t said anything yet as to why there was a sudden change in her. Bronxa Now, you see, how distracted I am. I can’t even think to the end of a sentence. (Thoughtfully) You see, in spite of all her caprices and sudden out- bursts, in spite of all her melancholy and ennui, she was really very jolly and high-spirited. At school she was ‘the leader, that led us into the worst kinds of mischief. Everything was a joke to her, and she made game of everybody ... Butnow.. . I can’t very well reason it out to myself . . . I merely feel it, that . . . do you know, Arthur, it is awfully diffi- cult to confess it, but I will tell you honestly, she has become curiously strange to me. I am no longer so at ease with her as formerly. I have such a strange feeling of unrest with her . . . Oh, how beautiful she is! Have you noticed, how beautiful she is? ARTHUR I haven’t looked at her closely enough as yet. Bronka Man alive! ‘Are you blind? Have you actually ceased being a man? ARTHUR May be you are right . . . I am beginning to be 18 SNOW really interested in your guest. But now tell me, to what do you attribute this sudden change in her? A broken heart? Unrequited love? Which do you think? Bronxa A broken heart, unrequited love? Oh, no, my dear fellow, no! ARTHUR But how can you be so sure? Bronxa You see, I know all the young people of her set, and know that every one was merely a plaything for her . . . The only man she might have loved was Willy, my Willy. But of love there was not a trace, because there was an antipathy between them which kept them apart. ARTHUR You don’t say so? Willy knew her then, before he married you? Bronxa Yes, of course, didn’t you know? ARTHUR (Offhand) And they did not fall in love with each other? Bronxa Do you imagine that I would have asked Eva into my house if I had for a single second suspected my SNOW 19 husband of having been in love with her? If I did not know that they were strangers? i ARTHUR Yes, of course, you are right, or rather possibly you may be right. I am not acquainted with the feminine heart to that extent. Bronxa I am only afraid whether Willy may not be an- noyed that I have so suddenly urged Eva to visit us without his knowing anything about it. Perhaps, Willy would have preferred to rest here alone with you and me for a couple of days after his return... But you know, I couldn’t help myself. She is closer to me, I love her more than my sister who died .. . but to Willy she is a stranger . . . (The ringing of sleighbells driving into the yard is heard. Bronxa, with a joyous cry) Willy has come! Willy has come! At last! (She runs out through the door) ARTHUR (Sits alone and looks after Bronxa with an ex- pression of deep sorrow. He nervously tugs his beard, again throws a couple of branches into the fire, rises, and walks up and down in the room. Suddenly he stands still, takes his head im his two hands, and says to himself) Yes, yes, that’s how things are... Too late, too late... 20 . SNOW (He pulls himself together, sits down, be- gins smoking a cigarette, and remains seated lost in thought. In the anteroom Bronxa’s voice is heard vibrant with joy and the certi- tude of love) Bronga (Behind the scene) My Willy, my darling, pre- cious Willy! ARTHUR (Starting suddenly) Bronka’s voice! Oh you, my only own! How I have yearned for you all my life! (His face is contorted into a piteous smile. Bronxa runs on the stage, dragging WILLY behind her) Bronxa Come, come, come, dearie, run, run! You're all frozen through! Sit down here by the fireplace. Wiit1y But, my dear, my furs are very warm, and I am not frozen through at all. (He exchanges most affec- tionate greetings with his brother AnrHur) Well, Arthur, have you taken good care of the house? And you haven’t turned Bronka’s head with your metaphysics and your art ideals? ARTHUR On the contrary, I was all the time trying to pre- SNOW 21 pare Bronka for the fact that I wasn’t ever going to leave your house again. WILLY Didn’t I tell you that you would feel happy here! Bronxa But come, Willy, come! Sit down by the fireplace! You are frozen through and through! WILLY Thanks for your fireplace, I am not at all frozen through. My furs are too warm. But one thing — I’d enjoy a brandy and a bite to eat. Bronka Surely, right away! (She runs off) WILLy (Very happily) Well, Arthur? I have after all found peace and happiness. I did not dare to dream of such happiness. Before I knew Bronka, it seemed to me that all the forces of life had died in me. The heart was dried up, like shavings of wood. The soul was wounded . . . and this horrible, hellish boredom, this hereditary boredom of ours, was already begin- ning to weigh upon me like a nightmare. ARTHUR I know, I know, let’s say no more about it. You 22 SNOW were in a hopeless condition then. I read every letter of yours with fear and trembling, expecting suddenly to hear this: ‘“‘ Dear Arthur, I am bored unto death, and so I prefer to lie down upon Abraham’s bosom.” . . » I wasn’t really anxious, for death is the only remedy for boredom. Still it is unpleasant to re- ceive a letter like that from a brother one loves . (Suddenly) But tell me why did you, whom I re- member as always so strong, vigorous, and coura- geous, so full of life and power — why did you get into this strange, suicidal conflict with yourself? No one need have been surprised in my case, for I have always been a duffer and a muddlehead, but you. . . you... Witty It would be a long story, and the telling of the hor- rible torments which I have experienced would only bore you... But let me tell you one thing. I would long since have gone to perdition, if I had not met Bronka. ARTHUR (Carelessly) The cause of your break-down was a woman? Witty Yes and no, God knows ... a strange and to me unknown yearning, an unstilled desire . . . for what? Idon’t know... SNOW, 23 ARTHUR The woman was evil, she hurt you? Witiy No, not that... . She had merely lost contact with life. She tortures herself and others to death, and cannot render any account to herself of what she does or what she wants . . . some insane desire for something that is unobtainable has bewitched her . . - If you knew, how I tormented myself. ARTHUR And what then? Witty What then? ...Hm... she wished to be a slave, and it was her destiny that she had to be a master. I was too much afraid of losing her, but I did not know how to dominate her. Oh, how I have despised myself! Hated her and myself! But all that did not help. ARTHUR Tell me everything — everything. WILLy The end of this ballad of despair is soon sung. ARTHUR And since then you have not seen her again? WILLY The last sign of life from her came on the day of 24 SNOW my engagement. I had a letter from her so full of sincerity and warmth that I forgot all that she had done to me. ARTHUR Perhaps that was only one of the spiteful, cun- ning perfidies of a woman. Witty No, indeed, she was Bronka’s best friend. She had loved her with an insensate passionate love, and was truly happy, as she wrote me, that Bronka was getting for husband, a man whom she herself could only have made unhappy. ARTHUE (Searchingly) And since then you have not seen her again? WILLy No. ARTHUR And you never think of her? WILLY No, in my heart, in my brain, there is room only for Bronka. ARTHUR And if you should see her all of a sudden? Winriy (Thoughtfully) If I should see her all of a sud- SNOW 25 den? — Oh, no . . . it would no longer make any im- pression on me. The love for her has long since fallen to ashes. Besides, how do I know whether what I suffered on her account was love at all. Perhaps, —it was only a nobleman’s pride, that of one who had hitherto never met an obstacle on his path and who was now enraged to madness to have met a woman who offered resistance . . . Just remember at the same time, how ashamed I was of myself, my feeling of uncertainty and unsatisfied desire, and you can, perhaps, form an idea of my state of mind. (Rises and walks about the room) If I were to see her suddenly? ... So totally unexpected ... Hm, perhaps, something would flash up in the bottom of my soul... ARTHUR It is a fact then that you are not quite as sure of yourself as you say. es WILLY True, if I didn’t have Bronka at my side. But you see, with my joyous nature, always eager for action, I would not feel at home within the cold, mournful, medieval walls within which Eva alone could live. There the nights were spectre-filled. All manner of spooks were at home there. My energy melted like wax in fire, and the cursed melancholy gnawed the marrow out of my spine. Now look at me. My 26 SNOW head is made to bathe in the sun, and my fist to enter the lists and meet a still greater force than I am myself, if necessary. (He stretches out his arms and suddenly gaily claps his hands) Bronka, why so long? Come! Bronxa (Behind the scene) Right away, right away... ARTHUR And where did you meet Bronka? Witty . At my uncle’s. In the forest. She was riding a magnificent stallion. It suddenly shied at something and ran away with her. From a distance I saw her like an Amazon riding at such a mad pace that the belly of the animal touched the ground. I thought to myself that this pace was surely not intentional . . +. I merely marvelled at the magnificent way in which the girl held the saddle. I don’t know by what extraordinary means I brought the animal to a dead stop. I lost consciousness and lay in bed several weeks, but in return I have won Bronka, peace and happiness. ARTHUR A truly extraordinary adventure. WILLY Really extraordinary. I have often read in novels SNOW. 27 of such cases and laughed at them, and then a thing like that had to happen to my very self. (Bronxa enters, followed by a servant, bearing a tea-tray with cold food and drinks) Bronxa . (Nestling up to Witty) How impatient you are right away! I wanted to prepare everything with my own hands . . . all the things you like best. Wru1y But why such a lot? Browxa Dinner is still a long way off. Come eat — eat. ARTHUR (Pours a brandy into a glass and drinks to Witty) What a driving snowstorm! You can hardly see farther than the end of your nose. Bronxa If you only knew how anxious I was about you! ARTHUR Yes, indeed — she had a regular anxiety psychosis. She had the most horrible visions right in front of her all the time. WILLY (Taking her by the head) Oh, you incorrigible child, you. One can’t go even a step away from you. 28 SNOW Bronxa Because I know that as long as you are with me nothing serious can happen to you. Wrirty (Rises suddenly and strikes his forehead) It is incredible! I have the brains of a bird. Wait, wait —I will be back in a moment. (He starts to go) Bronxa Where are you going? Wii Soon, soon, I'll be back . . . a little surprise for you. (Wi11y’s voice is heard calling behind the scene: “Paul, Paul!”’) Bronxa (As gay as a child) Probably he is having an- other one of those precious surprises in store for me as so many times before. I am really angry with him. I have enough of velvets and silk and shawls from Persia and Afghanistan. He positively loads me down with them. ARTHUR He loves you, and for a man in love there is no greater pleasure than to prepare such surprises. But listen, Bronka, you too have a surprise in store SNOW 29 for him. I am just wondering whether he will like it. Willy is now perfectly happy, and happiness @ deur is jealous and egotistical. Even I myself am often afraid that I am in your way, and now a woman, to whom, you say, Willy was always antagonistic... Bronxa (Eagerly) Oh, no—no... All our woman’s strategy lies in just this. If we wish to keep a man’s love always fresh, we must now and then keep at a distance from him, give him free rein. I considered the matter a long while, and I have done well to let Eva come. I'll play, read, and take walks with her, and Willy can go hunting with his neighbors or drive to the city, and he will return to me with all the greater eagerness. ARTHUR I should never have thought that my little sister- in-law could be so crafty. Bronxka Not crafty at all. It is merely the method of our mothers and grandmothers, and it has stood the test. ARTHUR Very well! But nevertheless I am anxious that nothing should happen to-day to upset Willy’s good humor. And I love him as he is now, so full of energy, so bubbling over with life, and so sure of him- self. It was only with you that he found his balance. 30 SNOW Bronxka You needn’t be anxious about Willy. If you didn’t roam around-with your hang-dog look, and if you won’t put me in an ill-humor this evening . . . I am sorry. Here, you may kiss my hand. (ArrHurR holds her hand in his but does not kiss it) “Well, what does this mean? ARTHUR Nothing, nothing at all. I merely took the liberty of holding your dear, gentle, sweet child’s hand for a moment in mine. It makes me feel as though a crust of ice round my heart were melting. (He kisses her hand. Bronxa looks pierc- ingly at him) Bronxa You are really very melancholy and very tired, Arthur. ARTHUR That is always the way, if one hasn’t been born under a lucky star like Willy. WILLY (Enters and spreads out a long, costly shawl at Bronxa’s feet) I really should have spread this shawl at your feet all the way from the house to the sleigh when you ran out so joyously to meet me. And like an idiot, I had hidden it so far down under the SNOW $1 seat that I forgot all about it. It took a glass of brandy to bring it to my mind. Bronka (Throwing herself around his neck) Oh, you darling, you precious dear, you incurable spend- thrift... ARTHUR (Looks at both and then rises) Now, I'll leave you alone with your happiness, and write a couple of letters. (Turning to Bronxa) And for the big celebration at dinner, I suppose I’ll have to dress. Bronxa What else did you suppose? ARTHUR Well then, au revoir till later. (Stops at the win- dow) Oh, when will this snow stop? (Turning to Witty) How happy you must be, that the snow does not have to fall with sorrow and weariness upon your soul. (Exit) Bronxka (Looking after Antuur) What’s wrong with Arthur? He is so curiously sad and solemn. WILiy Don’t you feel easy in his company? Haven’t you gotten used to him yet? 32 SNOW Bronxa You know how fond we are of each other. He affects me like a soothing, lusterless autumn sun. He is a bit lugubrious, it is true, but good and gentle... Witty Yes. . . . Our race is dying out. He and I are the last scions of an old, once powerful stock. Bronra Oh, in you it won’t die out. How strong and powerful and young you now are! How your face radiates with happiness and consciousness of power! WILLy (Puts his arm around her, leads her slowly to the fireplace, and sits down beside her, both in a close embrace) Your love, your love has given me this sure consciousness of strength and power. Bronxa How your eyes glow! As though you would con- quer the entire world! And then again they are so infinitely kind and trustful (She kisses his eyes) that I would kiss them again and again — kiss them with- out end, bury myself in them without another thought — WILLY (Resting his head on her breast) You are my SNOW 33 only happiness — Oh, how I love it—this, your beautiful, your glorious love! Bronxka (Playing with his hair) Ah, what soft hair you have! Ihave the feeling that it isn’t hair at all that I am touching, but some infinitely soft bed of grass, or a heap of eider-down feathers. Do you know, there was a plot of such fine feathery grass in front of my father’s house. How I always loved to bury myself in this grass! Just so I would love to bury myself in your hair... (She presses a long kiss upon his hair) WILLy And do you remember when the horse ran away with you? Bronxa I was frightened to death, I lost all consciousness, and yet all the time I felt a strange joy in being borne by this noble, bridleless animal. WILLy And do you remember when I took you up in my arms across my breast and carried you up and down the room? (He raises her on his knees) Bronxa Oh, you, my only own! It is usual, they say, for a 84 SNOW modest, young girl to weep at the marriage-altar. I did not weep. I wanted to cry, cry out aloud with happiness and joy that we would soon, soon be in the sleigh — with two mad stallions ahead — racing to- ward you, toward you, your house. Witty And do you Rndnbee that icy January night? The heavens sparkled and the snow sparkled and the horses raced until they were covered over and over with a white foam, and how with all the force within me I held my marvelous happiness pressed close to me. (He holds her very close. At the windows Eva is seen passing by slowly. She stands stil looking at the two. Her shadow disap- pears) Bronxa Oh, hold me closer, closer, still closer, just like then, when you wrapped me in your furs . . . (She with- draws suddenly) But tell me why, when we were al- ready in the house, for a moment such a cold steely look suddenly came into your eyes? Witty It was then that I put a gravestone over all my past. Bronxa ‘And what sort of past had you? SNOW, 35 WILLY What sort of a past? A large, rich and terribly sad past: A Golgotha of agony and heartache; A Gehenna of internal: struggles, misery, an endless series of ups and downs and again despair, hatred for myself and all the world. Bronxa Have you ever loved before? WILLY How do I know, whether that was love? Perhaps, it only seemed so to me, I loved. I don’t want to set up any theory as to what love really is or is not, but I do believe that in every real love there must be a proud, sovereign confidence in the beloved and in one’s own love. This sureness of your love and mine I have never felt anywhere except with you. Bronxa (Caressing him) Willy, be honest. I talked a lot about Eva with Arthur to-day. WILLy (Surprised, a little darkly) About Eva? Bronxa Why yes! about Eva . . . But why have you be- come so solemn all of a sudden? WILLy Not at all. I merely suddenly remembered, how 36 SNOW in the very first weeks of our marriage you wanted to glory in our happiness before her. And I didn’t want anything except to be alone with you — alone with you . . . For happiness in love is very fragile, and may be broken by the least little thing. Bronxa (Anziously) By what for instance? WILLY Usually the atmosphere of a strange person is to blame. And you know, that Eva has now changed much . . . Arthur is my brother, and besides gentle and sad. His effect is as you have truly said like that of a mild, lusterless autumn sun . . . But Eva is something quite different. She is like the crater of an extinct volcano. You believe it has been dead long since, and suddenly fire and lava burst forth. Bronxa How do you happen to know her so well? Witty How? You know, I had to see her off and on. She roused my curiosity, just as Arthur is made curi- ous by a picture he doesn’t know or a rare exotic flower or even a beautiful thoroughbred animal. . . Bronxa (Uneasily) Willy, Willy ... SNOW. 87 WILLY (Surprised) What is the matter, Bronka? What is wrong? Bronxa (Hurriedly) I have often heard that love grows weaker, if two people are always and eternally to- gether. They say that they must separate for a while, that each must go his own way for a time to keep love always fresh, and to make them desire each other the more .. . I do not know what put the idea in my head, but I began all of a sudden to wish that you would go hunting, visit your neighbors . . . and then again . . . It wouldn’t be possible for me to sit here all alone in the house and wait for you, wait . . . (Eva is again seen behind the windows; she now remains standing and looks at the two sitting by the fireplace with their backs toward her. She looks at them with an expression of sullen, wild pain. Then she shrinks back) Tam right, am I not, Willy? Tell me, that I am right... WILLY But, Bronka, where did all these ideas come from so allat once? (He draws her close to himself) Is it possible for any man after living with a woman for a year to love her more thanI do you? Cana person want any one more than I want you? 38 SNOW Bronka (Suddenly) Willy, your letters, your precious, dear letters. And the last one, the most beautiful one . . . I carry it always here over my heart. (She shows him the letter, kisses it, and puts it back again)’ Eva (Has been seen walking impatiently up and down behind the scene during the preceding dialogue. With sudden determination she goes to the door. With assumed calm) I heard voices in the room, and your rugs are too soft for you to hear my foot- steps. WILLY (With deep fright, trembling) What is that? Who is it? Eva I am not disturbing any one? May I come in? Bronka (Not hearing her) Willy, what is the matter? (Turns around) Oh, it is you, Eva! Come right in, come! How pleased Willy will be! (Eva slowly enters the room. Wty looks at her with a distracted expression, as though he were dreaming a horrible dream) CURTAIN ACT II ACT IT The same room as before. The dusk of a winter afternoon. The snow shows behind the windows with a bluish sheen. A fire burns in the fireplace. After a little while Eva and Witty enter. Eva (Walks over to the fireplace and warms her hands) Oh, how cold I am, how cold . . . and I thought I would find warmth here with you. WILLY Never and nowhere will you find warmth. Eva And yet I came here for that very purpose, to warm my heart at your happiness. WILLY To warm one’s heart, one must have a heart. Eva So—o—o? WILLY Yes, exactly so. But let that pass. During all the time that we were out walking (He looks care- 4] 42 SNOW. lessly at the clock), and it was almost three hours, it seems to me we exchanged more than enough in the way of compliments. We might, perhaps, now begin to talk of something else. ; * Eva By all means, please begin . . . But first have them light the lights . . . It is twilight — such a strangely dull fire in the fireplace . . . bluish gleam of snow behind the windows — these soft rugs — these heavy curtains . . . Yes, indeed . . . Things may become dangerous. All this sets the heart to beating, lights up old desires . . . (Looks thought- fully about her) Did you, yourself, furnish the en- tire house? Witty Yes, I myself. Eva Fully conscious of what you were doing? WILLy Of course. Eva You know then that your house is merely a copy of mine? WILLY Of course, I know it. Eva And why did you do it? SNOW 43 WILLy To try out my strength, to prove to myself that Thad forgotten everything, thrown off the nightmare. Eva (Smiling quietly) And is this the reason too why you have hung my portrait — the one I painted my- self and gave to you — in your study? WILLY You were in my study? Eva All night long before you returned, I sat there. Witty And what did you do there? Eva What did I do there? . . . I was happy that you love me so much, and that you desire me so intensely. WILLY But this time you are very much mistaken. Eva No, no, Iam not mistaken. Your study looks more like a kind of shrine in which you seek refuge from your happiness, from your warm place by Bronka’s side, and from her coral-red lips. There you tear your heart open and yearn with all the force within 44 SNOW you, and desire for that which drives your heart to madness . . . Oh, to desire, to yearn, to desire. . . . WItty What for? Eva For all that which makes up the torment of unsatis- fied desire in you. You were born for battle. There was a time when you wished to be a leader, to conquer new worlds, not for the sake of possession, but for the sake of the joy of being able to stand out as the lord of victory in the midst of the corpses and heaps of ruin, of taking off the helmet and wiping the sweat from your brow. Isn’t it so? . . . This life here is not for you — this quiet corner by the fireplace, these soft rugs. It would be a fit place now for your brother, whose soul is already touched with mildew. Wiiy (Looking at her very earnestly) First of all, tell me why did you come here? Surely your criminal instincts are not so developed that you wish by force to destroy the peace and happiness of two human be- ings? And in addition the happiness of a man whose life you almost wrecked once before? Eva (Laughs) Almost! Too bad I let you off so easily. SNOW 45 Witty You did not let me off ; I myself broke the chains. Eva (Looks thoughtfully and fixedly into the fire) Yes, that is true. I admired your force and your strength, and at that time I began to love you. WILiy (Laughs ironically) Oh, I know, I know. But permit me to go on, and do not always interrupt me. Please, answer my question: why did you come here? Eva You don’t know, then, that it is at Bronka’s urgent invitation? She even lied a little bit to get me to come here. She wrote she was ill. WILLY In spite of that you should not have entered this house. Eva (Surprised) And why not? Your heart cried out for me incessantly, you have wanted me so ter- ribly all the time .. . WILiy I? Ihave wanted you? Ihave cried out for you? But I have absolutely and wholly forgotten you. 46 SNOW Eva (Sadly) You have not forgotten me. Your en- tire house is filled, permeated with me. As soon as I crossed the threshold of your house, I felt that it was my house, that I rule here with undivided sway, that I fill its every nook and corner. WILiy Umph . . . You are probably thinking of the fur- niture. Well, let me tell you, that I intentionally imitated the arrangements of your house. A drunk- ard, for instance, if he wishes to prove to himself that he is entirely rid of his habit, will now and then drink a glass or two of brandy, however much he may dis- like the taste . .. if he doesn’t empty the entire bottle at one draught, he may regard himself as cured ... Do you understand? I furnished the house as I did intentionally, to try my strength, and to prove to myself each and every day that I am free of you. Eva (Maliciously) And yet... WILiy And yet . . . You never entered my mind; you never even appeared in my dreams. Eva (Throwing branches into the fire as if not hearing anything that Witty says) You have suffered SNOW AT much, my poor friend. Much of wrath and torment and disgust must have dwelled in your soul. It is too bad — to have all the foundations for happiness, riches, a strong soul, a beautiful, young wife who loves and is loved . . . But do you really love her? Perhaps, you are merely wearied of the battle and the horrible torments of life, and now in the midst of the battlefield you wish to take off your helmet and wipe the sweat from your brow? WILLY (Ironically) There was a time when your pretty figures of speech gave me pleasure; they don’t mean anything to me now. Eva (Paying no attention) You are only happy now, because you are resting in the greenest of green val- leys, and are renewing your strength in order again to storm the mountains. Oh, if it were like that, how I would love you! WILLY Listen, Eva! You must leave this house. Let us stop playing with dots and dashes and unspoken words. You know what a power you once had over me. Snow, soft white snow has covered all the mem- ories and all the pain and all the torment and all the struggles, but if the snow should melt . . . 48 SNOW: Eva Well, what then? WILLY Then, it would be fatal. Eva Fatal? For whom? WILLY For you, for me, but especially for Bronka. Eva (Brushing across her forehead) For Bronka, for Bronka ...I loved her deeply ... (After a pause) True, true, she will be very unhappy. WILLy (Steps close to her and then sits down) Listen to me! Please pay close attention, and try to under- stand me. You have a habit of not understanding what you do not want to understand. Eva (Indifferently) I shall listen, and I shall under- stand. Witty I will confess quite honestly that I am really very much on edge and restless. I will admit even more. I have thought of you almost incessantly, I was even hungry for the torments which you used to inflict on SNOW 49 me, but now leave me in peace. I love Bronka, and I shall stay with Bronka. Eva If you stay here you will torment her to death. The wounds in your heart have opened again. You are making for the flame like a moth. From the mo- ment that you heard my voice your carefully built palace of happiness has fallen down like a house of cards ... (Ironically) You can’t deceive me. This soft warm corner by the fireplace is too narrow for you. Everything in you is bursting and strain- ing. Your former soul has come to life again — to face dangers, to overcome obstacles, to conquer worlds. You are the last one of the magnificent race of conquistadors, whom this stupid corner, called Europe, could no longer satisfy. Witty (Bitingly) Thanks for these new worlds, which I am to conquer by slaughtering herds of idiotic sheep. Eva No, I didn’t mean it that way. First, you must subdue the sea, cut through the mountains, endure all misery and sorrow, so that this new world may un- fold in all its magnificence under the eye of the con- quistador. And that the conqueror must tread down under iron heel even the fairest flower-bed, that he must slaughter a herd of sheep, or even cut down the 50 SNOW finest forest, concealing a splendid view . . . of what importance is that? (Always more dreamily) All that is of no importance whatever .. . Wit1y And what then? Eva Slowly, slowly ... (Suddenly laughing aloud) How the conqueror’s blood always boils over in you! (Looks at him and then collapses again) First you must subdue the sea, cut through and undermine mountains, on the way stamp down with iron heel even the loveliest flower-bed .. . Witty (Threateningly) By that you mean Bronka? (Eva remains silent and again throws branches into the fire. WHuLuy, significantly) By that you really meant Bronka? Eva Yes. (They are silent. Wry walks excitedly back and forth in the room) WILty (Stepping close to Eva) Please, Eva, I beg of you, leave us in peace. Eva But there will no longer be any peace for you, SNOW. 51 Witty I know that, I know that, but at least Bronka will have peace. Eva You see, Willy, you have already become totally blind to everything round about you. Didn’t you see how restlessly her eyes followed you, how she sought to read your thought, how nervous she grew — and how all the time her look wandered from you to me, from me to you, searching, questioning? Oh, how I love her, how I love her! And how nervous she was, how she always turned to Arthur, as if, seeking help from him. (They are silent. Wuxy is very uneasy) Witty Hm ... And you think that I was born to con- quer new worlds? ‘To what end? Eva To live in beauty, to be beautiful one’s self, to feel one’s self acting beautifully. Witty And if one hasn’t the power to conquer anything? Eva Then you fall, but even that is beautiful. WILLY But if everything is merely a purposeless struggle, - 52 SNOW an insensate mania for destruction, incapable of building anything out of the ruins? Eva Even that is beautiful! A man who fights, who slaves, and wears himself out in bloody struggle to achieve the unobtainable, is beautiful. WILLy Hm... And if he desires nothing except peace and quiet in a soft, warm corner by the fireplace? Eva That is very well for Arthur. Witiy And for me? Eva (Looks at him for a long time and then smiles) For you? Only I! I alone! WiLLy (Remains standing, with stifled voice) Why did you then, when I laid everything at your feet ; at that time when with you and through you I wished to con- quer the new worlds of which you now speak; why, tell me, why did you then repulse me? Eva You did not know how to be my master. SNOW. 53 Witty And now? Eva Now I love you. I love you because you wanted to forget me, because you wished to conquer yourself, for only the strong know how to conquer themselves. Now I love you with all the desires of my heart and with a tormenting fear, that now, perhaps, you may no longer want me. WILLY (Laughing nervously) But now really, it is time that we light the lamp. (He lights the lamp) Bronka may come in any moment and suspect us of having sweet heures de confidence behind her back. (They are silent) Eva (Offhand) Did you knock about the world for a long time? Witty (Looks at her in surprise and then assumes the same tone) Almost two years. Eva They say you were in Africa. WILLY (Ironically) Yes, I was there, but everything in the way of new worlds there had already been dis- 54 SNOW covered by Stanley. I whiled away the time in hunt- ing tigers . . . Yes, indeed! . . . You are right, I was really made to be a conquistador. When a tiger tore a couple of negroes to bits, I really hadn’t the slightest sensation of triumph. Eva (Ironically) But? WILLY I had only one thought, that my turn would be next. Eva And you had no weapon with you? Witty The cartridges were wet. Eva And you were not afraid of death? WILLy Hadn’t I been looking for it? It is beautiful too, to be torn into shreds by such a magnificent, regal beast. Eva Yes, that, too, is beautiful . . . But I hear Bronka coming. (Bronxa and Artuur are heard in ani- mated conversation in the anteroom. They enter) SNOW 55 Bronxa (With artificial animation) Oh, if you only knew what a wonderful sleighride it was! The sparkling crystals of snow on the ice, and the moon, the moon . . . Oh, how glorious it was! Wasn’t it, Arthur? You said so yourself, that it was glorious. (To Eva) To-morrow you must go with us. Every- thing is just as if made for you — the snow, the moon and Arthur, Arthur ... yes, indeed! ... take a look at Arthur! So bored and so tired, and I have never seen any one who can skate as gracefully as he. ARTHUR Bronka exaggerates as usual. It wasn’t quite as glorious as all that. They had indeed swept the snow from the pond, but a lot of it was still left, so much that my dear sister-in-law could wade in it up to her knees. Bronxka (Absent-mindedly) Oh, what a liar, what a liar . . . Oh, you bad, bad man! (Suddenly to Witty) Willy, perhaps you are annoyed that we stayed out so long. But my heart didn’t feel any scruples. I knew that you were here with my darling Eva. I intentionally wanted you to put off your country squire’s cloak after a year, and go together with her to those places which are too high for me. (She nestles close to Eva) Eva, Eva, how happy you are. 56 SNOW You are so absolutely different from all the rest of us women. How well I remember the time when I came to you after my engagement all radiant with happiness. Are you listening, Willy? The room in which we then sat looked exactly like this. (Sud- denly, as if she were waking up out of a deep sleep) Eva, it is very strange, but the room was furnished to its least detail just like ours. Eva There is nothing very strange in that. That’s probably, entirely accidental. Wit1y (Cold and hard) No doubt the same man fur- nished both our homes. Bronxa Hm... I suppose so... Do you remember, Eva, how we sat by the fireplace? I talked to you and talked without end, endlessly —I don’t remem- ber any more what a heap of things I chattered to- gether, and you were so kind to me and listened so patiently ... (She suddenly breaks out into impetuous laughter) WILLy What is the matter with you, Bronka? Why are you so nervous to-day? SNOW 57 Bronka You see, I want to fly, fly high and always higher, like a bird, and helplessly I strike only the earth with my wings, and I want to go up, up, without end, but the wings are heavy as lead . . . Eva, how happy you are! ARTHUR (Concerned) You see, I told you right away that such a run wasn’t good for the health, and now you'll have to do penance for your romantics. Bronxa (Defiantly) No,Ishallnot do penance. Enough of this stupid nervousness. I am a stupid, spoiled child. (She suddenly breaks into tears and runs into the adjoining room. Eva is about to follow her) WILLY No, please stay. I will calm her very quickly. (He follows Bronxa) ARTHUR (Uneasily) Bronka is probably ill. She is so upset. I have never seen her like that. Eva Neither have I. 58 SNOW ARTHUR (Suddenly) But you must have noticed what a change has come over Bronka since yesterday. Eva Just a moment ago I told your brother this very thing. ARTHUR Did you notice her restlessness last night and all through to-day? Eva I did, and that is why I am so surprised. ARTHUR And have you no idea as to the reason for this sud- den change? Eva No. ARTHUR Hm .. . But you must have noticed too that there is a change in Willy. He is so serious and so absent- minded. Eva I never knew him to be otherwise. ARTHUR But I did. He came home yesterday, all full of joy, happiness and eagerness. Rarely have I seen him so strong, so full of conscious strength. SNOW. 59 Eva And, and? ARTHUR (Looks penetratingly at her) And? I am ask- ing you, for I don’t understand this sudden change. Eva I believe you are blaming me for the change in the weather-vane of moods? ARTHUR Didn’t you notice that Bronka came to breakfast this morning with red eyes, swollen with crying? I would swear that she cried all through the night. Eva You really believe then that I am to blame? ARTHUR Not at all. It is a question here of something quite different . . . You see —I don’t wish to start an inquisition, but it is remarkable, how strangely the situation has changed since yesterday. I feel the presence of some mysterious riddle in the air... Yes, indeed . . . I am high-strung, and high-strung people can’t very well bear the heavy sultriness be- fore the thunder-storm. Eva The sultriness before the thunder-storm? 60 SNOW ARTHUR It is immaterial what we call it, but there is some- thing in the air, which a sensitive and susceptible na- ture like Bronka’s immediately and instinctively feels . . - Do you hear how she is crying? (Bronxa’s loud sobs are heard in the ad- joming room. There is silence. ARTHUR listens with growing uneasiness. Eva walks back and forth) ARTHUR (Following her) Do you hear? Eva Psst — psst ... AgTHUR (Takes her by the hand and leads her to the win- dow) Let us be frank with each other. I do not know you, but what I have heard about you from Bronka and Willy is enough to have given me a fairly clear conception of your personality. Eva (Indifferently) Please don’t torment me now. I know in advance what you are going to say to me. ARTHUR No, no, you don’t know that. I have never inter- fered in the affairs of other people, not even in those of my brother... SNOW 61 Eva (Interrupting) Very well, then, let us speak frankly. You have heard from Willy that there was once a close intimacy between him and me. I know that he often wrote letters to you, and that he opened his inmost soul to you. You know that he loved me, and how completely I dominated him. You know also that the snow may lay its shroud over such a love, but only to keep it warm so that it may come to life again, more ardent and passionate than ever. ARTHUR That is just what I meant to tell you. Eva Byonka on the other hand has told you of how passionately I loved her at school, that for a long time we were inseparable. Isn’t itso? She told you this? ARTHUR Yes. She talked a great deal about it yesterday. Eva I had not seen her for several years, then she came to me as Willy’s fiancée, radiant with happiness — Oh, so radiantly happy that I was reconciled to the thought of having her at the side of a man whom at that very time I loved with all the strength and pas- sion of my soul. 62. SNOW ARTHUR You loved Willy? Eva Yes — when I had lost him. (They looked for a while fivedly at one another) And now you were go- ing to ask me why I have come to destroy my friend’s happiness? Weren’t you? ARTHUR Perhaps, I had that intention for a moment — but I understood immediately, that such a question would be utterly futile. To be honest, I have to confess, that I haven’t any great liking for you, we have too little in common . . . but that does not prevent my being just... (Suddenly) You have always wanted something? (Eva, with her fore-head pressed against the window-pane, remains silent) All your desire, your life long, has been to bind to yourself a man, who with never-appeased desire, is to seek for you everywhere, and never to find you, but who yet is blindly to follow you? Eva {Ardently) Yes! ARTHUR Willy? Eva (Firmly) Yes! SNOW 63 ARTHUR And Bronka? Eva Can’t you hear how happily she is laughing now? Do you know what will happen next? ARTHUR Well? Eva Bronka will now throw herself around my neck, and humbly and sincerely ask my pardon for having made a scene . . . Look, what a glorious moonlight —hand me my furs — shall we take a little walk? Perhaps, it may lead to speaking with even greater frankness . . . (She suddenly looks piercingly at ArtHur) For surely you are not going to deny... ARTHUR What? Eva That you love Bronka. ARTHUR (Looks at her for along time) Yes... yes! Eva Do you hear her laugh? Oh, this silvery girl’s laughter ! . ARTHUR Let us go... 64 SNOW (At this very moment, Bronxa and Witty enter the room hand in hand, apparently happy) Bronxa (To Eva) Don’t go now, Eva, don’t leave. You know how I have always been. All of you have al- ways been much too good to me. You spoiled me with your kindness, Willy has carried on your work, and now you are surprised when I have moods. Eva, dear, darling Eva, you know best of all, that I am half crazy ; I have moments when I am absolutely ir- responsible. Eva Why so sad, why ask my forgiveness? (She caresses her cheeks) Oh, you sensitive plant, how overwrought and nervous you are! Bronra One can forgive a child, because it can’t keep its nerves under control, but not me. (Nervously and rapidly) You see, sometimes such strange thoughts come to me . . . No, that isn’t it, not that ... It is something, like once before . . . it is really only like a shadow of something terrible about to happen. Actually it is, perhaps, only the memory, the far- away, far-away memory of the awful hours which I experienced as a child, a long time ago when I hunted in vain all through the house and all over the large SNOW 65 park for my sister. Only a moment before I had seen her, and now where is she? I was absolutely sure that something terrible had happened to her, and I ran into the forest and hunted her there for hours, and returned frightened to death, breathless, only half-conscious. (She clings nervously to Eva) Eva, Eva, it seemed to me that something was pur- suing me, dragging me back by the hair and pulling and pulling . . . and in front of the veranda I fell flat on the grass. I buried my face in my hands, so that I might hear nothing, but I heard heavy, dull, seeking foot-steps. And they came closer and closer and closer, Eva Who? Bronxra Peasants were carrying my sister, my darling sis- ter, on a stretcher — she had fallen into the pond and drowned .. . Eva Drowned in the pond? Bronxa Yes, in the pond. Eva (Persisting) Pond? Bronxa Yes, of course, in the pond. (To Witty) Let 66 SNOW us have our pond filled in. It always reminds me of the black, dull light of that other pond. Witty Come, Bronka, be calm. I will do whatever you want. (He looks challengingly at Eva. Bronxa clings more and more closely to Eva) If you want it, I will level everything here to the ground. Yes, I'll do that. I'll have the trees cut down, the pond filled up, just say so! Eva Perhaps, you will also have the earth swept clean of snow . . . Oh, you children, children . . . Now Willy too is all on edge. Bronxa What did I do, Willy, to irritate you? Witty But, Bronka dear, you haven’t irritated me at all. You know it makes me sad that you can’t even here with me forget your terrible childhood memories. Eva (Stroking her cheeks) Come, forget, forget! Gentlemen, leave us alone for a while. Bronka knows how fond I am of her; I have always succeeded in quieting her, and driving away even her saddest mem- ories. SNOW, 67 ARTHUR You are right. Come, Willy, come! WILLy And you will calm yourself, Bronka? Bronxa See how quiet I am already, but please go. I am so happy alone with Eva. We have such a lot to say to each other. (Agruur and Witty leave for the adjoin- img room) ArtTuuR (In the doorway, to Eva) You said something about a walk in the moonlight .. . Eva Later, later, when Bronka is herself again. * Bronxa Oh, then we'll all go together. Eva No, no, dearie. You'll be nice, and stay right here. Willy will come. Newly-married people should be together a lot. And you mustn’t get up- set again . . (ArrHor leaves at the last words) Bronxa Am I really so insufferable, Eva? 68 SNOW. Eva (Thoughtfully) Oh,no,no! But I am surprised at this sudden attack of nerves in you. Bronxa But you aren’t offended with me? Eva No, I wouldn’t blame you even if... Bronxa (Agitated, as if she were guessing Eva’s thoughts) Tf, ifs ss Eva Even if this change in you toward me... (Breaking off) Come, be honest, Bronka, There is some incomprehensible fear in you . . . perhaps, it isn’t fear at all, but you no longer have the same trust and confidence in me as formerly. Bronxa I am honest and frank. I will tell you every- thing . . . You see, you have changed so... Eva (Smiling) Have I changed? Bronxa Yes, it is difficult for me to find my way about with you now; I can’t any longer find my Eva of two years ago. Sometimes it seems that a whole eternity SNOW 69 has passed since you held me close to you the last time, so warmly and affectionately, since you shared my happiness so joyously when Willy became engaged to me. Eva (As if far away) Yes, an eternity has passed since then. Bronxa You see, that is why I am looking so helplessly and with such unutterable fear at the bottom of this eter- nity . . . Now you see, why the black, dull eye of the pond frightens me so. (Eva strokes her hair) I don’t know what sort of a dread has suddenly come over me .. . Perhaps, I did catch a bit of a cold to- day. Perhaps, I am not wholly in my senses to- day, for the touch of your hand seems different now from what it used to be. It used to be as if you wished to brand me with a stigma of love, and now you are so distant, so far away . . . You know, you know — I am feeling exactly what it is now. (With her eyes closed she runs her fingers over Eva’s hands) ‘It is as if an autumnal yearning were sweeping yellow leaves down an avenue of chestnuts. Eva Yearning? Bronxa Yes, yearning! Oh, how afraid I am of this, your 710 SNOW yearning! Do you remember when we were still at school, how I was always afraid of your wild, pas- sionate love? Now I am much more afraid of your yearning. Tell me, Eva, why have you filled me with this fear? Eva Listen, Bronka! You are overwrought now, but I understand everything that is passing in your soul. Consciously I do not feel the slightest change in my love for you. But it may be that actually I have changed. You are no longer mine, undividedly mine, as you once were. You love your husband, and, per- haps unconsciously, it is something intangible that is making you afraid... Ah, I know what it is. (She laughs) My darling, perhaps, you are jealous of Willy? Tellme! Tell me honestly! Bronxa No, no, no, I am not jealous, but I am afraid of something, something . . . Eva Of what? Bronxka Of your beauty. Eva How do you mean that? Bronxa How do I mean it? You see, the finest, most beau- SNOW 71 tiful woman might be around Willy all the time, and I wouldn’t be the least bit afraid of her for I know that Willy wouldn’t even notice her. But your beauty is something entirely different. You are beautiful in a different way ... You awaken a yearning and a desire, the like of which one has never known before. You can chain people to you and dtaw them after you, without yourself knowing that any one is following you, and this some one doesn’t know either whither your magic is leading him... He merely follows, and goes on and on, blindly. Eva Where to? Bronka I don’t know, I don’t know. You see, I don’t un- derstand it at all, I can only feel it, sense it. Some- thing is biting and gnawing at my brain, and I don’t know what it is... (Thoughtfully) Arthur told me yesterday that there is a point in which all op- posites meet . . . I don’t quite remember how he ex- plained it, but something like this — that an infinitely great sphere would become a plane surface, and in my own mind I thought that the black funnel of the pond might go down to such infinite depth, that what was depth might fuse with the height of the heavens . . . (Thoughtfully) Where to? Either into the black abyss of the pond, or upward toward the endless dis- tances of the heavens. ty 12 SNOW Eva Where did you get such thoughts? Bronka (Looks at her penetratingly, then with a slight smile) Yes, Eva dear, we no longer understand each other .. . (With sudden tenderness) See, now, that some sort of clarity is gleaming through my presentiments and fear, now that I am beginning to unriddle what was disturbing the depth of my soul, now I am grateful to you, and I am feeling closer to you again. And the strange thing is — that in me too a mysterious yearning is awakening . . . Per- haps I am too weak, really to yearn . . . to bear the torments of yearning... Eva For what should you yearn? MHasn’t your every desire been fulfilled? Bronxka One hasn’t yet, not yet. Eva And do you know what it is? Bronxka Not yet, not yet. (There is silence) SNOW 13 ARTHUR (Entering restlessly. To Pees) Well? Are you feeling better now? Bronka (Suddenly gay again) Oh, come now? Do you want to see me distressed again? I have had more than enough of your philosophy of opposites which _ meet at some point or other. ARTHUR (Jestingly) You haven’t expressed yourself very exactly, but as for that you can see the fact in your- self. A little while ago, sad and moody, now gay again. Bronxa Not thanks to you, however. Quite on the con- trary. Your tired and bored manner would be quite enough to drive any one to desperation. ARTHUE Just wait till to-morrow, you will be much worse. Bronka Many thanks. ARTHUR (To Eva) Perhaps, you feel like a little walk now. I have asked Willy in the meantime to look after a business matter for me about which I don’t know a blessed thing .. . Th SNOW Eva And you, Bronka, lie down now and forget your whims and troubles . . . (She puts her arms around Bronxa, lays her out tenderly on the chaise longue and covers her with a shawl) Bronxa Oh, I am feeling so happy, so happy. (Eva and ArTuur leave. Bronxa remains lying down for a while, then slowly raises herself, listening anviously. She then takes a letter out of her pocket, looks at it for a long time, kisses it, covers her face with it, and weeps softly) Willy, my darling, my only own Willy! CURTAIN ACT III ACT III Bronxa and Wriiy are seen through the brightly illuminated windows slowly entering the drawing-room. It is early morning. The sun lies purple on the snow. Bronka enters first, followed by Wit. Bronxa Nowhere peace, I can’t find peace anywhere .. . Nowhere — nowhere . . . And I would nestle close, close to you, and find a little, just a tiny little bit of peace here by you . . . Willy, Willy — What is this thing that has suddenly come over us? WILLY But you dear, precious child — have you forgotten how you cried, when I had to leave you for a week? Bronxa Oh, no—no... That was something entirely different ... Then it was merely the fear of a spoiled child of having to stay alone, and the fear of my hunger for you — just imagine, I wasn’t to see you for a whole week. 77 78 SNOW WILLy And now? What about now? I am here with you, with you day and night. Bronxa " And your soul — where does your soul wander? Witty My soul? (Seriously) It is always and ever with you. Bronxga (Hastily) With me? ‘Tell me again, that your soul is always withme.. . WILLy (Firmly) Always! (He walks restlessly up and down the room. Bronxa follows his movements) Bronxa Always with me? Witty I have never loved you more strongly, felt you closer to me than just now — to-night . . . But I must confess that there have been times in the past when I felt a senseless yearning, which tore my heart and brain asunder . . . Bronra (Hurriedly interrupting him) Yearning? yearn- SNOW 79 ing? You were tormented with yearning? For what, for what did you yearn? Witiy Hush, Bronka, hush . . . You know very well how much I love you. I have never had any desire for anything except ... Bronxa (More and more intensely) Except? — Tell me, what? WILuiy (Stroking her hair) Except for desire . . . Bronxa What?