Brecht Collected Plays: 1: Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; Life of Edward II of England; & 5 One Act Plays: "Baal", "Drums in the Night", "In the Jungle of Ci (World Classics) Read Online Free PDF Page B

snakes
    While necks of purest silver
    With slender murmurs shook.
    And they were seized with trembling
    All over that leafy domain
    Obeying the hands of their Father
    So light in their delicate veins.
    Applause
.
    CRIES OF: Brilliant! Extreme but in good taste. Simply heavenly.
    THE YOUNG LADY: In my opinion it comes closest to the Baalian conception of the world.
    MECH: You should travel! The Abyssinian mountains. That’s something for you.
    BAAL: They won’t come to me, though.
    PILLER: Why? With your zest for life! Your poems had an enormous effect on me.
    BAAL: The lorry-drivers pay if they like them.
    MECH
drinking
: I’ll publish your poems. I’ll let the cinnamon logs float away, or do both.
    EMILIE
to Mech
: You shouldn’t drink so much.
    BAAL: I haven’t got any shirts. I could use some white shirts.
    MECH: You’re not interested in the publishing deal?
    BAAL: But they’d have to be soft.
    PILLER
ironic
: Oh, and what can I do for you?
    EMILIE: You write such wonderful poems, Mr Baal. So sensitive.
    BAAL
to Emilie
: Won’t you play something on the harmonium?
    Emilie plays
.
    MECH: I like eating to the harmonium.
    EMILIE
to Baal
: Please don’t drink so much, Mr Baal.
    BAAL
looks at Emilie
: Do you have forests of cinnamon floating for you, Mech? Butchered forests?
    EMILIE: You can drink as much as you like. I was only asking a favour.
    PILLER: Even your drinking shows promise.
    BAAL
to Emilie
: Play higher up! You’ve got lovely arms.
    Emilie stops playing and approaches the table
.
    PILLER: Apparently you don’t care for the music itself.
    BAAL: I can’t hear the music. You’re talking too much.
    PILLER: You’re a queer fish, Baal. I gather you don’t want to get published.
    BAAL: Don’t you trade in animals too, Mech?
    MECH : Do you object?
    BAAL
stroking Emilie’s arm
: What’s my poetry to you?
    MECH : I wanted to do you a favour. Couldn’t you be peeling some more apples, Emilie?
    PILLER : He’s afraid of being sucked dry. – Haven’t you found a use for me yet?
    BAAL : Do you always wear wide sleeves, Emilie?
    PILLER : But now you really must stop drinking.
    PSCHIERER : Perhaps you ought to go easy on the alcohol. Full many a genius —
    MECH : Would you like to have a bath? Shall I have a bed made up for you? Have you forgotten anything?
    PILLER : Your shirts are floating away, Baal. Your poetry has floated off already.
    BAAL
drinks
: I’m against monopolies. Go to bed, Mech.
    MECH
has risen
: I delight in all the animals on God’s earth, but this is one animal you can’t do business with. Come, Emilie! Shall we go, ladies and gentlemen?
    All have risen indignantly
.
    CRIES : Sir! Astounding! That’s the…!
    PSCHIERER : I am shattered, Mr Mech …
    PILLER : Your poetry has a malicious streak.
    BAAL
to Johannes
: What is the gentleman’s name?
    JOHANNES : Piller.
    BAAL : Well, Piller,
you
can send me some old newspapers.
    PILLER
leaving
: You mean nothing to me. You mean nothing to literature.
    All go
.
    SERVANT
entering
: Your coat, sir.
Baal’s Attic
    Starlit night. At the window Baal and the adolescent Johannes. They look at the sky
.
    BAAL : When you lie stretched out on the grass at night youcan feel in your bones that the earth is round and that we’re flying, and that there are beasts on this star that devour its plants. It’s one of the smaller stars.
    JOHANNES : Do you know anything about astronomy?
    BAAL : No.
    Silence
.
    JOHANNES : I’m in love with a girl. She’s the most innocent creature alive, but I saw her once in a dream being made love to by a juniper tree. That is to say, her white body lay stretched out on the juniper tree and the gnarled branches twisted about her. I haven’t been able to sleep since.
    BAAL : Have you ever seen her white body?
    JOHANNES : No. She’s innocent. Even her knees … There are degrees of innocence, don’t you think? And yet, there are times when I hold her, just for a second, at night, and she trembles like a