The Brontë Trilogy by Christian Lanciai

The Brontë Trilogy Dramatizations by Christian Lanciai of the three novels ”Jane Eyre”, ”Wuthering Heights” and ”The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë

Rochester page 1 Wuthering Heights 34 The Dark Widow 101

each drama with a comment

Rochester drama in five acts after Charlotte Brontë by Christian Lanciai (2008), translated 2018.

dramatis personae: The father Edward Rochester Richard Mason Bertha Mason Their father A butler Céline Varens A vicomte, her lover Adèle, her daughter Mrs Fairfax Jane Eyre Blanche Ingram Grace Poole Doctor Carter Fanny, maid The priest Briggs, lawyer Aunts and uncles The action is in north England, in Paris and on Jamaica during the first half of the 19th century. Copyright © C. Lanciai 2008

Rochester Act I scene 1. At home. Father I only want to keep you out of harm’s way, my son. Edward But my brother gets everything! I get nothing! Is that fair? Are we not equally your sons? Father Of course, but you must understand. I can’t split the estate. It must be kept intact generation after generation. But you will not be without compensation. Edward You disinherit me and promise me a compensation. What kind of double standard is that? Father I have an old friend on Jamaica. His family is among the oldest and richest on the island, and his eldest daughter is worth 80,000 pounds. I have contacted him. You will go there and make your fortune. Edward What’s the name of the family? Father Mason. Edward So you exile me to an island of jungles of fever and mosquitoes to compensate me for my disinheritance? Father You evade remaining at home getting mouldy and gloomy from the humidity, the bad weather and the boredom here. You avoid your brother’s destiny to get stuck here. You will see the world and new horizons. Do you follow? Can you believe, that I only want the best for you? Edward (resigns) I guess I have no choice. Father I would never offer you this if I weren’t sure of the deal. To convince you of your security I managed to get a miniature portrait of her. (produces a miniature portrait and shows it to Edward, who is astounded.) Well, what do you say, my son? Isn’t she beautiful? Edward What is her name? Father Bertha. Edward (tastes the name) Bertha Mason. Father Honestly, my son, I think you are more fortunate than your brother, who also has no choice but has to take care of our estates. He will be stuck as a patron for life, while you will get on an adventure to Jamaica where you actually by the connections of the Mason family could make a much more considerable career and fortune. Edward I don’t know what is right, father. You bereave me of my rights to the family estate and instead cast me out on a venture of unknown prospects. It is taking a risk on your side, and I am the one to risk my life. But I have to accept that I have no choice, like my brother has to accept it. He gets it all but maybe a dull life into the bargain. Whatever I get there doesn’t seem to be any risk of dullness in it. Father That’s the spirit, my son. Then we are agreed. You will leave by the first opportunity, and you will hardly see me alive again. I tried to do the best of a difficult deal with two sons without splitting the estate. And I also ask both of you to

each one make the best of it. Which one will be the happier winner is impossible to say. You are different and each other’s contraries, and I tried to give each of you the kind of destination that would suit you best. That’s all, my son. I am glad I didn’t make you an enemy. (embraces him) Edward But you almost succeeded. Only Bertha’s portrait maybe saved the situation. Father I bet on a winning horse for you. Ride her gently when the day comes, don’t let her run wild, and make the best of it. Edward Yes, father. (They embrace again.) Father Now it’s time for some sherry before dinner. Or do you prefer port? Edward I’ll take whatever you take, father. If you can select my destiny you can also select my proper apéritif. Father Then sherry it is. (takes a bottle and pours two glasses.) Cheers, my son, to your hopefully long, happy and rewarding marriage! (They drink.)

Scene 2. Kingston, Jamaica. The Mason family. Richard What do we really know about him, father? Mason Rochester is one of my oldest friends and has always been reliability himself like all his family. It is waterproof. Richard And what does he know about us? Mason Enough. Bertha What does he know about me? Mason Quite enough, Bertha. I provided him with your portrait. He doesn’t have to know any more than that, and neither does his son. Richard A decoy, in other words. Mason He must nibble at it. Richard And what does he know about our brother? Mason Nothing. Bertha And our mother? Mason Nothing. Richard And he is coming here? Mason Yes, the son is on his way. He must be treated as he deserves. We must not disappoint him. We must keep up appearances as far as possible. Bertha What’s his name? Mason Edward. Bertha An ordinary name. Mason He is better and looks better than it sounds. Bertha I hope so indeed. Richard Play your cards well, Bertha. Don’t let him in on you until you are married. Bertha How old is he?

Mason Five years younger than you, but he doesn’t need to know. Just make him gloat and drivel on you, and you don’t have to say anything. Just catch him. We need new and better blood in the family. Bertha Trust me. I know my arts. Richard We trust you, Bertha. Mason So we only have to wait for Bertha’s azure knight in shining armour and take well care of him. He is perhaps the best chance you ever could get, Bertha. Bertha I will take care of him well enough. Just leave him to me, and I promise you he shall marry me. Mason That’s all we want. Richard Good luck, Bertha. Bertha You don’t have to wish me good luck. My success is infallible. A butler (enters) Master Edward Fairfax Rochester, Sir. Mason Perfect punctuality! I knew we could trust him! Show him in. (rising) Now just don’t say anything unnecessary. Just caress him with your silk gloves. All we have to do now is to spoil him. (Enter Rochester) Mason My dear friend, my best friend’s son, welcome to Kingston, Jamaica! I hope you could rest after your journey. Edward Thank you, the journey was easier than expected, since we had favourable winds all the way and no bad weather. I think we made the crossing in record time. Mason Meet my son, Richard Mason. Richard (getting up, shaking his hand cordially) We could hardly have found any more suitable candidate for a brother-in-law. Mason And my beloved daughter. Edward An honour to see you in reality, Miss Bertha. Mason Do you mean to say that you have seen her before but not in reality? Edward My father managed to procure for me a miniature portrait. I am not exaggerating when I say that she is even more beautiful in reality. Bertha My father combed the whole world for a proper suitor for me that he could accept. We never guessed that his best friend had a son eager to get married. Edward That’s overstating it. It was my father who was eager to get me married. Bertha That’s just as good. Mason Don’t say too much, Bertha. You are not married yet, but it seems as if an engagement was as good as obvious. Edward Didn’t my father and you already agree on that over our heads? Mason If you don’t have anything against it. Bertha I have nothing against it. Edward Whatever could I have against it, except that I still don’t know her? Mason There will be time enough for you to get to know each other. You should never hurry into each other’s arms. On the contrary – the longer you postpone the engagement, the sweeter it becomes.

Edward But certainly Bertha and I have to get to know each other before we marry? Mason Of course, but not more than necessary, only as friends at a proper distance and without any temptations being unnecessarily conjured. Edward No risk, Sir. I always could control myself. Mason Then it’s settled. We announce the engagement tomorrow. Richard (cordially, clapping him) Welcome into our family, my friend! Edward Thanks, brother. Bertha And welcome to Jamaica. You don’t know what is expecting you. Edward Actually I know nothing about the island. I presume there are all kinds of mysteries and occult practices here that we have no idea of in England. Mason Follow me, my future son-in-law, and I will show you around our house, since it will also be your home in time. I must show you the park and the garden above all. (takes Edward out for an inspection round.) Richard Come, Bertha. You have done your bit for the moment. Bertha Did I manage all right? Richard You were close enough to the border, but we managed. (leads out his sister.)

Scene 3. The wedding dinner. Mason (rising) It is with the greatest joy that we welcome this day with its glorious light focussed on the happiest couple in the world and, as we may hope, its longest marriage. Of all the world’s possible sons-in-law I happened to get the best one, and I hope that you, Edward, will find full satisfaction and joy with the wife you so well deserved, the most beautiful woman in the world. May you live long, be happy in all your days and get many children, grandchildren and grandchildren’s children! (raises his glass. All give great cheer.) Edward (rising) Thank you, father-in-law, but to tell the truth I honestly don’t know what I have ventured on. (some laughter) This island is an alien world to me with its exotic mysteries and impenetrable jungle, its warm-blooded people are too hot for me and the mentality too fast and too impulsive for me to be able to catch on to, I am just an Englishman from the country accustomed to rain and chill and the constant cold showers of a rough and paralysing climate; but one thing I know for sure, and that is that I actually happened to win the most beautiful wife in the world for myself, and what I promised my father before going here I will stick to, namely, that I can’t do any better than make the best of it. Mason That’s enough, my dear son-in-law! It’s good enough! My beloved daughter has won the world’s most honest and decent gentleman, and what more could we wish for? Richard Cheers, Edward, to a long life of a happy community and collaboration! One guest (to another) What does he really know about the family? The other Nothing except that they have money. 1 That’s also the only thing they have.

2 Wait until Pandora opens the lid to her dowry! 1 So they tricked him? 2 Their only chance of getting her married was with a greenhorn from abroad. 1 Poor devil! 2 But the family have reasons enough to be happy. 1 How did he get here? 2 His father sent him down and died afterwards leaving all his fortune to the elder brother. He knew the Masons since his youth and knew naught else than what he remembered of Mason’s best sides. He sent away his younger son to this marriage to “save” him. 1 What a fate! 2 Don’t talk about it. Bertha So your father left you nothing when he died? Edward He entrusted me to you. Bertha So we are all you have in the world? Edward Yes, I suppose you are. Bertha Then, as you said, we should indeed make the best of it! Edward Bertha, I truly love you and want to do anything I can to deserve you. You accepted me whole-heartedly although I brought you nothing, my inferiority is total, I am completely at your mercy, and all I have is my honour and my good name. But I promise you, that you shall always be able to trust my honour. Bertha It won’t be necessary. Edward What do you mean? Bertha We are married now, Edward. You have accepted me for what I am. Nothing else is needed. Mason Yet another toast to the happy couple! May they live forever and always remain in love with each other! (All share the toast.) Edward Why have you never mentioned your mother? Bertha She is dead since many years. Edward What did she die of? Bertha Illness. Richard We haven’t talked about her, Edward, since she is our greatest sorrow. Bertha The less said about her, the better. Edward That sounds almost heartless. Bertha It is our wedding, Edward. She has nothing to do with it. Edward Do you fear her as dead? Bertha Don’t talk rubbish. We shall love each other now, and that is all that matters now. Richard Cheers, Edward! Welcome into the family! (Edward answers the toast with some thought.)

Act II scene 1. Bed-chamber scene. Edward You have fooled me! Why have you deceived me? Bertha I have not deceived you. Edward You are five years older than me! Why didn’t you tell me? Bertha Of what consequence is age in the matter of love? Edward Your mother is locked up in a mental institution! Why wasn’t I informed? Bertha We didn’t want to scare you away. Edward So you were all privy to the plot! And you have a younger brother who is a retarded idiot! Have you nothing but skeletons in all your cupboards? Bertha Edward, don’t complain, you got me! We love each other! Isn’t that all we need? Edward How could I love someone who deliberately deceived me? How could I feel like belonging to a family that lured me into an abysmal heritage trap of family diseases! Bertha Edward, we are married now. You will never be rid of me. Be satisfied with that and accept the situation. You have no other choice. Edward But why? Why me? Bertha We hoped that new blood in our family would cure the family curse. Edward And what then is your curse exactly? Hereditary mental disease? Bertha Among other things. I will never let you go, Edward. You are mine. And you are a gentleman. You can’t let me down. You can’t desert me. You must put up with me and my family, which is all you have. You can’t manage without us, a family of monsters and lunatics. Only you could promote our blood, for my brother is impotent. Edward You want children with me? You want to promote your sick degenerated unsound blood? Bertha It’s our only hope. Or else the family will go extinct, and all our greatness and fortune was just an effort in vain. Only you can save us. Edward Bertha, your deception ruined your possibilities from the start. You played with false cards while all my cards were open. That difference could never be undone. Bertha So you prefer turning yourself into a useless and impotent husband? Edward All the love I felt for you were illusions inspired by a portrait of your mask of false beauty. Never judge a human being from her outward looks, since it is only the invisible inside of her that is true. And in this case the outward show with all your splendour and beauty and wealth was as blinding as the inside was as rotten as a corpse infested with swarming maggots. How could I ever love you after having learned your deception? Bertha Are then not all families as rotten as ours? What family does not keep some idiots hidden or buried alive somewhere? What family does not carry heritable

diseases? Where is a home without a skeleton in the wardrobe? You are shocked, Edward, and judge us by prejudice. We are neither better nor worse than all others. Edward Bertha, I am married to you and must accept it, and I will try to live with you and make the best of it. I will help you keeping up an appearance of decency as far as possible, but don’t expect me to ever be able to love you. (drops her, leaves, and bangs the door behind.) Bertha He has seen us through and is blinded and shocked by the truth of his discovery. But there are other means. I will certainly make him randy again. (finds a voodoo doll) You are mine, Edward. I own you soul and body. You cannot escape me. You must love me. You have no other choice. We will never let you go. If I must go under like my mother, I will bring you with me in the destruction. We have paid for your life, it belongs to us, and we will never give it back. (sticks a needle into the doll and laughs diabolically.)

Scene 2. A pub. Edward at the bar. Richard turns up. Richard There you are, Edward. I heard the news. Edward What would you do in my place? Richard You are free now. You have your own money. You can do what you want. You are no longer dependent on us. Edward Independence and freedom implies an entire world of responsibilities. I don’t want to make any more mistakes, Richard. Richard It wasn’t your fault. You were tricked into a trap by our fathers, who didn’t know better. Most accountable was my father, who was the only one who knew what he was doing. Your father knew nothing. Now they are both gone, and I am the head of the family. I am partly responsible, since I took part of the conspiracy against you without warning you. Therefore I owe you something. Edward You haven’t answered my question. What would you advise me to do? Richard As I view the matter there is only thing to do. Lock her up, like our father did with her mother. In her case it’s easy to get a certificate. Edward You give me allowance to do it? Richard Without question. You will sooner or later be forced to take that step anyway. Our father endured for ten years and hoped desperately in vain for an improvement. Those were ten lost years. Edward I have endured for four. I can’t make it any longer, Richard. Richard I understand you. Edward I must home to England to take care of the family property. Who could guess that my brother would leave us so soon? I take her with me and get her there under qualified care. No one knows her in England or even know that I am married. I could have a free life and go on travelling as much as I please and have her hidden away in Thornfield Hall without anyone noticing, like a skeleton buried alive in the

wardrobe, but I can never remarry as long as she lives. You also saw to it that our marriage was Catholic. Richard You mean, that you can’t desert her. Edward Exactly. Richard Would you mind that I came across sometimes for occasional visits? Edward Of course not. You are her brother and my brother-in-law. Richard Then we are agreed and can remain friends although we are related and I tricked you into marrying an unsound wife. Edward It was your father, Richard, who contrived the deceit, but you are always responsible yourself if you are stupid enough to let yourself be deceived. Richard The deceiver though can never be pardoned. Edward No, he can’t. (They poculate.) Richard When did you first realize something was wrong? Edward Directly after the wedding. The wedding night turned out a nightmare. She turned into an animal. Richard Did you have no previous experience of women? Edward No. Richard And Bertha became the first one. What a shock! Edward I never thought I would come out alive from her grips. She refused to let me go, and she refused to let me sleep, while she only worked herself up to hysteria all the time. Richard Couldn’t you consummate the marriage? Edward She wouldn’t allow me. She wanted to do anything except that. ”Don’t you want children?” I asked her astonished. ”Never in my life!” she cried. All she wanted was to use me sexually as an object for perverted enjoyment. Perhaps I could have taken her naturally if I had used force, but I never could and never would. Richard That’s where you failed. She always dreamed about having a rapist. Edward Why couldn’t you give her one then instead of me? Richard It was difficult to find one with a good name and of a decent family. She had to entertain herself with lower creatures in the meantime, until we found a candidate who could keep us decent. Edward So she wasn’t even a virgin? Richard Did you think that for a moment? Edward I thought it all the time. Richard You were the perfect greenhorn. Edward And you really set the perfect trap. Nothing appeared before the wedding, and not until gradually one worm after the other crept forth: her true age, her voodoo contacts and practices, that your mother was still alive, that she was locked up for life, her more than primitive orgies, and so on. It took me six months to realize that I had made my life’s mistake.

Richard Well, you are saved now. You can detach yourself. Take her away from here, take her money with you, lock her up where no one ever will know about her existence, and recover the years you have lost. Edward Your father lost ten. Maybe I was lucky to get away with only four. Richard But you will never be rid of her. Edward Don’t remind me. (They drink.)

Scene 3. Paris. A luxury suite. An amourous scene. Edward Céline, I love you. Céline I know. You do everything for me. Edward What more could you demand? I give you everything you want, clothes, a luxury suite, I ruin myself for your sake, just tell me whatever you want more. Céline Marriage. Edward I am already married. Céline They are always already married! Is that the only reason why they all want me – because they are already married and can’t remarry? Edward You can’t doubt the sincerity of my love. Céline I don’t. What’s wrong then with your wife, since you so desperately abandon yourself to orgies with me? Edward She is locked up for good as hopelessly mentally ill. Céline And that is all? Get rid of her then, and marry me. Edward I am a lover, not a murderer. Céline How could you get mixed up with a mental case? How could you commit such a mistake? Edward Why do you marry at all? Others demand it. Society demands it. Parents arrange it. Céline Didn’t you love her? Edward I thought I did but didn’t learn to know her until it was too late. I was trapped into it by my father and her father. Céline Poor dear. And you can’t bring yourself to kill such an unhappy marriage by mere charity. Edward Let’s talk about something else. Céline That’s why you are so brooding and introverted, like a Lord Byron carrying around the darkest secret in the world, like a suicidal Manfred. Edward It’s not that bad. I make the best of it. Céline Then perhaps I dare divulge a secret. Edward Well? Céline I have a daughter. Edward Whose? Céline Yours, perhaps, or someone else’s. No one wants to take the responsibility. She could be the daughter of anyone.

Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward Céline Edward

What is her name? How old is she? As old as our friendship. Her name is Adèle. Have you had other lovers at the same time as me? Fie, Edouard, such foul questions you don’t put to your mistress! So you have. Are you jealous? Terribly. Dangerously. Immediately. Love me then. Prove that I am yours. Do I need to prove it? No man is credible who doesn’t prove it. The greatest lovers need never prove it. Nonsense. If there is anything I know anything about, it is love. That proves you know nothing about love. I want you for myself, Céline, or not at all. Keep me for yourself, then, and don’t let me down. I never let anyone down. Except your wife. Not even her. I am responsible for her qualified care. What did she do to make you mad? She went too far with abnormal perversions. Isn’t all love a perversion? Educate me in her advanced perversions! Céline! I am just teasing you. I don’t want to lose you as well. I’ll see what I can do. Let’s do something about it. (They start making love.)

Scene 4. Same place. Rochester enters with a key of his own. Edward

No one here? Then I’ll wait. She will enter eventually. (sits down, makes himself at home, takes a sherry, starts smoking.) I just hope she doesn’t derail like Bertha. What did I do wrong? Was it my fault that she turned megalomaniac by our marriage and pervert enough to penetrate herself with a crucifix? Was it my fault that she not only believed in the black magic of voodoo but even committed herself to it? Was it my fault that she turned so extremely foul-mouthed that I couldn’t appear with her in public? Did I have any choice to locking her up and separating her for good from society? That question will keep following me until I die. (merry laughter outside: Céline with a cavalier)

She is coming! But not alone! (hides) Céline (appearing slightly tipsy with a vicomte) No, I assure you, my dear vicomte, he is not so stupid that he would meddle in my affairs! Vicomte But are you married to him or not? Céline Of course I am not. He is married already to a wife whom he has locked up for discovering that he was impotent. Vicomte So he has no right to make any demands on you? Céline None whatsoever! He is not even the father of my daughter! Vicomte So we can forget all about him. Where is he now? Céline I guess he is at home brooding as usual, that bore. That’s all he can do: brooding on his failed marriage. He is himself a failure altogether, and he is not capable of realizing it. Come to bed with me now, my friend. Vicomte With your permission… (they proceed to bed) Edward (pulling the curtain behind which he was hidden) Ha! In flagrantia! Céline! You swore that I was your only lover! Céline That was some time ago. Edward You lousy vicomte, couldn’t you find a better slut to amuse yourself with? Vicomte You dare insult my mistress! Edward Don’t be ridiculous, or rather, don’t make yourself more ridiculous than you already are. Couldn’t you find a better cock to henpeck, Céline, for my deception? Vicomte Cock indeed to henpeck! This calls for blood! Céline I love cock fights! Go for it, peacocks, and strike hard to make the feathers fly! Edward It will be my pleasure to let your blood to the extreme! Pistol, sword, or balloon with blunderbuss? Vicomte Pistol! Unto death! Edward Unto death, of course. Can you aim? Vicomte I am sure you can see that I am not one-eyed. Edward Sorry, I mistook your ridiculous monocle for a glass eye. Céline Don’t kill each other, gentlemen. I want you both. Edward Céline, your word is my law, I hereby refrain from killing him, no matter how much he deserved that honour. I submit him entirely to you, that puerile bore, and drop you down the drain with him. Amuse yourself as well as you can with him, but you will probably soon tire of him as you did with me. Vicomte (almost disappointed) No duel then? Edward I allow the honour of spilling your blood to others. Without doubt they will be disappointed when they discover it was only water. (leaves outraged) Céline (after him) Edouard! Think of our child! Vicomte He has left, Céline. He was not worthy. He can’t have loved you since he didn’t even want to duel with me. Céline Yes, he really loved me, but too much. He made too much of it. His marriage was such a terrible disappointment that he had too much to recover, which

frightened me. He needed to wallow in me. That’s why I had to find some counterpoise not to drown in his passion. But without him you are now worthless to me, vicomte. I think I will go to Italy. Vicomte (upset) And your daughter? Our life? Our plans? Your position? Our prospects? Céline You have already grown too dull for me, vicomte. The wild dark Rochester was at least dramatic. (goes to her room and locks herself in) Vicomte It takes a devil to understand women, if even he is a match for them! Did she then love me just to get away from Rochester? And is she ditching me because Rochester ditched her? Must I then ditch her? No, I am already ditched. Well, vicomte, better luck next time, and may my next lady not have another Rochester in the cupboard! (takes his hat and leaves.)

Act III scene 1. Thornfield Hall, in the kitchen. Mrs Fairfax Mr Rochester! What are you doing here? Edward (cautiously) I notice that the new governess is sitting in the salon. Fairfax Have you met her? Edward We met out on the moor. I almost rode her down, and for that I was punished instantly, when the horse slipped and threw me off. She helped me up. What does she know about me? Fairfax Only that you are Mr Rochester. Rochester And who is Mr Rochester? Fairfax Little Adèle’s guardian. Edward Is that all? Fairfax And Miss Jane Eyre’s employer. I assure you, Mr Rochester, that is the only thing she knows. Edward She knows nothing about my prisoner in the tower? Fairfax Alas, Sir, Grace Poole is a qualified nurse, but sometimes she has something to drink, and then she becomes careless. Then anything could happen. Edward Has anything happened? Fairfax No, nothing has happened. Edward So she suspects nothing? Fairfax Absolutely nothing. She has only heard some mysterious voices sometimes, like spirited laughter. I have cautioned Grace Poole. Edward Good. Don’t let her know anything. Keep her as ignorant as possible. I know from Adèle that she is a good teacher and person. I want to spare her my tragedy as far as possible. Fairfax Of course, Mr Rochester. Edward I rely completely on your discretion. Thank you, Mrs Fairfax. (leaves)

Fairfax Edward Fairfax Rochester, you have let in a singular guest in your haunted life of demons and persecutions by destiny, something so rare as a decent virgin. Of course it’s to the highest interest of all of us that she will remain so.

Scene 2. The salon, by an open fire. Rochester Move closer to me, please, Miss Eyre. You are not afraid of me, are you? Jane Eyre Absolutely not, Sir. Edward My warden is very happy with you. We all hope that you will stay. Jane She is a brilliant and talented girl and very quick at learning, although her mother tongue is not English. My I ask, Sir, how you got a French warden? She doesn’t seem to be your daughter at all. Edward Well guessed. She isn’t at all. Her mother was a French variety artist whom I had the bad luck and weakness to fall hopelessly in love with. Of course she deceived me with another. They all do. She tired eventually of the extra lover, went off to Italy and left a daughter abandoned with no one to care for her and no father anywhere. Not even the mother knew who the father had been, but it could have been me. She was however quite certain that it hadn’t been me. Jane So you took care of her entirely out of charity? Rochester Someone had to do it. There was no one else. Of course I would have preferred not to. Now the matter stands as it is. At least she got away from the unsound city jungle with its depraved sedition and seduction. Here she is safe and will have a sound and healthy life and education out in the country. All that was missing was a good governess. We believe we have found her in you. Jane I will do my best, Sir. Edward But I know nothing about you. I understand you had a rather basic background. Jane As an orphan I was placed by hostile relatives at the Lowood public school for girls. It was a sinister school. We were practically brought up as nuns. Since I had nowhere else to go I stayed on and continued there as a teacher, but I always looked for other possibilities, until one day I found Mrs Fairfax’ advertisement. I thought she was the hostess here and my employer. Edward I regret that I must make you disappointed. It was a man, and it was me. Mrs Fairfax is a trusted relative who always served our family most faithfully. She knows all and understands all. You can ask her about anything and trust her with everything. Thanks to her I can go travelling as much as I do. Jane Miss Adèle is not happy about your constant absence. Edward Do you think I am? (checks himself) I am sorry, but there are too many memories attached to this ancient family house, which sometimes have been heavy to carry. The result is my restlessness and constant need of change and renewal. Jane That’s not more than human. And were your French singer not change and refreshment enough for you?

Edward There you have me, Miss Eyre. That change and renewal turned to be a mistake, but who could know that before it was too late? My father sent me to Jamaica as a young man. My elder brother took over the property and the family responsibility, but he died suddenly after only four years. Then I was recalled to take over his duties. (darkly) I could have been sent further away than Jamaica. Jane But what is missing in your life, Mr Rochester? You could easily find another better wife in your own social position. Edward (bitterly amused) Do you say so, Miss Eyre? The wealthy Blanche Ingram is very keen on marrying and has laid some very tempting bait for me. She has everything that could be desirable in a young beautiful woman, brilliant intellect, dashing sport interest, the wealthiest family in the county with a spotless background, in brief, an ideal match in every point of view of both her family and mine. Jane So why don’t you strike? You need such a wife for your warden. Edward You will meet her. Afterwards I want to hear your assessment of her. You inspire confidence, Miss Eyre. Your long hardy path as a severely chastised pupil and experienced teacher in a sinister school has left you with a gift more worth than all human riches, namely knowledge of human nature. I wish I had had that knowledge myself as a young man and had to go through a hard school to learn that insight before it was too late. Jane Why do you think I have it? Edward I already told you. Because you inspire confidence. That was also Mrs Fairfax’ first impression of you. Anyone could trust you. Jane Thank you, Mr Rochester. Edward That’s nothing. Evidently you are not used to compliments, since you blush. Jane (embarrassed, confused) Excuse me, Mr Rochester. I think it is time for Adèle’s evening lessons. (retires in haste) Edward (alone) What was it now I said that was wrong?

Scene 3. Blanche Ingram What do you know about Miss Eyre, Mrs Fairfax? Fairfax Everything and almost nothing, Miss Ingram. She comes from the humblest possible circumstances and has lived all her life without all that you have, Miss Ingram, without missing it. She is simply a product of the hardest basic school of life and is entirely focussed only on making the best of her dedication to education. Blanche She seems definitely to be the perfect governess. Fairfax Everyone is pleased with her. Blanche And Edward especially. Fairfax I assure you, Miss Blanche, that he has no more than reason for it. Blanche What do you mean?

Fairfax He was lucky to get such a teacher for his warden. He regards her as nothing else, and she has no hold on him. Blanche Neither have I. He always seems to look beyond me. We try to please him in every way and do all we can for him, but he always seems to have his attention on something else or someone else. Fairfax Be patient, Miss Blanche. We all have to be patient with him. Blanche Especially his eventual wife, it seems. Fairfax (low) Yes. Edward (entering) There you are, Blanche. Were we not going out riding? Blanche I was only waiting for you, Edward. Edward And gossiping with Miss Fairfax in the meantime. Blanche Only woman talk, Edward, nothing else. Edward I understand exactly. Jane (entering, shyly) Pardon me. I didn’t know you were here. I only wanted a word with Miss Fairfax. Blanche No, don’t be ashamed, Miss Eyre, and don’t be shy for being so excellent. If you only knew what a success you’ve already made as a governess here! Edward She can’t take compliments, Blanche. Blanche That’s because she isn’t used to them. The more important that they are given. You are accepted as one of the family, Miss Eyre. Try to get used to it. (Jane looks shyly down, well aware of her subordinate position.) Fairfax What was it, Jane? Edward Jane, you must never shy to Blanche Ingram. I want you to be friends. As long as you are my warden’s governess you are on the same social level as all my friends. Jane That’s not possible, Mr Rochester. Edward Why not? Jane Because you are my employer. Blanche Don’t try to deprive her of her sound awareness of reality, Edward. She knows where she stands and stands there firmly. Edward Yes, so I notice. Come, Blanche. Let our mistresses discuss their domestic matters in peace. (leaves with Blanche) Fairfax Well, Jane? Jane I only wondered how I will conduct myself in relation to all the guests that Mr Rochester invited. How will you stand yourself? Fairfax We who provide the food and stand for the organization have to remain in the background in order to manage our work in peace. I advise you to do the same. Jane And if Mr Rochester insists on inviting me to join the guests? Fairfax Only be yourself. You are good enough as you are. Don’t dress up, and don’t say anything more than necessary. Your simplicity is in its honesty a better appearance than what any nobility or dressed up opulence could show up. Jane Thank you, Mrs Fairfax. I will appear as sparsely as possible. (leaves) Fairfax Her honesty is almost going to far. However will this end?

Scene 4. The party. All kinds of dressed up noble guests. A lady How do you manage, Blanche, to keep Mr Rochester at home so long? Earlier he never stayed at home more than at most two weeks at length. Blanche I assure you, aunt, I didn’t do anything. Lady 2 I have never seen Mr Rochester so harmonious before, as if he was pleased with his life. He never was before. Lady 1 Something evidently has uplifted him. It must be you, Blanche. Blanche I hope so, aunt, but I am not too sure. The new governess in his household has worked miracles with little Adèle and the mood in the house. If I have some part in his reaching better spirits I am certainly not the only one. Lady 2 You had better marry him soon enough before someone else does. Blanche In such dances, maman, only he can be the lead. Lady 1 Of course. Uncle It’s surely about time that he marries. He has been a bachelor far too long, he is almost forty, his warden needs a foster mother, the house needs the firm hand of a mistress, and he is the only one who can continue the family, I must point that out to him. Edward (has turned up) You have done so all my life since I came home, uncle, but I am in no more hurry now than I was then, for as long as I lack a wife I can at least keep myself young. With a wife around your neck you never know what extra worries life will burden you with. Blanche You decide the pace, Edward. I also am in no hurry. We are both young and have all the time in the world. Lady 1 But we heard so much about the new governess. Couldn’t we see her? Edward She is shy in front of so many noble guests and lacks the proper dress to match them. Blanche Call on her, Edward. Nothing suits her better than her honest simplicity. Lady 2 Here she is I believe. Jane (enters) Mr Rochester, an uninvited guest has announced himself. Mrs Fairfax was busy in the kitchen. Or else she would have announced him herself. Edward What uninvited guest? Jane A certain Richard Mason. Edward (starts up terrified) Mason! What is he doing here? How did he find his way here? Uncle Evidently a guest from Edward’s wild past. (to Edward) I hope we may see him, Edward, so we may learn a little more about your bachelor life abroad. Edward I promise you that he has nothing of interest to reveal even if he were to sit up all night with you. (goes immediately out of the salon and meets Richard outside) Richard! What are you doing here? Richard I was just anxious to remain in touch and pay a visit of courtesy. Is my sister still alive? Edward She is well taken care of, I assure you.

Richard I hope to see her myself. Edward At your own risk, Richard, at your own risk. You turn up in the middle of my greatest and only party I have ever given. Richard Yes, I read about it in the paper. There is talk about an engagement with a rich heiress. That made me curious. Edward You may only enter, Richard, under extreme obligation of silence. Richard You can trust me, Edward. We have our agreement. I am the head of my family and know how to behave. Edward As long as you do you are most welcome, but take no chances! Richard The only chance about this I have already taken, and that was to come here. Edward Come in then, and meet my poultry-yard. (shows him in to the salon) Meet a colleague of mine from my years in Jamaica! (presents him) Richard Richard Mason, plantation owner. Uncle We have always wondered what you really did on Jamaica, Edward. Now perhaps we shall at last learn something about it. Edward My father sent me there on business. I managed them until I was recalled back home after my father’s and brother’s death. That’s the whole story. Richard (discovers Jane Eyre) And who is this? Blanche Edward’s warden’s governess, Mr Mason, Miss Jane Eyre. Richard Have you been married, Edward? Edward I am not the father of my warden, if that’s what you wonder, Richard. Adèle is the daughter of a friend I had in Paris who abandoned her daughter without protection. No one could take care of her except me. Richard Yes, I heard about that. You were always the self-sacrificing type, Edward, even if you never volunteered for it. Miss Jane Eyre, you were a positive surprise as a welcome contrast to all these society decorations. Edward is without any doubt grateful for your support. Jane I can’t do more than what is expected of me. Richard And you are Edward’s intended future, I presume? (turning to Blanche) Blanche I take it easy. Edward hasn’t decided yet. Richard The papers have written about the probable union of your families. Lady 2 Yes, I read about it too. Isn’t it exciting? (Jane wants to retire.) Edward (to Jane) Jane, stay, please. Don’t be shy to the ignominious vanity of all these peacocks. Jane There is nothing for me to do here, Mr Rochester. Edward I am Edward to you like to everyone else here. You are the only one dressed decently in this entire poultry yard. (Jane is embarrassed and hurries out.) Whatever I say I just scare her away. What turns on her extreme sensitivity? Blanche What blunt stupidity did you say to her, Edward? Edward Just that she was the only decently dressed around here. Blanche Fie, Edward. You know she can’t take compliments. Your friend Richard Mason arrived just in the right moment as our most exotic guest. Or else she would have stolen the whole party by her simplicity.

Edward She is only one of us, Blanche, and I want her to feel it. Blanche No harm in that, but she seems to attach greater importance to her plight as governess and not risk it for alien intrusive feelings. (The party continues.)

Scene 5. A dark corridor. Grace Poole sitting outside a close door. Mason enters. Richard There you are. Poole The master spoke about you and said you wanted to visit her. But you shouldnâ€™t come alone. Richard I wanted to speak alone with her, if possible. Poole Itâ€™s not advisable Richard I am her brother. Poole At your own risk then. (lets him in. The scene opens to Berthaâ€™s cell, an ordinary room with all facilities and designed to give an impression of comfort and homeliness. Bertha sits in a corner with her hair very long and grizzled.) Richard Bertha! (She does not react.) Poole She has not been in her best mood today. Richard Does she know that I am here? Poole Yes, I told her. Richard (tries again) Bertha! Bertha (slowly turning her head) Have you come for a visit, my brother? Richard She recognizes me! Bertha Would I not recognize the one who had me certified? Richard Bertha, I just wanted to see how you were. Bertha To see how I managed in my degradation? Richard I only wanted to see that you were well. Bertha Well, am I not? Could I have it better? Fenced in like a wild animal, completely deprived of all human dignity, only because I was forced into a marriage! (suddenly rushing on the door with roaring fury) Richard No, Bertha! (holds her back, is attacked, Bertha assaults him like a wild animal, tears his clothes to shreds, buries her teeth in his shoulder. Grace Poole takes her from behind, locks her arms and gets the better of her.) Poole You had better leave at once, Sir. I will tell the master as soon as I get her calmed down. Richard (beside himself) Bertha! Bertha! (stumbles out. The door and scene is closed behind him, and he disappears in the darkness.)

Scene 6. (Edward in a nightgown appearing with a candelabrum, approaches Jane Eyre’s bed, wakes her up.) Edward Jane, could you come with me, please? Jane Mr Rochester! What is it? Edward Ask no questions. Keep quiet. Just be observant, like you always are. We could need your help. (shows her out into the corridor to another room, where Richard is sitting almost unconscious, shocked and in pain, in an armchair.) Richard (showing some life as they come) Edward! Edward Keep quite still, Richard. The doctor is on his way. We must get you out of here. How could you go in there alone? Richard I had to see her! But I could hardly recognize her. What have we done to deserve such a wild animal? Edward No one can answer that question, Richard. – Do you think we could get him out into a carriage without raising curiosity among the guests? Jane We can take him out the back way. Mrs Fairfax will help us. Richard She attacked me! She bit me, Edward! And the moment before she was perfectly sensible! Edward I warned you. You should have waited until I could come with you. Richard She will have the best possible care, won’t she? Edward We have our agreement. It’s to the best interest of both of us that no one ever breaks it. Richard Of course. We are both equally accountable. (passes out. There is a very prudent knock.) Edward The doctor! (lets him in) Can we get him out of here, doctor? Doctor Carter (makes a quick examination) Only flesh wounds. He has suffered no harm except shock. A few days’ rest, and he will be all right. Edward Can I trust him to your care until we can get him out of the country? Carter Of course. Edward No one must be disturbed. No guest is to be wakened. You will keep quiet, doctor? Carter I am obliged to silence. Edward Thank you, doctor. Hold the candelabrum, Jane, and light us out while we help him on his feet. Can you walk, Richard? Richard (gets awake again) I am glad that I survived. Edward We had perhaps a narrow escape this time, but I hope you will never risk it again. We must get you out of the country, Dick. Until then none of us could feel safe. (The doctor helps in getting up Richard and brings him out.) Do you understand anything of this, Jane? Jane Absolutely nothing. Edward It’s better that way. Forget that it ever happened. Jane Just one question, Sir.

Edward Well? Jane Is it wise to keep Grace Poole in the house under such circumstances? Edward (nonplussed) Grace Poole? Jane Yes. I am also thinking of that night when someone set your bed on fire. If I hadn’t woken up then and felt the smoke in the air you would have been lost. Edward An accident. Forget that also, Jane. Grace Poole knows what she is doing when she is sober. It’s only when she sometimes pass out that things could happen. I will tell her sharply. Don’t worry about her. She is implicitly reliable and the best one for her task. Jane Perhaps it’s best for me to understand nothing, Sir. Edward It certainly is. Continue that way and be my friend. Only you have seen the scene tonight except doctor Carter. Could you keep quiet about the whole thing? Jane Yes, but not without remembering. Edward That’s fair. Save your experience for times to come. We know nothing about the future, and only experience can help us. That’s all, Jane. Thanks for tonight. Jane Nothing to thank me for, Sir. Edward Say Edward. Jane Mr Rochester… Edward Say Edward. Jane Sir, Edward. Edward No, just Edward. Jane As you wish, Sir. Edward Your persistency is incurable. That’s good. You can trust it. Good night now, Jane. I follow the doctor home with his patient. Jane Good night, (shyly) Edward. Edward (reacts) That’s good, Jane. – Can you manage, doctor? Carter Yes, he can almost walk by himself. Edward I follow you. (disappears with the doctor) Jane What hair-raising mysteries are concealed in this wonderful house? The wounds on his shoulder were of teeth, and if it isn’t Grace Poole raving about, what kind of a fury or vampire or female beast is it then that she is guarding, which only a stranger from Jamaica knows anything about and obviously even stands in intimate contact with? Could voodoo find its way here? No, I had better concentrate on Adèle and what I am here for. Mr Rochester obviously could drive anyone mad with his secrets. (returns with her light to her room and returns to bed but can’t sleep.) It’s hopeless. The intrigues are too dense, and the mysteries are amassing in restlessness that fill the entire house with nightmares. Incertitude is the worst of all, and the impossibility to get any clearance in what is going on must lead to chaos in my mind. But who is scratching at my door? (There is a scratch at the door, that opens slowly, while Jane stares at it with horror. Finally there is Rochester.) Again, – Edward? New nightly performances? Who has been bitten by whom this time?

Edward (coming to her bed) Jane, forget all these phantoms that have nothing to do with us. Mason will leave the country, and then no one will disturb us any more, not even Grace Poole, who has been equally affected as me and Mason this night by what none of us deserved. Spare me, Jane. There is nothing for you in my past, and I want to keep you away from it. Spare yourself above all, as I wish to spare you, for you are the most valuable thing I have to resort to as the only true friend I can trust. Jane But aren’t you engaged to Blanche Ingram? Edward Who is Blanche Ingram? Just a superficial entertainment of flair and glitter, a spoilt perfection without anything in it, the best match of north England but only visibly, while the inside is just a void blank. I don’t love her, Jane, and never did. You are the one I love. Jane But, Sir… Edward Please, Jane, don’t say no. Adèle and I could never have found a better educator. When I first saw you I thought it couldn’t be true that there could be an ideal woman, and I decided to test you thoroughly during all the time it would take, since I am the one who least of all could afford or have nerves enough to take any risks. I have hit too many trains to be run over by yet another one, but you have saved me. If Blanche had seen what you have seen tonight she would never have been satisfied with less than a full explanation, and that explanation would have jerked her out of my life forever. You not even hinted at any question but just accepted all without missing one detail of the manifestations of the mystery, while Blanche is blind to everything except her own desires. You so far have accepted all, Jane, without even suggesting any question or doubt. Could you also accept me as I am? Jane Do you mean, Mr Rochester, that you are proposing to me? Edward Yes, Jane, that’s just what I mean, and I do so on my knees. Only you have saved me so far, and only you could continue saving me. Jane (tenderly stroking his hair) Edward, for the first time I dare to call you by that name without timidity, you were everything to me from the beginning. Your troubled brooding personality filled me with motherly feelings that I couldn’t damper but only increased all the time. Of course I accept you as you are without any questions. I need not ask any questions, because I know you as you are. There is something of the dilemma of the beauty and the beast over you, but like the beast never could get the better of the prince no matter how hard it manifested itself, so can nothing put down your supreme handsomeness both inside and out. Yes, I happen to be knowledgeable enough about human nature, it’s a gift I had for free as a compensation for my outrageously cruel childhood, and it’s natural to me, and I saw from the beginning not only your beautiful appearance but above all your extremely deep and difficult inner being, and that was what I as a woman directly fell for. You have me, Edward, without reservations with all the little I own with my body and soul but with a heart so full of love that it is more inexhaustible than anything else in the universe.

Edward Jane, little Jane, is it true, or am I dreaming? Could such a love be mine after all the mistakes I committed? Jane It is here, and it is here to stay. Edward Not even Blanche Ingram will be able to come with any objections to such a sincerity and purity of love. Jane I am at your disposal, Mr Rochester, with salary or without, but most of all in greatest earnest as your wife, Edward. Edward Thank God for this heavenly blessed gift! (kisses her) We announce our engagement and ask to have the banns published tomorrow. Jane As you wish, Edward. You have me now and forever. (They kiss again before Edward retires to his room with a last gesture of tenderness.) Jane (alone) At last I can sleep, but this night has almost cost me my mind. (She falls peacefully asleep, but her sleep is troubled, as when you dream although you are awake. Little Adèle comes gliding in like an elf.) Adèle I am so happy, mademoiselle, for your sake that you at last will become one of us! I am so happy that I will have a new mother instead of the one I lost and that it will be you, mademoiselle! I am so happy for Mr Rochester, who at last will be able to stay at home and perhaps become happy! I am so glad for you and for mine and for the sake of all of us! Never desert us, mademoiselle! (A dark shadow darkens the scene, and Adèle glides out.) (Bertha appears, long and awesome with her extremely long black grizzled hair almost to the bum and in disorder, dressed in a white nightshirt reaching down to her feet. She comes stealing in with a candle, nosing about, sniffing and finds the cupboard which she opens. Jane wakes up and sees her at once but not her face.) Jane (cautiously) Grace Poole? (Bertha doesn’t hear her, finds a wedding gown, gets merry and halloas, dances grotesquely around the wedding gown as if it was hers, laughs out scaringly loud and uncontrolled and almost hysterically shrill, the mad laugh of a maniac, then drops the gown but keeps the veil, throws it around her head, dances around with it on, while Jane all the time horror-struck looks on, then suddenly removes the veil and tears it up brutally, throws it on the floor, jumps and stamps on it.) Jane (a second time, terrified) Grace Poole? Bertha (harkens, turns around, fixes her attention on Jane, like as if to penetrate her with her wild eyes, then swiftly approaches the bed and comes straight up to Jane, putting her light to her face. Jane is shocked into a faint. Bertha still examines her for a moment, then retires, chuckles, jumps and stamps on the torn veil once again, suddenly stops and listens, the door opens from the outside, and Grace Poole shows up, entering resolutely and taking care of Bertha with a firm experienced hand.) Poole Naughty girl! (takes out Bertha and disappears. Jane is still lying without moving, unconscious.) (Gradually there is a dawn, she awakens, sits up, shakes her head as if to liberate herself from nightmare hangovers, and tries to get settled.)

Jane How will this end? What is wrong? Everything is wrong, but I don’t know what. (calls for a maid, who immediately appears.) Fanny O Madame, haven’t you slept well? No wonder on your own wedding day! Jane Fanny, I will be late. I have had terrible nightmares and been haunted tonight, so it will take time to get dressed. We must find another veil. Fanny (discovers the torn veil on the floor) Oh! Jane Tell Mr Rochester to go to church in advance. I will be there as soon as I can. Fanny Of course, Madame. I will tell him everything. (curtseys and leaves.) Jane What is wrong? If only I knew! But I have no choice but to go through with it, I must for Edward’s sake, and that is perhaps the only way to learn what is wrong.

Act IV scene 1. In church. Edward (dressed up as a groom) So she was haunted by Grace Poole? Fairfax That’s what she says, Sir. Edward She never met Grace Poole, but we know who tore her bridal veil. She will come, Mrs Fairfax, will she not? Fairfax As surely as amen in church. She is quite as determined as you. Edward It’s because we love each other, Mrs Fairfax, in pure honest, and nothing may come between us to stain that love, not even old ghosts. Fairfax I think she is coming now. I will welcome you afterwards at home. (withdraws.) Edward (to himself) Would I then refrain from life for the sake of a mistake? Would I banish love from my life because it once was abused and ended in disaster? Shall I be haunted all my life for something I was not guilty of myself but was sacrificed to like a pawn that was struck out? Yes, I was prepared to accept such a destiny and not strive for anything more but to live with it, endure and survive it, until this untarnished and untouched lady came along, climbing straight down from heaven into my hell, maybe just to save me and show me a possibility of a release from my fate, and she arrived not just from any heaven but from the simplest possible background of only poverty and hard work. Who would have the heart to make me reject such a possibility? At least not any heart that was human. (The gates are opened, and Jane enters as a bride.) Jane (coming slowly up to him but with a clear direction, allows herself to be tenderly embraced by him.) Priest You can do all that later. Jane Sorry I am late. Edward You had a terrible night. Jane I survived it, and nothing can stop me. Edward Thanks for those words, Jane. They save my life. (to the priest) We are ready, Reverend.

Priest May I then announce to this congregation, as the ritual prescribes according to proper procedure, that if anyone knows any impediment to make this marriage impossible, by the authority of law or other circumstances, may he then step forth and present his case or forever remain silent. Briggs (invisible until now, treading out of the shadows) This marriage cannot take place since the bridegroom is already married. I bring documents that legally confirm this fact. Priest Who are you, Sir? Briggs Attorney Briggs, Sir, from London representing my client Richard Mason from Jamaica. His sister Bertha Mason is Mr Rochester’s lawfully wedded wife since many years. Priest And she is still alive? Briggs In his own home at Thornfield Hall. Aforementioned Richard Mason could himself recently confirm this fact. Priest Is this true, Mr Rochester? Rochester (has never let go of Jane’s hand) I ask you all to follow me home to Thornfield Hall to judge with your own eyes whether this is true or not. The more witnesses to this case, the better, so that all then can be agreed on the facts. Come with me, Jane. It is not over yet. You must also be a witness to a most debatable reality. (refuses to let go of her hand. She just nods and follows. All immediately break up from church.) Priest (to Briggs) Could this really be true? They were such a promising young couple. Briggs We shall see, Reverend, we shall see. (leaves after the others.)

Scene 2. Edward (with the whole company at the entrance of Bertha’s boudoir) Welcome to my hell! I would have spared you the scene that you will all presently be witnesses of, but the good Richard Mason, who wisely kept away on this day, since he during his last visit here was subject to a murder attempt by the person in question, his own sister, has anyway in his absence succeeded in making it unavoidable. Open the scene, Grace Poole! (The scene is opened and displays the known interior of Bertha’s living-room. She is herself barely visible in the other end of the room in her long nightshirt and wild long grizzled hair.) How is our patient, today, Grace Poole? Poole She is somewhat unpredictable, Sir, you never know what she is up to, so take care, Sir. Watch out, Sir. Now she has spotted you. Bertha (rising and becoming visible enough when she sees Rochester, advancing slowly, like a stealing leopard preparing an attack.) Well, isn’t it my own husband who dares to visit me with the whole village behind him including even the intended bride! You can see for yourselves, good people, (purring like a cat) there is nothing wrong with me. I just happen to be married to that fine gentleman there, (pointing at Rochester) which he can never forgive me, which is why he locked me up for life, just because I dared

to play some advanced games with him. Can you forgive me, Edward? It doesn’t matter, for I can never forgive you! (rushes forth in an attack like a fury with a knife aimed at Rochester, who is on his guard and manages to avert the attack. They struggle in a fight of life and death.) Fairfax She has a knife! Briggs Disarm her! (Grace Poole manages to disarm her, which only increases Bertha’s rage, who tries both to bite and strangle Rochester, like a wild animal, but he has struggled with her before.) Edward A rope! Quickly! (Grace Poole provides a rope. He succeeds in pinioning Bertha, forces her down into a chair and binds her to it, where she desperately struggles and sputters.) Ladies and gentlemen, may I present my wife since fifteen years, pressed on me by a cheating family of madmen and idiots; her mother, a Creole, was like her, which I didn’t learn until after my Catholic wedding, which nothing can dissolve. You see yourselves what a paragon of representative and social talent my wife is. Can anyone transcend her? She also mastered other rare talents in arts like voodoo, Satanism and necrophilia just to mention a few of them, in which fields of self-indulgence she used to celebrate extraordinary bloody orgies. For a change I longed for a human being for a female company and found one in an exceptionally wise and prudent governess for my warden Adèle, the young Miss Jane Eyre here, who would have been my wife today instead of this one. Look at this honest bride, how patient and quiet she stands in perfect composure in front of the not until now revealed hell of a marriage in its most monstrous horrors of aborted perversions. This (indicating Bertha) I wished to bypass in order to secure this (indicating Jane). Can you blame me? (Jane wants to retire. Briggs turns to her.) Briggs Miss Jane Eyre, you are absolutely without blame in this, since you obviously knew nothing. Fairfax Come, Jane. It’s partly my fault, who was obliged to obey orders. (Jane runs off with her hands covering her face. Fairfax follows her.) Edward Take care of her, Mrs Fairfax! I must also ask all the rest of you to leave, since I must take care of my wife. (All retire. Rochester closes the door. The scene is shut.) Priest (to Briggs) We were all acquainted with the rumour that a mysterious madman was kept at Thornfield Hall, but never could anyone guess that it was Mr Rochester’s wife! Briggs His tragedy is that the law lacks power to take into consideration such extreme aggravating circumstances as these. If I had known about this I would never have come here but refused to accept Mr Mason’s errand. I must see what I can do for the completely innocent Miss Eyre. (When all have left, the scene is reopened to Bertha’s living-room.) Edward Well, poor hag, are you satisfied now, when you succeeded in ruining even another happier marriage than your own, and before it even got a chance? Are you happy about ruining even other people’s lives than your own? How does it feel

to let innocents suffer and have their lives destroyed because you please to be a hopeless case? Answer, Bertha, if you are at all answerable for yourself! Or have you really reduced yourself to a soulless animal? Poole You speak to deaf ears, Sir. She has no human feelings and no decency left, if she ever had any. Edward But she was eloquent enough when we first entered. Poole All she can think of is escape and revenge, if she can think at all. She saw a chance in your visit, like she saw a chance in Mr Mason’s. Her female slyness and calculation is still without limits, but that is all she has left. Edward What good does your voodoo expertise and your sorcery do you now, Bertha? Who will you now invoke to come to your rescue when not even the Devil himself wants to help you? You are washed up, Bertha. In front of witnesses you have tried to kill both your brother and your husband, the two who most of all tried to do you good and wished the best in the world for you. All you can do for your defence is to growl, spit and sputter, like a shackled monster. Poole I am afraid I dare not release her from the ropes for some time now, Sir. Edward Keep her also without food until releasing her is without risks, if it ever will be. Bertha I will never release you, pathetic fool of a hopeless idiot. You are mine now and forever. I will drag you along down all the way to hell. Edward I cannot doubt that you really will try to do that, but you can be sure that I will never follow you willingly. (to Poole) I can’t stand it any more, Grace. Inform me as usual if there is any change. (rises tired out and leaves.) Poole Take it easy now, naughty girl, and you will soon be out of your ropes.

Scene 3. Jane alone in her room crying on her bed. She has not undressed. Enter Rochester. Edward Jane, can you forgive me? Jane It’s not your fault, Edward. It’s the force of circumstances. Don’t you think I understand that without explanations? Edward Whatever you do, Jane, don’t desert me now. Jane Your fate has struck me a worse blow and rape than any physical harm could have done! You must give me time to recover from the shock. Edward I give you all the time you need and all the time in the world. Jane That’s not enough. I must get away, Edward, and find a necessary detachment. This cruel game of destiny with me has gone too far. I understand that you couldn’t tell me anything. You did it to spare me. But everything will ultimately be revealed anyway, and it was nobody’s fault. It just happened that way. It was the force of circumstances. Edward Ask me of anything, and I will do anything for you.

Jane There is only one thing I have to ask of you. Leave me in peace. I must be left alone to be able to recover after the fall. Edward Your wish is my law. Jane You said in church that it wasn’t over yet. I just hope, especially for your part, Edward, that it one day will be over. Leave now. Edward I leave. (leaves) Jane (alone) I must leave you, Edward, completely and at once. That’s the only way out of this black hole. (cries a bit more, wipes her tears, gets settled and starts preparing for her departure.)

Act V scene 1. The following morning Edward (in despair after a sleepless night, still undressed) Is then my entire life lost and forfeited, just because I tried to change it? Am I then condemned to slavery for life, just because I obeyed my father and submitted to getting married? How can any human relationship work at length, if one single relationship could turn out so tremendously unhappy without deserving it? Is then my marriage just a caricature of every marriage, and is that marriage, which everyone dreams of and lives for, like the ideal marriage prospect with Jane Eyre, doomed to fail, be damned, punished and aborted from the start by the cruel realism of an unreasonable reality? Fairfax (entering prudently) Sir, you haven’t slept in your bed tonight. Edward Is that so strange? Fairfax I am sorry, Sir, but I have some bad news. Edward What could be worse than what has already happened? Fairfax Miss Jane Eyre has left. Edward Has she deserted us? Fairfax Without explanation, without saying good-bye, without a single word. Edward Don’t blame her. What bride wouldn’t have done the same under such circumstances? Fairfax Little Adèle wonders when she will be coming back. What shall I tell her? Edward (with hesitation) Tell her as it is. Tell her that Miss Jane Eyre has taken leave of absence for some uncertain length of time. I am sure she will understand. Fairfax Yes, Sir. Edward She didn’t leave in the middle of the night, did she? Fairfax No, she left at dawn, Sir. Her room is in perfect order. She didn’t own much, and she has taken everything with her, except the bridal dress. Edward Of course. That’s all right, Mrs Fairfax. Let’s take care of the wreckage that still floats around, and especially little Adèle. (Fairfax leaves.) She has left me alone chained to my unblessed wife to leave me in peace with my marriage. She has done wisely, for she has chosen to survive herself by leaving

my ship to sink in anguish and despair with all its curses. Live well, Jane Eyre, I leave you in peace. If only wish I could find some peace myself. What more have I to live for now? How could I ever again meet anyone with my eyes, after my marriage has been exposed in all its outrage to the whole county? I must send little Adèle to school. There is nothing else to do. I will only keep the most indispensable servants and send Mrs Fairfax on her way – she has done well and as well as anyone could have done and can’t do anything more. I will be practically alone with my wife and her jailor Grace Poole with the bottle, I will turn into a morbid hermit who only has his impossible alien dreams to live for about Jane Eyre, the only human being who ever inspired me with any hope in my constantly increasing smothering darkness. Could it be Bertha’s black magic and voodoo sorcery that has locked me up in this chronically hellish situation? If so I will fight it as long as I live, if not for anything else so at least for a chance of sometime catching at least a glimpse of my only true bride once again.

Scene 2. In the dark corridors of Thornfield Hall. Edward Here I wander about like an unblessed ghost, buried alive in my own ancient family mansion together with my lost demented wife in the wreck of our tragedy, drowning and chained to a mutual destiny like to a sinking corpse, and there is nothing I can do, just wander about haunted in my deserted halls and know, that all who ever knew me laugh at me and condole my pathetic life sentence. What a clown, what a fool to walk into the trap of a Catholic marriage with a mad abnormity of a destructive woman! No, I can’t go away from her by travelling, not this time, not one more time, after the dishonourable effort at an alternative marriage to the satanic aborted failure, it is enough of my efforts to run away, and it’s time to at last stay on and make a stand fighting by going down with the wreck of my life. (Gradually there are increasing flames everywhere.) But what is this? Don’t tell me she is loose again! Grace Poole! Grace Poole! (Bertha’s diabolical laughter is heard at a distance.) Has she fallen asleep over her bottle again? She has set the house on fire! We must get the servants out! Poole I am very sorry, Sir. I don’t know where she is. She must have managed to steal my keys while I slept. Edward It’s not the first time, Grace Poole, but this could very well be the last time! Jane Eyre’s room is lost to the fire! We must get the servants out! Where is that bitch now? (Bertha becomes visible way up high above the stage.) Poole There she is, Sir! On top of the roof! Bertha (dancing on the roof) Burn, my life, and consume me at last with your fire from hell, so that I may drown in the fire of love that I never was allowed to reach! Edward We must get her down from there. Are all the servants safe? Poole Yes, Sir. Don’t go up there! She is mad!

Edward You can say that again. Thanks for the warning, but we must do what we can. (climbs the ladders up to Bertha) Bertha No, don’t save me! I am lost and enjoying it! Why did you never agree to marry the Devil, Rochester, like I did? It was so damned funny! Edward Bertha! Come down from there! Bertha Never in my life! Edward The house is burning! You will burn with it if you stay! Bertha Never in my life! I always kept burning and never did anything else! But I will never finish burning! I will just fly and disappear and then come back! You will never get rid of me, Rochester! I am yours forever! (jumps into the fire) Edward Bertha! (A chorus of servants cry out far below.) Poole (at the bottom) Massacred! Nothing can help her now! Come down, Sir, before it is too late! (Rochester disappears. The flames reach their climax. Then there is a great crash. The servants cry out again.) Poole (desperate) Mr Rochester! Mr Rochester! Voices Perhaps he is still alive. – Dig him out from the ruins! – The fall of Thornfield Hall is complete! – And Bertha Rochester has haunted it for the last time. – No one can say that we didn’t do all we could for her. Priest She was self-destructive from the start and fulfilled her destructivity with consequence. Can we save Mr Rochester? Poole That is the question. It is all my fault. Priest No, Grace Poole. It was the Devil who by the bottle and Bertha Mason outwitted us all.

Scene 3. Ferndean, a simple domestic salon. Rochester by the fire as a wreck, one-armed and blind, decayed and pathetic. Edward Is it you, Mary? Put the water here beside me. Jane Mary is out in the kitchen. Edward (harkens) Who said this? Jane One who wishes you well. Edward Haven’t I suffered enough? Shall all my agonies be doubled by hearing hallucinations from the past? Don’t alter your voice, Mary. It can’t be anyone but you. Jane Sir, Mary is out in the kitchen. I bring the water to you in her place. Edward Who are you? Who is playing tricks on me by talking to me by a voice that I still can hear but only in my wildest fantasies? Jane Sir, I have come back. Edward It’s not possible. Jane Yes, it is possible, and it is true. Edward Jane? Is it really you?

Jane It doesn’t look much better, Sir. Here is your glass of water. Edward Are you mocking me? Or is it fate that mocks me? Is it my senses that play naughty tricks on me? Could it really be you? Jane Yes, it can really be me. Edward Let me have this wonderful fact confirmed. Give me a hug, and let me press my angel to my heart, if it is possible. Jane It is quite possible. (embraces him. They stay long embraced, like as if to feel each other thoroughly.) Edward, I have learned everything that happened. I know that you are blind and have lost one hand, but that means nothing, and that is not why I have come back. I came back because I heard or felt that were calling on me. Edward I actually did all since you deserted us. So you have heard me at last? Jane I am free, Edward. I am not poor any more, but I am independent and need no longer work. My life belongs to you, for that I owe you, as you gave me a life. Edward You don’t owe me anything, Jane. I owe you everything, just because you came back. Do you mean that you are staying? Jane If you still want an escaped bride. Edward ‘If’ she says! I am also free, Jane. I couldn’t follow my wife all the way down to her self-made grave, although I tried. I had to pay with a hand and my sight for my last effort to save her. Don’t tell me that you still want a cripple. Jane I want you, Edward, and no one else. Edward And I want you, Jane, and no one else. Jane You still have one eye. It seems intact, and then perhaps you can partially recover your sight. Edward If I can recover you, Jane, I am blessed enough with that and need nothing else. Jane You have me for life, Edward. Edward Are you serious? Jane Or else I wouldn’t say so. Edward My angel, then I can in spite of all reconcile myself with life and my destiny. Then life is not just suffering and misfortune after all, but there could actually be some relief and mitigation. I accept you on one condition. Jane It is already granted. Edward You must never desert me again. Jane I will be your eyes and your right hand. I’ll be everything to you, Edward, as long as you live and longer. I shall live to atone for all that your former wife committed against you. Edward Then there is a tremendous work ahead of you with fifteen lost years to repair the damages of. Jane I am still young and have only just started. We shall restore your sight, Edward. Edward Could it even ultimately result in a decent family? Jane If you want. In honest love everything is possible. Edward I am almost starting to believe you, Jane. Jane That’s why I am here.

Edward Thank you, Jane, for existing, for returning, and for your singular courage to take on a hopeless case. Jane No case is hopeless, Edward. Edward Not even mine? Jane Yours least of all. Your wife is dead, Edward, but love lives on, and you have it here. Edward Thank you, Jane. May I ask you something? Jane Anything. Edward Let’s walk out in the light. I want to see if maybe I could start perceiving it. If not, we will continue trying until we die. Jane Of course, Edward. (They start on their way out.) Edward Welcome home, Jane. Jane It has been a long journey. (They walk out into the light.)

The End.

Comment Already when I first read “Jane Eyre” at the age of ten I was struck by the Bertha Mason character as one of the most dramatic female figures in world literature. I could never forget her, but the novel appeared hopelessly impossible to dramatize, until the idea came to me to try to see everything from Rochester’s point of view. The result became something very different from the novel. The observant reader will find that almost nothing of the conversations and discussions of the novel has been included, since the dialogue here is completely different, if the story and meaning though are the same – no one could be Charlotte Brontë more faithful than Mr Rochester. The novel has been filmed a number of times, but none of the film versions have in my opinion rendered Bertha Mason justice – her dramatic potential has as a rule been ignored. Two of the films have been faithful enough to the novel to feature Rochester as a very large man and Jane Eyre as very small, the first version with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, and the version of the 70s with George C. Scott and Susannah York. None of them was convincing. In the latest version with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson both are depicted as rather natural and normal, and that’s the best version so far, where Bertha, though, has been reduced to irrecognizability.

To stick to Rochester as 20 years older than Jane and double her size I find unnecessary, since itâ€™s their personalities that matter. This is also the conclusion of the last version, so it should be given free allowance to give them the casting that comes natural for a production. Only Bertha Mason should be exactly as she is portrayed in the novel: large and terrifying in her long wild dark hair and the long white nightshirt â€“ she canâ€™t really be demonized enough. By giving her a voice to speak for herself I have tried to make it possible for her to appear as the great dramatic character she should be allowed to be. The dramatization was written in Athens but concluded on the sea outside Greece on March 28th 2008. This translation was made in August after ten years.

Christian Lanciai, August 24th 2018.

Wuthering Heights A tragedy in five acts (after Emily and Branwell Brontë) Dramatis personae: Four regulars Bartender Two other guests Branwell Brontë Joseph Catherine, the younger Hareton Earnshaw Lockwood Ellen Dean (Nelly) Heathcliff Catherine, the older Hindley Mr Earnshaw Mrs Earnshaw Frances Another guest at the pub Edgar Linton Isabella Linton Priest Ben, a servant Linton, Isabella’s son

The action is in north England in the beginning of the 19th century.

Wuthering Heights Act I scene 1. Inside an inn. It’s regular hours with not many customers. The bartender hasn’t too much to do, a group is playing cards by a table, and the dominant mood is relaxed. 1st card player Damn! 2 No damned oaths here! 1 Be grateful instead, to learn that I have lousy cards! 3 Play the game instead. 1 That’s what I’m doing. 3 No, you are just sitting there swearing. 4 Back to business, gentlemen! 1 That’s what I mean! 3 No, you are just swearing like hell. 1 For the devil’s sake! Give me a break! Let me concentrate! 3 Here he goes again. 2 Shut up and play cards! 4 Who the devil can play in this crossfire of blatherskite! 2 Do you intend to play or pull out? 3 Take it easy, John. The day is long. 2 The entire day has already passed by your talking nonsense. 1 It’s worse just sitting here and listening to all your shit. 2 Go home then and wash your dirt out of your ears! 1 Shall we just sit here and listen to bullshit? 4 Gentlemen, back to business! 3 That’s what we have been trying to do all day. 4 What? 3 Never getting down to business. 2 True indeed. (The door opens, enter Branwell in a poor state on wobbly legs.) 4 Shall we now suffer him as well? 2 The only one missing, and the last one we wanted. Bartender Shouldn’t you stay at home, Branwell? Branwell Yes. Bartender So what are you doing here then? Branwell Yes, why do people come here, my good man? You ought to be able to answer that. Bartender You are drunk. Branwell No, only half drunk.

Another guest You still have far to go, Branwell. I thought you were permanently confined to bed nowadays. Branwell That’s what the doctor wants, to make my illness grow worse, so that he can give me more medicines. It makes you want to puke and drives you mad. The guest (takes him around the chin) Don’t take it so seriously. You look better today. Branwell That was not my intention. Bartender (knows his customer) What will it be, Branwell? Branwell The usual stuff. Bartender Nothing else? Branwell The day is long. I wll have time for the rest later. Bartender (pours him a glass) You know I have my restrictions. Branwell (runs his fist on the table) Is there no place in the world you can be free? Not even in a pub? The guest Take it easy, Branwell. You are among friends. You are free with us. Branwell You can’t go anywhere without people telling you what you may do and what is forbidden. Then put me in a straitjacket at once! Bartender No one wants to make a martyr of you, Branwell. Branwell I was born a martyr. I never even wanted it myself. Bartender Martyr for what? Branwell And you ask me? Bartender Yes, I do. Branwell For the free word! I was born a poet! No one became anything else in my family! We are all divine gifted fibbers! I am the incarnation of the free word! But no one wants it. I write it down, but no one reads it. I send around my poems, but no one wants them. I plead with publishers, but they only thank me for nothing and ask me to leave. I am a free man born into a restricted world of only mediocrity and sloth! I am too much alive for this world! I am the one outstanding pearl in a world of only swine! The guest (patting him friendlily) We like you, Branwell. You have some understanding here. Branwell (frowningly) Yes, by other drunkards. The guest Don’t frown so condescendingly. I am after all your friend. 1st card player It’s impossible to play cards here! Read us something, Branwell! You ruined our game anyway! The guest Yes, read something to us, Branwell. Bartender Read your latest poem, if you have any. Branwell I always carry around some crap in my cap. (doffs his hat and picks some papers out of it) The guest That’s good, Branwell! You can always be relied upon! You never deny yourself! 1 Read then, but loud and clear, so that we can understand. 2 And don’t talk thick, for that will only make it funny. 3 That it’ll be anyway.

4 Or pathetic. 3 It will be all that at the same time and unintelligible to sum it up. 2 But Branwell reads well when he wants to. The guest Read, Branwell! Show that you can! Branwell (takes out his papers, puts on his glasses and starts reading, while he uses his arm for gestures.) ”There is something ominous about the cold rattling wind that keeps threatening and holding me back as I wander across the moor along the endless grey stone fences, that appear like gravestones in their sterile rows of deadly rigidity, overgrown with moss, forgotten and partly fallen apart, as if they only had miserable lives to ever report about.” (interrupts himself, somewhat confused) I didn’t write this. I have brought the wrong papers. The guest Read some more! Others (joining in) Continue reading! Bartender It started well, Branwell. We are expecting more. Branwell I brought my sister’s manuscript by accident. The guest Your sister is as good as you. 4 Which one of them? 3 Any of them. They all can write and tell stories. 2 They are witches all three, and that’s why their dad never wished them to marry. 1 What is he afraid of? 2 Misfortune. The guest What is the story about, Branwell? Branwell (has with increasing alarm seen through the papers) It’s a novel, the draft of a novel. But it’s my novel. But she has written it down. That was never intended. 4 Sounds interesting. Read some more. The guest Yes, Branwell, read some more! Branwell (has put on his glasses again) It’s a stranger who has rented a beautiful manor out on the moor from an old dark, solemn and eccentric gentleman, who lives niggardly in a smaller place. But that’s only the beginning. 1 You raise our curiosity. Branwell Are you up to it? (They all look at each other, as if to assess the odds.) Bartender Just get on with it, Branwell, and we’ll see how far you’ll reach. Branwell As you wish. Come with me then out on the desert moor, where the winds never leave the unblessed restless spirits any peace, where eternal unrest stresses the whirling brains of the cursed, and where misfortune is the only certain fact of life, from the cradle to the gallows. Join me for a ride out into the wuthering hell of evil fate and eternal tragedy! (blackout)

Scene 2. The interior of a rather ramshackle larger cottage. The mood is depressive. No one says a word. All are poorly dressed in clothes worn and torn, there is a general feeling of decay, but no sense of perdition, rather like in a neglected prison. Joseph, Catherine and Hareton in the room, when there is a knock on the door. Catherine (sewing) Open, Hareton. (Hareton, dirty, rises and opens to let in Lockwood.) Lockwood (a nice gentleman) God’s peace in this cottage! (removes his hat in a friendly salute) Catherine Who is it? Hareton A stranger. Joseph You seem to have come to the wrong place, Sir. There is no God’s peace in this cottage. Lockwood Isn’t Mr Heathcliff living here? Joseph That’s why there is no God’s peace in this cottage. Catherine Quiet, Joseph! Joseph I may say whatever. I have no say anyway. Catherine Don’t make things worse than they are! Joseph Could they be worse than they are? Catherine Have you lived for so long and still not learned, that it will always get worse? Joseph So it doesn’t matter what I say, since things will get worse anyway. Lockwood It was not my intention to importune, (cautiously) but is Mr Heathcliff here? Joseph Are you the new lodger of Thrushcross Grange? Lockwood Precisely! Joseph Is there anything wrong? Lockwood No, everything is quite all right. There were just some minor details… Ellen (the large hearty cook, entering from the kitchen) Who is it? Joseph Just the new lodger. Ellen But he looks nice enough. Let him in then, for goodness’ sake! Joseph Well, please to enter then, Sir. What are you waiting for? Lockwood Mr Heathcliff, if you don’t mind. Ellen Heathcliff is upstairs. He is sure to come down. He hears everything. He must have heard that somebody arrived. Catherine He only hears what he wants to hear. That’s why he hears more than everybody else. Lockwood That was somewhat difficult for me to understand. Catherine No one can understand Heathcliff. Ellen Have you met him? Lockwood Yes, I have met him. Ellen You don’t seem much impressed.

Lockwood He made a somewhat, what shall we say, confusing impression. Ellen Wasn’t he rude and offensive to you like to all others? Lockwood Something in that direction, you might perhaps say. Heathcliff (calling from upstairs) Ellen! Who has arrived? Ellen (calling back) Your lodger in Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff That oily fop! What does he want? Ellen You have to ask him yourself. Heathcliff I am busy. Ask him to leave. Ellen Heathcliff, he is one of the very few who never caused you any harm! You are his landlord! Be so good as to show him some humanity! Heathcliff (angrily to himself) Damn! Never to be left in peace! (Some noise, indicating that he is on his way down.) Lockwood (when Heathcliff shows up on the stairs) It was not my intention to bother you. Heathcliff (coming down on a stick) Don’t ask so daft. You know very well that’s what you are doing. Ellen (to Heathcliff) A storm is gathering. Heathcliff There is always a storm gathering. The more storms, the better! Let them gather! Let the winds howl themselves to exhaustion in torturing our demented souls! Let the goblins thunder across the moor in the dancing whirlwind and pull us all down together in its black hole of hell! Joseph Fie what blasphemous language! Heathcliff You know I always use it. Ellen (to Lockwood) He is always like that, but he never means any harm. Heathcliff Don’t be such a ninny, Ellen! You if anyone know how much harm I always caused and wanted to be done! Ellen He is just in a bad mood. Heathcliff I am always in a bad mood! You might as well learn that at once, Sir! Well, what can I do for you? Lockwood Just a few details about the house I am renting. Heathcliff Come back tomorrow. Ellen He can’t come back tomorrow. Heathcliff Why? Ellen I already told you. There is a storm gathering. He can’t walk home. Heathcliff If I can get out and rave in any kind of weather, so can he. Be kind enough to get you gone, Sir! Come back tomorrow! (Thunder and lightning outside.) Ellen No one can get out in this weather. Heathcliff Yes, I can! Ellen You perhaps, but no one else. Heathcliff I know many who could. Cathy, for instance… Ellen Don’t invoke the dead. No mortal could be outside any more today – except you.

Heathcliff (dreaming) No, only the undead. Only the unblessed. Only the unblessed memories of unblessed spirits… Lockwood (to Ellen) Is he always like that? Ellen We got used to it. Lockwood He doesn’t seem quite well. Ellen He never did. Lockwood (indicating Hareton and Catherine) Are they his children? Ellen God save us, no! It shows, doesn’t it? They are not even related. He has no children of his own. Lockwood (cautiously) Adopted? Heathcliff Don’t stand there gossiping with the guest, Ellen, but show him out! Ellen God forgive me, but that can’t be done. Heathcliff Don’t get God mixed up in this! He has nothing to do with it! Ellen He must stay here over night. Heathcliff (angrily beating his stick in the ground) No, I say! Lockwood By all means, I could find my way in the dark across the moor between the lightnings… Ellen In this weather there is no path any more. There is only mud. Heathcliff Why the hell did you have to come here to bother us? As if I didn’t have enough of worries and griefs already! Now you have even ruined my temper! Bloody hell! (gets out and bangs the door) Lockwood Where is he going? Hareton He gets out into the rain to cool off. He always does. He is only happy in bad weather. Lockwood You have a very strange master. Ellen And he always gets worse. Joseph It gets worse every year. And it will all end up badly for all of us by him, I know that for sure! Ellen Don’t talk nonsense, Joseph. Get out to the stables instead and look after the animals. Joseph That’s just what I intended. (leaves) Catherine Don’t worry, Sir. You can stay here for the night. I will give you a room and bedclothes. Lockwood Thanks for your kindness. But what will your master say? Catherine I take the responsibility. He never goes against me. Ellen Sit down by the fire and warm yourself. Lockwood (getting closer to the fire) Thank you, I am actually cold. Ellen That’s obvious. We all get cold as soon as Heathcliff appears. Lockwood Still I believe it’s not his fault but the cold outside. Ellen We know better. We know him. Catherine Don’t talk rubbish now, Ellen, but give him something to eat.

Ellen We still have some chicken left. Would you like some? Lockwood Super! Ellen You are human at least. We are not exactly spoilt by humanity here. Lockwood It’s you who are human with me and not the other way around. Hareton (somewhat embarrassed) I go out to the stables to help Joseph with the horses. Catherine Yes, please do, Hareton. (Hareton leaves.) (to Lockwood) He is worried about Heathcliff. Lockwood Is he attached to Heathcliff? Catherine Yes, although Heathcliff reduced him to a slave and an animal. Ellen You mustn’t speak like that, Miss Catherine. Catherine But it is true. Ellen Heathcliff could always stand behind doors and listen. He always did. Catherine I go up to prepare your room, Mr Lockwood. Lockwood I thank you for it. Ellen Here is some food. Soon enough you will get warm. Lockwood (alone with Ellen) You don’t seem very happy here, if I may say so, Ellen. May I call you Ellen? Ellen Of course. Just feel yourself at home. Lockwood Could anyone? I mean, your master seems a somewhat cruel tyrant. Ellen It wasn’t always like that. Lockwood Why did it become like that? Ellen In the old days the house was always ringing with merry laughter, but that was long ago. That was before all the young ones went off dying. It was before Heathcliff arrived. Lockwood Wasn’t he always here? Ellen No. He is a foundling. I always wondered if the old esquire didn’t pick him up directly from hell. Lockwood He doesn’t seem evil but rather unhappy. Ellen He made us all unhappy by his unhappiness. Lockwood What is his trouble? Ellen That he ever came here. And that he couldn’t have Cathy. Lockwood Cathy? I heard her mentioned earlier tonight. Who was she? Ellen Young Miss Catherine’s mother, and exactly like her. Lockwood How old is Heathcliff? Ellen Older than everyone else but still too young. Lockwood Yes, that’s the impression he gives. Ellen It’s a long story, Sir, but I could try to tell it briefly while the master is out. Can you take it? Lockwood I am consumed with interest. Ellen I was there from the start, so I know everything. This is how it was. (She turns towards the fire, while there is a change of scene.) (Cathy and Hindley as children come rushing in.) Cathy Daddy! Daddy! It’s daddy coming home!

Ellen Well, children, how do you know? Cathy We saw him through the window! Hindley It’s actually true, Ellen. He is on his way. (The door is opened, and enter Mr Earnshaw with a small boy carried on his back.) Earnshaw Here I am, children! Is everything all right at home? Cathy Daddy! Daddy! (jumps up into his bosom) Earnshaw There, take it easy! Don’t knock me over! (sits down and hugs Cathy.) Mrs Earnshaw But what on earth are you carrying on your back? Hindley A troll, mother, can’t you see? A black troll from the moor. Earnshaw Not at all, Hindley. This is your new little brother. Allow me to present… (lets Heathcliff down from his back) … our new family member. I have given him the name of Heathcliff, my dearest, after the child we lost. Mrs But where on earth does he come from? Hindley Fram hell, mother, can’t you see? He is a real blackamoor from hell. (strikes Heathcliff) Earnshaw No, Hindley! No bullying here! Then you’ll do without supper! Our home was always hospitable and will so remain. No one shall ever be anything but welcome in this good godfearing home. Did he hurt you, Heathcliff? Heathcliff (stoically) That was nothing. Mrs But where on earth did you find him? Earnshaw In the back streets of Liverpool. No family. A small beggar. I saw my chance of saving a child’s life, and I took it. Was it wrong, my dearest? We did have an empty place here at home. Mrs Poor thing. He looks all washed up. Give him some hot soup, Ellen. Hindley (angry) Are you giving him our food instead of us? Earnshaw Behave yourself, Hindley! Another rude word, and you will sleep in the stables! This is your new younger brother! Hindley You got us the devil himself for our brother. Mrs Hindley! (strikes him) Hindley I thought I was your only son, mother. (leaves sulking) Cathy (to Heathcliff) Did he strike you, little troll? Heathcliff (unperturbed) I am used to getting beaten. Ellen He must be thoroughly washed clean. He could be carrying lice and other things. Earnshaw That accounts for all of us, Ellen. But he is purest who is pure in his soul, and that’s the one who has the most enduring patience. And if anyone has any patience here in this house it’s our new little friend here, isn’t it, Heathcliff? Heathcliff If you say so, Sir. Earnshaw I say so. Give him now a plate of soup. He is still freezing from the raw cold slush of the back streets of Liverpool. Ellen He could even have lice of the plague. Earnshaw That’s enough, Ellen. Cathy Did he hit you, poor dear?

Heathcliff I am no one’s poor dear. Cathy O yes, you are, for you have come to a wicked family and got two naughty elder kin over you. Heathcliff I could bear with them. Cathy But one of them is at least a sister. (hugs him) Heathcliff What is your name? Cathy Catherine. Call me Cathy. Earnshaw (to Mrs) At least Catherine has accepted him. Mrs It’s my fault who always spoilt Hindley. Earnshaw Hindley is not our only son any more, and that will do Hindley some good. Mrs Yes, my dear, what father does is probably always right. Earnshaw (more confidential) I think Heathcliff and Cathy already found each other. Mrs The changeling will probably also eventually become a man. (Earnshaw and his wife together with Cathy and Heathcliff make a happy idyll, while Ellen returns to Lockwood, the light returning on them, eventually leaving the Earnshaw family.) Ellen But I observed it at once. It was as if a dark cloud entered the house on that day, and that cloud was not only Hindley’s jealousy. That cloud hovered over all of us, and I think we all felt that it emanated from the new family member himself, but no one dared to express any dark misgivings and suspicions. It was something about Heathcliff that wasn’t of this world. He had also been given the name of Mrs Earnshaw’s deceased scond son. No, nothing boded any good. (Some noise outside, as if a window was blown open.) That infernal wind from the moor! Now the north windows have blown open again! I shall have to go and close the shutters. Just one moment, Mr Lockwood. (leaves) Lockwood (sips his tea) A strange house, full of skeletons in the wardrobe. How many are they? Perhaps they don’t even know themselves, but they are not likely to ever have any peace. (The nearest window is blown open.) Now the ghosts come entering even here. Well, the least thing I can do is to close the window. (goes for the window to shut it. When he reaches for it, a bare woman’s arm clutches his arm from outside and keeps hold of it.) Cathy Let me in! Let me in! Lockwood (terrified) Who are you? Help! Cathy (violently pulling Lockwood’s arm) Let me in! Lockwood Poor woman, what are you doing out in the storm! The door is open! Come in but not through the window! Cathy (as before) Let me in! Lockwood You are hurting me! Let go! Cathy Let me in! Let me in!

(Lockwood succeeds in releasing his scratched and blooded arm and to shut the window not without force.) Lockwood What madmen are allowed to run loose on the moor in this weather? Heathcliff (entering) Still here? What are you doing here? Why haven’t you left? Lockwood You should be grateful that I am still here defending your house. A mad woman just tried to pull me out through the window. Heathcliff (affected) A mad woman? Who was it? Lockwood How should I know? You can’t even yourself keep any order of all your ghosts in this area! Heathcliff What kind of a woman was it? What did she look like? Lockwood Blond, beautiful, like your young relation Miss Catherine but more mature. Heathcliff (rushes to the window, opens it up wide, letting the storm howling in) Cathy! Cathy! Where are you? Lockwood Calm down, Mr Heathcliff! I just had all the trouble in the world getting that window fixed! Heathcliff Cathy! Cathy! Come back! Lockwood He is mad. Heathcliff (turning around in fury) No, I am not mad! Don’t you realize who the woman was that you saw? I have been waiting for her for years and years! And then she appears when you are here! Why does she come to you and not to me? Lockwood You had better ask her. Heathcliff Idiot, she is dead! Lockwood (thoughtfully) Well, that complicates the case considerably. Heathcliff (calling out again) My beloved! Come back! Lockwood (giving up, lifting his hands) I wash my hands. (sits down and returns to his tea. Ellen returns.) Ellen Why are you standing by the window, master Heathcliff? You could catch pneumonia! Heathcliff I don’t care. Lockwood He is looking for passing girls. Ellen Master Heathcliff, have you gone mad? Heathcliff (turning to Ellen) Cathy was here, Ellen. Ellen Of course she is here. She lives here. Heathcliff No, Ellen, I mean the real Cathy. The departed Cathy. Ellen (watches Heathcliff) Yes, you do look like having seen a ghost. Heathcliff She was here, Ellen! Ellen All right, but for God’s sake, close the window! Heathcliff (closes the window well enough but rushes on the door instead) Cathy! Cathy! (rushes out) (A moment’s silence while Lockwood and Ellen look at each other.) Lockwood There are more things going on around here than any human mind could understand.

Ellen I am afraid you arrived just in time for the conclusion. Lockwood What have I missed? Ellen Only the entire novel. Lockwood You appear to have been in it from the start. Ellen Yes, the happy start, the lovely, merry beginning, which then just irrevocably rushed us all down into a tragedy without end and of no bottom. Cathy and Heathcliff loved each other. Hindley, her elder brother, pushed him around and did anything to humiliate him, which only resulted in Cathy’s love for him growing even more uncontrolled and overwhelming. They grew up together as sister and brother, but their love was more than ordinately passionate from the beginning. It was wild and unstoppable, like a force of nature. And Mrs Earnshaw died, and Hindley grew constantly more difficult and cruel. He enjoyed torturing Heathcliff. Lockwood Did Heathcliff never requite? Ellen No, that was the miracle. His patience was more than human. He never repaid in any way, which earned him a constantly growing trust and confidence from Mr Earnshaw, while at the same time Cathy’s love increased to the same degree as Hindley’s hatred and rudeness. But Hindley went away, the idea was that he was to be educated, but it all amounted to nothing. The boy had no interest in books. No one ever had in this corner of the world. He only got sickly and closed up and lost that small portion of robust health he did have before. When Mr Earnshaw fell ill and it became imminent that he was to leave us, we immediately notified Hindley, urging him to come home, but it didn’t turn out as we had expected…

Scene 3. Mr Earnshaw’s death bed. Catherine, Heathcliff, the servants, all are present. Earnshaw Only Hindley is missing. Does he know that I am dying? Catherine We sent for him, father. He should have come already. Earnshaw He was never on time. Neither was I, for that matter. I always lingered behind and arrived late. You will take care of little Heathcliff, Cathy? Catherine Of course, father. Earnshaw You are my child of misfortune, little blackguard. Everything went wrong for me in Liverpool. The violin I bought for Hindley was broken, and your riding-whip, Cathy, was lost. Instead I came home with that one. Was it a bad deal? Heathcliff No deals are bad, Mr Earnshaw. Earnshaw Thus spoke a born businessman. Perhaps something could become of you after all, in contrast to Hindley. Catherine You mustn’t talk so much, father. You will only tire yourself out. Earnshaw Don’t try that, Cathy. It’s only you I am boring and tiring out. But this is my last chance. (Cathy cries.) There, don’t take it so seriously. It will get better when

you are free of me and you can devote yourselves to your wild games in peace. Oh yes, I know well what you are up to, Cathy and Heathcliff, you rowdy children! Don’t let it become a habit, and above all, never make an end to the fun, but always stay in good touch with each other and maintain your good contact at its best. Love is a sacred thing that never must be debased by meaningless misunderstandings. And I know your love is true. So just stick to it, and never let it down. Ellen I distinctly hear someone coming. Heathcliff Several. Hindley (outside) Anybody home? Catherine Hindley! Up here! Hindley (enters with his young wife) So there you are. May I present my young wife, little Miss Frances. Earnshaw You bungler, what have you now been up to? Hindley I have married a wife. Earnshaw With that wretched thing? Hindley She is no wretched thing. She is my wife. Catherine Didn’t you get our message, that father was ill? Hindley Certainly, but that was no news. He always was. Is his time up at last? Earnshaw Yes, Hindley, it’s finally time for me to die, so tomorrow you will be master here. And then you come home with a palefaced wench from town who probably can’t even sweep the floor. Couldn’t you have brought something more amusing to your father’s death bed? Hindley I always did my best, father. Earnshaw No, you always did your worst. Look how pale she is, as of some wasting disease. And what about you? What has become of you? I sent you away with a lot of money for you to make something of for your education and a career! And what have you become? Only pale and bleak, a weak milksop, spoilt as such from the start, and then you bring home with you an even paler and weaker so called wife! Hindley Don’t listen to him, Frances. He is only gaga. Earnshaw Send her away then, if she is not allowed to hear what I have to say! I assure you, that gaga is the very last thing I shall ever be. Others die demented and lost in their minds beyond all possible recovery and even younger than I, but at least I shall not die reduced in mind! So there! Get out, you coddled good-for-nothing, so that I may be spared the sight of your poor failure of a misconceived wife! Hindley Come, Frances. It will pass. (leaves with Frances) Earnshaw No, Hindley, death will never pass! It will always be present! We will never be without it! Even you shall die one day, but your wife will reach the grave before you! (realizes that Hindley can’t hear him) How could he bring home a wife who will never be able to endure this climate? He will be her death! Catherine Don’t worry about the others now, dear father. It’s only you who are about to die.

Earnshaw Yes, can you image, I almost had forgotten it. Well, I might as well die then, and so have done with it! What a relief it will be to finally be rid of all of you! If I am lucky my wife will be waiting on the other side with at least a home well tidied up. (dies) Ellen He is dead. Catherine Daddy! Daddy! Heathcliff Yes, he is gone. (Catherine throws herself down by the side of the bed, crying. Heathcliff provides some tender and delicate soothing comfort.) Hindley (enters) What did I hear? Has the old decrepit man at last turned in? About time! So I am the lord of the house now. Get out, Heathcliff! From now on you will sleep in the stables! It’s over now with the old man’s pampering favouritism! You are now just a farm-hand! And you, Catherine, must never associate with him again! I am now the lord of the manor, and all orders will come from me and my wife, which you must respect! Catherine Respect for a brutal bully? Never! Hindley Have you then no respect for the deceased? What foul language! Out with you, all of you! We shall have some order and efficiency here! At last an end to the decay of mismanagement! Ellen Come, my children. Let’s leave our new lord alone with his father’s corpse. (Exeunt all except Hindley.) Hindley Apparently I came home in the right moment to displease you one last time more than enough! You always preferred Cathy and Heathcliff, that blackguard. But now I am in possession of my lawful rights to make a hell for them of their lives, if they so much as dare to utter any sound together again! (clenches his fist threateningly at his dead father and leaves completely self-satisfied.) Act II scene 1. The inn. (like Act I scene 1.) 1 What kind of a bloody gipsy story is that, Branwell? 2 Let him just carry on to the end of it, so that he then can go home. 3 Or else we’ll never be rid of him. 2 Give him another beer, to keep the fuel burning. 4 You can take some more pints, can’t you, Branwell? Branwell I would love to, if I am invited. Bartender As long as you have something to tell we’ll keep you going. Several Right’o! 2 Drink, Branwell! Drink, and go on! 4 Yes, let it go on for long. 3 Let’s hear every detail about how both those families went to perdition. Branwell I warned you. It’s a long story, and I have only arrived at the beginning.

The day is long, and the drinks are longer. (A new man has arrived and taken a seat.) But who is that new guest? I have seen him before. Don’t bother about him. He is just another drunkard. A true entertainer just carries on without minding the

Branwell 1 2 audience. 4 Yes, let’s have that long tall story. Branwell (approaches the guest) Sir, don’t we know each other? The guest Don’t mind me. Go to your friends and continue your declamation. Branwell What are you doing here? Guest Listening. Branwell Why? Guest In case it would be interesting. Branwell You have come here to listen to me. Guest Yes, I admit it. Branwell (to the others) I know who he is. He is a publisher. 1 Don’t bother about him. Come on now. Bartender Leave him alone and continue the entertainment. That’s what we are paying for. Branwell What the devil is he doing here? Bartender Maybe you had better not try to find that out. 4 Come, Branwell. Don’t be ridiculous, and don’t pester the guests. Branwell (attacks the guest and grabs him by the throat) You damned swine! Why have you come here! (All interfere and try to stop Branwell from strangling the guest.) Branwell (wild) I know who he is! I know who he is! Bartender Calm down, Branwell. (to the guest) We apologise. He is drunk. Guest (shrugs) That’s obvious. Branwell You accursed vulture! What do you want with me? Haven’t you insulted me enough? 1 What has he done to you, Branwell? Branwell Nothing, except that he has torn my soul out of my body. Guest I don’t know what he is talking about. Bartender (to the guest) Explain yourself. Who are you? Guest I only met that individual once before, and that was just a fleeting moment. Branwell A fleeting moment! As fleeting as when a hangman executes an innocent! Guest I still don’t understand what he is talking about. Branwell Let me go! I’ll not attack him any more. (The others release him.) I know everything about that person, but he knows nothing about me. I gave him my poems to read. I gave him my novels to read. I was nothing but a born poet and writer, and I pleaded to him to accept me, so that I would come out of this snakepit

of decay and ruin, misery and narrowmindedness. I gave him my soul. And what did he do with it? He trampled it down into a worse mire than I was born in, and what did you say, Sir, for a report? Do you remember? Guest It’s my thankless duty to give reports of hundreds like him every month. Branwell What did you say, Sir, for a statetment? I asked you a question! Guest I don’t remember. Branwell Nay, of course you don’t remember! You remember it as little as the last fly you massacred on your cheek! That’s what we writers are to you publishers: flies to massacre and spit on and flatten with the ground and dry out the stain of! Nothing more! Bartender Branwell, you go too far. You will never get published in that manner. Branwell (stll upset) Tell me why you came here, Sir! Guest (realizing that he has to answer) I came here to listen to you. I wanted to give you another chance. I wished to hear your story-telling and if what you tell is worth betting on. That’s all. Bartender We have no better story-teller in north England, not since the days of Walter Scott. Guest (brushes his clothes clean) Could be. I can’t give an opinion of that. But the thing is, that he is impossible. You saw for yourselves how he attacked me in the explicit intention to kill me. Such an author could never make a success on the market. All he can produce is scandals, no matter how good he is as a story-teller. I am sorry, Mr Branwell Brontë, that you didn’t have the sense to take the chance that I was prepared to give you. (leaves without another word in cold resolution.) (A moment’s silence while they all recover.) Second guest Branwell, go on. Branwell How could I read anything more after this? Bartender You were only drunk, Branwell. Forget about the incident. 1 Yes, we are waiting, Branwell. 3 Your yarn about how both the families perish isn’t finished yet. Branwell It’s my sister’s manuscript. Bartender But it’s your story. Branwell It will never be known under my name. Second guest The name doesn’t matter. Who cares if Shakespeare wrote his plays or someone else? It’s only the completed works that count. 2 He is right. Bartender Do you think you could pick up the thread? Do you need some more beer? Branwell Yes, I think I will need another beer. (All want to assist in serving him.) All right, thank you! That’s enough! Second guest Get going, Branwell! We are waiting! 4 No one will interrupt you again.

3 We have thrown out all stupid publishers. Branwell (with four filled up glasses) Can you stand some more? All Yes! Branwell Well then. (unfolds the manuscript again, puts on his glasses and starts reading.) They grew so fond of the wild Cathy at the rich and cultivated Thrushcross Grange, that they kept her there to educate her and teach her manners, so that when she returned to Wuthering Heights we couldn’t recognize her any more… (The scene shifts back to Ellen and Lockwood.) Ellen She had turned into a fine lady and acquired manners which didn’t at all belong with us and that most of all alienated Heathcliff, who felt neglected and disdained. As if it wasn’t enough that Hindley treated him like dirt! That even his one and only ally Cathy would grow too good for him was more than he could bear. And Cathy was too fond herself of her new accomplishments to be able to move back by any step.

Scene 2. Wuthering Heights (like Act I scene 2.) Hindley You have to brighten up now! Cathy has been gone for five weeks and acquired refined manners, so look to it that you don’t make any shame of yourselves! Frances But why has she been gone for so long? Ellen Heathcliff knows. Hindley (darkly) Yes, it’s Heathcliff’s fault, if it is a fault. Frances How did it really happen, Heathcliff? Heathcliff (dirtier and more untidy than ever) We were out on the moor playing as usual, when we lost our way to Thrushcross Grange and decided to peep through the windows. It was so well kept and splendid inside, a regular fairy tale castle, and then the dogs came barking and attacking us, biting Cathy’s leg to the the bone so that it was almost broken. They were very sorry about Cathy, but they said it was my fault. Hindly So it was! Frances Hindley! Heathcliff So they demanded to take care of Cathy until she had recovered, but they sent me back. Hindley Yes, back and away with you out to the stables, Heathcliff! What are you doing in here? Heathcliff We were all supposed to be here when Cathy came back to receive her and welcome her. Hindley Miss Cathy to you, Heathcliff! You are just a farm-hand in charge of the manure! Well, well, stay here then, so Cathy might at last realize by your aspect and stench what kind of a parasite you really are! Ellen (whispers to Heathcliff. He understands, smiles and leaves.)

Frances

Here she comes! (All are exhilarated.) (The servants open the door. Enter Catherine as a fine lady.) Cathy Oh, how many of you are here to greet me! How sweet of you! And how well you have tidied up the house! Is it you, Ellen? Ellen We were all part of it, but Hindley ordered it. Cathy (greeting each one specially in due order with kisses and embraces.) How sweet of you all! How wonderful to come home to a house in order! (has greeted everyone, misses Heathcliff) But one is missing. Where is Heathcliff? Ellen He will join us presently. Cathy (to Hindley) Have you turned him out to the stables again, Hindley? Hindley That’s where he belongs. He must realize his position and learn subordination. But it’s not my fault that he is missing now. He was here a moment ago. Ellen He was just going out to attend to something. (Enter Heathcliff, washed and dressed up and almost handsome.) Cathy (delighted) There you are my love, my beloved Heathcliff, my only true brother! (embraces him whole-heartedly) Where have you been? Heathcliff I just washed off all the shit. Hindley (furious) Your place is in the stables, Heathcliff! Cathy Not today. Today he will sit with us at our table, for my sake, for that is how I want it. Hindley You are a fine lady now, Cathy. You can’t associate with gipsies. Cathy That’s for me to decide and not for you. And I don’t associate with gipisies, unless that gipsy is you, Hindley. Hindley All right, then, but only for today! Cathy How do you manage, Ellen? Have you prepared for the feast? Ellen Everything is ready, Miss Cathy. The guests are welcome at any time. Cathy They also might arrive at any time, so you had better all get smarter. Hindley What have you now been up to, Cathy? You haven’t invited anyone here, have you? Cathy Yes, I actually invited the Lintons. Hindley (horrified) The whole family? Cathy No, just Isabella and Edgar. They went so curious about the strange animals in their garden. Hindley What do you mean by that? Cathy We happen to be their neighbours. Ellen I hear the carriage coming. That must be them. Cathy Is everything ready, Ellen? Ellen Everything is in perfect order. We might as well make a reception to the Queen. Cathy Good dear old Nelly! What would we be without you?

Hindley Away with you to the stables now, Heathcliff. If we have guests they must not find you here. Cathy (angry) He stays, Hindley! He is my guest as well! Hindley There will only be trouble. Cathy Let there be trouble then, but he stays! Ellen Here they come. Edgar (entering with his sister Isabella, prudently) Have we come to the right house? Cathy (greeting them and embracing them overwhelmingly) Welcome, Edgar and Isabella! How nice that you would come! Edgar You made us so curious about your folk. Isabella How very tidy you have made it here! Hindley (aside) It’s the first time. Edgar We must salute everyone in due order. This must be Nelly from the kitchen. (politely saluting Ellen) Cathy She is the one who keeps everything in order. Isabella It couldn’t be more exemplary! Edgar Hindley, my sincere compliments for keeping your home in such a perfect order! Hindley A firm hand is needed to run this rugged house! Isabella And this must be your exquisite wife, Hindley. (greets Frances) Frances I am sure we’ll be the best of friends. Edgar And who is this? (reaching Heathcliff) Hindley The groom. He shouldn’t be here, but Cathy insisted. Edgar I see. This is the famous Heathcliff from the gutter in Liverpool. He looks unusually clean for being generally busy about clearing dung in the stables. Hindley I can promise you, Edgar, that he has never looked this clean before. He has put on a face for the sake of Cathy. Cathy Don’t be silly now, but come and sit down. Ellen has prepared the most delicious dinner in the world for us. Edgar Won’t you greet me, Heathcliff? (offers his hand) Heathcliff (accepts it with reluctance) Hindley He can put out a paw nicely, but only when Cathy is present. Cathy Hindley! Hindley Yes, what is it? Isabella He is much more dashing, Cathy, than you ever could describe him. Heathcliff Thank you, gracious lady. It brings me sincere pleasure that anyone else is human here except only Cathy. Hindley Don’t you dare speak with the guests, you inmate! Heathcliff Have I no freedom of expression? Hindley Not in my house! Cathy Don’t quarrel now! Edgar Does Cathy defend the gipsy against the gentry?

Cathy Why is everybody always falling foul of Heathcliff, as if he had no right to call himself human? Hindley Well, he just isn’t, is he, Edgar? Edgar Honestly speaking, I can see nothing under his made up face except the abject soul of a simple beggar. (Swiftly as lightning Heathcliff grabs a saucepan and throws its contents in the face of Edgar. All are shocked.) Different voices No! Alas! Not this! Oh dear! Now we’ve had it! Dear me! (etc.) (Only Heathcliff is satisfied, and only Cathy can’t help laughing.) Edgar (recovering from the shock) If you were an equal I would challenge you to a duel. Heathcliff (crossing his arms) Any time, Sir. Edgar But it is beneath my dignity. (to Hindley) I will never set my foot in this house again, Sir, where you allow simple dung grooms to mishandle your guests. Isabella (also seeing the fun in the situation) It was only you he mishandled, Edgar. Edgar Come, sister! Let’s go! We have nothing more to do here! Isabella (more and more amused, to Cathy) Pity that we lost that dinner. Edgar already finished up all the sauce. But at least we had the funniest bit. Cathy We’ll carry on some other time, Isabella. Isabella I am looking forward to it. Heathcliff (in rude boldness) I am sorry, Miss, but your brother actually asked for it. Hindley (furious, advancing and striking Heathcliff down) Haven’t you done enough harm for today? Must you even insult the ladies? Cathy I apologise for my brother, Isabella. Isabella I think we both would have preferred Heathcliff for a brother. (leaves with Edgar) Hindley Never again are you to set foot in this house! Cathy Hindley, both you and Edgar actually behaved intolerably bad. Compared with you, Heathcliff practically appears as innocent. Hindley So? He might even be something of a saint? Cathy Yes, at least in comparison with both of you. Hindley Go to hell! (leaves in fury. Frances runs after him to soothe him.) Cathy (helping up Heathcliff) Did it hurt much? Heathcliff Don’t touch me! (getting up by himself) Cathy I only want to help you. Heathcliff You are a fine lady now. You don’t have to get dirty together with me any more. My place is in the stables, until I can get away from here forever. And your home is over there at Thrushcross Grange where they have finer manners more worthy of you than your addled egg of a brother. Cathy You are my only real brother. Heathcliff No, Cathy, we are not even related. And your brother will never let you have me.

Cathy You are cruel. Heathcliff No, only realistic. Ellen He is partly right, Cathy. The existence here will only become more and more intolerable by Hindley’s constant increasing intolerance of Heathcliff. Cathy (in despair) What have I done to deserve such a brother! Heathcliff (tenderly) Me – or Hindley? Cathy (smiling) The worst thing is, that I believe I deserved you both. Ellen There is food left for a whole company. Cathy Yes, we have forgotten all about it! Edgar and Isabella should blame themselves for not wanting to stay. And Hindley also, who only went away to sulk. Healthcliff He has his bottle for compensation. Cathy So what are we waiting for? Nelly, dinner time! Ellen That’s the signal I was waiting for. (goes out into the kitchen) Cathy (sitting down at the table with Heathcliff) We can still live, Heathcliff, in spite of all the stupid people in the world. Heathcliff It was made for only you and me. Cathy So let’s at least take care of it as long as we live. Ellen (brings the chicken) Here is the chicken! Cathy What are you waiting for, Heathcliff? Help yourself! Heathcliff As you command, Miss, since Hindley seems to have fallen out in driving me out. Cathy We have an occasion to enjoy. (They attack the dinner table.) Ellen (back with Lockwood) And so it went on. Edgar Linton and Heathcliff were absolute contraries: Heathcliff, always in neglect, dirty, sullen and evil, while Edgar always was the perfect gentleman, as if he came from another better world. Naturally Cathy preferred Edgar, who could promise her a better life, but Heathcliff still kept her heart, as if it lay in chains within him. That natural force was greater. And at the same time Hindley continued his brutal humiliation of him, which constantly grew worse, for Hindley did not improve with the years. His wife was sickly, and parallel to her illness constantly growing worse, Hindley constantly cultivated his friendship and intimacy with the bottle… Hindley (entering, drunk. Cathy and Heathcliff are gone.) Ellen Hindley, you must go in to your wife. Have you forgotten that you just became a father? Hindley May the devil take him! Ellen No, the devil will take your fatherhood, Hindley, if you don’t want to keep the child! You won’t be able to keep your wife anyway, the way you always have neglected her care! Hindley Are you blaming me for Frances being no good?

Ellen Yes, I am, for she could never support your drinking! Hindley It cured her illness with me, even if it didn’t cure her. Frances (faintly, from inside) Hindley! Ellen (serious) There isn’t much left of her, Hindley. Hindley May the devil take all damned womanhood, which never can live up to what a man needs! (goes in to his wife. The scene opens to the same as Act I scene 3.) Hindley (immediately touched by his wife’s declining condition) How is it, my dear little one? Frances Your son is fine, Hindley. He will make it. Hindley But what about you? Frances Forget me, Hindley. Stronger stuff is needed here than poor little me. Hindley My poor little dove! (rushes to her side and buries his face in the bedside. Frances comforts him tenderly and motherly.) Frances I never made a good wife for you, Hindley. You were too wild for me, like the whole way of life out here was far too wild for me. Hindley You mustn’t leave me, my beloved! I would be lost without you! Frances A big rowdy bull like you can never get lost. You were born here and are made for this hard way of life. Hindley I am much weaker than you, Frances, for I have no character. Frances Nonsense, Hindley. And now you even have a son, for the continuity of your farm and family. You have everything to live for. Your future has been secured. Hindley No, Frances! When you are gone I see nothing else than a vast empty terrifying black hole! Frances It’s just your imagination. Hindley I am a realist, Frances! Nothing is more real in life than your own imagination! Frances You don’t know what you are saying. I believe you have been at the bottle again. Hindley I can’t bear with life, Frances, not if you are leaving me! Frances (quietly) I have no choice, Hindley. Hindley (angry) Yes, you have! (rising in rebellion) Why the devil did you have to get ill? Only that has cast a gloom over all of us ever since you came! Your damned weakness is pulling us all down into the darkest bog of the moor! Frances Hindley, you are raving. Hindley I know damned well that I am raving, for I have the right to rave! It’s my house! And I can’t tolerate illness in my house! I can’t stand wailings and complaints! I can’t accept that you are going to leave me! I will not have it! Do you understand? I won’t accept it! Ellen (entering, eventually joined by Cathy and Heathcliff) Hindley, don’t yell all over the house when your wife is ailing! Hindley (pissed off) I don’t care!

Cathy Hindley! You should be ashamed of yourself! You have been drinking again! Hindley (like before) I don’t give a damn! Heathcliff We had better bring Hindley out of here. Hindley And you, accursed gipsy, you monster from the abyss that brought damnation into my father’s house, who caused my wife’s death and who will ruin us all, to hell with you! Cathy (to Ellen) He doesn’t know what he is saying. Ellen It’s worse than that. He knows what he is saying. Cathy (with Frances, to Hindley) Hindley, your wife is dying! Frances (faintly) Let him rave. It will get better when I am gone. Hindley Don’t you try that one! Nothing will ever get any better! It will only get worse forever! It won’t get any better even if you die! Cathy Hindley! Ellen (rushing up to Frances) My young mistress! Cathy How is she? Ellen She is dead. Hindley (at a loss, awkwardly) Dead? Ellen Yes, master Hindley. She is dead. Hindley Dead? My wife dead? Impossible. It cannot be. Not in my house. Heathcliff, tell me it’s impossible. Such a thing cannot happen to me. I am Hindley Earnshaw, the master of the house! I own our Wuthering Heights! Everything is mine! My wife must not die! No! (dashes out in despair, crying and bellowing) Cathy Now hell is loose. Ellen (takes up the small crying child from Frances) Fortunately there is always someone to survive. (comforts the baby) There, my dear. There, little one. There is nothing to be afraid of. Cathy Catch up with Hindley, Heathcliff, and prevent him from doing something foolish. Heathcliff That’s a practical impossibility, since I am his serf in bondage. Cathy Don’t be silly, Heathcliff. Do as I say. Heathcliff (ironically) As my lady commands. (leaves) Ellen He is only getting more insidious with the years. Cathy No wonder, the way Hindley treats him. Ellen (cautiously) Miss Cathy, shouldn’t he get away from here, before something worse happens? Cathy What do you mean, Ellen? Ellen Without young Mrs in the vicinity you could expect the worst between Hindley and Heathcliff. Cathy Let the storm rage, Ellen. Who could stop it anyway? Let them destroy each other, if they please. Life will go on anyway. I will myself be rid of both, if I marry Edgar Linton. Ellen Has he proposed?

Cathy Yes, he has proposed. Ellen But you are too young. Have you accepted? Cathy Not yet. Ellen He is too kind and gentle for you, miss Cathy. Cathy Is he? Am I too wicked for him? Could he break? Ellen Yes, miss Cathy, in your hands he could break. Here in Wuthering Heights we have stronger knacks than what is good for the softer people at Thrushcross Grange. Cathy Ellen, you are always right. But nothing can stop nature. If Edgar wants me he will get me. Ellen And Heathcliff? Cathy He can manage for himself. Ellen Alone here with Hindley? Cathy It will be interesting to see which one of them will be the first to go under. Personally I would bet on Heathcliff. Ellen Miss, you are cruel. Cathy No, Nelly. Here at Wuthering Heights we are only realists. Ellen You and Heathcliff are so much alike both in naughtiness and wildness, that I certainly would hope for the best of all of us that you two never will have each other. Cathy That’s the spirit, Nelly. Now you are getting realistic. Let me now take care of our little nephew. (takes over the child and coddles it like any mother) Ellen Even you could be a good mother, Cathy. Cathy What are we women made for if not for that? Ellen Aren’t you made for Heathcliff? Cathy (looking at her) No, Nelly. Heathcliff is made for me. Ellen But honestly, you didn’t accept him, did you, Cathy? Cathy (ashamedly) Yes, that’s what I did. Ellen You look as if you were ashamed of it. Cathy I am. Ellen But why? Edgar Linton has everything you could wish for. He is well off, Thrushcross Grange is a ten times finer home than Wuthering Heights, you will be settled and have an entire staff of servants to dispose of, – and you would be rid of me. Cathy No, Nelly, I wouldn’t, because you would come with me to Thrushcross Grange. Ellen Well, I never heard the like! Me, who has been toiling here by the stove all my life! Cathy You will advance as much as I, Nelly. Ellen Still you look ashamed and dejected. Cathy I am thinking of Heathcliff. Ellen He is the one you love. Cathy Yes.

Ellen So you must give up the idea of Thrushcross Grange and Edgar Linton, and I may stay here. Cathy No, it can’t be, Nelly. Ellen Why not? Cathy I can’t marry Heathcliff. It would be beneath my dignity. (Heathcliff, who has been standing concealed all the time, suddenly runs out.) What was that? Ellen Good God, what have you done now! Cathy It wasn’t Heathcliff, was it? Ellen It could have been. I never heard him leave the house. Cathy I never suspected he would hear everything we said. Ellen He hears everything and is always around everywhere. But go on, Cathy. If you love him, how can you then forsake him? Cathy That’s what I cannot do. Even if I marry Edgar, I would be unfaithful to him with Heathcliff and only long for Heathcliff all the time. Heathcliff is more me than I am myself. He is everything, both me and himself, and I am nothing to him. He has possessed me. I can never get rid of him. I can never forsake him. But what shall we do if he heard me and misunderstood me? Ellen We must find him. But he always comes back. We will have to repair it later. Perhaps it would be best after all that you marry Edgar Linton. He is such a cultivated gentleman. And he truly loves you. You should give him the chance, Cathy. Cathy But he is only water whereas Heathcliff is only fire. Ellen No, Cathy, Heathcliff is only passion and storm and a menace to all our lives. (A storm is coming outside.) Cathy Now it starts storming again. And Heathcliff is maybe out on the moor! Perhaps he is wild of grief over my desperate whims! Ellen He will always come back. He always manages. Cathy But what if he doesn’t! (starts up) Alas, what have I done! (opens the door wide open and rushes out) (outside) Heathcliff! Heathcliff! Ellen (runs for the open door, calling after her) Miss Cathy! Come back! (resigns) Hopeless. Now there is a rainstorm also. (shuts the door against the wind) I just hope we’ll not have another pneumonia in the house. (Enter Hindley staggering with his bottle.) Hindley May the devil take you all, damned sissies and wimps! Ellen Hindley, Cathy and Heathcliff are out in the storm. Hindley Good for them! Just let them perish! Ellen Hindley! You are drunk! Hindley Don’t you think I am aware of it, old hag? That’s why I am drunk! Ellen Hindley, it’s raining and storming outside, Cathy is roving around the moor for the runaway Heathcliff, and you just keep drinking!

Hindley Well, what the devil is there else for me to do? My wife is dead! That’s the only thing of any importance here in life. Ellen Your sister could catch a cold and pneumonia and die, Hindley! She was in her bare dress! Hindley That’s her concern. I can’t do anything about that. Ellen Pardon me for saying it, Sir, but you are a complete failure of no use! Hindley Thank the devil for that. (drinks, falls down on a chair by the table and immediately falls asleep with his head in his arms.) Ellen And he would call himself a man! He is worse than a rotten haystack! Joseph (enters) We have found her, Nelly. Ellen (confused) Found who? Joseph Miss Cathy. But she is wet through and frozen. Ellen And Heathcliff? Joseph Not a trace. She ran around like a white ghost crying hysterically for Heathcliff. But if I may say what I think, Nelly, I think it’s best for all of us and perhaps expecially for himself if he never comes back again. Ellen Think of what you say, so that you don’t say what you think. Joseph That’s what I am doing. Ellen Yes, that’s what I mean. Joseph So what’s wrong then? Ellen Nothing, Joseph. Where is she? Joseph They are carrying her here. She was almost out of her mind out on the moor and didn’t know where she was. We were lucky to find her. (Some maids and farm-hands come carrying in the coughing Cathy, completely wet through) Ellen Poor little miss! What shall we do with you? Running wild out on the moor with bare arms, only her dress and barefoot! She is dangerously cold. We must put her to bed at once. Cathy (with great effort, between her coughing fits) Where is Heathcliff, Nelly? Ellen Dear me, if anyone knew! He is the least trouble now, although he usually is the worst. Cathy I think I have broken his heart. But I never meant to, Nelly! I never meant it! Ellen I know, dearest. Cathy Ì love him! I belong to no one but him! I am only his! Hindley (wakes up by the table) Who the devil can’t let me drink in peace? (gets lost again) Ellen Carry her up to her room. She has a full crisis ahead. Joseph She will surely recover, Nelly. Ellen No, Joseph, I don’t think she will ever recover, even if she gets well again. Joseph We’ll take care of her all right. Ellen Yes, Joseph. We will tender her like a child.

(Cathy is carried out, coughing hard, rattling and delirious) Cathy Heathcliff! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean what I said! I will die without you! Don’t leave me alone, not after this! (She is carried out.) Ellen (sitting down with Lockwood) Heathcliff didn’t come back. He had left us. And no one missed him except Cathy. That was the very thing that would lead to unforeseeable calamities, which no one could suspect…

Act III scene 1. Back at the inn. 1 Relax, Branwell. You are taking yourself out. 2 This story seems to concern him personally. 3 That Hindley seems to be some kind of a self-portrait. 4 Are you Hindley or Heathcliff, Branwell? Branwell I am both. I am them all. I am no one. It’s my sister who wrote the story. Give me a drink. 1 Shall we give him another? 2 He isn’t even half way yet. 3 Let’s turn to our bartender, the only sense in every pub. Bartender I don’t think it’s advisable. 4 Says a real bartender. Branwell What’s wrong with me, George? Bartender You indulge yourself too much. You waste yourself without realizing that you are not inexhaustible. Branwell That’s not the issue. The thing is to refill, not to empty or exhaust. Bartender Alcohol is a risky fuel that could catch fire. Branwell But that’s the meaning of it! I must be allowed to burn! I live only to consume myself! That’s the very meaning of life! Bartender (to the guests) Could you take some more? The guests (looking at one another, all agreed) Yes. Bartender Branwell shall get what he wants, for unfortunately he can take some more. Branwell I am inexhaustible! Nothing can stop me once I get started! The guest Shut up and start talking! Branwell That’s what I am doing! Guest No, you are just boasting without doing it! Branwell But I must be allowed to prepare myself! Bartender (serves him) Here is the preparation. Branwell (takes it all) That’s exactly what I needed. Hold on now! For Cathy actually married that noble milksop Edgar Linton, but at the wedding someone turned up who wasn’t invited…

Scene 2. The wedding reception. Cathy and Edgar as bride and groom receive all the congratulating local people. Guest 1 Imagine that you got married so early, Cathy! Now your chances are good to have many children! Cathy One is enough to start with, Charlotte. Guest 2 My sincere congratulations! But have you forgotten all about Heathcliff? Cathy Heathcliff has been lost for three years. But I’ll never forget him. Edgar Hopefully he has forgotten you. Cathy Are you jealous for the sake of a stranger? Edgar How could I be, now when I have got you? No storms may besiege our hearts any more, Cathy. You are safe now. Cathy Ellen! How nice to see you! Ellen (worried) I just wanted to warn you, miss Cathy. Heathcliff has been seen in the village. Cathy (simply) So why doesn’t he come here, then? Ellen That’s what I wanted to warn you about. He might do just that. Cathy In that case he is welcome. Edgar I also heard that rumour, but I don’t trust it. Cathy Why didn’t you tell me? Edgar Because I refuse to believe it’s true. Cathy In that case I am sure he will come. Heathcliff (entering discreetly, but passing all the others) Pardon me for being absent from the wedding itself. I didn’t want to risk disturbing it. Edgar You are not invited, Heathcliff. Cathy But you are welcome all the same. Heathcliff My sincerest congratulations. I knew that you two would have each other and did not want to obstruct the process. That’s why you haven’t seen me before. Cathy Where have you been? You seem to have made your way in the world. Edgar Mildly speaking. He is not far from a gentleman. Cathy He may actually have become a gentleman. Edgar No, he never will. Heathcliff You should have allowed myself to make that concession, Mr Linton. Cathy Call him Edgar. How long do you stay? Heathcliff As long as they want me at Wuthering Heights. Cathy Have you found quarters there? Heathcliff Yes. Hindley and I are now the best of friends. Cathy Heathcliff, I suspect you haven’t come home to be quite on the level.

Heathcliff Who can demand being quite on the level of someone who never can become a gentleman, and who you, Catherine Linton, considered too much beneath your level to ever be able to reach your level? (leaves them) Cathy Those knives were both keen and intended to hurt. Edgar Forget him, Cathy. He is just a groom. Isabella Heathcliff! Welcome back! Heathcliff How lovely to see you, Miss Isabella. (kisses her hand gallantly) Isabella This country has been dead without you for three years. Heathcliff That’s why I came back. Isabella So it was not just for Cathy’s wedding? Heathcliff That was the springing point. At last I am no longer responsible for her destiny. I am free. Isabella We both are. (He conveys her to the table of refreshments.) Cathy Where is Hindley? Why hasn’t he come to wish his sister good fortune for her wedding? He was duly invited. Ellen They say he is sleeping it off, Miss Cathy. Cathy Did he spend the evening before his sister’s wedding drinking? Ellen And well enough. He spent the whole night playing cards with Heathcliff. Joseph Heathcliff could take it but not Hindley. Cathy Was it Heathcliff who made him drunk? Joseph Both were drinking like swine, but Heathcliff remained sober as Satan himself. Cathy I understand. He collects souls. Just because he couldn’t have mine he now collects others’ to have his revenge on them. For what kind of harvest, Heathcliff, if not for hell itself? Edgar Excuse me, did you say something? Cathy I was speaking to myself. Edgar As long as you know what you say, dearest. (The wedding feast fades into the background as Ellen returns to Lockwood.) Ellen Yes, Heathcliff was back after three years. He let her marry the noble Edgar just to start haunting us already the day after. Like a vulture he had kept watch on everything that occurred around us for all these years. He showed himself like a predator who all the time had kept watching us and now showed up only to start hunting us… (The scene shifts to Wuthering Heights, where Hindley is playing cards with Heathcliff and other knaves. Heathcliff has dropped his gentlemanly manners and pulled up his sleeves.)

Scene 3. Wuthering Heights. Hindley

You have beaten me again, Heathcliff.

Heathcliff It’s only luck, no skill. Hindley Your luck is too infernal not to be skilful. Heathcliff You are not a bad loser, are you, Hindley? (fills up his glass) Hindley What have I to lose? My wife has died and left me, and my sister has married to a better farm. What do I have left? Only the stimulating intoxication of a permanent downhill. Heathcliff That’s right, Hindley! Now shuffle the cards! Hindley Are you sure you are not cheating? Heathcliff That’s why I let you shuffle yourself, to convince you that any cheating on my side is impossible! Hindley I believe you. No one can be more convicing than the devil’s own advocate. Joseph Master Hindley, you must see for yourself that he is tricking you down to hell. Hindley Keep your infernal comments to yourself, you philistine of Satan! Go for the vicar’s company, if you want to preach! Joseph But master Hindley, I only want to save you from perdition. Hindley What perdition? Be your own perdition! All your accursed sanctimony is just self-deceit and lies, and all so called Christians who go to church are just fooled and enchanted by black deceivers in frocks! Joseph That’s what that black Satan himself has taught you. (indicates Heathcliff) Hindley No, you blithering halfwit, I actually got it myself! Leave us now to mind our own important business in peace! Joseph He is gambling you out of all your property, master Hindley! Hindley (rising, furious) Can’t you see anything, Joseph? We are making a settlement! He has returned all dressed up and wealthy and has challenged me to an economic duel of life and death! It’s either him or me! But I intend to play him out of everything including his last and dirtiest rotten underwear! So just let me hang this devil in peace and don’t interfere! Heathcliff Go and turn some leafs in your Bible, Joseph. Hindley Yes, that’s all you are good for! And even that you can’t see that it’s only full of crap and bullshit! Joseph You blaspheme, master Hindley! Hindley Listen to that one! I blaspheme! Yes, telling the truth has always been equal to blasphemy, for no one ever could stand hearing the truth, except those few exceptions who dared to stand up for it! Joseph What is truth, master Hindley? Hindley The truth, Joseph, is that you are an old incurable fool. Go now and hang yourself with your sacred catechisms. Joseph Alackaday, he is completely lost! Hareton (tiny and dirty, pulling Hindley’s sleeve) Daddy! Daddy!

Hindley What is it now, you little son of a bitch? Hareton The vicar is here again. Heathcliff (rising) I’ll take care of him. (goes opening the door) Welcome, reverend! Hindley Are you here again, you old bonehead? No, I told you! Heathcliff There, Hindley, don’t talk like that to a reverend father. Please come in, reverend. Vicar I am sorry, Mr Earnshaw, but I must insist. It will not do to neglect your son’s education. Hindley I educate him myself. Vicar No, that’s exactly what you do not, Mr Earnshaw. Hindley Heathcliff helps me. Vicar Mr Heathcliff isn’t even baptized and even less any believer. Hindley Haven’t I made it clear to you, yours sanctimonious falsity, that we don’t want any established superstition in this house? Vicar Little Hareton is ten years and can still neither read, write or count. Hindley That’s his business! If he doesn’t want to learn anything, it’s his human right to do without it! Vicar You thereby condemn him to a life of ignorance and what is worse! Hindley Here we are all doomed and by our own choice. That’s all, reverend. Vicar The whole village condemns your way of life! Hindley Not another word, reverend. Heathcliff You heard him. He is master here. No one else has any right to order anything in his house. Vicar But by my soul, Mr Heathcliff, I believe you are ordering his life without his realizing it. Heathcliff He is only following his nature, reverend. Hindley Get out, devil priest! (throws an empty bottle at him. The vicar leaves in a hurry.) Where were we now before all those idiots came blundering and disturbing us? Heathcliff You were shuffling the cards. Hindley They were shuffled long ago. Heathcliff Then it’s only for you to deal. Hindley I shuffled them, so it’s your deal. Fair play all the way. Heathcliff Fair play all the way. (deals the cards)

Scene 4. Thrushcross Grange. Isabella (picking flowers in her lovely garden) Alas, when may I see him again? Does he love me, or will he only use me? What does it matter, as long as I love him? Loves me, loves me not… (plucks a flower,) loves me, loves me not… He doesn’t love me. Alas, you can trust flowers no more than love. Neither flowers nor love can ever reach any definite fulfilment.

(Heathcliff appears.) Oh! You startled me, Heathcliff! Heathcliff (in a charming mood) Don’t let me scare you for nothing. Isabella How elegant you are today, Heathcliff. Heathcliff It’s only in your eyes, so the grace is only yours. Your eyes makes me better than I am. Isabella I only see the soul, Heathcliff. Your dark exterior means nothing. Heathcliff How could anyone see my soul, which I can’t even feel myself? Isabella Women see everything, Heathcliff, that men are blind to. Heathcliff And what am I blind to? Isabella That I love you. Heathcliff Dangerous words, Isabella. If your brother heard you he would throw both me and you out. Isabella Marvellous destiny! I would share any life with you, Heathcliff. Heathcliff Don’t you know then that I am a villain? Isabella The whole world speaks of you with the darkest fear. No one ever had such a bad reputation as you in this part of the world, which endows you with a strange aura of magic and irresistibility. I know that you are good, Heathcliff, deep inside, and that you perhaps could love more than anyone else. Heathcliff I do. Isabella I knew it! (offers him her mouth to kiss. He embraces her and and is just about to bury her in a kiss when Catherine, who has been stealing in and listening for a while, breaks off:) Cathy Isabella! Heathcliff! Heathcliff (desisting) We have company. Cathy I thought it was my company you looked for at Thrushcross Grange and not my poor sister-in-law’s. Isabella Why do you call me poor, sister? Cathy Can’t you see him through, poor Isabella? Can’t you see the massive darkness in his soul of only evil and bitter revengefulness? Isabella What do you mean? Cathy I mean that he is intent on seducing you and to get at your brother’s family and Thrushcross Grange by you. Isabella You are just jealous, Cathy! You love him as much as I do! Cathy Heathcliff, declare your intentions. Heathcliff You have treated me shamefully, Catherine Linton. Cathy So shamefully that you must take out revenge on everyone who is close to me? Heathcliff When Pharaoh tramples on his servants, his servants trample on their slaves. Cathy And how did I treat you shamefully? Heathcliff You know that too well. Isabella (clinging to him) Don’t mind her, Heathcliff. She is only jealous. Cathy Don’t dare to touch him, Isabella!

Heathcliff Try to stop her, if you can. (puts his arm around her) Cathy Heathcliff, don’t make me upset now again! You know I can’t take it! Heathcliff What is it you can’t take, Cathy? (embraces Isabella) Edgar (appearing) Is he here now again, that miserable manure groom! Haven’t I forbidden you to see him, Isabella? Isabella Forbidden fruit tastes the better. Edgar Heathcliff, I have warned you! You must leave us in peace! Heathcliff May I not visist my friends? Cathy and I did grow up together, you know. Edgar But she is now my wife! If you don’t leave at once I must call on my men! Heathcliff Reinforcement without battle, Edgar? Don’t you dare hit me yourself? Cathy Edgar, if you are a man, you will throw the uninvited guest out of your house yourself! Edgar I urge you to leave, Heathcliff! I warn you! Heathcliff No one is more ridiculous than the one who threatens, Edgar. I didn’t know you were such a childish coward. Edgar (calling) Jamie! Roger! Come here and chase this trespasser from our land! Isabella (wants to defend Heathcliff) No one touches one hair on our invited guest’s head! Edgar (surprised) Was it you or Cathy who got him here? Heathcliff I came entirely by myself just to change a few words with the best friend of my childhood. Edgar And have you done your business? If so, get lost! Heathcliff I let her know how shamefully she has treated me. Edgar Has Cathy treated you shamefully? Cathy Explain yourself, Heathcliff. Heathcliff Why did I disappear three years ago? Only because Cathy, with whom I grew up and whom I worshipped throughout my childhood, declared that I was not worthy of her kindness. Edgar And how could you believe that you ever could be, you manure groom? By putting on a face and coming home like a conceited dandy and disturb her wedding? Heathcliff I was absent from your wedding in order to not risk disturbing it. Edgar Iabella, I am surprised at your behaviour. You must choose. Either you will never see this manure groom again, or you will have no home with me any more. Isabella My brother, not even you can resist nature. Edgar (to Cathy) What does she mean? Cathy (to Heathcliff) Get away, Heathcliff, before some fool here will shoot at you. Edgar So I am now a fool as well? Those words from your mouth, Cathy, are not worthy the wife of a gentleman. Isabella Move inside, Edgar, before you make yourself even more ridiculous.

Heathcliff That coward can’t make himself more ridiculous than he already is as a husband. Edgar (furious, attacks Heathcliff, tries to strangle him, but Heathcliff throws him to the ground.) Heathcliff I apologise for your husband, Cathy. Isabella (rushing up to Edgar) My brother, how could you be so childish! Edgar (bleeding from his mouth) It’s us or him, Isabella. (gets crawling up and disappears into the house) Cathy Are you satisfied now, Heathcliff? My husband grovelling on the ground and his sister besmirched by your intimacy… Isabella Leave us in peace, Cathy! Cathy He will never leave us in peace. (walks in after Edgar) Isabella I am yours, Heathcliff. Take me away from here, anywhere. Heathcliff As you wish, my dear. But time isn’t ripe yet. Come when I call on you. (gives her a hasty kiss on her mouth and disappears.) Isabella He may be the greatest villain in the landscape, but he is at the same time the only real person here and the only one worth loving.

Scene 5. Catherine’s bedroom. Catherine in bed. Ellen (entering with a tray) Are you better now, miss Cathy? Cathy Is it you, Nellie? Ellen Yes, it’s me. Cathy I had so many poignant dreams. I don’t know any longer what is real, my dreams or reality. How is it with Edgar? Ellen He keeps himself locked up in the library. Cathy Locked in? Ellen By himself. Yes, he is as daft as you. He doesn’t want to see anybody. Cathy Poor Edgar! Poor soft chicken of a husband! However could I marry him? Ellen You wanted it yourself. Cathy Yes, but I always loved another. Ellen Perhaps that’s what your husband has realized and can’t get over. Cathy He will get over it. When I am dead… Ellen You mustn’t speak like that, Miss Cathy. Cathy Not even you can cancel my thoughts, Nelly. They must find their own direction regardless of relationships. But Heathcliff hasn’t come back since Edgar attacked him? Ellen No, he hasn’t come back. Cathy Do you think he hates me, Nelly? Ellen No one could hate you, Miss Cathy.

Cathy But there is a kind of love resembling hate which could find expressions of hatred without being hate. Ellen Heathcliff is only capable of endless bitterness. Cathy And that’s worse than hatred, for thereby he only torments himself. Bitterness is a self-consuming illness, while hatred always passes by finding healthier expressions. Nothing is worse, Nelly, than when a man tortures himself without anyone being able to stop it. Ellen I assure you, Cathy, that nothing ails Heathcliff. Your husband’s state is much worse and should be a greater matter of concern. Cathy He doesn’t know that I am ill, does he? Ellen He knows nothing, since he doesn’t want to know anything. He has completely shut out the world outside from his hiding place in the library. He doesn’t know anything because he doesn’t want to know anything. Cathy You bury yourself in books when you are disappointed with humanity. But what is that cupboard doing there? I have never seen it before. Ellen It has always been there, Miss Cathy. Cathy Impossible. It doesn’t belong in Wuthering Heights. Ellen Is that where you think you are? Cathy Where else? Ellen Dear Miss Cathy, you are hostess at Thrushcross Grange and married to its patron Edgar Linton. You haven’t been at Wuthering Heights for years. Cathy That’s why I never felt at home here. But who is that ghastly hag staring me right in my face? Ellen It’s a mirror, Miss Cathy. Cathy Cover it, quickly! (Ellen does so.) If there is anything I can’t stand now it’s viewing my own soul in my heart. Ellen Nothing is more harmless than your own reflected image, Miss Cathy. Cathy Wrong, Nelly. Nothing could be more dangerous. It reveals everything. Ellen It’s only what cannot be revealed that’s dangerous, Miss Cathy. Cathy How wise you are, Nelly! (suddenly cries out and screaming hysterically as the cover glides off the mirror.) Take her away! Take her away! Ellen (covers the mirror again and turns the mirror away.) Calm down, Miss! It’s nothing! Cathy I was so afraid. I saw her as my double, my second and worse nature, who has come to take me away. Don’t let her take me, Nelly! Ellen Take it easy. I am here. Cathy Stay with me, Nelly. I am so afraid of the dark. It suffocates me and squeezes the breath out of me, so that I cough blood. Ellen It will pass, Miss Cathy. You are the very essence of strength and health.

Cathy It’s not my own pain I am suffering from. It’s the pain I caused Heathcliff that consumes me and devours me as unbearably as Heathcliff torments himself with his outrageous pain. But the difference is, that he can bear it, while I can not. Ellen You worry too much, Miss Cathy. Cathy No creature has a higher responsibility for life than woman, Nelly. I have a right to worry to death about life, for I am a woman. If life is bleeding, I have the right to bleed even more for life’s sake. Ellen Take it easy, Miss Cathy. All you have to do is to eat and rest. Cathy Do you think that helps? The healthier I am, the more my soul is bleeding. But there is a limit to everything. One day not even life will be able to keep me here any more, but I will fly away to the moor back to the cave of the elves under Peniston Crag, where I and Heathcliff always forgot about the cruel world and disappeared from its sight just to be happy together… Ellen You mustn’t speculate in your own death, Miss Cathy. Cathy Who can stop me? My husband has locked himself up in the library. If he can hide and escape in his books, then so can I. (suddenly runs up from bed hurrying to the window, which she throws wide open to let in the howling icy wind.) Come and get me! Come and get me! Ellen (rushing up) Miss, what are you thinking of? (tries to pull her away from the window) You will only get yourself a pneumonia again! Cathy That’s the point! Let me be free! Release me from living with my sins! Ellen Miss Cathy, no one has anything to reproach you, but if you get yourself a cold and die, everyone will regret your folly! Cathy Let me be a fool then! Let Edgar moulder to death with his volumes in his library, so that I may be free and fly out on the moor with Heathcliff! We are the only truly sentient ones! Why did everyone try to stop us from being together? Hindley was the cruellest of them all. He started it. He mishandled poor Heathcliff and transformed him into an abyssal angel of revenge. Then Edgar came between us. Why did you allow him to court me? I already belonged to Heathcliff! Ellen Miss, pull yourself together! Cathy Thanks to that I will die unblessed and remain unblessed until Heathcliff unites with me dead and cold by my side! No matter how deep you bury me, and how much stone you weigh down on my grave, I shall constantly go on haunting and calling for Heathcliff, only because I never was allowed to have him… Edgar (entering suddenly) Who was it that cried out? Cathy Does it take so long for you to react, Edgar? Edgar Cathy, you are beside yourself! You look ill! And what are you doing by the window? How dare you let in so much cold air, Nelly, by opening the window? Can’t you see that Cathy is ill? Do you want to kill her?

Ellen (finally succeeding in closing the window and getting Cathy away from it) She has been ill for four days, master Edgar. Edgar Ill for four days? And why wasn’t I told? Ellen Because you stayed locked up in the library for just as long! Edgar (completely embarrassed) Oh! Cathy Did you get through many books this time, Edgar? Edgar Not a single one. Cathy What did you do then in there? Just sulking? Ellen Don’t quarrel with him, Miss! You did hardly any better here in bed! Edgar What did she do in bed? Ellen She refused to eat for four days. Edgar And that I am told not until now! How dare you, Nelly! Cathy It’s not her fault. It was my fault. I didn’t want you to know. I ordered it. I just wanted to die. Edgar Die? Why? Cathy Because I committed my life’s greatest and only mistake when I married you, you silly impotent impossible skulker! Ellen She is ill. She doesn’t know where she is any longer. She thinks she is at Wuthering Heights. Cathy Don’t extenuate circumstances, Nelly. I am a criminal. I am an adulteress. Ellen She is just rambling. Edgar How could you commit adultery if you just lie sick in bed and locked in all the time? Ellen Good question. Cathy I am sorry, Edgar. I am not myself. How is it with you? Edgar Well, except that I am deeply unhappy. Cathy And why are you so? Edgar Because you don’t love me. Cathy Is that all? Edgar What do you mean? Could it be worse? Cathy You haven’t imploded of jealousy because of Heathcliff? Edgar Don’t mention his name in this house! He is through here! Cathy He is part of me, Edgar. You must accept it. We grew up together. He is closer to me than my own brother. Edgar That drunkard! He is also finished here. Cathy And your sister loves Heathcliff, Edgar. Edgar That’s all we wanted. But I have made it clear to her, that she has to choose between us and Heathcliff. If she chooses Heathcliff, she is out of here for good. A servant (at the door) Sir. Edgar Don’t disturb me in my wife’s bedroom! Cathy Edgar, I think something has happened.

Ellen What is it, Ben? Ben Miss Isabella is missing. The vicar is here. Edgar (can’t believe his ears) The vicar? Ben He seems to know what has happened. Vicar (makes a worthy, solemn entry) I am sorry I have to come on this deplorable errand, but it’s about your sister. How are you, Miss Catherine? You look terribly emaciated. Cathy Thank you, it will pass. Is it about Heathcliff? Vicar If only we could do without that scoundrel for good! But now he actually seems to have left us again. Cathy Alone? Vicar That’s the worst part of it. No. Edgar Don’t tell me… Vicar Heathcliff came riding with a lady to Gimmerton. One horse was limping, so they had to change a horseshoe there. The lady was dressed in a cape with a hood, that protected her face, but it glided off… Edgar It must not be true! Cathy Sit down, Edgar. (Edgar falls down into a chair.) Vicar The smith recognized the lady as your sister Isabella Linton. Edgar (recovering slowly) Impossible. It can’t be true. She can’t dishonour her brother’s house like that. I warned her! That Heathcliff was Satan himself! It must have been against her will. Tell me that she was bound, that she was his prisoner and abducted by force! Vicar Unfortunately they were smiling and laughing together. They both eloped quite willingly together. Edgar This is the end! (swoons) Cathy No, it’s only the beginning. Ellen (tries to wake up Edgar) That’s all right, reverend. You can go. Vicar I entrust the patients in your safe hands, Ellen Dean. Take well care of them. Ellen You can be sure. (The vicar leaves. Ellen doesn’t care about Edgar but fusses very much about Catherine and tenderly puts her back to bed and stays by her side.)

Scene 6. Wuthering Heights. (Joseph and little Hareton alone by the table as Heathcliff enters with Isabella.) Joseph Here comes that bloody vicious Satan again! And what is he bringing along if not a damned appendage as well? Heathcliff No complaints, Joseph. Now you will have someone to assist you in the kitchen. Joseph She looks like never having been to a kitchen before.

Heathcliff She hasn’t. So you’ll have to teach her how to cook. Joseph What do you know about cooking, you wench? Isabella I actually know how to make porridge. Joseph She can make porridge! Have you heard the like! And where did you find such an infernal marvel of an inoperative woman, master Heathcliff? Heathcliff She happened to come my way, so I saved her from a destiny worse than death. Joseph But she doesn’t exactly look like coming out of the gutter. She doesn’t even resemble any ordinary trollop. Heathcliff Can’t you recognize her, Joseph? Joseph No. Never seen her before. Should I know who she is? Heathcliff Introduce yourself, Isabella. Isabella I am actually Isabella Linton. Heathcliff Nowadays Mrs Heathcliff, married to me by her own will. Joseph Have you heard, Hareton? Heathcliff has found himself an appendage. Isabella Excuse me, but what kind of a place is this which you have brought me to, Heathcliff? Heathcliff It’s your new home. Welcome to Wuthering Heights. You are the only woman in the house, so you will have plenty of things to do. Isabella But doesn’t this house belong to Mr Earnshaw? Heathcliff Only part of it. Most parts are mortgaged for me. Isabella But does he accept us as lodgers? Heathcliff You will have to ask him when he pleases to show himself. Where is that rotter, Joseph? Joseph He usually keeps himself locked in. Heathcliff He had better. Feel yourself at home, Isabella. You are welcome to cook some porridge for the boys. Isabella Where are you going? Heathcliff Just to carry up our things. Sit down and take it easy in the meantime. (leaves) Isabella (sits down exhausted by the table) What kind of a nightmare place is it have I ended up in? Joseph I will tell you, my fine madame. This is the precincts of hell. The hell is in there. (indicates a door) And the drum major of hell is upstairs. (points after Heathcliff) Isabella What have I done? And who is Heathcliff really? Joseph Only you yourself know what you have done. And you if anyone should know who Heathcliff is, since you have married him. Isabella I thought I loved him. But now I believe I married some abysmal demon. Joseph Then you know who he is. Isabella But how could he acquire such power in the house? He is not even born in the family!

Joseph He is the devil’s own messenger, and the devil gives him power over everyone he comes near. He is just made that way. Isabella And I am married to that man! Joseph For good and for worse, but mostly for worse, and hardly for any good at all. (shuffling steps are heard) Isabella Who is coming? It sounds like some debile idiot. Joseph It’s our master. Hindley (enters, a shadow of his former self, in complete decay, long-haired and disgusting) (tired) I heard voices. Joseph We have a woman in the house, master. Hindley What? Joseph A woman. Hindley Yes, I can see that. Isabella (rising) Is this Hindley? Hindley Don’t stand up for me, little girl, whoever you are. I don’t even know who you are. Isabella Hindley! Don’t you recognize me? Hindley What? Isabella I am the one who used to be Isabella Linton. Hindley And I am the one who used to be Hindley Earnshaw. Then we are in the same boat. Have you also ended up in the clutches of Heathcliff? Isabella I am married to him. Hindley Poor thing! Oh my! Then you are really deplorable. Then you are even worse off than me, for I am fortunately not married to him. I am just pawned to him with my body and soul and house and farm. That’s why there’s nothing left of me, as you can see. Isabella Poor Hindley! Hindley No, poor Isabella, for he will torture you out of life. Do you know why he married you? Isabella I married for love. Hindley He saw his opportunity to use you to acquire your brother’s property. Isabella No! It’s impossible! He could never succeed with that! Hindley When you die he will have your right of inheritance. When your brother dies he will inherit with Catherine, but also Catherine will probably already be dead by then and childless. So he inherits everything. Then he will sit here alone with the ghosts of all his victims and old Joseph. Isabella But you have a son, Hindley! You must live for him! Hindley A son of a bitch like all the others, an unwanted child who killed my wife, a manure groom like Heathcliff once was, completely incompetent and a parasite on nature like all of us damned human beings. Isabella He is your son, Hindley, your own flesh and blood!

Hindley And my own flesh and blood is cursed. Get it into your head, Isabella! All in this house are cursed! Heathcliff has played me out of everything I owned, but I still have one card left. Isabella You mustn’t give up, Hindley. Hindley And I won’t. Do you know what this is? (takes out an impressing pistol with a bayonet from a hiding-place) Isabella (shudders) It’s a murder weapon. Hindley It’s a double murder weapon. I sit and wake like a cat for his prey. One night Heathcliff must forget to lock his door. Then I have my chance. Then nothing can save him. Then I will enter and shoot him in his head and cut out his liver and tear out his heart and saw off his head and impale it outside the farm so that all can see that the devil finally is dead. Isabella Hindley, you are not yourself. You are a totally different person from the one I knew as a child. You are your own contrary. You have become inhuman. Hindley Thank the devil for that with someone like Heathcliff in the house. Heathcliff (has entered unnoticeably) Put away that toy, Hindley. Hindley (frightened) It’s mine! Heathcliff You can hurt yourself with it. It’s not for frightening young ladies with. (comes down determined) Hindley Don’t come any closer! Then I’ll shoot! (aims with his hand shaking) Heathcliff Just shoot then. You couldn’t hit an elephant at one yard’s distance. Hindley I warn you, horrible Satan! Heathcliff Yes, aim at Satan and shoot to hell. I am just a human being. Hindley (shoots and misses, drops the gun and loses control completely.) Heathcliff (takes care of the pistol) Look at him! Look at this worm! Imagine that he was such a bully once! Get up, Hindley Earnshaw, your father’s pride and universal heir, you great landowner and patron! (kicks him. Hindley lies crushed on the floor shaking.) That was once Hindley Earnshaw, Isabella. Look at him now. And it’s all his own doing. No one has helped him on his way down except himself. He is what he has made of himself. How would you define him? A wretch? A wreck? A living corpse? Or something worse? His humiliation is total, and still he goes on degrading himself. (Isabella wants to run to Hindley’s assistence.) Heathcliff (holds her back) No, Isabella. Let him manage by himself. Let him get up on his own two feet, if he can. At least he is cured now. He has no need for a dentist any more, for he has lost his last tooth. There is nothing left in him that could hurt him. Isabella But he is still Hindley Earnshaw. Heathcliff And who is Hindley Earnshaw? His whole life is mortgaged. His debts are more than the double of what he was worth, and I own all the bills. The only thing Hindley Earnshaw has left of his life is a mass of deficit. (to Isabella) Come up when you are ready. (goes back up with the pistol bayonet.) Joseph (to Isabella) Leave him be. He always insists on getting up himself when Heathcliff has crushed him. Isabella (tries to give Hindley a hand)

Hindley Damned witch! Leave me alone! Joseph You see what I mean. Isabella (puts her hands to her face in despair) Joseph It doesn’t help to hide, old girl. You have come home now. Welcome home. Isabella (slowly lowering her hands from her face, has suddenly become another person) I get it. I have become one of the rats in Heathcliff’s kitchen. Joseph Stand well with him, and you might survive. Isabella (watching the lying, shaking Hindley) I suppose that’s my only chance? Joseph Yes. Isabella I will write to my brother and Nelly Dean about what has happened. They must be informed of the situation. And I will love Heathcliff. Maybe that can save him. Joseph Nothing can save him, not even love. Isabella Yes, love will save him, even if it might not be mine. (goes up the stairs after Heathcliff.) Joseph He has her chained to his foot like everybody else. And whatever she does she will never get out of the cage until she has been starved and mishandled to death. Poor little canary. Hindley Joseph, help me up. Joseph So, it’s time now? (comes to his help) Hindley And then give me something to drink. I need something to strengthen me. Joseph Yes, master Hindley, the bottle is probably all that remains for you in life. Hindley (succeeds in stumbling reaching a chair by the table, catches all of a sudden sight of his son) What are you staring at? Get lost! (Hareton immediately rushes out.) Joseph You don’t exactly make any good example to your son. Hindley That’s not my intention either. Get me the bottle! Joseph (hands him the bottle) God forgive you, master Hindley. Hindley No, he will never forgive me. (drinks)

Scene 7. Nelly back with Lockwood. Ellen She wrote a letter that arrived at Thrushcross Grange, but don’t you think Heathcliff intercepted it and read it on the way? But he didn’t care. He knew too sure that Isabella was completely in his power. She couldn’t even run away from him, and that he got hold of her letter resulted in painful chastisements for her. He was an unassailable castle and an inescapable prison. Lockwood But didn’t her brother react to her letter? (Edgar Linton is seen in a chair with a letter.)

Edgar I can do nothing. She has only herself to blame. The less we have anything to do with the Heathcliff family, the better, and Isabella is nowadays a Heathcliff, not a Linton. She is lost. (sighs, rises and leaves.) Lockwood And did you nothing to help her? Ellen Don’t you think I did my utmost? Her brother sent me to Wuthering Heights to deliver his answer, but that answer brought her no pleasure or hope. Lockwood How did she react? Ellen She was already completely subdued and humiliated when I went to Wuthering Heights. But I had another card in my back pocket. (Back to Wuthering Heights) (Heathcliff at the seat of honour, a well off gentleman, while Isabella is degraded to a shabby slattern. Joseph and Hareton are there but no Hindley.) Heathcliff Welcome, Nelly Dean! Do you bring any letter for Isabella from her charitable brother? Ellen Unfortunately, Isabella, I don’t. I have only greetings by mouth. Heathcliff Then convey them, Nelly. I and my wife have no secrets for each other. Ellen Miss Isabella, he regrets, but he can’t help you, not until your husband Heathcliff has left the country. Heathcliff (laughing rudely) So he is afraid of me! That hare! He doesn’t dare to come close to his sister until I have left the country! That hare will die before me, Nelly! He isn’t far from his grave, that poor abject coward! Ellen Neither is Catherine. Heathcliff (immediately serious and upset) What are you saying? Ellen She has been ill all since your last meeting. And she is in her seventh month. Heathcliff With Edgar? Ellen Who else? Heathcliff This is terrible. I must see her, Nelly. How ill is she? Ellen Dying. Heathcliff You say so only to boost my pain. Ellen You must not see her. It would only kill her. Heathcliff The more important then that I may see her before she dies. Ellen Edgar would shoot you down on the spot if you came anywhere near his house. Heathcliff So let him! Nothing can separate Catherine and me. Ellen Not even I? Heathcliff You least of all. Ellen Can’t you just leave him, Miss Isabella? Your marriage is just a fake and farce anyway.

Isabella Don’t you think I have tried? But he always keeps me under guard. I am captured, he beats me, I am locked up, he binds me to the bed, he mishandles me, he abuses me. Heathcliff That’s enough, Isabella! Get up to your room! (She obeys obseqiously.) Ellen In your care, Heathcliff, she has sunk down to the lowest kind of servility. Heathcliff (hard) That’s the intention! Her brother has ruined Catherine’s life! Ellen She wanted it herself. Heathcliff No, you made her do it, you senseless vultures! (controls himself) I am sorry, Nelly. I must see her. Ellen Impossible. Heathcliff Nothing is impossible. Ellen Everything is impossible. Heathcliff Says a woman. A man says the opposite. Ellen All at Thrushcross Grange say no including Catherine herself. Heathcliff So I must break in by force! So I must keep you here by force, so that you cannot warn them! Be reasonable, Nelly. No one can take a stand against me. Ellen (realizes that the situation is hopeless) It’s Sunday tomorrow. Come while Edgar is at church. Heathcliff That’s what I always said, Nelly Dean. You are all the common sense of Wuthering heights and Trushcross Grange. Ellen But I am not responsible for the consequences. The risks are entirely your own. And you can’t stay more than an hour. Heathcliff That’s enough. Ellen I shall warn Caherine that you are coming. Heathcliff Do so. It’s her life, not mine. Ellen It’s her death, not yours. Heathcliff Women will always interpret everything to the contrary of men’s meanings. Ellen I can’t find Hindley here. Where is he? Heathcliff He is indisposed. Ellen I see. Well, good-bye, then. But I wash my hands. Heathcliff Do so, Nelly Dean, in peace and quiet. Thanks for your visit. (She leaves.) Joseph Are you really going to enforce yourself once more on the poor young couple? Heathcliff I have to. The urge of destiny has no laws. Joseph You will be her death, master Heathcliff. Heathcliff No, Joseph, she will be my death.

Scene 8. Catherine’s bedroom

Catherine (Nelly comes in) Open the window, Nelly. I stifle. Ellen You can’t take fresh air any more, Miss Cathy. Catherine On the contrary. It liberates me. Ellen Another cold would be your death. Catherine So let it at last come and liberate me! Why should I be tortured any longer? You all keep me in this prison against my will, in this trap of destiny of no return that is my life, in this weak and frail misery of a woman’s body that isn’t any good! Ellen But think then of your child, Miss Cathy. Catherine That’s the only life I have. Ellen (cautiously) I couldn’t stop him, Cathy. Catherine From what? Ellen From visiting you. He will come. Catherine I thought so. When will he come? Ellen Any time. Catherine While Edgar is in church? Ellen That was the only possibility. Catherine (jokingly) You are the best pimp in the world, Nelly. Ellen It was against my will, Madame. He forced me to it. Catherine Yes, I know how he works. Nothing can stop him. But I can’t bear seeing him. Ellen I told him so. He will come anyway. Catherine Let him come then and bring me out on the moor one last time to Peniston Crag. Only there we shall ever find peace with each other. Ellen I hear him coming. Catherine Let death come. I fear him less than Heathcliff. Heathcliff (coming quietly, smoothly and swiftly through the window, more dashing than ever) Catherine! Catherine Why have you come, Heathcliff? To see me die? Heathcliff (coming up to the bed) No, to see you live! To bring you life! Catherine It’s too late. Heathcliff It’s never too late to live. Catherine Can’t you see that I am dying? Heathcliff You are in the seventh month! You have everyting to live for! Catherine Why then have you taken my life away from me? Heathcliff On the contrary! You took my life away from me! Catherine Can’t you see what you have done, Heathcliff? You have consumed me! You have devoured and wasted me! Your love has burnt me out! Heathcliff Catherine! (embraces her) Catherine Too late! You have come too late! (kisses him fiercely. She rises, and they embrace passionately.) It was always only us, Heathcliff.

Heathcliff Why then did you desert me? Why did you marry that Linton? Why did you say that I wasn’t worthy of you? Why did you forsake me and discard me? How could you be so cruel to yourself and to me? Catherine It just happened that way, Heathcliff. I didn’t want it myself. My fault is that I am a woman. A woman is hopelessly subject to the conditions of her own body. She can’t protect herself against female conditions. A man can take his fate into his own hands, but a woman is always a victim to her own weakness. Heathcliff But you chose Linton yourself! You married him yourself! Catherine He offered comfort and a home and a good family. He became my life’s only security when Hindley reduced you to a manure groom. My own family kept you out of my reach, Heathcliff, by force! Heathcliff You sold yourself and your own soul. For what? Female vanity! False security! Self-deceit and money! Catherine Here he goes raving again. Heathcliff I am sorry, my love. It’s still not too late. Come with me back out on the moor! The elves are dancing at Peniston Crag and waiting for us! Catherine And your wife, Heathcliff? My sister-in-law? Have you trampled her like you trampled everyone down just because you couldn’t have me? Heathcliff Only you know me. Only you know how miserable I am. Catherine And only you know how I suffer. Oh Heathcliff, how could life so cruelly betray us by the grossest injustice in the world, only because we always loved each other! We were predestined for each other before birth! We must have known each other well already before! Ellen Her temperature is rising again, Heathcliff. You had better leave. Mr Linton will be home now any time. Heathcliff I can’t let her go now. Ellen She could die in your arms, Heathcliff. Catherine Yes, let me die in his arms, Nelly, since I never was allowed to live in them! Grant me that blessed boon of dying while I still have him, if only for the briefest moment! I will never let you go, Heathcliff! If I die I will take you with me. Heathcliff You mustn’t die! Catherine Try to stop me. Ellen (increasingly worried) I hear the master’s footsteps in the house. He is on his way here. Heathcliff One last kiss, my love. Catherine Take it! Take my life! Heathcliff No, I give you life. (kisses her. She swoons and lies like lifeless in his arms.) Ellen (crying out) She is dead! She is dead! (In the same moment the door opens, and Edgar enters.) Heathcliff She isn’t dead, Linton. She has only fainted. Take care of your wife and your child, Edgar. I am at your disposal whenever you wish. (leaves) Edgar (with the lifeless Catherine) What has happened, Nelly? Ellen Cathy just wanted to see him one last time.

Edgar And it became once too much? Ellen No, she is still alive. I just went so scared when she fainted. Edgar We must get her to bed immediately. (puts het to bed with Nelly assisting) Ellen And Heathcliff? Edgar I don’t want to see him. He can go home. Ellen He must know how Cathy is. Edgar And what about me? Have I no right to any share in my own wife’s sentiments? Must that unblessed demon Heathcliff always stand between her and me? Whenever I sought for her I only found the villain Heathcliff. Ellen She carries your child, Sir. Edgar That’s a totally different matter. (Catherine moves slightly.) Catherine, my love! How are you? Catherine (faintly) I don’t want to see you, Edgar. Ellen Master, you had better leave. I will sit up with her. Edgar Let me know everything that happens. Ellen Of course, Sir. (Edgar leaves.) Catherine (faintly, queringly to Nelly) Heathcliff? Ellen He is waiting in the garden for any notice. He watches over you down there, and I wake with you here. Catherine Good old comforting Nelly. Ellen How are you? Catherine The last drop was too much. I knew one more encounter would be too much for me. But I want to give birth to my child first. Ellen It’s too early! Catherine It will be tonight anyway. Or else she will never be born by a living mother. Ellen Do you think it’s a girl? Catherine That’s how I feel. Be ready, Nelly. We have a difficult night ahead of us, which will be my last fight. Ellen It’s my fault. I should never have allowed Heathcliff to come. Catherine No, Nelly, Heathcliff can’t help his own nature. He is like that. He is too strong and too dynamically emotional. He must destroy everyone in his path by his mere dynamics. He can’t help it. We will all be his victims, me, Edgar. Isabella, Hindley – no one will make it, except you, who are immune by your experience and age. But I was the only one who loved him and who was loved by him. That’s my life’s only merit, but it outshadows everything else in the world. Get going, Nelly. Heat up the water. The labour pains are coming. It is time. Ellen And Heathcliff? Catherine Let him wait. (is suddenly seized by acute pains. Nelly starts working.)

Act IV scene 1. At the inn. (Branwell has fallen asleep with his head in his arms.) 1 Wake up, Branwell! You haven’t finished yet! 2 He can’t discontinue now. Bartender You gave him too much. 3 How the devil could we know how much he can take? You should know! Bartender I warned you! 4 Now we shall never know whether she made it or died. 3 She died, of course. She must have. 2 Shall we bet? 1 That solves no problems. We must wake him up. 3 Bartender! Give us a hand! Bartender I have a better idea. (takes a bucket of water and throws it over Branwell, who instantly wakes up.) Branwell Is there a fire? Bartender No, but you are fired here. l But he must tell us the end! Bartender Not if he goes on drinking. Branwell What end? l What happened to Catherine! Branwell I have forgotten. 2 You can’t have forgotten it! You have the papers in your hat!

Branwell (seems to remember something) Oh, Catherine. 3 Yes! What did you do with her? Branwell She died. 4 Just like that? Branwell She gave birth to a girl that night and died. 3 (angry) And then what? Branwell (confused) I have forgotten. l Did you write this story or not? Branwell It’s my story, but my sister wrote it. 2 Then finish it! Branwell (collects himself) Well, that’s what I must do, then. l That’s the spirit. Branwell But in that case I shall need something to drink. Bartender (categoric) You have had enough. Branwell But I must! Bartender No, you mustn’t. Branwell Then there will be no story. l Unlock him, for our sake. You have the key. Bartender It’s against my conscience. 2 We are all your accomplices. 4 No one else needs to know. 3 You can’t leave a story half way. Bartender Well then, but don’t blame me afterwards when he implodes or expires. Branwell (solemnly) I take the responsibility. 2 That’s the spirit, old boy! 3 That’s a good sport! l Refill! (The bartender refills his glass. The mood is on again and back to normal.) Branwell (finds a position) Well, gentlemen…

Scene 2. Catherine’s bedroom. Dimmed light with lighted candles around Catherine’s dead body. Suddenly she is quite relaxed and beautious. Nelly wakes by her side. Someone throws dirt at the window from outside. Nelly opens it. Heathcliff (outside) Is the coast clear? Ellen You must be absolutely quiet, and you can only have a few minutes. Heathcliff That’s enough. (enters) Ellen You haven’t been out of your clothes for three days, Heathcliff. Heathcliff Catherine is dead, Nelly. What then can you ask of me? Ellen Have you been out in the garden every night?

Heathcliff Of course! And battered my head bloody against the oak! And sweated blood and cursed my fate in languishment and outrageous anguish! Ellen Quiet! You have five minutes. (leaves by the door) Heathcliff (approaching Catherine’s body) So you finally succeeded in leaving me, but still I am not lonesome. You promised to haunt me, Catherine. Do so, please. Torture me, pester me with unblessedness, and never leave me in peace! Perhaps it was I who took your life, but if I did it was only of love. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to love? Am I not a man? Were my passions too great and too strong for you? Could ever any feelings be too strong? They will never be worthy enough for love in any case, since true love always will remain unattainable. The idealist is doomed not for being an idealist but for never being able to realize his ideals. The greatest and truest love is therefore the most unhappy, for it can never be answered enough with what it deserves. (sinks down on the floor by her side completely at a loss and crying) O Catherine, forgive me! Forgive me for failing you by my love! Forgive me for not being worthy of you! I take all the blame and guilt. Haunt me to death! (unveils her) One last kiss. No, she isn’t home. She is more beautiful than ever but cold and has left her cover empty. She is already out on the moor and flying in freedom under the stars, further away than I will ever be able to reach her – before death. Maybe I’ll be able to catch up with her then. But she has left something here. (opens her locket around her neck) A lock of hair from your virgin days. I steal it. Instead I give you my own. (tears off a black lock from his hair and puts it in the locket) Take me with you into death, Catherine, for without you I will never find peace in this life. (rises and returns quietly out through the window. After a while Ellen returns.) Ellen This time he was wise enough not to linger too long. But there is no danger now when it is all over. Poor men, going sentimentally mad! For three days and nights they both waked and stayed up all night torturing themselves by crying to heaven and gnashing their teeth in agony and anguish, the husband in the library, the lover in the garden, both equally ridiculous in their deranged exaggerations of their own absurd sentimentality, with no idea of how the one suffered exactly as much as the other. But Edgar now has his daughter, although the poor child remains the poorest of comforts, while Heathcliff has lost everything, his only friend, his only anchor in life. But what has he been doing to you, Miss Cathy? (adjusts the veil) He has been at her and opened the locket! What a presumption! And here he has added his own black lock to hers. Well, no harm in that. There is no violation of the dead. But I can’t understand why the vicar won’t let her be buried in church…

Joseph Hindley

Scene 3. Wuthering Heights Joseph sits by the table reading the Bible as Hindley enters. You aren’t dressed yet, master Hindley. Don’t you think I am aware of it?

Joseph Were you not going to your sister’s funeral today? Wasn’t that why you kept sober yesterday? Hindley (pitiably) I can’t go, Joseph. I am not fit. I am so ashamed of myself. What have I done with my life? I am just a decayed miscreant! I am not even worthy of treading in the vicinity of my sister’s dead body! Joseph You can’t just be absent, master Hindley. You are invited and expected. Hindley Even less can I then show myself! Alas, I am lost, Joseph. (falls down into a chair) Give me something to drink. I can’t stand myself as sober. Joseph Is benumbing yourself with the devil’s medicine all that you are good for, master Hindley? Hindley Yes, Joseph, that’s all I am good for. Isabella (enters) Don’t let him in. Hindley Who? Isabella You know who. The tyrant. The only enemy of us all. The oppressor. Hindley Oh, that one. Isn’t he still crying at Cathy’s? Isabella He hasn’t been here for four days. Now we have the chance. He is coming. Lock him out! Hindley Lock the door, Joseph! (Joseph locks the door. To Isabella:) Have you any plan? Isabella Here is your pistol. I stole it from Heathcliff. Hindley Clever girl! And now I am almost sober. We all have things to settle with him. Heathcliff (outside, feels the door that it is locked, walks around the house) Joseph He is coming for the back door. Hindley It’s always locked. Isabella Unless Hareton is there to let him in. Hindley Damn! Hareton! Heathcliff (outside from the other side) Hareton, open up! (Heathcliff us heard entering.) Isabella He is inside. Hindley I will blow his head off as soon as he shows himself. (Enter Heathcliff. Hindley hesitates.) Isabella Shoot, quickly! (Hindley fires off, missing. Heathcliff immediately attacks him. They fight on the floor. Heathcliff wrings the pistol bayonet out of Hindley’s hands. Both cut themselves on the sharp blade.) Isabella Kill him, Hindley! Kill him! Heathcliff (holding Hindley down, to Isabella) So it’s you, who are behind this! (to Hindley) Weren’t you supposed to be at your sister’s funeral? Joseph He was unfit. Heathcliff When you for once are sober enough to hold a gun steady! What you need, Hindley, is a drink! Give me the bottle, Joseph! (Joseph hesitates. Hareton has entered and passively watches the scene, as if he had seen it too many times before.) Give me

the bottle, Hareton! (Hareton gives him the bottle.) Here you are, Hindley! You won’t be obliged to go to anyone’s funeral until it’s time for your own! Hindley At last! (drinking voraciously) Heathcliff (let’s him go) And concerning you, my wife, who steals murder weapons from me to entrust them in a murderer’s hand, did you really think he would be able to shoot me? Why didn’t you try yourself? Isabella Heathcliff, release me, so that we then are free from each other! Heathcliff And where would you go? You are not welcome in your brother’s house. He would only throw you out. You are carrying our child in your bosom. Where would you go as an unwonted single mother? You could possibly support yourself as a fallen woman in London. Isabella Rather that than remain under the same roof as you. Heathcliff Do you hate me so recklessly, that you would prefer the prospect of a slut’s humiliation in the gutter to my company? Am I such a monster, such an abomination, such an inhuman freak? Isabella (laughs shortly) You are worse than that. You are a necrophile. Heathcliff What do you mean? Isabella The only person you ever loved was Catherine, and she is still the only one you can love although she is dead. So go and lie with her! Fuck her over there where she lies buried as far from church as possible! Heathcliff Keep her out of this. Isabella And how do you think that she could ever love you? She was your friend only by condescension. She only felt sorry for you. She was happy with my brother, but with you she was only unhappy. Hindley (getting drunk) That’s right, Isabella! Just get at him! Tear his soul out of his body! When we can’t assail his body, we can at least torture his soul! Isabella He doesn’t have any. He has no heart either. He is only power and cruelty, and my sister-in-law kept in good standing with him only out of respect of his dark menace, so that he wouldn’t hurt her. The more he hurt her and brought her down. Heathcliff (darkly) Stop it, Isabella! Isabella If only you had never come to Thrushcross Grange, Heathcliff, I and Catherine and Edgar could have lived happily there. If you only had desisted from disturbing her after her marriage, she would never have died. Heathcliff Her name in your mouth is like a jewel in a toad’s mouth. Isabella Only you are to blame for Catherine’s death. Carry that burden on your conscience until your dying day, and then bring it with you down to hell! Heathcliff (dangerously self-controlled) I never want to see you again. Go away from here as far as possible, for your own good. Isabella I will bring your child with me abroad, which you never shall see. Heathcliff Isabella, leave the house before I murder you. (Isabella doesn’t hesitate, runs out at once.) I never thought I could become a murderer. Now I know.

Hindley Pity you didn’t kill her. That would at last have put you behind bars. Heathcliff You are not finished yet, Hindley. You still have your bottle. Hindley The only comfort you gave me for the life you stole away from me. Heathcliff You are already dead. It’s no use killing you. Hindley Yes, Heathcliff. Behold your victim, which you execute so slowly and methodically that you could never be caught for it. First you took my wife, then my soul, then my son, then my sister and house and property. I have nothing left. Still I live to scorn you. Heathcliff Shut up, Hindley, stick to your subject and drink. Hindley (raises his bottle) Cheers, Heathcliff, for your death and mine. Heathcliff I promise you, Hindley, that you will never need to live another day without your bottle. Hindley That’s all I still have to ask of you. Heathcliff Then we are agreed. Hindley For the first and last time. You won, Heathcliff. You got it all – the house, the farm, my poor son. But I am happier. I may die. You must live. Heathcliff Cheers, Hindley. (leaves the room) Joseph He has already been punished. Hindley How? Joseph Catherine’s premature death. Hindley May that punishment plague him as long as he lives – and go on after his death. Joseph Amen.

Scene 4. Thrushcross Grange. The doorbell. Nelly runs to open. Ellen Isabella! Isabella (wet and miserable) I have run away from Heathcliff never to return. Ellen Shall I fetch Edgar? Isabella No, don’t. I don’t want to disturb him in his grief. I only wanted to say goodbye to you. Ellen But where will you go? Isabella There is plenty of streets for such as I in London. Ellen In London? There is nothing but perdition. Isabella I know. Ellen This will not do, Isabella. Let me go for Edgar. Edgar (enters) I heard the bell, Nelly. You know, Isabella, that you are not welcome here. Isabella I had not intended to see you. I will leave at once. Edgar So you have left Heathcliff? Isabella Definitely. Edgar You’ll need money. Send us your address.

Isabella I demand nothing, Edgar. You will be rid of me, as you now are rid of Catherine. Edgar Don’t mix Catherine up in this! Isabella Now you sound exactly like Heathcliff. Farewell, Nelly Dean. You are the only person I will miss. (departs hastily) Edgar As if it wasn’t enough with Catherine’s illness and death! Couldn’t she just disappear without firing off at my heart? Ellen You are oversensitive, Edgar. Edgar We all are, and that will be our death. Don’t disturb me again, Nelly Dean. (leaves) Ellen As if it was me! He came himself! What does he really want of me? He doesn’t want to see his own daughter and leaves all the nursing to me. What am I really? Do they want me for some kind of curator? As if they were completely innocent themselves of their own follies! (returns to Lockwood. The scene disappears.) And six months after his sister, Hindley died. He locked himself up and drank himself to death. When Heathcliff and Joseph finally managed to break into his room, he was already stiff and cold. But he died without complaining like a satisfied baronet on the top of his career as an alcoholic. The fate of Isabella was less fortunate…

Scene 5. A dark decayed apartment in London. Linton Isn’t father coming soon? Isabella You have no father, Linton. You never had one. Linton But you always keep saying that he will come. Isabella No, Linton, it’s my brother we are waiting for, your uncle. Linton Is he kind? Isabella He must be kind, Linton. Or else we are finished. Linton But when will he come then? Isabella You always keep asking that. I can’t answer any more, my dear little darling. I can’t stand much more. But he must come before I die. Linton Are you very ill, mother? Isabella Yes, my little boy. I am very ill. Linton You mustn’t die from me, mother. Isabella My dear, neither you nor I can decide about that. Linton Who will decide it then? Is it my evil father? Isabella No, not even your father, Linton, not even if he was almighty. Linton What is there then for us to hope for? Isabella Nothing, Linton, nothing. (a knock on the door) At last! Come in! (Enter Edgar, noticeably aged)

Edgar At last I found you, sister, after all these years. How could you refuse to leave your address? Isabella I wanted to spare you any further pain. Edgar You only caused yourself the more pain. I offered you money. I offered you everything. And then you live in this horrible den, like a beggar! How did you manage in these twelve years? Isabella You don’t want to know, Edgar. Edgar I know it anyway. I can see it from your circumstances. You have had a hard time, Isabella, harder than I could have imagined. And then I finally find you – like this! Isabella At least I was allowed to see you before it was too late. Edgar Too late? What do you mean? Linton Mother says she is going to die. Edgar (embracing her) No, Isabella! Not this! Not now when at last I have found you! Isabella Take care of little Linton. Edgar No, Isabella! I will bring you home! Isabella Too late. Linton Are you my father, uncle Edgar? Isabella Let him think so, Edgar. Never let him know he had a father. Edgar So this is little Linton Heathcliff. A strange name in my ears. Isabella Only Linton, Edgar. Strike out the other name. Edgar Not possible by law. Isabella At least, never let me hear it again. Edgar As you wish, my darling sister. (embraces her. She dies.) No, Isabella! (gets hysterical) Don’t leave me! Linton Has she left now, uncle Edgar? Edgar Yes, my boy. We have lost her. Linton Will you bring me back to my father now? Edgar No, Linton. I will only bring you home. But we must bury your mother first. Linton Is it certain that she is gone? Edgar No, my boy. She will never leave us. Linton I thought so. Edgar Come, my boy. We can’t stay here now. (takes him with him) This is too unbearable to both of us. (Both sniffle and cry and comfort each other.) Ellen (with Lockwood) Hardly had Edgar come home with his young nephew until Heathcliff demanded the care of his son. Unfortunately he was in his legal rights, no matter how out of all moral rights he was. Edgar could do nothing but capitulate – and the weak little boy immediately landed in the roughest imaginable company at Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff, Hareton and Joseph. We all understood that he could never survive there for long. He was too much like his mother and uncle, who

were all made of more delicate and fragile stuff that wasn’t made to withstand the harder nature of this world.

Act V scene 1. Branwell has everyone’s attention. Branwell Heathcliff got his way. Since both families had refused him Catherine it was natural for him to instead take over both farms and destroy both families, and nothing could stop him. That’s why he took care of and brought up the delicate Linton only for the boy to be able to marry Catherine’s daughter Catherine before he died, so that Heathcliff then could inherit them and also take over Thrushcross Grange. l But what about the vicar? Had he no say in the village? Branwell Priests are only abject cowards. It’s enough to threaten them, and they will fall and agree to anything, for they know anyway that all they represent is delusions…

Scene 2. Wuthering Heights. Vicar

But you can’t keep me here against my will, Heathcliff. It’s absurd.

Heathcliff You may leave as soon as you have married them. It’s just a formality. Vicar You want to force them to marry against their will! Heathcliff Not at all. They like each other. Linton has no one else in the world to take to, and Catherine feels sorry about her little cousin. With her good heart she can’t but sacrifice herself for him. Vicar It’s against the law! Heathcliff Don’t be ridiculous. A marriage if anything is legal. We even have legal witneses: Hareton and Joseph. Vicar It’s a parody! You ridicule and blaspheme the church! We can’t do it without Edgar Linton’s endorsement. Heathcliff He lies dying. He is not in a condition to endorse anything. And Catherine happens to be here now. Vicar Have you abducted her? Heathcliff No, she came here quite willingly. She feels sorry for her small cousin. I beg you, reverend, to cooperate. Getting married to Catherine will be the last and only joy in poor Linton’s life. Vicar Your appeal to compassion in your mouth sounds abominably grotesque. Heathcliff I am just sincere. Vicar Then you have to help me on with some sherry. This situation demands some careful consideration. Heathcliff Have as much as you need, reverend. You will get any amount of consideration. But you will not get out of here until the youths are married. Vicar You want to make me guilty of a marriage under threat. Heathcliff No, I just hasten the natural development. Think of your calling, reverend. You follow it to be gracious and merciful. Isn’t tolerance your religion? Think with grace of your sinners, and pardon them. That’s all your existence is for. And I can’t see that you have any choice. Vicar (empties a large and full glass of sherry) Let’s go for it then. Let’s get done with it. Heathcliff Your heavenly wisdom, father, transcends itself. Joseph, get the youths. We shall have a Christian wedding here. (Joseph goes to bring the youths.) Vicar It’s almost against my conscience, though. Heathcliff Leave the conscientious objections to me, reverend. I have plenty of room. (Joseph brings young Catherine, scared stiff, and Linton, pale and weak, in a primitive wheelchair with a blanket.) Vicar Is this Isabella Linton’s son? Heathcliff Isabella Heathcliff. Yes. It our son. Vicar There isn’t much left of him. Heathcliff Hurry on then. Linton What is the clergyman doing here? Am I already to die? Heathcliff No, Linton. Now life begins. You are about to be married. Catherine Is that why I have been kept here against my will?

Heathcliff You have knwon it all the time. Only you can save Linton’s life. Only if you marry him you can prolong his life. Catherine My father is very ill. I must see him. Heathcliff Later. Get married first. Catherine Is that a condition? Heathcliff You may call it what you want. For me it’s just a natural necessity. Get going, reverend. Vicar Is the boy able to stand up? Heathcliff Can you stand, Linton? Linton Yes, if you don’t hit me. Heathcliff I will not hit you if you obey. Stand up then, when the reverend speaks to you! Catherine It will soon be over, Linton. (helps him on his feet) Vicar (opens the prayer book) Are we all ready then? (All nod approvingly.) Heathcliff You seem to hesitate, reverend. Hareton and Joseph are here as witnesses. Look how sweet the bride and bridegroom are standing there faithfully supporting each other. What more do we need? The bride’s father is impeded by illness. Would you like some more sherry, reverend? Vicar (terrified) God help us. The sooner this ceremony is over, the better. Heathcliff That’s what we all think, reverend. Vicar May God forgive us. We are gathered here today…

Scene 3. Thrushcross Grange. Edgar (in his bed, dying) I understand that Catherine has abandoned me, Nelly. Ellen We think she has been kept against her will at Wuthering Heights. Edgar (very weak) How can they be so cruel and inhuman? Are they doing it only to prevent her from seeing her father alive? Ellen We think it’s worse than that. We think they use your condition as a means of pressing her to marry Linton. Edgar Linton? The small sickly boy? Ellen Yes. Edgar Isn’t he dying like me? Ellen Almost. Edgar So Heathcliff wins it all in the end. He gets his son married to my daughter, so that he himself inherits his son. Thus Thrushcross Grange will be lost, and my daughter becomes his dependent slave. Why all this smothering infernal cruelty, Nelly? Ellen Only because Heathcliff’s love married you. Edgar Was it my fault? Ellen No, it was nobody’s fault. It just happened that way. Edgar Would Heathcliff have been able to make her happy?

Ellen That we shall never know. Edgar We live to die to get the chance of learning something on the way. But all we get is lessons of destiny that only bewilder us. But we must have done something wrong, Nelly. What did we do wrong? Ellen No one did anything wrong except only Heathcliff, who decided to revenge himself for nothing. Edgar Hindley´s dipsomania? Catherine’s illness? Was it all Heathcliff’s fault? Ellen Pardon me for saying it, Sir, but yes, it was all Heathcliff’s fault, because if he had only waited and not departed, Catherine would have chosen him anyway. Edgar So basically he has only the folly of his own feelings to blame? Ellen Like all of us. Edgar So we are all equally guilty. Oh Nelly, whatever shall we do with ourselves? (takes her hand. They understand each other. Enter Catherine.) Catherine Father! Father! (rushes forth embracing him) Edgar Where have you been, my girl? Catherine I was detained. Edgar I know all, Catherine. You were detained at Wuthering Heights. You were compelled into marriage with Linton Heathcliff. He is dying like me. He now has your right of inheritance, and when he dies your father-in-law takes over Thrushcross Grange. Catherine Oh, father, Linton is so sick, and he is so like you! Edgar That’s why he won’t make it. That’s why his father hates him. He hates him like he hated Isabella, and that’s why my poor nephew is doomed to die. He has no chance. Catherine Forgive me, father! Edgar It was not your fault. It was nobody’s fault. Perhaps it was my fault, who married your mother. But we wouldn’t have had you, if we hadn’t. Catherine No, everything is my fault, father! Edgar Nonsense. When I am gone, Catherine, you shall take care of your young husband at Wuthering Heights until he dies. Then everything is accomplished. Then all that’s left of the tragedy is for it to find its own end. Catherine Don’t leave us, father! You are everything we have! Edgar I know, my child. Unfortunately there is no other choice for me than to take what comes. (dies) Catherine Father! Father! Ellen He has passed away, Cathy. Catherine Alone in the dark! What are we poor people more than just lonesome poor frightened children in the darkness! (back to Nelly and Lockwood) Lockwood And the poor boy? What befell the poor weakling without health, whom the cruel father forced into a marriage of speculation in his death just to inherit him?

Ellen He died as well. Lockwood Did that multiple murderer also cause the death of the youngest martyr? Ellen Don’t burden poor Mr Heathcliff with too much exaggerated guilt. No one suffered more than himself. Lockwood That consumer of men and souls, who destroyed everyone in his way! Heathcliff (happens to enter) So you are still here, Mr Lockwood? Lockwood (rising in anger) I have something to say to you, Sir. Heathcliff Well, say it then. Lockwood You can search for another lodger at Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff But you are already contracted for a year. You must pay the whole year’s rent. Why this sudden change of mind? Lockwood I know all about you, Mr Heathcliff! You are a scoundrel and a murderer! Heathcliff How interesting! What else? Lockwood A torturer of men and of children, a ruthless ruffian and, in brief, a total villain! Heathcliff I never heard the like! And what brings me the pleasue of being so generously renowned by you? Have you listened to the village gossip? Lockwood I have witnesses! Heathcliff So, there we are! Why then not prosecute me and put me on trial? Do you have any attourney to sue me? And if you wish to accuse me of anything you will have to find better arguments than those childish abusive invectives you have used so far. Lockwood After learning how you acquired Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, you must understand that I could impossibly rent anything from you. Heathcliff Well, just leave then. What are you waiting for? Lockwood Thank you. I will do so at once. I regret that I ever had anything to do with you, Mr Heathcliff. (leaves) Heathcliff That’s normal. That’s what they all do. (catches sight of Catherine and Hareton who sit together further away in the house and who have been observing Lockwood’s scene.) And what are you staring at, my children? Have you never seen me before? (They continue glaring. Heathcliff advances.) And what are you doing? You could never do anything together before. Answer me! What are you up to! Hareton (stammering) My cousin teaches me how to read. Heathcliff (can’t believe his ears) Does she teach you to read? Hareton Yes. Heathcliff And why in the name of all unhung devils does she try to teach you to read? Hareton I thought it would be fun to be able to. Heathcliff (to Catherine) Then you would teach that clout to write as well, so that he could start writing his name? Catherine Yes, father-in-law. That’s his human right.

Heathcliff And since when does a manure groom have human rights? Catherine He always had. But you have withheld all his rights from him. Heathcliff I had no rights when I grew up here as a manure groom and had to sleep in the dung of cows! Catherine You were not the son of the master in the house and was not called Earnshaw. Heathcliff (increasingly angry) What are you thinking of? How dare you? You are in my possession as my slaves! I own your body and soul! You are nothing! I am the sole owner of everything! Catherine Because you grabbed all that our parents owned by cunning and stealth. Nothing of what you have acquired, you ever really had any right to. Heathcliff (fearfully self-controlled) You go too far, my girl. (takes a firm hold of her long hair) You have provoked me since of long. You are both getting more and more like your damned parents. My dream was to overcome you all and get the better of you, but the more you become like my hated adoptive family, the more I lose the lust to go on subduing and smothering your youth and beauty, your charm and grace. My envy is losing its urge. All my hatred is not enough. But I still have one thing left to do. I never reached your mother, Catherine Heathcliff. She died from me because she committed the mistake of marrying your failure of a father. She married unhappiness just to escape being mine! But you are eighteen now, Catherine Heathcliff, you are my own daughter-in-law, and your husband, my poor infamous mishap of an unnatural son with a feeble-minded shrew of a wife, is now dead. All that you own belongs to me. All that remains is to also acquire your body and make it mine. Not even your mother could stop me from that, Catherine Heathcliff! She could withhold herself from me, but you are completely at my mercy! Or what do you say, Hareton? Isn’t she beautiful? Isn’t she charming and irresistible as the intact virgin she still is? Do you want to get in my way, Hareton? Do you really think she could teach you to read? You will not have a single book for yourselves, you lowborn inmates! I will burn every letter in the house except that old worm-eaten tattered Bible which poor old Joseph keeps returning to ever and again while every page is blotted by his drivelling! What do you say, Hareton? Do you dare try to stop me from taking your darling cousin Catherine? (Catherine Earnshaw starts appearing.) Don’t look at me like that! Must you both have her eyes? Catherine Earnshaw, what are you doing here? Have you come to muster me? Will you at last put a stop to my brutal violating ways with your entire family? Will you at last bring me home to you and take me away from here and out of my own hell! (falls down on his knees. Catherine Earnshaw disappears.) Ellen He is mad. Joseph No, he is at last being taken home by the devil Catherine No, it’s something else. It’s a change. Hareton (cautiously, approaching Heathcliff) How are you, uncle Heathcliff? Heathcliff (crying) A nervous fit. It will pass. It has never happened to me before. (looks around) Where is she?

Catherine Who? Heathcliff (rising) She was here! I saw her with my own eyes! She reminded me that I am still loving her! Catherine Earnshaw, where are you? Come back! Ellen He is mad, and it’s serious. Joseph No, it’s the devil pulling and tearing at him. It’s time. Catherine Shut up, you old senile pharisee! Joseph You will see that I am right. (engages in his Bible.) Hareton (softly) Can I do anything for you, uncle Heathcliff? Heathcliff No, Hareton. I don’t understand myself what is happening. (Suddenly the windows blow open with full force and break while the wind is howling.) Heathcliff (extatically) Catherine! Catherine! Ellen Close the windows! Catherine (tries to) It can’t be done! Heathcliff (like before) Catherine! Catherine! (rushes suddenly at the door and out) (Then the storm winds gradually decrease, and Catherine succeeds in closing the broken window.) Catherine It was a sudden gush from Peniston Crag. Hareton Yes, sometimes there are horrible whirlwinds from there. Ellen (at the door, calling) Heathcliff! Heathcliff! Joseph (calmly) We’ll never see him again. Ellen (going up to him) What do you mean, Joseph? Joseph He has gone home. Ellen Home? Joseph Yes, home, wherever he came from. Catherine (signalling to Ellen that Joseph isn’t right in his head) Ellen Where did he come from then? Joseph From hell of course. Catherine (certain) You see. Hareton (looking out) We can’t go out looking for him now. Ellen No, it’s dark, and the storm is coming. Joseph You will probably find him by Peniston Crag tomorrow, when the storm is over. Ellen Do you think he will find his way there? Joseph He always found it together with Catherine. Ellen (thoughtfully) Every time they disappeared, that’s where they had gone. No one else dared to go near the dangerous forbidding rocks. Joseph That’s where they both are now. Forever. Hareton (cautiously) Do you mean that they are free? Joseph I would think so. Ellen We’ll see tomorrow. Catherine (takes Hareton’s hand) We aren’t finished yet, Hareton. Hareton Do you think we might start reading now without being disturbed? Catherine Life is short, Hareton. Let’s at last get started for real. Hareton Yes, I have much to catch up with.

Catherine Our whole life, Hareton. And we have the lost lives of many others as well to reclaim. Hareton Daddy’s? Catherine And mother’s. Joseph (gets a bright idea) You have two lost families to restore, my children. Catherine So let’s get started! (resumes her seat by Hareton) Which letter now is this one, Hareton? Hareton It must be an H. Catherine Bravo! You are learning! Ellen I think Catherine Earnshaw saved Heathcliff in the mast minute, Joseph, before he went too far. Joseph They both always went too far. But they are well off now together. Leave them be. Ellen And the farms? Joseph They will both be Cathy’s and Hareton’s. Ellen Are you sure that Heathcliff will not come back this time? Joseph Nothing can make him give up Catherine Earnshaw now, Nelly. Ellen I think you are right. Joseph I am always right. (returns into his Bible. Ellen goes to the fireplace and starts minding her duties there.)

Epilogue The inn. Branwell passed out across a table again. 1

At least he got through to the happy end. 96

2 But I don’t think his end will be happy. 3 Let’s check his manuscript now, when we have the chance. 4 Do you really think his sister wrote it? 3 Let’s have a look! 1 (gets hold of Branwell’s papers, scurries eagerly through them, finds nothing) It’s empty! It’s only blank sheets! 2 That explains it. 3 What do you mean? 2 Branwell’s stories were always just unwritten sheets. 4 You mean that he never wrote anything? 2 I don’t think so. 3 He was always best at just ranting. 1 (to the bartender) What do you think, who knows everything about us all? Bartender (after careful consideration) I have only one thing to say, gentlemen. All Well? Bartender It’s time, gentlemen. 1 Not already! 2 One more pint! 3 We must get some life into Branwell! 4 We aren’t finished yet! Bartender But Branwell is finished. That’s all that matters. 1 He is right. 2 Branwell! Wake up! (tries to wake him without succeeding) 3 Is he dead? 4 No, he’s asleep. Bartender I will get the doctor to collect him later. l We trust you, Mac. 2 Come, let’s go. It will have to do for today. 3 Yes, at least he finished the story. 4 Now he seems completely washed up. Bartender He never will be, gentlemen. Welcome back tomorrow. (wants to close up) 1 Bye, Mac. 2 Thanks for tonight. 3 Our thanks to Branwell. (They leave.) Bartender (when he has locked the door) Time to go home, Branwell. Branwell (slowly lifting his head) Which one shall I take next time? Bartender You could try the one who happened to marry a wife that was hopelessly insane. Branwell The story of Edward Bulwer-Lytton? Bartender Yes, why not? Branwell It’s a good story. But I’ll have to use other names. Bartender Of course. It will always work anyway.

Branwell Well, I’ll also have to call it a day, then. We’ll share the profits as usual, won’t we, Mac? Bartender You always have your share here, Branwell. Branwell Thanks. So I have your permission to drink myself to death with a clear conscience? Bartender Yes, but please prolong it as far as possible. Branwell I will do my best. Bartender I trust you will. Branwell Good night, Mac. Bartender Goodnight, Branwell. (Branwell leaves.) That’s that. Another good day for the cash-box, thanks to Branwell. (closes the pub and turns off the light and leaves.)

The End.

(Constantinople 27.3.2001. translated in September 2018.)

Who is Heathcliff? (an essay from 1986) He is the main protagonist in Emily Brontë’s only novel (1847), which has been called the only representative novel of the romantic period in the English language. He is a foundling, and all that we ever really get to know about him throughout the novel is that we really can’t know anything about him. When Mr Lockwood, the ego of the novel, comes to the Wuthering Heights place by the moors of Yorkshire in 1801, Heathcliff, the ruler of the farm, is a man of 50 years at the height of his powers. All other residents at the farm are his slaves: his daughter-in-law Catherine, her cousin Hareton and the old bigoted groom Joseph. The atmosphere of the house is depressing. Heathcliff himself is silent and constantly very gloomy, bitter and irksome. His only language is that of force, which he often applies by violence. Gradually the guest Mr Lockwood learns the background of the depressive situation. He learns about all who died at the farm and the finer house he is renting, the Thrushcross Grange: Hareton’s father Hindley, who was the patron of Wuthering Heights, his sister Catherine, who married Edgar Linton, the owner of Thrushcross Grange, and his sister, who was married to Heathcliff. All these departed people have died very young: not one of them reached over 30 years of age, and all died because of the tragic love affair between Heathcliff and the first Catherine, in which they never could have each other, the consequence of which resulted in everyone becoming the victims of Heathcliff’s relentless and uncompromising revenge. Gradually you realize that Heathcliff is a necrophile. He only lives in the past, and his only company is the only one that ever was kind to him, his beloved Catherine. Her ghost haunts Wuthering Heights at night, Heathcliff restlessly chases her ghost, and in her company turns more and more like a ghost himself. It’s only after Heathcliff’s death that you at last come somewhere near him. During the whole novel of the housemaid Nelly Dean’s stories about him while he is still alive you never reach him. You never get into his world of thoughts, he only appears as something terribly awesome and enigmatic which no one can control, and he never shows his own feelings. Not until he is dead you start to realize something of his terrible misery, and he becomes somewhat sympathetic in his deep buried humanity in spite of all. It’s only his constantly more ecstatic necrophilia that somewhat reconciles him with reality and with the reader and which in spite of all gives him peace by death. But will the reader after having read his massively romantic saga ever come over it and find peace for him?

Emily BrontĂŤ was like that herself: completely unreachable as a person. Like Stevenson and Chopin and many other romantics she suffered from tuberculosis and died in it at 29, and apart from the novel and some poems there is nothing else written by her and even less about her. The language of the novel is not its least remarkable feature: she writes with a concentrated sharpness where every word is important for the context. You canâ€™t jump or inattentively read one passage without falling out of the story. At the same time the language at times reaches ecstatic poetical if not wuthering heights. In addition to all this, the story as such is as impressing as a drama of destiny by Shakespeare. The action invariably takes place on the most primitive thinkable level: you are never out of the stormy moors, the fatally bad weather, the constant presence of illness, the brutal evil with alcoholism and decay for instruments or the inevitable destiny condemning the Earnshaw and Linton families to the utmost brink of destruction.

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The Dark Widow Dramatization of Anne Brontë’s ”The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” by Christian Lanciai (2013, translated 2018)

Dramatis personae: Rose Markham Gilbert Markham their mother Reverend Millward, vicar Eliza Millward, his daughter Lawrence Helen Graham Jane Wilson Arthur Huntingdon Annabella Wilmot Uncle Wilmot Grimsby Hattersley Lord Lowborough Rachel Walter Hargrave Millicent Hargrave, his wife Arthur Huntingdon junior A doctor The action is in England in the 1820s.

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Act I scene 1. Rose Welcome home, dear brother! How does it feel to have become a patron? Markham Honestly, it feels like coming home. It will be nice to get settled at last. Rose Everyone speaks about you and has great expectations of your most welcome addition to our small community. Markham Are there many new members here that I don’t know? Rose I actually invited a few, so that you could feel really at home from the start. I don’t know if you know Mr Lawrence, who should be your closest colleague. Markham The owner of the old manor of Wildfell Hall? Rose He doesn’t live there any more. He settled for a more convenient residence closer to his lands and with better facilities. Markham Still I got the impression of someone staying at Wildfell Hall, although it looked rather neglected. Rose So there is. He has let it. His lodger is a young widow with a small son seven years old. She is at least doing something about the garden. Markham Is it anyone we know? Rose Her name is Helen Graham. No one knows anything about her, wherefore everyone speculates in her story. She is always dressed in black and appears very reserved. She doesn’t even go to church. Markham What does the vicar feel about that? Rose I presume he will remind her of it by some courtesy visit. Then we shall probably see more of her. Markham Will he insist on her going to church although she might not want to? Rose I hardly think so, but the church is the best social place. Only there everyone can meet everyone. Anyone who risks not going to church will risk becoming a permanent outsider. Markham But that is perhaps what she wants. (a doorbell) Rose That must be Eliza Millward. She just comes here to gossip, since she knows everything about everyone. I warn you. She is keen on marriage. (goes to open the door) Mother More tea, Gilbert?` Markham I had better brace myself for all possible visits of celebrities from the neighbourhood. But you can relax, mother. I am not in the least interested in marriage. Mother You should never be eager about such things. Let it come in peace and quiet with maturity. If it comes, it will come naturally. (enter Rose with the vicar and Eliza, his daughter) Eliza (immediately rushing on Markham) How nice to see you again, Gilbert! It’s several years ago! Imagine that you have returned! Markham I had no choice. Our father wanted me to take over the estate. Millward I am glad that you have assumed the responsibility. You will grow with the task.

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Markham I am sure I will. Mother Some tea, reverend? Millward Yes, please. Eliza (to Rose) Imagine, that Jane Wilson tried to make Mrs Graham’s acquaintance without getting a word out of her! Rose Is she declining? Eliza Not at all, just closed up like a clam. She must be carrying some deep secret sorrow. Father promised to go there and speak with her. Millward She already lived here for quite some time, and such a young and beautiful widow should be taken care of, so that she one day might get over her grief. I intended to discreetly tempt her to come to church, so that she might at least see us. So far no one here has hardly seen her at all. Rose Except Mr Lawrence. Millward For good reasons. (the doorbell) Rose That must be him. (goes for the door) Markham The last time I saw him he was as unbearable as I, but that was long ago. Millward He has also grown with his task as a patron. (enter Rose with Lawrence) Rose Gilbert, meet your colleague. Markham (rising to greet Lawrence) I almost can’t recognize you. Lawrence That’s mutual. So you have at last come back home. Congratulations. Markham It’s for the family, and they have immediately put me on trial by inviting the whole village just to expose me. Lawrence It’s not as risky as it seems. All gossip is innocent, since no one means any harm by just talking. The only dangerous intrigues are those that end up in marriage. Markham I agree. So you are still a bachelor? Lawrence A confirmed one, and there is no one that even appeals to me. Eliza That’s why so many try. Lawrence You are not pestering me. Markham But what is this about your lodger? Everyone speaks about her although no one knows anything about her or maybe for that very reason. Lawrence She came for a refuge from her past, and I could offer one. Thanks to that, our old family residence will not fall into unrecognizable decay. Eliza All are so curious about her. What do you know about her? Lawrence Nothing. Eliza If you didn’t know anything about her you took a risk, or was it charity? Millward If she asked for a safe place to find refuge in, no one has any right to importune. I shall pay her a Christian visit of courtesy in an effort to get her to church. If I succeed I believe we could get her into our community. Rose Good luck, vicar. Mother Our vicar is always successful. (They have tea. Lawrence is the first to give thanks and leave.)

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Scene 2. Helen’s study. Lawrence Are you sure you are all right here? Helen I couldn’t have it better. Lawrence But it is worn down and almost ramshackle, there is a draught everywhere, and this is actually the only room that can keep warm. Helen That’s why I arranged my study here. Lawrence It pleases me that you can sell some paintings. Helen I wish I could be self-sufficient on my art. Lawrence One day, perhaps… Helen (has thrown a glance out the window) Here he comes again, that nosy young man! Lawrence Shall I drive him away? Helen It’s not necessary. He is accompanied by his sister. But you had better leave. Lawrence I will disappear at once. (leaves) Helen Does my case have to raise such an epidemic curiosity everywhere? I thought I could live in peace here, but even in the smallest village in the county, everyone has to turn his attention on the only outsider. (a knock. She opens.) Markham Sorry to be importuning again, Mrs Graham. Rose My brother‘s walks always seem to pull him in this direction. Helen It doesn’t matter. I almost never have any visits anyway, but you must excuse the mess. Markham (looking around amazed) I didn’t know you were a painter. Helen This is the only room that keeps warm. You will have to do with it. I can impossibly receive guests in any other room because of the draught. Markham I am impressed. Rose We missed you at our party on Saturday. You were the only one missing. Helen I know. I apologize for my discourtesy, but I don’t like parties. Markham Why not? Helen They are so artificial. All conceal themselves behind rubbish. Only superficiality is permitted. And you see through them all and are depressed by their hypocrisy. Markham So you are too deep for ordinary people. Helen Not at all. I just don’t want to partake in any conceit. Rose No one has any secrets in our village. Everyone knows everything about everyone. Helen So I am the only one to have one, and the more reason then to keep away, since I don’t want to exhibit myself. Markham That must make everyone even more curious about you. Won’t you tell your story? Helen Never in my life. Pardon me. I must give my maid instructions for the day. (hurries out) Rose You shouldn’t press her.

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Markham She must have some very interesting secrets indeed. Rose Be patient. They should come out eventually. Markham But how she paints! Who could believe it? An artist in our midst! And she knows her art. (studies the paintings) Rose I thought it was just a hobby of hers, but I heard that she is even selling them. Markham No wonder. These landscapes are well up to Constable standards. And here are some portraits as well. Have you seen the boy? (finds a child portrait) Rose Yes. It is very much like him. Markham (finds one painting after the other with increasing interest) And here is probably a family portrait. (finds a picture of the boy with another man) Helen (happens to enter coincidently) Put that one away! Markham Sorry, but could it possibly be your former husband? Helen That is no business of yours! (snatches it from him and puts it away, hiding its front) Rose (to Markham) We had better leave. (to Helen) Please excuse us, but my brother is so impulsive. He meant no harm. Markham On the contrary. I admire your art. Can you live on it? Helen Not yet, but I hope to in time. Thanks for the visit. My son is coming home shortly, and I need to take care of him. Rose As befits a good mother. Come, Gilbert. Please pardon our intrusion once more. Helen It doesn’t matter. I am used to it. Welcome back some other time. Markham Thank you, we will be glad to. (sincerely) I sincerely apologize if I touched on any matter of delicacy. Helen Thank you, Gilbert. You merely stumbled. That’s human. Goodbye. (Rose and Markham politely take their leave.) Markham (outside) She called me Gilbert! Helen (smiling) What a card! I just hope he doesn’t become even more intrusive. (sits down by her easel)

Scene 3. A tea party. Eliza As usual everyone is here except the mysterious Miss. Jane Wilson Why do you call her Miss? Eliza Honestly speaking, I don’t think she ever was married. Jane But she is wearing the tokens of a widow. Eliza Is she? I think that’s only to protect herself against curiosity and intrusion. Jane What do you really think? Eliza I heard strange rumours about her. Her so called husband appears to still be alive and living under a totally different name. It seems as if she has run away from him. Jane I dare say!

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Millward Don’t sit there gossiping about what you don’t have the slightest knowledge, girls. Jane We are only speculating. Eliza Here is Gilbert at last. What news, Gilbert? Have you seen her again? Markham Several times. I haven’t gained her confidence but well enough her son’s. She seems to have brought him up by singular methods. Among other things she has impressed a total aversion against wine in him. Millward Against wine? That can’t be very healthy. Markham Exactly my opinion as well. Eliza But why on earth? Markham You might well ask. She only gives him wine when he is sick as medicine, and she puts salt in it to make it even more disgusting. Millward Wine is the best medicine there is, and usually the patient grows so fond of it, if the illness lasts long enough, that it could lead to addiction. This is especially common with elderly gentlemen when their medicine has advanced from wine to whisky. Then they never stop drinking whisky when needed. Usually you put some sugar in the medicine to make it more easily go down with children. This is the first time I hear of the contrary. Rose Perhaps she has her reasons. Eliza Here is Lawrence now. Lawrence, as usual we are discussing your mysterious lodger. Lawrence What about her? Eliza That’s what we wonder, and the less we know, the more there are rumours. Lawrence What kind of rumours? Eliza Tell us about the picture, Gilbert. Markham When I was there with my sister we saw her study. I was very impressed. I found a picture of her son with, as I assume, her late husband. When I saw it she was terribly upset and put the picture out of sight. Eliza What did the man look like? Millward Eliza! Markham A good-looking healthy young man with something roguish about his character and an enigmatic smile that could mean anything. Eliza Like what? Markham Knavery, practical jokes, secret calculation, ridicule, disdainful scorn or something like superiority. Eliza Was it her husband, Lawrence? Lawrence I don’t know. I haven’t seen the picture. Eliza But you if anyone should know something about her. Lawrence Why? Eliza Because she is your lodger. You don’t lease your house to someone without investigating who she is, do you? Lawrence She had enough credible references. Eliza So you know something.

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Lawrence I know her uncle. Eliza At least something. Lawrence Are you interested in her, Gilbert? Markham Why so? Are you jealous? Lawrence (short laugh) Not at all. But I didn’t think she was your type. Markham No one is my type. We are like each other on that point. Lawrence So far. Who knows when one of us will fall. I don’t think I will be the first one. Markham Neither will I. Shall we bet? Lawrence Agreed! Markham The first one to fall will invite the other to his wedding. Lawrence If it’s me you will be my best man as well. Markham Agreed! And vice versa! Millward You seem to have departed from the subject. Perhaps weddings are more important than black widows. Jane We don’t even know if she is a widow. Rose What else would she be? Eliza We only know that she appears as a widow. Millward Then we have no right to assume that she isn’t. Lawrence All I know for certain about her is that she moved here to be left in peace. Jane In peace of what? Rose The curiosity of neighbours. Eliza That’s why she makes us so curious. Jane And she is terribly intriguing to speculate about. Millward Let’s leave her in peace now and pass to merrier subjects. Is it you that baked the cake, Jane? Markham It’s our mother who contributed the scones. Millward The best scones of our neighbourhood, our very speciality. Rose Help yourselves! The recipe will remain secret. Lawrence The attraction of secrets only lasts as long as they remain secret. Millward Bang on, Lawrence! (They have tea.)

Act II scene 1. Some rocks by the sea. Helen (the first to appear on top) Thanks for bringing me here, Gilbert. I always desired to reach this place since all my motives at home are long since used up. Markham (coming after) It was a privilege to show you the way. Helen Why? Markham I admire your art. Now I have succeeded in contributing to its development by opening doors to you for new motives.

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Helen I am actually no real artist. I started painting for serious as a kind of therapy to escape the humdrum daily routines. Markham May I ask you something? Helen That depends on what it is. Markham No danger. I just wonder why you chose such a large and bleak house, when you only use a few small rooms, while the greater part of the rookery is left to remain empty and desert as haunted mansion. Helen I am fond of large spaces. I can use the many empty rooms for storage when needed. When it is raining, little Arthur can run around there playing, when he can’t go out. And I like the position. It’s both close to the village and is properly detached from it. Markham You like seclusion. Don’t you like company at all? Helen To a limited extent. I wish to avoid the wrong kind of people, and in larger company they are unfortunately unavoidable. Your coterie in the village is quite enough, but I wouldn’t like to be in the vicinity when they are all together. Markham Why? Helen I already answered that. Markham Who has harmed you to the extent that you can’t bear with people? Helen Check yourself, Mr Markham. You are now going too far. Markham I beg your pardon, but the only life there is, is with people. Lonesomeness is no life. Helen I am never alone. I have my son, and I have nature. They are my universe where I can thrive. One or two may visit me in this universe sometimes, but no one may inflict on it. Markham That’s the last thing I wish to do. Do you remember our latest conversation? Helen About literature? Markham You expressed a wish to some day be able to read Walter Scott’s “Marmion”. I happen to have it with me. Helen What do you mean? Markham I beg the honour of honouring you by it as a humble present. Helen You don’t mean to say that you acquired it for my sake? Markham Yes, I did. Helen I can impossibly accept it. Markham Why? You haven’t read it, and you wished to have it. Helen I can only receive it if I may pay for it. Markham Then it’s no present any longer but just a delivery. I was hoping that you would graciously accept my friendly gesture. Helen I cannot owe you any debt of gratitude. Markham You don’t have to. Helen And you have no further intentions by your gift? Markham I assure you. Helen You worry me.

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Markham That’s not my intention. Helen I accept it, but no further gifts, please. Markham The grace of your friendship is all that I ask for. Helen You have done so much for my son. He has accepted you with all his confidence. I am more grateful for that than for your present. Markham We enjoy ourselves together. Helen That’s what he needs. (turns away) He never had a real father. Markham (controls himself) I can never become more to him than just a friend, but that is maybe enough. Helen It is more than enough. Come, it’s time to turn back. We mustn’t add more fuel to the village gossip. (He helps her on her feet. For a moment he holds her in his arms but immediately releases her.) Markham I invited Lawrence to come with us, but he declined. Why? Helen Ask him. Markham Does he hold anything against you? Helen No. He only wishes to keep a distance. Markham A wise landlord. Helen That’s why I can go on living here – so far. Markham We will all protect you. Helen Thank you, but it isn’t necessary. My son is the only protector I need. (They start slowly to turn back.)

Scene 2. Yet another tea party. Eliza I feel sorry for Gilbert. Jane Why? Eliza He allows himself to be blindly fooled. Jane What do you mean? Eliza (lower) More and more the truth about that so called widow is starting to appear. Haven’t you noticed that her son is like Mr Lawrence? Jane (observing Lawrence, who is in the company) What are you saying? Eliza Why does Mrs Graham keep so secretive? There can only be one reason. She has something to hide. She is not only escaping from her past but also from herself and her sins. Rose I hear you, dear friends. No matter how carefully I study our widow’s son and Mr Lawrence, I can’t see any resemblance except between him and his mother. On the contrary, there are other traits that don’t belong to any of them. Jane Your speculations are blind, Eliza, because you desire Gilbert yourself and therefore have grown jealous of his contact with the black widow. Eliza Here he is now. Forget what I said. Jane Never, until we know the truth.

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Millward How come, Mr Lawrence, that you and your lodger never appear at our parties? When she joins our excursions and surprise us by really appearing at our parties you are absent, and when you are here she never comes. I hope there is no problem between the two of you? Lawrence On the contrary. I respect her as much as she respects me. Jane Eliza claims that her son shows some likeness to you. I don’t agree with her. Lawrence (laughing dryly) That’s the most stupid thing I ever heard. Markham Honestly speaking, Lawrence, there is something between you. What have you to hide? Are you ashamed of your contact with her since you don’t want it to show? Lawrence There is nothing to suspect, Gilbert, I assure you. Others are concerned and worried about your courtship of her. I can also assure you that there is nothing for you there. Markham We are just friends. I admire her art. Lawrence And you give her presents. Markham Only one. She made me promise not to give her any more. Lawrence There you are. Markham What is your hold on her? Lawrence You are on the wrong track. If you are jealous, there is no reason for it. I am only her landlord. Markham But why did she come to you when there are hundreds of better and cheaper derelict places than yours? Lawrence Her aunt recommended me. Markham Was it so simple? Lawrence Leave her in peace, Gilbert, for her and for your own sake. Markham So she is in some sort of peril. Then I can never leave her in peace from my protection. Lawrence We all want to protect her. Markham But against what invisible danger? Only you can know something about it. Lawrence It’s enough that she knows about it. No one else wants to know about it. Markham You only make her more mysterious. Lawrence We all have our own problems. Let her mind her own, and mind your own. Markham My only problem is she. Lawrence Forget it. Rose He means, that his only problem is love. Lawrence The more reason to forget all about it. Markham Impossible. (rises and leaves) Lawrence (to Rose) Is it that bad? Rose It only gets worse. He can’t get her out of his mind. Lawrence (seriously) Then it is serious. Rose And it doesn’t pass. Lawrence I see. I must let her know. Rose And if it is mutual? Could it amount to something?

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Lawrence Impossible. Jane (who has been eavesdropping) So her husband is still alive. Lawrence (regarding her almost in shock) Do you want to chase her out of here? Eliza On the contrary. We only want to help her, if possible. Rose Whatever she has been through, we all sympathize with her for the sake of her dark sorrow, and we all want to protect her. Lawrence Thanks, Rose and Eliza. I also don’t think anyone here wishes her any harm, thank goodness. But I must keep her informed about what you are saying about her. Jane (meaningly) It is your duty as her landlord. Lawrence (objectively and seriously) So it is. Rose I think tea is served. Millward Take your seats, ladies and gentlemen! Those absent will have to blame themselves. Jane (meaningly) The fewer the absentees, the more they are noticed. Rose Stop speculating now, Jane. You are only dragging us all out into deep water, getting even too deep. Eliza Abysmal depths have always been irresistibly attractive, and the deepest depth is in the ocean. Mrs Graham sometimes brings Gilbert along to it. Rose Quiet, Eliza. She paints the sea, not the depth. Eliza But she if anyone goes into depth. Rose And that’s no business of ours. Come now. (They join the table.)

Scene 3. Wildfell Hall. There is a knock. Helen opens. It’s Markham. Helen Oh, there you are again. Markham (indicates the canvases) I see that you are making progress. Helen I try to. Come in. Markham You must excuse my constantly more importuning courtship, but I must be allowed to speak with you. Helen Has anything happened? Markham Once more your absence was more than palpably felt at our latest gathering, while Lawrence was present. Helen And? Markham I suffer from what I hear about you. Helen I don’t. Markham Have you grown so accustomed to it? Helen I know that they don’t know what they are talking about. Markham It’s so obvious that it’s all lies. They speculate in the wildest fantasies that apparently only I immediately sense to be lies. Helen Don’t bother about them. You shouldn’t.

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Markham But they harm you! Helen I can’t be more harmed than I am already. Markham When shall we at last know your secret, which could end all gossip speculations once and for all and make all lies vanish? Helen Not yet. Markham When? Helen When the time is ripe. Markham How can you be so careless about your own honour? Helen I don’t have any. Markham Could there be any truth then in what they say? Helen If you knew the truth about me, Gilbert, you wouldn’t come here. That’s why you might as well leave and never come back. Markham I can’t allow myself to be turned down. I am too much fond of you for that. Helen And my son has taken a great liking to you. I am grateful for your friendship and that you care for us, but I beg you to let it remain that way. Markham I can take anything. No truth could be so terrible that my faith in you would not merely be strengthened thereby. Helen You are noble. Markham You are not, if you turn me out. Helen I must turn you out, for your own sake. The way the spread of rumours about me has developed like an epidemic around here, I will soon not be able to go on living here. Markham So you wish to escape? Then let me at least defend you! Helen Could you really without second thoughts stand up for someone against whom everyone nourishes suspicions and disrespect, and make her interests equal to yours? Consider it well. This is serious. Markham Without doubt, as it would be my honour. And if this is the only impediment between us, (falls on his knees and spreads his arms with his hat in his hand) there would be no impediment for you to become my own. Helen (shocked) Get up! You know as little as the gossips spreading rumours what you are talking about! Markham (rising) What else could possibly more stand between us? I see no shadows. The past is the past and can never catch you up, if you prepare yourself with me to enter the future. With all respect for your crushingly deep mourning, I can’t help or hide the fact that I love you irrevocably and incurably with all my heart. Helen It’s my fault. I have let you go on while I should have checked your courtship from the beginning. Markham Have you then no feelings for me at all? Helen I can’t answer that. Markham So there is a response to my feelings. Helen Leave me now, Gilbert, please. This has gone way too far. Markham And can never go back.

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Helen You are too honest and young and inexperienced. You are entering a bog and can’t look ahead. I must beg you to go back. Leave me, Gilbert, for both our sakes. Markham Only if you promise it will only be temporary. Helen I promise. Markham Then I will obey you. (bows politely and kisses her hand for the first time. She withdraws it almost in terror, as if hit.) I am sorry. (leaves) Helen This is terrible. What shall I do? I can’t just deny him or what’s happened between us. But I hear someone coming up the path. It must be Frederick. (She rushes to the other door and opens to him.) Frederick! Lawrence (entering) Has anything happened? Helen I am afraid so. What wasn’t supposed to happen has happened. Lawrence What? Helen I can’t live here any longer, Frederick. I must leave. Lawrence Are you so disturbed by the local gossip? Helen I thought they would pass, but they only grow worse. And I don’t want to have you involved. Lawrence I am involved already. I should have been more careful. Helen It has gone too far for us to be able to do anything about it any more. The only solution is that I move. Lawrence But where will you go? You were protected here. You can never find a more ideal refuge. No one can reach you here. Helen Except people’s minds and speculations, and I had better leave before anything happens. Lawrence What could happen? Helen You could get into trouble. Lawrence I am not afraid of anything, but that’s the last thing I fear. (embraces her, comforting her) If you are not safe here, you are not safe anywhere. If you move I must move with you. I can’t accept that you face some unknown destiny out there. Here I can stand guard for you and protect you, and there are some in the village who are even more eager to do the same. It’s only their uncertainty that makes them curious unto rudeness. Helen And we can’t dispel that uncertainty as long as the threat remains. Lawrence Yes, it’s a vicious circle that we must endure. Try to be patient. Helen But not too long. Lawrence I’ll see what I can do. Come. Let’s take a walk. (They leave together. He holds her, and she tenderly leans her head on his shoulder.) Markham (has stayed all the while and heard everything, sees them now together) So you are still a seducer and deceiver, my dear neighbour and colleague! What do you hold her as? Your sex slave? Your deceit violates all limits. No, this is too much! (leaves in despair.)

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Scene 4. Eliza Gilbert hasn’t been quite himself lately. Jane No, he has grown considerably gloomy and almost completely stopped visiting that woman. Eliza He is lucky to have his work and be able to commit himself to the harvest instead. Jane Perhaps we are unfair with her. We really know nothing about her. Eliza Or perhaps he learned the truth about her and has grown to despise her. Jane I don’t think so. There is something else. (enter Rose) Eliza How is your brother, Rose? Rose Was that supposed to be ironic? Jane Not at all. We are just concerned about him. Rose He is working all the time. Eliza Lucky for him to have his work. Or else he would have gone sour and dried out. Rose What do you mean? Jane No one has seen him happy for ages. Eliza It started after that accident happened to Mr Lawrence. Jane Is he still confined in bed? Eliza He keeps constantly indoors and doesn’t accept visitors but appears to be sitting up. Jane What luck that he didn’t break any legs! Rose What are you talking about? Jane Mr Lawrence had a riding accident. The horse threw him off… Rose Impossible! Jane … and he badly hurt his head. There was blood everywhere but fortunately no legs broken, only a slight concussion but a severe shock. A farmer found him half unconscious and dangerously chilled and took care of him. He has been in a fever since then but fortunately without pneumonia. But it was a near thing. The odd thing is that the horse was still there tied beside him. Rose Mr Lawrence is too good a rider to be thrown off his horse. Eliza That’s what we all think. We believe someone must have attacked him. Rose But who and why? And why keep it secret? No one knows anything about it except you, who always know everything. Eliza He doesn’t want to talk about it. Jane So he is ashamed of his accident. Eliza If it was an accident. Jane Here is your brother. Some tea, Gilbert? Markham (coming directly from work, worn out) I am not hungry. Rose We just talked about Mr Lawrence’s accident. Did you know about it, Gilbert? Markham What accident?

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Rose He appears to have been thrown off his horse and found it tied beside him when he woke up. Markham Then some friendly fellow must have helped him. Eliza But no further than to the horse. He let the unconscious man remain and get cold. Rose Not even Mrs Graham knows about this. Markham He wouldn’t like to worry his lodger, I gather. How is he? Eliza He is gradually recovering and getting better. Markham That pleases me. Rose You should pay him a visit. Markham Never. I leave that to my brother. Jane Neither do you pay any visits to the dark lady any more. Markham What concern is that of yours? Eliza You see. He can’t even bear her being mentioned any more. He has had his eyes opened to the fact that she no longer can be mentioned among decent people. You shouldn’t have mentioned her, Jane. It’s not pleasant for anyone to hear her name. Markham (in a rage) For goodness’ sake! (hits the table with his fist and disappears) Rose Now you have gone too far. Get out of here! Eliza (getting up with Jane) You shouldn’t have mentioned her, Jane. Jane As if you didn’t trigger the bait! (They are driven out. Rose closes the door behind them and sighs.)

Scene 5. Wildfell Hall. Helen What gives me the honour of this visit after so long a silence? Markham Your son wanted me to visit you. Helen So you came unwillingly? Markham Indeed, and actually only for your son’s sake, whose innocence outweighs all the guilt in the world. Helen Still he has passed through the same as I and perhaps been even more harmed by it than I. The future will show. That is why he is so precocious. Markham I decided to come to give you one last chance. Helen So this is our last encounter. Markham Yes. I was surprised to learn at the village that you hadn’t been informed of your landlord’s accident. Helen Neither he has been here for quite a long time. Markham And you have no idea why? Helen I heard that he was confined to bed in a severe cold. Markham So he hasn’t given you any details? Helen No. Is there any connection between your mutual long term absence?

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Markham Indeed there is. Last time I was here I saw him come for a visit immediately after I had left you. I then remained to perhaps learn something about your relationship by discreetly spying on you. I learned enough. Unfortunately, my lady, I had irrefutable confirmation, that all that has been said about you in the village is true. I hardly need to know anything more about you. My last curiosity concerns only the question how long this has been going on, if he has a hold on you or the contrary, and if you have brought more unsuspecting young men down by deception with more men than him. Helen Now I understand your total transformation after your devoted declaration of love last time. It’s partly my own fault, who didn’t take you in my confidence earlier, but I must insist on assuring you, that it was never my intention to bring you into false apprehensions, even if this was the regrettable result of a mountain of misunderstandings, which it must be my painful duty to dispel. Markham What was my misunderstanding? Helen Everything. But you actually only made yourself guilty of one of the most common of human weaknesses and mistakes, namely to jump to conclusions. Markham If I made any mistake, I must beg you to correct me. Helen Let the word stand for the sake of safety, that this is the last time we meet. (brings forth a notebook) This is my diary during my entire marriage. Read it, and judge me afterwards. Markham You never said a word about your husband. Helen Because he is still alive. You will find all you need to know about him in these sheets. Markham My lady, I will respectfully keep your confidence and partake of your confession with an effort at as just a detachment as possible. It pleases me that I haven’t found you defenceless after the comprising circumstances in which I last found you. – You are smiling? Helen Pardon me. It wasn’t at you. You will understand. Markham I sincerely hope so. Helen You had better leave now. And thanks for giving me a last chance. Markham Thank your son, my lady. Only his innocence forced me back to you. (leaves without anything further.) Helen Poor man of no experience! He can’t guess my son’s background. He can’t guess at anything.

Act III scene 1. A fashionable ball in London. Huntingdon Annabella Huntingdon Annabella Huntingdon

I have made a fool of myself again, Annabella. That’s no news. You always do. Not when I win. When did you win last time? I don’t remember.

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Annabella There you are. Huntingdon I should find myself a rich widow, who could support me for the rest of my life. Annabella Most of them are too old for you. Huntingdon Are there no young ones? Annabella Not widows. Only heiresses. Huntingdon That will do as well, if only they are not ugly. Do you have anyone in mind? Annabella Several. But they are particular and kept close by their fathers. Most of them leave the decision to their parents. But I know one who only has an aunt who could stand in your way. Huntingdon Do I know her? Annabella She is here tonight. She is hard beset by her aunt’s aged sloths of squeamish whimperers. If the aunt gets her way, her niece will be married to such a dullard. Huntingdon I understand that would be a waste. Do you see her? Annabella She is sitting over there. Huntingdon (sharpening his eyes) A beauty. I know who she is. My father knew her uncle. Annabella You redeem humanity if you save her from being trapped by impotence. Huntingdon I will try my luck. (approaches Helen, who now becomes visible, radiant and young in glorious white) May I have the honour? Helen (gaily) With whom have I the honour? Huntingdon Arthur Huntingdon, at your service. My father was a good friend of your uncle’s. Helen Of course, I recognize the name! I thought I would be a wallflower all evening. (They go off in a waltz.) Wilmot (to Annabella) Who has young Arthur Huntingdon caught this time? Annabella The niece of one of his father’s friends. Wilmot She is beautiful. Is she well off? Annabella Enough. Wilmot It’s time for Arthur to get out of his rake’s progress. At the same time we’ll miss him if he gets married. Annabella He needs an anchor. Or else he will just drift around. Wilmot Do you think an anchor could hold him? Annabella That’s the question. (Huntingdon and Helen return to sit down rather out of breath.) Huntingdon I hope I didn’t make you lose your breath. Helen It was just fun. Huntingdon Imagine that we never met before. Helen I have heard about you, and your reputation is not one of the best. Huntingdon I know. I am known to indulge myself. But so did your uncle in his youth.

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Helen He has forgotten all about it by now. Huntingdon How old are you? Helen Not a courteous question. I am not even twenty yet. Huntingdon Then I am only ten years older. Am I too old for you? Helen Not in comparison. (indicates old Boarham) Huntingdon You would suit me perfectly. You are young and gay and come from a good family. I like you, and you are not stupid either, like most of your age. Helen Aren’t you a bit too fast? Huntingdon On the contrary. I try to halt myself at last. Helen If you are already thirty, why haven’t you married yet? Huntingdon I haven’t found the right one. Helen Have you been searching for her? Huntingdon Yes, and I found her at once. Helen Why then didn’t you settle for her? Huntingdon I haven’t had time. You are too fast for me. Helen You are not a little cheeky, but I like your direct honesty. Huntingdon You are the most respectable young lady I can see here tonight, while I am the contrary. I have led a wild bachelor’s life all my life and abandoned myself to reckless indulgencies. I drink and gamble like no one else. Do you still want to keep my acquaintance? Helen As long as you are honest. Huntingdon That’s my only quality then. So you don’t reject me? Helen Not directly. Huntingdon What about resuming the dance? Helen You couldn’t have come with a better proposition. Annabella Now he will never let her go. Wilmot It all starts well and ends up badly. Annabella But she might be just the right one for him. Wilmot If she is he will ruin her. Annabella I don’t think she is ruined that easily. Wilmot We’ll see. I don’t believe in happy marriages. Annabella Any marriage with any of those old suitors she has accumulated would have been unhappier than with him. Wilmot That’s what you think. The advantage of old suitors is that they die soon. Arthur will not die until he has ruined everyone in his way. Annabella You are inviting the devil, uncle. Wilmot No, he is already present. Annabella We’ll see. I think there is hope for Helen. Wilmot But not for Arthur. (The ball continues, and Helen is happy with Huntingdon.) Scene 2.

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Huntingdon I am glad you didn’t turn me down, Helen. Helen How could I? You would never have accepted a refusal. Huntingdon Was it difficult to overcome your aunt’s and uncle’s resistance? Helen My aunt was difficult. She has always warned me. Huntingdon I know that I am incorrigible. Helen Still I think you are capable of loving, which saves you. Huntingdon Do you think so? Helen I know it. That was my strongest argument against my aunt, and she finally resigned and let my father decide. Huntingdon Do you have any contact with your father? Helen None at all. When mother died she turned us over to my aunt and uncle. My father had no say and couldn’t refuse my marriage. Have your friends objected to your abandoning your wild bachelor’s life? Huntingdon Indeed they have! They will never forgive me! Wild protests everywhere! All they can offer is curses and reprimands! There is neither one single wish of good fortune for me nor one single nice word about you. They regard you as my evil genius that forever has enslaved me in the heaviest leaden chains of virtue in hell, which I will never be able to tear myself away from. I have become a hopeless case to them, and all they can do is to sadly shake their heads. No happy days and glorious nights any more, and my horrifying example will inevitably result in others of our brotherhood turning on the same nightmare road, and it’s all my fault, who is the first one to break the chain, especially since I was the soul and heart and life of the society, who now shamefully has betrayed their confidence… Helen You can meet them again whenever you like. I will never stand in their way or yours. Huntingdon Are you sure? Helen Honestly speaking, I might as well do without your poor abandoned friends and you, when you are with them. Huntingdon Then you are the ideal wife. For me, it is ‘all for love, or the world is lost’. Let them all go to hell if they insist, where they doubtlessly belong. If you knew how they have abused you, you would love me the more for having dared so much for your sake. That fool Hattersley is the funniest of them, who swears revenge and to throw himself away on the first old maid whose hooks he will come across. Some friends! Helen Honestly speaking, I don’t think they ever were very good for you. Huntingdon But we did have lots of fun, even if it cost many bitter awakenings the day after with headaches for a lifetime… But now we must celebrate our wedding and have a real ball! Our wedding must be the happiest of them all, with unlimited supplies of champagne! (lifts her up and whirls around with her) Helen Put me down, Arthur! You make me dizzy! Huntingdon That’s my intention! And it’s nothing to what’s expecting you! (puts her down and kisses her.) Helen Not yet!

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Huntingdon Rubbish! (whirls around with her again and makes her laugh as well.)

Scene 3. The rogues’ nest. Grimsby This is a terrible disaster, mildly speaking, to say the least. Wilmot You said it. Hattersley Now even Lowborough has fallen. Wilmot I don’t believe it. For half a year he has said he would stop gambling and drinking, and still he has come back each time. Hattersley But now he is going to marry. Grimsby It’s that Huntingdon’s fault. Why the devil should he go crushing for that dame? If there is too much of anything in this world, it’s petticoat influence. Hattersley But we need our ladies. Grimsby For what except the demands of nature? No, it’s they that need us, they need to suck our blood and strength out of us, because they don’t have any of their own, they need us to make children because they can’t make any by themselves, and they need us for our money, which they themselves can but waste and squander. Wilmot Here is our friend Huntingdon. Grimsby Arthur, you traitor, how could you willingly sacrifice your freedom for a life sentence in prison? Huntingdon You don’t know her. She is tolerant. She will allow me my friends and pleasures in peace. I can go on as usual. You need not worry. Or else I would never have gone for her. Wilmot Even your mistresses? Huntingdon We’ll see. If she doesn’t satisfy me, I will need emergency exits. Hattersley She is actually rather beautiful. I envy you, Arthur. You got the best and the most beautiful one. Grimsby Beauty is the most treacherous of traps, where the devil himself is lurking in the ant lion pit. Huntingdon You all seem to consider me hopelessly lost. Grismby You are. Wilmot My niece had such hopes for you. Huntingdon Take it easy, Wilmot. I will not let her go. Grimsby But look who turns up just at the right moment! We were just going to start the activity. We were only waiting for you. Lowborough (comes in) It’s the last time. Hattersley That’s what you always say. Grimsby Pour him a glass. He will need it, since he is going to marry. Hattersley Is it true? Grimsby Regrettably. Huntingdon Who is the happy or unhappy one? Lowborough When you discarded Annabella, I had to take care of her.

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Huntingdon You don’t say! Lowborough Yes. Huntingdon Is it true, Wilmot? Wilmot My niece has accepted, and she is the one who tried to persuade our friend here not to see us any more just for a revenge on you. Huntingdon She wouldn’t let me go that easily, I expect. You will allow me to carry on seeing her, won’t you, Sylvester? Lowborough Who could stop you? Grimsby Arthur’s wife! Huntingdon Never in my life! Grismby Let me refill your glass, my dear lord Lowborough. Lowborough This is my last time of drinking. Wilmot So you always say. I had hopes for your wife as well, Arthur, but you anticipated me. Huntingdon And I am thirty years younger. Don’t you think that had some bearing on the case? Wilmot Never in my life! Grimsby The older you grow, the more difficult the desire. With ladies it’s the opposite. The older they grow, the more repulsive. How could nature be so unfair? That’s why old men, the older they grow, constantly need younger women. Hattersley What about the game? Grimsby Right’o! Start dealing, Huntingdon! Lowborough This is the last time I gamble. Hattersley That’s what you always say. Grimsby Let him have his last time once more. Wilmot And then another, so that he feels like coming for another. Lowborough (empties his glass) I promise you, this is the last time! Grimsby (refills his glass) We believe you. Lowborough You must take me seriously. Wilmot Of course. Grimsby How is she really in bed, Arthur? Tell us something about it. Huntingdon Better than most, especially for being so inexperienced. Grimsby You don’t mean to say that she was a virgin? Huntingdon Do you think I would have taken her otherwise? Why do you think I left Annabella? Lowborough Don’t you dare denigrate my wife! Huntingdon I didn’t. Lowborough Yes, you did! Huntingdon Is it mean to say that she is good in bed? Isn’t that rather a compliment? Grimsby Stop it, boys. We don’t want any fight here again. We had enough of that before. Lowborough He insulted my wife! He has had her before me! Huntingdon You aren’t even married yet.

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Wilmot Calm down, Lowborough. You will get married. Lowborough And then my visits here are finished! Grimsby We believe you. Huntingdon Fill up his glass, Wilmot. He will need it. He is getting married. Grimsby Have you put her in the club yet? Huntingdon I think so. She doesn’t feel very well. Wilmot You had a long and beautiful honeymoon in France and Italy. It would be odd if that didn’t give you inspiration. Huntingdon At least I can be certain that the child is mine, if there will be one. If you have a child, Sylvester, you can never be sure about that, unless you happen to be impotent, as so many lords are. But in that case you will at least know who isn’t the father. Grimsby Stop it now. Lowborough (rising) Do you wish for a duel? Huntingdon That will definitely be the last time for you, in that case. (Wilmot and Grimsby confer and fill up Lowborough’s glass.) Grimsby You had better cool down with a drink, my dear lord. Lowborough It’s the last time! (empties the glass and throws it vehemently at Huntingdon) Huntingdon Hallo there! Wrong weapon! Stick to the rules! Lowborough Do you prefer a cannon? Huntingdon Then you would miss even more. Gramsby Calm down, boys. This is no sand box. Hattersley Shall we play or not? Lowborough It’s no use, for Huntingdon wins anyway, since he only cheats. Wilnot What about another drink before you leave, my dear friend? Lowborough Never in my life! (leaves in a state of fury) Grimsby One bachelor less. Who will be the next casualty? Hattersley I am afraid it will be me. Huntingdon It’s not as bad as it seems, Hattersley. Marriage changes nothing. You will just have another lady round your neck. That is all. Hattersley But you can’t get rid of her. Huntingdon That depends. (The gamble and drink and smoke.)

Scene 3. The kitchen in Grassdale. Rachel If I may say so, Madame, you never should have married him, but it’s too late to say it now. Helen I didn’t know whom I married, or thought I knew and to be sure of him, but he has changed. The one I am married to is not the same man as the man I married. Rachel Is it his drinking or his friends who have altered him?

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Helen I don’t know, maybe both, maybe neither. I married of love, and the man I married I loved completely and without reservations, and we had a wonderful honeymoon. Then I became pregnant, and everything changed when I had my child. He couldn’t bear with the child, he was disgusted by it and didn’t want to see it. Then he started leaving on constantly longer journeys. In the beginning he brought me with him to London but sent me home after a few weeks while he stayed for months and came home swollen up and burnt out from countless orgies with his reckless friends, and I never learned any details about this life of ruthless selfindulgence. And the journeys became more frequent, he came home constantly more worn out and sometimes ill, he complained of everything and I had to cure him to make him a man again, so that he could take up his orgiastic journeys to London again. It has become like a vicious circle. Rachel You should leave him. Helen How could I? He would never let me do it. He wants me imprisoned here as his nurse and slave and punchball for him to quarrel with and vent his frustration on. Rachel If you stay it will only get worse. Helen But where would I go? My father has died, and I can’t burden my aunt with my failure. Rachel What about your brother? Helen Even less I wish to become a burden to him. He hasn’t come out of his sorrow for our father. When we were together at the funeral he wouldn’t let me part with him. Rachel There at least you have a refuge. Helen But I can’t abandon Arthur. He is ill from his promiscuous life, his gall, his drinking, which he imagines he could cure by drinking more, I can’t just let my husband down, that would be the greatest dishonour. Rachel I think you will have to sooner or later. Helen If that is so I will wait until later and as late as possible. Rachel I know that kind of libertines. They pull all others with them in their decay. They grow constantly more pathetic with time while at the same time they grow more and more dependent on care and surveillance, while they only bereave you of your life’s energy and give nothing back. They develop into suckers and parasites, and the only thing that can break that vicious circle is their own final death. Helen You mustn’t speak like that, Rachel. This is my husband. Rachel He is like all other men. Stuck in their own destruction they will never rise again but pull as many others as possible with them in their perdition. Huntingdon (entering suddenly) What’s for dinner today? Helen Are you better, Arthur, my love? Huntingdon My appetite is returning. Helen That pleases me. We will have Rachel’s turkey stew in your honour. Huntingdon Is there any wine left, or do we have to get some more?

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Helen You know best about that. Huntingdon (entering for real, falling on his knees to Helen) I am sorry if I have been troublesome, Helen. I haven’t been quite myself lately, but I feel better now. Helen Now I recognize you. Huntingdon How is our son? I haven’t seen him at all today. Helen Would you like to see him? He is asleep at the moment. Huntingdon Then it can wait. You must never doubt my love, Helen, whatever happens. Helen I never did. I only doubted my own. Huntingdon Why? Helen You know. When you drink you become another person, like as if some reptile took over your being. And your absence on journeys doesn’t make it better. Then you come home fat, worn out and unrecognizable and must be put to bed for a long convalescence, being only good for whining and complaining and bitterly unpleasant. I am tired of your worse part, Arthur. Huntingdon And I am afraid it’s only getting worse. I have to go back to London tomorrow. Helen (upset) What are you saying? Huntingdon Business. Helen That’s what it always is. What kind of business? Game tables, drinking parties or just ordinary new women? Huntingdon That’s not fair. Helen I am just asking. Huntingdon I will not answer such a question. Helen So you keep secrets to me. Huntingdon Am I not entitled to some privacy? Helen Not if you deceive me with others. Huntingdon Your jealousy is painful. Helen I am not jealous. I just want to get to know you and not lose you. Huntingdon Haven’t you known me enough? Haven’t I loved you unto the absolute consummation by a fortunate childbirth? Helen And for that I am deeply grateful. But you almost never even want our son. Huntingdon When he gets older he will perhaps start looking like a human being. Now he is just some crawling vermin shitting around everywhere. Helen (smiling) We are the ones cleaning up after him. You don’t have to. Huntingdon Thank heavens. Helen But don’t go to London. Huntingdon I must. Helen How long will you be absent? Huntingdon Two, maybe three weeks. Helen That means two, maybe three months. Huntingdon I will try to improve.

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Helen Trying is not enough, Arthur. You must improve. Or else the situation becomes untenable. Huntingdon Who the devil did I really marry? Helen Me and no one else. Huntingdon But you try to control my life and obstruct me in my demands of freedom. It wasn’t like that when we married. Helen Then you were always together with me. Huntingdon Your first denouncement of one of my friends put up the first screen between us. Helen Because that friend separated you from my son and me. Huntingdon Enough! I leave tomorrow! (leaves, banging the door behind him) Helen (crying) It gets worse every time. Rachel (comforting her) I will stay with Madame as long as she stays with her husband, and when Madame finally runs away, I will run away with her. Helen Thank you, Rachel. But what will become of our son with such a father? How can he grow up in such an environment? Rachel If he can’t we’ll have to see to it that he doesn’t. (Helen cries, Rachel keeping hold of her and comforting her.)

Scene 5. A party at Grassdale. Hargrave Where are all our wives? Lowborough Out for some fresh air, I gather. Honestly I don’t care any more what my wife is doing. She will do as she pleases anyway. Hargrave Isn’t your marriage a happy one? Lowborough As happy as a marriage could be, outwardly. I really adored her and did everything for her, but obviously I must have spoilt her. Hargrave Where is she now? Lowborough Out with Grimsby. Here is now your wife. Her at least you can trust. Millicent It’s so beautiful out in the moonlight, Walter. In here it’s so stuffy. Hargrave Thank you, we are well enough as it is and too comfortable to get up. Lowborough Have you seen my wife? Millicent She should be out there somewhere. Lowborough Huntingdon isn’t here either. Millicent I saw him out there with Grimsby. Hargrave Here at last is our hostess, as beautiful and sparkling as ever and in her beaming glory even outshining the moon. Helen (entering in bright evening dress and sparkling) There are still some of our guests left here. Most of them have been tempted out into the moonlight. Have you seen my husband? Millicent I saw him last out there with Grimsby. Come now, Walter. Don’t sit still and get dull and heavy. You must come out.

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Hargrave You absolutely force me. (They go out together.) Helen Your wife appears to be out there too, Mylord. Lowborough I am afraid so, but she is probably in good company. Helen With whom? Lowborough I don’t know. There is always someone. Helen Shall I get her for you? Lowborough I guess she is in your beautiful garden arbour. Helen All alone? Lowborough That’s the question. Helen Then I’ll fetch her for you. You must not be alone with such a beautiful wife. Lowborough (aside) And you don’t know how lonely you are with such a fleeting husband. (Helen goes for the arbour, which becomes visible with Huntingdon and Annabella on a garden bench together. Helen halts when she sees them and keeps herself concealed.) Annabella This can’t go on, Arthur. Rachel suspects us. Huntingdon She suspects everybody. She lives only for Helen. Annabella That’s what you should do. Huntingdon Never. She bores me and only gets more bothersome with the years. Annabella You have a child together. Huntingdon That disgusting pest of a boy, who only cries and defecates and disturbs the environment? I can’t bear with his crying. Annabella Would you rather have done without him? Huntingdon I would rather never have married. I walked into a wall and got stuck there. It has only brought troubles and worries and restrictions. Annabella Still you live as liberally as you did before. Huntingdon Without my escapades in London I couldn’t bear with life. You should join me sometime. Annabella I follow my husband. He doesn’t care what I do. Thanks to him we can actually be together in London. Huntingdon But only periodically and under constant threat of discovery. Annabella I have a better hold on you than your wife has. I knew you long before you knew her, and it was I who gave her to you. Never forget that. Huntingdon We knew each other too well in those days. We understood each other too well to marry, since we both realized the other one never could be tamed. Annabella And we have managed to preserve our freedom even as married. Huntingdon Your lord has at least provided you with a lot of money. Annabella While your wife haven’t given you anything but her disappointment. Huntingdon I still love her. Annabella Do you? I think we will have to elope soon. My lord doesn’t think it’s fun any more. Huntingdon That time isn’t ripe yet. Annabella We will have to do with our secret nights in London in the meantime.

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Grimsby (entering) I think your husband is looking for you, Annabella. It’s better if he doesn’t see you here. Annabella Thanks for the warning. I will immediately go to calm him down. Huntingdon Follow her in, Grimsby, and say that you have been for a moonlight promenade. Grimsby I will be glad to. (leaves with Annabella) Huntingdon (smoking) All I need now is a proper whisky grog and a nice lay with Annabella in London. But I guess we’ll have to wait for a couple of weeks. Helen (suddenly standing in front of him. He is surprised.) I heard everything. Huntingdon Have you been spying? Helen Her husband sent me out here. Huntingdon (smoking demonstratively, arrogantly) So what? Helen It’s finished, Arthur. I can’t respect you any more, since you have no respect of me. Huntingdon Are we then not married any more? Can you just strike out our marriage? Helen Will you let me have our child and what remains of my fortune and let me go? Huntingdon And where would you go? Helen Anywhere. Huntingdon Never in my life! Helen Will you let me have the child then, without the money? Huntingdon Never, and not even without the child I will let you go. Do you think I would allow myself to be shamed in front of the whole country by your squeamishness? I thought you were tolerant. Helen I am only thinking of the child’s future. Huntingdon The child stays with me. Helen You don’t even want to know your son. Huntingdon Not as long as he shits down my clothes. Hopefully he will grow out of it. Then I will take care of his upbringing. Helen With your drinking friends? Huntingdon Your influence would be more harmful. Helen So you compel me to go on living here hated and despised. But from now on we are husband and wife only by name. Huntingdon Splendid. Helen I am only your child’s mother and your wife – nothing more. You don’t have to pretend love any more. Huntingdon It was true as long as it lasted. Helen Was it? How could you marry me when you had a relationship with Annabella? Huntingdon She suggested you. I caught on. Helen Why? Huntingdon You had money.

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Helen So you only needed money? Huntingdon I had lost my mother’s inheritance on gambling. Helen And that was all your love, your love of my money? Huntingdon You looked good and were beautiful. I actually tried to love you. Helen And you succeeded. My son is the proof thereof. For his sake I will forgive you, if you ever show some remorse. Huntingdon Remorse for what? Helen For having deceived your family. Huntingdon Not for my rogue’s life? Helen That, Arthur, I know you will never regret even if it would kill you. On that point I gave up long ago. (leaves) Huntingdon Damned moralist! (butts angrily his cigarette, quickly empties a drink and leaves.)

Act IV scene 1. Grassdale, Huntingdon’s friends. Wilmot Where is that Huntingdon? What is a party without the host? Hattersley Do you call this a party? We can’t even play cards properly. Grimsby Be grateful for that. Huntingdon would only cheat you out of all your money again. Hargrave I haven’t seen Lord Lowborough here for long. Wasn’t he supposed to come here and gamble and drink for the last time? Grimsby I think he already did his last time. He always returns for another last time when you least expect him to. Hattersley I think he has grown tired of his wife. Grimsby She would rather have tired of him. What do you say, Wilmot? Wilmot Both she and Huntingdon have deceived their better halves. They couldn’t keep away from each other. Hattersley What has Mrs Huntingdon to say about that? Hargrave She appears to silently bear it and suffer. Wilmot Here he is at last! Huntingdon, you have fallen behind again! But who is it you have brought with you? Grimsby Isn’t it young master Arthur Huntingdon himself? Huntingdon (entering with his son) I thought it was about time for him to at last become introduced and initiated in the society of great men. Grimsby Give him something to drink, to get him into shape and out of his shyness. Huntingdon Drink this, my son. It will do you good. Arthur What is it? Grimsby Sugared water. It’s called punch. Arthur (drinks) It is good. Grimsby Have some more. Hargrave He is only a child.

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Huntingdon So what? He must learn sooner or later. Grimsby Refill his glass. He will soon catch up with us. Wilmot He is a better drinker than you, Arthur. Huntingdon I never drink punch, only wine or stronger stuff. Grimsby Let’s see what he would think about whisky. That’s pure honey water. Wilmot Try port instead. It goes down more easily. Hargrave How is it with your wife, Arthur? Huntingdon I hardly see her nowadays. Hattersley Is Annabella better? Huntingdon She cooperates at least. Hattersley Not with her husband. Huntingdon My wife can have him. Hargrave You don’t seem very attached to your wife any more. Huntingdon Do you want her? You can have her for nothing. Hargrave Thank you, I have my own wife. Huntingdon Does nobody want her? I offer her gratis, that bloody slut. She is totally worthless to me. Grimsby (to the boy) Do you hear what your father calls your mother? Can you repeat it? Arthur That bloody slut. (Enter Helen.) Helen What are you doing? You are not teaching him to drink, are you? Huntingdon It’s never too early, my love. You should have learned it long ago. Grimsby Dark clouds are gathering. Storm is near. Arthur They teach me manners, mother. Helen Their manners are no manners. How can you, gentlemen? Huntingdon Don’t come here ruining the fun. He only had some punch and port. We saved the whisky for later. Helen You have made him drunk! You make him sick! Huntingdon When he gets sick he is welcome to your bosom to vomit. Grimsby They mean no harm, Mrs Huntingdon. They just have some fun with the boy. Helen The worst evil is the unintentional one that irresponsibly causes irreparable damage. (advances to take the boy away from them. Huntingdon makes her trip. She falls.) All except Hargrave Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! (laugh their sides off) Hargrave (rising) This is going a bit too far. (takes the boy and carries him to Helen, who gets up) I apologise, my lady. They make even me ashamed. Helen Thank you, Hargrave. You at least have still a wife. (leaves, tenderly hugging little Arthur but can’t hide that she is crying) Huntingdon That sanctimonious cry baby! Her victim mentality is too pitiable. You just want to kick her. Hargrave That’s what you are doing.

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Huntingdon Not yet physically, but that’s all that’s missing. Grimsby Why don’t you turn her out? Huntingdon It wouldn’t look too good, and she still has some money. Hargrave Pardon me, gentlemen, but I can’t stand with four strong men against a lonely mother with a child. (breaks up) Huntingdon He is soft about her. Hattersley You shouldn’t have made him drunk. Huntingdon He drank himself and eagerly! He is like his father! Grimsby It wasn’t that bad. He just got a little tipsy. Huntingdon What a fatal turn of destiny! Now she will see to it that he never touches alcohol again. Grimsby He will thirst to death. With such a mother he will never become a man. Huntingdon Well, so far I am still his father. I will get him straight enough! Wilmot You risk losing both of them. Huntingdon I already did. I only have their lives still to ruin. Hattersley You are only ruining your own. Huntingdon That’s my own business. And I will bring whoever I wish with me down the grave. Let’s start playing at last and start drinking for real! Grimsby Bring on the whisky! Huntingdon The life elixir, that cures all diseases! Hattersley We could all do with a dram after the irregular interlude. Huntingdon Exactly! (fills up their glasses like a good host. They drink and go on drinking and playing and smoking.)

Scene 2. Helen’s study. Now all in black, she tries to work but cries at the same time. Helen It doesn’t work. My therapy is no good. You can’t work when you worry. How shall we get away from here? My husband turns everyone against me, and my son is defenceless. Huntingdon (entering without warning) Have you missed something? Helen I haven’t missed you. Huntingdon Nothing you mislaid or looked for? Helen (uncertain) No? Huntingdon (shows the notebook) Don’t worry. You’ll get it back. Very interesting read. Now I know where you stand. You’ll never get out of here any more. Helen Have you taken my diary? Huntingdon Only borrowed it. Married couples shouldn’t have secrets from each other, don’t you agree? I just wanted to see what you really thought. At least you haven’t started any intriguing yet. Helen All I ask is to be left in peace.

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Huntingdon So that you can abandon yourself to your sickly selfpity and dream yourself away in your own inner worlds by imagining that you could be an artist? That’s the way to megalomania and mental disease. Trust me. (comes forth and breaks her brushes) You don’t need these any more. That’s an unsound escape from reality. (slashes her pictures) No portrait of me? You paint anything but not me. You are a fake. You will never earn a penny from your paintings. It’s useless parasitism. (has broken almost everything) All this junk is only good for lighting fires with. And then I must ask you to give over your keys. Helen What keys? Huntingdon All keys. Not only of the house but also to your secret cupboards, your writing-case, your bureau and everything in which you could hide anything. We shall no longer have any secrets from each other. Helen (turning over her key-ring) These are all the keys I have. I have never locked anything. Huntingdon I believe you, for you have never told me a lie. Here is your diary in return. At least it confirms that you have never been false, although you planned to escape with my son to shame me to the world. Helen You are doing that enough yourself. You don’t need my help in it. Huntingdon But what would it look like if my wife ran away from me? Who do you think would be dishonoured by that, you or me? A wife leaving her husband has nowhere to go, she will be stamped as an unpleasant undesirable fallen woman everywhere, while a deserted husband is more pathetic than a hen-pecked cuckold with horns. Such a humiliation I will never tolerate. I would rather kill you. Helen Kill me then, and your son along with me, and you will be rid of us without the danger of our escape. Huntingdon Don’t tempt me. Helen The risk is that you will do it if we remain. Huntingdon As slowly as possible in that case, so that it can’t be noticed. Helen You are sick. Huntingdon No, Helen, it’s you who are over-sensitive and mad! (leaves, banging the door behind him after having left the room in ruins. Helen collapses.) Helen (faintly) I can’t take conflicts. Rachel (enters) I heard everything. Collect yourself, Madame. It’s time to leave. Helen But where to? Rachel I have secretly contacted your brother. He has opened your old house for you, since he moved himself to another residence. Helen Frederick? Wildfell Hall? Our old home of our childhood? Rachel Exactly. Helen What is Arthur doing now? Rachel The same as he always does when he comes from you. He sits and drinks and swears and is angry with everything and everyone. Helen Poor man! Rachel Don’t feel sorry for him. That’s the last thing he deserves.

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Helen We must get away from here. Rachel I am glad you realize that at last, Madame. Helen But it must be carefully prepared. Nothing must go wrong. It will be a difficult journey. I must prepare my son. Rachel Your brother is waiting for you with open arms. Helen Thank you, Rachel. You are the only friend I have. (Rachel helps her up and leads her out, tired and staggering.)

Scene 3. Lawrence’s bedchamber. Enter Markham. Markham I apologise, my friend, for my sudden intrusion, but I simply must talk with you. Lawrence (all wrapped up in bed) Have you come to hit me again? Markham Never in my life! Lawrence I hoped to never see you again. Haven’t you caused enough trouble? Markham That’s why I had to see you. I owe you a sea of apologies. Lawrence At last. That was about time. I have been like this for two weeks now after you struck me down from the horse without any reason. I could have caught pneumonia and died. Markham I am infinitely sorry. It was all a misunderstanding. Lawrence That misunderstanding must have been enormous. Markham It was, and unforgivable. I thought you were Helen’s lover or worse. Now I know you are her brother. Lawrence How did you know? Did she tell you? Markham She has given me her diary to read. Now I know everything. Lawrence (serious, considers) What will you do about it? Markham Propose for real. Lawrence That would be the greatest stupidity you could commit. You must know that she is still married. Markham To an impossible husband who only ruined her life. Lawrence But he is alive. He would never agree to a divorce. Markham Then I shall wait him out. Lawrence (milder) I am afraid, my friend, that is all we can do. Then perhaps it could gladden you that he is seriously ill. Markham I can never be glad about others’ sufferings. Lawrence Of course. But you don’t know all. He also had a riding accident, fell off the horse and had much more damages than I, since he was in full course. He is not dying but completely out of order until further. By his rotten way of living he has scared off all friends and servants, so that no one nurses him except one. Markham Some relative? Lawrence Helen has returned to him. Markham For good?

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Lawrence Until further. She brought the son with her so that he would at least recognize him. He appears to have some difficulty recognizing anyone. Markham The liquor? Lawrence Not only. Also laudanum in excess. Markham I am sorry about both. Lawrence Thanks for coming, Markham. I had almost started to regard you as a brother, when you surprised me by your wild and mad attack in blind jealousy. I am glad that is has been cured by the truth. Now perhaps we could be brothers again. Markham I would be glad indeed. Lawrence Now at least I can get well, when I at last know the reason for your fury. Markham I am all lost in remorse. Lawrence It doesn’t matter. Now we have mutual interests worshipping the same saint, whom we are only interested in making life easier for. Your hand, my brother. (offers his hand, which is immediately accepted) Markham Get well soon and quickly. Lawrence As quickly as I can. Leave me now, but come back soon again. Markham I promise. (leaves) Lawrence Poor boy! He is all consumed by his love of her. But she could hardly have any better man. It remains to follow up the end of the first husband’s tragedy. Perhaps it has already become too much for her. Hem!

Act V scene 1. Grassdale, Arthur’s bedchamber. Arthur in bed in a terrible condition. Huntingdon Is it you, Alice? Helen (entering with delicacy) No, it’s me, Arthur. It’s Helen, your wife. Huntingdon (starts, terrified) My wife! For God’s sake, don’t mention her! I don’t have any. May the devil take her, and you too! Why did you do it? Helen What? Huntingdon You know very well, my tormenting spirit! Helen You are ill, Arthur. I have come to help you. Huntingdon Help me to die, or what? Nothing else remains! That’s the only thing anyone can help me with any more! Why did you leave me alone, Alice? All the others have deserted me! They couldn’t bear it any longer since I only abused them and threw things at them. Well, they have themselves to blame, those bastards! Some friends! You have a breakdown with your horse, and everyone disappears! Helen I have come back. Huntingdon Go back to hell, you haunting ghost! Who did you say you were? Helen Helen Huntingdon. Huntingdon I must be going mad. I can’t separate ghosts from living people. All since she left me she has been persecuting me day and night, wherever I have been. She will haunt me to my death. Leave me, whoever you are, so that at least I may have

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my delirium in peace! I can’t stand that white face and those piercing eyes. Send anyone to me, just not anyone who looks like that! And drive out that old nurse, who nurses me to death! Helen In that case no one will be left. Huntingdon Oh yes, you will be left, Alice, and you are at least better than no one. I actually loved her, but before my eyes she changed into a vampire, but the other way around. She thought she could convert me and save me, but I just couldn’t abandon all my lovely vices and horrible friends. Then she turned into my Nemesis and took my boy away from me and escaped. I was never allowed to bring him up into an even better alcoholic than his father, so he missed the chance of his life, and it is her fault. Helen He is here, if you want to see him. Huntingdon Never in my life! He is her son! Helen And yours. Huntingdon In that case, why did you take him away from me? Why did she give him life, if it was only to bereave me of him? Why was she such a bloody bad cooperative partner? Helen She couldn’t drink like you. Huntingdon Was that all? Helen Yes, that was all. When you were sober she was sober like you, and then you were happy together. Huntingdon Were we really? Imagine, I can’t remember. Helen She remembers and will never forget it. Huntingdon It’s fortunate that anyone remembers in that case. All my memory vanished drowned in alcohol. I am all hollow emptiness within. I have nothing left. Give me something to drink. Helen Not while you are ill. Huntingdon That’s what that old hag keeps telling me, who nurses me and thinks I will get well. Helen You shall get well. Huntingdon Not if I may have my way. I wasted my life, and it’s just to follow it through to the end of the line. Help me to die, dear Alice, and you will do me a favour. Helen I am only here to help you back to life. Huntingdon What life? My life as a rake? My life as a swine? My life as a drinker and swindler? My life as a house tyrant? My life as a drunkard? I have no other life. Helen You had, and you can have it all back. Huntingdon Never in my life. Who did you say you were? Helen Whoever you would like me to be. The only important thing is that I am here to stand you by. Huntingdon You remind me of someone. Haven’t we met before? Helen Yes, we have met before.

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Huntingdon I have so strange fantasies. I can’t get rid of them, and they give me no peace, and the strangest and most persistent of them is your face and your voice, as if they came from the other side of the grave. They remind me exactly of hers, but she is dead. I killed her. I violated her soul to death. Still I could swear that she in this very minute is right beside me. Helen She is. Huntingdon That feels somewhat soothing, and meanwhile all the other phantoms fade away, while this one only grows stronger. Please go on, until it passes away like all the rest. I can’t endure a madness like this. It bereaves me of the last life I have left. Helen It will never pass away, since it is real. Huntingdon What is real? The only real thing to me is she, but she was the first to disappear. Only you are left. Don’t tell me you are she. Helen I am, but not the one you think. I have only come to give you all that help and support that no one of the others could give you. Huntingdon So you are my worst tormentor, the only one left? Helen And the only one who can take care of you to make you well. Huntingdon How could you, after all I did for you? Helen I also wondered that sometimes. Perhaps because I am a woman. Huntingdon That’s enough. What did you do with my son? Helen He is safe. Huntingdon Here? Helen You may see him when you have promised to leave him entirely to my care and protection – in writing and the presence of witnesses. Before that you may not see him. Huntingdon I want to see him! Helen Not now. Huntingdon I promise! Helen You never kept an empty promise. Huntingdon Give me the paper then, and I will sign, just to see him before I die. Helen You will not die, and you will see him after signing. Huntingdon I want to see him now! I am his dying father! Helen (sighs, confers with herself and leaves, returning with the boy) Huntingdon Come to daddy, my son. Aren’t you happy to see me? No, he is not. He backs out like to a monster. Have I grown so ugly? Am I so ruined? Am I so revolting, that I can only frighten you? Do you know who I am? Do you recognize me? Arthur Yes. Huntingdon Who am I? Arthur Daddy. Huntingdon Don’t tell me you are happy to see me. Arthur Yes. Huntingdon I knew it. He despises his own father and doesn’t know him.

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Arthur No, father. But I learned who you are. Huntingdon Who am I? Arthur My father, who never became my father. Huntingdon This is too painful. Take him away! I never want to see him any more! You have ruined him! He is not my son! I knew it! He has no father! I am dead, for I have forfeited my right to him! (suddenly bursts out crying desperately) Helen (sends out the boy, who runs out, and embraces her husband to comfort him) You can cry! Then there is hope for you! Huntingdon If only I could cry myself to death! If all that I have drunk could flow out of my in tears! Give me oceans of pains to drink, and I will cry them out over my cursed failure of a life! Helen Everything can still get right. Huntingdon Never! I went wrong from the start! Helen No mistakes are greater than that they can be corrected. Huntingdon Platitudes! Poor comfort! Tell me, Alice, what is really wrong with me? Why am I so sick? Helen The doctor says that you have internal damages after your fall from the horse. No one can tell how serious or fatal they might be. But I think you can get better. Huntingdon You are the only one in that case to believe so. I know that I can never get better. I am already burning in hell. Give me something to drink. Anything, but not water. Helen You can’t take any more alcohol. It has given you delirium. The only thing available is the doctor’s health potion, lemon tea with ginger. Huntingdon Pure poison. When all I need to get well is whisky. You keep cheating me and using my vulnerable situation to humiliate me. Helen All we want is to get you well. Huntingdon As if that was possible. You command a dying patient to live. Isn’t that a rather cruel way of making fun of me? Helen All life is a cruel joke. Huntingdon There you said something. I could subscribe to that. Well, give me that sea water poison of the drain, and I will drink it pretending it is medicine spiced with sugar. (She gives him to drink, and he drinks.) Are you happy now? Helen You see. There is hope for you. Huntingdon So the doctor will be pleased with me tomorrow for having satisfied his vanity by living one more day. Let me sleep now, and I will try not to dream of you. Helen To sleep is the best thing you can do. Huntingdon Only he who sleeps does not sin, eh? It was long since I could sleep. Helen The more you truly deserve a good night’s sleep. Huntingdon Let’s call it a day then. Who did you say you were? You are not Alice. Helen No, Arthur, I am not Alice. Huntingdon Let’s stick to that. I pass out and leave life and the phantoms in peace for the time being. I hope I will never wake up again. Helen If you only can sleep you will feel better when you awake.

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Huntingdon How sensible you are. You don’t need to guard me any more. I shall sleep. (falls asleep and starts snoring. She rises, puts out the lights and leaves.) Helen Good night, Arthur. I will never give in until you are well again.

Scene 2. Hargrave How is he? Doctor No hope. The body has given up against its proprietor’s reckless abuse of it. Hargrave We thought he was getting better. Doctor He was, thanks to his good nurse’s faithful and active attendance on him. But as soon as he got out of bed and felt better he started drinking again. Then he must finish the bottle and start a new one. You know how it is. You have participated yourself in his gang of rogues. Hargrave I am the only happily married of them, and the only one with some detachment. Doctor Wasn’t Lord Lowborough happily married with Annabella Wilmot? Hargrave She only deceived him. He doesn’t want to see her any more, and she is now leading a life of reckless self-indulgence in London wasting all her assets. Doctor And Grimsby and Wilmot have both been overpowered by gout and podagra, the kings of welfare diseases, with pains and torments of no end. Hargrave Is Helen with him now? Doctor She tries to feed him hot milk. It doesn’t work. He is a hopeless case and will do his best service to the world by simply dying. Hargrave I think she is coming. Helen (entering, crying, trying to conceal it) Pardon me. It wears me down. Doctor You should just let him die in peace, Madame. That’s all he wants. Helen Not as long as he lives. Hargrave How is he? Helen He is constantly hovering between delirium and sobriety. Sometimes he wanders wildly in hallucinations believing I am anyone but the one I am, scolding me for nursing him to death. He blames me for everything, his condition, his illness, his betrayals and deceits, everything is my fault because I left him. Hargrave That’s all you could do. Helen I know, and I never regretted it, and neither that I returned. What is your latest diagnosis, doctor? Doctor His liver appears to be consumed. The liver is a significant organ, as indispensable as the heart, but it works hard in silence without ever resting day and night and never complains and never gives pain. When it finally has had too much, like for example of liquor or other poisons, it simply ceases to work and refuses to cooperate any more. It shrinks and collapses from overwork and stops functioning. That’s what happening to Arthur Huntingdon.

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Hargrave He has wasted his life on self-destructive indulgencies, as if you could burn a candle in both ends without getting burned in the middle. Whatever chances he had he has missed, and the best one was a wife like you. Helen And I will remain his wife until he dies. He will need me as long as he lives, since he has no other. (starts crying again, tries to conceal it by leaving) Hargrave Is she returning in to him again? Doctor I believe it’s the last time. Hargrave A crook can only grow worse as a crook as long as he is a crook. He is done for. Doctor Mildly speaking.

Scene 3. Arthur’s bedchamber. Huntingdon Are you back here again, you cursed slut? Have you nothing better to do than to watch me die? Helen Would you rather die alone? Huntingdon I am never alone even in my loneliness. You are always with me. I will never get rid of you. Only death can release me from you, and maybe not even death. Helen Is your power to hurt me all that remains of our marriage? Huntingdon There never was anything else. That’s what marriage is for, so that the parties may have full licence to torment each other to death. You have tortured me to death. You should be satisfied. You have succeeded. Helen All I wanted was to love you, for I thought love was all you felt for me. Huntingdon And what is love? Licence, slimy sensuality, wallowing in dirt, selfdegradation, masturbation, abuse, whores, venereal diseases, unwanted children to increase the world over-population with, in brief, it’s only contributing to man’s selfdestruction. Life is just a journey of torment down to hell. There it all starts and ends. I have been there all my life. It’s my only home. Not even you could offer any alternative. Helen You are just wandering in your mind and don’t know what you are talking about. Huntingdon On the contrary. Now I see everything clearly. The pains have ceased and are not tormenting me any more. I don’t feel anything. It’s a miracle. Am I getting well, or am I dying? Helen (calling) Doctor! Doctor (enters) What is it? Any change? Helen He wonders if he is getting well or dying. He feels no pain any more. Doctor (searching him) It’s the end. Gangrene has set in. His interior damages burst open again when he had one bottle too much. Huntingdon Well, doctor, will I at least have a painless death? Doctor It seems like it, even if you don’t deserve it.

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Huntingdon You are at least straight and don’t euphemise like that one over there. She is like a vulture just waiting for my death. Look at her black wings, which she prepares to wrap me up in! Then there will only be darkness in all eternity, and hopefully I shall never awake again to see it. Doctor By continuously abusing and mishandling your body you only succeeded in killing your soul, but it will hurt the more after you are dead. Huntingdon You do cheer me up, doctor! You are better than my wife, who only suffocates me in her black darkness. Doctor It’s you who smothered her. Why did you ever marry such a good woman if it only was to harm her? Huntingdon That’s why you marry, isn’t it, to have someone to be able to legally harass. Doctor If a man doesn’t marry from love to honour his wife and bring up his children, he should be castrated. Huntingdon You are too late, doctor. I should have been castrated before I got my venereal diseases. Doctor So you married though you had venereal diseases? Huntingdon Yes. I could love anyway. Was it wrong? Doctor (rises indignant) I can’t stand this any more. Let him just die, and let the devil take him! (gets out) Helen (embraces Arthur) How are you, my love? Huntingdon How could you still call me that, after all I did to you? Helen I am your wife. Huntingdon Don’t remind me. I wish I could have left you in peace and died earlier. Helen You are only thirty-seven. You could still have had all your life ahead of you. Huntingdon Instead I will have all hell in all eternity. What a comfort! (has a seizure, grows pale in terror) Helen Arthur! Stay with us! Huntingdon The devil is hooking me. I miss my delirium. It gave me at least some escape from reality. Now I have nothing left except new torments. Helen It will pass, dearest. Huntingdon No, it will not pass. It will never pass. I will die forever, Alice. I am already dead, for I have no soul, as the doctor said. That’s my only illness. I thought I could get myself a soul by being drunk all the time, but it only gave me headaches and vomits. Don’t worry, Alice. Fortunately I will not last much longer. Life is short and only gets shorter all the time. Helen I am Helen, your wife, Arthur. Huntingdon I know. I only wanted to tease you. Have you ever been jealous of me? Helen When you deceived me with Annabella without shame you ceased to be anything worth being jealous of. Huntingdon And before that? Did you never suspect how much I deceived you in London with harlots and prostitutes in all kinds of brothels? Helen Your life in London was your own business. I had nothing to do with it.

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Huntingdon You were tolerant. You allowed me to kill myself slowly but irrevocably and didn’t cut me off until you had relevant reasons. You were a wise woman and wiser than any man. Helen I had a son to consider. When you never cared for him, he became the one man I could live for. Huntingdon You haven’t done anything wrong. You did the right thing when you left me. You should have done it earlier. Then I would also have died earlier. Helen Don’t speak of death. Life always gets the better of death. Huntingdon No, death always gets the better of life. Shall we bet? I shall wait for you in hell. It was you who sent me there. Helen Arthur! (breaks out in tears and cries by his bed. When she next raises her head he is dead.) Arthur! Arthur! (tries to wake him up) Doctor! Doctor (enters, takes his patient’s pulse, laconically:) Stone dead. It’s over. You can return to life now, Mrs Huntingdon. (goes out again, leaves Helen to cry her heart out alone by Arthur’s side.)

Scene 4. Wildfell Hall. Markham (entering the garden with some hesitation) How can I? How can I look her in the eyes? I mishandled her brother and trampled her feelings in ignorance and carelessness to an unforgivable degree of harm, and she would perhaps not want to see me any more. It wouldn’t surprise me. But still I can’t tear myself away from her. Am I doing right in once more daring to come here? I am not doing anything wrong, if I just sit down here in an effort to enjoy her presence in these flowers, this enchanted garden which she has brought forth like a marvel, elated by the air that she once breathed. (sits down, closes his eyes and tries to dream) little Arthur (coming out of the house up to him) Mr Markham! Mother wishes to speak with you. (pulls his coat) Markham (awakens in a daze) What? Who? How? When? (sees the boy) Is it you, Arthur? How is your mother? Arthur Well, but she is in mourning. Markham I would think so, after all she has been through. Arthur But she wishes to see you. Markham Now? Arthur Yes. (pulls at him, and Markham has to rise to follow to the entrance. Just before they reach it, Helen opens the door.) Helen Markham, my brother has told me tat you have proposed to me. (They embrace spontaneously.) Markham Is it over now? Helen No, it’s beginning now. But please be careful, Markham. Not until now I am a real widow, and I have to let the sorrow ache out slowly but safely.

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Markham I can wait my whole life, if you wish. Helen While my husband wanted everything at once. Let it be a long and calm engagement. And never forget, Markham, that it was my son who united us. Markham A child is always right. Helen Shall we let him decide? Markham I trust his instinct. Helen And he has approved of you. Welcome. (Little Arthur pulls them both inside.)

The End. 9.9.2013, Dharamsala, translated after five years.

Post Mortem Anne Brontë (1820-49) The Brontë world of romantic dreams, complicated intrigues and sufferings have never ceased to fascinate the world’s constantly increasing interest in what actually was cultivated in the old desolate and dreary vicarage in Haworth by the wildest Yorkshire moors of north England. Charlotte was the eldest and something of a leader to her sisters as the most dynamic of them. Emily was the most personal and romantic, while Anne, the youngest, was the most reticent and humble but at the same time the most initiated realist by being doubtlessly the most psychological of them and thereby maybe the most interesting. All three were agreed on that their brother Branwell was the most talented of them, who unfortunately never disciplined himself enough for literature. As the only boy in an over-endowed family he was naturally spoilt by his more or less adoring sisters and fell to the temptation of all the vices of the age, gambling, drinking and opium. The sisters beheld with terror how he slowly but irrevocably ruined himself, and could do nothing, except one thing: create a lasting and loving monument over his personality by their unique and in their way unsurpassed novels. He is almost over-obviously traced in all the three masterworks “Jane Eyre”, “Wuthering Heights” and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”. It’s the demonic masculine superiority with dark shadows that colour all the three protagonists in these novels and dominate them. Rochester’s dark secret in “Jane Eyre” is never touched upon nor even hinted at until its natural urge and undeniability begins to manifest itself in constantly more mysterious and frightening appearances, until suddenly the whole tragedy of the Rochester case is revealed as a shocking curtain rise to a devastating and terrifying abyss. It’s not his fault, he is not self-destructive but only the victim of

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family influence, and the entire novel is like an apology, explanation and defence for his by all rights unfathomably bitter personality. Heathcliff in “Wuthering Heights” is a parallel case, he is an outsider from the beginning who doesn’t fit in anywhere and who is therefore treated as such without scruples by constant humiliations, oppression, sadism and injustice to become a hopeless monster of frustration and grief. He is never defended except by Cathy, who loves him and dies, but the author never defends him. She only pictures him in almost merciless objectivity and austerely stoic self-control in observation of the undeniably soaring romanticism of this destiny. Anne Brontë goes even further. Like Emily she makes a man tell the story, a young, impulsive and honestly loving man, who falls in love with the enigmatic widow of Wildfell Hall. Helen Graham is one of the most fascinating and attractive women portraits of Victorian literature. You understand too well that Markham irrevocably falls in love with her for life, which she in spite of her continuous rejection still can’t help understanding, why she dares to initiate him in her fate. It appears that her husband still lives but hardly a human life. She is charmed by him and is more or less induced to marriage against her aunt’s better knowledge, and only gradually his darker qualities get the better of his personality and make him hopelessly self-destructive. She does everything for him and sacrifices herself completely to her ideal concept of him in spite of all, until he deceives her. Then her idealism is replaced by sinister realism. Anne’s observations and empathy in the gradual disintegration of this alcoholic and self-consumer step by step is something of the most difficult subject of a novel any author could embark upon, but Anne has seen and experienced it all herself with her own eyes. It’s a nightmare of reality that she follows until the end, and finally when there is not much left of him and she long since have deserted him with their son, she still chooses to stand up for him and try to get him well while there is still any hope left. But he is and remains incorrigible, and when he by her care has regained his health one last time, he just wastes it on a final catastrophic voluntary relapse. Her novel is the longest of the three and the seemingly most revolting but at the same time also the deepest, finest, most consistent, interesting and truest account of their beloved brother. When they had written their novels as a testimony of him for good and for worse but the more lovingly, it is as if they had felt they had accomplished their main duty and not found anything more to live for. All were marked by tuberculosis, which also was Branwell’s actual cause of death, and both Emily and Anne were consumed by it before they reached 30 only a few years after they had completed their novels and the year after they had been published. Charlotte seemed to manage but committed the mistake of marrying, her father condemned the act and refused to be present at her wedding, as he professed that a marriage would ruin her delicate health, which it did, as she died in childbirth only 39 years old. translated October 4th, 2018

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