Behold!
Brutes tremble all around me. I am cold:
The man stays cold,—you, with respect, to greet.
Walk in!—You hardly trust yourselves in here?—
Then very well, judge for yourselves! Each sphere
Has sent its crawling creatures to your telling:
Chameleons and serpents, crocodiles,
Dragons, and salamanders chasm-dwelling,—
I know, of course, you're full of quiet smiles
And don't believe a syllable I say.—
(He lifts the entrance-flap and calls into the tent.)
Hi, Charlie!—bring our Serpent just this way!
(A stage-hand with a big paunch carries out the actress of Lulu in her Pierrot costume, and sets her down before the animal-tamer.)
She was created to incite to sin,
To lure, seduce, poison—yea, murder, in
A manner no man knows.—My pretty beast,
(Tickling Lulu's chin.)
Only be unaffected, and not pieced
Out with distorted, artificial folly,
Even if the critics praise thee for 't less wholly.
Thou hast no right to spoil the shape most fitting,
Most true, of woman, with meows and spitting!
And mind, all foolery and making faces
The childish simpleness of Vice disgraces.
Thou shouldst—to-day I speak emphatically—
Speak naturally and not unnaturally,
For the first principle in every art,
Since earliest times, was True and Plain, not Smart!
(To the public.)
There's nothing special now to see in her,
But wait and watch what later will occur!
Her strength about the Tiger she coils stricter:
He roars and groans!—Who'll be the final victor?—
Hop, Charlie, march! Carry her to her place,