HE WHO GETS SLAPPED

He Who Gets Slapped

A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS
BY LEONID ANDREYEV
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
GREGORY ZILBOORG

NEW YORK
BRENTANO'S
Publishers
Copyright, 1922, by
BRENTANO'S
———
Copyright, 1921, by
THE DIAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
———
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

"Stage, screen, and amateur rights for the translation and the original play in all English-speaking countries are owned and controlled by The Theatre Guild, 65 West 35th St., New York City. No public readings or performances may be given without their written consent."

INTRODUCTION

LEONID ANDREYEV as a literary figure was born in the gloomy atmosphere of depression of the 'nineties. He thus appeared upon the literary stage at a period when the old and splendid generation of Turgenev and Dostoevsky had already passed away and when Chekhov had begun to demonstrate before the reader the gloom and colourlessness of Russia life.

This was a period when the social forces of Russia were half destroyed by the reaction under Alexander III, and when the young generation was trying to rest and to get away from the strain of social hopes and despair. This period, briefly speaking, was a period of melancholy, of commonplace, every-day preoccupations, and of dull terre à terre philosophy.

It must be borne in mind that literature was the only outlet for the moral and intellectual forces of Russia. Political reaction, censorship, complete absence of civil liberties, and the cult of popular ignorance upon which Czardom based its power, all these made the written artistic word almost the sole expression of Russian social longings and idealistic expectations.

It is therefore only natural that Russian literature in its general development is closely interwoven with the political and social conditions of Russia at the given moment. The 'nineties were a period of depression. After the assassination of Alexander II (1881) and the subsequent tightening of the chain of reaction, combined with a general débâcle in progressive and radical circles, the Russian intellectual fell into a state of pessimism. His faith in an early liberation was shattered, his hope of recovery was broken. Chekhov is the most characteristic representative of that period; he himself called his heroes "the dull-grey people."

Maxim Gorki and Leonid Andreyev appeared almost simultaneously at that time. The former brought the message of a rebel spirit which forecast a new moral upheaval, a new social protest; the latter appeared clad in the gloom of his time, which he strangely combined with a spirit of almost anarchistic revolt. From the point of view of historical completeness Leonid Andreyev is more representative of the epoch, demonstrating at once two contradictory elements of the Russia of the 'nineties: lack or even absence of faith interwoven with protest and mutiny.

Andreyev is symbolic and romantic. Her Majesty Fate and His Excellency Accident, these are the two dark, unknown, at times brutal forces which dwelt ever before the mind's eye. His symbols are full of horror and at times unbending atrocity. Beginning with his short stories, In Fog, The Life of Basil of Thebes, through his dramas, The Life of Man, and Anathema, until his last writings, he saw human beings in the form of ghosts and ghosts in the form of human beings dominating every step, every breath of life. Still his gruesome symbolism, despite his genius for rendering his images in a clear-cut, almost crystalline manner, did not appeal to many of his contemporaries because the dark shroud in which Andreyev enveloped life was impenetrable and at times it was impossible to discern in that gloom the few values which Andreyev still found in life. Leo Tolstoy said once: "Leonid Andreyev tries to frighten me, but I am not afraid."

Even in his splendid realistic dramas it is difficult for Andreyev to rid himself of the habit of symbolizing and dimming the few rays of light which try to filter through.

There was nevertheless a little corner in Andreyev's artistic heart where there appeared some indefinite hope which never acquired a specific artistic form, but which was alluded to many times in his writings. In his short story, Thought, he makes fragmentary allusions to his half-hope, half-idea: "If the lot of the Man be to become a God, his throne will be the Book," says the hero.

But the red laugh of the Russo-Japanese war, the abortive revolution of 1905, the general ignorance and darkness of the masses, the strain of the last war, the depreciation of human life as a value in itself, brought Leonid Andreyev to the last step of the pessimistic ladder which he was ever descending into the abyss of hopelessness. This state of mind is best illustrated by his last dramatic work, He, the One Who Gets Slapped.

Here we see a man of high education, of great intellectual achievement, who leaves life, willingly in appearance, but forcibly in fact. The relations of man to man, of group to group, according to Andreyev are such that the Man is forced to efface himself. Even Thought, or the Book, could not help the Man to become a God. He becomes a clown. He performs stunts, he gets slaps; the public laughs, being unaware that this laughter is a mockery at itself, at its culture, at its thought, at its achievement.

The characters of the play, as the reader will see, are depicted with a bitter sarcasm and unfriendliness, for Andreyev seems to have lost his last faith in the Man. The good, the innocent and clean heart is bound to suffer and die. His Consuelo, Zinida, Bezano are only stray rays of light out of place in the world and even in the world-circus which is full of spiders, champagne, and human outcasts. Andreyev does not blame these outcasts. On the contrary, he feels sympathy, if for anybody, for just these clowns, jugglers, and bareback-riders; but life, this strange combination of fate, accident, and cowardly slander, is stronger, and they collapse under the burden of this combination.

He is perhaps the best work of Andreyev, at any rate his best dramatic work. It is more adapted to stage conditions than his previous plays and is not overcrowded with symbolic ghosts. Furthermore, He is a remarkable summary of Andreyev's philosophy.

GREGORY ZILBOORG

HE WHO GETS SLAPPED

HE WHO GETS SLAPPED

ACT I

A very large, rather dirty room, with whitewashed walls. To the left, in a niche, is a window, the only outside window in the room, opening on a court-yard. The light from it is so dim that even by day the electricity has to be turned on.

At the very top of the centre-back wall is a row of small dusty windows. They open on the circus hall. At night, when the performance is going on, a bright light shines through. By day they are dark. In the same wall is a large white door, reached by two stone steps, and nailed fast.

On the right, almost in the corner, is a high, wide, arched doorway which leads to the stables and the ring. By day it opens into pale darkness, at night into pale light.

The room is used for many purposes. It is the office of Papa Briquet, manager of the circus; here he keeps his little desk. It is the cloak-room of some of the actors. It is also the room where the cast gathers between calls, during rehearsals or performances. Again, it is a check-room for used circus property, such as gilt armchairs, scenery for pantomimes, and other wares of the circus household. The walls are covered with circus announcements and glaring posters.

The time is morning. In the circus hall a rehearsal is going on, and preparations are being made for the evening performance. As the curtain goes up, the cracking whip and the shouts of the riding-master are heard from the ring. The stage is empty for a few seconds, then enter Tilly and Polly, the musical clowns, practising a new march. Playing on tiny pipes, they step from the dark doorway to the window. Their music is agreeable to the ear, but small, mincing, artificially clown-like, like their mincing steps; they wear jackets and resemble each other; same smooth-shaven face, same height; Tilly, the younger, has a scarf around his neck; both have their derbies on the backs of their heads. Tilly glances through the window, then they turn about, still marching.

Polly

[Interrupting the march]: Stop, you're out again! Now, listen—[He stands close to Tilly and plays into his face. Tilly absent-mindedly listens, scratching his nose.] There! Come on now! [They resume their music and marching. As they reach the door they meet the manager and Mancini; the latter walks behind the manager, and is gnawing at the knob of his goldmounted cane. Count Mancini is tall and slight. The seams of his clothes are worn and he keeps his coat buttoned tight. He assumes extremely graceful manners, takes affected poses, and has a special fondness for toying with his cane, with aristocratic stylishness. When he laughs, which happens often, his thin sharp face takes on a marked resemblance to a satyr. The manager, "Papa" Briquet, is a stout quiet man of average height. His bearing is hesitant. The clowns make room for the gentlemen. The manager looks questioningly at the older man.]

Polly

[With an affected accent]: Our moosic for the pantomime! The March of the Ants!

Briquet

Ha! Yes!

[The gentlemen walk in. The clowns resume their music, Polly marching on, then turning, the younger following.]

Polly

Papa Briquet, Jack is working very badly to-day.

Briquet

What's the matter with him?

Polly

He has a sore throat. You'd better take a look at him.

Briquet

All right. Come on, Jack. Open your mouth! Wider—wider. [Turns clown's face to the light near the window and examines him closely and seriously.] Just smear it with iodine.

Polly

I told him so. I said it was nothing! Oh! Come on. [They go away playing, marching, practising their funny mincing steps. The manager sits down. Mancini strikes a pose by the wall, smiling ironically.]

Mancini

So. You give them medical treatment, too! Look out, Papa Briquet, you have no licence.

Briquet

Just a little advice. They're all so afraid for their lives.

Mancini

His throat is simply burnt with whiskey. These two fellows get drunk every night. I am amazed, Papa Briquet, to see you pay so little attention to their morals. [He laughs.]

Briquet

You make me sick, Mancini.

Mancini

Count Mancini is at your service!

Briquet

You make me sick, Count Mancini. You poke your nose into everything, you disturb the artists in their work. Some day you'll get a thrashing, and I warn you that I shan't interfere.

Mancini

As a man of superior associations and education I cannot be expected to treat your actors as my equals! What more can you ask, Briquet? You see that I do you the honour of speaking with you quite familiarly, quite simply.

Briquet

Ha! ha! ha! [Slightly threatening] Really!—

Mancini

Never mind my joke. What if they did dare attack me—ever seen this, Briquet? [He draws a stiletto out of his cane and advances it silently.] Useful little thing. By the way, you have no idea of the discovery I made yesterday in a suburb. Such a girl! [Laughs.] Oh, well! all right, all right—I know you don't like that sort of sport. But look here, you must give me a hundred francs!

Briquet

Not a sou.

Mancini

Then I'll take away Consuelo—that's all——

Briquet

Your daily threat!

Mancini

Yes, my threat! And you would do the same, if you were as shamefully hard up as I am. Now look here, you know as well as I do that I have to live up to my name somehow, keep up the family reputation. Just because the tide of ill-fortune which struck my ancestors compelled me to make my daughter, the Countess Veronica, a bareback rider—to keep us from starving—do you understand—you heartless idiot!

Briquet

You chase the girls too much! Some day you'll land in jail, Mancini!

Mancini

In jail? Oh, no! Why, I have to uphold our name, the splendour of my family, [laughs] haven't I? The Mancinis are known all over Italy for their love of girls—just girls! Is it my fault if I must pay such crazy prices for what my ancestors got free of charge? You're nothing but an ass, a parvenu ass. How can you understand Family Traditions? I don't drink—I stopped playing cards after that accident—no, you need not smile. Now if I give up the girls, what will be left of Mancini? Only a coat of arms, that's all—— In the name of family traditions, give me a hundred francs!

Briquet

I told you no, I won't.

Mancini

You know that I leave half of the salary for Consuelo—but—perhaps you think I do not love my child—my only daughter, all that remains to me as a memory of her sainted mother—what cruelty! [Pretends to cry, wipes his eyes with a small and dirty lace handkerchief, embroidered with a coronet.]

Briquet

Why don't you say, rather, that she is foolish enough to give you half her salary. You make me sick——

[Enter Zinida, the lion tamer; burningly beautiful, her self-confident, commanding gestures at first glance give an impression of languor. She is Briquet's unmarried wife.]

Zinida

[To Mancini]: Good morning.

Mancini

Madame Zinida! This barbarian, this brute may pierce me with his dagger, but I cannot control the expression of my love! [Kneels facetiously before her] Madame! Count Mancini has the honour of asking you to be his wife....

Zinida

[To Briquet]: Money?

Briquet

Yes.

Zinida

Don't give him any. [Sits down wearily on a torn sofa, shuts her eyes. Mancini gets up and wipes his knees.]

Mancini

Duchess! Don't be cruel. I am no lion, no tiger, no savage beast which you are accustomed to tame. I am merely a poor domestic animal, who wants, miaow, miaow, a little green grass.

Zinida

[Without opening her eyes]: Jim tells me you have a teacher for Consuelo. What for?

Mancini

The solicitude of a father, duchess, the solicitude and the tireless anxiety of a loving heart. The extreme misfortunes of our family, when I was a child, have left some flaws in her education. Friends, the daughter of Count Mancini, Countess Veronica, can barely read! Is that admissible? And you, Briquet, heartless brute, you still ask why I need money!

Zinida

Artful!

Briquet

What are you teaching her?

Mancini

Everything. A student had been giving her lessons, but I threw him out yesterday. He had the nerve to fall in love with Consuelo and stood there miaowing at the door like a cat. Everything, Briquet, that you don't know—literature, mythology, orthography——

[Two young actresses appear, with small fur coats thrown over their light dresses. They are tired and sit down in the corner.]

Mancini

I do not wish my daughter——

Zinida

Artful!

Briquet

You are stupid, Mancini. What do you do it for? [In a didactic tone] You are fearfully stupid, Mancini. Why does she need to learn? Since she is here she need never know anything about that life. Don't you understand? What is geography? If I were the government I would forbid artists to read books. Let them read the posters, that's enough.

[During Briquet's speech, the two clowns and another actor enter. They sit down wearily.]

Briquet

Right now, your Consuelo is an excellent artist, but just as soon as you teach her mythology, and she begins to read, she'll become a nuisance, she'll be corrupted, and then she'll go and poison herself. I know those books, I've read 'em myself. All they teach is corruption, and how to kill oneself.

First Actress

I love the novels that come out in the newspaper.

Briquet

That shows what a foolish girl you are. You'll be done for in no time. Believe me, my friends, we must forget entirely what is happening out there. How can we understand all that goes on there?

Mancini

You are an enemy of enlightenment, you are an obscurantist, Briquet.

Briquet

And you are stupid. You are from out there. What has it taught you? [The actors laugh.] If you'd been born in a circus as I was, you'd know something. Enlightenment is plain nonsense—nothing else. Ask Zinida. She knows everything they teach out there—geography, mythology—— Does it make her any happier? You tell them, dear.

Zinida

Leave me alone, Louis.

Mancini

[Angrily]: Oh! Go to the devil! When I listen to your asinine philosophy, I'd like to skin you for more than a paltry hundred francs—for two hundred—for a thousand. Great God! What an ass of a manager! Yes, right before every one of them I want to say that you are a stingy old skinflint—that you pay starvation wages. I'll make you give Consuelo a raise of a hundred francs. Listen, all you honest vagabonds, tell me—who is it draws the crowd that fills the circus every night? You? a couple of musical donkeys? Tigers, lions? Nobody cares for those hungry cats!

Zinida

Leave the tigers alone.

Mancini

Beg your pardon, Zinida. I did not mean to hurt your feelings—honestly. I really marvel at your furious audacity—at your grace—you are a heroine—I kiss your tiny hands. But what do they understand about heroism? [An orchestra softly plays the Tango in the circus. He continues with enthusiasm.] Hear! hear! Now tell me, honest vagabonds, who but Consuelo and Bezano draws the crowds! That Tango on horseback—it is—it is—— Oh, the devil! Even his fatuousness the Pope could not withstand its lure.

Polly

True! It's a great trick—wasn't the idea Bezano's?

Mancini

Idea! Idea! The lad's in love, like a cat—that's the idea. What's the good of an idea without a woman! You wouldn't dance very far with your idea alone, eh, Papa Briquet?

Briquet

We have a contract.

Mancini

Such base formalities.

Zinida

Give him ten francs and let him go.

Mancini

Ten! Never! Fifteen! Don't be stubborn, Papa. For the traditions of my house—twenty. I swear—on my honour—I can't do with less. [Briquet hands him twenty francs. Nonchalantly] Merci. Thanks.

Zinida

Why don't you take it from your baron?

Mancini

[Raising his eyebrows haughtily, quite indignant]: From the Baron? Woman! who do you think I am that I should be beholden to a stranger?

Zinida

You're plotting something artful. I know you very little, but I guess you're an awful scoundrel.

Mancini

[Laughs]: Such an insult from such beautiful lips.

[Enter an "artist," apparently an athlete.]

Athlete

Papa Briquet, there's a gentleman from beyond the grave asking for you.

Actress

A ghost?

Athlete

No. He seems alive. Did you ever see a drunken ghost?

Briquet

If he's drunk, tell him I'm out, Thomas. Does he want to see me or the Count?

Athlete

No, you. Maybe he's not drunk, but just a ghost.

Mancini

[Draws himself together, puffs up]: A society man?

Athlete

Yes. I'll tell him to come in.

[One hears the whip cracking in the ring. The Tango sounds very low and distant—then comes nearer—louder. Silence.]

Briquet

[Touching Zinida's arm]: Tired?

Zinida

[Drawing back a little]: No.

Polly

Your red lion is nervous to-day, Zinida!

Zinida

You shouldn't tease him.

Polly

I played a melody from Traviata for him. And he sang with me. Wouldn't that be a good trick to stage, Papa Briquet?

[Thomas brings in the gentleman, points out the manager, and goes heavily away. The gentleman is not young, and he is ugly, but his rather strange face is bold and lively. He wears an expensive overcoat, with a fur collar, and holds his hat and gloves in his hand.]

Gentleman

[Bowing and smiling]: Have I the pleasure of addressing the manager?

Briquet

Yes. Won't you sit down, please? Tilly, bring a chair.

Gentleman

Oh! Don't trouble. [Looks around.] These are your artists? Very glad——

Mancini

[Straightening and bowing slightly]: Count Mancini.

Gentleman

[Surprised]: Count?

Briquet

[Indignantly]: Yes, Count. And whom have I the honour of——

Gentleman

I don't quite know myself—yet. As a rule you choose your own names, don't you? I have not chosen yet. Later you might advise me about it. I have an idea already, but I am afraid it sounds too much like literature—you know.

Briquet

Literature?

Gentleman

Yes! Too sophisticated. [They all look surprised.] I presume these two gentlemen are clowns? I am so glad. May I shake hands with them? [Stands up and shakes hands with clowns, who make silly faces.]

Briquet

Excuse me—but what can I do for you?

Gentleman

[With the same pleasant, confident smile]: Oh. You do something for me? No. I want to do something for you, Papa Briquet.

Briquet

Papa Briquet? But you don't look like——

Gentleman

[Reassuringly]: It's all right. I shall become "like." These two gentlemen just made remarkable faces. Would you like to see me imitate them? Look! [He makes the same silly faces as the clowns.]

Briquet

Yes! [Involuntarily] You are not drunk, sir?

Gentleman

No. I don't drink as a rule. Do I look drunk?

Polly

A little.

Gentleman

No—I don't drink. It is a peculiarity of my talent.

Briquet

[Familiarly]: Where did you work before? Juggler?

Gentleman

No. But I am glad you feel in me a comrade, Papa Briquet. Unfortunately I am not a juggler, and have worked nowhere—I am—just so.

Mancini

But you look like a society man.

Gentleman

Oh, you flatter me, Count. I am just so.

Briquet

Well, what do you want? You see I am obliged to tell you that everything is taken.

Gentleman

That's immaterial. I want to be a clown, if you will allow me. [Some of the actors smile, Briquet begins to grow angry.]

Briquet

But what can you do? You're asking too much. What can you do?

Gentleman

Why! Nothing! Isn't that funny! I can't do a thing.

Briquet

No, it's not funny. Any scoundrel knows that much.

Gentleman

[Rather helpless, but still smiling and looking around]: We can invent something——

Briquet

[Ironically]: From literature?

[The clown Jackson enters slowly without being noticed by the others. He stands behind the gentlemen.]

Gentleman

Yes, one can find something literary, too. A nice little speech for instance on, let's say, a religious topic. Something like a debate among the clowns.

Briquet

A debate! The devil! This is no academy.

Gentleman

[Sadly]: I am very sorry. Something else then. Perhaps a joke about the creation of the world and its rulers?

Briquet

What about the police? No, no—nothing like that!

Jackson

[Coming forward]: The rulers of the world? You don't like them? I don't either. Shake.

Briquet

[Introducing]: Our chief clown, the famous Jackson.

Gentleman

[Enthusiastically]: Great heavens—you! Allow me to shake hands with you heartily! You, with your genius, you have given me so much joy!

Jackson

I'm glad indeed!

Briquet

[Shrugs his shoulders; to Jackson]: He wants to be a clown! Look him over, Jim.

[Jackson makes a motion at which the gentleman hurriedly removes his coat and throws it on a chair. He is ready for the examination. Jackson turns him round, looking him over critically.]

Jackson

Clown? Hm! Turn round then. Clown? Yes? Now smile. Wider—broader—do you call that a smile? So—that's better. There is something, yes—but for full developments—— [Sadly]: Probably you can't even turn a somersault?

Gentleman

[Sighs]: No.

Jackson

How old are you?

Gentleman

Thirty-nine. Too late? [Jackson moves away with a whistle. There is a silence.]

Zinida

[Softly]: Take him.

Briquet

[Indignant]: What the hell shall I do with him if he doesn't know a thing? He's drunk!

Gentleman

Honestly I am not. Thank you for your support, Madame. Are you not the famous Zinida, the lion tamer, whose regal beauty and audacity——

Zinida

Yes. But I do not like flattery.

Gentleman

It is not flattery.

Mancini

You are evidently not accustomed to good society, my dear. Flattery? This gentleman expresses his admiration in sincere and beautiful words—and you—you are not educated, Zinida. As for myself——

[Enter Consuelo and Bezano in circus costume.]

Consuelo

You here, Daddy?

Mancini

Yes, my child, you are not tired? [Kisses her on the forehead.] My daughter, sir, Countess Veronica. Known on the stage as Consuelo, The Bareback Tango Queen. Did you ever see her?

Gentleman

I have enjoyed her work. It is marvellous!

Mancini

Yes! Of course. Everyone admits it. And how do you like the name, Consuelo? I took it from the novel of George Sand. It means "Consolation."

Gentleman

What a wonderful knowledge of books!

Mancini

A small thing. Despite your strange intention, I can see, sir, that you are a gentleman. My peer! Let me explain to you, that only the strange and fatal misfortunes of our ancient family—"sic transit gloria mundi," sir.

Consuelo

It's a bore, Daddy—— Where's my handkerchief, Alfred?

Bezano

Here it is.

Consuelo

[Showing the handkerchief to the gentleman]: Genuine Venetian. Do you like it?