Brecht Collected Plays: 7: Visions of Simone Machard; Schweyk in the Second World War; Caucasian Chalk Circle; Duchess of Malfi (World Classics)

by Bertolt Brecht

  ROBERT: The Patron said he’d stand by her.

  MAURICE: He hadn’t been told about the radio announcement. Get your things on, Simone.

  SIMONE still absent-mindedly: I can’t leave, Maurice.

  GEORGES: Ten minutes back you were saying you must.

  SIMONE: That was only because I was imagining things. But the Patron won’t give me away.

  MADAME MACHARD: But, Messieurs, don’t give the girl crazy ideas. She can’t possibly give up her job now, when the rent’s due. What with our André being away as well.

  PATRON comes out of the hotel, very excited: Simone! You’ve got to disappear! At once! Maurice, get her out of here! Doesn’t matter where. Got that?

  MAURICE: Yes sir.

  PATRON: It’s a matter of minutes. Goes back into the hotel.

  ROBERT: So he isn’t going to give you away.

  MAURICE: He’s given her away already. Did you see how he’d been sweating? Get a move on, Simone!

  SIMONE: No, no, no. I don’t want to leave. He’s not going to touch me. He only came out to help me.

  MAURICE: He’s got a bad conscience, that’s all.

  Simone obstinately stays put.

  GEORGES: What have you got against leaving?

  SIMONE: I can’t. Suppose my brother comes back. I promised him I’d be here and keep his job for him.

  MAURICE: That’s enough. He seizes her, picks her up over his shoulder and carries her struggling into the garage. Go outside the hotel, Georges, and whistle if the coast is clear. Exit with

  Simone.

  Georges goes out into the road. During what follows he is heard whistling.

  MADAME MACHARD: I knew it would come to this. Her brother’s to blame, and all that book-reading.

  SIMONE’S VOICE from outside: I’m not going. I can’t. You don’t understand.

  MADAME MACHARD: What have I done to deserve it?

  ROBERT: Oh, do shut up. Don’t you realize that she’ll be shot if they catch her?

  MADAME MACHARD: Simone? Holy mother of God! Sits distraught at the foot of the petrol pump.

  Exit Robert into the garage.

  Enter from the hotel the Patron and the Captain.

  PATRON: Simone! Père Gustave! To the Captain: Actually she was discharged some days ago. But went on hanging around my yard, so I’ve been told.

  CAPTAIN notices Madame Machard: Isn’t that her mother?

  PATRON embarrassed: Ah, Madame Machard. Have you by any chance seen Simone?

  MADAME MACHARD: No, Monsieur Henri, I’m looking for her myself. That girl’s always doing errands for the hotel, Monsieur le Capitaine.

  Père Gustave enters from the store room.

  PATRON: Oh, there you are, Père Gustave. Go and get Simone, would you?

  Père Gustave goes obediently up the road. The whistling stops.

  PATRON to the Captain: I just can’t imagine what put the idea in her head.

  CAPTAIN: It’s not as hard as all that, Monsieur Soupault. But it’ll all be sorted out.

  PÈRE GUSTAVEcoming back, as Georges’s whistling is heard once more: I can’t find her, Monsieur Henri. Georges says she left half an hour ago.

  CAPTAIN sceptically: Too bad that you people ‘can’t find her’, Monsieur Soupault. Turns and goes into the hotel.

  PATRON mopping his perspiration: Thank God for that.

  MADAME MACHARD: In the nick of time. The things we have to go through for our children!

  Maurice appears at the garage door.

  PATRON: Why are you still here, Maurice? Shouldn’t you be…

  MAURICE: Did she come out this way? She broke away from me.

  Simone comes in from the street, with Georges behind her.

  PATRON: Are you out of your mind? Quick, quick …

  SIMONE: You aren’t going to give me away, are you, Monsieur Henri?

  PATRON: I told you to disappear. And now—Furious gesture of helplessness. First you set fire to my brickworks. I don’t say a word, though it’s I who have to take the can with the Germans. And now you’re being pigheaded just so as to make things harder for me. They can shoot you for all I care; I wash my hands of it.

  The German captain comes out of the hotel in helmet and greatcoat, with the Captain behind him.

  CAPTAIN: But we’ll do everything we can, sir. Give us two hours.

  Simone has instinctively tried to hide behind the Patron. He steps to one side so that she is seen.

  CAPTAIN: Why, here she is. Here’s our arsonist, sir.

  THE GERMAN CAPTAIN: A child like that?

  Pause.

  PATRON: Simone, this is a pretty kettle of fish.

  All this is omitted from the final version, where the dialogue about the German poster (‘It all depends whether she’ p. 48 to Père Gustave’s ‘I told you nothing of the sort’ below) has been brought forward from the beginning of scene 8 in the earlier versions, and the rest is new.

  4. The Trial

  (a) Fourth Dream of Simone Machard (7)

  In the first version this takes place ‘during the night of 18-19 June’ (i.e. three days earlier than in the final text). All three earlier scripts specify that the confused music is to ‘continue the motifs of the Third Dream’. In the first version there is only one soldier with the German captain.

  Down to the entry of the judges all three are more or less the same as the final text, and the first version continues so as far as the point where they put their heads together (p. 52). In the Berlau and Feuchtwanger scripts however there are at first only three judges, the Mayor suddenly appearing beside them ‘in the capacity of a defence counsel’; nor does Simone identify them one by one as they come in but all at once when they uncover their faces. Otherwise these two scripts continue close to the final version down to the end of the scene, the main later additions being the reference to the refugees in the village hall and Madame Soupeau’s concluding line. In the first version a number of the lines were differently allotted, though their wording remains the same: thus Père Gustave’s call for accusers from the public (p. 52) and his challenge to the Angel (p. 55) were given to Simone’s father, while it was the Mayor who called for a chair for Queen Isabeau and asked Simone ‘Where does God dwell?…’ (p. 54).

  (b) (8. The Trial)

  The first version gives two alternative scenes, one of them incomplete and each differing widely from the other. The Berlau script also gives two texts, the first of which peters out in a series of shorthand notes, while the second is identical with that of the Feuchtwanger script. Altogether, therefore, there are four main variants of this scene: the first version (i) and (ii), the Feuchtwanger version (which seems to have been worked out from Berlau (i) and possibly copied in Berlau (ii)), and the final 1946 text.

  In the first version (i) there is no flag visible, and the Mayor, Patron, his mother and the Captain are on stage at the start, as well as the four of the final version. A German soldier marches Simone in, hands the Mayor a document, salutes and leaves. The document gives the responsibility of dealing with Simone to the local authorities.

  CAPTAIN: The tone of the document is severe, but the contents are very decent. The Commandant is leaving it to the local authority to interrogate the incendiarist. Monsieur le Maire, do your duty by the commune of Saint-Martin.

  MAYOR sighing: Simone, the Germans have handed you back to your own authorities. You are strongly suspected of sabotage, a crime for which one can be shot. However the authorities have been able to raise some doubt as to the deliberateness of your intention to commit sabotage. Do you understand the purpose of this inquiry?

  SIMONE: Yes, Monsieur le Maire.

  MAYOR: Luckily the question is easily settled. Now listen carefully. If you caused the fire before the Germans put up their poster forbidding the destruction of essential stocks then it was not sabotage. Suppose you had done it after the poster, it would have been sabotage and we wouldn’t save you. Do you understand that? Did you see the poster?

  The
dialogue follows as on p. 48 (which is where it was shifted to in the final text), except that there it is the Patron, not the Mayor who asks the questions. After Père Gustave’s ‘I told you nothing of the sort’ (p. 48) it goes on:

  MAYOR: Père Gustave, you have offered to give evidence to the effect that Simone set fire to the brickworks. But you insist that she did it before the German order?

  PÈRE GUSTAVE avoiding Simone’s eye: Yes.

  ROBERT: Oh, you’ve volunteered to give evidence, have you?

  MADAME MERE: Quiet, Robert.

  MAYOR: It’s all perfectly clear. To Simone: Will you show us where the red poster was displayed? Come along, it’ll still be there.

  SIMONE: But I saw it before that, Monsieur 1e Maire.

  MAYOR: Don’t be difficult. This is official.

  Mayor, Patron and Captain leave with Simone through the gateway.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: I had to, because of what I let out when the Patron drove off.

  MAURICE: Shut up.

  GEORGES: The Mayor’s a decent man. He’s whitewashing her to the Germans, and they’ll let her off.

  MAURICE: They’re a lot of crooks. All they’re doing is whitewash Saint-Martin against any suspicion that there might be Frenchmen here [cf. p. 61 in our text]. They’re set on collaborating with the Germans. Simone’s right. It’s as though she knew what tune they were going to play.

  ROBERT: We won’t have heard the last of it. You wait.

  Then the party returns with Simone, and the Mayor says he thinks the Germans will agree that it was not sabotage. The Captain differs, and the Patron’s mother says ‘It was a base act of revenge against my son and myself’.

  MAYOR: Revenge? What for?

  MADAME MERE: Because we dismissed her. It’s quite simple.

  MAYOR: Henri, do you believe that?

  PATRON forcefully: I refuse to stand up for this creature any longer. I offered her a chance to get away; she insisted on staying. I’m through with her. I’ve had enough to worry about.

  Then Madame sends Maurice, Robert, Père Gustave and Georges back to their work, and they leave. She starts cross-examining Simone, approximately as from where she speaks To Simone (p. 58) to Simone’s ‘I did it because of the enemy’ (p. 60). Then she tells Thérèse to ‘fetch the sister’ and delivers a speech that is partly the Captain’s ‘The least our guests can expect…’ (p. 60) and partly her own ‘The child is insubordinate’ etc. (p. 62) of the final text. Thérèse returns with an Ursuline nun.

  MADAME MERE: Sister Michèle is being so good as to take this unfortunate child into the educational establishment run by the strict sisters of St Ursula.

  SIMONE trembling: No, no! Not to St Ursula’s! I did it because of the Germans. I want to stay.

  The sister takes her arm and leads her to the gateway.

  SIMONE: André! André!

  There it breaks off at the foot of a page.

  The first version (ii), headed in Brecht’s hand ‘Second version, January 43’, likewise breaks off at the foot of a page, this time towards the end of Madame’s interrogation of Simone. It starts with Maurice, Robert, Georges and Père Gustave on stage, as in the final version, but with two German sentries. They are discussing Simone’s examination by the Mayor, which has taken place offstage and in the German captain’s presence, but evidently went much as in (i). Georges says ‘I don’t see why he doesn’t do the interrogating himself, Maurice’.

  MAURICE: Well, you saw how angry it made him yesterday when he heard it was a child. Shooting children doesn’t go all that well with their policy of dishing out soup on the square in front of the mairie. The Captain had supper with him last night. I can tell you exactly how the conversation will have gone. He mimics the German captain and the French captain in turn. ‘Bad show. I’ll have to shoot her’.—‘That’ll put the kybosh on peaceful collaboration for the next couple of years, sir.’—’What‘s the answer?’ ‘Collaboration, my dear captain. Leave the case to us.’—‘Then tomorrow pop goes the water tower, eh, Monsieur? Here’s our radio announcing every hour that the French population is receiving us with open arms, wants nothing but peace.’—‘My dear captain, but whoever says the person responsible was acting against the Germans?’—‘Aha… I see. You mean you can prove that she did it before…’ So that now she did it before the proclamation, d’you see?

  Then the Patron enters and tells Père Gustave that his evidence won’t be needed: ‘A child: what do you expect?’ etc. (p. 56). Georges’s ensuing remarks finish with him saying that someone betrayed her.

  PATRON: You dare to say that to me after I’ve stood here and told her she must get away?

  He seizes the wounded Georges by the arm, and there is a struggle in which Robert joins till it is interrupted by the entry of the German captain. The captain tells the two sentries to follow him and leaves.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: He’s taking his men away. Does that mean that Simone’s been let free?

  MAURICE: I’d be extremely surprised.

  GEORGES: Anyhow that boche with the monocle realizes that Captain Bellaire isn’t the only person around here. Monsieur le Capitaine has had his innings. They couldn’t conceal the fact that there are still some Frenchmen in France. Ow! Even kids of thirteen can show them, eh, Maurice?

  But the Mayor’s two policemen appear at the gate, then Madame leads in Simone from the hotel, with the Mayor and the Captain following, and they all go into the store room. Maurice makes his remark about whitewashing Saint-Martin, and the Patron angrily orders the policemen to clear the yard.

  MAURICE: Let’s go. There’s nothing we can do here for the moment. They’ve got their police and they’ve got the Germans. Draws Robert and Georges away. Poor Simone. Too many enemies.

  GEORGES hoarsely: Look out, Monsieur Henri, other times are coming. And when they come we’ll be asking you about Simone. Exeunt all three.

  The party then emerges from the store room, and Madame conducts her interrogation of Simone on lines rather closer to the final text, including a mention of ‘the mob from the village hall’. This version breaks off with Madame’s ‘How did you know the Germans would discover…’ (p. 59).

  Finally the Feuchtwanger script (identical with Berlau (ii)) starts with much the same stage direction as our text, but without Georges and with the addition of the two German sentries. It opens with Maurice’s remark about the Marshal; Simone however has not got away but is being interrogated as in the first version (ii). Georges, who has been giving evidence, comes out of the hotel to report that they are all behaving very decently, even Madame and the Captain. The German captain has said ‘that these are tragic days and he has no desire to hurt Frenchmen’s feelings’. He is allowing the others to establish Simone’s ignorance of the poster because, as Maurice puts it, ‘I don’t imagine they want to start off their armistice and their formal collaboration by shooting our children’.

  GEORGES scratching his head: Do you think nothing’s going to happen to her?

  MAURICE: That’s another question.

  ROBERT: If they do anything to Simone I’m coming to Algiers with you, Maurice. To Georges: The radio says the old government’s going to carry on the fight from there.

  GEORGES moving his arm thoughtfully: That’s what one ought to do.

  PÈRE GUSTAVE: They talk a lot on the radio.

  Then the Patron enters as in the first version (ii), leading on to the struggle and a version of the ensuing dialogue as far as Madame Soupeau’s entry with Simone (but no policemen) and disappearance into the store room.

  PATRON complainingly, as he dusts down his suit: I gave her an opportunity to disappear. She insisted on staying. She’s caused me nothing but trouble from the very first. A hundred thousand francs, she’s cost me. As for the cost to my nerves, I can’t count it. And now she’s causing bad blood between me and my old employees. That’s what comes of trying to protect her. Well, the time for sentimentality is over. I shan’t interfere any more. Not that I bear you people a gru
dge. She upset all of us. Back to work, Maurice and Robert! Maurice and Robert stay put.

  PATRON: Didn’t you hear me?

  MAURICE: Robert and I will just wait and see what’s happening to Simone.

  The party leaves the store room, and this time Madame’s interrogation of Simone is witnessed and occasionally interrupted by Robert, Maurice and Georges. It is longer than in the final version, though largely coinciding with it, and ends with an admission by Simone that she was acting on her own, not on the Mayor’s orders.

  MADAME SOUPEAU: To settle a score with the hotel.

  PATRON: And to think Maman told lies to the Germans to make them set you free!

  The two policemen enter, and thereafter the script stays close to the final text, except that there are no nuns and the institution is the ‘House of Correction at Tours’; (an addition to the Berlau (ii) script in Brecht’s hand introduced the ‘brutal looking lady’ and the comments indicating that this was a place for the mentally handicapped). However, instead of fetching her things from the store room, as in the final text, she says good-bye to Georges, Maurice and Robert until she is dragged off calling ‘André! André!’ There is no appearance of the Angel, and after the Patron’s order to resume work the ending is different.

  MAURICE: What, us? You’ll find it difficult to get anyone in Saint-Martin to work for you after this. Come on.

  Maurice, Robert and Georges turn to leave.

  PATRON running after them: But Maurice! I haven’t done anything to you, have I?—Five years we’ve been together—It was for the hotel’s sake—It was for the sake of your jobs, for that matter—Maurice! Robert!

  GEORGES at the gateway, turns round, hoarsely: You look out. Other times are coming. When they come we’ll be asking you about Simone. Curtain.

  In the 1946 script, which our text follows, the date is given as ‘Morning of June 19th’. The Mayor’s order to M. Machard to clear the village hall is a typed addition. The nuns are mainly handwritten amendments (as in Berlau (ii)); the ‘brutal-looking lady’ remains in one stage direction (the published text makes her plural) but elsewhere is amended to ‘the nuns’ or ‘one of the nuns’. The House of Correction is struck out, together with all references but one to Tours (the Mayor offers to give evidence there). References to St Ursula come from the first version, those to the mentally handicapped from the additions to the Berlau script, reinforced by Simone’s new comment ‘They chain them up!’ (p. 62).