The Night Of Christmas

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS By George Sand After E. T. A. Hoffman

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS

Table of Contents THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS........................................................................................................................1 By George Sand After E. T. A. Hoffman................................................................................................1 ACT I.......................................................................................................................................................2 ACT II....................................................................................................................................................12 ACT III...................................................................................................................................................21

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS By George Sand After E. T. A. Hoffman EText by Dagny

• ACT I • ACT II • ACT III This Etext is for private use only. No republication for profit in print or other media may be made without the express consent of the Copyright Holder. The Copyright Holder is especially concerned about performance rights in any media on stage, cinema, or television, or audio or any other media, including readings for which an entrance fee or the like is charge. Permissions should be addressed to: Frank Morlock, 6006 Greenbelt Rd, #312, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA or [email protected]. Other works by this author may be found at http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/personnage.asp?key=130

Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock C 2003 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ CHARACTERS PEREGRINUS TYSS MAX NANNI THE GHOST ++++++++++++++++++++++++ The action takes place at Frankfurt am Main in the study of Peregrinus. To the left a large faience stove. To the right a window in front of which is a clockmaker's table covered with tools. In the back left through a cutaway can be seen rooftops from the street and the pale and cloudy sky. Facing the window to the right a circular stairway leading to upstairs rooms. In the back a set of double doors giving on the antechamber supposed to open on a stairway leading down to the street; to the right a dining room. The furniture, plain or ornate, pictures, musical instruments, barometers, mechanical instruments —Near the stove is erected a large log decorated with ribbons, an old arm chair in front of a joiner's bench. A lamp burns on the table. An old clock, surmounted by a golden cock is placed above the door at the back.

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS

ACT I Nanni, a pretty young girl dressed poorly and properly, striped skirt, black apron, is alone arranging things. NANNI: Let's see! have I thought of everything? Muscatel wine, cakes —fruits? Yes, the supper will go well enough and Mr. Peregrinus will be satisfied. Then he's so sweet! He's just the opposite of his friend, Mr. Max, who is always critical! But I'd really like to see Mr. Tyss return! I don't like to be alone at night, I don't. It's not that I'm afraid, but this old house —for all they say, the noises one hears —and Christmas eve. And this bad weather! How green the moon is! And how dark the clouds! Since the new servant is below! (going to the back) Fritz! are you there? I think he answered me. I'm not sure of it, but I am so stupid. I don't dare go down! Bah! Where would he be, after I told him to await the return of his master? I am going to see upstairs if there's no need for me here. (approaching the stairway) That way's the shortest way. Ah, indeed, yes, but it makes you go by the locked room, the room that frightens me. Oh! certainly I don't believe in all that; but I still prefer to take the big staircase. (she leaves by the back) (The noise of rain whipping the window panes, and the wind roaring can be heard, then the doorbell and Max outside, shouting.) MAX: (alone outside in the street) Hey! Hola! open up will you! (Max rings, grumbles, rings again violently; at the moment Nanni appears at the head of the circular staircase, the clock is heard to strike forcefully.) NANNI: (coming down the stairs) Eh! My God! what's going on! Is Fritz deaf? (rapping that seems like it will break in; just as Nanni gets to the antechamber the door below can be heard being pushed in; she comes back terrified) Ah! My God! They're breaking everything. They're housebreakers! (Nanni goes to return up the stairway as Max appears at the back.) MAX: (dressed in black, very threadbare, shaggy, singularly pale, eyes excited, and abrupt in tone) Ah, finally! Is everybody dead, here? NANNI: What! It's you, Mr. Max? Ah! How you frightened me! MAX: (mopping his face and drying himself before the stove) It doesn't seem so, Miss Nanni, you didn't come to help at the ring and the door that I believe I smashed in. NANNI: Why, yes! You've done damage here! What is Mr. Tyss going to say? MAX: My worthy and peaceable friend, Master Peregrinus Tyss, won't say a thing, because he's rich enough to pay the damage, and he'll be satisfied to think that his house is poorly guarded, since his friends are forced to knock in the doors or cool their heels under torrents of icy rain that the water spouts are vomiting. NANNI: Ah, indeed! Did Fritz go out? MAX: Fritz! Who's that? the new servant? NANNI: Yes, the one who came yesterday. MAX: That fellow's making a good beginning! And why did you send away Ignace? ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS NANNI: I don't know, sir. MAX: You don't know? For true? NANNI: Mr. Tyss doesn't tell me his business. MAX: Yet you are still in his service? NANNI: No, sir, I am not in any one's service. MAX: (ironic) Yes, yes, that's true, pardon me! Your father practices the learned profession of bookbinding! He lives upstairs under the eaves and doesn't pay a large rent, I imagine, to Master Peregrinus. NANNI: He pays what he owes, sir. What do you mean? MAX: (coldly) Nothing. I say that you are pretty, very pretty. NANNI: I serve him because I want to serve him. He's such a good man! I really have to put this little Fritz “au courant” — MAX: And your parents don't oppose it? It's true that the well known disposition of Peregrinus doesn't expose you to great dangers! Does he dare to say Hello to you? NANNI: Yes, sir, very honestly. MAX: And good night? NANNI: Yes, sir. MAX: But that's all? NANNI: He speaks to me right away when he comes up to our home. He loves my father and my mother very much; he's very sweet to them. MAX: (rolling with his foot the big log decorated with ribbons) What's this? The Christmas log decorated by a young lady. (going to sit before the workbench, he touches everything distractedly and disturbs without concern anything that falls under his hand) This poor Peregrinus! He follows all the old bones of ancient Germany conscientiously! NANNI: Oh! That's true! In all Frankfurt there isn't a bourgeois who follows them more than he does. MAX: And yet the custom here is to marry young so as to have plenty of children; look what has happened thirty years without thinking of it. What do you think of that, Miss Nanni? NANNI: Me? I think he doesn't have time: he's seeking so many things. MAX: (laughing) Him, seeking! What if you please? NANNI: How do I know? Isn't he busy repairing the perpetual calendar of the famous clock of the Dome which worked so well they say for two hundred years and no longer works!

ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: Bah! Old Rossmayer, his master, tried that, too, and he never found it. NANNI: But if Mr. Tyss finds it, it will be a great honor for him! MAX: Do you find things when you aren't looking for them? NANNI: Ah! you think that? But that's not my concern, and it will be time to put the log in the stove so he doesn't find it with his legs. That Fritz didn't think of it. (Nanni picks up the log with difficulty.) MAX: Tell me, how is Master Peregrinus? NANNI: (on her knees near the stove) Why fine! Don't you see him every day? MAX: It's already been a week since I saw him, and they told me —Why you are going to catch a cold to put that log in the stove! You can plainly see that you are placing it too roughly in the vertical plane of the opening and that, if you angle it — NANNI: Oh! Damn, you are clever Doctor! But —look — MAX: Give it a little half turn to the right, it will enter. NANNI: I swear to you it doesn't want to. MAX: It doesn't want to? See this log full of spite. (he pushes the log with his foot) Here, that will make it hear reason. NANNI: But it sticks out too much, it will smoke. MAX: Well, let it shorten a little by burning, and you will be able to push it in completely. (aside) This big girl lacks judgement and I'm wasting my time to want to question her on what's happening here. It's better to see for myself. NANNI: Ah! I hear Fritz down below. (she goes to the back) What's this? A package to receive? I'm coming. (she leaves) MAX: (alone, seated on the left) I am quite sure that Ignace told me the truth this morning, and that he was not sent away for another misdeed than a little gossiping. Poor Peregrinus! This had to happen! A weak head, puerile ideas, a life ill spent, that is to say spent on everything! A fine situation, clockmaker! One becomes a clock oneself, they put you in a room in a box! It made his fortune, I wish him well, but it ruins his intelligence. (goes back to the workbench) NANNI: (appears in the back, talking to someone in the wings; she's carrying a big covered basket) Yes, yes, that's fine —ten thalers to write on the account. That's fine! Shut the door as you can, Fritz! (she heads toward the dining room) MAX: Miss Nanni! NANNI: (stopping) What, sir?

ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: What have you got there? NANNI: I don't know. MAX: Oh! indeed! You are in confidence. NANNI: Why, no! Master Tyss bought something and sent it home by the store errand boy. MAX: (who has gone up to her abruptly raises the cover) I was sure of it! Ignace told me the truth. Now this is deplorable! NANNI: What! Dolls, soldiers, children's toys. Ah! how like him and how pretty they are! MAX: (taking the toys and breaking them) Yes, for ten thalers, and they are pretty, pretty! NANNI: Ah! sir, what is it you are doing? MAX: You see, I am destroying a noxious, funereal thing. NANNI: (stupefied) Noxious? funereal? MAX: (still breaking them) Oh! you don't understand? You will understand later —if you can. Let's go, let's go into the fire with these crippled soldiers! to the devil with these birds, mongrels, golden sweets! NANNI: Ah! sir, mercy for this little lady in blue! She is so pretty! MAX: No mercy! Burn, burn! NANNI: (pointing to the door of the stove obstructed by the log) Impossible! MAX: Ah! yes, the log doesn't wish it. Well, out the window then! (he opens the window; a terrible wind roars outside; he throws the debris of the toys into the street) We will see if the wind refuses to carry off these rags! NANNI: (aside, as Max is at the window, she pulls an object from the bottom of the basket) Ah! if I could save something. Heavens! a little Christmas tree! MAX: (who has come back, snatching it from her hands) Perfect! There it is! I was expecting that. That will go perfectly to light the log! (Max breaks the little tree into match sticks and shoves it into the stove.) NANNI: Ah! Mr. Max! To destroy that, too! That's bad! Really, that will bring you bad luck! MAX: (irritated, and throwing the basket into the bonfire) Ah! Silly girl! Bring bad luck! It's you who are dragging poor Tyss into all these vapid beliefs! Well, do you know what brings bad luck to a man? NANNI: (intimidated) No, sir. MAX: And to a woman?

ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS NANNI: No. What is it? MAX: It's human stupidity, my sweet! (a voice is heard downstairs) Ah, there's this poor man returning. I am going to meet him. Sweep up, take it away, straighten up, hide all that! Quick, be at it! (Max leaves.) NANNI: (alone, picking up the debris) Strange man that Mr. Max! He frightens me! And all these pretty things destroyed! It wasn't so long ago that I was amused with these toys! This would have been for me a dream of paradise. But in that case for whom did Mr. Peregrinus buy all this? Did he want to give gifts to my little brothers and sisters like he did last year? Ah! nasty Mr. Max! PEREGRINUS: (entering enveloped in a comfortable garment, blond hair knotted in a ring, calm face, rosy and smiling, middle class clothes of fanciful velours, soft colors. Hair dressed modestly and carefully. To Max) Yes, indeed, yes, indeed, that'll be very fine, I already told you that. But who broke the door? (seeing Nanni with controlled emotion) Ah! you are here, my dear little Miss Loemirt? MAX: Loemirt? Ah! yes, that's my old bookbinder? PEREGRINUS: A worthy man, a very clever artisan, an artist one might say! NANNI: I've brought down your big volume, Mr. Tyss. PEREGRINUS: (who has taken off his gaiters and his coat and put them in a corner) Which one? Mechanical treatise. What, rebound already? NANNI: (presenting the book to him) Yes, we knew that you couldn't be deprived of it for long; we worked hard on it the night before last? PEREGRINUS: (moved and timid) You too? You yourself, Miss Nanni? NANNI: Oh! when it's a work for you my father doesn't want any other apprentice than me to assist him. He says you don't like letters which are drunk, meaning which dance around in the back of a volume like drunken people. PEREGRINUS: (examining it) You work to perfection, Miss Loemirt and your father is right to be proud of you. Did you bring the bill? NANNI: No, sir. My father begs you to accept this little work in recognition of the cares you gave to my grandmother. PEREGRINUS: Me? I didn't give any at all! NANNI: Oh! indeed! some good vintage wine, and Maltese oranges, and so many good words and consolations! You saved her, our poor old lady, and as long as we live, you will be blessed by us. MAX: (to Peregrinus, low, jesting) You don't say any great thing in reply, but you are leaving yourself enough room to pay court. It's a progress of sorts, do you know? You are still forgetting that I've come to see you. PEREGRINUS: No, I'm not forgetting, I'm charmed. ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: Charmed, charmed. That's not excessive. You had indeed fortified your door, which I was forced to push in. PEREGRINUS: Ah! It's you who? MAX: It's quite simple! I was looking for you, you were fleeing me. I determined to see you, an obstacle presented itself, a thing of wood and iron that I could not persuade. It was a question of who is the stronger. PEREGRINUS: (smiling) Yes, yes, that's fair. I am satisfied with the power of your fist; but where'd you get the idea that I am avoiding you? (a bit embarrassed) I had to work, it's true. But from the moment that it's you — MAX: You are working against bad fortune, good heart? PEREGRINUS: Why do you say this to me? MAX: My dear fellow, there is so much in a little physiognomy; one sees people's preoccupation despite their embarrassed words and their constrained smiles. (ironic and lowering his voice) Perhaps, Don Juan, you would prefer to remain alone with Zerlina? PEREGRINUS: (naively) Ah! indeed! (aloud) I thank you, Miss Nanni. I don't wish to keep you any longer. (Max goes to sit on the armchair at the left.) MAX: (excitedly) Ah! no indeed! As for me, I am dining here, and if your new valet serves the way he opens doors, I would prefer Miss Nanni to be involved in it. NANNI: Yes, yes, I'm going to look after supper; don't torture yourself about it, Mr. Tyss! PEREGRINUS: You are too good. (taking her aside at the back) And tell me, you didn't see? they didn't bring? MAX: (who has heard without disturbing himself) A big basket? Indeed, indeed! It's taken care of. Go, go, Miss Nanni, this is my concern. (Nanni leaves.) PEREGRINUS: (uneasily) Then, this basket? MAX: It's not a question of the basket! Sit down so I can question you! PEREGRINUS: (sitting down before the workbench) You wish to interrogate me? About what? MAX: How are you feeling? PEREGRINUS: Where'd you get the idea that I am sick? MAX: Answer! PEREGRINUS: I feel fine. And so?

ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: Let's see your pulse! PEREGRINUS: Why? Ah, it's some study you're making of circulation? (as Max examines his pulse) So, you've finally decided to become a doctor? MAX: Doctor, me? God keep me from it! It's really the most stupid profession! PEREGRINUS: Ah! I believe it. What are you going to do with all your science? MAX: It's not a question of me. Look at me, there, in the eyes! PEREGRINUS: ( Still soft and calm) Whatever you like —(a pause) well? MAX: The face —the shape —the density. PEREGRINUS: You are busy as well with craniology? MAX: Me, believe in such asininity? PEREGRINUS: Well, then? MAX: Your pulse is calm, your eyes are pure, your face is damp. You are well built. Do you have an appetite? Do you sleep well? PEREGRINUS: Like a log. MAX: No depression? PEREGRINUS: None at all! MAX: Nor uneasiness? PEREGRINUS: I'm not subject to it. MAX: No ambition? PEREGRINUS: Not so stupid! MAX: And no animosity? PEREGRINUS: I don't know what it is. MAX: How about love? Ah, love, let's see, be frank. PEREGRINUS: (smiling, a little embarrassed) Love? Bah! Love leaves me quite undisturbed, go on! MAX: In that case, my friend, you're not very well and I wouldn't give a pfennig for your skin. PEREGRINUS: To whom would you give it? And what does this jesting mean?

ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: (returning to his armchair and speaking like a professor) I am not joking! My friend Peregrinus, you are lost, lost without return, if you don't change your regimen, your character, your habits, your morals and your occupation. Wretch! Don't you see that you have atrophied deplorably in the heavy well−being and nausea of a regular life? Do you believe that man was created to be absorbed into an industrial specialty? Still, if you sought some perfection in this specialty? Why, here you are rich and you think you are quits with yourself. Is it a normal existence to spend summers in a little estate in the country trimming hedges and grafting roses; in winter to snore in a corner by a nice fire, to collect engravings, canes and snuff boxes? At that rate, my good friend, with this splendid health and carelessness, you are going straight to cretinism. Let's see what do you have to say to that? PEREGRINUS: (smiling) Three little words for your big phrases : I am happy. MAX: Happy! happy! Now there's the response of a clockmaker! Happy! They think they've said it all, these ignorant routiners, when they've pronounced the formula of their stupidity with emphasis: I am happy! PEREGRINUS: Eh! why, if it's a stupidity to be content with one's fate I wish to be stupid at my ease, and I beg you to leave me as I am! MAX: Now that's what I'll really be careful to do! I bear you too much friendship to consent to it. Listen to me and try to understand. Having no conscience of your being, and replacing the work of thought with vague contemplations and incoherent images, your mind is like an abandoned wall on which moss and mushrooms grow. Help yourself, my poor friend, help yourself; because, one of these days, you will really awaken like a snail, and you will want to crawl on the trunk of a tree, or you will think yourself a bat and you will flee ruined before the light. PEREGRINUS: That would be bizarre, but I hope that won't happen to me. You are a little exaggerated in your theories, and, by studying the organs of the brain, perhaps you've seen too closely of the danger. As for me, I also know, that reason clings to a thread, and that the border between wisdom and extravagance is as delicate as the shadow of hair on the wall; but it's no use tormenting oneself, and I don't see that your delirious activity preserves you better than does my sweet nonchalance. I see that you sin by the contrary excess; you neglect your physical life too much. You spend weeks almost without sleeping and without eating, deprived of pure air and withering over your books. I think that must be a fine regimen for your mind and your body! MAX: Oh! as for me, my dear fellow, I risk nothing! I have surrounded my skull with an impenetrable steel logic! I've seen the danger. I had imagination like any one else; but I have put that madness at the door of logic, with big kicks in the ass, meaning a great effort to know, with experiments and reasonable hypotheses. Reason, my dear Peregrinus, pure, implacable guardian of our faculties, everything is there, and there's nothing except that! PEREGRINUS: To know! MAX: What do you mean, to know? PEREGRINUS: Eh! my God, yes, who knows? As for me, all is summed up in hope, and I prefer to believe to believe amusing and slightly fanciful things, than to be absolutely sure that nothing exists. MAX: Ah! Now we are there. The fantastic! You still have this tendency? PEREGRINUS: Well, why not? As for me, I am German, a good and true German in all things! MAX: Yes, poetry to escape from wheels and axles. ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: Jest, I really wish it! As for you, you stick to cosmopolitanism, you seek omniscience, you learn a thousand fine things. That's fine, I admire it; but you want to touch everything, to submit everything to reasoning, to judge everything. I don't see that that leads you anywhere. Here you are, almost the same age as me, without position, without rest, perhaps without a future. MAX: My dear friend, listen carefully, when I feel the need to be classed in the troupe of routine, I will give six weeks or two months to perfecting some sort of specialisation. With the habit of analysis that I posses, I won't need more than that and I have only to embrace a choice. I will pull it out of my hat, you see, my good man! PEREGRINUS: You are not modest, but that's your right: you are a superior man, you are! Not everybody can — MAX: Everybody can protect themselves from being besotted, and being besotted is the consequence of the exclusive development of a specialty. That's what caused them to invent the proverb that shoemakers are the worst shod. Example: what time is it? PEREGRINUS: (surprised, he looks in his pocket and around him) What time? Hell, it must be around eight. MAX: What time is it exactly? PEREGRINUS: Exactly? I don't know. MAX: Which proves in a peremptory manner that clock−makers are useless. Would you like me to tell you the time to within a half minute? I have only to open this window and look at the first star: it's no worse than that. PEREGRINUS: I challenge you to do it! MAX: You dare me? (opening the window) Ah! it's not my fault if there's only one single star to be seen. PEREGRINUS: You see that clock−makers are useful for something? MAX: (closing the window) That's not always the case here. You don't even have a watch. PEREGRINUS: You ruined mine or you broke mine a week ago! You know indeed that I gave you the last one the other day. MAX: Ah! hold on, it's true! Well, I thank you again for it, but it is detestable, it doesn't work. PEREGRINUS: Let's see! (taking the watch from Max) It's not surprising, you forgot to — MAX: But your grandfather clock, this precious antique, which stopped last year? PEREGRINUS: (returning the watch and pointing to the study) The grandfather clock? The mechanism is there. I am in the process of repairing it, and precisely tonight I am putting it in its box. MAX: (looking at the clock in its imitation cabinet which is on a pedestal attached to the wall, beneath the door at the back) Yes, in its monument! Why, what good is a machine to count the hours of your nothingness?

ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: Ah, really! what is the matter with you for you to chide me this way today? I've never seen you so terrible! MAX: You want to know what I have against you? PEREGRINUS: Yes, I'd like to know. MAX: Well, do you know what a Christmas tree is? PEREGRINUS: (surprised and embarrassed) A Christmas tree? MAX: Yes, an infant's toy, with lit candles, with ribbons, fruits, candies, with puppets hanging from the branches? As for me, I think it's an unfortunate man who falls into infancy, a man who becomes idiotic or mad, and that man, it's you! PEREGRINUS: (troubled, rising) Max, who told you this? MAX: The valet that you kicked out yesterday. He soon came to me to reveal your mania, and he did the right thing, for I ran here, as you see. PEREGRINUS: If you listen to the talk of a drunken valet — MAX: Oh! don't try to deceive me! I saw a certain basket arrive here, that you just reclaimed, and I warn you that you won't see it again, because I did it swift and proper justice; I threw it all in the fire and in the street! PEREGRINUS: (very affected) Ah! you threw —? Well, Max, you've caused me pain, great pain! MAX: Ah! There it is! PEREGRINUS: Yes, there's my folly, I really want it, but yours is more cruel; you wanted to efface from my life a very modest, well hidden dream! And why, I ask you? To render homage to I don't know what phantom of cold and twisted reason, which will perhaps betray you, you first of all. Allow humble folk who are quiet their innocent pleasures and their mysterious contemplations. Hold on, I am annoyed to tell you, but you did a bad thing there, and if my house were not protected by an influence superior to yours, you would have brought misfortune to it. I've felt the counter blow of your barbarous procedure, returning to my home just now I stepped on the debris; it seemed to me that I heard beneath my feet, weak complaints, and that my roof wept tears. My clock was broken, my lock, excellent and precious work of an old friend. (Max shrugs) That you haven't appreciated enough, perhaps! The lock of Master Rossmayer was forced open and damaged. The hammer used by the hand of my fathers, lying on the pavement in the mud! Finally, my door sill was violated and outraged! A mortal cold passed through my face like a diabolic whiff. Max, I don't want to forget our friendship from infancy, but I declare to you that by insulting these pious souvenirs, things you don't understand, you've saddened my soul and perhaps offended a memory that is dear to me! (he sits back, very upset, in an armchair) MAX: So, you admit your illness? you proclaim your stupidity? You shiver over the toys of flaxen hair and cardboard as if I massacred living creatures? Truly, yes! and for so little you will treat me like Herod! To see you this way, wouldn't they say, like a mother who had been ravished of her infants? PEREGRINUS: (losing his patience) Her children her children —Well, who knows if I don't have children? MAX: Are you speaking truthfully? You a father and you've hidden it from me? ACT I

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: Mind your own business and don't meddle with mine! MAX: Come on, calm down. PEREGRINUS: Yes, let's be calm, someone's coming. (Enter Nanni.) NANNI: (all atremble) Mr. Peregrinus, supper is waiting for you. PEREGRINUS: (agitated) Yes, indeed! Thanks, Miss Loemirt. Come Max. (Peregrinus leaves, Nanni, uneasy, follows him with astonished eyes.) MAX: (stopping at the back and returning) A word, Nanni, quick. Is it true that Peregrinus has a child? NANNI: Ah! my God! I've never heard tell of that! MAX: (to himself) I am quite sure he intends to deceive me, but — NANNI: Ah! still, if he told you! MAX: Never mind, I'm staying here, I won't leave him! Make me up a bed in his apartment. NANNI: Why, there's no bed but his — MAX: (pointing to the circular staircase) Well, up there! NANNI: (recoiling with terror) In the locked room? MAX: Yes, the room of old Rossmayer. He comes back there, I know that; but it's all the same to me. I love revenants, I do. (he leaves) NANNI: What frightful thing is happening here? Mr. Peregrinus seems enraged —and he has a child! And Mr. Max who wants to sleep in a ghost's room! What happenings, great god! And the wind growling—I don't know where I am! (she leaves) CURTAIN

ACT II Still wind and rain. PEREGRINUS: (alone, coming from the right at the back) Since my persecutor is now savoring his coffee and absorbed in I don't know what problem on the topic of breaking walnuts —I'd really like to know if Miss Loemirt —(looking at the back) But I don't dare make any sign to her. When you try to be alone with a young girl, you always seem —Surely, as for me, I am not thinking of telling her about it. Such an honest person —so respectable! (moved) Ah! there she is. What is it I wanted to say to her? (he pretends to be looking for something on the bench) NANNI: (aside, looking at him) I would really like to question him, but I don't dare. ACT II

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: (pretending surprise) Ah! it's you, Miss Nanni? NANNI: You are looking for something, Mr. Peregrinus? PEREGRINUS: I am searching —without searching! Ah! tell me —you were there when Max broke and burned the objects that I destined — NANNI: For your little child, right, Mr. Tyss? Oh, don't fear anything; I see plainly that your marriage is a great secret, and I will keep it faithfully, be sure of it. Is the little one going to come here? PEREGRINUS: If he comes —it will only be towards midnight and you will be asleep at that time. NANNI: What a misfortune! I who would have so much liked to see him! PEREGRINUS: Perhaps he won't come! To what good? I no longer have any diversions to give him, no more Christmas tree, nothing —because Max destroyed everything, right? NANNI: Alas, all. PEREGRINUS: Even the tree? NANNI: He made lights for the stove with it! But it's only nine o'clock Mr. Tyss; they could make other toys come. PEREGRINUS: No, it's useless. Max is determined not to leave me and I don't want — NANNI: You don't want him to see your son? PEREGRINUS: Did I say I had a son? NANNI: I believe so! During supper — PEREGRINUS: Yes, I said that for —(surprised, hearing feet resonating in the floor above) Why, who's that walking up there, in the locked room? NANNI: (terrified) Ah! Jesus! someone's walking? PEREGRINUS: It must be Fritz. NANNI: Ah! yes, it's Fritz. Max ordered him to make a bed for him. PEREGRINUS: In that room unoccupied for more than twenty years? NANNI: Twenty years! PEREGRINUS: That's where an old friend of my family dwelled, a man quite simple in appearance, vulgar even, a poor worker, but a man of genius in his own right. NANNI: Oh! I know, the old mechanic, Master Rossmayer. My grandmother often spoke to me of him, she knew him. He passed for a sorcerer because of the beautiful works he made. And that annoys you, that they're sleeping in his room? ACT II

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: Yes, especially Max, who mocks everything! NANNI: Suppose he wanted to break the furniture! PEREGRINUS: No! Max is a reasonable man, and will have no motive this time. Ah! still, you make me think of something. There's a precious toy up there. Yes, yes, under the pretext of protecting me from a mania, Max really might destroy that, too! I am going to go find it to place it in safety. (going up the stairway and disappearing) NANNI: Ah! if I had known what pain this would cause him, I would not have given the keys to Fritz; but perhaps there is yet time to prevent Mr. Max from remaining! PEREGRINUS: (coming down with a large box) Here, dear miss, behold my treasure: where shall we put it? NANNI: In that case, what is it? PEREGRINUS: A box full of marionettes! I prize it only because of —(he puts the box away) Allow me! there is also the theatre that I placed there. (bringing the theatre out) I will explain to you — NANNI: Ah! quick, under the stairway! There, I think, Mr. Max is coming. (they hide the box and the stage) And now I am going to tell him that the room upstairs is very dilapidated. PEREGRINUS: It will only make him more obstinate, and he is not a little so anyway. Then the weather is still— NANNI: Since he'll be staying near here —Don't seem —here he is! MAX: (holding a walnut which he examines. His napkin hangs distractedly from his buttonhole.) You said it was more difficult to make a watch than to break a walnut; and as for me, I was telling you that the one is as simple as the other; I am going to demonstrate that to you. PEREGRINUS: No, no, thanks! I prefer to give you satisfaction. MAX: Ah! laziness! Your brain cannot make the least effort of paying attention! If I told you what you will become — PEREGRINUS: Yes, snail, bat, whatever you like! (Max sits and reads in Treatise on Mechanics, which is on the bench.) NANNI: (low to Peregrinus) Don't answer him or he will hold forth for two hours! PEREGRINUS: You are right. I am going to act like I'm going to retire. (aloud) Good evening, Max! good night! MAX: Ah! you are going to bed at nine o'clock now? PEREGRINUS: That's my custom, you know that quite well. MAX: So be it! Good evening —You are rising in the morning?

ACT II

14

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: Late. MAX: (jesting, still holding his book) At midnight, perhaps? PEREGRINUS: Why do you say that to me? MAX: Fine, fine! I didn't say anything. Goodnight. NANNI: (low to Peregrinus) Go! go! When he's gone up I will send Fritz to warn you. No need to renounce celebrating Christmas. I shall take care of it! PEREGRINUS: (moved and timid, low) Ah! truly! you —you are? (aside, leaving) She is an angel for me, that little lady! (Exit Peregrinus.) MAX: My friend Peregrinus is charming! He is so tricky — NANNI: You are imagining things. MAX: I imagine nothing! What! I see clearly that he is falling asleep. And you, too, you are going to yawn any minute! All this, is not to send me away! surely you wouldn't think of it. (he keeps reading) NANNI: (aside) This villainous man guesses everything. Well, I am going to speak to him about —(aloud) Hold on, Mr. Max, you are guessing that there's something wrong! Mr. Tyss is afraid of you mocking him; but as for me, that's no concern at all, make as much fun as you like; I won't say any the less that you are wrong to remain here despite — MAX: Despite what? NANNI: Despite the spirits in the house; who don't like to be disturbed on Christmas night. MAX: Spirits? Ah! wow! this is still a house where spirituality is much lacking? NANNI: Not when you are here, Mr. Max! MAX: (bowing) Thanks. NANNI: Then you don't believe? (the logs crack loudly) Ah! there! MAX: (who has not budged) That logs crack when the oven gets hot? If they didn't submit to the effect of temperature, they would be in revolt against the law of shrinkage, which is a law of physics most well known, and that's when you would have a subject to be astonished about and to be terrified. NANNI: Ah! that's possible. (an unbridled racing of mice can be heard along with little squeals) Ah! My God! MAX: (unmoved) It appears the rats are holding a penury session? I will be much at ease to observe their frolics. NANNI: (aside) He's afraid of nothing, and I'm almost afraid of myself when I speak to him of spirits! (aloud) Then, as for you, you believe in nothing, Mr. Max? ACT II

15

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: What do you mean nothing? Can one believe in nothing? I believe in everything that is. NANNI: Yes, in all that can be seen and touched? MAX: No, because I cannot touch the moon and I cannot see the principle of life; but I believe what reason demonstrates to me. NANNI: And yet if you saw a ghost? MAX: I will tell myself that I really am not seeing anything; and that I'm having a hallucination; but as for me, I'll never have to do it! They only come to those who believe in them. NANNI: I swear to you, Mr. Max, that my grandmother wasn't a liar, and she often saw — MAX: The old mechanic, right? (sneezing can be heard near Max, several times) Ah! ah! now there's a revenant who's got a head cold! NANNI: (shocked) Ah! there you go with your mockery, you are enraging the spirits, and as for me, I —Truly, I'm too scared, I cannot remain here! (she flees and locks the door behind her) MAX: (alone, laughing) Ha! ha! the little lady is taken in her own trap. —She thought —(fantastic sneezing) Right! it's almost in my ear! Some fissure in the wall is bringing me noises that are produced in the dining room —or elsewhere. Let's see, since I glance at this old book. The mechanic, doesn't appear to be sorcery to me. (a little dry and mysterious laugh around him) Huh? Ah! yes, always the acoustic transmission! Then it's to examine this book that my friend Peregrinus has spent his life! He studied it —annotated it. But I see here no trace of the works of his master. Indeed, I know that old Rossmayer barely knew how to write; he was a complete illiterate, speaking ill and talking nonsense in the last years of his life. (repeated crackling of wood, Max pays no attention) But he must have been able to leave some sketches, some plan —for in short, he had an idea, that old boy! at least he seemed to be seeking something. (mysterious sneering) Something more evil than musical clocks, with cuckoos and perpetual calendars. (dreaming) Perpetual —perpetual motion? (more accentuated laughing) No, he wasn't seeking that. He never would have dared! When one makes trifles, children's toys like this —(he takes the movement of the pendulum resting on the table) A VOICE: (broken and bizarre, speaking to Max's left) Don't touch! don't touch! MAX: (without paying attention, as something black waves behind the glass of the window on the left) For this here is one of his last works, this famous pendulum, which, as it sounds, makes a cock sing, to the great amazement of servants and children. (he studies the movement) Yes, there are the stems that make the wings move, and here under my hand the spring that produces them. (Max takes from the table a pointed instrument to touch the mechanism. The window at the left opens and an owl appears on the windowsill.) OWL: Don't touch! Don't touch! MAX: (absorbed, listening mechanically) Don't touch? That was the distressed cry of old Rossmayer when we approached his instruments. (feeling the wind without turning) Heavens! the wind has opened the window and brought words to me from the street which seem apropos to me. That's chance! Now that's what produces fantasies in credulous minds. (he places the mechanism on the bench) But it's cold, the devil! (rises and goes to the window, and sees the owl which rolls its haggard eyes and flaps its wings) Right! what have you come to do here? Look, bird of Minerva, go about your business, as for me, I don't believe in omens! (the owl flies ACT II

16

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS off screeching; Max closes the window and returns to the work bench) Yes, the purpose of such a shallow science will be found. If I were to dust this off I would simplify it! (he takes up the pointed instrument and thrusts it in the mechanism) This, first of all, seems to me — (Max touches the spring, which pops under his fingers. The bell sounds furiously. Max sets the mechanism on the table and remains a moment surprised and motionless. The golden cock on the pendulum flaps its wings and sings three times over the empty case. Max turns stupefied, The bells stops ringing on the work bench.) OWL'S VOICE: (behind the glass) Broken, broken! you broke it! MAX: (looking towards the window) That voice again? And this cock who sings up there when his mechanism is in my hand? Ah! I am there. There's an echo in this room which displaces normal audition! Some object placed by chance in a manner that produces an apparent aberration of the auditory sensation. That's very curious! Let's see what it can be. (looking about) I don't see anything changed here. Still, this must come from the stairway. (looking down in the depth) Ah! that box! It is not ordinarily there. That must be the cause. (he takes the box of marionettes and places it in the middle of the room) Let's see now. (he returns to work bench and strikes the bell which gives off a dry and cracked tone) Have I then broken it? Let's try something else. (raps on the bench) This is a normal sound. (he raps on the box of marionettes which responds with a formidable noise) Ah! (he raises, examines and shakes the box) It's light, it seems empty —Still, it's locked! But I can break the cover. (he raps several times on the lid, which resists, and at each hammer blow the fantastic uproar is repeated with a terrifying and amusing intensity; he dries his face and lets his hammer fall, troubled) I don't understand it! Me, not understand? Come on! The explanation —here it is —it's a phenomenon which is being produced in me alone! it's exasperation, a distraction; no! a subtle and completely remarkable development of auditory functions. I know it very well, by means of exercising my intellectual faculties, I will succeed in increasing tenfold the power of my sense organs! (a bit distracted, aside) Surely, everything is a miracle in nature, and it belongs to superior organisms to possess these marvelous powers that the vulgar attribute to magic. (taking a light from the table) I am going to climb up to Rossmayer's chamber and from there, soaring over the town, I shall hear all the noises of the horizon, I will exercise this new faculty that I possess —And who knows to what discoveries this may lead me. (he disappears as he talks at the height of the stairway) (The stage remains empty and dark momentarily. The wind can be heard roaring in blasts and rain falling in waves. The owl is screeching on the roof: The weather cock grates. The box which remained in the middle of the room, opens itself, and from it emerge a bunch of children's toys; after which the ghost of master Rossmayer emerges in his turn, small, thin, and colorless; he starts wandering about in a sprightly way, although bent and broken by age. He's clothed in a dusty cloak, with grey, threadbare shoes and an old leather apron. A short little pigtail escapes his bonnet and waves in a strange manner. His quavering voice resembles that of a parakeet, and screeches more than speaks.) GHOST: Peace! silence! shut−up old owl! (the owl goes silent) Mr. wind and madame rain, that's fine, well performed, very well done, but don't make so much noise. (the wind abates) When one is at home, one wishes to hear oneself talk, what the devil! (the weathercocks make less noise) Right! amuse yourself with the weathercocks, spirits of the night! they were put up there for you. And you, spirits of the hearth, amuse yourselves, bestir yourselves! This is Christmas night, where in the homes of fine folks balls are given. The celebration begins, begone! (complete silence) Well? Ah! I understand, you don't dare put yourselves ahead of time? But, still, you must begin so that the prodigy will be accomplished! Go on, pendulum, go on, my daughter, lend us midnight for a moment You don't need your cycle for that habit! (the empty pendulum makes a dial appear; it strikes and marks midnight) Very fine! Come on, old stove! Light all your guests! (the stove opens and spreads a red light throughout the room) Sing, crickets! creak, old furniture! relax your hangings at your ease; strut, smile, shout —And the rest of you, little gentlemen, little ladies, little horses, little workers, what are you doing there? (the toys become active) Oh! but in tune, then. (taking an old violin ACT II

17

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS from the wall, he extracts some sharp and discordant sounds. Sabbath. All the toys start to gyrate: the little mills turn, the little workers work, the dogs bay, the carriages trot, the cavaliers gallop, the ladies dance, a cloud of mice strut around the ghost, who directs their frolics while marking the figures with his foot. The wind and the rain are raging outside. The stove snores prodigiously, the owl, the crickets, the weathercocks, the bell, the street clock, which has regained its voice, make a strange uproar, and the ghost leaps about in disordered manner as if he wanted to fly off, and as if he was going to break) Enough! (all go silent abruptly) I hear the good Nanni, my protege coming: she's searching for something she cannot find in the house and it's a question of giving it to her! Go, Yule log, they made you some music, they put you in a good mood; it's a question of giving us a green branch without ceasing to burn. Quickly, quickly, fat log, puff a bit, become green and give. (a long branch of green emerges from the enflamed log) Now that is nice! Thanks, good log! Your ashes will go on the meadow and you will be reborn in a beautiful meadow full of flowers! Hide yourself, pendulum, my darling! (the dial vanishes; the oven shuts, only a feeble sound is still heard) Silence over there in the corners! these gambols never have enough of the dance. (replacing the violin on the wall) Don't be afraid, Nanni, I am protecting you. (He goes back into the box, which vanishes with him and which soon reappears under the stairway from which Max took it. Nanni enters followed by Peregrinus.) NANNI: (at the back) Come, come, Mr. Peregrinus! I heard Mr. Max enter up above. He made lots of noise; but now everything is quiet, and I think he's sleeping. (stopping before the toys) Ah! PEREGRINUS: What's that mean? Are you —? NANNI: (who has other toys in her basket) Why, no! here, I've brought down all the remaining ones that you gave to children of our house last year. They are unfortunately quite broken, but here are some that are superb, and this beautiful branch to replace our Christmas tree! Take a look! PEREGRINUS: I don't understand a thing and I don't see how Max was able to bring —Did he leave while I pretended to be asleep? NANNI: As for me, I don't know! I was upstairs. Do you think he would be capable of —? PEREGRINUS: Eh! my God!, Max is good although he affects harshness! He must have seen that he caused me pain and he must have wanted to repair his misdeed. NANNI: It's strange! PEREGRINUS: Still, it must indeed be him since it is neither you nor I! NANNI: (who has rid herself of the toys, and helped Peregrinus gather those of the ghost) Indeed, we are still going to straighten them out, right? PEREGRINUS: And you will bring them tomorrow to your home? NANNI: Well, and your little son; it's decided that he won't come? PEREGRINUS: Indeed! the child will come because — NANNI: In that case I'm going to put up the tree, decorate it and arrange it. I've brought ribbons down just for that.

ACT II

18

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: You want to take this trouble? NANNI: Yes, yes! I have plenty of time it; it's ten o'clock. PEREGRINUS: But, your parents will be worried about you? NANNI: Not at all. I told them you were expecting a little child and that if you had need of me to amuse him I would stay until midnight. PEREGRINUS: (softened and timid) Then —since you've thought of everything —Do you know, Miss Loemirt, that you are really nice, very lovable indeed, very obliging! NANNI: Oh! what I can do for you is such a small thing! But, since you esteem me a little, Mr. Peregrinus, do me a great pleasure, tell me about him. Tell me how old he is. PEREGRINUS: Who? the child? NANNI: Yes, and what's his name? PEREGRINUS: Then you are very interested in him? NANNI: Oh! I love him with all my heart. Indeed, you will allow me to see him, won't you? And when is it they are going to bring him? PEREGRINUS: Dear Miss Loemirt, would you allow me to tell you a story? NANNI: (who has seated herself to strip a little branch and put ribbons on it) Oh! yes, for goodness sakes. This will interest me a great deal while I am working. PEREGRINUS: (finding a chair and coming to sit in front of her near the stove) Well, I'll begin. There was a time in the beautiful and celebrated city of Frankfort am Main — NANNI: In our city? in our street perhaps? PEREGRINUS: Exactly. It was in Kalbach street, and in an old house that much resembled this one! In this town, in this street, in this house lived an honest and numerous family by name of —But, I will tell you the name later. NANNI: Yes, yes, when you wish. PEREGRINUS: The seven children — NANNI: There were seven? PEREGRINUS: There were eight, even, for there was also there the son of a neighbor, and he was called Max, like my friend the doctor of sciences. Then, there were beautiful children, save the youngest, who, without being deformed nor sulky, was so reserved, so quiet, so timid, that he was willingly forgotten in a corner so as not to bother the others, more likable and witty ones. NANNI: Poor little one! he's the one I would have liked the best.

ACT II

19

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: He wasn't to be pitied, for even though he didn't know how to flatter or caress, he loved deeply! He adored his parents, his brothers, and sisters and his friend, Max, and he was content to love them. He didn't need anything else. There are characters like that. (bending his knee little by little before Nanni) Persons who do not know how to express themselves, to demand anything and who still —(Nanni looks at him astonished; he picks up a ribbon that she has let fall and presents it to her respectfully) And besides, he had a friend, an old godfather who especially took great care of him. NANNI: (uneasy) A godfather? PEREGRINUS: Yes, the excellent man and facile worker, Noel Rossmayer. NANNI: Ah! my God! is your story a frightening one, Mr. Peregrinus? PEREGRINUS: No! don't be afraid. Now then, the wise clockmaker taught his art to the little boy in question, and in his moments of leisure, made very ingenious toys for him, marionettes, soldiers with springs which did their exercises, animals which seemed to walk by themselves, mills which turned —and on Christmas eve he would give him all this hanging from a beautiful tree all brilliant with lights. The child respected these beautiful toys and would never have broken them but his brothers, more turbulent, and especially Max, curious to see what the toys had inside their heads and bodies, destroyed them pitilessly. And the godfather scolded! Each year he said to the little boy: “Here are the last gifts I am going to make, if next year you cannot at least show me one undamaged —or repaired by you.” The child wept. He would never have dared to repair it no matter what, so much respect had he for the science of his master, and he didn't know how to refuse his brother, his friend. He didn't know how to lie, to hiss, nor call for help; he was afraid of being punished by these dear tyrants who took everything from him. One day, the godfather, who was very old, felt himself dying, and having called him to him, said to him: “My dear Peregrinus —” NANNI: He had the same name as you? PEREGRINUS: He had the same name as me, and he was twelve years old. And as he was weeping to see his master so pale, so shaking: “you are weeping because you love me, said the old geezer; “but your character is weak. Just as you have always allowed them to take and destroy the toys I prepared for you, so you will allow to be effaced by time and distractions the sage advice and useful lessons I have given you. You will be a conscientious artisan, but lacking in genius and invention. You will be rich and esteemed but you will never have the glory of attaching your name to a discovery, at least one I have not been involved in, and —But it is too late now —I no longer recognize myself. Goodbye! be honest and charitable and think of your godfather, at least once a year —on Christmas eve!” So then, my dear Miss Loemirt, the godfather was my godfather, the child was me, and the Christmas tree you are preparing is a sort of celebratory bouquet that I am offering in secret, each year, to the memory of my very worthy and dear friend Master Noel Rossmayer. NANNI: Well, you are right, Mr. Peregrinus, and I would never be afraid of him. I love him now that I know how he loved you. Do you —do you see him on Christmas Eve? PEREGRINUS: (going to take back the chair) No, I don't see him, even after midnight. I remain there to watch until two in this work room where he gave me lessons, and in the midst of objects that come from him; I take happiness in recalling to myself his face, his words —for I haven't done great honor to his instruction; at least I've kept my word of being an honest man and of not forgetting him. NANNI: Oh! yes, surely! But isn't it true they say he returns? PEREGRINUS: Would it please heaven that he wanted to return! he would be welcome in my home! Alas, I've done my best to imagine that I heard him and that I am talking with him. ACT II

20

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS NANNI: Ah! you imagine —? PEREGRINUS: My dear child, I am not like my friend Max; I do not wish to sound the depths, and I would be desolated to deny with certainty certain sweet and mysterious things. Hold on! I've kept this verse from an old French poet. The soul lends eyes to a heart truly pure and clean. That says a lot, and there's nothing terrible or laughable in it. NANNI: I understand, Mr. Tyss! Allow me to light the Christmas tree with you at midnight, to think a little bit in your company about the godfather —and then I will leave you to watch peacefully all alone. PEREGRINUS: Ah! my dear —dear miss Loemirt —I will owe you a great pleasure. NANNI: (very moved) I am going to take all this into the kitchen to attach the candles, and you, since you must watch, you ought to sleep for an hour. I will go knock on your door when it sounds a quarter to midnight. PEREGRINUS: Truly? you want me to leave you instead of assisting you? NANNI: Yes, yes, I'm no longer frightened, see! I'm going all by myself! Get some rest! (she leaves) PEREGRINUS: (alone) She's doing me a service by going! I was so softened up —charming girl! ah, if I dared —But she wants me to go to sleep a little —to please her—since she wishes it —I'm going to pretend to. (leaving with the light) THE GHOST: (alone, emerging partially from the mouth of the stove) Coward, go! clumsy! That's just the thing! go to sleep! Ah! I will never make anything of that child! (he disappears) CURTAIN

ACT III The Christmas tree has been put up, decorated and lit. Nanni is by herself attaching some decorations. The heaven is starlit. The wind has died down. NANNI: (alone) Now there: it's ready! Is it pretty? Yes, I did my best! (a clock sounds in the distance) It's quarter before midnight! Fritz is asleep. Mr. Max is really dozing, I don't hear him strutting around any more. I am going to arrange things a bit downstairs and then I will awaken Mr. Peregrinus. (looking at the Christmas tree again) So long as he is satisfied! Oh, yes, he will be satisfied, I think. (she leaves by the back) MAX: (alone, descending the stairway, pensively) Yes, certainly, the sidereal motion and the motion of all parts of the universe can be compared to the functions of a well regulated organism, and it will not be impossible to resume that thought. But all this is tumultuously seizing my wit, and I will do well to write measuredly since there is some illumination here. (seeing the tree) Ah! ah! the madness of Mr. Peregrinus triumphs; it's here in all it's splendor! I must render him the service of again destroying this trophy of his dementia, for he's no more a father than I am, and he will engender nothing but stupidities. (he goes to knock the tree over, which suddenly fades away before his hand) GHOST'S VOICE: Don't touch!

ACT III

21

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS (The room is lit only by the greenish reflection of the moon. The Ghost emerges from the stairway that Max has just descended. Max looks at him for a moment meditatively.) MAX: Who are you? GHOST: You know me quite well! (his face is lit up by a very clear ray of moonlight) MAX: (surprised) I knew old Rossmayer in my childhood, and you are someone who resembles him, that's all. GHOST: It's still him that you see. MAX: Leave me alone! You are dead and buried for the last twenty−three years, my brave man! GHOST: It's useless to be a great savant, that doesn't know anything, little Max! Seek, children, the secret of life, but that of death, don't touch, don't touch! MAX: Little Max —don't touch! My word you imitate him very well, I think I am hearing him. GHOST: You are seeing me, you are hearing me. Does one die! Does life perish like an old nut planted in the earth! MAX: That's not very badly argued for a dead man, and I was thinking exactly that just now, on the topic of a walnut and a watch; —but I don't wish to dream waking, nor distract my mind with the recollection of your old paradoxes. The mind is never dressed in the same body it has used, what the devil! GHOST: What do you know about it? MAX: I know about it —I know about it —You are pretending to resume the course of your existence which you abandoned? you would be one hundred and twenty−one years old! So, you are too old, you are in your dotage, you are raving, Mr. Ghost, and I am being very nice to listen to you. (he wants to leave by the back) GHOST: You are going, little Max; you are afraid! MAX: Me afraid? For goodness sakes! Of what do you want me to be afraid? Of nothing, for you are nothing, nothing but a phantom of my imagination! GHOST: Would you have the courage to give me your hand? MAX: To touch emptiness? (he touches the hand the ghost extends to him) The Devil! you are cold! But, you see, ghost, in the dream even, a vigorous mind gives itself an account of the illusion it is forced to submit to, —and —Release my hand! (coming back down with effort and unease the steps he has mounted) What the devil, I am not Don Juan! and I have never killed the littlest commander! (seeing the ghost near him) Ah! an obsession! GHOST: Don't you have something to ask of me? MAX: (terrified) You know —(smiling) Eh! yes, surely, since you are my own thought redressed in a fantastic image. Well, phantom, reply: what is it that you were seeking so obstinately during your life? GHOST: I sought during my whole life what you've been seeking for the last hour. ACT III

22

THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: Ah! Well, yes, there, I am seeking it! As for you, do you pretend you have found it? GHOST: Perhaps, I don't know. MAX: (excitedly) Good! you are wandering. It's a chimera that drove you mad. GHOST: In that case, take care yourself. MAX: Ah! you bore me in the end! Look, if you have discovered something which approaches, however little it may be the end, say it, I dare you! You were seeking what they call the devil's secret, and the devil didn't wish to assist you. GHOST: He won't assist you any more. MAX: Then, you've found nothing? GHOST: You always find something. MAX: What! Say it then? GHOST: If I am only your own thought it's up to you to respond. MAX: That's fair! My own logic speaks to me admirably. I will work —I will seek it in my genius, and as for me, I will find it. GHOST: (sneering) You will no longer count on yourself. MAX: You are jesting, sarcastic phantom! Get out! You are unable to show me anything. You were only an ignorant man who didn't know how to write. GHOST: I knew who to figure. I left my idea in figures. MAX: Where, indeed? You tore up proportionately. Nothing was found in your notes which contained any common sense. GHOST: Nanni found it. MAX: What? a plan, a model? I will ask her. GHOST: Yeah! The one who gets it will be loved by her. MAX: And to make oneself loved — GHOST: You must love. (he vanishes) MAX: To love, to love! If one loves science, one cares a lot for women! Look, let's talk seriously, if that's possible for you. Well, at the moment you have vanished? Look, keep listening! GHOST'S VOICE: (coming from the stove) No!

ACT III

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: (alone) Then —a very fine night to you, old fool! (sitting down very troubled and struggling still) Oof! nothing more! Now there's a conditioned dream that I just produced! a real hallucination! Saw it, heard it, touched it —it was complete! I would never have thought that could happen to me! It's a little shameful and yet how that notion evaded me. But look here! Visions still bear the imprint of the idea that was occupying us. Perhaps they are revelations of a truth —of a latent certainty that is in us —I think I remember, now, that Rossmayer left a paper that he recommended to the meditations of Peregrinus —and that Peregrinus neglected to meditate upon it. I'm no longer dreaming, I recall! The old geezer thought to have fixed his dream. Nanni —the cipher —love, perpetual motion, what confusion there is in all this! I feel worn out —I've an illness in my head I think! (Max is absorbed.) NANNI: (entering, aside) Ah! my God! he is here! (making signs at the back —low) Don't come yet, Mr. Tyss; wait! (aloud) You are not thinking of sleeping, Mr. Max? Midnight is going strike very soon. MAX: (shaking) Ah! Nanni, listen. Where is the cipher? NANNI: Holy goodness! what cipher? MAX: An encoded plan or something like that, coming from the old mechanic. NANNI: (putting her hand in her pocket) Ah! perhaps this is — MAX: Give it to me, give it to me! NANNI: Why no, it's not yours. MAX: It's mine if you love me. (he wants to take her in his arms) NANNI: (pushing him away) But I don't love you at all. MAX: You must love me, Nanni! I wish it. Woman is made to submit to the ascendancy of man, and to answer at his initiative. That's a natural law. Love me, since I claim your presence and give me that precious cipher! NANNI: You are making fun of me; you shall not have it! MAX: Then I will take it. (Max intends to use force. Peregrinus who was listening at the back rushes between them.) PEREGRINUS: (very upset) Max! that's enough! You are becoming very extravagant for a man so wise! I have some patience, but —in the face of certain audacities I will perhaps be lacking in it. —Go away. MAX: You are kicking me out of your home? PEREGRINUS: No, but — MAX: But you want to remain alone with your conquest? PEREGRINUS: (enraged) Enough! too much! get out! ACT III

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: Poor fool! This is how you heat up your bile over a woman now! That's all you lacked! I am leaving you and I bless you my children! Do I have need of a stupid grimoire? Won't I find that all by myself? Yes! in the air on the docks —Till tomorrow, Peregrinus! (he leaves) PEREGRINUS: It gives me pain to send him away this way; but really — NANNI: You did right Mr. Tyss; he intended — PEREGRINUS: Yes, I was there; I heard! What is this plan, this cipher? NANNI: (searching in her pockets) I don't know. It's an old paper, quite yellow, that I found in the cover of your big book. I bet you didn't know it was there! PEREGRINUS: (taking the paper) Ah! this must be —something I've been seeking greatly. (he looks at it) NANNI: I found it in unmaking the old bookbinding, and I forgot to deliver it to you sooner. Does it please you to find it? PEREGRINUS: No question, indeed, I don't know if this is the secret he wanted to bequeath me. NANNI: Who? the godfather? Look at it then! PEREGRINUS: They are all ciphers, and must be studied. (placing the paper on his workbench) It's not yet the moment; let's get busy with our tree. NANNI: Help me to relight it, because Mr. Max extinguished it. How do you like it? PEREGRINUS: (helping Nanni to relight the candles on the tree, which relight themselves without being noticed) This is a masterpiece Nanni. It's a bouquet worthy of the circumstances —and offered by you! It's really yours! —and I would like to tell you —What was it he said to you? NANNI: (distracted) Mr. Max? PEREGRINUS: (preoccupied) Yes —Did you —did you understand what he meant by initiative —by —? NANNI: My God, no! He seemed quite distracted. He said —I don't know what! that he had the right to order me about. PEREGRINUS: And doubtless that offended you? NANNI: Indeed —yes! PEREGRINUS: (still lighting candles distractedly) He said further that it is in the nature of woman, when she is the object of a preference, and when the man declares himself — NANNI: But it seems to me that doesn't suffice! If the man is not pleasing? PEREGRINUS: (sadly) Ah! you think —? No question, no question! if the man is not pleasing! NANNI: Why all the candles are lit, and now —

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: Ah! hold on, I was forgetting— NANNI: What's that? PEREGRINUS: (going to the stairway) The marionette theatre! NANNI: Ah! You are going to make them play? PEREGRINUS: No, I don't know how. I never had any wit. It was he, the godfather, who knew! He put on scenes in which he made fun of us by counterfeiting us to show us our faults and ridicule us. (pulling one of the marionettes from the box) NANNI: Ah! what's that? PEREGRINUS: It's him! It's a doll made to resemble him and dressed the way he was dressed. NANNI: (who has followed him , taking another marionette) And who is this sweet little thing? PEREGRINUS: That little one, that's me —as I used to be! There are many others; but let's let them sleep in their box, since the good magician is no longer here to give them motion and words. (returning to the theatre) As for the theatre — NANNI: (very childishly) Ah! how pretty it is! all covered with gold! PEREGRINUS: (tenderly) Good Nanni. This toy is the only one that Max didn't break in our childhood; thus I put all the years here in evidence, for my self alone. (placing the little theatre on the oven) With the tree —here, (placing the tree beside the oven) so that everything reminds me as much as possible of the last fest of my old friend! But today, I am not alone, Miss Loemirt, since you have the —kindness to share in my feelings, my memories, perhaps my folly! NANNI: I don't see any folly, Mr. Tyss, and the proof is —that I've kept a compliment from a fest that my grandmother taught me for the occasion. PEREGRINUS: Ah! truly? NANNI: (reciting) Friend Christmas coming to see us With gifts — PEREGRINUS: Eh! my God! that's the same compliment I said the last time — NANNI: Yes, it was you who composed it. (reciting) Friend Christmas coming to see us With gifts full of hope For us Christmas is a beautiful night Forgive us our clumsiness — (speaking) You are laughing? PEREGRINUS: At my poetry, yes. NANNI: But, as for me, I think it very fine, for the little child you were then. (reciting) Forgive us our clumsiness ACT III

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS We are making you quite enraged And often listen to your scoldings; But that's your way of loving And we understand your tenderness. (speaking) Ah, hold on, midnight is striking, our compliment is spoken, our tree is brilliantly lit, the log shines and sings. I am going to let you finish your vigil, as agreed. PEREGRINUS: (pained) Ah! already? you are leaving? NANNI: Doubtless; mother would be uneasy. PEREGRINUS: (trembling) That's right, yes, that's right. Good night then, miss Nanni. Thanks —and —thanks! Goodnight. (Nanni starts to leave but the doors close of themselves.) NANNI: (terrified) What's this? PEREGRINUS: (trying vainly to open them) Who permits himself? Max! Fritz! is it you? Who is there? Open up will you! (You can hear the knocking of three raps in the marionette theatre, and a little musical overture on the part of the violins which are suspended from the opposite wall. The fiddle plays by itself on the instrument.) NANNI: Ah! my God! someone is amusing himself by wanting to try to frighten us! PEREGRINUS: (stupefied, aside) Someone in the oven? (to Nanni who has thrown herself terrified into his arms) Don't be afraid of anything, dear Nanni! I am here! (The curtain of the little theatre rises. Two marionettes are visible amidst pretty scenery. The old geezer and the child already seen in the hands of Peregrinus and replaced in the box under the stairway.) OLD GEEZER: Come, come, little Peregrinus, have you finished your sketch? NANNI: (terrified) He's talking! PEREGRINUS: And it's his voice, I cannot doubt it. (aloud, to Nanni) Let's listen. OLD GEEZER: I bet you've let your model be stolen! LITTLE PEREGRINUS: It's Max who is playing tricks, really, godfather! OLD GEEZER: Always the same story! Lazybones! sleepyhead! You will never learn how to protect yourself? (The old geezer raps him noisily on his head with some wood by the stage support: the child cries. Both of them disappear.) NANNI: Ah! truly, it's like your story, Mr. Tyss? But what made it speak? PEREGRINUS: It's —I don't know —They are automatons. (aside) I don't know what to tell her to reassure her! (aloud) Wait, here's another scene. ACT III

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS OLD GEEZER (reappearing on stage) Yes, Peregrinus, my child, you invoked me on Christmas eve, and I am returning to this world to tell you, that you will never have any glory if you don't try harder. YOUNG PEREGRINUS: But, my friend, perpetual motion is a chimera! OLD GEEZER: To whom are you talking! But, in seeking it, you always find something! Heavens! you will never know how to invent something. (He strikes his head with noise on the wood. Both disappear.) NANNI: Well, Mr. Tyss; that makes you sad? PEREGRINUS: Yes, always reproaches! Is it my fault if — NANNI: But it's a doll or an angry spirit who says all this —Ah! there they are coming back. This frightens me and amuses me at the same time. OLD GEEZER: Peregrinus, my friend, you say that you love this good girl? NANNI: (interrupting and looking at Peregrinus) Ah! who's this? PEREGRINUS: I didn't say anything! PEREGRINUS DOLL: Yes, I love Nanni with all my soul; but I will never dare to tell her! OLD GEEZER: Then, my poor friend you will never make yourself loved! NANNI: (rising and questioning the marionettes who vanish, and the curtain falls) That's not true! PEREGRINUS: (falling at her feet) Dear Nanni, what are you saying? Would it be possible? Ah! Repeat what you just said? NANNI: My God, I don't know anything about it any more, Mr. Tyss! I think I've just been dreaming? Were you there? Did we see and hear? PEREGRINUS: If it's a dream, Nanni, we had it together. We saw phantoms of my memories, we heard voices from my past. These little characters are doubtless familiar spirits of good goblins, who in their scolding naivete have recapitulated the miseries of the poor man that I am, my fearful childhood, my timid youth, my suspicious ripe age! But this suspicion is only towards myself, Nanni! If you knew what confidence and respect there is in me —My laziness is in my mind, not in my heart! Only I am clumsy, and my tongue doesn't portray my feelings or my ideas. (the doors open) But, wait, the doors are reopening by themselves. The good genie who feasts me is assisting me, perhaps. Let's go find your parents, and in front of them, no longer afraid of offending you, I believe I will dare to say all I have in my soul. NANNI: But —Mr. Tyss, they will be asleep, it's after midnight. PEREGRINUS: Well, wake them up —Beg them to rise, I want to speak to them right away. NANNI: In a quarter of an hour then? PEREGRINUS: Yes, I'll be up. ACT III

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS NANNI: I'm going there. —But what is it you want to say to them? PEREGRINUS: Go, go anyway, Nanni, you will see! (she leaves) PEREGRINUS: (alone) She doesn't guess, that's strange! Ah! I ought to have spoken to her of marriage, and I didn't know how to introduce that word! An honest young girl doesn't understand the word love all by itself! It's true I didn't know how to introduce it either. Ah, you were right, godfather, I am good for nothing! I have no will, no volubility, no courage! Will I have it before the parents of this dear, Nanni? Will I have the eloquence to persuade her? Indeed, I feel my mediocrity! I am blushing for it now. Her father is a master in his craft, and I —I am rich, that's all! Ah! if I'd done like you, Rossmayer, if I had sought! But did he find that which tormented him until his last hour? That paper to which he doubtless attributed great importance, since he hid it so carefully? (he stops at his workbench and looks at the paper) I'm afraid to examine it! I tremble to find in it the disorder of a mind troubled by age or by chimeras! MAX: (entering hatless, hair ruffled, exalted) I've found it! yes, I've found it! Listen to me carefully, Peregrinus! PEREGRINUS: (absorbed, without turning) Ah! it's you, Max? How did you get back in? MAX: By Jove! I just broke the door! PEREGRINUS: Heavens, it's true. MAKE: Look, are you listening to me? PEREGRINUS: No, not now. I have something which interests me more. MAX: What is it? The famous cipher? You have Rossmayer's cipher? PEREGRINUS: (all absorbed) Yes. MAX: The secret of perpetual — PEREGRINUS: Motion? No, thank God! but he was right just now. MAX: Just now? Then you also saw the spectre? PEREGRINUS: (who is no longer listening) Leave me alone, leave me alone, wait! MAX: No, no, I intend to know. What was he right about? PEREGRINUS: In this, that it is good to have a purpose, even an inaccessible idea, because in exploring the unknown, one always finds a path towards something better. MAX: And this path, what is it? Speak. PEREGRINUS: There, see, the means of repairing the clock on the dome! MAX: (laughing) That's all?

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: The clock on the dome is only a pretext. The important thing is an admirable simplification in the whole system of our art. MAX: And nothing more? PEREGRINUS: (without listening, still examining the plan) How ingenious this is! Ah! but still —there's a serious error —an impossible combination! What a shame! MAX: Come on! nothing is impossible. PEREGRINUS: Perhaps you are saying the truth! Let me find the correction of this calculation, and if I obtain it without disturbing the result —well, my dear friend, I know how you have roused my indolence; but, for God's sake, don't talk to me any more! (as he works with pen and ruler) I need a moment of recreation. I am not a man of initiative, you know that quite well! (Peregrinus reflects with a calm and patient expression. Max flutters behind him, coming and going, absorbed also, but with a fevered distraction and singular attitude.) MAX: (aside) Poor man! Seek, go on! You've got perpetual motion in the brain since Rossmayer revealed it to you unbeknownst to you; but to make it emerge, a power like mine is necessary, a discovery like the one I've got! PEREGRINUS: Shut up will you! You keep talking. (aside) I am trembling that I am deceiving myself; but still it seems to me —I want to do this calculation over — MAX: (speaking to himself) In brief, an idea is produced by a faculty, as faculty is the result of an organism; thus if the organism grasps the faculty of producing an idea, and the idea leads to a discovery, the result of which is a work, a machine for example, by tracing back the effect to the cause, one becomes convinced of this: that the machine is immediately in the brain, that by carefully opening the skull, one must separate it from the machine. This is admirably clear, and I defy anybody to refute it, with whatever bad faith they set to work on it! PEREGRINUS: (still attentive and calm) Poor godfather! if he had been able to live until now and to profit from the progress of industry, he was so ingenious, he would really have less trouble than I in correcting his error. MAX: (distracted) So then, I conclude! Peregrinus Tyss being given perpetual motion whose blind and inert depositary he is —there! —(pointing to the place with his own skull) Yes, that's exactly where there is found the bell, and perhaps that's not without reason that it is used in this expression of bells in the belfry to designate a cracked skull. In the present case, skull is identical with bell. PEREGRINUS: (impatiently) Eh! it's not a question of a bell; that's not what bothers me. MAX: (even more in a cold blooded delirium and speaking with conviction) In what bad faith ignorance is! It denies the bell! Bells are everywhere! but there's only one good one, it's his and he doesn't even suspect it. So then as for me, with a sure hand, and striking him here. (bending behind Peregrinus he waves his finger in front of his face. Peregrinus makes a motion of chasing away a fly. Max takes a hammer from the workbench where Peregrinus is working) Is it solid? PEREGRINUS: What? my hammer? By Jove, take it and don't disturb me any more. (the wood cracks as if to warn Peregrinus) What a noise you are making! ACT III

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS MAX: I will gaily smash in the cerebral cavity that conceals the perpetual motion, and operating with the same dexterity on myself, I will insinuate it into my own organism, nothing so easy. Ah, indeed, yes! But as for him, how will he live afterwards? Right! It's very simple; the exchange will be so rapid that he won't even notice it, and —(pulling from his jacket the watch Peregrinus gave him) with this idea —this idea coming from him, which is his own idea —it will function just as well as before. (he approaches Peregrinus; the crickets scream and jump in exasperation) Come on, these crickets are going to disturb him. Will you shut up, stupid beasts? (he crushes the crickets with his feet) He's really peaceful now, let's go to it! (Max goes to strike Peregrinus with the hammer: the Yule log, all fiery, pushes the door of the stove open, and falls at the legs of Max with a shocking detonation. At the same moment the Voice of The Ghost says: Don't touch! Max, surprised and feeling the burning, leaps to the back of the room as he lets the hammer fall.) PEREGRINUS: (who has risen) What the devil are you doing? experiments of physics or chemistry in my oven? Do you want to make the house explode? (he picks up the log and replaces it in the oven; he speaks as he brushes the ashes and the coals dispersed on the floor) After this, they'll say when the Yule log makes a lot of noise it's a sign of happiness and that one must escape all the year's dangers. So much the better for the two of us! Come on, rejoice, Max, I have discovered it! the error is corrected, the invention is superb and will do great honor to Rossmayer, a little to your friend Peregrinus. I am going to request the hand of Nanni from her parents, and I feel I will no longer be timid. I am bearing a great idea, a very useful improvement, and starting tomorrow, I will begin a fine work. Nanni will be proud, I will have great happiness and a little glory! Hug me and forget —(he sees Max motionless in an armchair) You are sleeping? My word, yes! he's dozed off there! (touching him) You'd say he has a fever! Poor Max, he works so much! and he stays awake too much, he's exhausted. Let's let him rest and get going. But I have ink on my hands : I'll run to wash up so as to make an agreeable presentation of myself up stairs. (he leaves by the back, with the light) MAX: (agitated, dreaming) Me, gone mad? Go away! you want to lock me up? Leave me alone —(he struggles with himself) Ah! this is horrible! THE GHOST: (appearing behind him) Well, Mr. Jester, you've received a little lesson? This will teach you how to treat old folks in their dotage. But that's enough of it, little Max! I saw you born; I don't wish to see you die so soon. Regain your reason, and be a little less sure of yourself in the future! (he breathes on Max's face) Come on, leave, vertigo, leave, I wish it. (a bat leaves Max's face and flies terrified about the room. The ghost opens the window) Go, go, malign spirit! Ah! if I had a broom! (he takes the broom and chases the bat, making, to reach it, fantastic leaps and impossible bounds. The beast flies out the window and the ghost flies off pursuing it. The window shuts of itself.) (Peregrinus appears at the back, dressed in silk. Nanni descends the staircase. Both have lights in their hands. Max is sleeping peacefully.) PEREGRINUS: Ah! Nanni! You are coming — NANNI: Yes, they are waiting for you. Imagine that I discovered my grandmother all awake and —it's quite astonishing, that is! she's says she just saw your godfather, that he spoke to her and announced your visit. PEREGRINUS: And our approaching marriage, right, dear Nanni? NANNI: (stupefied) Our? Ah! don't talk so loud! Mr. Max is there! MAX: (awakening) Huh? what's the matter? How the devil did I get here? Ah! I was sleeping so well! Imagine, Peregrinus, that I was dreaming about you: you were marrying Nanni; you gave me a present of a beautiful necktie of pigeon —like yours, exactly! and I was dancing at your wedding. ACT III

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THE NIGHT OF CHRISTMAS PEREGRINUS: Well, you will have a beautiful suit and you will dance, my friend! for we will soon be affianced, she and I. NANNI: Is it possible? MAX: Truly? So much the better! she's a brave and worthy person and you are the best of men, my childhood friend, my only friend, by Jove! Come, I feel good, I feel happy because of your happiness; let's embrace. PEREGRINUS: Ah, dear Max! it's you who are speaking; I've got you back! Come! MAX: Where to? PEREGRINUS: Come speak for me, I am going to make my demand. MAX: Yes, surely! Here, I begin the march. (Max climbs the stairway. Peregrinus makes Nanni pass in front of him; she turns on the first step.) NANNI: But to marry me, that's what it's all about? Because you haven't yet told me — PEREGRINUS: (at her feet) Ah! Nanni, I love you! I've loved you for a long while, and with all my soul! GHOST: (appearing at the top of the stairway) Then let's get going! CURTAIN

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