Erdgeist Author:Frank Wedekind Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: t/ -; o; 1 Schon. (Superior.) Do you think, then, that 7 make no compromises? Who is there that does not compromise? You have married half a million. You ... more »are today one of the foremost artists. That can't be done without money. You are not the man to sit in judgment on her. You can't possibly treat an origin like MignonV? according to the notions of bourgeois society. Schwarz. (Quite distraught.) Who are you speaking of? Schon. Of her father! You're an artist, I say: your ideals are on a different plane from those of a wage- worker. Schwarz. I don't understand a word of all that. Schon. I am speaking of the inhuman conditions out of which, thanks to her good management, the girl has developed into what she is! Schwarz. Who? Schon. Who? Your wife. Schwarz. Eve? SCHON. I called her Mignon. Schwarz. I thought her name was Nellie? Schon. Dr. Goll called her so. Schwarz. I called her Eve? Schon. What her real name is I don't know. Schwarz. (Absently.) Perhaps she knows. Schon. With a father like hers, she is, with all her faults, a miracle. I don't understand you? Schwarz. He died in a madhouse?? Schon. He was here just now! Schwarz. Who was here? Schon. Her father. Schwarz. Here?in my house? Schon. He squeezed by me as I came in. And there are the two glasses still. Schwarz. She says he died in the madhouse. V Schon. Let her feel she's in authprity?! She craves inothing but the compulsion to unconditional obedience. (With Dr. Goll she was in heaven, and with him there/ Sivas no joking. Schwarz. (Shaking his head.) She said she had never loved? Schon. But you, make a beginning with yourself. Pull yourself together! Schwarz. She has sworn?! Schon. You can't demand a sense of duty in her beforeyou know your ...« less