Far greater than the infamy of war is that of men who want to forget that it ever took place, although they exulted in it at the time. War is no longer a live issue for those who have outlived it, and while the masks parade on Ash Wednesday, they do not want to be reminded of one another. It’s all too easy to understand the disenchantment of an epoch forever incapable of experiencing such events, or grasping what’s been experienced, compounded by the failure to be convulsed by its collapse. It is an age whose actions exclude the impulse for atonement, but it has an instinct for self-preservation that enables it to close its ears to the gramophone record of its heroic melodies, and a readiness for self-sacrifice that will enable it to strike them up again should the occasion arise. For the continuing existence of war appears least inconceivable to people whom the slogan “Now we are at war” enables to commit and endorse every possible infamy; but the reminder “Now we were at war!” disturbs the well-earned rest of the survivors.
They fancied they could conquer the world market — the goal that was their birthright — as knights in shining armour; they have to make do with a less glorious trade and sell their gear in the flea market. No wonder they can’t stop saying “Don’t mention the war”! And it is to be feared that some future age, sprung from the loins of this desolate generation, will have no greater power of understanding, despite being at a greater distance. Yet an unqualified admission of guilt at belonging to mankind, as it currently exists, must at some place and time be welcomed and valued. And “even while men’s minds are wild”, let us (echoing Shakespeare) deliver Horatio’s message to the forces of renewal as a judgment arising out of the ruins:
And let me speak to th’yet unknowing world
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fallen on th’inventors’ heads. All this can I
Truly deliver.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Prologue
Scene 1 (p. 29)
(Vienna. At the corner where the Kärntnerstrasse meets the Ring and people take their evening stroll.)
Newspaper vendors. A passerby. His wife. Four officers. Two sales reps. Fischl. A Viennese. His wife. Regular subscriber to the Neue Freie Presse. Oldest subscriber to the Neue Freie Presse. Some drunks. Four young men arm in arm with their girls. The crowd. Fritz Werner. Fräulein Löwenstamm. Fräulein Körmendy. An intellectual. His wife. Poldi Fesch. Policeman. Two petty bourgeois. Two reporters. Cabby.
Scene 2 (p. 34)
(Café Pucher.)
Eduard, headwaiter. A banker. A stranger. Franz, a waiter. Prime minister. Minister of the interior. Head of the cabinet office.
Scene 3 (p. 36)
(Office in the Comptroller of the Imperial Household’s chambers.)
Nepalleck.
Scene 4 (p. 39)
(Same.)
Usher. Nepalleck.
Scene 5 (p. 39)
(Same.)
Nepalleck. Old manservant.
Scene 6 (p. 40)
(Same.)
Nepalleck. Montenuovo. Old manservant.
Scene 7 (p. 40)
(Same.)
Montenuovo. Nepalleck.
Scene 8 (p. 40)
(Same.)
Usher. Prince Weikersheim. Nepalleck.
Scene 9 (p. 41)
(Same.)
Nepalleck.
Scene 10 (p. 41)
(Southern Railway terminal.)
Nepalleck.
The following marionettes:
Angelo Eisner v. Eisenhof. Spielvogel and Zawadil. Hofrat and Hofrätin Schwarz-Gelber. Dobner v. Dobenau. Count Lippay. Riedl, café proprietor. Dr. Charas. Stukart, head of security. Wilhelm Exner, section head. Sieghart, Land-bank governor. Landesberger, Anglobank president. Herzberg-Fränkel. Stein and Hein, progressive-liberal municipal councillors. Stiassny and Stiassny, consuls. Three honorary counsellors. Sukfüll. Birinski and Glücksmann. Hugo Heller, bookseller. Flora Dub. The Grumbler. Journalist.
Prologue Extras:
Promenaders, passersby, coffeehouse staff, the public, policemen, dignitaries, court society, ladies of the higher nobility, clergy, municipal councillors, notabilities, lackeys, journalists.
Act I
Scene 1 (p. 47)
(Vienna. At the corner where the Kärntnerstrasse meets the Ring and people take their evening stroll.)
Newspaper vendors. Demonstrator. An intellectual. Ruffian. Prostitute. Several passersby. The crowd. Two reporters. Two army suppliers. Four officers. A Viennese. Voices from the crowd. Beggar boy. Two girls. A policeman. Another intellectual. His girlfriend. A fare. Cabby. House-porter. Two Americans from the Red Cross. Two Turks. Two Chinese. Lady with just the hint of a moustache. A circumspect person. The voice of a cabby. A voice. Passerby. His wife. Troop of boys in military peaked caps and with wooden sabres. Group of singers. Bag snatcher. His victim. A female voice. Poldi Fesch. His companion. Two devotees of the Reichspost. Enlisted soldiers singing. A regular subscriber to the Neue Freie Presse. The oldest subscriber. Fritz Werner. Fräulein Körmendy. Fräulein Löwenstamm. Three ruffians. Two sales reps.
Scene 2 (p. 59)
(South Tyrol. The approach to a bridge.)
Member of the Tyrolean territorial reserve. The Grumbler.
Scene 3 (p. 60)
(The other side of the bridge.)
Soldier. The Grumbler. Captain.
Scene 4 (p. 60)
The Optimist and the Grumbler.
Scene 5 (p. 62)
(The Foreign Office.)
Count Leopold Franz Rudolf Ernest Vinzenz Innocenz Maria. Baron Eduard Alois Josef Ottokar Ignazius Eusebius Maria. The voice of Berchtold.
Scene 6 (p. 65)
(In front of a hairdressing salon in the Habsburgergasse.)
The crowd. Violin shop owner. Hairdresser. Friedjung, a historian. Brockhausen, a historian.
Scene 7 (p. 67)
(Kohlmarkt. Outside the revolving door at the entrance to Café Pucher.)
Old Biach. Honorary Counsellor. Businessman. Intellectual. The Grumbler. Haberdasher.
Scene 8 (p. 69)
(Suburban street.)
Four young men. The proprietor of Café Westminster.
Scene 9 (p. 72)
(A primary school.)
Teacher Zehetbauer.
The boys: Anderle, Braunshör, Czeczowiczka, Fleischanderl, Gasselseder, Habetswallner, Kotzlik, Merores, Praxmarer, Sukfüll, Süssmandl, Wottawa, Karl Wunderer, Rudolf Wunderer, Zitterer.