Minna von Barnhelm | Page 4

uncle. FRANZISKA,
her lady's maid. JUST, servant to the Major. PAUL WERNER, an old
Sergeant of the Major's. The LANDLORD of an Inn. A LADY. An
ORDERLY. RICCAUT DE LA MARLINIERE.
The scene alternates between the Parlour of an Inn, and a Room
adjoining it.

ACT I.
SCENE I. Just
JUST (sitting in a corner, and talking while asleep). Rogue of a
landlord! You treat us so? On, comrade! hit hard! (He strikes with his
fist, and wakes through the exertion). Ha! there he is again! I cannot
shut an eye without fighting with him. I wish he got but half the blows.
Why, it is morning! I must just look for my poor master at once; if I
can help it, he shall not set foot in the cursed house again. I wonder
where he has passed the night?

SCENE II. Landlord, Just
LAND. Good-morning, Herr Just; good-morning! What, up so early!
Or shall I say--up so late?
JUST. Say which you please.
LAND. I say only--good-morning! and that deserves, I suppose, that
Herr Just should answer, "Many thanks."
JUST. Many thanks.
LAND. One is peevish, if one can't have one's proper rest. What will
you bet the Major has not returned home, and you have been keeping
watch for him?
JUST. How the man can guess everything!
LAND. I surmise, I surmise.
JUST. (turns round to go). Your servant!
LAND. (stops him). Not so, Herr Just!
JUST. Very well, then, not your servant!
LAND. What, Herr Just, I do hope you are not still angry about
yesterday's affair! Who would keep his anger over night?
JUST. I; and over a good many nights.
LAND. Is that like a Christian?
JUST. As much so as to turn an honourable man who cannot pay to a
day, out of doors, into the street.
LAND. Fie! who would be so wicked?
JUST. A Christian innkeeper.--My master! such a man! such an officer!
LAND. I thrust him from the house into the streets? I have far too
much respect for an officer to do that, and far too much pity for a
discharged one! I was obliged to have another room prepared for him.
Think no more about it, Herr Just. (Calls) --Hullo! I will make it good
in another way. (A lad comes.) Bring a glass; Herr Just will have a drop;
something good.
JUST. Do not trouble yourself, Mr. Landlord. May the drop turn to
poison, which . . . But I will not swear; I have not yet breakfasted.
LAND. (to the lad, who brings a bottle of spirits and a glass). Give it
here; go! Now, Herr Just; something quite excellent; strong, delicious,
and wholesome. (Fills, and holds it out to him.) That can set an
over-taxed stomach to rights again!
JUST. I hardly ought!--And yet why should I let my health suffer on

account of his incivility? (Takes it, and drinks.)
LAND. May it do you good, Herr Just!
JUST. (giving the glass back). Not bad! But, Landlord, you are
nevertheless an ill-mannered brute!
LAND. Not so, not so! . . . Come, another glass; one cannot stand upon
one leg.
JUST. (after drinking). I must say so much--it is good, very good!
Made at home, Landlord?
LAND. At home, indeed! True Dantzig, real double distilled!
JUST. Look ye, Landlord; if I could play the hypocrite, I would do so
for such stuff as that; but I cannot, so it must out.--You are an ill-
mannered brute all the same.
LAND. Nobody in my life ever told me that before . . . But another
glass, Herr Just; three is the lucky number!
JUST. With all my heart!-- (Drinks). Good stuff indeed, capital! But
truth is good also, and indeed, Landlord, you are an ill-mannered brute
all the same!
LAND. If I was, do you think I should let you say so?
JUST. Oh! yes; a brute seldom has spirit.
LAND. One more, Herr Just: a four-stranded rope is the strongest.
JUST. No, enough is as good as a feast! And what good will it do you,
Landlord? I shall stick to my text till the last drop in the bottle. Shame,
Landlord, to have such good Dantzig, and such bad manners! To turn
out of his room, in his absence--a man like my master, who has lodged
at your house above a year; from whom you have had already so many
shining thalers; who never owed a heller in his life--because he let
payment run for a couple of months, and because he does not spend
quite so much as he used.
LAND. But suppose I really wanted the room and saw beforehand that
the Major would willingly have given it up if we could only have
waited some time for his return! Should I let strange