Читать книгу High Treason and Low Comedy - Robert T. O’Keeffe - Страница 8

Redl, Hromadka, Franzi enters later

REDL (he sits down on the sofa and throws his arm over Hromadka’s shoulder): Tell me that you’re not serious about this, I’m begging you, please tell me you’re not serious. For God’s sake, Stefan, you can’t be serious, can you? Don’t you realize everything that I’ve done for you ...

HROMADKA: Of course I realize it. And I’m certainly very grateful for everything ...

REDL: No, you really don’t understand what I’ve done for you. How far out on a limb I’ve gone for you, Stefan, dangerously far out, and now you want to leave me. Tell me that you don’t mean it, tell me that you don’t really want to leave me.

HROMADKA: I don’t want to leave you. I just want to get married.

REDL: Married? You call that not leaving me! With marriage it’s all over between you and me. You’re a young man, a good-looking lad too — everybody likes you, the whole world is there for you to grab. And now you want to give all that up, you want to put yourself in chains — and on top of it all, on account of a woman! On account of a woman! So then, who’s going to provide for your wife? What, you’ll hang around in bars, take business trips, stay in hotels, is that it? And all the time there are hundreds of wenches out there, far better than just one. And just what are you going to talk about with your wife? I’ll lend you a book, it’s called On The Congenital Feeble-Mindedness of Women.13

Something important has been pending for months

HROMADKA: But what if I really love her?

REDL: Hold on, you don’t love her. You only let yourself get grabbed by her, you just let her nurse you along, and you let it happen because ... well, you were available because I haven’t been around for you for so many months. It’s been far too long since I’ve been in Vienna. I’ve been afraid to come here because— because I thought that you’d been unfaithful to me. I didn’t come, even though there’s something very important waiting for me here—something big has been pending for months—and yet I still didn’t come ...

HROMADKA: Your appointment as Bureau Chief?

REDL: No, not that, not yet, anyway. Something else.

HROMADKA: What, something bad, some kind of unpleasantness?

REDL: Not unpleasant for you. But if you leave me, well then, there goes all my good luck, that’s unpleasant. Look, Stefan, take a trip with me—we’ll go to Switzerland, then Italy, and your thinking will change for the better. Blow off this whole idea of a woman!

HROMADKA: She loves me too.

REDL: And I don’t love you? Aren’t you the greatest good fortune in my life? Have I ever given you a reason to complain? It’s not that I’m selfish, all I want is for you to love me. But this woman, what kind of person is she? Does she have enough money to cover the marriage-bond?14 God only knows what kind of worthless slut she is anyway.

The faults of women

HROMADKA (resolutely): Excuse me, you can’t insult her like that. If you had just asked me first, then I would have spared her these insults. My fiancé is the daughter of an official, and her mother is a teacher at a technical school here in Vienna. If she stays in school, then we don’t need the money for the army’s marriage-bond — that’s an imperial ordinance. In any event I hope that she’ll give up her place there ...

REDL: ... because you think that I’ll come up with the money for the bond!

HROMADKA: Yes, I had hoped for that, though Franzi has forbidden me to accept such an arrangement. But now, since you’ve been running her down ...

REDL: Franzi knows about me?

HROMADKA: She knows about you, but only that we’re friends.

REDL: Does she know that I’m in Vienna?

HROMADKA: I mentioned to her that I was going to see you.

REDL: And what else does she know?

HROMADKA: Nothing.

REDL. Oh yes, “nothing”, as you put it! Just put something like that in a woman’s head, you fool! She’s definitely thinking about her part in all this—women have a nose for things that are none of their business. But in that they’re mistaken. Look, Stefan, let women be women, but stay true to our friendship. Men don’t ever

Promises

let other men down—stick with me, Stefan! Listen up, within a year I’ll be a General—I’m already the most talked-about General Staff man in the whole monarchy. I’m bound to become Chief of the Intelligence Bureau, maybe even Chief of the General Staff or Minister of War, and you, (here Redl sits closer to Hromadka and hugs him around the shoulder) you’ll move on up along with me, you’ll make extraordinary advances, and, if you want to, you’ll get into the War College.15 I’ll go to the Kladrub stable16 and buy you a gray stallion with gold-braided riding blankets, I’ll get you the best fur shako with beaver trim, the works, isn’t that what you want? (there’s a knock on the door, but they don’t notice it) You do want all that, don’t you? I’m not asking for anything in return, only that you love me ... (Franzi enters the room, unnoticed)

REDL (continues): ... that you truly love me, I don’t want anything else from you, just that you remain my Stevie, while I’m still your Freddy ...

(Franzi steps forward)

HROMADKA (he jumps to his feet): Franzi! (he pauses) Franzi, let me explain this to you ...

FRANZI (her voice tinged with sadness): You don’t have to explain anything at all to me, Stefan. I know you very well, and I know that you’re a good person. And if you’ve been a little frivolous, maybe rash, still I know you’re convinced that you love me and that we’re good for each other. No, Stefan, you’re not guilty of anything. (she gives Redl a measured gaze)

REDL (his tone is cold): You wish to say something else? That I’m “guilty of something,” my dear young woman?

Conflict between Franzi and Redl

FRANZI (aggressively): Yes, I do want to say something, don’t you worry about that, I’ll say it alright. Shame on you, Herr Colonel, shame on you, you in your golden collar, that you ...

HROMADKA: Franzi, please, you don’t understand what’s going on.

FRANZI: No, I don’t understand it, thank God for that, and I don’t ever want to understand it. I’m not going to get mixed up in that business, what men do with each other. “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” that much I’ve learned from my religion. And first of all I don’t want to judge something that I don’t understand... But what I do understand, Herr Colonel, is that you’ve led this young man astray, seduced him, and you want to lead him ever farther astray. You’ve pampered him and coddled him, and now you want to corrupt him, corrupt him for once and all. That’s why I’ve come here, Herr Colonel, to tell you that you shouldn’t ruin my Stefan. What do you want from him?

REDL: Don’t get yourself involved in men’s business, my dear young woman.

FRANZI: No, I don’t want to get myself involved in your kind of men’s business, Herr Colonel, you’ve got a heavy burden to bear when it comes to that. I can see from the way you look that you’re an unfortunate man, but don’t pull this young man into your own misfortune. Go on, carry on your men’s business with other men just like you, but this young man isn’t like that, a man like you, he loves me, do you understand, he loves a woman!

REDL: It’s up to me to decide who my friends are.

FRANZI: Friends? We’re not talking about friendship. Why are you lying to yourself about it? Is it friendship that he has with a man twice his age? What kind of a friendship is it for you to take an upright lad from the country and stick him in the middle of a

What the name “Redl” really means

bunch of cavalry officers, a bunch of titled idlers who would openly scorn him if you weren’t protecting him, if you hadn’t made him your so-called protégé, while in reality you don’t want to do anything for him.

HROMADKA: But Franzi! Colonel Redl has already done more than enough for me!

FRANZI: That’s what you think. Oh yes, he’s bought you riding horses, had beautiful uniforms made for you, got you nice living-quarters, sent you bon-bons and champagne, but just why has he done all this? It’s because he wants you to get used to his posh way of life, so you won’t be able to break away from him. And hasn’t he promised to get you into the War College? So why hasn’t he told you that you should be studying, should be preparing for the examinations? Only because he’s worried that if you show that you can accomplish it on your own, you won’t need him anymore. It’s the same reason why you haven’t gotten into the military intelligence bureau even though he promised you that too. If he really wanted that, you would have been taken in by the bureau ten times over. Doesn’t just one word from Colonel Redl suffice for that?

REDL: The dear young woman overestimates my powers.

FRANZI: Oh no, Herr Colonel, I’ve made all the right inquiries about the man who wishes to call himself the friend of my Stefan. And wherever I’ve asked, I’ve received the same information — in the army the name of Colonel Redl means almost as much as the Emperor’s name. Colonel Redl is the ingenious organizer behind all of our intelligence services, Colonel Redl is the master recruiter of spies, Colonel Redl is flawless when it comes to unmasking foreign agents, he’s the expert who can’t be contradicted in espionage trials, he’s the man who makes sure that the accused wind up in prison.That’s who you are, Herr Colonel Redl. None of that makes

Recruiting spies, punishing spies

me very happy, because the one important thing I learned from my religion is, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” So, how can a man recruit spies and, at the very same time, punish spies — that I don’t understand... But, first and foremost, what’s been on my mind is this: if a man can so easily induce hundreds into criminality, then he should easily be able to lead one man who is his friend to honest work.

REDL: My dear young woman, I forbid you to get mixed up in my professional affairs.

HROMADKA: Franzi, your behavior is scandalous!

FRANZI: Certainly, Herr Colonel, here in this place you have the right to forbid what you want. I shouldn’t get involved in your men’s business, or in your professional affairs. Fine, Herr Colonel. But you shouldn’t be getting my fine young Stefan involved in your dreary little men’s business or your wretched professional affairs. That’s what I’ll forbid to you. Poor Stefan!

(she addresses Redl) : We’ll see each other again.

(she exits)

REDL: Well now, you just got a preview of what kind of wifely lectures await you when you marry. Look how she’s been snooping around after you! And how she’s been collecting information about me. An international spy couldn’t have discovered more! And how critical she is of my profession ...

HROMADKA: I really must beg your pardon for all this.

REDL: No, it’s all right. But I do want to save you from the clutches of this woman, she’s a real witch, I’m telling you. Come on, take a trip with me, we’ll make a pleasant tour of the Alps ...

HROMADKA: I don’t have any military leave time.

Arranging a trip to the mountains

REDL: I’ll get your leave for you tomorrow, do you want that?

HROMADKA (hesitantly): But ...

REDL: No buts about it! Do you want to? (Hromadka is shaking his head) We’ll travel by car. In a touring car, I’ll buy you a touring car.

HROMADKA: An Austro-Daimler?*

REDL: Yes, an Austro-Daimler.

HROMADKA: When?

REDL: First thing tomorrow.

HROMADKA: Your word of honor on that?

REDL (smiling): My word of honor

* One of the most expensive cars of the pre-WWI era. Redl owned two and, in Kisch’s 1924 report, he was having one ostentatiously refurbished while in Vienna to deal with Hromakda.

HROMADKA: You’ve got that kind of money?

REDL: Yes.

HROMADKA: Here in Vienna?

REDL (as he looks at the clock): Yes, but you should go now and pack your bags. And tomorrow morning you’re coming, aren’t you? Word of honor?

The Colonel rushes off

HROMADKA: Word of honor! Are you going out too?

REDL: No, not — that is, well, I do have to go out now.

HROMADKA: Good, then, we’ll go together.

REDL: No, that’s not on. I’ve got to change into civvies.

HROMADKA: Well, I don’t mind waiting for you.

REDL: No, I have a private matter to attend to.

HROMADKA (as he drums his fingers playfully): Aha! An affair of the heart, is that what’s up?

REDL: Not a bit of that! Something very different. Go on, get out of here.

HROMADKA: All right, all right, don’t throw me out. Should I send for a car for you?

REDL: Yes, order me a car—No, forget that. I’ll pick up a taxi while I’m on my way.

HROMADKA: As you wish. Well, with obedient respect, Colonel, Sir. (he exits)

REDL: Good-bye until tomorrow, my dear Stefan. (he hurriedly puts on an overcoat)

CURTAIN

The inebriated Inspector of Troops