Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw
Author:Bernard Shaw [Shaw, Bernard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798560935900
Google: _9VlIUVMAZAC
Amazon: B08MWB4H5C
Published: 2006-03-22T00:00:00+00:00
STRAKER. Take care! some o the dregsâll hear you.
MENDOZA. It does not matter: each brigand thinks himself scum, and likes to hear the others called dregs.
TANNER. Come! you are a wit. [Mendoza inclines his head, flattered]. May
one ask you a blunt question?
MENDOZA. As blunt as you please.
TANNER. How does it pay a man of your talent to shepherd such a flock as
this on broiled rabbit and prickly pears? I have seen men less gifted, and Iâll swear less honest, supping at the Savoy on foie gras and champagne.
MENDOZA. Pooh! they have all had their turn at the broiled rabbit, just as I
shall have my turn at the Savoy. Indeed, I have had a turn there alreadyâas waiter.
TANNER. A waiter! You astonish me!
MENDOZA. [reflectively] Yes: I, Mendoza of the Sierra, was a waiter. Hence,
perhaps, my cosmopolitanism. [With sudden intensity] Shall I tell you the story
of my life?
STRAKER. [apprehensively] If it ainât too long, old chapâ
TANNER. [interrupting him] Tsh-sh: you are a Philistine, Henry: you have no
romance in you. [To Mendoza] You interest me extremely, President. Never
mind Henry: he can go to sleep.
MENDOZA. The woman I lovedâ
STRAKER. Oh, this is a love story, is it? Right you are. Go on: I was only afraid you were going to talk about yourself.
MENDOZA. Myself! I have thrown myself away for her sake: that is why I
am here. No matter: I count the world well lost for her. She had, I pledge you my
word, the most magnificent head of hair I ever saw. She had humor; she had intellect; she could cook to perfection; and her highly strung temperament made
her uncertain, incalculable, variable, capricious, cruel, in a word, enchanting.
STRAKER. A six shillin novel sort o woman, all but the cookin. Er name was
Lady Gladys Plantagenet, wasnât it?
MENDOZA. No, sir: she was not an earlâs daughter. Photography, reproduced
by the half-tone process, has made me familiar with the appearance of the
daughters of the English peerage; and I can honestly say that I would have sold
the lot, faces, dowries, clothes, titles, and all, for a smile from this woman. Yet
she was a woman of the people, a worker: otherwiseâlet me reciprocate your bluntnessâI should have scorned her.
TANNER. Very properly. And did she respond to your love?
MENDOZA. Should I be here if she did? She objected to marry a Jew.
TANNER. On religious grounds?
MENDOZA. No: she was a freethinker. She said that every Jew considers in
his heart that English people are dirty in their habits.
TANNER. [surprised] Dirty!
MENDOZA. It showed her extraordinary knowledge of the world; for it is
undoubtedly true. Our elaborate sanitary code makes us unduly contemptuous of
the Gentile.
TANNER. Did you ever hear that, Henry?
STRAKER. Iâve heard my sister say so. She was cook in a Jewish family
once.
MENDOZA. I could not deny it; neither could I eradicate the impression it
made on her mind. I could have got round any other objection; but no woman can stand a suspicion of indelicacy as to her person. My entreaties were in vain:
she always retorted that she wasnât good enough for me, and recommended me to
marry an accursed barmaid named Rebecca Lazarus, whom I loathed. I talked of
suicide: she offered me a packet of beetle poison to do it with. I hinted at murder: she went into hysterics; and as I am a living man I went to America so
that she might sleep without dreaming that I was stealing upstairs to cut her throat. In America I went out west and fell in with a man who was wanted by the
police for holding up trains. It was he who had the idea of holding up motors carsâin the South of Europe: a welcome idea to a desperate and disappointed man. He gave me some valuable introductions to capitalists of the right sort. I formed a syndicate; and the present enterprise is the result. I became leader, as
the Jew always becomes leader, by his brains and imagination. But with all my
pride of race I would give everything I possess to be an Englishman. I am like a
boy: I cut her name on the trees and her initials on the sod. When I am alone I lie
down and tear my wretched hair and cry Louisaâ
STRAKER. [startled] Louisa!
MENDOZA. It is her nameâLouisaâLouisa Strakerâ
TANNER. Straker!
STRAKER. [scrambling up on his knees most indignantly] Look here: Louisa
Straker is my sister, see? Wot do you mean by gassin about her like this? Wot she got to do with you?
MENDOZA. A dramatic coincidence! You are Enry, her favorite brother!
STRAKER. Oo are you callin Enry? What call have you to take a liberty with
my name or with hers? For two pins Iâd punch your fat ed, so I would.
MENDOZA. [with grandiose calm] If I let you do it, will you promise to brag
of it afterwards to her? She will be reminded of her Mendoza: that is all I desire.
TANNER. This is genuine devotion, Henry. You should respect it.
STRAKER. [fiercely] Funk, more likely.
MENDOZA. [springing to his feet] Funk! Young man: I come of a famous
family of fighters; and as your sister well knows, you would have as much chance against me as a perambulator against your motor car.
STRAKER. [secretly daunted, but rising from his knees with an air of reckless
pugnacity] I ainât afraid of you. With your Louisa! Louisa! Miss Straker is good
enough for you, I should think.
MENDOZA. I wish you could persuade her to think so.
STRAKER. [exasperated] Hereâ
TANNER. [rising quickly and interposing] Oh come, Henry: even if you could
fight the President you canât fight the whole League of the Sierra. Sit down again
and be friendly. A cat may look at a king; and even a President of brigands may
look at your sister. All this family pride is really very old fashioned.
STRAKER. [subdued, but grumbling] Let him look at her. But wot does he
mean by makin out that she ever looked at im? [Reluctantly resuming his couch
on the turf] Ear him talk, one ud think she was keepin company with him. [He
turns his back on them and composes himself to sleep].
MENDOZA. [to Tanner, becoming more confidential as he finds himself
virtually alone with a sympathetic listener in the still starlight of the mountains;
for all the rest are asleep by this time] It was just so with her, sir. Her intellect
reached forward into the twentieth century: her social prejudices and family affections reached back into the dark ages. Ah, sir, how the words of Shakespear
seem to fit every crisis in our emotions!
I loved Louisa: 40,000 brothers
Could not with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum.
And so on. I forget the rest. Call it madness if you willâinfatuation. I am an
able man, a strong man: in ten years I should have owned a first-class hotel. I met her; and you see! I am a brigand, an outcast. Even Shakespear cannot do justice to what I feel for Louisa. Let me read you some lines that I have written
about her myself. However slight their literary merit may be, they express what I
feel better than any casual words can. [He produces a packet of hotel bills scrawled with manuscript, and kneels at the fire to decipher them, poking it with
a stick to make it glow].
TANNER. [clapping him rudely on the shoulder] Put them in the fire,
President.
MENDOZA. [startled] Eh?
TANNER. You are sacrificing your career to a monomania.
MENDOZA. I know it.
TANNER. No you donât. No man would commit such a crime against himself
if he really knew what he was doing. How can you look round at these august hills, look up at this divine sky, taste this finely tempered air, and then talk like a literary hack on a second floor in Bloomsbury?
MENDOZA. [shaking his head] The Sierra is no better than Bloomsbury
when once the novelty has worn off. Besides, these mountains make you dream
of womenâof women with magnificent hair.
TANNER. Of Louisa, in short. They will not make me dream of women, my
friend: I am heartwhole.
MENDOZA. Do not boast until morning, sir. This is a strange country for
dreams.
TANNER. Well, we shall see. Goodnight. [He lies down and composes
himself to sleep].
Mendoza, with a sigh, follows his example; and for a few moments there is peace in the Sierra. Then Mendoza sits up suddenly and says pleadingly to
Tannerâ
MENDOZA. Just allow me to read a few lines before you go to sleep. I should
really like your opinion of them.
TANNER. [drowsily] Go on. I am listening.
MENDOZA. I saw thee first in Whitsun week Louisa, Louisaâ
TANNER. [roaring himself] My dear President, Louisa is a very pretty name;
but it really doesnât rhyme well to Whitsun week.
MENDOZA. Of course not. Louisa is not the rhyme, but the refrain.
TANNER. [subsiding] Ah, the refrain. I beg your pardon. Go on.
MENDOZA. Perhaps you do not care for that one: I think you will like this better. [He recites, in rich soft tones, and to slow time]
Louisa, I love thee.
I love thee, Louisa.
Louisa, Louisa, Louisa, I love thee.
One name and one phrase make my music,
Louisa. Louisa, Louisa, Louisa, I love thee.
Mendoza thy lover,
Thy lover, Mendoza,
Mendoza adoringly lives for Louisa.
Thereâs nothing but that in the world for Mendoza.
Louisa, Louisa, Mendoza adores thee.
[Affected] There is no merit in producing beautiful lines upon such a name.
Louisa is an exquisite name, is it not?
TANNER. [all but asleep, responds with a faint groan].
MENDOZA.
O wert thou, Louisa,
The wife of Mendoza,
Mendozaâs Louisa, Louisa Mendoza,
How blest were the life of Louisaâs Mendoza!
How painless his longing of love for Louisa!
That is real poetryâfrom the heartâfrom the heart of hearts. Donât you think
it will move her?
No answer.
[Resignedly] Asleep, as usual. Doggrel to all the world; heavenly music to
me! Idiot that I am to wear my heart on my sleeve! [He composes himself to sleep, murmuring] Louisa, I love thee;
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