"Henrik Ibsen - Pillars Of Society" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ibsen Henrik)

finished, and some merely cut out. Farther back, at a small table on which two
pots of flowers and a glass of sugared water are standing, RORLUND is sitting,
reading aloud from a book with gilt edges, but only loud enough for the
spectators to catch a word now and then. Out in the garden OLAF BERNICK is
running about and shooting at a target with a toy crossbow.
After a moment AUNE comes in quietly through the door on the right. There is a
slight interruption in the reading. MRS. BERNICK nods to him and points to the
door on the left. AUNE goes quietly across, knocks softly at the door of
BERNICK'S room, and after a moment's pause, knocks again. KRAP comes out of the
room, with his hat in his hand and some papers under his arm.)
Krap: Oh, it was you knocking?
Aune: Mr. Bernick sent for me.
Krap: He didЧbut he cannot see you. He has deputed me to tell youЧ
Aune: Deputed you? All the same, I would much ratherЧ
Krap: Чdeputed me to tell you what he wanted to say to you. You must give up
these Saturday lectures of yours to the men.
Aune: Indeed? I supposed I might use my own timeЧ
Krap: You must not use your own time in making the men useless in working hours.
Last Saturday you were talking to them of the harm that would be done to the
workmen by our new machines and the new working methods at the yard. What makes
you do that?
Aune: I do it for the good of the community.
Krap: That's curious, because Mr. Bernick says it is disorganising the
community.
Aune: My community is not Mr. Bernick's, Mr. Krap! As President of the
Industrial Association, I mustЧ
Krap: You are, first and foremost, President of Mr. Bernick's shipbuilding yard;
and, before everything else, you have to do your duty to the community known as
the firm of Bernick Co.; that is what every one of us lives for. Well, now you
know what Mr. Bernick had to say to you.
Aune: Mr. Bernick would not have put it that way, Mr. Krap! But I know well
enough whom I have to thank for this. It is that damned American boat. Those
fellows expect to get work done here the way they are accustomed to it over
there, and thatЧ
Krap: Yes, yes, but I can't go into all these details. You know now what Mr.
Bernick means, and that is sufficient. Be so good as to go back to the yard;
probably you are needed there. I shall be down myself in a little while. ЧExcuse
me, ladies! (Bows to the ladies and goes out through the garden and down the
street. AUNE goes quietly out to the right. RORLUND, who has continued his
reading during the foregoing conversation, which has been carried on in low
tones, has now come to the end of the book, and shuts it with a bang.)
Rorlund: There, my dear ladies, that is the end of it.
Mrs. Rummel: What an instructive tale!
Mrs. Holt: And such a good moral!
Mrs. Bernick: A book like that really gives one something to think about.
Rorlund: Quite so; it presents a salutary contrast to what, unfortunately, meets
our eyes every day in the newspapers and magazines. Look at the gilded and
painted exterior displayed by any large community, and think what it really
conceals!Чemptiness and rottenness, if I may say so; no foundation of morality
beneath it. In a word, these large communities of ours now-a-days are whited