WAR CHILD - The Play

SIMPLE WRITINGS (WAR CHILD)

a play in two acts

by

David Wilson

adapted from The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus by Johann Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen in 1686 and set during the German 30 Years War (1618 - 1648)

GIRL sits on a milking stool. She sings while playing a guitar. 

Oft we saw on bright summer’s day, 

On some green bank a flock of sparrows play. 

From twig to twig, from bush to bush they flew, 

Their cheerful chirping filled the sky, 

But of a sudden, a storm appeared, 

Their happy noise no longer fills our ears.

They fly for shelter to the thickest bush, 

There silent sit, and all at once is hush.

For all of us, many a sunny day 

Was spent in turning, making hay; 

But none could guess what we have lately found, 

Our houses torn apart to fire-scorched beams,

As we join the quitened sparrows in the bush.

My youth, buxom, warm in native beauty rich

Lies eyeless where with cudgels thud

My breathing rattles, the dew replaced with blood.

ACT ONE

Scene One

A farmyard. MOTHER is washing clothes in a tub. SISTER is hanging them on a line. SIMPLEX is sitting separate from others on straw scratching himself. He picks up pipes and tries to get a noise out of them. After a while he succeeds, looking happy with his efforts. He plays a tune badly, dancing out of sync. Stops and looks at pipes in wonder. He lays the pipes in the straw and tears some bread from a loaf on a table. He starts to eat. FATHER approaches SIMPLEX and tries to snatch bread from SIMPLEX who runs back to straw pile. FATHER looks at wash-tub, smells his armpits, removes his shirt and throws it into tub just after MOTHER has finished her work and is standing up to stretch her back. 

MOTHER (to FATHER as she bends to her task again) You shithead. 

FATHER (to SISTER as he points at his bare chest) Get me a shirt.

SISTER runs off stage. FATHER cuts some ham for himself and pours wine from a barrel.

MOTHER Eatin’ an’ drinkin’ and good for nought else. 

FATHER cuffs her and MOTHER returns his cuff. SISTER enters with shirt.

FATHER (puts on shirt. To SIMPLEX) As for you, get to sheep. Be off with ‘yer. 

MOTHER He got to eat. Same as you. (She points at wine.) And he don’t drain his wits with that. 

FATHER Wits! What wits?

SIMPLEX jerks to one side with a nervous tick. His reaction to this is to open his mouth wide and pull at both ears. FATHER advances on SIMPLEX aggressively which makes the tick worse.

Look at ‘im.

MOTHER Let him be.

FATHER makes howling sound as he acts the part of a wolf in front of SIMPLEX. He picks up pipes and makes a warning sound. 

FATHER Like that if wolves come, see! 

He hits SIMPLEX on the head with pipes before pushing them into SIMPLEX ' chest. 

God ‘elp yer, you little brat. 

SIMPLEX (avoiding new kicks) Woofs?

FATHER Jackass! Get up on hill with sheep.

MOTHER (to FATHER) Brute!

The sound of galloping horses and bugles. SIMPLEX looks at pipes as though these new sounds are coming from them. SISTER hides behind a water trough. MOTHER screams and runs to FATHER. 

SIMPLEX (runs to side of stage, sobbing and tick is worse than before) Woofs, woofs. 

Three SOLDIERS ransack the farm. SOLDIER 1 pulls SISTER from behind trough and she is dragged off-stage screaming. MOTHER is pulled away from FATHER by SOLDIER 2. FATHER is dragged along the ground by SOLDIER 3 who slashes at his feet with his knive.

MOTHER (clawing at SOLDIER 2 as he stabs her.) Help

SOLDIER 3 (to SOLDIER 2) Get some salt. 

SOLDIER 2 Steps across dead body of MOTHER and brings salt bowl. 

SOLDIER 3 Rubs salt into the FATHER’s wounds. (to FATHER) Come on. Where d’yer keep your money, you bastard?

FATHER Aya ….yahhh! 

SISTER (off) Run, brother --- 

SISTER’S voice fades as SOLDIER 1 reappears, pulling up his trousers.

SOLDIER 1 She’s done for, bloody bitch.

SOLDIER 1 turns towards SIMPLEX and removes knife from his belt. SIMPLEX runs. Stage darkens as screams lower to the moans of the dying and wounded.

Scene Two

WINTER. A forest. SIMPLEX crouches by a tree looking fearful as HERMIT enters, wearing sackcloth and chains.

HERMIT (singing) To clear my doubt, to know the world by sight,

To find if books or poems report it right;

So now alone with God, I will a prayer begin,

Lord as in Heaven on Earth thy will be done;

SIMPLEX backs away in fear. His nervous tick returns.

Don’t fret, my son. I’ll not harm you.

SIMPLEX You woof?

HERMIT (He throws down a rabbit.) You look hungry. You can join me. Which village do you come from? (He ties rabbit to a stick and lights a fire.)

SIMPLEX Vill - age? 

HERMIT Bless my soul. You don’t know what I am talking about. 

SIMPLEX (Points at Hermit) You! Who you?

HERMIT Never mind who I am. You hardly seem to know who you are.

AIMPLEX (Looks at Hermit blankly) What’s your name?

SIMPLEX Boy.

HERMIT I can see that you are not a girl. What do your mother and father call you?

SIMPLEX Mother? Father?

HERMIT (slowly) Who gave you the shirt you wear?

SIMPLEX Mutti.

HERMIT What does Mutti call you?

SIMPLEX Boy.

HERMIT Who is Mutti's husband?

SIMPLEX Husband?

HERMIT Who does your Mutti sleep with? 

SIMPLEX shakes his head in incomprehension. 

(slowly) Who is in bed with your Mutti?

SIMPLEX Vati.

SIMPLEX starts his tick again and as he pulls at his ears the HERMIT holds his head in his hands until the tick stops.

HERMIT What does Vati call you?

SIMPLEX Boy.

HERMIT What’s Vati’s name?

SIMPLEX Vati.

HERMIT What does Mutti call him?

SIMPLEX Master.

HERMIT Any other names?

SIMPLEX (laughing)

HERMIT What?

SIMPLEX (with feeling) Pig, shit-pot --

HERMIT What an ignorant ninny you are. Not to know your parents names, nor your own. And tell me, do you know how to pray?

SIMPLEX Hee-hah?

HERMIT No, no. Do you know the ‘Our Father’?

SIMPLEX Our father? 

HERMIT Repeat the “Our Father”. 

SIMPLEX shrugs.

Good heavens. Do you know nothing of Our Lord? Merciful God. Now listen, Simplicius, for what else can I call you? When you say the “Our Father” you must speak like this. (solemnly) ‘Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy Kingdon come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread --

SIMPLEX Cheese?

HERMIT My child, be silent. That will profit you far more than cheese. Your matti was right to call you a jackass. If only I knew where your parents live I could take you back and give them advice on how to bring up children.

SIMPLEX Mutti much blood. Sus dead.

SIMPLEX starts nervous tick and HERMIT touches his head and the ticking stops immediately.

HERMIT Who killed your sus? Who burnt your house?

SIMPLEX Iron men, big ox, no ’orns.

HERMIT Where was your Vati?

SIMPLEX Tied up, see. Like porker. Saltrub, more than mum use (puzzled) Merry be! He laugh and give gold.

HERMIT When did this happen?

SIMPLEX Sheep time. 

HERMIT Sleep time?

SIMPLEX Sheep time. Morning time.

HERMIT How long ago?

SIMPLEX Iron men come. (Pause.) Me hungry. Eat now?

HERMIT (turning rabbit over fire) Patience boy. You’ll get your food.

SIMPLEX (looks round at clearing and points at Hermti) Here live?

HERMIT Yes.

SIMPLEX Like pig live. 

HERMIT (offended) Not so. After you’ve eaten, I’ll take you to where there are people.

SIMPLEX People?

HERMIT Blessed Lord, such ignorance. You and your vati, your mutti, your sus and I’m afraid those iron men, they are all human beings, and when there are many human beings together, we call them people.

SIMPLEX Me bean, you people.

HERMIT No, you and me are human beings. You and me together with your mutti, vati and sus are people.

SIMPLEX Beans, people?

HERMIT (laughs)

SIMPLEX (sadly) No people. (Points form hermit to himself) Beans. 

HERMIT My God!

SIMPLEX Me stay. Humans, beans. Peop --

HERMIT People?

SIMPLEX No people. Beans. Me stay. 

HERMIT (sighs) You may stay for a while. Perhaps when you leave this forest, I will have encouraged you to ask questions that may at least be understood if not answered. Let’s eat.

SIMPLEX (lifts bowl to mouth and in deep thought slowly repeats) Questions, answers. Questions answered.

Music. Lights dim to black-out.

Scene Three

SPRING. Birdsong. Same forst clearing.

SIMPLEX Why did you come to live in forest?

HERMIT I arrived at some conclusions about the world.

SIMPLEX Conclusions?

HERMIT That the unworthy have preference over the worthy, that traitors are favoured and the faithful ignored, that the evil are left in freedom whilst the innocent are condemned. The wise dismissed and the inept rewarded. The devious believed and the honest doubted. That this war may end here but will start again there.

SIMPLEX Is that why you came here?

HERMIT I didn't want to share evil's burden.

SIMPLEX Evil's burden?

HERMIT: (picking up piece of paper and reading) Whoever recommends and helps a good cause becomes a partner therein, and whoever recommends and helps an evil cause shares in its burdens. 

SIMPLEX Did you write that?

HERMIT No, it's from the Qur’an

HERMIT “We are the treasury

Of God's great mystery;

The sea wherein doth dwell

His pearl incalculable.”

SIMPLEX looks in amazement at paper and touches it while the HERMIT reads. He tries to place his hand between the paper and the HERMIT’s eyes. 

Stop that and pay attention. 

HERMIT continues to read and SIMPLEX continues to interfere.

Stop playing the fool.

SIMPLEX Why you looking at piece of wood while you speak? 

HERMIT I am reading from paper.

SIMPLEX Reading? From paper?

HERMIT When I have knowledge in my head that I want to remember, I write it down on paper. For this I need three things which is impossible in the forest, so in my case --- our case--- to make paper; to write in words which are symbols for our spoken language and finally to read those symbols.

SIMPLEX (touching the paper) This paper?

HERMIT Yes, it’s made from the bark of a tree. The best bark is from birch. (He picks up bark from ground) Here is a piece of birch bark. Take them both in your hands.

SIMPLEX (comparing them) How this now this?

HERMIT You have to boil the bark in water. You understand that, don’t you?

SIMPLEX Yes.

HERMIT Then you put it under a large flat rock.

SIMPLEX Yes.

HERMIT Leave it alone for a day and put it in a milk bucket, add lots of water, then stir it like your mum does milk to make cheese.

SIMPLEX Then paper?

HERMIT Not yet. You must cover the bark with rough cloth and drain it of all water and put it again under your rock. Then you will have paper. This (touching bark.) has become this (touching paper.) Now we can write words down on the paper. (He picks up a quill.)

SIMPLEX With feather?

HERMIT I scratch the words, or symbols, for the thoughts in my head onto the paper with this, a quill. This is called writing.

SIMPLEX takes quill and paper from HERMIT and scratches a few marks. 

SIMPLEX (laughing) See? Simplex writing.

HERMIT (handing SIMPLEX a pot of ink) Not yet. The quill needs ink. Ink is a dye, like your mother uses to colour clothes, made from plant juices. I use dye made from black cherries.

SIMPLEX (pointing at HERMIT’S head) Paper, feathers, cherries, words, reading, writing (pointing at own head), Knowledge.

HERMIT Yes, yes, good. There is more. (He picks up a book and hands it to SIMPLEX). This is a Bible. As you now understand, knowledge that is not yet in your head, but is in mine may be written by me on paper which I can read to you or which, hopefully, you will learn to read when I am not here to read to you. But there is a lot of knowledge in the world and this knowledge needs to be read and understood by many people, not just by you and me in this forest. If I want many people to read my knowledge, I do not have the time to write out these words many times so this knowledge has to be printed with a machine. (He taps the book.)

SIMPLEX (Also taps book) Machine?

HERMIT No, it is a book that has words in it printed by a machine called a printing press.

SIMPLEX (opens Bible) Book, words, machines?

HERMIT Enough. Today was paper. Words, machines and books tomorrow. But I will now read to you from this book. (He takes another book from beneath his stool.) ‘Desire not the world and 

God will love you. Desire not what others have, and they will love you. The best of princes is one who visits the wise. The

worst of scholars is one who visits princes. Treat this world as I have learned to do, like a traveller who stops in the shade of a tree for a time, and then moves on.’

SIMPLEX Is that the Bible?

HERMIT It is from a Bible. ‘The Sayings of the Prophet’. As I hope you will come to recognise, the Bible comes in more than one volume. ( He continues reading.) ‘If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am for myself only, what am I? If not now, when’? (Pause). Tomorrow we have a visit to make.

Scene Four

Interior of church. SIMPLEX and HERMIT are praying. 

HERMIT You’ve learned a lot from me over these months including, I hope, respect for your elders. Mind you show it now and keep silent when the pastor talks. We need much from him, salt, books and (raising his eyes to the sky) prayers.

PASTOR ENTERS

PASTOR Welcome, my friend. You have survived another winter under God’s cold skies.

HERMIT Yes, and look here. I have found a shepherd who needs a shepherd. Stand up. Simplex, and pay your respects.

SIMPLEX Beg pardon, sir. I have no money.

PASTOR (laughs) How do you do, young man?

SIMPLEX How do I do what?

PASTOR He doesn’t seem to be joking. What manner of youth is this?

HERMIT If he hardly knows himself, how can I tell you?

PASTOR Here are your books and the salt is in the vestry. You are lucky I still have these things for you. Soldiers arrived in the autumn, but were in a hurry and left us alone for the most part. They took meat and much of our harvest, but were bothered with neither our souls nor our bodies. Soon after others came by, but we had so little to offer they left after a few ill-humoured

beatings. Two weeks ago they returned, but were mercifully well-provisioned although, God knows, others must have 

suffered. Now I am praying for a period of peace. Just a few months would do. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, although it would seem that he taketh in the larger measure.

HERMIT We will take in the smaller measure. I hope your prayers are answered.

PASTOR They’re always answered, it’s just that the answer is often no.

Scene Five

HERMIT is digging up the earth. He stops and looks at SIMPLEX, then looks down at second shovel. SIMPLEX gets the hint and starts to dig.

SIMPLEX Why you digging hole?

HERMIT (holding his side in pain) Simplicius, the time has come for me to leave this world.

SIMPLEX Don’t leave me. 

HERMIT (SIMPLEX clutching at HERMIT’S robes) Neither heaven nor hell can contend against it? Listen. The longer you live, the more you should try to know yourself. And if you grow as old as Methuselah, do not cease to strive after self-knowledge. Most people are damned because they do not know what they are. Now pick up that spade and help me.

The grave is prepared. The HERMIT lies in it to try it for size. He climbs out and sits down beside SIMPLEX and hands him a book. SIMPLEX thumbs through it and reads.

SIMPLEX (reads) "To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one picked out of ten thousand"

HERMIT (takes book back and turns to the back) This is the important page.

SIMPLEX But that page is empty. 

HERMIT When my soul has departed to its rest, do your duty by my body and pay it the last honours. Cover me over with the earth we have been digging. Dear child, I commend you to God’s protection.

HERMIT disrobes. SIMPLEX clutches at him, but the HERMIT breaks away and lies in the grave.

(quietly) Almighty God, take back the soul thou gavest me. Into thy hands I commend my spirit.

The HERMIT is dead. SIMPLEX is praying. He slowly fills in the grave. His nervous flick starts. He climbs down, removes earth from the HERMIT and attempts to hug the corpse. His nervous flick stops. He climbs out and fills in the grave, crying and working faster and faster. He puts on the HERMIT’S clothes and wraps himself in the chains. He picks up the book and stares at the last page. He walks away.


Scene Six

SIMPLEX guarded by two SOLDIERS with two WOMEN onlookers. He affects disdain and takes a note oook from the end of a chain which he starts to read. The WOMEN are giggling and pointing at him.

WOMAN 1 What rat hole have you crawled out of?

SIMPLEX From the forest.

WOMAN 2 From the devil’s shit-house more like, by the smell of you.

Foppish AIDE-DE-CAMP enters. 

AIDE-DE-CAMP (holding handkerchief to his nose) What have we here? 

He flicks at SIMPLEX’s clothes with a lace handkerchief

From where did you get your wardrobe ?

SIMPLEX Beg pardon, sir?

AIDE-DE-CAMP What an extraordinary fellow. (He points at chains) The bastard spawn of a heretic I wouldn’t doubt, complete with devilish testaments.

AIDE-DE-CAMP takes notebook away from SIMPLEX, careful to use his handkerchief so as not to be contaminated.

SIMPLEX (trying to grab book back) Please sir, let me keep that.

AIDE-DE-CAMP (stands to attention) The Governor.

GOVERNOR appears and all attention turns to him. AIDE-DE-CAMP points SIMPLEX in a scornful way.

This is him, sir. We found this on him.

He passes the book to the GOVERNOR.

GOVERNOR (to SIMPLEX) From where have you come?

SIMPLEX I don’t know, sir.

GOVERNOR What the devil do you know? What is your trade? Where is your home?

SIMPLEX I don’t know.

GOVERNOR (to AIDE-DE-CAMP) Search him.

AIDE-DE-CAMP (looking very upset at the idea) Already done that, sir. (He points to the book) That’s what I found.

The GOVERNOR examines book carefully and a piece of paper falls out. He picks it up and reads

GOVERNOR What’s this?

SIMPLEX Paper made from birch bark.

GOVERNOR I can see that it’s not vellum. 

SIMPLEX Better than other trees and I made it myself.

GOVERNOR But who wrote on it?

SIMPLEX He did. (He attempts to look at writing) No, no. I did.

GOVERNOR He? Who is he? Who was with you in the forest?

SIMPLEX A holy man.

GOVERNOR To be sure, to have put up with you. Tell me who is this holy man?

SIMPLEX He isn’t.

GOVERNOR Who isn’t? You just told me that there was a holy man with you in the forest.

SIMPLEX He is.

GOVERNOR Where is he?

SIMPLEX In the forest.

GOVERNOR Who is he?

SIMPLEX He isn’t.

GOVERNOR He is in the forest, but he isn’t. Stop making a fool of me and explain.

SIMPLEX There’s nothing to tell as he isn’t. 

GOVERNOR Isn't what?

SIMPLEX He is in the forest and he isn’t any more.

GOVERNOR ‘More’! We’ve heard nothing yet. We haven’t reached ‘more’!

SIMPLEX I’m telling you the truth. There is no more to be said about him because he is no more. He is --

GOVERNOR Ah. He is--

SIMPLEX Dead. Yes.

GOVERNOR (slowly) We are getting somewhere. 

SIMPLEX (quietly) Yes, you are.

GOVERNOR You made this (holds up bark) and you wrote on it while living with a holy man in the forest, who is still in the forest, but who is now dead.

SIMPLEX That’s what I told you already. 

GOVERNOR All right, all right. Now, tell me about this forest. Where is it? Which forest?

SIMPLEX One with trees.

GOVERNOR Its name, you fool.

SIMPLEX I don’t know.

GOVERNOR You walked out of the forest, didn’t you? Which direction did you go?

SIMPLEX It was night time and I couldn’t see.

GOVERNOR In the morning where was the sun?

SIMPLEX It was raining and I couldn’t tell.

AIDE-DE-CAMP He was found walking to Hanau from the east, sir. It must have been the Spessart.

GOVERNOR The boy is either a rogue or a fool. (He thumbs through book and looks again at note) Yet not such a fool if he can write like this. What is your name?

SIMPLEX Simplicius Simplicissimus, sir.

GOVERNOR A very suitable name too. (To AIDE-DE-CAMP) Lock him up. Perhaps he needs time wih the rats before he will talk.

Scene Seven

A gaol cell. Chained to the floor, SIMPLEX is sleeping.. A WOMAN lies moaning. A MAN is chewing scraps. The PASTOR is praying in a corner. SIMPLEX wakes.

PASTOR Simplici.

SIMPLEX You, here? Why?

PASTOR (whispers) Not so loud. My church was burned and I was forced on the road like you it would seem. Now I am imprisoned by the Governor as a spy. And you?

SIMPLEX I don’t know. I don’t know nothing.

SIMPLEX’S tick starts but stops quickly.

PASTOR What happened to our hermit?

SMPLEX He has gone.

PASTOR Gone! Gone where?

SIMPLEX To his maker. He had stomach pains and decided to go. And now I am here and so are you.

PASTOR (calls to GAOLER) I demand to see the Governor

Lights dim and rise to same scene. GAOLER is opening the cell door to let the PASTOR enter. He is accompanied by the AIDE-DE-CAMP, holding his handkerchief to his nose.

GAOLER Shall I remove his chains?

AIDE-DE-CAMP You don’t expect me to do so, do you? (He walks round SIMPLEX with a mixture of fascination and horror.) You, boy, are to accompany me from here and the Governor has ordered me to apologise on his behalf for any inconvenience caused you by your stay here. (looking at PASTOR.) You have your friend here to thank for this situation. (scowling) I might add that if it was left to me I would leave you here to rot, but first I am commanded that you have your portrait made. 

AIDE-DE-CAMP summons ARTIST into the cell accompanied by two WOMEN with water and brush who start to clean SIMPLEX.

AIDE-DE-CAMP No, no, leave him alone. Don’t touch a hair on his head, nor anywhere else for that matter. He has to be represented in his original state.

AIDE-DE-CAMP raises his handkerchief to his nose. The ARTIST begins his work.)

PASTOR My son, what fortune for us both!

SIMPLEX What did you do? What did you say? 

PASTOR Dear boy, listen to what I have to tell you. Your hermit was the Governor’s brother-in-law.

SIMPLEX What?

PASTOR The Governor saw me willingly because he had already begun to piece together the jigsaw. Our hermit used to be a Captain in the Imperial army and had been fighting in the East of the country. His name was Sternfels von Fuchshaim. I knew some of this already because he arrived at my church after our valley had been laid waste. Sick of the war and intent on directing

himself to the solitude of the forest, I gave him shelter and he, in return, gave me his worldly goods and a tidy sum of money. I hesitated to take these gifts as, if they were found on me, I would be under suspicion of having killed him. 

SIMPLEX I could do without the life story. Tell me, what is happening?

PASTOR Be patient. This account of mine is important. (He looks at progress of painting). Besides, you are going to be here for a while yet. Our hermit, or rather von Fuchshaim, left me for his life in the woods carrying nothing but the bare essentials.

SIMPLEX How does the Governor know he was von Fuchshaim?

PASTOR They confiscated all I brought here with me which included the hermit’s goods. They accused me of spying and imprisoned me in this gaol. These things were taken to the Governor who recognised them as belonging to his relative. He was about to send for me anyway. He told me he had your book with two pieces of paper in it, one in your writing and one clearly in that of his brother-in-law. I vouched for you and told him that you had lived with the hermit in the forest and we are now, both of us, in his favour. That’s it, the wheel of fortune, or God’s grace. Now you are to serve at table and pass your days in education. From the spelling errors in that letter, you will need much of that!

SIMPLEX And you?

PASTOR I am to be his chaplain. God be with you. (He exits).

AIDE-DE-CAMP (Pushing ARTIST) Come on. (To SIMPLEX.) Follow me, at a discreet distance if you don’t mind. I have a social engagement to attend to immediately I have dealt ... er ... have accompanied you to your new residence.

GAOLER (under his breath as they leave the cell) A social engagement to attend to. Bah! (He kicks at WOMAN prisoner).

Lights fade to blackout.

Scene Eight

A dining hall. The GOVERNOR is sitting at table with the PASTOR. The AIDE-DE-CAMP, bowing and scraping, is announcing new arrivals. SIMPLEX is serving drinks from a tray to GUESTS as they arrive. A GUEST enters and takes drink.

AIDE-DE-CAMP His Most Excellent Lord-

GUEST waves the AIDE-DE-CAMP aside as though he doesn’t need announcing and hands AIDE-DE-CAMP money. He is followed in by his WIFE.

Her Most Excellent Lady-

SIMPLEX (interrupts with a whisper) Don’t you mean ‘His’?

A BISHOP enters the room.

AIDE-DE-CAMP The Worshipful Bishop of- 

The BISHOP grabs a drink which he spills as he tries to bless the guests. He hurriedly places his sceptre against the wall and returns to SIMPLEX for a second drink which he downs immediately before taking a third.

SIMPLEX (whispers) He imbibes the blood of Christ in quantity. Is that why you call him WorshipFULL?

AIDE-DE-CAMP tries to move away from SIMPLEX, but SIMPLEX pursues him.

AIDE-DE-CAMP (cuffs SIMPLEX and returns to his task as another GUEST enters) Most Worthy Gentleman.

This GUEST also waves the AIDE-DE-CAMP’s introduction aside as he hands him money.

SIMPLEX Will he pay me if I call him ‘worthy’?

SIMPLEX farts.

AIDE-DE-CAMP (placing handkerchief over his nose) Pig. Back to the farmyard where you belong, rather than in the company of decent men. 

PASTOR (to GOVERNOR) Please understand, sir, that he has been brought up in the wilderness and knows little of how to comport himself in society. The Captain loved him and thought he resembled his wife, your sister.

GOVERNOR Tell me. Did my brother-in-law know that I was in command here at Hanau?

PASTOR If he did, he said nothing about it to me.

GOVERNOR Had I known where he was I would have brought him here even against his will. But now I will care for his Simplicius in his place. Did he ever talk to you about my sister?

PASTOR He spoke only about metaphysics and the woods.

GOVERNOR She disappeared some years ago. I knew he was in the East and had hoped that she had gone in search of him. They loved each other dearly. But I never received any news from either of them. 

SIMPLEX approaches with large tray with a pig’s head on it.

(angrily) Fetch the cook.

SIMPLEX This is a pig’s head as ordered, sir.

GOVERNOR I am able to recognise it for what it is. Pig it may be, but Cyclops it is not. Where is its eye?

SIMPLEX In its head. Look, sir.

GOVERNOR The other eye, you fool.

SIMPLEX It was falling out so I tidied the head up by taking it away.

GOVERNOR Away? Away to where?

SIMPLEX To my stomach, sir. There was no other place to put it.

GOVERNOR With your bare hands?

SMPLEX: No, like this.

SIMPLEX takes spoon from GOVERNOR’s plate and picks out other eye. He flicks it up in the air and catches it in his mouth.

GOVERNOR (laughing, snatches back his spoon and wipes it on AIDE-DE-CAMP’s tunic) My God, this trick is worth ten pigs’ heads.

GUESTS (fawningly) Bravo, well done.

The GUESTS stamp their feet, clap and cheer.

AIDE-DE-CAMP (very loudly) Both eyes are now brought together again as nature intended.

GOVERNOR’s mood changes for the worse. An embarrassed silence.

GOVERNOR Come, enough of your tricks. Let’s have some music. (To SIMPLEX) Bring us more wine.

Party gets more boisterous.

PASTOR You were lucky to get away with that trick.

SIMPLEX It was not a trick. Tell me, why do they all reel about so? They seem to have lost their wits. They’ve eaten and drunk their fill and swear the devil may take them if they down another drop yet they continue swilling.

PRIEST My son, where wine goes in, wit goes out.

SIMPLEX Don’t their bellies burst if they stuff them so fiercely? How can their immortal souls stand such torture?

PASTOR This is neither the time nor place for preaching or else I would be doing it.

GOVERNOR Simplici, bring me something. I want to throw up.

SIMPLEX (puzzled) What is there to throw, sir? (He looks around and picks up a bowl of fruit.) You can throw these. Here you are, sir.

GOVERNOR vomits into bowl. SIMPLEX looks down at bowl in shock. 

GOVERNOR Take it away, boy.

SIMPLEX What shall I do with it?

GOVERNOR (laughs) Take it to the doctor so that he can see the state of my stomach. No, take it to the kitchen, wash the fruit and bring it back. Put it down you fool before you cause any more trouble. You are a simple idiot.

Music gets louder and the guests start to dance the Volta.. 

SIMPLEX (to AIDE-DE-CAMP) Are they going to kill each other?

AIDE-DE-CAMP They have vowed to break through the floor by brute force. Why else should they exert themselves?

SIMPLEX We shall all break our necks.

AIDE-DE-CAMP Yes, that is true, but if couples remain clasped together they will escape injury.

SIMPLEX (frightened) I need a woman. (He runs round the room in panic) I need a woman, a woman. (He runs up to a WOMAN who is dancing with the GOVERNOR and grabs hold of her) Please help me. I need you. I don’t want to break my neck.

The GOVERNOR is furious.

GOVERNOR Lock him in the chicken coop. He is an animal.

Blackout.

Scene Nine

Chicken coop. 

PASTOR (entering) Stupid boy. What a mess you’re in. After your behaviour last night the Governor has decided to turn you into a fool. They will come tonight with a special suit he ordered for you. When they start their devilish treatment, play along with it otherwise they will know that they are threshing at empty straw and will prolong your torment. I have brought you some food and water from last night’s table.

PASTOR hands SIMPLEX a bowl of food and a jug of water.

SIMPLEX From last night’s floor more like. Thank you. If I’m to be turned into a fool, it’ll only be to join the majority. I have little fear of that.

PASTOR You have a point. I suppose it could be turned to your advantage. After all, the most powerful rulers often seek out fools to be their advisers.

SIMPLEX From what I have seen, they don’t have to look far. Besides, I am not a fool. Ignorant maybe. I am trying to understand new things. That is all.

PASTOR To seek understanding in the middle of all this is itself an act of foolishness.

SIMPLEX It seems to me that all is foolishness and that it permeates through our very souls.

PASTOR (an important matter to him) That’s not so. On this matter I join the heretics. Our circumstances change and so do we as humans. We live in a land of war and hunger.

SIMPLEX Many are overloaded with both. A few experience neither.

PASTOR Yes, yes, that is so. For those who do go hungry, a vicious fight takes place for food and other necessities. 

SIMPLEX That is in our nature.

PASTOR Not so. Our nature is enclosed within circumstance. In a land without milk just imagine what would happen if a cow appeared with udder bursting from a day’s pasture.

SIMPLEX Just one cow?

PASTOR Yes.

SIMPLEX I would find a bull and turn a miracle into a routine.

PASTOR Ha! Maybe you would, but others present at the immaculate conception of the cow would kill each other to reach the swollen udder and they and the cow would probably die in the crush. That may be taken as a parable of our land today.

SIMPLEX That’s true, so what -

PASTOR Suppose there appeared more than one cow, then the result might be different, especially if the cows themselves were amazed by their own miraculous appearance and by each other, not recognising who or what they were, bumping into things and wandering about all over the place. Then the people would be forced by necessity to co-operate in order to gather together the cows for milking. We are not creatures of instinct as are the rats or the beasts of the field. (quietly) We have not been driven from the Garden of Eden. We only think we have been, or rather there are those in positions of power who persuade us to that point of view. That’s the heresy I refer to.

SIMPLEX How would you explain the events of our time? From what I have seen, we appear to be intent on self-destruction.

PASTOR There you have it, the events of our time, but not the events of another. There are two species of humans, both descended from Adam and Eve. One is tame and the other wild. Sometimes the two can reside in each of us, side by side. Von Fuchshaim was one such person. He could not live with this knowledge and consciously and with difficulty crossed from one side to the other. From Captain to hermit, from armoured breast-plates to

PASTOR (cont) sack-cloth. His journey, encapsulated in one life, is one that humanity itself has to make if it is to survive.

SIMPLEX Am I tame or wild?

PASTOR I don’t know. You may be either or, like von Fuchshaim, both. Time and your own actions will tell. Remember, be on guard against their tricks. You are going to be locked up here at night, but free to act the fool during the day. Be wisely foolish.

LIGHTS dim. SIMPLEX is sleeping when coop door is unlocked. The AIDE-DE-CAMP and two WOMEN enter. The AIDE-DE-CAMP stands close to the door holding his handkerchief to his nose.

WOMAN 1 (shouts in SIMPLEX’s ear) Wake up!

WOMAN 2 (shouts in other ear.) And get up.

WOMAN 1 You’re dead.

WOMAN 2 And in hell.

BOTH WOMEN Wake up and drink up while we cast you our spell. 

WOMAN 1 feeds SIMPLEX a potion. Amidst much giggling a goat-skin is passed to them from the AIDE-DE-CAMP. They dress him in it and place horns on his head.. They exit.

SIMPLEX (smiles at audience) Bah ..ha ..ha .. haa .. haaaaa!!

Lights dim.

Scene Ten

Library. The GOVERNOR is talking with the WOMAN who Simplex had grabbed at the party and with the AIDE-DE-CAMP. SIMPLEX enters dressed in goat- skin.

GOVERNOR (laughing) And what can I do for you, goat?

SIMPLEX I have been locked up in the chicken-coop, and we goats cannot stand such treatment if we are to grow up into fine billies.

GOVERNOR I will make certain that you are better treated. (to WOMAN) One fool makes a thousand others.

SIMPLEX That seems to be a general rule here.

WOMAN I always assumed that goats could not speak.

SIMPLEX I always assumed that monkeys could not speak.

GOVERNOR How do you dare to make such a statement, goat?

SIMPLEX If she is not one, she soon will be. Who knows what the future holds? I didn’t expect to turn into a goat, yet here I am. The monkey has a bare arse and this lady has bared her breasts. Bahhhh!

GOVERNOR Foolish goat. Ladies reveal what delights men’s eyes. Monkies go naked because they have no clothes. You had better make up for your offence to this good lady or I’ll have you whipped.

SIMPLEX My Lord, I see where the mistake lies. The dressmaker is to blame. She has left the cloth she should have used to cover her breasts at the bottom of the dress, where it trails on the ground. My mother and sister had their dresses made with pretty pleated skirts cut evenly round the hem. Those skirts didn’t trail in the mud as this lady’s does.

GOVERNOR Were your mother and sister more beautiful than this lady?

SIMPLEX Oh no, my Lord. This lady has hair as brown as rich dung and a parting so small and white as if she had hog’s leather on her head. Look at her beautiful brow, smooth as a baby’s arse and whiter than a weather-beaten skull. Behold her neck, like curdled milk and her little breasts as hard as the udders of a goat in need of milking. Bahhhh!

AIDE-DE-CAMP You are a stupid goat in need of a sound thrashing.

SIMPLEX And you, sir, are a title-smith, impressed with your own lack of importance and the supposed importance of mortal beings who hide their inferiority behind jewelled masks. Pray tell me, what titles did Adam and Eve lay claim to? Bahhhh!

AIDE-DE-CAMP You ignorant beast! After our first parents came men of varying quality. Some of them so ennobled themselves and their descendants by their rare virtues, wisdom, deeds of valour, the invention of useful arts--

SIMPLEX Murder, looting, lying --

AIDE-DE-CAMP that their contemporaries honoured them above others and counted them the very equal of the Gods. Of course, being a poor pathetic little goat, you remain ignorant, begrudging mankind the merit for his glories.

SIMPLEX Tell me then, what great deeds have been done and useful arts invented that justify the ennobling of an entire family for centuries after your hero or sage has died? Has not the hero’s strength and the sage’s wisdom died with them? 

AIDE-DE-CAMP Your father was nothing but a coarse peasant and look at you,. You have sunk even lower, to the status of a beast.

SIMPLEX Exactly what I have been saying. That parents’ virtues do not pass to their children. Bahhhh!

GOVERNOR You don’t fool me. You simply despise what you lack. You are a jealous animal.

SIMPLEX Jealous, sir? Even if I could step into your shoes, I would refuse to do so.

GOVERNOR I can believe that. You are content with your straw.

SIMPLEX Not so. I assure you that I rate you the most miserable person in Hanau.

AIDE-DE-CAMP (fawning attitude to GOVERNOR) How so? I do not find that to be the case.

GOVERNOR (less certainly) Nor I.

SIMPLEX If you do not know this, then you are either dazzled by excessive pride or are made of iron and are without feeling. Look outside the town. You are surrounded by enemies and its safety is your responsibility. You must scheme to foil your foes and take care these schemes are not discovered. Don’t you feel that Hanau would be much safer if you yourself kept watch like a common soldier? Your fawning staff praise all you do and declare your vices to be virtues. They call your fury justice and when you devastate the countryside, leaving neither man nor woman, child nor pig alive, they call you a good soldier. They tell you that you have created order. Then they urge you to pile ever greater quantities of misfortune on the people in order to retain your favour and line their pockets.

AIDE-DE-CAMP You impertinent little snot-nose. Who taught you to preach like this. You heretic.

SIMPLEX A goat as heretic. There is a heretical notion.

AIDE-DE-CAMP (embarrassed) Yes, well--

GOVERNOR (thoughtfully looking at AIDE-DE-CAMP) If he didn’t think himself to be a goat, he’d be clever enough. Perhaps under that goatskin there lurks intelligence.

SIMPLEX You humans think we animals fools. Tell me, who taught cats and dogs to eat grass when they have problems with their stomachs? The tortoise to heal a wound with hemlock? Who taught snakes to eat fennel to help them shed their skins? Who taught the crows to count the hunters as they enter the hide and the bear to seek out bees as leeches? Who tells the migrating birds where to go? Who has lent them compasses? Go watch the bees making wax and honey or the spider spin its web and then let us discuss this again.

GOVERNOR (to PASTOR) How is it that one we considered simple and ignorant should utter words to make us so moved?

PASTOR I have told you, sir. He was brought up in simplicity. If he can be cured of his fantasy, he can be put to rights. I have heard of a man who imagined his belly to be full of bits and bridles. His doctor administered a purge and then put some saddlery into his privy. The man was quickly cured. It is also told of a lunatic who thought his nose was so long that it trailed on the ground. They fixed a sausage to it and cut it away bit by bit until the knife touched his nose whereupon he agreed that it was its proper length again. Perhaps Simplex can be cured of his fantasy as they were of theirs.

GOVERNOR He appears to have wisdom. His exposition as to the military threats that confront me amazes me. Perhaps it is a divine warning.

PASTOR There may be a natural explanation. That he is well read I know for he and your brother-in-law went through many of my books.

GOVERNOR Well, he can remain here but he must serve in a military unit. We’ll forget your complicated cures. Remove his goat-skin, provide him with a uniform and send him to the front. We’ll see if his attributes extend to the battlefield.

Lights fade. 

Scene Eleven

GIRL (singing)The Poor man in the village

Held his little boy:

He said, “Lord, why was it him

And not myself who died?

GIRL (cont) We’ve suffered here for longer

Than my son had been alive,

The only thing remaining

Was the hope that he’d survive.”

TWO SOLDIERS (singing) It’s too long a war

It’s too long a war.

GIRL (singing) The armies of the rich rode out

Along the river Rhine

The Swedish King, the Emperor,

And General Wallenstein.

They burnt the fields and houses

To stop the other side

From feeding off the fertile land

And so the peasants died.

TWO SOLDIERS (singing) It’s too long a war,

It’s too long a war.

The two SOLDIERS lean on their weapons, smoking and chatting to the GIRL. SIMPLEX stands on his own. A self-important MAJOR enters and glowers at SOLDIERS. The GIRL runs off.

MAJOR: (to SIMPLEX) You’re in the army now, laddie, although your beard needs to grow a little if you’re to be a soldier.

SIMPLEX I’m a match for any old man, Major. It’s not the beard

that marks the man else billy goats would stand in high esteem.

MAJOR If your courage is as forward as your tongue, perhaps

you’ll be useful. (To SOLDIERS) Now men, we are going to seek out our enemies in that village. (He points in its direction). They have to be disarmed as we have knowledge that they have a secret cache of weapons.

SIMPLEX How do you know that, sir?

MAJOR (laughing and winking at SOLDIERS) Because we sold them to them, you fool.

SIMPLEX But that village has supported our army.

MAJOR That has nothing to do with it.

SIMPLEX With respect, sir, this is a poor village. We should travel

further south. The peasants there are richer.

MAJOR Who asked for your advice? Particularly when it’s bad advice. It’s a long journey there and a greater danger of attack.

SIMPLEX True, sir, but if we raid this village we will find little and there will be nothing left of it afterwards, then we will be forced south anyway. Travel to those villages now and there will still be something to return to if necessary. That is better than scraping at an empty barrel even if that barrel is standing by your side.

SOLDIER 1 He talks sense.

MAJOR Shut your mouth. Prepare to fire.

SIMPLEX With respect sir, wait--

MAJOR (pushes SIMPLEX aside) Troop advance.

SIMPLEX Sir, they know we are here and it would pay us to wait and watch where they hide their weapons or whatever it is you are seeking out. If we note their movements, it will save us time and perhaps some blood. Here sir, take this pen and paper and accept this as respectful advice.

MAJOR (waves quill about as he is illiterate) Um, you do it. I’m no clerk.

SIMPLEX takes notes of goings on in village whilst SOLDIERS smirk. The MAJOR walks up and down peering over SIMPLEX’s shoulder. He turns on each SOLDIER who laughs, but it is more pathetic than threatening. SIMPLEX finishes his observations and attempts to show his notes to the MAJOR who waves them aside. He is excited the assault will at last begin)

Move forward in lines of one.

Battle sounds offstage as lights dim.

SOLDIERS return with PRISONERS. 

SOLDIER 2  (pointing at SIMPLEX) He was right. Nothing there. Not a musket nor scrap of food or drink.

MAJOR (to PRISONER) Where do you keep your food, your wine, your 

animals, your weapons?

PRISONER 1 Our animals are all dead or taken and we are harried from 

tending our fields. We are starving. We have no weapons. We were disarmed long ago, as you know.

SIMPLEX Is it true that people round here have been cutting the bodies 

of the executed down from the trees and eating them?

PRISONER 1 Not me, sir.

SIMPLEX How do you survive?

PRISONER 2 Alms.

MAJOR So you do have weapons. You realise that possession of weapons by peasants is punishable by death.

PRISONER 1 I have told you, sir. We have no weapons.

SOLDIER 1 (hits prisoner,laughing) We can find them if that’s what you want, sir.

SIMPLEX I think his spelling is different to yours, sir. (To PRISONER)

Who dispenses those alms?

PRISONER 2 The church, sir. 

SIMPLEX Which church?

PRISONERS (together) Both of ‘em, sir.

SIMPLEX How?

MAJOR We've heard enough. There's nothing to be gained from talking to these peasants. Let's finish with them.

SIMPLEX (to PRISONER) Tell us.

PRISONER 1 They give us the bare minimum in return for our prayers. We 

have to recite their liturgies. It gets confusing. We have to remember which church they are from. 

PRISONER 2 Then they accuse us of being devil-worshippers, in the pay of an axis of evil.

PRISONER 1 Sometimes they trick us by dressing in the attire of the other church and sometimes we forget the right words.

SIMPLEX What happens then? 

PRISONER No food. They arrived only today. Ask him (He points at a PRIEST standing with PRISONERS.)

PRIEST We look after our flocks both in body and soul.

SIMPLEX You exploit the people.

PRIEST What is wrong with Christian charity? 

SIMPLEX (to MAJOR.) He is a rogue, sir

MAJOR He is our rogue.

PRIEST (smugly) We work with the authorities---

MAJOR (to PRIEST, looking at SIMPLEX and under his breath) He's not a proper soldier.

SIMPLEX --- With what they have stolen from the very people you dispense your largesse to. A profitable circle which you call Christian charity .

MAJOR Enough. You may be a favourite of the Governor, but I will not listen to more of your sedition (To SOLDIER.)Make sure the priest returns to his Parish under escort. Leave the rest of them with some of our charity. 

The MAJOR singles out a YOUNG WOMAN. She is dragged offstage. He points at a YOUNG MAN and SOLDIER 1 prepares to execute him.

SIMPLEX Don’t shoot him!

MAJOR But that’s the normal procedure as you well know. Are you

against violence?

SIMPLEX No, but he is young and therefore still useful. (He points at an old man) Shoot him.

The MAJOR nods his agreement. SOLDIER 1 raises his gun shakily, glances over at SIMPLEX and spits on the floor. He lowers his musket. To the sounds of a GIRL screaming. Lights dim.

ACT TWO

Scene One

A forest clearing. SOLDIER 2 points at SIMPLEX’s shoes.

SIMPLEX I am wearing them back to front.

SOLDIER 2 This is a war, not a circus.

SIMPLEX What’s the difference? They both involve going round in circles to no purpose. This does have a purpose. No one will be able to follow my tracks. If I change my shoes around, anyone arriving at a spot where I have done so will think that two people have come together and jointly vanished. If I wear them the wrong way round, it will appear as if I am going to a place where I have already been to or coming from one I am about to visit.

SOLDIER 2  (laughs) Brother, my feet are sore enough without following your plan and besides, I’m hungry. I was never so famished, even when I was a poor student. 

SIMPLEX What were you a student of?

SOLDIER 2 Philosophy.

SIMPLEX Incompletely to be sure. 

SOLDIER 2 (rubbing his stomach) What about visiting that church we passed on the other side of the forest? It’s the church of that prriest. Let’s get some charity off him. I bet he has a pantry full of food and probably hides his money there too. 

SIMPLEX You studied well enough how to cadge off others.

SOLDIER 2 Read Machiavelli?

SIMPLEX Yes, and understood him. (As an aside) which is more important.

SOLDIER 2 Philosophy is only for us philosophers.

SIMPLEX You philosophers should take yourselves off to a philosopher’s island in the southern seas, but your brains would turn to dust without the nourishment provided you by others.

SOLDIER 2 The brain gives as good as it gets, for when introduced to philosophy it too is a source of nourishment for the people. We play our part in the common good.

SIMPLEX I do not need your instruction to stay alive, but I do need food and drink. Philosophy is for those who have the good fortune to wonder how it is that this food and drink land in their laps without any effort on their part. Such miracles give rise to meditation and metaphysics.

SOLDIER 2 You would not last long in university.

SIMPLEX Perhaps not. I would have murdered the entire faculty after my

first day.

SOLDIER 2 Enough of this. Let’s go and have dinner. Listen, I have a plan.

Lights fade.

Scene Two

A church. Night time. SIMPLEX and SOLDIER 2 are on the roof. SIMPLEX is dressed in his old goat-skin. 

SIMPLEX (whispering) When I get inside, I’ll pass the food up and whatever else I find.

SOLDIER 2 Good luck and God be with you.

SIMPLEX Don’t be silly. He’s with them, not us. (He climbs down the chimney on a rope.) There are good hams here in the chimney breast. When I tug on the rope, pull them up, then wait a little longer. Might find more than food here.

SOLDIER 2 stares down chimney while SIMPLEX searches.

I was right. A bag of money with the biscuits. I’ll pass it up now, then send the rope down for me.

SOLDIER 2 hauls up the money-bag and lowers the rope for SIMPLEX. He starts to climb up, but the rope breaks and he falls down the chimney. PRIEST and his HOUSEKEEPER approach in nightshirts.

PRIEST Bring a light here. There’s someone in the kitchen.

HOUSEKEEPER (nervously) Shall I go in or you?

PRIEST Does it matter? We have the protection of the Lord. (He pauses.) You go in 

The trembling HOUSEKEEPER stumbles in carrying a candle. SIMPLEX blows it out, the HOUSEKEEPER relights it from the embers. SIMPLEX blows it out again. HOUSEKEEPER shakes in fear.

What is happening?

HOUSEKEEPER It had two heads with four horns, maybe more and a tail with a fork. 

PRIEST splashes water into the room. 

What are you doing?

PRIEST I’m throwing in holy water. Don’t be frightened. (In a loud and pretending-to-be-brave-voice) Please, who are you and what is your business?

SIMPLEX I am the devil come to wring your bloody neck.

PRIEST You have no business here! This is the House of God. Return from whence you came!

SIMPLEX (trying not to laugh) I would like nothing better. I have little 

wish to remain in your company.

PRIEST (nervously as he peers into the room.) Perhaps I can help you. The door is on the left side of the window. 

SIMPLEX finds his way out.

(to HOUSEKEEPER.) It’s the work of the Devil which I overcame.

Scene Three

Interior. An inn. SIMPLEX at table with two TRAVELLERS eating soup. INNKEEPER approaches.

SIMPLEX (to TRAVELLERS) Would you two like to join me for a drink?

TRAVELLER 1 Thank you, sir.

INNKEEPER You must be hungry, sir, after your journey. 

SIMPLEX First bring a jug of ale. No, make it two jugs and fetch some bread and cheese. Have you any lamb?

INNKEEPER Alas, no. But I do have some boiled beef. 

SIMPLEX That’ll do.

INNKEEPER For all of you?

SIMPLEX Of course.

INNKEEPER Of course.

TRAVELLER 1 & 2 (together) Of course

INNKEEPER exits.

TRAVELLER 1 Thanks. We’ve been here two weeks and have tasted neither meat nor fresh bread. He’s a mean bastard. Doesn’t even provide a proper measure of ale. It’s only because you look as though you have money on you that we get the beef.

TRAVELLER 2 Last night I watched him pour the slops into a bucket and take it to the cellar. Like as not, that’s what we’re drinking now.

TRAVELLER 1 He’d skin a flea for its flesh. Mind you, the fleas round here

are fatter than the chickens.

TRAVELLER 2  (ladling soup) We get this rubbish every night. Last week I

went past the kitchen and saw a leg of lamb. When I said we paid enough for our lodgings and were entitled to some of it, he claimed his dog had eaten it behind his back.

TRAVELLER 1 Then the shithead kicked the poor animal around in front of us as though this would convince us.

SIMPLEX I’m only here one night so eat all we are given. Later you’ll have all that we eat now and more. After the Innkeeper’s in bed, meet me outside the kitchen. (He looks up at approaching GIRL.) Who is that?

TRAVELLER 2 Clara, his daughter, but I’d advise you to leave her alone. If you get to grips with her, you’ll end up in the grip of her bastard of a father.

CLARA (flirtily setting down his food) Here you are, sir.

SIMPLEX Thank you. What’s your name?

The GIRL giggles and runs off.

Scene Four

Outside kitchen. Later that night.

SIMPLEX Where’s your friend?

TRAVELLER 1 He was frightened.

SIMPLEX Let him starve.

TRAVELLER 1 Are you sure this is a good idea?

SIMPLEX No, I’m not. Nothing is sure about stealing food in the middle of the night. If you want to stuff your stomach, follow me. 

They enter the kitchen. 

Take what cheese you need and moisten the remainder with wine. That will restore its weight. Drink your fill from the barrel and replace it with water. That’s no more than he does. Then peel back the skin from the joints and carve thin slices before replacing the skin. You’ll have a feast and he’ll -

A noise outside kitchen.

Somebody’s coming. I’ll handle it. I’ll tell him I came down for some water. (He goes out to passage where he bumps into CLARA.) My prayers have been answered, my dear. I have not been able to sleep over the thought of you.

CLARA But I heard a noise in the kitchen and --

SIMPLEX (standing in front of kitchen door) Me too, and I went in 

thinking it was you, but found only a mouse behaving with bravado, due to the lateness of the hour. I prevented it from doing too much damage to your father’s foodstocks.

SIMPLEX touches CLARA and, giggling, she leads him into a bedroom.. They start to kiss.

CLARA Oooh! You’ve got a smooth tongue! (She throws her nightdress over SIMPLEX’s head, then opens the door.. CLARA cries with passion while looking out of the room.) Ooh, OOOOH!

INNKEEPER enters with a PARSON who is clutching a Bible.

INNKEEPER You scum! I could break your neck and that of this, this --(winking at CLARA) this whore of a daughter!

SIMPLEX But we are innocent--

INNKEEPER Hold your tongue!

SIMPLEX We have done nothing improper. We didn’t get the chance.

INNKEEPER In that case, you will wish to continue to act properly. (To

PARSON) Wed them and be quick about it.

PARSON (to SIMPLEX.) You take this woman to be your wedded wife and you (to CLARA) take this man to be your husband?

CLARA I do, I do and he do too, don’t you?

SIMPLEX (confused) Did I? Do I?

INNKEEPER Yes, you did. You do. Now get up, the pair of you. In half an hour we will have a wedding breakfast. 

SIMPLEX I cannot understand, dear father-in-law, why you arrange these

matters with so little propriety. When other couples marry, their nearest and dearest conduct them to the bed-chamber. You, on the other hand, drive us from the nuptial delights of our wedding night. If this were to become the custom, marriage as an institution would not last long. My beloved, let us comport ourselves in the properly moral way as newly weds. (giggling, they start to make love.)Good fathers, leave us in peace. We all have a busy day ahead.

PARSON stares at the couple as INNKEEPER kicks out at him.

INNKEEPER Come on, out. I didn’t pay you to come ‘ere and gawp.

INNKEEPER and PARSON exit.

SIMPLEX (getting out of bed) My dear wife. I must leave before the breakfast feast.

CLARA Don’t go. You’re the nicest husband I ever had!

SIMPLEX Absence makes the heart grow fonder. My leaving could be the best thing that could happen to our new marriage.

CLARA My heart has hardly had the chance to get fond, let alone fonder.

SIMPLEX You played a part in this arrangement, but I am prepared to forgive you because I am sorry you are the daughter of that rogue. I will leave you some money on condition you don’t tell your father you have it. If you have any sense, use it to get as far away from here as you can.

CLARA Where are you going?

SIMPLEX To the other side of the river in the company of two 

Unreliable officers. They are supposed to be in command, but I am to watch over them. I have been promised a commission so I must go, but before I do. --

They resume their lovemaking. 

Scene Five

SIMPLEX and two OFFICERS sitting on a horse-drawn cart.

OFFICER 1 Neither of us wanted to come on this errand. We are supposed to search out the enemy on this side of the river. If they are in the vicinity, they will be more than a match for us. We, my brother officer and I, are more interested in a recce on the other side of the river, to cross the river in order to--

SIMPLEX Avoid the enemy.

OFFICER 2 No, to confuse them with an intelligent detour.

OFFICER 1 We wish to cross the river to--

SIMPLEX Desert!

OFFICER 1 Let us use the word depart. Officers never desert, even when

they do so. Actually we want to cross the river and travel to France, to Paris.

OFFICER 2 Although you are only a common soldier, we would like you to

accompany us. We would appreciate your further attendance on us.

SIMPLEX (sarcastically) We hardly know each other, and, as a common soldier, I alone risk being accused of desertion.

OFFICER 1 We have great respect for your qualities.

OFFICER 2 We would like your help and protection in carrying

out this new engagement. Such a journey out of Germany is not without risk.

SIMPLEX That, at least, is honest. Why should I agree? I have been

promised a commission after this sortie and so I’d be wise to delay my departure for it to become so. In truth, I have been sent to watch over you two as much as to harass the enemy.

OFFICER 1 You can continue to do the former by accompanying us. As for

the commission, who needs one where we are going? Listen, we will reward you in coin and, once in Paris you will be rewarded more than amply in kind.

OFFICERS giggle like schoolboys and dig each other in the ribs.

SIMPLEX Perhaps your plan may suit me well. I’ve had my fill of this war. If it goes on much longer, historians will call it the Thirty Years War. Besides, it seems that little will come of our joint military venture in your company. Let’s go. Turn here to the right. There is a bridge that way.

OFFICER 2 Excellent and we’ll arrange that you stay with a good friend of

Ours, a doctor of high esteem who will provide for your every need.

The OFFICERS giggle as lights dim.

Scene Six

Interior of DOCTOR’S house. DOCTOR is dragging a dummy corpse across the room.

DOCTOR Come along my dear - you’ll soon be better.

The DOCTOR kneels over the corpse rearranging its limbs..

SIMPLEX Doctor, you have a good practice, money, an estate in the country. Why don’t you set yourself up at Court? Why do you continue to work in these disgusting conditions?

DOCTOR (sneeringly) No, no, silly fellow. Under these circumstances if I visit a Duke, he sees me immediately whereas were I a nobleman, I would be told to wait my turn.

SIMPLEX Are you not aware, sir, that a doctor has three faces? First that of an angel when he arrives. Then of a God if he cures, and

SIMPLEX (cont) finally that of a devil when the patient has recovered and wants no reminding of his earlier condition. A doctor’s standing lasts no longer than the wind in his patient’s bowels. So surely a nobleman has more honour in his waiting than a doctor has in his attendance.

DOCTOR You do not understand how society works.

SIMPLEX No! The other day I recall that you had to take some of the Count’s shit in your mouth to test its acidity. I would rather wait ten years than do that, even if they offered me a couch of roses to sit on when about such a task.

DOCTOR I did not have to do it, but did it willingly. The Count, on seeing to what lengths I went to ascertain his condition, paid me the better. (He rubs his hands together.)

SIMPLEX (puzzled) Oh, I see. You must forgive my ignorance in these matters.

DOCTOR There is considerable interest in you here, in society that is, you understand. You are handsome, to some at least, and you are foreign and therefore interesting. Some think that you are my new assistant and that is good for both of us of course. This evening we are invited to the Count’s, but don’t open your mouth on medical matters of which it is quite apparent that you remain hopelessly ignorant.

SIMPLEX I would be interested to meet the Count socially. I have heard that he was recently in my country trying to organise a peace.

DOCTOR: A piece? A piece of what?

Scene Seven

Ballroom. MEN and WOMEN stand with handmasks in posed positions. A SERVANT carries a tray of little cakes and drinks and offers them to the guests. Brief movements from dancers as they engage in silent conversations. The COUNT has one eye bandaged, and moves with a stick which he uses to touch up the WOMEN. The COUNTESS is looking at SIMPLEX.

WOMAN (to COUNT greedily eating two cakes at a time) They say there has been some quite terrible fighting in Germany recently. I hear that babies have been thrown into open fires and that there have been many incidents of cannibalism. 

COUNT What do you think war is all about? And how do you suppose I pay for those cakes.

WOMAN looks at cakes as though they are poison and reaches for a glass of wine.

And the wine.

WOMAN looks at wine and puts it down on a tray.

The whole party, and all the other parties that you and all these others so lavishly attend. 

COUNT turns abruptly away from WOMAN.

(to SIMPLEX) And you, young doctor, you are, I hear, from the war as opposed to being of the war (He glances back at WOMAN.) Where did you study medicine? At the Medical Academy of --

SIMPLEX Yes, yes there

COUNT And have you any remedies for the ailments of our day?

SIMPLEX I have found that death is the best of remedies since it has the merit of requiring no further treatment and thus relieves the doctor of further work and the patient of further pain and worry.

COUNT You joke and make macabre fun of my question. Tell me seriously, what would you recommend for this gout in my left leg?

SIMPLEX You require a life of greater ease and, if that is impossible, then you must take more action. Either way, you will arrive at the same outcome.

COUNT You continue to make light of my enquiries.

SIMPLEX Not at all. In fact the reverse. If you had seen what I have witnessed in my life, you would understand my answers to be serious.

COUNT How would you treat yourself of disease?

SIMPLEX It would depend on where I was at the time. Here the treatment would have to be different to that necessary in a war zone.

COUNT Ah yes, the war, the war. It will end soon.

SIMPLEX How do you know?

COUNT Your country has been decimated, has it not?

The SERVANT approaches with tray of cakes and drinks.

Have a cake and something to drink. 

SIMPLEX looks with disgust at tray and accepts a cake.

SIMPLEX Yes indeed. There is nothing left to decimate.

COUNT Precisely. Totally decimated. So the war will now end, be ended. Tell me. They say that Freiburg is still very beautiful.

SIMPLEX It is.

COUNT I will be living there soon. When the peace comes --- is brought about.

SIMPLEX Why will you be there?

COUNT (nods towards tray of cakes.) More cake.(COUNT taps his way to the other side of the room.)

SIMPLEX is shocked and others bump into him as he seems hardly conscious of his surroundings. He moves to side of room and slumps into a chair. He buries his head in his hands.

COUNTESS (sits down beside SIMPLEX and touches his arm.) I have heard you talking about your so, so sad war. My heart bleeds for your people. (She fingers her lace collar) Although my husband insists that war has its positive aspects. He knows your country well.

SIMPLEX I have become aware of that, Madame.

COUNTESS Tell me about war. It must be so exciting. (She caresses his sword.) So exciting!

SIMPLEX I don’t think a peasant or soldier from my country would agree with you about that.

COUNTESS A peasant? A soldier? Come, come! What have they to do with me and what I think and say?

SIMPLEX Very little, I am pleased to say.

COUNTESS Many of these people here know about war, not of course as intimately as you do.

SIMPLEX I am sure they do. They encourage us to have our little excitements, as you put it, so that they (stretches out to passing servant and grabs a cake) can eat (gulps down cake) and (grabs a glass of champagne from another servant) drink all this.

COUNTESS Don’t be nervous in my company (She caresses his inner leg.) Tell me, how do you find our society here?

SIMPLEX Disappointing.

COUNTESS (quietly) I have a dear, dear friend who is eager for you to teach her your native tongue. Perhaps you could find time for her tomorrow. (She passes slip of paper to SIMPLEX.)  This is the address you must go to. You will, of course, be handsomely remunerated.

Scene Eight

SIMPLEX enters a darkened hall.

SIMPLEX Good evening. I was asked to attend this address by the -

MAID Yes, yes, please come this way sir. She waits for you.

SIMPLEX (raises eyes and looks around) I cannot believe that any lady who lives here, in such a place would be interested in my poor person. Forgive me, but I suspect a trap. If there is a plot, I can assure you that I know how to use my sword. I have had plenty of practice.

MAID I am sure you have. Gently, dear boy. There is no need for such anger when one is about to be in the company of a lady. Be reassured that the least step you take on her behalf will not go unrewarded. I am sure that she will appreciate any virility you care to exercise with your sword. Follow me.

SIMPLEX It’s dark.

MAID Yes, and that’s the way it will remain. Find the bed, undress and lie down, but if you value your head, do not attempt to see the lady’s face or you will never leave here alive.

COUNTESS (to MAID) Away with you, wench. (To SIMPLEX) Come over here my darling, and hug me close.

SIMPLEX fumbles his way towards the voice and crashes on top of the COUNTESS.

You are a doctor. You must now give me some of your medicine.

SIMPLEX (aggressively) Yes, I will give you my medicine. All of it.

COUNTESS (giggles) Why not.

They make love. 

You work hard, but a little fast. You must return here tomorrow. I need a little more treatment before you are dismissed, then I can find you new patients.

SIMPLEX You had better find them for me quickly. I am not staying in Paris much longer.

COUNTESS Where are you going?

SIMPLEX I must return to Germany.

COUNTESS You want to go back to that horrible war?

SIMPLEX I have no intention of doing so. I will get as far away from it as possible.

COUNTESS By returning to the field of slaughter?

SIMPLEX As you know, it is as easy to get myself killed in this bed as it is on the battlefield. Maybe even easier. (He begins to remove her mask but she pulls away.) There it requires the thrusting of a sword. Here, the lifting of a mask. There are places the war hasn’t touched, even there. (He again he tries to remove her mask.)

COUNTESS No, my darling, don’t look. Your sword is your weapon, my mask is my shield.

They renew their lovemaking. Black-out.

Scene Nine

An Inn in Germany.

SIMPLEX Bring me another beer. I have travelled from the border today and am thirsty.

INNKEEPER Yes sir. Where are you going?

SIMPLEX To the other side of the forest. I am going to set up as a farmer .

INNKEEPER In these times that is hard unless you have money.

SIMPLEX I have funds.

INNKEEPER War, war. Fortunes made, fortunes lost.

SIMPLEX (laughs) I have seen that.

INNKEEPER Have you been fighting?

SIMPLEX On all fronts. Most recently in the dark.

PASTOR enters and sits at next table.

INNKEEPER Clear off, old man. We don’t want your sort here, all dirt and no money.

PASTOR By God’s good grace, let me sit awhile sir. I’ve come far. I have money for bread and perhaps a little milk.

INNKEEPER Get out, granddad. You stink and I have to think of my customers.

SIMPLEX (recognises PASTOR) Let him be. He can sup with me. Leave this gentleman alone.

INNKEEPER Gentleman, hah!

SIMPLEX Yes, gentleman and a man of God. Pastor, it’s me. Simplex.

PASTOR Why , Simplicius. 

They embrace.

SIMPLEX Come, sit down here. (to INNKEEPER) Bring food and drink. Plenty of both and be quick about it.

PASTOR By the grace of God our paths cross again.

SIMPLEX What has happened to you and what brings you here? You look ill and have grown old.

PASTOR After you were enrolled as a soldier, everything went well with me, but then the Governor received news that you had deserted. He withdrew his patronage and I was forced to leave town.

SIMPLEX If I had known my actions would have had such consequences, I--

PASTOR You are not to blame. Anyway, I was forced to tramp the highways. I tried to practice as an itinerant preacher, but war gets in the way of that. A man of letters like me without a stipend is lost. I have survived on charity, despite the likes of him 

He stares up at INNKEEPER who brings food and wine to the table.

SIMPLEX I have money and we will spend it together. First you need a doctor. Why didn’t you look for a post as a military chaplain? There are enough souls around here rushing to their maker before their time. All need help and encouragement on their way.

PASTOR No, I couldn’t stomach that kind of work. Such a person simply hastens the pace of killings and gives St Peter a burdensome task at his gate. I used to think our hermit a crazed fellow, but if he were here now I would willingly follow him into the woods.

SIMPLEX What has brought you here?

PASTOR I am on a pilgrimage to the town where my father and mother died. I am old, ill and close to death. Forget the doctor and after this evening, forget me. I leave in the morning.

SIMPLEX Nonsense. I will join you, not so much for the pilgrimage as to keep you company. I will purchase two nags to ease the journey and we’ll make as merry a pilgrimage as ever was undertaken (PASTOR starts to cough up blood.) in the circumstances.

PASTOR You may accompany me but not on horseback and without merriment. We walk and, as penance, with peas in our shoes. Oh yes and (He points at Simplex’s sword) without that. We are soldiers of peace.

SIMPLEX With peas? So be it. And without a sword.(He touches it lovingly) So be it also. I didn’t come here to fight anyway. I can always use my hands. 

INNKEEPER passes and SIMPLEX lunges at him with his hands.

SIMPLEX (cont) See, they work well enough. We will equip ourselves tomorrow with pilgrim’s habits and with the best quality peas money can buy.

PASTOR Now, Simplex, I want to hear of your adventures.

Black-out.

Scene Ten

SIMPLEX and PASTOR walking along road. PASTOR is hobbling while SIMPLEX is out front, cheerful and whistling.

PASTOR Brother, you are in a rare state of grace that you can walk so well despite those peas. 

SIMPLEX I had them cooked.

PASTOR Merciful God, what have you done? Better to have removed them altogether than to make a mockery of my request. 

SIMPLEX I did not put the peas in my shoes from devotion, but to please you and make sure you had my company. 

PASTOR You are far from the path of salvation, peas or no peas. Now take these.

PASTOR hands SIMPLEX a bag of peas. He sits down and puts them in his shoes. As he gets up, two ROBBERS attack them.

ROBBER 1 We’ll have all you’ve got or we’ll have you. 

SIMPLEX makes a move for his sword, but it is not there.

ROBBER 2 (laughing) Forgot it, eh?

SIMPLEX (makes a dash at ROBBERS but stumbles and falls) Bloody peas!

ROBBER 1 What a pair of fools.

SIMPLEX is robbed of his money.

SIMPLEX (shouts after them) You forgot the peas. Peas in my shoes and no sword. Simplex is simple indeed. Robbed of everything without a fight.

PASTOR Never mind, my son. Perhaps the peas saved your life. With your sword you might have been killed and without it and with the peas you made them laugh. 

Scene Eleven

Candlelit monastery. Chanting heard. PASTOR lies on bare board.

PASTOR Simplicius.

SIMPLEX Yes.

PASTOR you remember we talked long ago about our descent from Adam and Eve and about the nature of man?

SIMPLEX I was puzzled and you answered that we may be either tame or wild.

PASTOR I could not place you at all and yet I prayed that the result would be as it has shown itself.

SIMPLEX So what am I? I have been a mercenary, a libertine and (looking at his shoes) I can hardly be said to have walked in the path of the Lord.

PASTOR All true and yet I believe that you are of the tame. Your character and life gives man, if not God, hope. Your ill-doings have been reluctantly brought about by enforced circumstance and your good nature has been overt and unforced. Above all, you have shown yourself to be wise and not lacking in the humour that makes life, even in these barbarous times, not only bearable. but a whispered joy.

SIMPLEX Without your influence and that of the hermit I would have remained an ignorant shepherd, still blowing my pipes in the hope of warding off man and beast, and unable to distinquish the one from the other.

PASTOR Perhaps so and consider how many others that remains true of. Now my son, I am dying and before the breath is taken from me, you must know this. I wish you to inherit my library which, as you know, is considerable. Much of it you have already digested, much you haven’t and much of it you will not and perhaps should not. These books are to be found on a farm owned by a rude peasant who will himself now be very old, so make haste. He agreed to take care of them in return for a sum of money. Take this letter which contains instructions as to the

PASTOR (cont) farm’s whereabouts together with evidence that you know me. I wish to die alone. We will pray together and then you will leave.

SIMPLEX I cannot leave you.

PASTOR You are not leaving me. Something of me goes with you.

They pray as distant chanting gets louder as lights dim.

Scene Twelve

A farmyard. SIMPLEX’S FATHER sits on a stool. SIMPLEX approaches.

SIMPLEX Good day to you sir.

FATHER (grumpily) Mornin.

SIMPLEX Have we met before? 

FATHER shrugs

Have you ever seen me before?

FATHER I can hardly see my own hand and cannot tell. Anyway so what if I ‘ave or ‘aven’t?

SIMPLEX (He recognises that the old man is his father.) Never mind. I am here on behalf of a pastor who died in my company. He has left me his books and informed me that they were in your care. Here is his letter.

SIMPLEX tries to hand over the letter, but FATHER crumples it and throws it down.

FATHER How do you suppose I’m going to read that? I have ‘em and anyone’s welcome to ‘em. There over there somewhere.

FATHER points at a pile of rubbish.

SIMPLEX I can see that you have taken good care of them. Perhaps the chickens found them more interesting than you did.

FATHER I took as much care of ‘em as I would a rusty plough for all the use they are to anyone.

SIMPLEX (picks up a Bible) Even this Bible?

FATHER You’ll find another in the church and someone there to read it, what’s more. That is, if the church is still there let alone the reader.

SIMPLEX What happened here? I thought the war had not reached these parts.

FATHER Where you been? In the woods? The war, yes, the war. It’s been ‘ere all right. They killed all but the old. Mind you there were only a few young ‘uns left, some women, some children. All went down the river to Ulm, they did. (He laughs.)

SIMPLEX What do you mean, down the river to Ulm?

FATHER Didn’t yer notice?

SIMPLEX Notice what?

FATHER The river.

SIMPLEX Of course I noticed. Can’t miss it walking here, but I didn’t pass any boats or travellers.

FATHER Perhaps you weren’t looking right. Not just boats that float.

SIMPLEX slumps down in realisation.

SIMPLEX Didn’t you once live some distance north of here?

FATHER What of it?

SIMPLEX Isn’t it true that some twenty years ago soldiers plundered your farm and burnt you out?

FATHER (stumbles over to SIMPLEX trying to see him) God ‘ave mercy, yes. You’re well informed, sir.

SIMPLEX You had two children, a daughter and a son who minded your sheep?

FATHER And a wife. She and my daughter were killed that terrible day (pause.) How do you know all this? God alone knows what happened to the boy, though he weren’t my son.

SIMPLEX Not your son! Who was he?

FATHER Well, that’s a strange story as ever was told. The war gave him to us and the war took him away. Why are you so interested in my life?

SIMPLEX I am collecting information about the pastor and all who touched his life. Who knows? I might write a book about it one day.

FATHER (kicking books around) Heaven forbid. Listen here. There’d been a battle in the mountains and the beaten army hid in the forest. Although they escaped death in the mountains, they got it in the woods. They was full of bodies, rich pickings for those of us left alive. One day when I was in the forest, just checking, see, I came across this woman, half-drowned she were, in a stream. Thrown there by soldiers and covered in blood. You can guess what they’d done and her in that state. God ‘ave mercy! When I got there, she were all but giving birth. Well, she touched my heart and besides she managed to tell me where her money was buried. I’m not a bad man and who can say as much these days. I took her home, she ‘ad the child and then she died.

SIMPLEX The boy?

FATHER My wife insisted we give her a proper burial, God only knows why with the land covered with as many dead as autumn leaves, and it were no easy matter to find a priest. We found one, though, the one you’ve come from. As for the child, yes, he were that boy. Life was hard though and I was not always good to him, but I had intended to give him my own daughter in marriage. The rest you know. I lost ‘em both and my wife and all I possessed. I came across that pastor again as we were both on the same road. He’d grown as poor as me, he‘ad.

SIMPLEX And the woman’s name?

FATHER Anna von something was her married name. (Pause) Fuchshaim I think it was. Yes, Anna von Fuchshaim.

SIMPLEX (slowly) Do you know anything of her husband, the boy’s father?

FATHER Not much. She did tell me that she was searching for him when she was attacked by the troopers. She had information that he was living in the forest.

SIMPLEX (after a long silence) As will I.

FATHER Yer not mad are yer? Look, I need help and you can stay here. I am old. No family, no friends. Everyone’s gone as I told ‘yer.

SIMPLEX Perhaps if you had told me a different story I might have stayed. I’d been meaning to get a farm, but it’s no time for farming. No time for living even for those of us still alive.

FATHER You’re stupid. Me, I’m old and near my turn. If the soldiery don’t get me soon, the reaper will. You, yer still young. You ain’t a soldier. You could live for years.

SIMPLEX (to himself)  Stream to river, stream to river. Years and years of that. The wheel has gone full circle for me. I will not tread it round again. So perfect and complete was my ignorance that it was impossible for me to know that I knew nothing.

SIMPLEX changes into hermit’s garb and wraps a chain around his neck. While he does this:

GIRL (singing) On the banks of the Rhine

As I walked in the summer

I saw a young woman

Afloat on the stream.

Her face was as pale

As the snows of December,

Her hair was as black

As the raven’s broad wing

And her hair was as black as a wing

Around her were skirts

Spread out wide as a lilly,

And slim were her arms

As they lay on the tide.

The river all round

Was awash with a crimson

That flowed from the wounds

She’d sustained as she died

That flowed from the wounds as she died

Oh where are you bound for

And where do you come from?

I called to her softly,

And what was your crime?

I was young, I was fair,

I was clever and lively,

Sang a voice of despair

On the banks of the Rhine

Sang a voice of despair on the Rhine.

SIMPLEX (picks up a book and reads) 'Being a candle is not easy. In order to give light one must first burn'. Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī. (puts the book down and addresses audience) “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am for myself only, what am I? If not now, when?

To Albinoni’s Adagio, SIMPLEX moves around the stage picking up items from the play; weapons, books, the goatskin. He examines them before replacing them. He finds his toy soldier, raises it up above his head and stares at it as lights dim.

David Wilson

© 1990

46 Beversbrook Road 

London N19 4QH

Tel: 020 7263 0669

Mob: 07871 885 167 

Email: david@davidwilson.org.uk

songs: http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/220/1/201451_john%20goodridge%20PhD.pdf