The Fifth Scene - Page 2

you hear a noise? I hear a kind of noise, as if an iron wheel were rumbling, or stones falling from a mountain, large stones coming down like rain.

--It's the ringing in your ears.

--It's the tingling of your blood. I feel my blood. It flows heavy through my veins, thick, thick, black, smelling of rum. And when it gets to my heart, it all falls down, and it's terrible.

--It seems to me I see flashes of lightning.

--I see huge, red woodpiles and people burning on them. It's disgusting to smell the roasting flesh.

--Dark shadows circle around the piles. They are drunk, the shadows are. Hey, invite me! I'll dance with you.

--Oh my! Oh my!

--I am happy, too. Who will laugh with me? Nobody. So I'll laugh by myself. (He laughs)

--A charming woman is kissing my lips. She smells of musk and her teeth are like a crocodile's. She wants to bite me. Get away, you dirty hussy!

--I am not a dirty hussy. I am an old pregnant snake. I've been watching a whole hour to see little snakes come out of my body below and crawl around. Say, don't step on my little snakes.

--Where are you going?

--Who's walking there? Sit down. You make the whole house shake when you walk.

--I can't. I feel awful sitting down.

--I too. When I am sitting I feel a horror running through my whole body.

--So do I. Let me go.

[Three or four Drunkards reel aimlessly about, getting tangled up In the chairs.

--Look what it's doing. It's been jumping for two hours, trying to get on my knee. It just misses by an inch. I drive it away and it comes back again.

--Black cockroaches are creeping under my skull and buzzing.

--My brain is falling apart. I feel the gray matter separating. My brain is like rotten cheese. It stinks.

--There's some sort of a corpse here. I smell it.

--Oh my! Oh my!

--I'll sneak up to her to-night and cut her throat.

--The blood will flow. It's flowing already. See how red it is.

--I am constantly being followed by three men. They are calling me into a dark corner of the vacant lot, and they want to kill me. They are already at the door.

--Who is walking on the walls and ceiling?

--Good Lord! They have come to take me.

--Who?

--They.

--My tongue is getting paralyzed. I'll cry. (Cries)

--My whole body is coming out. I'll soon be turned inside out, and then I'll be all red.

--Listen, listen. Ho! Somebody! A monster is going for me. He's raising his hand. Help! Ho!

--What is it? Help! A spider!

--Help!

[For some time they shout "Help!" hoarsely.

--We are all drunkards. Let's call down all the people from above. It's so disgusting up there.

--No, don't. When I leave here and go out on the