JIM:
Look, Lady Begbick, but what can I do now
If I’m not able to pay you yet?
My money, I notice, all is through now.
BEGBICK:
What! you don’t want to pay now?
JENNY:
Jimmy, you must have a little more.
Why don’t you go through your pockets again?
JIM:
I was telling you before …
MOSES:
What! the gentleman won’t pay now?
What’s that? No money? He really said it?
Do you realise – what that means, my friend?
FATTY:
Sweetheart, this is your unhappy end.
All except Jenny and Bill have drawn away from Jim.
BEGBICK to them:
Couldn’t you give him a little credit? Bill walks away without a word. And you, Jenny?
JENNY:
Me?
BEGBICK:
You. Why not?
JENNY:
Don’t make me laugh.
What will they ask a girl to do next?
BEGBICK:
Wouldn’t you even consider putting up half?
JENNY:
No! If you have to have the precise text.
MOSES:
Put them on!
While Jim is being put in irons, Jenny comes downstage and walks up and down the apron singing:
JENNY:
Let me tell you what my mother called me –
A bad word – yessir, that’s what.
She swore I would end on a morgue-slab
Or an even more unhealthy spot.
Well, things like that don’t cost much to say,
But what I say is: Wait around and see!
The talk doesn’t matter two hoots
For you won’t make those things happen to me!
We’re human, not brutes.
As you make your bed, so you lie on it:
The proverb is old but it’s true.
So if someone must kick, why, that’s my part
And another get kicked, that part’s for you!
Have you heard yet what some guy told me?
‘There’s one thing can’t be bought –
That’s true love, the crown of existence.’
Also ‘Give tomorrow no thought’.
Well, such things don’t cost much to say
But what’s mankind got to do with love
When each one gets older each day
And shorter grows the time we must make-use of?
We’re human, not brutes!
As you make your bed, so you lie on it:
The proverb is old but it’s true.
So if someone must kick, why, that’s my part
And another get kicked, that part’s for you.
MOSES:
You’ll observe this miserable wreck
Who ordered drinks and couldn’t pay his check.
Why, there’s gall in that to choke one!
What man’s viler than a broke one?
Jim is taken out.
This is a capital offence!
A thousand pardons for the disturbance, gents.
All take their places again, drinking and playing billiards.
MEN:
Stay-at-homes do very well
Don’t need daily twenty dollars;
Those who also marry tell
How they save a little extra:
So today they all are callers
At the Lord-and-Shepherd’s second-class saloon;
They keep clean there in shirts and collars
Stamping in time with the music.
But they never see the moon.
They lean back slowly and put their feet up on the tables again.
Downstage men move along the apron and then go back to go off upstage.
One means to eat all you are able;
Two, to change your loves about;
Three means the ring and gaming table;
Four, to drink until you pass out.
Moreover, better get it clear
That Don’ts are not permitted here!
17
Jim lies in irons. It is night.
JIM:
If the sky must lighten
Then a new goddam day begins.
But the sky still is covered up in darkness.
Let the dark
Last forever
Day must not
Break at all.
I’m still afraid they soon will be here.
I’ll lie and sink in roots below me
When I hear them.
They’ll have to tear my roots up with me
If they want me to go.
Let the dark
Last forever
Day must not break at all.
That’s the kind of poker hand
They dealt you;
Play it out.
What you lived of life
Was good enough for you.
What it brings now –
That’s the hand you’re stuck with.
Surely the sky won’t ever lose its darkness.
It begins to grow light.
It must not lighten.
There must be no sunrise.
That means a new goddam day begins.
18
Every city has its own notion of what is just, and Mahagonny’s was no sillier than that of any other place
A courtroom in a tent. In the centre, a table and three chairs. Behind them rise tiers of benches on which the Public is sitting, reading newspapers, chewing gum and smoking. The set suggests an operating theatre. Begbick is in the judge’s chair, Fatty in that of the defence attorney. On the prisoner’s bench, to one side, sits a man. Moses, the prosecutor, is standing at the entrance.
MOSES:
Have the folks here all paid their admissions?
Three tickets still to go, at only five each!
Two absolutely first-class tri-als –
Five dollars buys a seat for both!
Where could you find such a bargain?
A measly fine to watch Justice in action!
When no one else comes in, he resumes his place as prosecutor.
First comes the case of Toby Higgins.
The man on the prisoner’s bench rises.
He is charged with premeditated murder
Done to test a newly purchased revolver.
Never yet
Has there been a crime so fraught
With brutal baseness.
Toby Higgins, you have outraged
Every decent feeling known.
Yea, the naked soul of sorely wounded Righteousness
Cries out for its retribution.
I therefore must now as prosecutor move
Owing to the stubborn unrepentance this defendant –
This abyss of mean obscene corruption – still displays
That we let the Law take its course unhindered …
Hesitating:
And that he …
Under the circumstances …
Be acquitted!
During the ‘prosecutor’s speech, a silent battle is taking place between Begbick and the Accused. By raising his finger, the Accused has indicated the amount of the bribe be is prepared to pay. In the same manner, Begbick raises her demands higher and higher. The pause at the end of Moses’s speech marks the point when the Accused has raised his offer for the last time.
BEGBICK: Has the defence any point to raise?
FATTY: Who’s the injured party here?
Silence.
BEGBICK: Since no injured party comes forward …
MEN spectators: Since dead men tell no tales …
BEGBICK: We by law have no course but acquitting him.
The Accused goes to join the spectators.
MOSES reading:
Second, the case of Jimmy Gallagher
For seduction, homicide, subversion and fraud.
Jim,
handcuffed, is brought in by Bill.
JIM before he takes his place on the prisoner’s bench:
Billy, let me have a hundred dollars.
It may help to make the court more friendly.
BILL:
Jim, we’re close as friends, you know:
But with money, it’s another matter.
JIM:
Bill, you can’t have forgotten
About our time up in Alaska:
Those seven winters of bitter weather
When we felled timber, we two together.
Please give me the dough.
BILL:
I have never forgotten
About our time up in Alaska:
Those seven winters of bitter weather
When we felled timber, we two together,
And how hard we worked
To make any money.
That’s why I simply can’t
Give you the money.
MOSES:
The accused ordered rounds of whisky two times
And broke a bar-rail, and did not pay.
Never yet
Has there been a crime so fraught
With brutal baseness.
Jimmy Gallagher, you’ve outraged
Every decent feeling known.
Yea, the naked soul of sorely wounded Righteousness
Cries out for its retribution.
I therefore must now as prosecutor move
That we let the Law take its course unhindered.
During the prosecutor’s speech, Jim does not respond to Begbick’s finger-play. Begbick, Fatty and Moses exchange significant glances.
BEGBICK:
Now we’ll proceed to itemise the varied crimes
Charged to you, Jimmy Gallagher!
That, barely off the boat, you did with forethought
Seduce here a girl, by name Jenny Jones
And made her do what you would
By means of your money.
FATTY: Who’s the injured party here?
JENNY coming forward: Me. I am.
A murmur among the spectators.
BEGBICK:
That, while we waited the big typhoon
You did, in that hour of desperation
Persist in singing a cheerful song.
FATTY: Who’s the injured party here?
MEN:
The injured party has not come forth.
Maybe there’s no injured party here.
If there’s no injured party at all
Then there might be some hope for you, Jimmy Gallagher!
MOSES breaking in:
But that very night the man
Before you now behaved worse
Than a typhoon ever could
Subverting all our city meant
By destroying concord and peace here!
MEN: Three cheers for Jimmy!
BILL standing up among the spectators:
But this untutored lumberjack from Alaska
Had a vision of happiness that very night
And gave the laws of life to Mahagonny.
Remember, they came from Jimmy.
MEN:
You must bring in acquittal then for Jimmy Gallagher
The lumberjack from Alaska!
BILL:
Jim, I’m glad to do this for you
For I think of old Alaska
Those seven winters of bitter weather
When we felled timber, we two together.
JIM:
Bill, what you’ve done here to help me
Takes me back once more to Alaska
To seven winters of bitter weather
When we felled timber, we two together.
MOSES pounding the table:
And remember the boxing-match
When your dear ‘untutored lumberjack from Alaska’ –
To win mere money his motive –
Drove his best friend to sudden and certain death.
BILL jumping up:
Yes, but who, august tribunal
Who’s the party whose punch really killed him?
BEGBICK: Well then, who did kill the so-called Alaskawolf Joe?
MOSES after a pause: That, your honour, is unknown to this court.
BILL:
Of all those hanging around the ring that night
Not one was risking a bet
On a man who might give his life there
But the man who stands before you risking his!
MEN alternately:
The verdict must be guilty then for Jimmy Gallagher!
You must bring in acquittal then for Jimmy Gallagher!
Jimmy Gallagher, the lumberjack from Alaska!
Applause and hissing.
MOSES:
But now the crown of our charges comes:
Yourself, you ordered two rounds of whisky
And destroyed one bar-rail just to amuse yourself –
Then tell me why, yes, why, Jimmy Gallagher
You have failed to pay for consuming them.
JIM: Because I am broke.
MEN:
The man is broke.
He consumes what he can’t pay for.
Down, down with Jimmy Gallagher!
Take him away!
BEGBICK, FATTY AND MOSES: Who claim to be injured parties here?
Begbick, Fatty and Moses rise.
MEN:
Three injured parties have shown themselves.
They are the true injured parties then.
FATTY: Your verdict, august tribunal!
BEGBICK: In view of the unpropitious economic situation the tribunal will make itself allowances for mitigating circumstances. Jimmy Gallagher, you are sentenced …
MOSES: For conniving at the murder of a friend …
BEGBICK: To three days arrest.
MOSES: For destroying the concord and peace here …
BEGBICK: A year’s loss of civil rights.
MOSES: For the seduction of a girl by name of Jenny …
BEGBICK: To four years in prison.
MOSES: And for singing forbidden songs during the big typhoon…
BEGBICK:
To ten years hard labour.
But for my two rounds of whisky unpaid for
And my one bar-rail as well unpaid for
You by law must be sentenced to death in the electric chair.
BEGBICK, FATTY AND MOSES:
For the penniless man
Is the worst kind of criminal
Beyond both pity and pardon.
Wild applause.
19
Execution of Jimmy Gallagher. Many of you, perhaps, will be shocked at what you are about to see. But, Ladies and Gentlemen, ask yourselves this question: ‘Would I have paid Jimmy Gallagher’s debts?’ Would you? Are you sure?
On the backcloth is projected a general view of Mahagonny bathed in a peaceful light. Many people are standing about in groups. On the right, an electric chair is being erected. Jim enters accompanied by Moses, Jenny and Bill. The Men remove their hats.
MOSES:
Good day!
Didn’t you hear me? I said Good day.
JIM laconically:
Hi.
MOSES:
If you’ve any worldly business to wind up, you’d better do it now
For the gentlemen who are anxious to witness your departure
Have no interest in your private affairs.
JIM:
Darling Jenny
My time has come.
The days I have spent with you
Have been happy days
And happy too
Is the ending.
JENNY:
Darling Jimmy
I also have had my golden summertime
With you
And I dread what
Will become of me now.
JIM:
Jenny dear
My sort are not so hard to find.
JENNY:
That isn’t true.
I know what is gone is gone forever.
JIM:
Why, you’re wearing a white dress
Just like a widow.
JENNY:
Yes. Your widow is what I am
Jimmy, and I shan’t forget you
When I’m just one
Of the girls again.
JIM:
Kiss me, Jenny.
JENNY:
Kiss me, Jimmy.
JIM:
Don’t be sore at me.
JENNY:
Why should I be?
JIM:
Kiss me, Jenny.
JENNY:
Kiss me, Jimmy.
JIMMY:
And now I leave you, my dear
To my best and last friend, Billy
Who’s the only one left
Of the four men who came
From the woods of cold Alaska.
BILL taking Jenny in his arms:
So long, Jim.
JIM:
So long, Bill.
They turn towards the place of execution.
A GROUP OF MEN tell one another as they pass by:
One means to eat all you are able;
Two, to change your loves about;
Three means the ring and gaming table;
Four, to drink until you pass out.
Jim stops and watches them.
MOSES:
Have you anything more to say?
JIM: So you really mean to execute me?
BEGBICK: Why not? It’s customary.
JIM: You don’t seem to know that there’s a God.
BEGBICK: A what?
JIM: A God.
BEGBICK: Oh, Him! Don’t be silly. Didn’t you ever see the play: God Comes to Mahagonny? We’ll put it on now for you, if you like; and you shall have the best seat in the house. Just sit yourself in this chair.
Four men and Jenny Jones appear before Jimmy Gallagher and act the play of God in Mahagonny.
THE FOUR MEN:
One morning when the sky was grey
During the whisky
God came to Mahagonny:
During the whisky
We recognised God in Mahagonny.
Moses, who plays the role of God, detaches himself from the others, steps forward and covers his face with his hat.
MOSES:
Insatiable sponges
Lapping up my harvest year by year!
Little have you reckoned with your Maker!
Are you ready now when I appear?
JENNY:
Saw what they were, the people of Mahagonny:
Yes, answered the people of Mahagonny.
THE FOUR:
One morning when the sky was grey
During the whisky
God came to Mahagonny:
During the whisky
We recognised God in Mahagonny.
MOSES:
Did you laugh on Friday evening?
I saw Mary Weeman swimming by
Like a salted cod-fish in the salt sea:
Mary never will again be dry.