Bertolt Brecht - Happy End
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(Thud of a newspaper hitting the front door. ALL duck. NAKAMURA motions to BABY FACE, who cautiously goes to the door.) BABY FACE. Hey, da paper’s here. (ALL relax. He brings paper in.) BABY FACE. I got dibs on the funnies. (Unfolding paper, glance at headline.) Hey, look at this: “BAXLEY GANG ROBS TRAIN.” (Everyone reacts. BABY FACE reads.) BABY FACE. “Niagara Falls, New York – special dispatch. Concerned citizens looked on in horror yesterday evening as the infamous ‘Gorilla’ Baxley gang robbed the Chicago-Buffalo express train of over twenty thousand dollars in cash and gold bull-lion.” (By this time ALL are on their feet and moving towards BABY FACE. On “twenty thousand dollars” they ALL stop dead, in unison.) SAM. Twenty thousand dollars! PROFESSOR. Wait till Bill hears about this! BABY FACE & REVEREND. (REVEREND is now looking over BABY’S shoulder.) Sh! “This gang of bullies further outraged respectability continued on page fourteen.” BABY FACE. Huh? REVEREND. Well, turn it, lunkhead! (BABY FACE turns page. ALL are now clustered around paper.) BABY FACE & OTHERS. “by boarding the train at Niagara Falls depot disguised as a wedding party. This mockery of the Christian sacrament was compounded by the repulsive Baxley himself being costumed as the bride. It is time, surely, for a new reign of law and order.” SAM. Twenty thousand dollars! BABY FACE. Bill’s gonna explode! PROFESSOR. He hates Baxley’s guts anyway. REVEREND. Baxley, Baxley, Baxley. Why don’t we get breaks like that? NAKAMURA. Calm, gentlemen. Our turn yet to come. REVEREND. Sure, like Christmas. NAKAMURA. Do not mock, Reverend. Important news arrive soon. SAM. That’s right, the Fly said we had a big job coming up. REVEREND. Well. We know her idea of a big job – shaking down some kraut druggist for six bits and a bottle of Sloan’s Liniment. I ask you, what kind of professional crime is that? NAKAMURA. (Firmly.) Promote calm on troubled water, Reverend. REVEREND. Calm? This gang is so calm it’s got rigor mortis. You’d think it was impossible for a crook to earn a decent living. But it’s not: Look at Gorilla Baxley. I have to admire a man like that, even if he is our competition. He has enterprise; he aims high. And as my sainted mother used to say, a man who aims high is a great man. Not some penny-pushing gunslinger like our Bill. Gorilla Baxley is a great man. Gorilla Baxley is ambitious, Gorilla Baxley is imaginative, Gorilla Baxley is . . . BILL. (Who has come in unobserved during this. He is holding a battered hat. His face is bruised.) Dead. EVERYONE. Bill!!! (BILL goes to the hat rack and hangs the hat with the other hats. He takes a piece of chalk from his pocket, and chalks above the hat the initials ‘G. B.’) BILL. That’s for you, Reverend. Yesterday a great man – today a little inkblot in the Book of Life. (GANG crowds over to shake BILL’S hand and congratulate him. MIRIAM throws him the keys to the bar.) BILL. Thanks, sweetheart. NAKAMURA. A fine achievement, Bill. Congratulations. Fly isn’t going to like this at all. BILL. Stick the Fly. I can handle her. I can handle the both of youse . . . VOCABULARY: achievement – /accomplishment/ wyczyn to admire – podziwiać to aim high – mierzyć wysoko battered – sponiewierany break – szczęście informal; a lucky opportunity that one gets to achieve something, eg. I went to the audition and got a break performing Romeo. bruised – posiniaczony bullion – sztabka bully – tyran; zbir cash – gotówka cautiously – ostrożnie to chalk – pisać kredą to cluster – skupić się (wokół) competition – konkurencja to compound – pogłębiać formal; to make a problem or difficulty even worse, eg. The death of the Queen only compounded Hamlet’s tragedy. concerned – /worried/, zatroskany, zaniepokojony crook – informal; kanciarz, oszust decent – przyzwoity depot – Am.E.; dworzec dibs – informal; forsa; prawa do czegoś W tym znaczeniu – uwielbiam (I have dibs on . . .) disguised as – /dressed as/ przebrany za dispatch – depesza druggist – Am.E.; aptekarz to duck – uchylić się to earn a living – zarabiać na życie enterprise – przedsiębiorczość funnies – Am.E.; komiksy to glance at – zerkać na gunslinger – slang; uzbrojony bandyta to handle – radzić, poradzić sobie hat rack – wieszak na kapelusze to hate sb’s guts – informal; serdecznie kogoś nienawidzić headline – nagłówek imaginative – twórczy, pomysłowy in unison – zgodnie, w tym samym czasie infamous – /notorious/ niesławny (znany z czegoś złego) inkblot – kleks kraut – slang, offensive; Szwab liniment – mazidło lunkhead – Am.E., slang; kretyn to mock – kpić mockery – kpina to outrage – pogwałcić, np. prawo penny-pushing – informal; „za dychę” repulsive – /disgusting/ odrażający rigor mortis – sztywny (jak trup) shake down – Am.E.; szantażować, zastraszyć stick – slang; do licha (z kimś) thud – głuchy odgłos to unfold – rozwiązać, rozwinąć Rady dotyczące wystawiania Notka biograficzna o autorze Test
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