Brecht Collected Plays: 5: Life of Galileo; Mother Courage and Her Children (World Classics) (24 page)

THE COOK
: I thought it meant things is all right.

MOTHER COURAGE
: No, that they stink. Look, s’pose some general or king is bone stupid and leads his men up shit creek, then those men’ve got to be fearless, there’s another virtue for you. S’pose he’s stingy and hires too few soldiers, then they got to be a crowd of Hercules’s. And s’pose he’s slapdash and don’t give a bugger, then they got to be clever as monkeys else their number’s up. Same way they got to show exceptional loyalty each time he gives them impossible jobs. Nowt but virtues no proper country and no decent king or general would ever need. In decent countries folk don’t have to have virtues, the whole lot can be perfectly ordinary, average intelligence, and for all I know cowards.

THE GENERAL
: I’ll wager your father was a soldier.

EILIF
: A great soldier, I been told. My mother warned me about it. There’s a song I know.

THE GENERAL
: Sing it to us.
Roars:
When’s that dinner coming?

EILIF
: It’s called The Song of the Girl and the Soldier.

He sings it, dancing a war dance with his sabre:

The guns blaze away, and the bay’nit’ll slay

And the water can’t hardly be colder.

What’s the answer to ice? Keep off’s my advice!

That’s what the girl told the soldier.

Next thing the soldier, wiv’ a round up the spout

Hears the band playing and gives a great shout:

Why, it’s marching what makes you a soldier!

So it’s down to the south and then northwards once more:

See him catching that bay’nit in his naked paw!

That’s what his comrades done told her.

Oh, do not despise the advice of the wise

Learn wisdom from those that are older

And don’t try for things that are out of your reach –

That’s what the girl told the soldier.

Next thing the soldier, his bay’nit in place

Wades into the river and laughs in her face

Though the water comes up to his shoulder.

When the shingle roof glints in the light o’ the moon

We’ll be wiv’ you again, not a moment too soon!

That’s what his comrades done told her.

MOTHER COURAGE
takes up the song in the kitchen, beating on a pot with her spoon:

You’ll go out like a light! And the sun’ll take flight

For your courage just makes us feel colder.

Oh, that vanishing light! May God see that it’s right! –

That’s what the girl told the soldier.

EILIF
: What’s that?

MOTHER COURAGE
continues singing:

Next thing the soldier, his bay’nit in place

Was caught by the current and went down without trace

And the water couldn’t hardly be colder.

The shingle roof froze in the light o’ the moon

As both soldier and ice drifted down to their doom –

And d’you know what his comrades done told her?

He went out like a light. And the sunshine took flight

For his courage just made ‘em feel colder.

Oh, do not despise the advice of the wise!

That’s what the girl told the soldier.

THE GENERAL
: The things they get up to in my kitchen these days.

EILIF
has gone into the kitchen. He flings his arms round his mother:
Fancy seeing you again, ma! Where’s the others?

MOTHER COURAGE
in his arms:
Snug as a bug in a rug. They made Swiss Cheese paymaster of the Second Finnish; any road he’ll stay out of fighting that way, I couldn’t keep him out altogether.

EILIF
: How’s the old feet?

MOTHER COURAGE
: Bit tricky getting me shoes on of a morning.

THE GENERAL
has joined them:
So you’re his mother, I hope you’ve got plenty more sons for me like this one.

EILIF
: Ain’t it my lucky day? You sitting out there in the kitchen, ma, hearing your son commended …

MOTHER COURAGE
: You bet I heard.
Slaps his face
.

EILIF
holding his cheek:
What’s that for? Taking the oxen?

MOTHER COURAGE
: No. Not surrendering when those four went for you and wanted to make mincemeat of you. Didn’t I say you should look after yourself? You Finnish devil!
The general and the chaplain stand in the doorway laughing
.

3

Three years later Mother Courage is taken prisoner along with elements of a Finnish regiment. She manages to save her daughter, likewise her covered cart, but her honest son is killed

Military camp
.

Afternoon. A flagpole with the regimental flag. From her cart, festooned now with all kinds of goods, Mother Courage has stretched a washing line to a large cannon, across which she and Kattrin are folding the washing. She is bargaining at the same time with an armourer over a sack of shot. Swiss Cheese, now wearing a paymaster’s uniform, is looking on
.

A comely person, Yvette Pottier, is sewing a gaily coloured hat, a glass of brandy before her. She is in her stockinged feet, having laid aside her red high-heeled boots
.

THE ARMOURER
: I’ll let you have that shot for a couple of florins. It’s cheap at the price, I got to have the money because the colonel’s been boozing with his officers since two days back, and the drink’s run out.

MOTHER COURAGE
: That’s troops’ munitions. They catch me with that, I’m for court-martial. You crooks flog the shot, and troops got nowt to fire at enemy.

THE ARMOURER
: Have a heart, can’t you; you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.

MOTHER COURAGE
: I’m not taking army property. Not at that price.

THE ARMOURER
: You can sell it on the q.t. tonight to the Fourth Regiment’s armourer for five florins, eight even, if you let him have a receipt for twelve. He’s right out of ammunition.

MOTHER COURAGE
: Why not you do it?

THE ARMOURER
: I don’t trust him, he’s a pal of mine.

MOTHER COURAGE
takes the sack:
Gimme.
To Kattrin:
Take
it away and pay him a florin and a half.
The armourer protests
. I said a florin and a half.
Kattrin drags the sack upstage, the armourer following her. Mother Courage addresses Swiss Cheese:
Here’s your woollies, now look after them, it’s October and autumn may set in any time. I ain’t saying it’s got to, cause I’ve learned nowt’s got to come when you think it will, not even seasons of the year. But your regimental accounts got to add up right, come what may. Do they add up right?

SWISS CHEESE
: Yes, mother.

MOTHER COURAGE
: Don’t you forget they made you paymaster cause you was honest, not dashing like your brother, and above all so stupid I bet you ain’t even thought of clearing off with it, no not you. That’s a big consolation to me. And don’t lose those woollies.

SWISS CHEESE
: No, mother, I’ll put them under my mattress.
Begins to go
.

THE ARMOURER
: I’ll go along with you, paymaster.

MOTHER COURAGE
: And don’t you start learning him none of your tricks.
The armourer leaves with Swiss Cheese without any farewell gesture
.

YVETTE
waving to him:
No reason not to say goodbye, armourer.

MOTHER COURAGE
to Yvette:
I don’t like to see them together. He’s wrong company for our Swiss Cheese. Oh well, war’s off to a good start. Easily take four, five years before all countries are in. A bit of foresight, don’t do nothing silly, and business’ll flourish. Don’t you know you ain’t s’posed to drink before midday with your complaint?

YVETTE
: Complaint, who says so, it’s a libel.

MOTHER COURAGE
: They all say so.

YVETTE
: Because they’re all telling lies, Mother Courage, and me at my wits’ end cause they’re all avoiding me like something the cat brought in thanks to those lies, what the hell am I remodelling my hat for?
She throws it away
. That’s why I drink before midday. Never used to, gives you crows’ feet, but now what the hell? All the Second Finnish know me.
Ought to have stayed at home when my first fellow did me wrong. No good our sort being proud. Eat shit, that’s what you got to do, or down you go.

MOTHER COURAGE
: Now don’t you start up again about that Pieter of yours and how it all happened, in front of my innocent daughter too.

YVETTE
: She’s the one should hear it, put her off love.

MOTHER COURAGE
: Nobody can put ’em off that.

YVETTE
: Then I’ll go on, get if off my chest. It all starts with yours truly growing up in lovely Flanders, else I’d never of seen him and wouldn’t be stuck here now in Poland, cause he was an army cook, fair-haired, a Dutchman but thin for once. Kattrin, watch out for the thin ones, only in those days I didn’t know that, or that he’d got a girl already, or that they all called him Puffing Piet cause he never took his pipe out of his mouth when he was on the job, it meant that little to him.
She sings the Song of Fraternisation:

When I was only sixteen

The foe came into our land.

He laid aside his sabre

And with a smile he took my hand.

After the May parade

The May light starts to fade.

The regiment dressed by the right

The drums were beaten, that’s the drill.

The foe took us behind the hill

And fraternised all night.

There were so many foes then

But mine worked in the mess.

I loathed him in the daytime.

At night I loved him none the less.

After the May parade

The May light starts to fade.

The regiment dressed by the right

The drums were beaten, that’s the drill.

The foe took us behind the hill

And fraternised all night.

The love which came upon me

Was wished on me by fate.

My friends could never grasp why

I found it hard to share their hate.

The fields were wet with dew

When sorrow first I knew.

The regiment dressed by the right

The drums were beaten, that’s the drill.

And then the foe, my lover still

Went marching out of sight.

I followed him, fool that I was, but I never found him, and that was five years back.
She walks unsteadily behind the cart
.

MOTHER COURAGE
: You left your hat here.

YVETTE
: Anyone wants it can have it.

MOTHER COURAGE
: Let that be a lesson, Kattrin. Don’t you start anything with them soldiers. Love makes the world go round, I’m warning you. Even with fellows not in the army it’s no bed of roses. He says he’d like to kiss the ground your feet walk on – reminds me, did you wash them yesterday? – and after that you’re his skivvy. Be thankful you’re dumb, then you can’t contradict yourself and won’t be wanting to bite your tongue off for speaking the truth; it’s a godsend, being dumb is. And here comes the general’s cook, now what’s he after?

Enter the cook and the chaplain
.

THE CHAPLAIN
: I have a message for you from your son Eilif, and the cook has come along because you made such a profound impression on him.

THE COOK
: I just came along to get a bit of air.

MOTHER COURAGE
: That you can always do here if you behave yourself, and if you don’t I can deal with you. What does he want? I got no spare cash.

THE CHAPLAIN
: Actually I had a message for his brother the paymaster.

MOTHER COURAGE
: He ain’t here now nor anywhere else neither. He ain’t his brother’s paymaster. He’s not to lead him into temptation nor be clever at his expense.
Giving him money from the purse slung round her:
Give him this, it’s a sin, he’s banking on mother’s love and ought to be ashamed of himself.

THE COOK
: Not for long, he’ll have to be moving off with the regiment, might be to his death. Give him a bit extra, you’ll be sorry later. You women are tough, then later on you’re sorry. A little glass of brandy wouldn’t have been a problem, but it wasn’t offered and, who knows, a bloke may lie beneath the green sod and none of you people will ever be able to dig him up again.

THE CHAPLAIN
: Don’t give way to your feelings, cook. To fall in battle is a blessing, not an inconvenience, and why? It is a war of faith. None of your common wars but a special one, fought for the faith and therefore pleasing to God.

THE COOK
: Very true. It’s a war all right in one sense, what with requisitioning, murder and looting and the odd bit of rape thrown in, but different from all the other wars because it’s a war of faith; stands to reason. But it’s thirsty work at that, you must admit.

THE CHAPLAIN
to Mother Courage, indicating the cook:
I tried to stop him, but he says he’s taken a shine to you, you figure in his dreams.

THE COOK
lighting a stumpy pipe:
Just want a glass of brandy from a fair hand, what harm in that? Only I’m groggy already cause the chaplain here’s been telling such jokes all the way along you bet I’m still blushing.

MOTHER COURAGE
: Him a clergyman too. I’d best give the pair of you a drink or you’ll start making me immoral suggestions cause you’ve nowt else to do.

THE CHAPLAIN
: Behold a temptation, said the court preacher, and fell.
Turning back to look at Kattrin as he leaves:
And who is this entrancing young person?