a neighbor.)
Jurgen
Good day, neighbor.
Neighbor
Jurgen, Jurgen. Your wife has been carried off by a devil and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Jurgen
Really? When?
Neighbor
Just now. This very moment.
Jurgen
Well, well. A wise man always speaks well of everyone. In a cloud of smoke, you say?
Neighbor
The devil himself carried her off. Better come at once.
Jurgen
I suppose I should go to make sure. But I have confidence in Lisa. She can take care of herself in any company. In a cloud of smoke. Fancy that! Well, it will be quiet at home for a change. Though I may have to cook my own supper, I fancy I shall digest it better.
Neighbor
Come along.
CURTAIN
ACT I
SCENE 1
In the Garden of Youth. A beautiful garden. Several young lovers in medieval dress. Dorothy la Désirée, a beautiful girl of sixteen, is wandering by herself and meets Jurgen, who enters dressed in a beautiful shirt.
Dorothy
Why have you come to this garden, stranger?
Jurgen
Well, because I am looking for my wife whom I suspect was carried off by some poor devil.
Dorothy (archly)
You are glad to be rid of her, are you not?
Jurgen
I confess a certain—relief.
Dorothy
Then why are you here?
Jurgen
Because everyone said it was the manly thing to do, to try and find her. I have always been too deferential to the opinion of mankind.
Dorothy
How did you get here?
Jurgen
You wouldn’t believe me. You are a monstrously clever person.
Dorothy
Try me.
Jurgen
A centaur that I met on the road brought me. He gave me this shirt.
Dorothy
That’s ridiculous. I don’t believe you.
Jurgen
Perfectly all right. You’d be daft if you did. But are you not Dorothy la Désirée—the only woman I ever loved?
Dorothy
Certainly, I am she. Count Emerrich’s daughter.
Jurgen (bitterly)
And the wife of Hetman Michael.
Dorothy
That oaf! I would never marry him.
Jurgen
So you told me when I was young. But you married him all the same.
Dorothy
You’re funny. Are you mad? Who are you, friend, that you have such curious notions about me?
Jurgen
I will answer that question, even though you clearly know the answer. I am Jurgen.
Dorothy
I know but one Jurgen—and he is much younger than you.
Jurgen
Ah, I understand. I have returned to my youth. I have heard of this other Jurgen. A monstrously clever fellow—and he loved you.
Dorothy
No more than I love him. A whole summer I have loved him.
Jurgen
The poor devil loved you, too. I can testify to it. For a whole summer and perhaps all of his life.
Dorothy
You talk in riddles, friend.
Jurgen
That is customary when age talks to youth. For I am a man of forty, and you—you will be sixteen in two months—for it is August—the August of a year I had not expected ever to see again.
Dorothy
You really are a strange fellow—but I like you. In fact, I liked you instantly, as soon as you told me your name was Jurgen.
Jurgen
Well—and what can I do about it? Somehow, I—who am but the shadow of what I was, walk with the love of my youth. In this same garden, there was once a boy who loved a girl with such a love as it puzzles me to think of now. And for a whole summer these two were as brave and comely and clean a pair of sweethearts as the world has known.
Dorothy
Tell me about yourself, sir. For I love all tales of lovers.
Jurgen
Ah, dear child—if only I could. Who can tell the glory of a first love—moonlight nights—unreasonable laughter—and the feeling that suddenly you are—alive. A story not worth raking up at this late date. Preposterous, really.
Dorothy
What happened then?
Jurgen
There was a difficulty. She was a count’s daughter and he was the son of a pawnbroker.
Dorothy (excited)
I know a case just like it. (curious) What happened?
Jurgen
Well—it seemed a transient discrepancy because our hero intended to become an Emperor.
Dorothy
And
