Georg Büchner LEONCE AND LENA

LEONCE: Oh providence!
VALERIO: I have to laugh, I really have to laugh. By chance your Highnesses
happen to have happened on each other. I hope you'll be happy it happened this way.
GOVERNESS: Fancy me living to see the day! A wandering prince! Now I can die in
peace!
PETER: Children, I am moved, so deeply moved I am quite transfixed. I'm the
happiest of men! Bit I hereby transfer my regal powers to you, my son, and from this
moment on I shall start to do nothing but think undisturbed. So that ' am properly assisted
in this arduous task, my son, you will grant me possession of these fountains of wisdom
[pointing to the Privy Council]. Come, gentlemen, we must think, we must think
undisturbed. [He exits with the Privy Counril.] That man made me so confused just now, I
must order my thoughts all over again.
LEONCE [to all those remaining]: Gentlemen, my wife and I are most infinitely sorry
that you have spent so much time today standing about on our behalf. Your position is so
pitiful that we should not wish at any price to make you withstand more standing. Go home
now, but don't go forgetting your speeches, your sermons, your verses, for tomorrow we
shall calmly and quietly do the whole farce again from beginning to end. Good bye, goodbye!
Exit all except LEONCE, LENA, VALERIO and the GOVERNESS.
LEONCE: There now, Lena, do you see how full our pockets are, full of puppets and
playthings? What games shall we play with them? Shall we fit them all out with
moustaches and muskets? Shall we stick them in tail-coats, dump them in the dunghill of
politics and diplomacy, and settle down with a microscope to study their antics? Or do you
fancy a barrel-organ on which sundry aesthetical, milk-white shrew mice dance and caper?
Shall we build a theatre? [Lena leans against him and shakes her head.] But I know better
than that what you really want. We'll have all the clocks in the kingdom destroyed, all
calendars banned, then measure the hours and months by the flower clock alone, by the
rhythms of blossom and fruit. And then we'll surround our entire little kingdom with sun
trap-mirrors so that winter will be banished for ever, in summer we'll have the warmth of
Capri and Ischia, and all through the year we shall wander amongst violets and roses,
oranges and bay.
VALERIO: And I shall be Chief Minister and issue a decree that anyone getting
calluses on their hands shall be taken into care, anyone working themself sick shall be
guilty of a crime, anyone boasting of earning their bread by the sweat of their brow shall be
declared insane and a danger to society. And then we shall all lie down in the shade and
pray God for macaroni, melons and figs, for melodious voices, classical bodies and a
comfortable religion.
The curtain falls.