THE
SORROWS OF BELGIUM
A PLAY IN SIX SCENES
By
LEONID ANDREYEV
AUTHOR OF "ANATHEMA" "THE SEVEN WHO WERE HANGED," ETC.
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY
HERMAN BERNSTEIN
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1915
INTRODUCTION
Leonid Andreyev, the great Russian writer, whose "Anathema,""The Seven Who Were Hanged," "The Life of Man" and "RedLaughter" have attracted universal attention, has now writtenthe story of the sorrows of the Belgian people. He delineatesthe tragedy of Belgium as reflected in the home of the foremostBelgian poet and thinker—regarded as the conscience of theBelgian nation.
Leonid Andreyev feels deeply and keenly for the oppressed andweaker nationalities. He has depicted the victims of this warwith profound sympathy,—the Belgians, and in another literarymasterpiece he analyzed the sufferings of the Jews in Russiaas a result of this war. He described vividly the sense ofshame of the Russian people on account of the Russian officialanti-Jewish policies.
In both these works Leonid Andreyev holds German militarism andGerman influences responsible for the wrongs committed againstsmaller nationalities.
In his treatise on the tragedy of the Jews in Russia, he writesof "Russian barbarians" and "German barbarians" as follows:
"If for the Jews themselves the Pale of Settlement, the per centnorm and other restrictions were a fatal fact, which distortedall their life, it has been for me, a Russian, something like ahunch on my back, a monstrous growth, which I received I knownot when and under what conditions. But wherever I may go andwhatever I may do the hunch is always with me; it has disturbedmy sleep at night, and in my waking hours, in the presence ofpeople, it has filled me with a sensation of confusion andshame....
"It is necessary for all to understand that the end of Jewishsufferings is the beginning of our self-respect, without whichRussia cannot live. The dark days of the war will pass and theGerman barbarians' of today will once more become culturedGermans whose voice will again be heard throughout the world.And it is essential that neither their voice nor any other voiceshould call us loudly 'Russian barbarians.'"
Aside from its literary and dramatic value, if this volumeon the sorrows of Belgium will tend to arouse a little moresympathy for the sufferings of the victims of the war, or if itwill help to call forth in the minds of the people a strongerabhorrence of the horrors of war, it will have served animportant and worthy purpose.
HERMAN BERNSTEIN.
May 25, 1915.
THE SORROWS OF BELGIUM
CHARACTERS
Count Clairmont.
Emil Grelieu—A Famous Belgian Author.
Jeanne—His Wife.
Pierre } Their sons.
Maurice}
Lagard—Member of the Cabinet.
General—Adjutant to Count Clairmont.
Insane Girl.
François—Gardener.
Henrietta } Grelieu's Servants.
Silvina }
Commander of the German Armies in Belgium.
Von Blumenfeld.
Von Ritzau }
Von Stein } Officers.
Von Schauss}
Kloetz—Military Engineer.
Zigler—Telegraphist.
Greitzer.
German Officer.
Belgian Peasant.
Doctor Langloi.
A Chauffeur—A Belgian.
SCENE I