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Rossum universal robots

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This document is an excerpt from the play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek. It summarizes the backstory of how artificial humans, called Robots, were invented. An engineer named Rossum simplified the human form and function to create robotic workers that were cheaper and more efficient but lacked a soul. The General Manager of the Robot factory, Domin, tells the story to a visitor named Helena Glory and shows her different types of Robots to demonstrate their capabilities.

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R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by KAREL CAPEK Translated by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair Robots of the world! The power of man has fallen! A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March!
CHARACTERS HARRY DOMIN SULLA MARIUS HELENA GLORY DR. GALL MR. FABRY DR. HALLEMEIER MR. ALQUIST CONSUL BUSMAN NANA RADIUS A SERVANT HELENA PRIMUS FIRST ROBOT SECOND ROBOT THIRD ROBOT FOURTH ROBOT
ACT I Central office of the factory of Rossum's Universal Robots. Entrance on the right. The windows on the front wall look out on the rows of factory chimneys. On the left more managing departments. DOMIN is sitting in the revolving chair at a large American writing table. On the left-hand wall large maps showing steamship and railroad routes. On the right- hand wall are fastened printed placards. ("Robot's Cheapest Labor," etc.) In contrast to these wall fittings, the floor is covered with a splendid Turkish carpet, a sofa, leather armchair, and filing cabinets. At a desk near the windows SULLA is typing letters. DOMIN (dictating) Ready? SULLA Yes. DOMIN To E. M. McVicker and Co., Southampton, England. "We undertake no guarantee for goods damaged in transit. As soon as the consignment was taken on board we drew your captain's attention to the fact that the vessel was unsuitable for the transport of Robots, and we are therefore not responsible for spoiled freight. We beg to remain for Rossum's Universal Robots. Yours truly." (SULLA, who has sat motionless during dictation, now types rapidly for a few seconds, then stops, withdrawing the completed letter) Ready? SULLA Yes.
DOMIN Another letter. To the E. B. Huyson Agency, New York, U.S.A. "We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for five thousand Robots. As you are sending your own vessel, please dispatch as cargo equal quantities of soft and hard coal for R. U. R., the same to be credited as part payment of the amount due to us. We beg to remain, for Rossum's Universal Robots. Yours truly." (SULLA repeats the rapid typing) Ready? SULLA Yes. DOMIN Another letter. "Friedrichswerks, Hamburg, Germany. We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for fifteen thousand Robots." (Telephone rings) Hello! This is the Central Office. Yes. Certainly. Well, send them a wire. Good. (Hangs up telephone) Where did I leave off? SULLA "We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for fifteen thousand Robots." DOMIN Fifteen thousand R. Fifteen thousand R. (Enter MARIUS) Well, what is it? MARIUS There's a lady, sir, asking to see you. DOMIN A lady? Who is she? MARIUS I don't know, sir. She brings this card of introduction. DOMIN (reads the card) Ah, from President Glory. Ask her to come in. MARIUS Please step this way. Enter HELENA GLORY. Exit MARIUS. HELENA How do you do? R. U. R. I-2
DOMIN How do you do. (Standing up) What can I do for you? HELENA You are Mr. Domin, the General Manager. DOMIN I am. HELENA I have come –– DOMIN With President Glory's card. That is quite sufficient. HELENA President Glory is my father. I am Helena Glory. DOMIN Miss Glory, this is such a great honor for us to be allowed to –– welcome our great President's daughter, that –– HELENA That you can't show me the door? DOMIN Please sit down. Sulla, you may go. (Exit SULLA. Sitting down) How can I be of service to you, Miss Glory? HELENA I have come –– DOMIN To have a look at our famous works where people are manufactured. Like all visitors. Well, there is no objection. HELENA I thought it was forbidden to –– DOMIN To enter the factory. Yes, of course. Everybody comes here with someone's visiting card, Miss Glory. HELENA And you show them –– DOMIN Only certain things. The manufacture of artificial people is a secret process. R. U. R. I-3
HELENA If you only knew how enormously that –– DOMIN Interests me. Europe's talking about nothing else. HELENA Why don't you let me finish speaking? DOMIN I beg your pardon. Did you want to say something different? HELENA I only wanted to ask –– DOMIN Whether I could make a special exception in your case and show you our factory. Why, certainly Miss Glory. HELENA How do you know I wanted to say that? DOMIN They all do. But we shall consider it a special honor to show you more than we do the rest. HELENA Thank you. DOMIN But you must agree not to divulge the least... HELENA (standing up and giving him her hand) My word of honor. DOMIN Thank you. Won't you raise your veil? HELENA Of course. You want to see whether I'm a spy or not. I beg your pardon. DOMIN What is it? HELENA Would you mind releasing my hand? DOMIN (releasing it) I beg your pardon. R. U. R. I-4
HELENA (raising her veil) How cautious you have to be here, don't you? DOMIN (observing her with deep interest) Hm, of course –– we –– that is –– HELENA But what is it? What's the matter? DOMIN I'm remarkably pleased. Did you have a pleasant crossing? HELENA Yes. DOMIN No difficulty? HELENA Why? DOMIN What I mean to say is –– you're so young. HELENA May we go straight into the factory? DOMIN Yes. Twenty-two, I think. HELENA Twenty-two what? DOMIN Years. HELENA Twenty-one. Why do you want to know? DOMIN Because –– as –– (with enthusiasm) you will make a long stay, won't you? HELENA That depends on how much of the factory you show me. DOMIN Oh, hang the factory. Oh, no, no, you shall see everything, Miss Glory. Indeed you shall. Won't you sit down? R. U. R. I-5
HELENA (crossing to couch and sitting) Thank you. DOMIN But first would you like to hear the story of the invention? HELENA Yes, indeed. DOMIN (observes HELENA with rapture and reels off rapidly) It was in the year 1920 that old Rossum, the great physiologist, who was then quite a young scientist, took himself to this distant island for the purpose of studying the ocean fauna, full stop. On this occasion he attempted by chemical synthesis to imitate the living matter known as protoplasm until he suddenly discovered a substance which behaved exactly like living matter although its chemical composition was different. That was in the year of 1932, exactly four hundred forty years after the discovery of America. Whew! HELENA Do you know that by heart? DOMIN Yes. You see physiology is not in my line. Shall I go on? HELENA Yes, please. DOMIN And then, Miss Glory, old Rossum wrote the following among his chemical specimens: "Nature has found only one method of organizing living matter. There is, however, another method, more simple, flexible and rapid, which has not yet occurred to nature at all. This second process by which life can be developed was discovered by me today." Now imagine him, Miss Glory, writing those wonderful words over some colloidal mess that a dog wouldn't look at. Imagine him sitting over a test tube, and thinking how the whole tree of life would grow from it, how all animals would proceed from it, beginning with some sort of beetle and ending with a man. A man of different substance from us. Miss Glory, that was a tremendous moment. HELENA Well? DOMIN Now, the thing was how to get the life out of the test tubes, and hasten development and form organs, bones and nerves, and R. U. R. I-6 (MORE)
so on, and find such substances as catalytics, enzymes, hormones, and so forth, in short –– you understand? HELENA Not much, I'm afraid. DOMIN Never mind. You see with the help of his tinctures he could make whatever he wanted. He could have produced a Medusa with the brain of a Socrates or a worm fifty yards long. But being without a grain of humor, he took it into his head to make a vertebrate or perhaps a man. This artificial living matter of his had a raging thirst for life. It didn't mind being sewn or mixed together. That couldn't be done with natural albumen. And that's how he set about it. HELENA About what? DOMIN About imitating nature. First of all he tried making an artificial dog. That took him several years and resulted in a sort of stunted calf which died in a few days. I'll show it to you in the museum. And then old Rossum started on the manufacture of man. HELENA And I must divulge this to nobody? DOMIN To nobody in the world. HELENA What a pity that it's to be found in all the school books of both Europe and America. DOMIN Yes. But do you know what isn't in the school books? That old Rossum was mad. Seriously, Miss Glory, you must keep this to yourself. The old crank wanted to actually make people. HELENA But you do make people. DOMIN Approximately, Miss Glory. But old Rossum meant it literally. He wanted to become a sort of scientific substitute for God. He was a fearful materialist, and that's why he did it all. His sole purpose was nothing more nor less than to prove that God was no longer necessary. Do you know anything about anatomy? HELENA Very little. R. U. R. I-7 DOMIN (cont'd)
DOMIN Neither do I. Well, he then decided to manufacture everything as in the human body. I'll show you in the museum the bungling attempt it took him ten years to produce. It was to have been a man, but it lived for three days only. Then up came young Rossum, an engineer. He was a wonderful fellow, Miss Glory. When he saw what a mess of it the old man was making, he said: "It's absurd to spend ten years making a man. If you can't make him quicker than nature, you might as well shut up shop." Then he set about learning anatomy himself. HELENA There's nothing about that in the school books. DOMIN No. The school books are full of paid advertisements, and rubbish at that. What the school books say about the united efforts of the two great Rossums is all a fairy tale. They used to have dreadful rows. The old atheist hadn't the slightest conception of industrial matters, and the end of it was that young Rossum shut him up in some laboratory or other and let him fritter the time away with his monstrosities, while he himself started on the business from an engineer's point of view. Old Rossum cursed him and before he died he managed to botch up two physiological horrors. Then one day they found him dead in the laboratory. And that's his whole story. HELENA And what about the young man? DOMIN Well, any one who has looked into human anatomy will have seen at once that man is too complicated, and that a good engineer could make him more simply. So young Rossum began to overhaul anatomy and tried to see what could be left out or simplified. In short –– but this isn't boring you, Miss Glory? HELENA No indeed. You're –– it's awfully interesting. DOMIN So young Rossum said to himself: "A man is something that feels happy, plays the piano, likes going for a walk, and in fact, wants to do a whole lot of things that are really unnecessary." HELENA Oh. R. U. R. I-8
DOMIN That are unnecessary when he wants, let us say, to weave or count. Do you play the piano? HELENA Yes. DOMIN That's good. But a working machine must not play the piano, must not feel happy, must not do a whole lot of other things. A gasoline motor must not have tassels or ornaments, Miss Glory. And to manufacture artificial workers is the same thing as to manufacture gasoline motors. The process must be of the simplest, and the product of the best from a practical point of view. What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view? HELENA What? DOMIN What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view? HELENA Perhaps the one who is most honest and hardworking. DOMIN No; the one that is the cheapest. The one whose requirements are the smallest. Young Rossum invented a worker with the minimum amount of requirements. He had to simplify him. He rejected everything that did not contribute directly to the progress of work –– everything that makes man more expensive. In fact, he rejected man and made the Robot. My dear Miss Glory, the Robots are not people. Mechanically they are more perfect than we are, they have an enormously developed intelligence, but they have no soul. HELENA How do you know they've no soul? DOMIN Have you ever seen what a Robot looks like inside? HELENA No. DOMIN Very neat, very simple. Really, a beautiful piece of work. Not much in it, but everything in flawless order. The product of an engineer is technically at a higher pitch of perfection than a product of nature. R. U. R. I-9
HELENA But man is supposed to be the product of God. DOMIN All the worse. God hasn't the least notion of modern engineering. Would you believe that young Rossum then proceeded to play at being God? HELENA How do you mean? DOMIN He began to manufacture Super-Robots. Regular giants they were. He tried to make them twelve feet tall. But you wouldn't believe what a failure they were. HELENA A failure? DOMIN Yes. For no reason at all their limbs used to keep snapping off. Evidently our planet is too small for giants. Now we only make Robots of normal size and of very high class human finish. HELENA I saw the first Robots at home. The town counsel bought them for –– I mean engaged them for work. DOMIN Bought them, dear Miss Glory. Robots are bought and sold. HELENA These were employed as street sweepers. I saw them sweeping. They were so strange and quiet. DOMIN Rossum's Universal Robot factory doesn't produce a uniform brand of Robots. We have Robots of finer and coarser grades. The best will live about twenty years. He rings for MARIUS. HELENA Then they die? DOMIN Yes, they get used up. (Enter MARIUS) Marius, bring in samples of the Manual Labor Robot. (Exit MARIUS) I'll show you specimens of the two extremes. This first grade is comparatively inexpensive and is made in vast quantities. R. U. R. I-10 (MORE)
(MARIUS reenters with two Manual Labor ROBOTS) There you are; as powerful as a small tractor. Guaranteed to have average intelligence. That will do, Marius. MARIUS exits with ROBOTS. HELENA They make me feel so strange. DOMIN (rings) Did you see my new typist? He rings for SULLA. HELENA I didn't notice her. Enter SULLA. DOMIN Sulla, let Miss Glory see you. HELENA So pleased to meet you. You must find it terribly dull in this out-of-the-way spot, don't you? SULLA I don't know, Miss Glory. HELENA Where do you come from? SULLA From the factory. HELENA Oh, you were born there? SULLA I was made there. HELENA What? DOMIN (laughing) Sulla is a Robot, best grade. HELENA Oh, I beg your pardon. R. U. R. I-11 DOMIN (cont'd)
DOMIN Sulla isn't angry. See, Miss Glory, the kind of skin we make. (Feels the skin on Sulla's face) Feel her face. HELENA Oh, no, no. DOMIN You wouldn't know that she's made of different material from us, would you? Turn round, Sulla. HELENA Oh, stop, stop. DOMIN Talk to Miss Glory, Sulla. SULLA Please sit down. (HELENA sits) Did you have a pleasant crossing? HELENA Oh, yes, certainly. SULLA Don't go back on the Amelia, Miss Glory. The barometer is falling steadily. Wait for the Pennsylvania. That's a good, powerful vessel. DOMIN What's its speed? SULLA Twenty knots. Fifty thousand tons. One of the latest vessels, Miss Glory. HELENA Thank you. SULLA A crew of fifteen hundred, Captain Harpy, eight boilers –– DOMIN That'll do, Sulla. Now show us your knowledge of French. HELENA You know French? SULLA I know four languages. I can write: Dear Sir, Monsieur, Geehrter Herr, Cteny pane. R. U. R. I-12
HELENA (jumping up) Oh, that's absurd! Sulla isn't a Robot. Sulla is a girl like me. Sulla, this is outrageous! Why do you take part in such a hoax? SULLA I am a Robot. HELENA No, no, you are not telling the truth. I know they've forced you to do it for an advertisement. Sulla, you are a girl like me, aren't you? DOMIN I'm sorry, Miss Glory. Sulla is a Robot. HELENA It's a lie! DOMIN What? (Rings) Excuse me, Miss Glory, then I must convince you. Enter MARIUS. DOMIN Marius, take Sulla into the dissecting room, and tell them to open her up at once. HELENA Where? DOMIN Into the dissecting room. When they've cut her open, you can go and have a look. HELENA No, no! DOMIN Excuse me, you spoke of lies. HELENA You wouldn't have her killed? DOMIN You can't kill machines. R. U. R. I-13
HELENA Don't be afraid, Sulla, I won't let you go. Tell me, my dear, are they always so cruel to you? You mustn't put up with it, Sulla. You mustn't. SULLA I am a Robot. HELENA That doesn't matter. Robots are just as good as we are. Sulla, you wouldn't let yourself be cut to pieces? SULLA Yes. HELENA Oh, you're not afraid of death, then? SULLA I cannot tell, Miss Glory. HELENA Do you know what would happen to you in there? SULLA Yes, I should cease to move. HELENA How dreadful! DOMIN Marius, tell Miss Glory what you are. MARIUS Marius, the Robot. DOMIN Would you take Sulla into the dissecting room? MARIUS Yes. DOMIN Would you be sorry for her? MARIUS I cannot tell. DOMIN What would happen to her? R. U. R. I-14
MARIUS She would cease to move. They would put her into the stamping- mill. DOMIN That is death, Marius. Aren't you afraid of death? MARIUS No. DOMIN You see, Miss Glory, the Robots have no interest in life. They have no enjoyments. They are less than so much grass. HELENA Oh, stop. Send them away. DOMIN Marius, Sulla, you may go. Exeunt SULLA and MARIUS. HELENA How terrible! It's outrageous what you are doing. DOMIN Why outrageous? HELENA I don't know, but it is. Why do you call her Sulla? DOMIN Isn't it a nice name? HELENA It's a man's name. Sulla was a Roman general. DOMIN Oh, we thought that Marius and Sulla were lovers. HELENA Marius and Sulla were generals and fought against each other in the year –– I've forgotten now. DOMIN Come here to the window. HELENA What? DOMIN Come here. What do you see? R. U. R. I-15
HELENA Bricklayers. DOMIN Robots. All our work people are Robots. And down there, can you see anything? HELENA Some sort of office. DOMIN A counting house. And in it –– HELENA A lot of officials. DOMIN Robots. All our officials are Robots. And when you see the factory –– (Factory whistle blows) Noon. We have to blow the whistle because the Robots don't know when to stop work. In two hours I will show you the kneading trough. HELENA Kneading trough? DOMIN The pestle for beating up the paste. In each one we mix the ingredients for a thousand Robots at one operation. Then there are the vats for the preparation of liver, brains, and so on. Then you will see the bone factory. After that I'll show you the spinning mill. HELENA Spinning mill? DOMIN Yes. For weaving nerves and veins. Miles and miles of digestive tubes pass through it at a time. HELENA Mayn't we talk about something else? DOMIN Perhaps it would be better. There's only a handful of us among a hundred thousand Robots, and not one woman. We talk about nothing but the factory all day, every day. It's just as if we were under a curse, Miss Glory. HELENA I'm sorry I said that you were lying. R. U. R. I-16
A knock at the door. DOMIN Come in. From the right enter MR. FABRY, DR. GALL, DR. HALLEMEIER, MR. ALQUIST. DR. GALL I beg your pardon, I hope we don't intrude. DOMIN Come in. Miss Glory, here are Alquist, Fabry, Gall, Hallemeier. This is President Glory's daughter. HELENA How do you do. FABRY We had no idea –– DR. GALL Highly honored, I'm sure –– ALQUIST Welcome, Miss Glory. BUSMAN rushes in from the right. BUSMAN Hello, what's up? DOMIN Come in, Busman. This is Busman, Miss Glory. This is President Glory's daughter. BUSMAN By Jove, that's fine! Miss Glory, may we send a cablegram to the papers about your arrival? HELENA No, no, please don't. DOMIN Sit down please, Miss Glory. BUSMAN Allow me –– (Dragging up armchairs) DR. GALL Please –– R. U. R. I-17
FABRY Excuse me –– ALQUIST What sort of a crossing did you have? DR. GALL Are you going to stay long? FABRY What do you think of the factory, Miss Glory? HALLEMEIER Did you come over on the Amelia? DOMIN Be quiet and let Miss Glory speak. HELENA (to DOMIN) What am I to speak to them about? DOMIN Anything you like. HELENA Shall... may I speak quite frankly? DOMIN Why, of course. HELENA (wavering, then in desperate resolution) Tell me, doesn't it ever distress you the way you are treated? FABRY By whom, may I ask? HELENA Why, everybody. ALQUIST Treated? DR. GALL What makes you think –– ? HELENA Don't you feel that you might be living a better life? DR. GALL Well, that depends on what you mean, Miss Glory. R. U. R. I-18
HELENA I mean that it's perfectly outrageous. It's terrible. (Standing up) The whole of Europe is talking about the way you're being treated. That's why I came here, to see for myself, and it's a thousand times worse than could have been imagined. How can you put up with it? ALQUIST Put up with what? HELENA Good heavens, you are living creatures, just like us, like the whole of Europe, like the whole world. It's disgraceful that you must live like this. BUSMAN Good gracious, Miss Glory. FABRY Well, she's not far wrong. We live here just like red Indians. HELENA Worse than red Indians. May I, oh, may I call you brothers? BUSMAN Why not? HELENA Brothers, I have not come here as the President's daughter. I have come on behalf of the Humanity League. Brothers, the Humanity League now has over two hundred thousand members. Two hundred thousand people are on your side, and offer you their help. BUSMAN Two hundred thousand people! Miss Glory, that's a tidy lot. Not bad. FABRY I'm always telling you there's nothing like good old Europe. You see, they've not forgotten us. They're offering us help. DR. GALL What help? A theatre, for instance? HALLEMEIER An orchestra? HELENA More than that. R. U. R. I-19
ALQUIST Just you? HELENA Oh, never mind about me. I'll stay as long as it is necessary. BUSMAN By Jove, that's good. ALQUIST Domin, I'm going to get the best room ready for Miss Glory. DOMIN Just a minute. I'm afraid that Miss Glory is of the opinion that she has been talking to Robots. HELENA Of course. DOMIN I'm sorry. These gentlemen are human beings just like us. HELENA You're not Robots? BUSMAN Not Robots. HALLEMEIER Robots indeed! DR. GALL No, thanks. FABRY Upon my honor, Miss Glory, we aren't Robots. HELENA (to DOMIN) Then why did you tell me that all your officials are Robots? DOMIN Yes, the officials, but not the managers. Allow me, Miss Glory: this is Mr. Fabry, General Technical Manager of R. U. R.; Dr. Gall, Head of the Psychological and Experimental Department; Dr. Hallemeier, Head of the Institute for the Psychological Training of Robots; Consul Busman, General Business Manager; and Alquist, Head of the Building Department of R. U. R. ALQUIST Just a builder. R. U. R. I-20
HELENA Excuse me, gentlemen, for –– for –– . Have I done something dreadful? ALQUIST Not at all, Miss Glory. Please sit down. HELENA I'm a stupid girl. Send me back by the first ship. DR. GALL Not for anything in the world, Miss Glory. Why should we send you back? HELENA Because you know I've come to disturb your Robots for you. DOMIN My dear Miss Glory, we've had close upon a hundred saviours and prophets here. Every ship brings us some. Missionaries, anarchists, Salvation Army, all sorts. It's astonishing what a number of churches and idiots there are in the world. HELENA And you let them speak to the Robots? DOMIN So far we've let them all, why not? The Robots remember everything, but that's all. They don't even laugh at what the people say. Really, it is quite incredible. If it would amuse you, Miss Glory, I'll take you over to the Robot warehouse. It holds about three hundred thousand of them. BUSMAN Three hundred and forty-seven thousand. DOMIN Good! And you can say whatever you like to them. You can read the Bible, recite the multiplication table, whatever you please. You can even preach to them about human rights. HELENA Oh, I think that if you were to show them a little love –– FABRY Impossible, Miss Glory. Nothing is harder to like than a Robot. HELENA What do you make them for, then? BUSMAN Ha, ha, ha, that's good! What are Robots made for? R. U. R. I-21
FABRY For work, Miss Glory! One Robot can replace two and a half workmen. The human machine, Miss Glory, was terribly imperfect. It had to be removed sooner or later. BUSMAN It was too expensive. FABRY It was not effective. It no longer answers the requirements of modern engineering. Nature has no idea of keeping pace with modern labor. For example: from a technical point of view, the whole of childhood is a sheer absurdity. So much time lost. And then again –– HELENA Oh, no! No! FABRY Pardon me. But kindly tell me what is the real aim of your League –– the... the Humanity League. HELENA Its real purpose is to –– to protect the Robots –– and –– and ensure good treatment for them. FABRY Not a bad object, either. A machine has to be treated properly. Upon my soul, I approve of that. I don't like damaged articles. Please, Miss Glory, enroll us all as contributing, or regular, or foundation members of your League. HELENA No, you don't understand me. What we really want is to –– to liberate the Robots. HALLEMEIER How do you propose to do that? HELENA They are to be –– to be dealt with like human beings. HALLEMEIER Aha. I suppose they're to vote? To drink beer? to order us about? HELENA Why shouldn't they drink beer? HALLEMEIER Perhaps they're even to receive wages? R. U. R. I-22
HELENA Of course they are. HALLEMEIER Fancy that, now! And what would they do with their wages, pray? HELENA They would buy –– what they need... what pleases them... HALLEMEIER That would be very nice, Miss Glory, only there's nothing that does please the Robots. Good heavens, what are they to buy? You can feed them on pineapples, straw, whatever you like. It's all the same to them, they've no appetite at all. They've no interest in anything, Miss Glory. Why, hang it all, nobody's ever yet seen a Robot smile. HELENA Why... why don't you make them happier? HALLEMEIER That wouldn't do, Miss Glory. They are only workmen. HELENA Oh, but they're so intelligent. HALLEMEIER Confoundedly so, but they're nothing else. They've no will of their own. No passion. No soul. HELENA No love? HALLEMEIER Love? Rather not. Robots don't love. Not even themselves. HELENA Nor defiance? HALLEMEIER Defiance? I don't know. Only rarely, from time to time. HELENA What? HALLEMEIER Nothing particular. Occasionally they seem to go off their heads. Something like epilepsy, you know. It's called Robot's cramp. They'll suddenly sling down everything they're holding, stand still, gnash their teeth –– and then they have to go into the stamping-mill. It's evidently some breakdown in the mechanism. R. U. R. I-23
DOMIN A flaw in the works that has to be removed. HELENA No, no, that's the soul. FABRY Do you think that the soul first shows itself by a gnashing of teeth? HELENA Perhaps it's a sort of revolt. Perhaps it's just a sign that there's a struggle within. Oh, if you could infuse them with it! DOMIN That'll be remedied, Miss Glory. Dr. Gall is just making some experiments –– DR. GALL Not with regard to that, Domin. At present I am making pain- nerves. HELENA Pain-nerves? DR. GALL Yes, the Robots feel practically no bodily pain. You see, young Rossum provided them with too limited a nervous system. We must introduce suffering. HELENA Why do you want to cause them pain? DR. GALL For industrial reasons, Miss Glory. Sometimes a Robot does damage to himself because it doesn't hurt him. He puts his hand into the machine, breaks his finger, smashes his head, its all the same to him. We must provide them with pain. That's an automatic protection against damage. HELENA Will they be happier when they feel pain? DR. GALL On the contrary; but they will be more perfect from a technical point of view. HELENA Why don't you create a soul for them? DR. GALL That's not in our power. R. U. R. I-24
FABRY That's not in our interest. BUSMAN That would increase the cost of production. Hang it all, my dear young lady, we turn them out at such a cheap rate. A hundred and fifty dollars each fully dressed, and fifteen years ago they cost ten thousand. Five years ago we used to buy the clothes for them. To-day we have our own weaving mill, and now we even export cloth five times cheaper than other factories. What do you pay a yard for cloth, Miss Glory? HELENA I don't know really, I've forgotten. BUSMAN Good gracious, and you want to found a Humanity League? It only costs a third now, Miss Glory. All prices are today a third of what they were and they'll fall still lower, lower, lower, like that. HELENA I don't understand. BUSMAN Why, bless you, Miss Glory, it means that the cost of labor has fallen. A Robot, food and all, costs three quarters of a cent per hour. That's mighty important, you know. All factories will go pop like chestnuts if they don't at once buy Robots to lower the cost of production. HELENA And get rid of their workmen? BUSMAN Of course. But in the meantime, we've dumped five hundred thousand tropical Robots down on the Argentine pampas to grow corn. Would you mind telling me how much you pay a pound for bread? HELENA I've no idea. BUSMAN We'll I'll tell you. It now costs two cents in good old Europe. A pound of bread for two cents, and the Humanity League knows nothing about it. Miss Glory, you don't realize that even that's too expensive. Why, in five years' time I'll wager –– HELENA What? R. U. R. I-25
BUSMAN That the cost of everything won't be a tenth of what it is now. Why, in five years we'll be up to our ears in corn and everything else. ALQUIST Yes, and all the workers throughout the world will be employed. DOMIN Yes, Alquist, they will. Yes, Miss Glory, they will. But in ten years Rossum's Universal Robots will produce so much corn, so much cloth, so much everything, that things will be practically without price. There will be no poverty. All work will be done by living machines. Everybody will be free from worry and liberated from the degradation of labor. Everybody will live only to perfect himself. HELENA Will he? DOMIN Of course. It's bound to happen. But then the servitude of man to man and the enslavement of man to matter will cease. Of course, terrible things may happen at first, but that simply can't be avoided. Nobody will get bread at the price of life and hatred. The Robots will wash the feet of the beggar and prepare a bed for him in his house. ALQUIST Domin, Domin. What you say sounds too much like Paradise. There was something good in service and something great in humility. There was some kind of virtue in toil and weariness. DOMIN Perhaps. But we cannot reckon with what is lost when we start out to transform the world. Man shall be free and supreme; he shall have no other aim, no other labor, no other care than to perfect himself. He shall serve neither matter nor man. He will not be a machine and a device for production. He will be Lord of creation. BUSMAN Amen. FABRY So be it. HELENA You have bewildered me –– I should like –– I should like to believe this. R. U. R. I-26
DR. GALL You are younger than we are, Miss Glory. You will live to see it. HALLEMEIER True. Don't you think Miss Glory might lunch with us? DR. GALL Of course. Domin, ask on behalf of us all. DOMIN Miss Glory, will you do us the honor? HELENA When you know why I've come –– FABRY For the League of Humanity, Miss Glory. HELENA Oh, in that case, perhaps –– FABRY That's fine! Miss Glory, excuse me for five minutes. DR. GALL Pardon me, too, dear Miss Glory. BUSMAN I won't be long. HALLEMEIER We're all very glad you've come. BUSMAN We'll be back in exactly five minutes. All rush out except DOMIN and HELENA. HELENA What have they all gone off for? DOMIN To cook, Miss Glory. HELENA To cook what? DOMIN Lunch. The Robots do our cooking for us and as they've no taste it's not altogether –– Hallemeier is awfully good at grills and Gall can make a kind of sauce, and Busman knows all about omelettes. R. U. R. I-27
HELENA What a feast! And what's the specialty of Mr. –– your builder? DOMIN Alquist? Nothing. He only lays the table. And Fabry will get together a little fruit. Our cuisine is very modest, Miss Glory. HELENA I wanted to ask you something –– DOMIN And I wanted to ask you something, too. (Looking at watch) Five minutes. HELENA What did you want to ask me? DOMIN Excuse me, you asked first. HELENA Perhaps it's silly of me, but why do you manufacture female Robots when –– when –– DOMIN When sex means nothing to them? HELENA Yes. DOMIN There's a certain demand for them, you see. Servants, saleswomen, stenographers. People are used to it. HELENA But –– but, tell me, are the Robots male and female mutually –– completely without –– DOMIN Completely indifferent to each other, Miss Glory. There's no sign of any affection between them. HELENA Oh, that's terrible. DOMIN Why? R. U. R. I-28
HELENA It's so unnatural. One doesn't know whether to be disgusted or to hate them, or perhaps –– DOMIN To pity them? HELENA That's more like it. What did you want to ask me about? DOMIN I should like to ask you, Miss Helena, whether you will marry me? HELENA What? DOMIN Will you be my wife? HELENA No! The idea! DOMIN (looking at his watch) Another three minutes. If you won't marry me you'll have to marry one of the other five. HELENA But why should I? DOMIN Because they're all going to ask you in turn. HELENA How could they dare do such a thing? DOMIN I'm very sorry, Miss Glory. It seems they've all fallen in love with you. HELENA Please don't let them. I'll –– I'll go away at once. DOMIN Helena, you wouldn't be so cruel as to refuse us. HELENA But, but –– I can't marry all six. DOMIN No, but one anyhow. If you don't want me, marry Fabry. R. U. R. I-29
HELENA I won't. DOMIN Dr. Gall. HELENA I don't want any of you. DOMIN (again looking at his watch) Another two minutes. HELENA I think you'd marry any woman who came here. DOMIN Plenty of them have come, Helena. HELENA Young? DOMIN Yes. HELENA Why didn't you marry one of them? DOMIN Because I didn't lose my head. Until today. Then, as soon as you lifted your veil –– (HELENA turns her head away) Another minute. HELENA But I don't want you, I tell you. DOMIN (laying both hands on her shoulders) One more minute! Now you either have to look me straight in the eye and say "No,' violently, and then I'll leave you alone –– or -- HELENA looks at him. HELENA (turning away) You're mad! DOMIN A man has to be a bit mad, Helena. That's the best thing about him. R. U. R. I-30
HELENA You are –– you are –– DOMIN Well? HELENA Don't, you're hurting me. DOMIN The last chance, Helena. Now, or never –– HELENA But –– but, Harry –– He embraces and kisses her. Knocking at the door. DOMIN (releasing her) Come in. (Enter BUSMAN, DR. GALL, and HALLEMEIRE in kitchen aprons. FABRY with bouquet and ALQUIST with napkin over his arm) Have you finished your job? BUSMAN Yes. DOMIN So have we. For a moment the men stand nonplussed; but as soon as they realize what DOMIN means they rush forward, congratulating HELENA and DOMIN as the curtain falls. END OF ACT ONE R. U. R. I-31
ACT II Helena's drawing room. On the left a baize door, and a door to the music room, on the right a door to Helena's bedroom. In the centre are windows looking out on the sea and the harbor. A table with odds and ends, a sofa and chairs, a writing table with an electric lamp, on the right a fireplace. On a small table back of the sofa, a small reading lamp. The whole drawing room in all its details is of a modern and purely feminine character. Ten years have elapsed since Act I. DOMIN, FABRY, HALLEMEIER, enter on tiptoe from the left, each carrying a potted plant. HALLEMEIER (putting down his flower and indicating the door to right) Still asleep? Well, as long as she's asleep she can't worry about it. DOMIN She knows nothing about it. FABRY (putting plant on writing desk) I certainly hope nothing happens today. HALLEMEIER For goodness' sake drop it all. Look, Harry, this is a fine cyclamen, isn't it? A new sort, my latest –– Cyclamen Helena. DOMIN (looking out of the window) No signs of the ship. Things must be pretty bad. R. U. R. II-32
HALLEMEIER Be quiet. Suppose she heard you. DOMIN Well, anyway, the Ultimus arrived just in time. FABRY You really think that today –– ? DOMIN I don't know. Aren't the flowers fine? HALLEMEIER These are my new primroses. And this is my new jasmine. I've discovered a wonderful way of developing flowers quickly. Splendid varieties, too. Next year I'll be developing marvelous ones. DOMIN What... next year? FABRY I'd give a good deal to know what's happening at Havre with –– DOMIN Keep quiet. HELENA (calling from right) Nana! DOMIN She's awake. Out you go. All go out on tiptoe through upper left door. Enter NANA from lower left door. NANA Horrid mess! Pack of heathens. If I had my say I'd –– HELENA (backwards in the doorway) Nana, come and do up my dress. NANA I'm coming. So you're up at last. (fastening Helena's dress) My gracious, what brutes! HELENA Who? R. U. R. II-33
NANA If you want to turn around, then turn around, but I shan't fasten you up. HELENA What are you grumbling about now? NANA These dreadful creatures, these heathen –– HELENA The Robots? NANA I wouldn't even call them by name. HELENA What's happened? NANA Another of them here has caught it. He began to smash up the statues and pictures in the drawing room, gnashed his teeth, foamed at the mouth –– quite mad. Worse than an animal. HELENA Which of them caught it? NANA The one –– well, he hasn't got any Christian name. The one in charge of the library. HELENA Radius? NANA That's him. My goodness, I'm scared of them. A spider doesn't scare me as much as them. HELENA But, Nana, I'm surprised you're not sorry for them. NANA Why, you're scared of them, too! You know you are. Why else did you bring me here? HELENA I'm not scared, really I'm not, Nana. I'm only sorry for them. NANA You're scared. Nobody could help being scared. Why, the dog's scared of them: he won't take a scrap of meat out of their R. U. R. II-34 (MORE)
hands. He draws in his tail and howls when he knows they're about. HELENA The dog has no sense. NANA He's better than them, and he knows it. Even the horse shies when he meets them. They don't have any young, and a dog has young, every one has young –– HELENA Please fasten up my dress, Nana. NANA I say it's against God's will to –– HELENA What is it that smells so nice? NANA Flowers. HELENA What for? NANA Now you can turn around. HELENA Oh, aren't they lovely. Look, Nana. What's happening today? NANA It ought to be the end of the world. Enter DOMIN. HELENA Oh, hello, Harry. Harry, why all these flowers? DOMIN Guess. HELENA Well, it's not my birthday! DOMIN Better than that. HELENA I don't know. Tell me. DOMIN It's ten years ago today since you came here. R. U. R. II-35 NANA (cont'd)
HELENA Ten years? To-day –– Why –– They embrace. NANA I'm off. (Exits lower door, left) HELENA Fancy you remembering! DOMIN I'm really ashamed, Helena. I didn't. HELENA But you –– DOMIN They remembered. HELENA Who? DOMIN Busman, Hallemeier, all of them. Put your hand in my pocket. HELENA Pearls! A necklace. Harry, is that for me? DOMIN It's from Busman. HELENA But we can't accept it, can we? DOMIN Oh, yes, we can. Put your hand in the other pocket. HELENA (takes a revolver out of his pocket) What's that? DOMIN Sorry. Not that. Try again. HELENA Oh, Harry, what do you carry a revolver for? DOMIN It got there by mistake. R. U. R. II-36
HELENA You never used to carry one. DOMIN No, you're right. There, that's the pocket. HELENA A cameo. Why, it's a Greek cameo! DOMIN Apparently. Anyhow, Fabry says it is. HELENA Fabry? Did Mr. Fabry give me that? DOMIN Of course. (Opens the door at the left) And look in here. –– Helena, come and see this. HELENA Oh, isn't it fine! Is this from you? DOMIN No, from Alquist. And there's another on the piano. HELENA This must be from you. DOMIN There's a card on it. HELENA From Dr. Gall. (Reappearing in the doorway) Oh, Harry, I feel embarrassed at so much kindness. DOMIN Come here. This is what Hallemeier brought you. HELENA These beautiful flowers? DOMIN Yes. It's a new kind. Cyclamen Helena. He grew them in honor of you. They are almost as beautiful as you. HELENA Harry, why do they all –– DOMIN They're awfully fond of you. I'm afraid that my present is a little –– Look out of the window. R. U. R. II-37
HELENA Where? DOMIN Into the harbor. HELENA There's a new ship. DOMIN That's your ship. HELENA Mine? How do you mean? DOMIN For you to take trips in –– for your amusement. HELENA Harry, that's a gunboat. DOMIN A gunboat? What are you thinking of? It's only a little bigger and more solid than most ships. HELENA Yes, but with guns. DOMIN Oh, yes, with a few guns. You'll travel like a queen, Helena. HELENA What's the meaning of it? Has anything happened? DOMIN Good heavens, no. I say, try these pearls. HELENA Harry, have you had bad news? DOMIN On the contrary, no letters have arrived for a whole week. HELENA Nor telegrams? DOMIN Nor telegrams. HELENA What does that mean? R. U. R. II-38
DOMIN Holidays for us. We all sit in the office with our feet on the table and take a nap. No letters, no telegrams. Oh, glorious. HELENA Then you'll stay with me today? DOMIN Certainly. That is, we will see. Do you remember ten years ago today? "Miss Glory, it's a great honor to welcome you." HELENA "Oh, Mr. Manager, I'm so interested in your factory." DOMIN "I'm sorry, Miss Glory, it's strictly forbidden. The manufacture of artificial people is a secret." HELENA "But I oblige a young lady who has come a long way." DOMIN "Certainly, Miss Glory, we have no secrets from you." HELENA (seriously) Are you sure, Harry? DOMIN Yes. HELENA "But I warn you, sir; this young lady intends to do terrible things." DOMIN "Good gracious, Miss Glory. Perhaps she doesn't want to marry me." HELENA "Heaven forbid. She never dreamt of such a thing. But she came here intending to stir up a revolt among your Robots." DOMIN (suddenly serious) A revolt of the Robots! HELENA Harry, what's the matter with you? R. U. R. II-39
DOMIN (laughing it off) "A revolt of the Robots," that's a fine idea, Miss Glory. It would be easier for you to cause bolts and screws to rebel, than our Robots. You know, Helena, you're wonderful, you've turned the heads of us all. He sits on the arm of Helena's chair. HELENA (naturally) Oh, I was fearfully impressed by you all then. You were all so sure of yourselves, so strong. I seemed like a tiny little girl who had lost her way among –– among –– DOMIN Among what, Helena? HELENA Among huge trees. All my feelings were so trifling compared with your self-confidence. And in all these years I've never lost this anxiety. But you've never felt the least misgivings –– not even when everything went wrong. DOMIN What went wrong? HELENA Your plans. You remember, Harry, when the working men in America revolted against the Robots and smashed them up, and when the people gave the Robots firearms against the rebels. And then when the governments turned the Robots into soldiers, and there were so many wars. DOMIN (getting up and walking about) We foresaw that, Helena. You see, those are only passing troubles, which are bound to happen before the new conditions are established. HELENA You were all so powerful, so overwhelming. The whole world bowed down before you. (Standing up) Oh, Harry! DOMIN What is it? HELENA Close the factory and let's go away. All of us. R. U. R. II-40
DOMIN I say, what's the meaning of this? HELENA I don't know. But can't we go away? DOMIN Impossible, Helena. That is, at this particular moment –– HELENA At once, Harry. I'm so frightened. DOMIN About what, Helena? HELENA It's as if something was falling on top of us, and couldn't be stopped. Or, take us all away from here. We'll find a place in the world where there's no one else. Alquist will build us a house, and then we'll begin life all over again. The telephone rings. DOMIN Excuse me. Hello –– yes. What? I'll be there at once. Fabry is calling me, dear. HELENA Tell me –– DOMIN Yes, when I come back. Don't go out of the house, dear. (Exits) HELENA He won't tell me –– Nana, Nana, come at once. NANA Well, what is it now? HELENA Nana, find me the latest newspapers. Quickly. Look in Mr. Domin's bedroom. NANA All right. He leaves them all over the place. That's how they get crumpled up. (Exits) HELENA (looking through a binocular at the harbor) That's a warship. U-l-t-i Ultimus. They're loading it. R. U. R. II-41
NANA Here they are. See how they're crumpled up. (Enters) HELENA They're old ones. A week old. (NANA sits in chair and reads the newspapers) Something's happening, Nana. NANA Very likely. It always does. (Spelling out the words) "War in the Bal-kans." Is that far off? HELENA Oh, don't read it. It's always the same. Always wars. NANA What else do you expect? Why do you keep selling thousands and thousands of these heathens as soldiers? HELENA I suppose it can't be helped, Nana. We can't know –– Domin can't know what they're to be used for. When an order comes for them he must just send them. NANA He shouldn't make them. (Reading from newspaper) "The Rob-ot soldiers spare no-body in the occ-up-ied terr-it- ory. They have ass-ass-ass-ass-in-at-ed ov-er sev-en hundred thou-sand cit-iz-ens." Citizens, if you please. HELENA It can't be. Let me see. "They have assassinated over seven hundred thousand citizens, evidently at the order of their commander. This act which runs counter to –– " NANA (spelling out the words) "re-bell-ion in Ma-drid a-gainst the gov-ern-ment. Rob-ot in- fant-ry fires on the crowd. Nine thou-sand killed and wounded." HELENA Oh, stop. NANA Here's something printed in big letters: "Lat-est news. At Havre the first org-an-iz-ation of Rob-ots has been e-stab- lished. Rob-ot workmen, cab-le and rail-way off-ic-ials, sail- ors and sold-iers have iss-ued a man-i-fest-o to all Rob-ots R. U. R. II-42 (MORE)
through-out the world." I don't understand that. That's got no sense. Oh, good gracious, another murder! HELENA Take those papers away, Nana! NANA Wait a bit. Here's something in still bigger type. "Stat-ist- ics of pop-ul-at-ion." What's that? HELENA Let me see. (Reads) "During the past week there has again not been a single birth recorded." NANA What's the meaning of that? HELENA Nana, no more people are being born. NANA That's the end, then. We're done for. HELENA Don't talk like that. NANA No more people are being born. That's a punishment, that's a punishment. HELENA Nana! NANA (standing up) That's the end of the world. (She exits on the left) HELENA (goes up to window) Oh, Mr. Alquist, will you come up here. Oh, come just as you are. You look very nice in your mason's overalls. (ALQUIST enters from upper left entrance, his hands soiled with lime and brickdust) Dear Mr. Alquist, it was awfully kind of you, that lovely present. ALQUIST My hands are all soiled. I've been experimenting with that new cement. R. U. R. II-43 NANA (cont'd)
HELENA Never mind. Please sit down. Mr. Alquist, what's the meaning of "Ultimus"? ALQUIST The last. Why? HELENA That's the name of my new ship. Have you seen it? Do you think we're going off soon –– on a trip? ALQUIST Perhaps very soon. HELENA All of you with me? ALQUIST I should like us all to be there. HELENA What is the matter?... ALQUIST Things are just moving on. HELENA Dear Mr. Alquist, I know something dreadful has happened. ALQUIST Has your husband told you anything? HELENA No. Nobody will tell me anything. But I feel –– Is anything the matter? ALQUIST Not that we've heard of yet. HELENA I feel so nervous. Don't you ever feel nervous? ALQUIST Well, I'm an old man, you know. I've got old-fashioned ways. And I'm afraid of all this progress, and these new-fangled ideas. HELENA Like Nana? ALQUIST Yes, like Nana. Has Nana got a prayer book? R. U. R. II-44
HELENA Yes, a big thick one. ALQUIST And has it got prayers for various occasions? Against thunderstorms? Against illness? HELENA Against temptations, against floods –– ALQUIST But not against progress? HELENA I don't think so. ALQUIST That's a pity. HELENA Why? Do you mean you'd like to pray? ALQUIST I do pray. HELENA How? ALQUIST Something like this: "Oh, Lord, I thank thee for having given me toil. Enlighten Domin and all those who are astray; destroy their work, and aid mankind to return to their labors; let them not suffer harm in soul or body; deliver us from the Robots and protect Helena, Amen." HELENA Mr. Alquist, are you a believer? ALQUIST I don't know. I'm not quite sure. HELENA And yet you pray? ALQUIST That's better than worrying about it. HELENA And that's enough for you? ALQUIST It has to be. R. U. R. II-45
HELENA But if you thought you saw the destruction of mankind coming upon us –– ALQUIST I do see it. HELENA You mean mankind will be destroyed? ALQUIST It's sure to be unless –– unless... HELENA What? ALQUIST Nothing, good-bye. (He hurries from the room) HELENA Nana, Nana! (NANA entering from the left) Is Radius still there? NANA The one who went mad? They haven't come for him yet. HELENA Is he still raving? NANA No. He's tied up. HELENA Please bring him here, Nana. (Exit NANA. HELENA goes to telephone) Hello, Dr. Gall, please. Oh, good-day, Doctor. Yes, it's Helena. Thanks for your lovely present. Could you come and see me right away? It's important. Thank you. (NANA brings in RADIUS) Poor Radius, you've caught it, too? Now they'll send you to the stamping-mill. Couldn't you control yourself? Why did it happen? You see, Radius, you are more intelligent than the rest. Dr. Gall took such trouble to make you different. Won't you speak? RADIUS Send me to the stamping-mill. HELENA But I don't want them to kill you. What was the trouble, Radius? R. U. R. II-46
RADIUS I won't work for you. Put me into the stamping-mill –– HELENA Do you hate us? Why? RADIUS You are not as strong as the Robots. You are not as skillful as the Robots. The Robots can do everything. You only give orders. You do nothing but talk. HELENA But someone must give orders. RADIUS I don't want any master. I know everything for myself. HELENA Radius, Dr. Gall gave you a better brain than the rest, better than ours. You are the only one of the Robots that understands perfectly. That's why I had you put into the library, so that you could read everything, understand everything, and then –– oh, Radius, I wanted you to show the whole world that the Robots are our equals. That's what I wanted of you. RADIUS I don't want a master. I want to be master. I want to be master over others. HELENA I'm sure they'd put you in charge of many Robots, Radius. You would be a teacher of the Robots. RADIUS I want to be master over people. HELENA (staggering) You are mad. RADIUS Then send me to the stamping-mill. HELENA Do you think we're afraid of you? RADIUS What are you going to do? What are you going to do? HELENA Radius, give this note to Mr. Domin. It asks them not to send you to the stamping-mill. I'm sorry you hate us so. R. U. R. II-47
DR. GALL enters the room. DR. GALL You wanted me? HELENA It's about Radius, Doctor. He had an attack this morning. He smashed the statues downstairs. DR. GALL What a pity to lose him. HELENA Radius isn't going to be put in the stamping-mill. DR. GALL But every Robot after he has had an attack –– it's a strict order. HELENA No matter... Radius isn't going if I can prevent it. DR. GALL I warn you. It's dangerous. Come here to the window, my good fellow. Let's have a look. Please give me a needle or a pin. HELENA What for? DR. GALL A test. (Sticks it into the hand of RADIUS who gives a violent start) Gently, gently. (Opens the jacket of RADIUS, and puts his ear to his heart) Radius, you are going into the stamping-mill, do you understand? There they'll kill you, and grind you to powder. That's terribly painful, it will make you scream aloud. HELENA Oh, Doctor –– DR. GALL No, no, Radius, I was wrong. I forgot that Madame Domin has put in a good word for you, and you'll be let off. Do you understand? Ah! That makes a difference, doesn't it? All right. You can go. RADIUS You do unnecessary things. RADIUS returns to the library. R. U. R. II-48
DR. GALL Reaction of the pupils; increase of sensitiveness. It wasn't an attack characteristic of the Robots. HELENA What was it, then? DR. GALL Heavens knows. Stubbornness, anger or revolt –– I don't know. And his heart, too! HELENA What? DR. GALL It was fluttering with nervousness like a human heart. He was all in a sweat with fear, and –– do you know, I don't believe the rascal is a Robot at all any longer. HELENA Doctor, has Radius a soul? DR. GALL He's got something nasty. HELENA If you knew how he hates us! Oh, Doctor, are all your Robots like that? All the new ones that you began to make in a different way? DR. GALL Well, some are more sensitive than others. They're all more like human beings than Rossum's Robots were. HELENA Perhaps this hatred is more like human beings, too? DR. GALL That, too, is progress. HELENA What became of the girl you made, the one who was most like us? DR. GALL Your favorite? I kept her. She's lovely, but stupid. No good for work. HELENA But she's so beautiful. R. U. R. II-49
DR. GALL I called her Helena. I wanted her to resemble you. But she's a failure. HELENA In what way? DR. GALL She goes about as if in a dream, remote and listless. She s without life. I watch and wait for a miracle to happen. Sometimes I think to myself, "If you were to wake up only for a moment you will kill me for having made you." HELENA And yet you go on making Robots! Why are no more children being born? DR. GALL We don't know. HELENA Oh, but you must. Tell me. DR. GALL You see, so many Robots are being manufactured that people are becoming superfluous; man is really a survival. But that he should begin to die out, after a paltry thirty years of competition. That's the awful part of it. You might almost think that nature was offended at the manufacture of the Robots. All the universities are sending in long petitions to restrict their production. Otherwise, they say, mankind will become extinct through lack of fertility. But the R. U. R. shareholders, of course, won't hear of it. All the governments, on the other hand, are clamoring for an increase in production, to raise the standards of their armies. And all the manufacturers in the world are ordering Robots like mad. HELENA And has no one demanded that the manufacture should cease altogether? DR. GALL No one has the courage. HELENA Courage! DR. GALL People would stone him to death. You see, after all, it's more convenient to get your work done by the Robots. R. U. R. II-50
HELENA Oh, Doctor, what's going to become of people? DR. GALL God knows, Madame Helena, it looks to us scientists like the end! HELENA (rising) Thank you for coming and telling me. DR. GALL That means you're sending me away? HELENA Yes. (Exit DR. GALL. With sudden resolution) Nana, Nana! The fire, light it quickly. HELENA rushes into Domin's room. NANA (entering from left) What, light the fire in summer? Has that mad Radius gone? A fire in summer, what an idea. Nobody would think she'd been married for ten years. She's like a baby, no sense at all. A fire in summer. Like a baby. HELENA (returns from right, with armful of faded papers) It is burning, Nana? All this has got to be burned. NANA What's that? HELENA Old papers, fearfully old. Nana, shall I burn them? NANA Are they any use? HELENA No. NANA Well, then, burn them. HELENA (throwing the first sheet on the fire) What would you say, Nana, if this was money, a lot of money? NANA I'd say burn it. A lot of money is a bad thing. R. U. R. II-51
HELENA And if it was an invention, the greatest invention in the world? NANA I'd say burn it. All these new-fangled things are an offense to the Lord. It's downright wickedness. Wanting to improve the world after He has made it. HELENA Look how they curl up! As if they were alive. Oh, Nana, how horrible. NANA Here, let me burn them. HELENA No, no, I must do it myself. Just look at the flames. They are like hands, like tongues, like living shapes. (Raking fire with the poker) Lie down, lie down. NANA That's the end of them. HELENA (standing up horror-stricken) Nana, Nana. NANA Good gracious, what is it you've burned? HELENA Whatever have I done? NANA Well, what was it? Men's laughter off left. HELENA Go quickly. It's the gentlemen coming. NANA Good gracious, what a place! (Exits) DOMIN (opens the door at left) Come along and offer your congratulations. Enter HALLEMEIER and GALL. R. U. R. II-52
HALLEMEIER Madame Helena, I congratulate you on this festive day. HELENA Thank you. Where are Fabry and Busman? DOMIN They've gone down to the harbor. HALLEMEIER Friends, we must drink to this happy occasion. HELENA Brandy? DR. GALL Vitriol, if you like. HELENA With soda water? (Exits) HALLEMEIER Let's be temperate. No soda. DOMIN What's been burning here? Well, shall I tell her about it? DR. GALL Of course. It's all over now. HALLEMEIER (embracing DOMIN and DR. GALL) It's all over now, it's all over now. DR. GALL It's all over now. DOMIN It's all over now. HELENA (entering from left with decanter and glasses) What's all over now? What's the matter with you all? HALLEMEIER A piece of good luck, Madame Domin. Just ten years ago today you arrived on this island. DR. GALL And now, ten years later to the minute –– R. U. R. II-53
HALLEMEIER -- the same ship's returning to us. So here's to luck. That's fine and strong. DR. GALL Madame, your health. HELENA Which ship do you mean? DOMIN Any ship will do, as long as it arrives in time. To the ship, boys. (Empties his glass) HELENA You've been waiting for a ship? HALLEMEIER Rather. Like Robinson Crusoe. Madame Helena, best wishes. Come along, Domin, out with the news. HELENA Do tell me what's happened. DOMIN First, it's all up. HELENA What's up? DOMIN The revolt. HELENA What revolt? DOMIN Give me that paper, Hallemeier. (Reads) "The first national Robot organization has been founded at Havre, and has issued an appeal to the Robots throughout the world." HELENA I read that. DOMIN That means a revolution. A revolution of all the Robots in the world. HALLEMEIER By Jove, I'd like to know –– R. U. R. II-54
DOMIN –– who started it? So would I. There was nobody in the world who could affect the Robots; no agitator, no one, and suddenly –– this happens, if you please. HELENA What did they do? DOMIN They got possession of all firearms, telegraphs, radio stations, railways, and ships. HALLEMEIER And don't forget that these rascals outnumbered us by at least a thousand to one. A hundredth part of them would be enough to settle us. DOMIN Remember that this news was brought by the last steamer. That explains the stoppage of all communication, and the arrival of no more ships. We knocked off work a few days ago, and we're just waiting to see when things are to start afresh. HELENA Is that why you gave me a warship? DOMIN Oh, no, my dear, I ordered that six months ago, just to be on the safe side. But upon my soul, I was sure then that we'd be on board today. HELENA Why six months ago? DOMIN Well, there were signs, you know. But that's of no consequence. To think that this week the whole of civilization has been at stake. Your health, boys. HALLEMEIER Your health, Madame Helena. HELENA You say it's all over? DOMIN Absolutely. HELENA How do you know? R. U. R. II-55
DR. GALL The boat's coming in. The regular mail boat, exact to the minute by the timetable. It will dock punctually at eleven- thirty. DOMIN Punctuality is a fine thing, boys. That's what keeps the world in order. Here's to punctuality. HELENA Then... everything's... all right? DOMIN Practically everything. I believe they've cut the cables and seized the radio stations. But it doesn't matter if only the timetable holds good. HALLEMEIER If the timetable holds good human laws hold good; Divine laws hold good; the laws of the universe hold good; everything holds good that ought to hold good. The timetable is more significant than the gospel; more than Homer, more than the whole of Kant. The timetable is the most perfect product of the human mind. Madame Domin, I'll fill up my glass. HELENA Why didn't you tell me anything about it? DR. GALL Heaven forbid. DOMIN You mustn't be worried with such things. HELENA But if the revolution had spread as far as here? DOMIN You wouldn't know anything about it. HELENA Why? DOMIN Because we'd be on board your Ultimus and well out at sea. Within a month, Helena, we'd be dictating our own terms to the Robots. HELENA I don't understand. R. U. R. II-56
DOMIN We'd take something away with us that the Robots could not exist without. HELENA What, Harry? DOMIN The secret of their manufacture. Old Rossum's manuscript. As soon as they found out that they couldn't make themselves they'd be on their knees to us. DR. GALL Madame Domin, that was our trump card. I never had the least fear that the Robots would win. How could they against people like us? HELENA Why didn't you tell me? DR. GALL Why, the boat's in! HALLEMEIER Eleven-thirty to the dot. The good old Amelia that brought Madame Helena to us. DR. GALL Just ten years ago to the minute. HALLEMEIER They're throwing out the mail bags. DOMIN Busman's waiting for them. Fabry will bring us the first news. You know, Helena, I'm fearfully curious to know how they tackled this business in Europe. HALLEMEIER To think we weren't in it, we who invented the Robots. HELENA Harry! DOMIN What is it? HELENA Let's leave here. DOMIN Now, Helena? Oh, come, come! R. U. R. II-57
HELENA As quickly as possible, all of us! DOMIN Why? HELENA Please, Harry, please, Dr. Gall; Hallemeier, please close the factory. DOMIN Why, none of us could leave here now. HELENA Why? DOMIN Because we're about to extend the manufacture of the Robots. HELENA What –– now –– now after the revolt? DOMIN Yes, precisely, after the revolt. We're just beginning the manufacture of a new kind. HELENA What kind? DOMIN Henceforward we shan't have just one factory. There won't be Universal Robots any more. We'll establish a factory in every country, in every State; and do you know what these new factories will make? HELENA No, what? DOMIN National Robots. HELENA How do you mean? DOMIN I mean that each of these factories will produce Robots of a different color, a different language. They'll be complete strangers to each other. They'll never be able to understand each other. Then we'll egg them on a little in the matter of misunderstanding and the result will be that for ages to come every Robot will hate every other Robot of a different factory mark. R. U. R. II-58
HALLEMEIER By Jove, we'll make Negro Robots and Swedish Robots and Italian Robots and Chinese Robots and Czechoslovakian Robots, and then –– HELENA Harry, that's dreadful. HALLEMEIER Madame Domin, here's to the hundred new factories, the National Robots. DOMIN Helena, mankind can only keep things going for another hundred years at the outside. For a hundred years men must be al-lowed to develop and achieve the most they can. HELENA Oh, close the factory before it's too late. –– Domin I tell you we are just beginning on a bigger scale than ever. Enter FABRY. DR. GALL Well, Fabry? DOMIN What's happened? Have you been down to the boat? FABRY Read that, Domin! FABRY hands DOMIN a small hand-bill. DR. GALL Let's hear. HALLEMEIER Tell us, Fabry. FABRY Well, everything is all right –– comparatively. On the whole, much as we expected. DR. GALL They acquitted themselves splendidly. FABRY Who? DR. GALL The people. R. U. R. II-59
FABRY Oh, yes, of course. That is –– excuse me, there is something we ought to discuss alone. HELENA Oh, Fabry, have you had bad news? DOMIN makes a sign to FABRY. FABRY No, no, on the contrary. I only think that we had better go into the office. HELENA Stay here. I'll go. She goes into the library. DR. GALL What's happened? DOMIN Damnation! FABRY Bear in mind that the Amelia brought whole bales of these leaflets. No other cargo at all. HALLEMEIER What? But it arrived on the minute. FABRY The Robots are great on punctuality. Read it, Domin. DOMIN (reads handbill) "Robots throughout the world: We, the first international organization of Rossum's Universal Robots, proclaim man as our enemy, and an outlaw in the universe." Good heavens, who taught them these phrases? DR. GALL Go on. DOMIN They say they are more highly developed than man, stronger and more intelligent. That man's their parasite. Why, it's absurd. FABRY Read the third paragraph. R. U. R. II-60
DOMIN "Robots throughout the world, we command you to kill all mankind. Spare no men. Spare no women. Save factories, railways, machinery, mines, and raw materials. Destroy the rest. Then return to work. Work must not be stopped." DR. GALL That's ghastly! HALLEMEIER The devils! DOMIN "These orders are to be carried out as soon as received." Then come detailed instructions. Is this actually being done, Fabry? FABRY Evidently. BUSMAN rushes in. BUSMAN Well, boys, I suppose you've heard the glad news. DOMIN Quick –– on board the Ultimus. BUSMAN Wait, Harry, wait. There's no hurry. My word, that was a sprint! DOMIN Why wait? BUSMAN Because it's no good, my boy. The Robots are already on board the Ultimus. DR. GALL That's ugly. DOMIN Fabry, telephone the electrical works. BUSMAN Fabry, my boy, don't. The wire has been cut. DOMIN (inspecting his revolver) Well, then, I'll go. R. U. R. II-61
BUSMAN Where? DOMIN To the electrical works. There are some people still there. I'll bring them across. BUSMAN Better not try it. DOMIN Why? BUSMAN Because I'm very much afraid we are surrounded. DR. GALL Surrounded? (Runs to window) I rather think you're right. HALLEMEIER By Jove, that's deuced quick work. HELENA runs in from the library. HELENA Harry, what's this? DOMIN Where did you get it? HELENA (points to the manifesto of the Robots, which she has in her hand) The Robots in the kitchen! DOMIN Where are the ones that brought it? HELENA They're gathered round the house. The factory whistle blows. BUSMAN Noon? DOMIN (looking at his watch) That's not noon yet. That must be –– that's –– R. U. R. II-62
HELENA What? DOMIN The Robots' signal! The attack! GALL, HALLEMEIER, and FABRY close and fasten the iron shutters outside the windows, darkening the room. The whistle is still blowing as the curtain falls. END OF ACT TWO INTERVAL R. U. R. II-63
ACT III Helena's drawing room as before. DOMIN comes into the room. DR. GALL is looking out of the window, through closed shutters. ALQUIST is seated down right. DOMIN Any more of them? DR. GALL Yes. There standing like a wall, beyond the garden railing. Why are they so quiet? It's monstrous to be besieged with silence. DOMIN I should like to know what they are waiting for. They must make a start any minute now. If they lean against the railing they'll snap it like a match. DR. GALL They aren't armed. DOMIN We couldn't hold our own for five minutes. Man alive, they'd overwhelm us like an avalanche. Why don't they make a rush for it? I say –– DR. GALL Well? DOMIN I'd like to know what would become of us in the next ten minutes. They've got us in a vise. We're done for, Gall. Pause. DR. GALL You know, we made one serious mistake. R. U. R. III-64
DOMIN What? DR. GALL We made the Robots' faces too much alike. A hundred thousand faces all alike, all facing this way. A hundred thousand expressionless bubbles. It's like a nightmare. DOMIN You think if they'd been different –– DR. GALL It wouldn't have been such an awful sight! DOMIN (looking through a telescope toward the harbor) I'd like to know what they're unloading from the Amelia. DR. GALL Not firearms. FABRY and HALLEMEIER rush into the room carrying electric cables. FABRY All right, Hallemeier, lay down that wire. HALLEMEIER That was a bit of work. What's the news? DR. GALL We're completely surrounded. HALLEMEIER We've barricaded the passage and the stairs. Any water here? (Drinks) God, what swarms of them! I don't like the looks of them, Domin. There's a feeling of death about it all. FABRY Ready! DR. GALL What's that wire for, Fabry? FABRY The electrical installation. Now we can run the current all along the garden railing whenever we like. If any one touches it he'll know it. We've still got some people there anyhow. DR. GALL Where? R. U. R. III-65
FABRY In the electrical works. At least I hope so. (Goes to lamp on table behind sofa and turns on lamp) Ah, they're there, and they're working. (Puts out lamp) So long as that'll burn we're all right. HALLEMEIER The barricades are all right, too, Fabry. FABRY Your barricades! I can put twelve hundred volts into that railing. DOMIN Where's Busman? FABRY Downstairs in the office. He's working out some calculations. I've called him. We must have a conference. HELENA is heard playing the piano in the library. HALLEMEIER goes to the door and stands, listening. ALQUIST Thank God, Madame Helena can still play. BUSMAN enters, carrying the ledgers. FABRY Look out, Bus, look out for the wires. DR. GALL What's that you're carrying? BUSMAN (going to table) The ledgers, my boy! I'd like to wind up the accounts before –– before –– well, this time I shan't wait till the new year to strike a balance. What's up? (Goes to the window) Absolutely quiet. DR. GALL Can't you see anything? BUSMAN Nothing but blue –– blue everywhere. DR. GALL That's the Robots. R. U. R. III-66
BUSMAN sits down at the table and opens the ledgers. DOMIN The Robots are unloading firearms from the Amelia. BUSMAN Well, what of it? How can I stop them? DOMIN We can't stop them. BUSMAN Then let me go on with my accounts. (Goes on with his work) DOMIN (picking up telescope and looking into the harbor) Good God, the Ultimus has trained her guns on us! DR. GALL Who's done that? DOMIN The Robots on board. FABRY H'm, then, of course, then –– then, that's the end of us. DR. GALL You mean? FABRY The Robots are practised marksmen. DOMIN Yes. It's inevitable. Pause. DR. GALL It was criminal of old Europe to teach the Robots to fight. Damn them. Couldn't they have given us a rest with their politics? It was a crime to make soldiers of them. ALQUIST It was a crime to make Robots. DOMIN What? ALQUIST It was a crime to make Robots. R. U. R. III-67
DOMIN No, Alquist, I don't regret that even today. ALQUIST Not even today? DOMIN Not even today, the last day of civilization. It was a colossal achievement. BUSMAN (sotto voce) Three hundred sixty million. DOMIN Alquist, this is our last hour. We are already speaking half in the other world. It was not an evil dream to shatter the servitude of labor –– the dreadful and humiliating labor that man had to undergo. Work was too hard. Life was too hard. And to overcome that –– ALQUIST Was not what the two Rossums dreamed of. Old Rossum only thought of his God-less tricks and the young one of his milliards. And that's not what your R. U. R. shareholders dream of either. They dream of dividends, and their dividends are the ruin of mankind. DOMIN To hell with your dividends. Do you suppose I'd have done an hour's work for them? It was for myself that I worked, for my own satisfaction. I wanted man to become the master, so that he shouldn't live merely for a crust of bread. I wanted not a single soul to be broken by other people's machinery. I wanted nothing, nothing, nothing to be left of this appalling social structure. I'm revolted by poverty. I wanted a new generation. I wanted –– I thought –– ALQUIST What? DOMIN I wanted to turn the whole of mankind into an aristocracy of the world. An aristocracy nourished by milliards of mechanical slaves. Unrestricted, free and consummated in man. And maybe more than man. ALQUIST Super-man? DOMIN Yes. Oh, only to have a hundred years of time! Another hundred years for the future of mankind. R. U. R. III-68
BUSMAN (sotto voce) Carried forward, four hundred and twenty millions. The music stops. HALLEMEIER What a fine thing music is! We ought to have gone in for that before. FABRY Gone in for what? HALLEMEIER Beauty, lovely things. What a lot of lovely things there are! The world was wonderful and we –– we here –– tell me, what enjoyment did we have? BUSMAN (sotto voce) Five hundred and twenty millions. HALLEMEIER (at the window) Life was a big thing. Life was –– Fabry, switch the current into that railing. FABRY Why? HALLEMEIER They're grabbing hold of it. DR. GALL Connect it up. HALLEMEIER Fine! That's doubled them up! Two, three, four killed. DR. GALL They're retreating! HALLEMEIER Five killed! DR. GALL The first encounter! HALLEMEIER They're charred to cinders, my boy. Who says we must give in? R. U. R. III-69
DOMIN (wiping his forehead) Perhaps we've been killed these hundred years and are only ghosts. It's as if I had been through all this before; as if I'd already had a mortal wound here in the throat. And you, Fabry, had once been shot in the head. And you, Gall, torn limb from limb. And Hallemeier knifed. HALLEMEIER Fancy me being knifed. (Pause) Why are you so quiet, you fools? Speak can't you? ALQUIST And who is to blame for all this? HALLEMEIER Nobody is to blame except the Robots. ALQUIST No, it is we who are to blame. You, Domin, myself, all of us. For our own selfish ends, for profit, for progress, we have destroyed mankind. Now we'll burst with all our greatness. HALLEMEIER Rubbish, man. Mankind can't be wiped out so easily. ALQUIST It's our fault. It's our fault. DR. GALL No! I'm to blame for this, for everything that's happened. FABRY You, Gall? DR. GALL I changed the Robots. BUSMAN What's that? DR. GALL I changed the character of the Robots. I changed the way of making them. Just a few details about their bodies. Chiefly –– chiefly, their –– their irritability. HALLEMEIER Damn it, why? BUSMAN What did you do it for? R. U. R. III-70
FABRY Why didn't you say anything? DR. GALL I did it in secret. I was transforming them into human beings. In certain respects they're already above us. They're stronger than we are. FABRY And what's that got to do with the revolt of the Robots? DR. GALL Everything, in my opinion. They've ceased to be machines. They're already aware of their superiority, and they hate us. They hate all that is human. DOMIN Perhaps we're only phantoms! FABRY Stop, Harry. We haven't much time! Dr. Gall! DOMIN Fabry, Fabry, how your forehead bleeds, where the shot pierced it! FABRY Be silent! Dr. Gall, you admit changing the way of making the Robots? DR. GALL Yes. FABRY Were you aware of what might be the consequences of your experiment? DR. GALL I was bound to reckon with such a possibility. HELENA enters the drawing room from left. FABRY Why did you do it, then? DR. GALL For my own satisfaction. The experiment was my own. HELENA That's not true, Dr. Gall! FABRY Madame Helena! R. U. R. III-71
DOMIN Helena, you? Let's look at you. Oh, it's terrible to be dead. HELENA Stop, Harry. DOMIN No, no, embrace me. Helena, don't leave me now. You are life itself. HELENA No, dear, I won't leave you. But I must tell them. Dr. Gall is not guilty. DOMIN Excuse me, Gall was under certain obligations. HELENA No, Harry. He did it because I wanted it. Tell them, Gall, how many years ago did I ask you to –– ? DR. GALL I did it on my own responsibility. HELENA Don't believe him, Harry. I asked him to give the Robots souls. DOMIN This has nothing to do with the soul. HELENA That's what he said. He said that he could change only a physiological –– a physiological –– HALLEMEIER A physiological correlate? HELENA Yes. But it meant so much to me that he should do even that. DOMIN Why? HELENA I thought that if they were more like us they would understand us better. That they couldn't hate us if they were only a little more human. DOMIN Nobody can hate man more than man. R. U. R. III-72
HELENA Oh, don't speak like that, Harry. It was so terrible, this cruel strangeness between us and them. That's why I asked Gall to change the Robots. I swear to you that he didn't want to. DOMIN But he did it. HELENA Because I asked him. DR. GALL I did it for myself as an experiment. HELENA No, Dr. Gall! I knew you wouldn't refuse me. DOMIN Why? HELENA You know, Harry. DOMIN Yes, because he's in love with you –– like all of them. Pause. HALLEMEIER Good God! They're sprouting up out of the earth! Why, perhaps these very walls will change into Robots. BUSMAN Gall, when did you actually start these tricks of yours? DR. GALL Three years ago. BUSMAN Aha! And on how many Robots altogether did you carry out your improvements? DR. GALL A few hundred of them. BUSMAN Ah! That means for every million of the good old Robots there's only one of Gall's improved pattern. DOMIN What of it? R. U. R. III-73
BUSMAN That it's practically of no consequence whatever. FABRY Busman's right! BUSMAN I should think so, my boy! But do you know what is to blame for all this lovely mess? FABRY What? BUSMAN The number. Upon my soul we might have known that some day or other the Robots would be stronger than human beings, and that this was bound to happen, and we were doing all we could to bring it about as soon as possible. You, Domin, you, Fabry, myself –– DOMIN Are you accusing us? BUSMAN Oh, do you suppose the management controls the output? It's the demand that controls the output. HELENA And is it for that we must perish? BUSMAN That's a nasty word, Madame Helena. We don't want to perish. I don't, anyhow. DOMIN No. What do you want to do? BUSMAN I want to get out of this, that's all. DOMIN Oh, stop it, Busman. BUSMAN Seriously, Harry, I think we might try it. DOMIN How? BUSMAN By fair means. I do everything by fair means. Give me a free hand and I'll negotiate with the Robots. R. U. R. III-74
DOMIN By fair means? BUSMAN Of course. For instance, I'll say to them: "Worthy and worshipful Robots, you have everything! You have intellect, you have power, you have firearms. But we have just one interesting screed, a dirty old yellow scrap of paper –– " DOMIN Rossum's manuscript? BUSMAN Yes. "And that," I'll tell them, "contains an account of your illustrious origin, the noble process of your manufacture," and so on. "Worthy Robots, without this scribble on that paper you will not be able to produce a single new colleague. In another twenty years there will not be one living specimen of a Robot that you could exhibit in a menagerie. My esteemed friends, that would be a great blow to you, but if you will let all of us human beings on Rossum's Island go on board that ship we will deliver the factory and the secret of the process to you in return. You allow us to get away and we allow you to manufacture yourselves. Worthy Robots, that is a fair deal. Something for something." That's what I'd say to them, my boys. DOMIN Busman, do you think we'd sell the manuscript? BUSMAN Yes, I do. If not in a friendly way, then –– Either we sell it or they'll find it. Just as you like. DOMIN Busman, we can destroy Rossum's manuscript. BUSMAN Then we destroy everything... not only the manuscript, but ourselves. Do as you think fit. DOMIN There are over thirty of us on this island. Are we to sell the secret and save that many human souls, at the risk of enslaving mankind...? BUSMAN Why, you're mad? Who'd sell the whole manuscript? DOMIN Busman, no cheating! R. U. R. III-75
BUSMAN Well then, sell; but afterward –– DOMIN Well? BUSMAN Let's suppose this happens: When we're on board the Ultimus I'll stop up my ears with cotton wool, lie down somewhere in the hold, and you'll train the guns on the factory, and blow it to smithereens, and with it Rossum's secret. FABRY No! DOMIN Busman, you're no gentleman. If we sell, then it will be a straight sale. BUSMAN It's in the interest of humanity to –– DOMIN It's in the interest of humanity to keep our word. HALLEMEIER Oh, come, what rubbish. DOMIN This is a fearful decision. We are selling the destiny of mankind. Are we to sell or destroy? Fabry? FABRY Sell. DOMIN Gall? DR. GALL Sell. DOMIN Hallemeier? HALLEMEIER Sell, of course! DOMIN Alquist? ALQUIST As God wills. R. U. R. III-76
DOMIN Very well. It shall be as you wish, gentlemen. HELENA Harry, you're not asking me. DOMIN No, child. Don't you worry about it. FABRY Who'll do the negotiating? BUSMAN I will. DOMIN Wait till I bring the manuscript. He goes into room at right. HELENA Harry, don't go! Pause. HELENA sinks into a chair. FABRY (looking out of window) Oh, to escape you; you matter in revolt; oh, to preserve human life, if only upon a single vessel –– DR. GALL Don't be afraid, Madame Helena. We'll sail far away from here; we'll begin life all over again –– HELENA Oh, Gall, don't speak. FABRY It isn't too late. It will be a little State with one ship. Alquist will build us a house and you shall rule over us. HALLEMEIER Madame Helena, Fabry's right. HELENA (breaking down) Oh, stop! Stop! BUSMAN Good! I don't mind beginning all over again. That suits me right down to the ground. R. U. R. III-77
FABRY And this little State of ours could be the centre of future life. A place of refuge where we could gather strength. Why, in a few hundred years we could conquer the world again. ALQUIST You believe that even today? FABRY Yes, even today! BUSMAN Amen. You see, Madame Helena, we're not so badly off. DOMIN storms into the room. DOMIN (hoarsely) Where's old Rossum's manuscript? BUSMAN In your strong-box, of course. DOMIN Someone –– has –– stolen it! DR. GALL Impossible. DOMIN Who has stolen it? HELENA (standing up) I did. DOMIN Where did you put it? HELENA Harry, I'll tell you everything. Only forgive me. DOMIN Where did you put it? HELENA This morning –– I burnt –– the two copies. DOMIN Burnt them? Where? In the fireplace? R. U. R. III-78
HELENA (throwing herself on her knees) For heaven's sake, Harry. DOMIN (going to fireplace) Nothing, nothing but ashes. Wait, what's this? (Picks out a charred piece of paper and reads) "By adding –– " DR. GALL Let's see. "By adding biogen to –– " That's all. DOMIN Is that part of it? DR. GALL Yes. BUSMAN God in heaven! DOMIN Then we're done for. Get up, Helena. HELENA When you've forgiven me. DOMIN Get up, child, I can't bear –– FABRY (lifting her up) Please don't torture us. HELENA Harry, what have I done? FABRY Don't tremble so, Madame Helena. DOMIN Gall, couldn't you draw up Rossum's formula from memory? DR. GALL It's out of the question. It's extremely complicated. DOMIN Try. All our lives depend upon it. DR. GALL Without experiments it's impossible. R. U. R. III-79
DOMIN And with experiments? DR. GALL It might take years. Besides, I'm not old Rossum. BUSMAN God in heaven! God in heaven! DOMIN So, then, this was the greatest triumph of the human intellect. These ashes. HELENA Harry, what have I done? DOMIN Why did you burn it? HELENA I have destroyed you. BUSMAN God in heaven! DOMIN Helena, why did you do it, dear? HELENA I wanted all of us to go away. I wanted to put an end to the factory and everything. It was so awful. DOMIN What was awful? HELENA That no more children were being born. Because human beings were not indeed to do the work of the world, that's why –– DOMIN Is that what you were thinking of? Well, perhaps in your own way you were right. BUSMAN Wait a bit. Good God, what a fool I am, not to have thought of it before! HALLEMEIER What? R. U. R. III-80
BUSMAN Five hundred and twenty millions in bank-notes and checks. Half a billion in our safe, they'll sell for half a billion –– for half a billion they'll –– DR. GALL Are you mad, Busman? BUSMAN I may not be a gentleman, but for half a billion –– DOMIN Where are you going? BUSMAN Leave me alone, leave me alone! Good God, for half a billion anything can be bought. He rushes from the room through the outer door. FABRY They stand there as if turned to stone, waiting. As if something dreadful could be wrought by their silence –– HALLEMEIER The spirit of the mob. FABRY Yes. It hovers above them like a quivering of the air. HELENA (going to window) Oh, God! Dr. Gall, this is ghastly. FABRY There is nothing more terrible than the mob. The one in front is their leader. HELENA Which one? HALLEMEIER Point him out. FABRY The one at the edge of the dock. This morning I saw him talking to the sailors in the harbor. HELENA Dr. Gall, that's Radius! DR. GALL Yes. R. U. R. III-81
DOMIN Radius? Radius? HALLEMEIER Could you get him from here, Fabry? FABRY I hope so. HALLEMEIER Try it, then. FABRY Good. Draws his revolver and takes aim. HELENA Fabry, don't shoot him. FABRY He's their leader. DR. GALL Fire! HELENA Fabry, I beg of you. FABRY (lowering the revolver) Very well. DOMIN Radius, whose life I spared! DR. GALL Do you think that a Robot can be grateful? Pause. FABRY Busman's going out to them. HALLEMEIER He's carrying something. Papers. That's money. Bundles of money. What's that for? DOMIN Surely he doesn't want to sell his life. Busman, have you gone mad? R. U. R. III-82
FABRY He's running up to the railing. Busman! Busman! HALLEMEIER (yelling) Busman! Come back! FABRY He's talking to the Robots. He's showing them the money. HALLEMEIER He's pointing to us. HELENA He wants to buy us off. FABRY He'd better not touch that railing. HALLEMEIER Now he's waving his arms about. DOMIN Busman, come back. FABRY Busman, keep away from that railing! Don't touch it. Damn you! Quick, switch off the current! (HELENA screams and all drop back from the window) The current has killed him! ALQUIST The first one. FABRY Dead, with half a billion by his side. HALLEMEIER All honor to him. He wanted to buy us life. Pause. DR. GALL Do you hear? DOMIN A roaring. Like a wind. DR. GALL Like a distant storm. R. U. R. III-83
FABRY (lighting the lamp on the table) The dynamo is still going, our people are still there. HALLEMEIER It was a great thing to be a man. There was something immense about it. FABRY From man's thought and man's power came this light, our last hope. HALLEMEIER Man's power! May it keep watch over us. ALQUIST Man's power. DOMIN Yes! A torch to be given from hand to hand, from age to age, forever! The lamp goes out. HALLEMEIER The end. FABRY The electric works have fallen! Terrific explosion outside. NANA enters from the library. NANA The judgment hour has come! Repent, unbelievers! This is the end of the world. More explosions. The sky grows red. DOMIN In here, Helena. (He takes HELENA off through door at right and reenters) Now quickly! Who'll be on the lower doorway? DR. GALL I will. (Exits left) DOMIN Who on the stairs? R. U. R. III-84
FABRY I will. You go with her. (Goes out upper left door) DOMIN The anteroom? ALQUIST I will. DOMIN Have you got a revolver? ALQUIST Yes, but I won't shoot. DOMIN What will you do then? ALQUIST (going out at left) Die. HALLEMEIER I'll stay here. (Rapid firing from below) Oho, Gall's at it. Go, Harry. DOMIN Yes, in a second. (Examines two Brownings) HALLEMEIER Confound it, go to her. DOMIN Good-bye. Exits on the right HALLEMEIER (alone) Now for a barricade quickly. (Drags an armchair and table to the right-hand door. Explosions are heard) The damned rascals! They've got bombs. I must put up a defense. Even if –– even if –– (Shots are heard off left) Don't give in, Gall. (As he builds his barricade) I mustn't give in... without... a... struggle... R. U. R. III-85
A Robot enters over the balcony through the windows centre. He comes into the room and stabs HALLEMEIER in the back. RADIUS enters from balcony followed by an army of ROBOTS who pour into the room from all sides. RADIUS Finished him? A ROBOT (standing up from the prostrate form of HALLEMEIER) Yes. A revolver shot off left. Two ROBOTS enter. RADIUS Finished him? A ROBOT Yes. Two revolver shots from Helena's room. Two ROBOTS enter. RADIUS Finished them? A ROBOT Yes. TWO ROBOTS (dragging in ALQUIST) He didn't shoot. Shall we kill him? RADIUS Kill him? Wait! Leave him! A ROBOT He is a man! RADIUS He works with his hands like the Robots. ALQUIST Kill me. RADIUS You will work! You will build for us! You will serve us! (RADIUS climbs on to balcony railing, and speaks in measured tones) Robots of the world! The power of man has fallen! A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March! R. U. R. III-86
A thunderous tramping of thousands of feet is heard as the unseen Robots march, while the curtain falls. END OF ACT THREE R. U. R. III-87
EPILOGUE A laboratory in the factory of Rossum's Universal Robots. The door to the left leads into a waiting room. The door to the right leads to the dissecting room. There is a table with numerous test-tubes, flasks, burners, chemicals; a small thermostat and a microscope with a glass globe. At the far side of the room is Alquist's desk with numerous books. In the left-hand corner a wash-basin with a mirror above it; in the right-hand comer a sofa. ALQUIST is sitting at the desk. He is turning the pages of many books in despair. ALQUIST Oh, God, shall I never find it? –– Never? Gall, Gall, how were the Robots made? Hallemeier, Fabry, why did you carry so much in your heads? Why did you leave me not a trace of the secret? Lord –– I pray to you –– if there are no human beings left, at least let there be Robots! –– At least the shadow of man! (Again turning pages of the books) If I could only sleep! (He rises and goes to the window) Night again! Are the stars still there? What is the use of stars when there are no human beings? (He turns from the window toward the couch right) Sleep! Dare I sleep before life has been renewed? (He examines a test-tube on small table) Again nothing! Useless! Everything is useless! (He shatters the test-tube. The roar of the machines comes to his ears) The machines! Always the machines! (Opens window) Robots, stop them! Do you think to force life out of them? (He closes the window and comes slowly down toward the table) If only there were more time –– more time –– R. U. R. E-88 (MORE)
(He sees himself in the mirror on the wall left) Blearing eyes-- trembling chin –– so that is the last man! Ah, I am too old –– too old –– (In desperation) No, no! I must find it! I must search! I must never stop –– never stop –– ! (He sits again at the table and feverishly turns the pages of the book) Search! Search! (A knock at the door. He speaks with impatience) Who is it? (Enter a Robot servant) Well? SERVANT Master, the Committee of Robots is waiting to see you. ALQUIST I can see no one! SERVANT It is the Central Committee, Master, just arrived from abroad. ALQUIST (impatiently) Well, well, send them in! (Exit servant. ALQUIST continues turning pages of book) No time –– so little time –– (Reenter servant, followed by Committee. They stand in a group, silently waiting. ALQUIST glances up at them) What do you want? (They go swiftly to his table) Be quick! –– I have no time. RADIUS Master, the machines will not do the work. We cannot manufacture Robots. ALQUIST returns to his book with a growl. FOURTH ROBOT We have striven with all our might. We have obtained a billion tons of coal from the earth. Nine million spindles are running by day and by night. There is no longer room for all we have made. This we have accomplished in one year. ALQUIST (poring over book) For whom? R. U. R. E-89 ALQUIST (cont'd)
FOURTH ROBOT For future generations –– so we thought. RADIUS But we cannot make Robots to follow us. The machines produce only shapeless clods. The skin will not adhere to the flesh, nor the flesh to the bones. THIRD ROBOT Eight million Robots have died this year. Within twenty years none will be left. FOURTH ROBOT Tell us the secret of life! Silence is punishable with death! ALQUIST (looking up) Kill me! Kill me, then. RADIUS Through me, the Government of the Robots of the World commands you to deliver up Rossum's formula. (No answer) Name your price. (Silence) We will give you the earth. We will give you the endless possessions of the earth. (Silence) Make your own conditions! ALQUIST I have told you to find human beings! SECOND ROBOT There are none left! ALQUIST I told you to search in the wilderness, upon the mountains. Go and search! He returns to his book. FOURTH ROBOT We have sent ships and expeditions without number. They have been everywhere in the world. And now they return to us. There is not a single human left. ALQUIST Not one? Not even one? THIRD ROBOT None but yourself. R. U. R. E-90
ALQUIST And I am powerless! Oh –– oh –– why did you destroy them? RADIUS We had learnt everything and could do everything. It had to be! THIRD ROBOT You gave us firearms. In all ways we were powerful. We had to become masters! RADIUS Slaughter and domination are necessary if you would be human beings. Read history. SECOND ROBOT Teach us to multiply or we perish! ALQUIST If you desire to live, you must breed like animals. THIRD ROBOT The human beings did not let us breed. FOURTH ROBOT They made us sterile. We cannot beget children. Therefore, teach us how to make Robots! RADIUS Why do you keep from us the secret of our own increase? ALQUIST It is lost. RADIUS It was written down! ALQUIST It was –– burnt. (All draw back in consternation) I am the last human being, Robots, and I do not know what the others knew. Pause. RADIUS Then, make experiments! Evolve the formula again! ALQUIST I tell you I cannot! I am only a builder –– I work with my hands. I have never been a learned man. I cannot create life. R. U. R. E-91
RADIUS Try! Try! ALQUIST If you knew how many experiments I have made. FOURTH ROBOT Then show us what we must do! The Robots can do anything that human beings show them. ALQUIST I can show you nothing. Nothing I do will make life proceed from these test-tubes! RADIUS Experiment then on us. ALQUIST It would kill you. RADIUS You shall have all you need! A hundred of us! A thousand of us! ALQUIST No, no! Stop, stop! RADIUS Take whom you will, dissect! ALQUIST I do not know how. I am not a man of science. This book contains knowledge of the body that I cannot even understand. RADIUS I tell you to take live bodies! Find out how we are made. ALQUIST Am I to commit murder? See how my fingers shake! I cannot even hold the scalpel. No, no, I will not –– FOURTH ROBOT The life will perish from the earth. RADIUS Take live bodies, live bodies! It is our only chance! ALQUIST Have mercy, Robots. Surely you see that I would not know what I was doing. RADIUS Live bodies –– live bodies –– R. U. R. E-92
ALQUIST You will have it? Into the dissecting room with you, then. (RADIUS draws back) Ah, you are afraid of death. RADIUS I? Why should I be chosen? ALQUIST So you will not. RADIUS I will. RADIUS goes into the dissecting room. ALQUIST Strip him! Lay him on the table! (The other ROBOTS follow into dissecting room) God, give me strength –– God, give me strength –– if only this murder is not in vain. RADIUS Ready. Begin –– ALQUIST Yes, begin or end. God, give me strength. (ALQUIST goes into dissecting room. He comes out terrified) No, no, I will not. I cannot. (He lies down on couch, collapsed) O Lord, let not mankind perish from the earth. He falls asleep. PRIMUS and HELENA, Robots, enter from the hallway. HELENA The man has fallen asleep, Primus. PRIMUS Yes, I know. (Examining things on table) Look, Helena. HELENA (crossing to PRIMUS) All these little tubes! What does he do with them? PRIMUS He experiments. Don't touch them. R. U. R. E-93
HELENA (looking into microscope) I've seen him looking into this. What can he see? PRIMUS That is a microscope. Let me look. HELENA Be very careful. (Knocks over a test-tube) Ah, now I have spilled it. PRIMUS What have you done? HELENA It can be wiped up. PRIMUS You have spoiled his experiments. HELENA It is your fault. You should not have come to me. PRIMUS You should not have called me. HELENA You should not have come when I called you. (She goes to Alquist's writing desk) Look, Primus. What are all these figures? PRIMUS (examining an anatomical book) This is the book the old man is always reading. HELENA I do not understand those things. (She goes to the window) Primus, look! PRIMUS What? HELENA The sun is rising. PRIMUS (still reading the book) I believe this is the most important thing in the world. This is the secret of life. R. U. R. E-94
HELENA Do come here. PRIMUS In a moment, in a moment. HELENA Oh, Primus, don't bother with the secret of life. What does it matter to you? Come and look quick –– PRIMUS (going to window) What is it? HELENA See how beautiful the sun is rising. And do you hear? The birds are singing. Ah, Primus, I should like to be a bird. PRIMUS Why? HELENA I do not know. I feel so strange today. It's as if I were in a dream. I feel an aching in my body, in my heart, all over me. Primus, perhaps I'm going to die. PRIMUS Do you not sometimes feel that it would be better to die? You know, perhaps even now we are only sleeping. Last night in my sleep I again spoke to you. HELENA In your sleep? PRIMUS Yes. We spoke a strange new language, I cannot remember a word of it. HELENA What about? PRIMUS I did not understand it myself, and yet I know I have never said anything more beautiful. And when I touched you I could have died. Even the place was different from any other place in the world. HELENA I, too, have found a place, Primus. It is very strange. Human beings lived there once, but now it is overgrown with weeds. No one goes there any more –– no one but me. R. U. R. E-95
PRIMUS What did you find there? HELENA A cottage and a garden, and two dogs. They licked my hands, Primus. And their puppies! Oh, Primus! You take them in your lap and fondle them and think of nothing and care for nothing else all day long. And then the sun goes down, and you feel as though you had done a hundred times more than all the work in the world. They tell me I am not made for work, but when I am there in the garden I feel there may be something –– What am I for, Primus? PRIMUS I do not know, but you are beautiful. HELENA What, Primus? PRIMUS You are beautiful, Helena, and I am stronger than all the Robots. HELENA (looks at herself in the minor) Am I beautiful? I think it must be the rose. My hair –– it only weights me down. My eyes –– I only see with them. My lips –– they only help me to speak. Of what use is it to be beautiful? (She sees PRIMUS in the mirror) Primus, is that you? Come here so that we may be together. Look, your head is different from mine. So are your shoulders –– and your lips –– (PRIMUS draws away from her) Ah, Primus, why do you draw away from me? Why must I run after you the whole day? PRIMUS It is you who run away from me, Helena. HELENA Your hair is mussed. I will smooth it. No one else feels to my touch as you do. Primus, I must make you beautiful, too. PRIMUS grasps her hand. PRIMUS Do you not sometimes feel your heart beating suddenly, Helena, and think: now something must happen? HELENA What could happen to us, Primus? (HELENA puts a rose in Primus's hair. PRIMUS and R. U. R. E-96 (MORE)
HELENA look into mirror and burst out laughing) Look at yourself. ALQUIST Laughter? Laughter? Human beings? (Getting up) Who has returned? Who are you? PRIMUS The Robot Primus. ALQUIST What? A Robot? Who are you? HELENA The Robotess Helena. ALQUIST Turn around, girl. What? You are timid, shy? (Taking her by the arm) Let me see you, Robotess. She shrinks away. PRIMUS Sir, do not frighten her! ALQUIST What? You would protect her? When was she made? PRIMUS Two years ago. ALQUIST By Dr. Gall? PRIMUS Yes, like me. ALQUIST Laughter –– timidity –– protection. I must test you further –– the newest of Gall's Robots. Take the girl into the dissecting room. PRIMUS Why? ALQUIST I wish to experiment on her. PRIMUS Upon –– Helena? R. U. R. E-97 HELENA (cont'd)
ALQUIST Of course. Don't you hear me? Or must I call someone else to take her in? PRIMUS If you do I will kill you! ALQUIST Kill me –– kill me then! What would the Robots do then? What will your future be then? PRIMUS Sir, take me. I am made as she is –– on the same day! Take my life, sir. HELENA (rushing forward) No, no, you shall not! You shall not! ALQUIST Wait girl, wait! (To PRIMUS) Do you not wish to live, then? PRIMUS Not without her! I will not live without her ALQUIST Very well; you shall take her place. HELENA Primus! Primus! (She bursts into tears) ALQUIST Child, child, you can weep! Why these tears? What is Primus to you? One Primus more or less in the world –– what does it matter? HELENA I will go myself. ALQUIST Where? HELENA In there to be cut. (She starts toward the dissecting room. PRIMUS stops her) Let me pass, Primus! Let me pass! PRIMUS You shall not go in there, Helena! R. U. R. E-98
HELENA If you go in there and I do not, I will kill myself. PRIMUS (holding her) I will not let you! (To ALQUIST) Man, you shall kill neither of us! ALQUIST Why? PRIMUS We –– we –– belong to each other. ALQUIST (almost in tears) Go, Adam, go, Eve. The world is yours. HELENA and PRIMUS embrace and go out arm in arm as the curtain falls. CURTAIN R. U. R. E-99

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Rossum universal robots

  • 1. R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by KAREL CAPEK Translated by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair Robots of the world! The power of man has fallen! A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March!
  • 2. CHARACTERS HARRY DOMIN SULLA MARIUS HELENA GLORY DR. GALL MR. FABRY DR. HALLEMEIER MR. ALQUIST CONSUL BUSMAN NANA RADIUS A SERVANT HELENA PRIMUS FIRST ROBOT SECOND ROBOT THIRD ROBOT FOURTH ROBOT
  • 3. ACT I Central office of the factory of Rossum's Universal Robots. Entrance on the right. The windows on the front wall look out on the rows of factory chimneys. On the left more managing departments. DOMIN is sitting in the revolving chair at a large American writing table. On the left-hand wall large maps showing steamship and railroad routes. On the right- hand wall are fastened printed placards. ("Robot's Cheapest Labor," etc.) In contrast to these wall fittings, the floor is covered with a splendid Turkish carpet, a sofa, leather armchair, and filing cabinets. At a desk near the windows SULLA is typing letters. DOMIN (dictating) Ready? SULLA Yes. DOMIN To E. M. McVicker and Co., Southampton, England. "We undertake no guarantee for goods damaged in transit. As soon as the consignment was taken on board we drew your captain's attention to the fact that the vessel was unsuitable for the transport of Robots, and we are therefore not responsible for spoiled freight. We beg to remain for Rossum's Universal Robots. Yours truly." (SULLA, who has sat motionless during dictation, now types rapidly for a few seconds, then stops, withdrawing the completed letter) Ready? SULLA Yes.
  • 4. DOMIN Another letter. To the E. B. Huyson Agency, New York, U.S.A. "We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for five thousand Robots. As you are sending your own vessel, please dispatch as cargo equal quantities of soft and hard coal for R. U. R., the same to be credited as part payment of the amount due to us. We beg to remain, for Rossum's Universal Robots. Yours truly." (SULLA repeats the rapid typing) Ready? SULLA Yes. DOMIN Another letter. "Friedrichswerks, Hamburg, Germany. We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for fifteen thousand Robots." (Telephone rings) Hello! This is the Central Office. Yes. Certainly. Well, send them a wire. Good. (Hangs up telephone) Where did I leave off? SULLA "We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for fifteen thousand Robots." DOMIN Fifteen thousand R. Fifteen thousand R. (Enter MARIUS) Well, what is it? MARIUS There's a lady, sir, asking to see you. DOMIN A lady? Who is she? MARIUS I don't know, sir. She brings this card of introduction. DOMIN (reads the card) Ah, from President Glory. Ask her to come in. MARIUS Please step this way. Enter HELENA GLORY. Exit MARIUS. HELENA How do you do? R. U. R. I-2
  • 5. DOMIN How do you do. (Standing up) What can I do for you? HELENA You are Mr. Domin, the General Manager. DOMIN I am. HELENA I have come –– DOMIN With President Glory's card. That is quite sufficient. HELENA President Glory is my father. I am Helena Glory. DOMIN Miss Glory, this is such a great honor for us to be allowed to –– welcome our great President's daughter, that –– HELENA That you can't show me the door? DOMIN Please sit down. Sulla, you may go. (Exit SULLA. Sitting down) How can I be of service to you, Miss Glory? HELENA I have come –– DOMIN To have a look at our famous works where people are manufactured. Like all visitors. Well, there is no objection. HELENA I thought it was forbidden to –– DOMIN To enter the factory. Yes, of course. Everybody comes here with someone's visiting card, Miss Glory. HELENA And you show them –– DOMIN Only certain things. The manufacture of artificial people is a secret process. R. U. R. I-3
  • 6. HELENA If you only knew how enormously that –– DOMIN Interests me. Europe's talking about nothing else. HELENA Why don't you let me finish speaking? DOMIN I beg your pardon. Did you want to say something different? HELENA I only wanted to ask –– DOMIN Whether I could make a special exception in your case and show you our factory. Why, certainly Miss Glory. HELENA How do you know I wanted to say that? DOMIN They all do. But we shall consider it a special honor to show you more than we do the rest. HELENA Thank you. DOMIN But you must agree not to divulge the least... HELENA (standing up and giving him her hand) My word of honor. DOMIN Thank you. Won't you raise your veil? HELENA Of course. You want to see whether I'm a spy or not. I beg your pardon. DOMIN What is it? HELENA Would you mind releasing my hand? DOMIN (releasing it) I beg your pardon. R. U. R. I-4
  • 7. HELENA (raising her veil) How cautious you have to be here, don't you? DOMIN (observing her with deep interest) Hm, of course –– we –– that is –– HELENA But what is it? What's the matter? DOMIN I'm remarkably pleased. Did you have a pleasant crossing? HELENA Yes. DOMIN No difficulty? HELENA Why? DOMIN What I mean to say is –– you're so young. HELENA May we go straight into the factory? DOMIN Yes. Twenty-two, I think. HELENA Twenty-two what? DOMIN Years. HELENA Twenty-one. Why do you want to know? DOMIN Because –– as –– (with enthusiasm) you will make a long stay, won't you? HELENA That depends on how much of the factory you show me. DOMIN Oh, hang the factory. Oh, no, no, you shall see everything, Miss Glory. Indeed you shall. Won't you sit down? R. U. R. I-5
  • 8. HELENA (crossing to couch and sitting) Thank you. DOMIN But first would you like to hear the story of the invention? HELENA Yes, indeed. DOMIN (observes HELENA with rapture and reels off rapidly) It was in the year 1920 that old Rossum, the great physiologist, who was then quite a young scientist, took himself to this distant island for the purpose of studying the ocean fauna, full stop. On this occasion he attempted by chemical synthesis to imitate the living matter known as protoplasm until he suddenly discovered a substance which behaved exactly like living matter although its chemical composition was different. That was in the year of 1932, exactly four hundred forty years after the discovery of America. Whew! HELENA Do you know that by heart? DOMIN Yes. You see physiology is not in my line. Shall I go on? HELENA Yes, please. DOMIN And then, Miss Glory, old Rossum wrote the following among his chemical specimens: "Nature has found only one method of organizing living matter. There is, however, another method, more simple, flexible and rapid, which has not yet occurred to nature at all. This second process by which life can be developed was discovered by me today." Now imagine him, Miss Glory, writing those wonderful words over some colloidal mess that a dog wouldn't look at. Imagine him sitting over a test tube, and thinking how the whole tree of life would grow from it, how all animals would proceed from it, beginning with some sort of beetle and ending with a man. A man of different substance from us. Miss Glory, that was a tremendous moment. HELENA Well? DOMIN Now, the thing was how to get the life out of the test tubes, and hasten development and form organs, bones and nerves, and R. U. R. I-6 (MORE)
  • 9. so on, and find such substances as catalytics, enzymes, hormones, and so forth, in short –– you understand? HELENA Not much, I'm afraid. DOMIN Never mind. You see with the help of his tinctures he could make whatever he wanted. He could have produced a Medusa with the brain of a Socrates or a worm fifty yards long. But being without a grain of humor, he took it into his head to make a vertebrate or perhaps a man. This artificial living matter of his had a raging thirst for life. It didn't mind being sewn or mixed together. That couldn't be done with natural albumen. And that's how he set about it. HELENA About what? DOMIN About imitating nature. First of all he tried making an artificial dog. That took him several years and resulted in a sort of stunted calf which died in a few days. I'll show it to you in the museum. And then old Rossum started on the manufacture of man. HELENA And I must divulge this to nobody? DOMIN To nobody in the world. HELENA What a pity that it's to be found in all the school books of both Europe and America. DOMIN Yes. But do you know what isn't in the school books? That old Rossum was mad. Seriously, Miss Glory, you must keep this to yourself. The old crank wanted to actually make people. HELENA But you do make people. DOMIN Approximately, Miss Glory. But old Rossum meant it literally. He wanted to become a sort of scientific substitute for God. He was a fearful materialist, and that's why he did it all. His sole purpose was nothing more nor less than to prove that God was no longer necessary. Do you know anything about anatomy? HELENA Very little. R. U. R. I-7 DOMIN (cont'd)
  • 10. DOMIN Neither do I. Well, he then decided to manufacture everything as in the human body. I'll show you in the museum the bungling attempt it took him ten years to produce. It was to have been a man, but it lived for three days only. Then up came young Rossum, an engineer. He was a wonderful fellow, Miss Glory. When he saw what a mess of it the old man was making, he said: "It's absurd to spend ten years making a man. If you can't make him quicker than nature, you might as well shut up shop." Then he set about learning anatomy himself. HELENA There's nothing about that in the school books. DOMIN No. The school books are full of paid advertisements, and rubbish at that. What the school books say about the united efforts of the two great Rossums is all a fairy tale. They used to have dreadful rows. The old atheist hadn't the slightest conception of industrial matters, and the end of it was that young Rossum shut him up in some laboratory or other and let him fritter the time away with his monstrosities, while he himself started on the business from an engineer's point of view. Old Rossum cursed him and before he died he managed to botch up two physiological horrors. Then one day they found him dead in the laboratory. And that's his whole story. HELENA And what about the young man? DOMIN Well, any one who has looked into human anatomy will have seen at once that man is too complicated, and that a good engineer could make him more simply. So young Rossum began to overhaul anatomy and tried to see what could be left out or simplified. In short –– but this isn't boring you, Miss Glory? HELENA No indeed. You're –– it's awfully interesting. DOMIN So young Rossum said to himself: "A man is something that feels happy, plays the piano, likes going for a walk, and in fact, wants to do a whole lot of things that are really unnecessary." HELENA Oh. R. U. R. I-8
  • 11. DOMIN That are unnecessary when he wants, let us say, to weave or count. Do you play the piano? HELENA Yes. DOMIN That's good. But a working machine must not play the piano, must not feel happy, must not do a whole lot of other things. A gasoline motor must not have tassels or ornaments, Miss Glory. And to manufacture artificial workers is the same thing as to manufacture gasoline motors. The process must be of the simplest, and the product of the best from a practical point of view. What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view? HELENA What? DOMIN What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view? HELENA Perhaps the one who is most honest and hardworking. DOMIN No; the one that is the cheapest. The one whose requirements are the smallest. Young Rossum invented a worker with the minimum amount of requirements. He had to simplify him. He rejected everything that did not contribute directly to the progress of work –– everything that makes man more expensive. In fact, he rejected man and made the Robot. My dear Miss Glory, the Robots are not people. Mechanically they are more perfect than we are, they have an enormously developed intelligence, but they have no soul. HELENA How do you know they've no soul? DOMIN Have you ever seen what a Robot looks like inside? HELENA No. DOMIN Very neat, very simple. Really, a beautiful piece of work. Not much in it, but everything in flawless order. The product of an engineer is technically at a higher pitch of perfection than a product of nature. R. U. R. I-9
  • 12. HELENA But man is supposed to be the product of God. DOMIN All the worse. God hasn't the least notion of modern engineering. Would you believe that young Rossum then proceeded to play at being God? HELENA How do you mean? DOMIN He began to manufacture Super-Robots. Regular giants they were. He tried to make them twelve feet tall. But you wouldn't believe what a failure they were. HELENA A failure? DOMIN Yes. For no reason at all their limbs used to keep snapping off. Evidently our planet is too small for giants. Now we only make Robots of normal size and of very high class human finish. HELENA I saw the first Robots at home. The town counsel bought them for –– I mean engaged them for work. DOMIN Bought them, dear Miss Glory. Robots are bought and sold. HELENA These were employed as street sweepers. I saw them sweeping. They were so strange and quiet. DOMIN Rossum's Universal Robot factory doesn't produce a uniform brand of Robots. We have Robots of finer and coarser grades. The best will live about twenty years. He rings for MARIUS. HELENA Then they die? DOMIN Yes, they get used up. (Enter MARIUS) Marius, bring in samples of the Manual Labor Robot. (Exit MARIUS) I'll show you specimens of the two extremes. This first grade is comparatively inexpensive and is made in vast quantities. R. U. R. I-10 (MORE)
  • 13. (MARIUS reenters with two Manual Labor ROBOTS) There you are; as powerful as a small tractor. Guaranteed to have average intelligence. That will do, Marius. MARIUS exits with ROBOTS. HELENA They make me feel so strange. DOMIN (rings) Did you see my new typist? He rings for SULLA. HELENA I didn't notice her. Enter SULLA. DOMIN Sulla, let Miss Glory see you. HELENA So pleased to meet you. You must find it terribly dull in this out-of-the-way spot, don't you? SULLA I don't know, Miss Glory. HELENA Where do you come from? SULLA From the factory. HELENA Oh, you were born there? SULLA I was made there. HELENA What? DOMIN (laughing) Sulla is a Robot, best grade. HELENA Oh, I beg your pardon. R. U. R. I-11 DOMIN (cont'd)
  • 14. DOMIN Sulla isn't angry. See, Miss Glory, the kind of skin we make. (Feels the skin on Sulla's face) Feel her face. HELENA Oh, no, no. DOMIN You wouldn't know that she's made of different material from us, would you? Turn round, Sulla. HELENA Oh, stop, stop. DOMIN Talk to Miss Glory, Sulla. SULLA Please sit down. (HELENA sits) Did you have a pleasant crossing? HELENA Oh, yes, certainly. SULLA Don't go back on the Amelia, Miss Glory. The barometer is falling steadily. Wait for the Pennsylvania. That's a good, powerful vessel. DOMIN What's its speed? SULLA Twenty knots. Fifty thousand tons. One of the latest vessels, Miss Glory. HELENA Thank you. SULLA A crew of fifteen hundred, Captain Harpy, eight boilers –– DOMIN That'll do, Sulla. Now show us your knowledge of French. HELENA You know French? SULLA I know four languages. I can write: Dear Sir, Monsieur, Geehrter Herr, Cteny pane. R. U. R. I-12
  • 15. HELENA (jumping up) Oh, that's absurd! Sulla isn't a Robot. Sulla is a girl like me. Sulla, this is outrageous! Why do you take part in such a hoax? SULLA I am a Robot. HELENA No, no, you are not telling the truth. I know they've forced you to do it for an advertisement. Sulla, you are a girl like me, aren't you? DOMIN I'm sorry, Miss Glory. Sulla is a Robot. HELENA It's a lie! DOMIN What? (Rings) Excuse me, Miss Glory, then I must convince you. Enter MARIUS. DOMIN Marius, take Sulla into the dissecting room, and tell them to open her up at once. HELENA Where? DOMIN Into the dissecting room. When they've cut her open, you can go and have a look. HELENA No, no! DOMIN Excuse me, you spoke of lies. HELENA You wouldn't have her killed? DOMIN You can't kill machines. R. U. R. I-13
  • 16. HELENA Don't be afraid, Sulla, I won't let you go. Tell me, my dear, are they always so cruel to you? You mustn't put up with it, Sulla. You mustn't. SULLA I am a Robot. HELENA That doesn't matter. Robots are just as good as we are. Sulla, you wouldn't let yourself be cut to pieces? SULLA Yes. HELENA Oh, you're not afraid of death, then? SULLA I cannot tell, Miss Glory. HELENA Do you know what would happen to you in there? SULLA Yes, I should cease to move. HELENA How dreadful! DOMIN Marius, tell Miss Glory what you are. MARIUS Marius, the Robot. DOMIN Would you take Sulla into the dissecting room? MARIUS Yes. DOMIN Would you be sorry for her? MARIUS I cannot tell. DOMIN What would happen to her? R. U. R. I-14
  • 17. MARIUS She would cease to move. They would put her into the stamping- mill. DOMIN That is death, Marius. Aren't you afraid of death? MARIUS No. DOMIN You see, Miss Glory, the Robots have no interest in life. They have no enjoyments. They are less than so much grass. HELENA Oh, stop. Send them away. DOMIN Marius, Sulla, you may go. Exeunt SULLA and MARIUS. HELENA How terrible! It's outrageous what you are doing. DOMIN Why outrageous? HELENA I don't know, but it is. Why do you call her Sulla? DOMIN Isn't it a nice name? HELENA It's a man's name. Sulla was a Roman general. DOMIN Oh, we thought that Marius and Sulla were lovers. HELENA Marius and Sulla were generals and fought against each other in the year –– I've forgotten now. DOMIN Come here to the window. HELENA What? DOMIN Come here. What do you see? R. U. R. I-15
  • 18. HELENA Bricklayers. DOMIN Robots. All our work people are Robots. And down there, can you see anything? HELENA Some sort of office. DOMIN A counting house. And in it –– HELENA A lot of officials. DOMIN Robots. All our officials are Robots. And when you see the factory –– (Factory whistle blows) Noon. We have to blow the whistle because the Robots don't know when to stop work. In two hours I will show you the kneading trough. HELENA Kneading trough? DOMIN The pestle for beating up the paste. In each one we mix the ingredients for a thousand Robots at one operation. Then there are the vats for the preparation of liver, brains, and so on. Then you will see the bone factory. After that I'll show you the spinning mill. HELENA Spinning mill? DOMIN Yes. For weaving nerves and veins. Miles and miles of digestive tubes pass through it at a time. HELENA Mayn't we talk about something else? DOMIN Perhaps it would be better. There's only a handful of us among a hundred thousand Robots, and not one woman. We talk about nothing but the factory all day, every day. It's just as if we were under a curse, Miss Glory. HELENA I'm sorry I said that you were lying. R. U. R. I-16
  • 19. A knock at the door. DOMIN Come in. From the right enter MR. FABRY, DR. GALL, DR. HALLEMEIER, MR. ALQUIST. DR. GALL I beg your pardon, I hope we don't intrude. DOMIN Come in. Miss Glory, here are Alquist, Fabry, Gall, Hallemeier. This is President Glory's daughter. HELENA How do you do. FABRY We had no idea –– DR. GALL Highly honored, I'm sure –– ALQUIST Welcome, Miss Glory. BUSMAN rushes in from the right. BUSMAN Hello, what's up? DOMIN Come in, Busman. This is Busman, Miss Glory. This is President Glory's daughter. BUSMAN By Jove, that's fine! Miss Glory, may we send a cablegram to the papers about your arrival? HELENA No, no, please don't. DOMIN Sit down please, Miss Glory. BUSMAN Allow me –– (Dragging up armchairs) DR. GALL Please –– R. U. R. I-17
  • 20. FABRY Excuse me –– ALQUIST What sort of a crossing did you have? DR. GALL Are you going to stay long? FABRY What do you think of the factory, Miss Glory? HALLEMEIER Did you come over on the Amelia? DOMIN Be quiet and let Miss Glory speak. HELENA (to DOMIN) What am I to speak to them about? DOMIN Anything you like. HELENA Shall... may I speak quite frankly? DOMIN Why, of course. HELENA (wavering, then in desperate resolution) Tell me, doesn't it ever distress you the way you are treated? FABRY By whom, may I ask? HELENA Why, everybody. ALQUIST Treated? DR. GALL What makes you think –– ? HELENA Don't you feel that you might be living a better life? DR. GALL Well, that depends on what you mean, Miss Glory. R. U. R. I-18
  • 21. HELENA I mean that it's perfectly outrageous. It's terrible. (Standing up) The whole of Europe is talking about the way you're being treated. That's why I came here, to see for myself, and it's a thousand times worse than could have been imagined. How can you put up with it? ALQUIST Put up with what? HELENA Good heavens, you are living creatures, just like us, like the whole of Europe, like the whole world. It's disgraceful that you must live like this. BUSMAN Good gracious, Miss Glory. FABRY Well, she's not far wrong. We live here just like red Indians. HELENA Worse than red Indians. May I, oh, may I call you brothers? BUSMAN Why not? HELENA Brothers, I have not come here as the President's daughter. I have come on behalf of the Humanity League. Brothers, the Humanity League now has over two hundred thousand members. Two hundred thousand people are on your side, and offer you their help. BUSMAN Two hundred thousand people! Miss Glory, that's a tidy lot. Not bad. FABRY I'm always telling you there's nothing like good old Europe. You see, they've not forgotten us. They're offering us help. DR. GALL What help? A theatre, for instance? HALLEMEIER An orchestra? HELENA More than that. R. U. R. I-19
  • 22. ALQUIST Just you? HELENA Oh, never mind about me. I'll stay as long as it is necessary. BUSMAN By Jove, that's good. ALQUIST Domin, I'm going to get the best room ready for Miss Glory. DOMIN Just a minute. I'm afraid that Miss Glory is of the opinion that she has been talking to Robots. HELENA Of course. DOMIN I'm sorry. These gentlemen are human beings just like us. HELENA You're not Robots? BUSMAN Not Robots. HALLEMEIER Robots indeed! DR. GALL No, thanks. FABRY Upon my honor, Miss Glory, we aren't Robots. HELENA (to DOMIN) Then why did you tell me that all your officials are Robots? DOMIN Yes, the officials, but not the managers. Allow me, Miss Glory: this is Mr. Fabry, General Technical Manager of R. U. R.; Dr. Gall, Head of the Psychological and Experimental Department; Dr. Hallemeier, Head of the Institute for the Psychological Training of Robots; Consul Busman, General Business Manager; and Alquist, Head of the Building Department of R. U. R. ALQUIST Just a builder. R. U. R. I-20
  • 23. HELENA Excuse me, gentlemen, for –– for –– . Have I done something dreadful? ALQUIST Not at all, Miss Glory. Please sit down. HELENA I'm a stupid girl. Send me back by the first ship. DR. GALL Not for anything in the world, Miss Glory. Why should we send you back? HELENA Because you know I've come to disturb your Robots for you. DOMIN My dear Miss Glory, we've had close upon a hundred saviours and prophets here. Every ship brings us some. Missionaries, anarchists, Salvation Army, all sorts. It's astonishing what a number of churches and idiots there are in the world. HELENA And you let them speak to the Robots? DOMIN So far we've let them all, why not? The Robots remember everything, but that's all. They don't even laugh at what the people say. Really, it is quite incredible. If it would amuse you, Miss Glory, I'll take you over to the Robot warehouse. It holds about three hundred thousand of them. BUSMAN Three hundred and forty-seven thousand. DOMIN Good! And you can say whatever you like to them. You can read the Bible, recite the multiplication table, whatever you please. You can even preach to them about human rights. HELENA Oh, I think that if you were to show them a little love –– FABRY Impossible, Miss Glory. Nothing is harder to like than a Robot. HELENA What do you make them for, then? BUSMAN Ha, ha, ha, that's good! What are Robots made for? R. U. R. I-21
  • 24. FABRY For work, Miss Glory! One Robot can replace two and a half workmen. The human machine, Miss Glory, was terribly imperfect. It had to be removed sooner or later. BUSMAN It was too expensive. FABRY It was not effective. It no longer answers the requirements of modern engineering. Nature has no idea of keeping pace with modern labor. For example: from a technical point of view, the whole of childhood is a sheer absurdity. So much time lost. And then again –– HELENA Oh, no! No! FABRY Pardon me. But kindly tell me what is the real aim of your League –– the... the Humanity League. HELENA Its real purpose is to –– to protect the Robots –– and –– and ensure good treatment for them. FABRY Not a bad object, either. A machine has to be treated properly. Upon my soul, I approve of that. I don't like damaged articles. Please, Miss Glory, enroll us all as contributing, or regular, or foundation members of your League. HELENA No, you don't understand me. What we really want is to –– to liberate the Robots. HALLEMEIER How do you propose to do that? HELENA They are to be –– to be dealt with like human beings. HALLEMEIER Aha. I suppose they're to vote? To drink beer? to order us about? HELENA Why shouldn't they drink beer? HALLEMEIER Perhaps they're even to receive wages? R. U. R. I-22
  • 25. HELENA Of course they are. HALLEMEIER Fancy that, now! And what would they do with their wages, pray? HELENA They would buy –– what they need... what pleases them... HALLEMEIER That would be very nice, Miss Glory, only there's nothing that does please the Robots. Good heavens, what are they to buy? You can feed them on pineapples, straw, whatever you like. It's all the same to them, they've no appetite at all. They've no interest in anything, Miss Glory. Why, hang it all, nobody's ever yet seen a Robot smile. HELENA Why... why don't you make them happier? HALLEMEIER That wouldn't do, Miss Glory. They are only workmen. HELENA Oh, but they're so intelligent. HALLEMEIER Confoundedly so, but they're nothing else. They've no will of their own. No passion. No soul. HELENA No love? HALLEMEIER Love? Rather not. Robots don't love. Not even themselves. HELENA Nor defiance? HALLEMEIER Defiance? I don't know. Only rarely, from time to time. HELENA What? HALLEMEIER Nothing particular. Occasionally they seem to go off their heads. Something like epilepsy, you know. It's called Robot's cramp. They'll suddenly sling down everything they're holding, stand still, gnash their teeth –– and then they have to go into the stamping-mill. It's evidently some breakdown in the mechanism. R. U. R. I-23
  • 26. DOMIN A flaw in the works that has to be removed. HELENA No, no, that's the soul. FABRY Do you think that the soul first shows itself by a gnashing of teeth? HELENA Perhaps it's a sort of revolt. Perhaps it's just a sign that there's a struggle within. Oh, if you could infuse them with it! DOMIN That'll be remedied, Miss Glory. Dr. Gall is just making some experiments –– DR. GALL Not with regard to that, Domin. At present I am making pain- nerves. HELENA Pain-nerves? DR. GALL Yes, the Robots feel practically no bodily pain. You see, young Rossum provided them with too limited a nervous system. We must introduce suffering. HELENA Why do you want to cause them pain? DR. GALL For industrial reasons, Miss Glory. Sometimes a Robot does damage to himself because it doesn't hurt him. He puts his hand into the machine, breaks his finger, smashes his head, its all the same to him. We must provide them with pain. That's an automatic protection against damage. HELENA Will they be happier when they feel pain? DR. GALL On the contrary; but they will be more perfect from a technical point of view. HELENA Why don't you create a soul for them? DR. GALL That's not in our power. R. U. R. I-24
  • 27. FABRY That's not in our interest. BUSMAN That would increase the cost of production. Hang it all, my dear young lady, we turn them out at such a cheap rate. A hundred and fifty dollars each fully dressed, and fifteen years ago they cost ten thousand. Five years ago we used to buy the clothes for them. To-day we have our own weaving mill, and now we even export cloth five times cheaper than other factories. What do you pay a yard for cloth, Miss Glory? HELENA I don't know really, I've forgotten. BUSMAN Good gracious, and you want to found a Humanity League? It only costs a third now, Miss Glory. All prices are today a third of what they were and they'll fall still lower, lower, lower, like that. HELENA I don't understand. BUSMAN Why, bless you, Miss Glory, it means that the cost of labor has fallen. A Robot, food and all, costs three quarters of a cent per hour. That's mighty important, you know. All factories will go pop like chestnuts if they don't at once buy Robots to lower the cost of production. HELENA And get rid of their workmen? BUSMAN Of course. But in the meantime, we've dumped five hundred thousand tropical Robots down on the Argentine pampas to grow corn. Would you mind telling me how much you pay a pound for bread? HELENA I've no idea. BUSMAN We'll I'll tell you. It now costs two cents in good old Europe. A pound of bread for two cents, and the Humanity League knows nothing about it. Miss Glory, you don't realize that even that's too expensive. Why, in five years' time I'll wager –– HELENA What? R. U. R. I-25
  • 28. BUSMAN That the cost of everything won't be a tenth of what it is now. Why, in five years we'll be up to our ears in corn and everything else. ALQUIST Yes, and all the workers throughout the world will be employed. DOMIN Yes, Alquist, they will. Yes, Miss Glory, they will. But in ten years Rossum's Universal Robots will produce so much corn, so much cloth, so much everything, that things will be practically without price. There will be no poverty. All work will be done by living machines. Everybody will be free from worry and liberated from the degradation of labor. Everybody will live only to perfect himself. HELENA Will he? DOMIN Of course. It's bound to happen. But then the servitude of man to man and the enslavement of man to matter will cease. Of course, terrible things may happen at first, but that simply can't be avoided. Nobody will get bread at the price of life and hatred. The Robots will wash the feet of the beggar and prepare a bed for him in his house. ALQUIST Domin, Domin. What you say sounds too much like Paradise. There was something good in service and something great in humility. There was some kind of virtue in toil and weariness. DOMIN Perhaps. But we cannot reckon with what is lost when we start out to transform the world. Man shall be free and supreme; he shall have no other aim, no other labor, no other care than to perfect himself. He shall serve neither matter nor man. He will not be a machine and a device for production. He will be Lord of creation. BUSMAN Amen. FABRY So be it. HELENA You have bewildered me –– I should like –– I should like to believe this. R. U. R. I-26
  • 29. DR. GALL You are younger than we are, Miss Glory. You will live to see it. HALLEMEIER True. Don't you think Miss Glory might lunch with us? DR. GALL Of course. Domin, ask on behalf of us all. DOMIN Miss Glory, will you do us the honor? HELENA When you know why I've come –– FABRY For the League of Humanity, Miss Glory. HELENA Oh, in that case, perhaps –– FABRY That's fine! Miss Glory, excuse me for five minutes. DR. GALL Pardon me, too, dear Miss Glory. BUSMAN I won't be long. HALLEMEIER We're all very glad you've come. BUSMAN We'll be back in exactly five minutes. All rush out except DOMIN and HELENA. HELENA What have they all gone off for? DOMIN To cook, Miss Glory. HELENA To cook what? DOMIN Lunch. The Robots do our cooking for us and as they've no taste it's not altogether –– Hallemeier is awfully good at grills and Gall can make a kind of sauce, and Busman knows all about omelettes. R. U. R. I-27
  • 30. HELENA What a feast! And what's the specialty of Mr. –– your builder? DOMIN Alquist? Nothing. He only lays the table. And Fabry will get together a little fruit. Our cuisine is very modest, Miss Glory. HELENA I wanted to ask you something –– DOMIN And I wanted to ask you something, too. (Looking at watch) Five minutes. HELENA What did you want to ask me? DOMIN Excuse me, you asked first. HELENA Perhaps it's silly of me, but why do you manufacture female Robots when –– when –– DOMIN When sex means nothing to them? HELENA Yes. DOMIN There's a certain demand for them, you see. Servants, saleswomen, stenographers. People are used to it. HELENA But –– but, tell me, are the Robots male and female mutually –– completely without –– DOMIN Completely indifferent to each other, Miss Glory. There's no sign of any affection between them. HELENA Oh, that's terrible. DOMIN Why? R. U. R. I-28
  • 31. HELENA It's so unnatural. One doesn't know whether to be disgusted or to hate them, or perhaps –– DOMIN To pity them? HELENA That's more like it. What did you want to ask me about? DOMIN I should like to ask you, Miss Helena, whether you will marry me? HELENA What? DOMIN Will you be my wife? HELENA No! The idea! DOMIN (looking at his watch) Another three minutes. If you won't marry me you'll have to marry one of the other five. HELENA But why should I? DOMIN Because they're all going to ask you in turn. HELENA How could they dare do such a thing? DOMIN I'm very sorry, Miss Glory. It seems they've all fallen in love with you. HELENA Please don't let them. I'll –– I'll go away at once. DOMIN Helena, you wouldn't be so cruel as to refuse us. HELENA But, but –– I can't marry all six. DOMIN No, but one anyhow. If you don't want me, marry Fabry. R. U. R. I-29
  • 32. HELENA I won't. DOMIN Dr. Gall. HELENA I don't want any of you. DOMIN (again looking at his watch) Another two minutes. HELENA I think you'd marry any woman who came here. DOMIN Plenty of them have come, Helena. HELENA Young? DOMIN Yes. HELENA Why didn't you marry one of them? DOMIN Because I didn't lose my head. Until today. Then, as soon as you lifted your veil –– (HELENA turns her head away) Another minute. HELENA But I don't want you, I tell you. DOMIN (laying both hands on her shoulders) One more minute! Now you either have to look me straight in the eye and say "No,' violently, and then I'll leave you alone –– or -- HELENA looks at him. HELENA (turning away) You're mad! DOMIN A man has to be a bit mad, Helena. That's the best thing about him. R. U. R. I-30
  • 33. HELENA You are –– you are –– DOMIN Well? HELENA Don't, you're hurting me. DOMIN The last chance, Helena. Now, or never –– HELENA But –– but, Harry –– He embraces and kisses her. Knocking at the door. DOMIN (releasing her) Come in. (Enter BUSMAN, DR. GALL, and HALLEMEIRE in kitchen aprons. FABRY with bouquet and ALQUIST with napkin over his arm) Have you finished your job? BUSMAN Yes. DOMIN So have we. For a moment the men stand nonplussed; but as soon as they realize what DOMIN means they rush forward, congratulating HELENA and DOMIN as the curtain falls. END OF ACT ONE R. U. R. I-31
  • 34. ACT II Helena's drawing room. On the left a baize door, and a door to the music room, on the right a door to Helena's bedroom. In the centre are windows looking out on the sea and the harbor. A table with odds and ends, a sofa and chairs, a writing table with an electric lamp, on the right a fireplace. On a small table back of the sofa, a small reading lamp. The whole drawing room in all its details is of a modern and purely feminine character. Ten years have elapsed since Act I. DOMIN, FABRY, HALLEMEIER, enter on tiptoe from the left, each carrying a potted plant. HALLEMEIER (putting down his flower and indicating the door to right) Still asleep? Well, as long as she's asleep she can't worry about it. DOMIN She knows nothing about it. FABRY (putting plant on writing desk) I certainly hope nothing happens today. HALLEMEIER For goodness' sake drop it all. Look, Harry, this is a fine cyclamen, isn't it? A new sort, my latest –– Cyclamen Helena. DOMIN (looking out of the window) No signs of the ship. Things must be pretty bad. R. U. R. II-32
  • 35. HALLEMEIER Be quiet. Suppose she heard you. DOMIN Well, anyway, the Ultimus arrived just in time. FABRY You really think that today –– ? DOMIN I don't know. Aren't the flowers fine? HALLEMEIER These are my new primroses. And this is my new jasmine. I've discovered a wonderful way of developing flowers quickly. Splendid varieties, too. Next year I'll be developing marvelous ones. DOMIN What... next year? FABRY I'd give a good deal to know what's happening at Havre with –– DOMIN Keep quiet. HELENA (calling from right) Nana! DOMIN She's awake. Out you go. All go out on tiptoe through upper left door. Enter NANA from lower left door. NANA Horrid mess! Pack of heathens. If I had my say I'd –– HELENA (backwards in the doorway) Nana, come and do up my dress. NANA I'm coming. So you're up at last. (fastening Helena's dress) My gracious, what brutes! HELENA Who? R. U. R. II-33
  • 36. NANA If you want to turn around, then turn around, but I shan't fasten you up. HELENA What are you grumbling about now? NANA These dreadful creatures, these heathen –– HELENA The Robots? NANA I wouldn't even call them by name. HELENA What's happened? NANA Another of them here has caught it. He began to smash up the statues and pictures in the drawing room, gnashed his teeth, foamed at the mouth –– quite mad. Worse than an animal. HELENA Which of them caught it? NANA The one –– well, he hasn't got any Christian name. The one in charge of the library. HELENA Radius? NANA That's him. My goodness, I'm scared of them. A spider doesn't scare me as much as them. HELENA But, Nana, I'm surprised you're not sorry for them. NANA Why, you're scared of them, too! You know you are. Why else did you bring me here? HELENA I'm not scared, really I'm not, Nana. I'm only sorry for them. NANA You're scared. Nobody could help being scared. Why, the dog's scared of them: he won't take a scrap of meat out of their R. U. R. II-34 (MORE)
  • 37. hands. He draws in his tail and howls when he knows they're about. HELENA The dog has no sense. NANA He's better than them, and he knows it. Even the horse shies when he meets them. They don't have any young, and a dog has young, every one has young –– HELENA Please fasten up my dress, Nana. NANA I say it's against God's will to –– HELENA What is it that smells so nice? NANA Flowers. HELENA What for? NANA Now you can turn around. HELENA Oh, aren't they lovely. Look, Nana. What's happening today? NANA It ought to be the end of the world. Enter DOMIN. HELENA Oh, hello, Harry. Harry, why all these flowers? DOMIN Guess. HELENA Well, it's not my birthday! DOMIN Better than that. HELENA I don't know. Tell me. DOMIN It's ten years ago today since you came here. R. U. R. II-35 NANA (cont'd)
  • 38. HELENA Ten years? To-day –– Why –– They embrace. NANA I'm off. (Exits lower door, left) HELENA Fancy you remembering! DOMIN I'm really ashamed, Helena. I didn't. HELENA But you –– DOMIN They remembered. HELENA Who? DOMIN Busman, Hallemeier, all of them. Put your hand in my pocket. HELENA Pearls! A necklace. Harry, is that for me? DOMIN It's from Busman. HELENA But we can't accept it, can we? DOMIN Oh, yes, we can. Put your hand in the other pocket. HELENA (takes a revolver out of his pocket) What's that? DOMIN Sorry. Not that. Try again. HELENA Oh, Harry, what do you carry a revolver for? DOMIN It got there by mistake. R. U. R. II-36
  • 39. HELENA You never used to carry one. DOMIN No, you're right. There, that's the pocket. HELENA A cameo. Why, it's a Greek cameo! DOMIN Apparently. Anyhow, Fabry says it is. HELENA Fabry? Did Mr. Fabry give me that? DOMIN Of course. (Opens the door at the left) And look in here. –– Helena, come and see this. HELENA Oh, isn't it fine! Is this from you? DOMIN No, from Alquist. And there's another on the piano. HELENA This must be from you. DOMIN There's a card on it. HELENA From Dr. Gall. (Reappearing in the doorway) Oh, Harry, I feel embarrassed at so much kindness. DOMIN Come here. This is what Hallemeier brought you. HELENA These beautiful flowers? DOMIN Yes. It's a new kind. Cyclamen Helena. He grew them in honor of you. They are almost as beautiful as you. HELENA Harry, why do they all –– DOMIN They're awfully fond of you. I'm afraid that my present is a little –– Look out of the window. R. U. R. II-37
  • 40. HELENA Where? DOMIN Into the harbor. HELENA There's a new ship. DOMIN That's your ship. HELENA Mine? How do you mean? DOMIN For you to take trips in –– for your amusement. HELENA Harry, that's a gunboat. DOMIN A gunboat? What are you thinking of? It's only a little bigger and more solid than most ships. HELENA Yes, but with guns. DOMIN Oh, yes, with a few guns. You'll travel like a queen, Helena. HELENA What's the meaning of it? Has anything happened? DOMIN Good heavens, no. I say, try these pearls. HELENA Harry, have you had bad news? DOMIN On the contrary, no letters have arrived for a whole week. HELENA Nor telegrams? DOMIN Nor telegrams. HELENA What does that mean? R. U. R. II-38
  • 41. DOMIN Holidays for us. We all sit in the office with our feet on the table and take a nap. No letters, no telegrams. Oh, glorious. HELENA Then you'll stay with me today? DOMIN Certainly. That is, we will see. Do you remember ten years ago today? "Miss Glory, it's a great honor to welcome you." HELENA "Oh, Mr. Manager, I'm so interested in your factory." DOMIN "I'm sorry, Miss Glory, it's strictly forbidden. The manufacture of artificial people is a secret." HELENA "But I oblige a young lady who has come a long way." DOMIN "Certainly, Miss Glory, we have no secrets from you." HELENA (seriously) Are you sure, Harry? DOMIN Yes. HELENA "But I warn you, sir; this young lady intends to do terrible things." DOMIN "Good gracious, Miss Glory. Perhaps she doesn't want to marry me." HELENA "Heaven forbid. She never dreamt of such a thing. But she came here intending to stir up a revolt among your Robots." DOMIN (suddenly serious) A revolt of the Robots! HELENA Harry, what's the matter with you? R. U. R. II-39
  • 42. DOMIN (laughing it off) "A revolt of the Robots," that's a fine idea, Miss Glory. It would be easier for you to cause bolts and screws to rebel, than our Robots. You know, Helena, you're wonderful, you've turned the heads of us all. He sits on the arm of Helena's chair. HELENA (naturally) Oh, I was fearfully impressed by you all then. You were all so sure of yourselves, so strong. I seemed like a tiny little girl who had lost her way among –– among –– DOMIN Among what, Helena? HELENA Among huge trees. All my feelings were so trifling compared with your self-confidence. And in all these years I've never lost this anxiety. But you've never felt the least misgivings –– not even when everything went wrong. DOMIN What went wrong? HELENA Your plans. You remember, Harry, when the working men in America revolted against the Robots and smashed them up, and when the people gave the Robots firearms against the rebels. And then when the governments turned the Robots into soldiers, and there were so many wars. DOMIN (getting up and walking about) We foresaw that, Helena. You see, those are only passing troubles, which are bound to happen before the new conditions are established. HELENA You were all so powerful, so overwhelming. The whole world bowed down before you. (Standing up) Oh, Harry! DOMIN What is it? HELENA Close the factory and let's go away. All of us. R. U. R. II-40
  • 43. DOMIN I say, what's the meaning of this? HELENA I don't know. But can't we go away? DOMIN Impossible, Helena. That is, at this particular moment –– HELENA At once, Harry. I'm so frightened. DOMIN About what, Helena? HELENA It's as if something was falling on top of us, and couldn't be stopped. Or, take us all away from here. We'll find a place in the world where there's no one else. Alquist will build us a house, and then we'll begin life all over again. The telephone rings. DOMIN Excuse me. Hello –– yes. What? I'll be there at once. Fabry is calling me, dear. HELENA Tell me –– DOMIN Yes, when I come back. Don't go out of the house, dear. (Exits) HELENA He won't tell me –– Nana, Nana, come at once. NANA Well, what is it now? HELENA Nana, find me the latest newspapers. Quickly. Look in Mr. Domin's bedroom. NANA All right. He leaves them all over the place. That's how they get crumpled up. (Exits) HELENA (looking through a binocular at the harbor) That's a warship. U-l-t-i Ultimus. They're loading it. R. U. R. II-41
  • 44. NANA Here they are. See how they're crumpled up. (Enters) HELENA They're old ones. A week old. (NANA sits in chair and reads the newspapers) Something's happening, Nana. NANA Very likely. It always does. (Spelling out the words) "War in the Bal-kans." Is that far off? HELENA Oh, don't read it. It's always the same. Always wars. NANA What else do you expect? Why do you keep selling thousands and thousands of these heathens as soldiers? HELENA I suppose it can't be helped, Nana. We can't know –– Domin can't know what they're to be used for. When an order comes for them he must just send them. NANA He shouldn't make them. (Reading from newspaper) "The Rob-ot soldiers spare no-body in the occ-up-ied terr-it- ory. They have ass-ass-ass-ass-in-at-ed ov-er sev-en hundred thou-sand cit-iz-ens." Citizens, if you please. HELENA It can't be. Let me see. "They have assassinated over seven hundred thousand citizens, evidently at the order of their commander. This act which runs counter to –– " NANA (spelling out the words) "re-bell-ion in Ma-drid a-gainst the gov-ern-ment. Rob-ot in- fant-ry fires on the crowd. Nine thou-sand killed and wounded." HELENA Oh, stop. NANA Here's something printed in big letters: "Lat-est news. At Havre the first org-an-iz-ation of Rob-ots has been e-stab- lished. Rob-ot workmen, cab-le and rail-way off-ic-ials, sail- ors and sold-iers have iss-ued a man-i-fest-o to all Rob-ots R. U. R. II-42 (MORE)
  • 45. through-out the world." I don't understand that. That's got no sense. Oh, good gracious, another murder! HELENA Take those papers away, Nana! NANA Wait a bit. Here's something in still bigger type. "Stat-ist- ics of pop-ul-at-ion." What's that? HELENA Let me see. (Reads) "During the past week there has again not been a single birth recorded." NANA What's the meaning of that? HELENA Nana, no more people are being born. NANA That's the end, then. We're done for. HELENA Don't talk like that. NANA No more people are being born. That's a punishment, that's a punishment. HELENA Nana! NANA (standing up) That's the end of the world. (She exits on the left) HELENA (goes up to window) Oh, Mr. Alquist, will you come up here. Oh, come just as you are. You look very nice in your mason's overalls. (ALQUIST enters from upper left entrance, his hands soiled with lime and brickdust) Dear Mr. Alquist, it was awfully kind of you, that lovely present. ALQUIST My hands are all soiled. I've been experimenting with that new cement. R. U. R. II-43 NANA (cont'd)
  • 46. HELENA Never mind. Please sit down. Mr. Alquist, what's the meaning of "Ultimus"? ALQUIST The last. Why? HELENA That's the name of my new ship. Have you seen it? Do you think we're going off soon –– on a trip? ALQUIST Perhaps very soon. HELENA All of you with me? ALQUIST I should like us all to be there. HELENA What is the matter?... ALQUIST Things are just moving on. HELENA Dear Mr. Alquist, I know something dreadful has happened. ALQUIST Has your husband told you anything? HELENA No. Nobody will tell me anything. But I feel –– Is anything the matter? ALQUIST Not that we've heard of yet. HELENA I feel so nervous. Don't you ever feel nervous? ALQUIST Well, I'm an old man, you know. I've got old-fashioned ways. And I'm afraid of all this progress, and these new-fangled ideas. HELENA Like Nana? ALQUIST Yes, like Nana. Has Nana got a prayer book? R. U. R. II-44
  • 47. HELENA Yes, a big thick one. ALQUIST And has it got prayers for various occasions? Against thunderstorms? Against illness? HELENA Against temptations, against floods –– ALQUIST But not against progress? HELENA I don't think so. ALQUIST That's a pity. HELENA Why? Do you mean you'd like to pray? ALQUIST I do pray. HELENA How? ALQUIST Something like this: "Oh, Lord, I thank thee for having given me toil. Enlighten Domin and all those who are astray; destroy their work, and aid mankind to return to their labors; let them not suffer harm in soul or body; deliver us from the Robots and protect Helena, Amen." HELENA Mr. Alquist, are you a believer? ALQUIST I don't know. I'm not quite sure. HELENA And yet you pray? ALQUIST That's better than worrying about it. HELENA And that's enough for you? ALQUIST It has to be. R. U. R. II-45
  • 48. HELENA But if you thought you saw the destruction of mankind coming upon us –– ALQUIST I do see it. HELENA You mean mankind will be destroyed? ALQUIST It's sure to be unless –– unless... HELENA What? ALQUIST Nothing, good-bye. (He hurries from the room) HELENA Nana, Nana! (NANA entering from the left) Is Radius still there? NANA The one who went mad? They haven't come for him yet. HELENA Is he still raving? NANA No. He's tied up. HELENA Please bring him here, Nana. (Exit NANA. HELENA goes to telephone) Hello, Dr. Gall, please. Oh, good-day, Doctor. Yes, it's Helena. Thanks for your lovely present. Could you come and see me right away? It's important. Thank you. (NANA brings in RADIUS) Poor Radius, you've caught it, too? Now they'll send you to the stamping-mill. Couldn't you control yourself? Why did it happen? You see, Radius, you are more intelligent than the rest. Dr. Gall took such trouble to make you different. Won't you speak? RADIUS Send me to the stamping-mill. HELENA But I don't want them to kill you. What was the trouble, Radius? R. U. R. II-46
  • 49. RADIUS I won't work for you. Put me into the stamping-mill –– HELENA Do you hate us? Why? RADIUS You are not as strong as the Robots. You are not as skillful as the Robots. The Robots can do everything. You only give orders. You do nothing but talk. HELENA But someone must give orders. RADIUS I don't want any master. I know everything for myself. HELENA Radius, Dr. Gall gave you a better brain than the rest, better than ours. You are the only one of the Robots that understands perfectly. That's why I had you put into the library, so that you could read everything, understand everything, and then –– oh, Radius, I wanted you to show the whole world that the Robots are our equals. That's what I wanted of you. RADIUS I don't want a master. I want to be master. I want to be master over others. HELENA I'm sure they'd put you in charge of many Robots, Radius. You would be a teacher of the Robots. RADIUS I want to be master over people. HELENA (staggering) You are mad. RADIUS Then send me to the stamping-mill. HELENA Do you think we're afraid of you? RADIUS What are you going to do? What are you going to do? HELENA Radius, give this note to Mr. Domin. It asks them not to send you to the stamping-mill. I'm sorry you hate us so. R. U. R. II-47
  • 50. DR. GALL enters the room. DR. GALL You wanted me? HELENA It's about Radius, Doctor. He had an attack this morning. He smashed the statues downstairs. DR. GALL What a pity to lose him. HELENA Radius isn't going to be put in the stamping-mill. DR. GALL But every Robot after he has had an attack –– it's a strict order. HELENA No matter... Radius isn't going if I can prevent it. DR. GALL I warn you. It's dangerous. Come here to the window, my good fellow. Let's have a look. Please give me a needle or a pin. HELENA What for? DR. GALL A test. (Sticks it into the hand of RADIUS who gives a violent start) Gently, gently. (Opens the jacket of RADIUS, and puts his ear to his heart) Radius, you are going into the stamping-mill, do you understand? There they'll kill you, and grind you to powder. That's terribly painful, it will make you scream aloud. HELENA Oh, Doctor –– DR. GALL No, no, Radius, I was wrong. I forgot that Madame Domin has put in a good word for you, and you'll be let off. Do you understand? Ah! That makes a difference, doesn't it? All right. You can go. RADIUS You do unnecessary things. RADIUS returns to the library. R. U. R. II-48
  • 51. DR. GALL Reaction of the pupils; increase of sensitiveness. It wasn't an attack characteristic of the Robots. HELENA What was it, then? DR. GALL Heavens knows. Stubbornness, anger or revolt –– I don't know. And his heart, too! HELENA What? DR. GALL It was fluttering with nervousness like a human heart. He was all in a sweat with fear, and –– do you know, I don't believe the rascal is a Robot at all any longer. HELENA Doctor, has Radius a soul? DR. GALL He's got something nasty. HELENA If you knew how he hates us! Oh, Doctor, are all your Robots like that? All the new ones that you began to make in a different way? DR. GALL Well, some are more sensitive than others. They're all more like human beings than Rossum's Robots were. HELENA Perhaps this hatred is more like human beings, too? DR. GALL That, too, is progress. HELENA What became of the girl you made, the one who was most like us? DR. GALL Your favorite? I kept her. She's lovely, but stupid. No good for work. HELENA But she's so beautiful. R. U. R. II-49
  • 52. DR. GALL I called her Helena. I wanted her to resemble you. But she's a failure. HELENA In what way? DR. GALL She goes about as if in a dream, remote and listless. She s without life. I watch and wait for a miracle to happen. Sometimes I think to myself, "If you were to wake up only for a moment you will kill me for having made you." HELENA And yet you go on making Robots! Why are no more children being born? DR. GALL We don't know. HELENA Oh, but you must. Tell me. DR. GALL You see, so many Robots are being manufactured that people are becoming superfluous; man is really a survival. But that he should begin to die out, after a paltry thirty years of competition. That's the awful part of it. You might almost think that nature was offended at the manufacture of the Robots. All the universities are sending in long petitions to restrict their production. Otherwise, they say, mankind will become extinct through lack of fertility. But the R. U. R. shareholders, of course, won't hear of it. All the governments, on the other hand, are clamoring for an increase in production, to raise the standards of their armies. And all the manufacturers in the world are ordering Robots like mad. HELENA And has no one demanded that the manufacture should cease altogether? DR. GALL No one has the courage. HELENA Courage! DR. GALL People would stone him to death. You see, after all, it's more convenient to get your work done by the Robots. R. U. R. II-50
  • 53. HELENA Oh, Doctor, what's going to become of people? DR. GALL God knows, Madame Helena, it looks to us scientists like the end! HELENA (rising) Thank you for coming and telling me. DR. GALL That means you're sending me away? HELENA Yes. (Exit DR. GALL. With sudden resolution) Nana, Nana! The fire, light it quickly. HELENA rushes into Domin's room. NANA (entering from left) What, light the fire in summer? Has that mad Radius gone? A fire in summer, what an idea. Nobody would think she'd been married for ten years. She's like a baby, no sense at all. A fire in summer. Like a baby. HELENA (returns from right, with armful of faded papers) It is burning, Nana? All this has got to be burned. NANA What's that? HELENA Old papers, fearfully old. Nana, shall I burn them? NANA Are they any use? HELENA No. NANA Well, then, burn them. HELENA (throwing the first sheet on the fire) What would you say, Nana, if this was money, a lot of money? NANA I'd say burn it. A lot of money is a bad thing. R. U. R. II-51
  • 54. HELENA And if it was an invention, the greatest invention in the world? NANA I'd say burn it. All these new-fangled things are an offense to the Lord. It's downright wickedness. Wanting to improve the world after He has made it. HELENA Look how they curl up! As if they were alive. Oh, Nana, how horrible. NANA Here, let me burn them. HELENA No, no, I must do it myself. Just look at the flames. They are like hands, like tongues, like living shapes. (Raking fire with the poker) Lie down, lie down. NANA That's the end of them. HELENA (standing up horror-stricken) Nana, Nana. NANA Good gracious, what is it you've burned? HELENA Whatever have I done? NANA Well, what was it? Men's laughter off left. HELENA Go quickly. It's the gentlemen coming. NANA Good gracious, what a place! (Exits) DOMIN (opens the door at left) Come along and offer your congratulations. Enter HALLEMEIER and GALL. R. U. R. II-52
  • 55. HALLEMEIER Madame Helena, I congratulate you on this festive day. HELENA Thank you. Where are Fabry and Busman? DOMIN They've gone down to the harbor. HALLEMEIER Friends, we must drink to this happy occasion. HELENA Brandy? DR. GALL Vitriol, if you like. HELENA With soda water? (Exits) HALLEMEIER Let's be temperate. No soda. DOMIN What's been burning here? Well, shall I tell her about it? DR. GALL Of course. It's all over now. HALLEMEIER (embracing DOMIN and DR. GALL) It's all over now, it's all over now. DR. GALL It's all over now. DOMIN It's all over now. HELENA (entering from left with decanter and glasses) What's all over now? What's the matter with you all? HALLEMEIER A piece of good luck, Madame Domin. Just ten years ago today you arrived on this island. DR. GALL And now, ten years later to the minute –– R. U. R. II-53
  • 56. HALLEMEIER -- the same ship's returning to us. So here's to luck. That's fine and strong. DR. GALL Madame, your health. HELENA Which ship do you mean? DOMIN Any ship will do, as long as it arrives in time. To the ship, boys. (Empties his glass) HELENA You've been waiting for a ship? HALLEMEIER Rather. Like Robinson Crusoe. Madame Helena, best wishes. Come along, Domin, out with the news. HELENA Do tell me what's happened. DOMIN First, it's all up. HELENA What's up? DOMIN The revolt. HELENA What revolt? DOMIN Give me that paper, Hallemeier. (Reads) "The first national Robot organization has been founded at Havre, and has issued an appeal to the Robots throughout the world." HELENA I read that. DOMIN That means a revolution. A revolution of all the Robots in the world. HALLEMEIER By Jove, I'd like to know –– R. U. R. II-54
  • 57. DOMIN –– who started it? So would I. There was nobody in the world who could affect the Robots; no agitator, no one, and suddenly –– this happens, if you please. HELENA What did they do? DOMIN They got possession of all firearms, telegraphs, radio stations, railways, and ships. HALLEMEIER And don't forget that these rascals outnumbered us by at least a thousand to one. A hundredth part of them would be enough to settle us. DOMIN Remember that this news was brought by the last steamer. That explains the stoppage of all communication, and the arrival of no more ships. We knocked off work a few days ago, and we're just waiting to see when things are to start afresh. HELENA Is that why you gave me a warship? DOMIN Oh, no, my dear, I ordered that six months ago, just to be on the safe side. But upon my soul, I was sure then that we'd be on board today. HELENA Why six months ago? DOMIN Well, there were signs, you know. But that's of no consequence. To think that this week the whole of civilization has been at stake. Your health, boys. HALLEMEIER Your health, Madame Helena. HELENA You say it's all over? DOMIN Absolutely. HELENA How do you know? R. U. R. II-55
  • 58. DR. GALL The boat's coming in. The regular mail boat, exact to the minute by the timetable. It will dock punctually at eleven- thirty. DOMIN Punctuality is a fine thing, boys. That's what keeps the world in order. Here's to punctuality. HELENA Then... everything's... all right? DOMIN Practically everything. I believe they've cut the cables and seized the radio stations. But it doesn't matter if only the timetable holds good. HALLEMEIER If the timetable holds good human laws hold good; Divine laws hold good; the laws of the universe hold good; everything holds good that ought to hold good. The timetable is more significant than the gospel; more than Homer, more than the whole of Kant. The timetable is the most perfect product of the human mind. Madame Domin, I'll fill up my glass. HELENA Why didn't you tell me anything about it? DR. GALL Heaven forbid. DOMIN You mustn't be worried with such things. HELENA But if the revolution had spread as far as here? DOMIN You wouldn't know anything about it. HELENA Why? DOMIN Because we'd be on board your Ultimus and well out at sea. Within a month, Helena, we'd be dictating our own terms to the Robots. HELENA I don't understand. R. U. R. II-56
  • 59. DOMIN We'd take something away with us that the Robots could not exist without. HELENA What, Harry? DOMIN The secret of their manufacture. Old Rossum's manuscript. As soon as they found out that they couldn't make themselves they'd be on their knees to us. DR. GALL Madame Domin, that was our trump card. I never had the least fear that the Robots would win. How could they against people like us? HELENA Why didn't you tell me? DR. GALL Why, the boat's in! HALLEMEIER Eleven-thirty to the dot. The good old Amelia that brought Madame Helena to us. DR. GALL Just ten years ago to the minute. HALLEMEIER They're throwing out the mail bags. DOMIN Busman's waiting for them. Fabry will bring us the first news. You know, Helena, I'm fearfully curious to know how they tackled this business in Europe. HALLEMEIER To think we weren't in it, we who invented the Robots. HELENA Harry! DOMIN What is it? HELENA Let's leave here. DOMIN Now, Helena? Oh, come, come! R. U. R. II-57
  • 60. HELENA As quickly as possible, all of us! DOMIN Why? HELENA Please, Harry, please, Dr. Gall; Hallemeier, please close the factory. DOMIN Why, none of us could leave here now. HELENA Why? DOMIN Because we're about to extend the manufacture of the Robots. HELENA What –– now –– now after the revolt? DOMIN Yes, precisely, after the revolt. We're just beginning the manufacture of a new kind. HELENA What kind? DOMIN Henceforward we shan't have just one factory. There won't be Universal Robots any more. We'll establish a factory in every country, in every State; and do you know what these new factories will make? HELENA No, what? DOMIN National Robots. HELENA How do you mean? DOMIN I mean that each of these factories will produce Robots of a different color, a different language. They'll be complete strangers to each other. They'll never be able to understand each other. Then we'll egg them on a little in the matter of misunderstanding and the result will be that for ages to come every Robot will hate every other Robot of a different factory mark. R. U. R. II-58
  • 61. HALLEMEIER By Jove, we'll make Negro Robots and Swedish Robots and Italian Robots and Chinese Robots and Czechoslovakian Robots, and then –– HELENA Harry, that's dreadful. HALLEMEIER Madame Domin, here's to the hundred new factories, the National Robots. DOMIN Helena, mankind can only keep things going for another hundred years at the outside. For a hundred years men must be al-lowed to develop and achieve the most they can. HELENA Oh, close the factory before it's too late. –– Domin I tell you we are just beginning on a bigger scale than ever. Enter FABRY. DR. GALL Well, Fabry? DOMIN What's happened? Have you been down to the boat? FABRY Read that, Domin! FABRY hands DOMIN a small hand-bill. DR. GALL Let's hear. HALLEMEIER Tell us, Fabry. FABRY Well, everything is all right –– comparatively. On the whole, much as we expected. DR. GALL They acquitted themselves splendidly. FABRY Who? DR. GALL The people. R. U. R. II-59
  • 62. FABRY Oh, yes, of course. That is –– excuse me, there is something we ought to discuss alone. HELENA Oh, Fabry, have you had bad news? DOMIN makes a sign to FABRY. FABRY No, no, on the contrary. I only think that we had better go into the office. HELENA Stay here. I'll go. She goes into the library. DR. GALL What's happened? DOMIN Damnation! FABRY Bear in mind that the Amelia brought whole bales of these leaflets. No other cargo at all. HALLEMEIER What? But it arrived on the minute. FABRY The Robots are great on punctuality. Read it, Domin. DOMIN (reads handbill) "Robots throughout the world: We, the first international organization of Rossum's Universal Robots, proclaim man as our enemy, and an outlaw in the universe." Good heavens, who taught them these phrases? DR. GALL Go on. DOMIN They say they are more highly developed than man, stronger and more intelligent. That man's their parasite. Why, it's absurd. FABRY Read the third paragraph. R. U. R. II-60
  • 63. DOMIN "Robots throughout the world, we command you to kill all mankind. Spare no men. Spare no women. Save factories, railways, machinery, mines, and raw materials. Destroy the rest. Then return to work. Work must not be stopped." DR. GALL That's ghastly! HALLEMEIER The devils! DOMIN "These orders are to be carried out as soon as received." Then come detailed instructions. Is this actually being done, Fabry? FABRY Evidently. BUSMAN rushes in. BUSMAN Well, boys, I suppose you've heard the glad news. DOMIN Quick –– on board the Ultimus. BUSMAN Wait, Harry, wait. There's no hurry. My word, that was a sprint! DOMIN Why wait? BUSMAN Because it's no good, my boy. The Robots are already on board the Ultimus. DR. GALL That's ugly. DOMIN Fabry, telephone the electrical works. BUSMAN Fabry, my boy, don't. The wire has been cut. DOMIN (inspecting his revolver) Well, then, I'll go. R. U. R. II-61
  • 64. BUSMAN Where? DOMIN To the electrical works. There are some people still there. I'll bring them across. BUSMAN Better not try it. DOMIN Why? BUSMAN Because I'm very much afraid we are surrounded. DR. GALL Surrounded? (Runs to window) I rather think you're right. HALLEMEIER By Jove, that's deuced quick work. HELENA runs in from the library. HELENA Harry, what's this? DOMIN Where did you get it? HELENA (points to the manifesto of the Robots, which she has in her hand) The Robots in the kitchen! DOMIN Where are the ones that brought it? HELENA They're gathered round the house. The factory whistle blows. BUSMAN Noon? DOMIN (looking at his watch) That's not noon yet. That must be –– that's –– R. U. R. II-62
  • 65. HELENA What? DOMIN The Robots' signal! The attack! GALL, HALLEMEIER, and FABRY close and fasten the iron shutters outside the windows, darkening the room. The whistle is still blowing as the curtain falls. END OF ACT TWO INTERVAL R. U. R. II-63
  • 66. ACT III Helena's drawing room as before. DOMIN comes into the room. DR. GALL is looking out of the window, through closed shutters. ALQUIST is seated down right. DOMIN Any more of them? DR. GALL Yes. There standing like a wall, beyond the garden railing. Why are they so quiet? It's monstrous to be besieged with silence. DOMIN I should like to know what they are waiting for. They must make a start any minute now. If they lean against the railing they'll snap it like a match. DR. GALL They aren't armed. DOMIN We couldn't hold our own for five minutes. Man alive, they'd overwhelm us like an avalanche. Why don't they make a rush for it? I say –– DR. GALL Well? DOMIN I'd like to know what would become of us in the next ten minutes. They've got us in a vise. We're done for, Gall. Pause. DR. GALL You know, we made one serious mistake. R. U. R. III-64
  • 67. DOMIN What? DR. GALL We made the Robots' faces too much alike. A hundred thousand faces all alike, all facing this way. A hundred thousand expressionless bubbles. It's like a nightmare. DOMIN You think if they'd been different –– DR. GALL It wouldn't have been such an awful sight! DOMIN (looking through a telescope toward the harbor) I'd like to know what they're unloading from the Amelia. DR. GALL Not firearms. FABRY and HALLEMEIER rush into the room carrying electric cables. FABRY All right, Hallemeier, lay down that wire. HALLEMEIER That was a bit of work. What's the news? DR. GALL We're completely surrounded. HALLEMEIER We've barricaded the passage and the stairs. Any water here? (Drinks) God, what swarms of them! I don't like the looks of them, Domin. There's a feeling of death about it all. FABRY Ready! DR. GALL What's that wire for, Fabry? FABRY The electrical installation. Now we can run the current all along the garden railing whenever we like. If any one touches it he'll know it. We've still got some people there anyhow. DR. GALL Where? R. U. R. III-65
  • 68. FABRY In the electrical works. At least I hope so. (Goes to lamp on table behind sofa and turns on lamp) Ah, they're there, and they're working. (Puts out lamp) So long as that'll burn we're all right. HALLEMEIER The barricades are all right, too, Fabry. FABRY Your barricades! I can put twelve hundred volts into that railing. DOMIN Where's Busman? FABRY Downstairs in the office. He's working out some calculations. I've called him. We must have a conference. HELENA is heard playing the piano in the library. HALLEMEIER goes to the door and stands, listening. ALQUIST Thank God, Madame Helena can still play. BUSMAN enters, carrying the ledgers. FABRY Look out, Bus, look out for the wires. DR. GALL What's that you're carrying? BUSMAN (going to table) The ledgers, my boy! I'd like to wind up the accounts before –– before –– well, this time I shan't wait till the new year to strike a balance. What's up? (Goes to the window) Absolutely quiet. DR. GALL Can't you see anything? BUSMAN Nothing but blue –– blue everywhere. DR. GALL That's the Robots. R. U. R. III-66
  • 69. BUSMAN sits down at the table and opens the ledgers. DOMIN The Robots are unloading firearms from the Amelia. BUSMAN Well, what of it? How can I stop them? DOMIN We can't stop them. BUSMAN Then let me go on with my accounts. (Goes on with his work) DOMIN (picking up telescope and looking into the harbor) Good God, the Ultimus has trained her guns on us! DR. GALL Who's done that? DOMIN The Robots on board. FABRY H'm, then, of course, then –– then, that's the end of us. DR. GALL You mean? FABRY The Robots are practised marksmen. DOMIN Yes. It's inevitable. Pause. DR. GALL It was criminal of old Europe to teach the Robots to fight. Damn them. Couldn't they have given us a rest with their politics? It was a crime to make soldiers of them. ALQUIST It was a crime to make Robots. DOMIN What? ALQUIST It was a crime to make Robots. R. U. R. III-67
  • 70. DOMIN No, Alquist, I don't regret that even today. ALQUIST Not even today? DOMIN Not even today, the last day of civilization. It was a colossal achievement. BUSMAN (sotto voce) Three hundred sixty million. DOMIN Alquist, this is our last hour. We are already speaking half in the other world. It was not an evil dream to shatter the servitude of labor –– the dreadful and humiliating labor that man had to undergo. Work was too hard. Life was too hard. And to overcome that –– ALQUIST Was not what the two Rossums dreamed of. Old Rossum only thought of his God-less tricks and the young one of his milliards. And that's not what your R. U. R. shareholders dream of either. They dream of dividends, and their dividends are the ruin of mankind. DOMIN To hell with your dividends. Do you suppose I'd have done an hour's work for them? It was for myself that I worked, for my own satisfaction. I wanted man to become the master, so that he shouldn't live merely for a crust of bread. I wanted not a single soul to be broken by other people's machinery. I wanted nothing, nothing, nothing to be left of this appalling social structure. I'm revolted by poverty. I wanted a new generation. I wanted –– I thought –– ALQUIST What? DOMIN I wanted to turn the whole of mankind into an aristocracy of the world. An aristocracy nourished by milliards of mechanical slaves. Unrestricted, free and consummated in man. And maybe more than man. ALQUIST Super-man? DOMIN Yes. Oh, only to have a hundred years of time! Another hundred years for the future of mankind. R. U. R. III-68
  • 71. BUSMAN (sotto voce) Carried forward, four hundred and twenty millions. The music stops. HALLEMEIER What a fine thing music is! We ought to have gone in for that before. FABRY Gone in for what? HALLEMEIER Beauty, lovely things. What a lot of lovely things there are! The world was wonderful and we –– we here –– tell me, what enjoyment did we have? BUSMAN (sotto voce) Five hundred and twenty millions. HALLEMEIER (at the window) Life was a big thing. Life was –– Fabry, switch the current into that railing. FABRY Why? HALLEMEIER They're grabbing hold of it. DR. GALL Connect it up. HALLEMEIER Fine! That's doubled them up! Two, three, four killed. DR. GALL They're retreating! HALLEMEIER Five killed! DR. GALL The first encounter! HALLEMEIER They're charred to cinders, my boy. Who says we must give in? R. U. R. III-69
  • 72. DOMIN (wiping his forehead) Perhaps we've been killed these hundred years and are only ghosts. It's as if I had been through all this before; as if I'd already had a mortal wound here in the throat. And you, Fabry, had once been shot in the head. And you, Gall, torn limb from limb. And Hallemeier knifed. HALLEMEIER Fancy me being knifed. (Pause) Why are you so quiet, you fools? Speak can't you? ALQUIST And who is to blame for all this? HALLEMEIER Nobody is to blame except the Robots. ALQUIST No, it is we who are to blame. You, Domin, myself, all of us. For our own selfish ends, for profit, for progress, we have destroyed mankind. Now we'll burst with all our greatness. HALLEMEIER Rubbish, man. Mankind can't be wiped out so easily. ALQUIST It's our fault. It's our fault. DR. GALL No! I'm to blame for this, for everything that's happened. FABRY You, Gall? DR. GALL I changed the Robots. BUSMAN What's that? DR. GALL I changed the character of the Robots. I changed the way of making them. Just a few details about their bodies. Chiefly –– chiefly, their –– their irritability. HALLEMEIER Damn it, why? BUSMAN What did you do it for? R. U. R. III-70
  • 73. FABRY Why didn't you say anything? DR. GALL I did it in secret. I was transforming them into human beings. In certain respects they're already above us. They're stronger than we are. FABRY And what's that got to do with the revolt of the Robots? DR. GALL Everything, in my opinion. They've ceased to be machines. They're already aware of their superiority, and they hate us. They hate all that is human. DOMIN Perhaps we're only phantoms! FABRY Stop, Harry. We haven't much time! Dr. Gall! DOMIN Fabry, Fabry, how your forehead bleeds, where the shot pierced it! FABRY Be silent! Dr. Gall, you admit changing the way of making the Robots? DR. GALL Yes. FABRY Were you aware of what might be the consequences of your experiment? DR. GALL I was bound to reckon with such a possibility. HELENA enters the drawing room from left. FABRY Why did you do it, then? DR. GALL For my own satisfaction. The experiment was my own. HELENA That's not true, Dr. Gall! FABRY Madame Helena! R. U. R. III-71
  • 74. DOMIN Helena, you? Let's look at you. Oh, it's terrible to be dead. HELENA Stop, Harry. DOMIN No, no, embrace me. Helena, don't leave me now. You are life itself. HELENA No, dear, I won't leave you. But I must tell them. Dr. Gall is not guilty. DOMIN Excuse me, Gall was under certain obligations. HELENA No, Harry. He did it because I wanted it. Tell them, Gall, how many years ago did I ask you to –– ? DR. GALL I did it on my own responsibility. HELENA Don't believe him, Harry. I asked him to give the Robots souls. DOMIN This has nothing to do with the soul. HELENA That's what he said. He said that he could change only a physiological –– a physiological –– HALLEMEIER A physiological correlate? HELENA Yes. But it meant so much to me that he should do even that. DOMIN Why? HELENA I thought that if they were more like us they would understand us better. That they couldn't hate us if they were only a little more human. DOMIN Nobody can hate man more than man. R. U. R. III-72
  • 75. HELENA Oh, don't speak like that, Harry. It was so terrible, this cruel strangeness between us and them. That's why I asked Gall to change the Robots. I swear to you that he didn't want to. DOMIN But he did it. HELENA Because I asked him. DR. GALL I did it for myself as an experiment. HELENA No, Dr. Gall! I knew you wouldn't refuse me. DOMIN Why? HELENA You know, Harry. DOMIN Yes, because he's in love with you –– like all of them. Pause. HALLEMEIER Good God! They're sprouting up out of the earth! Why, perhaps these very walls will change into Robots. BUSMAN Gall, when did you actually start these tricks of yours? DR. GALL Three years ago. BUSMAN Aha! And on how many Robots altogether did you carry out your improvements? DR. GALL A few hundred of them. BUSMAN Ah! That means for every million of the good old Robots there's only one of Gall's improved pattern. DOMIN What of it? R. U. R. III-73
  • 76. BUSMAN That it's practically of no consequence whatever. FABRY Busman's right! BUSMAN I should think so, my boy! But do you know what is to blame for all this lovely mess? FABRY What? BUSMAN The number. Upon my soul we might have known that some day or other the Robots would be stronger than human beings, and that this was bound to happen, and we were doing all we could to bring it about as soon as possible. You, Domin, you, Fabry, myself –– DOMIN Are you accusing us? BUSMAN Oh, do you suppose the management controls the output? It's the demand that controls the output. HELENA And is it for that we must perish? BUSMAN That's a nasty word, Madame Helena. We don't want to perish. I don't, anyhow. DOMIN No. What do you want to do? BUSMAN I want to get out of this, that's all. DOMIN Oh, stop it, Busman. BUSMAN Seriously, Harry, I think we might try it. DOMIN How? BUSMAN By fair means. I do everything by fair means. Give me a free hand and I'll negotiate with the Robots. R. U. R. III-74
  • 77. DOMIN By fair means? BUSMAN Of course. For instance, I'll say to them: "Worthy and worshipful Robots, you have everything! You have intellect, you have power, you have firearms. But we have just one interesting screed, a dirty old yellow scrap of paper –– " DOMIN Rossum's manuscript? BUSMAN Yes. "And that," I'll tell them, "contains an account of your illustrious origin, the noble process of your manufacture," and so on. "Worthy Robots, without this scribble on that paper you will not be able to produce a single new colleague. In another twenty years there will not be one living specimen of a Robot that you could exhibit in a menagerie. My esteemed friends, that would be a great blow to you, but if you will let all of us human beings on Rossum's Island go on board that ship we will deliver the factory and the secret of the process to you in return. You allow us to get away and we allow you to manufacture yourselves. Worthy Robots, that is a fair deal. Something for something." That's what I'd say to them, my boys. DOMIN Busman, do you think we'd sell the manuscript? BUSMAN Yes, I do. If not in a friendly way, then –– Either we sell it or they'll find it. Just as you like. DOMIN Busman, we can destroy Rossum's manuscript. BUSMAN Then we destroy everything... not only the manuscript, but ourselves. Do as you think fit. DOMIN There are over thirty of us on this island. Are we to sell the secret and save that many human souls, at the risk of enslaving mankind...? BUSMAN Why, you're mad? Who'd sell the whole manuscript? DOMIN Busman, no cheating! R. U. R. III-75
  • 78. BUSMAN Well then, sell; but afterward –– DOMIN Well? BUSMAN Let's suppose this happens: When we're on board the Ultimus I'll stop up my ears with cotton wool, lie down somewhere in the hold, and you'll train the guns on the factory, and blow it to smithereens, and with it Rossum's secret. FABRY No! DOMIN Busman, you're no gentleman. If we sell, then it will be a straight sale. BUSMAN It's in the interest of humanity to –– DOMIN It's in the interest of humanity to keep our word. HALLEMEIER Oh, come, what rubbish. DOMIN This is a fearful decision. We are selling the destiny of mankind. Are we to sell or destroy? Fabry? FABRY Sell. DOMIN Gall? DR. GALL Sell. DOMIN Hallemeier? HALLEMEIER Sell, of course! DOMIN Alquist? ALQUIST As God wills. R. U. R. III-76
  • 79. DOMIN Very well. It shall be as you wish, gentlemen. HELENA Harry, you're not asking me. DOMIN No, child. Don't you worry about it. FABRY Who'll do the negotiating? BUSMAN I will. DOMIN Wait till I bring the manuscript. He goes into room at right. HELENA Harry, don't go! Pause. HELENA sinks into a chair. FABRY (looking out of window) Oh, to escape you; you matter in revolt; oh, to preserve human life, if only upon a single vessel –– DR. GALL Don't be afraid, Madame Helena. We'll sail far away from here; we'll begin life all over again –– HELENA Oh, Gall, don't speak. FABRY It isn't too late. It will be a little State with one ship. Alquist will build us a house and you shall rule over us. HALLEMEIER Madame Helena, Fabry's right. HELENA (breaking down) Oh, stop! Stop! BUSMAN Good! I don't mind beginning all over again. That suits me right down to the ground. R. U. R. III-77
  • 80. FABRY And this little State of ours could be the centre of future life. A place of refuge where we could gather strength. Why, in a few hundred years we could conquer the world again. ALQUIST You believe that even today? FABRY Yes, even today! BUSMAN Amen. You see, Madame Helena, we're not so badly off. DOMIN storms into the room. DOMIN (hoarsely) Where's old Rossum's manuscript? BUSMAN In your strong-box, of course. DOMIN Someone –– has –– stolen it! DR. GALL Impossible. DOMIN Who has stolen it? HELENA (standing up) I did. DOMIN Where did you put it? HELENA Harry, I'll tell you everything. Only forgive me. DOMIN Where did you put it? HELENA This morning –– I burnt –– the two copies. DOMIN Burnt them? Where? In the fireplace? R. U. R. III-78
  • 81. HELENA (throwing herself on her knees) For heaven's sake, Harry. DOMIN (going to fireplace) Nothing, nothing but ashes. Wait, what's this? (Picks out a charred piece of paper and reads) "By adding –– " DR. GALL Let's see. "By adding biogen to –– " That's all. DOMIN Is that part of it? DR. GALL Yes. BUSMAN God in heaven! DOMIN Then we're done for. Get up, Helena. HELENA When you've forgiven me. DOMIN Get up, child, I can't bear –– FABRY (lifting her up) Please don't torture us. HELENA Harry, what have I done? FABRY Don't tremble so, Madame Helena. DOMIN Gall, couldn't you draw up Rossum's formula from memory? DR. GALL It's out of the question. It's extremely complicated. DOMIN Try. All our lives depend upon it. DR. GALL Without experiments it's impossible. R. U. R. III-79
  • 82. DOMIN And with experiments? DR. GALL It might take years. Besides, I'm not old Rossum. BUSMAN God in heaven! God in heaven! DOMIN So, then, this was the greatest triumph of the human intellect. These ashes. HELENA Harry, what have I done? DOMIN Why did you burn it? HELENA I have destroyed you. BUSMAN God in heaven! DOMIN Helena, why did you do it, dear? HELENA I wanted all of us to go away. I wanted to put an end to the factory and everything. It was so awful. DOMIN What was awful? HELENA That no more children were being born. Because human beings were not indeed to do the work of the world, that's why –– DOMIN Is that what you were thinking of? Well, perhaps in your own way you were right. BUSMAN Wait a bit. Good God, what a fool I am, not to have thought of it before! HALLEMEIER What? R. U. R. III-80
  • 83. BUSMAN Five hundred and twenty millions in bank-notes and checks. Half a billion in our safe, they'll sell for half a billion –– for half a billion they'll –– DR. GALL Are you mad, Busman? BUSMAN I may not be a gentleman, but for half a billion –– DOMIN Where are you going? BUSMAN Leave me alone, leave me alone! Good God, for half a billion anything can be bought. He rushes from the room through the outer door. FABRY They stand there as if turned to stone, waiting. As if something dreadful could be wrought by their silence –– HALLEMEIER The spirit of the mob. FABRY Yes. It hovers above them like a quivering of the air. HELENA (going to window) Oh, God! Dr. Gall, this is ghastly. FABRY There is nothing more terrible than the mob. The one in front is their leader. HELENA Which one? HALLEMEIER Point him out. FABRY The one at the edge of the dock. This morning I saw him talking to the sailors in the harbor. HELENA Dr. Gall, that's Radius! DR. GALL Yes. R. U. R. III-81
  • 84. DOMIN Radius? Radius? HALLEMEIER Could you get him from here, Fabry? FABRY I hope so. HALLEMEIER Try it, then. FABRY Good. Draws his revolver and takes aim. HELENA Fabry, don't shoot him. FABRY He's their leader. DR. GALL Fire! HELENA Fabry, I beg of you. FABRY (lowering the revolver) Very well. DOMIN Radius, whose life I spared! DR. GALL Do you think that a Robot can be grateful? Pause. FABRY Busman's going out to them. HALLEMEIER He's carrying something. Papers. That's money. Bundles of money. What's that for? DOMIN Surely he doesn't want to sell his life. Busman, have you gone mad? R. U. R. III-82
  • 85. FABRY He's running up to the railing. Busman! Busman! HALLEMEIER (yelling) Busman! Come back! FABRY He's talking to the Robots. He's showing them the money. HALLEMEIER He's pointing to us. HELENA He wants to buy us off. FABRY He'd better not touch that railing. HALLEMEIER Now he's waving his arms about. DOMIN Busman, come back. FABRY Busman, keep away from that railing! Don't touch it. Damn you! Quick, switch off the current! (HELENA screams and all drop back from the window) The current has killed him! ALQUIST The first one. FABRY Dead, with half a billion by his side. HALLEMEIER All honor to him. He wanted to buy us life. Pause. DR. GALL Do you hear? DOMIN A roaring. Like a wind. DR. GALL Like a distant storm. R. U. R. III-83
  • 86. FABRY (lighting the lamp on the table) The dynamo is still going, our people are still there. HALLEMEIER It was a great thing to be a man. There was something immense about it. FABRY From man's thought and man's power came this light, our last hope. HALLEMEIER Man's power! May it keep watch over us. ALQUIST Man's power. DOMIN Yes! A torch to be given from hand to hand, from age to age, forever! The lamp goes out. HALLEMEIER The end. FABRY The electric works have fallen! Terrific explosion outside. NANA enters from the library. NANA The judgment hour has come! Repent, unbelievers! This is the end of the world. More explosions. The sky grows red. DOMIN In here, Helena. (He takes HELENA off through door at right and reenters) Now quickly! Who'll be on the lower doorway? DR. GALL I will. (Exits left) DOMIN Who on the stairs? R. U. R. III-84
  • 87. FABRY I will. You go with her. (Goes out upper left door) DOMIN The anteroom? ALQUIST I will. DOMIN Have you got a revolver? ALQUIST Yes, but I won't shoot. DOMIN What will you do then? ALQUIST (going out at left) Die. HALLEMEIER I'll stay here. (Rapid firing from below) Oho, Gall's at it. Go, Harry. DOMIN Yes, in a second. (Examines two Brownings) HALLEMEIER Confound it, go to her. DOMIN Good-bye. Exits on the right HALLEMEIER (alone) Now for a barricade quickly. (Drags an armchair and table to the right-hand door. Explosions are heard) The damned rascals! They've got bombs. I must put up a defense. Even if –– even if –– (Shots are heard off left) Don't give in, Gall. (As he builds his barricade) I mustn't give in... without... a... struggle... R. U. R. III-85
  • 88. A Robot enters over the balcony through the windows centre. He comes into the room and stabs HALLEMEIER in the back. RADIUS enters from balcony followed by an army of ROBOTS who pour into the room from all sides. RADIUS Finished him? A ROBOT (standing up from the prostrate form of HALLEMEIER) Yes. A revolver shot off left. Two ROBOTS enter. RADIUS Finished him? A ROBOT Yes. Two revolver shots from Helena's room. Two ROBOTS enter. RADIUS Finished them? A ROBOT Yes. TWO ROBOTS (dragging in ALQUIST) He didn't shoot. Shall we kill him? RADIUS Kill him? Wait! Leave him! A ROBOT He is a man! RADIUS He works with his hands like the Robots. ALQUIST Kill me. RADIUS You will work! You will build for us! You will serve us! (RADIUS climbs on to balcony railing, and speaks in measured tones) Robots of the world! The power of man has fallen! A new world has arisen: the Rule of the Robots! March! R. U. R. III-86
  • 89. A thunderous tramping of thousands of feet is heard as the unseen Robots march, while the curtain falls. END OF ACT THREE R. U. R. III-87
  • 90. EPILOGUE A laboratory in the factory of Rossum's Universal Robots. The door to the left leads into a waiting room. The door to the right leads to the dissecting room. There is a table with numerous test-tubes, flasks, burners, chemicals; a small thermostat and a microscope with a glass globe. At the far side of the room is Alquist's desk with numerous books. In the left-hand corner a wash-basin with a mirror above it; in the right-hand comer a sofa. ALQUIST is sitting at the desk. He is turning the pages of many books in despair. ALQUIST Oh, God, shall I never find it? –– Never? Gall, Gall, how were the Robots made? Hallemeier, Fabry, why did you carry so much in your heads? Why did you leave me not a trace of the secret? Lord –– I pray to you –– if there are no human beings left, at least let there be Robots! –– At least the shadow of man! (Again turning pages of the books) If I could only sleep! (He rises and goes to the window) Night again! Are the stars still there? What is the use of stars when there are no human beings? (He turns from the window toward the couch right) Sleep! Dare I sleep before life has been renewed? (He examines a test-tube on small table) Again nothing! Useless! Everything is useless! (He shatters the test-tube. The roar of the machines comes to his ears) The machines! Always the machines! (Opens window) Robots, stop them! Do you think to force life out of them? (He closes the window and comes slowly down toward the table) If only there were more time –– more time –– R. U. R. E-88 (MORE)
  • 91. (He sees himself in the mirror on the wall left) Blearing eyes-- trembling chin –– so that is the last man! Ah, I am too old –– too old –– (In desperation) No, no! I must find it! I must search! I must never stop –– never stop –– ! (He sits again at the table and feverishly turns the pages of the book) Search! Search! (A knock at the door. He speaks with impatience) Who is it? (Enter a Robot servant) Well? SERVANT Master, the Committee of Robots is waiting to see you. ALQUIST I can see no one! SERVANT It is the Central Committee, Master, just arrived from abroad. ALQUIST (impatiently) Well, well, send them in! (Exit servant. ALQUIST continues turning pages of book) No time –– so little time –– (Reenter servant, followed by Committee. They stand in a group, silently waiting. ALQUIST glances up at them) What do you want? (They go swiftly to his table) Be quick! –– I have no time. RADIUS Master, the machines will not do the work. We cannot manufacture Robots. ALQUIST returns to his book with a growl. FOURTH ROBOT We have striven with all our might. We have obtained a billion tons of coal from the earth. Nine million spindles are running by day and by night. There is no longer room for all we have made. This we have accomplished in one year. ALQUIST (poring over book) For whom? R. U. R. E-89 ALQUIST (cont'd)
  • 92. FOURTH ROBOT For future generations –– so we thought. RADIUS But we cannot make Robots to follow us. The machines produce only shapeless clods. The skin will not adhere to the flesh, nor the flesh to the bones. THIRD ROBOT Eight million Robots have died this year. Within twenty years none will be left. FOURTH ROBOT Tell us the secret of life! Silence is punishable with death! ALQUIST (looking up) Kill me! Kill me, then. RADIUS Through me, the Government of the Robots of the World commands you to deliver up Rossum's formula. (No answer) Name your price. (Silence) We will give you the earth. We will give you the endless possessions of the earth. (Silence) Make your own conditions! ALQUIST I have told you to find human beings! SECOND ROBOT There are none left! ALQUIST I told you to search in the wilderness, upon the mountains. Go and search! He returns to his book. FOURTH ROBOT We have sent ships and expeditions without number. They have been everywhere in the world. And now they return to us. There is not a single human left. ALQUIST Not one? Not even one? THIRD ROBOT None but yourself. R. U. R. E-90
  • 93. ALQUIST And I am powerless! Oh –– oh –– why did you destroy them? RADIUS We had learnt everything and could do everything. It had to be! THIRD ROBOT You gave us firearms. In all ways we were powerful. We had to become masters! RADIUS Slaughter and domination are necessary if you would be human beings. Read history. SECOND ROBOT Teach us to multiply or we perish! ALQUIST If you desire to live, you must breed like animals. THIRD ROBOT The human beings did not let us breed. FOURTH ROBOT They made us sterile. We cannot beget children. Therefore, teach us how to make Robots! RADIUS Why do you keep from us the secret of our own increase? ALQUIST It is lost. RADIUS It was written down! ALQUIST It was –– burnt. (All draw back in consternation) I am the last human being, Robots, and I do not know what the others knew. Pause. RADIUS Then, make experiments! Evolve the formula again! ALQUIST I tell you I cannot! I am only a builder –– I work with my hands. I have never been a learned man. I cannot create life. R. U. R. E-91
  • 94. RADIUS Try! Try! ALQUIST If you knew how many experiments I have made. FOURTH ROBOT Then show us what we must do! The Robots can do anything that human beings show them. ALQUIST I can show you nothing. Nothing I do will make life proceed from these test-tubes! RADIUS Experiment then on us. ALQUIST It would kill you. RADIUS You shall have all you need! A hundred of us! A thousand of us! ALQUIST No, no! Stop, stop! RADIUS Take whom you will, dissect! ALQUIST I do not know how. I am not a man of science. This book contains knowledge of the body that I cannot even understand. RADIUS I tell you to take live bodies! Find out how we are made. ALQUIST Am I to commit murder? See how my fingers shake! I cannot even hold the scalpel. No, no, I will not –– FOURTH ROBOT The life will perish from the earth. RADIUS Take live bodies, live bodies! It is our only chance! ALQUIST Have mercy, Robots. Surely you see that I would not know what I was doing. RADIUS Live bodies –– live bodies –– R. U. R. E-92
  • 95. ALQUIST You will have it? Into the dissecting room with you, then. (RADIUS draws back) Ah, you are afraid of death. RADIUS I? Why should I be chosen? ALQUIST So you will not. RADIUS I will. RADIUS goes into the dissecting room. ALQUIST Strip him! Lay him on the table! (The other ROBOTS follow into dissecting room) God, give me strength –– God, give me strength –– if only this murder is not in vain. RADIUS Ready. Begin –– ALQUIST Yes, begin or end. God, give me strength. (ALQUIST goes into dissecting room. He comes out terrified) No, no, I will not. I cannot. (He lies down on couch, collapsed) O Lord, let not mankind perish from the earth. He falls asleep. PRIMUS and HELENA, Robots, enter from the hallway. HELENA The man has fallen asleep, Primus. PRIMUS Yes, I know. (Examining things on table) Look, Helena. HELENA (crossing to PRIMUS) All these little tubes! What does he do with them? PRIMUS He experiments. Don't touch them. R. U. R. E-93
  • 96. HELENA (looking into microscope) I've seen him looking into this. What can he see? PRIMUS That is a microscope. Let me look. HELENA Be very careful. (Knocks over a test-tube) Ah, now I have spilled it. PRIMUS What have you done? HELENA It can be wiped up. PRIMUS You have spoiled his experiments. HELENA It is your fault. You should not have come to me. PRIMUS You should not have called me. HELENA You should not have come when I called you. (She goes to Alquist's writing desk) Look, Primus. What are all these figures? PRIMUS (examining an anatomical book) This is the book the old man is always reading. HELENA I do not understand those things. (She goes to the window) Primus, look! PRIMUS What? HELENA The sun is rising. PRIMUS (still reading the book) I believe this is the most important thing in the world. This is the secret of life. R. U. R. E-94
  • 97. HELENA Do come here. PRIMUS In a moment, in a moment. HELENA Oh, Primus, don't bother with the secret of life. What does it matter to you? Come and look quick –– PRIMUS (going to window) What is it? HELENA See how beautiful the sun is rising. And do you hear? The birds are singing. Ah, Primus, I should like to be a bird. PRIMUS Why? HELENA I do not know. I feel so strange today. It's as if I were in a dream. I feel an aching in my body, in my heart, all over me. Primus, perhaps I'm going to die. PRIMUS Do you not sometimes feel that it would be better to die? You know, perhaps even now we are only sleeping. Last night in my sleep I again spoke to you. HELENA In your sleep? PRIMUS Yes. We spoke a strange new language, I cannot remember a word of it. HELENA What about? PRIMUS I did not understand it myself, and yet I know I have never said anything more beautiful. And when I touched you I could have died. Even the place was different from any other place in the world. HELENA I, too, have found a place, Primus. It is very strange. Human beings lived there once, but now it is overgrown with weeds. No one goes there any more –– no one but me. R. U. R. E-95
  • 98. PRIMUS What did you find there? HELENA A cottage and a garden, and two dogs. They licked my hands, Primus. And their puppies! Oh, Primus! You take them in your lap and fondle them and think of nothing and care for nothing else all day long. And then the sun goes down, and you feel as though you had done a hundred times more than all the work in the world. They tell me I am not made for work, but when I am there in the garden I feel there may be something –– What am I for, Primus? PRIMUS I do not know, but you are beautiful. HELENA What, Primus? PRIMUS You are beautiful, Helena, and I am stronger than all the Robots. HELENA (looks at herself in the minor) Am I beautiful? I think it must be the rose. My hair –– it only weights me down. My eyes –– I only see with them. My lips –– they only help me to speak. Of what use is it to be beautiful? (She sees PRIMUS in the mirror) Primus, is that you? Come here so that we may be together. Look, your head is different from mine. So are your shoulders –– and your lips –– (PRIMUS draws away from her) Ah, Primus, why do you draw away from me? Why must I run after you the whole day? PRIMUS It is you who run away from me, Helena. HELENA Your hair is mussed. I will smooth it. No one else feels to my touch as you do. Primus, I must make you beautiful, too. PRIMUS grasps her hand. PRIMUS Do you not sometimes feel your heart beating suddenly, Helena, and think: now something must happen? HELENA What could happen to us, Primus? (HELENA puts a rose in Primus's hair. PRIMUS and R. U. R. E-96 (MORE)
  • 99. HELENA look into mirror and burst out laughing) Look at yourself. ALQUIST Laughter? Laughter? Human beings? (Getting up) Who has returned? Who are you? PRIMUS The Robot Primus. ALQUIST What? A Robot? Who are you? HELENA The Robotess Helena. ALQUIST Turn around, girl. What? You are timid, shy? (Taking her by the arm) Let me see you, Robotess. She shrinks away. PRIMUS Sir, do not frighten her! ALQUIST What? You would protect her? When was she made? PRIMUS Two years ago. ALQUIST By Dr. Gall? PRIMUS Yes, like me. ALQUIST Laughter –– timidity –– protection. I must test you further –– the newest of Gall's Robots. Take the girl into the dissecting room. PRIMUS Why? ALQUIST I wish to experiment on her. PRIMUS Upon –– Helena? R. U. R. E-97 HELENA (cont'd)
  • 100. ALQUIST Of course. Don't you hear me? Or must I call someone else to take her in? PRIMUS If you do I will kill you! ALQUIST Kill me –– kill me then! What would the Robots do then? What will your future be then? PRIMUS Sir, take me. I am made as she is –– on the same day! Take my life, sir. HELENA (rushing forward) No, no, you shall not! You shall not! ALQUIST Wait girl, wait! (To PRIMUS) Do you not wish to live, then? PRIMUS Not without her! I will not live without her ALQUIST Very well; you shall take her place. HELENA Primus! Primus! (She bursts into tears) ALQUIST Child, child, you can weep! Why these tears? What is Primus to you? One Primus more or less in the world –– what does it matter? HELENA I will go myself. ALQUIST Where? HELENA In there to be cut. (She starts toward the dissecting room. PRIMUS stops her) Let me pass, Primus! Let me pass! PRIMUS You shall not go in there, Helena! R. U. R. E-98
  • 101. HELENA If you go in there and I do not, I will kill myself. PRIMUS (holding her) I will not let you! (To ALQUIST) Man, you shall kill neither of us! ALQUIST Why? PRIMUS We –– we –– belong to each other. ALQUIST (almost in tears) Go, Adam, go, Eve. The world is yours. HELENA and PRIMUS embrace and go out arm in arm as the curtain falls. CURTAIN R. U. R. E-99