Captain monologue — Plays by August Strindberg, First Series

And I don't! But all who come near us turn evil and go their way. Curt was weak, and the evil is strong! [_Pause_] How commonplace life has become! Formerly blows were struck; now you shake your fist at the most! I am fairly certain that, three months from now, we shall celebrate our silver wedding--with Curt as best man--and with the Doctor and Gerda among the guests. The Quartermaster will make the speech and the Sergeant-Major will lead the cheering. And if I know the Colonel right, he will come on his own invitation--Yes, you may laugh! But do you recall the silver wedding of Adolph--in the Fusiliers? The bride had to carry her wedding ring on the right hand, because the groom in a tender moment had chopped off her left ring finger with his dirk. [ALICE _puts her handkerchief to her mouth in order to repress her laughter_] Are you crying? No, I believe you are laughing! Yes, child, partly we weep and partly we laugh. Which is the right thing to do?--Don't ask me! The other day I read in a newspaper that a man had been divorced seven times--which means that he had been married seven times--and finally, at the age of ninety-eight, he ran away with his first wife and married her again. Such is love! If life be serious, or merely a joke, is more than I can decide. Often it is most painful when a joke, and its seriousness is after all more agreeable and peaceful. But when at last you try to be serious, somebody comes and plays a joke on you--as Curt, for instance! Do you want a silver wedding? [ALICE _remains silent_] Oh, say yes! They will laugh at us, but what does it matter? We may laugh also, or keep serious, as the occasion may require.