“Broken pitcher” Kleist in summary
The play takes place at the beginning of the XIX century. in the Dutch village of Guizum, near Utrecht, in January. The scene of action is the court room. Adam, the village judge, is sitting and bandaging his leg. Likht comes in, the scribe, and sees that Adam has a face full of bruises, a purple bruise under his eye, a tuft of meat is torn from his cheek. Adam explains to him that in the morning, getting out of bed, he lost his balance, fell head straight into the stove and, in addition, dislocated his leg. PICTARE Licht informs him that a member of the court, adviser Walter, is traveling to Utrecht from Guizum with revision. He checks all the courts in the district. On the eve he visited the village of Hall next to Guizum and after the verification he removed the local judge and clerk from his post. The judge was found early in the morning in a barn hanging on rafters. He hanged himself after Walter put him under house arrest. However, somehow managed to bring it back to life.
Adam
Walter enters and after the greeting expresses the desire to begin the trial. Adam for a while leaves the room. The plaintiffs come in – Martha Rull and her daughter Eve, and together with them Feith Tyumpel, a peasant, and his son Ruprecht. Martha screams that her favorite pitcher was defeated and that she will force the offender Ruprecht to pay for it. Rupprecht says that his wedding with Eve does not happen, and calls her a dissolute girl. Returning and seeing the whole company, Adam starts to worry and thinks to himself, will not they complain to him about him? Eve trembles and begs her mother to leave this terrible place
The first to testify is the plaintiff – Marta. She claims that Ruprecht broke the pitcher. Adam is quite satisfied, he declares the guy guilty, and the meeting is closed. Walter is extremely unhappy and asks to deal with all formalities. Then Martha begins in all details to talk about the merits of this jug, about his history, than, in the end, displays all of himself. Then she goes on to describe the events of the last evening. She says that at eleven o’clock she already wanted to put out the night light, when suddenly from the Evine room she heard men’s voices and noise. She was frightened, ran there and saw that the door to the room was broken and swearing from her. Entering inside, she saw that Rupprecht as rabid breaks Eve’s hands, and in the middle of the room is a broken pitcher. Marta drew him to the answer, but he began to assert that the pitcher had been broken by someone else, to those who have just escaped, and began to insult and abuse Eve. Then Martha asked her daughter who actually was here, and Eve swore that only Ruprecht. At the trial, Eve says she did not swear at all. The situation is beginning to disturb Adam, and he again gives Eve his instructions. Walter stops them, expresses his dissatisfaction with the behavior of the judge and expresses confidence that even if Adam himself broke the pitcher, he could not more diligently pour all the suspicions on the young man. Ruprecht’s turn comes to give his testimony. Adam by all means draws this moment, talks about his sick chicken, which he is going to treat with noodles and pills, than finally takes Walter out of himself. Ruprecht, who finally received the word, declares that there is not a word of truth in the charge against him. Adam begins to distract everyone’s attention from him, so Walter already intends to put the clerk Licht in the judge’s place. Adam, frightened, gives Ruprecht the opportunity to continue the testimony. The young man tells that in the evening, about ten o’clock, he decided to go to Eve. In the courtyard of her house he heard the creaking of the gate and was glad that Eve had not yet left. Suddenly he saw his girlfriend in the garden and someone else with her. He could not see it because of the darkness, but he thought that it was Lebrecht, a shoemaker who had tried to beat Eva away from him in the fall. Ruprecht climbed into the gate and hid in the bushes of hawthorn, from where he heard chatter, whispers and jokes. Then they both went into the house. Rupprecht began to break through the door, already locked on the latch. Prinalleg and knocked her out. She thundered, a pitcher flew from the eaves of the stove, and someone jumped out of the window hastily. Ruprecht ran to the window and saw, that the fugitive is still hanging on the fence rods. Ruprecht hit him on the head with the door bolt that was left in his hand, and decided to run after him, but he threw a handful of sand in his eyes and disappeared. Then Ruprecht returned to the house, cursed Eve, and a little later Martha came in with a lamp in her hand.
Next should say Eve. Before giving her word, Adam again intimidates her and convinces not to say too much. On her mother’s attacks on her debauchery, Eve assures everyone that she did not shame her honor, but that neither Lebrecht nor Ruprecht pitcher broke up. Adam begins to assure Walter that Eve is not able to testify, she is stupid and too young. Walter, on the other hand, sorts out the desire to get to the bottom of the truth in this matter. Eve swears that Ruprecht pitcher did not break, and the real culprit is called to refuse and hints at somebody else’s secret. Then Martha, resenting her daughter for her secrecy, begins to suspect her and Ruprecht of a more terrible crime. She suggests that on the eve of the adoption of the military oath, Ruprecht and Eva gathered to flee, changing their homeland. She asks to call Aunt Ruprecht to the witness, Brigitte, who supposedly at ten o’clock, before the pitcher was broken, saw how the young people argued in the garden. She is sure that her testimony radically refutes the words of Ruprecht, who claims that he broke into Eve at eleven. They send for Brigitta. Likht leaves. Adam offers Walter a little refreshment during a break, to drink wine, to have a snack. Walter, suspicion, begins to question Judge Adam in detail about where he hit. Adam still answers that at home about the stove. The wig, as he now claims, burned down when he dropped the goggles and bent down low behind them, touched the candle. Walter asks Martha whether Eve’s windows are high from the ground, Ruprecht does not know whether he has struck the fugitive and how many times, in Adam’s case, he often visits Martha’s house. When both Adam and Martha answer that it is very rare,
Brigitte enters with a wig in her hand and Licht. Brigitte found the wig on the stockade at Martha Rull before the window where Eve was sleeping. Walter asks Adam to confess in everything and asks if his woman is holding his wig in his hand. Adam says that this is the wig he gave Ruprecht eight days ago, so that Ruprecht, going to the city, gave it to Master Mel, and asks why Ruprecht did not do it. Rupprecht answers that he took it to his master.
Then Adam, enraged, declares that there is a smell of betrayal and espionage. Brigitte says that in the garden at Eve was not Ruprecht, as the girl was talking to her companion, as an unwelcome guest. Later, already closer to midnight, returning from the farm from her cousin, she saw a bald man with a horse’s hoof in front of her grow up in front of her and fly past him, smelling of sulfur and pitch smoke. She even thought it was the devil himself. Then, along with Licht, she followed where this trace of the human foot, alternating with the horse’s trail, leads. He brought directly to Judge Adam. Walter asks Adam to show his foot. He shows his healthy left leg, and not the right, lame. Then comes a discrepancy in the judge’s words about where his wig went. He said one Liechten, and Walter another. Ruprecht guessed, that yesterday Eva himself was a judge, and attacks him with insults. Adam declares Ruprecht guilty and orders him to be imprisoned. Then Eve does not stand such injustice and confesses that yesterday Adam herself was with her and solicited her, threatening, if she does not agree, to send her fiancé to the war. Adam runs away. Walter reassures Eve, convincing that Adam deceived her and that the soldiers are recruited only to internal troops. Ruprecht, learning that Eve was with Adam, ceases to be jealous and asks the bride for forgiveness, Faith proposes to appoint a wedding for the Trinity. Walter dismisses Adam from his post and appoints Lieutenant-Lieutenant in his place. Martha, still unsettled, asks the adviser where she can find a government in Utrecht to finally “get the truth about the pitcher.” Adam declares Ruprecht guilty and orders him to be imprisoned. Then Eve does not stand such injustice and confesses that yesterday Adam herself was with her and solicited her, threatening, if she does not agree, to send her fiancé to the war. Adam runs away. Walter reassures Eve, convincing that Adam deceived her and that the soldiers are recruited only to internal troops. Ruprecht, learning that Eve was with Adam, ceases to be jealous and asks the bride for forgiveness, Faith proposes to appoint a wedding for the Trinity. Walter dismisses Adam from his post and appoints Lieutenant-Lieutenant in his place. Martha, still unsettled, asks the adviser where she can find a government in Utrecht to finally “get the truth about the pitcher.” Adam declares Ruprecht guilty and orders him to be imprisoned. Then Eve does not stand such injustice and confesses that yesterday Adam herself was with her and solicited her, threatening, if she does not agree, to send her fiancé to the war. Adam runs away. Walter reassures Eve, convincing that Adam deceived her and that the soldiers are recruited only to internal troops. Ruprecht, learning that Eve was with Adam, ceases to be jealous and asks the bride for forgiveness, Faith proposes to appoint a wedding for the Trinity. Walter dismisses Adam from his post and appoints Lieutenant-Lieutenant in his place. Martha, still unsettled, asks the adviser where she can find a government in Utrecht to finally “get the truth about the pitcher.” that yesterday Adam herself was with her and solicited her, threatening, if she does not agree, to send her fiancé to the war. Adam runs away. Walter reassures Eve, convincing that Adam deceived her and that the soldiers are recruited only to internal troops. Ruprecht, learning that Eve was with Adam, ceases to be jealous and asks the bride for forgiveness, Faith proposes to appoint a wedding for the Trinity. Walter dismisses Adam from his post and appoints Lieutenant-Lieutenant in his place. Martha, still unsettled, asks the adviser where she can find a government in Utrecht to finally “get the truth about the pitcher.” that yesterday Adam herself was with her and solicited her, threatening, if she does not agree, to send her fiancé to the war. Adam runs away. Walter reassures Eve, convincing that Adam deceived her and that the soldiers are recruited only to internal troops. Ruprecht, learning that Eve was with Adam, ceases to be jealous and asks the bride for forgiveness, Faith proposes to appoint a wedding for the Trinity. Walter dismisses Adam from his post and appoints Lieutenant-Lieutenant in his place. Martha, still unsettled, asks the adviser where she can find a government in Utrecht to finally “get the truth about the pitcher.” ceases to be jealous and asks the bride for forgiveness, Faith proposes to appoint a wedding for the Trinity. Walter dismisses Adam from his post and appoints Lieutenant-Lieutenant in his place. Martha, still unsettled, asks the adviser where she can find a government in Utrecht to finally “get the truth about the pitcher.” ceases to be jealous and asks the bride for forgiveness, Faith proposes to appoint a wedding for the Trinity. Walter dismisses Adam from his post and appoints Lieutenant-Lieutenant in his place. Martha, still unsettled, asks the adviser where she can find a government in Utrecht to finally “get the truth about the pitcher.”
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