as my _Maria de
Medicis_.--"But why don't you let us have it then? Why, we are just
hunting for new works. We simply cannot shuffle through any longer,
turning the old ones over and over. My secretary is traveling from one
theatre to another, without finding anything, and you, who live right
here, withhold your production from us in proud disdain of the common
crowd!" "Your Excellency," I replied, "I am not withholding anything
from anybody. Heaven is my witness. I submitted this opera to your
predecessor, Count Tornow, thirteen years ago and had to go to his
office myself three years later to get it back. Nobody had as much as
looked at it." "Now just leave it here, my dear professor. A week from
now at the latest you'll have our answer." And in saying this he pulls
the score from under my arm and claps it into the lowest drawer and
that's where it is lying today! That's where it is lying today, Sir!
But what would I do, child that I am in spite of my white hair, but go
home and tell my Gretchen: they need a new opera here at our theatre.
Mine is practically accepted now! A year later death took her away from
me,--and she was the one friend left who had been with me when I began
to work on it. (Sobs and dries his tears.)

GERARDO. Sir, I cannot but feel the deepest sympathy for you ...

DUeHRING. That's where it is lying today.

GERARDO. May be you actually are a child in spite of your white hair. I
must confess I doubt if I can help you.

DUeHRING (in violent rage). So you can endure the sight of an old man
dragging himself along beside you on the same path on which
your victorious flight carries you to the sun! Who knows but tomorrow
you will lie on your knees before me and boast of knowing me, and today
you see in the agonized groan of a creative artist nothing but a sad
mistake and you cannot wring from your greed of gold the half hour it
would take to rid me of the chains that are crushing me.

GERARDO. Sit down and play, sir! Come!

DUeHRING (sits down at the piano, opens his score, and strikes two
chords). No, that's not the way it reads. I have to get back into it
first. (Strikes three chords, then turns several leaves.) That is the
overture; I won't detain you with it.--Now here comes the first scene
... (Strikes two chords.) Here you stand at the deathbed of your
father. Just a moment until I get my bearings ...

GERARDO. Perhaps all you say is quite true. But at any rate you
misjudge my position.