Shipwreck by Tom Stoppard Read Free Book Online

France would be ungovernable.
    BAKUNIN    I’ve been living in barracks with the Republican Guard. You won’t believe this, but it’s the first time I’ve actually met anyone from the working class.
    MARX    Really? What are they like?
    BAKUNIN    I’ve never come across such nobility.
    TURGENEV    (
reading
) ‘A ghost is going round Europe—the ghost of Communism!’
    BAKUNIN    A Polish National Committee has already been set up in Prussian Poland to plan the invasion of Russia. I’ve got to get there. Turgenev, this is the last thing I’ll ever ask of you—
    TURGENEV    Ask Flocon.
    BAKUNIN    You think the Provisional Government will give me the money to go to Poland?
    TURGENEV    I’m certain of it.
    MARX    (
to Turgenev
) You’re a writer. Do you think there’s something funny about ‘the ghost of Communism’? I don’t want it to sound as if Communism is dead.
    Herwegh enters in red, black and gold military uniform.
    BAKUNIN    Herwegh!
    MARX    (
to Turgenev
) Do you know English?
    TURGENEV    Fairly well. Let me see … (
in ‘English’
) ‘A ghost … a phantom is walking around Europe …’
    HERWEGH    (
somewhat embarrassed
) What do you think?
    BAKUNIN    Nice. Are you a mason?
    HERWEGH    No—I’m in command of a brigade of German Democratic Exiles. We’re going to march on Baden!
    BAKUNIN    March all the way to Germany?
    HERWEGH    No, no, we’re going to the frontier by train—I’ve got six hundred tickets.
    TURGENEV    Did Flocon give you the money?
    HERWEGH    Yes, how did you know?
    BAKUNIN    Wonderful!
    HERWEGH    It was Emma’s idea.
    TURGENEV    I knew you weren’t really a poet. Only a poet. Have you had any military experience?
    HERWEGH    Emma says whether you’re a poet or a revolutionary, genius is genius.
    BAKUNIN    She’s right. Look at Byron.
    HERWEGH    Byron wrote far too much, actually.
    Turgenev returns to pondering the book. Emma enters. She, too, is in military mode, with a red, black and gold cockade. She is accompanied by a small shop boy in the livery of a fashionable store, who is burdened with elegantly wrapped parcels. He may have a small pushcart in the same livery.
    MARX    (
intervening sternly
) Just a moment, Herwegh!
    Then Marx sees Emma.
    EMMA    I’ve got provisions for the march, my angel—the most wonderful little meat pasties from Chevet, and a turkey stuffed with truffles—
    MARX    Scoundrel!
    EMMA    He’s got to eat, Karl. Come with us to the Champs Élysées—George is going to review the troops!
    Marx is now beside himself with rage. He pursues the Herweghs out.
    MARX    Adventurist! By what right do you interfere in the economic struggle with this diversionary folly?
    EMMA    Don’t take any notice of him, darling.
    MARX    Victory in Europe will be decided between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie!—only ceaseless propaganda and agitation …
    The shop boy follows Marx and the Herweghs out.
    TURGENEV    (
thoughtfully
) ‘A spook … a spectre …’
    BAKUNIN    (
transported
) This is what it was all for, from the beginning … studying Kant, Schelling, Fichte … with Stankevich and Belinsky … with you in Berlin, do you remember, you in your lilac waistcoat, I in my green, walking down Unter den Linden talking furiously about the spirit of history …
    TURGENEV    (
jogged
) ‘A
spirit
… a spirit is haunting Europe …’
    BAKUNIN    We were on a journey to this moment. Revolution is the Absolute we pursued at Premukhino, the Universal