u marry? You recognize no
obstacles. Why do you want to put the blame on me? You ordered me to
marry Dr. Goll: I forced Dr. Goll to marry me. You ordered me to marry
the painter: I made the best of a bad bargain. Artists are your
creatures, princes your proteges. Why don't you marry?

SCHOEN. (Raging.) Do you imagine =you= stand in the way?

LULU. (From here to the end of the act triumphant.) If you knew how
happy your rage is making me! How proud I am that you should humble me
by every means in your power! You debase me as deep--as deep as a woman
can be debased, for you hope you can then jump over me easier. But you
have suffered unspeakably yourself from everything you just said to me.
I see it in you. Already you are near the end of your self-command. Go!
For your innocent fiancee's sake, leave me alone! One minute more, your
mood will change around and you'll make a scene with me of another
kind, that you can't answer for now.

SCHOEN. I fear you no longer.

LULU. Me? Fear yourself! I do not need you. I beg you to go! Don't give
me the blame. You know I don't need to faint to destroy your future.
You have unlimited confidence in my honorableness. You believe not only
that I'm an ensnaring daughter of Eve; you believe, too, that I'm a
very good-natured creature. I am neither the one nor the other. Your
misfortune is only that you think I am.

SCHOEN. (Desperate.) Leave my thoughts alone! You have two men under the
sod. Take the prince, dance him into the earth! I am thru with you. I
know when the angel in you stops off and the devil begins. If I take
the world as it's made, the Creator must be responsible, not I! To me
life is not an amusement!

LULU. And, therefore, you make claims on life greater than anyone can
make. Tell me, who of us two is more full of claims and demands, you or
I?

SCHOEN. Be silent! I don't know how or what I think. When I hear you, I
don't think any more. In a week I'll be married. I conjure you, by the
angel that is in you, during that time come no more to my sight!

LULU. I will lock my doors.

SCHOEN. Go on and boast! God knows since I've been wrestling with the
world and with life I have cursed no one like you!

LULU. That comes from my lowly origin.

SCHOEN. From your depravity!

LULU. With a thousand pleasures I take the blame on myself! You must
feel clean now; you must think yourself a model of austerity now, a
paragon of unflinching principle! Otherwise you could nev