Israel monologue (Act 3) — Plays by August Strindberg, Fourth Series

It hurts me to hear you talk like that, Gustav, and--and it makes me sad to see that your greatness and your exalted office have brought you so little true happiness. I shall say nothing more about gratitude, because the idea of it is too vague in human minds, but I have loved you like a son ever since that hour when the Lord of Hosts put your fate in my hands. I have followed your brilliant course as if it had been my own. I have joyed over your successes, and I have sorrowed over your sorrows.... Frequently my duties toward my own people have kept me from lending you a helping hand. Frequently, too, your own hardness has stood between us. But now, when I behold you so deeply crushed, and when you have treated me with a confidence that I may well call filial, I shall forget for a moment that I am your enemy--which I must be as a man of Luebeck, while as Herman Israel I am your friend. I shall forget that I am a merchant, and--[_Pause_] I hope that I may never regret it--[_Pause_] and--and.... Do you know John Andersson?