Julia monologue (Act 3) — Plays by August Strindberg, Second series

[Approaching the chopping-block as if drawn to it against her will] No, I don't want to go yet. I cannot—-I must see--Hush! There's a carriage coming up the road. [Listening without taking her eyes of the block and the axe] You think I cannot stand the sight of blood. You think I am as weak as that--oh, I should like to see your blood, your brains, on that block there. I should like to see your whole sex swimming in blood like that thing there. I think I could drink out of your skull, and bathe my feet in your open breast, and eat your heart from the spit!--You think I am weak; you think I love you because the fruit of my womb was yearning for your seed; you think I want to carry your offspring under my heart and nourish it with my blood--bear your children and take your name! Tell me, you, what are you called anyhow? I have never heard your family name—-and maybe you haven't any. I should become Mrs. "Hovel," or Mrs. "Backyard"--you dog there, that's wearing my collar; you lackey with my coat of arms on your buttons-- and I should share with my cook, and be the rival of my own servant. Oh! Oh! Oh!--You think I am a coward and want to run away! No, now I'll stay--and let the lightning strike! My father will come home--will find his chiffonier opened--the money gone! Then he'll ring--twice for the valet--and then he'll send for the sheriff--and then I shall tell everything! Everything! Oh, but it will be good to get an end to it--if it only be the end! And then his heart will break, and he dies!--So there will be an end to all of us--and all will be quiet—peace--eternal rest!--And then the coat of arms will be shattered on the coffin--and the count's line will be wiped out--but the lackey's line goes on in the orphan asylum--wins laurels in the gutter, and ends in jail.