Karel Capek - RUR

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R.U.R.

Karel Capek

http://www.blackmask.com

ACT I ACT II ACT III EPILOGUE

Rossum's Universal Robots

translated by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair.

Characters

HARRY DOMIN—General Manager of Rossum's Universal Robots.

SULLA—ARobotess.

MARIUS—A Robot.

HELENA Glory.

DR. GALL—Head of the Physiological and Experimental Department of R. U. R.

MR. FABRY—Engineer General, Technical Controller of R. U. R.

DR.HALLEMEIER—Head of the Institute for Psychological Training of Robots.

MR. ALQUIST—Architect, Head of the Works Department of R. U. R.consul busman—General

Business Manager of R. U. R.

NANA.

RADIUS— ARobot.

HELENA—ARobotess.

PRIMUS—A Robot.

A Servant. First Robot. Second Robot. Third Robot.

ACT ICentral Office of the Factory of Rossum's Universal Robots.

ACT IIHelena's Drawing Room—Ten years later. Morning.

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ACT IIIThe Same Afternoon

EPILOGUE ALaboratory—One year later.

Place: An Island.

Time: The Future.

ACT I

[Central office of the factory of Rossum's Universal Robots. Entrance on the right. The windows

on the front wall look out on the rows of factory chimneys. On the left more managing

departments.

DOMINis sitting in the revolving chair at a large American writing table. On the left-hand wall

large maps showing steamship and railroad routes. On the right-hand wall are fastened printed

placards. (“Robot's Cheapest Labor,” etc.) In contrast to these wall fittings, the floor is covered

with a splendid Turkish carpet, a sofa, leather armchair, and filing cabinets. At a desk near the

windowsSULLA istyping letters.]

DOMIN[Dictating]Ready?

SULLAYes.

DOMINTo E. M. McVicker and Co., Southampton, England. “We undertake no guarantee for goods

damaged in transit. As soon as the consignment was taken on board we drew your captain's attention to

the fact that the vessel was unsuitable for the transport of Robots, and we are therefore not responsible

for spoiled freight. We beg to remain for Rossum's Universal Robots. Yours truly.” [SULLA,who has

sat motionless during dictation, now types rapidly for a few seconds, then stops, withdrawing the

completed letter.]Ready?

SULLAYes.

DOMINAnother letter. To the E. B. Huyson Agency, New York, U.S.A. “We beg to acknowledge

receipt of order for five thousand Robots. As you are sending your own vessel, please dispatch as cargo

equal quantities of soft and hard coal for R.U.R., the same to be credited as part payment of the amount

due to us. We beg to remain, for Rossum's Universal Robots. Yours truly.” [SULLArepeats the rapid

typing.]Ready?

SULLAYes.

DOMINAnother letter. “Friedrichswerks, Hamburg, Germany. We beg to acknowledge receipt of

order for fifteen thousand Robots.”[Telephone rings.]Hello! This is the Central Office. Yes. Certainly.

Well, send them a wire. Good.[Hangs up telephone.]

Where did I leave off?

SULLA“We beg to acknowledge receipt of order for fifteen thousand Robots.”

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DOMINFifteen thousand R. Fifteen thousand R.

[Enter

MARIUS.]

DOMIN—Well, what is it?

MARIUS—There's a lady, sir, asking to see you.

DOMIN—A lady? Who is she?

MARIUS—I don't know, sir. She brings this card of introduction.

DOMIN—[Reads the card]Ah, from President Glory. Ask her to come in.

MARIUS—Please step this way.

[Enter

HELENAglory.]

[Exit

MARIUS.]

HELENA—How do you do?

DOMIN—How do you do.[Standing up.]What can I do for you?

HELENA—You are Mr. Domin, the General Manager.

DOMIN—I am.

HELENA—I have come—

DOMIN—With President Glory's card. That is quite sufficient.

HELENA—President Glory is my father. I am Helena Glory.

DOMIN—Miss Glory, this is such a great honor for us to be allowed to

welcome our great President's daughter, that—

HELENA—That you can't show me the door?

DOMIN—Please sit down. Sulla, you may go.

[Exit SULLA.]

[Sittingdown.]How can I be of service to you, Miss Glory?

HELENAI have come—

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DOMINTo have a look at our famous works where people are manufactured. Like all visitors. Well,

there is no objection.

HELENAI thought it was forbidden to—

DOMINTo enter the factory. Yes, of course. Everybody comes here with someone's visiting card,

Miss Glory.

HELENAAnd you show them—

DOMINOnly certain things. The manufacture of artificial people is a secret process.

HELENAIf you only knew how enormously that—

DOMINInterests me. Europe's talking about nothing else.

HELENAWhy don't you let me finish speaking?

DOMINI beg your pardon. Did you want to say something different?

HELENAI only wanted to ask —

DOMINWhether I could make a special exception in your case and show you our factory. Why,

certainly Miss Glory.

HELENAHow do you know I wanted to say that?

DOMINThey all do. But we shall consider it a special honor to show you more than we do the rest.

HELENAThank you.

DOMINBut you must agree not to divulge the least...

HELENA[Standing up and giving him her hand]My word of honor.

DOMINThank you. Won't you raise your veil?

HELENAOf course. You want to see whether I'm a spy or not. I beg your pardon.

DOMINWhat is it?

HELENAWould you mind releasing my hand?

DOMIN[Releasing it]I beg your pardon.

HELENA[Raising her veil]How cautious you have to be here, don't you?

DOMIN[Observing her with deep interest]Hm, of course—we—that is—

HELENABut what is it? What's the matter?

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DOMINI'm remarkably pleased. Did you have a pleasant crossing?

HELENAYes.

DOMINNo difficulty?

HELENAWhy?

DOMINWhat I mean to say is—you're so young.

HELENAMay we go straight into the factory?

DOMINYes. Twenty-two, I think.

HELENATwenty-two what?

DOMINYears.

HELENATwenty-one. Why do you want to know?

DOMINBecause—as—[with enthusiasm]you will make a long stay, won't you?

HELENAThat depends on how much of the factory you show me.

DOMINOh, hang the factory. Oh, no, no, you shall see everything, Miss Glory. Indeed you shall.

Won't you sit down?

HELENA[Crossing to couch and sitting]Thank you.

DOMINBut first would you like to hear the story of the invention?

HELENAYes, indeed.

DOMIN[Observes

HELENAwith rapture and reels off rapidly]It was in the year 1920 that old Rossum, the great

physiologist, who was men quite a young scientist, took himself to this distant island for the purpose of

studying the ocean fauna, full stop. On this occasion he attempted by chemical synthesis to imitate the

living matter known as protoplasm until he suddenly discovered a substance which behaved exactly like

living matter although its chemical composition was different. That was in the year of 1932, exactly four

hundred forty years after the discovery of America. Whew!

HELENADo you know that by heart?

DOMINYes. You see physiology is not in my line. Shall I go on?

HELENAYes, please.

DOMINAnd then, Miss Glory, old Rossum wrote the following among his chemical specimens: “Nature

has found only one method of organizing living matter. There is, however, another method, more simple,

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flexible and rapid, which has not yet occurred to nature at all. This second process by which life can be

developed was discovered by me to-day.” Now imagine him, Miss Glory, writing those wonderful words

over some colloidal mess that a dog wouldn't look at. Imagine him sitting over a test tube, and thinking

how the whole tree of life would grow from it, how all animals would proceed from it, beginning with

some sort of beetle and ending with a man. A man of different substance from us. Miss Glory, that was a

tremendous moment.

HELENAWell?

DOMINNow, the thing was how to get the life out of the test tubes, and hasten development and form

organs, bones and nerves, and so on, and find such substances as catalytics, enzymes, hormones, and so

forth, in short—you understand?

HELENANot much, I'm afraid.

DOMINNever mind. You see with the help of his tinctures he could make whatever he wanted. He

could have produced a Medusa with the brain of a Socrates or a worm fifty yards long. But being

without a grain of humor, he took it into his head to make a vertebrate or perhaps a man. This artificial

living matter of his had a raging thirst for life. It didn't mind being sewn or mixed together. That couldn't

be done with natural albumen. And that's how he set about it.

HELENAAbout what?

DOMINAbout imitating nature. First of all he tried making an artificial dog. That took him several years

and resulted in a sort of stunted calf which died in a few days. I'll show it to you in the museum. And then

old Rossum started on the manufacture of man.

HELENAAnd I must divulge this to nobody?

DOMINTo nobody in the world.

HELENAWhat a pity that it's to be found in all the school books of both Europe and America.

DOMINYes. But do you know what isn't in the school books? That old Rossum was mad. Seriously,

Miss Glory, you must keep this to yourself. The old crank wanted to actually make people.

HELENABut you do make people.

DOMINApproximately, Miss Glory. But old Rossum meant it literally. He wanted to become a sort of

scientific substitute for God. He was a fearful materialist, and that's why he did it all. His sole purpose

was nothing more nor less than to prove that God was no longer necessary. Do you know anything about

anatomy?

HELENAVery little.

DOMINNeither do I. Well, he then decided to manufacture everything as in the human body. I'll show

you in the museum the bungling attempt it took him ten years to produce. It was to have been a man, but

it lived for three days only. Then up came young Rossum, an engineer. He was a wonderful fellow, Miss

Glory. When he saw what a mess of it the old man was making, he said: “It's absurd to spend ten years

making a man. If you can't make him quicker than nature, you might as well shut up shop.” Then he set

about learning anatomy himself.

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HELENAThere's nothing about that in the school books.

DOMINNo. The school books are full of paid advertisements, and rubbish at that. What the school

books say about the united efforts of the two great Rossums is all a fairy tale. They used to have dreadful

rows. The old atheist hadn't the slightest conception of industrial matters, and the end of it was that young

Rossum shut him up in some laboratory or other and let him fritter the time away with his monstrosities,

while he himself started on the business from an engineer's point of view. Old Rossum cursed him and

before he died he managed to botch up two physiological horrors. Then one day they found him dead in

the laboratory. And that's his whole story.

HELENAAnd what about the young man?

DOMINWell, any one who has looked into human anatomy will have seen at once that man is too

complicated, and that a good engineer could make him more simply. So young Rossum began to

overhaul anatomy and tried to see what could be left out or simplified. In short—but this isn't boring you,

Miss Glory?

HELENANo indeed. You're —it's awfully interesting.

DOMINSo young Rossum said to himself: “A man is something that feels happy, plays the piano, likes

going for a walk, and in fact, wants to do a whole lot of things that are really unnecessary.”

HELENAOh.

DOMINThat are unnecessary when he wants, let us say, to weave or count. Do you play the piano?

HELENAYes.

DOMINThat's good. But a working machine must not play the piano, must not feel happy, must not do

a whole lot of other things. A gasoline motor must not have tassels or ornaments, Miss Glory. And to

manufacture artificial workers is the same thing as to manufacture gasoline motors. The process must be

of the simplest, and the product of the best from a practical point of view. What sort of worker do you

think is the best from a practical point of view?

HELENAWhat?

DOMINWhat sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view?

HELENAPerhaps the one who is most honest and hardworking.

DOMINNo; the one that is the cheapest. The one whose requirements are the smallest. Young Rossum

invented a worker with the minimum amount of requirements. He had to simplify him. He rejected

everything that did not contribute directly to the progress of work —everything that makes man more

expensive. In fact, he rejected man and made the Robot. My dear Miss Glory, the Robots are not

people. Mechanically they are more perfect than we are, they have an enormously developed intelligence,

but they have no soul.

HELENAHow do you know they've no soul?

DOMINHave you ever seen what a Robot looks like inside?

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HELENANo.

DOMINVery neat, very simple. Really, a beautiful piece of work. Not much in it, but everything in

flawless order. The product of an engineer is technically at a higher pitch of perfection than a product of

nature.

HELENABut man is supposed to be the product of God.

DOMINAll the worse. God hasn't the least notion of modern engineering. Would you believe that

young Rossum then proceeded to play at being God?

HELENAHow do you mean?

DOMINHe began to manufacture Super-Robots. Regular giants they were. He tried to make them

twelve feet tall. But you wouldn't believe what a failure they were.

HELENAA failure?

DOMINYes. For no reason at all their limbs used to keep snapping off. Evidently our planet is too

small for giants. Now we only make Robots of normal size and of very high class human finish.

HELENAI saw the first Robots at home. The town counsel bought them for—I mean engaged them for

work.

DOMINBought them, dear Miss Glory. Robots are bought and sold.

HELENAThese were employed as street sweepers. I saw them sweeping. They were so strange and

quiet.

DOMINRossum's Universal Robot factory doesn't produce a uniform brand of Robots. We have

Robots of finer and coarser grades. The best will live about twenty years.[He rings forMARIUS.]

HELENAThen they die?

DOMINYes, they get used up.

[Enter

MARIUS.]

DOMINMarius, bring in samples of the Manual Labor Robot.

[Exit

MARIUS.]

DOMINI'll show you specimens of the two extremes. This first grade is comparatively inexpensive and

is made in vast quantities.

[MARIUSreenters with two Manual Labor Robots. ]

DOMINThere you are; as powerful as a small tractor. Guaranteed to have average intelligence. That

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will do, Marius.

[MARIUSexits with Robots.]

HELENAThey make me feel so strange.

DOMIN[Rings]Did you see my new typist?[He rings forSULLA.]

HELENAI didn't notice her.

[Enter

SULLA.]

DOMINSulla, let Miss Glory see you.

HELENASo pleased to meet you. You must find it terribly dull in this out-of-the-way spot, don't you?

SULLAI don't know, Miss Glory.

HELENAWhere do you come from?

SULLAFrom the factory.

HELENAOh, you were born there?

SULLAI was made there.

HELENAWhat?

DOMIN[Laughing]Sulla is a Robot, best grade.

HELENAOh, I beg your pardon.

DOMINSulla isn't angry. See, Miss Glory, the kind of skin we make.

[Feels the skin on

SULLA'sface.]Feel her face.

HELENAOh, no, no.

DOMINYou wouldn't know that she's made of different material from us, would you? Turn round,

Sulla.

HELENAOh, stop, stop.

DOMINTalk to Miss Glory, Sulla.

SULLAPlease sit down. [HELENAsits.]Did you have a pleasant crossing?

HELENAOh, yes, certainly.

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SULLADon't go back on theAmelia,Miss Glory. The barometer is falling steadily. Wait for the

Pennsylvania.That's a good, powerful vessel.

DOMINWhat's its speed?

SULLATwenty knots. Fifty thousand tons. One of the latest vessels, Miss Glory.

HELENAThank you.

SULLAA crew of fifteen hundred, Captain Harpy, eight boilers—

DOMINThat'll do, Sulla. Now show us your knowledge of French.

HELENAYou know French?

SULLAI know four languages. I can write: Dear Sir, Monsieur, Geehrter Herr, Cteny pane.

HELENA[Jumping up]Oh, that's absurd! Sulla isn't a Robot. Sulla is a girl like me. Sulla, this is

outrageous! Why do you take part in such a hoax?

SULLAI am a Robot.

HELENANo, no, you are not telling the truth. I know they've forced you to do it for an advertisement.

Sulla, you are a girl like me, aren't you?

DOMINI'm sorry, Miss Glory. Sulla is a Robot.

HELENAIt's a lie!

DOMINWhat?[Rings.]Excuse me, Miss Glory, then I must convince you.

[Enter

MARIUS.]

DOMINMarius, take Sulla into the dissecting room, and tell them to open her up at once.

HELENAWhere?

DOMINInto the dissecting room. When they've cut her open, you can go and have a look.

HELENANo, no!

DOMINExcuse me, you spoke of lies.

HELENAYou wouldn't have her killed?

DOMINYou can't kill machines.

HELENADon't be afraid, Sulla, I won't let you go. Tell me, my dear, are they always so cruel to you?

You mustn't put up with it, Sulla. You mustn't.

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摘要：

R.U.R.KarelCapekThispagecopyright©2003BlackmaskOnline.http://www.blackmask.comACTIACTIIACTIIIEPILOGUERossum'sUniversalRobotstranslatedbyPaulSelverandNigelPlayfair.CharactersHARRYDOMIN—GeneralManagerofRossum'sUniversalRobots.SULLA—ARobotess.MARIUS—ARobot.HELENAGlory.DR.GALL—HeadofthePhysiologicalandE...

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