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945.Then he leant back and put his ear to the grandfather clock's great belly... he was soon to be enlightened, for now the tall creature hiccupped and then there was a groaning and rumbling in its inside that made the boy jump. He listened to it rattling horribly as it struck six times, after which it continued its work in silence.
August Strindberg, The Red Room, trans. Elizabeth Sprigge, J.M. Dent & Son, London, 1967, (Everyman Edition) p.130.
TIME: 1880.
PLACE: provincial town, Sweden.
When the children began screaming, which happened every quarter of an hour, the carpenter flew into a rage ....The carpenter's nerves were so upset by the constant yells and scoldings that, in spite of a resolve to be patient, five minutes after the cobbler had offered him a pinch of snuff as a reconciliation, he flew into a new rage, so he was in a fury most of the day.
August Strindberg, The Red Room. trans. Elizabeth Sprigge, J.M. Dent & Son, London, 1967, (Everyman Edition) p.159.
TIME: ca.1880.
PLACE: poor area of Stockholm
CIRCUMSTANCE: a room in which live 1) a family 2) a cobbler 3) a carpenter, their space being marked off by chalk lines.
Beyond the dell the frogs were making the most of their time before the rain drove them to the pond, croaking in piercing chorus with all their might. Only the high continuous note of water falling at a distance rose above their croaking. From time to time nightingales called to one another, and I could hear them restlessly from bush to bush. Again this spring a nightingale had tried to build in a bush under the window, and when I came out on the veranda I heard her fly across to the other side of the avenue. From there she called once and was silent; she, too, was expecting the rain.
August Strindberg, Happy Ever After, trans. Elizabeth Sprigge, J.M. Dent & Son, London, 1967, (Everyman Edition) p. 91.
TIME: evening,
PLACE: Russian countryside
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