Ubu Roi

Act IV begins with Mama Turd continuing her plan to steal Poland’s treasures, this time the riches kept in the crypt of the ancient kings of Poland: “This gold will be better off in daylight than among the graves of bygone princes” (47). The place gives her “the horrors,” though, and after she decides aloud that she’ll “get the rest of the gold some other time,” a voice rises from the tomb saying, “Never, Mama Turd!” (47). Mama Turd then runs off, carrying the stolen gold with her. 

In the town square in Warsaw, the people are celebrating Buggerlaus, who announces his offer “to march at [their] head, and re-establish the race of [his] forefathers” (48). Mama Turd and Gyron enter with their guards as the group declares their intention to “rush the palace, and wipe out the whole brood” (48).The crowd begins throwing stones at them. The attack takes down the guards and Gyron fights with Buggerlaus, who defeats him. The group turns their attention to Mama Turd, who runs off with the group chasing her while throwing stones. 

Scene 3 returns to Papa Turd on the march with the Polish army in the Ukraine. Papa Turd says the group is “dying of thirst and tiredness,” as they’ve traveled the whole way on foot, and that they have yet to meet the Russian army (49). The young Nicholas Rensky finds the group, informing Papa Turd that Gyron has “disappeared” and Mama Turd has fled to the mountains with the kingdom’s treasures and “phynances” (49). 

Papa Turd decries Rensky’s words as “nonsense,” telling him that “there’s more feathers than brains in [his] head” (49).Papa Turd instead turns his attention to the oncoming Russians, saying the group will “have to attack with everything we’ve got—pshit, physic, and phynance” (49). General Lasky spots the Russians coming. Papa Turd announces a plan for them to remain on the hill they’re currently on and stay inside a windmill while firing at the Russians through a window: “We’re going to stay on this hill and never commit the stupidity of coming down off it” (50). 

When Papa Turd sees it’s only eleven o’clock in the morning, however, he dismisses his men for lunch, claiming “the Russians won’t attack before noon” (50). The men sing a drinking song and the soldiers leave to eat, though Papa Turd is informed there’s nothing to eat, since he threw all the military commissary staff into the trapdoor to die. Papa Turd goes to search for food for himself when a Russian cannonball flies in and hits him in the stomach. 

Scene 4 features the battle between Papa Turd’s troops and the Russian army, including Bordure and Czar Alexis. Papa Turd and his men immediately flee and “go down the hill on the run” (53). Bordure “massacres the Poles” before Papa Turd “throws himself on Bordure and rips him apart” (54). Papa Turd then throws himself on the czar; the two men fight and the czar chases Papa Turd until he falls in a ditch. The Russian soldiers rescue the czar, however, and the Poles flee, saying “every man for himself!” (55). Wondering how he’s “going to get out of this mess” (55), Papa Turd flees and takes refuge in a “little house” (56). 

Papa Turd then finds himself in a cavern in Lithuania in the snow, in Scenes 5, 6, and 7. He is with Pile and Coccyx. The men are discussing the battle. Papa Turd brags about “display[ing] the greatest courage” (57) when a bear suddenly attacks the group. Pile and Coccyx kill the bear while Papa Turd takes refuge atopa rock, praying; nonetheless, Papa Turd takes credit for the killing, saying Pile and Coccyx owe their lives to the “magnanimous virtue, courage, and presence of mind of the Master of Phynance,” meaning Papa Turd himself (58).  

Pile calls Papa Turd “a revolting she-ass” and the group makes plans to eat the bear (58-59).While Pile and Coccyx go hunting for wood and start cutting up the bear, Papa Turd says he “[doesn’t] feel like doing anything” and insists they cook for him (59). Pile turns on Papa Turd, saying, “Listen, pig, you work or you don’t eat” (59), but Papa Turd remains unfazed and falls asleep. Pile and Coccyx then wonder if the rumors about Mama Turd are true and decide to abandon Papa Turd and leave the cavern to find out. 

Left alone in the cavern, Papa Turd talks aloud in his sleep in Scene 7 as he has a nightmare. He narrates a battle with the Russians, Buggerlaus, Bordure and the bear, though he doesn’t seem to be doing any of the fighting, saying, “Me, I don’t want to do any work” (60). He then imagines Mama Turd with his gold and says that he (meaning Papa Turd himself) “been dead a long time” and was killed by Buggerlaus (61).