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The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04

Год написания книги
2018
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NATHAN

I beg your pardon, all my subjects are very tame.

KING

But you must live confoundedly far away. I can't get a clear idea of it yet.

NATHAN

The geography of my country is still not exactly fixed; I expect to discover more every day; and then it may easily come about that we shall even become neighbors in the end.

KING

That will be splendid! And if, after all, a few countries still stand in our way, I will help you in your discoveries. My neighbor is not a good friend of mine, so to speak, and he has a fine country; all the raisins come from there; why, I should be only too glad to have it! But another thing; do tell me, how, living so far away, can you speak our language so fluently!

NATHAN

Hush!

KING

What?

NATHAN

Hush! hush!

KING

I do not understand.

NATHANIEL, (softly to him).

Do be quiet about it, pray, for otherwise the audience down there will surely notice that it is really very unnatural.

KING

It doesn't matter. They clapped before and so I can afford to take a chance.

NATHAN

You see, it is only for the sake of the drama that I speak your language; for otherwise, of course, the matter is incomprehensible.

KING

Ah, so! Well, come, Prince, the table is set!

[The PRINCE escorts the princess out, the KING precedes.]

FISCHER

Cursed improbabilities there are in this play!

SCHLOSS

And the king doesn't remain at all true to his character.

LEUTNER

Why, nothing but the natural should ever be presented on the stage! The prince should speak an altogether unknown language and have an interpreter with him; the princess should make grammatical errors, since she herself admits that she writes incorrectly.

MÜLLER

Of course! Of course! The whole thing is unquestionable nonsense; the author himself is always forgetting what he has said the moment before.

The scene is laid in front of a tavern.

LORENZ, KUNZ, MICHEL are sitting on a bench. The HOST

LORENZ

I shall have to be going again soon! I still have a long way home.

HOST

You are a subject of the king, aren't you?

LORENZ

Yes, indeed; what do you call your good ruler?

HOST

He is just called Bugbear.

LORENZ

That is a foolish title. Why, has he no other name?

HOST

When he has edicts issued, they always read: For the good of the public, the Law demands—hence I believe that is his real name. All petitions, too, are always laid before the Law. He is a fearful man.

LORENZ

Still, I should rather be under a king; why, a king is more dignified. They say the Bugbear is a very ungracious master.

HOST

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