After this pompous announcement, he submits a long list of previsions, of which the following are samples: "Crabs this year will walk sideways and rope-makers backwards. Fleas will be for the most part of a dark color. Bacon will have nothing to do with peas during Lent. Dice will not always turn up to suit the players; nor will the desired throw often come. Brutes will speak in several places. The blind will scarcely see; the deaf will be hard of hearing; the dumb will hardly speak; the rich will be a little better off than the poor, and the healthy in better condition than the sick. Many sheep, beeves, hogs, geese, chickens and ducks will die; no such mortality. will prevail among monkeys and dromedaries. Old age will be incurable this year on account of the years previously past. People affected with pleurisy will have the side ache." A little further on, the prognosticator, throwing off entirely the thin veil of satire which hung over his true sentiments, breaks forth in the following strain of true philosophy: "The greatest folly in the world is to think that there are stars for kings, popes, and great lords, rather than for the poor and suffering; as if new heavenly bodies had been created ever since the flood, or since Romulus or Pharamond, at the birth of kings. It is somewhat strange, that a sentence breathing such enlightened and rational views, should have been uttered at the beginning of the sixteenth century-but passing strange that it should require repeating in the nineteenth. AWAKE THEE, AWAKE. A SERENADE: AWAKE thee, awake, 'tis a fair summer night, The nightingale's song o'er the rose tree yet hovers, Awake thee, awake, there is love in the gale Is teeming with love. Earth smiles through the thin veil of darkness, that covers Its beauties thus shrouded more sacred to lovers, Then dearest, awake thee, awake. MINNA VON BARNHELM, A COMEDY, IN FIVE ACTS. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF G. E. LESSING. DRAMATIS PERSONÆ, MAJOR VON TELLHEIM, a Discharged Officer. | PAUL WERNER, former Sergeant to the Major. MINNA VON BARNHELM. THE LANDLORD. A LADY IN MOURNING. A MESSENGER FROM THE ARMY. RICANT DE LA MARLINIERE. The scene is alternately in the Hall of the Inn, and in one of the adjoining rooms. ACT I.-SCENE I. SCENE--The Hall of the Inn. Jocelyn. (Sits in a corner, talking in his sleep.) Knave of a landlord! You, to us?-Briskly, comrade!-Strike hard, comrade! (He reaches forward, and is awakened by the motion.) Ho, there! again, already? I cannot shut my eyes lest I am fighting him. If he had but received half the blows!-But see, it is daylight! I must seek my poor master without delay. He shall never set foot in this house again, with my consent. Where can he have passed the night? SCENE II. THE LANDLORD, Jocelyn. Landlord. Good morning, Herr Jocelyn; good morning. Ah! up so early as this? Or shall I say, still so late up? Jocelyn. Say what you please. Landlord. I only said good morning; and this deserved that Herr Jocelyn should have replied "Thank you!" Did it not? Jocelyn. Thank you! Landlord. It makes one rather peevish not to have his usual rest. How happens it that the Major has not returned, and you have watched here for him? Jocelyn. What cannot the man discover? Landlord. I surmise; only surmise. Jocelyn (turning to go out.) Your servant! Landlord (detains him.) Not yet, Herr Jocelyn! Jocelyn. Well, then; not your servant! Landlord. Ah, Herr Jocelyn, I will hope, however, that you have not been vexed, Herr Jocelyn, ever since yesterday? Who would keep his anger over night? Jocelyn. I would, and through all following nights. Landlord. Is that Christian? Jocelyn. As Christian as it is to thrust an honorable man from your house into the street, because he cannot pay immediately. Landlord. Fie! who could be so wicked? Jocelyn. A most Christian inn-keeper!-My master! such a man! such an officer! Landlord. Have I thrust him from my house into the street? I have far too mch regard for an officer, and too much pity for one who has been discharged, to do anything like this. I was compelled by necessity to remove him to another chamber. Think no more of it, Herr Jocelyn. (He calls to some one behind the scene.) Holla!-I will make it good in some other way. (A boy enters.) Bring a glass; Herr Jocelyn will have a glass; and something good! Jocelyn. Do not trouble yourself, landlord. Might the drops become poison, but I will not swear, however; I am sober yet! Landlord (to the lad, who brings a flask of liquor and a glass.) Give it here; now, go!-Now, Herr Jocelyn; something very excellent ; strong, delicious and wholesome. (He fills and presents to him.) This can restore the stomach when exhausted by watching. Jocelyn. Really, I ought not. Still, why should my health suffer on account of his rudeness? (Takes it and drinks.) Landlord. How is that, Herr Jocelyn? Jocelyn (giving back the glass.) Not bad!-But, Herr landlord, you are still a clown! Landlord. Not yet! not yet!-Quickly, another; it is not well to stand on one foot. Jocelyn (after he has drank.) This I must say good, very good!— Made by yourself, landlord? Landlord. Save me! Real Dantzic! Genuine double distilled! Jocelyn. Look you, Herr landlord; if I could play the hypocrite, I would do it for such as this; but I cannot; you are still a clown, Herr landlord! Landlord. In all my life, no one ever said this to me before.-One more, however, Herr Jocelyn; all good things are three. Jocelyn. On my own account! (drinks.) Good thing! truly a good thing!-But, truth also is a good thing. Herr landlord, you are still a clown! Landlord. If this were true, would I listen to it so peaceably? Landlord. Not one more, Herr Jocelyn? A fourfold cord holds so much the better. Jocelyn. No! too much is too much! And what will it avail you, Herr landlord? Even to the last drop in the flask, I should remain of the same opinion. Fie, Herr landlord; to have such good Dantzic and such bad manners!-Such a man as my master, who has been with you so long, from whom you have received so many fair thalers; who, in all his life, never remained in debt to the amount of a farthing; because, for a few months past he has not paid promptly-because he no longer allows himself to spend so much-to clear his room during his absence! Landlord. But did I not need the room? I saw beforehand that the Major would have willingly given it up himself, if we could only have waited until his return. Should I then allow such a lady, a stranger, too, to turn from my door? Would I willingly throw such a good chance into the hands of another inn-keeper? And, besides, at this time, I do not think she could have found admittance anywhere else. The inns are all entirely filled. Should so young, so fair, so lovely a lady remain in the street? Your master would be too gallant to allow this. And what has he lost thereby? Have I not prepared for him another room? Jocelyn. Behind the dove-cot; the view between the neighbor's chimnies.. Landlord. The view was very fine, before that mischievous neighbor built. Still, in other respects, the room is genteel, and it is papered. Jocelyn. Has been! Landlord. Is it not now? one wall is, at least. And the small room adjoining, Herr Jocelyn, what is wanting there? It has a fire-place, which smokes a little in winter, it is true. Jocelyn. But in summer it is very convenient.-Herr, I really believe you would vex us still more and more. Landlord. Well, well. Her Jocelyn, Herr Jocelyn Jocelyn Make not Herr Jocelyn warm in the head, or— Jocelyn. An officer like my master! Or think you a dismissed officer is, therefore, one who cannot break your head for you? Why were you inn-keepers so very pliant during the war? Why was every officer then a worthy man, and every soldier an honorable brave fellow? Does a short peace make you so insolent? Landlord. Why are you so angry now, Jocelyn. I will be angry. Herr Jocelyn? SCENE III-MAJOR VON TELLHEIM, LANDLORD, JOCELYN. Major (entering) Jocelyn! Jocelyn (supposing that the landlord spake to him.) Are we so very intimate? Major. Jocelyn! Jocelyn. I thought I might be Herr Jocelyn for you. Landlord (perceiving the Major.) St-! st-! Herr, Herr Jocelyn,look, your master! Major. Jocelyn, I believe you are quarrelling; what have I commanded you? Landlord. O, your honor, quarrelling? Before heaven! Your most humble servant would not presume to quarrel with any one who had the honor to belong to you. Jocelyn. If I could only give him one on that humpback of his! Landlord. It is true, Herr Jocelyn speaks for his master, and rather warmly. But therein he does right; I esteem him so much the more highly; I love him for it. Jocelyn. If I could but knock out some of his teeth for him! Landlord. Only it is a pity he should get so angry for nothing! for I am sure, your honor will not take offence at what I have done, because -necessity-compelled me Major. Too much already, sir! I am in debt to you; you have cleared the room during my absence; you must be paid; I must seek lodgings elsewhere. All very natural ! Will you Landlord. Where else? leave us, kind sir? Unhappy, unlucky man that I am!-No, never! Rather must the lady relinquish her lodgings. Herr Major cannot, will not give up the room to her; the room is his; she must leave it; I cannot help it.-I go, kind sir Major. Friend, not two foolish acts for one! The lady must remain in possession of the room. 1 Landlord. And your honor will believe that I was distrustful, anxious about my pay? As if I did not know your honor could pay whenever you wished. The sealed purse-five hundred thalers in louis d'ors is marked upon it—which your honor had placed in the writing-desk-is in good keeping. Major. This will I hope; so as to my remaining business-Jocelyn will take a receipt as soon as he has settled our account with you. Landlord. Truly, I was much astonished when I found the purse.I have always considered you an orderly, prudent man, who would never allow himself to be wholly out of cash. But still, if I had supposed that you possessed so much ready money Major. You would have treated me with greater courtesy. I understand you. But go now, sir, leave me; I have something to say to my servant. Landlord. But, kind sir Major. Come, Jocelyn, the gentleman will not allow me to tell you, in his house, what I wish you to do. Landlord. I go immediately, kind sir!-My whole house is at your service. SCENE IV.-MAJOR VON TELLHEIM, JOCELYN. Jocelyn (stamping his foot and spitting at the landlord.) Fie! Jocelyn. I am choking with rage! Major. This would be as bad as a plethory. Jocelyn. And you, I no longer know you, my master. Let me die before your eyes, if you are not the guardian angel of this knavish, merciless villian! In spite of gallows, sword and wheel, I would-I would have strangled him with these hands, I would have tore him with these teeth! Major. Brute! Jocelyn. Better a brute than such a man l Major. But what do you wish? Jocelyn. That you may be sensible how much the man has injured you. Major. And then? Jocelyn. That you avenge yourself!-No, the fellow is too contemptible for you! (TO BE CONTINUED.) |