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diff --git a/4554-h/4554-h.htm b/4554-h/4554-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c8bbae --- /dev/null +++ b/4554-h/4554-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5875 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lovers’ Vows, by Mrs. Inchbald</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 150%;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.dialog {text-indent: 0%; + margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0em;} + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +sup { vertical-align: top; font-size: 0.6em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lovers’ Vows, by Mrs. Inchbald</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Lovers’ Vows</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Mrs. Inchbald</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 9, 2002 [eBook #4554]<br /> +[Most recently updated: October 6, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Kelly Hurt</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVERS’ VOWS ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:60%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="cover " /><br/><br/> +</div> + +<h1>Lovers’ Vows</h1> + +<h3>A Play in Five Acts</h3> + +<h4>From the German of Kotzebue</h4> + +<h2>by Mrs. Inchbald</h2> + +<hr /> + +<h3>Contents</h3> + +<p class="noindent"> +<a href="#chap01">PREFACE.</a><br/><br/> +<a href="#sceneI_0">THE PROLOGUE.</a><br/><br/> +<a href="#chap02">LOVERS’ VOWS.</a><br/><br/> + +ACT I<br/> +<a href="#sceneI_1">Scene I.</a> +A high road, a town at a distance—A small inn on one side of the road—A cottage on the other.<br/> +<br/> + +ACT II<br/> +<a href="#sceneII_1">Scene I.</a> +A room in the Cottage.<br/> +<a href="#sceneII_2">Scene II.</a> +An apartment in the Castle.<br/> +<br/> + +ACT III<br/> +<a href="#sceneIII_1">Scene I.</a> +An open Field.<br/> +<a href="#sceneIII_2">Scene II.</a> +A room in the Castle.<br/> +<br/> + +ACT IV<br/> +<a href="#sceneIV_1">Scene I.</a> +A Prison in one of the Towers of the Castle.<br/> +<a href="#sceneIV_2">Scene II.</a> +A Room in the Castle.<br/> +<br/> + +ACT V<br/> +<a href="#sceneV_1">Scene I.</a> +Inside of the Cottage.<br/> +<a href="#sceneV_2">Scene II.</a> +A Room in the Castle.<br/> +<a href="#sceneV_3">Epilogue.</a><br/> +</p> + +<h3>Dramatis Personæ</h3> + +<h4>Men</h4> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> + +<tr> +<td>BARON WILDENHAIM</td><td><i>Mr. Murray.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>COUNT CASSEL</td><td><i>Mr. Knight.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>ANHALT</td><td><i>Mr. H. Johnston.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>FREDERICK</td><td><i>Mr. Pope.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>VERDUN <i>the</i> BUTLER</td><td><i>Mr. Munden.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>LANDLORD</td><td><i>Mr. Thompson</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>COTTAGER</td><td><i>Mr. Davenport.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>FARMER</td><td><i>Mr. Rees.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>COUNTRYMAN</td><td><i>Mr. Dyke.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>Huntsmen, Servants, &c.</td><td></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<h4>Women</h4> + +<table summary="" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"> + +<tr> +<td>AGATHA FIRBURG</td><td><i>Mrs. Johnson.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>AMELIA WILDENHAIM</td><td><i>Mrs. H. Johnston.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>COTTAGER’S WIFE</td><td><i>Mrs. Davenport.</i></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td>COUNTRY GIRL</td><td><i>Miss Leserve.</i></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<p class="center"> +SCENE, Germany—Time of representation one day. +</p> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + +<p> +It would appear like affectation to offer an apology for any scenes or passages +omitted or added, in this play, different from the original: its reception has +given me confidence to suppose what I have done is right; for Kotzebue’s +“Child of Love” in Germany, was never more attractive than +“Lovers’ Vows” has been in England. +</p> + +<p> +I could trouble my reader with many pages to disclose the motives which induced +me to alter, with the exception of a few common-place sentences only, the +characters of Count Cassel, Amelia, and Verdun the Butler—I could explain +why the part of the Count, as in the original, would inevitably have condemned +the whole Play,—I could inform my reader why I have pourtrayed the Baron +in many particulars different from the German author, and carefully prepared +the audience for the grand effect of the last scene in the fourth act, by +totally changing his conduct towards his son as a robber—why I gave +sentences of a humourous kind to the parts of the two Cottagers—why I was +compelled, on many occasions, to compress the matter of a speech of three or +four pages into one of three or four lines—and why, in no one instance, I +would suffer my respect for Kotzebue to interfere with my profound respect for +the judgment of a British audience. But I flatter myself such a vindication is +not requisite to the enlightened reader, who, I trust, on comparing this drama +with the original, will at once see all my motives—and the dull admirer +of mere verbal translation, it would be vain to endeavour to inspire with taste +by instruction. +</p> + +<p> +Wholly unacquainted with the German language, a literal translation of the +“Child of Love” was given to me by the manager of Covent Garden +Theatre to be fitted, as my opinion should direct, for his stage. This +translation, tedious and vapid as most literal translations are, had the +peculiar disadvantage of having been put into our language by a German—of +course it came to me in broken English. It was no slight misfortune to have an +example of bad grammar, false metaphors and similes, with all the usual errors +of feminine diction, placed before a female writer. But if, disdaining the +construction of sentences,—the precise decorum of the cold +grammarian,—she has caught the spirit of her author,—if, in every +altered scene,—still adhering to the nice propriety of his meaning, and +still keeping in view his great catastrophe,—she has agitated her +audience with all the various passions he depicted, the rigid criticism of the +closet will be but a slender abatement of the pleasure resulting from the +sanction of an applauding theatre. +</p> + +<p> +It has not been one of the least gratifications I have received from the +success of this play, that the original German, from which it is taken, was +printed in the year 1791; and yet, that during all the period which has +intervened, no person of talents or literary knowledge (though there are in +this country many of that description, who profess to search for German dramas) +has thought it worth employment to make a translation of the work. I can only +account for such an apparent neglect of Kotzebue’s “Child of +Love,” by the consideration of its original unfitness for an English +stage, and the difficulty of making it otherwise—a difficulty which once +appeared so formidable, that I seriously thought I must have declined it even +after I had proceeded some length in the undertaking. +</p> + +<p> +Independently of objections to the character of the Count, the dangerous +insignificance of the Butler, in the original, embarrassed me much. I found, if +he was retained in the <i>Dramatis Personæ</i>, something more must be supplied +than the author had assigned him: I suggested the verses I have introduced; but +not being blessed with the Butler’s happy art of rhyming, I am indebted +for them, except the seventh and eleventh stanzas in the first of his poetic +stories, to the author of the prologue. +</p> + +<p> +The part of Amelia has been a very particular object of my solicitude and +alteration: the same situations which the author gave her remain, but almost +all the dialogue of the character I have changed: the forward and unequivocal +manner in which she announces her affection to her lover, in the original, +would have been revolting to an English audience: the passion of love, +represented on the stage, is certain to be insipid or disgusting, unless it +creates smiles or tears: Amelia’s love, by Kotzebue, is indelicately +blunt, and yet void of mirth or sadness: I have endeavoured to attach the +attention and sympathy of the audience by whimsical insinuations, rather than +coarse abruptness—the same woman, I conceive, whom the author drew, with +the self-same sentiments, but with manners adapted to the English rather than +the German taste; and if the favour in which this character is held by the +audience, together with every sentence and incident which I have presumed to +introduce in the play, may be offered as the criterion of my skill, I am +sufficiently rewarded for the task I have performed. +</p> + +<p> +In stating the foregoing circumstances relating to this production, I hope not +to be suspected of arrogating to my own exertions only, the popularity which +has attended “The Child of Love,” under the title of +“Lovers’ Vows,”—the exertions of every performer +engaged in the play deservedly claim a share in its success; and I must +sincerely thank them for the high importance of their aid. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="sceneI_0" id="sceneI_0"></a>PROLOGUE.</h2> + +<p> +WRITTEN BY JOHN TAYLOR, ESQ. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Spoken by Mr. MURRAY.</i> +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +Poets have oft’ declared, in doleful strain,<br/> +That o’er dramatic tracks they beat in vain,<br/> +Hopeless that novelty will spring to sight;<br/> +For life and nature are exhausted quite.<br/> +Though plaints like these have rung from age to age,<br/> +Too kind are writers to desert the stage;<br/> +And if they, fruitless, search for unknown prey,<br/> +At least they dress <i>old game</i> a <i>novel way</i>;<br/> +But such lamentings should be heard no more,<br/> +For modern taste turns Nature out of door;<br/> +Who ne’er again her former sway will boast,<br/> +Till, to complete her works, <i>she starts a ghost</i>.<br/> + If such the mode, what can we hope to-night,<br/> +Who rashly dare approach without a sprite?<br/> +No dreadful cavern, no midnight scream,<br/> +No rosin flames, nor e’en one flitting gleam.<br/> +Nought of the charms so potent to invite<br/> +The monstrous charms of terrible delight.<br/> +Our present theme the German Muse supplies,<br/> +But rather aims to soften than surprise.<br/> +Yet, with her woes she strives some smiles to blend,<br/> +Intent as well to cheer as to amend:<br/> +On her own native soil she knows the art<br/> +To charm the fancy, and to touch the heart.<br/> +If, then, she mirth and pathos can express,<br/> +Though less engaging in an English dress,<br/> +Let her from British hearts no peril fear,<br/> +But, as a STRANGER*, find a welcome here. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* Hamlet. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>LOVERS’ VOWS.</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="sceneI_1" id="sceneI_1"></a>ACT I.</h2> + +<h3>SCENE I.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>A high road, a town at a distance—A small inn on one side of +the road—A cottage on the other.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>The</i> LANDLORD <i>of the inn leads</i> AGATHA <i>by the hand out of his +house.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +No, no! no room for you any longer—It is the fair to-day in the next +village; as great a fair as any in the German dominions. The country people +with their wives and children take up every corner we have. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +You will turn a poor sick woman out of doors who has spent her last farthing in +your house. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +For that very reason; because she <i>has</i> spent her last farthing. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I can work. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +You can hardly move your hands. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +My strength will come again. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Then <i>you</i> may come again. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +What am I to do? Where shall I go? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +It is fine weather—you may go any where. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Who will give me a morsel of bread to satisfy my hunger? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Sick people eat but little. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Hard, unfeeling man, have pity. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +When times are hard, pity is too expensive for a poor man. Ask alms of the +different people that go by. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Beg! I would rather starve. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +You may beg and starve too. What a fine lady you are! Many an honest woman has +been obliged to beg. Why should not you? [Agatha <i>sits down upon a large +stone under a tree.</i>] For instance, here comes somebody; and I will teach +you how to begin. [<i>A Countryman, with working tools, crosses the road.</i>] +Good day, neighbour Nicholas. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNTRYMAN<br/> +Good day. [<i>Stops.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Won’t you give a trifle to this poor woman? [<i>Countryman takes no +notice, but walks off.</i>] That would not do—the poor man has nothing +himself but what he gets by hard labour. Here comes a rich farmer; perhaps he +will give you something. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> FARMER. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Good morning to you, Sir. Under yon tree sits a poor woman in distress, who is +in need of your charity. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FARMER.<br/> +Is she not ashamed of herself? Why don’t she work? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +She has had a fever.—If you would but pay for one dinner— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FARMER.<br/> +The harvest has been indifferent, and my cattle and sheep have suffered +distemper. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +My fat, smiling face was not made for begging: you’ll have more luck with +your thin, sour one—so, I’ll leave you to yourself. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Agatha <i>rises and comes forward.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Oh Providence! thou hast till this hour protected me, and hast given me +fortitude not to despair. Receive my humble thanks, and restore me to health, +for the sake of my poor son, the innocent cause of my sufferings, and yet my +only comfort. [<i>kneeling</i>] Oh, grant that I may see him once more! See him +improved in strength of mind and body; and that by thy gracious mercy he may +never be visited with afflictions great as mine. [<i>After a pause</i>] Protect +his father too, merciful Providence, and pardon his crime of perjury to me! +Here, in the face of heaven (supposing my end approaching, and that I can but a +few days longer struggle with want and sorrow), here, I solemnly forgive my +seducer for all the ills, the accumulated evils which his allurements, his +deceit, and cruelty, have for twenty years past drawn upon me. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter a</i> COUNTRY GIRL <i>with a basket.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +[<i>near fainting</i>]. My dear child, if you could spare me a trifle— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +GIRL.<br/> +I have not a farthing in the world—But I am going to market to sell my +eggs, and as I come back I’ll give you three-pence—And I’ll +be back as soon as ever I can. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +There was a time when I was as happy as this country girl, and as willing to +assist the poor in distress. [<i>Retires to the tree and sits down.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> FREDERICK—<i>He is dressed in a German soldier’s +uniform, has a knapsack on his shoulders, appears in high spirits, and stops at +the door of the inn.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Halt! Stand at ease! It is a very hot day—A draught of good wine will not +be amiss. But first let me consult my purse. [<i>Takes out a couple of pieces +of money, which he turns about in his hand.</i>] This will do for a +breakfast—the other remains for my dinner; and in the evening I shall be +home. [<i>Calls out</i>] Ha! Halloo! Landlord! [<i>Takes notice of</i> Agatha, +<i>who is leaning against the tree.</i>] Who is that? A poor sick woman! She +don’t beg; but her appearance makes me think she is in want. Must one +always wait to give till one is asked? Shall I go without my breakfast now, or +lose my dinner? The first I think is best. Ay, I don’t want a breakfast, +for dinner time will soon be here. To do good satisfies both hunger and thirst. +[<i>Going towards her with the money in his hand.</i>] Take this, good woman. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>She stretches her hand for the gift, looks steadfastly at him, and cries +out with astonishment and joy.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Frederick! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Mother! [<i>With astonishment and grief.</i>] Mother! For God’s sake what +is this! How is this! And why do I find my mother thus? Speak! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I cannot speak, dear son! [<i>Rising and embracing him.</i>] My dear Frederick! +The joy is too great—I was not prepared— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Dear mother, compose yourself: [<i>leans her head against his breast</i>] now, +then, be comforted. How she trembles! She is fainting. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I am so weak, and my head so giddy—I had nothing to eat all yesterday. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Good heavens! Here is my little money, take it all! Oh mother! mother! [<i>Runs +to the inn</i>]. Landlord! Landlord! [<i>knocking violently at the door.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +What is the matter? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +A bottle of wine—quick, quick! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +[<i>surprised</i>]. A bottle of wine! For who? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +For me. Why do you ask? Why don’t you make haste? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Well, well, Mr. soldier: but can you pay for it? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Here is money—make haste, or I’ll break every window in your house. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Patience! Patience! [<i>goes off.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>to Agatha</i>]. You were hungry yesterday when I sat down to a comfortable +dinner. You were hungry when I partook of a good supper. Oh! Why is so much +bitter mixed with the joy of my return? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Be patient, my dear Frederick. Since I see you, I am well. But I <i>have +been</i> very ill: so ill, that I despaired of ever beholding you again. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Ill, and I was not with you? I will, now, never leave you more. Look, mother, +how tall and strong I am grown. These arms can now afford you support. They +can, and shall, procure you subsistence. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Landlord <i>coming out of the house with a small pitcher.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Here is wine—a most delicious nectar. [<i>Aside.</i>] It is only Rhenish; +but it will pass for the best old Hock. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>impatiently snatching the pitcher</i>]. Give it me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +No, no—the money first. One shilling and two-pence, if you please. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Frederick <i>gives him money.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +This is all I have.—Here, here, mother. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>While she drinks</i> Landlord <i>counts the money.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Three halfpence too short! However, one must be charitable. [<i>Exit</i> +Landlord. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I thank you, my dear Frederick—Wine revives me—Wine from the hand +of my son gives me almost a new life. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Don’t speak too much, mother.—Take your time. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Tell me, dear child, how you have passed the five years since you left me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Both good and bad, mother. To day plenty—to-morrow not so much—And +sometimes nothing at all. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +You have not written to me this long while. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Dear mother, consider the great distance I was from you!—And then, in the +time of war, how often letters miscarry.—Besides—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +No matter now I see you. But have you obtained your discharge? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Oh, no, mother—I have leave of absence only for two months; and that for +a particular reason. But I will not quit you so soon, now I find you are in +want of my assistance. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +No, no, Frederick; your visit will make me so well, that I shall in a very +short time recover strength to work again; and you must return to your regiment +when your furlough is expired. But you told me leave of absence was granted you +for a particular reason.—What reason? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +When I left you five years ago, you gave me every thing you could afford, and +all you thought would be necessary for me. But one trifle you forgot, which +was, the certificate of my birth from the church-book.—You know in this +country there is nothing to be done without it. At the time of parting from +you, I little thought it could be of that consequence to me which I have since +found it would have been. Once I became tired of a soldier’s life, and in +the hope I should obtain my discharge, offered myself to a master to learn a +profession; but his question was, “Where is your certificate from the +church-book of the parish in which you were born?” It vexed me that I had +not it to produce, for my comrades laughed at my disappointment. My captain +behaved kinder, for he gave me leave to come home to fetch it—and you +see, mother, here I am. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>During his speech</i> Agatha <i>is confused and agitated.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +So, you are come for the purpose of fetching your certificate from the +church-book. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Yes, mother. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Oh! oh! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +What is the matter? [<i>She bursts into tears.</i>] For heaven’s sake, +mother, tell me what’s the matter? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +You have no certificate. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +No! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +No.—The laws of Germany excluded you from being registered at your +birth—for—you are a natural son! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>starts—after a pause</i>]. So!—And who is my father? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Oh Frederick, your wild looks are daggers to my heart. Another time. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>endeavouring to conceal his emotion</i>]. No, no—I am still your +son—and you are still my mother. Only tell me, who is my father? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +When we parted five years ago, you were too young to be intrusted with a secret +of so much importance.—But the time is come when I can, in confidence, +open my heart, and unload that burthen with which it has been long oppressed. +And yet, to reveal my errors to my child, and sue for his mild judgment on my +conduct—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +You have nothing to sue for; only explain this mystery. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I will, I will. But—my tongue is locked with remorse and shame. You must +not look at me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Not look at you! Cursed be that son who could find his mother guilty, although +the world should call her so. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Then listen to me, and take notice of that village, [<i>pointing</i>] of that +castle, and of that church. In that village I was born—in that church I +was baptized. My parents were poor, but reputable farmers.—The lady of +that castle and estate requested them to let me live with her, and she would +provide for me through life. They resigned me; and at the age of fourteen I +went to my patroness. She took pleasure to instruct me in all kinds of female +literature and accomplishments, and three happy years had passed under +protection, when her only son, who was an officer in the Saxon service, +obtained permission to come home. I had never seen him before—he was a +handsome young man—in my eyes a prodigy; for he talked of love, and +promised me marriage. He was the first man who had ever spoken to me on such a +subject.—His flattery made me vain, and his repeated +vows—Don’t look at me, dear Frederick!—I can say no more. +[Frederick <i>with his eyes cast down, takes her hand, and puts it to his +heart.</i>] Oh! oh! my son! I was intoxicated by the fervent caresses of a +young, inexperienced, capricious man, and did not recover from the delirium +till it was too late. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>after a pause</i>]. Go on.—Let me know more of my father. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +When the time drew near that I could no longer conceal my guilt and shame, my +seducer prevailed upon me not to expose him to the resentment of his mother. He +renewed his former promises of marriage at her death;—on which relying, I +gave him my word to be secret—and I have to this hour buried his name +deep in my heart. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Proceed, proceed! give me full information—I will have courage to hear it +all. [<i>Greatly agitated.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +His leave of absence expired, he returned to his regiment, depending on my +promise, and well assured of my esteem. As soon as my situation became known, I +was questioned, and received many severe reproaches: but I refused to confess +who was my undoer; and for that obstinacy was turned from the castle.—I +went to my parents; but their door was shut against me. My mother, indeed, wept +as she bade me quit her sight for ever; but my father wished increased +affliction might befall me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>weeping</i>]. Be quick with your narrative, or you’ll break my heart. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I now sought protection from the old clergyman of the parish. He received me +with compassion. On my knees I begged forgiveness for the scandal I had caused +to his parishioners; promised amendment; and he said he did not doubt me. +Through his recommendation I went to town; and hid in humble lodgings, procured +the means of subsistence by teaching to the neighbouring children what I had +learnt under the tuition of my benefactress.—To instruct you, my +Frederick, was my care and delight; and in return for your filial love I would +not thwart your wishes when they led to a soldier’s life: but I saw you +go from me with an aching heart. Soon after, my health declined, I was +compelled to give up my employment, and, by degrees, became the object you now +see me. But, let me add, before I close my calamitous story, that—when I +left the good old clergyman, taking along with me his kind advice and his +blessing, I left him with a firm determination to fulfil the vow I had made of +repentance and amendment. I <i>have</i> fulfilled it—and now, Frederick, +you may look at me again. [<i>He embraces her.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +But my father all this time? [<i>mournfully</i>] I apprehend he died. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +No—he married. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Married! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +A woman of virtue—of noble birth and immense fortune. Yet, [<i>weeps</i>] +I had written to him many times; had described your infant innocence and wants; +had glanced obliquely at former promises— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>rapidly</i>]. No answer to these letters? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Not a word.—But in time of war, you know, letters miscarry. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Nor did he ever return to this estate? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +No—since the death of his mother this castle has only been inhabited by +servants—for he settled as far off as Alsace, upon the estate of his +wife. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +I will carry you in my arms to Alsace. No—why should I ever know my +father, if he is a villain! My heart is satisfied with a +mother.—No—I will not go to him. I will not disturb his +peace—I leave that task to his conscience. What say you, mother, +can’t we do without him? [<i>Struggling between tears and his pride.</i>] +We don’t want him. I will write directly to my captain. Let the +consequence be what it will, leave you again I cannot. Should I be able to get +my discharge, I will work all day at the plough, and all the night with my pen. +It will do, mother, it will do! Heaven’s goodness will assist me—it +will prosper the endeavours of a dutiful son for the sake of a helpless mother. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +[<i>presses him to her breast</i>]. Where could be found such another son? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +But tell me my father’s name, that I may know how to shun him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Baron Wildenhaim. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Baron Wildenhaim! I shall never forget it.—Oh! you are near fainting. +Your eyes are cast down. What’s the matter? Speak, mother! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Nothing particular.—Only fatigued with talking. I wish to take a little +rest. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +I did not consider that we have been all this time in the open road. [<i>Goes +to the Inn, and knocks at the door.</i>] Here, Landlord! +</p> + +<p class="center"> +LANDLORD <i>re-enters.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +Well, what is the matter now? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Make haste, and get a bed ready for this good woman. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +LANDLORD.<br/> +[<i>with a sneer</i>]. A bed for this good woman! ha, ha ha! She slept last +night in that pent-house; so she may to-night. [<i>Exit, shutting the door.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +You are an infamous—[<i>goes back to his mother</i>] Oh! my poor +mother—[<i>runs to the Cottage at a little distance, and knocks</i>]. Ha! +halloo! Who is there? +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> COTTAGER. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Good day, young soldier.—What is it you want? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Good friend, look at that poor woman. She is perishing in the public road! It +is my mother.—Will you give her a small corner in your hut? I beg for +mercy’s sake—Heaven will reward you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Can’t you speak quietly? I understand you very well. [<i>Calls at the +door of the hut.</i>] Wife, shake up our bed—here’s a poor sick +woman wants it. [<i>Enter</i> WIFE]. Why could not you say all this in fewer +words? Why such a long preamble? Why for mercy’s sake, and heaven’s +reward? Why talk about reward for such trifles as these? Come, let us lead her +in; and welcome she shall be to a bed, as good as I can give her; and our +homely fare. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Ten thousand thanks, and blessings on you! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Thanks and blessings! here’s a piece of work indeed about nothing! Good +sick lady, lean on my shoulder. [<i>To</i> Frederick] Thanks and reward indeed! +Do you think husband and I have lived to these years, and don’t know our +duty? Lean on my shoulder. [<i>Exeunt into the Cottage.</i> +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="sceneII_1" id="sceneII_1"></a>ACT II.</h2> + +<h3>SCENE I.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>A room in the Cottage.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +AGATHA, COTTAGER, <i>his</i> WIFE, <i>and</i> FREDERICK +<i>discovered</i>—AGATHA <i>reclined upon a wooden bench,</i> FREDERICK +<i>leaning over her.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Good people have you nothing to give her? Nothing that’s nourishing. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Run, husband, run, and fetch a bottle of wine from the landlord of the inn. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +No, no—his wine is as bad as his heart: she has drank some of it, which I +am afraid has turned to poison. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Suppose, wife, you look for a new-laid egg? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Or a drop of brandy, husband—that mostly cures me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Do you hear, mother—will you, mother? [Agatha <i>makes a sign with her +hand as if she could not take any thing.</i>] She will not. Is there no doctor +in this neighbourhood? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +At the end of the village there lives a horse-doctor. I have never heard of any +other. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +What shall I do? She is dying. My mother is dying.—Pray for her, good +people! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Make yourself easy, dear Frederick, I am well, only weak—Some wholesome +nourishment— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Yes, mother, directly—directly. [<i>Aside</i>] Oh where shall I—no +money—not a farthing left. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Oh, dear me! Had you not paid the rent yesterday, husband— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +I then, should know what to do. But as I hope for mercy, I have not a penny in +my house. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Then I must—[<i>Apart, coming forward</i>]—Yes, I will go, and +beg.—But should I be refused—I will then—I leave my mother in +your care, good people—Do all you can for her, I beseech you! I shall +soon be with you again. [<i>Goes off in haste and confusion.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +If he should go to our parson, I am sure he would give him something. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Agatha <i>having revived by degrees during the scene, rises.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Is that good old man still living, who was minister here some time ago? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +No—It pleased Providence to take that worthy man to heaven two years +ago.—We have lost in him both a friend and a father. We shall never get +such another. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Wife, wife, our present rector is likewise a very good man. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Yes! But he is so very young. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Our late parson was once young too. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +[<i>to</i> Agatha.] This young man being tutor in our Baron’s family, he +was very much beloved by them all; and so the Baron gave him this living in +consequence. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +And well he deserved it, for his pious instructions to our young lady: who is, +in consequence, good, and friendly to every body. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +What young lady do you mean? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Our Baron’s daughter. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Is she here? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Dear me! Don’t you know that? I thought every body had known that. It is +almost five weeks since the Baron and all his family arrived at the castle. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Baron Wildenhaim? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Yes, Baron Wildenhaim. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +And his lady? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +His lady died in France many miles from hence, and her death, I suppose, was +the cause of his coming to this estate—For the Baron has not been here +till within these five weeks ever since he was married. We regretted his +absence much, and his arrival has caused great joy. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +[<i>addressing her discourse to</i> Agatha.] By all accounts the Baroness was +very haughty; and very whimsical. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Wife, wife, never speak ill of the dead. Say what you please against the +living, but not a word against the dead. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +And yet, husband, I believe the dead care the least what is said against +them—And so, if you please, I’ll tell my story. The late Baroness +was, they say, haughty and proud; and they do say, the Baron was not so happy +as he might have been; but he, bless him, our good Baron is still the same as +when a boy. Soon after Madam had closed her eyes, he left France, and came to +Waldenhaim, his native country. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Many times has he joined in our village dances. Afterwards, when he became an +officer, he was rather wild, as most young men are. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Yes, I remember when he fell in love with poor Agatha, Friburg’s +daughter: what a piece of work that was—It did not do him much credit. +That was a wicked thing. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Have done—no more of this—It is not well to stir up old grievances. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Why, you said I might speak ill of the living. ’Tis very hard indeed, if +one must not speak ill of one’s neighbours, dead, nor alive. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Who knows whether he was the father of Agatha’s child? She never said he +was. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Nobody but him—that I am sure—I would lay a wager—no, no +husband—you must not take his part—it was very wicked! Who knows +what is now become of that poor creature? She has not been heard of this many a +year. May be she is starving for hunger. Her father might have lived longer +too, if that misfortune had not happened. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Agatha <i>faints.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +See here! Help! She is fainting—take hold! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Oh, poor woman! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Let us take her into the next room. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Oh poor woman!—I am afraid she will not live. Come, chear up, chear +up.—You are with those who feel for you. [<i>They lead her off.</i>] +</p> + +<h3><a name="sceneII_2" id="sceneII_2"></a>SCENE II.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>An apartment in the Castle.</i> +</p +> +<p class="center"> +<i>A table spread for breakfast—Several servants in livery disposing the +equipage</i>—BARON WILDENHAIM <i>enters, attended by a</i> GENTLEMAN +<i>in waiting.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Has not Count Cassel left his chamber yet? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +GENTLEMAN.<br/> +No, my lord, he has but now rung for his valet. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +The whole castle smells of his perfumery. Go, call my daughter hither. +[<i>Exit</i> Gentleman.] And am I after all to have an ape for a son-in-law? +No, I shall not be in a hurry—I love my daughter too well. We must be +better acquainted before I give her to him. I shall not sacrifice my Amelia to +the will of others, as I myself was sacrificed. The poor girl might, in +thoughtlessness, say yes, and afterwards be miserable. What a pity she is not a +boy! The name of Wildenhaim will die with me. My fine estates, my good +peasants, all will fall into the hands of strangers. Oh! why was not my Amelia +a boy? +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> AMELIA—[<i>She kisses the</i> Baron’s <i>hand</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Good morning, dear my lord. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Good morning, Amelia. Have you slept well? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh! yes, papa. I always sleep well. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Not a little restless last night? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Amelia, you know you have a father who loves you, and I believe you know you +have a suitor who is come to ask permission to love you. Tell me candidly how +you like Count Cassel? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Very well. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Do not you blush when I talk of him? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +No—I am sorry for that. [<i>aside</i>] Have you dreamt of him? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Have you not dreamt at all to-night? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh yes—I have dreamt of our chaplain, Mr. Anhalt. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Ah ha! As if he stood before you and the Count to ask for the ring. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No: not that—I dreamt we were all still in France, and he, my tutor, just +going to take his leave of us for ever—I ’woke with the fright, and +found my eyes full of tears. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Psha! I want to know if you can love the Count. You saw him at the last ball we +were at in France: when he capered round you; when he danced minuets; when +he——. But I cannot say what his conversation was. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Nor I either—I do not remember a syllable of it. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +No? Then I do not think you like him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I believe not. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +But I think it proper to acquaint you he is rich, and of great consequence: +rich and of consequence; do you hear? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Yes, dear papa. But my tutor has always told me that birth and fortune are +inconsiderable things, and cannot give happiness. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +There he is right—But if it happens that birth and fortune are joined +with sense and virtue—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +But is it so with Count Cassel? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Hem! Hem! [<i>Aside.</i>] I will ask you a few questions on this subject; but +be sure to answer me honestly—Speak truth. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I never told an untruth in my life. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Nor ever <i>conceal</i> the truth from me, I command you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>Earnestly.</i>] Indeed, my lord, I never will. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I take you at your word—And now reply to me truly—Do you like to +hear the Count spoken of? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Good, or bad? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Good. Good. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh yes; I like to hear good of every body. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +But do not you feel a little fluttered when he is talked of? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No. [<i>shaking her head.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Are not you a little embarrassed? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Don’t you wish sometimes to speak to him, and have not the courage to +begin? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Do not you wish to take his part when his companions laugh at him? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No—I love to laugh at him myself. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Provoking! [<i>Aside.</i>] Are not you afraid of him when he comes near you? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No, not at all.—Oh yes—once. [<i>recollecting herself.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Ah! Now it comes! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Once at a ball he trod on my foot; and I was so afraid he should tread on me +again. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +You put me out of patience. Hear, Amelia! [<i>stops short, and speaks +softer.</i>] To see you happy is my wish. But matrimony, without concord, is +like a duetto badly performed; for that reason, nature, the great composer of +all harmony, has ordained, that, when bodies are allied, hearts should be in +perfect unison. However, I will send Mr. Anhalt to you—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>much pleased</i>]. Do, papa. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +——He shall explain to you my sentiments. [<i>Rings.</i>] A +clergyman can do this better than——[<i>Enter servant.</i>] Go +directly to Mr. Anhalt, tell him that I shall be glad to see him for a quarter +of an hour if he is not engaged. [<i>Exit servant.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>calls after him</i>]. Wish him a good morning from me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>looking at his watch</i>]. The Count is a tedious time dressing.—Have +you breakfasted, Amelia? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No, papa. [<i>they sit down to breakfast.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +How is the weather? Have you walked this morning? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh, yes—I was in the garden at five o’clock; it is very fine. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Then I’ll go out shooting. I do not know in what other way to amuse my +guest. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter Count</i> CASSEL. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Ah, my dear Colonel! Miss Wildenhaim, I kiss your hand. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Good morning! Good morning! though it is late in the day, Count. In the country +we should rise earlier. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Amelia <i>offers the</i> Count <i>a Cup of tea</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Is it Hebe herself, or Venus, or—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Ha, ha, ha! Who can help laughing at his nonsense? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>rather angry</i>]. Neither Venus, not Hebe; but Amelia Wildenhaim, if you +please. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +[<i>Sitting down to breakfast</i>]. You are beautiful, Miss +Wildenhaim.—Upon my honour, I think so. I have travelled, and seen much +of the world, and yet I can positively admire you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I am sorry I have not seen the world. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Wherefore? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Because I might then, perhaps, admire you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +True;—for I am an epitome of the world. In my travels I learnt delicacy +in Italy—hauteur, in Spain—in France, enterprize—in Russia, +prudence—in England, sincerity—in Scotland, frugality—and in +the wilds of America, I learnt love. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Is there any country where love is taught? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +In all barbarous countries. But the whole system is exploded in places that are +civilized. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +And what is substituted in its stead? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Intrigue. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +What a poor, uncomfortable substitute! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +There are other things—Song, dance, the opera, and war. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>Since the entrance of the</i> Count <i>the</i> Baron <i>has removed to a +table at a little distance.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What are you talking of there? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Of war, Colonel. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>rising</i>]. Ay, we like to talk on what we don’t understand. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +[<i>rising</i>]. Therefore, to a lady, I always speak of politics; and to her +father, on love. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I believe, Count, notwithstanding your sneer, I am still as much a proficient +in that art as yourself. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +I do not doubt it, my dear Colonel, for you are a soldier: and since the days +of Alexander, whoever conquers men is certain to overcome women. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +An achievement to animate a poltroon. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +And, I verily believe, gains more recruits than the king’s pay. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Now we are on the subject of arms, should you like to go out a shooting with me +for an hour before dinner? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Bravo, Colonel! A charming thought! This will give me an opportunity to use my +elegant gun: the but is inlaid with mother-of-pearl. You cannot find better +work, or better taste.—Even my coat of arms is engraved. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +But can you shoot? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +That I have never tried—except, with my eyes, at a fine woman. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I am not particular what game I pursue.—I have an old gun; it does not +look fine; But I can always bring down my bird. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> SERVANT. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +SERVANT.<br/> +Mr. Anhalt begs leave—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Tell him to come in.—I shall be ready in a moment. [<i>Exit</i> Servant. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Who is Mr. Anhalt? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh, a very good man. [<i>With warmth.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +“A good man.” In Italy, that means a religious man; in France, it +means a cheerful man; in Spain, it means a wise man; and in England, it means a +rich man.—Which good of all these is Mr. Anhalt? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +A good man in every country, except England. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +And give me the English good man, before that of any other nation. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +And of what nation would you prefer your good woman to be, Count? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Of Germany. [<i>bowing to</i> Amelia.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +In compliment to me? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +In justice to my own judgment. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Certainly. For have we not an instance of one German woman, who possesses every +virtue that ornaments the whole sex; whether as a woman of illustrious rank, or +in the more exalted character of a wife, and mother? +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter Mr.</i> ANHALT. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I come by your command, Baron—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Quick, Count.—Get your elegant gun.—I pass your apartments, and +will soon call for you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +I fly.—Beautiful Amelia, it is a sacrifice I make to your father, that I +leave for a few hours his amiable daughter. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +My dear Amelia, I think it scarcely necessary to speak to Mr. Anhalt, or that +he should speak to you, on the subject of the Count; but as he is here, leave +us alone. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>as she retires</i>]. Good morning, Mr. Anhalt.—I hope you are very +well. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I’ll tell you in a few words why I sent for you. Count Cassel is here, +and wishes to marry my daughter. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>much concerned</i>]. Really! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +He is—he—in a word I don’t like him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>with emotion</i>]. And Miss Wildenhaim —— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I shall not command, neither persuade her to the marriage—I know too well +the fatal influence of parents on such a subject. Objections to be sure, if +they could be removed—But when you find a man’s head without +brains, and his bosom without a heart, these are important articles to supply. +Young as you are, Anhalt, I know no one so able to restore, or to bestow those +blessings on his fellow-creatures, as you. [Anhalt <i>bows.</i>] The Count +wants a little of my daughter’s simplicity and sensibility.—Take +him under your care while he is here, and make him something like +yourself.—You have succeeded to my wish in the education of my +daughter.—Form the Count after your own manner.—I shall then have +what I have sighed for all my life—a son. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +With your permission, Baron, I will ask one question. What remains to interest +you in favour of a man, whose head and heart are good for nothing? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Birth and fortune. Yet, if I thought my daughter absolutely disliked him, or +that she loved another, I would not thwart a first affection;—no, for the +world, I would not. [<i>sighing.</i>] But that her affections are already +bestowed, is not probable. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Are you of opinion that she will never fall in love? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Oh! no. I am of opinion that no woman ever arrived at the age of twenty without +that misfortune.—But this is another subject.—Go to +Amelia—explain to her the duties of a wife and of a mother.—If she +comprehends them, as she ought, then ask her if she thinks she could fulfil +those duties, as the wife of Count Cassel. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I will.—But—I—Miss Wildenhaim—[<i>confused.</i> +I—I shall—I—I shall obey your commands. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Do so. [<i>gives a deep sigh.</i>] Ah! so far this weight is removed; but there +lies still a heavier next my heart.—You understand me.—How is it, +Mr. Anhalt? Have you not yet been able to make any discoveries on that +unfortunate subject? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I have taken infinite pains; but in vain. No such person is to be found. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Believe me, this burthen presses on my thoughts so much, that many nights I go +without sleep. A man is sometimes tempted to commit such depravity when +young.—Oh, Anhalt! had I, in my youth, had you for a tutor;—but I +had no instructor but my passions; no governor but my own will. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +This commission of the Baron’s in respect to his daughter, I +am—[<i>looks about</i>]—If I shou’d meet her now, I +cannot—I must recover myself first, and then prepare.—A walk in the +fields, and a fervent prayer—After these, I trust, I shall return, as a +man whose views are solely placed on a future world; all hopes in this, with +fortitude resigned. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="sceneIII_1" id="sceneIII_1"></a>ACT III.</h2> + +<h3>SCENE I.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>An open Field.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +FREDERICK <i>alone, with a few pieces of money which he turns about in his +hands.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +To return with this trifle for which I have stooped to beg! return to see my +mother dying! I would rather fly to the world’s end. [<i>Looking at the +money.</i>] What can I buy with this? It is hardly enough to pay for the nails +that will be wanted for her coffin. My great anxiety will drive me to +distraction. However, let the consequence of our affliction be what it may, all +will fall upon my father’s head; and may he pant for Heaven’s +forgiveness, as my poor mother —— [<i>At a distance is heard the +firing of a gun, then the cry of Hallo, Hallo—Gamekeepers and Sportsmen +run across the stage—he looks about.</i>] Here they come—a +nobleman, I suppose, or a man of fortune. Yes, yes—and I will once more +beg for my mother.—May Heaven send relief! +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter the</i> BARON <i>followed slowly by the</i> COUNT. <i>The</i> BARON +<i>stops.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Quick, quick, Count! Aye, aye, that was a blunder indeed. Don’t you see +the dogs? There they run—they have lost the scent. [<i>Exit</i> Baron +<i>looking after the dogs.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +So much the better, Colonel, for I must take a little breath. [<i>He leans on +his gun</i>—Frederick <i>goes up to him with great modesty.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Gentleman, I beg you will bestow from your superfluous wants something to +relieve the pain, and nourish the weak frame, of an expiring woman. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>The</i> BARON <i>re-enters.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +What police is here! that a nobleman’s amusements should be interrupted +by the attack of vagrants. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>to the Baron</i>]. Have pity, noble Sir, and relieve the distress of an +unfortunate son, who supplicates for his dying mother. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>taking out his purse</i>]. I think, young soldier, it would be better if +you were with your regiment on duty, instead of begging. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +I would with all my heart: but at this present moment my sorrows are too +great.—[Baron <i>gives something.</i>] I entreat your pardon. What you +have been so good as to give me is not enough. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>surprised</i>]. Not enough! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +No, it is not enough. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +The most singular beggar I ever met in all my travels. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +If you have a charitable heart, give me one dollar. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +This is the first time I was ever dictated by a beggar what to give him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +With one dollar you will save a distracted man. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I don’t choose to give any more. Count, go on. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>Exit</i> Count—<i>as the</i> Baron <i>follows</i>, Frederick +<i>seizes him by the breast and draws his sword.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Your purse, or your life. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>calling</i>]. Here! here! seize and secure him. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>Some of the Gamekeepers run on, lay hold of</i> Frederick, <i>and disarm +him.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +What have I done! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Take him to the castle, and confine him in one of the towers. I shall follow +you immediately. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +One favour I have to beg, one favour only.—I know that I am guilty, and +am ready to receive the punishment my crime deserves. But I have a mother, who +is expiring for want—pity her, if you cannot pity me—bestow on her +relief. If you will send to yonder hut, you will find that I do not impose on +you a falsehood. For her it was I drew my sword—for her I am ready to +die. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Take him away, and imprison him where I told you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>as he is forced off by the keepers</i>]. Woe to that man to whom I owe my +birth! [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>calls another Keeper</i>]. Here, Frank, run directly to yonder hamlet, +inquire in the first, second, and third cottage for a poor sick woman—and +if you really find such a person, give her this purse. [<i>Exit +Gamekeeper.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +A most extraordinary event!—and what a well-looking youth! something in +his countenance and address which struck me inconceivably!—If it is true +that he begged for his mother—But if he did——for the attempt +upon my life, he must die. Vice is never half so dangerous, as when it assumes +the garb of morality. [<i>Exit.</i>] +</p> + +<h3><a name="sceneIII_2" id="sceneIII_2"></a>SCENE II.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>A room in the Castle.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>alone.</i>] Why am I so uneasy; so peevish; who has offended me? I did not +mean to come into this room. In the garden I intended to go [<i>going, turns +back</i>]. No, I will not—yes, I will—just go, and look if my +auriculas are still in blossom; and if the apple tree is grown which Mr. Anhalt +planted.—I feel very low-spirited—something must be the +matter.—Why do I cry?—Am I not well? +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter Mr.</i> ANHALT. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +Ah! good morning, my dear Sir—Mr. Anhalt, I meant to say—I beg +pardon. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Never mind, Miss Wildenhaim—I don’t dislike to hear you call me as +you did. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +In earnest? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Really. You have been crying. May I know the reason? The loss of your mother, +still?— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No—I have left off crying for her. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I beg pardon if I have come at an improper hour; but I wait upon you by the +commands of your father. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +You are welcome at all hours. My father has more than once told me that he who +forms my mind I should always consider as my greatest benefactor. [<i>looking +down</i>] And my heart tells me the same. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I think myself amply rewarded by the good opinion you have of me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +When I remember what trouble I have sometimes given you, I cannot be too +grateful. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>to himself</i>] Oh! Heavens!—[<i>to</i> Amelia]. I—I come from +your father with a commission.—If you please, we will sit down. [<i>He +places chairs, and they sit.</i>] Count Cassel is arrived. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Yes, I know. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +And do you know for what reason? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +He wishes to marry me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Does he? [<i>hastily</i>] But believe me, the Baron will not persuade +you—No, I am sure he will not. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I know that. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +He wishes that I should ascertain whether you have an inclination +—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +For the Count, or for matrimony do you mean? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +For matrimony. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +All things that I don’t know, and don’t understand, are quite +indifferent to me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +For that very reason I am sent to you to explain the good and the bad of which +matrimony is composed. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Then I beg first to be acquainted with the good. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +When two sympathetic hearts meet in the marriage state, matrimony may be called +a happy life. When such a wedded pair find thorns in their path, each will be +eager, for the sake of the other, to tear them from the root. Where they have +to mount hills, or wind a labyrinth, the most experienced will lead the way, +and be a guide to his companion. Patience and love will accompany them in their +journey, while melancholy and discord they leave far behind.—Hand in hand +they pass on from morning till evening, through their summer’s day, till +the night of age draws on, and the sleep of death overtakes the one. The other, +weeping and mourning, yet looks forward to the bright region where he shall +meet his still surviving partner, among trees and flowers which themselves have +planted, in fields of eternal verdure. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +You may tell my father—I’ll marry. [<i>Rises.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>rising</i>]. This picture is pleasing; but I must beg you not to forget +that there is another on the same subject.—When convenience, and fair +appearance joined to folly and ill-humour, forge the fetters of matrimony, they +gall with their weight the married pair. Discontented with each other—at +variance in opinions—their mutual aversion increases with the years they +live together. They contend most, where they should most unite; torment, where +they should most soothe. In this rugged way, choaked with the weeds of +suspicion, jealousy, anger, and hatred, they take their daily journey, till one +of these <i>also</i> sleep in death. The other then lifts up his dejected head, +and calls out in acclamations of joy—Oh, liberty! dear liberty! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I will not marry. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +You mean to say, you will not fall in love. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh no! [<i>ashamed</i>] I am in love. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Are in love! [<i>starting</i>] And with the Count? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I wish I was. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Why so? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Because <i>he</i> would, perhaps, love me again. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>warmly</i>]. Who is there that would not? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Would you? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I—I—me—I—I am out of the question. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No; you are the very person to whom I have put the question. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +What do you mean? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I am glad you don’t understand me. I was afraid I had spoken too plain. +[<i>in confusion</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Understand you!—As to that—I am not dull. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I know you are not—And as you have for a long time instructed me, why +should not I now begin to teach you? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Teach me what? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Whatever I know, and you don’t. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +There are some things I had rather never know. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +So you may remember I said when you began to teach me mathematics. I said I had +rather not know it—But now I have learnt it gives me a great deal of +pleasure—and [<i>hesitating</i>] perhaps, who can tell, but that I might +teach something as pleasant to you, as resolving a problem is to me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Woman herself is a problem. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +And I’ll teach you to make her out. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +<i>You</i> teach? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Why not? none but a woman can teach the science of herself: and though I own I +am very young, a young woman may be as agreeable for a tutoress as an old +one.—I am sure I always learnt faster from you than from the old +clergyman who taught me before you came. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +This is nothing to the subject. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +What is the subject? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +—— Love. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>going up to him</i>]. Come, then, teach it me—teach it me as you +taught me geography, languages, and other important things. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>turning from her</i>] Pshaw! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Ah! you won’t—You know you have already taught me that, and you +won’t begin again. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +You misconstrue—you misconceive every thing I say or do. The subject I +came to you upon was marriage. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +A very proper subject from the man who has taught me love, and I accept the +proposal [<i>curtsying</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Again you misconceive and confound me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Ay, I see how it is—You have no inclination to experience with me +“the good part of matrimony:” I am not the female with whom you +would like to go “hand in hand up hills, and through +labyrinths”—with whom you would like to “root up thorns; and +with whom you would delight to plant lilies and roses.” No, you had +rather call out, “O liberty, dear liberty.” +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Why do you force from me, what it is villanous to own?—I love you more +than life—Oh, Amelia! had we lived in those golden times, which the +poet’s picture, no one but you——But as the world is changed, +your birth and fortune make our union impossible—To preserve the +character, and more the feelings of an honest man, I would not marry you +without the consent of your father—And could I, dare I propose it to him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +He has commanded me never to conceal or disguise the truth. I will propose it +to him. The subject of the Count will force me to speak plainly, and this will +be the most proper time, while he can compare the merit of you both. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I conjure you not to think of exposing yourself and me to his resentment. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +It is my father’s will that I should marry—It is my father’s +wish to see me happy—If then you love me as you say, I will marry; and +will be happy—but only with you.—I will tell him this.—At +first he will start; then grow angry; then be in a passion—In his passion +he will call me “undutiful:” but he will soon recollect himself, +and resume his usual smiles, saying “Well, well, if he love you, and you +love him, in the name of heaven, let it be.” Then I shall hug him round +the neck, kiss his hands, run away from him, and fly to you; it will soon be +known that I am your bride, the whole village will come to wish me joy, and +heaven’s blessing will follow. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter Verdun, the</i> BUTLER. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>discontented</i>]. Ah! is it you? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Without vanity, I have taken the liberty to enter this apartment the moment the +good news reached my ears. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +What news? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Pardon an old servant, your father’s old butler, gracious lady, who has +had the honour to carry the baron in his arms—and afterwards with humble +submission to receive many a box o’ the ear from you—if he thinks +it his duty to make his congratulations with due reverence on this happy day, +and to join with the muses in harmonious tunes on the lyre. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh! my good butler, I am not in a humour to listen to the muses, and your lyre. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +There has never been a birth-day, nor wedding-day, nor christening-day, +celebrated in your family, in which I have not joined with the muses in full +chorus.—In forty-six years, three hundred and ninety-seven +congratulations on different occasions have dropped from my pen. To-day, the +three hundred and ninety-eighth is coming forth;—for heaven has protected +our noble master, who has been in great danger. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Danger! My father in danger! What do you mean? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +One of the gamekeepers has returned to inform the whole castle of a base and +knavish trick, of which the world will talk, and my poetry hand down to +posterity. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +What, what is all this? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +The baron, my lord and master, in company with the strange Count, had not been +gone a mile beyond the lawn, when one of them —— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +What happened? Speak for heaven’s sake. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +My verse shall tell you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No, no; tell us in prose. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Yes, in prose. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Ah, you have neither of you ever been in love, or you would prefer poetry to +prose. But excuse [<i>pulls out a paper</i>] the haste in which it was written. +I heard the news in the fields—always have paper and a pencil about me, +and composed the whole forty lines crossing the meadows and the park in my way +home. [<i>reads.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Oh Muse, ascend the forked mount.<br/> + And lofty strains prepare,<br/> +About a Baron and a Count,<br/> + Who went to hunt the hare.<br/> +<br/> +The hare she ran with utmost speed,<br/> + And sad, and anxious looks,<br/> +Because the furious hounds indeed,<br/> + Were near to her, gadzooks.<br/> +<br/> +At length, the Count and Baron bold<br/> + Their footsteps homeward bended;<br/> +For why, because, as you were told,<br/> + The hunting it was ended.<br/> +<br/> +Before them strait a youth appears,<br/> + Who made a piteous pother,<br/> +And told a tale with many tears,<br/> + About his dying mother.<br/> +<br/> +The youth was in severe distress,<br/> + And seem’d as he had spent all,<br/> +He look’d a soldier by his dress;<br/> + For that was regimental.<br/> +<br/> +The Baron’s heart was full of ruth,<br/> + While from his eye fell brine o!<br/> +And soon he gave the mournful youth<br/> + A little ready rino.<br/> +<br/> +He gave a shilling as I live,<br/> + Which, sure, was mighty well;<br/> +But to some people if you give<br/> + An inch—they’ll take an ell.<br/> +<br/> +The youth then drew his martial knife,<br/> + And seiz’d the Baron’s collar,<br/> +He swore he’d have the Baron’s life,<br/> + Or else another dollar.<br/> +<br/> +Then did the Baron in a fume,<br/> + Soon raise a mighty din,<br/> +Whereon came butler, huntsman, groom,<br/> + And eke the whipper-in.<br/> +<br/> +Maugre this young man’s warlike coat,<br/> + They bore him off to prison;<br/> +And held so strongly by his throat,<br/> + They almost stopt his whizzen.<br/> +<br/> +Soon may a neckcloth, call’d a rope,<br/> + Of robbing cure this elf;<br/> +If so I’ll write, without a trope,<br/> + His dying speech myself.<br/> +<br/> +And had the Baron chanc’d to die,<br/> + Oh! grief to all the nation,<br/> +I must have made an elegy,<br/> + And not this fine narration. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +MORAL. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Henceforth let those who all have spent,<br/> + And would by begging live,<br/> +Take warning here, and be content,<br/> + With what folks chuse to give. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Your muse, Mr. Butler, is in a very inventive humour this morning. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +And your tale too improbable, even for fiction. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Improbable! It’s a real fact. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +What, a robber in our grounds, at noon-day? Very likely indeed! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +I don’t say it was likely—I only say it is true. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +No, no, Mr. Verdun, we find no fault with your poetry; but don’t attempt +to impose it upon us for truth. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Poets are allowed to speak falsehood, and we forgive yours. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +I won’t be forgiven, for I speak truth—And here the robber comes, +in custody, to prove my words. [<i>Goes off, repeating</i>] “I’ll +write his dying speech myself.” +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Look! as I live, so he does—They come nearer; he’s a young man, and +has something interesting in his figure. An honest countenance, with grief and +sorrow in his face. No, he is no robber—I pity him! Oh! look how the +keepers drag him unmercifully into the tower—Now they lock it—Oh! +how that poor, unfortunate man must feel! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>aside</i>]. Hardly worse than I do. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter the</i> BARON. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>runs up to him</i>]. A thousand congratulations, my dear papa. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +For Heaven’s sake spare me your congratulations. The old Butler, in +coming up stairs, has already overwhelmed me with them. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Then, it is true, my Lord? I could hardly believe the old man. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +And the young prisoner, with all his honest looks, is a robber? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +He is; but I verily believe for the first and last time. A most extraordinary +event, Mr. Anhalt This young man begged; then drew his sword upon me; but he +trembled so, when he seized me by the breast, a child might have overpowered +him. I almost wish he had made his escape—this adventure may cost him his +life, and I might have preserved it with one dollar: but, now, to save him +would set a bad example. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh no! my lord, have pity on him! Plead for him, Mr. Anhalt! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Amelia, have you had any conversation with Mr. Anhalt? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Yes, my Lord. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Respecting matrimony? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Yes; and I have told him —— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>very hastily</i>]. According to your commands, Baron —— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +But he has conjured me —— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I have endeavoured, my Lord, to find out —— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Yet, I am sure, dear papa, your affection for me —— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +You wish to say something to me in your closet, my Lord? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What the devil is all this conversation? You will not let one another +speak—I don’t understand either of you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Dear father, have you not promised you will not thwart my affections when I +marry, but suffer me to follow their dictates. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Certainly. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Do you hear, Mr. Anhalt? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I beg pardon—I have a person who is waiting for me—I am obliged to +retire. [<i>Exit in confusion.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>calls after him</i>]. I shall expect you in my closet. I am going there +immediately. [<i>Retiring towards the opposite door.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Pray, my Lord, stop a few minutes longer; I have something of great importance +to say to you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Something of importance! to plead for the young man, I suppose! But +that’s a subject I must not listen to. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I wish to plead for two young men—For one, that he may be let out of +prison: for the other, that he may be made a prisoner for life. [<i>Looks +out.</i>] The tower is still locked. How dismal it must be to be shut up in +such a place; and perhaps—[<i>Calls</i>] Butler! Butler! Come this way. I +wish to speak to you. This young soldier has risked his life for his mother, +and that accounts for the interest I take in his misfortunes. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter the</i> BUTLER. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +Pray, have you carried anything to the prisoner to eat? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Yes. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +What was it? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Some fine black bread; and water as clear as crystal. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Are you not ashamed! Even my father pities him. Go directly down to the +kitchen, and desire the cook to give you something good and comfortable; and +then go into the cellar for a bottle of wine. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Good and comfortable indeed! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +And carry both to the tower. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +I am willing at any time, dear Lady, to obey your orders; but, on this +occasion, the prisoner’s food must remain bread and water—It is the +Baron’s particular command. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Ah! My father was in the height of passion when he gave it. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Whatsoever his passion might be, it is the duty of a true, and honest dependent +to obey his Lord’s mandates. I will not suffer a servant in this house, +nor will I, myself, give the young man any thing except bread and +water—But I’ll tell you what I’ll do—I’ll read my +verses to him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Give me the key of the cellar—I’ll go myself. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +[<i>gives the key</i>]. And there’s my verses—[<i>taking them from +his pocket</i>] Carry them with you, they may comfort him as much as the wine. +[<i>She throws them down.</i> [<i>Exit</i> Amelia. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +[<i>in amazement</i>]. Not take them! Refuse to take them—[<i>he lifts +them from the floor with the utmost respect</i>]— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“I must have made an elegy,<br/> +And not this fine narration.” [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="sceneIV_1" id="sceneIV_1"></a>ACT IV.</h2> + +<h3>SCENE I.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>A Prison in one of the Towers of the Castle.</i> FREDERICK +[<i>alone</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +How a few moments destroy the happiness of man! When I, this morning, set out +from my inn, and saw the sun rise, I sung with joy.—Flattered with the +hope of seeing my mother, I formed a scheme how I would with joy surprize her. +But, farewell all pleasant prospects—I return to my native country, and +the first object I behold, is my dying parent; my first lodging, a prison; and +my next walk will perhaps be—oh, merciful providence! have I deserved all +this? +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> AMELIA <i>with a small basket covered with a napkin.—She +speaks to someone without.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Wait there, Francis, I shall soon be back. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>hearing the door open, and turning around</i>]. Who’s there? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +You must be hungry and thirsty, I fear. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Oh, no! neither. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Here is a bottle of wine, and something to eat. [<i>Places the basket on the +table.</i>] I have often heard my father say, that wine is quite a cordial to +the heart. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +A thousand thanks, dear stranger. Ah! could I prevail on you to have it sent to +my mother, who is on her death-bed, under the roof of an honest peasant, called +Hubert! Take it hence, my kind benefactress, and save my mother. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +But first assure me that you did not intend to murder my father. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Your father! heaven forbid.—I meant but to preserve her life, who gave me +mine.—Murder your father! No, no—I hope not. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +And I thought not—Or, if you had murdered any one, you had better have +killed the Count; nobody would have missed him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Who, may I enquire, were those gentlemen, whom I hoped to frighten into +charity? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Ay, if you only intended to frighten them, the Count was the very person for +your purpose. But you caught hold of the other gentleman.—And could you +hope to intimidate Baron Wildenhaim? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Baron Wildenhaim!—Almighty powers! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +What’s the matter? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +The man to whose breast I held my sword——[<i>trembling</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Was Baron Wildenhaim—the owner of this estate—my father! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>with the greatest emotion</i>]. <i>My</i> father! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Good heaven, how he looks! I am afraid he’s mad. Here! Francis, Francis. +[<i>Exit, calling.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>all agitation</i>]. My <i>father</i>! Eternal judge! tho do’st +slumber! The man, against whom I drew my sword this day was my father! One +moment longer, and provoked, I might have been the murderer of my father! my +hair stands on end! my eyes are clouded! I cannot see any thing before me. +[<i>Sinks down on chair</i>]. If Providence had ordained that I should give the +fatal blow, who, would have been most in fault?—I dare not +pronounce—[<i>after a pause</i>] That benevolent young female who left me +just now, is, then, my sister—and I suppose that fop, who accompanied my +father—— +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> MR. ANHALT. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +Welcome, Sir! By your dress you are of the church, and consequently a messenger +of comfort. You are most welcome, Sir. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I wish to bring comfort and avoid upbraidings: for your own conscience will +reproach you more than the voice of a preacher. From the sensibility of your +countenance, together with a language, and address superior to the vulgar, it +appears, young man, you have had an education, which should have preserved you +from a state like this. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +My education I owe to my mother. Filial love, in return, has plunged me into +the state you see. A civil magistrate will condemn according to the law—A +priest, in judgment, is not to consider the act itself, but the impulse which +led to the act. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I shall judge with all the lenity my religion dictates: and you are the +prisoner of a nobleman, who compassionates you for the affection which you bear +towards your mother; for he has sent to the village where you directed him, and +has found the account you gave relating to her true.—With this impression +in your favour, it is my advice, that you endeavour to see and supplicate the +Baron for your release from prison, and all the peril of his justice. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>starting</i>]. I—I see the Baron! I!—I supplicate for my +deliverance.—Will you favour me with his name?—Is it not +Baron—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Baron Wildenhaim. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Baron Wildenhaim! He lived formerly in Alsace. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +The same.—About a year after the death of his wife, he left Alsace; and +arrived here a few weeks ago to take possession of his paternal estate. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +So! his wife is dead;—and that generous young lady who came to my prison +just now is his daughter? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Miss Wildenhaim, his daughter. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +And that young gentleman, I saw with him this morning, is his son? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +He has no son. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>hastily</i>]. Oh, yes, he has—[<i>recollecting himself</i>]—I +mean him that was out shooting to-day. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +He is not his son. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>to himself</i>]. Thank Heaven! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +He is only a visitor. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +I thank you for this information; and if you will undertake to procure me a +private interview with Baron Wildenhaim—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Why private? However, I will venture to take you for a short time from this +place, and introduce you; depending on your innocence, or your +repentance—on his conviction in your favour, or his mercy towards your +guilt. Follow me. [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>following</i>]. I have beheld an affectionate parent in deep +adversity.—Why should I tremble thus?—Why doubt my fortitude, in +the presence of an unnatural parent in prosperity? [<i>Exit.</i> +</p> + +<h3><a name="sceneIV_2" id="sceneIV_2"></a>SCENE II.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>A Room in the Castle.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> BARON WILDENHAIM <i>and</i> AMELIA. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I hope you will judge more favourably of Count Cassel’s understanding +since the private interview you have had with him. Confess to me the exact +effect of the long conference between you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +To make me hate him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What has he done? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh! told me of such barbarous deeds he has committed. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What deeds? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Made vows of love to so many women, that, on his marriage with me, a hundred +female hearts will at least be broken. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Psha! do you believe him? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Suppose I do not; is it to his honour that I believe he tells a falsehood? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +He is mistaken merely. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Indeed, my Lord, in one respect I am sure he speaks truth. For our old Butler +told my waiting-maid of a poor young creature who has been deceived, undone; +and she, and her whole family, involved in shame and sorrow by his perfidy. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Are you sure the Butler said this? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +See him and ask him. He knows the whole story, indeed he does; the names of the +persons, and every circumstance. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Desire he may be sent to me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>goes to the door and calls</i>]. Order old Verdun to come to the Baron +directly. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I know tale-bearers are apt to be erroneous. I’ll hear from himself, the +account you speak of. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I believe it is in verse. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>angry</i>]. In verse! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +But, then, indeed it’s true. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> BUTLER. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Verdun, pray have not you some true poetry? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +All my poetry is true—and so far, better than some people’s prose. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +But I want prose on this occasion, and command you to give me nothing else. +[Butler <i>bows</i>.] Have you heard of an engagement which Count Cassel is +under to any other woman than my daughter? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +I am to tell your honour in prose? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Certainly. [Butler <i>appears uneasy and loath to speak.</i>] Amelia, he does +not like to divulge what he knows in presence of a third person—leave the +room. [<i>Exit</i> Amelia. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +No, no—that did not cause my reluctance to speak. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What then? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Your not allowing me to speak in verse—for here is the poetic poem. +[<i>Holding up a paper</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +How dare you presume to contend with my will? Tell in plain language all you +know on the subject I have named. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Well, then, my Lord, if you must have the account in quiet prose, thus it +was—Phœbus, one morning, rose in the East, and having handed in the +long-expected day, he called up his brother Hymen—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Have done with your rhapsody. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Ay; I knew you’d like it best in verse—— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +There lived a lady in this land,<br/> + Whose charms the heart made tingle;<br/> +At church she had not given her hand,<br/> + And therefore still was single. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Keep to prose. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +I will, my Lord; but I have repeated it so often in verse, I scarce know +how.—Count Cassel, influenced by the designs of Cupid in his very worst +humour, +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Count Cassel wooed this maid so rare,<br/> + And in her eye found grace;<br/> +And if his purpose was not fair,” +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +No verse. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> + “It probably was base.” +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +I beg pardon, my Lord; but the verse will intrude in spite of my efforts to +forget it. ’Tis as difficult for me at times to forget, as ’tis for +other men at times to remember. But in plain truth, my Lord, the Count was +treacherous, cruel, forsworn. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I am astonished! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +And would be more so if you would listen to the whole poem. [<i>Most +earnestly</i>.] Pray, my Lord, listen to it. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +You know the family? All the parties? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +I will bring the father of the damsel to prove the veracity of my muse. His +name is Baden—poor old man! +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“The sire consents to bless the pair,<br/> + And names the nuptial day,<br/> +When, lo! the bridegroom was not there,<br/> + Because he was away.” +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +But tell me—Had the father his daughter’s innocence to deplore? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Ah! my Lord, ah! and you <i>must</i> hear that part in rhyme. Loss of innocence +never sounds well except in verse. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“For ah! the very night before,<br/> + No prudent guard upon her,<br/> +The Count he gave her oaths a score,<br/> + And took in change her honour. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +MORAL.<br/> +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +Then you, who now lead single lives,<br/> + From this sad tale beware;<br/> +And do not act as you were wives,<br/> + Before you really are.” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> COUNT CASSEL. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>to the</i> Butler]. Leave the room instantly. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Yes, good Mr. family poet, leave the room, and take your doggerels with you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BUTLER.<br/> +Don’t affront my poem, your honour; for I am indebted to you for the +plot. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“The Count he gave her oaths a score<br/> +And took in change her honour.” +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>Exit</i> Butler. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Count, you see me agitated. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +What can be the cause? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I’ll not keep you in doubt a moment. You are accused, young man, of being +engaged to another woman while you offer marriage to my child. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +To only <i>one</i> other woman? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What do you mean? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +My meaning is, that when a man is young and rich, has travelled, and is no +personal object of disapprobation, to have made vows but to one woman, is an +absolute slight upon the rest of the sex. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Without evasion, Sir, do you know the name of Baden? Was there ever a promise +of marriage made by you to his daughter? Answer me plainly: or must I take a +journey to inquire of the father? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +No—he can tell you no more than, I dare say, you already know; and which +I shall not contradict. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Amazing insensibility! And can you hold your head erect while you acknowledge +perfidy? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +My dear baron,—if every man, who deserves to have a charge such as this +brought against him, was not permitted to look up—it is a doubt whom we +might not meet crawling on all fours. [<i>he accidently taps the Baron’s +shoulder.</i>] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>starts—recollects himself—then in a faultering voice</i>]. +Yet—nevertheless—the act is so atrocious— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +But nothing new. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>faintly</i>]. Yes—I hope—I hope it is new. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +What, did you never meet with such a thing before? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>agitated</i>]. If I have—I pronounced the man who so offended—a +villain. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +You are singularly scrupulous. I question if the man thought himself so. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Yes he did. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +How do you know? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>hesitating</i>]. I have heard him say so. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +But he ate, drank, and slept, I suppose? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>confused</i>]. Perhaps he did. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +And was merry with his friends; and his friends as fond of him as ever? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Perhaps [<i>confused</i>]—perhaps they were. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +And perhaps he now and then took upon him to lecture young men for their +gallantries? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Perhaps he did. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Why, then, after all, Baron, your villain is a mighty good, prudent, honest +fellow; and I have no objection to your giving me that name. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +But do you not think of some atonement to the unfortunate girl? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Did <i>your</i> villain atone? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +No: when his reason was matured, he wished to make some recompense; but his +endeavours were too late. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +I will follow his example, and wait till my reason is matured, before I think +myself competent to determine what to do. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +And till that time I defer your marriage with my daughter. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Would you delay her happiness so long? Why, my dear Baron, considering the +fashionable life I lead, it may be ten years before my judgment arrives to its +necessary standard. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I have the head-ach, Count—These tidings have discomposed, disordered +me—I beg your absence for a few minutes. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +I obey—And let me assure you, my Lord, that, although, from the extreme +delicacy of your honour, you have ever through life shuddered at seduction; +yet, there are constitutions, and there are circumstances, in which it can be +palliated. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Never [<i>violently</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COUNT.<br/> +Not in a grave, serious, reflecting man such as <i>you</i>, I grant. But in a +gay, lively, inconsiderate, flimsy, frivolous coxcomb, such as myself, it is +excusable: for me to keep my word to a woman, would be deceit: ’tis not +expected of me. It is in my character to break oaths in love; as it is in your +nature, my Lord, never to have spoken any thing but wisdom and truth. +[<i>Exit</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Could I have thought a creature so insignificant as that, had power to excite +sensations such as I feel at present! I am, indeed, worse than he is, as much +as the crimes of a man exceed those of an idiot. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> AMELIA. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I heard the Count leave you, my Lord, and so I am come to enquire—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>sitting down, and trying to compose himself</i>]. You are not to marry +count Cassel—And now, mention his name to me no more. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I won’t—indeed I won’t—for I hate his name.—But +thank you, my dear father, for this good news [<i>draws a chair, and sits on +the opposite side of the table on which he leans.—And after a pause</i>] +And who am I to marry? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>his head on his hand</i>]. I can’t tell. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Amelia <i>appears to have something on her mind which she wishes to +disclose</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I never liked the Count. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +No more did I. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>after a pause</i>]. I think love comes just as it pleases, without being +asked. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +It does so [<i>in deep thought</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>after another pause</i>]. And there are instances where, perhaps, the +object of love makes the passion meritorious. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +To be sure there are. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +For example; my affection for Mr. Anhalt as my tutor. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Right. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>after another pause</i>]. I should like to marry. [<i>sighing</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +So you shall [<i>a pause</i>]. It is proper for every body to marry. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Why, then, does not Mr. Anhalt marry? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +You must ask him that question yourself. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I have. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +And what did he say? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Will you give me leave to tell you what he said? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Certainly. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +And you won’t be angry? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Undoubtedly not. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Why, then—you know you commanded me never to disguise or conceal the +truth. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I did so. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Why, then he said—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What did he say? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +He said—he would not marry me without your consent for the world. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>starting from his chair</i>]. And pray, how came this the subject of your +conversation? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +[<i>rising</i>]. <i>I</i> brought it up. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +And what did you say? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I said that birth and fortune were such old-fashioned things to me, I cared +nothing about either: and that I had once heard my father declare, he should +consult my happiness in marrying me, beyond any other consideration. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I will once more repeat to you my sentiments. It is the custom in this country +for the children of nobility to marry only with their equals; but as my +daughter’s content is more dear to me than an ancient custom, I would +bestow you on the first man I thought calculated to make you happy: by this I +do not mean to say that I should not be severely nice in the character of the +man to whom I gave you; and Mr. Anhalt, from his obligations to me, and his +high sense of honour, thinks too nobly— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Would it not be noble to make the daughter of his benefactor happy? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +But when that daughter is a child, and thinks like a child—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +No, indeed, papa, I begin to think very like a woman. Ask <i>him</i> if I +don’t. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Ask him! You feel gratitude for the instructions you have received from him, +and fancy it love. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Are there two gratitudes? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What do you mean? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Because I feel gratitude to you; but that is very unlike the gratitude I feel +towards him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Indeed! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Yes; and then he feels another gratitude towards me. What’s that? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Has he told you so? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Yes. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +That was not right of him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh! if you did but know how I surprized him! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Surprized him? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +He came to me by your command, to examine my heart respecting Count Cassel. I +told him that I would never marry the Count. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +But him? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Yes, him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Very fine indeed! And what was his answer? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +He talked of my rank in life; of my aunts and cousins; of my grandfather, and +great-grandfather; of his duty to you; and endeavoured to persuade me to think +no more of him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +He acted honestly. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +But not politely. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +No matter. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Dear father! I shall never be able to love another—Never be happy with +any one else. [<i>Throwing herself on her knees</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Rise, I command you. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>As she rises, enter</i> ANHALT.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +My Lord, forgive me! I have ventured, on the privilege of my office, as a +minister of holy charity, to bring the poor soldier, whom your justice has +arrested, into the adjoining room; and I presume to entreat you will admit him +to your presence, and hear his apology, or his supplication. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Anhalt, you have done wrong. I pity the unhappy boy; but you know I cannot, +must not forgive him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I beseech you then, my Lord, to tell him so yourself. From your lips he may +receive his doom with resignation. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh father! See him and take pity on him; his sorrows have made him frantic. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Leave the room, Amelia. [<i>on her attempting to speak, he raises his +voice</i>.] Instantly.—[<i>Exit</i> Amelia. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +He asked for a private audience: perhaps he has some confession to make that +may relieve his mind, and may be requisite for you to hear. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Well, bring him in, and do you wait in the adjoining room, till our conference +is over. I must then, Sir, have a conference with you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I shall obey your commands. [<i>He goes to door, and re-enters with</i> +Frederick. Anhalt <i>then retires at the same door</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>haughtily to</i> Frederick]. I know, young man, you plead your +mother’s wants in excuse for an act of desperation: but powerful as this +plea might be in palliation of a fault, it cannot extenuate a crime like yours. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +I have a plea for my conduct even more powerful than a mother’s wants. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What’s that? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +My father’s cruelty. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +You have a father then? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +I have, and a rich one—Nay, one that’s reputed virtuous, and +honourable. A great man, possessing estates and patronage in abundance; much +esteemed at court, and beloved by his tenants; kind, benevolent, honest, +generous— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +And with all those great qualities, abandons you? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +He does, with all the qualities I mention. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Your father may do right; a dissipated, desperate youth, whom kindness cannot +draw from vicious habits, severity may. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +You are mistaken—My father does not discard me for my vices—He does +not know me—has never seen me—He abandoned me, even before I was +born. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +What do you say? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +The tears of my mother are all that I inherit from my father. Never has he +protected or supported me—never protected her. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Why don’t you apply to his relations? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +They disown me, too—I am, they say, related to no one—All the world +disclaim me, except my mother—and there again, I have to thank my father. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +How so? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Because I am an illegitimate son.—My seduced mother has brought me up in +patient misery. Industry enabled her to give me an education; but the days of +my youth commenced with hardship, sorrow, and danger.—My companions lived +happy around me, and had a pleasing prospect in their view, while bread and +water only were my food, and no hopes joined to sweeten it. But my father felt +not that! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>to himself</i>]. He touches my heart. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +After five years’ absence from my mother, I returned this very day, and +found her dying in the streets for want—Not even a hut to shelter her, or +a pallet of straw—But my father, he feels not that! He lives in a palace, +sleeps on the softest down, enjoys all the luxuries of the great; and when he +dies, a funeral sermon will praise his great benevolence, his Christian +charities. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>greatly agitated</i>]. What is your father’s name? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +—He took advantage of an innocent young woman, gained her affection by +flattery and false promises; gave life to an unfortunate being, who was on the +point of murdering his father. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>shuddering</i>]. Who is he? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Baron Wildenhaim. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>The</i> Baron’s <i>emotion expresses the sense of amazement, guilt, +shame, and horror</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +In this house did you rob my mother of her honour; and in this house I am a +sacrifice for the crime. I am your prisoner—I will not be free—I am +a robber—I give myself up.—You <i>shall</i> deliver me into the +hands of justice—You shall accompany me to the spot of public execution. +You shall hear in vain the chaplain’s consolation and injunctions. You +shall find how I, in despair, will, to the last moment, call for retribution on +my father. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Stop! Be pacified— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +—And when you turn your head from my extended corse, you will behold my +weeping mother—Need I paint how her eyes will greet you? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Desist—barbarian, savage, stop! +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> Anhalt <i>alarmed.</i> +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +What do I hear? What is this? Young man, I hope you have not made a second +attempt. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Yes; I have done what it was your place to do. I have made a sinner tremble +[<i>points to the</i> Baron <i>and exit</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +What can this mean?—I do not comprehend— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +He is my son!—He is my son!—Go, Anhalt,—advise me—help +me—Go to the poor woman, his mother—He can show you the +way—make haste—speed to protect her— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +But what am I to—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Go.—Your heart will tell you how to act. [<i>Exit</i> Anhalt.] [Baron +<i>distractedly</i>.] Who am I? What am I? Mad—raving—no—I +have a son—A son! The bravest—I will—I must—oh! +[<i>with tenderness</i>.] Why have I not embraced him yet? [<i>increasing his +voice</i>.] why not pressed him to my heart? Ah! see—[<i>looking after +him</i>]—He flies from the castle—Who’s there? Where are my +attendants? [<i>Enter two servants</i>]. Follow him—bring the prisoner +back.—But observe my command—treat him with respect—treat him +as my son—and your master. [<i>Exit</i>. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="sceneV_1" id="sceneV_1"></a>ACT V.</h2> + +<h3>SCENE I.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Inside of the Cottage (as in Act II).</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +AGATHA, COTTAGER, <i>and his</i> WIFE <i>discovered</i>. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Pray look and see if he is coming. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +It is of no use. I have been in the road; have looked up and down; but neither +see nor hear any thing of him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Have a little patience. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I wish you would step out once more—I think he cannot be far off. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +I will; I will go. [<i>Exit</i>. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +If your son knew what heaven had sent you, he would be here very soon. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I feel so anxious—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +But why? I should think a purse of gold, such as you have received, would make +any body easy. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Where can he be so long? He has been gone four hours. Some ill must have +befallen him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +It is still broad day-light—don’t think of any danger.—This +evening we must all be merry. I’ll prepare the supper. What a good +gentleman our Baron must be! I am sorry I ever spoke a word against him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +How did he know I was here? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Heaven only can tell. The servant that brought the money was very secret. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +[<i>to herself</i>]. I am astonished! I wonder! Oh! surely he has been +informed—Why else should he have sent so much money? +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Re-enter</i> Cottager. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Well!—not yet! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +I might look till I am blind for him—but I saw our new Rector coming +along the road; he calls in sometimes. May be, he will this evening. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +He is a very good gentleman; pays great attention to his parishioners; and +where he can assist the poor, he is always ready. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter Mr.</i> ANHALT. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Good evening, friends. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BOTH.<br/> +Thank you, reverend Sir. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>They both run to fetch him a chair</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I thank you, good people—I see you have a stranger here. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Yes, your Reverence; it is a poor sick woman, whom I took in doors. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +You will be rewarded for it. [<i>to</i> Agatha.] May I beg leave to ask your +name? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Ah! If we were alone—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Good neighbours, will you leave us alone for a few minutes? I have something to +say to this poor woman. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Wife, do you hear? Come along with me. [<i>Exeunt</i> Cottager <i>and his</i> +Wife.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Now—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Before I tell you who I am, what I am, and what I was——I must beg +to ask—Are you of this country? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +No—I was born in Alsace. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Did you know the late rector personally, whom you have succeeded? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +No. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Then you are not acquainted with my narrative? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Should I find you to be the person whom I have long been in search of, your +history is not altogether unknown to me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +“That you have been in search of!” Who gave you such a commission? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +A man, who, if it so prove, is much concerned for your misfortunes. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +How? Oh, Sir! tell me quickly—Whom do you think to find in me? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Agatha Friburg. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Yes, I am that unfortunate woman; and the man who pretends to take concern in +my misfortunes is——Baron Wildenhaim——he who betrayed +me, abandoned me and my child, and killed my parents.—He would now repair +our sufferings with this purse of gold. [<i>Takes out the purse</i>.] Whatever +may be your errand, Sir, whether to humble, or to protect me, it is alike +indifferent. I therefore request you to take this money to him who sent it. +Tell him, my honour has never been saleable. Tell him, destitute as I am, even +indigence will not tempt me to accept charity from my seducer. He despised my +heart—I despise his gold.—He has trampled on me—I trample on +his representative. [<i>Throws the purse on the ground</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Be patient—I give you my word, that when the Baron sent this present to +an unfortunate woman, for whom her son had supplicated, he did not know that +woman was Agatha. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +My son? what of my son? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Do not be alarmed—The Baron met with an affectionate son, who begged for +his sick mother, and it affected him. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Begged of the Baron! of his father! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Yes; but they did not know each other; and the mother received the present on +the son’s account. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Did not know each other? Where is my son? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +At the Castle. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +And still unknown? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Now he is known—an explanation has taken place;—and I am sent here +by the Baron, not to a stranger, but to Agatha Friburg—not with gold! his +commission was—“do what your heart directs you.” +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +How is my Frederick? How did the Baron receive him? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I left him just in the moment the discovery was made. By this time your son is, +perhaps, in the arms of his father. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Oh! is it possible that a man, who has been twenty years deaf to the voice of +nature, should change so suddenly? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I do not mean to justify the Baron, but—he has loved you—and fear +of his noble kindred alone caused his breach of faith to you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +But to desert me wholly and wed another— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +War called him away—Wounded in the field, he was taken to the adjacent +seat of a nobleman, whose only daughter, by anxious attention to his recovery, +won his gratitude; and, influenced by the will of his worldly friends, he +married. But no sooner was I received into the family, and admitted to his +confidence, than he related to me your story; and at times would exclaim in +anguish—“The proud imperious Baroness avenges the wrongs of my +deserted Agatha.” Again, when he presented me this living, and I left +France to take possession of it, his last words before we parted, +were—“The moment you arrive at Wildenhaim, make all enquiries to +find out my poor Agatha.” Every letter from him contained “Still, +still, no tidings of my Agatha.” And fate ordained it should be so, till +this fortunate day. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +What you have said has made my heart overflow—where will this end? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I know not yet the Baron’s intentions: but your sufferings demand +immediate remedy: and one way only is left—Come with me to the castle. Do +not start—you shall be concealed in my apartments till you are called +for. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I go to the Baron’s?—No. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Go for the sake of your son—reflect, that his fortunes may depend upon +your presence. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +And he is the only branch on which my hope still blossoms: the rest are +withered.—I will forget my wrongs as a woman, if the Baron will atone to +the mother—he shall have the woman’s pardon, if he will merit the +mother’s thanks—[<i>after a struggle</i>]—I <i>will</i> go to +the castle—for the sake of my Frederick, go even to his father. But where +are my good host and hostess, that I may take leave, and thank them for their +kindness? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[taking up the purse which Agatha had thrown down]. Here, good friend! Good +woman! +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter the</i> COTTAGER <i>and his</i> WIFE. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +Yes, yes, here I am. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Good people, I will take your guest with me. You have acted an honest part, and +therefore receive this reward for your trouble. [<i>He offers the purse to +the</i> Cottager, <i>who puts it by, and turns away</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>to the</i> Wife]. Do <i>you</i> take it. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +I always obey my pastor. [<i>taking it</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Good bye. [<i>shaking hands with the Cottagers</i>.] For your hospitality to +me, may ye enjoy continued happiness. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +COTTAGER.<br/> +Fare you well—fare you well. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +WIFE.<br/> +If you find friends and get health, we won’t trouble you to call on us +again: but if you should fall sick or be in poverty, we shall take it very +unkind if we don’t see you. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>Exeunt</i> Agatha <i>and</i> Anhalt <i>on one side</i>, Cottager <i>and +his</i> Wife on the other]. +</p> + +<h3><a name="sceneV_2" id="sceneV_2"></a>SCENE II.</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<i>A Room in the Castle.</i> +</p> + +<p class="center"> +BARON <i>sitting upon a sopha</i>.—FREDERICK <i>standing near him, with +one hand pressed between his—the</i> Baron <i>rises</i>. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Been in battle too!—I am glad to hear it. You have known hard services, +but now they are over, and joy and happiness will succeed.—The reproach +of your birth shall be removed, for I will acknowledge you my son, and heir to +my estate. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +And my mother—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +She shall live in peace and affluence. Do you think I would leave your mother +unprovided, unprotected? No! About a mile from this castle I have an estate +called Weldendorf—there she shall live, and call her own whatever it +produces. There she shall reign, and be sole mistress of the little paradise. +There her past sufferings shall be changed to peace and tranquility. On a +summer’s morning, we, my son, will ride to visit her; pass a day, a week +with her; and in this social intercourse time will glide pleasantly. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +And, pray, my Lord—under what name is my mother to live then? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>confused</i>]. How? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +In what capacity?—As your domestic—or as—— +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +That we will settle afterwards. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +Will you allow me, Sir, to leave the room a little while, that you may have +leisure to consider <i>now</i>? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I do not know how to explain myself in respect to your mother more than I have +done already. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +My fate, whatever it may be, shall never part me from her. This is my firm +resolution, upon which I call Heaven to witness! My Lord, it must be Frederick +of Wildenhaim, and Agatha of Wildenhaim—or Agatha Friburg, and Frederick +Friburg. [<i>Exit</i>. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Young man! Frederick!—[<i>calling after him</i>.] Hasty indeed! would +make conditions with his father. No, no, that must not be. I just now thought +how well I had arranged my plans—had relieved my heart of every burden, +when, a second time, he throws a mountain upon it. Stop, friend conscience, why +do you take his part?—For twenty years thus you have used me, and been my +torture. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter Mr</i>. ANHALT. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +Ah! Anhalt, I am glad you are come. My conscience and myself are at variance. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Your conscience is in the right. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +You don’t know yet what the quarrel is. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Conscience is always right—because it never speaks unless it <i>is</i> +so. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Ay, a man of your order can more easily attend to its whispers, than an old +warrior. The sound of cannon has made him hard of hearing.—I have found +my son again, Mr. Anhalt, a fine, brave young man—I mean to make him my +heir—Am I in the right? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Perfectly. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +And his mother shall live in happiness—My estate, Weldendorf, shall be +hers—I’ll give it to her, and she shall make it her residence. +Don’t I do right? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +No. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>surprized</i>]. No? And what else should I do? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>forcibly</i>]. Marry her. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>starting</i>]. I marry her! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Baron Wildenhaim is a man who will not act inconsistently.—As this is my +opinion, I expect your reasons, if you do not. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Would you have me marry a beggar? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>after a pause</i>]. Is that your only objection? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>confused</i>]. I have more—many more. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +May I beg to know them likewise? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +My birth! +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Go on. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +My relations would despise me. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Go on. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>in anger</i>]. ’Sdeath! are not these reasons enough?—I know no +other. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Now, then, it is my turn to state mine for the advice I have given you. But +first, I must presume to ask a few questions.—Did Agatha, through artful +insinuation, gain your affection? or did she give you cause to suppose her +inconstant? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Neither—but for me, she was always virtuous and good. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Did it cost you trouble and earnest entreaty to make her otherwise? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>angrily</i>]. Yes. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +You pledged your honour? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>confused</i>]. Yes. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Called God to witness? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +[<i>more confused</i>]. Yes. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +The witness you called at that time was the Being who sees you now. What you +gave in pledge was your honour, which you must redeem. Therefore thank Heaven +that it is in your <i>power</i> to redeem it. By marrying Agatha the +ransom’s made: and she brings a dower greater than any princess can +bestow—peace to your conscience. If you then esteem the value of this +portion, you will not hesitate a moment to exclaim,—Friends, wish me joy, +I will marry Agatha. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>Baron, in great agitation, walks backwards and forwards, then takes</i> +Anhalt <i>by the hand</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +“Friend, wish me joy—I will <i>marry</i> Agatha.” +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I do wish you joy. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Where is she? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +In the castle—in my apartments here—I conducted her through the +garden, to avoid curiosity. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Well, then, this is the wedding-day. This very evening you shall give us your +blessing. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Not so soon, not so private. The whole village was witness of Agatha’s +shame—the whole village must be witness of Agatha’s re-established +honour. Do you consent to this? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I do. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Now the quarrel is decided. Now is your conscience quiet? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +As quiet as an infant’s. I only wish the first interview was over. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +Compose yourself. Agatha’s heart is to be your judge. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +<i>Enter</i> AMELIA. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Amelia, you have a brother. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +I have just heard so, my Lord; and rejoice to find the news confirmed by you. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I know, my dear Amelia, I can repay you for the loss of Count Cassel; but what +return can I make to you for the loss of half your fortune? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +My brother’s love will be ample recompense. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +I will reward you better. Mr. Anhalt, the battle I have just fought, I owe to +myself: the victory I gained, I owe to you. A man of your principles, at once a +teacher and an example of virtue, exalts his rank in life to a level with the +noblest family—and I shall be proud to receive you as my son. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +[<i>falling on his knees, and taking the</i> Baron’s <i>hand</i>]. My +Lord, you overwhelm me with confusion, as well as with joy. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +My obligations to you are infinite—Amelia shall pay the debt. [<i>Gives +her to him</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AMELIA.<br/> +Oh, my dear father! [<i>embracing the</i> Baron] what blessings have you +bestowed on me in one day. [<i>to</i> Anhalt.] I will be your scholar still, +and use more diligence than ever to please my <i>master</i>. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +His present happiness admits of no addition. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Nor does mine—And yet there is another task to perform that will require +more fortitude, more courage, than this has done! A trial +that!—[<i>bursts into tears</i>]—I cannot prevent them—Let +me—let me—A few minutes will bring me to myself—Where is +Agatha? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +MR. ANHALT.<br/> +I will go, and fetch her. [<i>Exit Anhalt at an upper entrance</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Stop! Let me first recover a little. [<i>Walks up and down, sighing +bitterly—looks at the door through which</i> Anhalt <i>left the +room</i>.] That door she will come from—That was once the dressing-room +of my mother—From that door I have seen her come many times—have +been delighted with her lovely smiles—How shall I now behold her altered +looks! Frederick must be my mediator.—Where is he? Where is my +son?—Now I am ready—my heart is prepared to receive +her—Haste! haste! Bring her in. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[<i>He looks stedfastly at the door</i>—Anhalt <i>leads on</i> +Agatha—<i>The</i> Baron <i>runs and clasps her in his +arms—Supported by him, she sinks on a chair which</i> Amelia <i>places in +the middle of the stage—The</i> Baron <i>kneels by her side, holding her +hand</i>.] +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Agatha, Agatha, do you know this voice? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +Wildenhaim. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +BARON.<br/> +Can you forgive me? +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +AGATHA.<br/> +I forgive you. [<i>embracing him</i>]. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +FREDERICK.<br/> +[<i>as he enters</i>]. I hear the voice of my mother!—Ha! mother! father! +</p> + +<p class="center"> +[Frederick <i>throws himself on his knees by the other side of his +mother—She clasps him in her arms</i>.—Amelia <i>is placed on the +side of her father attentively viewing</i> Agatha—Anhalt <i>stands on the +side of</i> Frederick <i>with his hands gratefully raised to +Heaven</i>.]——<i>The curtain slowly drops</i>. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +END. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h3><a name="sceneV_3" id="sceneV_3"></a>EPILOGUE.</h3> + +<p> +WRITTEN BY THOMAS PALMER, ESQ.<br/> +OF THE TEMPLE. +</p> + +<p> +SPOKEN BY MR. MUNDEN. +</p> + +<p class="dialog"> +Our drama now ended, I’ll take up your time<br/> +Just a moment or two in defence of my <i>rhime</i>—<br/> +* “Tho’ I hope that among you are <i>some</i> who +<i>admir’d</i><br/> +“What I’ve hitherto said, dare I hope none are tir’d?<br/> +“But whether ye have, or have not heard enough,<br/> +“Or whether nice critics will think it all stuff;<br/> +“To myself <i>rhime</i> has ever appear’d, I must own,<br/> +“In its nature a sort of <i>philosopher’s stone</i>;<br/> +“And if Chymists wou’d use it, they’d not make a pother,<br/> +“And puzzle their brains to find out any other.”<br/> +Indeed ’tis most strange and surprising to me<br/> +That all folks in <i>rhiming</i> their int’rest can’t see;<br/> +For I’m sure if its use were quite common with men,<br/> +The world would roll on just as pleasant again.<br/> +“’Tis said, that while O<small>RPHEUS</small> was striking his lyre,<br/> +“Trees and brutes danc’d along to the sound of the wire;<br/> +“That A<small>MPHION</small> to walls soon converted the glebes,<br/> +“And they rose, as he sung, to a city call’d Thebes;<br/> +“I suppose <i>they</i> were <i>Butlers</i> (like me) of that time,<br/> +“And the tale shows our sires knew the wonders of +<i>rhime</i>.”<br/> +From time immemorial, your lovers, we find,<br/> +When their mistresses’ hearts have been proud and unkind,<br/> +Have resorted to <i>rhime</i>; and indeed it appears<br/> +That a <i>rhime</i> would do more than a bucket of tears.<br/> +Of love, from experience, I speak—odds my life!<br/> +I shall never forget how I courted my wife:<br/> +She had offers in plenty; but always stood neuter,<br/> +Till I, with my pen, started forth as a suitor;<br/> +Yet I made no mean present of <i>ribband</i> or <i>bonnet</i>,<br/> +<i>My</i> present was caught from the stars—’twas a +<i>sonnet</i>.<br/> +“And now you know this, sure ’tis needless to say,<br/> +“That prose was neglected, and <i>rhime</i> won the day—<br/> +“But its potent effects you as well may discover<br/> +“In the <i>husband</i> and <i>wife</i>, as in <i>mistress</i> and +<i>lover</i>;<br/> +“There are some of ye here, who, like me, I conjecture.<br/> +“Have been lull’d into sleep by a good <i>curtain lecture</i>.<br/> +“But that’s a mere trifle; you’ll ne’er come to +blows,<br/> +“If you’ll only avoid that dull enemy, <i>prose</i>.<br/> +“Adopt, then, my plan, and the very next time,<br/> +“That in words you fall out, let them fall into <i>rhime</i>;<br/> +“Thus your sharpest disputes will conclude very soon,<br/> +“And from jangling to jingling you’ll chime into <i>tune</i>.<br/> +“If my wife were to call me a <i>drunken old sot</i>,<br/> +“I shou’d merely just ask her, what Butler is not?<br/> +“And bid her take care that she don’t go to pot.<br/> +“So our squabbles continue a very short season,<br/> +“If she yields to my <i>rhime</i>—I allow she has +reason.”<br/> +Independent of this I conceive <i>rhime</i> has weight<br/> +In the higher employments of church and of state,<br/> +And would in my mind such advantages draw,<br/> +’Tis a pity that <i>rhime</i> is not sanctioned by law;<br/> +“For ’twould <i>really</i> be serving us all, to impose<br/> +“A capital fine on a man who spoke prose.”<br/> +Mark the pleader who clacks, in his client’s behalf,<br/> +His technical stuff for three hours and a half;<br/> +Or the fellow who tells you a long stupid story,<br/> +And over and over the same lays before ye;<br/> +Or the member who raves till the whole house are dosing<br/> +What d’ye say of such men? Why you say they are prosing.<br/> +So, of course, then, if <i>prose</i> is so tedious a <i>crime</i>,<br/> +It of consequence follows, there’s <i>virtue</i> in <i>rhime</i>.<br/> +The best piece of prose that I’ve heard a long while,<br/> +Is what gallant Nelson has sent from <small>THE</small> N<small>ILE</small>.<br/> +And had he but told us the story in <i>rhime</i>,<br/> +What a thing ’twou’d be; but, perhaps, he’d no time.<br/> +So, I’ll do it myself—Oh! ’tis glorious news!<br/> +Nine <i>sail</i> of the line! Just a ship for each Muse.<br/> +As I live, there’s an end of the French and their navy—<br/> +Sir John Warren has sent the Brest fleet to Old Davy.<br/> +’Tis in the Gazette, and that, every one knows,<br/> +Is sure to be truth, tho’ ’tis written in prose. +</p> + +<p class="footnote"> +* The lines between inverted commas are not spoken. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVERS’ VOWS ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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