The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Vi Part 60

2D PEt.i.t. But I know you! Here is the purse of gold You lost, which I herewith restore to you.

ISAAC. The purse I lost? I recognize it! Yea, 'Twas greenish silk--with ten piasters in't!

2D PEt.i.t. Nay, twenty.

ISAAC. Twenty? Well, my eye is good; My mem'ry fails me, though, from time to time!

This sheet, no doubt, explains the circ.u.mstance--Just where you found the purse, perhaps, and how.

There is no further need that this report Should go on file. And yet, just let me have't!

We will convey it to the proper place, That every one may know your honesty!

[_The pet.i.tioners present their pet.i.tions; he takes one in each hand and throws them to the ground._]

No matter what it be, your answer's there.

(_To a third._)

I see you have a ring upon your hand.

The stone is good, let's see!

[_The suppliant hands over the ring._]

That flaw, of course, Destroys its perfect water! Take it back.

[_He puts the ring on his own finger._]

3D PEt.i.t. You've put it on your own hand!

ISAAC. What, on mine?

Why so I have! I thought I'd given it back.

It is so tight I cannot get it off.

3D PEt.i.t. Keep it, but, pray, take my pet.i.tion too.

ISAAC (_busy with the ring_).

I'll take them both in memory of you.

The King shall weigh the ring--I mean, of course, Your words--although the flaw is evident--The flaw that's in the stone--you understand.

Begone now, all of you! Have I no club?

Must I be bothered with this Christian pack?

[GARCERAN _has meanwhile entered._]

GARCERAN. Good luck! I see you sitting in the reeds, But find you're pitching high the pipes you cut.

ISAAC. The royal privacy's entrusted me; The King's not here, he does not wish to be.

And who disturbs him--even you, my lord, I must bid you begone! Those his commands.

GARCERAN. You sought a while ago to find a club; And when you find it, bring it me. I think Your back could use it better than your hand.

ISAAC. How you flare up! That is the way with Christians?

They're so direct of speech--but patient waiting, And foresight, humble cleverness, they lack.

The King is pleased much to converse with me.

GARCERAN. When he is bored and flees his inner self, E'en such a bore as you were less a bore.

ISAAC. He speaks to me of State and of finance.

GARCERAN. Are you, perhaps, the father of the new Decree that makes a threepence worth but two?

ISAAC. Money, my friend, 's the root of everything.

The enemy is threat'ning--buy you arms!

The soldier, sure, is sold, and that for cash.

You eat and drink your money; what you eat Is bought, and buying's money--nothing else.

The time will come when every human soul Will be a sight-draft and a short one, too; I'm councilor to the King, and if yourself Would keep in harmony with Isaac's luck--

GARCERAN. In harmony with you? It is my curse That chance and the accursed seeming so Have mixed me in this wretched piece of folly, Which to the utmost strains my loyalty.

ISAAC. My little Rachel daily mounts in grace!

GARCERAN. Would that the King, like many another one, In jest and play had worn youth's wildness off!

But he, from childhood, knowing only men, Brought up by men and tended but by men, Nourished with wisdom's fruits before his time, Taking his marriage as a thing of course, The King now meets, the first time in his life, A woman, female, nothing but her s.e.x, And she avenges on this prodigy The folly of too staid, ascetic youth.

A n.o.ble woman's half, yes all, a man-- It is their faults that make them woman-kind.

And that resistance, which the oft deceived Gains through experience, the King has not; A light disport he takes for bitter earn'st.

But this shall not endure, I warrant thee!

The foe is at the borders, and the King Shall hie him where long since he ought to be; Myself shall lead him hence. And so an end.

ISAAC. Try what you can! And if not with us, then You are against us, and will break your neck In vain attempt to clear the wide abyss.

(_The sound of flutes._)

But hark! With cymbals and with horns they come, As Esther with King Ahasuerus came, Who raised the Jews to fame and high estate.

GARCERAN. Must I, then, see in this my King's debauch A picture of myself from early days, And be ashamed for both of us at once?

[_A boat upon which are the_ KING, RACHEL _and suite, appears on the river._]

KING. Lay to! Here is the place--the arbor here.

RACHEL. The skiff is rocking--hold me, lest I fall.

[_The_ KING _has jumped to the sh.o.r.e._]

RACHEL. And must I walk to sh.o.r.e upon this board So thin and weak?

KING. Here, take my hand, I pray!

RACHEL. No, no, I'm dizzy.