Poems [58]
I am no tyrant. I should not be branded with such a title!
KARL (startled.) Branded, Your Majesty?
KING. What has happened, Karl? You are as pale as ashes! What mystery is here? I am to be trusted.
KARL. Your Majesty was ever kind; and if I might--
KING. Might! You may. Speak freely to your sovereign--your friend--and tell me what it is that weighs upon your mind.
SONG--KARL Dared these lips my sad story impart, What relief it would give to my heart! Though the scenes of past years as they rise, Bring the dews of remorse to my eyes, Yet, oh hear me, and ever conceal What in agony now I reveal!--
KING. Speak freely, Karl--
KARL. And behold, while I throw off the mask! Ah, no, no, no, no, no-- I shrink in despair from the task!
In the page of my life there appears A sad passage that's written in tears! Could but that be erased, I would give All the remnant of days I may live: yet the cause of the cloud on my brow I have never disclosed until now--
KING. Say on, Karl--
KARL. Here behold!--It is branded in flame! Ah, no, no, no, no, no-- I shrink in despair from my shame! [KARL rushes out.
KING. There's a mystery about that fellow that I can not understand.--Whom have we here? Oh, the English traveller who is in such a good humor with my manufactory, and who has such strange notions respecting me. Good--good!
[Draws his cloak about him and retires.
(Enter WEDGEWOOD.)
WEDGEWOOD. I begin to perceive that I shall get into some confounded scrape if I stay here much longer, and so will my young friend Mr. Worrendorf, who has made me his confidant: but mum's the word! (Seeing the KING, who is in the act of taking snuff.) Ah, use snuff, my old boy?--Odd!--Thank you for a pinch. (Takes a pinch sans ceremonie, and without the King's consent. FREDERICK shuts the box angrily. WEDGEWOOD starts back in astonishment.--Aside.) Wonder who the old-fashioned brown jug can be! I'll take him by the handle and pour him out, and see what's in him.
KING. Like the snuff?
WEDGEWOOD. Yes (snuffs)--it's decent blackguard (snuffs)--quite decent.
KING. Taste it again.
WEDGEWOOD. Don't care if I do. (Helps himself.)
KING. Perhaps you will also do me the favor to accept the box?
WEDGEWOOD (taking the box.) If it is convenient. What am I to infer from this?
KING. That you and I cannot take snuff out of the same box. MY box is not large enough for two.
WEDGEWOOD (astonished.) You don't say so! "Not large enough for two?" (Looks at the box.) Damn me if I don't think it large enough for a dozen, unless they took snuff with a shovel! (Aside.) Who in the name of all that's magnanimous can this old three-cornered cocked-hatted cockolorum be?
KING. You were overheard to say but now that you would like to see the king?
WEDGEWOOD. Overheard? (Aside.) Ah, that's the way they do everything here. A man can't sneeze without some one of the four winds of heaven reporting it to His Majesty! There is no such thing as a secret in the whole kingdom! How do the women get along, I wonder? (To FREDERICK.) "Like to see the king?" Certainly I should.
KING. That box will procure you an audience. Present it at the palace.
WEDGEWOOD. Look you here, my jolly old cock, none of your jokes--none of your tricks upon travellers, if you please. What do you mean?
KING. That I am appreciated at court.
WEDGEWOOD (aside.) Oh, there's no standing on this! (To FREDERICK.) Do you intend to say that you are personally acquainted with Frederick the Great?
KING. I know him, I believe, better than any subject in his realm. He is my most intimate friend.
WEDGEWOOD. Well, then, if that be the case, all that I have to say is, that he is not over and above nice in his choice of companions.--What an odd old file!
KING (angrily.) Look you here, Mr. Wedgewood--
WEDGEWOOD. W-e-d-g-e-w-o-o-d!--
KING. Yes--I know you well enough. You are an Englishman by birth--a crockery-merchant by trade--a gentleman from inclination--and an odd sort of character from habit. Without knowing
KARL (startled.) Branded, Your Majesty?
KING. What has happened, Karl? You are as pale as ashes! What mystery is here? I am to be trusted.
KARL. Your Majesty was ever kind; and if I might--
KING. Might! You may. Speak freely to your sovereign--your friend--and tell me what it is that weighs upon your mind.
SONG--KARL Dared these lips my sad story impart, What relief it would give to my heart! Though the scenes of past years as they rise, Bring the dews of remorse to my eyes, Yet, oh hear me, and ever conceal What in agony now I reveal!--
KING. Speak freely, Karl--
KARL. And behold, while I throw off the mask! Ah, no, no, no, no, no-- I shrink in despair from the task!
In the page of my life there appears A sad passage that's written in tears! Could but that be erased, I would give All the remnant of days I may live: yet the cause of the cloud on my brow I have never disclosed until now--
KING. Say on, Karl--
KARL. Here behold!--It is branded in flame! Ah, no, no, no, no, no-- I shrink in despair from my shame! [KARL rushes out.
KING. There's a mystery about that fellow that I can not understand.--Whom have we here? Oh, the English traveller who is in such a good humor with my manufactory, and who has such strange notions respecting me. Good--good!
[Draws his cloak about him and retires.
(Enter WEDGEWOOD.)
WEDGEWOOD. I begin to perceive that I shall get into some confounded scrape if I stay here much longer, and so will my young friend Mr. Worrendorf, who has made me his confidant: but mum's the word! (Seeing the KING, who is in the act of taking snuff.) Ah, use snuff, my old boy?--Odd!--Thank you for a pinch. (Takes a pinch sans ceremonie, and without the King's consent. FREDERICK shuts the box angrily. WEDGEWOOD starts back in astonishment.--Aside.) Wonder who the old-fashioned brown jug can be! I'll take him by the handle and pour him out, and see what's in him.
KING. Like the snuff?
WEDGEWOOD. Yes (snuffs)--it's decent blackguard (snuffs)--quite decent.
KING. Taste it again.
WEDGEWOOD. Don't care if I do. (Helps himself.)
KING. Perhaps you will also do me the favor to accept the box?
WEDGEWOOD (taking the box.) If it is convenient. What am I to infer from this?
KING. That you and I cannot take snuff out of the same box. MY box is not large enough for two.
WEDGEWOOD (astonished.) You don't say so! "Not large enough for two?" (Looks at the box.) Damn me if I don't think it large enough for a dozen, unless they took snuff with a shovel! (Aside.) Who in the name of all that's magnanimous can this old three-cornered cocked-hatted cockolorum be?
KING. You were overheard to say but now that you would like to see the king?
WEDGEWOOD. Overheard? (Aside.) Ah, that's the way they do everything here. A man can't sneeze without some one of the four winds of heaven reporting it to His Majesty! There is no such thing as a secret in the whole kingdom! How do the women get along, I wonder? (To FREDERICK.) "Like to see the king?" Certainly I should.
KING. That box will procure you an audience. Present it at the palace.
WEDGEWOOD. Look you here, my jolly old cock, none of your jokes--none of your tricks upon travellers, if you please. What do you mean?
KING. That I am appreciated at court.
WEDGEWOOD (aside.) Oh, there's no standing on this! (To FREDERICK.) Do you intend to say that you are personally acquainted with Frederick the Great?
KING. I know him, I believe, better than any subject in his realm. He is my most intimate friend.
WEDGEWOOD. Well, then, if that be the case, all that I have to say is, that he is not over and above nice in his choice of companions.--What an odd old file!
KING (angrily.) Look you here, Mr. Wedgewood--
WEDGEWOOD. W-e-d-g-e-w-o-o-d!--
KING. Yes--I know you well enough. You are an Englishman by birth--a crockery-merchant by trade--a gentleman from inclination--and an odd sort of character from habit. Without knowing