The German Classics Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries V

The painters represented here alongside with the two writers to whom this volume is devoted, are Cornelius, Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Rethel, and Kaulbach. These men were not only...

Yes, child, fashion keeps on going forward until it can go no farther and has to turn around and go back. This dress has already been out of style and in again ten times.

Well, give me some of that then! I won't grumble if you make the pancakes thinner for the next two weeks. You have often done so before! I know that all right! When you were sav...

Oh, he grieves me terribly! Yes, yes, your father is right! Those are the consequences! He is just as insolent now in demanding a gulden as he was cunning in pleading for a piec...

You are forever so irritable! One can stay away from here for two weeks, rain and sunshine can have alternated ten times, and, when one does finally come again, he finds the sam...

Since yesterday evening. When I was going over in the dusk to take the deceased miller's measure for his final sleeping room, I heard a couple of your good friends slandering yo...

Good mother, I will not ask you to close my eyes; that is a hard thing to do, and I will take it off your hands. I will do that final service of love for you. But you must grant...

You are right--we are not among our own class! Scoundrels and thieves are not of our class! [_Points to the dresser._] Open that up! And then three steps away--so that you can't...

A bad appetite means a guilty conscience. Oh, well, we shall see--or was there poison in the soup, as I dreamt yesterday? Perhaps some wild hemlock got in with the other vegetab...

Oh, God! God! Have pity on me I Have pity on the old man! Take me to Thee! There is no other way to help him! The sunlight lies like a golden blanket on the street, and the chil...

Oh, father! Why are you not here?--He has forgotten his spectacles--there they lie! Oh, if he only notices it and returns for them!--How then? Where Who had them?

Now I should rejoice! Oh, God! And I can think of nothing except: Now it is you alone! And yet I have a feeling as though something must occur to me at once that would set every...

I bring you good news. Your brother--No, Clara, I cannot talk to you in this formal way. All these tables, chairs, and cupboards that I know so well--Good day, old friend!

That makes the sixth sheet since dinner! How good a man feels when he is doing his duty! Now anybody that wanted to could come through the door, even the king himself! I should...

Leonard, I am my father's daughter! Not as the sister of an accused, innocent man, who has been set free--for my brother is at liberty--not as a girl who trembles before undeser...

The devil! How stupid of me! I should have sent Some! How can I get out of it? I do not understand such things, and the little girl will take it to heart! She has nothing else t...

Yes, you see, Clara; you spoke about keeping one's word. Just because I am a man of my word I must answer you again as I have already answered once before. A week ago I wrote yo...

"I must, I must marry her!" And why must I? She is going to do a crazy thing in order to keep her father from doing one. Where lies the necessity of my doing a still crazier thi...

Bethink yourself! Otherwise I might take you for a mad dog that has unwittingly bitten the one I love most on earth, and shoot you down as such! But for half an hour more I must...

Nobody at home! Had I not known about the rat-hole under the threshold where they always hide the key when they all go out, I could not have got in! Well, that would not have ma...

I held fast to the scrap of paper, and yet the evening wind is so strong that it blows the tiles off the roofs. As I was passing the church one fell right in front of me, so tha...

I should have an apology to make to you, but if I forgive you for contracting secret debts and pay them off for you into the bargain, you will probably allow me to omit the apol...

SECRETARY (_staggers in; he is pale, and is holding a handkerchief against his breast_). Where is Clara? [_He falls into a chair_.] God!--Good evening! Thank Heaven that I had t...

And dost thou fear Them less for that? Their curses still may fall Upon us, though their blessings are withheld, And willingly I sacrificed the ram. Oh, wouldst thou kill one to...

I am not seeking death, nor will I sue. And too much honor dost thou yield to me In greeting Gunther's guide before himself, For I am but his helper.

Now, Rumolt, will a single tree be left? For weeks now thou hast brought whole forests in And grimly thou provid'st the wedding feast, As if men, dwarfs, and elves were all to c...

Nay, fear not! As his messenger I come!-- And yet I bear the message not for thee! 'Tis for thy Lady Mother, and I hope That I may see thy sister Kriemhild, too.

I never longed to have my father by, That he might teach me how to bear my arms, But ah! today I need my mother so, That I might ask her how to use my tongue.

Perchance 'tis there as here! Where men will place it next to Wotan's tree Right gladly, for they do not surely know If magic may not dwell there; as we see Devoutest Christians...

Why else should I complain? In full sight of the castle! She at first Resisted him, as it befits a maid, And as our mothers may have done of old; But when she saw that but the l...

It must be the hoard, The treasure of the Niblungs Siegfried won. He's called the dwarfs for escort duty here, And bade them bring the treasure, and I'm told It is the marriage...

But Hagen! Why didst thou make signs to me To leave the banquet? I shall nevermore Sit at this table as I sit today. Pray grant me this one day, I only ask A just reward.

The customs are so strange in northern lands! For as the mountains grow more rugged still And cheerful oaks make way for sombre firs, Just so does man grow gloomy, till at last...

I think he will. This is a summons, as it were, to war! Yet he is right, for this strange princess needs Quite other morning serenades than sings The lark that warbles in the li...

Yet love, methinks, might dream E'en such strange fancies! One fair morn in May When all things glistened as they glisten now, Two crystal dewdrops, clearer than the rest, Were...

Nay, thou art a man! This name which was of old to me the call To arms, now fills my heart with joy and pride! Yes, Gunther, I am wonderfully changed. Thou see'st it too? There'...

But I did not! Her mind is strangely altered, 'twould astound Me not a whit now if her nature too Should alter and her hair should change to blonde Instead of raven tresses that...

Then thou shouldst not try To judge of it!--No insult I intend. Nay, do not draw thy hand away from mine! It may be so, and yet I thought this joy Were but for me alone.

Not alone This narrow country, but the whole wide earth Was meant to be thy kingdom, and to thee The stars should tell their message. Even death Should lose his fell dominion ov...

And even that Upon compulsion! HAGEN. That I do not doubt! The tale can wait the telling. 'Tis our part To separate the women, for we know That serpents' crests may ever rise ag...

Forgive me that I spoke before my king! I only strove to make the matter plain, Yet free decision is thy royal right-- So make thy choice between thy bride and him.

And have you not been told That bears have ventured in the very stalls, And that the eagles wait before the doors And watch when they are opened for a child That may stray out?

Not traitor, no! Was it his fault That he brought back the girdle carelessly And Kriemhild found it? It escaped him there, As clings an arrow in a warrior's mail If after battle...

How then is't well? What Hagen said is true. She's not like others; for the breath of time Her wounds can never heal, nor give her peace. And we must face the question: He or sh...

Saw I not Thy husband parting from thee? He was flushed, And angry were his looks. Is there not peace Between yourself and Siegfried once again? Is he not kind and gentle with h...

Thy hero now is as a stag to me. Had he not broken silence, he were safe, And yet I surely knew that could not be. If one's transparent as an insect is, That looks now red, now...

There is no image of it in this world! You strive to liken it and comprehend, Yet here all signs and measures too must fail. But kneel before the Lord in fervent prayer, And whe...

It is as I have said, She reckons on the deed as we believe That autumn brings us apples. The old nurse Has tried to rouse her, and has quietly Bestrewn her chamber all with gra...

By all the fiends of hell! No! ten times no! It were disgrace for us, and Siegfried thinks Assuredly as I do. Here he comes! Now speak, thou may'st decide it.--

Why not? She's not afraid! And surely she has often gone before. Bring falcons here! For she shall take the birds, And we the beasts. There'll be more pleasure so.

Are you not gone? The Lord hath sent them here! My dearest brothers, earnestly I beg Vouchsafe me my desire, though to you It seems but foolish. Go ye with my lord Where'er he g...

Oh, had I only told it him! Oh, my beloved, no woman host thou known, I see it now! Else nevermore hadst thou Unto a trembling girl who doth betray Herself through fear, intrust...

When thou hast taken thought thou wilt command. There is no other way, and there will come No second day like this one. Therefore speak, Or if thou wilt not speak, be still!

That I know, For I myself have killed him!--Food is spread. Sound trumpets in his praise who ordered that, For now we feel the need. Accursed ravens, Here too? Now blow your bug...

I am amazed That thou art up, for thou hast always slept More soundly after dawn and claimed thy right To have thy daughter wake thee, as thou her So long ago.

'Tis he! I know, I know! Let no one tread on him; for thou didst hear The servants stumble over him.--The servants! Yet once great kings made way for him.

I fain would weep myself. Yet of his death You've heard already? By the holy words Of our good priest you were to learn of this. I went to tell him in the night.

Another parting? No, I'll cling to him, And to the grave together will we go, Or you must leave him here. But half my love I gave him living. Now that he is dead I know it. Were...

_In the cathedral. Torches. The Chaplain with other priests is at one side before an iron door. At the main entrance of the cathedral about sixty of_ HAGEN's _kindred are assemb...

_In the back of the room a folding door and a closet; at either side ordinary doors. On the right, a window; on the left, in the rear, the stove; more to the front a cuckoo-cloc...

_Behind the scenes musicians are heard playing._ WEILER, _looking about him, slowly through the centre door; the_ FORESTER'S _wife at the same time from the left with an air of...

How glad I am to see you so cheerful. But you Mary? You are sad, Mary? And I am so joyful, so over-joyful. The whole morning I have been in the forest. Where the bushes glistene...

Get out, wench! [_Tearing himself free_.] Is this the sun's ray after a rainy day, that the gadflies come buzzing about one's head? Have you filled Robert's ears with lamentatio...

Proverbs, chapter 31, verse 10: "Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no ne...

And now can anybody say that this woman is not clever enough to get one under her thumb. But let us have cards. I had to promise Stein that he should have his revenge today befo...

[STEIN _is getting more and more excited. He shows plainly that the presence of other persons increases his sensitiveness, and he makes an evident effort to control his temper....

To Godfrey? Idle talk! Stein himself can't bear Godfrey, and he knows what I am worth to him. I need not sing my own praise. Show me a forest anywhere in the whole district that...

I have been commissioned by Mr. Adolf Friedrich Stein, head of the firm of Stein and Son, in case you should still persist in your refusal to execute the command of your master,...

_The_ FORESTER _is standing at the window whistling_. WILKENS _is looking for his cane and hat_. SOPHY _in perplexity looks from one to the other. As he is about to leave_, MÖLL...

Confound his obstinacy! The whole fine day spoiled! Otherwise we should now be at table. I suppose he is right after all, that this clearing serves no goad purpose. But is that...

Father, you have me fetched away from the betrothal festivities like a child from his playthings. But I am no child to whom one gives and takes away as one likes. I have your wo...

Where are you going? Robert! My boy!--Curse it! I have scarcely got over my anger, and the next moment--But does it not seem as though all had entered into a conspiracy to keep...

He ac--he accepts it? He really accepts it? What an obliging man he is, that Godfrey! And you into the bargain--with your haste. Have you entirely lost your senses, sir? The who...

Even if the marriage with Miss Löhlein should not come to pass, at least Stein and Son have asserted themselves. It used to turn my stomach to see how he always was the first to...

Bless my soul, if he don't come to grief! But who, in thunder, is really forester? I wonder whether the mistress has saved me anything? But, anyhow, I have no appetite. Well!

How should I know? On the road I meet that crazy John, and he is gesticulating with his arms as if he were striking some one, and points in the direction of the forester's house--

How so? I know everything. But yet he is not the chief culprit; otherwise I should not be here as Stein's ambassador. He is willing to take the first step.

And so were the woodcutters. He had them pass the bottle round. "Here we begin," he said. "Ulrich has made a fine mess of it," he said; "for that reason he is dismissed." When h...

Host, let me have a drink. [_Aside_.] I guess he will find his way home; Godfrey will. From the mill in the Dell it is scarcely a quarter of an hour to his house.--Good evening.

Those judges around the green table! The idea, that an honest fellow should be frightened when a leaf rustles, and look behind him to see whether the constable isn't after him!

I do not know what is the matter with me. All at once I began to feel so badly out there. I was going to wait for my brother at the boundary. HOST.

You are an honest man. To you I may unburden my mind. They are an abominable set--those that just left. They let fall some words. Godfrey is drunk in the Dell, and Lindenschmied...

_In the Dell. Picturesque forest glen; in the background the brook right across the stage; on the other side rocks, along which a steep, narrow path runs parallel with the brook...

And then--when I come home from the forest--healthily tired out by my work in the open air--and she has been watching for me--and comes to meet me--and takes my gun, so as to ha...

Disgraceful! Disgraceful! Could it be possible that Andrew was capable of this kind of revenge? And I must believe it--I must! The dying man said it; he had threatened him with...

Then fancy that you are coming from a sick person to one more seriously sick. If impatience, dissatisfaction with oneself, evil presentiments, were diseases, then I should be a...

Not yet. Not yet, I hope. But--I am quite beside myself. Ulrich's Andrew has already shot and killed Godfrey. Those from the forester's house have instituted a regular hunt for...

Your husband has been dismissed. There is no doubt about that. And if he desires to remain here he is going just the wrong way about it. Stein certainly cannot afford to allow U...

Why did I take it till I had considered matters?--and then I had it in my hand. And Katharine, too, was so quickly gone!--I should not have taken it!

You need not get angry, Ulrich. You cannot act otherwise, and neither can I. I do not reproach you; I say nothing, absolutely nothing. You persist in regarding as your enemy who...

He said state officials could not be deposed, unless it could be proved against them that they deserved it. But you were not a state official; your master was not the state, but...

Perhaps everything can still be arranged, and Robert writes us how. If you will not open it, give me the letter. If I do it, you have nothing to reproach yourself for.

Some one is coming up across the Lautenberg. The plovers were screeching as if in fear. I expected it. It was too sultry. Ulrich [_approaches him_] an hour ago some one was shot.

He is closing the shutters. I must close Mary's for appearance's sake, so that she can climb in when she returns. And Andrew not yet back! All at once a feeling comes over me, a...

SOPHY (_alone, comes in with a lamp, looks into_ MARY'S _room, puts the lamp upon the table, goes to the window, opens the shutter through which the reflection of the sheet-ligh...

He would be a fine hunter's boy who is afraid of a little bit of lightning. Only tell me which way Mary went. The one below along the brook? All right. She is not like the other...

He is gone! And the storm is getting worse. A fog below, and the thunderstorm above coming nearer. And another one is coming on from the Brandsberg. And Ulrich outside, and none...

That is the old rose-bush outside, which is always nodding so anxiously and knocking at the window, as if it had to prevent a catastrophe, and nobody paid any attention to it.

That is my Andrew's blood, and your Robert spilled it. And you sent your Möller for the soldiers! And you made me a scoundrel before the world--with your two kinds of right--so...

Just now, as I was coming home, I met two men from the mill with a stretcher. Robert had just called them out of their beds; they were going to the Dell; Robert had gone ahead o...

Nonsense! What do you want, the whole lot of you? Why, that is Mary. She is standing outside, and does not dare to come in, because she ran out in the night. She hasn't the cour...

She was praying: "God, let me belong only to my father." I was about to say to her: "Mary, you are going to give me up?" Then she rushed upon me, as if she wished to protect me...

have repairs made to the tower and roof of St. George's, and that the work had been entrusted to him. The old gentleman in the blue coat urged him to ask Apollonius to return to...