The Lawyers, A Drama in Five Acts

_Well._ Not so. Slanderer, not so,--a true penitent, a sinner, and of course one that has found mercy in the Divine Presence. He is dead as to his earthly frame, but the tears o...

_Well._ Have I not told you a hundred times, when he was what they call a Lawyer, and when he wrote with such humane feelings, with such fire, with such indefatigability, in the...

_Clar._ Now that you have been made a Privy Counsellor, I fear it will still be worse! Well, heaven grant you health, and may you act as you ought, and all may be well yet.

P, Coun. (shrugs up his shoulders.) The dead letter has decided in this business, as it does in many more, where our feelings would decide in a different manner, but dare not.

_Clar._ So do I.--And, to tell you the truth, the valuable bequest of the old aunt ought to go to the children, and not to you; to whom, contrary to all right and equity, she ha...

_Clar._ Recollect yourself, and act in a good and fair manner; for, upon my soul! you cannot go from hence but altogether good or bad; I tell you that before hand.

_Clar._ Jack, your honour is already in great arrears with our town, and your conscience does not altogether keep a fair day-book. I ask you, in the name of God, what do you mea...

_Well._ It is poison! it was intended to close my lips for ever! Lulled to sleep by your artful proposals, I might have passed into the other world according to the old proverb,...

_Lew._ I shall have the honour to let the Privy Counsellor know, that the Aulic Counsellor Reissman waits. (Steps into a closet, out of which the Privy Counsellor immediately co...

_Soph._ Your hand and heart are all I crave. To be candid, I expected nothing less from you. Now for the arduous question; hear me! The disposition in which I find you to day is...

_Well._ (puts one hand in his bosom.) _Quoad_, old and honest? Yes, _Quoad_, friend?--The _status amicitiæ_ case cannot exist; for, if that were the case, you ought to have know...

_Clar._ You are right, I think; (takes it.) Moreover, I shall be out a good while to day; (drinks;) perhaps I may not come home to dinner; (drinks;) bring my dinner then to the...

_Reiss._ If God should call him off, the calumniator will escape a very serious action in this world. Now my claims and the will have been confirmed, I will, of my own accord, m...

_Gern._ Under the pretence of promoting agriculture, he wants the best part of the forest for himself, which is of no great use to the community. And this pretended plea is a ga...

_Sell._ Beautiful, splendid! thanks to your care! Old papa will open all his eyes when he comes home. All the old furniture has been carried off, and the room looks very elegant...

_Soph._ My visit will be but short. I am come to form an acquaintance with the sister of a gentleman who is not indifferent to me, as you may know perhaps.

_Fred._ (alone.) It may remain there, I will not touch it; I will not look at it. (Going from the band-box.) Sure, there are some articles of dress for me in it. It is odd that...

_Reiss._ Attained your wish! Is that a reply, when 10,000 pounds have fallen to my lot? Is that the behaviour of a daughter to her father on so happy an occasion.

_P. Coun._ I can be dependent on you no longer; but I do not choose to be ungrateful. Without enquiring into the motives which induced you to raise me, I owe you my grateful tha...

_Reiss._ Instead of standing there by the side of that insect of the law, like a scholar that has received a wrap over his knuckles, you ought to have thundered him down with th...

_Reiss._ (confidentially.) I must tell you that Selling has already mentioned something to me about it. The young man's conscience is alarmed. He does not like to lend a hand in...

_Sell._ Oh, dear Sir, what shall we do now? I have read that Benniger such a lecture, and taken the money _ad depositum_. But, good heaven! that fellow is a wild ferocious beast...

_P. Coun._ My accounts are now settled, and my mind is at ease. I can now call a furnished house and four thousand dollars my own honest property. I have thrown off the burden,...

_Gern._ Yes, yes! your brother, I see, has great views concerning this house. O Frederica, I came in such a melancholy mood!--Your gaudy dress, and all this superb furniture, ca...

_Well._ I know. (Pulls out a paper.) This is the decree. The oftener I peruse it, and the longer I consider it, the more it resembles a poor chest forced open, beat to pieces, a...

_Clar._ He has too much. Yes, yes, yes! I know, he has too much, and it is impossible that he acquired it all in a fair way; but not so neither. It may have been scraped togethe...

_Grob._ But it is very profitable. I have the same object in view. Your son, the deputy, patronizes Mr. Benninger. But, if you would speak in my favour to your son, I know I sho...

_Gern._ That is out of his power now. But he has acted with such discretion, with such abundance of good nature, and rendered so much justice to every body else, that I must be...

_Clar._ Look you here, my sweet girl! he was not calculated for it, no more than a true genuine christian Privy Counsellor is calculated for a carpenter. He has had some learnin...

_P. Coun._ I am happy to find you, Sophia, by the side of my good father, hand in hand. What an enchanting picture in my eye! love, worth, and affection, hand in hand! my Sophia...

_Clar._ Only think, dear Jack, all the people you have refused to see, this fellow has been snarling at. (To Lewis.) You must know those people in the hall are all as good as my...

_Clar._ Where is my furniture? who had the impudence? who has permitted it? Girl, daughter, Frederica! where was you when all this was done? where is my furniture, my furniture?...

_P. Coun._ Sophia has resigned her fortune on my account, and I shall resign it on hers;--I do not wish for any high office! I am going to re-enter the tranquil class of the ind...

_Soph._ No ceremonies; our conversation is at an end. It is not the last we shall have, I hope. In that case it has been of use, if not to us all, most certainly to me.

_Clar._ (takes off his spectacles.) So my son sends me his compliments? So! well,--return him a good morrow from me. What is it he sends?--money! (opens the paper;) for what? he...

_Clar._ But is it not a real relaxation to act according to the dictates of the heart? or have the hearts of those people nothing to do with their concerns? If so, they are wret...

_Clar._ Yes, yes! We do not like to mention any thing about it. You, you are welcome wherever you go; and so you are to me, God knows! Sit down here near an old man, if you have...

_Soph._ To your compassion, to your filial compassion,--to your duty as a son, to your heart, to every thing I appeal, Clarenbach! You must bring him back to the path of virtue,...

_Clar._ Courage, my dear children! about it! Thank God, we have got rid of that fashionable trumpery. Set the table again there in its place.-- So!---how glad I am to behold my...

_Reiss._ Not a word, not a word more, not a single syllable of that silly fool! What, to leave me and you, as if we were infected with the plague and breathed contagion? I canno...

_Clar._ Step in here, child! here you are, if not rich, at least safe. You have now done your duty as a daughter. Now recommend the perverse man to heaven, and let things take t...

_Clar._ (pulling his son towards him.) You would take him away from me,--tear him out of my arms,--drag him away!--he is my son, and no father will tamely suffer his son to prec...

_Serv._ (exit.) Now it is done, (walking up and down pleased.) Now it is right, and--(stops suddenly,) but that perverse old-fashioned fellow, with his pious lamentations--Pshaw...

_Reiss._ Fie upon him! a creature that I raised from obscurity!--a fellow, who eight years ago was a petty fogger, whom I have raised to the rank of a Privy Counseller!--I was a...

_Clar._ I dare say you do not. But, do you see, I think you ought to mend, or my son ought to send you about your business. To hear people, to say either yes or no, is the least...

_Reiss._ There he is! Thanks, my hearty thanks for the dispatch! That is what I call business. That is what I call a specimen of a useful son-in-law.--Now Miss may fix the happy...

_Clar._ So!--there is my design, and I think it is a pretty good one. It will make a substantial building.--When I am gone, people will say, when they look at the pile, "Master...

_Reiss._ The doctor is dead,--good night to him! The lawyer will soon follow; he is an old man! Old people are subject to many accidents; death has them constantly at his nod, s...