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Front Page Titles (by Subject) SCENE I.—: Bamberg. A Hall. - Goethe's Works, vol. 3 (Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Tarquato Tasso, etc)
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SCENE I.—: Bamberg. A Hall. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe’s Works, vol. 3 (Goetz von Berlichingen, Iphigenia in Tauris, Tarquato Tasso, etc) [1885]Edition used:Goethe’s Works, illustrated by the best German artists, 5 vols. (Philadelphia: G. Barrie, 1885). Vol. 3.
Part of: Goethe’s Works, 5 vols.About Liberty Fund:Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. Copyright information:The text is in the public domain. Fair use statement:This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.
SCENE I.—Bamberg. A Hall.[TheBishopandAdelaide(playing at chess),Liebtraut(with a guitar),LadiesandCourtiers(standing in groups). Liebtraut.(Plays and sings.)
Adelaide.Your thoughts are not in your game. Check to the king! Bishop.There is still a way of escape. Adelaide.You will not be able to hold out long. Check to the king! Liebtraut.Were I a great prince, I would not play at this game, and would forbid it at court and throughout the whole land. Adelaide.’Tis indeed a touchstone of the brain. Liebtraut.Not on that account. I would rather hear a funeral bell, the cry of the ominous bird, the howling of that snarling watch-dog, conscience; rather would I hear these through the deepest sleep, than from bishops, knights and such beasts, the eternal—Check to the king! Bishop.Into whose head could such an idea enter? Liebtraut.A man’s, for example, endowed with a weak body and a strong conscience, which, for the most part, indeed, accompany each other. Chess is called a royal game, and is said to have been invented for a king, who rewarded the inventor with a mine of wealth. If this be so, I can picture him to myself. He was a minor, either in understanding or in years, under the guardianship of his mother or his wife; had down upon his chin, and flaxen hair around his temples; was pliant as a willow-shoot, and liked to play at draughts with women, not from passion, God forbid! only for pastime. His tutor, too active for a scholar, too intractable for a man of the world, invented the game, in usum Delphini, that was so homogeneous with his majesty—and so on. Adelaide.Checkmate! You should fill up the chasms in our histories, Liebtraut. [They rise. Liebtraut.To supply those in our family registers would be more profitable. The merits of our ancestors being available for a common object with their portraits, namely, to cover the naked sides of our chambers and of our characters, one might turn such an occupation to good account. Bishop.He will not come, you say! Adelaide.I beseech you, banish him from your thoughts. Bishop.What can it mean? Liebtraut.What! The reasons may be told over like the beads of a rosary. He has been seized with a fit of compunction, of which I could soon cure him. Bishop.Do so; ride to him instantly. Liebtraut.My commission— Bishop.Shall be unlimited. Spare nothing to bring him back. Liebtraut.May I venture to use your name, gracious lady? Adelaide.With discretion. Liebtraut.That’s a vague commission. Adelaide.Do you know so little of me, or are you so young as not to understand in what tone you should speak of me to Weislingen? Liebtraut.In the tone of a fowler’s whistle, I think. Adelaide.You will never be reasonable. Liebtraut.Does one ever become so, gracious lady? Bishop.Go! go! Take the best horse in my stable; choose your servants, and bring him hither. Liebtraut.If I do not conjure him hither, say that an old woman who charms warts and freckles knows more of sympathy than I. Bishop.Yet, what will it avail? Berlichingen has wholly gained him over. He will no sooner be here than he will wish to return. Liebtraut.He will wish it, doubtless; but can he go? A prince’s squeeze of the hand and the smiles of a beauty, from these no Weislingen can tear himself away. I have the honor to take my leave. Bishop.A prosperous journey! Adelaide.Adieu! [ExitLiebtraut. Bishop.When he is once here, I must trust to you. Adelaide.Would you make me your lime-twig? Bishop.By no means. Adelaide.Your call-bird then? Bishop.No; that is Liebtraut’s part. I beseech you do not refuse to do for me what no other can. Adelaide.We shall see. [Exeunt. |

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