The Lawyers, A Drama in Five Acts Part 3

_Grob._ Do so.

_Clar._ My son shall have ample satisfaction. Where is your conscience, fellow? Defame a man in office and dignity? Now, go out by that door, or I will lay both my hands on you.

_Grob._ The man must be tipsy. (Laughs, and exit.)

_Clar._ Aye, you may laugh, you cursed thief. All my limbs tremble!--Some envious man, some fiend has sent him hither.--Jack would not betray his native town.

SCENE VI.

Enter FREDERICA.

_Clar._ It is not possible.

_Fred._ Only think, dear father--

_Clar._ Curse the money!

_Fred._ Brother Jack is---

_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 sc.r.a.ped together somewhat unfairly; but not so neither, not so neither.

_Fred._ What ails you, pray? What do you talk about Jack and his money?

_Clar._ I cannot bear it, cannot bear his money.

_Fred._ Only think; Ranger Gernau sends me word, that yesterday the news arrived, that my brother has been made a Privy Counsellor.

_Clar._ Privy Counsellor?--hem!--Curse that iron merchant, that--

_Fred._ He is now the first man in this town.

_Clar._ Take money! sell privileges! (walks up and down.) It is impossible! Father and mother are honest people; he has been sent to church and school, never saw any thing amiss in us; no, nothing amiss in all his life-time. We have worked hard day after day; never indulged ourselves with breakfast or bagging,[1] that he might have every requisite, that we might spend on him as much as ever we could afford.

And now, he is got up so high, and is one of those that rule the country, that now he should be worse than I would suffer a 'prentice boy to be, that I employ in my yard! Oh! if that be so, Lord take him or me, for I cannot bear it, either in this world or in the next! [Exit.

[Footnote 1: _Bagging_, in the North of England, is the common expression for a meal taken between dinner and supper. And, as it perfectly expresses the meaning of the German _vesperbrod_, I thought myself authorized to adopt it here; particularly as _tea_, in the mouth of a character, like carpenter Clarenbach, would appear preposterous.

The antiquaries of Yorks.h.i.+re and Lancas.h.i.+re derive the word _bagging_ from the old custom of carrying bread and cheese in a bag, in the afternoon, to the labourers in the fields; and this derivation is not altogether improbable. _Translator._]

_Fred._ I do not understand a word of all this. What does he mean?

SCENE VII.

Enter GERNAU.

_Gern._ Good morrow, Frederica!

_Fred._ Why so ruffled? Is that your welcome, after having kept out of the way for two days together?

_Gern._ Things grow worse and worse, between your brother and me, every day.

_Fred._ Why so?

_Gern._ He would have me do things which I neither can, must, nor will do.

SCENE VIII.

Enter CLARENBACH.

_Clar._ Jack a Privy Counsellor, you say?

_Fred._ Gernau says so.

_Gern._ His diploma arrived yesterday.

_Clar._ He has not mentioned it to me.

_Fred._ He will most certainly come to day.

_Clar._ But could he wait till to day?

_Fred._ Who knows but he wishes to surprise us?

_Clar._ He is going to be married too.

_Fred._ My brother?

_Clar._ I am told all this by strangers. Can he turn out so, because he is a greater man than I? or, perhaps, he is altogether bad.--G.o.d knows!

_Fred._ He is so full of business.

_Clar._ So am I.

_Fred._ Those that work with the head are apt to be more absent than those that work with the hand.

_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 wretched beings indeed, and I am very sorry for my son, that he must first lose the treasures of his heart to h.o.a.rd up gold. [Exit.

SCENE IX.

FREDERICA, GERNAU.

_Fred._ Tell me immediately, dear Gernau, what is the matter between you and my brother?

_Gern._ He is not a good man, Frederica.