Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

“ Help! help for the prince! Prince, what raving anguish----
PHILOTAS. Forgive me, king! I have dealt you a more deadly blow than myself! I die, and soon will peaceful lands enjoy the fruit of my death. Your son, king, is a prisoner, and the son of my father is free!
ARIDÄUS. What do I hear?
STRATO. Then it was your purpose, prince? But as our prisoner, you had no right over yourself!
PHILOTAS. Do not say that, Strato! Should a man be able to fetter another's liberty to die, the liberty which the gods have left in all vicissitudes of life?
STRATO. O king! Terror has paralyzed him! King! ”

“ Sir William Sampson, Waitwell.
SIR WILLIAM. My daughter, here? Here in this wretched inn?
WAITWELL. No doubt, Mellefont has purposely selected the most wretched one in the town. The wicked always seek the darkness, because they are wicked. But what would it help them, could they even hide themselves from the whole world? Conscience after all is more powerful than the accusations of a world. Ah, you are weeping again, again, Sir!--Sir!
SIR WILLIAM. Let me weep, my honest old servant! Or does she not, do you think, deserve my tears?
WAITWELL. Alas! She deserves them, were they tears of blood. ”

“ His heart to every virtue how unlocked,
To every lovely feeling how allied!
SALADIN. And yet Al-Hafi spoke with coldness of him.
SITTAH. Not coldness, but unwillingness, as if
He deemed it dangerous to praise too much,
Yet knew not how to blame without a cause.
Or can it be, in truth, that e'en the best
Amongst a tribe can never quite escape
The foibles of their race, and that, in fact,
Al-Hafi has in this to blush for Nathan?
But come what may, let him be Jew or not,
If he be rich, that is enough for me.
SALADIN. You would not, sister, take his--wealth by force?
SITTAH. By force? ”

“ MARWOOD. No, Miss Sampson, if you mean to tremble, let us speak of something else----
SARA. Cruel woman!
MARWOOD. I am sorry to be misunderstood. I at least, if I place myself in imagination in Miss Sampson's position, would regard as a favour any more exact information which one might give me about the man with whose fate I was about to unite my own for ever.
SARA. What do you wish, Madam? Do I not know my Mellefont already? Believe me I know him, as I do my own soul. I know that he loves me----
MARWOOD. And others----
SARA. Has loved others. That I know also. ”

“ The lover might even be flattered at winning the prize from so great a rival; but when he has won it--alas, my dear Emilia, the lover often becomes quite another being. Heaven preserve you from such experience!
EMILIA. You know, dear mother, how willingly I ever submit to your superior judgment. But should he learn from another that the Prince spoke to me to-day, would not my silence sooner or later increase his uneasiness?--I think it would be better not to conceal anything from him.
CLAUDIA. Weakness--a fond weakness. No, on no account, my daughter! Tell him nothing. Let him observe nothing. ”

“ ODOARDO. Child, it is no bodkin.
EMILIA. If it were, it would serve as a dagger. 'Twere the same.
ODOARDO. What! Is it come to that? Not yet, not yet. Reflect. You have but one life to lose, Emilia.
EMILIA. And but one innocence.
ODOARDO. Which is proof against all force.
EMILIA. But not against all seduction. Force! Force! What is that? Who may not defy force? What you call force is nothing. Seduction is the only real force. I have blood, my father, as youthful and as warm as that of others. I have senses too. I cannot pledge myself: I guarantee nothing. I know the house of Grimaldi. ”

“ SARA. Is he still alive? Is it true? Is he still alive? May he live a long while yet, and live happily! Oh, would that God would add the half of my years to his life! Half! How ungrateful should I be, if I were not willing to buy even a few moments for him with all the years, that may yet be mine! But tell me at least, Waitwell, that it is not hard for him to live without me; that it was easy to him to renounce a daughter who could so easily renounce her virtue, that he is angry with me for my flight, but not grieved; that he curses me, but does not mourn for me. ”

“ Speak, I conjure you; or it is not true that you are one of that good class of lunatics who claim our pity and respect; you are naught else than a common fool. You cannot have what you never possessed.
ORSINA. Mark my words, then. What do you know, who fancy that you know enough? That Appiani is wounded? Wounded only? He is dead.
ODOARDO. Dead? Dead? Woman, you abide not by your promise. You said you would rob me of my reason, but you break my heart.
ORSINA. Thus much by the way. Now, let me proceed. The bridegroom is dead, and the bride, your daughter, worse than dead. ”

“ ODOARDO. Ha! If such be thy thoughts, come to my arms, my daughter. I have ever said, that Nature, when forming woman, wished to form her master-piece. She erred in that the clay she chose was too plastic. In every other respect man is inferior to woman. Ha! If this be thy composure, I recognize my daughter again. Come to my arms. Now, mark me. Under the pretence of legal examination, the Prince--tears thee (the hellish fool's play!) tears thee from our arms, and places thee under the protection of Grimaldi.
EMILIA. Tears me from your arms? ”

“ ODOARDO. Worse? Worse than dead? Say that she too is dead--for I know but one thing worse.
ORSINA. She is not dead; no, good father, she is alive, and will now just begin to live indeed; the finest, merriest fool's paradise of a life--as long as it lasts.
ODOARDO. Say the word, Madam! The single word, which is to deprive me of my reason! Out with it! Distil not thus your poison drop by drop. That single word at once!
ORSINA. You yourself shall put the letters of it together. This morning the Prince spoke to your daughter at church; this afternoon he has her at his----his summer-palace. ”

“ And who is her murderer? Am I not he, more than Marwood? (rises) She is dead now, Sir; she does not hear us any more. Curse me now. Vent your grief in well-deserved curses. May none of them miss their mark, and may the most terrible be fulfilled twofold! Why do you remain silent? She is dead! She is certainly dead. Now, again, I am nothing but Mellefont! I am no more the lover of a tender daughter, whom you would have reason to spare in him. What is that? I do not want your compassionate looks! This is your daughter! I am her seducer. Bethink yourself, Sir! In what way can I rouse your anger? ”

“ The Prince is a murderer!
MARINELLI. Countess! Countess! Have you lost your senses?
ORSINA. Senses? Ha! ha! ha! (laughing loudly) . I have very seldom, if ever, been so satisfied with my understanding as I am at this moment. Depend upon it, Marinelli--but it is between ourselves-- (in a low voice) --the Prince is a murderer--the murderer of Count Appiani. The Count was assassinated, not by robbers, but by the Prince's myrmidons, by the Prince himself.
MARINELLI. How can so horrid a suspicion fall from your lips, or enter your imagination? ”

“ ODOARDO. Sorrows and anger? Madam--but I forget--go on.
ORSINA. Should she even be your only daughter--your only child--but it matters not. An unfortunate child is ever an only one.
ODOARDO. Unfortunate?--Madam! But why do I attend to her? And yet, by Heaven, no lunatic speaks thus.
ORSINA. Lunatic? That, then, was the secret which he told you of me. Well, well. It is perhaps not one of his greatest falsehoods. I feel that I am something like one; and believe me, sir, they who, under certain circumstances, do not lose their intellect, have none to lose. ”

“ PARMENIO. All, prince!--Except the young ones.
PHILOTAS. Excellent! Parmenio, if I were so sensitive as you----
PARMENIO. And yet he only to whom experience has given twofold sight can command my blind obedience.
PHILOTAS. Then I shall soon have to ask your pardon. Well, I ask your pardon, Parmenio! Do not grumble, old man! Be kind again, old father! You are indeed wiser than I am. But not the wisest only have the best ideas. Good ideas are gifts of fortune, and good fortune, as you well know, often gives to the youth rather than to the old man. For Fortune is blind. Blind, Parmenio! ”

“ Would it not, Marinelli?
MARINELLI. Certainly, certainly.
ORSINA (with a scornful look) . Certainly! What an oracle, who can be made to say what one pleases! Indifference in the place of love!--That means nothing in the place of something. For learn, thou mimicking court-parrot, learn from a woman, that indifference is but an empty word, a mere sound which means nothing. The mind can only be indifferent to objects of which it does not think; to things which for itself have no existence. Only indifferent for a thing that is nothing--that is as much as saying not indifferent. ”

“ MARINELLI. Mere admiration! Who does not know, Countess, that you are a philosopher?
ORSINA. Am I not? True; I am a philosopher. But have I now shown it; ah, shame! If I have shown it, and have often done so, it were no wonder if the Prince despised me. How can man love a creature which, in spite of him, will think? A woman who thinks is as silly as a man who uses paint. She ought to laugh--do nothing but laugh, that the mighty lords of the creation may be kept in good humour--What makes me laugh now, Marinelli? ”

“ I live again, and the prospect of her return seems to carry me as far back to my youth as her flight had brought me nearer to my grave. She loves me still? What more do I wish! Go back to her soon, Waitwell? I am impatient for the moment when I shall fold her again in these arms, which I had stretched out so longingly to death! How welcome would it have been to me in the moments of my grief! And how terrible will it be to me in my new happiness! An old man, no doubt, is to be blamed for drawing the bonds so tight again which still unite him to the world. ”

“ SARA. I will do so, Waitwell! What regrets, what pain shall I feel!
WAITWELL. Pain, Miss! but pleasant pain.
SARA. Be silent! (begins reading to herself) .
WAITWELL (aside) . Oh! If he could see her himself!
SARA (after reading a few moments) . Ah, Waitwell, what a father! He calls my flight "an absence." How much more culpable it becomes through this gentle word! (continues reading and interrupts herself again) . Listen! he flatters himself I shall love him still. He flatters himself! He begs me--he begs me? A father begs his daughter? his culpable daughter? ”

“ MELLEFONT. You are raving, Marwood----
MARWOOD. You remind me that my ravings are not directed against the right person. The father must go first! He must already be in yonder world, when, through a thousand woes the spirit of his daughter follows him (she advances towards him with a dagger which she draws from her bosom) . So die, traitor!
MELLEFONT (seizing her arm, and snatching the dagger from her) . Insane woman! What hinders me now from turning the steel against you? But live, and your punishment shall be left for a hand void of honour. ”

“ SALADIN. This is too much--
For one day 'tis too much! Came he not with you?
TEMPLAR. Who?
SALADIN. Who? Nathan.
TEMPLAR. No; I came alone.
SALADIN. Oh, what a deed was thine! what happiness
That such a deed should serve so good a man!
TEMPLAR. 'Twas nothing.
SALADIN. Why so cold, O valiant youth!
When God makes man His minister of good,
He need not be so cold, nor modestly
Wish to appear so cold.
TEMPLAR. But in the world
All things have many sides, and who is he
Can comprehend how they may fit each other?
SALADIN. Cling ever to what's noble, and praise God!
He knows how all things fit. ”

“ PARMENIO. Will? Must I not? Must I not? Listen, prince; when you shall one day be king, do not give commands. To command is an unsure means of being obeyed. If you have a heavy duty to impose on anyone, do with him as you have just now done with me; and if he then refuses his obedience--Impossible! He cannot refuse it to you. I too must know what a man can refuse.
PHILOTAS. What obedience? What has the kindness which you show me to do with obedience? Will you, my friend----
PARMENIO. Stop! Stop! You have won me quite already. Yes! I will do everything. ”

“ PRINCE. Me! me, myself!--or from this hour I must resign all hopes of Emilia.
MARINELLI (in a tone of perfect indifference) . Which you must also have done, had the Count lived.
PRINCE (violently) . Marinelli!-- (checking his warmth) --But you shall not rouse my anger. Be it so. It is so. You mean to imply that the Count's death is fortunate for me;--the best thing which could have happened--the only circumstance which could bring my passion to a happy issue--and, therefore, no matter how it happened. A Count more or less in the world is of little consequence. ”

“ MELLEFONT. Divine help, Sara! or inhuman revenge! You are lost, dearest Sara! I too am lost! Would the world were lost with us!
Scene VI. Sara, Norton, Betty.
SARA. He is gone! I am lost? What does he mean? Do you understand him, Norton? I am ill, very ill; but suppose the worst, that I must die, am I therefore lost? And why does he blame you, poor Betty? You wring your hands? Do not grieve; you cannot have offended him; he will bethink himself; Had he only done as I wished, and not read the note! He could have known that it must contain the last poisoned words from Marwood. ”

“ An unknown friend is not the less a friend. Give me the dagger, father, I beseech you.
ODOARDO. And if I were to give it you?--what then? There! (He presents it)
EMILIA. And there! (She seizes it with ardour, and is about to stab herself when Odoardo wrests it from her.)
ODOARDO. See how rash----No; it is not for thy hand.
EMILIA. Tis true; then with this bodkin will I! (she searches for one in her hair, and feels the rose in her head) . Art thou still there? Down, down! thou shouldst not deck the head of one, such as my father wishes me to be!
ODOARDO. Oh! my daughter! ”

“ ORSINA. Conceal it, instantly. (Odoardo hides the dagger.) The opportunity for using it is denied to me. You will not fail to find one, and you will seize the first that comes, if you are a man. I am but a woman, yet I came hither resolute. We, old man, can trust each other, for we are both injured, and by the same seducer. Oh, if you knew how preposterously, how inexpressibly, how incomprehensibly, I have been injured by him, you would almost forget his conduct towards yourself. Do you know me? I am Orsina, the deluded, forsaken Orsina--perhaps forsaken only for your daughter. ”