Page:Stories Translated from the German.djvu/228

 The German said, "You extricate yourself exceedingly well out of this affair; but we have not yet done. This Briton, so much adored by you, has concentrated in a single verse all the wickedness he wished to utter against your whole nation. In this verse he exposes the little confidence he has in you, and he mercilessly breaks his staff over your heads. This single verse stands like a dreadful motto, and admits of no moderation, of no sophistical subterfuge, as would otherwise be possible in so grand and sublime a composition, as this tragedy of Hamlet represents."

"And this verse, this dreadful verse?"

"It is:

"How!" exclaimed the young Dane.

The other friends sat silent and smiling, as they knew the tragedy by heart; but Oswald spake in excited tones, his voice trembling with emotion:

"No! it is impossible that any being endowed with human understanding, much less a poet, a great poet, could have uttered such nonsense!