Page:Stories Translated from the German.djvu/229

 What? it is impossible to speak reasonably with a Dane, or merely to speak of reason to him! A miserable writer of pasquinades, in his national hatred against an enemy, during an unhappy war, would not have expressed himself in such terms; and in Shakspeare's time we were at peace with England. No satirist, whose violent excesses are excused, could ever write such a miserable sentence as this. I boldly proclaim, that this witless nonsense, this calumny, is nowhere to be found in Hamlet!"

"Look here!" exclaimed the philosopher, and he pointed out to him the passage in the book.

Oswald turned glowing-red with rage, and cried out, "Am I not reasonable? Have I not been appointed by my government, which considers me a reasonable man, to travel into foreign countries? Would the government select stupid, unreasonable men to send them out on their missions? How shamefully are all the great men of our country—all our rulers, from Absalom down to our last minister, calumniated! But, I believe, that Schlegel must have translated this passage wrong. I am certain that it is not contained in the original."

The German immediately opened a book, saying,