Page:Stories Translated from the German.djvu/231

 of putting a stop to this Juvenalic torrent or Demosthenic hurricance. They were obliged to allow his natural powers and the patriotic excitement to be exhausted, and it was only, when Oswald was quite overcome, and had taken up his hat and stick to go away, with a determination never to visit this friendly circle again, that the German, as he pressed down the fatigued young man into his arm-chair, could find the opportunity of speaking:

"Now, look; man, friend, how precipitate you have been, and how you have excited yourself without necessity! Is it then possible that any book could contain such a verse? Would they have translated Hamlet into your language, and represented the tragedy upon your stage, if it had contained such a doctrine? Look at the passage again, look!—but not merely with your eyes—who says the words? The king of Denmark himself, at a public audience; and to whom does he address them? To a young cavalier, whom he wishes to gain by flattery and kindness. In the second scene of the piece, when Laërtes wishes to return to France, and is taking leave of the king, the latter says obligingly to him: You stated a