Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 1.djvu/189

Rh a different spot was their highest wish. On this occasion they proposed a sail. The boat in which they were to fall down the pleasant windings of the river had already been engaged by the Pedant. Philina urged them on; the party did not linger, and was soon on board.

"What shall we take to now?" said Philina, when all had placed themselves upon the benches.

"The readiest thing," repLIed Laertes, "were for us to extemporise a play. Let each take a part that suits his character, and we shall see how we get along."

"Excellent!" said Wilhelm. "In a society where there is no dissimulation, but where each without disguise pursues the bent of his own humour, elegance and satisfaction cannot long continue; and, where dissimulation always reigns, they do not enter at all. It will not be amiss, then, that we take up dissimulation to begin with, and then, behind our masks, be as candid as we please." "Yes," said Laertes: "it is on this account that one goes on so pleasantly with women; they never show themselves in their natural form."

"That is to say," replied Madam Melina, "they are not so vain as men, who conceive themselves to be always amiable enough, just as nature has produced them."

In the meantime the river led them between pleasant groves and hills, between gardens and vineyards; and the young women, especially Madam Melina, expressed their rapture at the landscape. The latter even began to recite, in solemn style, a pretty poem of the descriptive sort, upon a similar scene of nature; but Philina interrupted her with the proposal of a law, that no one should presume to speak of any inanimate object. On the other hand, she zealously urged on their project of an extempore play. Old Boisterous