Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/391

Rh size generally represents a shepherd or shepherdess, a cavalier or a lady, a dancing ape or a hound. Still there is a vacant spot on the pedestal: this is generally held by a dwarf, — as, indeed, in dull jokes, this sort of gentry usually play a conspicuous part. That we may not omit any of the elements of Prince Pallagonia's folly, we give you the accompanying catalogue. Men: beggars, male and female, Spanish men and women, Moors, Turks, hunchbacks, cripples of all sorts, strolling musicians, pulcinellos, soldiers in ancient uniforms, gods, goddesses, gentlemen in old French costumes, soldiers with cartouche boxes and gaiters, mythological personages (with most ridiculous companions, — Achilles and Charon, for instance, with Punch). Animals (merely parts of them): heads of horses on human bodies, misshapen apes, lots of dragons and serpents, all sorts of feet under figures of all kinds, double-headed monsters, and creatures with heads that do not belong to them. Vases: all sorts of monsters and scrolls, which below end in the hollows and bases of vases.

Just let any one think of such figures furnished by wholesale, produced without thought or sense, and arranged without choice or purpose, — only let him conceive to himself this socle, these pedestals and unshapely objects in an endless series, and he will be able to sympathise with the disagreeable feeling which must seize every one whose miserable fate condemns him to run the gauntlet of such absurdities.

We now approach the castle, and are received into a semicircular fore-court. The chief wall before us, through which is the entrance-door, is in the castle style. Here we find an Egyptian figure built into the wall, a fountain without water, a monument, vases stuck around in no sort of order, statues designedly laid on their noses. Next we came to the castle court, and found the usual round area, enclosed with