Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 5.djvu/130

116 in any degree approved, as, for instance, the following on a riding-master, who had been hurt on a wild horse.

" A rider in this house you'll find. A master too is he: The two into a nosegay bind, 'Twill riding-master be. If master of the ride, I wis, Full well he bears the name: But if the ride the master is. On him and his be shame."

About such things serious discussions were held as to whether they were worthy of the clown or not, whether they flowed from the genuine pure fool's spring, and whether sense and understanding had at all mingled in an unfitting and inadmissible manner. Altogether our singular views were diffused with the greater ardour, and more persons were in a position to sympathise with them, as Lessing, in whom great confidence was placed, had, properly speaking, given the first signal in his "Dramaturgie."

In a society so attuned and excited I managed to take many a pleasant excursion into Upper Alsace, whence, however, on this very account, I brought back no particular instruction. The number of little verses which flowed from us on that occasion, and which might serve to adorn a lively description of a journey, are lost. In the crossway of Molsheim Abbey we admired the painted windows: in the fertile spot between Colmar and Schlettstadt resounded some comic