the human race, and amuses himself, with calm composure."
A tittering, giggling little voice, which seemed to be that of a small shrewd mouse, here quickly interposed.
"I too have seen a thing or two, and that not merely from a single place or view. I never spared myself in jumping high nor balked a leap for knowledge I left the pit and looked at things behind the stage itself, where I made startling discoveries. The hero whom I had just admired is no hero, for I saw how a young fellow called him a drunken rascal, and gave him kicks which he quietly received. The virtuous princess who appeared as sacrificing her life to save her virtue, is no more a princess than she is virtuous; I have seen how she took red powder from a china cup to colour her cheeks—and this passed in the play for the blush of modesty; and, after all, she threw herself yawning into the arms of a lieutenant of the guards, who told her on his word of honour she'd find in his room a stunnin' herrin' salad and a glass of punch.[1] What you thought was thunder and lightning is only the rolling of tin cylinders and the burning of a few crumbs of pulverised rosin. Even that portly, honourable citizen who seemed to be all unselfishness and
- ↑ Einen juten Heringsalat nebst einem Glase Punsch. J (i.e., Y) for G is characteristic of the Prussian dialect.
