Produced by Charles Bowen, from scans obtained from the Web Archive




[Transcriber's note:
Google:
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA11&dq=editions:OXFORDN10716921&id=6G
MHAAAAQAAJ#v=onepage&q=&f=false]






THE

LAWYERS,

A

DRAMA,

_IN FIVE ACTS,_

TRANSLATED

FROM THE GERMAN

OF

_AUGUSTUS WILLIAM IFFLAND._


* * * * * * * * *
BY C. LUDGER.
* * * * * * * * *


LONDON:
PRINTED BV J. W. MYERS,
FOR W. WEST, NO. 27, PATERNOSTER-ROW,

1799.
[_Price Two Shillings and Sixpence._]




ADVERTISEMENT.


The Author of the following Drama is universally allowed to be the
Garrick of the German Stage, and the Dramatic Rival of KOTZEBUE in the
Closet.--The great Object of MR. IFFLAND, in all his Dramatic
Productions, is to render the Theatre what it was in the palmy Days of
Terence--a School of Morality, by exhibiting Virtue in all her native
Charms, and Vice in all her Deformity; or, in the Language of Pope,

"To wake the Soul by gentle Strokes of Art,
To raise the Genius, and to mend the Heart;
In conscious Innocence to make Men bold,
Live o'er each Scene, and be what you behold!"




DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Deputy CLARENBACH.
CLARENBACH, Master Carpenter.
FREDERICA, his Daughter.
REISSMAN, Aulic Counsellor.
SOPHIA, his Daughter.
SELLING, Counsellor.
GERNAU, Ranger.
WELLENBERG, Lawyer.
GROBMAN, Iron Merchant.
LEWIS, Deputy Clarenbach's Servant.
A Servant of the Aulic Counsellor.




THE

LAWYERS,

A

DRAMA.

* * * * *



ACT I.


SCENE I.

A plain Tradesman's Room, with old fashioned Furniture.

_Master_ CLARENBACH. (Busied with a design.)

_Clar._ So!--there is my design, and I think it is a pretty good one.
It will make a substantial building.--When I am gone, people will say,
when they look at the pile, "Master Clarenbach was a man that knew what
he was about."


SCENE II.

Enter Lewis.

_Lew._ Deputy Clarenbach presents his compliments to Master Clarenbach,
and sends him something.

_Clar._ What?

_Lew._ Deputy Clarenbach presents his compliments, and sends something.

_Clar._ (takes off his spectacles.) So my son sends me his compliments?
So! well,--return him a good morrow from me. What is it he
sends?--money! (opens the paper;) for what? he has written nothing in
it, a mere blank.

_Lew._ I do not know; I am to have a receipt for it.

_Clar._ Take the money back.

_Lew._ What the deuce!

_Clar._ (rises.) No deuce here! and--take off your hat when you stand
in my presence, Monsieur Lewis.

_Lew._ (takes off his hat reluctantly.) I am--

_Clar._ The Deputy's footman, and I am the Deputy's father.

_Lew._ Aye, aye; Master Clarenbach, the--

_Clar._ The carpenter, citizen and master, trustee of the hospital, _ad
Sanctum Mauritium_ in this town, master in my own house and in my own
room; here is the money. I am busy, good bye. (Sits down to his
design.)

_Lew._ Very odd. [Exit.

_Clar._ Odd? hem! aye, aye. Odd you are, both the master and the
servant.


SCENE III.

Enter Fredericka, (with a glass of wine, and a crust
of bread on a plate.)

_Fred._ Father, the weather is very rough this morning.

_Clar._ Do you think so, my dear?

_Fred._ I cannot let you go out of the house so; you must take a glass
of wine.

_Clar._ You are right, I think; (takes it.) Moreover, I shall be out a
good while to day; (drinks;) perhaps I may not come home to dinner;
(drinks;) bring my dinner then to the timber-yard.

_Fred._ With all my heart.

_Clar._ (looking at her.) I do not think you will do it with
reluctance.

_Fred._ By no means. I will do it with pleasure. But my brother does
not altogether relish it; and, in those little matters, I think we
might please him.

_Clar._ (rises displeased.) I say, no! God bless him in the high
station he fills! But that cannot be, if ever he should forget what he
has been. And as his memory, in that respect, is daily impaired, it is
necessary therefore to put him the oftener in mind of it.

_Fred._ Yet I think--

_Clar._ He is a Deputy,--let him thank God for it! I am a carpenter,
thank heaven! You are my good dutiful daughter, that takes care of me,
nurses me, and gives me great satisfaction; and for that, I return
heaven threefold thanks from the bottom of my heart. (Fred. embraces
him.) Yes, you are very good! I only find fault with two things; in
every other respect you are a nice girl, quite the girl after my own
heart. First, you read too much, and then--

_Fred._ Dear father, do not I tell you a number of entertaining and
instructive things out of the books I read? Has my reading formed me
otherwise than you would have me?

_Clar._ Not as yet, if the evil do not come limping at the end! Good
God!--Books indeed impart information; that I must own. But since those
deep learned works have carried thy brother so high, and, at the same
time, so far from us; I think, when I behold the large heap of books in
his study, I think I see a finger-post that directs from the heart.

_Fred._ Your pursuits and his are different, father.

_Clar._ In our respective lines, I grant it. If his heart were not a
stranger to us from other motives, he would, when his work is done,
come and say,--Father! you build houses, and I build laws, that the
people may live secure in those houses. I have been successful to day
in my work, if God should prosper it; and how have you succeeded? Then
I would talk to him of my good old timber, and complain of the young
green wood; he might then tell me, how pleased he is with the old
colleagues that share his toils, or complain of the young green
ones.--Thus we might exchange toil and pleasure, complaint and
consolation; spend a comfortable hour together, and derive mutual
advantage from each other. But he does not choose to do that; and, if
his conscience now and then happen to twitch him a little, he sends me
money. Money! what is money to me? when have I ever wished for more
than to live? (With vivacity.) His money is the only thing I dislike
about him.

_Fred._ Why so, father?

_Clar._ Because he has not that great quantity of it--hem!
there--there, may be enough of it for this time. The second thing: I do
not like in you is to see you converse with that Counsellor Selling.
What is the meaning of it?

_Fred._ My brother entertains a high esteem for him.

_Clar._ Not I.

_Fred._ He is pleased to see him visit here.

_Clar._ Not I. And then have you not Gernau, the Ranger, whom you like,
and I too?

_Fred._ Well, are you content if I manage so, that I may keep upon good
terms with both?

_Clar._ I have no objection. But mind, all fair! none of your book
stories! (Looks at his watch,) Half past eleven; you will bring my
dinner to the yard.

_Fred._ Undoubtedly. [Exit.


SCENE IV.

Enter REISSMAN.

_Reiss._ Aye, good morrow, Miss! Good morrow, Mr. Clarenbach! Well, how
are you?

_Clar._ At work, Sir!

_Reiss._ So you have, _ex officio_, been appointed guardian of the poor
orphans of Brunnig?

_Clar._ Yes, Sir, these four days.

_Reiss._ Aye, aye; it will prove a troublesome piece of business. Poor
children! I pity them.

_Clar._ So do I.--And, to tell you the truth, the valuable bequest of
the old aunt ought to go to the children, and not to you; to whom,
contrary to all right and equity, she has bequeathed her all.

_Reiss._ Aye! Good heaven!--but then it is so in her will.

_Clar._ True enough. But the law should not permit it.

_Reiss._ A last will!--O Lord! that is a sacred thing. I pity the
children, but--

_Clar._ I intend to try the validity of it.

_Reiss._ Aye, aye? I have been told so.

_Clar._ You ought to decline the bequest, Mr. Reissman.

_Reiss._ But, what heaven has sent me--

_Clar._ The property of orphans!

_Reiss._ You would not have me rob my child of the divine blessings
which, without the least solicitation on my part, have devolved upon me
from a strange person?

_Clar._ Your daughter, is not poor. The children of Brunnig are all
beggars.

_Reiss._ Aye, good man, we will manage that, we will manage it!

_Clar._ How so?

_Reiss._ O heaven! Yes, we will send the children to the hospital to
receive a christian education, and to be instructed, and I will--

_Clar._ To what hospital?

_Reiss._ To ours, of which I am the director, and you a trustee.

_Clar._ That will not do.

_Reiss._ If it be our will---

_Clar._ It must not be our will.

_Reiss._ Who is to oppose us?

_Clar._ The rules of the foundation itself; right and equity. The
hospital, _ad Sanctum Mauritium_, is destined for the old and the sick;
we must not displace them. No, I will carry on the suit against you as
an unlawful heir.--

_Reiss._ Aye, thou good Lord in heaven! the will is so plain--

_Clar._ If I am cast, I will take Brunnig's children into my house, and
then I will immediately engage in more business, employ more hands, and
work hard to accomplish my design, with the aid of heaven.

_Reiss._ But your son, the deputy, approves of the children being sent
to the hospital.

_Clar._ I do not approve of it.

_Reiss._ Your son is a sensible learned man, who most certainly knows--

_Clar._ And I have spent a good deal on him too.

_Reiss._ And a just man too he is.

_Clar._ That is his duty.

_Reiss._ And as these children may be taken care of in another manner,
why would you, at your time of life, burthen yourself with more
trouble?