SCENE VI.
Enter Frederica.
Clar. It is not possible.
Fred. Only think, dear father--
Clar. Curse the money!
Fred. Brother Jack is---
Clar. He has too much. Yes, yes, yes! I know, he has too much, and it is impossible that he acquired it all in a fair way; but not so neither. It may have been scraped together somewhat unfairly; but not so neither, not so neither.
Fred. What ails you, pray? What do you talk about Jack and his money?
Clar. I cannot bear it, cannot bear his money.
Fred. Only think; Ranger Gernau sends me word, that yesterday the news arrived, that my brother has been made a Privy Counsellor.
Clar. Privy Counsellor?--hem!--Curse that iron merchant, that--
Fred. He is now the first man in this town.
Clar. Take money! sell privileges! (walks up and down.) It is impossible! Father and mother are honest people; he has been sent to church and school, never saw any thing amiss in us; no, nothing amiss in all his life-time. We have worked hard day after day; never indulged ourselves with breakfast or bagging,[1] that he might have every requisite, that we might spend on him as much as ever we could afford. And now, he is got up so high, and is one of those that rule the country, that now he should be worse than I would suffer a 'prentice boy to be, that I employ in my yard! Oh! if that be so, Lord take him or me, for I cannot bear it, either in this world or in the next!
[Exit.
[Footnote 1: Bagging, in the North of England, is the common expression for a meal taken between dinner and supper. And, as it perfectly expresses the meaning of the German vesperbrod, I thought myself authorized to adopt it here; particularly as tea, in the mouth of a character, like carpenter Clarenbach, would appear preposterous. The antiquaries of Yorkshire and Lancashire derive the word bagging from the old custom of carrying bread and cheese in a bag, in the afternoon, to the labourers in the fields; and this derivation is not altogether improbable.
Translator.]
Fred. I do not understand a word of all this. What does he mean?