The Prelate and the Singer
The following humorous incident is told in verse of Prelate Carl von Gerok, the recently deceased author of “Palm Leaves.” It happened one spring-day in the King’s park at Stuttgart. Along the philosopher’s path, Gerok was walking deep in thought, and carrying an umbrella very carefully in his hand. On a sidepath, never thinking of a possible shower, walked a well-known singer. Suddenly it began to sprinkle, and in a few moments the rain came pouring down. The prelate, a gallant gentleman, offered to take the lady under his umbrella. Neither one knew the other. In pleasant conversation they arrived at the singer’s house, and Gerok begged to know the lady’s name.
The clever child of the muses
Has her answer quickly ready:
“From the question I portend,
That to the opera you never went;
As the Prima Donna there
Everybody knows me here.—
Now it is my turn to ask
And I beg of you, to tell,
Under whose umbrella now
I returned, protected well.”—
“From your question I portend,
That to church you never went;
As the pious know me all,
For the Prelate I am called.”