ERIC. I don't think that was the reason. Some one offended you—some one who is not my friend.
JACOB. No one has offended me, Prince, but I have such a strong feeling that I ought not to appear at court.
ERIC. Oh, Jacob, my friend, why do you cease to call your old schoolmate by name? And why do you look at me like a stranger? Give me your hand You won't? And I, who have been lonely and deserted ever since my mother died; who am hated by my stepmother, by my father, and by my half-brother; I am begging for the friendship which you gave me once and which you are now taking back.
JACOB. I am not taking back anything, Eric, but we are not allowed to be friends. The fact that we two, as mere boys, formed ties of friendship that were nursed by common sufferings, has been ignored or tolerated by our fathers so far. Now, when you are about to marry a foreign princess and take possession of a duchy, it has been deemed politic to separate us.
ERIC. Your words are stilted, as if you meant to hide your own thoughts, but your feelings are not to be concealed....
JACOB. Pardon me, Eric, but this is not the place for a conversation like this....
ERIC. Because this is a place for trading, you mean—as if the parties to such a transaction were degraded by it? I don't object to it, although I am rather inclined to think the seller more broad-minded than the buyer.
JACOB indicates by a gesture the presence of the two clerks.
ERIC. Oh, let them hear. Marcus and I are old friends, and we met at the Blue Dove last night.
JACOB. Ugh! Why do you visit a vulgar place like that, Prince?