Pondered not thus upon these worldly things,

My Werner! when you deigned to choose for bride

The foreign daughter of a wandering exile.

Wer. An exile's daughter with an outcast son,

Were a fit marriage: but I still had hopes

To lift thee to the state we both were born for.

Your father's house was noble, though decayed;

And worthy by its birth to match with ours.

Jos. Your father did not think so, though 'twas noble;

But had my birth been all my claim to match130