Hear me, prince!
STRATO.
He dies! Am I traitor, king, if I weep over your enemy? I cannot restrain myself. A wondrous youth!
ARIDÄUS.
Weep over him, weep! And I too! Come! I must have my son again. But do not oppose me, if I pay too high a ransom for him! In vain have we shed our streams of blood, in vain have we conquered lands. There he departs with our booty, the greater victor!--Come! Get me my son! And when I have him, I will no more be king. Do ye believe, ye men, that one does not grow weary of it? (Exeunt.)
[EMILIA GALOTTI.]
A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS.
(Translated by B. Dillon Boylan.)
'Emilia Galotti' was commenced in 1757, when Lessing was at Leipzig, but was thrown aside for some years, until in 1767, when at Hamburg, he again took it up, intending to have it represented on the Hamburg stage. But on the failure of the theatrical enterprise with which he was connected, he once more abandoned it until 1771, when he again turned his attention to it, and completed it in February of the following year. It was immediately represented on the Brunswick stage.