There where we too once floated, she and I.
But work, not song, provides our daily bread,
And when a man’s alive, his music’s dead.
A young man’s life’s a lawsuit, and the most
Superfluous litigation in existence:
Withdraw, make terms, abandon all resistance:
Plead where and how you will, your suit is lost.
Falk [bold and confident, with a glance at the summer-house].
Nay, tho’ I took it to the highest place,—
Judgment, I know, would be reversed by grace!