I began to feel quite sad too—the nightingale—the lovers—the last tirade—why the play has some really beautiful passages after all!
Hall in the palace
Large company. The KING. The PRINCESS. Prince NATHANIEL. The COOK (in gala costume)
KING (sitting on throne).
Over here, cook; now is the time to speak and answer; I want to examine the matter myself.
COOK (falls on his knees).
May it please your majesty to express your commands for your highness's most faithful servant?
KING.
One cannot expend too much effort, my friends, in keeping a king—on whose shoulders lies the well-being of a whole country and that of innumerable subjects—always in good humor. For if he falls into a bad humor, he very easily becomes a tyrant, a monster; for good humor encourages cheerfulness, and cheerfulness, according to the observations of all philosophers, makes man good; whereas melancholy, on the other hand, is to be considered a vice for the very reason that it encourages all the vices. Whose duty is it, I now ask, in whose power does it so lie, to preserve the good spirits of the monarch, so much as in the hands of a cook? Are not rabbits very innocent animals? My favorite dish—by means of these animals I could succeed in never becoming tired of making my country happy—and these rabbits he lets me do without! Sucking pigs and sucking pigs daily. Rascal, I am disgusted with this at last!