me when you desert again.

SOLDIER.

Certainly. Farewell!

[_They shake hands. Exeunt soldier and guests, exit host into the
house. The curtain falls_.]

INTERLUDE

FISCHER.

Why, it's getting wilder and wilder! What was the purpose of
the last scene, I wonder?

LEUTNER.

Nothing at all, it is entirely superfluous; only to introduce
some new nonsense. The theme of the cat is now lost entirely and there
is no fixed point of view at all.

SCHLOSS.

I feel exactly as though I were intoxicated.

MUeLLER.

I say, in what period is the play supposed to be taking place?
The hussars, of course, are a recent invention.

SCHLOSS.

We simply shouldn't bear it, but stamp hard. Now we haven't
the faintest idea of what the play is coming to.

FISCHER.

And no love, either! Nothing in it for the heart, for the
imagination.

LEUTNER.

As soon as any more of that nonsense occurs, for my part at
least, I'll begin to stamp.

WIESENER (_to his neighbor_).

I like the play now.

NEIGHBOR.

Very fine, indeed, very fine; a great man, the author; he
has imitated the _Magic Flute_ well.

WIESENER.

I liked the hussars particularly well; people seldom take
the risk of bringing horses on the stage--and why not? They often have
more sense than human beings. I would rather see a good horse than
many a human being in the more modern plays.

NEIGHBOR.

The Moors in Kotzebue--a horse is after all nothing but
another kind of Moor.

WIESENER.

Do you not know to what regiment the hussars belonged

NEIGHBOR.

I did not even look at them carefully. Too bad they went
away so soon--indeed I'd rather like to see a whole play with nothing
but hussars. I like the cavalry so much.

LEUTNER (_to_ BOeTTICHER).

What do you think of all this?

BOeTTICH.

Why, I simply can't get the excellent acting of the man who
plays the cat out of my head. What a study! What art! What
observation! What costuming!

SCHLOSS.

That is true; he really does look like a large tom-cat.

BOeTTICH.

And just notice his whole mask, as I would rather call his
costume, for since he has so completely disguised his natural
appearance, this expression is far more fitting. But I say, God bless
the ancients when blessing is due. You probably do not know that the
ancients acted all parts, without exception, in masks, as you will
find in _Athenaeus, Pollux_ and others. It is hard, you see, to know
all these things so accurately, becau