With ease be turned to lover.
And life without bad friends would be
All sweet and lovely harmony.

[_The curtain falls, all shout and applaud, the ballet is heard
awhile._]

INTERLUDE

WIESENER.

Splendid! Splendid!

NEIGHBOR.

Well, I'd certainly call that a heroic ballet.

WIESENER.

And so beautifully woven into the main plot!

LEUTNER.

Beautiful music!

FISCHER.

Divine!

SCHLOSS.

The ballet is the only redeeming feature of the play.

BOeTTICH.

I still keep on admiring the acting of the cat. In such
details one recognizes the great and experienced actor; for example,
as often as he took the rabbit out of the sack, he always lifted it by
the ears; that was not prescribed for him; I wonder whether you
noticed how the king grasped it at once by the body? But these animals
are held by the ears because that is where they can best bear it.
That's what I call a master!

MUeLLER.

That is a very fine explanation.

FISCHER (_aside_).

He himself ought to be lifted by the ears for it.

BOeTTICH.

And his terror when the eagle was sitting on his head! How he
did not even move for fear, did not stir or budge--it is beyond
description!

MUeLLER.

You go very deeply into the matter.

BOeTTICH.

I flatter myself I am a bit of a connoisseur; that is of
course not the case with all of you, and for that reason the matter
must be demonstrated to you.

FISCHER.

You are taking great pains!

BOeTTICH.

Oh, when you love art as I do it is a pleasant task! Just now
a very acute thought also occurred to me concerning the cat's boots,
and in them I admire the genius of the actor. You see, at first be is
a cat; for that reason he must lay aside his natural clothing in order
to assume the appropriate disguise of a cat. Then he has to appear
fully as a hunter; that is what I conclude, for every one calls him
that, nor does a soul marvel at him; an unskilful actor would have
dressed himself exactly so too, but what would have happened to our
illusion? We might perhaps have forgotten that he was still originally
a cat and how uncomfortable a new costume would be for the actor over
the fur he already had. By means of the boots, however, he merely
skilfully suggests the hunter's costume; and that such suggestions are
extremely dramatic, the ancients prove to us very excellently, in
often--

FISCHER.

Hush! The third act is beginning.

ACT III

_Room in a peasant's house_