Away! God grant, to victory!

[_The procession has already formed. First, some vassals, then the
shield with the child, whom the women hold by both hands, then the rest
of the men. Lastly, the _KING,_ leaning in a trustful manner on
_GARCERAN.]

ESTHER (_turning to her father_).

Seest thou, they are already glad and gay;
Already plan for future marriages!
They are the great ones, for th' atonement feast
They've slain as sacrifice a little one,
And give each other now their bloody hands.

[_Stepping to the centre._]

But this I say to thee, thou haughty King,
Go, go, in all thy grand forgetfulness!
Thou deem'st thou'rt free now from my sister's power,
Because the prick of its impression's dulled,
And thou didst from thee cast what once enticed.
But in the battle, when thy wavering ranks
Are shaken by thy en'mies' greater might,
And but a pure, and strong, and guiltless heart
Is equal to the danger and its threat;
When thou dost gaze upon deaf heav'n above,
Then will the victim, sacrificed to thee,
Appear before thy quailing, trembling soul--
Not in luxuriant fairness that enticed,
But changed, distorted, as she pleased thee not--
Then, pentinent, perchance, thou'lt beat thy breast,
And think upon the Jewess of Toledo!

(_Seizing her father by the shoulder._)

Come, father, come! A task awaits us there.

[_Pointing to the side door._]

ISAAC (_as though waking from sleep_).
But first I'll seek my gold!

ESTHER. Think'st still of that
In sight of all this misery and woe!
Then I unsay the curse which I have spoke,
Then thou art guilty, too, and I--and she!
We stand like them within the sinners' row;
Pardon we, then, that God may pardon us!

[_With arms outstretched toward the side door._]

CURTAIN

THE POOR MUSICIAN (1848) BY FRANZ GRILLPARZER

TRANSLATED BY ALFRED REMY, A.M.

Professor of Modern Languages, Brooklyn Commercial High School

In Vienna the Sunday after the full moon in the month of July of every