pes of the righteous man and
his fate, and the third sounds the praise of truth and justice. The
thread of the story is slight, and the characters are pale phantoms,
instead of warm-blooded men. Yet the work must be pronounced a gem of
neo-Hebraic poetry, an earnest of the great creations its author might
have produced, if in early youth he had not been caught in the swirling
waters, and dragged down into the abysmal depths of Kabbalistic
mysticism. Despite his vagaries his poems were full of suggestiveness
and stimulation to many of his race, who were inspired to work along the
lines laid down by him. He may be considered to have inaugurated another
epoch of classical Hebrew literature, interpenetrated with the modern
spirit, which the Jewish dramas of his day are vigorously successful in
clothing in a Hebrew garb.

In the popular literature in Jewish-German growing up almost unnoticed
beside classical Hebrew literature, we find popular plays, comedies,
chiefly farces for the _Purim_ carnival. The first of them, "The Sale of
Joseph" (_Mekirath Yoseph_, 1710), treats the biblical narrative in the
form and spirit of the German farcical clown dialogues, Pickelhering
(Merry-Andrew), borrowed from the latter, being Potiphar's servant and
counsellor. No dramatic or poetic value of any kind attaches to the
play. It is as trivial as any of its models, the German clown comedies,
and possesses interest only as an index to the taste of the public,
which surely received it with delight. Strangely enough the principal
scene between Joseph and Selicha, Potiphar's wife, is highly discreet.
In a monologue, she gives passionate utterance to her love. Then Joseph
appears, and she addresses him thus:

"Be welcome, Joseph, dearest one,
My slave who all my heart has won!
I beg of thee grant my request!
So oft have I to thee confessed,
My love for thee is passing great.
In vain for answering love I wait.
Have not so tyrannous a mind,
Be not so churlish, so unkind--
I bear thee such affection, see,
Why wilt thou not give love to me?"

Joseph answers:

"I owe my lady what she asks,
Yet this is not among my tasks.
I pray, my mistress, change thy mind;
Thou canst so many like me find.
How could I dare transgress my state,
And my great trust so violate?
My lord hath charged me with his house,
Excepting only his dear spouse;
Yet she, it seems, needs watching t