The Lawyers, A Drama in Five Acts.

by Augustus William Iffland.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

A plain Tradesman's Room, with old fashioned Furniture.

_Master_ CLARENBACH. (Busied with a design.)

_Clar._ So!--there is my design, and I think it is a pretty good one.

It will make a substantial building.--When I am gone, people will say, when they look at the pile, "Master Clarenbach was a man that knew what he was about."

SCENE II.

Enter Lewis.

_Lew._ Deputy Clarenbach presents his compliments to Master Clarenbach, and sends him something.

_Clar._ What?

_Lew._ Deputy Clarenbach presents his compliments, and sends something.

_Clar._ (takes off his spectacles.) So my son sends me his compliments?

So! well,--return him a good morrow from me. What is it he sends?--money! (opens the paper;) for what? he has written nothing in it, a mere blank.

_Lew._ I do not know; I am to have a receipt for it.

_Clar._ Take the money back.

_Lew._ What the deuce!

_Clar._ (rises.) No deuce here! and--take off your hat when you stand in my presence, Monsieur Lewis.

_Lew._ (takes off his hat reluctantly.) I am--

_Clar._ The Deputy's footman, and I am the Deputy's father.

_Lew._ Aye, aye; Master Clarenbach, the--

_Clar._ The carpenter, citizen and master, trustee of the hospital, _ad Sanctum Mauritium_ in this town, master in my own house and in my own room; here is the money. I am busy, good bye. (Sits down to his design.)

_Lew._ Very odd. [Exit.

_Clar._ Odd? hem! aye, aye. Odd you are, both the master and the servant.

SCENE III.

Enter Fredericka, (with a gla.s.s of wine, and a crust of bread on a plate.)

_Fred._ Father, the weather is very rough this morning.

_Clar._ Do you think so, my dear?

_Fred._ I cannot let you go out of the house so; you must take a gla.s.s of wine.

_Clar._ You are right, I think; (takes it.) Moreover, I shall be out a good while to day; (drinks;) perhaps I may not come home to dinner; (drinks;) bring my dinner then to the timber-yard.

_Fred._ With all my heart.

_Clar._ (looking at her.) I do not think you will do it with reluctance.

_Fred._ By no means. I will do it with pleasure. But my brother does not altogether relish it; and, in those little matters, I think we might please him.

_Clar._ (rises displeased.) I say, no! G.o.d bless him in the high station he fills! But that cannot be, if ever he should forget what he has been. And as his memory, in that respect, is daily impaired, it is necessary therefore to put him the oftener in mind of it.

_Fred._ Yet I think--

_Clar._ He is a Deputy,--let him thank G.o.d for it! I am a carpenter, thank heaven! You are my good dutiful daughter, that takes care of me, nurses me, and gives me great satisfaction; and for that, I return heaven threefold thanks from the bottom of my heart. (Fred. embraces him.) Yes, you are very good! I only find fault with two things; in every other respect you are a nice girl, quite the girl after my own heart. First, you read too much, and then--

_Fred._ Dear father, do not I tell you a number of entertaining and instructive things out of the books I read? Has my reading formed me otherwise than you would have me?

_Clar._ Not as yet, if the evil do not come limping at the end! Good G.o.d!--Books indeed impart information; that I must own. But since those deep learned works have carried thy brother so high, and, at the same time, so far from us; I think, when I behold the large heap of books in his study, I think I see a finger-post that directs from the heart.

_Fred._ Your pursuits and his are different, father.

_Clar._ In our respective lines, I grant it. If his heart were not a stranger to us from other motives, he would, when his work is done, come and say,--Father! you build houses, and I build laws, that the people may live secure in those houses. I have been successful to day in my work, if G.o.d should prosper it; and how have you succeeded? Then I would talk to him of my good old timber, and complain of the young green wood; he might then tell me, how pleased he is with the old colleagues that share his toils, or complain of the young green ones.--Thus we might exchange toil and pleasure, complaint and consolation; spend a comfortable hour together, and derive mutual advantage from each other. But he does not choose to do that; and, if his conscience now and then happen to twitch him a little, he sends me money. Money! what is money to me? when have I ever wished for more than to live? (With vivacity.) His money is the only thing I dislike about him.

_Fred._ Why so, father?

_Clar._ Because he has not that great quant.i.ty of it--hem!

there--there, may be enough of it for this time. The second thing: I do not like in you is to see you converse with that Counsellor Selling.

What is the meaning of it?

_Fred._ My brother entertains a high esteem for him.

_Clar._ Not I.

_Fred._ He is pleased to see him visit here.

_Clar._ Not I. And then have you not Gernau, the Ranger, whom you like, and I too?

_Fred._ Well, are you content if I manage so, that I may keep upon good terms with both?

_Clar._ I have no objection. But mind, all fair! none of your book stories! (Looks at his watch,) Half past eleven; you will bring my dinner to the yard.