NATHAN.

Mighty king, if you travel from here first down the great highway, then you turn to the right and go on; but when you reach a mountain, turn to the left again, then you go to the ocean and sail directly north (if the wind is favorable, of course), and so, if the journey is successful, you reach my dominions in a year and a half.

KING.

The deuce!  I must have my court scholar explain that to me.  You are probably a neighbor of the North Pole or Zodiac, or something like that, I suppose!

NATHAN.

Not that I know of.

KING.

Perhaps somewhere near the savages?

NATHAN.

I beg your pardon, all my subjects are very tame.

KING.

But you must live confoundedly far away.  I can’t get a clear idea of it yet.

NATHAN.

The geography of my country is still not exactly fixed; I expect to discover more every day; and then it may easily come about that we shall even become neighbors in the end.

KING.

That will be splendid!  And if, after all, a few countries still stand in our way, I will help you in your discoveries.  My neighbor is not a good friend of mine, so to speak, and he has a fine country; all the raisins come from there; why, I should be only too glad to have it!  But another thing; do tell me, how, living so far away, can you speak our language so fluently!

NATHAN.

Hush!

KING.

What?

NATHAN.

Hush! hush!

KING.

I do not understand.

NATHANIEL, (softly to him).

Do be quiet about it, pray, for otherwise the audience down there will surely notice that it is really very unnatural.

KING.

It doesn’t matter.  They clapped before and so I can afford to take a chance.

NATHAN.

You see, it is only for the sake of the drama that I speak your language; for otherwise, of course, the matter is incomprehensible.

KING.

Ah, so!  Well, come, Prince, the table is set!

[The PRINCE escorts the princess out, the KING precedes.]

FISCHER.

Cursed improbabilities there are in this play!

SCHLOSS.

And the king doesn’t remain at all true to his character.

LEUTNER.

Why, nothing but the natural should ever be presented on the stage!  The prince should speak an altogether unknown language and have an interpreter with him; the princess should make grammatical errors, since she herself admits that she writes incorrectly.

MUeLLER.

Of course!  Of course!  The whole thing is unquestionable nonsense; the author himself is always forgetting what he has said the moment before.

The scene is laid in front of a tavern.

LORENZ, KUNZ, MICHEL are sitting on a bench.  The HOST