Richard.  I am of the same opinion as Niels the clerk.

Herman.  You certainly vote like a brushmaker.  Niels the clerk is not here.  But what is the woman doing here?  Good Heavens, it is my wife!

SCENE 2

(Enter Geske.)

Geske.  Is this where you are, you dawdler?  It would be better if you were at work on something, or at least superintending your workmen; for we lose one job after another from your neglect.

Herman.  Quiet, wife!  You will be Madam Burgomaster before you know it.  Do you think that I go out just to pass the time?  Ay, I do ten times as much work as all of you in the house:  the rest of you work with your hands only; I work with my brain.

Geske.  All crazy people work that way, building castles in the air just as you do, cudgelling their brains with bosh and nonsense, imagining that they are doing something of importance when it is really nothing at all.

Gert.  If she were my wife, she would not talk that way more than once.

Franz.  I see that Gert’s vote regards his own advantage more than the welfare of the republic; for people do not need a furrier so much on the voyages to India as on voyages to the North.  For my part, I contend that India surpasses all in importance; in India you can often trade a knife, a fork, or a pair of scissors with the savages for its full weight in gold.  We must contrive it so that the plan we put before the council will not smell of self-interest, or else we shall get nowhere with it.

Richard.  I am of the same opinion as Niels the clerk.  Herman.  You certainly vote like a brushmaker.  Niels the clerk is not here.  But what is the woman doing here?  Good Heavens, it is my wife!

SCENE 2

Enter Geske.

Geske.  Is this where you are, you dawdler?  It would be better if you were at work on something, or at least superintending your workmen; for we lose one job after another from your neglect.

Herman.  Quiet, wife!  You will be Madam Burgomaster before you know it.  Do you think that I go out just to pass the time?  Ay, I do ten times as much work as all of you in the house:  the rest of you work with your hands only; I work with my brain.

Geske.  All crazy people work that way, building castles in the air just as you do, cudgelling their brains with bosh and nonsense, imagining that they are doing something of importance when it is really nothing at all.

Gert.  If she were my wife, she would not talk that way more than once.