Franz.  The women have altogether too much to say here in Hamburg.

Gert.  Yes, that is so.  I have often thought of bringing forward a proposal on the subject.  But it is dangerous to fall out with them.  Still, the proposal has its good points.

Herman.  What is the proposal?

Gert.  It consists of several articles.  First, I argue that the marriage contract should not be eternal, but should be made for a term of years, so that if a man were not content with his wife, he could make a new contract with another one.  A man ought to be bound, as he is with a rented house, to give a quarter’s notice before moving-day, which should be at Easter or Michaelmas.  If he were satisfied, the contract could be renewed.  Believe me, if such a law were passed, there wouldn’t be a bad woman to be found in Hamburg.  Every one of them would try to gain favor in her husband’s eyes so that her contract might be renewed.  Have you good men anything to say against that article?  Franz, you smile so knowingly, you surely have something to say against it.  Let us hear it!

Franz.  But couldn’t a woman sometimes take the opportunity to separate from a husband who either was cruel to her or was an idler and only ate and drank, and refused to work to support his wife and children?  Or she might take a fancy to some one else and make it so hot for her husband that, contrary to his intention, he would let her go.  I argue that worse trouble might arise from such an arrangement.  There are methods enough for coercing a woman.  If every one would count twenty like you, Master Herman, when he got a box on the ear, we should have a fine lot of women.  My humble opinion is that the best way when a woman is unruly is for the husband to threaten to sleep alone and share no bed with her till she improves.

Gert.  I couldn’t stick to that.  To many men that would be as much of a hardship as it would be to the woman.

Franz.  But a man can go elsewhere.

Gert.  But a woman can go elsewhere.

Franz.  Anyhow, Gert, let us hear the other articles.

Gert.  I see myself!  You just want to scoff some more, Nothing is so good that no fault can be found with it.

Herman.  Let us talk of other things.  People who heard us talk would think we were holding a consistory or a divorce court.  I was thinking last night, as I lay awake, how the administration in Hamburg could be best arranged so that certain families whose members are born, as it were, to be burgomasters and councillors could be excluded from the highest positions of authority and complete freedom be introduced.  I figured that the burgomasters should be taken in turn, now from one trade-guild, now from another, so that all citizens might share in the government and all classes flourish.  For instance, when a goldsmith was burgomaster he could look after goldsmiths’ interests, and a tailor after tailors’, a tinker after tinkers’; and no one should be burgomaster for more than a month, so no one trade should prosper more than another.  When the government was arranged like that, we might be called a really free people.