Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 9.djvu/178

"Now look! But just now where standing we are,
Was scattered a sweet beverage,
And at the same instant, though distant and far,
It spotted the vest of the page.—
Go, get newly clad,
My heart is made glad;
My argument thus for upholding
I'll pay, and so save you a scolding."

THE BRIDE OF CORINTH.

[First published in Schiller's Horen, in connection with a friendly contest in the art of ballad-writing between the two great poets, to which many of their finest works are owing.]

I.

A youth to Corinth, whilst the city slumbered,
Came from Athens: though a stranger there,
Soon among its townsmen to be numbered,
For a bride awaits him, young and fair.
From their childhood's years
They were plighted feres,
So contracted by their parents' care.

II.

But may not his welcome there he hindered?
Dearly must he buy it, would he speed.
He is still a heathen with his kindred,
She and hers washed in the Christian creed.
When new faiths are born.
Love and troth are torn
Rudely from the heart, howe'er it bleed.

III.

All the house is hushed;—to rest retreated

Father, daughters—not the mother quite;