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PEER
- Now, my dear good fellow-!
[The LUNATICS come one by one, and at intervals, into the courtyard.] BEGRIFFENFELDT
- Good morning! Come forth,
- and hail the dawn of emancipation!
- Your Kaiser has come to you!
PEER
- Kaiser?
BEGRIFFENFELDT
- Of course!
PEER
- But the honour's so great, so entirely excessive-
BEGRIFFENFELDT
- Oh, do not let any false modesty sway you
- at an hour such as this.
PEER
- But at least give me time-!
- No, indeed, I'm not fit; I'm completely dumbfounded!
BEGRIFFENFELDT
- A man who has fathomed the Sphinx's meaning!
- A man who's himself!
PEER
- Ay, but that's just the rub.
- It's true that in everything I am myself;
- but here the point is, if I follow your meaning,
- to be, so to phrase it, outside oneself.