Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces;: or, the Wedded Life, Death, and Marriage of Firmian Stanislaus Siebenkaes, Parish Advocate in the Burgh of Kuhschnappel.Jean Paul
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Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces;: or, the Wedded Life, Death, and Marriage of Firmian Stanislaus Siebenkaes, Parish Advocate in the Burgh of Kuhschnappel.
Jean Paul
German fiction -- Translations into English
to wit? In Sumatra the skulls of the enemy are their Louis d'ors and
head-pieces, and even _this_ species of currency--the hostile head of
the tradesman who has furnished goods--is often taken by the nobler
creditor, just by way of satisfying him "in full of all demands."
Neither in the Clausular Jurisprudence nor in the most recent Prussian
code is it enacted that a creditor is to stipulate in his bill which
species of currency he elects to be paid in by his noble debtor, the
metallic currency or the castigatory.
On this Thursday morning Siebenkæs had a tough and ticklish argument,
or piece of special pleading, to go through on the subject of the
half-heart or (half-pig) of the cardinal protector, which his co-king,
the hairdresser, pressed the acceptance of upon him, by way of making
more sure of duly sharing all the prizes which appertained to the
king's shot himself. But his having gained the twenty-five florin prize
did not add to the warmth of his arguments, and at last he agreed to
the arrangement that the animal should be eaten, pure and clean, like a
passover lamb, next Sunday in Siebenkæs's room by the lodgers
generally, and by the two rifle kings with their queens in company with
Schulrath Stiefel. The flower goddess of the days of man took at this
juncture a fingertipful or two of seeds of quickly blooming and quickly
fading flowers (such as like the hellebore come into blossom in our
December) and sowed them beside the path which Firmian's steps most
often trod. Ah, happy man, how soon will these forced blossoms fall
from your days. Will not your philosophic Diana-and-bread-fruit tree
(which takes the place, in your case, of an oak of lamentation) fare
like the cut plants which people put in lime-water in their chambers on
St. Andrew's Day, and which, after a hurried outburst of yellowish
leaves and feeble dingy flowers, fade and perish for good and all?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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