carriage, I must have intentionally formed the whole puzzling story in
the dream in this way.
But with what intention? We shall now learn what the absurdity in the
dream signifies, and the motives which admitted it or created it. The
solution of the mystery in the case in question is as follows: In the
dream I needed something absurd and incomprehensible in connection with
“riding” (Fahren) because in the dream thoughts I had a certain judgment
which required representation. On an evening at the house of the
hospitable and clever lady who appears in another scene of the same
dream as the “hostess,” I heard two riddles which I could not solve. As
they were known to the other members of the party, I presented a
somewhat ludicrous figure in my unsuccessful attempts to find a
solution. They were two equivoques turning on the words “Nachkommen” (to
come after—offspring) and “vorfahren” (to ride in advance—forefathers,
ancestry). They read as follows:
The coachman does it
At the master’s behest;
Everyone has it,
In the grave does it rest.
(Ancestry.)
It was confusing to find half of the second riddle identical with the
first.
The coachman does it
At the master’s behest;
Not everyone has it,
In the cradle does it rest.
(Offspring.)
As I had seen Count Thun ride in advance (vorfahren), so high and
mighty, and had merged into the Figaro-mood which finds the merit of
aristocratic gentlemen in the fact that they have taken the trouble to
be born (Nachkommen—to become offspring), the two riddles became
intermediary thoughts for the dream-work. As aristocrats can be readily
confounded with coachmen, and as coachmen were in our country formerly
called brothers-in-law, the work of condensation could employ my brother
in the same representation. But the dream thought at work in the
background was as follows: _It is nonsense to be proud of one’s
ancestry. (Vorfahren.) I would rather be myself an ancestor. (Vorfahr.)_
For the sake of this judgment, “it is nonsense,” we have the nonsense in
the dream. We can now also solve the last riddle in this obscure passage
of the dream, namely, that I have already driven before (vorher
gefahren, vorgefahren) with the coachman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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