taught to know
Myself,--to lose this for our son and thee!
Trust me, when, in my two-and-twentieth spring,
My father barred me from my father's house,
The last sole scion of a thousand sires
(For I was then the last), it hurt me less 160
Than to behold my boy and my boy's mother
Excluded in their innocence from what
My faults deserved-exclusion; although then
My passions were all living serpents,[161] and
Twined like the Gorgon's round me.
[_A loud knocking is heard_.

_Jos._ Hark!

_Wer._ A knocking!

_Jos._ Who can it be at this lone hour? We have
Few visitors.

_Wer._ And poverty hath none,
Save those who come to make it poorer still.
Well--I am prepared.

[WERNER _puts his hand into his bosom, as if
to search for some weapon_.

_Jos._ Oh! do not look so. I
Will to the door. It cannot be of import 170
In this lone spot of wintry desolation:--
The very desert saves man from mankind.
[_She goes to the door_.

_Enter_ IDENSTEIN.

_Iden._ A fair good evening to my fair hostess
And worthy----What's your name, my friend?

_Wer._ Are you
Not afraid to demand it?

_Iden._ Not afraid?
Egad! I am afraid. You look as if
I asked for something better than your name,
By the face you put on it.

_Wer._ Better, sir!

_Iden._ Better or worse, like matrimony: what
Shall I say more? You have been a guest this month 180
Here in the prince's palace--(to be sure,
His Highness had resigned it to the ghosts
And rats these twelve years--but 'tis still a palace)--
I say you have been our lodger, and as yet
We do not know your name.

_Wer._ My name is Werner[162].

_Iden._ A goodly name, a very worthy name,
As e'er was gilt upon a trader's board:
I have a cousin in the lazaretto
Of Hamburgh, who has got a wife who bore
The same. He is an officer of trust, 190
Surgeon's assistant (hoping to be surgeon)