DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62134#0193
ROYALTY AND FOOLS.
185
a terrible old man who is always winking his eyes and
wrinkling his brow, who has a mane of powdered hair, a
monstrous shirt-frill, and a false nose ! Here is a band of
courtiers with the heads of gigantic cocks and hens ! look
how they open their long beaks, and snap right and left as
they move along.
Wilder and wilder, madder and madder grows the scene;
louder and louder wax the laughter, the squeaking, the
crowing, the flapping, the whispering, the piping; louder
and louder, madder and madder !
But a hush falls suddenly upon the multitude, gentlemen
in golden fools’ caps make a pathway through the crowd ;
and towards a seat prepared for them at the right of the plat-
form proceed the two Kings, the two Queens, and their
Court. They wear no fools’ caps : the Kings carry their
black hats in their hands ; the Young Queen has exquisite
diamonds in her hair and on her bosom; the old Queen
wears a very quiet head-dress ; the Court ladies, wreaths
of ivy and natural flowers. How quiet and simple they
all look !
The Court take their seats; the musicians sing a joyous
welcome ; there is a Vivat for Bavaria ; for King Ludwig,
the Artists’ King; for German Art! The musical director,
a singularly handsome man, in a singularly handsome dress
of black velvet, all covered with scarlet rosettes, gives a
signal to the orchestra, and suddenly down drops the
drapery beyond the platform, and forth leap, spring,
tumble, screaming, yelling, and whirling their arms and
their clubs, a mad troop of fools, scarlet, yellow, white, in
their quaint, whimsical, mediaeval dresses, with long
earsand pointed sleeves, and ribbons, and scallopped jerkins
flying in the wind ! They fling bon-bons among the crowd,
they fling humorous mottoes, they jingle their bells, they
rattle their wooden clappers ! They leap, tumble, spring
185
a terrible old man who is always winking his eyes and
wrinkling his brow, who has a mane of powdered hair, a
monstrous shirt-frill, and a false nose ! Here is a band of
courtiers with the heads of gigantic cocks and hens ! look
how they open their long beaks, and snap right and left as
they move along.
Wilder and wilder, madder and madder grows the scene;
louder and louder wax the laughter, the squeaking, the
crowing, the flapping, the whispering, the piping; louder
and louder, madder and madder !
But a hush falls suddenly upon the multitude, gentlemen
in golden fools’ caps make a pathway through the crowd ;
and towards a seat prepared for them at the right of the plat-
form proceed the two Kings, the two Queens, and their
Court. They wear no fools’ caps : the Kings carry their
black hats in their hands ; the Young Queen has exquisite
diamonds in her hair and on her bosom; the old Queen
wears a very quiet head-dress ; the Court ladies, wreaths
of ivy and natural flowers. How quiet and simple they
all look !
The Court take their seats; the musicians sing a joyous
welcome ; there is a Vivat for Bavaria ; for King Ludwig,
the Artists’ King; for German Art! The musical director,
a singularly handsome man, in a singularly handsome dress
of black velvet, all covered with scarlet rosettes, gives a
signal to the orchestra, and suddenly down drops the
drapery beyond the platform, and forth leap, spring,
tumble, screaming, yelling, and whirling their arms and
their clubs, a mad troop of fools, scarlet, yellow, white, in
their quaint, whimsical, mediaeval dresses, with long
earsand pointed sleeves, and ribbons, and scallopped jerkins
flying in the wind ! They fling bon-bons among the crowd,
they fling humorous mottoes, they jingle their bells, they
rattle their wooden clappers ! They leap, tumble, spring