THE FIVE 
 : RANKFORTERS 
 
 > ROMANCE OF THE 
 OUSEOF ROTHSCHILD 
 
 ACTING VERSION 
 
 CARL ROSSLE1C
 
 presented to the 
 
 LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIFGO 
 
 by 
 FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY 
 
 JQHN--C. ROSE 
 
 donor
 
 SALOMON 
 "Yes, Mother dear lam"
 
 
 TH 1_ 1^ 
 
 1 ne Jr ive 
 Frankforters 
 
 in IStyvtt 
 
 bV 
 Carl Roessler 
 
 J. Fuchs 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR 
 "CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT- 
 
 York 
 THE H. K. FLY COMPANY 
 
 Publishers
 
 Copyright, 1913, 
 
 By 
 THE H. K. FLY COMPANY 

 
 CHARACTERS 
 
 OLD DAME GUDULA, Arch-Mother of the House / Rothschild 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 > Her sons 
 
 CARL 
 
 JACOB 
 
 CHARLOTTE, daughter of Salomon 
 
 GUSTAVE, Duke of Taunus 
 
 COUNT-PALATINE CHRISTOPHER MAURICE, his uncle 
 
 PRINCESS EVELINE, daughter of the Count-Palatine 
 
 PRINCE KLAUSTHAL-AGORDO 
 
 THE PRINCESS 
 
 COUNT FEHRENBERG, Major-Domo at the Court of Duke Gus- 
 
 tave 
 
 MADAM DE ST. GEORGES 
 BARON SEULBERG 
 THE CANON 
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR YSSEL 
 THE DUKE'S CHAMBER- VALET 
 COURT-JEWELER BOEL 
 
 y I77TF f Domestics in Frau Gudula's house
 
 Concerning the Jews of 
 Frankfort 
 
 By J. FUCHS 
 
 HERR ROESSLER'S idyll of the Rothschilds, now first made 
 accessible to an English-reading public, has a tragical back- 
 ground, like every true comedy as distinguished from mere farce. 
 The somber setting of its humors is the ancient Ghetto of Frank- 
 fort and the history of those who lived and suffered in it for many 
 generations. Of this the mise-en-scene of "THE FIVE FRANK- 
 FORTERS" affords a palpable hint: the window of Frau Gudula's 
 parlor in the family mansion of the Rothschilds discloses a view of 
 Jews' Lane with its cramped and squalid misery. For a proper 
 appreciation, on the part of the uninitiated reader, of the motives 
 and soul-states of those who emerged from Jews' Lane into the 
 roomier confinement of hostile surroundings without, a brief sur- 
 vey of the Frankfort Ghetto and the life therein is indispensably 
 necessary. 
 
 I. 
 
 Among the fifty-six free towns of the Holy Roman Empire that 
 emerged from the Westphalian Peace with their sovereign liberties 
 intact, the city of Frankfort-on-the-Main was easily the first in 
 civic greatness, abundant wealth and historical importance. Like 
 nearly all considerable urban centers of the Rhinelands like the 
 
 See Notes, page 34.
 
 10 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 
 
 Jews it harbored ft loved to trace its origin to Roman coloniza- 
 tion. And like its lesser neighbors it oppressed, plundered, perse- 
 cuted and insulted its Jews throughout the Middle Ages with an 
 unrelenting zeal, which among the Frankforters was still alive when 
 it had calmed down or died away in most other communities along 
 the Rhine and its estuaries. The term "Middle Ages," in Jewish 
 reckoning, has a topographical significance as well as a chronologi- 
 cal one ; nor does it in point of time, cover the same extent of years 
 as in ordinary acceptance. To exemplify: topographically, the 
 Middle Ages for our own contemporaries among the Jews extend 
 eastward from the Vistula and to the south from the straits of 
 Gibraltar. Chronologically speaking, they ended for the commun- 
 ity of Frankfort in 1864, when all civic restrictions were removed 
 from them, after a contest that lasted for fifty years preceding 
 their final emancipation. 
 
 In the Middle Ages as reckoned by common tale of years, the 
 Jews of the lower and middle Rhine held their rights, properties 
 and lives at such uncertain tenure that their refugees from Chris- 
 tian persecution have peopled the Slavic East of the Continent, 
 where their offspring reside unto this very day. Nor is their seed 
 unknown in America, where every roster of notabilities in the vari- 
 ous trades and professions of the country abounds with names of 
 Rhenish Jews. 
 
 Of those who stuck fast to the soil, braving death, despoilment 
 and civic humiliation, the Jews of Frankfort were the most ten- 
 acious. There was a reason. Within the shelter of Frankfort's 
 town walls they had a better chance, despite all handicaps, to thrive 
 in the only pursuits allowed to them than anywhere else on German 
 ground. The city of Frankfort-on-the-Main has been known all 
 the world over as a Continental trading center of the first import- 
 ance from the middle of the fifteenth century to this present day. 
 The network of its trade relations extended to London, Amster- 
 dam and Venice enormous distances in a steamless age a gener- 
 ation ere Columbus set sail for the New World. Early allusions 
 to its commercial greatness will be found in the works of Aeneas 
 Sylvius and of Luther as well as in Elizabethan screeds and in the
 
 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FR4NKFOZT. 11 
 
 writers of the late Italian renascence. With the fame of its trad- 
 ing the name of its Jews was coupled from the beginning, as the 
 most cursory examination of sixteenth century literature will re- 
 veal. "Frankfort," declares a modern German economist, 1<( has 
 always been the classical Jews' Town of Germany." That this 
 must have been for centuries the unanimous opinion of other cities 
 of the Roman Empire is susceptible of documentary proof. In 
 their treatment of the Jews they looked to Frankfort for guid- 
 ance and advice. The governments of Hesse, Marburg, Branden- 
 burg and Holstein, the archbishop of Mayence, the abbey of Fulda, 
 and the cathedral chapter of Bamberg, the municipalities of Burg- 
 ham (1509), Epstein (1612), Freidberg (1703), Gelnhausen 
 (1519), Mergentheim (1785), Weikersheim (1743), Hamburg 
 (1595, 1744), Cleve (1668), Hannover (1683), and Mannheim 
 (1789), as well as many other cities and estates of the realm are 
 on record as having elicited legal opinions from the town council 
 of Frankfort concerning urban civil law, customary or written, in 
 regulation of matters Jewish. 2 Some of these appeals to Frankfort 
 custom or statute emanated from the Jewish communities of other 
 towns, which proves that the "classical Jews Town" was consid- 
 ered such both by the Jews of Germany and their Teutonic rulers 
 from the Age of Reformation to a time almost within memory of 
 the living. That a race excluded during seven centuries of semi- 
 outlawry from nearly all pursuits save commercial ones should 
 have gravitated from the beginning toward an early center of 
 German commerce is sufficiently intelligible. 3 That they adhered 
 to it through the centuries in spite of crushing taxation and re- 
 turned to it twice after a wholesale expulsion, would be little short 
 of marvellous but for their peculiar situation all through the Dark 
 Ages, in Frankfort and elsewhere within the Empire. 
 
 II. 
 
 To understand them and their ways, it should be remembered 
 first, that social life in feudal Europe until the outbreak of the 
 French revolution (and for some time thereafter) knew no liberty
 
 12 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FR4NKFORT. 
 
 only liberties. All rights were based upon privileges, by which 
 all social activities were parcelled out and fenced in. Every estate 
 of the Holy Roman Empire, every profession, trade or handicraft 
 had its own set of qualifications and disqualifications, its own courts 
 of first or second instance, subject to territorial overlordship, can- 
 onical interference or imperial prerogative. Each set of group 
 rights intersected others at nearly every turn. Often enough they 
 abrogated each other from the first ex vi termini or subsequently by 
 force of unforeseen and unprovided-for contingencies. As a nat- 
 ural consequence, interminable struggles and conflicts of jurisdic- 
 tion ensued. Within the larger towns of the Empire there was 
 no end to the wrangles over disputed professional boundary-lines 
 between the guilds and crafts. In Frankfort and elsewhere, shoe- 
 makers would not suffer cobblers to make shoes as well as mend 
 them; cordwainers invoked the law against bootmakers to keep 
 them from making the better sorts of footwear; there was a bit- 
 terly disputed frontier between shot-makers and shoe-sellers; 
 menders for the second-hand trade were not suffered to pretend to 
 the name of cobblers; in all German trading centers of any con- 
 siderable size there was a crop of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce cases 
 arising out of traders' contentions regarding the specialties they 
 were allowed to handle within the letter of their parchments. 
 There was a good deal of friction between the guilds of Frank- 
 fort-on-the-Main. There was a severe and long-continued strug- 
 gle going on between the guilds considered as a plebeian unit at 
 the bottom and the wealthy merchant patricians with their learned 
 retainers on top of Frankfort society. Against the alien of their 
 hatred all these contending forces made a common front, as far as 
 their internal dissensions would suffer them. In fact, whatever 
 slender security the Jews enjoyed, they owed partly to these in- 
 ternal dissensions within the body politic of Frankfort and partly 
 to the resistance of the town against the perpetual pretensions of 
 the German Emperors. In the midst of never-ceasing attempts at 
 exaction, they sometimes appealed to the Emperor against the town, 
 and at other times to the town council against the Emperor. Both 
 sides looked upon them as a first-rate source of ready money in case
 
 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 13 
 
 of need. Both council and Emperor had therefore a certain in- 
 terest in protecting them against the virulent hatred of the town 
 guilds. There was no place for the Jews between the narrow, 
 protected fastnesses of a guild life that rejected them. They were 
 forbidden to own landed estate. 4 No reputable handicraft would 
 apprentice them or tolerate their competition. The profession 
 of arms was closed to them, likewise the learned callings. To make 
 a living, nearly all Frankfort Jews engaged in bread-winning pur- 
 suits had to turn to commerce. The successful minority competed 
 with the merchant patricians on top. The wretchedly poor ma- 
 jority, bent upon petty pawn-broking and huckstering of second- 
 hand goods, collided with the guilds at the bottom. 
 
 As they increased in numbers, they pressed continually against 
 the barriers of guild law. They could not all live by lending 
 money on pledges, most of them having little or none to lend. 
 Those that dealt in second-hand goods, were jealously watched by 
 the handicrafts. Whenever they ventured to extend the range of 
 their activities, they w r ere driven in by the trades upon whose do- 
 main they trespassed. The shoes they bought they must not mend. 
 They were forbidden to refit old clothes to suit their trade. When 
 they bought hides or pelts to cut or color them, they were pounced 
 upon by the furriers' guild, denounced and fined. 5 They were con- 
 tinually harassed by the jewelers who looked with an evil eye upon 
 their trade in precious stones. A certain small remnant of applied 
 manual skill was perforce vouchsafed to the Ghetto, on account 
 of religious prohibitions. There had to be a few Jewish tailors, 
 to supply the faithful with garments free from the forbidden mix- 
 ture of flax and woolen (shatness). There had to be Jewish butch- 
 ers 'to insure the ritually correct slaughtering of the meats per- 
 mitted to sons of the Covenant. Phylacteries and prayer-shawls 
 had to be of Jewish workmanship. These butchers and tailors, 
 these leather-workers and embroiderers were a constant eyesore to 
 the town guilds. The butchers, according to an old complaint,* 
 were "hideously" (graesslich) forestalling the market. The tail- 
 ors were accused of making staple-goods for the ready-to-wear 
 trade a severe offense against an economic system that frowned
 
 14 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 
 
 upon wholesale manufactories of any kind whatsoever. The stern 
 determination of the guilds to keep the Jews within prescribed 
 bounds was an inevitable manifestation of the feudal spirit among 
 the journeymen and master-mechanics of Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
 If Christian bootmakers would riot and slay rather than permit 
 Christian cobblers to make boots to measure, was it likely that 
 either group would allow Jewish inroads, in an age when "Chris- 
 tian" and "human," in colloquial parlance, were interchangeable 
 terms ? 7 
 
 In the town traffic between Jews and Christians there were no 
 points of contact creative of good-will. Every point of contact was 
 at the same time a point of friction. Jews and Christians did 
 neither work nor pray together, nor sit together at meat or drink. 
 They met neither at public rejoicings, 8 nor at secret haunts of 
 vice. 9 Socially, they were kept apart by prejudice and tradition, 
 by civil ordinance and religious law. When they met in the way 
 of business, it was mostly at occasions of distress : pawnbrokers met 
 their clients, money-lenders their debtors, buyers of second-hand 
 goods met ruined tradesmen parting with their household goods. 
 No good-will could be born of such encounters. And thus the 
 tide of popular hatred kept on rising, until it bore down at times 
 all legal barriers, as in the Frankfort massacre of 1349, in the town 
 riot of 1616, and in a final mob insurrection against the Jews in 
 August, 1819, three years before the time of action of Herr Roess- 
 ler's play. 
 
 III. 
 
 The civic status of the Jews of Frankfort was primarily defined 
 by a law of the realm. During the Middle Ages the Jews of Ger- 
 many were literally the fiscal property (Kammer-Knechte) of the 
 German Emperor. "ludaei ... ad cameram nostrum pertineant," 
 thus Frederick Barbarossa laid down the law in the twelfth cen- 
 tury of our common era. To the communities wherein they re- 
 sided, they stood in the relation of tolerated aliens, subject to the 
 special police regulations (Juden-Ordnungen, Judcn-Staettig
 
 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 15 
 
 Keiten) of the municipalities that sheltered them. As serfs of the 
 Emperor, their lives and chattels were under his especial protec- 
 tion. For this guardianship they paid him tutelary fees in regular 
 tolls and irregular assessments. If the Emperor's protection of 
 life and limb was uncertain, the payment part of the compact was 
 not. In fact, levies upon the Jews were looked upon by the finan- 
 ciers of the imperial crown of Germany in a light similar to that 
 in which hearth-money was considered by the goldsmiths of Lon- 
 don under the Stuarts. They were at all times reckoned the most de- 
 pendable regalia of the Holy Roman Empire, whose overlords more 
 than once pawned their Jews to the free towns in times of financial 
 embarrassment. In every transaction of that kind the Emperors 
 were reluctant to let go their hold upon their "chamber-serfs." They 
 never relaxed their grip upon them entirely, always reserving the 
 right of redemption, of appelate jurisdiction over their serfs, and 
 of certain customary gifts and hereditary taxes exempted by speci- 
 fication from a general transfer of taxation rights from the Em- 
 peror to the town. As will be seen further on, in the case of 
 Frankfort, they were not content with the privileges secured them 
 by express reservation, but attempted more than once to levy upon 
 the Jews under pledge to the town, against the terms of the bar- 
 gain struck between the high contracting parties and witnessed by 
 imperial letters patent. Being at all times eager to re-assert their 
 rights of overlordship, they welcomed Jewish appeals from munici- 
 pal decrees to imperial placets as ready pretexts for meddling. And 
 thus another paradox arose in a racial history rich in paradoxical 
 situations : the same avarice that heaped grievous burdens upon the 
 Jews rendered their persons comparatively safe as long as they 
 were content to stay within the liberties of Frankfort. 
 
 They were first pledged to the town by Emperor Charles the 
 Fourth of the House of Luxemburg in 1349 for a subsidy of 
 15,200 pound hellers, with the privilege of redemption, subject to 
 a previous mortgage of 900 pound hellers per annum taken over 
 by the city and due to Gerlach, Archbishop of Mayence, who ceded 
 his claim to Frankfort upon payment in fee simple of 7,500 florins 
 in 1358. By way of prudent after-thought, the Emperor made
 
 16 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 
 
 claim in 1360 to a half share in the revenues drawn from Jews 
 whose settlement in town postdated the original pledge. This half 
 share he pledged in turn to Frankfort in 1372 for the sum of 6.000 
 florins, pending redemption. Neither the first nor the second 
 pledge were ever redeemed, yet his successors during three cen- 
 turies considered that they had an equity in the Jews of Frankfort 
 over and above the "coronation gift" and the annual "sacrificial 
 mite" of one florin per head, which were expressly reserved as 
 crown regalia and invariably exacted during the entire existence 
 of the Holy Roman Empire. Though Emperor Sigismund in 
 1425 confirmed the town by letters patent in its domain over its 
 Jews, Maximilian, in 1510, attempted a big levy, threatening the 
 protesting authorities of Frankfort with a loss of municipal privi- 
 leges in case of resistance. His fiscal lost in a law-suit brought 
 by the municipality in defense of its exclusive rights to levy upon 
 the Jews, which did not deter Ferdinand II., during the Thirty 
 Years War, to essay like exactions on several occasions. Finally, 
 in 1685, Emperor Leopold demanded from the Jewish community 
 of Frankfort 100,000 florins in defrayment of expenses incurred 
 during his war against the Turks. The magistrate compromised 
 upon a subsidy of 20,000 florins, paid upon His Majesty's solemn 
 waiver, in his own name and that of his successors, of the redemp- 
 tion clauses of 1349 and 1372. Thenceforward the Jewry of 
 Frankfort was subject to municipal taxation only, saving the two 
 items mentioned hereinbefore. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Meantime, the Jews had to render unto Caesar what was Cae- 
 sar's (and a good deal that wasn't in the shape of casual bribes) 
 in addition to crushing municipal taxes and occasional extortions. 
 Indeed, there was a grimly ludicrous element in the attitude of 
 Frankfort toward its Jews. In reversal of conventionally accepted 
 notions, the city throughout its history as an independent estate of 
 the realm assumed the role of a Christian Shylock inexorably bear- 
 ing down upon a Jewish Antonio. How it made thrift with the
 
 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 17 
 
 Emperors' collateral, will be gathered from the following brief 
 account : 
 
 Though forbidden by law to style themselves citizens of Frank- 
 fort, the Jews paid both ordinary taxes as due from townsmen and 
 extraordinary ones as Jews. The latter came under the following 
 heads : 
 
 1. Two thousand florins of annual Protection-Money. 
 
 2. Two hundred and fifty florins per annum by way of rent for 
 
 a town lot used as a Jewish cemetery. 
 
 3. Four hundred yearly florins for the maintenance of privies 
 
 giving upon the town moat. 
 
 4. An assessment of 130 florins per year as a contribution to- 
 
 ward the cost of street-cleaning. 
 
 5. An annual fee of 5.30 fl. for the periodical renewal of the 
 
 cemetery lease. 
 
 6. Water pipe-Money, to the amount of 10^2 florins in gold, 
 
 payable on their wedding-day by every newly married 
 Jewish couple. 
 
 8. Annual renewal of Rights of Domicile: 542.27 florins. 
 
 9. Fair-Money, paid by the Jewish traders around fair time 
 
 for police protection. Amount varying, but estimated by 
 the lessees to be worth a rent shilling of 250 florins p. a. 
 during the years of 1792-1799. 
 
 10. Night-Groats, payable by Jewish sojourners for the privi- 
 
 lege of temporary abode within the town liberties during 
 fair times. 
 
 11. Assessment for the Inspection of Clothing offered for Sale 
 
 (Tuchschau-Geld), 80 florins per annum. 
 
 12. For the municipal Inspection of Slaughtered Geese: 20 
 
 florins per annum. 
 
 13. Tallow Dues: 94.24 florins p. a. 
 
 14. For Permission to Grind Passover Meal: 3 florins p. a. 
 
 15. Other Milling Permits: estimated at 250 florins p. a. 
 
 16. Sunday Passport Dues, for permission to leave Jews' Lane 
 
 on Sunday. Turned, in 1797, into a yearly tax of 150
 
 18 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 
 
 florins, payable by the Jewish community to the town 
 fiscal. 
 
 17. Jewish Passport Dues for travelers. Annual yield uncer- 
 
 tain. 
 
 18. Fair Presents "according to ancient usage." Estimated by 
 
 the Jews themselves in 1808 at 506.42 florins per annum. 
 
 19. The customary New Year's Presents to the Town Authori- 
 
 ties, comprising an extraordinarily large number of petty 
 gratuities, amounting altogether to about 1,000 florins. 
 
 20. Paving Tolls, estimated at 880 florins per annum. 
 
 21. Soup Money (sic) for the Town Guard: 3 florins p. a. 
 
 from every head of the Jewish community. 
 
 22. Town Scale Money, for the weighing of Hebrew books. 
 
 23. Building Inspectors' Tax. 
 
 24. Jews' Toll on Ox Hides. 
 
 25. Jews' Toll on Wine. 
 
 26. Jews' Toll in Release of Guard Duties. 
 
 All this in excess of common town taxes and leaving casual 
 extortions out of reckoning. Yet when in 1814, after 500 years 
 of spoliation, the Jews of Frankfort pleaded the cause of their 
 civic emancipation before the Congress of Vienna, the city magis- 
 trate had the calmness to remind the assembled notabilities of the 
 50,200 pound hellers paid for the Jews in 1349, of the 6,000 florins 
 additional paid in 1372, and of Emperor Leopold's quit-claim of 
 1685 for a consideration of 20,000 florins: 
 
 The pound of flesh 
 
 Is dearly bought, 'tis mine, and I will have it. 
 And to the proffered mediation of neighboring powers the city 
 made answer by a publication of the old parchments in 1817: 
 
 My deeds upon my head / crave the Law, 
 
 The penaltie and forfeit of my bond. 
 
 V. 
 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main was the first German city to adopt and 
 the last to abandon the policy of segregating the Jews in an out-
 
 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 19 
 
 lying quarter of the town, after the earlier manner of the Spanish 
 and Italian communities. Until 1462 they dwelled wherever they 
 chose, very often under the same roof with Christians, and not in- 
 frequently in the stateliest mansions in town. Judaei in Optimo 
 loci situ habitare solebant, according to the testimony of an old 
 chronicler of Frankfort. Also, they chaffered peacefully with their 
 Christian fellow-traders under the shadow of St. Bartholomew's 
 Church until 1462, when the town authorities were reminded by 
 Emperor Frederick III. that their presence within the asylum of 
 the Bishop's cathedral was an insult to the faith. The Emperor's 
 remonstrance was prompted by the clergy and after some wavering 
 was heeded by the town council. A row of rude dwellings was 
 hastily erected upon a place without the old city walls appropri- 
 ately called Woolshearers' Moat, and the Jewry bidden to with- 
 draw thither and thenceforward to abide there. For having re- 
 moved the alien unbelievers from a spot where they could daily see 
 the ceremonies of the Christian Church ("unde quasi continue 
 videre potuerunt cerimonias") their Worships were praised by 
 Pope Pius II. 9 the same, whose sbirri drove the Jews of Rome by 
 force of arms every Saturday afternoon into a Christian Church, 
 there to be preached to by a monk for the salvation of their souls. 
 
 The Jews henceforth confined within a ghetto did not own its 
 soil they were lessees of the town council which had built habi- 
 tations in Jews' Lane at the expense of their future residents. "It 
 is thus that the council owns the ground on which Jews' Lane 
 stands. The gates of the ghetto, which were very strong and lined 
 with iron, were kept closed every Sunday and saint's day, as also 
 upon the days when the Emperor entered the city. The Jews were 
 enjoined not to show themselves in public, nor to pass by any 
 church. If business brought them to the Tow r n Hall, they were 
 not allowed to enter by the main door but by a small door from 
 behind. The men were compelled to wear a yellow patch about 
 the size of a crown piece upon their garments, and the women 
 blue stripes to their veils. They were also enjoined to make room 
 for other citizens on the pavement, and not to touch any of the 
 articles in the market. They were not allowed to buy fish before
 
 20 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 
 
 a certain hour of the day, nor to hire Christians as servants. The 
 council consented to dispense with their wearing the distinguishing 
 cap on payment of a fine of 250 florins, but they were compelled 
 to have either a black or a grey hat. They were forbidden to lend 
 money to minors or to women, or to sell new clothes. . . . These 
 minute regulations, together with many more of a similar nature, 
 were read out every year in the Synagogue. Age did not whither 
 nor custom stale their wonderful variety. The Jews' Statutes of 
 1616 were still in force when Kleber's canons battered in the ghetto 
 doors of Frankfort in 1796. Also, they were among the earliest 
 infamies resurrected by a triumphant reaction after Napoleon's 
 overthrow in 1814. Among other details, they barred the public 
 sidewalks to the Jews, compelling them to walk in the middle of 
 the road. They allowed them four physicians and no more, to 
 minister to their sick in the seventeenth century and stuck to 
 that limitation anno 1830, the Jewish community having in the 
 meantime trebled in number. When tobacco came into general 
 acceptance, they were forbidden the use of it outdoors. If more 
 than two were seen walking abreast, the police impounded their 
 hats ! 10 These bars to free locomotion together with the rest of 
 the Jews' Statutes were put up in 1616. They were reinforced 
 and newly proclaimed against trespassers in 1756 and again in 
 1765. 11 Jewesses were forbidden, under heavy penalties, to wear 
 velvet, or holiday dress of more than one color or of material cost- 
 ing more than two dollars per yard, or silk on work-a-days. Nor 
 were men suffered, under the like heavy penalties, to wear gilt 
 or silver buttons or peruques, blond or white, in an age when false 
 hair was universally in use among the reputable part of the popu- 
 lation. An intensely gregarious race was cut to the quick by an 
 ordinance restricting the number of wedding guests. The oppor- 
 tunity to exceed this maximum was lessened by another ordinance 
 restricting to a dozen couples the permissible number of Jewish 
 marriages within a twelvemonth. To this maximum number of 
 licensed marriages the council still adhered in 1830, what time 
 the Jewish population amounted to some five thousand souls. The 
 town council of Frankfort also saved into the nineteenth century
 
 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 21 
 
 another relic of the seventeenth called the Jews' Oath or jura- 
 mentum more Judaico, an especial formula imposed upon Jewish 
 suitors or defendants in court which run in part as follows: "If 
 I make false avowal may brimstone and sulphur pour down upon 
 me as it poured down upon Sodom and Gomorrah. If I make 
 false avowal, may I sink into the earth as did Dathan and Abiram. 
 May I turn into a pillar of salt, like unto the wife of Lott. May 
 measles and leprosy strike me as they did strike Naeman and Mir- 
 iam, the sister of Moses. May gout and epilepsy befall me, may 
 my body be accursed and my soul never rest in the bosom of Abra- 
 ham our father." 13 On the strength of such evidence, posterity 
 will perhaps agree with Ludwig Boerne, greatest of sons of the 
 Frankfort Ghetto, who called its statutes "a romance of wicked 
 ill-will." 
 
 VI. 
 
 The most damning evidence of this wicked ill-will, however, 
 were not the regulations of the Lane, but Jews' Lane itself in all 
 its accusatory hideousness. Into this narrow Lane, incapable of 
 adequate extension, the increase of population pressed and crowd- 
 ed a swarming mass of humanity, 453 families in 1612, 505 in 
 1709, 6,630 heads in 1773, until late in the eighteenth century 
 the imminent dread of pestilence wrested from an inhuman magis- 
 tracy some slight concessions, such as the privilege granted to the 
 prisoners of the Lane to take their exercise on the town walls and 
 the adding of an annex to the Lane. That thrift was made of 
 every such concession, goes without saying. The Jews had to pay 
 for the privilege of taking their exercise on the city walls as well 
 as for the tearing down of a dead wall obstructing the free passage 
 of air. 
 
 Around the third quarter of the eighteenth century, Jews' Lane 
 in Frankfort had become, in the language of Boerne, "the worst 
 congested spot in Continental Europe." Around the same time 
 it had furthermore become an international scandal, like the Bas- 
 tille and the Spanish Inquisition. Travelers reported it to their
 
 22 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 
 
 countrymen in amazement. The French gazettes brought impres- 
 sive descriptions of its filth, its misery, the skin-diseases which it 
 bred and spread, the loathsome and insulting painting on the town 
 wall near its terminal, which the council twice refused to obliterate 
 or erase, with other details apt to arouse public sentiment. A 
 "celebrated British traveler" (Arthur Young ?) gave an anony- 
 mous account of the Lane which made such a stir in Europe that 
 it caused the magistrate of Frankfort to answer (anonymously) in 
 a counterblast of denial. 
 
 In such a street, under such surroundings and legal restraints, 
 in such an atmosphere of municipal obscurantism and heaped op- 
 pression, the Rothschilds of Herr Roessler's play were born and 
 reared. In their early youth, anno 1796, the Lane was shot to 
 pieces by General Kleber, when the French Revolution, a friend of 
 mankind in a stern disguise, thundered at the doors of the old im- 
 perial city. One hundred and forty houses on Jews' Lane were 
 destroyed by the bombardment, but the Lane was rebuilt and the 
 Jews reimprisoned, after some years of an interim during which 
 Jews and Christians freely commingled under common shelter. 
 There was a temporary spell of emancipation during the Napole- 
 onic regime. The very instant the burgher municipality of Frank- 
 fort emerged from under the yoke of Napoleon, it pounced upon 
 the liberated Jews, subjecting them again to the Staetligkeit of 
 Emperor Matthias. 
 
 In the midst of this gloom of 1815 and after, the Rothschilds 
 walked as privileged persons. They were the only people in Jews' 
 Lane owning the ground their family mansion stood on. In cast 
 of character, they were genuine Frankforters as well as Jews. It 
 is a strange but indisputable fact, that Gentile and Jew in Frank- 
 fort, in spite of artificial sunderings, have modified each other to 
 such a degree as to exchange some traits of character and speech. 
 The common speech of the Gentile population of Frankfort is de- 
 rided by the rest of Germany as a sort of Jewish jargon. It has 
 a specifically Jewish rhythm and intonation, and is plentifully in- 
 terspersed with Hebrew locutions. If the Frankforters are Juda- 
 izing in their love of commerce and their wonted manner of speech,
 
 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 23 
 
 the Jews of Frankfort, in the course of centuries, assumed some 
 local traits of character which they share with their Christian com- 
 patriots. Foremost among them ranks a certain purposefulness 
 a steely consistency of will which loves to hide itself in social in- 
 tercourse under a superficies of easy-going joviality. Among the 
 ar'riveurs of America in every walk of life the type is sufficiently 
 frequent to be familiar to the public. Seest thou a German-Ameri- 
 can diligent in his business? The odds are heavy he comes from 
 Frankfort. 
 
 Of such were the Rothschilds of Herr Roessler's play, viri 
 tenaces propositi, holding on like grim death, not only to their 
 business traditions, but to their religion as well, our playwright's 
 light-hearted little fiction of a proposed match between a daughter 
 of the Rothschilds and a Christian ruler notwithstanding. 14 I 
 have endeavored here, as far as a scanty measure of space allowed, 
 to sketch the setting in which they had to fight their battles. By 
 way of postscript, I desire to correct an error of rather wide cur- 
 rency, which Herr Roessler seems to share: the Rothschilds were 
 by no means the first Jewish house ennobled by a German Em- 
 peror. In 1822 the nobilitation of wealthy Jews was already a 
 commonplace of German high life. The first German Jew ever 
 ennobled was a contemporary and financial confederate of Wal- 
 lenstein during the Thirty Years' War one Bassevi, surnamed 
 von Treuenberg, which is to say "Mount-o' Faith."
 
 24 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 1. Prof. Werner Sombart, in "Die Juden und das Wirtschafts- 
 leben." 
 
 2. Cp. "Zcitschrift fuer die Geschichte der Juden in Deutsch- 
 land," I. 191 et seg. 
 
 3. As to the early commercial greatness of Frankfort-on-the- 
 Main, vide "Beitraege zur Wirtschafts und Sozialgeschichte der 
 Reichsstadt Frankfurt" Lips. 1906. Luther, in 1521, calls the 
 commerce of Frankfort "a main-current of gold fed by many 
 rivers." 
 
 4. Regarding the divorcement of the Jews from the soil and 
 their compulsory preoccupation with barren shifts of finance, cp. 
 the profoundly pathetic plaint of R. Salman Zevi, as quoted by 
 Johann Jacob Schudt, in "Juedische Merkwuerdigkeiten," Frankf. 
 &Lips, 1715, vol. I. L. VI. 184: 
 
 "Nos miselli paulo plus sumimus quam Christian! solent, ip- 
 samque saepe sortem cum usura amittimus, maximis oneribus et 
 vectigalibus pressi et ab exercenda omni negotiatione abstinere jussi. 
 ... In toto mundo nihil melius est usura quam Tellus reddere 
 solet. Rusticus medimnum frumenti agro mandat, et triginta ex 
 eo metit, victumque habet certum, suasque vaccas, vitulos, butyrum, 
 farinam, lac, carnem, gallinas, anseres, et quidquid facto usus est: 
 Nos vero pauperculi agriculturam non habemus, nee spes ulla earn 
 consequendi affulget : Sed expectandum nobis est, num ab alio quid 
 emere queamus, . . . ejus quidem loco foenus agitare permissum 
 nobis est. At nil nisi odium apud Christianos parit nobis haec 
 licentia, ac immanes gravesque inimicitias, ut omnino optarim,
 
 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 25 
 
 licitum nobis esse agrum colere, omnemque negotiationem exercere: 
 promti enim et lubentes a foenore abstineremus, quod in summa 
 nos saepe conjicit pericula, solumque vertere ejubet: imo ipsa sors 
 et usura saepissime pereunt, argentoque nostro multoties emungi- 
 mur, quae discrimina cuncta rustico non metuenda sunt, cuius res 
 ac fortunae tutiori in loco positae manent: nee enim arva aut jugera 
 ejus auferri possunt. Existimo autem prorsus, hac ipsa licentia 
 foenus exercendi insidias nobis structas esse, tamquam muribus 
 lardoj ut capti in mnculas facilius compelleremur . . . et foenus 
 quidem ipsum nihil aliud est, quam execratio et maledictio in Lege, 
 quod multam nobis conciliat invidiam, rixas, perpetuasque lites." 
 
 5. Cp. Beltraege, etc., p. 74 et seg. ; also Schudt, 1. c. "Von der 
 Frankfurter Juden Handthierung und Gewerb." 
 
 6. Of 1509. Beitraege, p. 74. 
 
 7. "Two men," in colloquial old Italian, were "due Christiani." 
 "Honest" (ehrlich) and "Christian" (christlich) were inter- 
 changeable terms in old German usage. Cp. in Goethe's Goetz 
 von Berlichingen the soldier's admonition to the innkeeper, to give 
 honest (christliche) measure. For a curious English vulgarism 
 along the same lines, cp. that passage in Oliver Twist, where a 
 dog of well-nigh human intelligence is spoken of as "almost a 
 Christian." When "human beings" in general are referred to in 
 Russian peasant speech, they are spoken of (to this day) as "ortho- 
 dox believers." 
 
 8. In Frankfort, the ancient coronation city of the German 
 Emperors, the Jews, during the coronation festivities, were not 
 allowed to leave the Lane. As for their exclusion from taverns 
 and stews, cp. Schudt, 1. c. I. L. VI. Ch. XVIII. 
 
 9. In a bull dated Oct. 7th, 1460, reproduced in Lersner's 
 Chronik, etc., I. 812. 
 
 10. Dr. I. Kracauer, Geschichte der Judengasse, etc., p. 417.
 
 26 CONCERNING THE JEWS OF FRANKFORT. 
 
 11. Ibid, p. 417 et seq. 
 
 12. Ibid, p. 425 et seq. 
 
 13. Juden-Staettigkeit of 1705, p. 9. 
 
 14. Cp. The Rothschilds, by John Reeves, London, 1887.
 
 The Five Frankiorters 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Sitting room of FRAU GUDULA'S old family mansion in Frank- 
 fort-on-the-Main. Heavy, massive furniture suggestive of the 
 baroque. Every individual item bears witness to the loving dis- 
 crimination that acquired and the care that preserved it. On 
 the walls good paintings of the Seekatz times also a French 
 Landscape of the Claude Lorraine school. At the deep Dutch 
 window through which the dingy old houses of Jew's Lane are 
 visible, a sewing table, and in front of it an easy chair, FRAU 
 GUDULA'S favorite seat. In the corner a spinet. 
 
 ROSE., the old housekeeper, and LIZZIE, a housemaid in her teens. 
 
 ROSE 
 
 (at the linen press, counting} 
 
 Seventeen, eighteen there, take the table-napkins and place one 
 with every cover. 
 
 LIZZIE 
 
 How many are coming? 
 
 ROSE 
 
 Don't ask, little silly. One never knows in this house. There will 
 be another family gathering and a few guests. 
 
 LIZZIE 
 What guests? 
 
 27
 
 28 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 ROSE 
 
 How should I know? Maybe the Leather- Wolf of Swamp Alley, 
 maybe an archbishop, or possibly His Highness the Landgrave 
 of Hesse. 
 
 LIZZIE 
 The Landgrave to us in Jew's Lane? 
 
 ROSE 
 
 I should like to have a florin for every visit he has paid us. He 
 and his father. He often called when old Meyer Amschel was 
 alive. At this table they were sitting until midnight, playing 
 chess and drinking Hock. And matzeh and macaroons they 
 ate. The Landgrave's coach was always kept waiting around 
 the corner, because our Jew's Lane is too narrow for driving. 
 
 LIZZIE 
 That such a wealthy lady should bide in such a smelly old lane ! 
 
 ROSE 
 
 You don't understand. The Herr Consul, the oldest of our five 
 boys, bought her a house in the Fahrgass, with a garden bigger 
 and finer than his own. But our old Frau Gudula wouldn't 
 put up there. 
 
 LIZZIE 
 Just fancy! And the house stands empty now? 
 
 ROSE 
 
 That's where you don't know our Meyer Amschel. He sold it to 
 the city of Frankfort and a handsome penny he made on the 
 deal. 
 
 (A knock at the door.) 
 
 (Enter COURT- JEWELER BOEL, a stout man in his latter fifties. 
 He carries a plate-box and a jewel-case.)
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 29 
 
 BOEL 
 
 Good morning, Miss Rose. I am bringing back the things myself. 
 Too risky for me to trust a young man with such valuables. 
 Where is your mistress? 
 
 ROSE 
 In the synagogue. 
 
 BOEL 
 
 On a work-a-day ? 
 
 ROSE 
 
 It's the anniversary of her father selig. 
 
 BOEL 
 
 Sure, old Schnapper in his little coin-shop never dreamt that his 
 daughter would once eat off a golden service. (He places a 
 case on the table.} There, now! Never handled in my life 
 another service like this one. 
 
 ROSE 
 
 I should think not! 1 It's a present of the King of Denmark as 
 a token, because the old Herr Meyer Amschel once helped him 
 out with a couple of millions, else the King simply would have 
 had to shut up his Kingdom. 
 
 (A ring is heard.) 
 
 ROSE 
 Go, Lizzie, and see who it is. 
 
 (Exit LIZZIE.) 
 
 BOEL 
 
 There is that new emerald-set I had to fit a new lock to it. 
 
 ROSE 
 Madam has already been inquiring.
 
 30 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 BOEL 
 
 Did she? I didn't know there was any hurry. What's up now? 
 
 ROSE 
 
 Must be something grand couriers are coming twice every hour. 
 Herr Nathan from London is already in town. The other sons 
 are due to-day, or else to-morrow. 
 
 BOEL 
 Where do all these gentlemen keep themselves? 
 
 ROSE 
 
 Herr Nathan in London, Herr Carl in Naples, Salomon in Vienna, 
 and little Jacob lives in Paris now and is called Jacques our 
 boys are everywhere. And what boys they are! The least of 
 'em is a court banker. One is a consul, the other a consul- 
 general 
 
 ( JACOB, the youngest of the Rothschilds, enters through the middle 
 and overhears ROSE'S last words. He is a tall, good-looking 
 lad, somewhat weary despite his twenty-eight years. In his 
 manners he has had the best inward and outward training of 
 London and Paris. He is dressed with inconspicuous care, and, 
 like his brothers, strives to efface whatever little there appears 
 of Jewish traits in his outward aspect.) 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Rose, will you ever leave off bragging? 
 
 ROSE 
 Our Master Jacob! 
 
 JACOB 
 
 (patting her) 
 Well, old Rose, still good at gabbing. How's your health? 
 
 ROSE 
 Fair enough, Master Jacob, only the eyes are giving way.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 31 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Where is mother? 
 
 ROSE 
 
 Due home any minute. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Good day, Mr. Boel. 
 
 BOEL 
 Your servant, Herr Jacob. 
 
 JACOB 
 How is business? 
 
 BOEL 
 
 Patrons like you are lacking. 
 
 JACOB 
 Aye, to be sure, you were the first I ever ran in debt with. 
 
 BOEL 
 
 A matter of a little diamond bracelet a present, you told me, for 
 your little sister 
 
 JACOB 
 But a little French actress got it with a little poem. 
 
 BOEL 
 
 You have grown since a proper young gentleman. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I am still presenting bracelets to the French actresses, only the 
 poems I have outgrown. 
 
 ROSE 
 
 (listening) 
 There's the old lady a-conring. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 (seatinfl himself in a corner) 
 Don't tell I am here, Rose.
 
 32 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 (pRAU GuDULA enters. A seventy-year old matron of stately car- 
 nage. Traces of beauty in the withered' face. In her eyes now 
 and then a flicker of youth. Her hands are delicate and slen- 
 der. She is attired in dark silk, is sparingly and inconspicuously 
 bejeweled and wears a lace cap, under which a few white ring- 
 lets are protruding. In her hand she carries a prayer-book and 
 reticule. ) 
 
 (ROSE leaves, after relieving her mistress.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 (to BOEL., without noticing JACOB) 
 Good day, Herr Boel. 
 
 BOEL 
 
 Mrs. Court-Banker, I brought your valuables everything has been 
 cleaned and examined. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 How much is your bill ? 
 
 BOEL 
 Seven florins, if you please. 
 
 GUDULA 
 Go to my son in the Fahrgass he will see you paid. 
 
 (A nod of dismissal.) 
 
 BOEL 
 Your servant, Mrs. Court-Banker. 
 
 ( GUDULA locks up the jewelry in the chest.) 
 
 JACOB 
 
 (who smilingly watched her) 
 Well, Mother, it seems you won't notice me !
 
 THE FIFE FRANKFORTERS 33 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 My little Jacob! Good God, how you startled me. 1 Why, lad, 
 what art doing here? 
 
 JACOB 
 Just sitting and waiting for my mother. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 (pats him on the hand, then kisses him upon both cheeks 
 and on his forehead; smiling) 
 
 Those bairns of mine! If you think one in Paris, he is snuggling 
 at home in a corner, another is supposed to be in Naples, all 
 of a sudden, a courier arrives from Aschaffenburg with the 
 message of his coming. Little Jacob, my child! (Kissing 
 him.) How long have you been in Frankfort? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Five minutes. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 And you went straight to your mother ? That's right and proper. 
 Where do you put up ? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 At Amschel's in the Fahrgass. I haven't been there as yet. Just 
 sent my valet with the baggage. 
 
 GUDULA 
 You must be famished. 
 
 (Pulls the bell-rope. Enter ROSE.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Rose ! Bring coffee for the young Master, and butter, and those 
 saffron loaves he fancies. 
 
 (RosE off.)
 
 34 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 There now, sit beside me in the light, where I can see how you 
 look. You have grown again. A little pale you are looking. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Just weariness of travel. 
 
 GUDULA 
 (pressing him into a big armchair) 
 
 There, now you are comfortably seated. Do you want another 
 cushion? ( JACOB smilingly suffers her attentions.) Do you 
 live a proper life in Paris? I often have my fears. In truth, 
 I don't like my boys to be cast about among strangers. The 
 girls, too, have left me, all marrying into foreign parts. They, 
 too, don't belong to me any more, and yet, I should have loved 
 to gather my children around me. How do you live in Paris, 
 little Jacob? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Plenty of work and a good deal of pleasure, on 'Change and in the 
 counting-room by day, in the evening theatre, and concerts and 
 society. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 And when do you rest? 
 
 JACOB 
 Truth to tell, only when I am traveling. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 That is no manner of life, my child. You need the care of a 
 woman. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Come you with me to Paris, Mother! 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Little Jacob, I am an old woman, I bide liefest at home or in 
 Amschel's garden.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 35 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Did you come just now from Amschel? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I came from synagogue. It is the anniversary of my father selig. 
 (Smiling.) Mind, little Jacob, I love to go to synagogue. 
 That's something for old folks. It's so beautifully still, there 
 one may dream. In the corner my father sat, there stands the 
 chair of my dead husband. There they chanted over him the 
 prayer for the dead. And they will do as much for me one 
 of these days. 
 
 (ROSE enters with coffee and refreshments.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Don't stir, little Jacob, I'll pour for you. Plenty of milk, eh? 
 Shall I spread you a roll? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Thank you, Mother. On coming home to you, one feels like a 
 little boy come home from school. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 You haven't been home for a long time. Nearly two years agone. 
 How long will you bide this time? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 That I don't know, Mother; I don't even know on what errand 
 I came. Salomon has sent me a message through an express 
 courier to drop everything and come at once. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Nathan, too, came from London the other night on the same short 
 notice. Neither he nor Amschel know what's in the air. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I suppose Carl is expected likewise to come from Naples. 
 
 GUDULA 
 Yes, I received word of his coming from Aschaffenburg.
 
 36 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Some big business must be afoot. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Does another King need money? Well, if he's respectable and to 
 be trusted, he may have it. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 In general, I believe there is a good deal to be talked over between 
 the five of us. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 That is a blessed custom of yours to gather under father's roof at 
 every weighty turn. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I have brought you a little keepsake, Mother. {Hands her a small 
 package. ) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 You shouldn't spend so much money on an old woman. What 
 is it this time? (Opens the parcel.) 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Old Brussels laces. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 How wonderfully dainty they are ! And whence might they come 
 from? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 They are over a hundred years old. They are said to be an erst- 
 while heirloom of the Countess Palatine of Speyer. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 My mother's kinsfolk are from Speyer. My grandfather perchance 
 had to jump into the ditch when the Countess Palatine rode 
 past with her courtiers, and now I am to wear her laces. These 
 be strange times, little Jacob.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 37 
 
 ( MEYER AMSCHEL, a big man, end of the forties, inclined to stout- 
 ness, leisurely in his movements, shrewd eyes, very circumspect, 
 his fine clothes showing traces of carelessness. His somewhat 
 noisy joviality is not always wholly genuine.) 
 
 MEYER AMSCHEL 
 
 Why, there is our Benjamin ! How do you do, little Jacob ! ( They 
 kiss.) Well, Mother, are you happy? Well, Jacob, are you 
 called now James or Jacques? 
 
 JACOB 
 Always Jacob for domestic use. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 In every land you shape your name after the manner of the coun- 
 try. In London, you have been James, in Paris, Monsieur 
 Jacques. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I can't require the Parisians to call me little Jacob. You have 
 easy talking. You are snugly staying at home in Frankfort, 
 bearing father's old name. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 To carry a name like Meyer Amschel, do you call that a joke? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 At any rate, my Parisian task is the harder one, for in Paris I have 
 to find a reputation for the name. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 And I must maintain one here. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 You are the chief of the clan and all the honors are coming your 
 way. Since I saw you last you have become Bavarian Consul. 
 My sincere felicitations.
 
 38 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Not at all. Formerly only my co-religionists wrote me begging 
 letters, now all Bavaria has joined the schnorring procession. 
 On those terms, I have supped on titles and dignities. I need 
 my money for other things. 
 
 GUDULA 
 Not so, you are rejoicing over every bit of ribbon. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 (comfortably stroking his portly stomach) 
 
 No use for additional ones. No more shelf-room, you know. My 
 friend, the Landgrave of Hesse, digged me between the ribs the 
 other day and said: "Amschel, you must get a little stouter 
 or there won't be any room for the Grand Cordon I mean to 
 give you." The Duke of Fulda heard it and went off into a 
 scream. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Are you bragging again with your grand acquaintances? 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Mother, every handshake of a sovereign means cash. (Takes 
 a slice of a roll.) I don't know, Mother, how it is, my wife 
 has all your recipes and yet, for a truly tasty meal I have to 
 come to you. 
 
 JACOB 
 (smiling) 
 Your appetite is still good, I see. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 At forty-seven dinner is the only substantial pleasure left. Mother 
 made a bean soup the other day, something to dream about. 
 You may search all Paris and won't find such perfection. (Eat- 
 ing.)
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 39 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 (smiling) 
 Herr Consul, don't gorge! 
 
 JACOB 
 Let him, if he likes it. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 This is the house where things are to my relish. It's the snuggest 
 house in all Frankfort. 
 
 JACOB 
 And yet you live elsewhere ! 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Well, it ain't just the place. I have to represent a great house. 
 And as for my wife, have you, perhaps, the courage to tell her 
 to live in Jew's Lane ? 
 
 JACOB 
 How is your wife? 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 My darling Emma is sitting in the garden, doing nothing and 
 thinking up something to quarrel about with me in the evening. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Your wife has not enough employment. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 A wife's rightful occupation are her children. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 You won't tease me much longer, in the spring I'll send her to 
 Franzensbad. What's a home without a child? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I, too, shouldn't object to a little Meyer Amschel. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 I'd build a new synagogue, if I knew for a certainty that it would 
 help. Salomon, at least, has a daughter.
 
 40 THE FIFE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 (Enter NATHAN, AMSCHEL'S junior by one year, attired with 
 British neatness of detail. He has acquired in London a stiffly 
 correct carriage. Also he has been taught there that there are 
 better profits in listening than in talking.) 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Good day, Mother! (Kisses her hand. To JACOB:) Good day, 
 brother! (Kisses his cheek, nods a salute to AMSCHEL.) Have 
 you had fair traveling? (Without waiting for an answer, to 
 his Mother:) Did any courier's mail arrive for me? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Not yet. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 (to JACOB) 
 On what date did Salomon agree to meet you in Frankfort? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 On the seventeenth. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Did he inform you of the purpose of this gathering? 
 
 JACOB 
 He only mentioned some affair of weight. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 That goes without saying. Else there would be no occasion for 
 such an abrupt by-play. Really now, Salomon has a little dis- 
 . position to lord it over us, I find. 
 
 GUDULA 
 So far he always did the right thing at the right time. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 I am not belittling his talents, Mother, nor do I deny that the 
 resolves born of our gatherings have always advanced the in- 
 terests of our house. This time, however, I have been ordered
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 41 
 
 abroad at a very inconvenient moment. I have been negotiating 
 with the East Indian Company to assume one of their monop- 
 olies. We'll talk about it after Salomon's and Carl's arrival. 
 How are your affairs in Paris ? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I am making headway slowly. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 No matter. Your chief aim must be to take firm root in the soil 
 by unimpeachable solidity. You must rest content for years 
 with small transactions, mark, time, impress people as an indif- 
 ferent observer, keep a keen eye on all chances and then, when 
 the great moment comes, concentrate all your energies, never 
 you fear, we all support you ; follow your opportunity, heedless 
 of petty considerations, in grand style, and then (searching 
 for the right word, in a sudden outburst) grab!! 1 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 One must have the right scent! 
 
 NATHAN 
 (very politely) 
 Pardon me, my age gives me the prerogative of instruction 
 
 JACOB 
 (smiling) 
 
 I have heard all this often enough, but am by no means loath to 
 hear it once again. One necessary detail, however, you forgot 
 to mention: good luck! 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 My dear Jacob, good luck and ill-fortune are concepts of hucksters ; 
 ill-fortune is a foolish synonym for miscalculation. On what 
 terms are you with the Government ? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 The Premier calls me his jeune ami allemand and the Minister of 
 Finance has shown me much politeness from the very outset.
 
 42 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Our family has never had occasion to complain about lack of 
 politeness on the part of Ministers of Finance. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 He has been lately progressing daily in cordiality. I am scenting 
 a new Government loan. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 There are no stable Governments in France; every little moment 
 there is another King. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 A loan? Oh, yes, one might make sentiment for it on 'Change. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Won't you have luncheon, Nathan, dear? You haven't had as yet 
 a meal in your father's house. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 (consulting his watch} 
 
 Thank you, Mother in the evening. We must go" on 'Change 
 now. Come, Jacob. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Nothing stirring on 'Change around this hour. I think I'll stay 
 at home. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Only come for a moment. It's meet they should see us together 
 on 'Change. That will serve as a reminder of our solidarity. 
 Adieu, Mother! (Exit.} 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 (Taking JACOB'S arm} 
 
 A whole hour in Frankfort and not as yet on 'Change that won't 
 do. Come, little Jacob! (Marches him off.) 
 
 (FRAU GUDULA seats herself at her sewing table. Enter ROSE.)
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 43 
 
 ROSE 
 
 If you please, Madam, who are going to dine with us to-day? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I think all the boys will be here in the evening. Every one shall 
 find his favorite dish at his father's table. As for Amschel, 
 he must have carp with sauce Polonaise. 
 
 ROSE 
 
 That he shall have. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 A stewed steak for Salomon but mirfce it before serving, he has 
 a habit of bolting his food. You must get some goose liver 
 with apple sauce for Nathan; that's what he fancies most. 
 
 ROSE 
 
 And for Master Carl? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Carl must get something out of the common they spoiled him in 
 Italy; you had better prepare him a roast chicken. And my 
 little Jacob? (Smiling.) Have you any passover flour left? 
 
 ROSE 
 
 Yes, ma'am. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Then make him a metzeh pudding. He can't get that in Paris. 
 (Enter LlZZIE.) 
 
 LIZZIE 
 
 Madam, there is a strange young lady outdoors. She wants to 
 see you the worst way. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I know. (Opening her purse.) To-day my little Jacob came 
 home let others have their satisfaction too. Just hand her this 
 ?"o!d piece!
 
 44 
 
 LIZZIE 
 
 Not this one she ain't that sort. She looks like a little princess. 
 A big coach is in waiting for her around the corner. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Well, we are used to all sorts. Show her in. (Exit LIZZIE.) 
 Rose, put my lace kerchief straight. 
 
 (Enter CHARLOTTE, a beautiful girl of twenty, in traveling attire, 
 topped by a magnificent hat. She curtsies deeply before 
 GUDULA. ROSE likewise curtseying, off.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I take it kind of a young lady to call on an old woman in this 
 narrow lane. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I have been here once before but then I was a little mite, three 
 years of age. 
 
 GUDULA 
 I am afraid my memory fails me. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 But I I didn't forget you, just as you are I kept your likeness 
 in my mind, with all the little wrinkles, set in a frame of lace 
 only in my memory you loomed bigger. And there on this 
 chair my grandfather sat. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 And who was he? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (smiling) 
 Old Meyer Amschel. 
 
 GUDULA 
 Why, it's my Salomon's little Lottie ! 
 
 -
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 45 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (kissing her hand) 
 Grannie ! 
 
 GUDULA 
 (kisses her) 
 But, child, what wind is blowing you hither? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I came with papa. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Is he in Frankfort? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 He just went on 'Change. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 My little Jacob first went to his mother and then on 'Change. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 ( apologetically ) 
 
 You see, our entire journey did not carry us through a town with 
 an exchange. He was simply dying for a whiff of the stock 
 markets. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 And all this long journey he dragged you in his train? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I was glad of the ride. Traveling is such good fun, save that 
 nothing can be speedy enough to suit father. He has been io 
 a fidget all the way. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 What is doing? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I don't know, but it must be something pleasant. I never saw 
 father so well pleased before. Grannie, may I stay with you? 
 
 .
 
 46 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 And welcome a thousand times, my child if only poor quarters 
 will do you, my little princess. Where is your baggage? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 In the fond of the coach, Grannie. Also I have a maid with me. 
 
 GUDULA 
 {ringing) 
 Won't your father put up here? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 He has taken lodgings in the Swan. 
 (Enter LIZZIE.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Lizzie, see to the baggage. Let Rose tidy up our guest-room. 
 Missy will bide with us. Put up her maid in the room next 
 to yours. (Exit LIZZIE.) 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 There is another big trunk on top of father's traveling coach. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 You travel with two coaches? Why, the Landgrave of Hesse is 
 content with one! 
 
 CHARLOTlii 
 
 It's on account of all the new dresses father gave me for the 
 journey. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Well, he wants to make the most of his beautiful child, nor do I 
 blame him, feeling proud of my pretty grandchild myself. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 He gave me a robe of state made of white satin, with gold em- 
 broidery and laces.
 
 'First you will bide awhile with your Grannie'
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 47 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Bless me, when I was your age my robe of state was just a flow- 
 ered print. But take your hat off ; let me help you. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Thank you, Grannie ! 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 A robe of state for such a young thing what will it profit you 
 in Frankfort? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I'm sure I can't tell. Father is acting mysteriously perhaps we 
 are going on to some other town. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 First you will bide a while with your Grannie. Wait a moment 
 and I will look after the guest-room. My old Rose is not 
 used to such grand visitors. (Exit.) 
 
 (CHARLOTTE, left alone, seats herself at the spinet and plays the 
 aria of Rosina from "The Barber of Seville.") 
 
 (JACOB, entering, halts at the threshold in surprise. CHARLOTTE, 
 perceiving him, interrupts her playing.) 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Pray go on playing, demoiselle. The old house hasn't listened to 
 music for ever so long. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 The dear old house ! I find that music befits it very well. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 The spinet has been mute for years. I have been the last, I be- 
 lieve, who played it. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I don't perform before musical people they are likely to find me 
 out. (Rising.)
 
 48 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Pray go on! You positively beautify that old spinet. Play on, 
 please; after the clamor of the stock market, music is doubly 
 soothing. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 It's a difficult opus. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Rosinni's, I believe. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Could you recognize him through my strumming? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Yes admiringly. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 He has many enemies, but I adore him. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I'll tell the young maestro that a beautiful demoiselle in Frank- 
 fort adores him. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 You know him ? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 He is my friend and a* frequent guest at my house in Paris. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 You live in Paris, then ? And are Paris bankers on a friendly foot- 
 ing with artists? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 You know me ? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 To be sure! You are Frau Gudula's little Jacob.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 49 
 
 JACOB 
 
 And who is the charming demoiselle at the spinet? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I have guessed you; it's your turn now. 
 
 JACOB 
 You are not a Frankforter? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Right. But who do you think I am? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 At my mother's house only people of substance are calling. On 
 the street I might have possibly taken you for an actress. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Flattering but wrong. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Then you must be a lady of fashion, honoring my mother with her 
 visit a Countess, belike. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 But I may be one of your kinsfolk. 
 
 JACOB 
 They look differently. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (curtseying) 
 Thank you. 
 
 GUDULA 
 (entering) 
 Well, little Jacob, what say you to our visitor? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Monsieur doesn't know aright whether to take me for an actress 
 or a countess.
 
 50 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Jacob ! Why, this is Salomon's little Lottie from Vienna. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Who knows what else Monsieur might have put me down for if 
 Grannie hadn't come betimes. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 That's no Monsieur. It's your uncle. Have conduct, girl, and 
 give him a kiss, as is right and proper. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Uncle, I daresay, won't care; he is used to another style of ladies 
 in Paris. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 What manner of speech is this for a young girl! In my time one 
 offered one's cheek and blushed. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 At any rate, you might shake hands. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Gladly. I'd be friends with you. I should love to go t Paris. 
 You shall show me the town then. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I fear they wouldn't "believe me my beautiful niece. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 How do you fancy your new uncle? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 He has little of father takes more after you, Grannie. 
 
 GUDULA 
 (to JACOB) 
 Did you meet Salomon on 'Change?
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 51 
 
 JACOB 
 
 He was just flitting past, you know his way we hardly spoke. 
 But Carl has come. There, they are coming, true to time. 
 
 (Enter AMSCHEL, NATHAN, CARL.) 
 
 (CARL, middle of the thirties, looks somewhat more pronouncedly 
 Jewish than the other four brothers to his evident chagrin. 
 His attire is rich and very showy, being patterned, in an over- 
 done fashion, on that of the Italian nobility of Rome and 
 Naples. He attempts now and then to attitudinize, but to lit- 
 tle purpose.) 
 
 CARL 
 
 Mother! (Embraces her.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 (kisses him) 
 Carl, my boy! (Sniffing.) You smell of scent. 
 
 CARL 
 
 Appropriately enough here in Jew's Lane. We had to run the 
 gauntlet. The schnorrers absolutely mobbed us. The entire 
 Gass we had at our heels; there was a crowd of gapers at 
 every window. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 It's a rare sight to them, to see the sons of Meyer Amschel fore- 
 gather. How goes it with you? 
 
 CARL 
 
 (would like to say "middling," remembers in time that the 
 word lacks distinction, and says instead) 
 
 Cost, cost! My nerves are always troubling me. This calling of 
 ours is full of excitement it's too much of a strain! And 
 then the endless journey from Naples hither. And one doesn't 
 even know what for. It's too vexatious for anything.
 
 52 THE FIFE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 You are vexed at every trifle. 
 
 CARL 
 
 How are you, Mother? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Too well to wish for better things. I live at peace in my little 
 house. 
 
 CARL 
 
 To be sure the house is snug enough, but on too humble a footing 
 for our mother. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I lack nothing. 
 
 CARL 
 
 Our mother should have a beautiful mansion in an exclusive neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 That's exactly what I bought for her, but she would have none 
 of it. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 No, no, old furniture must not be moved. Besides, this is a house 
 of good report, and I'm afraid that luck will turn on my chil- 
 dren if I turn my back on the house. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 There is commonsense in Carl's proposal. One must consider pub- 
 lic opinion. There is no lack of aristocratic mansions in the 
 market at reasonable prices 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 (very energetically) 
 
 In this house I lived with your father many years in all happiness. 
 In this house I gave birth to all my children; here I mourned 
 for my good Amschel I won't budge.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 53 
 
 CARL 
 
 Then take at least a man-servant it looks so pauvre to have 
 only old Rose answer the bell. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I will have no footman in my house. It won't do for an old 
 Jewess. 
 
 (The noise of children laughing and romping in the lane is heard.) 
 
 CARL 
 
 (nervously) 
 What on earth is this frightful alley up to now? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (at the window, laughing) 
 Father stands at the porch throwing pennies to the children. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 That just looks like my son Salomon. 
 
 CARL 
 
 And to think that he dragged us hither from all the four corners 
 of the globe, just to keep us waiting until he is through fooling 
 with the gutter snipes. 
 
 (SALOMON enters in a rush. He is two years the junior of 
 Amschel, haggard, full of briskness and bustle. He is dressed 
 in a dark frock-coat, resplendent with decorations. His great 
 exemplar is Prince Metternich, whom he unconsciously at' 
 tempts to copy, with indifferent results.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Good day, Mother! (Kisses her.) Pardon me for having kept 
 you waiting ! I had to call at the Austrian Embassy on a mat- 
 ter of first-rate importance. (To his mother:) Well, get every- 
 thing ready for a two-hours' ride across country to-morrow. 
 (To the brothers:) You are all coming.
 
 54 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 You can't have convoked the entire family just for a picnic out of 
 doors ? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Possess your soul in peace and you will see what's at the goal of 
 our drive. How goes it? 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Well, I don't have to worry exactly about my daily bread. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (surveying his portly form) 
 Evidently not. Any mail for me? 
 
 (GuDULA hands him several envelopes.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Thank you, Mother. I envy you your little house and the Lane. 
 (Opens the envelopes and examines their contents.) A draft 
 of four thousand dollars from Orenheimer, Hamburg. Thanks, 
 I wouldn't accept for four thousand farthings over their sig- 
 nature. (To Nathan:) And how is your lordship? How is 
 business ? 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Nothing to complain of. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (reading another dispatch) 
 
 Columbia 1200 at sixty-six and a half, very well, I'll take that 
 lot. Amschel, you lend me this evening a young man to take 
 dictation. Hello, Carl! (They shake hands.) Strange, the 
 older you get, the more of a Frankforter you look. 
 
 CARL 
 
 (annoyed) 
 
 Others don't take that view. Only the other day His Holiness 
 the Pope told me that I'm getting completely Italianized in 
 my looks and bearing.
 
 I 
 \ 
 
 23
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 55 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Italianized? I see His Holiness means to borrow. Ah, Little 
 Jacob! Well, lad, how is life in Paris? How is the frail 
 sisterhood? And how about that French Government loan? 
 
 JACOB 
 I may possibly be approached shortly. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Possibly! The French Ambassador at Vienna has been sounding 
 me for the last six months. Rest assured, we'll get the loan. 
 Well, Mother, what say you to our little Lottie? Are you 
 pleased ? 
 
 CARL 
 
 Have I come all the way from Naples to hear what mother thinks 
 of Lottie? 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Won't you tell us at last why you put us to the trouble of coming? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (beaming at his brothers with a smile of triumph) 
 
 You seem to be curious. (He draws a large sealed envelope from 
 
 out of his breast pocket.) What think you does it contain? 
 
 CARL 
 
 (dryly) 
 A letter, I suppose. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 A gift for all of us! 1 (The brothers in their concern are crowding 
 around SALOMON. To GUDULA:) Baroness, I have the honor 
 to hand you a patent of nobility from the Vienna Chancellor of 
 State which raises us all to the hereditary rank of Barons. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 Donnenuetter!
 
 56 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 Children, my eyes are failing I can't read. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Show me! (He opens the letter, all crowd around him and look 
 over his shoulder.} Right. The Emperor has bestowed a 
 Barony upon us. 
 
 CARL 
 
 My smelling salts I am fainting. (He reclines in a chair, lifting 
 his flagon.) 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Salomon, that was a master-stroke of yours! 
 
 SALOMON 
 Well, Mother, what say you? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Children, I can't help it it makes me laugh. Of course, I am 
 glad for your sakes and so would have been my Amschel selig, 
 but I pray you, don't get conceited, whatever you do. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 And throughout, the entire journey you did not drop the slightest 
 hint of it? 
 
 SALOMON 
 I do not talk about matters pending. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 I am a Baron ! Why didn't you tell us on 'Change within every- 
 body's hearing? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Would you have me shout the news from the housetops? We'll 
 publish the fact without noise and in a dignified manner in 
 keeping with our rank! 
 
 GUDULA 
 Little Jacob, have you nothing to say?
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 57 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I am wondering a title more or less does it really make much 
 of a difference? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 No inward difference, as we five know it's an outward token of 
 our station in society. You are an exacting young man. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 When I was a boy, only a little while ago, they shouted "hep, 
 hep" in the Lane, right in front of our house. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Just so! They won't dare to do that now. I shall dispatch at 
 once a special courier to my family in London. 
 
 CARL 
 
 And I to Naples. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Needless the official communication is already on its way from 
 Vienna to Paris, London and Naples. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 I should have preferred to advise the London public in my own 
 way. 
 
 SALOMON 
 Run along now, little Lottie, there is business to be talked over. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Auf Wiedersehen. (Off.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Pray Mother, you stay with us. Now that we are en famille, it is 
 of course clear to all of you that we did not get this for 
 nothing? Knighthood costs blood or money. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 If I know our Salomon aright, he didn't shed for it any blood 
 on the battlefield.
 
 58 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Let's hear the worst what did it cost? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I have been making preparations for a long time, as you will read- 
 ily understand. There are several expense accounts: First, en- 
 tertainments and presents; secondly, a rather large sum lent to 
 a person of high estate which will not be repaid. Further- 
 more, a donation toward the building of the Cathedral of the 
 Sacred Heart. The expense account will reach you. The 
 total is pretty large 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Well, we are six to share in it. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I propose we take Mother's share upon ourselves. 
 
 GUDULA 
 Nix I pay my way. 
 
 CARL 
 The article would have been cheaper in Italy. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Cheapness in that line means always flimsiness. We can afford 
 the best. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 By rights the assessments ought to be graded according to age 
 the youngest should pay more because they will enjoy the title 
 longer. 
 
 CARL 
 
 We'll pay in six equal shares and let it go at that. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 There is another affair of first importance to be discussed. You 
 all know the young Duke of Taunus?
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 59 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Not personally, but I know his signature. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I have seen him, both child and youth, taking his airing a-horse- 
 back on the Bockenheimer highroad, a handsome, proper young 
 man. 
 
 JACOB 
 He frequently visits Paris. I know him to be fond of amusement. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 He has been my guest at Vienna. A charming cavalier and 
 rather attentive to my Lottie. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 You are all looking up too high in choosing your company ! 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Well, this Duke of Taunus is deep in debt. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Meaning, he has more creditors than subjects. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 When he came home from exile after Napoleon's abdication, he 
 found triumphal arches but empty treasure-chests. I should 
 think he hasn't been over-prosperous ever since now he is try- 
 ing to mend his state. He has made me overtures about a 
 twelve-million-dollar loan. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 How will he pay it ? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I have been thinking of a lottery loan, the principal to be repay- 
 able in forty years. 
 
 CARL 
 
 And if he doesn't keep terms?
 
 60 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I have no intention to retain the lottery tickets the only thing 
 we'll hold on to will be the commission. We'll sell the tickets 
 on 'Change, excepting, possibly, one which we'll keep under 
 glass and frame to memorialize the transaction. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 He has the reputation of a spendthrift, playing Louis the Fifteenth 
 in his miniature castle on the Taunus. 
 
 CARL 
 
 Looks like a risky business. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 I don't know if the investment be a proper one, if the man's a 
 loose liver. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 He must reform under guarantee. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 What guarantee? 
 
 SALOMON 
 A match. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 With whom? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (turning to GUDULA) 
 With my daughter Lottie. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 The Duke of Taunus marry your daughter! Absurd. 
 
 SALOMON 
 I am well aware of the difficulties in the way. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 People will resent it. Climbing, they will call it.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 61 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Exactly that's what it is. It's my fixed intention to have my 
 family pass at par everywhere. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 A reigning Duke your son-in-law! You are a visionary. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Let me remind you: thirty years ago the son of an unknown at- 
 torney came to Paris from a little island nobody had ever heard 
 of, to conquer, first Paris, then France, then half of Europe. 
 In this age of ours everything is possible. Mother, what say 
 you? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I am afraid of you. My grandfather was a packman in Neustadt 
 on the Taunus. There he made the rounds, laden with his 
 bundles and that's where my granddaughter is to drive as 
 duchess in her coach? (Roughly.) No, I'll have no hand in 
 this ! Do what you like, but leave me out of the game. ( Goes 
 off-) 
 
 (A pause of embarrassed silence.) 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 We'll consider the matter overnight. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I have considered. To-morrow morning I am going to drive with 
 Lottie to Neustadt Castle. You may come if you like. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 We must think we must think. Come Carl and Amschel ! 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Bide a while, Jacob! (Takes the chessboard from the drawer. 
 The three others withdraw rearward, where they converse in 
 undertones.)
 
 62 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I must have a little diversion. Let's play a game of chess. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 (taking a chair) 
 
 Salomon, you are unmindful; the happiness of your daughter is at 
 stake. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 She likes him well enough. And then, "happiness" was heisst 
 das? She may live happy with a prince and unhappy with a 
 clerk, also she might live happy with a clerk and unhappy with 
 a prince you can't reduce happiness to figures. (Ht settles 
 in his chair and says with a touch of comfortable self-derision :) 
 Had I not been made a Baron a quarter of an hour ago, I'd 
 say: You are meschugge. 
 
 CURTAIN.
 
 ACT II. 
 
 The ducal castle-grounds of Neustadt-on-the-Taunus, laid out in 
 the style of Versailles. The hedges are evenly trimmed, in the 
 baskets roses are in flower, the rearward vista discloses the ar- 
 bored walks of the castle. The curtain rises over MADAM DE 
 ST. GEORGES in a swing, BAROX SEULBERG swinging her. 
 PRIXCESS EVELINE in an armchair. The young DUKE Gus- 
 TAVE lies reclining in a restful attitude against a grassy eleva- 
 tion of the sod. 
 
 ST. GEORGES 
 
 (a mondaine of twenty-six) 
 Not so high, dear Baron, I am giddy! 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (a dandified grand seigneur of thirty, blase but not outworn) 
 You swing our divinity to still loftier heights, Seulberg I, your 
 Sovereign, command it. 
 
 SEULBERG 
 
 An order of state which I execute right willingly, Your Highness. 
 
 ST. GEORGES 
 
 Highness, I thought you asleep? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 That's where you underrate your pater patriae. I rest inclined 
 against this meadow-bank to contemplate the world from the 
 ant's perspective. 
 
 ST. GEORGES 
 
 And what do you see? 
 
 63
 
 64 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Only a tiresome stretch of blue heavens most advantageously broken 
 by your charming personality. 
 
 ST. GEORGES 
 
 Seulberg, I implore you, not too high! 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Seulberg, I command you, higher. I see the shapely limbs of the 
 countess and think myself in heaven or at a place more heav- 
 enly still, in Paris, at Tortonis I am drinking sorbet, I hear 
 the rustling of laces, I scent the odor of lorettes 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 (laughing) 
 Bravo, bravo! 1 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Do not laugh, sweet cousin, but rather look sour, in keeping with 
 the family tradition. 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 I would like to try the swing myself. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 If you are caught at it by your father, my much cherished uncle, 
 he will invoke the family curse and send you to a convent. 
 
 ST. GEORGES 
 (jumping off) 
 
 There now I won't put myself on exhibition any longer. Seul- 
 berg, you have worked the swing like a savage! 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Count Seulberg, you have earned my commendation. Your swing- 
 ing has earned your promotion. I am considering your fitness 
 for the vacant post of Minister of Finance. 
 
 SEULBERG 
 
 My powers of balancing, I am afraid, won't suffice.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 65 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 Gustave, I am afraid you overrate the state of your finances by 
 suggesting that they require a minister for their administration. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Not at all, sweet cousin, I stand in urgent need of a Minister of 
 Finance to make my deficit show to advantage. 
 
 ST. GEORGES 
 
 Do you think, Highness, that matters will improve, if you are 
 lying here, star-gazing and passing medisante remarks about 
 me? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 It is my sovereign will to lie here and to contemplate the sky, 
 until my luck has changed. 
 
 ST. GEORGES 
 
 How is that to come about? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 My major-domo, Count Fehrenberg, is in Frankfort on a diplo- 
 matic mission. I expect him every minute. 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 Your expression is apt, but unworthy of our serene ancestors. 
 What think you would Erwin-with-the-Harelip or Frederik 
 Carl the Contrite have said to it? They didn't borrow. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 They didn't have to. When hard up for cash, they took post in a 
 secluded castle on the highroad and invited the passing mer- 
 chant adventurers, regardless of creed, to a brief conference 
 after half an hour or so they were hard up for cash and our 
 ancestors jocund. 
 
 EVELINE 
 But my dear Gustave, why don't you do likewise?
 
 66 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Measures like that are prohibited within the German Federation, 
 as exceeding just a little our sovereign rights. 
 
 CHAMBER-VALET 
 
 Privy Councillor von Yssel. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Request the Privy Councillor to come here. 
 
 (VALET off.} 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I am afraid he will be grave and tedious. Out of tenderness for 
 you, ladies, I give you leave to withdraw from the presence, 
 putting you under the protecting care of Baron Seulberg. 
 
 ( PRIVY COUNCILLOR VON YSSEL, a rotund little man, enters, bow- 
 ing to GUSTAVE, to the retiring ladies, and to SEULBERG.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Well, my dear Privy Councillor, what news? 
 
 YSSEL 
 
 I regret, Your Highness, to cloud a fine day for you, but I am 
 bringing the balance of the budget. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (seats himself on the swing and slowly sets it into motion) 
 I am prepared for the worst. Pray, be brief. 
 
 YSSEL 
 
 After the death of His Highness, your late uncle, the finances of 
 the duchy were already in an unfavorable condition. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I presume that under my regime they have become hopeless? 
 
 YSSEL 
 
 (bowing) 
 Your Highness have spoken truly.
 
 THE FIFE FRANKFORTERS 67 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Now, how do you account for that? 
 
 YSSEL 
 
 The personal expenditure of Your Highness while abroad in Paris 
 and Vienna has been exorbitant. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I admit that my amusements from a financial view, and possibly 
 from a moral one, exceeded the legitimate limit. 
 
 YSSEL 
 
 Large liabilities must shortly be met by the state and the ducal 
 exchequer is practically empty. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (jumping from the swing) 
 
 True, my dear Privy Councillor, something must be done to meet 
 emergencies. You impress me as a man of trained powers of 
 imagination have the goodness to invent a new tax. 
 
 YSSEL 
 Your Highness, I am momentarily at my wits' end. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Couldn't we print some elegant new banknotes, after the latest 
 French pattern, black lettering with red arabesks? Something 
 should be done, anyway, to promote within our territory that 
 new art of engraving on stone. 
 
 CHAMBER-VALET 
 
 Major-domo Count Fehrenberg! (Ushers him in.) 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 (a stately beau in his fifties, walking with a slight 
 forward incline) 
 
 I beg your pardon, Highness, for the delay; I felt obliged the 
 other night to accept the invitation of the newly created Barons.
 
 68 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Your report, pray, which no doubt will interest our dear Privy 
 Councillor too. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 I am truly grateful to Your Highness for having entrusted me 
 with this interesting mission, which afforded me an oppor- 
 tunity 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Your impressions later. What have you accomplished ? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 No final results as yet, of course. Only preliminaries have been 
 discussed, but I gained the impression that Messieurs the Court 
 Bankers look favorably upon the idea of a lottery loan. See- 
 ing that the gentlemen desired a conference with Your High- 
 ness, I invited them to luncheon at the Castle. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Invited them to luncheon did you deem that really necessary? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 I know Your Highness desires a speedy settlement of negotiations. 
 Besides, the invitation will be taken as a compliment, not only 
 to the Frankfort gentlemen, but to all your Jewish subjects. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (to YSSEL) 
 Have I any Jewish subjects? 
 
 YSSEL 
 
 (searching his memory} 
 We have a certain Rosenfeld. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Well, let's hope Rosenfeld will be pleased.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 69 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Both ladies of the house have joined the party, which may arrive 
 any moment. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 My dear Privy Councillor, may I ask you to give orders to the 
 steward to be ready for the caravan when it arrives? 
 
 YSSEL 
 
 At Your Highness' command. (Exit.) 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Have Your Highness further commands for me? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 You may unpack now your bag of anecdotes concering your late 
 hosts. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 I will do so, my liege lord, if the distinction be conferred upon me 
 of keeping you company over a bottle of that choice Hoch- 
 heimer dating from the comet year of 1811. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 What, drink at this early hour! 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 It is a hallowed hour for choice wines. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Have your bottle, then. 
 
 (CHAMBER- VALET enters with the bottle.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (to the VALET) 
 How did you know? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Convinced of your desire to reward me, I have already given orders.
 
 70 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 (They sit down, the VALET, after uncorking the bottle and 
 pouring, goes off.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Poor fellow, that must have been an unpleasant mission for you! 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 On the contrary, it was very amusing. First the walk through 
 Jew's Lane, where one meets people that are not to be encoun- 
 tered in a life-time elsewhere. And in this improbable lane, 
 with its exotic smells, our Court Bankers are keeping house. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 It must be affectation that prompts them to meet there? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Affectaion, mingled with superstition. They are all interested in 
 that lottery scheme, and that's why the five convened in Frank- 
 fort. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 It may be their elevation to the Barony that brought them to- 
 gether. As for Salomon, I know him from Vienna. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 He seems to take the lead in all family affairs. It was he who 
 procured their ennoblement. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Well, what had he to say? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 He was very discreet in his utterances, but all the more prodigal 
 with his gestures. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I know, his bad manners are so perfectly free from every trace of 
 embarrassment as to impress one almost like good manners. 
 And the other four?
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 71 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 They screen themselves in all politeness behind Salomon. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 And Salomon? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 He impresses me as hugging some secret project to his breast. I 
 believe you will do well to step cautiously with these gentle- 
 men. They are evidently eager to overreach us. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Then it must be our ambition to foil them. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 That's why I invited them here. They will feel out of their ele- 
 ment here, whereas at their offices they have us at a disadvan- 
 tage. If they lend at all, it will be here. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Why shouldn't they? It's their business to finance reigning princes. 
 I begin to entertain a belief that Divinity created them espe- 
 cially for this providential mission. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 And my dear Duke, if they refuse? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Then, my dear Major-Domo, I cede my sovereignty rights to 
 Prussia, and with the proceeds I'll live in Paris like a gentle- 
 man. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Messieurs the Court Bankers might possibly be inclined to take the 
 dukedom off our hands. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Possibly. I can easily conceive of a Salomon the First.
 
 72 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Salomon the Second, I beg your pardon there has been already a 
 reigning prince of that name. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Did you say you invited the ladies of the family? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 There are only two : the mother sort of arch-dame of the house 
 makes the best impression because most genuine. And Solo- 
 mon's daughter an amiable little Viennese, invited to miti- 
 gate the severities of financial negotiations. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I know her, a blond miss with her nose retrousse in the face of all 
 racial traditions. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 There will be difficulties about the fare at lunch. In their diet the 
 old lady and one of the sons adhere strictly to religious precept. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 My cook has served for five years in the domestic establishment of 
 French royalty I am afraid he didn't learn there the art of 
 preparing Kosher cuisine. 
 
 VALET 
 
 {announcing) 
 His Highness, the Count Palatine Christopher Maurice. (Off.) 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 (big, massive, inelegant) 
 Your Dilection, I see, are guzzling in broad daylight. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Perhaps your Dilection may be pleased to accept a glass or so? 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 Well, rather! Pass the bottle! Good morning, Count Fehren- 
 berg. (Drinks.) Ah! They said you were expecting visitors?
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 73 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 (smiling) 
 Quite a number. 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 Good! Your court is getting tiresome. Who's coming? The 
 Darmstadters, or your kinsfolk from Kassel? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I don't believe these gentry are any relatives of mine. 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 Do you mean to have another general handshaking with the burg^ 
 ers? I think every one of your subjects must have had his 
 turn already. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I am expecting visitors from Frankfort. 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 I have no relish for Frankforters. Who are they? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Our court bankers and their family. 
 
 MAURICE 
 (laughing) 
 
 The Frankfort Jews? Why, Gustave, are you mad? I have 
 heard of player-folk being called to court, of rope-dancers and 
 fire-eaters, but to sit at table with a parcel of money-lenders 
 no, I never heard the like in all my life. 
 
 (EVELINE enters.) 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 Did you hear the news? Money-changers from Frankfort are ex- 
 pected. 
 
 EVELINE 
 At last a change of faces! I am awfully curious to know them.
 
 74 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 Well, you won't, my lass go to your room. 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 But father! 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 I never in my life had speech with any Jews. Such people should 
 be kept at a distance. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 You had better see what they are like then. 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 As a set-off I would advise you to invite the court-chaplain. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Agreed. 
 
 MAURICE 
 
 Do what you like I am off on a hare-hunt. Adieu. (Exit.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Follow him, Fehrenberg, he is capable of insulting our guests. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Killing a hare will calm him. (Off.) 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 Did my father vex you? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 There is only one drawback to the excellent qualities of my uncle 
 he missed his age by a hundred years. So did I. I should 
 have been born a century later. 
 
 EVELINE 
 And I? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 (patting her) 
 You are just in time.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 75 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 Yes. It's a suitable time to be alive, I think. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I am thankful to Providence to have provided me with such a 
 
 contemporary. 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 Gustave, I am seriously concerned about your future. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Glad to hear that. I am not. 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 But what will you do in your present embarrassments? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 The Frankforters may come to the rescue. The gentlemen are 
 vain and fond of flattery. You must help. 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 Gladly. I am burning with curiosity to see them. 
 
 (Enter FEHRENBERG. Shortly thereafter SEULBERG and ST. 
 GEORGES.) 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 A traveling coach is drawing near the portal. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 The Frankforters? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Most likely, though the coach does not look that way. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Shall we go to meet them? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 That would impress them with a sense of their importance. Bet- 
 ter stay.
 
 76 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Madam de St. Georges, you will charge yourself with doing the 
 honors. Baron Seulberg, you will see to it that luncheon is 
 served in right royal fashion. 
 
 VALET 
 
 (announcing) 
 
 Their Highness the Prince and Princess of Klausthal-Agordo and 
 the Right Reverend the Canon of Rouen. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 The old grand seigneur with his suite and our Frankfort Jews 
 there will be complications! 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Our luncheon is imperilled ! Fehrenberg, I expect of your adroit- 
 ness that you will interpose between our guests. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 We won't give up hope that the Prince and his retinue will take 
 their leave before luncheon. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 D you know this Canon that travels with them? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Certainly. He administers spiritual consolation to the Princess by 
 courting her in a quite secular fashion. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 (rising) 
 We must go to meet them. 
 
 (Enter PRINCE, a grand seigneur of fifty; the PRINCESS, a beauti- 
 ful woman of thirty; the CANON, middle of the thirties.) 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 Just a salute in passing, dear cousin.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 77 
 
 PRINCESS 
 
 We didn't wish to ride past your residence without shaking hands. 
 Do you know our Canon? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Count Fehrenberg related to me just now how interestingly you 
 conceive of your spiritual office. 
 
 PRINCESS 
 
 His changeless fondness for medisance proves that he is in the best 
 of health. Good morning, Cousin Eveline! Kiss me you 
 radiate that aura of sweet eighteen which is so caressing to a 
 woman who has ceased to be young without having made up 
 her mind to confess defeat. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Serene Princess, I 
 
 PRINCESS 
 
 Don't put yourself to the constraint of being nice, Count Fehren- 
 berg I won't trust you, whatever you say. (Gives her hand 
 to be kissed to MADAM DE ST. GEORGES and bestows a nod 
 upon SEULBERG.) 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 I was only about to observe that the brilliancy of your grey eyes 
 is reminiscent of the beauty, so infinitely dear to me, of grey 
 caviare. 
 
 CANON 
 
 Most gracious Princess, you may believe for once in the sincerity 
 of this compliment. Gourmandizing comparisons, with oar 
 cavaliers, betoken genuine emotion. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 I trust you will do us the honor to have lunch with us. 
 
 PRINCESS 
 
 We must reach Frankfort before night-fall.
 
 78 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 What's the pressing occasion, pray? 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 The last that is likely to hurry my pace for the balance of my 
 life. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Your Highness is pleased to mean ? 
 
 PRINCE 
 This is a leave-taking visit. I have abdicated. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 May I know Your Highness' reasons for taking such a step? 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 I have seen too much and lived too long to carry on the jest of 
 playing at royalty upon my thronelet any longer. As a youth 
 I have witnessed in Paris the barbarous execution of our bonny 
 King Louis. I never could overcome the shock and through- 
 out my reign couldn't get rid of a ticklish feeling behind the 
 collar. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Your Serenity are possibly a little morbid? 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 Trust me, dear cousin, it isn't fear. I simply refuse to follow the 
 democratic drift of this our age. Henceforth I'll be a mere 
 spectator, having wound up all my affairs an occupation not 
 wholly devoid of interest. 
 
 PRINCESS 
 We intend to take up residence in Paris. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 A landless Prince to the City of the Homeless.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 79 
 
 CANON 
 
 (kissing the hand of the PRINCESS) 
 In Paris every beauty has a throne of her own. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 And our dear Canon will be studious to stand instead of a whole 
 retinue in the service of beauty re-enthroned. 
 
 CANON 
 
 He also serves Divinity who serves the fair. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 A dogma open to theological criticism. I don't doubt that our 
 Princess won't languish in Paris but Your Highness are used 
 to an active life. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 I'll collect old coins and read good books if there are any left 
 I mean to look at life as a weary cavalier may watch the play 
 from his box I may even live to see the days of democracy 
 pass. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 At an early opportunity I may join you in your box. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 You may rest assured of a cordial welcome, dear friend, but it's 
 too early for you. Life's evening does not begin at twelve at 
 noon. Your outlook upon life cannot be mine. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 I find this multicolored life of our present age vastly entertain- 
 ing. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 But only consider, dear Count! The distressful things that hap- 
 pen every day! All the social demarcation lines are be- 
 coming obliterated fast. Even the nobility is vulgarized. I 
 understand that the Emperor made barons of his Court Jews.
 
 80 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 (A coachman's horn-signal is heard.) 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 What say you to such news from Vienna, dear Duke? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Your Highness, I can't pass censure upon the new barons chiefly 
 because I am expecting them as my guests this very minute. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 I believe the gentlemen from Frankfort are alighting from their 
 coach. (Goes off.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 To be sure, I did not expect to be favored to-day with the distinc- 
 tion of your visit, else I should have asked the gentlemen for 
 another occasion. (To the PRINCESS arising.) I hope your 
 Serenity won't take to flight on that account? 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 ( eagerly ) 
 
 But on the contrary, dear Duke, I am glad of the opportunity to 
 meet here the very people on whose account I meant to make 
 the journey to Frankfort, on business. Socially, of course, I 
 have never met them. I am all the more curious to meet them 
 for once outside of their own counting-rooms. 
 
 PRINCESS 
 
 If Madam de St. Georges will first have the goodness to assist me 
 at my toilette 
 
 ST. GEORGES 
 
 May I show the way to Your Highness? (Off with the PRINCESS.) 
 (FEHRENBERG enters with NATHAN, CARL and SALOMON.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (receiving them with a handshake, to SALOMON) 
 My dear Baron, I have so often enjoyed your hospitality in Vienna 
 that I am delighted to welcome you and your brothers to my
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 81 
 
 house. I don't know if Your Highness already knows these 
 gentlemen ? 
 
 PRINCE 
 Certainly. They are so kind as to administer my small fortune. 
 
 SALOMON 
 Not so, Your Highness it is a very attractive number of millions. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 I suppose money has a way of accumulating in the course of cen- 
 turies. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 It need not always take that long. 
 
 PRINCE 
 (distantly) 
 That depends upon the means dear Baron. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Where did you leave your ladies, gentlemen? 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Our dear mother begs you to accept her excuses she is not very 
 well. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 My daughter is driving with my two brothers. Their carriage 
 should be here at any moment. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 You have a long journey behind you, Herr Consul. Do you live 
 in Naples or in Rome? 
 
 CARL 
 
 I make my home in Naples, but I spent a considerable time last 
 winter in Rome. 
 
 CANON 
 
 How is the Holy Father?
 
 82 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 CARL 
 
 His Holiness was pleased at my last sojourn to receive me in audi- 
 ence. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 You call often at the Vatican, don't you? 
 
 CARL 
 
 Not often enough, I regret to say, to get much conversation with 
 the Pope. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 The callings in life are perhaps too disparate to admit of any real 
 intimacy. (To NATHAN:) I beg to congratulate you gentle- 
 men upon your elevation in rank. 
 
 PRINCE 
 I beg to join in Duke Gustave's felicitations. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Many thanks, Your Highness. We were entirely taken by surprise. 
 Such a token of the Emperor's good-will was utterly unex- 
 pected and unlocked for. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 All the greater the rejoicing, I presume, over the utterly unex- 
 pected. 
 
 (Enter AMSCHEL, JACOB, CHARLOTTE.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (approaching CHARLOTTE) 
 My dear Baroness, I am happy to meet you under my own roof. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (curtseying) 
 At Your Highness' service. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Dear Princess Eveline you complained about lack of companion- 
 ship I invoke your protection for this young lady.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 83 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 (extending her hand) 
 You are welcome, Baroness. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Good morning, dear Consul we are old acquaintances, are we 
 not? 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 (bowing) 
 
 Assuredly. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Your Highness has met the Consul? (Shakes hands with JACOB.) 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 Certainly. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 I am glad, Your Highness, of this chance meeting. 
 
 PRINCE 
 (smiling) 
 Not at all I came on purpose to meet you. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 And now, ladies and gentlemen, having acquitted myself of my 
 hospitable task to bore you with salutatories, let each of us 
 seek his personal amusement after his own liking until luncheon. 
 Castle and cellars, chapel and garden-grounds, are yours to 
 command. As regards myself, permit/ me, after my own fash- 
 ion, to devote myself to the ladies. (He turns to CHARLOTTE 
 and EVELINE.) 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 We shall meet again at lunch then. Count Fehrenberg, have the 
 goodness to show me to the Princess' apartments. (Off with 
 FEHRENBERG, follotued by the CANON and SEULBERG.)
 
 84 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (to CHARLOTTE) 
 Vour title of nobility suits you admirably. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 As befitting, I daresay, as your irony. 
 
 EVELINE 
 
 You are in the same predicament with me, Baroness. I never 
 know whether my cousin is serious or joking. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Most of the time I don't know myself. But let us show the 
 Baroness our ancient park grounds. ( They walk off the scene 
 in an animated chat, leaving the brothers alone, to their mani- 
 fest surprise.} 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 (looking about him) 
 Why, they have left us alone \ 
 
 CARL 
 
 (looking after the retiring group) 
 Your Lottie interests the Duke more than we do. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Quite natural. A young girl is always more interesting than five 
 full-grown Jews. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 These people are very prime, but their politeness doesn't ring true. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 They overwhelm us with their courtesy and yet they are plainly 
 making merry over us. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 I feel that too and am annoyed at my annoyance.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 85 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Why, Nathan, that's their game to have us at a disadvantage. 
 Why do you think we were invited here ? 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 The Duke will overreach you. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Will he? He'd be the first, I warrant you. 
 
 CARL 
 
 If I were you, I wouldn't talk to the Duke about that plan of yours 
 not here, at any rate. There is an oppressive influence about 
 the place. 
 
 SALOMON 
 The place will do as well as another. I am not afraid. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 These are matters too foreign to my manner of life. Consider, 
 we have entered upon the enemy's camp. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 What matter? We have to struggle for position wherever ve g 
 except in Jew's Lane. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 We are out of place here not a doubt about it. Mother, with 
 her usual good sense, stayed at home. 
 
 SALOMON 
 That's right hang on to mother's apron-strings. 
 
 JACOB 
 I wished I had followed my first impulse and stayed away. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (raising his voice in the forgctfulness of his distraction) 
 You have no pluck! Had our father been such a drop-tail like 
 you, we'd be trading in old coins to this day instead of millions.
 
 86 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 (soothingly) 
 Hush, hush! 
 
 (Enter FEHRENBERG.) 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 I beg you will pardon me, gentlemen, for leaving you, but the old 
 Prince 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Say no more, Sir. Say no more. We didn't notice your absence. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 May I show you over the Castle ? We have a cabinet of old coins 
 and a collection of old armor 
 
 CARL 
 I should like to see er the arms. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 (to AMSCHEL) 
 
 And about our financial affairs, we may talk at luncheon between 
 the desert and the cheese. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Hardly. Cheese after meat is disallowed me. (They enter the 
 house.) 
 
 (From the rear, the DUKE, CHARLOTTE.) 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I like the old, old trees in the park so much more than those 
 trimmed hedges. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Exactly my own taste. I have romped there as a boy. When I 
 think of home abroad, I don't visualize the Castle only the 
 ancient trees.
 
 THE FIFE FRANKFORTERS 87 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Their spell does not seem to have a strong hold on you. You are 
 always on the road to Vienna or Paris. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Experience and self-examination have convinced me that young 
 women affect me more strongly than old trees. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Your talk always turns upon women. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 If men of my age talk of anything else, they are practicing hypoc- 
 risy. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 At my home male talk turns mostly on other topics. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 The estimable qualities of your relatives are quite in another field 
 and I hope to profit by them. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I don't know if you picture to yourself my relatives aright. My 
 Uncle Jacob 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I hardly know him, though we were on bowing terms in Paris. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I, too, have just made his acquaintance. He does not take after 
 his brothers. Why do you look at me so strangely? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Looking at you is for the present the most agreeable occupation 
 open to me. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Very well then you may look at pleasure.
 
 88 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I should like to make permanent use of your permission. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 More flattery! Highness, you underrate me. Enough of me 
 let's change the subject. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 To hear is to obey. How do you like the court? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 The atmosphere is strange to me. An atmosphere of masculine 
 adoration. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Does it render you uneasy ? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Not at all but pardon me, I shouldn't care to live in that style. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Is the style of your family any more to your liking? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 It isn't exactly what I want either. To walk always in the shadow 
 of our men-folk, as our women do no, I shouldn't like that. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 What are your wishes for the future, then? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Very vague ones. I am curiously expecting life that's all. 
 (Enter the FIVE BROTHERS and COUNT FEHRENBERG.) 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 (to FEHRENBERG) 
 A splendid collection !
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 89 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 (to SALOMON, with a significant glance in the direction of 
 
 CHARLOTTE and GUSTAVE) 
 Look at them! 
 
 SALOMON 
 As if I hadn't been sure my Lottie would please him! 
 
 JACOB 
 
 The vernal moods of St. Cloud are all over the castle grounds, 
 Your Highness. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 All very well, but we didn't come to discuss vernal moods. Your 
 Highness, by your leave, I propose we proceed to business. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 By all means if the Baroness will excuse us? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 My brother Jacob will discuss with her the landscape that's what 
 she likes. 
 
 JACOB 
 Gladly come, Lottie! 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Auf Wiederschn, Baroness! (JACOB with CHARLOTTE off to the 
 park.) Now, gentlemen. (They sit down.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (with a calm that masks his suppressed excitement) 
 The figures in elucidation of our lottery loan scheme have been 
 submitted to Privy Councillor Yssel for examination. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Spare me the figures, Herr Baron, I won't pretend to understand 
 them, anyway. My candid interest is centered wholly upon 
 the twelve millions.
 
 90 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 May I ask how you would propose to invest such a sum? 
 
 GU STAVE 
 
 Oh, we shall find good use for it you may rest assured. Speak- 
 ing generally, I shall devote it to the improvement of my cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Your Highness, your difficulties are no secret to us. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Certainly not. Even the primitive intelligence of my subjects per- 
 ceives, that my deficit stands in inverse and perverse ratio to 
 the extent of my territories. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Now, supposing that our firm would advance such a sum as you 
 require what is the nature of the security you could offer us? 
 
 (A brief silence.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Security? Would it be customary to offer security in an affair of 
 this kind? Let's see I could pledge a part of my revenue 
 or of the taxes 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 I must remind Your Highness that you have already anticipated 
 the next five years' income 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 To be sure I forgot. Thank you for reminding me. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Gentlemen, the produce of the Duchy could be enormously in- 
 creased by a careful and prudent administration. There are 
 extensive forests some coal and mineral springs.
 
 "More Flattery! Highness, let's change the subject."
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 91 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 We have considered that. Lumber and coal will rise in value, but 
 it takes money to develop these properties. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Cannot I give you my personal security? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Your Highness, you may have unconsciously suggested a possible 
 solution. I must premise, however, that such a guarantee, in 
 keeping with your extraordinary personality, would be of an un- 
 usual, I may say, an extraordinary nature. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Mr. Court Banker, you arouse my curiosity. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 (rising in embarrassment) 
 I beg permission to withdraw from the presence. 
 
 Your pardon, Highness, but I am not quite well. 
 
 CARL 
 
 {likewise rising) 
 
 Highness, our brother Salomon is straying from the road of busi- 
 ness pure and simple in his present excursion. I think I had 
 best join my brother in a prayer for leave to withdraw. 
 
 The cowards! 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (in an undertone) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (wondering) 
 Of course as you please. (Exeunt both.)
 
 92 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 If for any reason you wish to be alone ? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 No, stay, my dear Fehrenberg! 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Let me beg of you to stay and my brother Nathan likewise. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Mr. Court Banker, I am getting inquisitive. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Your Highness I have your permission to be quite candid? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 You have my command. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Your Highness a sound rearrangement of your finances is only 
 possible through matrimonial alliance. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 We have thought of that haven't we, Fehrenberg? But we 
 couldn't find anything suitable. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 What would Your Highness consider suitable? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Youth, charm, beauty and a great deal of money. 
 
 SALOMON 
 I can offer you all this. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (amused) 
 
 You can ? I am overwhelmed at the versatility of your enterprise. 
 Where have you found a lady of my rank so admirably fitting?
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFURTERS 93 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Your Highness, the concept of equality of station is not the same 
 in our age as during the preceding ones. You, Highness, grown 
 to manhood during the Napoleonic epoch and full of French 
 esprit 
 
 GU STAVE 
 Have done with compliments well? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Believing Your Highness, that your prophetic soul anticipates the 
 social developments of the future 
 
 GU STAVE 
 
 (interrupting him) 
 
 Out with it, Herr Court Banker whom do you propose to me as 
 future mother of the country? 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Salomon, take thought if you had not better keep your proposal 
 to yourself. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I am well aware of its boldness. And yet I'll venture to submit 
 it, in correct appreciation, I trust, of Your Highness' great- 
 ness of soul. Frankly, then, I propose to Your Highness a 
 matrimonial alliance with my daughter Charlotte. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 But, Herr Court Banker! Herr Court Banker! (Breaking into 
 laughter.) Fehrenberg, what say you? What's the formal re- 
 sponse to such a proposal, Mr. Major-domo? 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 ( officially ) 
 
 Yur Highness, court etiquette has not considered such an emer- 
 gency.
 
 94 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (with an especial effort at politeness) 
 
 I admit I am a little taken aback. You see I am laughing. Bui 
 you might have chosen a moment when I would have met your 
 proposal with an abrupt termination of hospitalities. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I am happy to have divined the psychological moment for such a 
 risky venture aright. 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 Quite so. In such matters everything hinges upon the right mo- 
 ment. I have been enabled once to buy a country-seat in 
 Baden-Baden because the ace of diamonds turned up in the 
 right moment. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Well thought of, my dear Fehrenberg the situation is certainly 
 suggestive of a game at hazard. Herr Court Banker, you for- 
 get the principle of legitimacy. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 We derive it from our wealth, which grows apace and works for 
 us in all the capitals of Europe. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 I am far from despising wealth. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 An alliance between our families will reflect undying honor upon 
 our house. Nor will it be, I trust, quite disadvantageous to 
 yours. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Such a match is without precedent.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 95 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Your Highness will set the precedent. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 (to SALOMON) 
 
 No need to importune His Highness for an immediate decision, 
 is there? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (smiling) 
 
 Nay, brother, temporizing would mean defeat. If Your Highness 
 will deign to say "Yes," the necessary arrangements regarding 
 the lottery loan will be made at our office to-morrow at noon, 
 and the money paid forthwith into your treasury. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 A convincing argument. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Have I your assent then, Your Highness? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Well er yes providing of course your daughter will consent. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Won't she, though! 
 
 (JACOB and CHARLOTTE return from their garden promenade.) 
 
 CHAMBERLAIN 
 (announcing) 
 Luncheon is served. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (to CHARLOTTE) 
 Baroness, your arm, pray. (They turn to the exit.)
 
 96 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (radiant, to NATHAN) 
 Here is where we lead and competition can't follow ! 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 It will follow be sure of that! 1 
 
 CURTAIN,
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Another room in FRAU GUDULA'S mansion. To the right an 
 ample writing-desk. A portrait of old Meyer Amschel on the 
 wall. Deep windows with a view upon the garden in the rear. 
 
 GUDULA and CHARLOTTE at the breakfast-table, which is cleared 
 by ROSE, who leaves presently. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Didst like the good cheer, lassie? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 A capital breakfast, Grannie. The other day at court I ate but 
 little. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Didn't you feel at ease ? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Oh, I felt stared at ! I know the feeling from our official dinners 
 at Vienna. You are being criticized all the time the way you 
 dress your table manners everything you say; they sit there 
 stiffly are very polite and wait for the first faux pas from 
 the banker's daughter. When at last it comes 
 
 GUDULA 
 Does it? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 It is quite a relief. The critics feel contented and gay. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 At our expense. Well, let them. We can think what we like of 
 them. Folks that don't belong together should be kept apart. 
 Those grand folks are unlike ourselves. 
 
 97
 
 98 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 The difference isn't so big, Grannie. They have their etiquette 
 and we have ours. Only with us it is named differently. Both 
 sets are unfree. Only you, Grannie, are sensible enough to go 
 your own way. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I am an old woman and have nothing to lose. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 As for the Duke there are no restraints for him. He takes every 
 hurdle at a jump. 
 
 GUDULA 
 Did he pay you much attention? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 He took me down to lunch. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 What had he to tell ? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 He just told funny stories under his breath good ones like one 
 of our people. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I can't abide those everlasting funny stories not among our own 
 folk either. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 The Duke has the unconstraint of an impudent street urchin. 
 Withal he is very young for all his worldly ways. 
 
 GUDULA 
 Did you like him? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 ( indifferently ) 
 Rather. You will like him, too.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 99 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I won't get the chance. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 But Grannie, he is coming to-day to see you. 
 
 GUDULA 
 I can't make up my mind to it. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Why not? The Landgrave of Hesse and others of the same rank 
 have been here often enough. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Mind, child: they sat at table, ate, drank, called my Amschel 
 "dear friend," pinned decorations to his coat, but their errand 
 was known for all that: they came to borrow money. And 
 further, they were old men ; a young prince never came to this 
 house. 
 
 (Enter SALOMON, in high spirits.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Mother ! This is a great day for us ! I hope everything has been 
 put into befitting shape? 
 
 GUDULA 
 What would you have me put into shape? 
 
 SALOMON 
 The house for the reception of our visitors! 
 
 GUDULA 
 (roughly) 
 
 My house is in order. Whosoever comes to see me, will find me 
 as I always am. 
 
 SALOMON 
 ( offended) 
 
 Are you aware who is coming? Oh, nobody in particular only 
 the Duke of Taunus and the Prince of Klausthal.
 
 100 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 (as above) 
 What's their will with me? I am not on exhibition. 
 
 SALOMON 
 The royalties desire to know you and our family seat. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I know better. Let them go to the Fahrgass, to Amschel's house, 
 a little farther down the lane that's where they'll find the 
 money. 
 
 SALOMON 
 The business must be settled here in my father's lucky house. 
 
 GUDULA 
 (smiling) 
 The Herr Baron is perhaps pleased to be superstitious? 
 
 SALOMON 
 (laughing) 
 
 He takes after his mother. Let me be, I will see to everything. 
 I only ask of you to keep old Rose out of sight to-day. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Stuff and nonsense everything in my house remains at the old 
 footing. I am too old to learn the custom of the court. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Say what you will, Mother, you will brighten up sure enough 
 before the day is over. Well, and you, Lottie? (Patting her.) 
 Feeling bright? That's right. Only you might have put on 
 a finer dress, with your little neck free to wear this set of 
 stones. (Hands her an etui.) 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Why, these are diamonds, father! 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Since when have you become so free-handed, Salomon? I don't 
 recognize you any more.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 101 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Nothing too costly for my Lottie ! 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (toying with the set) 
 Father I really think you want me to do something for you. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 On the contrary, my child, on the contrary I mean to do some- 
 thing for you. Go and put on your finery. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Auf Wiedersehn! (Off.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 A good-looking lass is a first-rate investment. 
 
 GUDULA 
 She has sense as well as good looks. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (gleefully rubbing his hands) 
 Plenty of sense any amount of sense. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 You are in such high spirits the day did you do a good stroke of 
 business ? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Prepared one, Mother. I have been sitting up with Nathan until 
 deep into the night to figure things out. That's better for my 
 health than a nerve cure. After such a go at figures I always 
 feel as fine as a fiddle. It's a pleasure to do team-work with 
 Nathan. He has father's head upon his shoulders. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Why don't you call Jacob in on such occasions to teach him? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 There is too much of other matter on his mind. He hasn't sobered 
 down as yet sufficiently for business. Anyway, I meant to have 
 a word with you about the lad. Why is he out of spirits?
 
 102 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I have my own ideas about that. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 The other day at court he had not one word to say, sitting there 
 as if in an extreme of embarrassment, and admitting thereby 
 that he doesn't belong a witless conduct that reflects upon all 
 of us. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Young people have their moods. He is keeping his own counsel. 
 (Enter CARL.) 
 
 CARL 
 
 How d'ye, Mother? (Nods to SALOMON.) I am afraid my stay 
 is drawing to an end. I must return. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Are you so hotly bent on airing your title at Rome and Naples? 
 
 CARL 
 
 The idea! I am returning on urgent business. There has been 
 another dispatch urging expedition about that Piedmontese loan. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I told you once before: we don't do business with Piedmont. I 
 pledged my word to Metternich and Gentz to withhold sup- 
 plies in that quarter. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 (to CARL) 
 
 Cannot you stay a day or two? Maybe you don't fancy the old 
 town any longer. 
 
 CARL 
 
 On the contrary, Frankfort is fine I have a loathing for Naples. 
 If only I could stay in Germany. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Why not go to Berlin?
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 103 
 
 CARL 
 
 There are no earning chances among those rustics. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Haven't you one of your young men there representing you? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 {indifferently) 
 Aye, a certain Bleichroeder a promising young fellow. 
 
 (Enter AMSCHEL and JACOB.) 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Excuse our being late, but we had a constant flow of visitors 
 the whole town is talking about our new title. We have been 
 simply overwhelmed with congratulations. Ask Jacob. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 To be sure, they sounded now and then a little suspicious. Only 
 in Jew's Lane they rang true. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 They all feel ennobled with us. Shouldn't wonder if the entire 
 Lane were to embroider a coronet upon their linen. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Well, little Jacob, how did you like it at the Duke's the other day? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I liked the court well enough, but hardly the errand that brought 
 us there. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 You can't but admit that the Duke received us on a footing of 
 equality. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 The Duke is very nice pity he isn't a Jew. 
 
 (Enter NATHAN.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 Well everything arranged ?
 
 104 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 I have drawn up the settlements with the Duke on the lines we 
 discussed last night there they are. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 You might have dictated them at my counting-room. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 And let a stranger gain an insight into our secrets? Certainly 
 not. The money is ready at hand. A million florins as an 
 initial payment in ready cash, the balance to be paid at the 
 successive terms agreed on. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Why in cash? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 To make an impression. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Your bank-messenger must cart it to the house and we'll pile it 
 up on the table 
 
 SALOMON 
 Like a Christmas gift. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Children, if you must talk business, perhaps I had better leave you. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Stay, mother, with the business part of this affair we are nearly 
 through, and as regards the rest, we must have your opinion. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 This night we have gone minutely into the Duke's financial posi- 
 tion, with the surprising result that we find it more satisfactory 
 than we supposed possible. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Governing is always a lucrative pursuit, but these people don't un- 
 derstand their business.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 105 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Only let me take charge and watch the profits grow! 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 The country is rich in natural resources. With orderly manage- 
 ment, our loan is safe. As a matter of fact, our risk is con- 
 fined to the amount of the first payment. By way of recom- 
 pense, the Duke must give us the monopoly of salt and coal- 
 mining throughout his territories. There are big possibilities 
 in that. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Weil and how about Lottie? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 The Duke will call to-day to ask her hand in marriage. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 I can't as yet believe it. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 You may. He said "Yes" in my presence. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 (frightened} 
 
 Children children ! I am afraid there is no bliss in such a union. 
 
 SALOMON 
 Well, Mother, did you consider the matter over night? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 It wouldn't let me sleep at night. Whenever at some turn of 
 affairs I am at my wits' end, I ask myself: what would my 
 Amschel have done about it? This is the first time my dead 
 husband, your father, does not make answer. Amschel, you 
 are my oldest, tell me what your father selig would have said 
 about it? 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Truth to tell, Mother, I don't know. I can't get the matter to 
 rights myself. There is that religious difficulty. Will she 
 have to be baptized?
 
 106 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Did you think of him as a convert? 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Are you seriously considering it? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Well, in the case of a young girl besides, one may turn Christian 
 for any number of reasons. Some do it to enter government 
 service, others for the sake of a marriage 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 Or from genuine conviction. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 To be sure one might even get baptized because of genuine con- 
 viction. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Salomon, have done with your levities! At any rate, I won't at- 
 tend the wedding. I won't sit down at table with relatives 
 that snicker at my dietary strictness. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Neither will I. The wedding will have to be celebrated in a 
 church, and I won't set foot into a church. 
 
 CARL 
 
 I think you make too much of the religious difficulty no one can 
 hinder her to remain at heart a loyal Jewess. Think of the 
 social prestige that such a match will give us. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 The international sensation it is bound to create will greatly benefit 
 us in business. We may congratulate ourselves. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Was heisst "we"? He may congratulate himself. Just watch me 
 develop the duchy.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 107 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 You can't undo it these people are our betters. 
 
 SALOMON 
 Are they? 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 And you, little Jacob have you nothing to say? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I am against it but my opinion naturally carries little weight. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Give mouth to your objection you know our custom. Each must 
 say his mind at every important turn. We five belong together. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 We won't very long, if this wedding is to take place. We pros- 
 pered because we five were as one. You are about to bring a 
 stranger into our councils. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 And now I know what my Amschel selig would have said he 
 spoke through the mouth of his youngest. Bring the strange 
 kinship into our house, and our good fortune will be at an end. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 All wrong, I say ! Our father was a bigger man than you conceive 
 him. He struck out for new roads as a merchant, I am doing 
 the same in family affairs. 
 
 JACOB 
 Our father didn't look upon his daughters as objects of speculation. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Judicious he couldn't. They didn't have the looks. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 It's a pity about Lottie. 
 
 SALOMON 
 Lottie you needn't pity she has more sense than you enough, at
 
 108 
 
 any rate, to know her own mind you can't have any voice in 
 this, being a bachelor. What do you know about the married 
 state ? He should bethink himself of a suitable match. ( To 
 JACOB:) To do big business in Paris, you must have a do- 
 mestic establishment, receive in grand style 
 
 CARL 
 
 Don't hurry him, children I wished 7 had had time for a sober 
 second thought! 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Who told you to marry a marchioness ? 
 
 CARL 
 
 I needed social standing. Had I known the event, I should have 
 thought better of it. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 And yet the same sort of match will do you for Lottie? 
 
 CARL 
 It's different with women. My wife is happy. I am not. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 Jacob, I know a wife for you. 
 
 JACOB 
 {smiling) 
 Much obliged, Amschel; I mean to do the choosing myself. 
 
 CARL 
 
 That's just what I did. I tell you, you had better let some one 
 else attend to that. 
 
 JACOB 
 But tastes in beauty differ. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Beautiful or not, one gets used to most any woman in wedlock. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 But to a beautiful one more quickly.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 109 
 
 ROSE 
 
 (announcing) 
 The Prince of Klausthal. 
 
 SALOMON 
 Well, what did I tell you? (Goes to meet him.) 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 The first of our royal relatives to call. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I can't abide that turn of things with Lottie. Don't talk to me 
 I'll see no one. 
 
 (Enter the PRINCE, with SALOMON.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 Welcome, Your Highness. 
 
 PRINCE 
 (very civilly) 
 Good morning, gentlemen. 
 
 SALOMON 
 We are grateful to your Serenity for the honor of your visit. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 (with cool civility) 
 Not at all. I came on business purely. 
 
 CARL 
 Delighted to have you with us on any terms. Be seated, pray. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 (remains standing, very civilly) 
 I am much obliged to you. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 (bursting into a little pause of embarrassment) 
 How does Your Highness like Frankfort?
 
 110 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 (as above) 
 I know the town of old saving, of course, this quarter of the city. 
 
 (An awkward silence.) 
 My young cousin Gustave of Taunus has advised me of er of 
 
 the errand that will lead him to your house this day. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 May we know how Your Highness received the news? 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 I had no time to discuss it with the Duke. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Won't Your Highness state the view you are taking of this matter? 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 (very civilly) 
 
 I have no reason to withhold my opinion from my prospective rela- 
 tives. 
 
 SALOMON 
 We are all anxious to hear it. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 What the libertarians of France endeavored to accomplish with the 
 guillotine, Messieurs the Bankers of Frankfort are attempting 
 with the coupon scissors. I own that I am opposed to level- 
 ing efforts, whatever the chosen tool of equalization may be. 
 (Embarrassment.) 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Won't Your Highness at any rate be seated? 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 (as above) 
 
 Much obliged, dear Baron, but I have very little to add. Under 
 the circumstances, I think it proper to terminate our business
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 111 
 
 relations. I am about to make my home abroad. You will 
 therefore please transmit to Paris the deposits I entrusted to 
 your care. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 It shall be done by special messenger, since this is Your Highness' 
 pleasure. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Is Your Highness dissatisfied with our management of your affairs? 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 Oh, no. But as by my cousin's marriage I shall have the honor of 
 being distantly connected with your family, I consider it in- 
 convenient that you should continue the administration of my 
 finances. I could not burden my relatives however distant. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 I am very sorry. Your Highness may possibly reconsider 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (on a level of politeness with the PRINCE) 
 
 My dear brother, I must beg of you not to attempt to influence 
 His Highness' decisions. Your Highness have spoken in antic- 
 ipation of my own views. I am very far from wishing to 
 derive any advantages in the way of business through my 
 daughter's marriage. 
 
 PRINCE 
 
 (to SALOMON) 
 
 I am glad we are in accord. (Including the other brothers in his 
 address.) Gentlemen, the Emperor has been pleased to elevate 
 you to a barony. German noblemen, according to my way of 
 thinking, have no business to be in business. I regret not hav- 
 ing met the ladies of your family. May I request you to con- 
 vey to them my compliments and permit me to wish you 
 good-day ? 
 
 (SALOMON bows in silence.)
 
 112 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 PRINCE 
 (bowing) 
 Gentlemen, I have the honor to take my leave. 
 
 CARL 
 Your Highness will permit me to conduct you to the door. 
 
 PRINCE 
 I am greatly obliged to you. (Exeunt both.) 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 In such manner I never lost a client. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 The old fool he will yet be sorry for it, no matter where he 
 means to bank his money! 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 Don't call any names I can see that he impressed you. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 To be sure he did that's why I seek to ally myself with his sort. 
 
 JACOB 
 Our future kinsfolk, it seems, don't take to you very kindly. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 The Duke does and as for his cousin, what do I care ! 
 
 JACOB 
 
 He has been asked his opinion, and he has told it with irreproach- 
 able politeness. 
 
 NATHAN 
 
 He was as civil as an executioner beheading a king. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 His opinion is of no consequence, but the sudden withdrawal of 
 his funds does not exactly suit our convenience. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 All the same, the capital must be raised at once, it must reach Paris
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 113 
 
 before him. He must be shown that we don't care for his 
 money. Depend upon it, he will seek us again. 
 
 (Enter CARL, doing the honors to GUSTAVE and FEHRENBERG.) 
 
 CARL 
 My brothers, to be sure, are sharing my elation over this honor. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Good morning, gentlemen. (All bow to the DUKE.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Your Highness, I trust, will pardon our failure to meet you on 
 the road we expected the distinction of your visit somewhat 
 later in the day. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 The excuses are all mine for arriving before the time appointed, 
 but I was impatient with curiosity to see your family mansion. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 The house is not half bad, but the Lane 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Oh, pray, Herr Baron, the Lane too is an old tradition (shaking 
 hands) two traditions have met at last. 
 
 CARL 
 
 It is very complaisant of Your Highness to call our dingy Lane a 
 tradition. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Baron, in this antiquated Lane, where one receives the impression 
 at first of time standing still, the most modern of contemporary 
 mankind have their home. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Won't Your Highness pray be seated? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Gladly, my dear Consul. (Moves as if about to sit down.)
 
 114 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 FEHRENBERG 
 
 (offering five little boxes which he takes from out of his 
 
 coat- flaps) 
 Won't Your Highness first ? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Well reminded, my dear Fehrenberg. Meine Herrn, I herewith 
 create you Knights of my Domestic Order and take pleasure in 
 presenting you with the insignia. (He pins a cross upon AM- 
 SCHEL'S breast-front.) Thereon, my dear Consul, you will 
 find the inscription: "Pour la vertue militaire." I chose this 
 decoration on purpose. You have evidenced in a high degree 
 the military virtue of courage you have offered to lend me 
 money. Upon you, my dear Salomon, I bestow the Grand 
 Cordon of the Order, because you gave proof the other day of 
 a courage bordering upon downright audacity. (Decorates 
 him with the grand cordon a cross upon a big red sash.) 
 In strictest confidence, now, I call your attention to an im- 
 portant detail: the sash is of sufficient width to serve in lieu 
 of a waistcoat an advantage which I myself turn to good 
 account during the hot season. 
 
 SALOMON 
 Your Highness, in my own name and in the name of my brothers, 
 
 I thank you. My courage may be greater than you think. 
 (Enter GUDULA and CHARLOTTE.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 (perfectly sure-footed and ladylike) 
 Welcome, Duke Gustave, under my roof. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Baroness, I regret having missed the privilege of seeing you under 
 my own the other day. (Kissing her hand.) I desire your 
 better acquaintance, Baroness. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 (turning to FEHRENBERG) 
 Good morning to you, Count Fehrenberg.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 115 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (to CHARLOTTE) 
 My dear Baroness! 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 (curtseying) 
 Your Highness! 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I should like to pay court to you now in my best manner, but my 
 conversational resources have a knack of always failing when 
 my sentiments are getting serious. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Perhaps you overestimate the seriousness of your sentiments? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Highness, I would propose that we transact business first. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 You shall fix the order of the day to please yourself. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 If I may trouble Your Highness to come into the adjoining room, 
 we will there discuss the settlements and sign. A first pay- 
 ment of a million, in gold and hundred-florin notes, lies on the 
 table. As soon as our treaty is signed, our bank messenger will 
 convey the money to your treasury. (Opens the door.) 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 (in the act of leaving) 
 
 Thoughtful and generous, I call that. (Exeunt GUSTAVE, FEHR- 
 ENBERG and the four BROTHERS. JACOB remains standing on 
 the threshold.} 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Well, little Jacob, why don't you join your brothers? At such 
 weighty business you ought to be right with them. 
 
 JACOB 
 I will have no lot nor part in it.
 
 116 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 It's not to my liking either, little Jacob, to have such folks in my 
 house and yet I give them their due. (To CHARLOTTE:) 
 If only I knew what to put before the Duke. What do you 
 give? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Such people are fond of champagne. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 That's too rich for me. Just before that sort I won't have any 
 display. They shall have some of my Amschel's old Burgundy. 
 (Off.) 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Uncle Jacob, I don't rightly understand why you oppose that 
 negotiation with the Duke. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 It may be wrong of me to tell, but I can't leave you in darkness 
 any longer. It is your fate they are sealing behind that door. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 My fate! Do you think that can be settled without calling me 
 in council? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 In requital of the services rendered him by your father, the Duke 
 will ask your hand to-day in marriage. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I thank you for your frankness, Uncle Jacob. I have suspected 
 that something of that order would come to pass, but not so 
 soon as all that. 
 
 JACOB 
 (bitterly) 
 Your father insists upon promptness in all matters of business. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (gravely) 
 Jacob, I noticed the other day already that you are incensed against
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 117 
 
 my father. I must urge you now not to say anything to his 
 disparagement. He loves me in his own way and means to 
 do the best he can for me. 
 
 JACOB 
 Vou are pleased with the Duke, then? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Certainly. He is clever. He takes a superior view of men and 
 things. Behind his irony there is a hearty cheerfulness. He is 
 a handsome young man and none the worse for knowing it. 
 If his dominions are not extensive, he is a rightful sovereign 
 for all that; his wife will wear a crown. 
 
 JACOB 
 Now I know how you will receive his suit. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 If you do you know more than I do myself. I have pictured my 
 future betrothed differently. Quieter, more dreamy. Less 
 irony more sentiment. No retinue of courtiers, a life with- 
 out a grand mise-en-scene and without beholders. I should like 
 to give all my soul freely and that's impossible with the 
 Duke. (Abruptly.) Tell me, Uncle Jacob, why do you ob- 
 ject to the Duke? Don't you like him? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Perhaps it's only my envy. He is as sure of life as I am not. 
 You are right, Charlotte, nothing speaks against him and 
 that's just why I am unhappy. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Little Jacob, is that all that ails you ? 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Oh, nothing ails me. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Quite right think how many are envying you.
 
 118 THE FIVE FRAXKFORTERS 
 
 JACOB 
 
 I have no worry to be sure. And yet, I did not choose my call- 
 ing. The life of a banker is a life I don't know how to ex- 
 press myself a life without color, without music. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (smiling) 
 Music! I see you would like to emulate your friend Rossini. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Rossini ! When I am sitting at play, I would gladly change places 
 with every little fiddler in the orchestra who knows his music 
 and nothing else in the world. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Perhaps the fiddler would not be disinclined to close the bargain. 
 These be strange longings for a banker of the house of Roths- 
 child. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 Laugh, Lottie, laugh at me! It stimulates me gives me courage. 
 (Struggling for expression.) Oh, Lottie if only I could tell 
 you 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (moved) 
 Don't speak, little Jacob, say nothing. I know now. 
 
 JACOB 
 
 (kissing her hands) 
 Lottie! 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (caressing his hair) 
 You are so young so young! 
 
 (Enter, from the adjoining room, the DUKE, FEHRENBERG, the 
 four BROTHERS, a little later GUDULA.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (to GUSTAVE upon entering) 
 This seals our compact then with Your Highness.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 119 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 With our signatures affixed to the written instrument, it does. 
 (Pockets a paper.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 The money will be paid into your treasury by special messenger. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I can guarantee he won't have to turn back for lack of room in my 
 vaults. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I hope the gentlemen will do me the honor to take a glass of wine 
 
 on the garden-grounds. 
 ( GUSTAVE accepts with a bow.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Your Highness, could you make up your mind to a little chat 
 with an old woman? Will you stop here with me alone for 
 a few minutes? I ask it as a favor. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 You confer one, Madam. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Salomon, be good enough to precede us to the garden with Count 
 Fehrenberg and the others. (Exeunt, leaving the DUKE alone 
 with FRAU GUDULA.) 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Now, will you sit here quite close to me and let me look into 
 your face ? Forget for a few minutes that I am an old Jewess 
 and you a reigning prince. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I am doing that often enough and gladly, believe me, Baroness.
 
 120 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 I must have speech with you about Charlotte. Don't let my blunder- 
 ing give you offense. I am doing the office of grandmother 
 for the first time to-day, and in such a grave business too. 
 That frightens me. Mind, Duke Gustave, my son Salomon 
 sees in this affair no more than he wishes to see, my good little 
 Lottie is an orphan, and I must stand her in her mother's stead. 
 I must make bold to ask questions. Tell me, Duke Gustave, 
 doesn't this match with my granddaughter strike you as brought 
 about in a venturesome way? 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Granted, Baroness, but it is just this element of adventure that 
 delights me in my alliance with your beautiful grandchild. 
 
 GUDULA 
 I don't follow you. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 I won't account for my future by graded rule as an old privy 
 councillor will account for his career. A traditional alliance 
 between the high-born is vieux jeu. The world is tired of the 
 old game and so am I I mean to play a new one. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 It's hazardous. Besides, we are such a straight-lived set. What a 
 life you must have led! 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 It was a life of adventure from the beginning. In my boyhood the 
 thronelets of my relatives shook as during an earthquake. One 
 day my father's throne was put into the big Corsican bag. 
 We went into exile to Vienna. There my father died. I 
 chose to spend his money in Paris. Just when I had run 
 through with my fortune, Napoleon, in a manner of speaking,
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 121 
 
 had run through his. The Empire collapsed. I was rein- 
 stated into my duchy and my revenues. The revenues are 
 gone, and my duchy would follow suit, if your sons had not 
 interceded. You perceive now that I am used to looking upon 
 life as an adventure. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Duke Gustave, you are playing with life at hazard. It turns my 
 head giddy to think of it. I am fearing for my grandchild. 
 Matrimony is a serious matter. I may say that I have lived 
 happily with my Meyer Amschel in quite another walk of life. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 Baroness, I pray you rest assured 
 
 GUDULA 
 (roughly) 
 
 Don't call me Baroness, Duke Gustave, it's too much like a mum- 
 mery. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Madam, the Emperor 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Stuff and nonsense the Emperor can't make me a noblewoman 
 at seventy-one year, of age. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 And yet, Madam, your nobility may be of the oldest. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 You might save your compliments for my Lottie. With her they 
 may avail you, perhaps. With me they won't. I won't play 
 Providence in so complex a matter. Let my grandchild decide 
 for herself.
 
 122 THE FIFE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 (Enter CHARLOTTE with SALOMON, later on NATHAN, AMSCHEL 
 and JACOB.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Now your little tete-a-tete is at an end. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 It was not a satisfactory one to either of us, I am afraid. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Herr Baron, you are familiar with the nature of my present errand. 
 I have the honor to ask for the hand of your daughter in mar- 
 riage. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Supremely honored. As a matter of course, you are welcome. Em- 
 brace your betrothed, pray. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Without my assent? Father, you misconceive me. I feel deeply 
 humiliated. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Humiliated! 1 Why? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Because I have been offered in marriage. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 These are mere formalities. Prearranged matches are customary 
 in our circles. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 A detestable custom. What must Duke Gustave think of me?
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 123 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 But, dearest Baroness, it's the same all over in our set. Or?!} 
 with us it is called politics. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Duke Gustave, I am doing true service to both of us in saying no. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 What do you mean? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Do you know what I am feeling? Father, do you believe that I 
 could be happy without a home? For I could never find a 
 home in that castle, with all the servants laughing at me be- 
 hind my back! And the portraits on the wall staring at me 
 and seeming to say: If you please you have come here too 
 soon wait another century or so! No, if I marry (taking 
 flight to her grandmother} Grannie, why don't you help me? 
 (GuDULA talks to her soothingly. In the meantime, AMSCHEL 
 and JACOB have joined the company. JACOB takes an armchair 
 in the corner.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Your Highness will pardon this untoward incident. I guarantee 
 that my daughter will presently alter her resolution. In our 
 house children have to mind their parents. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Have they? Then you will have the goodness to mind me and to 
 let the girl have her way in this! Duke Gustave, I am sure 
 you will understand. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Candidly, I have by no means felt sure of the Baroness. (To 
 SALOMON:) Under the circumstances, what becomes of our 
 agreement ?
 
 134 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (perplexed) 
 
 Dtnnerwctter! the money has already been paid into your trta- 
 ury. 
 
 GUSTAVE 
 
 Of course, it is at your disposition that is to say, if there is any- 
 thing left. I can't conceal from you that a good many people 
 kave been waiting its arrival let me return you your contract. 
 
 GUDULA 
 (imperiously) 
 
 You keep your own. Highness, be glad you have it. If I know 
 these gentlemen, my sons, at all, they have taken uncommon 
 good care not to be the losers in the bargain. 
 
 AMSCHEL 
 
 Quite right, Mother. We never go back on our signature. Coe 
 now, Your Highness, and let us calmly discuss the situation. 
 
 (Goes off with the DUKE.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Incredible i To be overreached by such a young fool of a spend- 
 thrift I say, there must be a special Providence in these mat- 
 ters. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Perhaps he is brainier than you think him. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 II that's so, then I regret all the more that I can't have him for 
 a son-in-law. (Turning to CHARLOTTE.) There is more to 
 this than appears on the surface. We are left to ourselves 
 aow, state your reasons.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 125 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (half turning to JACOB, who, rising, follows her words 
 with perceptible emotion) 
 
 You know them. I'll have no sneering courtier, but a human 
 being with a heart, one of my own kind one to whom I can 
 be more than to the Duke. 
 
 SALOMON 
 (puzzled) 
 Yes? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Yes, father, one to whom I shall be his strength and joy in life, 
 and live with him as grandfather lived with Grannie. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I clearly see you have already made some choice. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 I have. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Then tell me. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Not yet. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Then there must be something wrong! What is he? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 A merchant. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (disdainfully) 
 
 Every cap-dealer calls himself a merchant nowadays. Wkat's bis 
 line.
 
 126 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Banking. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I see. Then I'll probably know him. 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 (pleasantly) 
 You know him well. 
 
 SALOMON 
 Has he any money? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 As much as you have. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 You overestimate that Great Unknown. Has he a bank of his 
 own? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 As large an establishment as yours. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Tut, tut! Does he come from a good family? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 As good a family as ours. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (in a semi-whisper) 
 Is he a Jew? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 Yes.
 
 THE FIVE FRANKFORTERS 127 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 To be sure. Who is he, then? 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 If you must know he who stands speechless in that corner yonder. 
 Your brother Jacob! 
 
 (JACOB folds CHARLOTTE in his embrace.) 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 Excellent! And that's what I have been working and hoarding 
 for for my own brother! 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Salomon, dear, don't you say no. 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 I am not saying no. Only I could have arranged that more sim- 
 ply and less expensively. 
 
 GUDULA 
 
 Salomon, what would you have? Is your brother's, your child's 
 happiness nothing? Cannot you be contented? 
 
 SALOMON 
 
 (softening into a broad smile) 
 Yes, Mother dear I am. 
 
 CURTAIN.
 
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