SHOEMAKER. No, no!

RELATIVE. Oh, it is unprecedented--read for yourself!

SHOEMAKER. I'm too agitated to read; you read it.

RELATIVE. Then listen to what the scoundrel writes: "A quarter of a
century has hardly elapsed since Burgomaster Schulze gladdened this
community with weighty improvements as regards its street paving,
by giving us in place of the old sand-ground rough cobble stones."
Do you hear! Do you hear!

SHOEMAKER. Yes, I hear. But that was not very alarming.

RELATIVE. Not alarming! Doesn't he call him Burgomaster Schulze?
One does not say burgomaster of a dead man--one says Our
Illustrious--Does not the wretch write about rough cobble stones?
Does he not attempt with that to undermine _his_ worth?

SHOEMAKER. But one cannot call it an attack, if he says that cobble
stones are rough when they are rough.

RELATIVE. Of course they are rough, but one must not say that they
are when a great man is responsible for them. Have a care, Master
Shoemaker! I see that you are a sceptic. Have a care--you know the
consequences!

SHOEMAKER. For God's sake, I'm no sceptic! Haven't I been standing
here chanting odes to brother Schulze?