The Dramatic Works of G E Lessing Author:Gotthold Ephraim Lessing General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1878 Original Publisher: G. Bell and sons Subjects: Drama / General Drama / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Drama / Continental European Literary Criticism / European / German Literary Criticism / Drama Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It... more » has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: THE OLD MAID. (A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS.) Non tu nunc hominnm mores vides ? Dum dos fit, nullum vitium vitio vertitur. -- Plaubts. " The Old Maid " was written at Leipzig daring the years 1716 -- 1748 DRAMATIS PERSONS. Fraulein Ohldinn. Leuo, her cousin. Lisette, maid to Fraulein Ohldinn. Herr Oront. Frau Oront. Here" Von Stamp, a captain. Peter, a cake seller. Clitander, a friend of Lelio. Krausel, a poet. A Tailor. Herr Eehfuss. The scene is in a parlour. THE OLD MAID. ACT L Scene I. -- Fraulein Ohldinn, Here Oront, Frau Oront. Herr Or. Ah ! What whims! One never grows too old for that. And how old are you, then ? How long is it since I saw you carried in the nurse's arms ? If it were fifty, one, tw. o well, say some fifty years Fr. Ohl. Why not eighty at once ? If you take me to be as old as that why do you talk to me so much about marriage ? Herr Or. Oh, come now! You are not too old ! Not at all too old. Four-and-fifty is just the right age for a marriageable girl. If the young things marry so young, it will follow that the children too Fr. Ohl. What nonsense about your four-and-fifty years Frau Or. (to Herr Or). Quite true. You are mistaken, my dear. You even cannot be as old as that yet. Here Or. I should be glad if that were so. I and the century go along together. Have you anything to complain of in my age? Am I not still Frau Or. Well, well. Then you can't have known he...« less