Wednesday, February 24, 2021
The Last Link in the Chain
Goethe, Iphigenia in Tauris 1.3.351-355 (tr. Roy Pascal):
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Happy are they who gladly remember their ancestors;Walter Scott, The Antiquary, chapter IX:
Whose delight it is to please the hearer
With tales of their deeds and greatness, and in quiet joy
See themselves linked to a noble chain.
Wohl dem, der seiner Väter gern gedenkt,
Der froh von ihren Taten, ihrer Größe,
Den Hörer unterhält und still sich freuend
Ans Ende dieser schönen Reihe sich
Geschlossen sieht!
"There was always some idle story of the room being haunted by the spirit of Aldobrand Oldenbuck, my great-great-great-grandfather—it’s a shame to the English language that, we have not a less clumsy way of expressing a relationship of which we have occasion to think and speak so frequently."Thanks to Eric Thomson for the quotation from Scott.
