The Gold Licked Out
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Die Irrlichter, die sich bisher um ihn beschäftigt hatten, traten zur Seite; sie schienen, obgleich blaß beim Morgenlichte, doch wieder gut genährt und wohl bei Flammen; sie hatten auf eine geschickte Weise die goldnen Adern des kolossalen Bildes mit ihren spitzen Zungen bis auf’s innerste heraus geleckt. Die unregelmäßigen leeren Räume, die dadurch entstanden waren, erhielten sich eine Zeit lang offen und die Figur blieb in ihrer vorigen Gestalt. Als aber auch zuletzt die zartesten Aederchen aufgezehrt waren, brach auf einmal das Bild zusammen und leider gerade an den Stellen die ganz bleiben, wenn der Mensch sich setzt; dagegen blieben die Gelenke, die sich hätten biegen sollen, steif. Wer nicht lachen konnte, mußte seine Augen wegwenden; das Mittelding zwischen Form und Klumpen war widerwärtig anzusehn.
The will-o'-the-wisps, who until now had been busy about him, stepped aside; they seemed, though pale in the morning light, well fed again and full of flame; they had skilfully licked the golden veins of the colossal statue out with their pointed tongues down to the innermost. The irregular hollows that arose from this stayed open for a while and the figure kept its former shape. But when at last the finest little veins were consumed too, the statue collapsed all at once, and unfortunately just at those places that stay whole when a man sits down; whereas the joints that should have bent stayed stiff. Whoever could not laugh had to turn his eyes away; the thing halfway between form and lump was repulsive to look at.
The will-o'-the-wisps, fat with flame, have licked the gold veins out of the composite statue, and it finally collapses in the worst possible places.
<p>Now we learn why the fourth king fell: the will-o'-the-wisps have licked the golden veins out of him with their pointed tongues, down to the finest Aederchen, the little veins, while the shell kept its old shape. Goethe is precise about the mechanics of hollow things. A structure can look whole long after its substance is gone, and when it fails it fails perversely, collapsing at the places that stay firm when a man sits down while the joints that should bend stay stiff.</p><p>The wisps carry no blame; they are simply following their appetite, and a king of mixed metal is a meal. The verdict is carried by one word, Mittelding, a halfway thing between form and lump, repulsive to look at. A ruin keeps a kind of dignity; the composite king ends as something worse, a heap that still half remembers being a form. Whoever could not laugh, the text says, had to look away.</p>
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