17

ON A REPORT OF A MINISTER'S DEATH WRITTEN IN GERMANY

Last Monday all the Papers said That Mr. ---- was dead; Why, then, what said the City? The tenth part sadly shook their head, And shaking sigh'd and sighing said, 'Pity, indeed, 'tis pity!'

But when the said report was found A rumour wholly without ground, Why, then, what said the city? The other nine parts shook their head, Repeating what the tenth had said, 'Pity, indeed, 'tis pity!'

First published in Morning Post, Sept. 18, 1799. Included in Keepsake, 1829, p. 122; Lit. Rem., i. 46. First collected P. and D. W., 1877, ii. 166. Adapted from Lessing's Sinngedicht No. 29. Auf den falschen Ruf von Nigrins Tode. 'Es sagte, sonder alle Gnade, die ganze Stadt Nigrinen tot.'