performance in the house. (6) During the performance Wilhelm drops his Jonathan puppet, but otherwise performs his parts well. In the coming spring Wilhelm practices with siblings, friends, and by himself. He finds Gottsched’s “The German Stage,” which he begins to practice—preferring always the fifth acts. Mariane is getting sleepy, but Wilhelm is blissfully unaware. He asks of her childhood, but Barbara suggests that he continue his own story (of the theater). (7) Wilhelm begins acting with friends and wishes to do a rendition of Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered. The friends struggle to furnish their play with the necessary materials, and on the night of the performance they realize that no one has any lines planned. After one aborted attempt, they decide to play David and Goliath (from the earlier puppet shows). (8) By this point Mariane has fallen asleep, but Wilhelm continues his story, this time about how he and his friends attempted to turn all manner of novels, stories, and histories into plays. By the time he was fourteen he was being groomed for a job in commerce, which his adolescent heart couldn’t bear. He composed a poem where the Muse of Tragedy vied with a figure of Commerce. Wilhelm is so inspired in his speech that he wakes Mariane up. (9) Wilhelm allows his imagination to run wild in the following days"Fate, he decided, was extending its helping hand to him, through Mariane, to draw him out of that stifling, draggle-tailed middle-class existence he had so long desired to escape." (Trans. Blackall & Lange, 1989)(10) Preparing to set out for a business trip, Wilhelm pores over the books and papers in his room. His friend, Werner, enters, and gives Wilhelm a speech about the power and attraction of double bookkeeping (doppelten Buchführung) and world commerce. (11) It was Wilhelm and Werner’s fathers, described here, who had organized this commercial journey for him. Wilhelm is thrilled at the chance to use this trip as his escape. He visits Mariane in at night and alerts her to the plan. (12) In the morning Mariane is miserable and talks to Barbara about her options. She loves Wilhelm but is awaiting the near arrival of her rich suitor, Norberg. (13) In the meantime, Wilhelm has arrived at the house of his father’s business associate—only to hear that the man’s daughter has run away with an actor. An uncomfortable Wilhelm stays the night