University of Virginia Library

MIGNON AS AN ANGEL.
By GOETHE.

IT chanced that the birthday of two twin-sisters, whose behavior
had been always very good, was near; I promised
that, on this occasion, the little present they had so
well deserved should be delivered to them by an angel.
They were on the stretch of curiosity regarding this phenomenon.
I had chosen Mignon for the part; and accordingly,
at the appointed day, I had her suitably equipped in a
long light snow-white dress. She was, of course, provided
with a golden girdle round her waist, and a golden fillet on
her hair. I at first proposed to omit the wings; but the
young ladies who were decking her, insisted on a pair of
large golden pinions, in preparing which they meant to
show their highest art. Thus did the strange apparition,
with a lily in the one hand, and a little basket in the other,
glide in among the girls: she surprised even me. “There
comes the angel!” said I. The children all shrank back;
at last they cried: “It is Mignon!” yet they durst not
venture to approach the wondrous figure.

“Here are your gifts,” said she, putting down the basket.
They gathered around her, they viewed, they felt, they
questioned her.

“Art though an angel?” asked one of them.

“I wish I were,” said Mignon.

“Why dost thou bear a lily?”

“So pure and so open should my heart be; then were I
happy.”

“What wings are these? Let us see them!”

“They represent far finer ones, which are not yet unfolded.”

And thus significantly did she answer all their other
childlike, innocent inquiries. The little party having satisfied
their curiosity, and the impression of the show beginning
to abate, we were for proceeding to undress the little
angel. This, however, she resisted: she took her cithern;
she seated herself here, on this high writing-table, and sang
a little song with touching grace: —