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Through
the Looking-Glass
and what Alice
found there
Kapitel 9:
Queen Alice, Lewis Carroll, Seite 1 ( von 8 )
"Well, this is grand!"
said Alice. "I never expected I should be a Queen so soon - and I'll tell
you what it is, your Majesty," she went on in a severe tone (she was
always rather fond of scolding herself), "it'll never do for you to be
lolling about on the grass like that! Queens have to be dignified, you
know!"
So she got up and walked about - rather stiffly just at first, as she was
afraid that the crown might come off: but she comforted herself with the
thought that there was nobody to see her, "and if I really am a
Queen," she said as she sat down again, "I shall be able to manage it
quite well in time."
Everything was happening so oddly that she didn't feel a bit surprised at
finding the Red Queen and the White Queen sitting close to her, one on each
side: she would have liked every much to ask them how they came there, but she
feared it would not be quite civil. However, there would be no harm, she
thought, in asking if the game was over. "Please, would you tell me
-" she began, looking timidly at the Red Queen."
"Speak when you're spoken to!" the Queen sharply interrupted her.
"But if everybody obeyed that rule," said Alice, who was always ready
for a little argument, "and if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and
the other person always waited for
you to begin,
you see nobody would ever say anything, so that -"
"Ridiculous!" cried the Queen. "Why, don't you see, child
-" here she broke off with a frown, and, after thinking for a minute,
suddenly changed the subject of the conversation. "What do you mean by 'If
you really are a Queen'? What right have you to call yourself so? You can't be
a Queen, you know, till you've passed the proper examination. And the sooner we
begin it, the better."
"I only said 'if'!" poor Alice pleaded in a piteous tone.
The two Queens looked at each other, and the Red Queen remarked, with a little
shudder, "She says she only said
'if' -"
"But she said a great deal more than that!" the White Queen moaned,
wringing her hands. "Oh, ever so much more than that!"
"So you did, you know," the Red Queen said to Alice. "Always
speak the truth - think before you speak - and write it down afterwards."
"I'm sure I didn't mean -" Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen
interrupted her impatiently.
"That's just what I complain of! You
should have
meant! What do you suppose is the use of a child without any meaning? Even a
joke should have some meaning - and a child's more important than a joke, I
hope. You couldn't deny that, even if you tried with both hands."
"I don't deny things with my
hands,"
Alice objected.
"Nobody said you did," said the Red Queen. "I said you couldn't
if you tried."
"She's in that state of mind," said the White Queen, "that she
wants to deny something - only
she doesn't know what to deny!"
"A nasty, vicious temper," the Red Queen remarked; and then there was
an uncomfortable silence for a minute or two.
The Red Queen broke the silence by saying to the White Queen, "I invite
you to Alice's dinner-party this afternoon."
The White Queen smiled feebly, and said "And I invite
you."
"I didn't know I was to have a party at all," said Alice; "but
if there is to be one, I think
I ought to
invite the guests."
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