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diff --git a/6786.txt b/6786.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f91200 --- /dev/null +++ b/6786.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5584 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Piccolomini, by Frederich Schiller + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Piccolomini + A Play + +Author: Frederich Schiller + +Release Date: October 26, 2006 [EBook #6786] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PICCOLOMINI *** + + + + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger + + + + + + THE PICCOLOMINI + + By Frederich Schiller + + + + Translated by S. T. Coleridge. + + + +"Upon the whole there can be no doubt that this trilogy forms, in its +original tongue, one of the most splendid specimens of tragic art the +world has witnessed; and none at all, that the execution of the version +from which we have quoted so largely, places Mr. Coleridge in the very +first rank of poetical translators. He is, perhaps, the solitary example +of a man of very great original genius submitting to all the labors, and +reaping all the honors of this species of literary exertion."--Blackwood, +1823. + + + + +PREFACE. + +The two dramas,--PICCOLOMINI, or the first part of WALLENSTEIN, and the +DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN, are introduced in the original manuscript by a +prelude in one act, entitled WALLENSTEIN'S CAMP. This is written in +rhyme, and in nine-syllable verse, in the same lilting metre (if that +expression may be permitted), with the second Eclogue of Spenser's +Shepherd's Calendar. + +This prelude possesses a sort of broad humor, and is not deficient in +character: but to have translated it into prose, or into any other metre +than that of the original, would have given a false idea both of its +style and purport; to have translated it into the same metre would have +been incompatible with a faithful adherence to the sense of the German +from the comparative poverty of our language in rhymes; and it would have +been unadvisable, from the incongruity of those lax verses with the +present taste of the English public. Schiller's intention seems to have +been merely to have prepared his reader for the tragedies by a lively +picture of laxity of discipline and the mutinous dispositions of +Wallenstein's soldiery. It is not necessary as a preliminary +explanation. For these reasons it has been thought expedient not to +translate it. + +The admirers of Schiller, who have abstracted their idea of that author +from the Robbers, and the Cabal and Love, plays in which the main +interest is produced by the excitement of curiosity, and in which the +curiosity is excited by terrible and extraordinary incident, will not +have perused without some portion of disappointment the dramas, which it +has been my employment to translate. They should, however, reflect that +these are historical dramas taken from a popular German history; that we +must, therefore, judge of them in some measure with the feelings of +Germans; or, by analogy, with the interest excited in us by similar +dramas in our own language. Few, I trust, would be rash or ignorant +enough to compare Schiller with Shakspeare; yet, merely as illustration, +I would say that we should proceed to the perusal of Wallenstein, not +from Lear or Othello, but from Richard II., or the three parts of Henry +VI. We scarcely expect rapidity in an historical drama; and many prolix +speeches are pardoned from characters whose names and actions have formed +the most amusing tales of our early life. On the other hand, there exist +in these plays more individual beauties, more passages whose excellence +will bear reflection than in the former productions of Schiller. The +description of the Astrological Tower, and the reflections of the Young +Lover, which follow it, form in the original a fine poem; and my +translation must have been wretched indeed if it can have wholly +overclouded the beauties of the scene in the first act of the first play +between Questenberg, Max, and Octavio Piccolomini. If we except the +scene of the setting sun in the Robbers, I know of no part in Schiller's +plays which equals the first scene of the fifth act of the concluding +plays. [In this edition, scene iii., act v.] It would be unbecoming in +me to be more diffuse on this subject. A translator stands connected +with the original author by a certain law of subordination which makes it +more decorous to point out excellences than defects; indeed, he is not +likely to be a fair judge of either. The pleasure or disgust from his +own labor will mingle with the feelings that arise from an afterview of +the original. Even in the first perusal of a work in any foreign +language which we understand, we are apt to attribute to it more +excellence than it really possesses from our own pleasurable sense of +difficulty overcome without effort. Translation of poetry into poetry is +difficult, because the translator must give a brilliancy to his language +without that warmth of original conception from which such brilliancy +would follow of its own accord. But the translator of a living author is +incumbered with additional inconveniences. If he render his original +faithfully as to the sense of each passage, he must necessarily destroy a +considerable portion of the spirit; if he endeavor to give a work +executed according to laws of compensation he subjects himself to +imputations of vanity or misrepresentation. I have thought it my duty to +remain bound by the sense of my original with as few exceptions as the +nature of the languages rendered possible. S. T. C. + + + +THE PICCOLOMINI. + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE. + +WALLENSTEIN, Duke of Friedland, Generalissimo of the Imperial Forces + in the Thirty Years' War. +OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, Lieutenant-General. +MAX. PICCOLOMINI, his Son, Colonel of a Regiment of Cuirassiers. +COUNT TERZKY, the Commander of several Regiments, and Brother-in-law + of Wallenstein. +ILLO, Field-Marshal, Wallenstein's Confidant. +ISOLANI, General of the Croats. +BUTLER, an Irishman, Commander of a Regiment of Dragoons. +TIEFENBACH, | +DON MARADAS, | Generals under Wallenstein. +GOETZ, | +KOLATTO, | +NEUMANN, Captain of Cavalry, Aide-de-Camp to Terzky. +VON QUESTENBERG, the War Commissioner, Imperial Envoy. +BAPTISTA SENI, an Astrologer. +DUCHESS OF FRIEDLAND, Wife of Wallenstein. +THEKLA, her Daughter, Princess of Friedland. +THE COUNTESS TERZRY, Sister of the Duchess. +A CORNET. +COLONELS and GENERALS (several). +PAGES and ATTENDANTS belonging to Wallenstein. +ATTENDANTS and HOBOISTS belonging to Terzky. +MASTER OF THE CELLAR to Count Terzky. +VALET DE CHAMBRE of Count Piccolomini. + + + + +ACT I. + +SCENE I. + + An old Gothic Chamber in the Council-House at Pilsen, + decorated with Colors and other War Insignia. + + ILLO, with BUTLER and ISOLANI. + +ILLO. +Ye have come too late-but ye are come! The distance, +Count Isolani, excuses your delay. + +ISOLANI. +Add this too, that we come not empty-handed. +At Donauwerth [1] it was reported to us, +A Swedish caravan was on its way, +Transporting a rich cargo of provision, +Almost six hundreds wagons. This my Croats +Plunged down upon and seized, this weighty prize!-- +We bring it hither---- + +ILLO. + Just in time to banquet +The illustrious company assembled here. + +BUTLER. +'Tis all alive! a stirring scene here! + +ISOLANI. + Ay! +The very churches are full of soldiers. + [Casts his eye round. +And in the council-house, too, I observe, +You're settled quite at home! Well, well! we soldiers +Must shift and suit us in what way we can. + +ILLO. +We have the colonels here of thirty regiments. +You'll find Count Terzky here, and Tiefenbach, +Kolatto, Goetz, Maradas, Hinnersam, +The Piccolomini, both son and father-- +You'll meet with many an unexpected greeting +From many an old friend and acquaintance. Only +Gallas is wanting still, and Altringer. + +BUTLER. +Expect not Gallas. + +ILLO (hesitating). + How so? Do you know---- + +ISOLANI (interrupting him). +Max. Piccolomini here? O bring me to him. +I see him yet ('tis now ten years ago, +We were engaged with Mansfeldt hard by Dessau), +I see the youth, in my mind's eye I see him, +Leap his black war-horse from the bridge adown, +And t'ward his father, then in extreme peril, +Beat up against the strong tide of the Elbe. +The down was scarce upon his chin! I hear +He has made good the promise of his youth, +And the full hero now is finished in him. + +ILLO. +You'll see him yet ere evening. He conducts +The Duchess Friedland hither, and the princess [2] +From Caernthen [3]. We expect them here at noon. + +BUTLER. +Both wife and daughter does the duke call hither? +He crowds in visitants from all sides. + +ISOLANI. + Hm! +So much the better! I had framed my mind +To hear of naught but warlike circumstance, +Of marches and attacks, and batteries; +And lo! the duke provides, and something too +Of gentler sort and lovely, should be present +To feast our eyes. + +ILLO (who has been standing in the attitude of meditation, to BUTLER, + whom he leads a little on one side). + And how came you to know +That the Count Gallas joins us not? + +BUTLER. + Because +He importuned me to remain behind. + +ILLO (with warmth). +And you? You hold out firmly! + [Grasping his hand with affection. + Noble Butler! + +BUTLER. +After the obligation which the duke +Had laid so newly on me---- + +ILLO. + I had forgotten +A pleasant duty--major-general, +I wish you joy! + +ISOLANI. + What, you mean, of this regiment? +I hear, too, that to make the gift still sweeter, +The duke has given him the very same +In which he first saw service, and since then +Worked himself step by step, through each preferment, +From the ranks upwards. And verily, it gives +A precedent of hope, a spur of action +To the whole corps, if once in their remembrance +An old deserving soldier makes his way. + +BUTLER. +I am perplexed and doubtful whether or no +I dare accept this your congratulation. +The emperor has not yet confirmed the appointment. + +ISOLANI. +Seize it, friend, seize it! The hand which in that post +Placed you is strong enough to keep you there, +Spite of the emperor and his ministers! + +ILLO. +Ay, if we would but so consider it!-- +If we would all of us consider it so! +The emperor gives us nothing; from the duke +Comes all--whate'er we hope, whate'er we have. + +ISOLANI (to ILLO). +My noble brother! did I tell you how +The duke will satisfy my creditors? +Will be himself my bankers for the future, +Make me once more a creditable man! +And this is now the third time, think of that! +This kingly-minded man has rescued me +From absolute ruin and restored my honor. + +ILLO. +Oh that his power but kept pace with his wishes! +Why, friend! he'd give the whole world to his soldiers. +But at Vienna, brother!--here's the grievance,-- +What politic schemes do they not lay to shorten +His arm, and where they can to clip his pinions. +Then these new dainty requisitions! these +Which this same Questenberg brings hither! + +BUTLER. + Ay! +Those requisitions of the emperor-- +I too have heard about them; but I hope +The duke will not draw back a single inch! + +ILLO. +Not from his right most surely, unless first +From office! + +BUTLER (shocked and confused). + Know you aught then? You alarm me. + +ISOLANI (at the same time with BUTLER, and in a hurrying voice). +We should be ruined, every one of us! + +ILLO. +Yonder I see our worthy friend [spoken with a sneer] approaching +With the Lieutenant-General Piccolomini. + +BUTLER (shaking his head significantly). +I fear we shall not go hence as we came. + + + +SCENE II. + + Enter OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI and QUESTENBERG. + +OCTAVIO (still in the distance). +Ay! ah! more still! Still more new visitors! +Acknowledge, friend! that never was a camp, +Which held at once so many heads of heroes. + +QUESTENBERG. +Let none approach a camp of Friedland's troops +Who dares to think unworthily of war; +E'en I myself had nigh forgot its evils +When I surveyed that lofty soul of order, +By which, while it destroys the world--itself +Maintains the greatness which itself created. + +OCTAVIO (approaching nearer). +Welcome, Count Isolani! + +ISOLANI. + My noble brother! +Even now am I arrived; it has been else my duty---- + +OCTAVIO. +And Colonel Butler--trust me, I rejoice +Thus to renew acquaintance with a man +Whose worth and services I know and honor. +See, see, my friend! +There might we place at once before our eyes +The sum of war's whole trade and mystery-- + + [To QUESTENBERG, presenting BUTLER and ISOLANI at the same time + to him. + +These two the total sum--strength and despatch. + +QUESTENBERG (to OCTAVIO). +And lo! betwixt them both, experienced prudence! + +OCTAVIO (presenting QUESTENBERG to BUTLER and ISOLANI). +The Chamberlain and War-Commissioner Questenberg. +The bearer of the emperor's behests,-- +The long-tried friend and patron of all soldiers, +We honor in this noble visitor. + [Universal silence. + +ILLO (moving towards QUESTENBERG). +'Tis not the first time, noble minister, +You've shown our camp this honor. + +QUESTENBERG. + Once before +I stood beside these colors. + +ILLO. +Perchance too you remember where that was; +It was at Znaeim [4] in Moravia, where +You did present yourself upon the part +Of the emperor to supplicate our duke +That he would straight assume the chief command. + +QUESTENBURG. +To supplicate? Nay, bold general! +So far extended neither my commission +(At least to my own knowledge) nor my zeal. + +ILLO. +Well, well, then--to compel him, if you choose, +I can remember me right well, Count Tilly +Had suffered total rout upon the Lech. +Bavaria lay all open to the enemy, +Whom there was nothing to delay from pressing +Onwards into the very heart of Austria. +At that time you and Werdenberg appeared +Before our general, storming him with prayers, +And menacing the emperor's displeasure, +Unless he took compassion on this wretchedness. + +ISOLANI (steps up to them). +Yes, yes, 'tis comprehensible enough, +Wherefore with your commission of to-day, +You were not all too willing to remember +Your former one. + +QUESTENBERG. + + Why not, Count Isolani? +No contradiction sure exists between them. +It was the urgent business of that time +To snatch Bavaria from her enemy's hand; +And my commission of to-day instructs me +To free her from her good friends and protectors. + +ILLO. +A worthy office! After with our blood +We have wrested this Bohemia from the Saxon, +To be swept out of it is all our thanks, +The sole reward of all our hard-won victories. + +QUESTENBERG. +Unless that wretched land be doomed to suffer +Only a change of evils, it must be +Freed from the scourge alike of friend or foe. + +ILLO. +What? 'Twas a favorable year; the boors +Can answer fresh demands already. + +QUESTENBERG. + Nay, +If you discourse of herds and meadow-grounds---- + +ISOLANI. +The war maintains the war. Are the boors ruined +The emperor gains so many more new soldiers. + +QUESTENBERG. +And is the poorer by even so many subjects. + +ISOLANI. +Poh! we are all his subjects. + +QUESTENBERG. +Yet with a difference, general! The one fill +With profitable industry the purse, +The others are well skilled to empty it. +The sword has made the emperor poor; the plough +Must reinvigorate his resources. + +ISOLANI. + Sure! +Times are not yet so bad. Methinks I see + [Examining with his eye the dress and ornaments of QUESTENBERG. +Good store of gold that still remains uncoined. + +QUESTENBERG. +Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to hide +Some little from the fingers of the Croats. + +ILLO. +There! The Stawata and the Martinitz, +On whom the emperor heaps his gifts and graces, +To the heart-burning of all good Bohemians-- +Those minions of court favor, those court harpies, +Who fatten on the wrecks of citizens +Driven from their house and home--who reap no harvests +Save in the general calamity-- +Who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock +The desolation of their country--these, +Let these, and such as these, support the war, +The fatal war, which they alone enkindled! + +BUTLER. +And those state-parasites, who have their feet +So constantly beneath the emperor's table, +Who cannot let a benefice fall, but they +Snap at it with dogs' hunger--they, forsooth, +Would pare the soldiers bread and cross his reckoning! + +ISOLANI. +My life long will it anger me to think, +How when I went to court seven years ago, +To see about new horses for our regiment, +How from one antechamber to another +They dragged me on and left me by the hour +To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering +Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither +A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor +That fell beneath their tables. And, at last, +Whom should they send me but a Capuchin! +Straight I began to muster up my sins +For absolution--but no such luck for me! +This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom +I was to treat concerning the army horses! +And I was forced at last to quit the field, +The business unaccomplished. Afterwards +The duke procured me in three days what I +Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna. + +QUESTENBERG. +Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found their way to us! +Too well I know we have still accounts to settle. + +ILLO. +War is violent trade; one cannot always +Finish one's work by soft means; every trifle +Must not be blackened into sacrilege. +If we should wait till you, in solemn council, +With due deliberation had selected +The smallest out of four-and-twenty evils, +I' faith we should wait long-- +"Dash! and through with it!" That's the better watchword. +Then after come what may come. 'Tis man's nature +To make the best of a bad thing once past. +A bitter and perplexed "what shall I do?" +Is worse to man than worst necessity. + +QUESTENBERG. +Ay, doubtless, it is true; the duke does spare us +The troublesome task of choosing. + +BUTLER. + Yes, the duke +Cares with a father's feelings for his troops; +But how the emperor feels for us, we see. + +QUESTENBERG. +His cares and feelings all ranks share alike, +Nor will he offer one up to another. + +ISOLANI. +And therefore thrusts he us into the deserts +As beasts of prey, that so he may preserve +His dear sheep fattening in his fields at home. + +QUESTENBERG (with a sneer). +Count! this comparison you make, not I. + +ILLO. +Why, were we all the court supposes us +'Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty. + +QUESTENBERG (gravely). +You have taken liberty--it was not given you, +And therefore it becomes an urgent duty +To rein it in with the curbs. + +ILLO. +Expect to find a restive steed in us. + +QUESTENBERG. +A better rider may be found to rule it. + +ILLO. +He only brooks the rider who has tamed him. + +QUESTENBERG. +Ay, tame him once, and then a child may lead him. + +ILLO. +The child, we know, is found for him already. + +QUESTENBERG. +Be duty, sir, your study, not a name. + +BUTLER (who has stood aside with PICCOLOMINI, but with visible interest + in the conversation, advances). +Sir president, the emperor has in Germany +A splendid host assembled; in this kingdom +Full twenty thousand soldiers are cantoned, +With sixteen thousand in Silesia; +Ten regiments are posted on the Weser, +The Rhine, and Maine; in Swabia there are six, +And in Bavaria twelve, to face the Swedes; +Without including in the account the garrisons +Who on the frontiers hold the fortresses. +This vast and mighty host is all obedient +To Friedland's captains; and its brave commanders, +Bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk, +Are all excited by one heart and soul; +They are as strangers on the soil they tread, +The service is their only house and home. +No zeal inspires then for their country's cause, +For thousands like myself were born abroad; +Nor care they for the emperor, for one half +Deserting other service fled to ours, +Indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere, +The Double Eagle, Lily, or the Lion. +Yet one sole man can rein this fiery host +By equal rule, by equal love and fear; +Blending the many-nationed whole in one; +And like the lightning's fires securely led +Down the conducting rod, e'en thus his power +Rules all the mass, from guarded post to post, +From where the sentry hears the Baltic roar, +Or views the fertile vales of the Adige, +E'en to the body-guard, who holds his watch +Within the precincts of the imperial palace! + +QUESTENBERG. +What's the short meaning of this long harangue? + +BUTLER. +That the respect, the love, the confidence, +Which makes us willing subjects of Duke Friedland, +Are not to be transferred to the first comer +That Austria's court may please to send to us. +We have not yet so readily forgotten +How the command came into Friedland's hands. +Was it, forsooth, the emperor's majesty +That gave the army ready to his hand, +And only sought a leader for it? No. +The army then had no existence. He, +Friedland, it was who called it into being, +And gave it to his sovereign--but receiving +No army at his hand; nor did the emperor +Give Wallenstein to us as general. No, +It was from Wallenstein we first received +The emperor as our master and our sovereign; +And he, he only, binds us to our banners! + +OCTAVIO (interposing and addressing QUESTENBERG). +My noble friend, +This is no more than a remembrancing +That you are now in camp, and among warriors; +The soldier's boldness constitutes his freedom. +Could he act daringly, unless he dared +Talk even so? One runs into the other. +The boldness of this worthy officer, + [Pointing to BUTLER. +Which now is but mistaken in its mark, +Preserved, when naught but boldness could preserve it, +To the emperor, his capital city, Prague, +In a most formidable mutiny +Of the whole garrison. [Military music at a distance. + Hah! here they come! + +ILLO. +The sentries are saluting them: this signal +Announces the arrival of the duchess. + +OCTAVIO (to QUESTENBERG). +Then my son Max., too, has returned. 'Twas he +Fetched and attended them from Caernthen hither. + +ISOLANI (to ILLO). +Shall we not go in company to greet them? + +ILLO. +Well, let us go--Ho! Colonel Butler, come. + [To OCTAVIO. +You'll not forget that yet ere noon we meet +The noble envoy at the general's palace. + + [Exeunt all but QUESTENBERG and OCTAVIO. + + + +SCENE III. + + QUESTENBERG and OCTAVIO. + +QUESTENBERG (with signs of aversion and astonishment). +What have I not been forced to hear, Octavio! +What sentiments! what fierce, uncurbed defiance! +And were this spirit universal---- + +OCTAVIO. + Hm! +You're now acquainted with three-fourths of the army. + +QUESTENBERG. +Where must we seek, then, for a second host +To have the custody of this? That Illo +Thinks worse, I fear me, than he speaks. And then +This Butler, too--he cannot even conceal +The passionate workings of his ill intentions. + +OCTAVIO. +Quickness of temper--irritated pride; +'Twas nothing more. I cannot give up Butler. +I know a spell that will soon dispossess +The evil spirit in him. + +QUESTENBERG (walking up and down in evident disquiet). + Friend, friend! +O! this is worse, far worse, than we had suffered +Ourselves to dream of at Vienna. There +We saw it only with a courtier's eyes, +Eyes dazzled by the splendor of the throne. +We had not seen the war-chief, the commander, +The man all-powerful in his camp. Here, here, +'Tis quite another thing. +Here is no emperor more--the duke is emperor. +Alas, my friend! alas, my noble friend! +This walk which you have ta'en me through the camp +Strikes my hopes prostrate. + +OCTAVIO. + Now you see yourself +Of what a perilous kind the office is, +Which you deliver to me from the court. +The least suspicion of the general +Costs me my freedom and my life, and would +But hasten his most desperate enterprise. + +QUESTENBERG. +Where was our reason sleeping when we trusted +This madman with the sword, and placed such power +In such a hand? I tell you, he'll refuse, +Flatly refuse to obey the imperial orders. +Friend, he can do it, and what he can, he will. +And then the impunity of his defiance-- +Oh! what a proclamation of our weakness! + +OCTAVIO. +D'ye think, too, he has brought his wife and daughter +Without a purpose hither? Here in camp! +And at the very point of time in which +We're arming for the war? That he has taken +These, the last pledges of his loyalty, +Away from out the emperor's dominions-- +This is no doubtful token of the nearness +Of some eruption. + +QUESTENBERG. + How shall we hold footing +Beneath this tempest, which collects itself +And threats us from all quarters? The enemy +Of the empire on our borders, now already +The master of the Danube, and still farther, +And farther still, extending every hour! +In our interior the alarum-bells +Of insurrection--peasantry in arms-- +All orders discontented--and the army, +Just in the moment of our expectation +Of aidance from it--lo! this very army +Seduced, run wild, lost to all discipline, +Loosened, and rent asunder from the state +And from their sovereign, the blind instrument +Of the most daring of mankind, a weapon +Of fearful power, which at his will he wields. + +OCTAVIO. +Nay, nay, friend! let us not despair too soon +Men's words are even bolder than their deeds; +And many a resolute, who now appears +Made up to all extremes, will, on a sudden, +Find in his breast a heart he wot not of, +Let but a single honest man speak out +The true name of his crime! Remember, too, +We stand not yet so wholly unprotected. +Counts Altringer and Gallas have maintained +Their little army faithful to its duty, +And daily it becomes more numerous. +Nor can he take us by surprise; you know +I hold him all encompassed by my listeners. +What'er he does, is mine, even while 'tis doing-- +No step so small, but instantly I hear it; +Yea, his own mouth discloses it. + +QUESTENBERG. + 'Tis quite +Incomprehensible, that he detects not +The foe so near! + +OCTAVIO. + Beware, you do not think, +That I, by lying arts, and complaisant +Hypocrisy, have sulked into his graces, +Or with the substance of smooth professions +Nourish his all-confiding friendship! No-- +Compelled alike by prudence, and that duty +Which we all owe our country and our sovereign, +To hide my genuine feelings from him, yet +Ne'er have I duped him with base counterfeits! + +QUESTENBERG. +It is the visible ordinance of heaven. + +OCTAVIO. +I know not what it is that so attracts +And links him both to me and to my son. +Comrades and friends we always were--long habit, +Adventurous deeds performed in company, +And all those many and various incidents +Which stores a soldier's memory with affections, +Had bound us long and early to each other-- +Yet I can name the day, when all at once +His heart rose on me, and his confidence +Shot out into sudden growth. It was the morning +Before the memorable fight at Luetzen. +Urged by an ugly dream, I sought him out, +To press him to accept another charger. +At a distance from the tents, beneath a tree, +I found him in a sleep. When I had waked him +And had related all my bodings to him, +Long time he stared upon me, like a man +Astounded: thereon fell upon my neck, +And manifested to me an emotion +That far outstripped the worth of that small service. +Since then his confidence has followed me +With the same pace that mine has fled from him. + +QUESTENBERG. +You lead your son into the secret? + +OCTAVIO. + No! + +QUESTENBERG. +What! and not warn him either, what bad hands +His lot has placed him in? + +OCTAVIO. + I must perforce +Leave him in wardship to his innocence. +His young and open soul--dissimulation +Is foreign to its habits! Ignorance +Alone can keep alive the cheerful air, +The unembarrassed sense and light free spirit, +That makes the duke secure. + +QUESTENBERG (anxiously). +My honored friend! most highly do I deem +Of Colonel Piccolomini--yet--if-- +Reflect a little---- + +OCTAVIO. + I must venture it. +Hush! There he comes! + + + +SCENE IV. + + MAX. PICCOLOMINI, OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, QUESTENBERG. + +MAX. +Ha! there he is himself. Welcome, my father! + + [He embraces his father. As he turns round, he observes + QUESTENBERG, and draws back with a cold and reserved air. + +You are engaged, I see. I'll not disturb you. + +OCTAVIO. +How, Max.? Look closer at this visitor. +Attention, Max., an old friend merits--reverence +Belongs of right to the envoy of your sovereign. + +MAX. (drily). +Von Questenberg!--welcome--if you bring with you +Aught good to our headquarters. + +QUESTENBERG (seizing his hand). + Nay, draw not +Your hand away, Count Piccolimini! +Not on my own account alone I seized it, +And nothing common will I say therewith. + [Taking the hands of both. +Octavio--Max. Piccolomini! +O savior names, and full of happy omen! +Ne'er will her prosperous genius turn from Austria, +While two such stars, with blessed influences +Beaming protection, shine above her hosts. + +MAX. +Heh! Noble minister! You miss your part. +You come not here to act a panegyric. +You're sent, I know, to find fault and to scold us-- +I must not be beforehand with my comrades. + +OCTAVIO (to MAX.). +He comes from court, where people are not quite +So well contented with the duke as here. + +MAX. +What now have they contrived to find out in him? +That he alone determines for himself +What he himself alone doth understand! +Well, therein he does right, and will persist in't +Heaven never meant him for that passive thing +That can be struck and hammered out to suit +Another's taste and fancy. He'll not dance +To every tune of every minister. +It goes against his nature--he can't do it, +He is possessed by a commanding spirit, +And his, too, is the station of command. +And well for us it is so! There exist +Few fit to rule themselves, but few that use +Their intellects intelligently. Then +Well for the whole, if there be found a man +Who makes himself what nature destined him, +The pause, the central point, to thousand thousands +Stands fixed and stately, like a firm-built column, +Where all may press with joy and confidence-- +Now such a man is Wallenstein; and if +Another better suits the court--no other +But such a one as he can serve the army. + +QUESTENBERG. +The army? Doubtless! + +MAX. + What delight to observe +How he incites and strengthens all around him, +Infusing life and vigor. Every power +Seems as it were redoubled by his presence +He draws forth every latent energy, +Showing to each his own peculiar talent, +Yet leaving all to be what nature made them, +And watching only that they be naught else +In the right place and time; and he has skill +To mould the power's of all to his own end. + +QUESTENBERG. +But who denies his knowledge of mankind, +And skill to use it? Our complaint is this: +That in the master he forgets the servant, +As if he claimed by birth his present honors. + +MAX. +And does he not so? Is he not endowed +With every gift and power to carry out +The high intents of nature, and to win +A ruler's station by a ruler's talent? + +QUESTENBERG. +So then it seems to rest with him alone +What is the worth of all mankind beside! + +MAX. +Uncommon men require no common trust; +Give him but scope and he will set the bounds. + +QUESTENBERG. +The proof is yet to come. + +MAX. + Thus are ye ever. +Ye shrink from every thing of depth, and think +Yourselves are only safe while ye're in shallows. + +OCTAVIO (to QUESTENBERG). +'Twere best to yield with a good grace, my friend; +Of him there you'll make nothing. + +MAX. (continuing). + In their fear +They call a spirit up, and when he comes, +Straight their flesh creeps and quivers, and they dread him +More than the ills for which they called him up. +The uncommon, the sublime, must seem and be +Like things of every day. But in the field, +Ay, there the Present Being makes itself felt. +The personal must command, the actual eye +Examine. If to be the chieftain asks +All that is great in nature, let it be +Likewise his privilege to move and act +In all the correspondences of greatness. +The oracle within him, that which lives, +He must invoke and question--not dead books, +Not ordinances, not mould-rotted papers. + +OCTAVIO. +My son! of those old narrow ordinances +Let us not hold too lightly. They are weights +Of priceless value, which oppressed mankind, +Tied to the volatile will of their oppressors. +For always formidable was the League +And partnership of free power with free will. +The way of ancient ordinance, though it winds, +Is yet no devious path. Straight forward goes +The lightning's path, and straight the fearful path +Of the cannon-ball. Direct it flies, and rapid; +Shattering that it may reach, and shattering what it reaches, +My son, the road the human being travels, +That, on which blessing comes and goes, doth follow +The river's course, the valley's playful windings, +Curves round the cornfield and the hill of vines, +Honoring the holy bounds of property! +And thus secure, though late, leads to its end. + +QUESTENBERG. +Oh, hear your father, noble youth! hear him +Who is at once the hero and the man. + +OCTAVIO. +My son, the nursling of the camp spoke in thee! +A war of fifteen years +Hath been thy education and thy school. +Peace hast thou never witnessed! There exists +An higher than the warrior's excellence. +In war itself war is no ultimate purpose, +The vast and sudden deeds of violence, +Adventures wild, and wonders of the moment, +These are not they, my son, that generate +The calm, the blissful, and the enduring mighty! +Lo there! the soldier, rapid architect! +Builds his light town of canvas, and at once +The whole scene moves and bustles momently. +With arms, and neighing steeds, and mirth and quarrel +The motley market fills; the roads, the streams +Are crowded with new freights; trade stirs and hurries, +But on some morrow morn, all suddenly, +The tents drop down, the horde renews its march. +Dreary, and solitary as a churchyard; +The meadow and down-trodden seed-plot lie, +And the year's harvest is gone utterly. + +MAX. +Oh, let the emperor make peace, my father! +Most gladly would I give the blood-stained laurel +For the first violet [5] of the leafless spring, +Plucked in those quiet fields where I have journeyed. + +OCTAVIO. +What ails thee? What so moves thee all at once? + +MAX. +Peace have I ne'er beheld? I have beheld it. +From thence am I come hither: oh, that sight, +It glimmers still before me, like some landscape +Left in the distance,--some delicious landscape! +My road conducted me through countries where +The war has not yet reached. Life, life, my father-- +My venerable father, life has charms +Which we have never experienced. We have been +But voyaging along its barren coasts, +Like some poor ever-roaming horde of pirates, +That, crowded in the rank and narrow ship, +House on the wild sea with wild usages, +Nor know aught of the mainland, but the bays +Where safeliest they may venture a thieves' landing. +Whate'er in the inland dales the land conceals +Of fair and exquisite, oh, nothing, nothing, +Do we behold of that in our rude voyage. + +OCTAVIO (attentive, with an appearance of uneasiness). +And so your journey has revealed this to you? + +MAX. +'Twas the first leisure of my life. O tell me, +What is the meed and purpose of the toil, +The painful toil which robbed me of my youth, +Left me a heart unsouled and solitary, +A spirit uninformed, unornamented! +For the camp's stir, and crowd, and ceaseless larum, +The neighing war-horse, the air-shattering trumpet, +The unvaried, still returning hour of duty, +Word of command, and exercise of arms-- +There's nothing here, there's nothing in all this, +To satisfy the heart, the gasping heart! +Mere bustling nothingness, where the soul is not-- +This cannot be the sole felicity, +These cannot be man's best and only pleasures! + +OCTAVIO. +Much hast thou learnt, my son, in this short journey. + +MAX. +Oh day, thrice lovely! when at length the soldier +Returns home into life; when he becomes +A fellow-man among his fellow-men. +The colors are unfurled, the cavalcade +Mashals, and now the buzz is hushed, and hark! +Now the soft peace-march beats, home, brothers, home! +The caps and helmet are all garlanded +With green boughs, the last plundering of the fields. +The city gates fly open of themselves, +They need no longer the petard to tear them. +The ramparts are all filled with men and women, +With peaceful men and women, that send onwards. +Kisses and welcomings upon the air, +Which they make breezy with affectionate gestures. +From all the towers rings out the merry peal, +The joyous vespers of a bloody day. +O happy man, O fortunate! for whom +The well-known door, the faithful arms are open, +The faithful tender arms with mute embracing. + +QUESTENBERG (apparently much affected). + O that you should speak +Of such a distant, distant time, and not +Of the to-morrow, not of this to-day. + +MAX. (turning round to him quick and vehement). +Where lies the fault but on you in Vienna! +I will deal openly with you, Questenberg. +Just now, as first I saw you standing here +(I'll own it to you freely), indignation +Crowded and pressed my inmost soul together. +'Tis ye that hinder peace, ye!--and the warrior, +It is the warrior that must force it from you. +Ye fret the general's life out, blacken him, +Hold him up as a rebel, and heaven knows +What else still worse, because he spares the Saxons, +And tries to awaken confidence in the enemy; +Which yet's the only way to peace: for if +War intermit not during war, how then +And whence can peace come? Your own plagues fall on you! +Even as I love what's virtuous, hate I you. +And here I make this vow, here pledge myself, +My blood shall spurt out for this Wallenstein, +And my heart drain off, drop by drop, ere ye +Shall revel and dance jubilee o'er his ruin. + [Exit. + + + +SCENE V. + + QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI. + +QUESTENBERG. +Alas! alas! and stands it so? + [Then in pressing and impatient tones. +What friend! and do we let him go away +In this delusion--let him go away? +Not call him back immediately, not open +His eyes, upon the spot? + +OCTAVIO (recovering himself out of a deep study). + He has now opened mine, +And I see more than pleases me. + +QUESTENBERG. + What is it? + +OCTAVIO. +Curse on this journey! + +QUESTENBERG. + But why so? What is it? + +OCTAVIO. +Come, come along, friend! I must follow up +The ominous track immediately. Mine eyes +Are opened now, and I must use them. Come! + + [Draws QUESTENBERG on with him. + +QUESTENBERG. +What now? Where go you then? + +OCTAVIO. + To her herself. + +QUESTENBERG. + To---- + +OCTAVIO (interrupting him and correcting himself). +To the duke. Come, let us go 'Tis done, 'tis done, +I see the net that is thrown over him. +Oh! he returns not to me as he went. + +QUESTENBERG. +Nay, but explain yourself. + +OCTAVIO. + And that I should not +Foresee it, not prevent this journey! Wherefore +Did I keep it from him? You were in the right. +I should have warned him. Now it is too late. + +QUESTENBERG. +But what's too late? Bethink yourself, my friend, +That you are talking absolute riddles to me. + +OCTAVIO (more collected). +Come I to the duke's. 'Tis close upon the hour +Which he appointed you for audience. Come! +A curse, a threefold curse, upon this journey! + + [He leads QUESTENBERG off. + + + + +ACT II. + +SCENE I. + + Changes to a spacious chamber in the house of the Duke of + Friedland. Servants employed in putting the tables and chairs + in order. During this enters SENI, like an old Italian doctor, + in black, and clothed somewhat fantastically. He carries a white + staff, with which he marks out the quarters of the heavens. + +FIRST SERVANT. Come--to it, lads, to it! Make an end of it. I hear the +sentry call out, "Stand to your arms!" They will be here in a minute. + +SECOND SERVANT. Why were we not told before that the audience would be +held here? Nothing prepared--no orders--no instructions. + +THIRD SERVANT. Ay, and why was the balcony chamber countermanded, that +with the great worked carpet? There one can look about one. + +FIRST SERVANT. Nay, that you must ask the mathematician there. He says +it is an unlucky chamber. + +SECOND SERVANT. Poh! stuff and nonsense! that's what I call a hum. A +chamber is a chamber; what much can the place signify in the affair? + +SENI (with gravity). +My son, there's nothing insignificant, +Nothing! But yet in every earthly thing, +First and most principal is place and time. + +FIRST SERVANT (to the second). Say nothing to him, Nat. The duke +himself must let him have his own will. + +SENI (counts the chairs, half in a loud, half in a low voice, till + he comes to eleven, which he repeats). +Eleven! an evil number! Set twelve chairs. +Twelve! twelve signs hath the zodiac: five and seven, +The holy numbers, include themselves in twelve. + +SECOND SERVANT. And what may you have to object against eleven? I +should like to know that now. + +SENI. +Eleven is transgression; eleven oversteps +The ten commandments. + +SECOND SERVANT. That's good? and why do you call five a holy number? + +SENI. +Five is the soul of man: for even as man +Is mingled up of good and evil, so +The five is the first number that's made up +Of even and odd. + +SECOND SERVANT. The foolish old coxcomb! + +FIRST SERVANT. Ay! let him alone though. I like to hear him; there is +more in his words than can be seen at first sight. + +THIRD SERVANT. Off, they come. + +SECOND SERVANT. There! Out at the side-door. + + [They hurry off: SENI follows slowly. A page brings the staff + of command on a red cushion, and places it on the table, near the + duke's chair. They are announced from without, and the wings of + the door fly open. + + + +SCENE II. + + WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS. + +WALLENSTEIN. +You went, then, through Vienna, were presented +To the Queen of Hungary? + +DUCHESS. +Yes; and to the empress, too, +And by both majesties were we admitted +To kiss the hand. + +WALLENSTEIN. + And how was it received, +That I had sent for wife and daughter hither +To the camp, in winter-time? + +DUCHESS. + I did even that +Which you commissioned me to do. I told them +You had determined on our daughter's marriage, +And wished, ere yet you went into the field, +To show the elected husband his betrothed. + +WALLENSTEIN. +And did they guess the choice which I had made? + +DUCHESS. +They only hoped and wished it may have fallen +Upon no foreign nor yet Lutheran noble. + +WALLENSTEIN. +And you--what do you wish, Elizabeth? + +DUCHESS. +Your will, you know, was always mine. + +WALLENSTEIN (after a pause). + Well, then,-- +And in all else, of what kind and complexion +Was your reception at the court? + [The DUCHESS casts her eyes on the ground, and remains silent. +Hide nothing from me. How were you received? + +DUCHESS. +O! my dear lord, all is not what it was. +A canker-worm, my lord, a canker-worm +Has stolen into the bud. + +WALLENSTEIN. + Ay! is it so? +What, they were lax? they failed of the old respect? + +DUCHESS. +Not of respect. No honors were omitted, +No outward courtesy; but in the place +Of condescending, confidential kindness, +Familiar and endearing, there were given me +Only these honors and that solemn courtesy. +Ah! and the tenderness which was put on, +It was the guise of pity, not of favor. +No! Albrecht's wife, Duke Albrecht's princely wife, +Count Harrach's noble daughter, should not so-- +Not wholly so should she have been received. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Yes, yes; they have taken offence. My latest conduct +They railed at it, no doubt. + +DUCHESS. + O that they had! +I have been long accustomed to defend you, +To heal and pacify distempered spirits. +No; no one railed at you. They wrapped them up, +O Heaven! in such oppressive, solemn silence! +Here is no every-day misunderstanding, +No transient pique, no cloud that passes over; +Something most luckless, most unhealable, +Has taken place. The Queen of Hungary +Used formerly to call me her dear aunt, +And ever at departure to embrace me---- + +WALLENSTEIN. +Now she omitted it? + +DUCHESS (wiping away her tears after a pause). + She did embrace me, +But then first when I had already taken +My formal leave, and when the door already +Had closed upon me, then did she come out +In haste, as she had suddenly bethought herself, +And pressed me to her bosom, more with anguish +Than tenderness. + +WALLENSTEIN (seizes her hand soothingly). + Nay, now collect yourself. +And what of Eggenberg and Lichtenstein, +And of our other friends there? + +DUCHESS (shaking her head). + I saw none. + +WALLENSTEIN. +The ambassador from Spain, who once was wont +To plead so warmly for me? + +DUCHESS. + Silent, silent! + +WALLENSTEIN. +These suns then are eclipsed for us. Henceforward +Must we roll on, our own fire, our own light. + +DUCHESS. +And were it--were it, my dear lord, in that +Which moved about the court in buzz and whisper, +But in the country let itself be heard +Aloud--in that which Father Lanormain +In sundry hints and---- + +WALLENSTEIN (eagerly). + Lanormain! what said he? + +DUCHESS. +That you're accused of having daringly +O'erstepped the powers intrusted to you, charged +With traitorous contempt of the emperor +And his supreme behests. The proud Bavarian, +He and the Spaniards stand up your accusers-- +That there's a storm collecting over you +Of far more fearful menace than the former one +Which whirled you headlong down at Regensburg. +And people talk, said he, of----Ah! + [Stifling extreme emotion. + +WALLENSTEIN. + Proceed! + +DUCHESS. +I cannot utter it! + +WALLENSTEIN. + Proceed! + +DUCHESS. + They talk---- + +WALLENSTEIN. +Well! + +DUCHESS. + Of a second---- + (catches her voice and hesitates.) + +WALLENSTEIN. + Second---- + +DUCHESS. + Most disgraceful +Dismission. + +WALLENSTEIN. + Talk they? + [Strides across the chamber in vehement agitation. + Oh! they force, they thrust me +With violence, against my own will, onward! + +DUCHESS (presses near him in entreaty). +Oh! if there yet be time, my husband, if +By giving way and by submission, this +Can be averted--my dear Lord, give way! +Win down your proud heart to it! Tell the heart, +It is your sovereign lord, your emperor, +Before whom you retreat. Oh! no longer +Low trickling malice blacken your good meaning +With abhorred venomous glosses. Stand you up +Shielded and helmed and weaponed with the truth, +And drive before you into uttermost shame +These slanderous liars! Few firm friends have we-- +You know it! The swift growth of our good fortune +It hath but set us up a mark for hatred. +What are we, if the sovereign's grace and favor +Stand not before us! + + + +SCENE III. + + Enter the Countess TERZKY, leading in her hand the Princess THEKLA, + richly adorned with brilliants. + + COUNTESS, TEKLA, WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS. + +COUNTESS. +How sister? What, already upon business? + [Observing the countenance of the DUCHESS. +And business of no pleasing kind I see, +Ere he has gladdened at his child. The first +Moment belongs to joy. Here, Friedland! father! +This is thy daughter. + + [THEKLA approaches with a shy and timid air, and bends herself as + about to kiss his hand. He receives her in his arms, and remains + standing for some time lost in the feeling of her presence. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Yes! pure and lovely hath hope risen on me, +I take her as the pledge of greater fortune. + +DUCHESS. +'Twas but a little child when you departed +To raise up that great army for the emperor +And after, at the close of the campaign, +When you returned home out of Pomerania, +Your daughter was already in the convent, +Wherein she has remained till now. + +WALLENSTEIN. + The while +We in the field here gave our cares and toils +To make her great, and fight her a free way +To the loftiest earthly good; lo! mother Nature +Within the peaceful, silent convent walls, +Has done her part, and out of her free grace +Hath she bestowed on the beloved child +The god-like; and now leads her thus adorned +To meet her splendid fortune, and my hope. + +DUCHESS (to THEKLA). +Thou wouldst not now have recognized thy father, +Wouldst thou, my child? She counted scarce eight years +When last she saw your face. + +THEKLA. + O yes, yes, mother! +At the first glance! My father has not altered. +The form that stands before me falsifies +No feature of the image that hath lived +So long within me! + +WALLENSTEIN. + The voice of my child! + [Then after a pause. +I was indignant at my destiny, +That it denied me a man-child, to be +Heir of my name and of my prosperous fortune, +And re-illume my soon-extinguished being +In a proud line of princes. +I wronged my destiny. Here upon this head, +So lovely in its maiden bloom, will I +Let fall the garland of a life of war, +Nor deem it lost, if only I can wreath it, +Transmuted to a regal ornament, +Around these beauteous brows. + + [He clasps her in his arms as PICCOLOMINI enters. + + + +SCENE IV. + + Enter MAX. PICCOLOMINI, and some time after COUNT TERZKY, the + others remaining as before. + +COUNTESS. +There comes the Paladin who protected us. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Max.! Welcome, ever welcome! Always wert thou +The morning star of my best joys! + +MAX. + My general---- + +WALLENSTEIN. +Till now it was the emperor who rewarded thee, +I but the instrument. This day thou hast bound +The father to thee, Max.! the fortunate father, +And this debt Friedland's self must pay. + +MAX. + My prince! +You made no common hurry to transfer it. +I come with shame: yea, not without a pang! +For scarce have I arrived here, scarce delivered +The mother and the daughter to your arms, +But there is brought to me from your equerry [6] +A splendid richly-plated hunting dress +So to remunerate me for my troubles-- +Yes, yes, remunerate me,--since a trouble +It must be, a mere office, not a favor +Which I leaped forward to receive, and which +I came with grateful heart to thank you for. +No! 'twas not so intended, that my business +Should be my highest best good fortune! + + [TERZKY enters; and delivers letters to the DUKE, which he + breaks open hurriedly. + +COUNTESS (to MAX.). +Remunerate your trouble! For his joy, +He makes you recompense. 'Tis not unfitting +For you, Count Piccolomini, to feel +So tenderly--my brother it beseems +To show himself forever great and princely. + +THEKLA. +Then I too must have scruples of his love: +For his munificent hands did ornament me +Ere yet the father's heart had spoken to me. + +MAX +Yes; 'tis his nature ever to be giving +And making happy. + [He grasps the hand of the DUCHESS with still increasing warmth. + How my heart pours out +Its all of thanks to him! O! how I seem +To utter all things in the dear name--Friedland. +While I shall live, so long will I remain +The captive of this name: in it shall bloom +My every fortune, every lovely hope. +Inextricably as in some magic ring +In this name hath my destiny charm-bound me! + +COUNTESS (who during this time has been anxiously watching the DUKE, + and remarks that he is lost in thought over the letters). +My brother wishes us to leave him. Come. + +WALLENSTEIN (turns himself round quick, collects himself, and speaks + with cheerfulness to the DUCHESS). +Once more I bid thee welcome to the camp, +Thou art the hostess of this court. You, Max., +Will now again administer your old office, +While we perform the sovereign's business here. + + [MAX. PICCOLOMINI offers the DUCHESS his arm; the COUNTESS + accompanies the PRINCESS. + +TERZKY (calling after him). +Max., we depend on seeing you at the meeting. + + + +SCENE V. + + WALLENSTEIN, COUNT TERZKY. + +WALLENSTEIN (in deep thought, to himself). +She has seen all things as they are--it is so, +And squares completely with my other notices, +They have determined finally in Vienna, +Have given me my successor already; +It is the King of Hungary, Ferdinand, +The emperor's delicate son! he's now their savior, +He's the new star that's rising now! Of us +They think themselves already fairly rid, +And as we were deceased, the heir already +Is entering on possession--Therefore--despatch! + + [As he turns round he observes TERZKY, and gives him a letter. + +Count Altringer will have himself excused, +And Gallas too--I like not this! + +TERZKY. + And if +Thou loiterest longer, all will fall away, +One following the other. + +WALLENSTEIN. + Altringer +Is master of the Tyrol passes. I must forthwith +Send some one to him, that he let not in +The Spaniards on me from the Milanese. +--Well, and the old Sesin, that ancient trader +In contraband negotiations, he +Has shown himself again of late. What brings he +From the Count Thur? + +TERZKY. + The count communicates +He has found out the Swedish chancellor +At Halberstadt, where the convention's held, +Who says, you've tired him out, and that he'll have +No further dealings with you. + +WALLENSTEIN. + And why so? + +TERZKY. +He says, you are never in earnest in your speeches; +That you decoy the Swedes--to make fools of them; +Will league yourself with Saxony against them, +And at last make yourself a riddance of them +With a paltry sum of money. + +WALLENSTEIN. + So then, doubtless, +Yes, doubtless, this same modest Swede expects +That I shall yield him some fair German tract +For his prey and booty, that ourselves at last +On our own soil and native territory +May be no longer our own lords and masters! +An excellent scheme! No, no! They must be off, +Off, off! away! we want no such neighbors. + +TERZKY. +Nay, yield them up that dot, that speck of land-- +It goes not from your portion. If you win +The game, what matters it to you who pays it? + +WALLENSTEIN. +Off with them, off! Thou understand'st not this. +Never shall it be said of me, I parcelled +My native land away, dismembered Germany, +Betrayed it to a foreigner, in order +To come with stealthy tread, and filch away +My own share of the plunder--Never! never! +No foreign power shall strike root in the empire, +And least of all these Goths! these hungry wolves! +Who send such envious, hot, and greedy glances +Toward the rich blessings of our German lands! +I'll have their aid to cast and draw my nets, +But not a single fish of all the draught +Shall they come in for. + +TERZKY. + You will deal, however, +More fairly with the Saxons? they lose patience +While you shift round and make so many curves. +Say, to what purpose all these masks? Your friends +Are plunged in doubts, baffled, and led astray in you. +There's Oxenstiern, there's Arnheim--neither knows +What he should think of your procrastinations, +And in the end I prove the liar; all +Passes through me. I've not even your handwriting. + +WALLENSTEIN. +I never give handwriting; and thou knowest it. + +TERZKY. +But how can it be known that you are in earnest, +If the act follows not upon the word? +You must yourself acknowledge, that in all +Your intercourses hitherto with the enemy, +You might have done with safety all you have done. +Had you meant nothing further than to gull him +For the emperor's service. + +WALLENSTEIN (after a pause, during which he looks narrowly on TERZKY). + And from whence dost thou know +That I'm not gulling him for the emperor's service? +Whence knowest thou that I'm not gulling all of you? +Dost thou know me so well? When made I thee +The intendant of my secret purposes? +I am not conscious that I ever opened +My inmost thoughts to thee. The emperor, it is true, +Hath dealt with me amiss; and if I would +I could repay him with usurious interest +For the evil he hath done me. It delights me +To know my power; but whether I shall use it, +Of that I should have thought that thou couldst speak +No wiser than thy fellows. + +TERZKY. +So hast thou always played thy game with us. + + [Enter ILLO. + + + +SCENE VI. + + ILLO, WALLENSTEIN, TERZKY. + +WALLENSTEIN. +How stand affairs without? Are they prepared? + +ILLO. +You'll find them in the very mood you wish. +They know about the emperor's requisition, +And are tumultuous. + +WALLENSTEIN. + How hath Isolani +declared himself? + +ILLO. + He's yours, both soul and body, +Since you built up again his faro-bank. + +WALLENSTEIN. +And which way doth Kolatto bend? Hast thou +Made sure of Tiefenbach and Deodati? + +ILLO. +What Piccolomini does that they do too. + +WALLENSTEIN. +You mean, then, I may venture somewhat with them? + +ILLO. +If you are assured of the Piccolomini. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Not more assured of mine own self. + +TERZKY. + And yet +I would you trusted not so much to Octavio, +The fox! + +WALLENSTEIN. + Thou teachest me to know my man? +Sixteen campaigns I have made with that old warrior. +Besides, I have his horoscope; +We both are born beneath like stars--in short, + [With an air of mystery. +To this belongs its own peculiar aspect, +If therefore thou canst warrant me the rest---- + +ILLO. +There is among them all but this one voice, +You must not lay down the command. I hear +They mean to send a deputation to you. + +WALLENSTEIN. +If I'm in aught to bind myself to them +They too must bind themselves to me. + +ILLO. + Of course. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Their words of honor they must give, their oaths, +Give them in writing to me, promising +Devotion to my service unconditional. + +ILLO. +Why not? + +TERZKY. + Devotion unconditional? +The exception of their duties towards Austria +They'll always place among the premises. +With this reserve---- + +WALLENSTEIN (shaking his head). + All unconditional; +No premises, no reserves. + +ILLO. + A thought has struck me. +Does not Count Terzky give us a set banquet +This evening? + +TERZKY. + Yes; and all the generals +Have been invited. + +ILLO (to WALLENSTEIN). + Say, will you here fully +Commission me to use my own discretion? +I'll gain for you the generals' word of honor, +Even as you wish. + +WALLENSTEIN. + Gain me their signatures! +How you come by them that is your concern. + +ILLO. +And if I bring it to you in black on white, +That all the leaders who are present here +Give themselves up to you, without condition; +Say, will you then--then will you show yourself +In earnest, and with some decisive action +Try your fortune. + +WALLENSTEIN. + Get but the signatures! + +ILLO. +Think what thou dost, thou canst not execute +The emperor's orders, nor reduce thine army, +Nor send the regiments to the Spaniards' aid, +Unless thou wouldst resign thy power forever. +Think on the other hand--thou canst not spurn +The emperor's high commands and solemn orders, +Nor longer temporize, nor seek evasion, +Wouldst thou avoid a rupture with the court. +Resolve then! Wilt thou now by one bold act +Anticipate their ends, or, doubting still, +Await the extremity? + +WALLENSTEIN. + There's time before +The extremity arrives. + +ILLO. + Seize, seize the hour, +Ere it slips from you. Seldom comes the moment +In life, which is indeed sublime and weighty. +To make a great decision possible, +O! many things, all transient and all rapid, +Must meet at once: and, haply, they thus met +May by that confluence be enforced to pause +Time long-enough for wisdom, though too short, +Far, far too short a time for doubt and scruple! +This is that moment. See, our army chieftains, +Our best, our noblest, are assembled round you, +Their king-like leader! On your nod they wait. +The single threads, which here your prosperous fortune +Hath woven together in one potent web +Instinct with destiny, O! let them not +Unravel of themselves. If you permit +These chiefs to separate, so unanimous +Bring you them not a second time together. +'Tis the high tide that heaves the stranded ship, +And every individual's spirit waxes +In the great stream of multitudes. Behold +They are still here, here still! But soon the war +Bursts them once more asunder, and in small +Particular anxieties and interests +Scatters their spirit, and the sympathy +Of each man with the whole. He who to-day +Forgets himself, forced onward with the stream, +Will become sober, seeing but himself. +Feel only his own weakness, and with speed +Will face about, and march on in the old +High road of duty, the old broad-trodden road, +And seek but to make shelter in good plight. + +WALLENSTEIN. +The time is not yet come. + +TERZKY. + So you say always. +But when will it be time? + +WALLENSTEIN. + When I shall say it. + +ILLO. +You'll wait upon the stars, and on their hours, +Till the earthly hour escapes you. Oh, believe me, +In your own bosom are your destiny's stars. +Confidence in yourself, prompt resolution, +This is your Venus! and the sole malignant, +The only one that harmeth you is doubt. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Thou speakest as thou understandest. How oft +And many a time I've told thee Jupiter, +That lustrous god, was setting at thy birth. +Thy visual power subdues no mysteries; +Mole-eyed thou mayest but burrow in the earth, +Blind as the subterrestrial, who with wan +Lead-colored shine lighted thee into life. +The common, the terrestrial, thou mayest see, +With serviceable cunning knit together, +The nearest with the nearest; and therein +I trust thee and believe thee! but whate'er +Full of mysterious import Nature weaves, +And fashions in the depths--the spirit's ladder, +That from this gross and visible world of dust, +Even to the starry world, with thousand rounds, +Builds itself up; on which the unseen powers +Move up and down on heavenly ministries-- +The circles in the circles, that approach +The central sun with ever-narrowing orbit-- +These see the glance alone, the unsealed eye, +Of Jupiter's glad children born in lustre. + +[He walks across the chamber, then returns, and standing still, proceeds. + +The heavenly constellations make not merely +The day and nights, summer and spring, not merely +Signify to the husbandman the seasons +Of sowing and of harvest. Human action, +That is the seed, too, of contingencies, +Strewed on the dark land of futurity +In hopes to reconcile the powers of fate +Whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time, +To watch the stars, select their proper hours, +And trace with searching eye the heavenly houses, +Whether the enemy of growth and thriving +Hide himself not, malignant, in his corner. +Therefore permit me my own time. Meanwhile +Do you your part. As yet I cannot say +What I shall do--only, give way I will not, +Depose me, too, they shall not. On these points +You may rely. + +PAGE (entering). + My lords, the generals. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Let them come in. + +TERZKY. + Shall all the chiefs be present? + +WALLENSTEIN. +'Twere needless. Both the Piccolomini +Maradas, Butler, Forgoetsch, Deodati, +Karaffa, Isolani--these may come. + + [TERZKY goes out with the PAGE. + +WALLENSTEIN (to ILLO). +Hast thou taken heed that Questenberg was watched? +Had he no means of secret intercourse? + +ILLO. +I have watched him closely--and he spoke with none +But with Octavio. + + + +SCENE VII. + + WALLENSTRIN, TERZKY, ILLO.--To them enter QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO, + and MAX. PICCOLOMINI, BUTLER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other + Generals. WALLENSTEIN Motions QUESTENBERG, who in consequence + takes the chair directly opposite to him; the others follow, + arranging themselves according to their rank. There reigns a + momentary silence. + +WALLENSTEIN. + I have understood, +'Tis true, the sum and import, Questenberg, +Of your instructions. I have weighed them well, +And formed my final, absolute resolve; +Yet it seems fitting that the generals +Should hear the will of the emperor from your mouth. +May it please you then to open your commission +Before these noble chieftains? + +QUESTENBERG. + I am ready +To obey you; but will first entreat your highness, +And all these noble chieftains, to consider, +The imperial dignity and sovereign right +Speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption. + +WALLENSTEIN. +We excuse all preface. + +QUESTENBERG. + When his majesty +The emperor to his courageous armies +Presented in the person of Duke Friedland +A most experienced and renowned commander, +He did it in glad hope and confidence +To give thereby to the fortune of the war +A rapid and auspicious change. The onset +Was favorable to his royal wishes. +Bohemia was delivered from the Saxons, +The Swede's career of conquest checked! These lands +Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland +From all the streams of Germany forced hither +The scattered armies of the enemy; +Hither invoked as round one magic circle +The Rhinegrave, Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstiern, +Yea, and the never-conquered king himself; +Here finally, before the eye of Nuernberg, +The fearful game of battle to decide. + +WALLENSTEIN. +To the point, so please you. + +QUESTENBERG. + A new spirit +At once proclaimed to us the new commander. +No longer strove blind rage with rage more blind; +But in the enlightened field of skill was shown +How fortitude can triumph over boldness, +And scientific art outweary courage. +In vain they tempt him to the fight. He only +Entrenches him still deeper in his hold, +As if to build an everlasting fortress. +At length grown desperate, now, the king resolves +To storm the camp and lead his wasted legions, +Who daily fall by famine and by plague, +To quicker deaths and hunger and disease. +Through lines of barricades behind whose fence +Death lurks within a thousand mouths of fire, +He yet unconquered strives to storm his way. +There was attack, and there resistance, such +As mortal eye had never seen before; +Repulsed at last, the king withdrew his troops +From this so murderous field, and not a foot +Of ground was gained by all that fearful slaughter. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Pray spare us these recitals from gazettes, +Which we ourselves beheld with deepest horror. + +QUESTENBERG. +In Nuernberg's camp the Swedish monarch left +His fame--in Luetzen's plains his life. But who +Stood not astounded, when victorious Friedland +After this day of triumph, this proud day, +Marched toward Bohemia with the speed of flight, +And vanished from the theatre of war? +While the young Weimar hero [7] forced his way +Into Franconia, to the Danube, like +Some delving winter-stream, which, where it rushes, +Makes its own channel; with such sudden speed +He marched, and now at once 'fore Regensburg +Stood to the affright of all good Catholic Christians. +Then did Bavaria's well-deserving prince +Entreat swift aidance in his extreme need; +The emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Friedland, +Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty +He superadds his own, and supplicates +Where as the sovereign lord he can command. +In vain his supplication! At this moment +The duke hears only his old hate and grudge, +Barters the general good to gratify +Private revenge--and so falls Regensburg. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Max., to what period of the war alludes he? +My recollection fails me here. + +MAX. + He means +When we were in Silesia. + +WALLENSTEIN. + Ay! is it so! +But what had we to do there? + +MAX. + To beat out +The Swedes and Saxons from the province. + +WALLENSTEIN. + True; +In that description which the minister gave, +I seemed to have forgotten the whole war. + [TO QUESTENBERG. +Well, but proceed a little. + +QUESTENBERG. +We hoped upon the Oder to regain +What on the Danube shamefully was lost. +We looked for deeds of all-astounding grandeur +Upon a theatre of war, on which +A Friedland led in person to the field, +And the famed rival of the great Gustavus +Had but a Thurn and Arnheim to oppose him! +Yet the encounter of their mighty hosts +Served but to feast and entertain each other. +Our country groaned beneath the woes of war, +Yet naught but peace prevailed in Friedland's camp! + +WALLENSTEIN. +Full many a bloody strife is fought in vain, +Because its youthful general needs a victory. +But 'tis the privilege of the old commander +To spare the costs of fighting useless battles +Merely to show that he knows how to conquer. +It would have little helped my fame to boast +Of conquest o'er an Arnheim; but far more +Would my forbearance have availed my country, +Had I succeeded to dissolve the alliance +Existing 'twixt the Saxon and the Swede. + +QUESTENBERG. +But you did not succeed, and so commenced +The fearful strife anew. And here at length, +Beside the river Oder did the duke +Assert his ancient fame. Upon the fields +Of Steinau did the Swedes lay down their arms, +Subdued without a blow. And here, with others, +The righteousness of heaven to his avenger +Delivered that long-practised stirrer-up +Of insurrection, that curse-laden torch +And kindler of this war, Matthias Thurn. +But he had fallen into magnanimous hands +Instead of punishment he found reward, +And with rich presents did the duke dismiss +The arch-foe of his emperor. + +WALLENSTEIN (laughs). + I know, +I know you had already in Vienna +Your windows and your balconies forestalled +To see him on the executioner's cart. +I might have lost the battle, lost it too +With infamy, and still retained your graces-- +But, to have cheated them of a spectacle, +Oh! that the good folks of Vienna never, +No, never can forgive me! + +QUESTENBERG. + So Silesia +Was freed, and all things loudly called the duke +Into Bavaria, now pressed hard on all sides. +And he did put his troops in motion: slowly, +Quite at his ease, and by the longest road +He traverses Bohemia; but ere ever +He hath once seen the enemy, faces round, +Breaks up the march, and takes to winter-quarters. + +WALLENSTEIN. +The troops were pitiably destitute +Of every necessary, every comfort, +The winter came. What thinks his majesty +His troops are made of? Aren't we men; subjected +Like other men to wet, and cold, and all +The circumstances of necessity? +Oh, miserable lot of the poor soldier! +Wherever he comes in all flee before him, +And when he goes away the general curse +Follows him on his route. All must be seized. +Nothing is given him. And compelled to seize +From every man he's every man's abhorrence. +Behold, here stand my generals. Karaffa! +Count Deodati! Butler! Tell this man +How long the soldier's pay is in arrears. + +BUTLER. +Already a full year. + +WALLENSTEIN. + And 'tis the hire +That constitutes the hireling's name and duties, +The soldier's pay is the soldier's covenant. [8] + +QUESTENBERG. +Ah! this is a far other tone from that +In which the duke spoke eight, nine years ago. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Yes! 'tis my fault, I know it: I myself +Have spoilt the emperor by indulging him. +Nine years ago, during the Danish war, +I raised him up a force, a mighty force, +Forty or fifty thousand men, that cost him +Of his own purse no doit. Through Saxony +The fury goddess of the war marched on, +E'en to the surf-rocks of the Baltic, bearing +The terrors of his name. That was a time! +In the whole imperial realm no name like mine +Honored with festival and celebration-- +And Albrecht Wallenstein, it was the title +Of the third jewel in his crown! +But at the Diet, when the princes met +At Regensburg, there, there the whole broke out, +There 'twas laid open, there it was made known +Out of what money-bag I had paid the host, +And what were now my thanks, what had I now +That I, a faithful servant of the sovereign, +Had loaded on myself the people's curses, +And let the princes of the empire pay +The expenses of this war that aggrandizes +The emperor alone. What thanks had I? +What? I was offered up to their complaint +Dismissed, degraded! + +QUESTENBERG. + But your highness knows +What little freedom he possessed of action +In that disastrous Diet. + +WALLENSTEIN. + Death and hell! +I had that which could have procured him freedom +No! since 'twas proved so inauspicious to me +To serve the emperor at the empire's cost, +I have been taught far other trains of thinking +Of the empire and the Diet of the empire. +From the emperor, doubtless, I received this staff, +But now I hold it as the empire's general,-- +For the common weal, the universal interest, +And no more for that one man's aggrandizement! +But to the point. What is it that's desired of me? + +QUESTENBERG. +First, his imperial majesty hath willed +That without pretexts of delay the army +Evacuate Bohemia. + +WALLENSTEIN. + In this season? +And to what quarter wills the emperor +That we direct our course? + +QUESTENBERG. + To the enemy. +His majesty resolves, that Regensburg +Be purified from the enemy ere Easter, +That Lutheranism may be no longer preached +In that cathedral, nor heretical +Defilement desecrate the celebration +Of that pure festival. + +WALLENSTEIN. + My generals, +Can this be realized? + +ILLO. + 'Tis not possible. + +BUTLER. +It can't be realized. + +QUESTENBERG. + The emperor +Already hath commanded Colonel Suys +To advance towards Bavaria. + +WALLENSTEIN. + What did Suys? + +QUESTENBERG. +That which his duty prompted. He advanced. + +WALLENSTEIN. +What! he advanced? And I, his general, +Had given him orders, peremptory orders +Not to desert his station! Stands it thus +With my authority? Is this the obedience +Due to my office, which being thrown aside, +No war can be conducted? Chieftains, speak +You be the judges, generals. What deserves +That officer who, of his oath neglectful, +Is guilty of contempt of orders? + +ILLO. + Death. + +WALLENSTEIN (raising his voice, as all but ILLO had remained silent + and seemingly scrupulous). +Count Piccolomini! what has he deserved? + +MAX. PICCOLOMINI (after a long pause). +According to the letter of the law, +Death. + +ISOLANI. + Death. + +BUTLER. + Death, by the laws of war. + + [QUESTENBERG rises from his seat, WALLENSTEIN follows, all + the rest rise. + +WALLENSTEIN. +To this the law condemns him, and not I. +And if I show him favor, 'twill arise +From the reverence that I owe my emperor. + +QUESTENBERG. +If so, I can say nothing further--here! + +WALLENSTEIN. +I accepted the command but on conditions! +And this the first, that to the diminution +Of my authority no human being, +Not even the emperor's self, should be entitled +To do aught, or to say aught, with the army. +If I stand warranter of the event, +Placing my honor and my head in pledge, +Needs must I have full mastery in all +The means thereto. What rendered this Gustavus +Resistless, and unconquered upon earth? +This--that he was the monarch in his army! +A monarch, one who is indeed a monarch, +Was never yet subdued but by his equal. +But to the point! The best is yet to come, +Attend now, generals! + +QUESTENBERG. + The Prince Cardinal +Begins his route at the approach of spring +From the Milanese; and leads a Spanish army +Through Germany into the Netherlands. +That he may march secure and unimpeded, +'Tis the emperor's will you grant him a detachment +Of eight horse-regiments from the army here. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Yes, yes! I understand! Eight regiments! Well, +Right well concerted, Father Lanormain! +Eight thousand horse! Yes, yes! 'tis as it should be +I see it coming. + +QUESTENBERG. + There is nothing coming. +All stands in front: the counsel of state-prudence, +The dictate of necessity! + +WALLENSTEIN. + What then? +What, my lord envoy? May I not be suffered +To understand that folks are tired of seeing +The sword's hilt in my grasp, and that your court +Snatch eagerly at this pretence, and use +The Spanish title, and drain off my forces, +To lead into the empire a new army +Unsubjected to my control? To throw me +Plumply aside,--I am still too powerful for you +To venture that. My stipulation runs, +That all the imperial forces shall obey me +Where'er the German is the native language. +Of Spanish troops and of prince cardinals, +That take their route as visitors, through the empire, +There stands no syllable in my stipulation. +No syllable! And so the politic court +Steals in on tiptoe, and creeps round behind it; +First makes me weaker, then to be dispensed with, +Till it dares strike at length a bolder blow, +And make short work with me. +What need of all these crooked ways, lord envoy? +Straightforward, man! his compact with me pinches +The emperor. He would that I moved off! +Well! I will gratify him! + [Here there commences an agitation among the generals, + which increases continually. +It grieves me for my noble officers' sakes; +I see not yet by what means they will come at +The moneys they have advanced, or how obtain +The recompense their services demand. +Still a new leader brings new claimants forward, +And prior merit superannuates quickly. +There serve here many foreigners in the army, +And were the man in all else brave and gallant, +I was not wont to make nice scrutiny +After his pedigree or catechism. +This will be otherwise i' the time to come. +Well; me no longer it concerns. + [He seats himself. +Forbid it, Heaven, that it should come to this! +Our troops will swell in dreadful fermentation-- +The emperor is abused--it cannot be. + +ISOLANI. +It cannot be; all goes to instant wreck. + +WALLENSTEIN. +Thou hast said truly, faithful Isolani! +What we with toil and foresight have built up +Will go to wreck--all go to instant wreck. +What then? Another chieftain is soon found, +Another army likewise (who dares doubt it?) +Will flock from all sides to the emperor, +At the first beat of his recruiting drum. + + [During this speech, ISOLANI, TERZKY, ILLO, and MARADAS talk + confusedly with great agitation. + +MAX. PICCOLOMINI (busily and passionately going from one to another, + and soothing them). +Hear, my commander' Hear me, generals! +Let me conjure you, duke! Determine nothing, +Till we have met and represented to you +Our joint remonstrances! Nay, calmer! Friends! +I hope all may yet be set right again. + +TERZKY. +Away! let us away! in the antechamber +Find we the others. + [They go. + +BUTLER (to QUESTENBERG). + If good counsel gain +Due audience from your wisdom, my lord envoy, +You will be cautious how you show yourself +In public for some hours to come--or hardly +Will that gold key protect you from maltreatment. + + [Commotions heard from without. + +WALLENSTEIN. +A salutary counsel--Thou, Octavio! +Wilt answer for the safety of our guest. +Farewell, von Questenberg! + [QUESTENBURG is about to speak. + Nay, not a word. +Not one word more of that detested subject! +You have performed your duty. We know now +To separate the office from the man. + + [AS QUESTENBERG is going off with OCTAVIO, GOETZ, TIEFENBACH, + KOLATTO, press in, several other generals following them. + +GOETZ. +Where's he who means to rob us of our general? + +TIEFENBACH (at the same time). +What are we forced to bear? That thou wilt leave us? + +KOLATTO (at the same time). +We will live with thee, we will die with thee. + +WALLENSTEIN (with stateliness, and pointing to ILLO). +There! the field-marshal knows our will. + [Exit. + + [While all are going off the stage, the curtain drops. + + + + +ACT III. + +SCENE I. + + A Small Chamber. + + ILLO and TERZKY. + +TERZKY. +Now for this evening's business! How intend you +To manage with the generals at the banquet? + +ILLO. +Attend! We frame a formal declaration, +Wherein we to the duke consign ourselves +Collectively, to be and to remain +His, both with life and limb, and not to spare +The last drop of our blood for him, provided, +So doing we infringe no oath or duty +We may be under to the emperor. Mark! +This reservation we expressly make +In a particular clause, and save the conscience. +Now hear! this formula so framed and worded +Will be presented to them for perusal +Before the banquet. No one will find in it +Cause of offence or scruple. Hear now further! +After the feast, when now the vapering wine +Opens the heart, and shuts the eyes, we let +A counterfeited paper, in the which +This one particular clause has been left out, +Go round for signatures. + +TERZKY. + How! think you then +That they'll believe themselves bound by an oath, +Which we have tricked them into by a juggle? + +ILLO. +We shall have caught and caged them! Let them then +Beat their wings bare against the wires, and rave +Loud as they may against our treachery; +At court their signatures will be believed +Far more than their most holy affirmations. +Traitors they are, and must be; therefore wisely +Will make a virtue of necessity. + +TERZKY. +Well, well, it shall content me: let but something +Be done, let only some decisive blow +Set us in motion. + +ILLO. +Besides, 'tis of subordinate importance +How, or how far, we may thereby propel +The generals. 'Tis enough that we persuade +The duke that they are his. Let him but act +In his determined mood, as if he had them, +And he will have them. Where he plunges in, +He makes a whirlpool, and all stream down to it. + +TERZKY. +His policy is such a labyrinth, +That many a time when I have thought myself +Close at his side, he's gone at once, and left me +Ignorant of the ground where I was standing. +He lends the enemy his ear, permits me +To write to them, to Arnheim; to Sesina +Himself comes forward blank and undisguised; +Talks with us by the hour about his plans, +And when I think I have him--off at once-- +He has slipped from me, and appears as if +He had no scheme, but to retain his place. + +ILLO. +He give up his old plans! I'll tell you, friend! +His soul is occupied with nothing else, +Even in his sleep--they are his thoughts, his dreams, +That day by day he questions for this purpose +The motions of the planets---- + +TERZKY. + Ah! you know +This night, that is now coming, he with Seni, +Shuts himself up in the astrological tower +To make joint observations--for I hear +It is to be a night of weight and crisis; +And something great, and of long expectation, +Takes place in heaven. + +ILLO. + O that it might take place +On earth! The generals are full of zeal, +And would with ease be led to anything +Rather than lose their chief. Observe, too, that +We have at last a fair excuse before us +To form a close alliance 'gainst the court, +Yet innocent its title, bearing simply +That we support him only in command. +But in the ardor of pursuit thou knowest +Men soon forget the goal from which they started. +The object I've in view is that the prince +Shall either find them, or believe them ready +For every hazard. Opportunity +Will tempt him on. Be the great step once taken, +Which at Vienna's court can ne'er be pardoned, +The force of circumstances will lead him onward +The farther still and farther. 'Tis the choice +That makes him undecisive--come but need, +And all his powers and wisdom will come with it. + +TERZKY. +'Tis this alone the enemy awaits +To change their chief and join their force with ours. + +ILLO. +Come! be we bold and make despatch. The work +In this next day or two must thrive and grow +More than it has for years. And let but only +Things first turn up auspicious here below-- +Mark what I say--the right stars, too, will show themselves. +Come to the generals. All is in the glow, +And must be beaten while 'tis malleable. + +TERZKY. +Do you go thither, Illo? I must stay +And wait here for the Countess Terzky. Know +That we, too, are not idle. Break one string, +A second is in readiness. + +ILLO. + Yes! yes! +I saw your lady smile with such sly meaning. +What's in the wind? + +TERZKY. + A secret. Hush! she comes. + + [Exit ILLO. + + + +SCENE II. + + The COUNTESS steps out from a closet. + + COUNT and COUNTESS TERZKY. + +TERZKY. +Well--is she coming? I can keep him back +No longer. + +COUNTESS. + She will be here instantly, +You only send him. + +TERZKY. + I am not quite certain, +I must confess it, countess, whether or not +We are earning the duke's thanks hereby. You know +No ray has broke out from him on this point. +You have o'erruled me, and yourself know best +How far you dare proceed. + +COUNTESS. + I take it on me. + [Talking to herself while she is advancing. +Here's no heed of full powers and commissions; +My cloudy duke! we understand each other-- +And without words. What could I not unriddle, +Wherefore the daughter should be sent for hither, +Why first he, and no other should be chosen +To fetch her hither? This sham of betrothing her +To a bridegroom [9], whom no one knows--No! no! +This may blind others! I see through thee, brother! +But it beseems thee not to draw a card +At such a game. Not yet! It all remains +Mutely delivered up to my finessing. +Well--thou shalt not have been deceived, Duke Friedland, +In her who is thy sister. + +SERVANT (enters). + The commanders! + [Exit. + +TERZKY (to the COUNTESS). +Take care you heat his fancy and affections-- +Possess him with a reverie, and send him, +Absent and dreaming to the banquet; that +He may not boggle at the signature. + +COUNTESS. +Take care of your guests! Go, send him hither. + +TERZKY. +All rests upon his undersigning. + +COUNTESS (interrupting him). +Go to your guests! Go---- + +ILLO (comes back). + Where art staying, Terzky? +The house is full, and all expecting you. + +TERZKY. +Instantly! instantly! + [To the COUNTESS. + And let him not +Stay here too long. It might awake suspicion +In the old man---- + +COUNTESS. + A truce with your precautions! + + [Exeunt TERZKY and ILLO. + + + +SCENE III. + + COUNTESS, MAX. PICCOLOMINI. + +MAX. (peeping in on the stage slyly). +Aunt Terzky! may I venture? + [Advances to the middle of the stage, and looks around + him with uneasiness. + She's not here! +Where is she? + +COUNTESS. + Look but somewhat narrowly +In yonder corner, lest perhaps she lie +Concealed behind that screen. + +MAX. + There lie her gloves! + + [Snatches at them, but the COUNTESS takes them herself. + +You unkind lady! You refuse me this, +You make it an amusement to torment me. + +COUNTESS. +And this the thanks you give me for my trouble? + +MAX. +O, if you felt the oppression at my heart! +Since we've been here, so to constrain myself +With such poor stealth to hazard words and glances. +These, these are not my habits! + +COUNTESS. + You have still +Many new habits to acquire, young friend! +But on this proof of your obedient temper +I must continue to insist; and only +On this condition can I play the agent +For your concerns. + +MAX. + But wherefore comes she not? +Where is she? + +COUNTESS. + Into my hands you must place it +Whole and entire. Whom could you find, indeed, +More zealously affected to your interest? +No soul on earth must know it--not your father; +He must not, above all. + +MAX. + Alas! what danger? +Here is no face on which I might concentre +All the enraptured soul stirs up within me. +O lady! tell me, is all changed around me? +Or is it only I? + I find myself, +As among strangers! Not a trace is left +Of all my former wishes, former joys. +Where has it vanished to? There was a time +When even, methought, with such a world as this, +I was not discontented. Now how flat! +How stale! No life, no bloom, no flavor in it! +My comrades are intolerable to me. +My father--even to him I can say nothing. +My arms, my military duties--O! +They are such wearying toys! + +COUNTESS. + But gentle friend! +I must entreat it of your condescension, +You would be pleased to sink your eye, and favor +With one short glance or two this poor stale world, +Where even now much, and of much moment, +Is on the eve of its completion. + +MAX. + Something, +I can't but know is going forward round me. +I see it gathering, crowding, driving on, +In wild uncustomary movements. Well, +In due time, doubtless, it will reach even me. +Where think you I have been, dear lady? Nay, +No raillery. The turmoil of the camp, +The spring-tide of acquaintance rolling in, +The pointless jest, the empty conversation, +Oppressed and stifled me. I gasped for air-- +I could not breathe--I was constrained to fly, +To seek a silence out for my full heart; +And a pure spot wherein to feel my happiness. +No smiling, countess! In the church was I. +There is a cloister here "To the heaven's gate," [10] +Thither I went, there found myself alone. +Over the altar hung a holy mother; +A wretched painting 'twas, yet 'twas the friend +That I was seeking in this moment. Ah, +How oft have I beheld that glorious form +In splendor, 'mid ecstatic worshippers; +Yet, still it moved me not! and now at once +Was my devotion cloudless as my love. + +COUNTESS. +Enjoy your fortune and felicity! +Forget the world around you. Meantime, friendship +Shall keep strict vigils for you, anxious, active. +Only be manageable when that friendship +Points you the road to full accomplishment. + +MAX. +But where abides she then? Oh, golden time +Of travel, when each morning sun united +And but the coming night divided us; +Then ran no sand, then struck no hour for us, +And time, in our excess of happiness, +Seemed on its course eternal to stand still. +Oh, he hath fallen from out his heaven of bliss +Who can descend to count the changing hours, +No clock strikes ever for the happy! + +COUNTESS. +How long is it since you declared your passion? + +MAX. +This morning did I hazard the first word. + +COUNTESS. +This morning the first time in twenty days? + +MAX. +'Twas at that hunting-castle, betwixt here +And Nepomuck, where you had joined us, and +That was the last relay of the whole journey; +In a balcony we were standing mute, +And gazing out upon the dreary field +Before us the dragoons were riding onward, +The safeguard which the duke had sent us--heavy; +The inquietude of parting lay upon me, +And trembling ventured at length these words: +This all reminds me, noble maiden, that +To-day I must take leave of my good fortune. +A few hours more, and you will find a father, +Will see yourself surrounded by new friends, +And I henceforth shall be but as a stranger, +Lost in the many--"Speak with my Aunt Terzky!" +With hurrying voice she interrupted me. +She faltered. I beheld a glowing red +Possess her beautiful cheeks, and from the ground +Raised slowly up her eye met mine--no longer +Did I control myself. + [The Princess THEKLA appears at the door, and remains standing, + observed by the COUNTESS, but not by PICCOLOMINI. + With instant boldness +I caught her in my arms, my lips touched hers; +There was a rustling in the room close by; +It parted us--'Twas you. What since has happened +You know. + +COUNTESS (after a pause, with a stolen glance at THEKLA). + And is it your excess of modesty +Or are you so incurious, that you do not +Ask me too of my secret? + +MAX. + Of your secret? + +COUNTESS. +Why, yes! When in the instant after you +I stepped into the room, and found my niece there; +What she in this first moment of the heart +Taken with surprise---- + +MAX. (with eagerness). + Well? + + + +SCENE IV. + + THEKLA (hurries forward), COUNTESS, MAX. PICCOLOMINI. + +THEKLA (to the COUNTESS). + Spare yourself the trouble: +That hears he better from myself. + +MAX. (stepping backward). + My princess! +What have you let her hear me say, Aunt Terzky? + +THEKLA (to the COUNTESS). +Has he been here long? + +COUNTESS. + Yes; and soon must go, +Where have you stayed so long? + +THEKLA. + Alas! my mother, +Wept so again! and I--I see her suffer, +Yet cannot keep myself from being happy. + +MAX. +Now once again I have courage to look on you. +To-day at noon I could not. +The dazzle of the jewels that played round you +Hid the beloved from me. + +THEKLA. + Then you saw me +With your eye only--and not with your heart? + +MAX. +This morning, when I found you in the circle +Of all your kindred, in your father's arms, +Beheld myself an alien in this circle, +O! what an impulse felt I in that moment +To fall upon his neck, to call him father! +But his stern eye o'erpowered the swelling passion, +It dared not but be silent. And those brilliants, +That like a crown of stars enwreathed your brows, +They scared me too! O wherefore, wherefore should be +At the first meeting spread as 'twere the ban +Of excommunication round you,--wherefore +Dress up the angel as for sacrifice. +And cast upon the light and joyous heart +The mournful burden of his station? Fitly +May love dare woo for love; but such a splendor +Might none but monarchs venture to approach. + +THEKLA. +Hush! not a word more of this mummery; +You see how soon the burden is thrown off. + [To the COUNTESS. +He is not in spirits. Wherefore is he not? +'Tis you, aunt, that have made him all so gloomy! +He had quite another nature on the journey-- +So calm, so bright, so joyous eloquent. + [To MAX. +It was my wish to see you always so, +And never otherwise! + +MAX. + You find yourself +In your great father's arms, beloved lady! +All in a new world, which does homage to you, +And which, were't only by its novelty, +Delights your eye. + +THEKLA. + Yes; I confess to you +That many things delight me here: this camp, +This motley stage of warriors, which renews +So manifold the image of my fancy, +And binds to life, binds to reality, +What hitherto had but been present to me +As a sweet dream! + +MAX. + Alas! not so to me. +It makes a dream of my reality. +Upon some island in the ethereal heights +I've lived for these last days. This mass of men +Forces me down to earth. It is a bridge +That, reconducting to my former life, +Divides me and my heaven. + +THEKLA. + The game of life +Looks cheerful, when one carries in one's heart +The unalienable treasure. 'Tis a game, +Which, having once reviewed, I turn more joyous +Back to my deeper and appropriate bliss. + [Breaking off, and in a sportive tone. +In this short time that I've been present here. +What new unheard-of things have I not seen; +And yet they all must give place to the wond +Which this mysterious castle guards. + +COUNTESS (recollecting). + And what +Can this be then? Methought I was acquainted +With all the dusky corners of this house. + +THEKLA (smiling). +Ay, but the road thereto is watched by spirits, +Two griffins still stand sentry at the door. + +COUNTESS (laughs). +The astrological tower! How happens it +That this same sanctuary, whose access +Is to all others so impracticable, +Opens before you even at your approach? + +THEKLA. +A dwarfish old man with a friendly face +And snow-white hairs, whose gracious services +Were mine at first sight, opened me the doors. + +MAX. +That is the duke's astrologer, old Seni. + +THEKLA. +He questioned me on many points; for instance, +When I was born, what month, and on what day, +Whether by day or in the night. + +COUNTESS. + He wished +To erect a figure for your horoscope. + +THEKLA. +My hand too he examined, shook his head +With much sad meaning, and the lines, methought, +Did not square over truly with his wishes. + +COUNTESS. +Well, princess, and what found you in this tower? +My highest privilege has been to snatch +A side-glance, and away! + +THEKLA. + It was a strange +Sensation that came o'er me, when at first +From the broad sunshine I stepped in; and now +The narrowing line of daylight, that ran after +The closing door, was gone; and all about me +'Twas pale and dusky night, with many shadows +Fantastically cast. Here six or seven +Colossal statues, and all kings, stood round me +In a half-circle. Each one in his hand +A sceptre bore, and on his head a star; +And in the tower no other light was there +But from these stars all seemed to come from them. +"These are the planets," said that low old man, +"They govern worldly fates, and for that cause +Are imaged here as kings. He farthest from you, +Spiteful and cold, an old man melancholy, +With bent and yellow forehead, he is Saturn. +He opposite, the king with the red light, +An armed man for the battle, that is Mars; +And both these bring but little luck to man." +But at his side a lovely lady stood, +The star upon her head was soft and bright, +Oh, that was Venus, the bright star of joy. +And the left hand, lo! Mercury, with wings +Quite in the middle glittered silver bright. +A cheerful man, and with a monarch's mien; +And this was Jupiter, my father's star +And at his side I saw the Sun and Moon. + +MAX. +Oh, never rudely will I blame his faith +In the might of stars and angels. 'Tis not merely +The human being's pride that peoples space +With life and mystical predominance; +Since likewise for the stricken heart of love +This visible nature, and this common world, +Is all too narrow; yea, a deeper import +Lurks in the legend told my infant years +Than lies upon that truth, we live to learn. +For fable is love's world, his home, his birth-place; +Delightedly dwells he among fays and talismans, +And spirits; and delightedly believes +Divinities, being himself divine +The intelligible forms of ancient poets, +The fair humanities of old religion, +The power, the beauty, and the majesty, +That had her haunts in dale, or piny mountain, +Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, +Or chasms, and watery depths, all these have vanished. +They live no longer in the faith of reason! +But still the heart doth need a language, still +Doth the old instinct bring back the old names; +And to yon starry world they now are gone, +Spirits or gods, that used to share this earth +With man as with their friend [11], and to the lover +Yonder they move, from yonder visible sky +Shoot influence down: and even at this day +'This Jupiter who brings whate'er is great, +And Venus who brings everything that's fair! + +THEKLA. +And if this be the science of the stars, +I, too, with glad and zealous industry, +Will learn acquaintance with this cheerful faith. +It is a gentle and affectionate thought, +That in immeasurable heights above us, +At our first birth, the wreath of love was woven, +With sparkling stars for flowers. + +COUNTESS. + Not only roses +And thorns too hath the heaven, and well for you +Leave they your wreath of love inviolate: +What Venus twined, the bearer of glad fortune, +The sullen orb of Mars soon tears to pieces. + +MAX. +Soon will this gloomy empire reach its close. +Blest be the general's zeal: into the laurel +Will he inweave the olive-branch, presenting +Peace to the shouting nations. Then no wish +Will have remained for his great heart. Enough +Has he performed for glory, and can now +Live for himself and his. To his domains will +He retire; he has a stately seat +Of fairest view at Gitschin, Reichenberg, +And Friedland Castle, both lie pleasantly; +Even to the foot of the huge mountains here +Stretches the chase and covers of his forests: +His ruling passion to create the splendid +He can indulge without restraint; can give +A princely patronage to every art, +And to all worth a sovereign's protection. +Can build, can plant, can watch the starry courses---- + +COUNTESS. +Yet I would have you look, and look again, +Before you lay aside your arms, young friend! +A gentle bride, as she is, is well worth it, +That you should woo and win her with the sword. + +MAX. +Oh, that the sword could win her! + +COUNTESS. + What was that? +Did you hear nothing? Seemed as if I heard +Tumult and larum in the banquet-room. + + [Exit COUNTESS. + + + +SCENE V. + + THEKLA and MAX. PICCOLOMINI. + +THEKLA (as soon as the COUNTESS is out of sight, in a quick, + low voice to PICCOLOMINI). +Don't trust them! They are false! + +MAX. + Impossible! + +THEKLA. +Trust no one here but me. I saw at once, +They had a purpose. + +MAX. + Purpose! but what purpose? +And how can we be instrumental to it? + +THEKLA. +I know no more than you; but yet believe me +There's some design in this; to make us happy, +To realize our union--trust me, love! +They but pretend to wish it. + +MAX. + But these Terzkys-- +Why use we them at all? Why not your mother? +Excellent creature! She deserves from us +A full and filial confidence. + +THEKLA. + She doth love you, +Doth rate you high before all others--but-- +But such a secret--she would never have +The courage to conceal it from my father. +For her own peace of mind we must preserve it +A secret from her too. + +MAX. + Why any secret? +I love not secrets. Mark what I will do. +I'll throw me at your father's feet--let him +Decide upon my fortune! He is true, +He wears no mask--he hates all crooked ways-- +He is so good, so noble! + +THEKLA. (falls on his neck). + That are you! + +MAX. +You knew him only from this morn! But I +Have lived ten years already in his presence; +And who knows whether in this very moment +He is not merely waiting for us both +To own our loves in order to unite us? +You are silent! +You look at me with such a hopelessness! +What have you to object against your father? + +THEKLA. +I? Nothing. Only he's so occupied-- +He has no leisure time to think about +The happiness of us two. + [Taking his hand tenderly. + Follow me +Let us not place too great a faith in men. +These Terzkys--we will still be grateful to them +For every kindness, but not trust them further +Than they deserve;--and in all else rely +On our own hearts! + +MAX. + O! shall we e'er be happy? + +THEKLA. +Are we not happy now? Art thou not mine? +Am I not thine? There lives within my soul +A lofty courage--'tis love gives it me! +I ought to be less open--ought to hide +My heart more from thee--so decorum dictates: +But where in this place couldst thou seek for truth, +If in my mouth thou didst not find it? +We now have met, then let us hold each other +Clasped in a lasting and a firm embrace. +Believe me this was more than their intent. +Then be our loves like some blest relic kept +Within the deep recesses of the heart. +From heaven alone the love has been bestowed, +To heaven alone our gratitude is due; +It can work wonders for us still. + + + +SCENE VI. + + To them enters the COUNTESS TERZKY. + +COUNTESS (in a pressing manner). + Come, come! +My husband sends me for you. It is now +The latest moment. + [They not appearing to attend to what she says, + she steps between them. + Part you! + +THEKLA. + Oh, not yet! +It has been scarce a moment. + +COUNTESS. + Ay! Then time +Flies swiftly with your highness, princess niece! + +MAX. +There is no hurry, aunt. + +COUNTESS. + Away! Away! +The folks begin to miss you. Twice already +His father has asked for him. + +THEKLA. + Ha! His father! +COUNTESS. +You understand that, niece! + +THEKLA. + Why needs he +To go at all to that society? +'Tis not his proper company. They may +Be worthy men, but he's too young for them; +In brief, he suits not such society. + +COUNTESS. +You mean, you'd rather keep him wholly here? + +THEKLA (with energy). +Yes! You have hit it aunt! That is my meaning, +Leave him here wholly! Tell the company---- + +COUNTESS. +What! have you lost your senses, niece? +Count, you remember the conditions. Come! + +MAX (to THEKLA). +Lady, I must obey. Fairwell, dear lady! + [THEKLA turns away from him with a quick motion. +What say you then, dear lady? + +THEKLA (without looking at him). + Nothing. Go! + +MAX. +Can I when you are angry---- + + [He draws up to her, their eyes meet, she stands silent a moment, + then throws herself into his arms; he presses her fast to his heart. + +COUNTESS. +Off! Heavens! if any one should come! +Hark! What's that noise! It comes this way. Off! + + [MAX. tears himself away out of her arms and goes. The COUNTESS + accompanies him. THEKLA follows him with her eyes at first, walks + restlessly across the room, then stops, and remains standing, lost + in thought. A guitar lies on the table, she seizes it as by a + sudden emotion, and after she has played awhile an irregular and + melancholy symphony, she falls gradually into the music and sings. + + + +SCENE VII. + +THEKLA (plays and sings). + + The cloud doth gather, the greenwood roar, + The damsel paces along the shore; + The billows, they tumble with might, with might; + And she flings out her voice to the darksome night; + Her bosom is swelling with sorrow; + The world it is empty, the heart will die, + There's nothing to wish for beneath the sky + Thou Holy One, call thy child away! + I've lived and loved, and that was to-day; + Make ready my grave-clothes to-morrow. [12] + + + +SCENE VIII. + + COUNTESS (returns), THEKLA. + +COUNTESS. +Fie, lady niece! to throw yourself upon him +Like a poor gift to one who cares not for it, +And so must be flung after him! For you, +Duke Friedland's only child, I should have thought +It had been more beseeming to have shown yourself +More chary of your person. + +THEKLA (rising). + And what mean you? + +DUCHESS. +I mean, niece, that you should not have forgotten +Who you are, and who he is. But perchance +That never once occurred to you. + +THEKLA. + What then? + +COUNTESS. +That you're the daughter of the Prince Duke Friedland. + +THEKLA. +Well, and what farther? + +DUCHESS. + What? A pretty question! + +THEKLA. +He was born that which we have but become. +He's of an ancient Lombard family, +Son of a reigning princess. + +COUNTESS. + Are you dreaming? +Talking in sleep? An excellent jest, forsooth! +We shall no doubt right courteously entreat him +To honor with his hand the richest heiress +In Europe. + +THEKLA. + That will not be necessary. + +COUNTESS. +Methinks 'twere well, though, not to run the hazard. + +THEHLA. +His father loves him; Count Octavio +Will interpose no difficulty---- + +COUNTESS. + His! +His father! His! But yours, niece, what of yours? + +THERLA. +Why, I begin to think you fear his father, +So anxiously you hide it from the man! +His father, his, I mean. + +COUNTESS (looks at her as scrutinizing). + Niece, you are false. + +THEBLA. +Are you then wounded? O, be friends with me! + +COUNTESS. +You hold your game for won already. Do not +Triumph too soon! + +THEKLA (interrupting her, and attempting to soothe her). + Nay now, be friends with me. + +COUNTESS. +It is not yet so far gone. + +THEKLA. + I believe you. + +COUNTESS. +Did you suppose your father had laid out +His most important life in toils of war, +Denied himself each quiet earthly bliss, +Had banished slumbers from his tent, devoted +His noble head to care, and for this only, +To make a happier pair of you? At length +To draw you from your convent, and conduct +In easy triumph to your arms the man +That chanced to please your eyes! All this, methinks, +He might have purchased at a cheaper rate. + +THEKLA. +That which he did not plant for me might yet +Bear me fair fruitage of its own accord. +And if my friendly and affectionate fate, +Out of his fearful and enormous being, +Will but prepare the joys of life for me---- + +COUNTESS. +Thou seest it with a lovelorn maiden's eyes, +Cast thine eye round, bethink thee who thou art;-- +Into no house of joyance hast thou stepped, +For no espousals dost thou find the walls +Decked out, no guests the nuptial garland wearing; +Here is no splendor but of arms. Or thinkest thou +That all these thousands are here congregated +To lead up the long dances at thy wedding! +Thou see'st thy father's forehead full of thought, +Thy mother's eye in tears: upon the balance +Lies the great destiny of all our house. +Leave now the puny wish, the girlish feeling; +Oh, thrust it far behind thee! Give thou proof +Thou'rt the daughter of the mighty--his +Who where he moves creates the wonderful. +Not to herself the woman must belong, +Annexed and bound to alien destinies. +But she performs the best part, she the wisest, +Who can transmute the alien into self, +Meet and disarm necessity by choice; +And what must be, take freely to her heart, +And bear and foster it with mother's love. + +THEKLA. +Such ever was my lesson in the convent. +I had no loves, no wishes, knew myself +Only as his--his daughter--his, the mighty! +His fame, the echo of whose blast drove to me +From the far distance, weakened in my soul +No other thought than this--I am appointed +To offer myself up in passiveness to him. + +COUNTESS. +That is thy fate. Mould thou thy wishes to it-- +I and thy mother gave thee the example. + +THEKLA. +My fate hath shown me him, to whom behoves it +That I should offer up myself. In gladness +Him will I follow. + +COUNTESS. + Not thy fate hath shown him! +Thy heart, say rather--'twas thy heart, my child! + +THEKLA. +Faith hath no voice but the heart's impulses. +I am all his! His present--his alone. +Is this new life, which lives in me? He hath +A right to his own creature. What was I +Ere his fair love infused a soul into me? + +COUNTESS. +Thou wouldst oppose thy father, then, should he +Have otherwise determined with thy person? + [THEKLA remains silent. The COUNTESS continues. +Thou meanest to force him to thy liking? Child, +His name is Friedland. + +THEKLA. + My name too is Friedland. +He shall have found a genuine daughter in me. + +COUNTESS. +What! he has vanquished all impediment, +And in the wilful mood of his own daughter +Shall a new struggle rise for him? Child! child! +As yet thou hast seen thy father's smiles alone; +The eye of his rage thou hast not seen. Dear child, +I will not frighten thee. To that extreme, +I trust it ne'er shall come. His will is yet +Unknown to me; 'tis possible his aims +May have the same direction as thy wish. +But this can never, never be his will, +That thou, the daughter of his haughty fortunes, +Shouldest e'er demean thee as a lovesick maiden +And like some poor cost-nothing, fling thyself +Toward the man, who, if that high prize ever +Be destined to await him, yet with sacrifices +The highest love can bring, must pay for it. + + [Exit COUNTESS. + + + +SCENE IX. + +THEKLA (who during the last speech had been standing evidently + lost in her reflections). +I thank thee for the hint. It turns +My sad presentiment to certainty. +And it is so! Not one friend have we here, +Not one true heart! we've nothing but ourselves! +Oh, she said rightly--no auspicious signs +Beam on this covenant of our affections. +This is no theatre where hope abides +The dull thick noise of war alone stirs here, +And love himself, as he were armed in steel, +Steps forth, and girds him for the strife of death. + [Music from the banquet-room is heard. +There's a dark spirit walking in our house. +And swiftly will the destiny close on us. +It drove me hither from my calm asylum, +It mocks my soul with charming witchery, +It lures me forward in a seraph's shape, +I see it near, I see it nearer floating, +It draws, it pulls me with a godlike power-- +And lo! the abyss--and thither am I moving-- +I have no power within me not to move! + [The music from the banquet-room becomes louder. +Oh, when a house is, doomed in fire to perish, +Many and dark Heaven drives his clouds together, +Yea, shoots his lightnings down from sunny heights, +Flames burst from out the subterraneous chasms, +And fiends and angels, mingling in their fury, +Sling firebrands at the burning edifice. [13] + + [Exit THEKLA. + + + + +ACT IV. + +SCENE I. + + A large saloon lighted up with festal splendor; in the midst of it, + and in the centre of the stage a table richly set out, at which + eight generals are sitting, among whom are OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, + TERZKY, and MARADAS. Right and left of this, but further back, two + other tables, at each of which six persons are placed. The middle + door, which is standing open, gives to the prospect a fourth table + with the same number of persons. More forward stands the sideboard. + The whole front of the stage is kept open, for the pages and + servants-in-waiting. All is in motion. The band of music belonging + to TERZKY's regiment march across the stage, and draw up around the + tables. Before they are quite off from the front of the stage, MAX. + PICCOLOMINI appears, TERZKY advances towards him with a paper, + ISOLANI comes up to meet him with a beaker, or service-cup. + + TERZKY, ISOLANI, MAX. PICCOLOMINI. + +ISOLANI. +Here, brother, what we love! Why, where hast been? +Off to thy place--quick! Terzky here has given +The mother's holiday wine up to free booty. +Here it goes on as at the Heidelberg castle. +Already hast thou lost the best. They're giving +At yonder table ducal crowns in shares; +There Sternberg's lands and chattels are put up, +With Eggenberg's, Stawata's, Lichtenstein's, +And all the great Bohemian feudalities. +Be nimble, lad! and something may turn up +For thee, who knows? off--to thy place! quick! march! + +TIEFENBACH and GOETZ (call out from the second and third tables). +Count Piccolomini! + +TERZKY. +Stop, ye shall have him in an instant. Read +This oath here, whether as 'tis here set forth, +The wording satisfies you. They've all read it, +Each in his turn, and each one will subscribe +His individual signature. + +MAX. (reads). +"Ingratis servire nefas." + +ISOLANI. +That sounds to my ears very much like Latin, +And being interpreted, pray what may it mean? + +TERZKY. +No honest man will serve a thankless master. + +MAX. "Inasmuch as our supreme commander, the illustrious Duke of +Friedland, in consequence of the manifold affronts and grievances which +he has received, had expressed his determination to quit the emperor, but +on our unanimous entreaty has graciously consented to remain still with +the army, and not to part from us without our approbation thereof, so we, +collectively and each in particular, in the stead of an oath personally +taken, do, hereby oblige ourselves--likewise by him honorably and +faithfully to hold, and in nowise whatsoever from him to part, and to be +ready to shed for his interests the last drop of our blood, so far, +namely, as our oath to the emperor will permit it. (These last words are +repeated by ISOLANI.) In testimony of which we subscribe our names." + +TERZKY. +Now! are you willing to subscribe to this paper? + +ISOLANI. +Why should he not? All officers of honor +Can do it, ay, must do it. Pen and ink here! + +TERZKY. +Nay, let it rest till after meal. + +ISOLANI (drawing MAX. along). + Come, Max! + + [Both seat themselves at their table. + + + +SCENE II. + + TERZKY, NEUMANN. + +TERZKY (beckons to NEUMANN, who is waiting at the side-table and steps + forward with him to the edge of the stage). +Have you the copy with you, Neumann? Give it. +It may be changed for the other? + +NEUMANN. + I have copied it +Letter by letter, line by line; no eye +Would e'er discover other difference, +Save only the omission of that clause, +According to your excellency's order. + +TERZKY. +Right I lay it yonder and away with this-- +It has performed its business--to the fire with it. + + [NEUMANN lays the copy on the table, and steps back again + to the side-table. + + + +SCENE III. + + ILLO (comes out from the second chamber), TERZKY. + +ILLO. +How goes it with young Piccolomini! + +TERZKY. +All right, I think. He has started no object. + +ILLO. +He is the only one I fear about-- +He and his father. Have an eye on both! + +TERZKY. +How looks it at your table: you forget not +To keep them warm and stirring? + +ILLO. + Oh, quite cordial, +They are quite cordial in the scheme. We have them +And 'tis as I predicted too. Already +It is the talk, not merely to maintain +The duke in station. "Since we're once for all +Together and unanimous, why not," +Says Montecuculi, "ay, why not onward, +And make conditions with the emperor +There in his own Venice?" Trust me, count, +Were it not for these said Piccolomini, +We might have spared ourselves the cheat. + +TERZEY. + And Butler? +How goes it there? Hush! + + + +SCENE IV. + + To them enter BUTLER from a second table. + +BUTLER. + Don't disturb yourselves; +Field-marshal, I have understood you perfectly. +Good luck be to the scheme; and as to me, + [With an air of mystery. +You may depend upon me. + +ILLO (with vivacity). + May we, Butler? + +BUTLER. +With or without the clause, all one to me! +You understand me! My fidelity +The duke may put to any proof--I'm with him +Tell him so! I'm the emperor's officer, +As long as 'tis his pleasure to remain +The emperor's general! and Friedland's servant, +As soon as it shall please him to become +His own lord. + +TERZKY. + You would make a good exchange. +No stern economist, no Ferdinand, +Is he to whom you plight your services. + +BUTLER (with a haughty look). +I do not put up my fidelity +To sale, Count Terzky! Half a year ago +I would not have advised you to have made me +An overture to that, to which I now +Offer myself of my own free accord. +But that is past! and to the duke, field-marshal, +I bring myself, together with my regiment. +And mark you, 'tis my humor to believe, +The example which I give will not remain +Without an influence. + +ILLO. + Who is ignorant, +That the whole army looks to Colonel Butler +As to a light that moves before them? + +BUTLER. + Ay? +Then I repent me not of that fidelity +Which for the length of forty years I held, +If in my sixtieth year my good old name +Can purchase for me a revenge so full. +Start not at what I say, sir generals! +My real motives--they concern not you. +And you yourselves, I trust, could not expect +That this your game had crooked my judgment--or +That fickleness, quick blood, or such like cause, +Has driven the old man from the track of honor, +Which he so long had trodden. Come, my friends! +I'm not thereto determined with less firmness, +Because I know and have looked steadily +At that on which I have determined. + +ILLO. + Say, +And speak roundly, what are we to deem you? + +BUTLER. +A friend! I give you here my hand! I'm yours +With all I have. Not only men, but money +Will the duke want. Go, tell him, sirs! +I've earned and laid up somewhat in his service, +I lend it him; and is he my survivor, +It has been already long ago bequeathed to him; +He is my heir. For me, I stand alone +Here in the world; naught know I of the feeling +That binds the husband to a wife and children. +My name dies with me, my existence ends. + +ILLO. +'Tis not your money that he needs--a heart +Like yours weighs tons of gold down, weighs down millions! + +BUTLER. +I came a simple soldier's boy from Ireland +To Prague--and with a master, whom I buried. +From lowest stable duty I climbed up, +Such was the fate of war, to this high rank, +The plaything of a whimsical good fortune. +And Wallenstein too is a child of luck: +I love a fortune that is like my own. + +ILLO. +All powerful souls have kindred with each other. + +BUTLER. +This is an awful moment! to the brave, +To the determined, an auspicious moment. +The Prince of Weimar arms, upon the Maine, +To found a mighty dukedom. He of Halberstadt, +That Mansfeldt, wanted but a longer life +To have marked out with his good sword a lordship +That should reward his courage. Who of these +Equals our Friedland? There is nothing, nothing +So high, but he may set the ladder to it! + +TERZKY. +That's spoken like a man! + +BUTLER. +Do you secure the Spaniard and Italian-- +I'll be your warrant for the Scotchman Lesly. +Come to the company! + +TERZKY. +Where is the master of the cellar? Ho! +Let the best wines come up. Ho! cheerly, boy! +Luck comes to-day, so give her hearty welcome. + + [Exeunt, each to his table. + + + +SCENE V. + + The MASTER OF THE CELLAR, advancing with NEUMANN, SERVANTS passing + backwards and forwards. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. The best wine! Oh, if my old mistress, his lady +mother, could but see these wild goings on she would turn herself round +in her grave. Yes, yes, sir officer! 'tis all down the hill with this +noble house! no end, no moderation! And this marriage with the duke's +sister, a splendid connection, a very splendid connection! but I will +tell you, sir officer, it looks no good. + +NEUMANN. Heaven forbid! Why, at this very moment the whole prospect is +in bud and blossom! + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. You think so? Well, well! much may be said on +that head. + +FIRST SERVANT (comes). Burgundy for the fourth table. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. Now, sir lieutenant, if this aint the seventieth +flask---- + +FIRST SERVANT. Why, the reason is, that German lord, Tiefenbach, sits at +that table. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR (continuing his discourse to NEUMANN). They are +soaring too high. They would rival kings and electors in their pomp and +splendor; and wherever the duke leaps, not a minute does my gracious +master, the count, loiter on the brink--(to the SERVANTS). What do you +stand there listening for? I will let you know you have legs presently. +Off! see to the tables, see to the flasks! Look there! Count Palfi has +an empty glass before him! + +RUNNER (comes). The great service-cup is wanted, sir, that rich gold cup +with the Bohemian arms on it. The count says you know which it is. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. Ay! that was made for Frederick's coronation by +the artist William--there was not such another prize in the whole booty +at Prague. + +RUNNER. The same!--a health is to go round in him. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR (shaking his head while he fetches and rinses the +cups). This will be something for the tale-bearers--this goes to Vienna. + +NEUMANN. Permit me to look at it. Well, this is a cup indeed! How +heavy! as well it may be, being all gold. And what neat things are +embossed on it! how natural and elegant they look! There, on the first +quarter, let me see. That proud amazon there on horseback, she that is +taking a leap over the crosier and mitres, and carries on a wand a hat +together with a banner, on which there's a goblet represented. Can you +tell me what all this signifies? + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. The woman you see there on horseback is the Free +Election of the Bohemian Crown. That is signified by the round hat and +by that fiery steed on which she is riding. The hat is the pride of man; +for he who cannot keep his hat on before kings and emperors is no free +man. + +NEUMANN. But what is the cup there on the banner. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. The cup signifies the freedom of the Bohemian +Church, as it was in our forefathers' times. Our forefathers in the wars +of the Hussites forced from the pope this noble privilege; for the pope, +you know, will not grant the cup to any layman. Your true Moravian +values nothing beyond the cup; it is his costly jewel, and has cost the +Bohemians their precious blood in many and many a battle. + +NEUMANN. And what says that chart that hangs in the air there, over it +all? + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. That signifies the Bohemian letter-royal which we +forced from the Emperor Rudolph--a precious, never to be enough valued +parchment, that secures to the new church the old privileges of free +ringing and open psalmody. But since he of Steiermark has ruled over us +that is at an end; and after the battle at Prague, in which Count +Palatine Frederick lost crown and empire, our faith hangs upon the pulpit +and the altar--and our brethren look at their homes over their shoulders; +but the letter-royal the emperor himself cut to pieces with his scissors. + +NEUMANN. Why, my good Master of the Cellar! you are deep read in the +chronicles of your country. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. So were my forefathers, and for that reason were +they minstrels, and served under Procopius and Ziska. Peace be with +their ashes! Well, well! they fought for a good cause though. There! +carry it up! + +NEUMANN. Stay! let me but look at this second quarter. Look there! +That is, when at Prague Castle, the imperial counsellors, Martinitz and +Stawata, were hurled down head over heels. 'Tis even so! there stands +Count Thur who commands it. + + [RUNNER takes the service-cup and goes off with it. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. Oh, let me never more hear of that day. It was +the three-and-twentieth of May in the year of our Lord one thousand six +hundred and eighteen. It seems to me as it were but yesterday--from that +unlucky day it all began, all the heartaches of the country. Since that +day it is now sixteen years, and there has never once been peace on the +earth. + + [Health drunk aloud at the second table. + +The Prince of Weimar! Hurrah! + + [At the third and fourth tables. + +Long live Prince William! Long live Duke Bernard! Hurrah! + + [Music strikes up. + +FIRST SERVANT. Hear 'em! Hear 'em! What an uproar! + +SECOND SERVANT (comes in running). Did you hear? They have drunk the +Prince of Weimar's health. + +THIRD SERVANT. The Swedish chief commander! + +FIRST SERVANT (speaking at the same time). The Lutheran! + +SECOND SERVANT. Just before, when Count Deodati gave out the emperor's +health, they were all as mum as a nibbling mouse. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. Po, po! When the wine goes in strange things come +out. A good servant hears, and hears not! You should be nothing but +eyes and feet, except when you are called to. + +SECOND SERVANT. + [To the RUNNER, to whom he gives secretly a flask of wine, keeping + his eye on the MASTER OF THE CELLAR, standing between him and the + RUNNER. +Quick, Thomas! before the Master of the Cellar runs this way; 'tis a +flask of Frontignac! Snapped it up at the third table. Canst go off +with it? + +RUNNER (hides it in his, pocket). All right! + + [Exit the Second Servant. + +THIRD SERVANT (aside to the FIRST). Be on the hark, Jack! that we may +have right plenty to tell to Father Quivoga. He will give us right +plenty of absolution in return for it. + +FIRST SERVANT. For that very purpose I am always having something to do +behind Illo's chair. He is the man for speeches to make you stare with. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR (to NEUMANN). Who, pray, may that swarthy man be, +he with the cross, that is chatting so confidently with Esterhats? + +NEUMANN. Ay, he too is one of those to whom they confide too much. He +calls himself Maradas; a Spaniard is he. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR (impatiently). Spaniard! Spaniard! I tell you, +friend, nothing good comes of those Spaniards. All these outlandish +fellows are little better than rogues. + +NEUMANN. Fy, fy! you should not say so, friend. There are among them +our very best generals, and those on whom the duke at this moment relies +the most. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR. + [Taking the flask out of RUNNER'S pocket. +My son, it will be broken to pieces in your pocket. + + [TERZKY hurries in, fetches away the paper, and calls to a servant + for pen and ink, and goes to the back of the stage. + +MASTER OF THE CELLAR (to the SERVANTS). The lieutenant-general stands +up. Be on the watch. Now! They break up. Off, and move back the +forms. + + [They rise at all the tables, the SERVANTS hurry off the front of + the stage to the tables; part of the guests come forward. + + + +SCENE VI. + + OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI enters, in conversation with MARADAS, and both + place themselves quite on the edge of the stage on one side of the + proscenium. On the side directly opposite, MAX. PICCOLOMINI, by + himself, lost in thought, and taking no part in anything that is + going forward. The middle space between both, but rather more + distant from the edge of the stage, is filled up by BUTLER, ISOLANI, + GOETZ, TIEFENBACH, and KOLATTO. + +ISOLANI (while the company is coming forward). Good-night, good-night, +Kolatto! Good-night, lieutenant-general! I should rather say +good-morning. + +GOETZ (to TIEFENBACH). Noble brother! (making the usual compliment after +meals). + +TIEFENBACH. Ay! 'twas a royal feast indeed. + +GOETZ. Yes, my lady countess understands these matters. Her +mother-in-law, heaven rest her soul, taught her! Ah! that was a +housewife for you! + +TIEFENBACH. There was not her like in all Bohemia for setting out a +table. + +OCTAVIO (aside to MARADAS). Do me the favor to talk to me--talk of what +you will--or of nothing. Only preserve the appearance at least of +talking. I would not wish to stand by myself, and yet I conjecture that +there will be goings on here worthy of our attentive observation. (He +continues to fix his eye on the whole following scene.) + +ISOLANI (on the point of going). Lights! lights! + +TERZKY (advances with the paper to ISOLANI). Noble brother; two minutes +longer! Here is something to subscribe. + +ISOLANI. Subscribe as much as you like--but you must excuse me from +reading it. + +TERZKY. There is no need. It is the oath which you have already read. +Only a few marks of your pen! + + [ISOLANI hands over the paper to OCTAVIO respectfully. + +TERZKY. Nay, nay, first come, first served. There is no precedence +here. + + [OCTAVIO runs over the paper with apparent indifference. + TERZKY watches him at some distance. + +GOETZ (to TERZKY). Noble count! with your permission--good-night. + +TERKZY. Where's the hurry? Come, one other composing draught. (To the +SERVANTS). Ho! + +GOETZ. Excuse me--aint able. + +TERZKY. A thimble-full. + +GOETZ. Excuse me. + +TIEFENBACH (sits down). Pardon me, nobles! This standing does not agree +with me. + +TERZKY. Consult your own convenience, general. + +TIEFENBACH. Clear at head, sound in stomach--only my legs won't carry me +any longer. + +ISOLANI (pointing at his corpulence). Poor legs! how should they! Such +an unmerciful load! + + [OCTAVIO subscribes his name, and reaches over the paper to TERZKY, + who gives it to ISOLANI; and he goes to the table to sign his name. + +TIEFENBACH. 'Twas that war in Pomerania that first brought it on. Out +in all weathers--ice and snow--no help for it. I shall never get the +better of it all the days of my life. + +GOETZ. Why, in simple verity, your Swedes make no nice inquiries about +the season. + +TERZKY (observing ISOLANI, whose hand trembles excessively so that he can +scarce direct his pen). Have you had that ugly complaint long, noble +brother? Despatch it. + +ISOLANI. The sins of youth! I have already tried the chalybeate waters. +Well--I must bear it. + + [TERZKY gives the paper to MARADAS; he steps to the table + to subscribe. + +OCTAVIO (advancing to BUTLER). You are not over-fond of the orgies of +Bacchus, colonel! I have observed it. You would, I think, find yourself +more to your liking in the uproar of a battle than of a feast. + +BUTLER. I must confess 'tis not in my way. + +OCTAVIO (stepping nearer to him friendlily). Nor in mine neither, I can +assure you; and I am not a little glad, my much-honored Colonel Butler, +that we agree so well in our opinions. A half-dozen good friends at +most, at a small round table, a glass of genuine Tokay, open hearts, and +a rational conversation--that's my taste. + +BUTLER. And mine, too, when it can be had. + + [The paper comes to TIEFENBACH, who glances over it at the same time + with GOETZ and KOLATTO. MARADAS in the meantime returns to OCTAVIO. + All this takes places, the conversation with BUTLER proceeding + uninterrupted. + +OCTAVIO (introducing MADARAS to BUTLER.) Don Balthasar Maradas! likewise +a man of our stamp, and long ago your admirer. + + [BUTLER bows. + +OCTAVIO (continuing). You are a stranger here--'twas but yesterday you +arrived--you are ignorant of the ways and means here. 'Tis a wretched +place. I know at your age one loves to be snug and quiet. What if you +move your lodgings? Come, be my visitor. (BUTLER makes a low bow.) +Nay, without compliment! For a friend like you I have still a corner +remaining. + +BUTLER (coldly). Your obliged humble servant, my lord +lieutenant-general. + + [The paper comes to BUTLER, who goes to the table to subscribe it. + The front of the stage is vacant, so that both the PICCOLOMINIS, + each on the side where he had been from the commencement of the + scene, remain alone. + +OCTAVIO (after having some time watched his son in silence, advances +somewhat nearer to him). You were long absent from us, friend! + +MAX. I--urgent business detained me. + +OCTAVIO. And, I observe, you are still absent! + +MAX. You know this crowd and bustle always makes me silent. + +OCTAVIO (advancing still nearer). May I be permitted to ask what the +business was that detained you? Terzky knows it without asking. + +MAX. What does Terzky know? + +OCTAVIO. He was the only one who did not miss you. + +ISOLANI (who has been attending to them for some distance steps up). +Well done, father! Rout out his baggage! Beat up his quarters! there is +something there that should not be. + +TERZKY (with the paper). Is there none wanting? Have the whole +subscribed? + +OCTAVIO. All. + +TERZKY (calling aloud). Ho! Who subscribes? + +BUTLER (to TERZKY). Count the names. There ought to be just thirty. + +TERZKY. Here is a cross. + +TIEFENBACH. That's my mark! + +ISOLANI. He cannot write; but his cross is a good cross, and is honored +by Jews as well as Christians. + +OCTAVIO (presses on to MAX.). Come, general! let us go. It is late. + +TERZKY. One Piccolomini only has signed. + +ISOLANI (pointing to MAX.). Look! that is your man, that statue there, +who has had neither eye, ear, nor tongue for us the whole evening. + + [MAX. receives the paper from TERZKY, which he looks upon vacantly. + + + +SCENE VII. + + To these enter ILLO from the inner room. He has in his hand a + golden service-cup, and is extremely distempered with drinking; + GOETZ and BUTLER follow him, endeavoring to keep him back. + +ILLO. +What do you want! Let me go. + +GOETZ and BUTLER. +Drink no more, Illo! For heaven's sake, drink no more. + +ILLO (goes up to OCTAVIO, and shakes him cordially by the hand, and then +drinks). Octavio! I bring this to you! Let all grudge be drowned in +this friendly bowl! I know well enough you never loved me--devil take +me! and I never loved you! I am always even with people in that way! +Let what's past be past--that is, you understand--forgotten! I esteem +you infinitely. (Embracing him repeatedly.) You have not a dearer +friend on earth than I, but that you know. The fellow that cries rogue +to you calls me villain, and I'll strangle him! my dear friend! + +TERZKY (whispering to him). Art in thy senses? For heaven's sake, Illo, +think where you are! + +ILLO (aloud). What do you mean? There are none but friends here, are +there? (Looks round the whole circle with a jolly and triumphant air.) +Not a sneaker amongst us, thank heaven. + +TERZKY (to BUTLER, eagerly). Take him off with you, force him off, I +entreat you, Butler! + +BUTLER (to ILLO). Field-marshal! a word with you. (Leads to the +side-board.) + +ILLO (cordially). A thousand for one. Fill; fill it once more up to the +brim. To this gallant man's health! + +ISOLANI (to MAX., who all the while has been staring on the paper with +fixed but vacant eyes). Slow and sure, my noble brother! Hast parsed it +all yet? Some words yet to go through? Ha? + +MAX. (waking as from a dream). What am I to do? + +TERZKY, and at the same time ISOLANI. Sign your name. (OCTAVIO directs +his eyes on him with intense anxiety). + +MAX. (returns the paper). Let it stay till to-morrow. It is business; +to-day I am not sufficiently collected. Send it to me to-morrow. + +TERZKY. Nay, collect yourself a little. + +ISOLANI. Awake man, awake! Come, thy signature, and have done with it! +What! Thou art the youngest in the whole company, and would be wiser +than all of us together! Look there! thy father has signed; we have all +signed. + +TERZKY (to OCTAVIO). Use your influence. Instruct him. + +OCTAVIO. My son is at the age of discretion. + +ILLO (leaves the service-cup on the sideboard). What's the dispute? + +TERZKY. He declines subscribing the paper. + +MAX. I say it may as well stay till to-morrow. + +ILLO. It cannot stay. We have all subscribed to it--and so must you. +You must subscribe. + +MAX. Illo, good-night! + +ILLO. No! you come not off so! The duke shall learn who are his +friends. (All collect round ILLO and MAX.) + +MAX. What my sentiments are towards the duke, the duke knows, every one +knows--what need of this wild stuff? + +ILLO. This is the thanks the duke gets for his partiality to Italians +and foreigners. Us Bohemians he holds for little better than dullards-- +nothing pleases him but what's outlandish. + +TERZKY (in extreme embarrassment, to the Commanders, who at ILLO's words +give a sudden start as preparing to resent them). It is the wine that +speaks, and not his reason. Attend not to him, I entreat you. + +ISOLANI (with a bitter laugh). Wine invents nothing: it only tattles. + +ILLO. He who is not with me is against me. Your tender consciences! +Unless they can slip out by a back-door, by a puny proviso---- + +TERZKY (interrupting him). He is stark mad--don't listen to him! + +ILLO (raising his voice to the highest pitch). Unless they can slip out +by a proviso. What of the proviso? The devil take this proviso! + +MAX. (has his attention roused, and looks again into the paper). What is +there here then of such perilous import? You make me curious--I must +look closer at it. + +TERZKY (in a low voice to ILLO). What are you doing, Illo? You are +ruining us. + +TIEFENBACH (to KOLATTO). Ay, ay! I observed, that before we sat down to +supper, it was read differently. + +GOETZ. Why, I seemed to think so too. + +ISOLANI. What do I care for that? Where there stand other names mine +can stand too. + +TIEFENBACH. Before supper there was a certain proviso therein, or short +clause, concerning our duties to the emperor. + +BUTLER (to one of the Commanders). For shame, for shame! Bethink you. +What is the main business here? The question now is, whether we shall +keep our general, or let him retire. One must not take these things too +nicely, and over-scrupulously. + +ISOLANI (to one of the Generals). Did the duke make any of these +provisos when he gave you your regiment? + +TERZKY (to GOETZ). Or when he gave you the office of army-purveyancer, +which brings you in yearly a thousand pistoles! + +ILLO. He is a rascal who makes us out to be rogues. If there be any one +that wants satisfaction, let him say so,--I am his man. + +TIEFENBACH. Softly, softly? 'Twas but a word or two. + +MAX. (having read the paper gives it back). Till to-morrow therefore! + +ILLO (stammering with rage and fury, loses all command over himself and +presents the paper to MAX. With one hand, and his sword in the other). +Subscribe--Judas! + +ISOLANI. Out upon you, Illo! + +OCTAVIO, TERZKY, BUTLER (all together). Down with the sword! + +MAX. (rushes on him suddenly and disarms him, then to COUNT TERZKY). +Take him off to bed! + + [MAX leaves the stage. ILLO cursing and raving is held back by some + of the officers, and amidst a universal confusion the curtain drops. + + + + +ACT V. + +SCENE I. + + A Chamber in PICCOLOMINI's Mansion. It is Night. + + OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI. A VALET DE CHAMBRE with Lights. + +OCTAVIO. +And when my son comes in, conduct him hither. +What is the hour? + +VALET. + 'Tis on the point of morning. + +OCTAVIO. +Set down the light. We mean not to undress. +You may retire to sleep. + + [Exit VALET. OCTAVIO paces, musing, across the chamber; MAX. + PICCOLOMINI enters unobserved, and looks at his father for some + moments in silence. + +MAX. +Art thou offended with me? Heaven knows +That odious business was no fault of mine. +'Tis true, indeed, I saw thy signature, +What thou hast sanctioned, should not, it might seem, +Have come amiss to me. But--'tis my nature-- +Thou know'st that in such matters I must follow +My own light, not another's. + +OCTAVIO (goes up to him and embraces him). + Follow it, +Oh, follow it still further, my best son! +To-night, dear boy! it hath more faithfully +Guided thee than the example of thy father. + +MAX. +Declare thyself less darkly. + +OCTAVIO. + I will do so; +For after what has taken place this night, +There must remain no secrets 'twixt us two. + [Both seat themselves. +Max. Piccolomini! what thinkest thou of +The oath that was sent round for signatures? + +MAX. +I hold it for a thing of harmless import, +Although I love not these set declarations. + +OCTAVIO. +And on no other ground hast thou refused +The signature they fain had wrested from thee? + +MAX. +It was a serious business. I was absent-- +The affair itself seemed not so urgent to me. + +OCTAVIO. +Be open, Max. Thou hadst then no suspicion? + +MAX. +Suspicion! what suspicion? Not the least. + +OCTAVIO. +Thank thy good angel, Piccolomini; +He drew thee back unconscious from the abyss. + +MAX. +I know not what thou meanest. + +OCTAVIO. + I will tell thee. +Fain would they have extorted from thee, son, +The sanction of thy name to villany; +Yes, with a single flourish of thy pen, +Made thee renounce thy duty and thy honor! + +MAX. (rises). +Octavio! + +OCTAVIO. + Patience! Seat Yourself. Much yet +Hast thou to hear from me, friend! Hast for years +Lived in incomprehensible illusion. +Before thine eyes is treason drawing out +As black a web as e'er was spun for venom: +A power of hell o'erclouds thy understanding. +I dare no longer stand in silence--dare +No longer see thee wandering on in darkness, +Nor pluck the bandage from thine eyes. + +MAX. + My father! +Yet, ere thou speakest, a moment's pause of thought! +If your disclosures should appear to be +Conjectures only--and almost I fear +They will be nothing further--spare them! I +Am not in that collected mood at present, +That I could listen to them quietly. + +OCTAVIO. +The deeper cause thou hast to hate this light, +The more impatient cause have I, my son, +To force it on thee. To the innocence +And wisdom of thy heart I could have trusted thee +With calm assurance--but I see the net +Preparing--and it is thy heart itself +Alarms me, for thine innocence--that secret, + [Fixing his eyes steadfastly on his son's face. +Which thou concealest, forces mine from me. + + [MAX. attempts to answer, but hesitates, and casts his eyes + to the ground embarrassed. + +OCTAVIO (after a pause). +Know, then, they are duping thee!--a most foul game +With thee and with us all--nay, hear me calmly-- +The duke even now is playing. He assumes +The mask, as if he would forsake the army; +And in this moment makes he preparations +That army from the emperor to steal, +And carry it over to the enemy! + +MAX. +That low priest's legend I know well, but did not +Expect to hear it from thy mouth. + +OCTAVIO. + That mouth, +From which thou hearest it at this present moment, +Doth warrant thee that it is no priest's legend. + +MAX. +How mere a maniac they supposed the duke; +What, he can meditate?--the duke?--can dream +That he can lure away full thirty thousand +Tried troops and true, all honorable soldiers, +More than a thousand noblemen among them, +From oaths, from duty, from their honor lure them, +And make them all unanimous to do +A deed that brands them scoundrels? + +OCTAVIO. + Such a deed, +With such a front of infamy, the duke +No way desires--what he requires of us +Bears a far gentler appellation. Nothing +He wishes but to give the empire peace. +And so, because the emperor hates this peace, +Therefore the duke--the duke will force him to it. +All parts of the empire will he pacify, +And for his trouble will retain in payment +(What he has already in his gripe)--Bohemia! + +MAX. +Has he, Octavio, merited of us, +That we--that we should think so vilely of him? + +OCTAVIO. +What we would think is not the question here, +The affair speaks for itself--and clearest proofs! +Hear me, my son--'tis not unknown to thee, +In what ill credit with the court we stand. +But little dost thou know, or guess what tricks, +What base intrigues, what lying artifices, +Have been employed--for this sole end--to sow +Mutiny in the camp! All bands are loosed-- +Loosed all the bands that link the officer +To his liege emperor, all that bind the soldier +Affectionately to the citizen. +Lawless he stands, and threateningly beleaguers +The state he's bound to guard. To such a height +'Tis swollen, that at this hour the emperor +Before his armies--his own armies--trembles; +Yea, in his capital, his palace, fears +The traitor's poniard, and is meditating +To hurry off and hide his tender offspring-- +Not from the Swedes, not from the Lutherans--no, +From his own troops to hide and hurry them! + +MAX. +Cease, cease! thou torturest, shatterest me. I know +That oft we tremble at an empty terror; +But the false phantasm brings a real misery. + +OCTAVIO. +It is no phantasm. An intestine war, +Of all the most unnatural and cruel, +Will burst out into flames, if instantly +We do not fly and stifle it. The generals +Are many of them long ago won over; +The subalterns are vacillating; whole +Regiments and garrisons are vacillating. +To foreigners our strongholds are intrusted; +To that suspected Schafgotch is the whole +Force of Silesia given up: to Terzky +Five regiments, foot and horse; to Isolani, +To Illo, Kinsky, Butler, the best troops. + +MAX. +Likewise to both of us. + +OCTAVIO. + Because the duke +Believes he has secured us, means to lure us +Still further on by splendid promises. +To me he portions forth the princedoms, Glatz +And Sagan; and too plain I see the bait +With which he doubts not but to catch thee. + +MAX. + No! no! +I tell thee, no! + +OCTAVIO. + Oh, open yet thine eyes! +And to what purpose think'st thou he has called +Hither to Pilsen? to avail himself +Of our advice? Oh, when did Friedland ever +Need our advice? Be calm, and listen to me. +To sell ourselves are we called hither, and +Decline we that, to be his hostages. +Therefore doth noble Gallas stand aloof; +Thy father, too, thou wouldst not have seen here, +If higher duties had not held him fettered. + +MAX. +He makes no secret of it--needs make none-- +That we're called hither for his sake--he owns it. +He needs our aidance to maintain himself-- +He did so much for us; and 'tis but fair +That we, too, should do somewhat now for him. + +OCTAVIO. +And know'st thou what it is which we must do? +That Illo's drunken mood betrayed it to thee. +Bethink thyself, what hast thou heard, what seen? +The counterfeited paper, the omission +Of that particular clause, so full of meaning, +Does it not prove that they would bind us down +To nothing good? + +MAX. + That counterfeited paper +Appears to me no other than a trick +Of Illo's own device. These underhand +Traders in great men's interests ever use +To urge and hurry all things to the extreme. +They see the duke at variance with the court, +And fondly think to serve him, when they widen +The breach irreparably. Trust me, father, +The duke knows nothing of all this. + +OCTAVIO. + It grieves me +That I must dash to earth, that I must shatter +A faith so specious; but I may not spare thee! +For this is not a time for tenderness. +Thou must take measured, speedy ones, must act. +I therefore will confess to thee that all +Which I've intrusted to thee now, that all +Which seems to thee so unbelievable, +That--yes, I will tell thee, (a pause) Max.! I had it all +From his own mouth, from the duke's mouth I had it. + +MAX (in excessive agitation). +No! no! never! + +OCTAVIO. + Himself confided to me +What I, 'tis true, had long before discovered +By other means; himself confided to me, +That 'twas his settled plan to join the Swedes; +And, at the head of the united armies, +Compel the emperor---- + +MAX. + He is passionate, +The court has stung him; he is sore all over +With injuries and affronts; and in a moment +Of irritation, what if he, for once, +Forgot himself? He's an impetuous man. + +OCTAVIO. +Nay, in cold blood he did confess this to me +And having construed my astonishment +Into a scruple of his power, he showed me +His written evidences--showed me letters, +Both from the Saxon and the Swede, that gave +Promise of aidance, and defined the amount. + +MAX. +It cannot be!--cannot be! cannot be! +Dost thou not see, it cannot! +Thou wouldst of necessity have shown him +Such horror, such deep loathing--that or he +Had taken thee for his better genius, or +Thou stood'st not now a living man before me. + +OCTAVIO. +I have laid open my objections to him, +Dissuaded him with pressing earnestness; +But my abhorrence, the full sentiment +Of my whole heart--that I have still kept safe +To my own consciousness. + +MAX. + And thou hast been +So treacherous? That looks not like my father! +I trusted not thy words, when thou didst tell me +Evil of him; much less can I now do it, +That thou calumniatest thy own self. + +OCTAVIO. +I did not thrust myself into his secrecy. + +MAX. +Uprightness merited his confidence. + +OCTAVIO. +He was no longer worthy of sincerity. + +MAX. +Dissimulation, sure, was still less worthy +Of thee, Octavio! + +OCTAVIO. + Gave I him a cause +To entertain a scruple of my honor? + +MAX. +That he did not evince his confidence. + +OCTAVIO. +Dear son, it is not always possible +Still to preserve that infant purity +Which the voice teaches in our inmost heart, +Still in alarm, forever on the watch +Against the wiles of wicked men: e'en virtue +Will sometimes bear away her outward robes +Soiled in the wrestle with iniquity. +This is the curse of every evil deed +That, propagating still, it brings forth evil. +I do not cheat my better soul with sophisms; +I but perform my orders; the emperor +Prescribes my conduct to me. Dearest boy, +Far better were it, doubtless, if we all +Obeyed the heart at all times; but so doing, +In this our present sojourn with bad men, +We must abandon many an honest object. +'Tis now our call to serve the emperor; +By what means he can best be served--the heart +May whisper what it will--this is our call! + +MAX. +It seems a thing appointed, that to-day +I should not comprehend, not understand thee. +The duke, thou sayest, did honestly pour out +His heart to thee, but for an evil purpose: +And thou dishonestly hast cheated him +For a good purpose! Silence, I entreat thee-- +My friend, thou stealest not from me-- +Let me not lose my father! + +OCTAVIO (suppressing resentment). +As yet thou knowest not all, my son. I have +Yet somewhat to disclose to thee. + [After a pause. + Duke Friedland +Hath made his preparations. He relies +Upon the stars. He deems us unprovided, +And thinks to fall upon us by surprise. +Yea, in his dream of hope, he grasps already +The golden circle in his hand. He errs, +We, too, have been in action--he but grasps +His evil fate, most evil, most mysterious! + +MAX. +Oh, nothing rash, my sire! By all that's good, +Let me invoke thee--no precipitation! + +OCTAVIO. +With light tread stole he on his evil way, +And light of tread hath vengeance stole on after him. +Unseen she stands already, dark behind him +But one step more--he shudders in her grasp! +Thou hast seen Questenberg with me. As yet +Thou knowest but his ostensible commission: +He brought with him a private one, my son! +And that was for me only. + +MAX. + May I know it? + +OCTAVIO (seizes the patent). + Max! +In this disclosure place I in thy hands + [A pause. +The empire's welfare and thy father's life. +Dear to thy inmost heart is Wallenstein +A powerful tie of love, of veneration, +Hath knit thee to him from thy earliest youth. +Thou nourishest the wish,--O let me still +Anticipate thy loitering confidence! +The hope thou nourishest to knit thyself +Yet closer to him---- + +MAX. + Father---- + +OCTAVIO. + Oh, my son! +I trust thy heart undoubtingly. But am I +Equally sure of thy collectedness? +Wilt thou be able, with calm countenance, +To enter this man's presence, when that I +Have trusted to thee his whole fate? + +MAX. + According +As thou dost trust me, father, with his crime. + + [OCTAVIO takes a paper out of his escritoire and gives it to him. + +MAX. +What! how! a full imperial patent! + +OCTAVIO. + Read it. + +MAX. (just glances on it). +Duke Friedland sentenced and condemned! + +OCTAVIO. + Even so. + +MAX. (throws down the paper). +Oh, this is too much! O unhappy error! + +OCTAVIO. +Read on. Collect thyself. + +MAX. (after he has read further, with a look of affright and astonishment + on his father). + How! what! Thou! thou! + +OCTAVIO. +But for the present moment, till the King +Of Hungary may safely join the army, +Is the command assigned to me. + +MAX. + And think'st thou, +Dost thou believe, that thou wilt tear it from him? +Oh, never hope it! Father! father! father! +An inauspicious office is enjoined thee. +This paper here!--this! and wilt thou enforce it? +The mighty in the middle of his host, +Surrounded by his thousands, him wouldst thou +Disarm--degrade! Thou art lost, both thou and all of us. + +OCTAVIO. +What hazard I incur thereby, I know. +In the great hand of God I stand. The Almighty +Will cover with his shield the imperial house, +And shatter, in his wrath, the work of darkness. +The emperor hath true servants still; and even +Here in the camp, there are enough brave men +Who for the good cause will fight gallantly. +The faithful have been warned--the dangerous +Are closely watched. I wait but the first step, +And then immediately---- + +Max. + What? On suspicion? +Immediately? + +OCTAVIO. + The emperor is no tyrant. +The deed alone he'll punish, not the wish. +The duke hath yet his destiny in his power. +Let him but leave the treason uncompleted, +He will be silently displaced from office, +And make way to his emperor's royal son. +An honorable exile to his castles +Will be a benefaction to him rather +Than punishment. But the first open step---- + +MAX. +What callest thou such a step? A wicked step +Ne'er will he take; but thou mightest easily, +Yea, thou hast done it, misinterpret him. + +OCTAVIO. +Nay, howsoever punishable were +Duke Friedland's purposes, yet still the steps +Which he hath taken openly permit +A mild construction. It is my intention +To leave this paper wholly unenforced +Till some act is committed which convicts him +Of high treason, without doubt or plea, +And that shall sentence him. + +MAX. + But who the judge + +OCTAVIO. +Thyself. + +MAX. + Forever, then, this paper will lie idle. + +OCTAVIO. +Too soon, I fear, its powers must all be proved. +After the counter-promise of this evening, +It cannot be but he must deem himself +Secure of the majority with us; +And of the army's general sentiment +He hath a pleasing proof in that petition, +Which thou delivered'st to him from the regiments. +Add this too--I have letters that the Rhinegrave +Hath changed his route, and travels by forced marches +To the Bohemian forests. What this purports +Remains unknown; and, to confirm suspicion, +This night a Swedish nobleman arrived here. + +MAX. +I have thy word. Thou'lt not proceed to action +Before thou hast convinced me--me myself. + +OCTAVIO. +Is it possible? Still, after all thou know'st, +Canst thou believe still in his innocence? + +MAX. (with enthusiasm). +Thy judgment may mistake; my heart cannot. + [Moderates his voice and manner. +These reasons might expound thy spirit or mine; +But they expound not Friedland--I have faith: +For as he knits his fortunes to the stars, +Even so doth he resemble them in secret, +Wonderful, still inexplicable courses! +Trust me, they do him wrong. All will be solved. +These smokes at once will kindle into flame-- +The edges of this black and stormy cloud +Will brighten suddenly, and we shall view +The unapproachable glide out in splendor. + +OCTAVIO. +I will await it. + + + +SCENE II. + + OCTAVIO and MAX. as before. To then the VALET OF + THE CHAMBER. + +OCTAVIO. +How now, then? + +VALET. + A despatch is at the door. + +OCTAVIO. +So early? From whom comes he then? Who is it? + +VALET. +That he refused to tell me. + +OCTAVIO. + Lead him in: +And, hark you--let it not transpire. + + [Exit VALET: the CORNET steps in. + +OCTAVIO. +Ha! cornet--is it you; and from Count Gallas? +Give me your letters. + +CORNET. + The lieutenant-general +Trusted it not to letters. + +OCTAVIO. + And what is it? + +CORNET. +He bade me tell you--Dare I speak openly here? + +OCTAVIO. +My son knows all. + +CORNET. + We have him. + +OCTAVIO. + Whom? + +CORNET. + Sesina, +The old negotiator. + +OCTAVIO (eagerly). + And you have him? + +CORNET. +In the Bohemian Forest Captain Mohrbrand +Found and secured him yester-morning early. +He was proceeding then to Regensburg, +And on him were despatches for the Swede. + +OCTAVIO. +And the despatches---- + +CORNET. + The lieutenant-general +Sent them that instant to Vienna, and +The prisoner with them. + +OCTAVIO. + This is, indeed, a tiding! +That fellow is a precious casket to us, +Enclosing weighty things. Was much found on him? + +CORNET. +I think, six packets, with Count Terzky's arms. + +OCTAVIO. +None in the duke's own hand? + +CORNET. + Not that I know. + +OCTAVIO. +And old Sesina. + +CORNET. + He was sorely frightened. +When it was told him he must to Vienna; +But the Count Altringer bade him take heart, +Would he but make a full and free confession. + +OCTAVIO. +Is Altringer then with your lord? I heard +That he lay sick at Linz. + +CORNET. + These three days past +He's with my master, the lieutenant-general, +At Frauenburg. Already have they sixty +Small companies together, chosen men; +Respectfully they greet you with assurances, +That they are only waiting your commands. + +OCTAVIO. +In a few days may great events take place. +And when must you return? + +CORNET. + I wait your orders. + +OCTAVIO. +Remain till evening. + [CORNET signifies his assent and obeisance, and is going. + No one saw you--ha? + +CORNET. +No living creature. Through the cloister wicket +The capuchins, as usual, let me in. + +OCTAVIO. +Go, rest your limbs, and keep yourself concealed. +I hold it probable that yet ere evening +I shall despatch you. The development +Of this affair approaches: ere the day, +That even now is dawning in the heaven, +Ere this eventful day hath set, the lot +That must decide our fortunes will be drawn. + + [Exit CORNET. + + + +SCENE III. + + OCTAVIO and MAX. PICCOLOMINI. + +OCTAVIO. +Well--and what now, son? All will soon be clear; +For all, I'm certain, went through that Sesina. + +MAX. (who through the whole of the foregoing scene has been in + a violent and visible struggle of feelings, at length starts + as one resolved). +I will procure me light a shorter way. +Farewell. + +OCTAVIO. + Where now? Remain here. + +MAX. + To the Duke. + +OCTAVIO (alarmed). +What---- + +MAX. (returning). + If thou hast believed that I shall act +A part in this thy play, thou hast +Miscalculated on me grievously. +My way must be straight on. True with the tongue, +False with the heart--I may not, cannot be +Nor can I suffer that a man should trust me-- +As his friend trust me--and then lull my conscience +With such low pleas as these: "I ask him not-- +He did it all at his own hazard--and +My mouth has never lied to him." No, no! +What a friend takes me for, that I must be. +I'll to the duke; ere yet this day is ended +Will I demand of him that he do save +His good name from the world, and with one stride +Break through and rend this fine-spun web of yours. +He can, he will! I still am his believer, +Yet I'll not pledge myself, but that those letters +May furnish you, perchance, with proofs against him. +How far may not this Terzky have proceeded-- +What may not he himself too have permitted +Himself to do, to snare the enemy, +The laws of war excusing? Nothing, save +His own mouth shall convict him--nothing less! +And face to face will I go question him. + +OCTAVIO. +Thou wilt. + +MAX. + I will, as sure as this heart beats. + +OCTAVIO. +I have, indeed, miscalculated on thee. +I calculated on a prudent son, +Who would have blessed the hand beneficent +That plucked him back from the abyss--and lo! +A fascinated being I discover, +Whom his two eyes befool, whom passion wilders, +Whom not the broadest light of noon can heal. +Go, question him! Be mad enough, I pray thee. +The purpose of thy father, of thy emperor, +Go, give it up free booty! Force me, drive me +To an open breach before the time. And now, +Now that a miracle of heaven had guarded +My secret purpose even to this hour, +And laid to sleep suspicion's piercing eyes, +Let me have lived to see that mine own son, +With frantic enterprise, annihilates +My toilsome labors and state policy. + +MAX. +Ay--this state policy! Oh, how I curse it! +You will some time, with your state policy, +Compel him to the measure: it may happen, +Because ye are determined that he is guilty, +Guilty ye'll make him. All retreat cut off, +You close up every outlet, hem him in +Narrower and narrower, till at length ye force him-- +Yes, ye, ye force him, in his desperation, +To set fire to his prison. Father! father! +That never can end well--it cannot--will not! +And let it be decided as it may, +I see with boding heart the near approach +Of an ill-starred, unblest catastrophe. +For this great monarch-spirit, if he fall, +Will drag a world into the ruin with him. +And as a ship that midway on the ocean +Takes fire, at once, and with a thunder-burst +Explodes, and with itself shoots out its crew +In smoke and ruin betwixt sea and heaven! +So will he, falling, draw down in his fall +All us, who're fixed and mortised to his fortune, +Deem of it what thou wilt; but pardon me, +That I must bear me on in my own way. +All must remain pure betwixt him and me; +And, ere the daylight dawns, it must be known +Which I must lose--my father or my friend. + + [During his exit the curtain drops. + + + +FOOTNOTES. + + +[1] A town about twelve German miles N.E. of Ulm. + +[2] The Dukes in Germany being always reigning powers, their sons + and daughters are entitled princes and princesses. + +[3] Carinthia. + +[4] A town not far from the Mine-mountains, on the high road + from Vienna to Prague. + +[5] In the original,-- + + "Den blut'gen Lorbeer geb' ich hin mit Freuden + Fuers erste Veilchen, das der Maerz uns bringt, + Das duerftige Pfand der neuverjuengten Erde." + +[6] A reviewer in the Literary Gazette observes that, in these + lines, Mr. Coleridge has misapprehended the meaning of the word + "Zug," a team, translating it as "Anzug," a suit of clothes. The + following version, as a substitute, I propose:-- + + When from your stables there is brought to me + A team of four most richly harnessed horses. + + The term, however, is "Jagd-zug" which may mean a "hunting + equipage," or a "hunting stud;" although Hilpert gives only "a team + of four horses." + +[7] Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, who succeeded Gustavus in command. + +[8] The original is not translatable into English:-- + + --Und sein Sold + Muss dem Soldaten werden, darnach heisst er. + + It might perhaps have been thus rendered:-- + + And that for which he sold his services, + The soldier must receive-- + + but a false or doubtful etymology is no more than a dull pun. + +[9] In Germany, after honorable addresses have been paid and formally + accepted, the lovers are called bride and bridegreoom, even though + the marriage should not take place till years afterwards. + +[10] I am doubtful whether this be the dedication of the cloister, + or the name of one of the city gates, near which it stood. I have + translated it in the former sense; but fearful of having made some + blunder, I add the original,-- + + Es ist ein Kloster hier zur Himmelspforte. + +[11] No more of talk, where god or angel guest + With man, as with his friend familiar, used + To sit indulgent. Paradise Lost, B. IX. + +[12] I found it not in my power to translate this song with literal + fidelity preserving at the same time the Alcaic movement, and have + therefore added the original, with a prose translation. Some of my + readers may be more fortunate. + + THEKLA (spielt and singt). + + Der Eichwald brauset, die Wolken ziehn, + Das Maegdlein wandelt an Ufers Gruen; + Es bricht sich die Welle mit Macht, mit Macht, + Und sie singt hinaus in die finstre Nacht, + Das Auge von Weinen getruebet: + Das Herz is gestorben, die Welt ist leer, + Und weiter giebt sie dem Wunsche nichts mehr. + Du Heilige, rufe dein Kind zurueck, + Ich babe genossen das irdische Glueck, + Ich babe gelebt and geliebet. + + LITERAL TRANSLATION. + + THEKLA (plays and sings). The oak-forest bellows, the clouds + gather, the damsel walks to and fro on the green of the shore; the + wave breaks with might, with might, and she sings out into the dark + night, her eye discolored with weeping: the heart is dead, the world + is empty, and further gives it nothing more to the wish. Thou Holy + One, call thy child home. I have enjoyed the happiness of this + world, I have lived and have loved. + + I cannot but add here an imitation of this song, with which my + friend, Charles Lamb, has favored me, and which appears to me to + have caught the happiest manner of our old ballads:-- + + The clouds are blackening, the storms are threatening, + The cavern doth mutter, the greenwood moan! + Billows are breaking, the damsel's heart aching, + Thus in the dark night she singeth alone, + He eye upward roving: + + The world is empty, the heart is dead surely, + In this world plainly all seemeth amiss; + To thy heaven, Holy One, take home thy little one. + I have partaken of all earth's bliss, + Both living and loving. + +[13] There are few who will not have taste enough to laugh at the + two concluding lines of this soliloquy: and still fewer, I would + fain hope, who would not have been more disposed to shudder, had I + given a faithful translation. For the readers of German I have + added the original:-- + + Blind-wuethend schleudert selbst der Gott der Freude + Den Pechkranz in das brennende Gebaeude. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Piccolomini, by Frederich Schiller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PICCOLOMINI *** + +***** This file should be named 6786.txt or 6786.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/6/7/8/6786/ + +Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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