The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (1 and 2), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Countess (watching them from the opposite side). So you have nothing, niece, to ask me? Nothing?
I have been waiting for a word from you.
And could you then endure in all this time
Not once to speak his name? [The Countess rises and advances to her.
Why, how comes this?
Perhaps I am already grown superfluous, 5
And other ways exist, besides through me?
Confess it to me, Thekla! have you seen him?

Thekla. To-day and yesterday I have not seen him.

Countess. And not heard from him either? Come, be open!

Thekla. No syllable.

[727]Countess. And still you are so calm? 10

Thekla. I am.

Countess. May't please you, leave us, Lady Neubrunn! [Exit Lady Neubrunn.

Countess. It does not please me, Princess! that he holds
Himself so still, exactly at this time.

Thekla. Exactly at this time?

Countess. He now knows all.
'Twere now the moment to declare himself.

Thekla. If I'm to understand you, speak less darkly. 5

Countess. 'Twas for that purpose that I bade her leave us.
Thekla, you are no more a child. Your heart
Is now no more in nonage: for you love,
And boldness dwells with love—that you have proved.
Your nature moulds itself upon your father's 10
More than your mother's spirit. Therefore may you
Hear, what were too much for her fortitude.

Thekla. Enough! no further preface, I entreat you.
At once, out with it! Be it what it may,
It is not possible that it should torture me 15
More than this introduction. What have you
To say to me? Tell me the whole and briefly!

Countess. You'll not be frightened—

Thekla. Name it, I entreat you.

Countess. It lies within your power to do your father
A weighty service—

Thekla. Lies within my power? 20

Countess. Max Piccolomini loves you. You can link him
Indissolubly to your father.

Thekla. I?
What need of me for that? And is he not
Already linked to him?

Countess. He was.

Thekla. And wherefore
Should he not be so now—not be so always? 25

Countess. He cleaves to the Emperor too.

Thekla. Not more than duty
And honour may demand of him.

Countess. We ask
Proofs of his love, and not proofs of his honour.
[728] Duty and honour!
Those are ambiguous words with many meanings. 30
You should interpret them for him: his love
Should be the sole definer of his honour.

Thekla. How?

Countess. The Emperor or you must he renounce.

Thekla. He will accompany my father gladly
In his retirement. From himself you heard, 35
How much he wished to lay aside the sword.

Countess. He must not lay the sword aside, we mean;
He must unsheath it in your father's cause.

Thekla. He'll spend with gladness and alacrity
His life, his heart's blood in my father's cause, 40
If shame or injury be intended him.

Countess. You will not understand me. Well, hear then!
Your father has fallen off from the Emperor,
And is about to join the enemy
With the whole soldiery—

Thekla. Alas, my mother! 45

Countess. There needs a great example to draw on
The army after him. The Piccolomini
Possess the love and reverence of the troops;
They govern all opinions, and wherever
They lead the way, none hesitate to follow. 50
The son secures the father to our interests—
You've much in your hands at this moment.

Thekla. Ah,
My miserable mother! what a death-stroke
Awaits thee!—No! She never will survive it.

Countess. She will accommodate her soul to that 55
Which is and must be. I do know your mother.
The far-off future weights upon her heart
With torture of anxiety; but is it
Unalterably, actually present,
She soon resigns herself, and bears it calmly. 60

Thekla. O my fore-boding bosom! Even now,
E'en now 'tis here, that icy hand of horror!
And my young hope lies shuddering in its grasp;
I knew it well—no sooner had I entered,
A heavy ominous presentiment 65
Revealed to me, that spirits of death were hovering
Over my happy fortune. But why think I
First of myself? My mother! O my mother!

[729]Countess. Calm yourself! Break not out in vain lamenting!
Preserve you for your father the firm friend, 70
And for yourself the lover, all will yet
Prove good and fortunate.

Thekla. Prove good? What good?
Must we not part? Part ne'er to meet again?

Countess. He parts not from you! He can not part from you.

Thekla. Alas for his sore anguish! It will rend 75
His heart asunder.

Countess. If indeed he loves you,
His resolution will be speedily taken.

Thekla. His resolution will be speedily taken—
O do not doubt of that! A resolution!
Does there remain one to be taken?

Countess. Hush! 80
Collect yourself! I hear your mother coming.

Thekla. How shall I bear to see her?

Countess. Collect yourself.

Duchess (to the Countess). Who was here, sister? I heard some one talking,
And passionately too.

Countess. Nay! There was no one.

Duchess. I am grown so timorous, every trifling noise
Scatters my spirits, and announces to me
The footstep of some messenger of evil. 5
And can you tell me, sister, what the event is?
Will he agree to do the Emperor's pleasure,
And send the horse-regiments to the Cardinal?
Tell me, has he dismissed Von Questenberg
With a favourable answer?

Countess. No, he has not. 10

Duchess. Alas! then all is lost! I see it coming,
The worst that can come! Yes, they will depose him;
The accurséd business of the Regenspurg diet
Will all be acted o'er again!

Countess. No! never!
Make your heart easy, sister, as to that. 15

[730]Duchess. Yes, my poor child!
Thou too hast lost a most affectionate godmother
In the Empress. O that stern unbending man!
In this unhappy marriage what have I
Not suffered, not endured. For ev'n as if 20
I had been linked on to some wheel of fire
That restless, ceaseless, whirls impetuous onward,
I have passed a life of frights and horrors with him,
And ever to the brink of some abyss
With dizzy headlong violence he whirls me. 25
Nay, do not weep, my child! Let not my sufferings
Presignify unhappiness to thee,
Nor blacken with their shade the fate that waits thee.
There lives no second Friedland: thou, my child,
Hast not to fear thy mother's destiny. 30

Thekla. O let us supplicate him, dearest mother!
Quick! quick! here's no abiding-place for us.
Here every coming hour broods into life
Some new affrightful monster.

Duchess. Thou wilt share
An easier, calmer lot, my child! We too, 35
I and thy father, witnessed happy days.
Still think I with delight of those first years,
When he was making progress with glad effort,
When his ambition was a genial fire,
Not that consuming flame which now it is. 40
The Emperor loved him, trusted him: and all
He undertook could not but be successful.
But since that ill-starred day at Regenspurg,
Which plunged him headlong from his dignity,
A gloomy uncompanionable spirit, 45
Unsteady and suspicious, has possessed him.
His quiet mind forsook him, and no longer
Did he yield up himself in joy and faith
To his old luck, and individual power;
But thenceforth turned his heart and best affections 50
All to those cloudy sciences, which never
Have yet made happy him who followed them.

Countess. You see it, sister! as your eyes permit you.
But surely this is not the conversation
To pass the time in which we are waiting for him. 55
You know he will be soon here. Would you have him
[731] Find her in this condition?

Duchess. Come, my child!
Come, wipe away thy tears, and shew thy father
A cheerful countenance. See, the tie-knot here
Is off—this hair must not hang so dishevelled. 60
Come, dearest! dry thy tears up. They deform
Thy gentle eye—well now—what was I saying?
Yes, in good truth, this Piccolomini
Is a most noble and deserving gentleman.

Countess. That is he, sister!

Thekla (to the Countess). Aunt, you will excuse me? 65
[Is going.

Countess. But whither? See, your father comes.

Thekla. I cannot see him now.

Countess. Nay, but bethink you.

Thekla. Believe me, I cannot sustain his presence.

Countess. But he will miss you, will ask after you.

Duchess. What now? Why is she going? 70

Countess. She's not well.

Duchess. What ails then my beloved child?

Wallenstein. All quiet in the camp?

Illo. It is all quiet.

Wallenstein. In a few hours may couriers come from Prague
With tidings, that this capital is ours.
Then we may drop the mask, and to the troops
Assembled in this town make known the measure 5
And its result together. In such cases
Example does the whole. Whoever is foremost
Still leads the herd. An imitative creature
Is man. The troops at Prague conceive no other,
Than that the Pilsen army has gone through 10
The forms of homage to us; and in Pilsen
They shall swear fealty to us, because
The example has been given them by Prague.
Butler, you tell me, has declared himself.

Illo. At his own bidding, unsolicited, 15
[732] He came to offer you himself and regiment.

Wallenstein. I find we must not give implicit credence
To every warning voice that makes itself
Be listened to in the heart. To hold us back,
Oft does the lying spirit counterfeit 20
The voice of Truth and inward Revelation,
Scattering false oracles. And thus have I
To intreat forgiveness, for that secretly
I've wrong'd this honourable gallant man,
This Butler: for a feeling, of the which 25
I am not master (fear I would not call it),
Creeps o'er me instantly, with sense of shuddering,
At his approach, and stops love's joyous motion.
And this same man, against whom I am warned,
This honest man is he, who reaches to me 30
The first pledge of my fortune.

Illo. And doubt not
That his example will win over to you
The best men in the army.

Wallenstein. Go and send
Isolani hither. Send him immediately.
He is under recent obligations to me. 35
With him will I commence the trial. Go. [Illo exit.

Wallenstein (turns himself round to the females). Lo, there the mother with the darling daughter!
For once we'll have an interval of rest—
Come! my heart yearns to live a cloudless hour
In the beloved circle of my family. 40

Countess. 'Tis long since we've been thus together, brother.

Wallenstein (to the Countess aside). Can she sustain the news? Is she prepared?

Countess. Not yet.

Wallenstein. Come here, my sweet girl! Seat thee by me,
For there is a good spirit on thy lips.
Thy mother praised to me thy ready skill: 45
She says a voice of melody dwells in thee,
Which doth enchant the soul. Now such a voice
Will drive away from me the evil demon
That beats his black wings close above my head.

Duchess. Where is thy lute, my daughter? Let thy father 50
Hear some small trial of thy skill.

Thekla. My mother!
I—

[733]Duchess. Trembling? Come, collect thyself. Go, cheer
Thy father.

Thekla. O my mother! I—I cannot.

Countess. How, what is that, niece?

Thekla (to the Countess). O spare me—sing—now—in this sore anxiety, 55
Of the o'erburthen'd soul—to sing to him,
Who is thrusting, even now, my mother headlong
Into her grave!

Duchess. How, Thekla? Humoursome?
What! shall thy father have expressed a wish
In vain?

Countess. Here is the lute.

Thekla. My God! how can I— 60

Duchess. My child! O she is ill—

Wallenstein. What ails the maiden?
Say, is she often so?

Countess. Since then herself
Has now betrayed it, I too must no longer
Conceal it.

Wallenstein. What?

Countess. She loves him!

Wallenstein. Loves him! Whom?

Countess. Max does she love! Max Piccolomini. 65
Hast thou ne'er noticed it? Nor yet my sister?

Duchess. Was it this that lay so heavy on her heart?
God's blessing on thee, my sweet child! Thou needest
Never take shame upon thee for thy choice.

Countess. This journey, if 'twere not thy aim, ascribe it 70
To thine own self. Thou shouldest have chosen another
To have attended her.

Wallenstein. And does he know it?

Countess. Yes, and he hopes to win her.

Wallenstein. Hopes to win her!
Is the boy mad?

Countess. Well—hear it from themselves.

Wallenstein. He thinks to carry off Duke Friedland's daughter! 75
[734] Aye?—The thought pleases me.
The young man has no grovelling spirit.

Countess. Since
Such and such constant favour you have shewn him—

Wallenstein. He chooses finally to be my heir.
And true it is, I love the youth; yea, honour him. 80
But must he therefore be my daughter's husband!
Is it daughters only? Is it only children
That we must shew our favour by?

Duchess. His noble disposition and his manners—

Wallenstein. Win him my heart, but not my daughter.

Duchess. Then 85
His rank, his ancestors—

Wallenstein. Ancestors! What?
He is a subject, and my son-in-law
I will seek out upon the thrones of Europe.

Duchess. O dearest Albrecht! Climb we not too high.
Lest we should fall too low.

Wallenstein. What? have I paid 90
A price so heavy to ascend this eminence,
And jut out high above the common herd,
Only to close the mighty part I play
In Life's great drama, with a common kinsman?
Have I for this— [pause.] She is the only thing 95
That will remain behind of me on earth;
And I will see a crown around her head,
Or die in the attempt to place it there.
I hazard all—all! and for this alone,
To lift her into greatness— 100
Yea, in this moment, in the which we are speaking— [pause.
And I must now, like a soft-hearted father,
Couple together in good peasant fashion
The pair, that chance to suit each other's liking—
And I must do it now, even now, when I 105
Am stretching out the wreath that is to twine
My full accomplished work—no! she is the jewel,
Which I have treasured long, my last, my noblest,
And 'tis my purpose not to let her from me
For less than a king's sceptre.

Duchess. O my husband! 110
You're ever building, building to the clouds,
[735] Still building higher, and still higher building,
And ne'er reflect, that the poor narrow basis
Cannot sustain the giddy tottering column.

Wallenstein (to the Countess). Have you announced the place of residence 115
Which I have destined for her?

Countess. No! not yet.
'Twere better you yourself disclosed it to her.

Duchess. How? Do we not return to Karn then?

Wallenstein. No.

Duchess. And to no other of your lands or seats?

Wallenstein. You would not be secure there.

Duchess. Not secure 120
In the Emperor's realms, beneath the Emperor's
Protection?

Wallenstein. Friedland's wife may be permitted
No longer to hope that.

Duchess. O God in heaven!
And have you brought it even to this?

Wallenstein. In Holland
You'll find protection.

Duchess. In a Lutheran country? 125
What? And you send us into Lutheran countries?

Wallenstein. Duke Franz of Lauenburg conducts you thither.

Duchess. Duke Franz of Lauenburg?
The ally of Sweden, the Emperor's enemy.

Wallenstein. The Emperor's enemies are mine no longer. 130

Duchess (casting a look of terror on the Duke and the Countess). Is it then true? It is. You are degraded?
Deposed from the command? O God in heaven!

Countess (aside to the Duke). Leave her in this belief. Thou seest she cannot
Support the real truth.

Countess. —Tertsky!
What ails him? What an image of affright!
He looks as he had seen a ghost.

Tertsky (leading Wallenstein aside). Is it thy command that all the Croats—

Wallenstein. Mine! 5

[736]Tertsky. We are betrayed.

Wallenstein. What?

Tertsky. They are off! This night
The Jägers likewise—all the villages
In the whole round are empty.

Wallenstein. Isolani?

Tertsky. Him thou hast sent away. Yes, surely.

Wallenstein. I?

Tertsky. No! Hast thou not sent him off? Nor Deodate? 10
They are vanished both of them.

Illo. Has Tertsky told thee?

Tertsky. He knows all.

Illo. And likewise
That Esterhatzy, Goetz, Maradas, Kaunitz,
Kolatto, Palfi, have forsaken thee?

Tertsky. Damnation!

Wallenstein (winks at them). Hush!

Countess (who has been watching them anxiously from the distance and now advances to them). Tertsky! Heaven! What is it? What has happened? 5

Wallenstein (scarcely suppressing his emotions). Nothing! let us be gone!

Tertsky (following him). Theresa, it is nothing.

Countess (holding him back). Nothing? Do I not see, that all the lifeblood
Has left your cheeks—look you not like a ghost?
That even my brother but affects a calmness? 10

Page (enters). An Aid-de-Camp enquires for the Count Tertsky. [Tertsky follows the Page.

Wallenstein. Go, hear his business. [To Illo.
This could not have happened
So unsuspected without mutiny.
Who was on guard at the gates?

Illo. 'Twas Tiefenbach. 15

Wallenstein. Let Tiefenbach leave guard without delay,
And Tertsky's grenadiers relieve him. [Illo is going.
Stop!
Hast thou heard aught of Butler?

Illo. Him I met.
He will be here himself immediately.
[737] Butler remains unshaken. [Illo exit. Wallenstein is following him.

Countess. Let him not leave thee, sister! go, detain him! 20
There's some misfortune.

Duchess (clinging to him). Gracious heaven! What is it?

Wallenstein. Be tranquil! leave me, sister! dearest wife!
We are in camp, and this is nought unusual;
Here storm and sunshine follow one another
With rapid interchanges. These fierce spirits 25
Champ the curb angrily, and never yet
Did quiet bless the temples of the leader.
If I am to stay, go you. The plaints of women
Ill suit the scene where men must act.
[He is going: Tertsky returns.

Tertsky. Remain here. From this window must we see it. 30

Wallenstein (to the Countess). Sister, retire!

Countess. No—never.

Wallenstein. 'Tis my will.

Tertsky (leads the Countess aside, and drawing her attention to the Duchess).
Theresa!

Duchess. Sister, come! since he commands it.

LINENOTES:

Scene II

LINENOTES:

Scene III

LINENOTES:

Scene IV

LINENOTES:

Scene V

Scene VI

LINENOTES: