The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley and Keats

To lift her into greatness

SCENE V.

To them enter COUNT TERTSKY.

Yea, in this moment, in the which we are speaking

[He recollects himself. And I must now, like a soft-hearted father, Couple together in good peasant-fashion The pair, that chance to suit each other's likingAnd I must do it now, even now, when I Am stretching out the wreath that is to twine My full accomplish'd 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! You're ever building, building to the clouds, 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 Which I have destined for her?

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!

TERTSKY.

We are betray'd.

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.

DUCHESS (casting a look of terror on the DUKE and the Go, hear his business.

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

DUCHESS (clinging to him).

It should have been kept secret from the army,
Till fortune had decided for us at Prague.

TERTSKY.

O that thou hadst believed me! Yester-evening
Did we conjure thee not to let that skulker,
That fox, Octavio, pass the gates of Pilsen.
Thou gavest him thy own horses to flee from thee.

WALLENSTEIN.

The old tune still! Now, once for all, no more
Of this suspicion-it is doting folly.

TERTSKY.

Thou didst confide in Isolani too;

And lo! he was the first that did desert thee.

WALLENSTEIN.

It was but yesterday I rescued him

Gracious Heaven! what is it? From abject wretchedness. Let that go by;

WALLENSTEIN.

Be tranquil! leave me, sister! dearest wife!
We are in camp, and this is naught unusual;
Here storm and sunshine follow one another
With rapid interchanges. These fierce spirits
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 scenes where men must act.

[He is going: TERTSKY returns.

TERTSKY.

Remain here. From this window must we see it.
WALLENSTEIN (to the COUNTESS).

Sister, retire!

COUNTESS.

No-never.

WALLENSTEIN.

'Tis my will.

I never reckon'd yet on gratitude.

And wherein doth he wrong in going from me?
He follows still the god whom all his life
He has worshipp'd at the gaming-table. With
My fortune, and my seeming destiny,

He made the bond, and broke it not with me.
I am but the ship in which his hopes were stow'd,
And with the which well-pleased and confident
He traversed the open sea; now he beholds it
In eminent jeopardy among the coast-rocks,
And hurries to preserve his wares. As light
As the free bird from the hospitable twig
Where it had nested, he flies off from me :
No human tie is snapp'd betwixt us two.
Yea, he deserves to find himself deceived
Who seeks a heart in the unthinking man.
Like shadows on a stream, the forms of life
Impress their characters on the smooth forehead,

TERTSKY (leads the COUNTESS aside, and drawing her Naught sinks into the bosom's silent depth :

Marshal themselves, each under its own banners.

And what further now?

ILLO.

Tiefenbach's corps make threat'ning movements; only Tiefenbach's soldiers, when I gave the orders

WALLENSTEIN (in a convulsion of agony). What? How is that!

ILLO.

He takes that office on him by commission, Under sign-manual of the Emperor.

TERTSKY.

From the Emperor-hear'st thou, Duke?

ILLO.

At his incitement

The Generals made that stealthy flight

TERTSKY.

ILLO.

Caraffa too, and Montecuculi,

WALLENSTEIN (leaning on BUTLER's shoulders).
Know'st thou already?

That old man has betray'd me to the Emperor.
Duke! hear'st thou? What say'st thou? Thirty years have we together
Lived out, and held out, sharing joy and hardship.
We have slept in one camp-bed, drunk from one glass,
One morsel shared! I lean'd myself on him,

Are missing, with six other Generals,

All whom he had induced to follow him.

This plot he has long had in writing by him From the Emperor; but 'twas finally concluded With all the detail of the operation Some days ago with the Envoy Questenberg. [WALLENSTEIN sinks down into a chair, and covers his face.

O my foreboding!

COUNTESS.

[Rushes out of the room.

TERTSKY.
Hadst thou but believed me!
Now seest thou how the stars have lied to thee.
WALLENSTEIN.

The stars lie not; but we have here a work
Wrought counter to the stars and destiny.
The science is still honest: this false heart
Forces a lie on the truth-telling heaven.
On a divine law divination rests;

Where Nature deviates from that law, and stumbles
"Out of her limits, there all science errs.
True, I did not suspect! Were it superstition
Never by such suspicion t' have affronted
The human form, O may that time ne'er come
In which I shame me of the infirmity.
The wildest savage drinks not with the victim,
In whose breast he means to plunge the sword.
This, this, Octavio, was no hero's deed:

Twas not thy prudence that did conquer mine;
bad heart triumph'd o'er an honest one.

Ne shield received the assassin stroke; thou plungest
Thy weapon on an unprotected breast-
Against such weapons I am but a child.

As now I lean me on thy faithful shoulder.
And now in the very moment, when, all love,
All confidence, my bosom beat to his,

He sees and takes the advantage, stabs the knife
Slowly into my heart.

[He hides his face on BUTLER's breast.

BUTLER.

Forget the false one.

What is your present purpose?

WALLENSTEIN.

Well remember'd!

Courage, my soul! I am still rich in friends,
Still loved by Destiny; for in the moment,
That it unmasks the plotting hypocrite,

It sends and proves to me one faithful heart.
Of the hypocrite no more! Think not, his loss
Was that which struck the pang: O no! his treason
Is that which strikes this pang! No more of him!
Dear to my heart, and honor'd were they both,
And the young man-yes-he did truly love me,
He-he-has not deceived me. But enough,
Enough of this-Swift counsel now beseems us,
The courier, whom Count Kinsky sent from Prague,
I expect him every moment: and whatever
He may bring with him, we must take good care
To keep it from the mutineers. Quick, then!
Dispatch some messenger you can rely on
To meet him, and conduct him to me.

BUTLER.

And his letter

Was broken open, and is circulated

Through the whole camp.

WALLENSTEIN.

SCENE XII.

COUNTESS, DUCHESS, THEKLA.

THEKLA (endeavoring to hold back the DUCHESS). Dear mother, do stay here!

DUCHESS.

No! Here is yet

Some frightful mystery that is hidden from me.
Why does my sister shun me? Don't I see her
Full of suspense and anguish roam about
From room to room?-Art thou not full of terror?
And what import these silent nods and gestures

You know what it contains? Which stealthwise thou exchangest with her?

[Looks around her. Where are they?

No one is here. They leave me all alone,
Alone in this sore anguish of suspense.
And I must wear the outward show of calmness
Before my sister, and shut in within me
The pangs and agonies of my crowded bosom.
It is not to be borne.-If all should fail;
If if he must go over to the Swedes,
An empty-handed fugitive, and not
As an ally, a covenanted equal,

ACT II.

SCENE I.

SCENE-A spacious room in the DUKE OF FRIEDLAND'S

Palace.

(WALLENSTEIN in armor).

Thou hast gain'd thy point, Octavio! Once more am I
Almost as friendless as at Regensburg.
There I had nothing left me, but myself—
But what one man can do, you have now experience.
The twigs have you hew'd off, and here I stand
A leafless trunk. But in the sap within
Lives the creating power, and a new world
May sprout forth from it. Once already have I
Proved myself worth an army to you-I alone!
Before the Swedish strength your troops had melted;
Beside the Lech sunk Tilly, your last hope:

Into Bavaria, like a winter torrent,

Did that Gustavus pour, and at Vienna
In his own palace did the Emperor tremble.
Soldiers were scarce, for still the multitude
Follow the luck all eyes were turn'd on me,
Their helper in distress: the Emperor's pride
Bow'd itself down before the man he had injured.
'Twas I must rise, and with creative word
Assemble forces in the desolate camps.

I did it. Like a god of war, my name

Went through the world. The drum was beat-and, lo!
The plow, the work-shop is forsaken, all
Swarm to the old familiar long-loved banners;
And as the wood-choir rich in melody
Assemble quick around the bird of wonder,
When first his throat swells with his magic song,
So did the warlike youth of Germany
Crowd in around the image of my eagle.
I feel myself the being that I was.
It is the soul that builds itself a body,
And Friedland's camp will not remain unfill'd.
Lead then your thousands out to meet me-true!
They are accustom'd under me to conquer,
But not against me. If the head and limbs
Separate from each other, 'twill be soon
Made manifest, in which the soul abode.
(ILLO and TERTSKY enter).

Courage, friends! Courage! We are still unvanquish'd;
I feel my footing firm; five regiments, Tertsky,
Are still our own, and Butler's gallant troops;
And a host of sixteen thousand Swedes to-morrow.
I was not stronger, when nine years ago

I march'd forth, with glad heart and high of hope,
To conquer Germany for the Emperor.

Anspessade, in German, Gefreiter, a soldier inferior to a

WALLENSTEIN.

Begin your address.

ANSPESSADE (giving the word of command). Shoulder your arms!

WALLENSTEIN (turning to a third).

Thy name is Risbeck; Cologne is thy birth-place.

THIRD CUIRASSIER.

Risbeck of Cologne.

WALLENSTEIN.

It was thou that broughtest in the Swedish colonel Diebald, prisoner, in the camp at Nüremberg.

THIRD CUIRASSIER.

It was not I, General!

WALLENSTEIN.

Perfectly right! It was thy elder brother: thou hadst a younger brother too: where did he stay?

THIRD CUIRASSIER.

He is stationed at Olmütz with the Imperial army.
WALLENSTEIN (to the ANSPESSADE).
Now then-begin.

ANSPESSADE.

There came to hand a letter from the Emperor,
Commanding us-

WALLENSTEIN (interrupting him).
Who chose you?

ANSPESSADE.

Drew its own man by lot.

WALLENSTEIN.

ANSPESSADE.

Every company

Now! to the business.

corporal, but above the sentinels. The German name implies There came to hand a letter from the Emperor, Commanding us collectively, from thee

that he is exempt from mounting guard.

187

« Назад Продовжити »

Книги

The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley and Keats: Complete in One Volume