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THE DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN.

Translated by S. T. Coleridge.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

A room fitted up for astrological labors, and provided with celestial charts, with globes, telescopes, quadrants, and other mathematical instruments. Seven colossal figures, representing the planets, each with a transparent star of different color on its head, stand in a semicircle in the background, so that Mars and Saturn are nearest the eye. The remainder of the scene and its disposition is given in the fourth scene of the second act. There must be a curtain over the figures, which may be dropped and conceal them on occasions.

WALLENSTEIN at a black table, on which, a speculum astrologicum is described with chalk. SENI is taking observations through a window.

WALLENSTEIN. All well--and now let it be ended, Seni. Come, The dawn commences, and Mars rules the hour; We must give o'er the operation. Come, We know enough.

WALLENSTEIN. She is at present in her perigee, And now shoots down her strongest influences. No, not for gold and silver have there bled So many of our Swedish nobles--neither Will we, with empty laurels for our payment, Hoist sail for our own country. Citizens Will we remain upon the soil, the which Our monarch conquered for himself and died.

WALLENSTEIN. Help to keep down the common enemy, And the fair border land must needs be yours.

WRANGEL. But when the common enemy lies vanquished, Who knits together our new friendship then? We know, Duke Friedland! though perhaps the Swede Ought not to have known it, that you carry on Secret negotiations with the Saxons. Who is our warranty that we are not The sacrifices in those articles Which 'tis thought needful to conceal from us?

WALLENSTEIN . Think you of something better, Gustave Wrangel! Of Prague no more.

WRANGEL. Here my commission ends.

WALLENSTEIN. Surrender up to you my capital! Far liever would I force about, and step Back to my emperor.

WALLENSTEIN. That lies with me, even now, at any hour.

WRANGEL. Some days ago, perhaps. To-day, no longer; No longer since Sesina's been a prisoner. speak my name With hate and dread; and Friedland be redemption For each accursed deed.

COUNTESS. What is there here, then, So against nature? Help me to perceive it! Oh, let not superstition's nightly goblins Subdue thy clear, bright spirit! Art thou bid To murder? with abhorred, accursed poniard, To violate the breasts that nourished thee? That were against our nature, that might aptly Make thy flesh shudder, and thy whole heart sicken. Yet not a few, and for a meaner object, Have ventured even this, ay, and performed it. What is there in thy case so black and monstrous? Thou art accused of treason--whether with Or without justice is not now the question-- Thou art lost if thou dost not avail thee quickly Of the power which thou possessest--Friedland! Duke! Tell me where lives that thing so meek and tame, That doth not all his living faculties Put forth in preservation of his life? What deed so daring, which necessity And desperation will not sanctify?

WALLENSTEIN. Once was this Ferdinand so gracious to me; He loved me; he esteemed me; I was placed The nearest to his heart. Full many a time We like familiar friends, both at one table, Have banqueted together--he and I; And the young kings themselves held me the basin Wherewith to wash me--and is't come to this?

COUNTESS. So faithfully preservest thou each small favor, And hast no memory for contumelies? Must I remind thee, how at Regensburg This man repaid thy faithful services? All ranks and all conditions in the empire Thou hadst wronged to make him great,--hadst loaded on thee, On thee, the hate, the curse of the whole world. No friend existed for thee in all Germany, And why? because thou hadst existed only For the emperor. To the emperor alone Clung Friedland in that storm which gathered round him At Regensburg in the Diet--and he dropped thee! He let thee fall! he let thee fall a victim To the Bavarian, to that insolent! Deposed, stripped bare of all thy dignity And power, amid the taunting of thy foe Thou wert let drop into obscurity. Say not, the restoration of thy honor Has made atonement for that first injustice. No honest good-will was it that replaced thee; The law of hard necessity replaced thee, Which they had fain opposed, but that they could not.

WALLENSTEIN. Not to their good wishes, that is certain, Nor yet to his affection I'm indebted For this high office; and if I abuse it, I shall therein abuse no confidence.

COUNTESS. Affection! confidence!--they needed thee. Necessity, impetuous remonstrant! Who not with empty names, or shows of proxy, Is served, who'll have the thing and not the symbol, Ever seeks out the greatest and the best, And at the rudder places him, e'en though She had been forced to take him from the rabble-- She, this necessity, it was that placed thee In this high office; it was she that gave thee Thy letters-patent of inauguration. For, to the uttermost moment that they can, This race still help themselves at cheapest rate With slavish souls, with puppets! At the approach Of extreme peril, when a hollow image Is found a hollow image and no more, Then falls the power into the mighty hands Of nature, of the spirit-giant born, Who listens only to himself, knows nothing Of stipulations, duties, reverences, And, like the emancipated force of fire, Unmastered scorches, ere it reaches them, Their fine-spun webs, their artificial policy.

WALLENSTEIN. 'Tis true! they saw me always as I am-- Always! I did not cheat them in the bargain. I never held it worth my pains to hide The bold all-grasping habit of my soul.

COUNTESS. Nay rather--thou hast ever shown thyself A formidable man, without restraint; Hast exercised the full prerogatives Of thy impetuous nature, which had been Once granted to thee. Therefore, duke, not thou, Who hast still remained consistent with thyself, But they are in the wrong, who, fearing thee, Intrusted such a power in hands they feared. For, by the laws of spirit, in the right Is every individual character That acts in strict consistence with itself: Self-contradiction is the only wrong. Wert thou another being, then, when thou Eight years ago pursuedst thy march with fire, And sword, and desolation, through the circles Of Germany, the universal scourge, Didst mock all ordinances of the empire, The fearful rights of strength alone exertedst, Trampledst to earth each rank, each magistracy, All to extend thy Sultan's domination? Then was the time to break thee in, to curb Thy haughty will, to teach thee ordinance. But no, the emperor felt no touch of conscience; What served him pleased him, and without a murmur He stamped his broad seal on these lawless deeds. What at that time was right, because thou didst it For him, to-day is all at once become Opprobrious, foul, because it is directed Against him. O most flimsy superstition!

WALLENSTEIN . I never saw it in this light before, 'Tis even so. The emperor perpetrated Deeds through my arm, deeds most unorderly. And even this prince's mantle, which I wear, I owe to what were services to him, But most high misdemeanors 'gainst the empire.

COUNTESS. Then betwixt thee and him The point can be no more of right and duty, Only of power and the opportunity. That opportunity, lo! it comes yonder Approaching with swift steeds; then with a swing Throw thyself up into the chariot-seat, Seize with firm hand the reins ere thy opponent Anticipate thee, and himself make conquest Of the now empty seat. The moment comes; It is already here, when thou must write The absolute total of thy life's vast sum. The constellations stand victorious o'er thee, The planets shoot good fortune in fair junctions, And tell thee, "Now's the time!" The starry courses Hast thou thy life-long measured to no purpose? The quadrant and the circle, were they playthings?

WALLENSTEIN. Thou art describing thy own father's heart. The adder! Oh, the charms of hell o'erpowered me He dwelt within me, to my inmost soul Still to and fro he passed, suspected never. On the wide ocean, in the starry heaven Did mine eyes seek the enemy, whom I In my heart's heart had folded! Had I been To Ferdinand what Octavio was to me, War had I ne'er denounced against him. No, I never could have done it. The emperor was My austere master only, not my friend. There was already war 'twixt him and me When he delivered the commander's staff Into my hands; for there's a natural Unceasing war twixt cunning and suspicion; Peace exists only betwixt confidence And faith. Who poisons confidence, he murders The future generations.

WALLENSTEIN I have Held and sustained thee from thy tottering childhood. What holy bond is there of natural love, What human tie that does not knit thee to me? I love thee, Max.! What did thy father for thee, Which I too have not done, to the height of duty? Go hence, forsake me, serve thy emperor; He will reward thee with a pretty chain Of gold; with his ram's fleece will he reward thee; For that the friend, the father of thy youth, For that the holiest feeling of humanity, Was nothing worth to thee.

WALLENSTEIN. How? Thy duty? Duty to whom? Who art thou? Max.! bethink thee What duties may'st thou have? If I am acting A criminal part toward the emperor, It is my crime, not thine. Dost thou belong To thine own self? Art thou thine own commander? Stand'st thou, like me, a freeman in the world, That in thy actions thou shouldst plead free agency? On me thou art planted, I am thy emperor; To obey me, to belong to me, this is Thy honor, this a law of nature to thee! And if the planet on the which thou livest And hast thy dwelling, from its orbit starts. It is not in thy choice, whether or no Thou'lt follow it. Unfelt it whirls thee onward Together with his ring, and all his moons. With little guilt steppest thou into this contest; Thee will the world not censure, it will praise thee, For that thou held'st thy friend more worth to thee Than names and influences more removed For justice is the virtue of the ruler, Affection and fidelity the subject's. Not every one doth it beseem to question The far-off high Arcturus. Most securely Wilt thou pursue the nearest duty: let The pilot fix his eye upon the pole-star.

To these enter NEUMANN.

WALLENSTEIN. What now?

NEUMANN. The Pappenheimers are dismounted, And are advancing now on foot, determined With sword in hand to storm the house, and free The count, their colonel.

WALLENSTEIN . Have the cannon planted. I will receive them with chain-shot. Marvellously His marvellous preservation had transformed him. Thenceforth he held himself for an exempted And privileged being, and, as if he were Incapable of dizziness or fall, He ran along the unsteady rope of life. But now our destinies drove us asunder; He paced with rapid step the way of greatness, Was count, and prince, duke-regent, and dictator, And now is all, all this too little for him; He stretches forth his hands for a king's crown, And plunges in unfathomable ruin.

BUTLER. No more, he comes.

To these enter WALLENSTEIN, in conversation with the BURGOMASTER of Egra.

WALLENSTEIN. You were at one time a free town. I see Ye bear the half eagle in your city arms. Why the half eagle only?

BURGOMASTER. We were free, But for these last two hundred years has Egra Remained in pledge to the Bohemian crown; Therefore we bear the half eagle, the other half Being cancelled till the empire ransom us, If ever that should be.

WALLENSTEIN. Ye merit freedom. Only be firm and dauntless. Lend your ears To no designing whispering court-minions. What may your imposts be?

BURGOMASTER. So heavy that We totter under them. The garrison Lives at our costs.

WALLENSTEIN. I will relieve you. Tell me, There are some Protestants among you still? puppet Of the blind Power, which, out of its own choice, Creates for him a dread necessity. What too would it avail him if there were A something pleading for him in my heart-- Still I must kill him.

GORDON. If your heart speak to you Follow its impulse. 'Tis the voice of God. Think you your fortunes will grow prosperous Bedewed with blood--his blood? Believe it not!

THEKLA, LADY NEUBRUNN, and ROSENBERG.

NEUBRUNN. He is here, lady, and he will procure them.

THEKLA. Wilt thou provide us horses, Rosenberg?

ROSENBERG. I will, my lady.

THEKLA. And go with us as well?

ROSENBERG. To the world's end, my lady.

THEKLA. But consider, Thou never canst return unto the duke.

ROSENBERG. I will remain with thee.

THEKLA. I will reward thee. And will commend thee to another master. Canst thou unseen conduct us from the castle?

ROSENBERG. I can.

THEKLA. When can I go?

ROSENBERG. This very hour. But whither would you, lady?

THEKLA. To--Tell him, Neubrunn.

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