Friedrich Schiller

“ GORDON. Oh! to save such a man—— BUTLER. What! GORDON. It is worth A sacrifice. Come, friend! Be noble-minded! Our own heart, and not other men's opinions, Forms our true honor. BUTLER (with a cold and haughty air) . He is a great lord, This duke, and I am of but mean importance. This is what you would say! Wherein concerns it The world at large, you mean to hint to me, Whether the man of low extraction keeps Or blemishes his honor— So that the man of princely rank be saved? We all do stamp our value on ourselves: The price we challenge for ourselves is given us. ”

“ MAX. Command me what is human. I stay here. OCTAVIO. Max.! in the emperor's name I bid thee come. MAX. No emperor has power to prescribe Laws to the heart; and wouldst thou wish to rob me Of the sole blessing which my fate has left me, Her sympathy? Must then a cruel deed Be done with cruelty? The unalterable Shall I perform ignobly—steal away, With stealthy coward flight forsake her? No! She shall behold my suffering, my sore anguish, Hear the complaints of the disparted soul, And weep tears o'er me. Oh! the human race Have steely souls—but she is as an angel. ”

“ THEKLA. Is it possible, that that can be the right, The which thy tender heart did not at first Detect and seize with instant impulse? Go, Fulfil thy duty! I should ever love thee. Whate'er thou hast chosen, thou wouldst still have acted Nobly and worthy of thee—but repentance Shall ne'er disturb thy soul's fair peace. MAX. Then I Must leave thee, must part from thee! THEKLA. Being faithful To thine own self, thou art faithful, too, to me: If our fates part, our hearts remain united. A bloody hatred will divide forever The houses Piccolomini and Friedland; But we belong not to our houses. ”

“ Send me to Vienna; I'll make thy peace for thee with the emperor. He knows thee not. But I do know thee. He Shall see thee, duke! with my unclouded eye, And I bring back his confidence to thee. WALLENSTEIN. It is too late! Thou knowest not what has happened. MAX. Were it too late, and were things gone so far, That a crime only could prevent thy fall, Then—fall! fall honorably, even as thou stoodest, Lose the command. Go from the stage of war! Thou canst with splendor do it—do it too With innocence. Thou hast lived much for others, At length live thou for thy own self. I follow thee. ”

“ GORDON. I am content already, And wish to climb no higher; where great height is, The fall must needy be great. "Great height, great depth." ILLO. Here you have no more business, for to-morrow The Swedes will take possession of the citadel. Come, Terzky, it is supper-time. What think you? Nay, shall we have the town illuminated In honor of the Swede? And who refuses To do it is a Spaniard and a traitor. TERZKY. Nay! nay! not that, it will not please the duke—— ILLO. What; we are masters here; no soul shall dare Avow himself imperial where we've the rule. Gordon! ”

“ MAX. The heart's voice thou hast not o'erpowered—as little Will Wallenstein be able to o'erpower it. OCTAVIO. O, Max.! I see thee never more again! MAX. Unworthy of thee wilt thou never see me. OCTAVIO. I go to Frauenberg—the Pappenheimers I leave thee here, the Lothrings too; Tsokana And Tiefenbach remain here to protect thee. They love thee, and are faithful to their oath, And will far rather fall in gallant contest Than leave their rightful leader and their honor. MAX. Rely on this, I either leave my life In the struggle, or conduct them out of Pilsen. ”

“ I am not guilty Of this foul deed. BUTLER. Your hand is pure. You have Availed yourself of mine. OCTAVIO. Merciless man! Thus to abuse the orders of thy lord— And stain thy emperor's holy name with murder, With bloody, most accursed assassination! BUTLER (calmly) . I've but fulfilled the emperor's own sentence. OCTAVIO. Oh, curse of kings, Infusing a dread life into their words, And linking to the sudden, transient thought The unchanging, irrevocable deed. Was there necessity for such an eager Despatch? Couldst thou not grant the merciful A time for mercy? Time is man's good angel. ”

“ People will hold us for a brace of villains. BUTLER. In plenty, honor, splendor—you may safely Laugh at the people's babble. DEVEREUX. If the business Squares with one's honor—if that be quite certain. BUTLER. Set your hearts quite at ease. Ye save for Ferdinand His crown and empire. The reward can be No small one. DEVEREUX. And 'tis his purpose to dethrone the emperor? BUTLER. Yes! Yes! to rob him of his crown and life. DEVEREUX. And must he fall by the executioner's hands, Should we deliver him up to the emperor Alive? BUTLER. It were his certain destiny. ”

“ The duke has cheated me of life's best jewel, So that I blush before this poor weak Gordon! He prizes above all his fealty; His conscious soul accuses him of nothing; In opposition to his own soft heart He subjugates himself to an iron duty. Me in a weaker moment passion warped; I stand beside him, and must feel myself The worst man of the two. What though the world Is ignorant of my purposed treason, yet One man does know it, and can prove it, too— High-minded Piccolomini! There lives the man who can dishonor me! ”

“ TERZKY. We are seeking him: he is nowhere to be met with. WALLENSTEIN. What did the aide-de-camp deliver to you? TERZKY. My regiments had despatched him; yet once more They swear fidelity to thee, and wait The shout for onset, all prepared, and eager. WALLENSTEIN. But whence arose this larum in the camp? It should have been kept secret from the army Till fortune had decided for us at Prague. TERZKY. Oh, 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. ”

“ The Austrian has a country, ay, and loves it, And has good cause to love it—but this army That calls itself the imperial, this that houses Here in Bohemia, this has none—no country; This is an outcast of all foreign lands, Unclaimed by town or tribe, to whom belongs Nothing except the universal sun. And this Bohemian land for which we fight Loves not the master whom the chance of war, Not its own choice or will, hath given to it. Men murmur at the oppression of their conscience, And power hath only awed but not appeased them. ”

“ What is the demand? WRANGEL. That he forthwith disarm the Spanish regiments Attached to the emperor, that he seize on Prague, And to the Swedes give up that city, with The strong pass Egra. WALLENSTEIN. That is much indeed! Prague!—Egra's granted—but—but Prague! 'Twon't do. I give you every security Which you may ask of me in common reason— But Prague—Bohemia—these, sir general, I can myself protect. WRANGEL. We doubt it not. But 'tis not the protection that is now Our sole concern. We want security, That we shall not expend our men and money All to no purpose. ”

“ WALLENSTEIN. Come on me what will come, The doing evil to avoid an evil Cannot be good! TERZKY. Nay, but bethink you, duke. WALLENSTEIN. To live upon the mercy of these Swedes! Of these proud-hearted Swedes!—I could not bear it. ILLO. Goest thou as fugitive, as mendicant? Bringest thou not more to them than thou receivest? WALLENSTEIN. How fared it with the brave and royal Bourbon Who sold himself unto his country's foes, And pierced the bosom of his father-land? Curses were his reward, and men's abhorrence Avenged the unnatural and revolting deed. ILLO. Is that thy case? ”

“ Come! we will keep a merry carnival The night for once be day, and 'mid full glasses Will we expect the Swedish avant-garde. ILLO. Yes, let us be of good cheer for to-day, For there's hot work before us, friends! This sword Shall have no rest till it is bathed to the hilt In Austrian blood. GORDON. Shame, shame! what talk is this, My lord field-marshal? Wherefore foam you so Against your emperor? BUTLER. Hope not too much From this first victory. Bethink you, sirs! How rapidly the wheel of fortune turns; The emperor still is formidably strong. ”

“ 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! ”

“ The Swedes advance to Egra by forced marches, And quickly will the junction be accomplished. This must not be! The duke must never leave This stronghold on free footing; for I have Pledged life and honor here to hold him prisoner, And your assistance 'tis on which I calculate. GORDON. O that I had not lived to see this day! From his hand I received this dignity, He did himself intrust this stronghold to me, Which I am now required to make his dungeon. We subalterns have no will of our own: The free, the mighty man alone may listen To the fair impulse of his human nature. ”

“ ANSPESSADE. 'Tis then but mere appearances which thou Dost put on with the Swede! Thou'lt not betray The emperor? Wilt not turn us into Swedes? This is the only thing which we desire To learn from thee. WALLENSTEIN. What care I for the Swedes? I hate them as I hate the pit of hell, And under Providence I trust right soon To chase them to their homes across their Baltic. My cares are only for the whole: I have A heart—it bleeds within me for the miseries And piteous groanings of my fellow-Germans. Ye are but common men, but yet ye think With minds not common ”

“ A word may be recalled, a life never can be. BUTLER. Despatch in service pleases sovereigns. GORDON. No honest man's ambitious to press forward To the hangman's service. BUTLER. And no brave man loses His color at a daring enterprise. GORDON. A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience. BUTLER. What then? Shall he go forth anew to kindle The unextinguishable flame of war? GORDON. Seize him, and hold him prisoner—do not kill him. BUTLER. Had not the emperor's army been defeated I might have done so. But 'tis now passed by. GORDON. Oh, wherefore opened I the stronghold to him? ”

“ Thou leadest us out to the bloody field Of death; thou and no other shalt conduct us home, Rejoicing, to the lovely plains of peace— Shalt share with us the fruits of the long toil. WALLENSTEIN. What! Think you then at length in late old age To enjoy the fruits of toil? Believe it not. Never, no never, will you see the end Of the contest! you and me, and all of us, This war will swallow up! War, war, not peace, Is Austria's wish; and therefore, because I Endeavored after peace, therefore I fall. For what cares Austria how long the war Wears out the armies and lays waste the world! ”

“ And my young hope lies shuddering in its grasp; I knew it well—no sooner had I entered, An heavy ominous presentiment 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! COUNTESS. Calm yourself! Break not out in vain lamenting! Preserve you for your father the firm friend, 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 cannot part from you. THEKLA. Alas, for his sore anguish! ”

“ TERZKY. 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 to have affronted The human form, oh, may the time ne'er come In which I shame me of the infirmity. ”

“ ANSPESSADE. Most fair and noble has thy conduct been To us, my general! With thy confidence Thou has honored us, and shown us grace and favor Beyond all other regiments; and thou seest We follow not the common herd. We will Stand by thee faithfully. Speak but one word— Thy word shall satisfy us that it is not A treason which thou meditatest—that Thou meanest not to lead the army over To the enemy; nor e'er betray thy country. WALLENSTEIN. Me, me are they betraying. The emperor Hath sacrificed me to my enemies, And I must fall, unless my gallant troops Will rescue me. ”

“ The duke is dead, My husband too is dead, the duchess struggles In the pangs of death, my niece has disappeared; This house of splendor, and of princely glory, Doth now stand desolated: the affrighted servants Rush forth through all its doors. I am the last Therein; I shut it up, and here deliver The keys. OCTAVIO (with a deep anguish) . Oh, countess! my house, too, is desolate. COUNTESS. Who next is to be murdered? Who is next To be maltreated? Lo! the duke is dead. The emperor's vengeance may be pacified! Spare the old servants ”

“ They are accustomed 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 TERZKY enter.) Courage, friends! courage! we are still unvanquished; I feel my footing firm; five regiments, Terzky, Are still our own, and Butler's gallant troops; And an host of sixteen thousand Swedes to-morrow. I was not stronger when, nine years ago, I marched forth, with glad heart and high of hope, To conquer Germany for the emperor. ”

“ SCENE VI. OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, BUTLER. BUTLER. At your command, lieutenant-general. OCTAVIO. Welcome, as honored friend and visitor. BUTLER. You do me too much honor. OCTAVIO (after both have seated themselves) You have not Returned the advances which I made you yesterday— Misunderstood them as mere empty forms. That wish proceeded from my heart—I was In earnest with you—for 'tis now a time In which the honest should unite most closely. BUTLER. 'Tis only the like-minded can unite. OCTAVIO. True! and I name all honest men like-minded. ”

“ If 'tis false, Then the whole science of the stars is false; For know, I have a pledge from Fate itself, That he is the most faithful of my friends. ILLO. Hast thou a pledge that this pledge is not false?
WALLENSTEIN. There exist moments in the life of man, When he is nearer the great Soul of the world Than is man's custom, and possesses freely The power of questioning his destiny: And such a moment 'twas, when in the night Before the action in the plains of Luetzen, Leaning against a tree, thoughts crowding thoughts, I looked out far upon the ominous plain. ”