Friedrich Schiller

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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?" ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”