Read Ebook: The Piccolomini: A Play by Schiller Friedrich Coleridge Samuel Taylor Translator

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QUESTENBERG. That which his duty prompted. He advanced.

WALLENSTEIN. What! he advanced? And I, his general, Had given him orders, peremptory orders Not to desert his station! Stands it thus With my authority? Is this the obedience Due to my office, which being thrown aside, No war can be conducted? Chieftains, speak You be the judges, generals. What deserves That officer who, of his oath neglectful, Is guilty of contempt of orders?

ILLO. Death.

WALLENSTEIN . Count Piccolomini! what has he deserved?

BUTLER. Death, by the laws of war.

, whom no one knows--No! no! This may blind others! I see through thee, brother! But it beseems thee not to draw a card At such a game. Not yet! It all remains Mutely delivered up to my finessing. Well--thou shalt not have been deceived, Duke Friedland, In her who is thy sister.

SERVANT . The commanders! Thither I went, there found myself alone. Over the altar hung a holy mother; A wretched painting 'twas, yet 'twas the friend That I was seeking in this moment. Ah, How oft have I beheld that glorious form In splendor, 'mid ecstatic worshippers; Yet, still it moved me not! and now at once Was my devotion cloudless as my love.

COUNTESS. Enjoy your fortune and felicity! Forget the world around you. Meantime, friendship Shall keep strict vigils for you, anxious, active. Only be manageable when that friendship Points you the road to full accomplishment.

COUNTESS. How long is it since you declared your passion?

COUNTESS. This morning the first time in twenty days?

THEKLA. And if this be the science of the stars, I, too, with glad and zealous industry, Will learn acquaintance with this cheerful faith. It is a gentle and affectionate thought, That in immeasurable heights above us, At our first birth, the wreath of love was woven, With sparkling stars for flowers.

COUNTESS. Not only roses And thorns too hath the heaven, and well for you Leave they your wreath of love inviolate: What Venus twined, the bearer of glad fortune, The sullen orb of Mars soon tears to pieces.

COUNTESS. Yet I would have you look, and look again, Before you lay aside your arms, young friend! A gentle bride, as she is, is well worth it, That you should woo and win her with the sword.

COUNTESS. What was that? Did you hear nothing? Seemed as if I heard Tumult and larum in the banquet-room.

COUNTESS , THEKLA.

COUNTESS. Fie, lady niece! to throw yourself upon him Like a poor gift to one who cares not for it, And so must be flung after him! For you, Duke Friedland's only child, I should have thought It had been more beseeming to have shown yourself More chary of your person.

THEKLA . And what mean you?

DUCHESS. I mean, niece, that you should not have forgotten Who you are, and who he is. But perchance That never once occurred to you.

THEKLA. What then?

COUNTESS. That you're the daughter of the Prince Duke Friedland.

THEKLA. Well, and what farther?

DUCHESS. What? A pretty question!

THEKLA. He was born that which we have but become. He's of an ancient Lombard family, Son of a reigning princess.

COUNTESS. Are you dreaming? Talking in sleep? An excellent jest, forsooth! We shall no doubt right courteously entreat him To honor with his hand the richest heiress In Europe.

THEKLA. That will not be necessary.

COUNTESS. Methinks 'twere well, though, not to run the hazard.

COUNTESS. His! His father! His! But yours, niece, what of yours?

THERLA. Why, I begin to think you fear his father, So anxiously you hide it from the man! His father, his, I mean.

COUNTESS . Niece, you are false.

THEBLA. Are you then wounded? O, be friends with me!

COUNTESS. You hold your game for won already. Do not Triumph too soon!

THEKLA . Nay now, be friends with me.

COUNTESS. It is not yet so far gone.

THEKLA. I believe you.

COUNTESS. Did you suppose your father had laid out His most important life in toils of war, Denied himself each quiet earthly bliss, Had banished slumbers from his tent, devoted His noble head to care, and for this only, To make a happier pair of you? At length To draw you from your convent, and conduct In easy triumph to your arms the man That chanced to please your eyes! All this, methinks, He might have purchased at a cheaper rate.

COUNTESS. Thou seest it with a lovelorn maiden's eyes, Cast thine eye round, bethink thee who thou art;-- Into no house of joyance hast thou stepped, For no espousals dost thou find the walls Decked out, no guests the nuptial garland wearing; Here is no splendor but of arms. Or thinkest thou That all these thousands are here congregated To lead up the long dances at thy wedding! Thou see'st thy father's forehead full of thought, Thy mother's eye in tears: upon the balance Lies the great destiny of all our house. Leave now the puny wish, the girlish feeling; Oh, thrust it far behind thee! Give thou proof Thou'rt the daughter of the mighty--his Who where he moves creates the wonderful. Not to herself the woman must belong, Annexed and bound to alien destinies. But she performs the best part, she the wisest, Who can transmute the alien into self, Meet and disarm necessity by choice; And what must be, take freely to her heart, And bear and foster it with mother's love.

THEKLA. Such ever was my lesson in the convent. I had no loves, no wishes, knew myself Only as his--his daughter--his, the mighty! His fame, the echo of whose blast drove to me From the far distance, weakened in my soul No other thought than this--I am appointed To offer myself up in passiveness to him.

COUNTESS. That is thy fate. Mould thou thy wishes to it-- I and thy mother gave thee the example.

THEKLA. My fate hath shown me him, to whom behoves it That I should offer up myself. In gladness Him will I follow.

COUNTESS. Not thy fate hath shown him! Thy heart, say rather--'twas thy heart, my child!

THEKLA. Faith hath no voice but the heart's impulses. I am all his! His present--his alone. Is this new life, which lives in me? He hath A right to his own creature. What was I Ere his fair love infused a soul into me?

COUNTESS. Thou wouldst oppose thy father, then, should he Have otherwise determined with thy person?

A town about twelve German miles N.E. of Ulm.

The Dukes in Germany being always reigning powers, their sons and daughters are entitled princes and princesses.

Carinthia.

A town not far from the Mine-mountains, on the high road from Vienna to Prague.

In the original,--

"Den blut'gen Lorbeer geb' ich hin mit Freuden Fuers erste Veilchen, das der Maerz uns bringt, Das duerftige Pfand der neuverjuengten Erde."

A reviewer in the Literary Gazette observes that, in these lines, Mr. Coleridge has misapprehended the meaning of the word "Zug," a team, translating it as "Anzug," a suit of clothes. The following version, as a substitute, I propose:--

When from your stables there is brought to me A team of four most richly harnessed horses.

The term, however, is "Jagd-zug" which may mean a "hunting equipage," or a "hunting stud;" although Hilpert gives only "a team of four horses."

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