Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

the table near the DUKE’S chair. They are announced

from without, and the wings of the door fly open.

[Before 15] Seni (with gravity). 1800, 1828, 1829.

Table of Contents

WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS.

Wallenstein. You went then through Vienna, were presented

To the Queen of Hungary?

Duchess. Yes, and to the Empress too,

And by both Majesties were we admitted

To kiss the hand.

Wallenstein. And how was it received,

That I had sent for wife and daughter hither 5

To the camp, in winter time?

Duchess. I did even that

Which you commissioned me to do. I told them,

You had determined on our daughter’s marriage,

And wished, ere yet you went into the field,

To shew the elected husband his betrothed. 10

Wallenstein. And did they guess the choice which I had made?

Duchess. They only hoped and wished it may have fallen

Upon no foreign nor yet Lutheran noble.

Wallenstein. And you — what do you wish, Elizabeth?

Duchess. Your will, you know, was always mine.

Wallenstein. Well, then? 15

And in all else, of what kind and complexion

Was your reception at the court?

Hide nothing from me. How were you received?

Duchess. O! my dear lord, all is not what it was.

A cankerworm, my lord, a cankerworm 20

Has stolen into the bud.

Wallenstein. Ay! is it so!

What, they were lax? they failed of the old respect?

Duchess. Not of respect. No honours were omitted,

No outward courtesy; but in the place

Of condescending, confidential kindness, 25

Familiar and endearing, there were given me

Only these honours and that solemn courtesy.

Ah! and the tenderness which was put on,

It was the guise of pity, not of favour.

No! Albrecht’s wife, Duke Albrecht’s princely wife, 30

Count Harrach’s noble daughter, should not so —

Not wholly so should she have been received.

Wallenstein. Yes, yes; they have ta’en offence. My latest

conduct,

They railed at it, no doubt.

Duchess. O that they had!

I have been long accustomed to defend you, 35

To heal and pacify distempered spirits.

No; no one railed at you. They wrapped them up,

O Heaven! in such oppressive, solemn silence! —

Here is no everyday misunderstanding,

No transient pique, no cloud that passes over; 40

Something most luckless, most unhealable,

Has taken place. The Queen of Hungary

Used formerly to call me her dear aunt,

And ever at departure to embrace me —

Wallenstein. Now she omitted it?

Duchess. She did embrace me, 45

But then first when I had already taken

My formal leave, and when the door already

Had closed upon me, then did she come out

In haste, as she had suddenly bethought herself,

And pressed me to her bosom, more with anguish 50

Than tenderness.

Wallenstein (seizes her hand soothingly). Nay, now collect

yourself,

And what of Eggenberg and Lichtenstein,

And of our other friends there?

Duchess. I saw none.

Wallenstein. The Ambassador from Spain, who once was wont

To plead so warmly for me? —

Duchess. Silent, Silent! 55

Wallenstein. These suns then are eclipsed for us. Henceforward

Must we roll on, our own fire, our own light.

Duchess. And were it — were it, my dear lord, in that

Which moved about the court in buzz and whisper,

But in the country let itself be heard 60

Aloud — in that which Father Lamormain

In sundry hints and ——

Wallenstein. Lamormain! what said he?

Duchess. That you’re accused of having daringly

O’erstepped the powers entrusted to you, charged

With traitorous contempt of the Emperor 65

And his supreme behests. The proud Bavarian,

He and the Spaniards stand up your accusers —

That there’s a storm collecting over you

Of far more fearful menace than that former one

Which whirled you headlong down at Regensburg. 70

And people talk, said he, of —— Ah! —

Wallenstein. Proceed!

Duchess. I cannot utter it!

Wallenstein. Proceed!

Duchess. They talk ——

Wallenstein. Well!

Duchess. Of a second ——

Wallenstein. Second ——

Duchess. More disgraceful

—— Dismission.

Wallenstein. Talk they?

O! they force, they thrust me

With violence, against my own will, onward! 75

Duchess. O! if there yet be time, my husband! if

By giving way and by submission, this

Can be averted — my dear lord, give way!

Win down your proud heart to it! Tell that heart

It is your sovereign lord, your Emperor 80

Before whom you retreat. O let no longer

Low tricking malice blacken your good meaning

With abhorred venomous glosses. Stand you up

Shielded and helm’d and weapon’d with the truth,

And drive before you into uttermost shame 85

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 favour

Stand not before us? 90

[After 17] [The DUCHESS casts her eyes on the ground and remains

silent. 1800, 1828, 1829.

pause). 1800, 1828, 1829. did 1800, 1828, 1829.

1800, 1828, 1829.

And people … Ah! — [Stifling extreme emotion.

1800, 1828, 1829.

1800, 1828, 1829.

Wallenstein. Talk they? [Strides across the chamber in vehement

agitation.

1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 76] Duchess (presses near to him, in entreaty). 1800, 1828,

1829.

Table of Contents

Enter the COUNTESS TERTSKY, leading in her hand the PRINCESS THEKLA,

richly adorned with brilliants.

COUNTESS, THEKLA, WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS.

Countess. How, sister? What already upon business,

And business of no pleasing kind I see,

Ere he has gladdened at his child. The first

Moment belongs to joy. Here, Friedland! father!

This is thy daughter. 5

(THEKLA approaches with a shy and timid air, and bends

herself as about to kiss his hand. He receives her

in his arms, and remains standing for some time

lost in the feeling of her presence.)

Wallenstein. Yes! pure and lovely hath hope risen on me:

I take her as the pledge of greater fortune.

Duchess. ‘Twas but a little child when you departed

To raise up that great army for the Emperor:

And after, at the close of the campaign, 10

When you returned home out of Pomerania,

Your daughter was already in the convent,

Wherein she has remain’d till now.

Wallenstein. The while

We in the field here gave our cares and toils

To make her great, and fight her a free way 15

To the loftiest earthly good, lo! mother Nature

Within the peaceful silent convent walls

Has done her part, and out of her free grace

Hath she bestowed on the beloved child

The godlike; and now leads her thus adorned 20

To meet her splendid fortune, and my hope.

Duchess (to Thekla). Thou wouldst not have recognized thy father,

Wouldst thou, my child? She counted scarce eight years,

When last she saw your face.

Thekla. O yes, yes, mother!

At the first glance! — My father is not altered. 25

The form, that stands before me, falsifies

No feature of the image that hath lived

So long within me!

Wallenstein. The voice of my child!

[Then after a pause.

I was indignant at my destiny

That it denied me a man-child to be 30

Heir of my name and of my prosperous fortune,