Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

To know my power; but whether I shall use it,

Of that, I should have thought that thou could’st speak 80

No wiselier than thy fellows.

Tertsky. So hast thou always played thy game with us.

[Enter ILLO.

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ILLO, WALLENSTEIN, TERTSKY.

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 requisitions,

And are tumultuous.

Wallenstein. How hath Isolan

Declared himself?

Illo. He’s yours, both soul and body, 5

Since you built up again his Faro-bank.

Wallenstein. And which way doth Kolatto bend? Hast thou

Made sure of Tiefenbach and Deodate?

Illo. What Piccolomini does, that they do too.

Wallenstein. You mean then I may venture somewhat with them? 10

Illo. — If you are assured of the Piccolomini.

Wallenstein. Not more assured of mine own self.

Tertsky. And yet

I would you trusted not so much to Octavio,

The fox!

Wallenstein. Thou teachest me to know my man?

Sixteen campaigns I have made with that old warrior. 15

Besides, I have his horoscope,

We both are born beneath like stars — in short

To this belongs its own particular aspect,

If therefore thou canst warrant me the rest ——

Illo. There is among them all but this one voice, 20

You must not lay down the command. I hear

They mean to send a deputation to you.

Wallenstein. If I’m in aught to bind myself to them,

They too must bind themselves to me.

Illo. Of course.

Wallenstein. Their words of honour they must give, their oaths, 25

Give them in writing to me, promising

Devotion to my service unconditional.

Illo. Why not?

Tertsky. Devotion unconditional?

The exception of their duties towards Austria

They’ll always place among the premises. 30

With this reserve ——

Wallenstein. All unconditional!

No premises, no reserves.

Illo. A thought has struck me.

Does not Count Tertsky give us a set banquet

This evening?

Tertsky. Yes; and all the Generals

Have been invited.

Illo (to Wallenstein). Say, will you here fully 35

Commission me to use my own discretion?

I’ll gain for you the Generals’ words of honour,

Even as you wish.

Wallenstein. Gain me their signatures!

How you come by them, that is your concern.

Illo. And if I bring it to you, black on white, 40

That all the leaders who are present here

Give themselves up to you, without condition;

Say, will you then — then will you shew yourself

In earnest, and with some decisive action

Make trial of your luck?

Wallenstein. The signatures! 45

Gain me the signatures.

Illo. Seize, seize the hour

Ere it slips from you. Seldom comes the moment

In life, which is indeed sublime and weighty.

To make a great decision possible,

O! many things, all transient and all rapid, 50

Must meet at once: and, haply, they thus met

May by that confluence be enforced to pause

Time long enough for wisdom, though too short,

Far, far too short a time for doubt and scruple!

This is that moment. See, our army chieftains, 55

Our best, our noblest, are assembled around you,

Their kinglike leader! On your nod they wait.

The single threads, which here your prosperous fortune

Hath woven together in one potent web

Instinct with destiny, O let them not 60

Unravel of themselves. If you permit

These chiefs to separate, so unanimous

Bring you them not a second time together.

‘Tis the high tide that heaves the stranded ship,

And every individual’s spirit waxes 65

In the great stream of multitudes. Behold

They are still here, here still! But soon the war

Bursts them once more asunder, and in small

Particular anxieties and interests

Scatters their spirit, and the sympathy 70

Of each man with the whole. He, who to-day

Forgets himself, forced onward with the stream,

Will become sober, seeing but himself,

Feel only his own weakness, and with speed

Will face about, and march on in the old 75

High road of duty, the old broad-trodden road,

And seek but to make shelter in good plight.

Wallenstein. The time is not yet come.

Tertsky. So you say always.

But when will it be time?

Wallenstein. When I shall say it.

Illo. You’ll wait upon the stars, and on their hours, 80

Till the earthly hour escapes you. O, believe me,

In your own bosom are your destiny’s stars.

Confidence in yourself, prompt resolution,

This is your Venus! and the sole malignant,

The only one that harmeth you is Doubt. 85

Wallenstein. Thou speakest as thou understand’st. How oft

And many a time I’ve told thee, Jupiter,

That lustrous god, was setting at thy birth.

Thy visual power subdues no mysteries;

Mole-eyed, thou mayest but burrow in the earth, 90Lead-coloured shine lighted thee into life.

The common, the terrestrial, thou mayest see,

With serviceable cunning knit together

The nearest with the nearest; and therein 95

I trust thee and believe thee! but whate’er

Full of mysterious import Nature weaves,

And fashions in the depths — the spirit’s ladder,

That from this gross and visible world of dust

Even to the starry world, with thousand rounds, 100

Builds itself up; on which the unseen powers

Move up and down on heavenly ministries —

The circles in the circles, that approach

The central sun with ever-narrowing orbit —

These see the glance alone, the unsealed eye, 105

Of Jupiter’s glad children born in lustre.

[He walks across the chamber, then returns, and standing

still, proceeds.

The heavenly constellations make not merely

The day and nights, summer and spring, not merely

Signify to the husbandman the seasons

Of sowing and of harvest. Human action, 110

That is the seed too of contingencies,

Strewed on the dark land of futurity

In hopes to reconcile the powers of fate.

Whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time,

To watch the stars, select their proper hours, 115

And trace with searching eye the heavenly houses,

Whether the enemy of growth and thriving

Hide himself not, malignant, in his corner.

Therefore permit me my own time. Meanwhile

Do you your part. As yet I cannot say 120

What I shall do — only, give way I will not.

Depose me too they shall not. On these points

You may rely.

Page (entering). My Lords, the Generals.

Wallenstein. Let them come in.

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WALLENSTEIN, TERTSKY, ILLO. — To them enter QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO, and

MAX PICCOLOMINI, BUTLER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other Generals.

WALLENSTEIN motions QUESTENBERG, who in consequence takes the Chair

directly opposite to him; the others follow, arranging themselves

according to their rank.

Wallenstein. I have understood, ‘tis true, the sum and import

Of your instructions, Questenberg, have weighed them,

And formed my final, absolute resolve;

Yet it seems fitting, that the Generals

Should hear the will of the Emperor from your mouth. 5

May’t please you then to open your commission

Before these noble Chieftains.

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 10

Speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption.