Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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, 15

He did it in glad hope and confidence

To give thereby to the fortune of the war

A rapid and auspicious change. The onset

Was favourable to his royal wishes.

Bohemia was delivered from the Saxons, 20

The Swede’s career of conquest checked! These lands

Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland

From all the streams of Germany forced hither

The scattered armies of the enemy,

Hither invoked as round one magic circle 25

The Rhinegrave, Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstirn,

Yea, and that never-conquered King himself;

Here finally, before the eye of Nürnberg,

The fearful game of battle to decide.

Wallenstein. May’t please you to the point. 30

Questenberg. In Nürnberg’s camp the Swedish monarch left

His fame — in Lützen’s plains his life. But who

Stood not astounded, when victorious Friedland

After this day of triumph, this proud day,

Marched toward Bohemia with the speed of flight, 35

And vanished from the theatre of war;

While the young Weimar hero forced his way

Into Franconia, to the Danube, like

Some delving winter-stream, which, where it rushes,

Makes its own channel; with such sudden speed 40

He marched, and now at once ‘fore Regenspurg

Stood to the affright of all good Catholic Christians.

Then did Bavaria’s well-deserving Prince

Entreat swift aidance in his extreme need;

The Emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Friedland, 45

Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty:

He superadds his own, and supplicates

Where as the sovereign lord he can command.

In vain his supplication! At this moment

The Duke hears only his old hate and grudge, 50

Barters the general good to gratify

Private revenge — and so falls Regenspurg.

Wallenstein. Max, to what period of the war alludes he?

My recollection fails me here.

Max. He means

When we were in Silesia.

Wallenstein. Ay! Is it so! 55

But what had we to do there?

Max. To beat out

The Swedes and Saxons from the province.

Wallenstein. True.

In that description which the Minister gave

I seemed to have forgotten the whole war. [To QUESTENBERG.

Well, but proceed a little.

Questenberg. Yes! at length 60

Beside the river Oder did the Duke

Assert his ancient fame. Upon the fields

Of Steinau did the Swedes lay down their arms,

Subdued without a blow. And here, with others,

The righteousness of Heaven to his avenger 65

Delivered that long-practised stirrer-up

Of insurrection, that curse-laden torch

And kindler of this war, Matthias Thur.

But he had fallen into magnanimous hands;

Instead of punishment he found reward, 70

And with rich presents did the Duke dismiss

The arch-foe of his Emperor.

Wallenstein (laughs). I know,

I know you had already in Vienna

Your windows and balconies all forestalled

To see him on the executioner’s cart. 75

I might have lost the battle, lost it too

With infamy, and still retained your graces —

But, to have cheated them of a spectacle,

Oh! that the good folks of Vienna never,

No, never can forgive me.

Questenberg. So Silesia 80

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 85

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 90

His troops are made of? Arn’t we men? subjected

Like other men to wet, and cold, and all

The circumstances of necessity?

O miserable lot of the poor soldier!

Wherever he comes in, all flee before him, 95

And when he goes away, the general curse

Follows him on his route. All must be seized,

Nothing is given him. And compelled to seize

From every man, he’s every man’s abhorrence.

Behold, here stand my Generals. Karaffa! 100

Count Deodate! Butler! Tell this man

How long the soldiers’ pay is in arrears.

Butler. Already a full year.

Wallenstein. And ‘tis the hire

That constitutes the hireling’s name and duties,

The soldier’s pay is the soldier’s covenant. 105

Questenberg. Ah! this is a far other tone from that

In which the Duke spoke eight, nine years ago.

Wallenstein. Yes! ‘tis my fault, I know it: I myself

Have spoilt the Emperor by indulging him.

Nine years ago, during the Danish war, 110

I raised him up a force, a mighty force,

Forty or fifty thousand men, that cost him

Of his own purse no doit. Through Saxony

The fury goddess of the war marched on,

E’en to the surf-rocks of the Baltic, bearing 115

The terrors of his name. That was a time!

In the whole Imperial realm no name like mine

Honoured with festival and celebration —

And Albrecht Wallenstein, it was the title

Of the third jewel in his crown! 120

But at the Diet, when the Princes met

At Regenspurg, there, there the whole broke out,

There ‘twas laid open, there it was made known,

Out of what money-bag I had paid the host.

And what was now my thank, what had I now, 125

That I, a faithful servant of the Sovereign,

Had loaded on myself the people’s curses,

And let the Princes of the empire pay

The expenses of this war, that aggrandizes

The Emperor alone — What thanks had I! 130

What? I was offered up to their complaints,

Dismissed, degraded!

Questenberg. But your Highness knows

What little freedom he possessed of action

In that disastrous diet.

Wallenstein. Death and hell!

I had that which could have procured him freedom. 135

No! Since ‘twas proved so inauspicious to me

To serve the Emperor at the empire’s cost,

I have been taught far other trains of thinking

Of the empire, and the diet of the empire.

From the Emperor, doubtless, I received this staff, 140

But now I hold it as the empire’s general —

For the common weal, the universal interest,

And no more for that one man’s aggrandizement!

But to the point. What is it that’s desired of me?

Questenberg. First, his imperial Majesty hath willed 145

That without pretexts of delay the army

Evacuate Bohemia.

Wallenstein. In this season?

And to what quarter wills the Emperor

That we direct our course?

Questenberg. To the enemy.

His Majesty resolves, that Regenspurg 150

Be purified from the enemy, ere Easter,

That Lutheranism may be no longer preached

In that cathedral, nor heretical

Defilement desecrate the celebration

Of that pure festival.

Wallenstein. My generals, 155

Can this be realized?

Illo. ‘Tis not possible.

Butler. It can’t be realized.

Questenberg. The Emperor

Already hath commanded Colonel Suys

To advance toward Bavaria!

Wallenstein. What did Suys?

Questenberg. That which his duty prompted. He advanced! 160

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 165