Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Will I demand of him that he do save

His good name from the world, and with one stride 20

Break through and rend this fine-spun web of yours.

He can, he will! — I still am his believer.

Yet I’ll not pledge myself, but that those letters

May furnish you, perchance, with proofs against him.

How far may not this Tertsky have proceeded — 25

What may not he himself too have permitted

Himself to do, to snare the enemy,

The laws of war excusing? Nothing, save

His own mouth shall convict him — nothing less!

And face to face will I go question him. 30

Octavio. Thou wilt?

Max. I will, as sure as this heart beats.

Octavio. I have, indeed, miscalculated on thee.

I calculated on a prudent son,

Who would have blest the hand beneficent

That plucked him back from the abyss — and lo! 35

A fascinated being I discover,

Whom his two eyes befool, whom passion wilders,

Whom not the broadest light of noon can heal.

Go, question him! — Be mad enough, I pray thee.

The purpose of thy father, of thy Emperor, 40

Go, give it up free booty: — Force me, drive me

To an open breach before the time. And now,

Now that a miracle of heaven had guarded

My secret purpose even to this hour,

And laid to sleep Suspicion’s piercing eyes, 45

Let me have lived to see that mine own son,

With frantic enterprise, annihilates

My toilsome labours and state-policy.

Max. Aye — this state-policy! O how I curse it!

You will some time, with your state-policy, 50

Compel him to the measure: it may happen,

Because ye are determined that he is guilty,

Guilty ye’ll make him. All retreat cut off,

You close up every outlet, hem him in

Narrower and narrower, till at length ye force him — 55

Yes, ye, — ye force him, in his desperation,

To set fire to his prison. Father! Father!

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 60

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 65

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; but pardon me, 70

That I must bear me on in my own way.

All must remain pure betwixt him and me;

And, ere the daylight dawns, it must be known

Which I must lose — my father, or my friend.

[During his exit the curtain drops.

[Before 3] Max (who through the whole of the foregoing scene has been

in a violent and visible struggle of feelings, at length starts as one

resolved). 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 6] Octavio (alarmed). 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 7] Max (returning). 1800, 1828, 1829.

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SCENE — A Room fitted up for astrological Labours, and provided with

celestial Charts, with Globes, Telescopes, Quadrants, and other

mathematical Instruments. — Seven Colossal Figures, representing the

Planets, each with a transparent Star of a different Colour on its Head,

stand in a Semicircle in the Background, so that Mars and Saturn are

nearest the Eye. — The remainder of the Scene, and its Disposition, is

given in the Fourth Scene of the Second Act. — There must be a Curtain

over the Figures, which may be dropped, and conceal them on Occasions.

[In the Fifth Scene of this Act it must be dropped; but in the Seventh

Scene, it must be again drawn up wholly or in part.]

WALLENSTEIN at a black Table, on which a Speculum Astrologicum is

described with Chalk. SENI is taking Observations through a window.

Wallenstein. All well — and now let it be ended, Seni. — Come,

The dawn commences, and Mars rules the hour.

We must give o’er the operation. Come,

We know enough.

Seni. Your Highness must permit me

Just to contemplate Venus. She’s now rising: 5

Like as a sun, so shines she in the east.

Wallenstein. She is at present in her perigee,

And shoots down now her strongest influences.

[Contemplating the figure on the table.

Auspicious aspect! fateful in conjunction,

At length the mighty three corradiate; 10

And the two stars of blessing, Jupiter

And Venus, take between them the malignant

Slily-malicious Mars, and thus compel

Into my service that old mischief-founder;

For long he viewed me hostilely, and ever 15

With beam oblique, or perpendicular,

Now in the Quartile, now in the Secundan,

Shot his red lightnings at my stars, disturbing

Their blessed influences and sweet aspects.

Now they have conquered the old enemy, 20

And bring him in the heavens a prisoner to me.

Seni (who has come down from the window). And in a corner house,

your Highness — think of that!

That makes each influence of double strength.

Wallenstein. And sun and moon, too, in the Sextile aspect,

The soft light with the vehement — so I love it. 25

Sol is the heart, Luna the head of heaven,

Bold be the plan, fiery the execution.

Seni. And both the mighty Lumina by no

Maleficus affronted. Lo! Saturnus,

Innocuous, powerless, in cadente Domo. 30

Wallenstein. The empire of Saturnus is gone by;

Lord of the secret birth of things is he;

Within the lap of earth, and in the depths

Of the imagination dominates;

And his are all things that eschew the light. 35

The time is o’er of brooding and contrivance;

For Jupiter, the lustrous, lordeth now,

And the dark work, complete of preparation,

He draws by force into the realm of light.

Now must we hasten on to action, ere 40

The scheme, and most auspicious positure

Parts o’er my head, and takes once more its flight;

For the heavens journey still, and sojourn not.

[There are knocks at the door.

There’s some one knocking there. See who it is.

Tertsky (from without). Open, and let me in.

Wallenstein. Aye—’tis Tertsky. 45

What is there of such urgence? We are busy.

Tertsky (from without). Lay all aside at present, I entreat you.

It suffers no delaying.

Wallenstein. Open, Seni!

[While SENI opens the doors for TERTSKY, WALLENSTEIN

draws the curtain over the figures.

Tertsky (enters). Hast thou already heard it? He is taken.

Galas has given him up to the Emperor. 50

[SENI draws off the black table, and exit.

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WALLENSTEIN, COUNT TERTSKY.

Wallenstein (to Tertsky). Who has been taken? — Who is given up?

Tertsky. The man who knows our secrets, who knows every

Negotiation with the Swede and Saxon,

Through whose hands all and every thing has passed —

Wallenstein (drawing back). Nay, not Sesina? — Say, No! I entreat

thee. 5

Tertsky. All on his road for Regenspurg to the Swede

He was plunged down upon by Galas’ agent,

Who had been long in ambush, lurking for him.

There must have been found on him my whole packet

To Thur, to Kinsky, to Oxenstirn, to Arnheim: 10

All this is in their hands; they have now an insight

Into the whole — our measures, and our motives.

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