Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

For ever to those sly malicious powers

Whom never art of man conciliated.

What is thy enterprize? thy aim? thy object?

Hast honestly confessed it to thyself?

Power seated on a quiet throne thou’dst shake, 65

Power on an ancient consecrated throne,

Strong in possession, founded in old custom;

Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots

Fixed to the people’s pious nursery-faith.

This, this will be no strife of strength with strength. 70

That feared I not. I brave each combatant,

Whom I can look on, fixing eye to eye,

Who full himself of courage kindles courage

In me too. ‘Tis a foe invisible,

The which I fear — a fearful enemy, 75

Which in the human heart opposes me,

By its coward fear alone made fearful to me.

Not that, which full of life, instinct with power,

Makes known its present being, that is not

The true, the perilously formidable. 80

O no! it is the common, the quite common,

The thing of an eternal yesterday,

What ever was, and evermore returns,

Sterling tomorrow, for to-day ‘twas sterling!

For of the wholly common is man made, 85

And custom is his nurse! Woe then to them,

Who lay irreverent hands upon his old

House furniture, the dear inheritance

From his forefathers. For time consecrates;

And what is grey with age becomes religion. 90

Be in possession, and thou hast the right,

And sacred will the many guard it for thee!

[To the Page, who here enters.

The Swedish officer? — Well, let him enter.

[The Page exit, WALLENSTEIN fixes his eye in deep

thought on the door.

Yet is it pure — as yet! — the crime has come

Not o’er this threshold yet — so slender is 95

The boundary that divideth life’s two paths.

[Before 1] Wallenstein (in soliloquy). 1800, 1828, 1829.

[After 25] [Pauses and remains in deep thought. 1800, 1828, 1829.

[After 50] [Pauses again. 1800, 1828, 1829.

[After 62] [Paces in agitation through the chamber, then pauses, and,

after the pause, breaks out again into audible soliloquy. 1800, 1828,

1829.

Table of Contents

WALLENSTEIN and WRANGEL.

Wallenstein. Your name is Wrangel?

Wrangel. Gustave Wrangel, General

Of the Sudermanian Blues.

Wallenstein. It was a Wrangel

Who injured me materially at Stralsund,

And by his brave resistance was the cause

Of the opposition which that seaport made. 5

Wrangel. It was the doing of the element

With which you fought, my Lord! and not my merit.

The Baltic Neptune did assert his freedom,

The sea and land, it seemed, were not to serve

One and the same.

Wallenstein (makes a motion for him to take a seat, and seats

himself). And where are your credentials? 10

Come you provided with full powers, Sir General?

Wrangel. There are so many scruples yet to solve ——

Wallenstein (having read the credentials). An able

letter! — Ay — he is a prudent,

Intelligent master, whom you serve, Sir General!

The Chancellor writes me, that he but fulfils 15

His late departed Sovereign’s own idea

In helping me to the Bohemian crown.

Wrangel. He says the truth. Our great King, now in heaven,

Did ever deem most highly of your Grace’s

Preeminent sense and military genius; 20

And always the commanding Intellect,

He said, should have command, and be the King.

Wallenstein. Yes, he might say it safely. — General Wrangel,

[Taking his hand.

Come, fair and open — Trust me, I was always

A Swede at heart. Ey! that did you experience 25

Both in Silesia and at Nuremburg;

I had you often in my power, and let you

Always slip out by some back door or other.

‘Tis this for which the Court can ne’er forgive me,

Which drives me to this present step: and since 30

Our interests so run in one direction,

E’en let us have a thorough confidence

Each in the other.

Wrangel. Confidence will come

Has each but only first security.

Wallenstein. The Chancellor still, I see, does not quite trust

me; 35

And, I confess — the gain does not wholly lie

To my advantage — Without doubt he thinks

If I can play false with the Emperor,

Who is my Sov’reign, I can do the like

With the enemy, and that the one too were 40

Sooner to be forgiven me than the other.

Is not this your opinion too, Sir General?

Wrangel. I have here an office merely, no opinion.

Wallenstein. The Emperor hath urged me to the uttermost.

I can no longer honourably serve him. 45

For my security, in self-defence,

I take this hard step, which my conscience blames.

Wrangel. That I believe. So far would no one go

Who was not forced to it. [After a pause.

What may have impelled

Your princely Highness in this wise to act 50

Toward your Sovereign Lord and Emperor,

Beseems not us to expound or criticize.

The Swede is fighting for his good old cause.

With his good sword and conscience. This concurrence,

This opportunity, is in our favour, 55

And all advantages in war are lawful.

We take what offers without questioning;

And if all have its due and just proportions ——

Wallenstein. Of what then are ye doubting? Of my will?

Or of my power? I pledged me to the Chancellor, 60

Would he trust me with sixteen thousand men,

That I would instantly go over to them

With eighteen thousand of the Emperor’s troops.

Wrangel. Your Grace is known to be a mighty war-chief,

To be a second Attila and Pyrrhus. 65

‘Tis talked of still with fresh astonishment,

How some years past, beyond all human faith,

You called an army forth, like a creation:

But yet ——

Wallenstein. But yet?

Wrangel. But still the Chancellor thinks,

It might yet be an easier thing from nothing 70

To call forth sixty thousand men of battle,

Than to persuade one sixtieth part of them —

Wallenstein. What now? Out with it, friend!

Wrangel. To break their oaths.

Wallenstein. And he thinks so? — He judges like a Swede,

And like a Protestant. You Lutherans 75

Fight for your Bible. You are interested

About the cause; and with your hearts you follow

Your banners. — Among you, whoe’er deserts

To the enemy, hath broken covenant

With two Lords at one time. — We’ve no such fancies. 80

Wrangel. Great God in Heaven! Have then the people here

No house and home, no fireside, no altar?

Wallenstein. I will explain that to you, how it stands —

The Austrian has a country, ay, and loves it,

And has good cause to love it — but this army, 85

That calls itself the Imperial, this that houses

Here in Bohemia, this has none — no country;

This is an outcast of all foreign lands,

Unclaimed by town or tribe, to whom belongs

Nothing, except the universal sun. 90

Wrangel. But then the Nobles and the Officers?

Such a desertion, such a felony,

It is without example, my Lord Duke,

In the world’s history.

Wallenstein. They are all mine —

Mine unconditionally — mine on all terms. 95

Not me, your own eyes you must trust.

[He gives him the paper containing the written oath.

WRANGEL reads it through, and, having read it,

lays it on the table, remaining silent.

So then?

Now comprehend you?

Wrangel. Comprehend who can!

My Lord Duke; I will let the mask drop — yes!

I’ve full powers for a final settlement.

The Rhinegrave stands but four days’ march from here 100