Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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ACT III

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The two Dramas, PICCOLOMINI, or the first part of WALLENSTEIN, and WALLENSTEIN, are introduced in the original manuscript by a Prelude in one Act, entitled WALLENSTEIN’S

CAMP. This is written in rhyme, and in nine-syllable verse, in

the same lilting metre (if that expression may be permitted) 5

with the second Eclogue of Spenser’s Shepherd’s Calendar.

This Prelude possesses a sort of broad humour, and is not

deficient in character; but to have translated it into prose, or

into any other metre than that of the original, would have

given a false notion both of its style and purport; to have 10

translated it into the same metre would have been incompatible with

a faithful adherence to the sense of the German, from the

comparative poverty of our language in rhymes; and it would have

been unadvisable from the incongruity of those lax verses with

the present taste of the English Public. Schiller’s intention 15

seems to have been merely to have prepared his reader for the

Tragedies by a lively picture of the laxity of discipline, and the

mutinous dispositions of Wallenstein’s soldiery. It is not

necessary as a preliminary explanation. For these reasons it

has been thought expedient not to translate it. 20

The admirers of Schiller, who have abstracted their conception

of that author from the Robbers, and the Cabal and Love, plays

in which the main interest is produced by the excitement of

curiosity, and in which the curiosity is excited by terrible and

extraordinary incident, will not have perused without some 25

portion of disappointment the Dramas, which it has been my

employment to translate. They should, however, reflect that

these are Historical Dramas, taken from a popular German

History; that we must therefore judge of them in some measure

with the feelings of Germans; or by analogy, with the interest 30

excited in us by similar Dramas in our own language. Few,

I trust, would be rash or ignorant enough to compare Schiller

with Shakspeare yet, merely as illustration, I would say

that we should proceed to the perusal of Wallenstein, not

from Lear or Othello, but from Richard the Second, or the 35

three parts of Henry the Sixth. We scarcely expect rapidity

in an Historical Drama; and many prolix speeches are

pardoned from characters, whose names and actions have

formed the most amusing tales of our early life. On the other

hand, there exist in these plays more individual beauties, 40

more passages the excellence of which will bear reflection,

than in the former productions of Schiller. The description of

the Astrological Tower, and the reflections of the Young Lover,

which follow it, form in the original a fine poem; and my

translation must have been wretched indeed, if it can have 45

wholly overclouded the beauties of the Scene in the first Act of

the first Play between Questenberg, Max, and Octavio Piccolomini.

If we except the Scene of the setting sun in the Robbers,

I know of no part in Schiller’s Plays which equals the whole

of the first Scene of the fifth Act of the concluding Play. It 50

would be unbecoming in me to be more diffuse on this subject.

A Translator stands connected with the original Author by

a certain law of subordination, which makes it more decorous

to point out excellencies than defects: indeed he is not likely

to be a fair judge of either. The pleasure or disgust from his 55

own labour will mingle with the feelings that arise from an

afterview of the original. Even in the first perusal of a work

in any foreign language which we understand, we are apt to

attribute to it more excellence than it really possesses from our

own pleasurable sense of difficulty overcome without effect. 60

Translation of poetry into poetry is difficult, because the

Translator must give a brilliancy to his language without that warmth

of original conception, from which such brilliancy would follow

of its own accord. But the translator of a living Author is

encumbered with additional inconveniences. If he render his 65

original faithfully, as to the sense of each passage, he must

necessarily destroy a considerable portion of the spirit; if he

endeavour to give a work executed according to laws of

compensation, he subjects himself to imputations of vanity, or

misrepresentation. I have thought it my duty to remain 70

bound by the sense of my original, with as few exceptions as

the nature of the languages rendered possible.

Title] Part Second. The Death of Wallenstein. A Tragedy. The Death of

Wallenstein. Preface of the Translator. 1828, 1829.

[After 72] S. T. Coleridge 1800, 1828, 1829.

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WALLENSTEIN, Duke of Friedland, Generalissimo of the Imperial Forces

in the Thirty Years’ War.

DUCHESS OF FRIEDLAND, Wife of Wallenstein.

THEKLA, her Daughter, Princess of Friedland.

THE COUNTESS TERTSKY, Sister of the Duchess.

LADY NEUBRUNN.

OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, Lieutenant-General.

MAX PICCOLOMINI, his Son, Colonel of a Regiment of Cuirassiers.

COUNT TERTSKY, the Commander of several Regiments, and Brother-in-law

of Wallenstein.

ILLO, Field Marshal, Wallenstein’s confidant.

BUTLER, an Irishman, Commander of a Regiment of Dragoons.

GORDON, Governor of Egra.

MAJOR GERALDIN.

CAPTAIN DEVEREUX.

CAPTAIN MACDONALD.

NEUMANN, Captain of Cavalry, Aide-de-Camp to Tertsky.

SWEDISH CAPTAIN.

SENI.

BURGOMASTER of Egra.

ANSPESSADE of the Cuirassiers.

GROOM OF THE CHAMBER, } belonging to the Duke.

A PAGE, }

CUIRASSIERS, DRAGOONS, SERVANTS.

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SCENE — A Chamber in the House of the DUCHESS OF FRIEDLAND.

COUNTESS TERTSKY, THEKLA, LADY NEUBRUNN (the two latter sit at the same

table at work).

Countess (watching them from the opposite side). So you have

nothing, niece, to ask me? Nothing?

I have been waiting for a word from you.

And could you then endure in all this time

Not once to speak his name?

[The COUNTESS rises and advances to her.

Why, how comes this?

Perhaps I am already grown superfluous, 5

And other ways exist, besides through me?

Confess it to me, Thekla! have you seen him?

Thekla. To-day and yesterday I have not seen him.

Countess. And not heard from him either? Come, be open!

Thekla. No syllable.

Countess. And still you are so calm? 10

Thekla. I am.

Countess. May’t please you, leave us, Lady Neubrunn!

[Exit LADY NEUBRUNN.

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The COUNTESS, THEKLA.

Countess. It does not please me, Princess! that he holds

Himself so still, exactly at this time.