Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I never doubted of it.

Countess. If he be

Still here, then all goes well; for I know what

[Embracing THEKLA.

Will keep him here for ever.

Tertsky. It can’t be.

His father has betrayed us, is gone over

To the Emperor — the son could not have ventured 30

To stay behind.

Thekla (her eye fixed on the door). There he is!

[After 22] [All stand amazed. 1800, 1828, 1829.

Table of Contents

To these enter MAX PICCOLOMINI.

Max. Yes! here he is! I can endure no longer

To creep on tiptoe round this house, and lurk

In ambush for a favourable moment.

This loitering, this suspense exceeds my powers.

[Advancing to THEKLA.

Turn not thine eyes away. O look upon me! 5

Confess it freely before all. Fear no one,

Let who will hear that we both love each other.

Wherefore continue to conceal it? Secrecy

Is for the happy — misery, hopeless misery,

Needeth no veil! Beneath a thousand suns 10

It dares act openly.

[He observes the COUNTESS looking on THEKLA with

expressions of triumph.

No, Lady! No!

Expect not, hope it not. I am not come

To stay: to bid farewell, farewell for ever.

For this I come! ‘Tis over! I must leave thee!

Thekla, I must — must leave thee! Yet thy hatred 15

Let me not take with me. I pray thee, grant me

One look of sympathy, only one look.

Say that thou dost not hate me. Say it to me, Thekla!

[Grasps her hand.

O God! I cannot leave this spot — I cannot!

Cannot let go this hand. O tell me, Thekla! 20

That thou dost suffer with me, art convinced

That I cannot act otherwise.

[THEKLA, avoiding his look, points with her hand to

her father. MAX turns round to the DUKE, whom

he had not till then perceived.

Thou here? It was not thou, whom here I sought.

I trusted never more to have beheld thee.

My business is with her alone. Here will I 25

Receive a full acquittal from this heart —

For any other I am no more concerned.

Wallenstein. Think’st thou, that fool-like, I shall let thee go,

And act the mock-magnanimous with thee?

Thy father is become a villain to me; 30

I hold thee for his son, and nothing more:

Nor to no purpose shalt thou have been given

Into my power. Think not, that I will honour

That ancient love, which so remorselessly

He mangled. They are now past by, those hours 35

Of friendship and forgiveness. Hate and vengeance

Succeed—’tis now their turn — I too can throw

All feelings of the man aside — can prove

Myself as much a monster as thy father!

Max. Thou wilt proceed with me, as thou hast power. 40

Thou know’st, I neither brave nor fear thy rage.

What has detained me here, that too thou know’st.

[Taking THEKLA by the hand.

See, Duke! All — all would I have owed to thee,

Would have received from thy paternal hand

The lot of blessed spirits. This hast thou 45

Laid waste for ever — that concerns not thee.

Indifferent thou tramplest in the dust

Their happiness, who most are thine. The god

Whom thou dost serve, is no benignant deity.

Like as the blind irreconcileable 50

Fierce element, incapable of compact,

Thy heart’s wild impulse only dost thou follow.

Wallenstein. Thou art describing thy own father’s heart.

The adder! O, the charms of hell o’erpowered me.

He dwelt within me, to my inmost soul 55

Still to and fro he passed, suspected never!

On the wide ocean, in the starry heaven

Did mine eyes seek the enemy, whom I

In my heart’s heart had folded! Had I been

To Ferdinand what Octavio was to me, 60

War had I ne’er denounced against him. No,

I never could have done it. The Emperor was

My austere master only, not my friend.

There was already war ‘twixt him and me

When he delivered the Commander’s Staff 65

Into my hands; for there’s a natural

Unceasing war ‘twixt cunning and suspicion;

Peace exists only betwixt confidence

And faith. Who poisons confidence, he murders

The future generations.

Max. I will not 70

Defend my father. Woe is me, I cannot!

Hard deeds and luckless have ta’en place, one crime

Drags after it the other in close link.

But we are innocent: how have we fallen

Into this circle of mishap and guilt? 75

To whom have we been faithless? Wherefore must

The evil deeds and guilt reciprocal

Of our two fathers twine like serpents round us?

Why must our fathers’

Unconquerable hate rend us asunder,

Who love each other?

Wallenstein. Max, remain with me. 80

Go you not from me, Max! Hark! I will tell thee —

How when at Prague, our winter quarters, thou

Wert brought into my tent a tender boy,

Not yet accustomed to the German winters;

Thy hand was frozen to the heavy colours; 85

Thou would’st not let them go. —

At that time did I take thee in my arms,

And with my mantle did I cover thee;

I was thy nurse, no woman could have been

A kinder to thee; I was not ashamed 90

To do for thee all little offices,

However strange to me; I tended thee

Till life returned; and when thine eyes first opened,

I had thee in my arms. Since then, when have I

Altered my feelings towards thee? Many thousands 95

Have I made rich, presented them with lands;

Rewarded them with dignities and honours;

Thee have I loved: my heart, my self, I gave

To thee! They all were aliens: thou wert

Our child and inmate. Max! Thou canst not leave me; 100

It cannot be; I may not, will not think

That Max can leave me.

Max. O my God!

Wallenstein. I have

Held and sustained thee from thy tottering childhood.

What holy bond is there of natural love?

What human tie, that does not knit thee to me? 105

I love thee, Max! What did thy father for thee,

Which I too have not done, to the height of duty?

Go hence, forsake me, serve thy Emperor;

He will reward thee with a pretty chain

Of gold; with his ram’s fleece will he reward thee; 110

For that the friend, the father of thy youth,

For that the holiest feeling of humanity,

Was nothing worth to thee.

Max. O God! how can I

Do otherwise? Am I not forced to do it?

My oath — my duty — honour —

Wallenstein. How? Thy duty? 115

Duty to whom? Who art thou? Max! bethink thee

What duties may’st thou have? If I am acting

A criminal part toward the Emperor,

It is my crime, not thine. Dost thou belong

To thine own self? Art thou thine own commander? 120

Stand’st thou, like me, a freeman in the world,

That in thy actions thou should’st plead free agency?

On me thou’rt planted, I am thy Emperor;

To obey me, to belong to me, this is

Thy honour, this a law of nature to thee! 125

And if the planet, on the which thou liv’st

And hast thy dwelling, from its orbit starts,

It is not in thy choice, whether or no

Thou’lt follow it. Unfelt it whirls thee onward

Together with his ring and all his moons. 130

With little guilt stepp’st thou into this contest,

Thee will the world not censure, it will praise thee,

For that thou heldst thy friend more worth to thee

Than names and influences more removed.

For justice is the virtue of the ruler, 135

Affection and fidelity the subject’s.

Not every one doth it beseem to question

The far-off high Arcturus. Most securely

Wilt thou pursue the nearest duty — let