Friedrich Schiller - The Piccolomini

My son, there's nothing insignificant,
Nothing! But yet in every earthly thing,
First and most principal is place and time.

himself must let him have his own will.

Eleven! an evil number! Set twelve chairs.
Twelve! twelve signs hath the zodiac: five and seven,
The holy numbers, include themselves in twelve.

Eleven is transgression; eleven oversteps
The ten commandments.

Five is the soul of man: for even as man
Is mingled up of good and evil, so
The five is the first number that's made up
Of even and odd.

more in his words than can be seen at first sight.

You went, then, through Vienna, were presented
To the Queen of Hungary?

Yes; and to the empress, too,
And by both majesties were we admitted
To kiss the hand.

And how was it received,
That I had sent for wife and daughter hither
To the camp, in winter-time?

I did even that
Which you commissioned me to do. I told them
You had determined on our daughter's marriage,
And wished, ere yet you went into the field,
To show the elected husband his betrothed.

And did they guess the choice which I had made?

They only hoped and wished it may have fallen
Upon no foreign nor yet Lutheran noble.

And you – what do you wish, Elizabeth?

Your will, you know, was always mine.

Well, then, —
And in all else, of what kind and complexion
Was your reception at the court?

Hide nothing from me. How were you received?

O! my dear lord, all is not what it was.
A canker-worm, my lord, a canker-worm
Has stolen into the bud.

Ay! is it so?
What, they were lax? they failed of the old respect?

Not of respect. No honors were omitted,
No outward courtesy; but in the place
Of condescending, confidential kindness,
Familiar and endearing, there were given me
Only these honors and that solemn courtesy.
Ah! and the tenderness which was put on,
It was the guise of pity, not of favor.
No! Albrecht's wife, Duke Albrecht's princely wife,
Count Harrach's noble daughter, should not so —

"Den blut'gen Lorbeer geb' ich hin mit Freuden
Fuers erste Veilchen, das der Maerz uns bringt,
Das duerftige Pfand der neuverjuengten Erde."