Коллектив авторов - The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03

And who dares doubt that Friedland will appear

A mighty Prince to his last dying hour?

Well now, what then? Duke Friedland is as others,

A fire-new Noble, whom the war hath raised

To price and currency, a Jonah's gourd,

An over-night creation of court-favor,

Which with an undistinguishable ease

Makes Baron or makes Prince.

WALLENSTEIN ( in extreme agitation ).

Let in the young Count Piccolomini.

COUNTESS.

Art thou in earnest? I entreat thee! Canst thou

Consent to bear thyself to thy own grave,

So ignominiously to be dried up?

Thy life, that arrogated such an height

To end in such a nothing! To be nothing,

When one was always nothing, is an evil

That asks no stretch of patience, a light evil;

But to become a nothing, having been—

WALLENSTEIN ( starts up in violent agitation ).

Show me a way out of this stifling crowd,

Ye powers of Aidance! Show me such a way

As I am capable of going. I

Am no tongue-hero, no fine virtue-prattler;

I cannot warm by thinking; cannot say

To the good luck that turns her back upon me,

Magnanimously: "Go; I need thee not."

Cease I to work, I am annihilated.

Dangers nor sacrifices will I shun,

If so I may avoid the last extreme;

But ere I sink down into nothingness,

Leave off so little, who began so great,

Ere that the world confuses me with those

Poor wretches whom a day creates and crumbles,

This age and after ages[25] speak my name

With hate and dread; and Friedland be redemption

For each accursed deed.

COUNTESS.

So against nature? Help me to perceive it!

O let not Superstition's nightly goblins

Subdue thy clear bright spirit! Art thou bid

To murder?—with abhorr'd, accursed poinard,

To violate the breasts that nourish'd thee?

That were against our nature, that might aptly

Make thy flesh shudder, and thy whole heart sicken,[26]

Yet not a few, and for a meaner object,

Have ventured even this, ay, and perform'd it.

What is there in thy case so black and monstrous?

Thou art accused of treason—whether with

Or without justice is not now the question—

Thou art lost if thou dost not avail thee quickly

Of the power which thou possessest—Friedland! Duke!

Tell me where lives that thing so meek and tame,

That doth not all his living faculties

Put forth in preservation of his life?

What deed so daring, which necessity

And desperation will not sanctify?

WALLENST.

Once was this Ferdinand so gracious to me;

He loved me; he esteem'd me; I was placed

The nearest to his heart. Full many a time

We like familiar friends, both at one table,

Have banqueted together. He and I—

And the young kings themselves held me the basin

Wherewith to wash me—and is't come to this?

COUNTESS.

So faithfully preserves thou each small favor,

And hast no memory for contumelies?

Must I remind thee, how at Regensburg

This man repaid thy faithful services?

All ranks and all conditions in the empire

Thou hadst wronged, to make him great,—hadst loaded on thee,

On thee , the hate, the curse of the whole world.

No friend existed for thee in all Germany,

And why? because thou hadst existed only

For the Emperor. To the Emperor alone

Clung Friedland in that storm which gather'd round him

At Regensburg in the Diet—and he dropp'd thee!

He let thee fall! he let thee fall a victim

To the Bavarian, to that insolent!

Deposed, stript bare of all thy dignity

And power, amid the taunting of thy foes,

Thou wert let drop into obscurity.—

Say not the restoration of thy honor

Has made atonement for that first injustice.

No honest good-will was it that replaced thee;

The law of hard necessity replaced thee,

Which they had fain opposed, but that they could not.

WALLENST.

Not to their good wishes, that is certain,

Nor yet to his affection I'm indebted

For this high office: and if I abuse it,

I shall therein abuse no confidence.

COUNTESS.

Affection! confidence!—they needed thee.

Necessity, impetuous remonstrant!

Who not with empty names, or shows of proxy,

Is served, who'll have the thing and not the symbol,

Ever seeks out the greatest and the best,

And at the rudder places him , e'en though

She had been forced to take him from the rabble—

She, this Necessity, it was that placed thee

In this high office; it was she that gave thee

Thy letters patent of inauguration.

For, to the uttermost moment that they can,

This race still help themselves at cheapest rate

With slavish souls, with puppets! At the approach

Of extreme peril, when a hollow image

Is found a hollow image and no more,

Then falls the power into the mighty hands

Of Nature, of the spirit giant-born,

Who listens only to himself, knows nothing

Of stipulations, duties, reverences,

And, like the emancipated force of fire,

Unmaster'd scorches, ere it reaches them,

Their fine-spun webs, their artificial policy.

WALLENST.

'Tis true! they saw me always as I am—

Always! I did not cheat them in the bargain.

I never held it worth my pains to hide

The bold all-grasping habit of my soul.

COUNTESS.

Nay rather—thou hast ever shown thyself

A formidable man, without restraint;

Hast exercised the full prerogatives

Of thy impetuous nature, which had been

Once granted to thee. Therefore, Duke, not thou

Who hast still remained consistent with thyself;

But they are in the wrong, who fearing thee,

Intrusted such a power in hand they fear'd.

For, by the laws of Spirit, in the right

Is every individual character

That acts in strict consistence with itself.

Self-contradiction is the only wrong.

Wert thou another being, then, when thou

Eight years ago pursuedst thy march with fire,

And sword, and desolation, through the Circles

Of Germany, the universal scourge,

Didst mock all ordinances of the empire,

The fearful rights of strength alone exertedst,

Trampledst to earth each rank, each magistracy,

All to extend thy Sultan's domination?

Then was the time to break thee in, to curb

Thy haughty will, to teach thee ordinance.

But no, the Emperor felt no touch of conscience;

What served him pleased him, and without a murmur

He stamp'd his broad seal on these lawless deeds.

What at that time was right, because thou didst it

For him , today is all at once become

Opprobrious, foul, because it is directed

Against him .—O most flimsy superstition!

WALLENSTEIN ( rising ).

I never saw it in this light before;

'Tis even so. The Emperor perpetrated

Deeds through my arm, deeds most unorderly.

And even this prince's mantle, which I wear,

I owe to what were services to him,

But most high misdemeanors 'gainst the empire.

COUNTESS.

Then betwixt thee and him (confess it Friedland!)

The point can be no more of right and duty,

Only of power and the opportunity.

That opportunity, lo! it comes yonder

Approaching with swift steeds; then with a swing