The Piccolomini (play) Read online

  QUESTENBERG.

  Nay,

  If you discourse of herds and meadow-grounds--

  ISOLANI.

  The war maintains the war. Are the boors ruined

  The emperor gains so many more new soldiers.

  QUESTENBERG.

  And is the poorer by even so many subjects.

  ISOLANI.

  Poh! we are all his subjects.

  QUESTENBERG.

  Yet with a difference, general! The one fill

  With profitable industry the purse,

  The others are well skilled to empty it.

  The sword has made the emperor poor; the plough

  Must reinvigorate his resources.

  ISOLANI.

  Sure!

  Times are not yet so bad. Methinks I see

  [Examining with his eye the dress and ornaments of QUESTENBERG.

  Good store of gold that still remains uncoined.

  QUESTENBERG.

  Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to hide

  Some little from the fingers of the Croats.

  ILLO.

  There! The Stawata and the Martinitz,

  On whom the emperor heaps his gifts and graces,

  To the heart-burning of all good Bohemians-

  Those minions of court favor, those court harpies,

  Who fatten on the wrecks of citizens

  Driven from their house and home-who reap no harvests

  Save in the general calamity-

  Who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock

  The desolation of their country-these,

  Let these, and such as these, support the war,

  The fatal war, which they alone enkindled!

  BUTLER.

  And those state-parasites, who have their feet

  So constantly beneath the emperor's table,

  Who cannot let a benefice fall, but they

  Snap at it with dogs' hunger-they, forsooth,

  Would pare the soldiers bread and cross his reckoning!

  ISOLANI.

  My life long will it anger me to think,

  How when I went to court seven years ago,

  To see about new horses for our regiment,

  How from one antechamber to another

  They dragged me on and left me by the hour

  To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering

  Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither

  A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor

  That fell beneath their tables. And, at last,

  Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!

  Straight I began to muster up my sins

  For absolution-but no such luck for me!

  This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom

  I was to treat concerning the army horses!

  And I was forced at last to quit the field,

  The business unaccomplished. Afterwards

  The duke procured me in three days what I

  Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.

  QUESTENBERG.

  Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found their way to us!

  Too well I know we have still accounts to settle.

  ILLO.

  War is violent trade; one cannot always

  Finish one's work by soft means; every trifle

  Must not be blackened into sacrilege.

  If we should wait till you, in solemn council,

  With due deliberation had selected

  The smallest out of four-and-twenty evils,

  I' faith we should wait long-

  "Dash! and through with it!" That's the better watchword.

  Then after come what may come. 'Tis man's nature

  To make the best of a bad thing once past.

  A bitter and perplexed "what shall I do?"

  Is worse to man than worst necessity.

  QUESTENBERG.

  Ay, doubtless, it is true; the duke does spare us

  The troublesome task of choosing.

  BUTLER.

  Yes, the duke

  Cares with a father's feelings for his troops;

  But how the emperor feels for us, we see.

  QUESTENBERG.

  His cares and feelings all ranks share alike,

  Nor will he offer one up to another.

  ISOLANI.

  And therefore thrusts he us into the deserts

  As beasts of prey, that so he may preserve

  His dear sheep fattening in his fields at home.

  QUESTENBERG (with a sneer).

  Count! this comparison you make, not I.

  ILLO.

  Why, were we all the court supposes us

  'Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty.

  QUESTENBERG (gravely).

  You have taken liberty-it was not given you,

  And therefore it becomes an urgent duty

  To rein it in with the curbs.

  ILLO.

  Expect to find a restive steed in us.

  QUESTENBERG.

  A better rider may be found to rule it.

  ILLO.

  He only brooks the rider who has tamed him.

  QUESTENBERG.

  Ay, tame him once, and then a child may lead him.

  ILLO.

  The child, we know, is found for him already.

  QUESTENBERG.

  Be duty, sir, your study, not a name.

  BUTLER (who has stood aside with PICCOLOMINI, but with visible interest

  in the conversation, advances).

  Sir president, the emperor has in Germany

  A splendid host assembled; in this kingdom

  Full twenty thousand soldiers are cantoned,

  With sixteen thousand in Silesia;

  Ten regiments are posted on the Weser,

  The Rhine, and Maine; in Swabia there are six,

  And in Bavaria twelve, to face the Swedes;

  Without including in the account the garrisons

  Who on the frontiers hold the fortresses.

  This vast and mighty host is all obedient

  To Friedland's captains; and its brave commanders,

  Bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk,

  Are all excited by one heart and soul;

  They are as strangers on the soil they tread,

  The service is their only house and home.

  No zeal inspires then for their country's cause,

  For thousands like myself were born abroad;

  Nor care they for the emperor, for one half

  Deserting other service fled to ours,

  Indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere,

  The Double Eagle, Lily, or the Lion.

  Yet one sole man can rein this fiery host

  By equal rule, by equal love and fear;

  Blending the many-nationed whole in one;

  And like the lightning's fires securely led

  Down the conducting rod, e'en thus his power

  Rules all the mass, from guarded post to post,

  From where the sentry hears the Baltic roar,

  Or views the fertile vales of the Adige,

  E'en to the body-guard, who holds his watch

  Within the precincts of the imperial palace!

  QUESTENBERG.

  What's the short meaning of this long harangue?

  BUTLER.

  That the respect, the love, the confidence,

  Which makes us willing subjects of Duke Friedland,

  Are not to be transferred to the first comer

  That Austria's court may please to send to us.

  We have not yet so readily forgotten

  How the command came into Friedland's hands.

  Was it, forsooth, the emperor's majesty

  That gave the army ready to his hand,

  And only sought a leader for it? No.

  The army then had no existence. He,

  Friedland, it was who called it into being,

  And gave it to his sovereign-but receiving


  No army at his hand; nor did the emperor

  Give Wallenstein to us as general. No,

  It was from Wallenstein we first received

  The emperor as our master and our sovereign;

  And he, he only, binds us to our banners!

  OCTAVIO (interposing and addressing QUESTENBERG).

  My noble friend,

  This is no more than a remembrancing

  That you are now in camp, and among warriors;

  The soldier's boldness constitutes his freedom.

  Could he act daringly, unless he dared

  Talk even so? One runs into the other.

  The boldness of this worthy officer,

  [Pointing to BUTLER.

  Which now is but mistaken in its mark,

  Preserved, when naught but boldness could preserve it,

  To the emperor, his capital city, Prague,

  In a most formidable mutiny

  Of the whole garrison. [Military music at a distance.

  Hah! here they come!

  ILLO.

  The sentries are saluting them: this signal

  Announces the arrival of the duchess.

  OCTAVIO (to QUESTENBERG).

  Then my son Max., too, has returned. 'Twas he

  Fetched and attended them from Caernthen hither.

  ISOLANI (to ILLO).

  Shall we not go in company to greet them?

  ILLO.

  Well, let us go-Ho! Colonel Butler, come.

  [To OCTAVIO.

  You'll not forget that yet ere noon we meet

  The noble envoy at the general's palace.

  [Exeunt all but QUESTENBERG and OCTAVIO.

  SCENE III.

  QUESTENBERG and OCTAVIO.

  QUESTENBERG (with signs of aversion and astonishment).

  What have I not been forced to hear, Octavio!

  What sentiments! what fierce, uncurbed defiance!

  And were this spirit universal--

  OCTAVIO.

  Hm!

  You're now acquainted with three-fourths of the army.

  QUESTENBERG.

  Where must we seek, then, for a second host

  To have the custody of this? That Illo

  Thinks worse, I fear me, than he speaks. And then

  This Butler, too-he cannot even conceal

  The passionate workings of his ill intentions.

  OCTAVIO.

  Quickness of temper-irritated pride;

  'Twas nothing more. I cannot give up Butler.

  I know a spell that will soon dispossess

  The evil spirit in him.

  QUESTENBERG (walking up and down in evident disquiet).

  Friend, friend!

  O! this is worse, far worse, than we had suffered

  Ourselves to dream of at Vienna. There

  We saw it only with a courtier's eyes,

  Eyes dazzled by the splendor of the throne.

  We had not seen the war-chief, the commander,

  The man all-powerful in his camp. Here, here,

  'Tis quite another thing.

  Here is no emperor more-the duke is emperor.

  Alas, my friend! alas, my noble friend!

  This walk which you have ta'en me through the camp

  Strikes my hopes prostrate.

  OCTAVIO.

  Now you see yourself

  Of what a perilous kind the office is,

  Which you deliver to me from the court.

  The least suspicion of the general

  Costs me my freedom and my life, and would

  But hasten his most desperate enterprise.

  QUESTENBERG.

  Where was our reason sleeping when we trusted

  This madman with the sword, and placed such power

  In such a hand? I tell you, he'll refuse,

  Flatly refuse to obey the imperial orders.

  Friend, he can do it, and what he can, he will.

  And then the impunity of his defiance-

  Oh! what a proclamation of our weakness!

  OCTAVIO.

  D'ye think, too, he has brought his wife and daughter

  Without a purpose hither? Here in camp!

  And at the very point of time in which

  We're arming for the war? That he has taken

  These, the last pledges of his loyalty,

  Away from out the emperor's dominions-

  This is no doubtful token of the nearness

  Of some eruption.

  QUESTENBERG.

  How shall we hold footing

  Beneath this tempest, which collects itself

  And threats us from all quarters? The enemy

  Of the empire on our borders, now already

  The master of the Danube, and still farther,

  And farther still, extending every hour!

  In our interior the alarum-bells

  Of insurrection-peasantry in arms-

  All orders discontented-and the army,

  Just in the moment of our expectation

  Of aidance from it-lo! this very army

  Seduced, run wild, lost to all discipline,

  Loosened, and rent asunder from the state

  And from their sovereign, the blind instrument

  Of the most daring of mankind, a weapon

  Of fearful power, which at his will he wields.

  OCTAVIO.

  Nay, nay, friend! let us not despair too soon

  Men's words are even bolder than their deeds;

  And many a resolute, who now appears

  Made up to all extremes, will, on a sudden,

  Find in his breast a heart he wot not of,

  Let but a single honest man speak out

  The true name of his crime! Remember, too,

  We stand not yet so wholly unprotected.

  Counts Altringer and Gallas have maintained

  Their little army faithful to its duty,

  And daily it becomes more numerous.

  Nor can he take us by surprise; you know

  I hold him all encompassed by my listeners.

  What'er he does, is mine, even while 'tis doing-

  No step so small, but instantly I hear it;

  Yea, his own mouth discloses it.

  QUESTENBERG.

  'Tis quite

  Incomprehensible, that he detects not

  The foe so near!

  OCTAVIO.

  Beware, you do not think,

  That I, by lying arts, and complaisant

  Hypocrisy, have sulked into his graces,

  Or with the substance of smooth professions

  Nourish his all-confiding friendship! No-

  Compelled alike by prudence, and that duty

  Which we all owe our country and our sovereign,

  To hide my genuine feelings from him, yet

  Ne'er have I duped him with base counterfeits!

  QUESTENBERG.

  It is the visible ordinance of heaven.

  OCTAVIO.

  I know not what it is that so attracts

  And links him both to me and to my son.

  Comrades and friends we always were-long habit,

  Adventurous deeds performed in company,

  And all those many and various incidents

  Which stores a soldier's memory with affections,

  Had bound us long and early to each other-

  Yet I can name the day, when all at once

  His heart rose on me, and his confidence

  Shot out into sudden growth. It was the morning

  Before the memorable fight at Luetzen.

  Urged by an ugly dream, I sought him out,

  To press him to accept another charger.

  At a distance from the tents, beneath a tree,

  I found him in a sleep. When I had waked him

  And had related all my bodings to him,

  Long time he stared upon me, like a man

  Astounded: thereon fell upon my neck,

  And manifested to me
an emotion

  That far outstripped the worth of that small service.

  Since then his confidence has followed me

  With the same pace that mine has fled from him.

  QUESTENBERG.

  You lead your son into the secret?

  OCTAVIO.

  No!

  QUESTENBERG.

  What! and not warn him either, what bad hands

  His lot has placed him in?

  OCTAVIO.

  I must perforce

  Leave him in wardship to his innocence.

  His young and open soul-dissimulation

  Is foreign to its habits! Ignorance

  Alone can keep alive the cheerful air,

  The unembarrassed sense and light free spirit,

  That makes the duke secure.

  QUESTENBERG (anxiously).

  My honored friend! most highly do I deem

  Of Colonel Piccolomini-yet-if-

  Reflect a little--

  OCTAVIO.

  I must venture it.

  Hush! There he comes!

  SCENE IV.

  MAX. PICCOLOMINI, OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, QUESTENBERG.

  MAX.

  Ha! there he is himself. Welcome, my father!

  [He embraces his father. As he turns round, he observes

  QUESTENBERG, and draws back with a cold and reserved air.