The Piccolomini (play) Read online

  And in the end I prove the liar; all

  Passes through me. I've not even your handwriting.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  I never give handwriting; and thou knowest it.

  TERZKY.

  But how can it be known that you are in earnest,

  If the act follows not upon the word?

  You must yourself acknowledge, that in all

  Your intercourses hitherto with the enemy,

  You might have done with safety all you have done.

  Had you meant nothing further than to gull him

  For the emperor's service.

  WALLENSTEIN (after a pause, during which he looks narrowly on TERZKY).

  And from whence dost thou know

  That I'm not gulling him for the emperor's service?

  Whence knowest thou that I'm not gulling all of you?

  Dost thou know me so well? When made I thee

  The intendant of my secret purposes?

  I am not conscious that I ever opened

  My inmost thoughts to thee. The emperor, it is true,

  Hath dealt with me amiss; and if I would

  I could repay him with usurious interest

  For the evil he hath done me. It delights me

  To know my power; but whether I shall use it,

  Of that I should have thought that thou couldst speak

  No wiser than thy fellows.

  TERZKY.

  So hast thou always played thy game with us.

  [Enter ILLO.

  SCENE VI.

  ILLO, WALLENSTEIN, TERZKY.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  How stand affairs without? Are they prepared?

  ILLO.

  You'll find them in the very mood you wish.

  They know about the emperor's requisition,

  And are tumultuous.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  How hath Isolani

  declared himself?

  ILLO.

  He's yours, both soul and body,

  Since you built up again his faro-bank.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  And which way doth Kolatto bend? Hast thou

  Made sure of Tiefenbach and Deodati?

  ILLO.

  What Piccolomini does that they do too.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  You mean, then, I may venture somewhat with them?

  ILLO.

  If you are assured of the Piccolomini.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Not more assured of mine own self.

  TERZKY.

  And yet

  I would you trusted not so much to Octavio,

  The fox!

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Thou teachest me to know my man?

  Sixteen campaigns I have made with that old warrior.

  Besides, I have his horoscope;

  We both are born beneath like stars-in short,

  [With an air of mystery.

  To this belongs its own peculiar aspect,

  If therefore thou canst warrant me the rest--

  ILLO.

  There is among them all but this one voice,

  You must not lay down the command. I hear

  They mean to send a deputation to you.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  If I'm in aught to bind myself to them

  They too must bind themselves to me.

  ILLO.

  Of course.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Their words of honor they must give, their oaths,

  Give them in writing to me, promising

  Devotion to my service unconditional.

  ILLO.

  Why not?

  TERZKY.

  Devotion unconditional?

  The exception of their duties towards Austria

  They'll always place among the premises.

  With this reserve--

  WALLENSTEIN (shaking his head).

  All unconditional;

  No premises, no reserves.

  ILLO.

  A thought has struck me.

  Does not Count Terzky give us a set banquet

  This evening?

  TERZKY.

  Yes; and all the generals

  Have been invited.

  ILLO (to WALLENSTEIN).

  Say, will you here fully

  Commission me to use my own discretion?

  I'll gain for you the generals' word of honor,

  Even as you wish.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Gain me their signatures!

  How you come by them that is your concern.

  ILLO.

  And if I bring it to you in black on white,

  That all the leaders who are present here

  Give themselves up to you, without condition;

  Say, will you then-then will you show yourself

  In earnest, and with some decisive action

  Try your fortune.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Get but the signatures!

  ILLO.

  Think what thou dost, thou canst not execute

  The emperor's orders, nor reduce thine army,

  Nor send the regiments to the Spaniards' aid,

  Unless thou wouldst resign thy power forever.

  Think on the other hand-thou canst not spurn

  The emperor's high commands and solemn orders,

  Nor longer temporize, nor seek evasion,

  Wouldst thou avoid a rupture with the court.

  Resolve then! Wilt thou now by one bold act

  Anticipate their ends, or, doubting still,

  Await the extremity?

  WALLENSTEIN.

  There's time before

  The extremity arrives.

  ILLO.

  Seize, seize the hour,

  Ere it slips from you. Seldom comes the moment

  In life, which is indeed sublime and weighty.

  To make a great decision possible,

  O! many things, all transient and all rapid,

  Must meet at once: and, haply, they thus met

  May by that confluence be enforced to pause

  Time long-enough for wisdom, though too short,

  Far, far too short a time for doubt and scruple!

  This is that moment. See, our army chieftains,

  Our best, our noblest, are assembled round you,

  Their king-like leader! On your nod they wait.

  The single threads, which here your prosperous fortune

  Hath woven together in one potent web

  Instinct with destiny, O! let them not

  Unravel of themselves. If you permit

  These chiefs to separate, so unanimous

  Bring you them not a second time together.

  'Tis the high tide that heaves the stranded ship,

  And every individual's spirit waxes

  In the great stream of multitudes. Behold

  They are still here, here still! But soon the war

  Bursts them once more asunder, and in small

  Particular anxieties and interests

  Scatters their spirit, and the sympathy

  Of each man with the whole. He who to-day

  Forgets himself, forced onward with the stream,

  Will become sober, seeing but himself.

  Feel only his own weakness, and with speed

  Will face about, and march on in the old

  High road of duty, the old broad-trodden road,

  And seek but to make shelter in good plight.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  The time is not yet come.

  TERZKY.

  So you say always.

  But when will it be time?

  WALLENSTEIN.

  When I shall say it.

  ILLO.

  You'll wait upon the stars, and on their hours,

  Till the earthly hour escapes you. Oh, believe me,

  In your own bosom are your destiny's stars.

  Confidence in yourself, prompt resolution,

  This is your Venus! and the sole malignant,

&n
bsp; The only one that harmeth you is doubt.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Thou speakest as thou understandest. How oft

  And many a time I've told thee Jupiter,

  That lustrous god, was setting at thy birth.

  Thy visual power subdues no mysteries;

  Mole-eyed thou mayest but burrow in the earth,

  Blind as the subterrestrial, who with wan

  Lead-colored shine lighted thee into life.

  The common, the terrestrial, thou mayest see,

  With serviceable cunning knit together,

  The nearest with the nearest; and therein

  I trust thee and believe thee! but whate'er

  Full of mysterious import Nature weaves,

  And fashions in the depths-the spirit's ladder,

  That from this gross and visible world of dust,

  Even to the starry world, with thousand rounds,

  Builds itself up; on which the unseen powers

  Move up and down on heavenly ministries-

  The circles in the circles, that approach

  The central sun with ever-narrowing orbit-

  These see the glance alone, the unsealed eye,

  Of Jupiter's glad children born in lustre.

  [He walks across the chamber, then returns, and standing still, proceeds.

  The heavenly constellations make not merely

  The day and nights, summer and spring, not merely

  Signify to the husbandman the seasons

  Of sowing and of harvest. Human action,

  That is the seed, too, of contingencies,

  Strewed on the dark land of futurity

  In hopes to reconcile the powers of fate

  Whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time,

  To watch the stars, select their proper hours,

  And trace with searching eye the heavenly houses,

  Whether the enemy of growth and thriving

  Hide himself not, malignant, in his corner.

  Therefore permit me my own time. Meanwhile

  Do you your part. As yet I cannot say

  What I shall do-only, give way I will not,

  Depose me, too, they shall not. On these points

  You may rely.

  PAGE (entering).

  My lords, the generals.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Let them come in.

  TERZKY.

  Shall all the chiefs be present?

  WALLENSTEIN.

  'Twere needless. Both the Piccolomini

  Maradas, Butler, Forgoetsch, Deodati,

  Karaffa, Isolani-these may come.

  [TERZKY goes out with the PAGE.

  WALLENSTEIN (to ILLO).

  Hast thou taken heed that Questenberg was watched?

  Had he no means of secret intercourse?

  ILLO.

  I have watched him closely-and he spoke with none

  But with Octavio.

  SCENE VII.

  WALLENSTRIN, TERZKY, ILLO.-To them enter QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO,

  and MAX. PICCOLOMINI, BUTLER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other

  Generals. WALLENSTEIN Motions QUESTENBERG, who in consequence

  takes the chair directly opposite to him; the others follow,

  arranging themselves according to their rank. There reigns a

  momentary silence.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  I have understood,

  'Tis true, the sum and import, Questenberg,

  Of your instructions. I have weighed them well,

  And formed my final, absolute resolve;

  Yet it seems fitting that the generals

  Should hear the will of the emperor from your mouth.

  May it please you then to open your commission

  Before these noble chieftains?

  QUESTENBERG.

  I am ready

  To obey you; but will first entreat your highness,

  And all these noble chieftains, to consider,

  The imperial dignity and sovereign right

  Speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  We excuse all preface.

  QUESTENBERG.

  When his majesty

  The emperor to his courageous armies

  Presented in the person of Duke Friedland

  A most experienced and renowned commander,

  He did it in glad hope and confidence

  To give thereby to the fortune of the war

  A rapid and auspicious change. The onset

  Was favorable to his royal wishes.

  Bohemia was delivered from the Saxons,

  The Swede's career of conquest checked! These lands

  Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland

  From all the streams of Germany forced hither

  The scattered armies of the enemy;

  Hither invoked as round one magic circle

  The Rhinegrave, Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstiern,

  Yea, and the never-conquered king himself;

  Here finally, before the eye of Nuernberg,

  The fearful game of battle to decide.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  To the point, so please you.

  QUESTENBERG.

  A new spirit

  At once proclaimed to us the new commander.

  No longer strove blind rage with rage more blind;

  But in the enlightened field of skill was shown

  How fortitude can triumph over boldness,

  And scientific art outweary courage.

  In vain they tempt him to the fight. He only

  Entrenches him still deeper in his hold,

  As if to build an everlasting fortress.

  At length grown desperate, now, the king resolves

  To storm the camp and lead his wasted legions,

  Who daily fall by famine and by plague,

  To quicker deaths and hunger and disease.

  Through lines of barricades behind whose fence

  Death lurks within a thousand mouths of fire,

  He yet unconquered strives to storm his way.

  There was attack, and there resistance, such

  As mortal eye had never seen before;

  Repulsed at last, the king withdrew his troops

  From this so murderous field, and not a foot

  Of ground was gained by all that fearful slaughter.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Pray spare us these recitals from gazettes,

  Which we ourselves beheld with deepest horror.

  QUESTENBERG.

  In Nuernberg's camp the Swedish monarch left

  His fame-in Luetzen's plains his life. But who

  Stood not astounded, when victorious Friedland

  After this day of triumph, this proud day,

  Marched toward Bohemia with the speed of flight,

  And vanished from the theatre of war?

  While the young Weimar hero [7] forced his way

  Into Franconia, to the Danube, like

  Some delving winter-stream, which, where it rushes,

  Makes its own channel; with such sudden speed

  He marched, and now at once 'fore Regensburg

  Stood to the affright of all good Catholic Christians.

  Then did Bavaria's well-deserving prince

  Entreat swift aidance in his extreme need;

  The emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Friedland,

  Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty

  He superadds his own, and supplicates

  Where as the sovereign lord he can command.

  In vain his supplication! At this moment

  The duke hears only his old hate and grudge,

  Barters the general good to gratify

  Private revenge-and so falls Regensburg.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Max., to what period of the war alludes he?

  My recollection fails me here.

  MAX.

  He means

  When we
were in Silesia.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Ay! is it so!

  But what had we to do there?

  MAX.

  To beat out

  The Swedes and Saxons from the province.

  WALLENSTEIN.

  True;

  In that description which the minister gave,

  I seemed to have forgotten the whole war.

  [TO QUESTENBERG.

  Well, but proceed a little.

  QUESTENBERG.

  We hoped upon the Oder to regain

  What on the Danube shamefully was lost.

  We looked for deeds of all-astounding grandeur

  Upon a theatre of war, on which

  A Friedland led in person to the field,

  And the famed rival of the great Gustavus

  Had but a Thurn and Arnheim to oppose him!

  Yet the encounter of their mighty hosts

  Served but to feast and entertain each other.

  Our country groaned beneath the woes of war,

  Yet naught but peace prevailed in Friedland's camp!

  WALLENSTEIN.

  Full many a bloody strife is fought in vain,

  Because its youthful general needs a victory.