The Death of Wallenstein (play)

SCENE IV.

WALLENSTEIN, ILLO, COUNTESS, DUCHESS, THEKLA.

WALLENSTEIN.

All quiet in the camp?

ILLO.

It is all quiet.

WALLENSTEIN.

In a few hours may couriers come from Prague

With tidings that this capital is ours.

Then we may drop the mask, and to the troops

Assembled in this town make known the measure

And its result together. In such cases

Example does the whole. Whoever is foremost

Still leads the herd. An imitative creature

Is man. The troops at Prague conceive no other,

Than that the Pilsen army has gone through

The forms of homage to us; and in Pilsen

They shall swear fealty to us, because

The example has been given them by Prague.

Butler, you tell me, has declared himself?

ILLO.

At his own bidding, unsolicited,

He came to offer you himself and regiment.

WALLENSTEIN,

I find we must not give implicit credence

To every warning voice that makes itself

Be listened to in the heart. To hold us back,

Oft does the lying spirit counterfeit

The voice of truth and inward revelation,

Scattering false oracles. And thus have I

To entreat forgiveness for that secretly.

I've wronged this honorable gallant man,

This Butler: for a feeling of the which

I am not master (fear I would not call it),

Creeps o'er me instantly, with sense of shuddering,

At his approach, and stops love's joyous motion.

And this same man, against whom I am warned,

This honest man is he who reaches to me

The first pledge of my fortune.

ILLO.

And doubt not

That his example will win over to you

The best men in the army.

WALLENSTEIN.

Go and send

Isolani hither. Send him immediately.

He is under recent obligations to me:

With him will I commence the trial. Go.

[Exit ILLO.

WALLENSTEIN (turns himself round to the females).

Lo, there's the mother with the darling daughter.

For once we'll have an interval of rest-

Come! my heart yearns to live a cloudless hour

In the beloved circle of my family.

COUNTESS.

'Tis long since we've been thus together, brother.

WALLENSTEIN (to the COUNTESS, aside).

Can she sustain the news? Is she prepared?

COUNTESS.

Not yet.

WALLENSTEIN.

Come here, my sweet girl! Seat thee by me,

For there is a good spirit on thy lips.

Thy mother praised to me thy ready skill;

She says a voice of melody dwells in thee,

Which doth enchant the soul. Now such a voice

Will drive away from me the evil demon

That beats his black wings close above my head.

DUCHESS.

Where is thy lute, my daughter? Let thy father

Hear some small trial of thy skill.

THEKLA.

My mother

I--

DUCHESS.

Trembling? Come, collect thyself. Go, cheer

Thy father.

THEKLA.

O my mother! I-I cannot.

COUNTESS.

How, what is that, niece?

THEKLA (to the COUNTESS).

O spare me-sing-now-in this sore anxiety,

Of the overburdened soul-to sing to him

Who is thrusting, even now, my mother headlong

Into her grave.

DUCHESS.

How, Thekla! Humorsome!

What! shall thy father have expressed a wish

In vain?

COUNTESS.

Here is the lute.

THEKLA.

My God! how can I--

[The orchestra plays. During the ritornello THEKLA expresses in her

gestures and countenance the struggle of her feelings; and at the

moment that she should begin to sing, contracts herself together, as

one shuddering, throws the instrument down, and retires abruptly.

DUCHESS.

My child! Oh, she is ill--

WALLENSTEIN.

What ails the maiden?

Say, is she often so?

COUNTESS.

Since then herself

Has now betrayed it, I too must no longer

Conceal it.

WALLENSTEIN.

What?

COUNTESS.

She loves him!

WALLENSTEIN.

Loves him? Whom?

COUNTESS.

Max. does she love! Max. Piccolomini!

Hast thou never noticed it? Nor yet my sister?

DUCHESS.

Was it this that lay so heavy on her heart?

God's blessing on thee,-my sweet child! Thou needest

Never take shame upon thee for thy choice.

COUNTESS.

This journey, if 'twere not thy aim, ascribe it

To thine own self. Thou shouldst have chosen another

To have attended her.

WALLENSTEIN.

And does he know it?

COUNTESS.

Yes, and he hopes to win her.

WALLENSTEIN.

Hopes to win her!

Is the boy mad?

COUNTESS.

Well-hear it from themselves.

WALLENSTEIN.

He thinks to carry off Duke Friedland's daughter!

Ay? The thought pleases me.

The young man has no groveling spirit.

COUNTESS.

Since

Such and such constant favor you have shown him--

WALLENSTEIN.

He chooses finally to be my heir.

And true it is, I love the youth; yea, honor him.

But must he therefore be my daughter's husband?

Is it daughters only? Is it only children

That we must show our favor by?

DUCHESS.

His noble disposition and his manners--

WALLENSTEIN.

Win him my heart, but not my daughter.

DUCHESS.

Then

His rank, his ancestors--

WALLENSTEIN.

Ancestors! What?

He is a subject, and my son-in-law

I will seek out upon the thrones of Europe.

DUCHESS

O dearest Albrecht! Climb we not too high

Lest we should fall too low.

WALLENSTEIN.

What! have I paid

A price so heavy to ascend this eminence,

And jut out high above the common herd,

Only to close the mighty part I play

In life's great drama with a common kinsman?

Have I for this--

[Stops suddenly, repressing himself.

She is the only thing

That will remain behind of me on earth;

And I will see a crown around her head,

Or die in the attempt to place it there.

I hazard all-all! and for this alone,

To lift her into greatness.

Yea, in this moment, in the which we are speaking

[He recollects himself.

And I must now, like a soft-hearted father,

Couple together in good peasant fashion

The pair that chance to suit each other's liking-

And I must do it now, even now, when I

Am stretching out the wreath that is to twine

My full accomplished work-no! she is the jewel,

Which I have treasured long, my last, my noblest,

And 'tis my purpose not to let her from me

For less than a king's sceptre.

DUCHESS.

O my husband!

You're ever building, building to the clouds,

Still building higher, and still higher building,

And ne'er reflect, that the poor narrow basis

Cannot sustain the giddy tottering column.

WALLENSTEIN (to the COUNTESS).

Have you announced the place of residence

Which I have destined for her?

COUNTESS.

No! not yet,

'Twere better you yourself disclosed it to her.

DUCHESS.

How? Do we not return to Carinthia then?

WALLENSTEIN.

No.

DUCHESS.

And to no other of your lands or seats?

WALLENSTEIN.

You would not be secure there.

DUCHESS.

Not secure.

In the emperor's realms, beneath the emperor's

Protection?

WALLENSTEIN.

Friedland's wife may be permitted

No longer to hope that.

DUCHESS.

O God in heaven!

And have you brought it even to this!

WALLENSTEIN.

In Holland

You'll find protection.

DUCHESS

In a Lutheran country?

What? And you send us into Lutheran countries?

WALLENSTEIN.

Duke Franz of Lauenburg conducts you thither.

DUCHESS.

Duke Franz of Lauenburg?

The ally of Sweden, the emperor's enemy.

WALLENSTEIN.

The emperor's enemies are mine no longer.

DUCHESS (casting a look of terror on the DUKE and the COUNTESS).

Is it then true? It is. You are degraded

Deposed from the command? O God in heaven!

COUNTESS (aside to the DUKE).

Leave her in this belief. Thou seest she cannot

Support the real truth.