The Death of Wallenstein (play)

SCENE XVIII.

To these enter MAX. PICCOLOMINI.

MAX.

Yes, here he is! I can endure no longer

To creep on tiptoe round this house, and lurk

In ambush for a favorable moment:

This loitering, this suspense exceeds my powers.

[Advancing to THEKLA, who has thrown herself into her mother's arms.

Turn not thine eyes away. O look upon me!

Confess it freely before all. Fear no one.

Let who will hear that we both love each other.

Wherefore continue to conceal it? Secrecy

Is for the happy-misery, hopeless misery,

Needeth no veil! Beneath a thousand suns

It dares act openly.

[He observes the COUNTESS looking on THEKLA with expressions

of triumph.

No, lady! No!

Expect not, hope it not. I am not come

To stay: to bid farewell, farewell forever.

For this I come! 'Tis over! I must leave thee!

Thekla, I must-must leave thee! Yet thy hatred

Let me not take with me. I pray thee, grant me

One look of sympathy, only one look.

Say that thou dost not hate me. Say it to me, Thekla!

[Grasps her hand.

O God! I cannot leave this spot-I cannot!

Cannot let go this hand. O tell me, Thekla!

That thou dost suffer with me, art convinced

That I cannot act otherwise.

[THEKLA, avoiding his look, points with her hand to her father.

MAX. turns round to the DUKE, whom he had not till then perceived.

Thou here? It was not thou whom here I sought.

I trusted never more to have beheld thee,

My business is with her alone. Here will I

Receive a full acquittal from this heart;

For any other I am no more concerned.

WALLENSTEIN.

Think'st thou that, fool-like, I shall let thee go,

And act the mock-magnanimous with thee?

Thy father is become a villain to me;

I hold thee for his son, and nothing more

Nor to no purpose shalt thou have been given

Into my power. Think not, that I will honor

That ancient love, which so remorselessly

He mangled. They are now passed by, those hours

Of friendship and forgiveness. Hate and vengeance

Succeed-'tis now their turn-I too can throw

All feelings of the man aside-can prove

Myself as much a monster as thy father!

MAX (calmly).

Thou wilt proceed with me as thou hast power.

Thou knowest I neither brave nor fear thy rage.

What has detained me here, that too thou knowest.

[Taking THEKLA by the hand.

See, duke! All-all would I have owed to thee,

Would have received from thy paternal hand

The lot of blessed spirits. That hast thou

Laid waste forever-that concerns not thee.

Indifferent thou tramplest in the dust

Their happiness who most are thine. The god

Whom thou dost serve is no benignant deity,

Like as the blind, irreconcilable,

Fierce element, incapable of compact.

Thy heart's wild impulse only dost thou follow. [5]

WALLENSTEIN.

Thou art describing thy own father's heart.

The adder! Oh, the charms of hell o'erpowered me

He dwelt within me, to my inmost soul

Still to and fro he passed, suspected never.

On the wide ocean, in the starry heaven

Did mine eyes seek the enemy, whom I

In my heart's heart had folded! Had I been

To Ferdinand what Octavio was to me,

War had I ne'er denounced against him.

No, I never could have done it. The emperor was

My austere master only, not my friend.

There was already war 'twixt him and me

When he delivered the commander's staff

Into my hands; for there's a natural

Unceasing war twixt cunning and suspicion;

Peace exists only betwixt confidence

And faith. Who poisons confidence, he murders

The future generations.

MAX.

I will not

Defend my father. Woe is me, I cannot!

Hard deeds and luckless have taken place; one crime

Drags after it the other in close link.

But we are innocent: how have we fallen

Into this circle of mishap and guilt?

To whom have we been faithless? Wherefore must

The evil deeds and guilt reciprocal

Of our two fathers twine like serpents round us?

Why must our fathers'

Unconquerable hate rend us asunder,

Who love each other?

WALLENSTEIN.

Max., remain with me.

Go you not from me, Max.! Hark! I will tell thee--

How when at Prague, our winter quarters, thou

Wert brought into my tent a tender boy,

Not yet accustomed to the German winters;

Thy hand was frozen to the heavy colors;

Thou wouldst not let them go.

At that time did I take thee in my arms,

And with my mantle did I cover thee;

I was thy nurse, no woman could have been

A kinder to thee; I was not ashamed

To do for thee all little offices,

However strange to me; I tended thee

Till life returned; and when thine eyes first opened,

I had thee in my arms. Since then, when have

Altered my feelings toward thee? Many thousands

Have I made rich, presented them with lands;

Rewarded them with dignities and honors;

Thee have I loved: my heart, my self, I gave

To thee; They all were aliens: thou wert

Our child and inmate. [6] Max.! Thou canst not leave me;

It cannot be; I may not, will not think

That Max. can leave me.

MAX.

Ob, my God!

WALLENSTEIN

I have

Held and sustained thee from thy tottering childhood.

What holy bond is there of natural love,

What human tie that does not knit thee to me?

I love thee, Max.! What did thy father for thee,

Which I too have not done, to the height of duty?

Go hence, forsake me, serve thy emperor;

He will reward thee with a pretty chain

Of gold; with his ram's fleece will he reward thee;

For that the friend, the father of thy youth,

For that the holiest feeling of humanity,

Was nothing worth to thee.

MAX.

O God! how can I

Do otherwise. Am I not forced to do it,

My oath-my duty-my honor--

WALLENSTEIN.

How? Thy duty?

Duty to whom? Who art thou? Max.! bethink thee

What duties may'st thou have? If I am acting

A criminal part toward the emperor,

It is my crime, not thine. Dost thou belong

To thine own self? Art thou thine own commander?

Stand'st thou, like me, a freeman in the world,

That in thy actions thou shouldst plead free agency?

On me thou art planted, I am thy emperor;

To obey me, to belong to me, this is

Thy honor, this a law of nature to thee!

And if the planet on the which thou livest

And hast thy dwelling, from its orbit starts.

It is not in thy choice, whether or no

Thou'lt follow it. Unfelt it whirls thee onward

Together with his ring, and all his moons.

With little guilt steppest thou into this contest;

Thee will the world not censure, it will praise thee,

For that thou held'st thy friend more worth to thee

Than names and influences more removed

For justice is the virtue of the ruler,

Affection and fidelity the subject's.

Not every one doth it beseem to question

The far-off high Arcturus. Most securely

Wilt thou pursue the nearest duty: let

The pilot fix his eye upon the pole-star.