The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Iii Part 12

_The Piccolomini_, which could not be reprinted in this anthology, presents essentially what is called the "exposition" of the entire drama, together with a _part_ of the complication of the plot.

Questenberg, the imperial commissioner, visits Wallenstein's headquarters in Pilsen to present the order of the Emperor for the detachment of eight regiments of Wallenstein's best cavalry to serve as escort to the Cardinal Infant on his way to the Netherlands. He meets distrust and almost incredible defiance from Wallenstein's officers, excepting Octavio Piccolomini, one of the oldest and most trusted, to whom he brings secret dispatches directing him to supersede Wallenstein in case of the latter's open rebellion, which the court believes he has already determined upon. Wallenstein himself meets the demands with a reproachful reference to the violation of the plenary powers intrusted to him by the Emperor as the condition of his a.s.suming the command, but announces that he will relieve him from embarra.s.sment by resigning. This announcement is received with a storm of protests from his officers. Questenberg and Octavio are deeply concerned to make sure of the adherence to their cause of Octavio's son, Max, a child of the camp and an especial favorite with Wallenstein. Max has just arrived at Pilsen as escort of Wallenstein's wife and of his daughter Thekla, to whom he has lost his heart.

Wallenstein and his masterful sister, Countess Terzky, are also eager to secure Max to their side in the coming conflict, and the Countess tries to persuade Thekla to govern her actions accordingly. Thekla, however, is n.o.bly frank with Max and warns him to trust only his own heart; for she realizes that the threads of a dark plot are drawing close about herself and Max, though she does not clearly understand what it is. Meanwhile Terzky and Illo have planned a meeting of Wallenstein's officers to protest against his withdrawal. In a splendid banquet scene they present a written agreement (Revers) to stand by the general _so far as loyalty to the Emperor will permit_, and then, when all are heated with wine, secure signatures to a subst.i.tuted doc.u.ment from which this reservation of loyalty to the Emperor is omitted. It is the hope of Illo and Terzky, through the sight of this doc.u.ment, to persuade Wallenstein to open rebellion. Max Piccolomini, coming late to the banquet from the interview with Thekla, refuses to sign the pledge, not because he sees through the deception, but because he is in no mood for business. Before morning his father summons him, thinking Max has refused to sign because he scented the intended treason, and reveals to him the whole situation--the plots of the officers, Wallenstein's dangerous negotiations with enemies of the Emperor, and his own commission to take command and save whatever he can of loyal troops. Max is thunder-truck. He can believe neither Wallenstein's purpose of treason nor his father's duplicity in dealing behind the back of his great commander. He refuses to follow his father's orders and leaves him with the avowed intention of going to Wallenstein and calling upon him to clear himself of the calumnious charges of the court. At this point begins the action of _Wallenstein's Death_.

In all of his later dramas excepting _William Tell_, Schiller endeavored to introduce a factor which is called "the dramatic guilt,"

a circ.u.mstance, usually in the character of the hero but sometimes in his environment, which makes the tragic outcome inevitable and yet leaves room in the breast of the reader or spectator for sympathy with the hero in his fate. In the case of Wallenstein this "guilt" is the dalliance with the love of power and the possibility of rebellion, not a deliberate intention to commit treason. In the close of his treatment of Wallenstein in The Thirty Years' War Schiller says: "No one of his actions justifies us in considering him convicted of treason. * * * Thus Wallenstein fell, not because he was a rebel, but he rebelled because he fell."

The circ.u.mstances are urged that Wallenstein was a prince of the Empire, and had as such the right to negotiate with foreign powers; that his delegated authority from the Emperor gave him the right to do so in the Emperor's name; that the Emperor had not kept faith with Wallenstein, and had thus justified him in at least frightening the court; that self preservation seemed to indicate rebellion as the only recourse; that Wallenstein's belief in his destiny and the fatuous devotion of his army led him to reckless action; and finally that he did not originally intend to commit actual treason.

Thus prepared, the reader can easily sympathize with Wallenstein in his downfall; this sympathy is entirely won by the admirable courage with which Wallenstein bears the successive blows of fate, and it is strengthened by consideration of the mean motives of the men who serve as the tools of his execution, and by the remembrance that the fate of Max and Thekla is bound up in his. Schiller was concerned lest the love episode should detract from the interest due the chief persons of the tragedy; his art has effected the exact opposite.

The influence of Shakespeare is more or less obvious in all of Schiller's later dramas. Aside from the splendid rhetoric of the monologues, the character of Countess Terzky, so similar to that of Lady Macheth, suggests this. But such influence is not so controlling as to be in any respect a reproach to Schiller. Goethe in his generous admiration considered Wallenstein "so great that nothing could be compared with it." "In the imaginative power whereby history is made into drama, in the triumph of artistic genius over a vast and refractory ma.s.s of material, and in the skill with which the character of the hero is conceived and denoted, _Wallenstein_ is unrivaled. Its chief figure is by far the stateliest and most impressive of German tragic heroes." [22]

THE DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN

DRAMATIS PERSONae

WALLENSTEIN, _Duke of Friedland, Generalissimo of the Imperial Forces in the Thirty Years' War_.

d.u.c.h.eSS OF FRIEDLAND, _Wife of Wallenstein_.

THEKLA, _her Daughter, Princess of Friedland_.

_The_ COUNTESS TERZKY, _Sister of the d.u.c.h.ess_.

LADY NEUBRUNN.

OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, _Lieutenant-General_.

MAX PICCOLOMINI, _his son, Colonel of a regiment of Cuira.s.siers_.

COUNT TERZKY, _the Commander of several Regiments, and Brother-in-law of Wallenstein_.

ILLO, _Field Marshall, Wallenstein's Confident_.

ISOLANI, _General of the Croats_.

BUTLER, _an Irishman, Commander of a regiment of Dragoons_.

GORDON, _Governor Egra_.

MAJOR GERALDIN.

CAPTAIN DEVEREUX.

CAPTAIN MACDONALD.

AN ADJUTANT.

NEUMANN, _Captain of Cavalry, Aide-de-Camp to Terzky_.

COLONEL WRANGEL, _Envoy from the Swedes_.

ROSENBURG, _Master of Horse_.

SWEDISH CAPTAIN.

SENI.

BURGOMASTER _of Egra_.

ANSPESSADE _of the Cuira.s.siers_.

GROOM OF THE} _Belonging to_ CHAMBER, } _the Duke_.

A PAGE, }

_Cuira.s.siers, Dragoons, Servants_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WALLENSTEIN AND SENI As performed at the Munic.i.p.al Theatre, Hamburg, 1906.]

THE DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN (1800)[23]

TRANSLATED BY S.T. COLERIDGE

ACT I

SCENE I

A Room fitted up for astrological labors, and provided with celestial Charts, with Globes, Telescopes, Quadrants, and other mathematical Instruments--Seven Colossal Figures, representing the Planets, each circle in the background, so that Mars and Saturn are nearest the eye.--The remainder of the Scene, and its disposition, is given in the Fourth Scene of the Second Act.--There must be a Curtain over the Figures, which may be dropped, and conceal them on occasion.

[_In the Fifth Scene of this Act it must be dropped; but in the Seventh Scene it must be again drawn up wholly or in part._]

WALLENSTEIN _at a black Table, on which a Speculum Astrologic.u.m is described with Chalk_. SENI _is taking Observations through a window_.

WALLENSTEIN.

All well--and now let it be ended, Seni. Come, The dawn commences, and Mars rules the hour.

We must give o'er the operation. Come, We know enough.