The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Iii Part 20

If there were yet a choice! if yet some milder Way of escape were possible--I still Will choose it, and avoid the last extreme.

COUNTESS.

Desirest thou nothing further? Such a way Lies still before thee. Send this Wrangel off.

Forget thou thy old hopes, cast far away All thy past life; determine to commence A new one. Virtue hath her heroes too, As well as fame and fortune.--To Vienna Hence--to the Emperor--kneel before the throne Take a full coffer with thee--say aloud, Thou didst but wish to prove thy fealty; Thy whole intention but to dupe the Swede.

ILLO.

For that too 'tis too late. They know too much; He would but bear his own head to the block.

COUNTESS.

I fear not that. They have not evidence To attaint him legally, and they avoid The avowal of an arbitrary power.

They'll let the Duke resign without disturbance.

I see how all will end. The King of Hungary Makes his appearance, and 'twill of itself Be understood that then the Duke retires.

There will not want a formal declaration; The young King will administer the oath To the whole army; and so all returns To the old position. On some morrow morning The Duke departs; and now 'tis stir and bustle Within his castles. He will hunt, and build, And superintend his horses' pedigrees; Creates himself a court, gives golden keys, And introduces strictest ceremony In fine proportions, and nice etiquette; Keeps open table with high cheer: in brief, Commences mighty King--in miniature.

And while he prudently demeans himself, And gives himself no actual importance, He will be let appear whate'er he likes; And who dares doubt that Friedland will appear A mighty Prince to his last dying hour?

Well now, what then? Duke Friedland is as others, A fire-new n.o.ble, whom the war hath raised To price and currency, a Jonah's gourd, An over-night creation of court-favor, Which with an undistinguishable ease Makes Baron or makes Prince.

WALLENSTEIN (_in extreme agitation_).

Take her away.

Let in the young Count Piccolomini.

COUNTESS.

Art thou in earnest? I entreat thee! Canst thou Consent to bear thyself to thy own grave, So ignominiously to be dried up?

Thy life, that arrogated such an height To end in such a nothing! To be nothing, When one was always nothing, is an evil That asks no stretch of patience, a light evil; But to become a nothing, having been--

WALLENSTEIN (_starts up in violent agitation_).

Show me a way out of this stifling crowd, Ye powers of Aidance! Show me such a way As _I_ am capable of going. I Am no tongue-hero, no fine virtue-prattler; I cannot warm by thinking; cannot say To the good luck that turns her back upon me, Magnanimously: "Go; I need thee not."

Cease I to work, I am annihilated.

Dangers nor sacrifices will I shun, If so I may avoid the last extreme; But ere I sink down into nothingness, Leave off so little, who began so great, Ere that the world confuses me with those Poor wretches whom a day creates and crumbles, This age and after ages[25] speak my name With hate and dread; and Friedland be redemption For each accursed deed.

COUNTESS.

What is there here, then, So against nature? Help me to perceive it!

O let not Superst.i.tion's nightly goblins Subdue thy clear bright spirit! Art thou bid To murder?--with abhorr'd, accursed poinard, To violate the b.r.e.a.s.t.s that nourish'd thee?

That _were_ against our nature, that might aptly Make thy flesh shudder, and thy whole heart sicken,[26]

Yet not a few, and for a meaner object, Have ventured even this, ay, and perform'd it.

What is there in thy case so black and monstrous?

Thou art accused of treason--whether with Or without justice is not now the question-- Thou art lost if thou dost not avail thee quickly Of the power which thou possessest--Friedland! _Duke!_ Tell me where lives that thing so meek and tame, That doth not all his living faculties Put forth in preservation of his life?

What deed so daring, which necessity And desperation will not sanctify?

WALLENST.

Once was this Ferdinand so gracious to me; He loved me; he esteem'd me; I was placed The nearest to his heart. Full many a time We like familiar friends, both at one table, Have banqueted together. He and I-- And the young kings themselves held me the basin Wherewith to wash me--and is't come to this?

COUNTESS.

So faithfully preserves thou each small favor, And hast no memory for contumelies?

Must I remind thee, how at Regensburg This man repaid thy faithful services?

All ranks and all conditions in the empire Thou hadst wronged, to make him great,--hadst loaded on thee, On _thee_, the hate, the curse of the whole world.

No friend existed for thee in all Germany, And why? because thou hadst existed only For the Emperor. To the Emperor alone Clung Friedland in that storm which gather'd round him At Regensburg in the Diet--and he dropp'd thee!

He let thee fall! he let thee fall a victim To the Bavarian, to that insolent!

Deposed, stript bare of all thy dignity And power, amid the taunting of thy foes, Thou wert let drop into obscurity.-- Say not the restoration of thy honor Has made atonement for that first injustice.

No honest good-will was it that replaced thee; The law of hard necessity replaced thee, Which they had fain opposed, but that they could not.

WALLENST.

Not to their good wishes, that is certain, Nor yet to his affection I'm indebted For this high office: and if I abuse it, I shall therein abuse no confidence.

COUNTESS.

Affection! confidence!--they _needed_ thee.

Necessity, impetuous remonstrant!

Who not with empty names, or shows of proxy, Is served, who'll have the thing and not the symbol, Ever seeks out the greatest and the best, And at the rudder places _him_, e'en though She had been forced to take him from the rabble-- She, this Necessity, it was that placed thee In this high office; it was she that gave thee Thy letters patent of inauguration.

For, to the uttermost moment that they can, This race still help themselves at cheapest rate With slavish souls, with puppets! At the approach Of extreme peril, when a hollow image Is found a hollow image and no more, Then falls the power into the mighty hands Of Nature, of the spirit giant-born, Who listens only to himself, knows nothing Of stipulations, duties, reverences, And, like the emanc.i.p.ated force of fire, Unmaster'd scorches, ere it reaches them, Their fine-spun webs, their artificial policy.

WALLENST.

'Tis true! they saw me always as I am-- Always! I did not cheat them in the bargain.

I never held it worth my pains to hide The bold all-grasping habit of my soul.

COUNTESS.

Nay rather--thou hast ever shown thyself A formidable man, without restraint; Hast exercised the full prerogatives Of thy impetuous nature, which had been Once granted to thee. Therefore, Duke, not _thou_ Who hast still remained consistent with thyself; But _they_ are in the wrong, who fearing thee, Intrusted such a power in hand they fear'd.

For, by the laws of Spirit, in the right Is every individual character That acts in strict consistence with itself.

Self-contradiction is the only wrong.

Wert thou another being, then, when thou Eight years ago pursuedst thy march with fire, And sword, and desolation, through the Circles Of Germany, the universal scourge, Didst mock all ordinances of the empire, The fearful rights of strength alone exertedst, Trampledst to earth each rank, each magistracy, All to extend thy Sultan's domination?

Then was the time to break thee in, to curb Thy haughty will, to teach thee ordinance.

But no, the Emperor felt no touch of conscience; What served him pleased him, and without a murmur He stamp'd his broad seal on these lawless deeds.

What at that time was right, because thou didst it _For him_, today is all at once become Opprobrious, foul, because it is directed _Against him_.--O most flimsy superst.i.tion!

WALLENSTEIN (_rising_).

I never saw it in this light before; 'Tis even so. The Emperor perpetrated Deeds through my arm, deeds most unorderly.

And even this prince's mantle, which I wear, I owe to what were services to him, But most high misdemeanors 'gainst the empire.

COUNTESS.

Then betwixt thee and him (confess it Friedland!) The point can be no more of right and duty, Only of power and the opportunity.

That opportunity, lo! it comes yonder Approaching with swift steeds; then with a swing Throw thyself up into the chariot-seat, Seize with firm hand the reins, ere thy opponent Antic.i.p.ate thee, and himself make conquest Of the now empty seat. The moment comes; It is already here, when thou must write The absolute total of thy life's vast sum.

The constellations stand victorious o'er thee, The planets shoot good fortune in fair junctions, And tell thee, "Now's the time!" The starry courses Hast thou thy life long measured to no purpose?

The quadrant and the circle, were they play-things?

[_Pointing to the different objects in the room_.]