Wallenstein/The Death of Wallenstein/A1S03
SCENE III.
To them enter the Duchess.
DUCHESS. (to the Countess.)Who was here, sister? I heard some one talking,And passionately too.
COUNTESS.Nay! there was no one.
DUCHESS.I am grown so timorous, every trifling noiseScatters my spirits, and announces to meThe footstep of some messenger of evil.And you can tell me, sister, what the event is?Will he agree to do the Emperor's pleasure,And send th' horse-regiments to the Cardinal?Tell me, has he dismiss'd Von QuestenbergWith a favorable answer?
COUNTESS.No, he has not.
DUCHESS.Alas! then all is lost! I see it coming,The worst that can come! Yes, they will depose him;The accursed business of the Regenspurg dietWill all be acted o'er again!
COUNTESS.No! never!Make your heart easy, sister, as to that.(Thekla, in extreme agitation, throws herself upon her mother, and enfolds her in her arms, weeping.)
DUCHESS.Yes, my poor child!Thou too hast lost a most affectionate godmotherIn th' empress. O that stern unbending man!In this unhappy marriage what have INot suffer'd, not endur'd? For ev'n as ifI had been link'd on to some wheel of fireThat restless, ceaseless, whirls impetuous onward,I have past a life of frights and horrors with him,And ever to the brink of some AbyssWith dizzy headlong violence he whirls me.Nay, do not weep, my child! Let not my suff'ringsPresignify unhappiness to thee,Nor blacken with their shade, the fate that waits thee.There lives no second Friedland: thou, my child,Hast not to fear thy mother's destiny.
THEKLA.O let us supplicate him, dearest mother!Quick! quick! here's no abiding-place for us. Here every coming hour broods into lifeSome new affrightful monster.
DUCHESS.Thou wilt shareAn easier, calmer lot, my child! We, too,I and thy father, witness'd happy days.Still think I with delight of those first years,When he was making progress with glad effort,When his ambition was a genial fire,Not that consuming flame which now it is.The emperor lov'd him, trusted him; and allHe undertook, could not but be successful.But since that ill-starr'd day at Regenspurg,Which plung'd him headlong from his dignity,A gloomy uncompanionable spirit,Unsteady and suspicious, has possess'd him.His quiet mind forsook him, and no longerDid he yield up himself in joy and faithTo his old luck, and individual power;But thenceforth turn'd his heart and best affectionsAll to those cloudy sciences, which neverHave yet made happy him who followed them.
COUNTESS.You see it, sister! as your eyes permit you.But surely this is not the conversationTo pass the time in which we are waiting for him.You know he will be soon here. Would you have himFind her in this condition?
DUCHESS.Come, my child!Come wipe away thy tears, and shew thy fatherA cheerful countenance. See, the tie-knot hereIs off—this hair must not hang so dishevell'd.Come, dearest! dry thy tears up. They deformThy gentle eye—well now—what was I saying?Yes, in good truth, this PiccolominiIs a most noble and deserving gentleman.
COUNTESS.That is he, sister!
THEKLA. (to the Countess, with marks of great oppression of spirits).Aunt, you will excuse me? (is going)
COUNTESS.But whither? See, your father comes.
THEKLA.I cannot see him now.
COUNTESS.Nay, but bethink you.
THEKLA.Believe me, I cannot sustain his presence.
COUNTESS.But he will miss you, will ask after you.
DUCHESS.What now? Why is she going?
COUNTESS.She's not well.
DUCHESS (anxiously.)What ails, then, my beloved child?(both follow the Princess, and endeavour to detain her. During this Wallenstein appears, engaged in conversation with Illo.)