Wallenstein/The Death of Wallenstein/A1S04
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 PragueWith tidings, that this capital is ours.Then we may drop the mask, and to the troopsAssembled in this town make known the measureAnd it's result together. In such casesExample does the whole. Whoever is foremostStill leads the herd. An imitative creatureIs man. The troops at Prague conceive no other,Than that the Pilsen army has gone throughThe forms of homage to us; and in PilsenThey shall swear fealty to us, becauseThe 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 credenceTo every warning voice that makes itselfBe listen'd to in th' heart. To hold us back,Oft does the lying spirit counterfeitThe voice of Truth and inward Revelation,Scatt'ring false oracles. And thus have ITo intreat forgiveness for that secretlyI've wrong'd this honourable gallant man,This Butler: for a feeling, of the whichI am not master, (fear I would not call it)Creeps o'er me instantly, with sense of shudd'ring,At his approach, and stops love's joyous motion.And this same man, against whom I am warn'd,This honest man is he who reaches to meThe first pledge of my fortune.
ILLO.And doubt notThat his example will win over to youThe best men in the army.
WALLENSTEIN.Go and sendIsolani hither. Send him immediately.He is under recent obligations to me.With him will I commence the trial. Go.[ILLO. Exit.
WALLENSTEIN. (turns himself round to the females)Lo, there the mother with the darling daughter,For once we'll have an interval of rest—Come! my heart yearns to live a cloudless hourIn 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 prepar'd?
COUNTESS.Not yet.
WALLENSTEIN.Come here, my sweet girl! Seat thee by me.For there is a good spirit on thy lips.Thy mother prais'd to me thy ready skill:She says a voice of melody dwells in thee,Which doth enchant the soul. Now such a voiceWill drive away from me the evil dæmonThat beats his black wings close above my head.
DUCHESS.Where is thy lute, my daughter? Let thy fatherHear some small trial of thy skill.
THEKLA.My motherI—
DUCHESS.Trembling? Come, collect thyself. Go, cheerThy 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 o'erburden'd soul—to sing to him, Who is thrusting, even now, my mother headlongInto her grave.
DUCHESS.How, Thekla? Humoursome?What! shall thy father have express'd a wishIn vain?
COUNTESS.Here is the lute.
THEKLA.My God! how can I—
(The orchestra plays. During the ritornello Thekla expresses in her gestures and countenancethe struggle of her feelings; and at the moment that she should begin to sing, contractsherself together, as one shuddering, throws theinstrument down, and retires abruptly.)
DUCHESS.My child! Oh, she is ill—
WALLENSTEIN.What ails the maiden?Say, is she often so?
COUNTESS.Since then herselfHas now betray'd it, I too must no longerConceal it.
WALLENSTEIN.What?
COUNTESS.She loves him!
WALLENSTEIN.Loves him! Whom?
COUNTESS.Max. does she love? Max. Piccolomini. Hast thou ne'er notic'd 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 need'st Never take shame upon thee for thy choice.
COUNTESS.This journey, if 'twere not thy aim, ascribe it To thine own self. Thou should'st 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 grovelling spirit.
COUNTESS.SinceSuch and such constant favour you have shewn him.
WALLENSTEIN.He chuses finally to be my heir.And true it is, I love the youth; yea, honour him.But must he therefore be my daughter's husband?Is it daughters only? Is it only childrenThat we must shew our favour by?
DUCHESS.His noble disposition and his manners—
WALLENSTEIN.Win him my heart, but not my daughter.
DUCHESS.ThenHis rank, his ancestors—
WALLENSTEIN.Ancestors! What?He is a subject, and my son-in-lawI will leek 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 paidA 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—(slops suddenly, reprejing himself.)She is the only thingThat 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 fashionThe pair, that chance to suit each other's liking—And I must do it now, even now, when IAm stretching out the wreath, that is to twineMy full accomplish'd work—no! she is the jewel,Which I have treasur'd long, my last, my noblest,And 'tis my purpose not to let her from meFor 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 basisCannot sustain the giddy tottering column.
WALLENSTEIN, (to the Countess.)Have you announc'd the place of residenceWhich I have destin'd for her?
COUNTESS.No! not yet.'Twere better, you yourself disclos'd it to her.
DUCHESS.How? Do we not return to Kärn then?
WALLENSTEIN.No.
DUCHESS.And to no other of your lands or seats?
WALLENSTEIN.You would not be secure there.
DUCHESS.Not secureIn the Emperor's realms, beneath the Emperor'sProtection?
WALLENSTEIN.Friedland's wife may be permittedNo longer to hope that.
DUCHESS.O God in heaven!And have you brought it even to this?
WALLENSTEIN.In HollandYou'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 Lauenberg?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?Depos'd from the command? O God in heaven!
COUNTESS. (aside to the Duke.)Leave her in this belief. Thou seest she cannotSupport the real truth.
SCENE V.
To them enter Count Tertsky.
COUNTESS.—TERTSKY!What ails him? What an image of affright!He looks as he had seen a ghost.
TERTSKY.(leading Wallenstein aside.)Is it thy command that all the Croats——
WALLENSTEIN.Mine!
TERTSKY.We are betray'd.