Wallenstein/The Death of Wallenstein/A4S06
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SCENE VI.
THEKLA.
His spirit 'tis that calls me: 'tis the troop
Of his true followers, who offer'd up
Themselves t' avenge his death and they accuse me
Of an ignoble loitering—they would not
Forsake their leader even in death—they died for him!
And shall I live?———
For me too was that laurel-garland twin'd
That decks his bier. Life is an empty casket.
I throw it from me. O, my only hope;
To die beneath the hoofs of trampling steeds—
That is the lot of heroes upon earth!
[Exit Thekla.[1]
(The curtain drops.)
His spirit 'tis that calls me: 'tis the troop
Of his true followers, who offer'd up
Themselves t' avenge his death and they accuse me
Of an ignoble loitering—they would not
Forsake their leader even in death—they died for him!
And shall I live?———
For me too was that laurel-garland twin'd
That decks his bier. Life is an empty casket.
I throw it from me. O, my only hope;
To die beneath the hoofs of trampling steeds—
That is the lot of heroes upon earth!
[Exit Thekla.[1]
(The curtain drops.)
END OF ACT IV.
- ↑ The soliloquy of Thekla consists in the original of six and twenty lines, twenty of which are in rhymes of irregular recurrence. I thought it prudent to abridge it. Indeed the whole scene between Thekla and Lady Neubrunn might, perhaps, have been omitted without injury to the play.