Treason!-My God!-But who talks then of treason? You do me too much honor. OCTAVIO. That is the case. The Prince-duke is a traitor Means to lead over to the enemy OCTAVIO (after both have seated themselves). Return'd the advances which I made you yesterday- The Emperor's army.-Now, Count!-brief and Misunderstood them, as mere empty forms. full Say, will you break your oath to the Emperor? ISOLANI. What mean you? I-I break my oath, d'ye say, OCTAVIO. You have not said it yet-not yet. This instant ISOLANI. Ay! that delights me now, that you yourself OCTAVIO. And you renounce the Duke, then? ISOLANI. If he's planning Treason why, treason breaks all bonds asunder. OCTAVIO. And are determined, too, to fight against him? ISOLANI. He has done me service-but if he's a villain, OCTAVIO. I am rejoiced that you're so well-disposed. ISOLANI. The time is precious-let us talk openly. It shall be done. But you'll remember me OCTAVIO. I will not fail to mention it honorably. To the enemy. But he deceives himself; [Exit ISOLANI. A SERVANT enters. Many and faithful friends here, and they stand What wish you? Count? what? OCTAVIO. OCTAVIO. Ay? are you sure of that? BUTLER. OCTAVIO. And so did I-but the contents were different. By chance I'm in possession of that letter- BUTLER. Ha! what is this? OCTAVIO. I fear me, Colonel Butler, An infamous game have they been playing with you How was't with the Count? The Duke, you say, impell'd you to this measure? BUTLER. OCTAVIO (coldly). The title that you wish'd, I mean. 'Hell and damnation! OCTAVIO (coldly). You petition'd for itAnd your petition was repell'd-Was it so? BUTLER. Now, in this letter talks he in contempt To give sound chastisement to your conceit [BUTLER reads through the letter, his knees tremble Be the whole world acquainted with the weakness On which you had been journeying forty years! Lieutenant-General! Yes-I have ambition. It stung me to the quick, that birth and title Be tempted to that measure-It was folly! It might have been refused; but wherefore barb Break off from him! BUTLER. OCTAVIO. What now? Bethink thyself. BUTLER (no longer governing his emotion). Only break off from him? He dies! he dies! OCTAVIO. Come after me to Frauenberg, where now OCTAVIO. He, who repents so deeply of it, dares. BUTLER. Then leave me here, upon my word of honor! What's your design? OCTAVIO. BUTLER. MAX. I follow thee ? Thy way is crooked-it is not my way. [OCTAVIO drops his hand, and starts back Sustainer of the world, had saved us all! Wallenstein has deceived me-O, most foully! MAX. (rises, and contemplates his father with looks of Was 't possible? hadst thou the heart, my father, Leave me and my regiment. With cold premeditated purpose? Thou OCTAVIO and MAX. PICCOLOMINI. Hadst thou the heart, to wish to see him guilty, OCTAVIO. God in Heaven! ΜΑΧ. O, woe is me! sure I have changed my nature. The only unprofaned in human nature. OCTAVIO. Max.!-we will go together. "T will be better. MAX. What? ere I've taken a last parting leave, OCTAVIO. Spare thyself The pang of necessary separation. [Attempts to take him with him MAX. Max. enters almost in a state of derangement from Come with me! Come, my son! extreme agitation, his eyes roll wildly, his walk is unsteady, and he appears not to observe his father,| who stands at a distance, and gazes at him with a No! as sure as God lives, no! countenance expressive of compassion. He paces with long strides through the chamber, then stands Come with me, I command thee! I, thy father. Shall I perform ignobly-steal away, With stealthy coward flight forsake her? No! OCTAVIO. Thou wilt not tear thyself away; thou canst not. MAX. Squander not thou thy words in vain. OCTAVIO (trembling, and losing all self-command). Do stamp this brand upon our noble house, Of the son trickle with the father's blood. MAX. O hadst thou always better thought of men, OCTAVIO. And if I trust thy heart, Will it be always in thy power to follow it? The Death of Wallenstein; A TRAGEDY, IN FIVE ACTS. PREFACE. explanation. For these reasons it has been thought expedient not to translate it. They The admirers of Schiller, who have abstracted THE two Dramas, PICCOLOMINI, or the first part of their idea of that author from the Robbers, and the WALLENSTEIN, and WALLENSTEIN, are introduced in Cabal and Love, plays in which the main interest is the original manuscript by a Prelude in one Act, en- produced by the excitement of curiosity, and in titled WALLENSTEIN'S CAMP. This is written in which the curiosity is excited by terrible and extrarhyme, and in nine-syllable verse, in the same lilting ordinary incident, will not have perused without metre (if that expression may be permitted) with the some portion of disappointment the Dramas, which second Eclogue of Spencer's Shepherd's Calendar. it has been my employment to translate. This Prelude possesses a sort of broad humor, and should, however, reflect that these are Historical is not deficient in character; but to have translated Dramas, taken from a popular German History; that it into prose, or into any other metre than that of the we must therefore judge of them in some measure original, would have given a false idea both of its with the feelings of Germans; or by analogy, with style and purport; to have translated it into the same the interest excited in us by similar Dramas in our metre would been incompatible with a faithful ad- own language. Few, I trust, would be rash or ignorant herence to the sense of the German, from the com- enough to compare Schiller with Shakspeare; yet, parative poverty of our language in rhymes; and it merely as illustration, I would say that we should would have been unadvisable, from the incongruity proceed to the perusal of Wallenstein, not from Lear of those lax verses with the present taste of the or Othello, but from Richard the Second, or the three English Public. Schiller's intention seems to have parts of Henry the Sixth. We scarcely expect rapidbeen merely to have prepared his reader for the ity in an Historical Drama; and many prolix speeches Tragedies by a lively picture of the laxity of dis- are pardoned from characters, whose names and accipline, and the mutinous dispositions of Wallen- tions have formed the most amusing tales of our early stein's soldiery. It is not necessary as a preliminary life. On the other hand, there exist in these plays more individua. beauties, more passages whose excellence will bear reflection, than in the former productions of Schiller. The description of the Astrological Tower, and the reflections of the Young Lover, which follow it, form in the original a fine poem; and my translation must have been wretched indeed, if it can have wholly overclouded the beauties THE DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN. ACT I. SCENE I. Friedland. COUNTESS TERTSKY, THEKLA, LADY NEUBRUNN (the of the Scene in the first Act of the first Play between SCENE-A Chamber in the House of the Duchess of of its own accord. But the Translator of a living THEKLA. COUNTESS. THEKLA. COUNTESS. And still you are so calm? THEKLA. COUNTESS. May't please you, leave us, Lady Neubrunn. [Exit LADY NEUBRUNN DRAMATIS PERSONE. WALLENSTEIN, Duke of Friedland, Generalissimo of OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, Lieutenant-General. COULT TERTSKY, the Commander of several Regi- GORDON, Governor of Egra. CAPTAIN DEVEREUX. MACDONALD. THEKLA. Enough no further preface, I entreat you COUNTESS. You'll not be frighten'd- |