That timid eye, was it those maiden hands
That sped the shaft which saved me and avenged me?
OLD BATHORY (to BETHLEN exultingly).

Pshaw! What, you think 'tis fear that makes me "Twas a vision blazon'd on a cloud

O Raab Kiuprili! Friend! Protector! Guide' Now, as you love the king, help me to seize her! In vain we trench'd the altar round with waters [They run out after GLYCINE, and she shrieks with- A flash from Heaven hath touch'd the hidden incense

[Clash of swords, and BETHLEN's voice heard from Hail Andreas! hail my king!

behind the Scenes; GLYCINE enters alarmed; then, as seeing LASKA's bow and arrows.

[She seizes them and rushes out. BATHORY following
her. Lively and irregular Music, and Peasants
with hunting-spears cross the stage, singing cho- Accept thine hand-maid's service!
rally.

GLYCINE.

Hark! sure the hunt approaches.

Re-enter BATHORY, with the dead body of PESTALUTZ.

OLD BATHORY.

[Horn without, and afterwards distant thunder. Poor tool and victim of another's guilt!

Ha! what a crash was there! Heaven seems to claim a mightier criminal

Thou follow'st heavily: a reluctant weight!
Good truth, it is an undeserved honor
That in Zapolya and Kiuprili's cave
A wretch like thee should find a burial-place.
[Then observing KIUPRILI
"Tis he!-in Andreas' and Zapolya's name
Follow me, reverend form? Thou needst not speak,
For thou canst be no other than Kiuprili!

Stop, Lord Casimir!

[Pointing without to the body of PESTALUTZ. It is no monster. Than yon vile subaltern.

OLD BATHORY.

CASIMIR.

Art thou too a traitor?

Is this the place where Emerick's murderers lurk?
Say where is he that, trick'd in this disguise,
Thou must have seen him. Say where is th' assassin!
First lured me on, then scared my dastard followers?
OLD BATHORY (pointing to the body of PESTA LUTZ).
There lies the assassin! slain by that same sword
That was descending on his curst employer,
When entering thou beheld'st Sarolta rescued!

CASIMIR.

You bleeding corse, (pointing to PESTALUTZ's body) Strange providence! what then was he who fled me?

may work us mischief still:

Once seen, 't will rouse alarm and crowd the hunt

[BATHORY points to the Cavern, whence KIUPRILI advances.

From all parts towards this spot. Stript of its armor, Thy looks speak fearful things! Whither, old man! I'll drag it hither.

1

OLD BATHORY.

[Exit BATHORY. After a while several Hunters Would thy hand point me?
cross the stage as scattered. Some time after,
enter KIUPRILI in his disguise, fainting with
fatigue, and as pursued.

RAAB KIUPRILI (throwing off his disguise).
Since Heaven alone can save me, Heaven alone
Shall be my trust.

[Then speaking as to ZAPOLYA in the Cavern.
Haste! haste! Zapolya, flee!

[He enters the Cavern, and then returns in alarm.
Gone! Seized perhaps? Oh no, let me not perish
Despairing of Heaven's justice! Faint, disarm'd,
Each sinew powerless, senseless rock sustain me!
Thou art parcel of my native land.

[Then observing the sword.
A sword!

Ha! and my sword! Zapolya hath escaped,
The murderers are baffled, and there lives
An Andreas to avenge Kiuprili's fall!-
There was a time, when this dear sword did flash
As dreadful as the storm-fire from mine arms:
I can scarce raise it now-yet come, fell tyrant!
And bring with thee my shame and bitter anguish,
To end his work and thine! Kiuprili now
Can take the death-blow as a soldier should.

CASIMIR.

I kneel, I kneel!

Retract thy curse! O, by my mother's ashes,
Have pity on thy self-abhorring child!
If not for me, yet for my innocent wife,
Yet for my country's sake, give my arm strength,
Permitting me again to call thee father!

KIUPRILI.

Son, I forgive thee! Take thy father's sword;
When thou shalt lift it in thy country's cause,
In that same instant doth thy father bless thee!

Thy blessing did indeed descend upon me;
Dislodging the dread curse. It flew forth from me
And lighted on the tyrant!

Enter RUDOLPH, BATHORY, and Attendants.

RUDOLPH and BATHORY (entering).
Friends! friends to Casimir

CASIMIR.

Rejoice, Illyrians! the usurper's fallen.

RUDOLPH.

[KIUPRILI and CASIMIR embrace; they all retire So perish tyrants! so end usurpation!

to the Cavern supporting KIUPRILI. CASIMIR
as by accident drops his robe, and BATHORY
throws it over the body of PESTalutz.

EMERICK (entering).

CASIMIR.

Bear hence the body, and move slowly on!
One moment-

Devoted to a joy, that bears no witness,

With the two best and fullest gifts of Heaven-
A tyrant fallen, a patriot chief restored!

Fools! Cowards! follow-or by Hell I'll make you I follow you, and we will greet our countrymen
Find reason to fear Emerick, more than all
The mummer-fiends that ever masqueraded
As gods or wood-nymphs!—

Then sees the body of PESTALUTZ, covered by
CASIMIR'S cloak.

Ha! 'tis done then!
Our necessary villain hath proved faithful,
And there lies Casimir, and our last fears!
Well!-Ay, well !——————

And is it not well? For though grafted on us,
And fill'd too with our sap, the deadly power
Of the parent poison-tree lurk'd in its fibres:
There was too much of Raab Kiuprili in him:
The old enemy look'd at me in his face,
E'en when his words did flatter me with duty.

[AS EMERICK moves towards the body, enter from
the Cavern CASIMIR and BATHORY.

[Exeunt CASIMIR into the Cavern. The rest on the opposite side.

Scene changes to a splendid Chamber in CASIMIR'S
Castle. CONFEDERATES discovered.

FIRST CONFEDERATE.

It cannot but succeed, friends. From this palace
E'en to the wood, our messengers are posted
With such short interspace, that fast as sound
Can travel to us, we shall learn the event!
Enter another CONFEDERATE.

What tidings from Temeswar?

SECOND CONFEDERATE.

With one voice

OLD BATHORY (pointing to where the noise is, and aside Th' assembled chieftains have deposed the tyrant; to CASIMIR).

Curses on it, and thee! Think'st thou that petty omen Would mar the wondrous tale. Wait we for him Dare whisper fear to Emerick's destiny?

The child, the friend, the debtor!-Heroic mother!-On this auspicious day, for some few hours

But what can breath add to that sacred name?
Kiuprili! gift of Providence, to teach us
That loyalty is but the public form

Of the sublimest friendship, let my youth
Climb round thee, as the vine around its elm:
Thou my support, and I thy faithful fruitage.

My heart is full, and these poor words express not
They are but an art to check its over-swelling.
Bathory! shrink not from my filial arms!

I claim to be your hostess. Scenes so awful
With flashing light, force wisdom on us all!
E'en women at the distaff hence may see,
That bad men may rebel, but ne'er be free;
May whisper, when the waves of faction foam,
None love their country, but who love their home;
For freedom can with those alone abide,

Who wear the golden chain, with honest pride,
Of love and duty, at their own fire-side:

Now, and from henceforth, thou shalt not forbid me While mad ambition ever doth caress

To call thee father! And dare I forget

Its own sure fate, in its own restlessness!

The Piccolomini; or, the First Part of Wallenstein.

A DRAMA.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER.

PREFACE.

In the translation I endeavored to render my Author literally wherever I was not prevented by absolute differences of idiom; but I am conscious, that in two or three short passages I have been guilty of dilating the original; and, from anxiety to give the full

It was my intention to have prefixed a Life of Wal-meaning, have weakened the force. In the metre I lenstein to this translation; but I found that it must have availed myself of no other liberties than those either have occupied a space wholly disproportionate which Schiller had permitted to himself, except the to the nature of the publication, or have been merely occasional breaking-up of the line by the substitua meagre catalogue of events narrated not more tion of a trochee for an iambic; of which liberty, so fully than they already are in the Play itself. The frequent in our tragedies, I find no instance in these recent translation, likewise, of Schiller's History of dramas

the Thirty Years' War diminished the motives thereto.

S. T. COLERIDGE