Shall I perform ignobly-steal away, 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. 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. They 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 ex cellence will bear reflection, than in the former pro- THE DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN. ductions 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 ACT I. SCENE I. Friedland. of the Scene in the first Act of the first Play between SCENE-A Chamber in the House of the Duchess of Questenberg, Max., and Octavio Piccolomini. If we except the Scene of the setting sun in the Robbers, I know of no part in Schiller's Plays which equals the whole of the first Scene of the fifth Act of the concluding Play. It would be unbecoming in me to be more diffuse on this subject. A translator stands connected with the original Author by a certain law of subordination, which makes it more decorous to point out excellencies than defects: indeed he is not likely to be a fair judge of either. The pleasure or disgust from his own labor will mingle with the feelings that arise from an after-view of the original, COUNTESS TERTSKY, THEKLA, LADY NEUBRUNN (the Even in the first perusal of a work in any foreign Perhaps I am already grown superfluous, 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 SCENE II. DRAMATIS PERSONE. The COUNTESS, THEKLA. COUNTESS. WALLENSTEIN, Duke of Friedland, Generalissimo of It does not please me, Princess, that he holds the Imperial forces in the Thirty-years' War. OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, Lieutenant-General. COUNT TERTSKY, the Commander of several Regi- GORDON, Governor of Egra. CAPTAIN DEVEREUX. MACDONALD. Himself so still, exactly at this time. THEKLA. Exactly at this time? COUNTESS. He now knows all : If I'm to understand you, speak less darkly. COUNTESS. 'Twas for that purpose that I bade her leave us. THEKLA. Enough: no further preface, I entreat you. COUNTESS. You'll not be frighten'd The accursed business of the Regensburg diet Will all be acted o'er again! COUNTESS. No! never! Make your heart easy, sister, as to that. COUNTESS. But whither? See, your father comes. [THEKLA, in extreme agitation, throws herself upon I cannot see him now. her mother and enfolds her in her arms, weeping. Yes, my poor child! DUCHESS. Thou too hast lost a most affectionate godmother I had been link'd on to some wheel of fire Nor blacken with their shade the fate that waits thee. THEKLA. O let us supplicate him, dearest mother! Quick! quick! here's no abiding-place for us. Here every coming hour broods into life Some new affrightful monster. DUCHESS. Thou wilt share An easier, calmer lot, my child! We too, I and thy father, witness'd happy days. But thenceforth turn'd his heart and best affections THEKLA. 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 endeavor to detain her. During this WALLENSTEIN appears, engaged in conversation with ILLO. 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 Prague Example does the whole. Whoever is foremost ILLO. At his own bidding, unsolicited, WALLENSTEIN. I find we must not give implicit credence ILLO. And doubt not |