Shall I perform ignobly-steal away,
With stealthy coward flight forsake her? No!
She shall behold my suffering, my sore anguish,
Hear the complaints of the disparted soul,
And weep tears o'er me. Oh! the human race
Have steely souls-but she is as an angel.
From the black deadly madness of despair
Will she redeem my soul, and in soft words
Of comfort, plaining, loose this pang of death!

OCTAVIO.

Thou wilt not tear thyself away; thou canst not.
O, come, my son! I bid thee save thy virtue.

MAX.

Squander not thou thy words in vain.
The heart I follow, for I dare trust to it.

OCTAVIO (trembling, and losing all self-command).
Max.! Max.! if that most damned thing could be,
If thou-my son-my own blood-(dare I think it?)
Do sell thyself to him, the infamous,

Do stamp this brand upon our noble house,
Then shall the world behold the horrible deed,
And in unnatural combat shall the steel

Of the son trickle with the father's blood.

MAX.

O hadst thou always better thought of men,
Thou hadst then acted better. Curst suspicion!
Unholy, miserable doubt! To him
Nothing on earth remains unwrench'd and firm,
Who has no faith.

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
two latter sit at the same table at work).
COUNTESS (watching them from the opposite side).
So you have nothing to ask me-nothing?
And could you then endure in all this time
I have been waiting for a word from you.
Not once to speak his name?
[THEKLA remaining silent, the COUNTESS rises
and advances to her.

Even in the first perusal of a work in any foreign Perhaps I am already grown superfluous,
Why, how comes this?
language which we understand, we are apt to at-
tribute to it more excellence than it really possesses, Confess it to me, Thekla; have you seen him?
And other ways exist, besides through me?
from our own pleasurable sense of difficulty over-
come without effort. Translation of poetry into poetry
is difficult, because the translator must give a bril-To-day and yesterday I have not seen him.
liancy to his language without that warmth of original
conception, from which such brilliancy would follow And not heard from him, either? Come, be open.

of its own accord. But the Translator of a living
Author is encumbered with additional inconveni- No syllable.
ences. If he render his original faithfully, as to the
sense of each passage, he must necessarily destroy a
considerable portion of the spirit; if he endeavor to
give a work executed according to laws of compensa- I am.
tion, he subjects himself to imputations of vanity, or
misrepresentation. I have thought it my duty to re-
main bound by the sense of my original, with as few
exceptions as the nature of the languages rendered
possible.

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.
DUCHESS OF FRIEDLAND, Wife of Wallenstein.
THEKLA, her Daughter, Princess of Friedland.
The COUNTESS TERTSKY, Sister of the Duchess.
LADY NEUBRUNN.

OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, Lieutenant-General.
MAX. PICCOLOMINI, his Son, Colonel of a Regiment
of Cuirassiers.

COUNT TERTSKY, the Commander of several Regi-
ments, and Brother-in-law of Wallenstein.
ILLO, Field Marshal, Wallenstein's Confidant.
BUTLER, an Irishman, Commander of a Regiment of
Dragoons.

GORDON, Governor of Egra.
MAJOR GERALDIN.

CAPTAIN DEVEREUX.

MACDONALD.

Himself so still, exactly at this time.

THEKLA.

Exactly at this time?

COUNTESS.

He now knows all :
Twere now the moment to declare himself.
THEKLA.

If I'm to understand you, speak less darkly.

COUNTESS.

'Twas for that purpose that I bade her leave us.
Thelka, you are no more a child. Your heart
Is now no more in nonage: for you love,
And boldness dwells with love-that you have proved
Your nature moulds itself upon your father's
More than your mother's spirit. Therefore may you
Hear, what were too much for her fortitude.

THEKLA.

Enough: no further preface, I entreat you.
At once, out with it! Be it what it may,
It is not possible that it should torture me
More than this introduction. What have you
To say to me? Tell me the whole, and briefly!

COUNTESS.

You'll not be frighten'd

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.