Don Carlos. Friedrich von Schiller
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Название: Don Carlos

Автор: Friedrich von Schiller

Издательство: Public Domain

Жанр: Драматургия

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СКАЧАТЬ Or tried to make him one? I scarce can love

         Those sons who choose more wisely than their fathers.

CARLOS

         And can Duke Alva's knightly spirit brook

         To look on such a scene? Now, as I live,

         I would not play the busy meddler's part,

         Who thrusts himself, unasked, 'twixt sire and son,

         And there intrudes without a blush, condemned

         By his own conscious insignificance,

         No, not, by heaven, to win a diadem!

KING (rising, with an angry look at the Prince)

         Retire, my lord!

      [ALVA goes to the principal door, through which CARLOS had entered, the KING points to the other.

                  No, to the cabinet,

         Until I call you.

      SCENE II

      KING PHILIP. DON CARLOS.

CARLOS (as soon as the DUKE has left the apartment, advances to the KING, throws himself at his feet, and then, with great emotion)

                   My father once again!

         Thanks, endless thanks, for this unwonted favor!

         Your hand, my father! O delightful day!

         The rapture of this kiss has long been strange

         To your poor Carlos. Wherefore have I been

         Shut from my father's heart? What have I done?

KING

         Carlos, thou art a novice in these arts —

         Forbear, I like them not —

CARLOS (rising)

                       And is it so?

         I hear your courtiers in those words, my father!

         All is not well, by heaven, all is not true,

         That a priest says, and a priest's creatures plot.

         I am not wicked, father; ardent blood

         Is all my failing; – all my crime is youth; —

         Wicked I am not – no, in truth, not wicked; —

         Though many an impulse wild assails my heart,

         Yet is it still untainted.

KING

                       Ay, 'tis pure —

         I know it – like thy prayers —

CARLOS

                         Now, then, or never!

         We are, for once, alone – the barrier

         Of courtly form, that severed sire and son

         Has fallen! Now a golden ray of hope

         Illumes my soul – a sweet presentment

         Pervades my heart – and heaven itself inclines,

         With choirs of joyous angels, to the earth,

         And full of soft emotion, the thrice blest

         Looks down upon this great, this glorious scene!

         Pardon, my father!

            [He falls on his knees before him.

KING

                   Rise, and leave me.

CARLOS

                              Father!

KING (tearing himself from him)

         This trifling grows too bold.

CARLOS

                         A son's devotion

         Too bold! Alas!

KING

                  And, to crown all, in tears!

         Degraded boy! Away, and quit my sight!

CARLOS

         Now, then, or never! – pardon, O my father!

KING

         Away, and leave my sight! Return to me

         Disgraced, defeated, from the battle-field,

         Thy sire shall meet thee with extended arms:

         But thus in tears, I spurn thee from my feet.

         A coward's guilt alone should wash its stains

         In such ignoble streams. The man who weeps

         Without a blush will ne'er want cause for tears!

CARLOS

         Who is this man? By what mistake of nature

         Has he thus strayed amongst mankind? A tear

         Is man's unerring, lasting attribute.

         Whose eye is dry was ne'er of woman born!

         Oh, teach the eye that ne'er hath overflowed,

         The timely science of a tear – thou'lt need

         The moist relief in some dark hour of woe.

KING

         Think'st thou to shake thy father's strong mistrust

         With specious words?

CARLOS

                    Mistrust! Then I'll remove it.

         Here will I hang upon my father's breast,

         Strain at his heart with vigor, till each shred

         Of that mistrust, which, with a rock's endurance,

         Clings firmly round it, piecemeal fall away.

         And who are they who drive me from the king —

         My father's favor? What requital hath

         A monk to give a father for a son?

         What compensation can the duke supply

         For a deserted and a childless age?

         Would'st thou be loved? Here in this bosom springs

         A fresher, purer fountain, than e'er flowed

         From those dark, stagnant, muddy reservoirs,

         Which Philip's gold must first unlock.

KING

                             No more,

         Presuming boy! For know the hearts thou slanderest

         Are the approved, true servants of my choice.

         'Tis meet that thou do honor to them.

CARLOS

                             Never!

         I know my worth – all that your Alva dares —

         That, and much more, can Carlos. What cares he,

         A hireling! for the welfare of the realm

         СКАЧАТЬ