The Life of Friedrich Schiller. Томас Карлейль

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      Mar.No, Sire, I cannot doubt

      But that a judge so skilful, and experienced

      In the gifts of men, has at a glance discover'd

      Wherein I might do him service, wherein not.

      I feel with humble gratitude the favour,

      With which your Majesty is loading me

      By thoughts so lofty: yet I can—[He stops.

      King.You pause?

      Mar. Sire, at the moment I am scarce prepar'd

      To speak, in phrases of a Spanish subject,

      What as a citizen o' th' world I've thought.

      Truth is, in parting from the Court forever,

      I held myself discharged from all necessity

      Of troubling it with reasons for my absence.

      King. Are your reasons bad, then? Dare you not risk

      Disclosing them?

      Mar.My life, and joyfully,

      Were scope allow'd me to disclose them all.

      'Tis not myself but Truth that I endanger,

      Should the King refuse me a full hearing.

      Your anger or contempt I fain would shun;

      But forced to choose between them, I had rather

      Seem to you a man deserving punishment

      Than pity.

      King [with a look of expectation]. Well?

      Mar.The servant of a prince

      I cannot be.[The King looks at him with astonishment.

      I will not cheat my merchant:

      If you deign to take me as your servant,

      You expect, you wish, my actions only;

      You wish my arm in fight, my thought in counsel;

      Nothing more you will accept of: not my actions,

      Th' approval they might find at Court becomes

      The object of my acting. Now for me

      Right conduct has a value of its own:

      The happiness my king might cause me plant

      I would myself produce; and conscious joy,

      And free selection, not the force of duty,

      Should impel me. Is it thus your Majesty

      Requires it? Could you suffer new creators

      In your own creation? Or could I

      Consent with patience to become the chisel,

      When I hoped to be the statuary?

      I love mankind; and in a monarchy,

      Myself is all that I can love.

      King.This fire

      Is laudable. You would do good to others;

      How you do it, patriots, wise men think

      Of little moment, so it be but done.

      Seek for yourself the office in my kingdoms

      That will give you scope to gratify

      This noble zeal.

      Mar.There is not such an office.

      King. How?

      Mar.What the king desires to spread abroad

      Through these weak hands, is it the good of men?

      That good which my unfetter'd love would wish them?

      Pale majesty would tremble to behold it!

      No! Policy has fashioned in her courts

      Another sort of human good; a sort

      Which she is rich enough to give away,

      Awakening with it in the hearts of men

      New cravings, such as it can satisfy.

      Truth she keeps coining in her mints, such truth

      As she can tolerate; and every die

      Except her own she breaks and casts away.

      But is the royal bounty wide enough

      For me to wish and work in? Must the love

      I hear my brother pledge itself to be

      My brother's jailor? Can I call him happy

      When he dare not think? Sire, choose some other

      To dispense the good which you have stamped for us.

      With me it tallies not; a prince's servant

      I cannot be.

      King [rather quickly].

      You are a Protestant.

      Mar. [after some reflection]

      Sire, your creed is also mine.[After a pause.

      I find

      I am misunderstood: 'tis as I feared.

      You see me draw the veil from majesty,

      And view its mysteries with steadfast eye:

      How should you know if I regard as holy

      What I no more regard as terrible?

      Dangerous I seem, for bearing thoughts too high:

      My King, I am not dangerous: my wishes

      Lie buried here.[Laying his hand on his breast.

      The poor and purblind rage

      Of innovation, that but aggravates

      The weight o' th' fetters which it cannot break,

      Will never heat my blood. The century

      Admits not my ideas: I live a citizen

      Of those that are to come. Sire, can a picture

      Break your rest? Your breath obliterates it.

      King. No other knows you harbour such ideas?

      Mar. Such, no one.

      King [rises, walks a few steps, then stops opposite the Marquis.

      —Aside]. New at least, this dialect!

      Flattery exhausts itself: a man of parts

      Disdains to imitate. For once let's have

      A trial of the opposite! Why not?

      The strange is oft the lucky.—If so be

      This is your principle, why let it pass!

      I will conform; the crown shall have a servant

      New in Spain,—a liberal!

      Mar.Sire, I see

      How very meanly you conceive of men;

      How, in the language of the frank true spirit

      You find but another deeper artifice

      Of a more practis'd coz'ner: I can also

      Partly see what causes this. 'Tis men;

      'Tis men that force you to it: they themselves

      Have cast away their own nobility,

      Themselves have crouch'd to this degraded posture.

      Man's innate greatness, like a spectre, frights them;

      Their СКАЧАТЬ