The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 03. Коллектив авторов

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Their confidence is lost, irreparably!

      And I may act which way I will, I shall

      Be and remain forever in their thought

      A traitor to my country. How sincerely

      Soever I return back to my duty,

      It will no longer help me—

      ILLO.

                          Ruin thee,

      That it will do! Not thy fidelity,

      Thy weakness will be deemed the sole occasion—

      WALLENSTEIN (pacing up and down in extreme agitation).

      What! I must realize it now in earnest,

      Because I toy'd too freely with the thought!

      Accursed he who dallies with a devil!

      And must I—I must realize it now—

      Now, while I have the power, it must take place?

      ILLO.

      Now—now—ere they can ward and parry it!

      WALLENSTEIN (looking at the paper of signatures).

      I have the Generals' word—a written promise!

      Max Piccolomini stands not here—how's that?

      TERZKY.

      It was—he fancied—

      ILLO.

                       Mere self-willedness.

      There needed no such thing 'twixt him and you.

      WALLENST.

      He is quite right; there needed no such thing.

      The regiments, too, deny to march for Flanders—

      Have sent me in a paper of remonstrance,

      And openly resist the Imperial orders.

      The first step to revolt's already taken.

      ILLO.

      Believe me, thou wilt find it far more easy

      To lead them over to the enemy

      Than to the Spaniard.

      WALLENSTEIN.

                   I will hear, however,

      What the Swede has to say to me.

      ILLO (eagerly to TERZKY).

          Go, call him

      He stands without the door in waiting.

      WALLENSTEIN.

                                  Stay!

      Stay but a little. It hath taken me

      All by surprise; it came too quick upon me;

      'Tis wholly novel that an accident,

      With its dark lordship, and blind agency,

      Should force me on with it.

      ILLO.

                     First hear him only,

      And after weigh it.

      [Exeunt TERZKY and ILLO.]

      SCENE IV

      WALLENSTEIN (in soliloquy).

                     Is it possible?

      Is't so! I can no longer what I would?

      No longer draw back at my liking? I

      Must do the deed, because I thought of it?

      And fed this heart here with a dream? Because

      I did not scowl temptation from my presence,

      Dallied with thoughts of possible fulfilment,

      Commenced no movement, left all time uncertain,

      And only kept the road, the access open?

      By the great God of Heaven! it was not

      My serious meaning, it was ne'er resolved.

      I but amused myself with thinking of it.

      The free-will tempted me, the power to do

      Or not to do it—Was it criminal

      To make the fancy minister to hope,

      To fill the air with pretty toys of air,

      And clutch fantastic sceptres moving t'ward me!

      Was not the will kept free? Beheld I not

      The road of duty close beside me—but

      One little step, and once more I was in it!

      Where am I? Whither have I been transported?

      No road, no track behind me, but a wall

      Impenetrable, insurmountable,

      Rises obedient to the spells I muttered

      And meant not—my own doings tower behind me.

      [Pauses and remains in deep thought.]

      A punishable man I seem; the guilt,

      Try what I will, I cannot roll off from me;

      The equivocal demeanor of my life

      Bears witness on my prosecutor's party.

      And even my purest acts from purest motives

      Suspicion poisons with malicious gloss.

      Were I that thing for which I pass, that traitor,

      A goodly outside I had sure reserved,

      Had drawn the coverings thick and double round me,

      Been calm and chary of my utterance;

      But being conscious СКАЧАТЬ