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

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      At length live thou for thy own self. I follow thee;

      My destiny I never part from thine.

      WALLENST.

      It is too late! Even now, while thou art losing

      Thy words, one after the other are the milestones

      Left fast behind by my post couriers

      Who bear the order on to Prague and Egra.

      [MAX stands as convulsed, with a gesture and countenance expressing the most intense anguish.]

      Yield thyself to it. We act as we are forced.

      I cannot give assent to my own shame

      And ruin. Thou—no—thou canst not forsake me!

      So let us do what must be done, with dignity,

      With a firm step. What am I doing worse

      Than did famed Cæsar at the Rubicon,

      When he the legions led against his country,

      The which his country had delivered to him?

      Had he thrown down the sword he had been lost,

      As I were if I but disarm'd myself.

      I trace out something in me of this spirit;

      Give me his luck, that other thing I'll bear.

      [MAX quits him abruptly. WALLENSTEIN startled and overpowered, continues looking after him and is still in this posture when TERZKY enters.]

      SCENE III

      WALLENSTEIN, TERZKY

      TERZKY.

      Max Piccolomini just left you?

      WALLENSTEIN.

      Where is Wrangel?

      TERZKY.

      He is already gone.

      WALLENSTEIN.

      In such a hurry?

      TERZKY.

      It is as if the earth had swallow'd him.

      He had scarce left thee when I went to seek him.

      I wish'd some words with him—but he was gone.

      How, when, and where, could no one tell me. Nay,

      I half believe it was the devil himself;

      A human creature could not so at once

      Have vanish'd.

      ILLO (enters).

                       Is it true that thou wilt send

      Octavio?

      TERZKY.

      How, Octavio! Whither send him?

      WALLENST.

      He goes to Frauenburg, and will lead hither

      The Spanish and Italian regiments.

      ILLO.

                         No!

      Nay, Heaven forbid!

      WALLENSTEIN.

      And why should Heaven forbid?

      ILLO.

      Him!—that deceiver! Wouldst thou trust to him

      The soldiery? Him wilt thou let slip from thee,

      Now in the very instant that decides us—

      TERZKY.

      Thou wilt not do this—No! I pray thee, no!

      WALLENST.

      Ye are whimsical.

      ILLO.

                   O but for this time, Duke,

      Yield to our warning! Let him not depart.

      WALLENST.

      And why should I not trust him only this time,

      Who have always trusted him? What, then, has happen'd

      That I should lose my good opinion of him?

      In complaisance to your whims, not my own,

      I must, forsooth, give up a rooted judgment.

      Think not I am a woman. Having trusted him

      E'en till today, today too will I trust him.

      TERZKY.

      Must it be he—he only? Send another.

      WALLENST.

      It must be he whom I myself have chosen;

      He is well fitted for the business. Therefore

      I gave it him.

      ILLO.

                             Because he's an Italian—

      Therefore is he well fitted for the business!

      WALLENST.

      I know you love them not—nor sire nor son—

      Because that I esteem them, love them—visibly

      Esteem them, love them more than you and others.

      E'en as they merit. Therefore are they eye-blights,

      Thorns in your foot-path. But your jealousies,

      In what affect they me or my concerns?

      Are they the worse to me because you hate them?

      Love or hate one another as you will,

      I leave to each man his own moods and likings;

      Yet know the worth of each of you to me.

      ILLO.

      Von СКАЧАТЬ