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

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ with me, I command thee! I, thy father.

      MAX.

      Command me what is human. I stay here.

      OCTAVIO.

      Max! in the Emperor's name I bid thee come.

      MAX.

      No Emperor has power to prescribe

      Laws to the heart; and wouldst thou wish to rob me

      Of the sole blessing which my fate has left me,

      Her sympathy? Must then a cruel deed

      Be done with cruelty? The unalterable

      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?

      MAX.

      The heart's voice thou hast not o'erpowered—as little

      Will Wallenstein be able to o'erpower it.

      OCTAVIO.

      O, Max! I see thee never more again!

      MAX.

      Unworthy of thee wilt thou never see me.

      OCTAVIO.

      I go to Frauenburg—the Pappenheimers

      I leave thee here, the Lothrings too; Tsokans

      And Tiefenbach remain here to protect thee.

      They love thee, and are faithful to their oath,

      And will far rather fall in gallant contest

      Than leave their rightful leader, and their honor.

      MAX.

      Rely on this, I either leave my life

      In the struggle, or conduct them out of Pilsen.

      OCTAVIO.

      Farewell, my son!

      MAX.

      Farewell!

      OCTAVIO.

                            How! not one look

      Of filial love? No grasp of the hand at parting?

      It is a bloody war to which we are going,

      And the event uncertain and in darkness.

      So used we not to part—it was not so!

      Is it then true? I have a son no longer?

      [MAX falls into his arms, they hold each other for a long time in a speechless embrace, then go away at different sides.]

      [The Curtain drops.]

* * * * *

      ACT III

      SCENE I

      A Chamber in the House of the Duchess of Friedland

      COUNTESS TERZKY, 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?

      I have been waiting for a word from you.

      And could you then endure in all this time

      Not once to speak his name?

      [THEKLA remaining silent, the COUNTESS rises and advances to her.]

                                  Why, how comes this!

      Perhaps I am already grown superfluous,

      And other ways exist, besides through me?

      Confess it to me, Thekla: have you seen him?

      THEKLA.

      Today and yesterday I have not seen him.

      COUNTESS.

      And not heard from him, either? Come, be open.

      THEKLA.

СКАЧАТЬ