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

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      COUNTESS.

      And still you are so calm?

      THEKLA.

      I am.

      COUNTESS.

      May 't please you, leave us, Lady Neubrunn. [Exit LADY NEUBRUNN.]

      SCENE II

      The COUNTESS, THEKLA

      COUNTESS.

      It does not please me, Princess, that he holds

      Himself so still, exactly at this time.

      THEKLA.

      Exactly at this time?

      COUNTESS.

                          He now knows all:

      'Twere now the moment to declare himself.

      THEKLA.

      If I'm to understand you, speak less darkly.

      COUNTESS.

      'Twas for that purpose that I bade her leave us.

      Thekla, you are no more a child. Your heart

      Is now no more in nonage: for you love,

      And boldness dwells with love—that you have proved

      Your nature molds itself upon your father's

      More than your mother's spirit. Therefore may you

      Hear, what were too much for her fortitude.

      THEKLA.

      Enough: no further preface, I entreat you.

      At once, out with it! Be it what it may,

      It is not possible that it should torture me

      More than this introduction. What have you

      To say to me? Tell me the whole, and briefly!

      COUNTESS.

      You'll not be frighten'd—

      THEKLA.

      Name it, I entreat you.

      COUNTESS.

      It lies within your power to do your father

      A weighty service—

      THEKLA.

      Lies within my power?

      COUNTESS.

      Max Piccolomini loves you. You can link him

      Indissolubly to your father.

      THEKLA.

                                   I?

      What need of me for that? And is he not

      Already link'd to him?

      COUNTESS.

      He was.

      THEKLA.

                               And wherefore

      Should he not be so now—not be so always?

      COUNTESS.

      He cleaves to the Emperor too.

      THEKLA.

                       Not more than duty

      And honor may demand of him.

      COUNTESS.

                                 We ask

      Proofs of his love, and not proofs of his honor.

      Duty and honor!

      Those are ambiguous words with many meanings.

      You should interpret them for him: his love

      Should be the sole definer of his honor.

      THEKLA.

      How?

      COUNTESS.

      The Emperor or you must he renounce.

      THEKLA.

      He will accompany my father gladly

      In his retirement. From himself you heard,

      How much he wish'd to lay aside the sword.

      COUNTESS.

      He must not lay the sword aside, we mean;

      He must unsheath it in your father's cause.

      THEKLA.

      He'll spend with gladness and alacrity

      His life, his heart's blood in my father's cause,

      If shame or injury be intended him.

      COUNTESS.

      You will not understand me. Well, hear then:—

      Your father has fallen off from the Emperor,

      And is about to join the enemy

      With the whole soldiery—

      THEKLA.

      Alas, my mother!

      COUNTESS.

      There needs a great example to draw on

      The army after him. The Piccolomini

      Possess the love and reverence of the troops;

      They govern all opinions, and wherever

      They lead the way none hesitate to follow.

      The son secures the father to our interests—

      You've much in your hands at this moment.

      THEKLA.

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