The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition). Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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СКАЧАТЬ without, and the wings of the door fly open.

      [Before 15] Seni (with gravity). 1800, 1828, 1829.

SCENE VII

       Table of Contents

      WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS.

      Wallenstein. You went then through Vienna, were presented

       To the Queen of Hungary?

      Duchess. Yes, and to the Empress too,

       And by both Majesties were we admitted

       To kiss the hand.

      Wallenstein. And how was it received,

       That I had sent for wife and daughter hither 5

       To the camp, in winter time?

      Duchess. I did even that

       Which you commissioned me to do. I told them,

       You had determined on our daughter’s marriage,

       And wished, ere yet you went into the field,

       To shew the elected husband his betrothed. 10

      Wallenstein. And did they guess the choice which I had made?

      Duchess. They only hoped and wished it may have fallen

       Upon no foreign nor yet Lutheran noble.

      Wallenstein. And you — what do you wish, Elizabeth?

      Duchess. Your will, you know, was always mine.

      Wallenstein. Well, then? 15

       And in all else, of what kind and complexion

       Was your reception at the court?

       Hide nothing from me. How were you received?

      Duchess. O! my dear lord, all is not what it was.

       A cankerworm, my lord, a cankerworm 20

       Has stolen into the bud.

      Wallenstein. Ay! is it so!

       What, they were lax? they failed of the old respect?

      Duchess. Not of respect. No honours were omitted,

       No outward courtesy; but in the place

       Of condescending, confidential kindness, 25

       Familiar and endearing, there were given me

       Only these honours and that solemn courtesy.

       Ah! and the tenderness which was put on,

       It was the guise of pity, not of favour.

       No! Albrecht’s wife, Duke Albrecht’s princely wife, 30

       Count Harrach’s noble daughter, should not so —

       Not wholly so should she have been received.

      Wallenstein. Yes, yes; they have ta’en offence. My latest

       conduct,

       They railed at it, no doubt.

      Duchess. O that they had!

       I have been long accustomed to defend you, 35

       To heal and pacify distempered spirits.

       No; no one railed at you. They wrapped them up,

       O Heaven! in such oppressive, solemn silence! —

       Here is no everyday misunderstanding,

       No transient pique, no cloud that passes over; 40

       Something most luckless, most unhealable,

       Has taken place. The Queen of Hungary

       Used formerly to call me her dear aunt,

       And ever at departure to embrace me —

      Wallenstein. Now she omitted it?

      Duchess. She did embrace me, 45

       But then first when I had already taken

       My formal leave, and when the door already

       Had closed upon me, then did she come out

       In haste, as she had suddenly bethought herself,

       And pressed me to her bosom, more with anguish 50

       Than tenderness.

      Wallenstein (seizes her hand soothingly). Nay, now collect

       yourself,

       And what of Eggenberg and Lichtenstein,

       And of our other friends there?

      Duchess. I saw none.

      Wallenstein. The Ambassador from Spain, who once was wont

       To plead so warmly for me? —

      Duchess. Silent, Silent! 55

      Wallenstein. These suns then are eclipsed for us. Henceforward

       Must we roll on, our own fire, our own light.

      Duchess. And were it — were it, my dear lord, in that

       Which moved about the court in buzz and whisper,

       But in the country let itself be heard 60

       Aloud — in that which Father Lamormain

       In sundry hints and ——

      Wallenstein. Lamormain! what said he?

      Duchess. That you’re accused of having daringly

       O’erstepped the powers entrusted to you, charged

       With traitorous contempt of the Emperor 65

       And his supreme behests. The proud Bavarian,

       He and the Spaniards stand up your accusers —

       That there’s a storm collecting over you

       Of far more fearful menace than that former one

       Which whirled you headlong down at Regensburg. 70

       And people talk, said he, of —— Ah! —

      Wallenstein. Proceed!

      Duchess. СКАЧАТЬ