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

Автор: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Издательство: Bookwire

Жанр: Языкознание

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isbn: 9788027202430

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СКАЧАТЬ And thou wilt leave the army?

      Wallenstein. Rather hope I 5

       To bind it nearer still and faster to me. [He seats himself.

       Yes, Max, I have delayed to open it to thee,

       Even till the hour of acting ‘gins to strike.

       Youth’s fortunate feeling doth seize easily

       The absolute right, yea, and a joy it is 10

       To exercise the single apprehension

       Where the sums square in proof;

       But where it happens, that of two sure evils

       One must be taken, where the heart not wholly

       Brings itself back from out the strife of duties, 15

       There ‘tis a blessing to have no election,

       And blank necessity is grace and favour.

       — This is now present: do not look behind thee. —

       It can no more avail thee. Look thou forwards!

       Think not! judge not! prepare thyself to act! 20

       The Court — it hath determined on my ruin,

       Therefore I will to be beforehand with them.

       We’ll join the Swedes — right gallant fellows are they,

       And our good friends.

      [He stops himself, expecting PICCOLOMINI’S answer.

      I have ta’en thee by surprise. Answer me not. 25

       I grant thee time to recollect thyself.

      [He rises, and retires at the back of the stage. MAX

       remains for a long time motionless, in a trance

       of excessive anguish. At his first motion

       WALLENSTEIN returns, and places himself before

       him.

      Max. My General, this day thou makest me

       Of age to speak in my own right and person,

       For till this day I have been spared the trouble

       To find out my own road. Thee have I followed 30

       With most implicit unconditional faith,

       Sure of the right path if I followed thee.

       To-day, for the first time, dost thou refer

       Me to myself, and forcest me to make

       Election between thee and my own heart. 35

      Wallenstein. Soft cradled thee thy Fortune till to-day;

       Thy duties thou couldst exercise in sport,

       Indulge all lovely instincts, act for ever

       With undivided heart. It can remain

       No longer thus. Like enemies, the roads 40

       Start from each other. Duties strive with duties.

       Thou must needs choose thy party in the war

       Which is now kindling ‘twixt thy friend and him

       Who is thy Emperor.

      Max. War! is that the name?

       War is as frightful as heaven’s pestilence. 45

       Yet it is good, is it heaven’s will as that is.

       Is that a good war, which against the Emperor

       Thou wagest with the Emperor’s own army?

       O God of heaven! what a change is this.

       Beseems it me to offer such persuasion 50

       To thee, who like the fixed star of the pole

       Wert all I gazed at on life’s trackless ocean?

       O! what a rent thou makest in my heart!

       The ingrained instinct of old reverence.

       The holy habit of obediency, 55

       Must I pluck live asunder from thy name?

       Nay, do not turn thy countenance upon me —

       It always was as a god looking at me!

       Duke Wallenstein, its power is not departed:

       The senses still are in thy bonds, although, 60

       Bleeding, the soul hath freed itself.

      Wallenstein. Max, hear me.

      Max. O! do it not, I pray thee, do it not!

       There is a pure and noble soul within thee,

       Knows not of this unblest, unlucky doing.

       Thy will is chaste, it is thy fancy only 65

       Which hath polluted thee — and innocence,

       It will not let itself be driven away

       From that world-awing aspect. Thou wilt not,

       Thou canst not, end in this. It would reduce

       All human creatures to disloyalty 70

       Against the nobleness of their own nature.

       ‘Twill justify the vulgar misbelief,

       Which holdeth nothing noble in free will,

       And trusts itself to impotence alone

       Made powerful only in an unknown power. 75

      Wallenstein. The world will judge me sternly, I expect it.

       Already have I said to my own self

       All thou canst say to me. Who but avoids

       The extreme, — can he by going round avoid it?

       But here there is no choice. Yes — I must use 80

       Or suffer violence — so stands the case,

       There remains nothing possible but that.

      Max. O that is never possible for thee!

       ‘Tis the last desperate resource of those

       Cheap souls, to whom their honour, their good name 85

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