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

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СКАЧАТЬ Hast not to fear thy mother’s destiny. 30

      Thekla. O let us supplicate him, dearest mother!

       Quick! quick! here’s no abiding-place for us.

       Here every coming hour broods into life

       Some new affrightful monster.

      Duchess. Thou wilt share

       An easier, calmer lot, my child! We too, 35

       I and thy father, witnessed happy days.

       Still think I with delight of those first years,

       When he was making progress with glad effort,

       When his ambition was a genial fire,

       Not that consuming flame which now it is. 40

       The Emperor loved him, trusted him: and all

       He undertook could not but be successful.

       But since that ill-starred day at Regenspurg,

       Which plunged him headlong from his dignity,

       A gloomy uncompanionable spirit, 45

       Unsteady and suspicious, has possessed him.

       His quiet mind forsook him, and no longer

       Did he yield up himself in joy and faith

       To his old luck, and individual power;

       But thenceforth turned his heart and best affections 50

       All to those cloudy sciences, which never

       Have yet made happy him who followed them.

      Countess. You see it, sister! as your eyes permit you.

       But surely this is not the conversation

       To pass the time in which we are waiting for him. 55

       You know he will be soon here. Would you have him

       Find her in this condition?

      Duchess. Come, my child!

       Come, wipe away thy tears, and shew thy father

       A cheerful countenance. See, the tie-knot here

       Is off — this hair must not hang so dishevelled. 60

       Come, dearest! dry thy tears up. They deform

       Thy gentle eye — well now — what was I saying?

       Yes, in good truth, this Piccolomini

       Is a most noble and deserving gentleman.

      Countess. That is he, sister!

      Thekla (to the Countess). Aunt, you will excuse me? 65

      [Is going.

      Countess. But whither? See, your father comes.

      Thekla. I cannot see him now.

      Countess. Nay, but bethink you.

      Thekla. Believe me, I cannot sustain his presence.

      Countess. But he will miss you, will ask after you.

      Duchess. What now? Why is she going? 70

      Countess. She’s not well.

      Duchess. What ails then my beloved child?

      [Both follow the PRINCESS, and endeavour to detain her.

       During this WALLENSTEIN appears, engaged in

       conversation with ILLO.

      [Between 14, 15] [THEKLA, in extreme agitation, throws herself, &c.

       1800, 1828, 1829.

       spirits). 1800, 1828, 1829.

      [Before 72] Duchess (anxiously). 1800, 1828, 1829.

SCENE IV

       Table of Contents

      WALLENSTEIN, ILLO, COUNTESS, DUCHESS, THEKLA.

      Wallenstein. All quiet in the camp?

      Illo. It is all quiet.

      Wallenstein. In a few hours may couriers come from Prague

       With tidings, that this capital is ours.

       Then we may drop the mask, and to the troops

       Assembled in this town make known the measure 5

       And its result together. In such cases

       Example does the whole. Whoever is foremost

       Still leads the herd. An imitative creature

       Is man. The troops at Prague conceive no other,

       Than that the Pilsen army has gone through 10

       The forms of homage to us; and in Pilsen

       They shall swear fealty to us, because

       The example has been given them by Prague.

       Butler, you tell me, has declared himself.

      Illo. At his own bidding, unsolicited, 15

       He came to offer you himself and regiment.

      Wallenstein. I find we must not give implicit credence

       To every warning voice that makes itself

       Be listened to in the heart. To hold us back,

       Oft does the lying spirit counterfeit 20

       The voice of Truth and inward Revelation,

       Scattering false oracles. And thus have I

       To intreat forgiveness, for that secretly

       I’ve wrong’d this honourable gallant man,

       This Butler: for a feeling, of the which 25

       I am not master (fear I would not call it),

       Creeps o’er me instantly, with sense of shuddering,

       At his approach, and stops love’s joyous motion.

       And this same man, against whom I am warned,

       This honest man is he, who reaches to me 30

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