The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 54

_Max._ But wherefore comes she not?

Where is she?

_Countess._ Into my hands you must place it Whole and entire. Whom could you find, indeed, More zealously affected to your interest?

No soul on earth must know it--not your father. 20 He must not above all.

_Max._ Alas! what danger?

Here is no face on which I might concentre All the enraptured soul stirs up within me.

O Lady! tell me. Is all changed around me?

Or is it only I?

I find myself, 25 As among strangers! Not a trace is left Of all my former wishes, former joys.

Where has it vanished to? There was a time When even, methought, with such a world as this I was not discontented. Now how flat! 30 How stale! No life, no bloom, no flavour in it!

My comrades are intolerable to me.

My father--Even to him I can say nothing.

My arms, my military duties--O!

They are such wearying toys!

_Countess._ But, gentle friend! 35 I must entreat it of your condescension, You would be pleased to sink your eye, and favour With one short glance or two this poor stale world, Where even now much, and of much moment, Is on the eve of its completion.

_Max._ Something, 40 I can't but know, is going forward round me.

I see it gathering, crowding, driving on, In wild uncustomary movements. Well, In due time, doubtless, it will reach even me.

Where think you I have been, dear lady? Nay, 45 No raillery. The turmoil of the camp, The spring-tide of acquaintance rolling in, The pointless jest, the empty conversation, Oppress'd and stifled me. I gasped for air-- I could not breathe--I was constrain'd to fly, 50 To seek a silence out for my full heart; And a pure spot wherein to feel my happiness.

No smiling, Countess! In the church was I.

There is a cloister here to the heaven's gate,[644:1]

Thither I went, there found myself alone. 55 Over the altar hung a holy mother; A wretched painting 'twas, yet 'twas the friend That I was seeking in this moment. Ah, How oft have I beheld that glorious form In splendour, mid ecstatic worshippers; 60 Yet, still it moved me not! and now at once Was my devotion cloudless as my love.

_Countess._ Enjoy your fortune and felicity!

Forget the world around you. Meantime, friendship Shall keep strict vigils for you, anxious, active. 65 Only be manageable when that friendship Points you the road to full accomplishment.

How long may it be since you declared your pa.s.sion?

_Max._ This morning did I hazard the first word.

_Countess._ This morning the first time in twenty days? 70

_Max._ 'Twas at that hunting-castle, betwixt here And Nepomuck, where you had joined us, and-- That was the last relay of the whole journey!

In a balcony we were standing mute, And gazing out upon the dreary field: 75 Before us the dragoons were riding onward, The safe-guard which the Duke had sent us--heavy The inquietude of parting lay upon me, And trembling ventured I at length these words: This all reminds me, n.o.ble maiden, that 80 To-day I must take leave of my good fortune.

A few hours more, and you will find a father, Will see yourself surrounded by new friends, And I henceforth shall be but as a stranger, Lost in the many--'Speak with my aunt Tertsky!' 85 With hurrying voice she interrupted me.

She faltered. I beheld a glowing red Possess her beautiful cheeks, and from the ground Raised slowly up her eye met mine--no longer Did I control myself.

[_The PRINCESS THEKLA appears at the door, and remains standing, observed by the COUNTESS, but not by PICCOLOMINI._

With instant boldness 90 I caught her in my arms, my mouth touched hers; There was a rustling in the room close by; It parted us--'Twas you. What since has happened, You know.

_Countess._ And is it your excess of modesty; Or are you so incurious, that you do not 95 Ask me too of my secret?

_Max._ Of your secret?

_Countess._ Why, yes! When in the instant after you I stepped into the room, and found my niece there, What she in this first moment of the heart Ta'en with surprise--

_Max._ Well? 100

FOOTNOTES:

[642:1] All this is terribly childish, at least appears so to an _English_ lover. Besides it is modern French Comedy--for which, by the by, we want a word to distinguish it from the _toto caelo_ different Comedy which Shakespere and his contemporaries worked up into their Tragedy with such felicity of action and reaction. _MS. R_.

[644:1] I am doubtful whether this be the dedication of the cloister or the name of one of the city gates, near which it stood. I have translated it in the former sense; but fearful of having made some blunder, I add the original--Es ist ein Kloster hier _zur Himmelspforte_.

LINENOTES:

_Max (peeping in on the stage shyly)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[7] thanks] thank 1800, 1828, 1829.

[8] _my_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[17] _my_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[21] _He_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[72] _you_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[91] mouth] _lips_ MS. R.

[94] _Countess (after a pause, with a stolen glance at Thekla)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[96] _your_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[100] _Max (with eagerness)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

SCENE IV

_THEKLA (hurries forward), COUNTESS, MAX PICCOLOMINI._

_Thekla (to the Countess)._ Spare yourself the trouble: That hears he better from myself.

_Max._ My Princess!

What have you let her hear me say, aunt Tertsky?

_Thekla (to the Countess)._ Has he been here long?

_Countess._ Yes; and soon must go.

Where have you stayed so long?

_Thekla._ Alas! my mother 5 Wept so again! and I--I see her suffer, Yet cannot keep myself from being happy.

_Max._ Now once again I have courage to look on you.

To-day at noon I could not.