The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 84

_Countess._ He parts not from you! He can not part from you.

_Thekla._ Alas for his sore anguish! It will rend 75 His heart asunder.

_Countess._ If indeed he loves you, His resolution will be speedily taken.

_Thekla._ His resolution will be speedily taken-- O do not doubt of that! A resolution!

Does there remain one to be taken?

_Countess._ Hush! 80 Collect yourself! I hear your mother coming.

_Thekla._ How shall I bear to see her?

_Countess._ Collect yourself.

LINENOTES:

[2] _still . . . this_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[3] _this_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[9] _you_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[20] _my_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[31] _You_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[37] _not_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[72] Prove _good_ 1800.

[74] _can_ 1800.

[80] _taken_ 1800.

SCENE III

_To them enter the d.u.c.h.eSS._

_d.u.c.h.ess (to the Countess)._ Who was here, sister? I heard some one talking, And pa.s.sionately too.

_Countess._ Nay! There was no one.

_d.u.c.h.ess._ I am grown so timorous, every trifling noise Scatters my spirits, and announces to me The footstep of some messenger of evil. 5 And can you tell me, sister, what the event is?

Will he agree to do the Emperor's pleasure, And send the horse-regiments to the Cardinal?

Tell me, has he dismissed Von Questenberg With a favourable answer?

_Countess._ No, he has not. 10

_d.u.c.h.ess._ Alas! then all is lost! I see it coming, The worst that can come! Yes, they will depose him; The accursed business of the Regenspurg diet Will all be acted o'er again!

_Countess._ No! never!

Make your heart easy, sister, as to that. 15

[_THEKLA throws herself upon her mother, and enfolds her in her arms, weeping._

_d.u.c.h.ess._ Yes, my poor child!

Thou too hast lost a most affectionate G.o.dmother In the Empress. O that stern unbending man!

In this unhappy marriage what have I Not suffered, not endured. For ev'n as if 20 I had been linked on to some wheel of fire That restless, ceaseless, whirls impetuous onward, I have pa.s.sed a life of frights and horrors with him, And ever to the brink of some abyss With dizzy headlong violence he whirls me. 25 Nay, do not weep, my child! Let not my sufferings Presignify unhappiness to thee, Nor blacken with their shade the fate that waits thee.

There lives no second Friedland: thou, my child, 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.

_d.u.c.h.ess._ 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 pa.s.s 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?

_d.u.c.h.ess._ 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 n.o.ble 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.

_d.u.c.h.ess._ What now? Why is she going? 70

_Countess._ She's not well.

_d.u.c.h.ess._ What ails then my beloved child?