The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Iii Part 79

In the Chartreuse, which he himself did found At Gitschin, rests the Countess Wallenstein; And by her side, to whom he was indebted For his first fortunes, gratefully he wish'd He might sometime repose in death! O let him Be buried there. And likewise, for my husband's Remains, I ask the like grace. The Emperor Is now the proprietor of all our castles.

This sure may well be granted us--one sepulchre Beside the sepulchres of our forefathers!

OCTAVIO.

Countess, you tremble, you turn pale!

COUNTESS _(re-a.s.sembles all her powers, and speaks with energy and dignity)_.

You think More worthily of me than to believe I would survive the downfall of my house.

We did not hold ourselves too mean to grasp After a monarch's crown--the crown did fate Deny, but not the feeling and the spirit That to the crown belong! We deem a Courageous death more worthy of our free station Than a dishonor'd life.--I have taken poison.

OCTAVIO.

Help! Help! Support her!

COUNTESS.

Nay, it is too late, In a few moments is my fate accomplish'd.

[_Exit_ COUNTESS.]

GORDON.

O house of death and horrors!

[_An_ OFFICER _enters, and brings a letter with the great seal_. GORDON _steps forward and meets him._]

What is this?

It is the Imperial Seal.

[_He reads the address, and delivers the letter to_ OCTAVIO _with a look of reproach, and with an emphasis on the word._]

To the _Prince_ Piccolomini.

[OCTAVIO, _with his whole frame expressive of sudden anguish, raises his eyes to heaven_.]

[_The Curtain drops._]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 22: Thomas: The Life and Works of Schiller, p. 330.]

[Footnote 23: Permission The Macmillan Co., New York, and G. Bell & Sons, London.]

[Footnote 24: A great stone near Lutzen, since called the Swede's Stone, the body of their great king having been found at the foot of it, after the battle in which he lost his life.]

[Footnote 25: Could I have hazarded such a Germanism as the use of the word after-world, for posterity--"Es spreche Welt und _Nachwelt_ meinen Namen" might have been rendered with more literal fidelity:--Let world and after-world speak out my name, etc.]

[Footnote 26: I have not ventured to affront the fastidious delicacy of our age with a literal translation of this line,

werth Die Eingeweide schaudernd aufzureger.]

[Footnote 27: Anspessade, in German Gefreiter, a soldier inferior to a corporal, but above the sentinels. The German name implies that he is exempt from mounting guard.]

[Footnote 28: I have here ventured to omit a considerable number of lines. I fear that I should not have done amiss, had I taken this liberty more frequently. It is, however, inc.u.mbent on me to give the original, with a literal translation.

Weh denen, die auf Dich vertraun, an Dich Die sichre Hutte illres Gluckes lehnen, Gelockt von deiner geistlichen Gestalt.

Schnell unverhofft, bei nachtlich stiller Weile Gahrts in dem tuckschen Feuerschlunde, ladet Sich aus mit tobender Gewalt, und weg Treibt uber alle Pflanzungen der Menschen Der Wilde Strom in grausender Zerstorung.

WALLENSTEIN.

Du schilderst deines Vaters Herz. Wie Du's Beschreibst, so ist's in seinem Eingeweide, In dieser schwarzen Heuchlers Brust gestaltet.

O, mich hat Hollenkunst getauscht! Mir sandte Der Abgrund den verflecktesten der Geister, Den Lugenkundigsten herauf, and stellt' ihn Als Freund an meiner Seite. Wer vermag Der Holle Macht zu widerstehn! Ich zog Den Basilisken auf an meinem Busen, Mit meinem Herzblut nahrt ich ihn, er sog Sich schwelgend voll an meiner Liebe Brusten, Ich hatte nimmer Arges gegen ihn, Weit offen liess ich des Gedankens Th.o.r.e, Und warf die Schlussel weiser Vorsicht weg, Am Sternenhimmel, etc.

LITERAL TRANSLATION

Alas! for those who place their confidence on thee, against thee lean the secure hut of their happiness, allured by thy hospitable form.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, in a moment still as night, there is a fermentation in the treacherous gulf of fire; it discharges itself with raging force, and away over all the plantations of men drives the wild stream in frightful devastation.--WALLENSTEIN. Thou art portraying thy father's heart; as thou describest, even so is it shaped in his entrails, in this black hypocrite's breast. O, the art of h.e.l.l has deceived me! The Abyss sent up to me the most spotted of the spirits, the most skilful in lies, and placed him as a friend by my side. Who may withstand the power of h.e.l.l? I took the basilisk to my bosom, with my heart's blood I nourished him; he sucked himself glutfull at the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of my love. I never harbored evil toward him; wide open did I leave the door of my thoughts; I threw away the key of wise foresight. In the starry heaven, etc.--We find a difficulty in believing this to have been written by Schiller.]

[Footnote 29: This is a poor and inadequate translation of the affectionate simplicity of the original--

Sie alle waren Fremdlinge; _Du_ warst Das Kind des Hauses.

Indeed the whole speech is in the best style of Ma.s.singer. _O si sic omnia!_]

[Footnote 30: It appears that the account of his conversion being caused by such a fall, and other stories of his juvenile character, are not well authenticated.]

[Footnote 31: We doubt the propriety of putting so blasphemous a statement in the mouth of any character.--T.]

[Footnote 32: This soliloquy, which, according to the former arrangement; const.i.tuted the whole of Scene IX., and concluded the Fourth Act, is omitted in all the printed German editions. It seems probable that it existed in the original ma.n.u.script from which Mr.

Coleridge translated.--Ed.]

[Footnote 33: The soliloquy of Thekla consists in the original of six-and-twenty lines, twenty of which are in rhymes of irregular recurrence. I thought it prudent to abridge it. Indeed the whole scene between Thekla and Lady Neubrunn might, perhaps have been omitted without injury to the play.--C.]

[Footnote 34: These four lines are expressed in the original with exquisite felicity--

Am Himmel ist geschaftige Bewegung.

Des Thurmes Fahne jagt der Wind, schnell geht Der Wolken Zug, die _Mondessichel w.a.n.kt_, Und durch die Nacht zuckt ungewisse h.e.l.le.

The word "moon-sickle," reminds me of a pa.s.sage in Harris, as quoted by Johnson, under the word "falcated." "The enlightened part of the moon appears in the form of a sickle or reaping-hook, which is while she is moving from the conjunction to the opposition, or from the new moon to the full: but from full to a new again, the enlightened part appears gibbous, and the dark _falcated_."

The words "w.a.n.ken" and "schweben" are not easily translated. The English words, by which we attempt to render them, are either vulgar or pedantic, or not of sufficiently general application. So "der Wolken Zug"--literally, The Draft, the Procession of clouds; freely--The Ma.s.ses of the Clouds sweep onward in swift _stream_.]

[Footnote 35: A very inadequate translation of the original--

Verschmerzen werd' ich diesen Schlag, das weiss ich, Denn was verschmerzte nicht der Mensch!