The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Volume Iv Part 58

DRAMATIS PERSONae

FREDERICK WILLIAM, _Elector of Brandenburg_.

THE ELECTRESS.

PRINCESS NATALIE OF ORANGE, _his niece, Honorary Colonel of a regiment of Dragoons_.

FIELD-MARSHAL DoRFLING.

PRINCE FREDERICK ARTHUR OF HOMBURG, _General of cavalry_.

COLONEL KOTTWITZ, of the regiment of the Princess of Orange.

HENNINGS COUNT TRUCHSZ _Infantry Colonels_.

COUNT HOHENZOLLERN, _of the Elector's suite_.

VON DER GOLZ } COUNT GEORGE VON SPARREN STRANZ } SIEGFRIED VON MoRNER } _Captains of Cavalry_ COUNT REUSS } A SERGEANT }

_Officers. Corporals and troopers.

Ladies- and Gentlemen-in-waiting.

Pages. Lackeys. Servants. People of both s.e.xes, young and old_.

_Time_: 1675.

THE PRINCE OF HOMBURG (1810)

By HEINRICH VON KLEIST

TRANSLATED BY HERMANN HAGEDORN, A.B.

Author of _A Troop of the Guard and Other Poems_

ACT I

_Scene: Fehrbellin. A garden laid out in the old French style. In the background, a palace with a terrace from which a broad stair descends.

It is night._

SCENE I

_The_ PRINCE OF HOMBURG _sits with head bare and shirt unb.u.t.toned, half-sleeping, half waking, under an oak, binding a wreath. The_ ELECTOR, ELECTRESS, PRINCESS NATALIE, COUNT HOHENZOLLERN, CAPTAIN GOLZ _and others come stealthily out of the palace and look down upon him from the bal.u.s.trade of the terrace. Pages with torches._

HOHENZOLLERN. The Prince of Homburg, our most valiant cousin, Who these three days has pressed the flying Swedes Exultant at the cavalry's forefront, And scant of breath only today returned To camp at Fehrbellin--your order said That he should tarry here provisioning Three hours at most, and move once more apace Clear to the Hackel Hills to cope with Wrangel, Seeking to build redoubts beside the Rhyn?

ELECTOR. 'Tis so.

HOHENZOLLERN. Now having charged the commandants Of all his squadrons to depart the town Obedient to the plan, sharp ten at night, He flings himself exhausted on the straw Like a hound panting, his exhausted limbs To rest a little while against the fight Which waits us at the glimmering of dawn.

ELECTOR. I heard so! Well?

HOHENZOLLERN. Now when the hour strikes And in the stirrup now the cavalry Expectant paws the ground before the gates-- Who still absents himself The Prince of Homburg, Their chief. With lights they seek the valiant man, With torches, lanterns, and they find him--where?

[_He takes a torch from the hand of a page._]

As a somnambulist, look, on that bench, Whither in sleep, as you would ne'er believe, The moonshine lured him, vaguely occupied Imagining himself posterity And weaving for his brow the crown of fame.

ELECTOR. What!

HOHENZOLL. Oh, indeed! Look down here: there he sits!

[_From the terrace he throws the light on the_ PRINCE.]

ELECTOR. In slumber sunk? Impossible!

HOHENZOLLERN. In slumber Sunk as he is, speak but his name--he drops.

[_Pause._]

ELECTRESS. Sure as I live, the youth is taken ill.

NATALIE. He needs a doctor's care--

ELECTRESS. We should give help, Not waste time, gentlemen, meseems, in scorn.

HOHENZOLLERN (_handing back the torch_).

He's sound, you tender-hearted women folk, By Jove, as sound as I! He'll make the Swede Aware of that upon tomorrow's field.

It's nothing more, and take my word for it, Than a perverse and silly trick of the mind.

ELECTOR. By faith, I thought it was a fairy-tale!

Follow me, friends, we'll take a closer look.

[_They descend from the terrace._]

GENTLEMAN-IN-WAITING (_to the pages_).

Back with the torches!

[Ill.u.s.tration: #THE ROYAL CASTLE AT BERLIN#]

HOHENZOLLERN. Leave them, leave them, friends!

These precincts might roar up to heaven in fire And his soul be no more aware of it Than the bright stone he wears upon his hand.

[_They surround him, the pages illuminating the scene._]