The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition). Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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They know all.
Duchess. What hast thou done?
Countess (to Tertsky). Is there no hope? Is all lost utterly? 5
Tertsky. All lost. No hope. Prague in the Emperor’s hands,
The soldiery have ta’en their oaths anew.
Countess. That lurking hypocrite. Octavio!
Count Max is off too?
Tertsky. Where can he be? He’s
Gone over to the Emperor with his father. 10
[THEKLA rushes out into the arms of her mother, hiding
her face in her bosom.
Duchess (enfolding her in her arms). Unhappy child! and more
unhappy mother!
Wallenstein (aside to Tertsky). Quick! Let a carriage stand in
readiness
In the court behind the palace. Scherfenberg
Be their attendant; he is faithful to us;
To Egra he’ll conduct them, and we follow. 15
[To ILLO, who returns.
Thou hast not brought them back?
Illo. Hear’st thou the uproar?
The whole corps of the Pappenheimers is
Drawn out: the younger Piccolomini,
Their colonel, they require; for they affirm,
That he is in the palace here, a prisoner; 20
And if thou dost not instantly deliver him,
They will find means to free him with the sword.
Tertsky. What shall we make of this?
Wallenstein. Said I not so?
O my prophetic heart! he is still here.
He has not betrayed me — he could not betray me. 25
I never doubted of it.
Countess. If he be
Still here, then all goes well; for I know what
[Embracing THEKLA.
Will keep him here for ever.
Tertsky. It can’t be.
His father has betrayed us, is gone over
To the Emperor — the son could not have ventured 30
To stay behind.
Thekla (her eye fixed on the door). There he is!
[After 22] [All stand amazed. 1800, 1828, 1829.
SCENE VI
To these enter MAX PICCOLOMINI.
Max. Yes! here he is! I can endure no longer
To creep on tiptoe round this house, and lurk
In ambush for a favourable moment.
This loitering, this suspense exceeds my powers.
[Advancing to THEKLA.
Turn not thine eyes away. O look upon me! 5
Confess it freely before all. Fear no one,
Let who will hear that we both love each other.
Wherefore continue to conceal it? Secrecy
Is for the happy — misery, hopeless misery,
Needeth no veil! Beneath a thousand suns 10
It dares act openly.
[He observes the COUNTESS looking on THEKLA with
expressions of triumph.
No, Lady! No!
Expect not, hope it not. I am not come
To stay: to bid farewell, farewell for ever.
For this I come! ‘Tis over! I must leave thee!
Thekla, I must — must leave thee! Yet thy hatred 15
Let me not take with me. I pray thee, grant me
One look of sympathy, only one look.
Say that thou dost not hate me. Say it to me, Thekla!
[Grasps her hand.
O God! I cannot leave this spot — I cannot!
Cannot let go this hand. O tell me, Thekla! 20
That thou dost suffer with me, art convinced
That I cannot act otherwise.
[THEKLA, avoiding his look, points with her hand to
her father. MAX turns round to the DUKE, whom
he had not till then perceived.
Thou here? It was not thou, whom here I sought.
I trusted never more to have beheld thee.
My business is with her alone. Here will I 25
Receive a full acquittal from this heart —
For any other I am no more concerned.
Wallenstein. Think’st thou, that fool-like, I shall let thee go,
And act the mock-magnanimous with thee?
Thy father is become a villain to me; 30
I hold thee for his son, and nothing more:
Nor to no purpose shalt thou have been given
Into my power. Think not, that I will honour
That ancient love, which so remorselessly
He mangled. They are now past by, those hours 35
Of friendship and forgiveness. Hate and vengeance
Succeed—’tis now their turn — I too can throw
All feelings of the man aside — can prove
Myself as much a monster as thy father!
Max. Thou wilt proceed with me, as thou hast power. 40
Thou know’st, I neither brave nor fear thy rage.
What has detained me here, that too thou know’st.
[Taking THEKLA by the hand.
See, Duke! All — all would I have owed to thee,
Would have received from thy paternal hand
The lot of blessed spirits. This hast thou 45
Laid waste for ever — that concerns not thee.
Indifferent thou tramplest in the dust
Their happiness, who most are thine. The god
Whom thou dost serve, is no benignant deity.
Like as the blind irreconcileable 50
Fierce element, incapable of compact,
Thy heart’s wild impulse only dost thou follow.
Wallenstein. Thou art describing thy own father’s heart.
The adder! O, the charms of hell o’erpowered me.
He dwelt within me, to my inmost soul 55
Still to and fro he passed, suspected never!
On the wide ocean, in the starry heaven
Did mine eyes seek the enemy, whom I
In my heart’s heart had folded! Had I been
To Ferdinand what Octavio was to me, 60