The Piccolomini

Friedrich Schiller

The Piccolomini: A Play

PREFACE

The two dramas, – PICCOLOMINI, or the first part of WALLENSTEIN, and the DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN, are introduced in the original manuscript by a prelude in one act, entitled WALLENSTEIN'S CAMP. This is written in rhyme, and in nine-syllable verse, in the same lilting metre (if that expression may be permitted), with the second Eclogue of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar.

This prelude possesses a sort of broad humor, and is not deficient in character: but to have translated it into prose, or into any other metre than that of the original, would have given a false idea both of its style and purport; to have translated it into the same metre would have been incompatible with a faithful adherence to the sense of the German from the comparative poverty of our language in rhymes; and it would have been unadvisable, from the incongruity of those lax verses with the present taste of the English public. Schiller's intention seems to have been merely to have prepared his reader for the tragedies by a lively picture of laxity of discipline and the mutinous dispositions of Wallenstein's soldiery. It is not necessary as a preliminary explanation. For these reasons it has been thought expedient not to translate it.

The admirers of Schiller, who have abstracted their idea of that author from the Robbers, and the Cabal and Love, plays in which the main interest is produced by the excitement of curiosity, and in which the curiosity is excited by terrible and extraordinary incident, will not have perused without some portion of disappointment the dramas, which it has been my employment to translate. They should, however, reflect that these are historical dramas taken from a popular German history; that we must, therefore, judge of them in some measure with the feelings of Germans; or, by analogy, with the interest excited in us by similar dramas in our own language. Few, I trust, would be rash or ignorant enough to compare Schiller with Shakspeare; yet, merely as illustration, I would say that we should proceed to the perusal of Wallenstein, not from Lear or Othello, but from Richard II., or the three parts of Henry VI. We scarcely expect rapidity in an historical drama; and many prolix speeches are pardoned from characters whose names and actions have formed the most amusing tales of our early life. On the other hand, there exist in these plays more individual beauties, more passages whose excellence will bear reflection than in the former productions of Schiller. The description of the Astrological Tower, and the reflections of the Young Lover, which follow it, form in the original a fine poem; and my translation must have been wretched indeed if it can have wholly overclouded the beauties of the scene in the first act of the first play between Questenberg, Max, and Octavio Piccolomini. If we except the scene of the setting sun in the Robbers, I know of no part in Schiller's plays which equals the first scene of the fifth act of the concluding plays. [In this edition, scene iii., act v.] It would be unbecoming in me to be more diffuse on this subject. A translator stands connected with the original author by a certain law of subordination which makes it more decorous to point out excellences than defects; indeed, he is not likely to be a fair judge of either. The pleasure or disgust from his own labor will mingle with the feelings that arise from an afterview of the original. Even in the first perusal of a work in any foreign language which we understand, we are apt to attribute to it more excellence than it really possesses from our own pleasurable sense of difficulty overcome without effort. Translation of poetry into poetry is difficult, because the translator must give a brilliancy to his language without that warmth of original conception from which such brilliancy would follow of its own accord. But the translator of a living author is incumbered with additional inconveniences. If he render his original faithfully as to the sense of each passage, he must necessarily destroy a considerable portion of the spirit; if he endeavor to give a work executed according to laws of compensation he subjects himself to imputations of vanity or misrepresentation. I have thought it my duty to remain bound by the sense of my original with as few exceptions as the nature of the languages rendered possible. S. T. C.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

WALLENSTEIN, Duke of Friedland, Generalissimo of the Imperial Forces in the Thirty Years' War.

OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, Lieutenant-General.

MAX. PICCOLOMINI, his Son, Colonel of a Regiment of Cuirassiers.

COUNT TERZKY, the Commander of several Regiments, and Brother-in-law of Wallenstein.

ILLO, Field-Marshal, Wallenstein's Confidant.

ISOLANI, General of the Croats.

BUTLER, an Irishman, Commander of a Regiment of Dragoons.

TIEFENBACH, |

DON MARADAS, | Generals under Wallenstein.

GOETZ, |

KOLATTO, |

NEUMANN, Captain of Cavalry, Aide-de-Camp to Terzky.

VON QUESTENBERG, the War Commissioner, Imperial Envoy.

BAPTISTA SENI, an Astrologer.

DUCHESS OF FRIEDLAND, Wife of Wallenstein.

THEKLA, her Daughter, Princess of Friedland.

THE COUNTESS TERZRY, Sister of the Duchess.

A CORNET.

COLONELS and GENERALS (several).

PAGES and ATTENDANTS belonging to Wallenstein.

ATTENDANTS and HOBOISTS belonging to Terzky.

MASTER OF THE CELLAR to Count Terzky.

VALET DE CHAMBRE of Count Piccolomini.

ACT I

SCENE I

An old Gothic Chamber in the Council-House at Pilsen, decorated with Colors and other War Insignia.

ILLO, with BUTLER and ISOLANI.

ILLOYe have come too late-but ye are come! The distance,   Count Isolani, excuses your delay.ISOLANI   Add this too, that we come not empty-handed.   At Donauwerth1 it was reported to us,   A Swedish caravan was on its way,   Transporting a rich cargo of provision,   Almost six hundreds wagons. This my Croats   Plunged down upon and seized, this weighty prize! —   We bring it hither —ILLO              Just in time to banquet   The illustrious company assembled here.BUTLER   'Tis all alive! a stirring scene here!ISOLANI                      Ay!   The very churches are full of soldiers.

[Casts his eye round.

   And in the council-house, too, I observe,   You're settled quite at home! Well, well! we soldiers   Must shift and suit us in what way we can.ILLO   We have the colonels here of thirty regiments.   You'll find Count Terzky here, and Tiefenbach,   Kolatto, Goetz, Maradas, Hinnersam,   The Piccolomini, both son and father —   You'll meet with many an unexpected greeting   From many an old friend and acquaintance. Only   Gallas is wanting still, and Altringer.BUTLER   Expect not Gallas.ILLO (hesitating)             How so? Do you know —ISOLANI (interrupting him)   Max. Piccolomini here? O bring me to him.   I see him yet ('tis now ten years ago,   We were engaged with Mansfeldt hard by Dessau),   I see the youth, in my mind's eye I see him,   Leap his black war-horse from the bridge adown,   And t'ward his father, then in extreme peril,   Beat up against the strong tide of the Elbe.   The down was scarce upon his chin! I hear   He has made good the promise of his youth,   And the full hero now is finished in him.ILLO   You'll see him yet ere evening. He conducts

The Duchess Friedland hither, and the princess2 From Caernthen3. We expect them here at noon.

BUTLER   Both wife and daughter does the duke call hither?   He crowds in visitants from all sides.ISOLANI                      Hm!   So much the better! I had framed my mind   To hear of naught but warlike circumstance,   Of marches and attacks, and batteries;   And lo! the duke provides, and something too   Of gentler sort and lovely, should be present   To feast our eyes.ILLO (who has been standing in the attitude of meditation, to BUTLER,whom he leads a little on one side)             And how came you to know   That the Count Gallas joins us not?BUTLER                     Because   He importuned me to remain behind.ILLO (with warmth)   And you? You hold out firmly!

[Grasping his hand with affection.

                   Noble Butler!BUTLER   After the obligation which the duke   Had laid so newly on me —ILLO                 I had forgotten   A pleasant duty – major-general,   I wish you joy!ISOLANI           What, you mean, of this regiment?   I hear, too, that to make the gift still sweeter,   The duke has given him the very same   In which he first saw service, and since then   Worked himself step by step, through each preferment,   From the ranks upwards. And verily, it gives   A precedent of hope, a spur of action   To the whole corps, if once in their remembrance   An old deserving soldier makes his way.BUTLER   I am perplexed and doubtful whether or no   I dare accept this your congratulation.   The emperor has not yet confirmed the appointment.ISOLANI   Seize it, friend, seize it! The hand which in that post   Placed you is strong enough to keep you there,   Spite of the emperor and his ministers!ILLO   Ay, if we would but so consider it! —   If we would all of us consider it so!   The emperor gives us nothing; from the duke   Comes all – whate'er we hope, whate'er we have.ISOLANI (to ILLO)   My noble brother! did I tell you how   The duke will satisfy my creditors?   Will be himself my bankers for the future,   Make me once more a creditable man!   And this is now the third time, think of that!   This kingly-minded man has rescued me   From absolute ruin and restored my honor.ILLO   Oh that his power but kept pace with his wishes!   Why, friend! he'd give the whole world to his soldiers.   But at Vienna, brother! – here's the grievance, —   What politic schemes do they not lay to shorten   His arm, and where they can to clip his pinions.   Then these new dainty requisitions! these   Which this same Questenberg brings hither!BUTLER                         Ay!   Those requisitions of the emperor —   I too have heard about them; but I hope   The duke will not draw back a single inch!ILLO   Not from his right most surely, unless first   From office!BUTLER (shocked and confused)          Know you aught then? You alarm me.ISOLANI (at the same time with BUTLER, and in a hurrying voice)   We should be ruined, every one of us!ILLO   Yonder I see our worthy friend [spoken with a sneer] approaching   With the Lieutenant-General Piccolomini.BUTLER (shaking his head significantly)   I fear we shall not go hence as we came.

SCENE II

Enter OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI and QUESTENBERG.

OCTAVIO (still in the distance)   Ay! ah! more still! Still more new visitors!   Acknowledge, friend! that never was a camp,   Which held at once so many heads of heroes.QUESTENBERG   Let none approach a camp of Friedland's troops   Who dares to think unworthily of war;   E'en I myself had nigh forgot its evils   When I surveyed that lofty soul of order,   By which, while it destroys the world – itself   Maintains the greatness which itself created.OCTAVIO (approaching nearer)   Welcome, Count Isolani!ISOLANI               My noble brother!   Even now am I arrived; it has been else my duty —OCTAVIO   And Colonel Butler – trust me, I rejoice   Thus to renew acquaintance with a man   Whose worth and services I know and honor.   See, see, my friend!   There might we place at once before our eyes   The sum of war's whole trade and mystery —

[To QUESTENBERG, presenting BUTLER and ISOLANI at the same time

      to him.   These two the total sum – strength and despatch.QUESTENBERG (to OCTAVIO)   And lo! betwixt them both, experienced prudence!OCTAVIO (presenting QUESTENBERG to BUTLER and ISOLANI)   The Chamberlain and War-Commissioner Questenberg.   The bearer of the emperor's behests, —   The long-tried friend and patron of all soldiers,   We honor in this noble visitor.

[Universal silence.

ILLO (moving towards QUESTENBERG)   'Tis not the first time, noble minister,   You've shown our camp this honor.QUESTENBERG                    Once before   I stood beside these colors.ILLO   Perchance too you remember where that was;   It was at Znaeim 4 in Moravia, where   You did present yourself upon the part   Of the emperor to supplicate our duke   That he would straight assume the chief command.QUESTENBURG   To supplicate? Nay, bold general!   So far extended neither my commission   (At least to my own knowledge) nor my zeal.ILLO   Well, well, then – to compel him, if you choose,   I can remember me right well, Count Tilly   Had suffered total rout upon the Lech.   Bavaria lay all open to the enemy,   Whom there was nothing to delay from pressing   Onwards into the very heart of Austria.   At that time you and Werdenberg appeared   Before our general, storming him with prayers,   And menacing the emperor's displeasure,   Unless he took compassion on this wretchedness.ISOLANI (steps up to them)   Yes, yes, 'tis comprehensible enough,   Wherefore with your commission of to-day,   You were not all too willing to remember   Your former one.QUESTENBERG            Why not, Count Isolani?   No contradiction sure exists between them.   It was the urgent business of that time   To snatch Bavaria from her enemy's hand;   And my commission of to-day instructs me   To free her from her good friends and protectors.ILLO   A worthy office! After with our blood   We have wrested this Bohemia from the Saxon,   To be swept out of it is all our thanks,   The sole reward of all our hard-won victories.QUESTENBERG   Unless that wretched land be doomed to suffer   Only a change of evils, it must be   Freed from the scourge alike of friend or foe.ILLO   What? 'Twas a favorable year; the boors   Can answer fresh demands already.QUESTENBERG                     Nay,   If you discourse of herds and meadow-grounds —ISOLANI   The war maintains the war. Are the boors ruined   The emperor gains so many more new soldiers.QUESTENBERG   And is the poorer by even so many subjects.ISOLANI   Poh! we are all his subjects.QUESTENBERG   Yet with a difference, general! The one fill   With profitable industry the purse,   The others are well skilled to empty it.   The sword has made the emperor poor; the plough   Must reinvigorate his resources.ISOLANI                    Sure!   Times are not yet so bad. Methinks I see

[Examining with his eye the dress and ornaments of QUESTENBERG.

   Good store of gold that still remains uncoined.QUESTENBERG   Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to hide   Some little from the fingers of the Croats.ILLO   There! The Stawata and the Martinitz,   On whom the emperor heaps his gifts and graces,   To the heart-burning of all good Bohemians —   Those minions of court favor, those court harpies,   Who fatten on the wrecks of citizens   Driven from their house and home – who reap no harvests   Save in the general calamity —   Who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock   The desolation of their country – these,   Let these, and such as these, support the war,   The fatal war, which they alone enkindled!BUTLER   And those state-parasites, who have their feet   So constantly beneath the emperor's table,   Who cannot let a benefice fall, but they   Snap at it with dogs' hunger – they, forsooth,   Would pare the soldiers bread and cross his reckoning!ISOLANI   My life long will it anger me to think,   How when I went to court seven years ago,   To see about new horses for our regiment,   How from one antechamber to another   They dragged me on and left me by the hour   To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering   Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither   A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor   That fell beneath their tables. And, at last,   Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!   Straight I began to muster up my sins   For absolution – but no such luck for me!   This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom   I was to treat concerning the army horses!   And I was forced at last to quit the field,   The business unaccomplished. Afterwards   The duke procured me in three days what I   Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.QUESTENBERG   Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found their way to us!   Too well I know we have still accounts to settle.ILLO   War is violent trade; one cannot always   Finish one's work by soft means; every trifle   Must not be blackened into sacrilege.   If we should wait till you, in solemn council,   With due deliberation had selected   The smallest out of four-and-twenty evils,   I' faith we should wait long —   "Dash! and through with it!" That's the better watchword.   Then after come what may come. 'Tis man's nature   To make the best of a bad thing once past.   A bitter and perplexed "what shall I do?"   Is worse to man than worst necessity.QUESTENBERG   Ay, doubtless, it is true; the duke does spare us   The troublesome task of choosing.BUTLER                    Yes, the duke   Cares with a father's feelings for his troops;   But how the emperor feels for us, we see.QUESTENBERG   His cares and feelings all ranks share alike,   Nor will he offer one up to another.ISOLANI   And therefore thrusts he us into the deserts   As beasts of prey, that so he may preserve   His dear sheep fattening in his fields at home.QUESTENBERG (with a sneer)   Count! this comparison you make, not I.ILLO   Why, were we all the court supposes us   'Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty.QUESTENBERG (gravely)   You have taken liberty – it was not given you,   And therefore it becomes an urgent duty   To rein it in with the curbs.ILLO   Expect to find a restive steed in us.QUESTENBERG   A better rider may be found to rule it.ILLO   He only brooks the rider who has tamed him.QUESTENBERG   Ay, tame him once, and then a child may lead him.ILLO   The child, we know, is found for him already.QUESTENBERG   Be duty, sir, your study, not a name.BUTLER (who has stood aside with PICCOLOMINI, but with visible interest in the conversation, advances)   Sir president, the emperor has in Germany   A splendid host assembled; in this kingdom   Full twenty thousand soldiers are cantoned,   With sixteen thousand in Silesia;   Ten regiments are posted on the Weser,   The Rhine, and Maine; in Swabia there are six,   And in Bavaria twelve, to face the Swedes;   Without including in the account the garrisons   Who on the frontiers hold the fortresses.   This vast and mighty host is all obedient   To Friedland's captains; and its brave commanders,   Bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk,   Are all excited by one heart and soul;   They are as strangers on the soil they tread,   The service is their only house and home.   No zeal inspires then for their country's cause,   For thousands like myself were born abroad;   Nor care they for the emperor, for one half   Deserting other service fled to ours,   Indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere,   The Double Eagle, Lily, or the Lion.   Yet one sole man can rein this fiery host   By equal rule, by equal love and fear;   Blending the many-nationed whole in one;   And like the lightning's fires securely led   Down the conducting rod, e'en thus his power   Rules all the mass, from guarded post to post,   From where the sentry hears the Baltic roar,   Or views the fertile vales of the Adige,   E'en to the body-guard, who holds his watch   Within the precincts of the imperial palace!QUESTENBERG   What's the short meaning of this long harangue?BUTLER   That the respect, the love, the confidence,   Which makes us willing subjects of Duke Friedland,   Are not to be transferred to the first comer   That Austria's court may please to send to us.   We have not yet so readily forgotten   How the command came into Friedland's hands.   Was it, forsooth, the emperor's majesty   That gave the army ready to his hand,   And only sought a leader for it? No.   The army then had no existence. He,   Friedland, it was who called it into being,   And gave it to his sovereign – but receiving   No army at his hand; nor did the emperor   Give Wallenstein to us as general. No,   It was from Wallenstein we first received   The emperor as our master and our sovereign;   And he, he only, binds us to our banners!OCTAVIO (interposing and addressing QUESTENBERG)   My noble friend,   This is no more than a remembrancing   That you are now in camp, and among warriors;   The soldier's boldness constitutes his freedom.   Could he act daringly, unless he dared   Talk even so? One runs into the other.   The boldness of this worthy officer,

[Pointing to BUTLER.

   Which now is but mistaken in its mark,   Preserved, when naught but boldness could preserve it,   To the emperor, his capital city, Prague,   In a most formidable mutiny   Of the whole garrison. [Military music at a distance.               Hah! here they come!ILLO   The sentries are saluting them: this signal   Announces the arrival of the duchess.OCTAVIO (to QUESTENBERG)   Then my son Max., too, has returned. 'Twas he   Fetched and attended them from Caernthen hither.ISOLANI (to ILLO)   Shall we not go in company to greet them?ILLO   Well, let us go – Ho! Colonel Butler, come.

[To OCTAVIO.

   You'll not forget that yet ere noon we meet   The noble envoy at the general's palace.      [Exeunt all but QUESTENBERG and OCTAVIO.

SCENE III

QUESTENBERG and OCTAVIO.

QUESTENBERG (with signs of aversion and astonishment)   What have I not been forced to hear, Octavio!   What sentiments! what fierce, uncurbed defiance!   And were this spirit universal —OCTAVIO                     Hm!   You're now acquainted with three-fourths of the army.QUESTENBERG   Where must we seek, then, for a second host   To have the custody of this? That Illo   Thinks worse, I fear me, than he speaks. And then   This Butler, too – he cannot even conceal   The passionate workings of his ill intentions.OCTAVIO   Quickness of temper – irritated pride;   'Twas nothing more. I cannot give up Butler.   I know a spell that will soon dispossess   The evil spirit in him.QUESTENBERG (walking up and down in evident disquiet)               Friend, friend!   O! this is worse, far worse, than we had suffered   Ourselves to dream of at Vienna. There   We saw it only with a courtier's eyes,   Eyes dazzled by the splendor of the throne.   We had not seen the war-chief, the commander,   The man all-powerful in his camp. Here, here,   'Tis quite another thing.   Here is no emperor more – the duke is emperor.   Alas, my friend! alas, my noble friend!   This walk which you have ta'en me through the camp   Strikes my hopes prostrate.OCTAVIO                 Now you see yourself   Of what a perilous kind the office is,   Which you deliver to me from the court.   The least suspicion of the general   Costs me my freedom and my life, and would   But hasten his most desperate enterprise.QUESTENBERG   Where was our reason sleeping when we trusted   This madman with the sword, and placed such power   In such a hand? I tell you, he'll refuse,   Flatly refuse to obey the imperial orders.   Friend, he can do it, and what he can, he will.   And then the impunity of his defiance —   Oh! what a proclamation of our weakness!OCTAVIO   D'ye think, too, he has brought his wife and daughter   Without a purpose hither? Here in camp!   And at the very point of time in which   We're arming for the war? That he has taken   These, the last pledges of his loyalty,   Away from out the emperor's dominions —   This is no doubtful token of the nearness   Of some eruption.QUESTENBERG            How shall we hold footing   Beneath this tempest, which collects itself   And threats us from all quarters? The enemy   Of the empire on our borders, now already   The master of the Danube, and still farther,   And farther still, extending every hour!   In our interior the alarum-bells   Of insurrection – peasantry in arms —   All orders discontented – and the army,   Just in the moment of our expectation   Of aidance from it – lo! this very army   Seduced, run wild, lost to all discipline,   Loosened, and rent asunder from the state   And from their sovereign, the blind instrument   Of the most daring of mankind, a weapon   Of fearful power, which at his will he wields.OCTAVIO   Nay, nay, friend! let us not despair too soon   Men's words are even bolder than their deeds;   And many a resolute, who now appears   Made up to all extremes, will, on a sudden,   Find in his breast a heart he wot not of,   Let but a single honest man speak out   The true name of his crime! Remember, too,   We stand not yet so wholly unprotected.   Counts Altringer and Gallas have maintained   Their little army faithful to its duty,   And daily it becomes more numerous.   Nor can he take us by surprise; you know   I hold him all encompassed by my listeners.   What'er he does, is mine, even while 'tis doing —   No step so small, but instantly I hear it;   Yea, his own mouth discloses it.QUESTENBERG                    'Tis quite   Incomprehensible, that he detects not   The foe so near!OCTAVIO            Beware, you do not think,   That I, by lying arts, and complaisant   Hypocrisy, have sulked into his graces,   Or with the substance of smooth professions   Nourish his all-confiding friendship! No —   Compelled alike by prudence, and that duty   Which we all owe our country and our sovereign,   To hide my genuine feelings from him, yet   Ne'er have I duped him with base counterfeits!QUESTENBERG   It is the visible ordinance of heaven.OCTAVIO   I know not what it is that so attracts   And links him both to me and to my son.   Comrades and friends we always were – long habit,   Adventurous deeds performed in company,   And all those many and various incidents   Which stores a soldier's memory with affections,   Had bound us long and early to each other —   Yet I can name the day, when all at once   His heart rose on me, and his confidence   Shot out into sudden growth. It was the morning   Before the memorable fight at Luetzen.   Urged by an ugly dream, I sought him out,   To press him to accept another charger.   At a distance from the tents, beneath a tree,   I found him in a sleep. When I had waked him   And had related all my bodings to him,   Long time he stared upon me, like a man   Astounded: thereon fell upon my neck,   And manifested to me an emotion   That far outstripped the worth of that small service.   Since then his confidence has followed me   With the same pace that mine has fled from him.QUESTENBERG   You lead your son into the secret?OCTAVIO                     No!QUESTENBERG   What! and not warn him either, what bad hands   His lot has placed him in?OCTAVIO                 I must perforce   Leave him in wardship to his innocence.   His young and open soul – dissimulation   Is foreign to its habits! Ignorance   Alone can keep alive the cheerful air,   The unembarrassed sense and light free spirit,   That makes the duke secure.QUESTENBERG (anxiously)   My honored friend! most highly do I deem   Of Colonel Piccolomini – yet – if —   Reflect a little —OCTAVIO             I must venture it.   Hush! There he comes!