The Piccolomini

SCENE VI

ILLO, WALLENSTEIN, TERZKY.

WALLENSTEIN   How stand affairs without? Are they prepared?ILLO   You'll find them in the very mood you wish.   They know about the emperor's requisition,   And are tumultuous.WALLENSTEIN              How hath Isolani   declared himself?ILLO             He's yours, both soul and body,   Since you built up again his faro-bank.WALLENSTEIN   And which way doth Kolatto bend? Hast thou   Made sure of Tiefenbach and Deodati?ILLO   What Piccolomini does that they do too.WALLENSTEIN   You mean, then, I may venture somewhat with them?ILLO   If you are assured of the Piccolomini.WALLENSTEIN   Not more assured of mine own self.TERZKY                     And yet   I would you trusted not so much to Octavio,   The fox!WALLENSTEIN        Thou teachest me to know my man?   Sixteen campaigns I have made with that old warrior.   Besides, I have his horoscope;   We both are born beneath like stars – in short,

[With an air of mystery.

   To this belongs its own peculiar aspect,   If therefore thou canst warrant me the rest —ILLO   There is among them all but this one voice,   You must not lay down the command. I hear   They mean to send a deputation to you.WALLENSTEIN   If I'm in aught to bind myself to them   They too must bind themselves to me.ILLO                      Of course.WALLENSTEIN   Their words of honor they must give, their oaths,   Give them in writing to me, promising   Devotion to my service unconditional.ILLO   Why not?TERZKY        Devotion unconditional?   The exception of their duties towards Austria   They'll always place among the premises.   With this reserve —WALLENSTEIN (shaking his head)              All unconditional;   No premises, no reserves.ILLO                 A thought has struck me.   Does not Count Terzky give us a set banquet   This evening?TERZKY          Yes; and all the generals   Have been invited.ILLO (to WALLENSTEIN)             Say, will you here fully   Commission me to use my own discretion?   I'll gain for you the generals' word of honor,   Even as you wish.WALLENSTEIN             Gain me their signatures!   How you come by them that is your concern.ILLO   And if I bring it to you in black on white,   That all the leaders who are present here   Give themselves up to you, without condition;   Say, will you then – then will you show yourself   In earnest, and with some decisive action   Try your fortune.WALLENSTEIN            Get but the signatures!ILLO   Think what thou dost, thou canst not execute   The emperor's orders, nor reduce thine army,   Nor send the regiments to the Spaniards' aid,   Unless thou wouldst resign thy power forever.   Think on the other hand – thou canst not spurn   The emperor's high commands and solemn orders,   Nor longer temporize, nor seek evasion,   Wouldst thou avoid a rupture with the court.   Resolve then! Wilt thou now by one bold act   Anticipate their ends, or, doubting still,   Await the extremity?WALLENSTEIN              There's time before   The extremity arrives.ILLO               Seize, seize the hour,   Ere it slips from you. Seldom comes the moment   In life, which is indeed sublime and weighty.   To make a great decision possible,   O! many things, all transient and all rapid,   Must meet at once: and, haply, they thus met   May by that confluence be enforced to pause   Time long-enough for wisdom, though too short,   Far, far too short a time for doubt and scruple!   This is that moment. See, our army chieftains,   Our best, our noblest, are assembled round you,   Their king-like leader! On your nod they wait.   The single threads, which here your prosperous fortune   Hath woven together in one potent web   Instinct with destiny, O! let them not   Unravel of themselves. If you permit   These chiefs to separate, so unanimous   Bring you them not a second time together.   'Tis the high tide that heaves the stranded ship,   And every individual's spirit waxes   In the great stream of multitudes. Behold   They are still here, here still! But soon the war   Bursts them once more asunder, and in small   Particular anxieties and interests   Scatters their spirit, and the sympathy   Of each man with the whole. He who to-day   Forgets himself, forced onward with the stream,   Will become sober, seeing but himself.   Feel only his own weakness, and with speed   Will face about, and march on in the old   High road of duty, the old broad-trodden road,   And seek but to make shelter in good plight.WALLENSTEIN   The time is not yet come.TERZKY                 So you say always.   But when will it be time?WALLENSTEIN                 When I shall say it.ILLO   You'll wait upon the stars, and on their hours,   Till the earthly hour escapes you. Oh, believe me,   In your own bosom are your destiny's stars.   Confidence in yourself, prompt resolution,   This is your Venus! and the sole malignant,   The only one that harmeth you is doubt.WALLENSTEIN   Thou speakest as thou understandest. How oft   And many a time I've told thee Jupiter,   That lustrous god, was setting at thy birth.   Thy visual power subdues no mysteries;   Mole-eyed thou mayest but burrow in the earth,   Blind as the subterrestrial, who with wan   Lead-colored shine lighted thee into life.   The common, the terrestrial, thou mayest see,   With serviceable cunning knit together,   The nearest with the nearest; and therein   I trust thee and believe thee! but whate'er   Full of mysterious import Nature weaves,   And fashions in the depths – the spirit's ladder,   That from this gross and visible world of dust,   Even to the starry world, with thousand rounds,   Builds itself up; on which the unseen powers   Move up and down on heavenly ministries —   The circles in the circles, that approach   The central sun with ever-narrowing orbit —   These see the glance alone, the unsealed eye,   Of Jupiter's glad children born in lustre.

[He walks across the chamber, then returns, and standing still, proceeds.

   The heavenly constellations make not merely   The day and nights, summer and spring, not merely   Signify to the husbandman the seasons   Of sowing and of harvest. Human action,   That is the seed, too, of contingencies,   Strewed on the dark land of futurity   In hopes to reconcile the powers of fate   Whence it behoves us to seek out the seed-time,   To watch the stars, select their proper hours,   And trace with searching eye the heavenly houses,   Whether the enemy of growth and thriving   Hide himself not, malignant, in his corner.   Therefore permit me my own time. Meanwhile   Do you your part. As yet I cannot say   What I shall do – only, give way I will not,   Depose me, too, they shall not. On these points   You may rely.PAGE (entering)          My lords, the generals.WALLENSTEIN   Let them come in.TERZKY            Shall all the chiefs be present?WALLENSTEIN   'Twere needless. Both the Piccolomini   Maradas, Butler, Forgoetsch, Deodati,   Karaffa, Isolani – these may come.

[TERZKY goes out with the PAGE.

WALLENSTEIN (to ILLO)   Hast thou taken heed that Questenberg was watched?   Had he no means of secret intercourse?ILLO   I have watched him closely – and he spoke with none   But with Octavio.

SCENE VII

WALLENSTRIN, TERZKY, ILLO. – To them enter QUESTENBERG, OCTAVIO, and MAX. PICCOLOMINI, BUTLER, ISOLANI, MARADAS, and three other Generals. WALLENSTEIN Motions QUESTENBERG, who in consequence takes the chair directly opposite to him; the others follow, arranging themselves according to their rank. There reigns a momentary silence.

WALLENSTEIN               I have understood,   'Tis true, the sum and import, Questenberg,   Of your instructions. I have weighed them well,   And formed my final, absolute resolve;   Yet it seems fitting that the generals   Should hear the will of the emperor from your mouth.   May it please you then to open your commission   Before these noble chieftains?QUESTENBERG                   I am ready   To obey you; but will first entreat your highness,   And all these noble chieftains, to consider,   The imperial dignity and sovereign right   Speaks from my mouth, and not my own presumption.WALLENSTEIN   We excuse all preface.QUESTENBERG               When his majesty   The emperor to his courageous armies   Presented in the person of Duke Friedland   A most experienced and renowned commander,   He did it in glad hope and confidence   To give thereby to the fortune of the war   A rapid and auspicious change. The onset   Was favorable to his royal wishes.   Bohemia was delivered from the Saxons,   The Swede's career of conquest checked! These lands   Began to draw breath freely, as Duke Friedland   From all the streams of Germany forced hither   The scattered armies of the enemy;   Hither invoked as round one magic circle   The Rhinegrave, Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstiern,   Yea, and the never-conquered king himself;   Here finally, before the eye of Nuernberg,   The fearful game of battle to decide.WALLENSTEIN   To the point, so please you.QUESTENBERG                  A new spirit   At once proclaimed to us the new commander.   No longer strove blind rage with rage more blind;   But in the enlightened field of skill was shown   How fortitude can triumph over boldness,   And scientific art outweary courage.   In vain they tempt him to the fight. He only   Entrenches him still deeper in his hold,   As if to build an everlasting fortress.   At length grown desperate, now, the king resolves   To storm the camp and lead his wasted legions,   Who daily fall by famine and by plague,   To quicker deaths and hunger and disease.   Through lines of barricades behind whose fence   Death lurks within a thousand mouths of fire,   He yet unconquered strives to storm his way.   There was attack, and there resistance, such   As mortal eye had never seen before;   Repulsed at last, the king withdrew his troops   From this so murderous field, and not a foot   Of ground was gained by all that fearful slaughter.WALLENSTEIN   Pray spare us these recitals from gazettes,   Which we ourselves beheld with deepest horror.QUESTENBERG   In Nuernberg's camp the Swedish monarch left   His fame – in Luetzen's plains his life. But who   Stood not astounded, when victorious Friedland   After this day of triumph, this proud day,   Marched toward Bohemia with the speed of flight,   And vanished from the theatre of war?   While the young Weimar hero7 forced his way   Into Franconia, to the Danube, like   Some delving winter-stream, which, where it rushes,   Makes its own channel; with such sudden speed   He marched, and now at once 'fore Regensburg   Stood to the affright of all good Catholic Christians.   Then did Bavaria's well-deserving prince   Entreat swift aidance in his extreme need;   The emperor sends seven horsemen to Duke Friedland,   Seven horsemen couriers sends he with the entreaty   He superadds his own, and supplicates   Where as the sovereign lord he can command.   In vain his supplication! At this moment   The duke hears only his old hate and grudge,   Barters the general good to gratify   Private revenge – and so falls Regensburg.WALLENSTEIN   Max., to what period of the war alludes he?   My recollection fails me here.MAX                   He means   When we were in Silesia.WALLENSTEIN                Ay! is it so!   But what had we to do there?MAX                  To beat out   The Swedes and Saxons from the province.WALLENSTEIN                        True;   In that description which the minister gave,   I seemed to have forgotten the whole war.

[TO QUESTENBERG.

   Well, but proceed a little.QUESTENBERG   We hoped upon the Oder to regain   What on the Danube shamefully was lost.   We looked for deeds of all-astounding grandeur   Upon a theatre of war, on which   A Friedland led in person to the field,   And the famed rival of the great Gustavus   Had but a Thurn and Arnheim to oppose him!   Yet the encounter of their mighty hosts   Served but to feast and entertain each other.   Our country groaned beneath the woes of war,   Yet naught but peace prevailed in Friedland's camp!WALLENSTEIN   Full many a bloody strife is fought in vain,   Because its youthful general needs a victory.   But 'tis the privilege of the old commander   To spare the costs of fighting useless battles   Merely to show that he knows how to conquer.   It would have little helped my fame to boast   Of conquest o'er an Arnheim; but far more   Would my forbearance have availed my country,   Had I succeeded to dissolve the alliance   Existing 'twixt the Saxon and the Swede.QUESTENBERG   But you did not succeed, and so commenced   The fearful strife anew. And here at length,   Beside the river Oder did the duke   Assert his ancient fame. Upon the fields   Of Steinau did the Swedes lay down their arms,   Subdued without a blow. And here, with others,   The righteousness of heaven to his avenger   Delivered that long-practised stirrer-up   Of insurrection, that curse-laden torch   And kindler of this war, Matthias Thurn.   But he had fallen into magnanimous hands   Instead of punishment he found reward,   And with rich presents did the duke dismiss   The arch-foe of his emperor.WALLENSTEIN (laughs)                  I know,   I know you had already in Vienna   Your windows and your balconies forestalled   To see him on the executioner's cart.   I might have lost the battle, lost it too   With infamy, and still retained your graces —   But, to have cheated them of a spectacle,   Oh! that the good folks of Vienna never,   No, never can forgive me!QUESTENBERG                 So Silesia   Was freed, and all things loudly called the duke   Into Bavaria, now pressed hard on all sides.   And he did put his troops in motion: slowly,   Quite at his ease, and by the longest road   He traverses Bohemia; but ere ever   He hath once seen the enemy, faces round,   Breaks up the march, and takes to winter-quarters.WALLENSTEIN   The troops were pitiably destitute   Of every necessary, every comfort,   The winter came. What thinks his majesty   His troops are made of? Aren't we men; subjected   Like other men to wet, and cold, and all   The circumstances of necessity?   Oh, miserable lot of the poor soldier!   Wherever he comes in all flee before him,   And when he goes away the general curse   Follows him on his route. All must be seized.   Nothing is given him. And compelled to seize   From every man he's every man's abhorrence.   Behold, here stand my generals. Karaffa!   Count Deodati! Butler! Tell this man   How long the soldier's pay is in arrears.BUTLER   Already a full year.WALLENSTEIN              And 'tis the hire   That constitutes the hireling's name and duties,   The soldier's pay is the soldier's covenant.8QUESTENBERG   Ah! this is a far other tone from that   In which the duke spoke eight, nine years ago.WALLENSTEIN   Yes! 'tis my fault, I know it: I myself   Have spoilt the emperor by indulging him.   Nine years ago, during the Danish war,   I raised him up a force, a mighty force,   Forty or fifty thousand men, that cost him   Of his own purse no doit. Through Saxony   The fury goddess of the war marched on,   E'en to the surf-rocks of the Baltic, bearing   The terrors of his name. That was a time!   In the whole imperial realm no name like mine   Honored with festival and celebration —   And Albrecht Wallenstein, it was the title   Of the third jewel in his crown!   But at the Diet, when the princes met   At Regensburg, there, there the whole broke out,   There 'twas laid open, there it was made known   Out of what money-bag I had paid the host,   And what were now my thanks, what had I now   That I, a faithful servant of the sovereign,   Had loaded on myself the people's curses,   And let the princes of the empire pay   The expenses of this war that aggrandizes   The emperor alone. What thanks had I?   What? I was offered up to their complaint   Dismissed, degraded!QUESTENBERG              But your highness knows   What little freedom he possessed of action   In that disastrous Diet.WALLENSTEIN                Death and hell!   I had that which could have procured him freedom   No! since 'twas proved so inauspicious to me   To serve the emperor at the empire's cost,   I have been taught far other trains of thinking   Of the empire and the Diet of the empire.   From the emperor, doubtless, I received this staff,   But now I hold it as the empire's general, —   For the common weal, the universal interest,   And no more for that one man's aggrandizement!   But to the point. What is it that's desired of me?QUESTENBERG   First, his imperial majesty hath willed   That without pretexts of delay the army   Evacuate Bohemia.WALLENSTEIN             In this season?   And to what quarter wills the emperor   That we direct our course?QUESTENBERG                 To the enemy.   His majesty resolves, that Regensburg   Be purified from the enemy ere Easter,   That Lutheranism may be no longer preached   In that cathedral, nor heretical   Defilement desecrate the celebration   Of that pure festival.WALLENSTEIN               My generals,   Can this be realized?ILLO               'Tis not possible.BUTLER   It can't be realized.QUESTENBERG               The emperor   Already hath commanded Colonel Suys   To advance towards Bavaria.WALLENSTEIN                  What did Suys?QUESTENBERG   That which his duty prompted. He advanced.WALLENSTEIN   What! he advanced? And I, his general,   Had given him orders, peremptory orders   Not to desert his station! Stands it thus   With my authority? Is this the obedience   Due to my office, which being thrown aside,   No war can be conducted? Chieftains, speak   You be the judges, generals. What deserves   That officer who, of his oath neglectful,   Is guilty of contempt of orders?ILLO                    Death.WALLENSTEIN (raising his voice, as all but ILLO had remained silent      and seemingly scrupulous).   Count Piccolomini! what has he deserved?MAX. PICCOLOMINI (after a long pause)   According to the letter of the law,   Death.ISOLANI       Death.BUTLER           Death, by the laws of war.

[QUESTENBERG rises from his seat, WALLENSTEIN follows, all the rest rise.

WALLENSTEIN   To this the law condemns him, and not I.   And if I show him favor, 'twill arise   From the reverence that I owe my emperor.QUESTENBERG   If so, I can say nothing further – here!WALLENSTEIN   I accepted the command but on conditions!   And this the first, that to the diminution   Of my authority no human being,   Not even the emperor's self, should be entitled   To do aught, or to say aught, with the army.   If I stand warranter of the event,   Placing my honor and my head in pledge,   Needs must I have full mastery in all   The means thereto. What rendered this Gustavus   Resistless, and unconquered upon earth?   This – that he was the monarch in his army!   A monarch, one who is indeed a monarch,   Was never yet subdued but by his equal.   But to the point! The best is yet to come,   Attend now, generals!QUESTENBERG               The Prince Cardinal   Begins his route at the approach of spring   From the Milanese; and leads a Spanish army   Through Germany into the Netherlands.   That he may march secure and unimpeded,   'Tis the emperor's will you grant him a detachment   Of eight horse-regiments from the army here.WALLENSTEIN   Yes, yes! I understand! Eight regiments! Well,   Right well concerted, Father Lanormain!   Eight thousand horse! Yes, yes! 'tis as it should be   I see it coming.QUESTENBERG            There is nothing coming.   All stands in front: the counsel of state-prudence,   The dictate of necessity!WALLENSTEIN                 What then?   What, my lord envoy? May I not be suffered   To understand that folks are tired of seeing   The sword's hilt in my grasp, and that your court   Snatch eagerly at this pretence, and use   The Spanish title, and drain off my forces,   To lead into the empire a new army   Unsubjected to my control? To throw me   Plumply aside, – I am still too powerful for you   To venture that. My stipulation runs,   That all the imperial forces shall obey me   Where'er the German is the native language.   Of Spanish troops and of prince cardinals,   That take their route as visitors, through the empire,   There stands no syllable in my stipulation.   No syllable! And so the politic court   Steals in on tiptoe, and creeps round behind it;   First makes me weaker, then to be dispensed with,   Till it dares strike at length a bolder blow,   And make short work with me.   What need of all these crooked ways, lord envoy?   Straightforward, man! his compact with me pinches   The emperor. He would that I moved off!   Well! I will gratify him!

[Here there commences an agitation among the generals, which increases continually.

   It grieves me for my noble officers' sakes;   I see not yet by what means they will come at   The moneys they have advanced, or how obtain   The recompense their services demand.   Still a new leader brings new claimants forward,   And prior merit superannuates quickly.   There serve here many foreigners in the army,   And were the man in all else brave and gallant,   I was not wont to make nice scrutiny   After his pedigree or catechism.   This will be otherwise i' the time to come.   Well; me no longer it concerns.

[He seats himself.

   Forbid it, Heaven, that it should come to this!   Our troops will swell in dreadful fermentation —   The emperor is abused – it cannot be.ISOLANI   It cannot be; all goes to instant wreck.WALLENSTEIN   Thou hast said truly, faithful Isolani!   What we with toil and foresight have built up   Will go to wreck – all go to instant wreck.   What then? Another chieftain is soon found,   Another army likewise (who dares doubt it?)   Will flock from all sides to the emperor,   At the first beat of his recruiting drum.

[During this speech, ISOLANI, TERZKY, ILLO, and MARADAS talk

      confusedly with great agitation.MAX. PICCOLOMINI (busily and passionately going from one to another, and soothing them)   Hear, my commander' Hear me, generals!   Let me conjure you, duke! Determine nothing,   Till we have met and represented to you   Our joint remonstrances! Nay, calmer! Friends!   I hope all may yet be set right again.TERZKY   Away! let us away! in the antechamber   Find we the others.

[They go.

BUTLER (to QUESTENBERG)             If good counsel gain   Due audience from your wisdom, my lord envoy,   You will be cautious how you show yourself   In public for some hours to come – or hardly   Will that gold key protect you from maltreatment.

[Commotions heard from without.

WALLENSTEIN   A salutary counsel – Thou, Octavio!   Wilt answer for the safety of our guest.   Farewell, von Questenberg!

[QUESTENBURG is about to speak.

                 Nay, not a word.   Not one word more of that detested subject!   You have performed your duty. We know now   To separate the office from the man.

[AS QUESTENBERG is going off with OCTAVIO, GOETZ, TIEFENBACH,

      KOLATTO, press in, several other generals following them.GOETZ   Where's he who means to rob us of our general?TIEFENBACH (at the same time)   What are we forced to bear? That thou wilt leave us?KOLATTO (at the same time)   We will live with thee, we will die with thee.WALLENSTEIN (with stateliness, and pointing to ILLO)   There! the field-marshal knows our will.[Exit[While all are going off the stage, the curtain drops

ACT III

SCENE I

A Small Chamber.

ILLO and TERZKY.

TERZKY   Now for this evening's business! How intend you   To manage with the generals at the banquet?ILLO   Attend! We frame a formal declaration,   Wherein we to the duke consign ourselves   Collectively, to be and to remain   His, both with life and limb, and not to spare   The last drop of our blood for him, provided,   So doing we infringe no oath or duty   We may be under to the emperor. Mark!   This reservation we expressly make   In a particular clause, and save the conscience.   Now hear! this formula so framed and worded   Will be presented to them for perusal   Before the banquet. No one will find in it   Cause of offence or scruple. Hear now further!   After the feast, when now the vapering wine   Opens the heart, and shuts the eyes, we let   A counterfeited paper, in the which   This one particular clause has been left out,   Go round for signatures.TERZKY                How! think you then   That they'll believe themselves bound by an oath,   Which we have tricked them into by a juggle?ILLO   We shall have caught and caged them! Let them then   Beat their wings bare against the wires, and rave   Loud as they may against our treachery;   At court their signatures will be believed   Far more than their most holy affirmations.   Traitors they are, and must be; therefore wisely   Will make a virtue of necessity.TERZKY   Well, well, it shall content me: let but something   Be done, let only some decisive blow   Set us in motion.ILLO   Besides, 'tis of subordinate importance   How, or how far, we may thereby propel   The generals. 'Tis enough that we persuade   The duke that they are his. Let him but act   In his determined mood, as if he had them,   And he will have them. Where he plunges in,   He makes a whirlpool, and all stream down to it.TERZKY   His policy is such a labyrinth,   That many a time when I have thought myself   Close at his side, he's gone at once, and left me   Ignorant of the ground where I was standing.   He lends the enemy his ear, permits me   To write to them, to Arnheim; to Sesina   Himself comes forward blank and undisguised;   Talks with us by the hour about his plans,   And when I think I have him – off at once —   He has slipped from me, and appears as if   He had no scheme, but to retain his place.ILLO   He give up his old plans! I'll tell you, friend!   His soul is occupied with nothing else,   Even in his sleep – they are his thoughts, his dreams,   That day by day he questions for this purpose   The motions of the planets —TERZKY                  Ah! you know   This night, that is now coming, he with Seni,   Shuts himself up in the astrological tower   To make joint observations – for I hear   It is to be a night of weight and crisis;   And something great, and of long expectation,   Takes place in heaven.ILLO               O that it might take place   On earth! The generals are full of zeal,   And would with ease be led to anything   Rather than lose their chief. Observe, too, that   We have at last a fair excuse before us   To form a close alliance 'gainst the court,   Yet innocent its title, bearing simply   That we support him only in command.   But in the ardor of pursuit thou knowest   Men soon forget the goal from which they started.   The object I've in view is that the prince   Shall either find them, or believe them ready   For every hazard. Opportunity   Will tempt him on. Be the great step once taken,   Which at Vienna's court can ne'er be pardoned,   The force of circumstances will lead him onward   The farther still and farther. 'Tis the choice   That makes him undecisive – come but need,   And all his powers and wisdom will come with it.TERZKY   'Tis this alone the enemy awaits   To change their chief and join their force with ours.ILLO   Come! be we bold and make despatch. The work   In this next day or two must thrive and grow   More than it has for years. And let but only   Things first turn up auspicious here below —   Mark what I say – the right stars, too, will show themselves.   Come to the generals. All is in the glow,   And must be beaten while 'tis malleable.TERZKY   Do you go thither, Illo? I must stay   And wait here for the Countess Terzky. Know   That we, too, are not idle. Break one string,   A second is in readiness.ILLO                 Yes! yes!   I saw your lady smile with such sly meaning.   What's in the wind?TERZKY              A secret. Hush! she comes.

[Exit ILLO.