The Death of Wallenstein

SCENE III

A saloon, terminated by a gallery, which extends far into the background.

WALLENSTIN sitting at a table. The SWEDISH CAPTAIN standing before him.

WALLENSTEIN  Commend me to your lord. I sympathize  In his good fortune; and if you have seen me  Deficient in the expressions of that joy,  Which such a victory might well demand,  Attribute it to no lack of good-will,  For henceforth are our fortunes one. Farewell,  And for your trouble take my thanks. To-morrow  The citadel shall be surrendered to you  On your arrival.

[The SWEDISH CAPTAIN retires. WALLENSTEIN sits lost in thought, his eyes fixed vacantly, and his head sustained by his hand. The COUNTESS TERZKY enters, stands before him for awhile, unobserved by him; at length he starts, sees her and recollects himself.

WALLENSTEIN  Comest thou from her? Is she restored? How is she?COUNTESS  My sister tells me she was more collected  After her conversation with the Swede.  She has now retired to rest.WALLENSTEIN                 The pang will soften  She will shed tears.COUNTESS             I find thee altered, too,  My brother! After such a victory  I had expected to have found in thee  A cheerful spirit. Oh, remain thou firm!  Sustain, uphold us! For our light thou art,  Our sun.WALLENSTEIN       Be quiet. I ail nothing. Where's  Thy husband?COUNTESS         At a banquet – he and Illo.WALLENSTEIN (rises and strides across the saloon)  The night's far spent. Betake thee to thy chamber.COUNTESS  Bid me not go, oh, let me stay with thee!WALLENSTEIN (moves to the window)  There is a busy motion in the heaven,  The wind doth chase the flag upon the tower,  Fast sweep the clouds, the sickle11 of the moon,  Struggling, darts snatches of uncertain light.  No form of star is visible! That one  White stain of light, that single glimmering yonder,  Is from Cassiopeia, and therein  Is Jupiter. (A pause.) But now  The blackness of the troubled element hides him!

[He sinks into profound melancholy, and looks vacantly into the distance.

COUNTESS (looks on him mournfully, then grasps his hand)  What art thou brooding on?WALLENSTEIN                Methinks  If I but saw him, 'twould be well with me.  He is the star of my nativity,  And often marvellously hath his aspect  Shot strength into my heart.COUNTESS  Thou'lt see him again.WALLENSTEIN (remains for awhile with absent mind, then assumes a livelier manner, and turning suddenly to the COUNTESS)  See him again? Oh, never, never again!COUNTESS  How?WALLENSTEIN     He is gone – is dust.COUNTESS                Whom meanest thou, then?WALLENSTEIN  He, the more fortunate! yea, he hath finished!  For him there is no longer any future,  His life is bright – bright without spot it was,  And cannot cease to be. No ominous hour  Knocks at his door with tidings of mishap,  Far off is he, above desire and fear;  No more submitted to the change and chance  Of the unsteady planets. Oh, 'tis well  With him! but who knows what the coming hour  Veiled in thick darkness brings us?COUNTESS  Thou speakest of Piccolomini. What was his death?  The courier had just left thee as I came.

[WALLENSTEIN by a motion of his hand makes signs to her to be silent.

  Turn not thine eyes upon the backward view,  Let us look forward into sunny days,  Welcome with joyous heart the victory,  Forget what it has cost thee. Not to-day,  For the first time, thy friend was to thee dead;  To thee he died when first he parted from thee.WALLENSTEIN  This anguish will be wearied down12 , I know;  What pang is permanent with man? From the highest,  As from the vilest thing of every day,  He learns to wean himself: for the strong hours  Conquer him. Yet I feel what I have lost  In him. The bloom is vanished from my life,  For oh, he stood beside me, like my youth,  Transformed for me the real to a dream,  Clothing the palpable and the familiar  With golden exhalations of the dawn,  Whatever fortunes wait my future toils,  The beautiful is vanished – and returns not.COUNTESS  Oh, be not treacherous to thy own power.  Thy heart is rich enough to vivify  Itself. Thou lovest and prizest virtues in him,  The which thyself didst plant, thyself unfold.WALLENSTEIN (stepping to the door)  Who interrupts us now at this late hour?  It is the governor. He brings the keys  Of the citadel. 'Tis midnight. Leave me, sister!COUNTESS  Oh, 'tis so hard to me this night to leave thee;  A boding fear possesses me!WALLENSTEIN                 Fear! Wherefore?COUNTESS  Shouldst thou depart this night, and we at waking  Never more find thee!WALLENSTEIN              Fancies!COUNTESS                   Oh, my soul  Has long been weighed down by these dark forebodings,  And if I combat and repel them waking,  They still crush down upon my heart in dreams,  I saw thee, yesternight with thy first wife  Sit at a banquet, gorgeously attired.WALLENSTHIN  This was a dream of favorable omen,  That marriage being the founder of my fortunes.COUNTESS  To-day I dreamed that I was seeking thee  In thy own chamber. As I entered, lo!  It was no more a chamber: the Chartreuse  At Gitschin 'twas, which thou thyself hast founded,  And where it is thy will that thou shouldst be  Interred.WALLENSTEIN        Thy soul is busy with these thoughts.COUNTESS  What! dost thou not believe that oft in dreams  A voice of warning speaks prophetic to us?WALLENSTEIN  There is no doubt that there exist such voices,  Yet I would not call them  Voices of warning that announce to us  Only the inevitable. As the sun,  Ere it is risen, sometimes paints its image  In the atmosphere, so often do the spirits  Of great events stride on before the events,  And in to-day already walks to-morrow.  That which we read of the fourth Henry's death  Did ever vex and haunt me like a tale  Of my own future destiny. The king  Felt in his breast the phantom of the knife  Long ere Ravaillac armed himself therewith.  His quiet mind forsook him; the phantasma  Started him in his Louvre, chased him forth  Into the open air; like funeral knells  Sounded that coronation festival;  And still with boding sense he heard the tread  Of those feet that even then were seeking him  Throughout the streets of Paris.COUNTESS                   And to thee  The voice within thy soul bodes nothing?WALLENSTEIN                       Nothing.  Be wholly tranquil.COUNTESS             And another time  I hastened after thee, and thou rann'st from me  Through a long suite, through many a spacious hall.  There seemed no end of it; doors creaked and clapped;  I followed panting, but could not overtake thee;  When on a sudden did I feel myself  Grasped from behind, – the hand was cold that grasped me;  'Twas thou, and thou didst kiss me, and there seemed  A crimson covering to envelop us.WALLENSTEIN  That is the crimson tapestry of my chamber.COUNTESS (gazing on him)  If it should come to that – if I should see thee,  Who standest now before me in the fulness  Of life —

[She falls on his breast and weeps.

WALLENSTEIN  The emperor's proclamation weighs upon thee —  Alphabets wound not – and he finds no hands.COUNTESS  If he should find them, my resolve is taken —  I bear about me my support and refuge.

[Exit COUNTESS.

SCENE IV

WALLENSTEIN, GORDON.

WALLENSTEIN  All quiet in the town?GORDON              The town is quiet.WALLENSTEIN  I hear a boisterous music! and the castle  Is lighted up. Who are the revellers?GORDON  There is a banquet given at the castle  To the Count Terzky and Field-Marshal Illo.WALLENSTEIN  In honor of the victory – this tribe  Can show their joy in nothing else but feasting.

[Rings. The GROOM OF THE CHAMBER enters.

  Unrobe me. I will lay me down to sleep.

[WALLENSTEIN takes the keys from GORDON.

  So we are guarded from all enemies,  And shut in with sure friends.  For all must cheat me, or a face like this

[Fixing his eyes on GORDON.

  Was ne'er a hypocrite's mask.

[The GROOM OF THE CHAMBER takes off his mantle, collar, and scarf.

WALLENSTEIN  Take care – what is that?GROOM OF THE CHAMBER               The golden chain is snapped in two.WALLENSTEIN  Well, it has lasted long enough. Here – give it.     [He takes and looks at the chain.  'Twas the first present of the emperor.  He hung it round me in the war of Friule,  He being then archduke; and I have worn it  Till now from habit —  From superstition, if you will. Belike,  It was to be a talisman to me;  And while I wore it on my neck in faith,  It was to chain to me all my life-long  The volatile fortune, whose first pledge it was.  Well, be it so! Henceforward a new fortune  Must spring up for me; for the potency  Of this charm is dissolved.

[GROOM OF THE CHAMBER retires with the vestments. WALLENSTEIN rises, takes a stride across the room, and stands at last before GORDON in a posture of meditation.

  How the old time returns upon me! I  Behold myself once more at Burgau, where  We two were pages of the court together.  We oftentimes disputed: thy intention  Was ever good; but thou were wont to play  The moralist and preacher, and wouldst rail at me —  That I strove after things too high for me,  Giving my faith to bold, unlawful dreams,  And still extol to me the golden mean.  Thy wisdom hath been proved a thriftless friend  To thy own self. See, it has made thee early  A superannuated man, and (but  That my munificent stars will intervene)  Would let thee in some miserable corner  Go out like an untended lamp.GORDON                  My prince  With light heart the poor fisher moors his boat,  And watches from the shore the lofty ship  Stranded amid the storm.WALLENSTEIN               Art thou already  In harbor, then, old man? Well! I am not.  The unconquered spirit drives me o'er life's billows;  My planks still firm, my canvas swelling proudly.  Hope is my goddess still, and youth my inmate;  And while we stand thus front to front almost,  I might presume to say, that the swift years  Have passed by powerless o'er my unblanched hair.

[He moves with long strides across the saloon, and remains on the opposite side over against GORDON.

  Who now persists in calling fortune false?  To me she has proved faithful; with fond love  Took me from out the common ranks of men,  And like a mother goddess, with strong arm  Carried me swiftly up the steps of life.  Nothing is common in my destiny,  Nor in the furrows of my hand. Who dares  Interpret then my life for me as 'twere  One of the undistinguishable many?  True, in this present moment I appear  Fallen low indeed; but I shall rise again.  The high flood will soon follow on this ebb;  The fountain of my fortune, which now stops,  Repressed and bound by some malicious star,  Will soon in joy play forth from all its pipes.GORDON  And yet remember I the good old proverb,  "Let the night come before we praise the day."  I would be slow from long-continued fortune  To gather hope: for hope is the companion  Given to the unfortunate by pitying heaven.  Fear hovers round the head of prosperous men,  For still unsteady are the scales of fate.WALLENSTEIN (smiling)  I hear the very Gordon that of old  Was wont to preach, now once more preaching;  I know well, that all sublunary things  Are still the vassals of vicissitude.  The unpropitious gods demand their tribute.  This long ago the ancient pagans knew  And therefore of their own accord they offered  To themselves injuries, so to atone  The jealousy of their divinities  And human sacrifices bled to Typhon.

[After a pause, serious, and in a more subdued manner.

  I too have sacrificed to him – for me  There fell the dearest friend, and through my fault  He fell! No joy from favorable fortune  Can overweigh the anguish of this stroke.  The envy of my destiny is glutted:  Life pays for life. On his pure head the lightning  Was drawn off which would else have shattered me.

SCENE V

To these enter SENI.

WALLENSTEIN  Is not that Seni! and beside himself,  If one can trust his looks? What brings thee hither  At this late hour, Baptista?SENI                 Terror, duke!  On thy account.WALLENSTEIN           What now?SENI                Flee ere the day break!  Trust not thy person to the Swedes!WALLENSTEIN                     What now  Is in thy thoughts?SENI (with louder voice)  Trust not thy person to the Swedes.WALLENSTEIN                     What is it, then?SENI (still more urgently)  Oh, wait not the arrival of these Swedes!  An evil near at hand is threatening thee  From false friends. All the signs stand full of horror!  Near, near at hand the net-work of perdition —  Yea, even now 'tis being cast around thee!WALLENSTEIN  Baptista, thou art dreaming! – fear befools thee.SENI  Believe not that an empty fear deludes me.  Come, read it in the planetary aspects;  Read it thyself, that ruin threatens thee  From false friends.WALLENSTEIN             From the falseness of my friends  Has risen the whole of my unprosperous fortunes.  The warning should have come before! At present  I need no revelation from the stars  To know that.SENI          Come and see! trust thine own eyes.  A fearful sign stands in the house of life —  An enemy; a fiend lurks close behind  The radiance of thy planet. Oh, be warned!  Deliver not up thyself to these heathens,  To wage a war against our holy church.WALLENSTEIN (laughing gently)  The oracle rails that way! Yes, yes! Now  I recollect. This junction with the Swedes  Did never please thee – lay thyself to sleep,  Baptista! Signs like these I do not fear.GORDON (who during the whole of this dialogue has shown marks of extreme agitation, and now turns to WALLENSTEIN)  My duke and general! May I dare presume?WALLENSTEIN  Speak freely.GORDON          What if 'twere no mere creation  Of fear, if God's high providence vouchsafed  To interpose its aid for your deliverance,  And made that mouth its organ?WALLENSTEIN                  Ye're both feverish!  How can mishap come to me from the Swedes?  They sought this junction with me – 'tis their interest.GORDON (with difficulty suppressing his emotion)  But what if the arrival of these Swedes —  What if this were the very thing that winged  The ruin that is flying to your temples?     [Flings himself at his feet.  There is yet time, my prince.SENI                  Oh hear him! hear him!GORDON (rises)  The Rhinegrave's still far off. Give but the orders,  This citadel shall close its gates upon him.  If then he will besiege us, let him try it.  But this I say; he'll find his own destruction,  With his whole force before these ramparts, sooner  Than weary down the valor of our spirit.  He shall experience what a band of heroes,  Inspirited by an heroic leader,  Is able to perform. And if indeed  It be thy serious wish to make amend  For that which thou hast done amiss, – this, this  Will touch and reconcile the emperor,  Who gladly turns his heart to thoughts of mercy;  And Friedland, who returns repentant to him,  Will stand yet higher in his emperor's favor  Then e'er he stood when he had never fallen.WALLENSTEIN (contemplates him with surprise, remains silent a while, betraying strong emotion)  Gordon – your zeal and fervor lead you far.  Well, well – an old friend has a privilege.  Blood, Gordon, has been flowing. Never, never  Can the emperor pardon me: and if he could,  Yet I – I ne'er could let myself be pardoned.  Had I foreknown what now has taken place,  That he, my dearest friend, would fall for me,  My first death offering; and had the heart  Spoken to me, as now it has done – Gordon,  It may be, I might have bethought myself.  It may be too, I might not. Might or might not  Is now an idle question. All too seriously  Has it begun to end in nothing, Gordon!  Let it then have its course.     [Stepping to the window.  All dark and silent – at the castle too  All is now hushed. Light me, chamberlain?

[The GROOM OF THE CHAMBER, who had entered during the last dialogue, and had been standing at a distance and listening to it with visible expressions of the deepest interest, advances in extreme agitation and throws himself at the DUKE's feet.

  And thou too! But I know why thou dost wish  My reconcilement with the emperor.  Poor man! he hath a small estate in Carinthia,  And fears it will be forfeited because  He's in my service. Am I then so poor  That I no longer can indemnify  My servants? Well! to no one I employ  Means of compulsion. If 'tis thy belief  That fortune has fled from me, go! forsake me.  This night for the last time mayst thou unrobe me,  And then go over to the emperor.  Gordon, good-night! I think to make a long  Sleep of it: for the struggle and the turmoil  Of this last day or two was great. May't please you  Take care that they awake me not too early.

[Exit WALLENSTEIN, the GROOM OF THE CHAMBER lighting him. SENI follows, GORDON remains on the darkened stage, following the DUKE with his eye, till he disappears at the further end of the gallery:

then by his gestures the old man expresses the depth of his anguish, and stands leaning against a pillar.

SCENE VI

GORDON, BUTLER (at first behind the scenes).

BUTLER (not yet come into view of the stage)  Here stand in silence till I give the signal.GORDON (starts up)  'Tis he! he has already brought the murderers.BUTLER  The lights are out. All lies in profound sleep.GORDON  What shall I do, shall I attempt to save him?  Shall I call up the house? alarm the guards?BUTLER (appears, but scarcely on the stage)  A light gleams hither from the corridor.  It leads directly to the duke's bed-chamber.GORDON  But then I break my oath to the emperor;  If he escape and strengthen the enemy,  Do I not hereby call down on my head  All the dread consequences.BUTLER (stepping forward)                 Hark! Who speaks there?GORDON  'Tis better, I resign it to the hands  Of Providence. For what am I, that I  Should take upon myself so great a deed?  I have not murdered him, if he be murdered;  But all his rescue were my act and deed;  Mine – and whatever be the consequences  I must sustain them.BUTLER (advances)             I should know that voice.GORDON  Butler!BUTLER       'Tis Gordon. What do you want here?  Was it so late, then, when the duke dismissed you?GORDON  Your hand bound up and in a scarf?BUTLER                    'Tis wounded.  That Illo fought as he were frantic, till  At last we threw him on the ground.GORDON (shuddering)                     Both dead?BUTLER  Is he in bed?GORDON          Ah, Butler!BUTLER                Is he? speak.GORDON  He shall not perish! Not through you! The heaven  Refuses your arm. See – 'tis wounded!BUTLER  There is no need of my arm.GORDON                 The most guilty  Have perished, and enough is given to justice.

[The GROOM OF THE CHAMBER advances from the gallery with his finger on his mouth commanding silence.

GORDON  He sleeps! Oh, murder not the holy sleep!BUTLER  No! he shall die awake.

[Is going.

GORDON  His heart still cleaves  To earthly things: he's not prepared to step  Into the presence of his God!BUTLER (going)                  God's merciful!GORDON (holds him)  Grant him but this night's respite.BUTLER (hurrying of)                     The next moment  May ruin all.GORDON (holds him still)          One hour!BUTLER               Unhold me! What  Can that short respite profit him?GORDON                    Oh, time  Works miracles. In one hour many thousands  Of grains of sand run out; and quick as they  Thought follows thought within the human soul.  Only one hour! Your heart may change its purpose,  His heart may change its purpose – some new tidings  May come; some fortunate event, decisive,  May fall from heaven and rescue him. Oh, what  May not one hour achieve!BUTLER                You but remind me  How precious every minute is!

[He stamps on the floor.

SCENE VII

To these enter MACDONALD and DEVEREUX, with the HALBERDIERS.

GORDON (throwing himself between him and them)                No, monster!  First over my dead body thou shalt tread. I will  Not live to see the accursed deed!BUTLER (forcing him out of the way)  Weak-hearted dotard!     [Trumpets are heard in the distance.DEVEREUX and MACDONALD             Hark! The Swedish trumpets!  The Swedes before the ramparts! Let us hasten!GORDON (rushes out)  Oh, God of mercy!BUTLER (calling after him)            Governor, to your post!GROOM OF THE CHAMBER (hurries in)  Who dares make larum here? Hush! The duke sleeps.DEVEREUX (with loud, harsh voice)  Friend, it is time now to make larum.GROOM OF THE CHAMBER.                      Help!  Murder!BUTLER       Down with him!GROOM OF THE CHAMBER (run through the body by DEVEREUX, falls at the entrance of the gallery)               Jesus Maria!BUTLER  Burst the doors open.

[They rush over the body into the gallery – two doors are heard to crash one after the other. Voices, deadened by the distance – clash of arms – then all at once a profound silence:

SCENE VIII

COUNTESS TERZKY (with a light)  Her bedchamber is empty; she herself  Is nowhere to be found! The Neubrunn too,  Who watched by her, is missing. If she should  Be flown – but whither flown? We must call up  Every soul in the house. How will the duke  Bear up against these worst bad tidings? Oh,  If that my husband now were but returned  Home from the banquet! Hark! I wonder whether  The duke is still awake! I thought I heard  Voices and tread of feet here! I will go  And listen at the door. Hark! what is that?  'Tis hastening up the steps!

SCENE IX

COUNTESS, GORDON.

GORDON (rushes in out of breath)                  'Tis a mistake!  'Tis not the Swedes; ye must proceed no further —  Butler! Oh, God! where is he?

[Observing the COUNTESS.

                  Countess! Say —COUNTESS  You're come then from the castle? Where's my husband?GORDON (in an agony of affright)  Your husband! Ask not! To the duke —COUNTESS                       Not till  You have discovered to me —GORDON                 On this moment  Does the world hang. For God's sake! to the duke.  While we are speaking —

[Calling loudly.

               Butler! Butler! God!COUNTESS  Why, he is at the castle with my husband.

[BUTLER comes from the gallery.

GORDON  'Twas a mistake. 'Tis not the Swedes – it is  The imperialists' lieutenant-general  Has sent me hither – will be here himself  Instantly. You must not proceed.BUTLER                    He comes  Too late.

[GORDON dashes himself against the wall.

GORDON        Oh, God of mercy!COUNTESS                 What, too late?  Who will be here himself? Octavio  In Egra? Treason! Treason! Where's the duke?

[She rushes to the gallery.

SCENE X

Servants run across the stage full of terror. The whole scene must be spoken entirely without pauses.

SENI (from the gallery)  Oh, bloody, frightful deed!COUNTESS                 What is it, Seni?PAGE (from the gallery)  Oh, piteous sight!     [Other servants hasten in with torches.COUNTESS  What is it? For God's sake!SENI                 And do you ask?  Within the duke lies murdered – and your husband  Assassinated at the castle.

[The COUNTESS stands motionless.

FEMALE SERVANT (rushing across the stage)  Help! help! the duchess!BURGOMASTER (enters)               What mean these confused  Loud cries that wake the sleepers of this house?GORDON  Your house is cursed to all eternity.  In your house doth the duke lie murdered!BURGOMASTER (rushing out)                        Heaven forbid!FIRST SERVANT  Fly! fly! they murder us all!SECOND SERVANT (carrying silver-plate)                  That way! the lower  Passages are blocked up.VOICE (from behind the scene)  Make room for the lieutenant-general!

[At these words the COUNTESS starts from her stupor, collects herself, and retires suddenly.

VOICE (from behind the scene)  Keep back the people! Guard the door!

SCENE XI

To these enter OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI with all his train. At the same time DEVEREUX and MACDONALD enter from out the corridor with the Halberdiers. WALLENSTEIN's dead body is carried over the back part of the stage, wrapped in a piece of crimson tapestry.

OCTAVIO (entering abruptly)  It must not be! It is not possible!  Butler! Gordon!  I'll not believe it. Say no!

[GORDON, without answering, points with his hand to the body of WALLENSTEIN as it is carried over the back of the stage. OCTAVIO looks that way, and stands overpowered with horror.

DEVEREUX (to BUTLER)  Here is the golden fleece – the duke's sword —MACDONALD  Is it your order —BUTLER (pointing to OCTAVIO)            Here stands he who now  Hath the sole power to issue orders.

[DEVEREUX and MACDONALD retire with marks of obeisance. One drops away after the other, till only BUTLER, OCTAVIO, and GORDON remain on the stage.