Don Carlos

Friedrich Schiller

Don Carlos: A Play

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

PHILIP THE SECOND, King of Spain.

DON CARLOS, Prince, Son of Philip.

ALEXANDER FARNESE, Prince of Parma.

MARQUIS DE POSA.

DUKE OF ALVA.

Grandees of Spain:

COUNT LERMA, Colonel of the Body Guard,

DUKE OF FERIA, Knight of the Golden Fleece,

DUKE OF MEDINA SIDONIA, Admiral,

DON RAIMOND DE TAXIS, Postmaster-General,

DOMINGO, Confessor to the King.

GRAND INQUISITOR of Spain.

PRIOR of a Carthusian Convent.

PAGE of the Queen.

DON LOUIS MERCADO, Physician to the Queen.

ELIZABETH DE VALOIS, Queen of Spain.

INFANTA CLARA FARNESE, a Child three years of age.

DUCHESS D'OLIVAREZ, Principal Attendant on the Queen.

Ladies Attendant on the Queen:

MARCHIONESS DE MONDECAR,

PRINCESS EBOLI,

COUNTESS FUENTES,

Several Ladies, Nobles, Pages, Officers of the Body-Guard, and mute Characters.

ACT I

SCENE I

The Royal Gardens in Aranjuez.

CARLOS and DOMINGO.

DOMINGO   Our pleasant sojourn in Aranjuez   Is over now, and yet your highness quits   These joyous scenes no happier than before.   Our visit hath been fruitless. Oh, my prince,   Break this mysterious and gloomy silence!   Open your heart to your own father's heart!   A monarch never can too dearly buy   The peace of his own son – his only son.

[CARLOS looks on the ground in silence.

   Is there one dearest wish that bounteous Heaven   Hath e'er withheld from her most favored child?   I stood beside, when in Toledo's walls   The lofty Charles received his vassals' homage,   When conquered princes thronged to kiss his hand,   And there at once six mighty kingdoms fell   In fealty at his feet: I stood and marked   The young, proud blood mount to his glowing cheek,   I saw his bosom swell with high resolves,   His eye, all radiant with triumphant pride,   Flash through the assembled throng; and that same eye   Confessed, "Now am I wholly satisfied!"

[CARLOS turns away.

   This silent sorrow, which for eight long moons   Hath hung its shadows, prince, upon your brow —   The mystery of the court, the nation's grief —   Hath cost your father many a sleepless night,   And many a tear of anguish to your mother.CARLOS (turning hastily round)   My mother! Grant, O heaven, I may forget   How she became my mother!DOMINGO                 Gracious prince!CARLOS (passing his hands thoughtfully over his brow)   Alas! alas! a fruitful source of woe   Have mothers been to me. My youngest act,   When first these eyes beheld the light of day,   Destroyed a mother.DOMINGO              Is it possible   That this reproach disturbs your conscience, prince?CARLOS   And my new mother! Hath she not already   Cost me my father's heart? Scarce loved at best.   My claim to some small favor lay in this —   I was his only child! 'Tis over! She   Hath blest him with a daughter – and who knows   What slumbering ills the future hath in store?DOMINGO   You jest, my prince. All Spain adores its queen.   Shall it be thought that you, of all the world,   Alone should view her with the eyes of hate —   Gaze on her charms, and yet be coldly wise?   How, prince? The loveliest lady of her time,   A queen withal, and once your own betrothed?   No, no, impossible – it cannot be!   Where all men love, you surely cannot hate.   Carlos could never so belie himself.   I prithee, prince, take heed she do not learn   That she hath lost her son's regard. The news   Would pain her deeply.   CARLOS.            Ay, sir! think you so?DOMINGO   Your highness doubtless will remember how,   At the late tournament in Saragossa,   A lance's splinter struck our gracious sire.   The queen, attended by her ladies, sat   High in the centre gallery of the palace,   And looked upon the fight. A cry arose,   "The king! he bleeds!" Soon through the general din,   A rising murmur strikes upon her ear.   "The prince – the prince!" she cries, and forward rushed,   As though to leap down from the balcony,   When a voice answered, "No, the king himself!"   "Then send for his physicians!" she replied,   And straight regained her former self-composure.

[After a short pause.

   But you seem wrapped in thought?   CARLOS.              In wonder, sir,   That the king's merry confessor should own   So rare a skill in the romancer's art.

[Austerely.

   Yet have I heard it said that those   Who watch men's looks and carry tales about,   Have done more mischief in this world of ours   Than the assassin's knife, or poisoned bowl.   Your labor, Sir, hath been but ill-bestowed;   Would you win thanks, go seek them of the king.DOMINGO   This caution, prince, is wise. Be circumspect   With men – but not with every man alike.   Repel not friends and hypocrites together;   I mean you well, believe me!   CARLOS.               Say you so?   Let not my father mark it, then, or else   Farewell your hopes forever of the purple.

DOMINGO (starts).

CARLOS   How!   CARLOS.   Even so! Hath he not promised you   The earliest purple in the gift of Spain?DOMINGO   You mock me, prince!   CARLOS.        Nay! Heaven forefend, that I   Should mock that awful man whose fateful lips   Can doom my father or to heaven or hell!DOMINGO   I dare not, prince, presume to penetrate   The sacred mystery of your secret grief,   Yet I implore your highness to remember   That, for a conscience ill at ease, the church   Hath opened an asylum, of which kings   Hold not the key – where even crimes are purged   Beneath the holy sacramental seal.   You know my meaning, prince – I've said enough.CARLOS   No! be it, never said, I tempted so   The keeper of that seal.DOMINGO                Prince, this mistrust —   You wrong the most devoted of your servants.CARLOS   Then give me up at once without a thought   Thou art a holy man – the world knows that —   But, to speak plain, too zealous far for me.   The road to Peter's chair is long and rough,   And too much knowledge might encumber you.   Go, tell this to the king, who sent thee hither!DOMINGO   Who sent me hither?   CARLOS.           Ay! Those were my words.   Too well-too well, I know, that I'm betrayed,   Slandered on every hand – that at this court   A hundred eyes are hired to watch my steps.   I know, that royal Philip to his slaves   Hath sold his only son, and every wretch,   Who takes account of each half-uttered word,   Receives such princely guerdon as was ne'er   Bestowed on deeds of honor, Oh, I know   But hush! – no more of that! My heart will else   O'erflow and I've already said too much.DOMINGO   The king is minded, ere the set of sun,   To reach Madrid: I see the court is mustering.   Have I permission, prince?   CARLOS.              I'll follow straight.

[Exit DOMINGO.

CARLOS (after a short silence)   O wretched Philip! wretched as thy son!   Soon shall thy bosom bleed at every pore,   Torn by suspicion's poisonous serpent fang.   Thy fell sagacity full soon shall pierce   The fatal secret it is bent to know,   And thou wilt madden, when it breaks upon thee!

SCENE II

CARLOS, MARQUIS OF POSA.

CARLOS   Lo! Who comes here? 'Tis he! O ye kind heavens,   My Roderigo!   MARQUIS.       Carlos!   CARLOS.            Can it be?   And is it truly thou? O yes, it is!   I press thee to my bosom, and I feel   Thy throbbing heart beat wildly 'gainst mine own.   And now all's well again. In this embrace   My sick, sad heart is comforted. I hang   Upon my Roderigo's neck!   MARQUIS.             Thy heart!   Thy sick sad heart! And what is well again   What needeth to be well? Thy words amaze me.CARLOS   What brings thee back so suddenly from Brussels?   Whom must I thank for this most glad surprise?   And dare I ask? Whom should I thank but thee,   Thou gracious and all bounteous Providence?   Forgive me, heaven! if joy hath crazed my brain.   Thou knewest no angel watched at Carlos' side,   And sent me this! And yet I ask who sent him.MARQUIS   Pardon, dear prince, if I can only meet   With wonder these tumultuous ecstacies.   Not thus I looked to find Don Philip's son.   A hectic red burns on your pallid cheek,   And your lips quiver with a feverish heat.   What must I think, dear prince? No more I see   The youth of lion heart, to whom I come   The envoy of a brave and suffering people.   For now I stand not here as Roderigo —   Not as the playmate of the stripling Carlos —   But, as the deputy of all mankind,   I clasp thee thus: – 'tis Flanders that clings here   Around thy neck, appealing with my tears   To thee for succor in her bitter need.   This land is lost, this land so dear to thee,   If Alva, bigotry's relentless tool,   Advance on Brussels with his Spanish laws.   This noble country's last faint hope depends   On thee, loved scion of imperial Charles!   And, should thy noble heart forget to beat   In human nature's cause, Flanders is lost!CARLOS   Then it is lost.MARQUIS            What do I hear? Alas!CARLOS   Thou speakest of times that long have passed away.   I, too, have had my visions of a Carlos,   Whose cheek would fire at freedom's glorious name,   But he, alas! has long been in his grave.   He, thou seest here, no longer is that Carlos,   Who took his leave of thee in Alcala,   Who in the fervor of a youthful heart,   Resolved, at some no distant time, to wake   The golden age in Spain! Oh, the conceit,   Though but a child's, was yet divinely fair!   Those dreams are past!MARQUIS               Said you, those dreams, my prince!   And were they only dreams?CARLOS                 Oh, let me weep,   Upon thy bosom weep these burning tears,   My only friend! Not one have I – not one —   In the wide circuit of this earth, – not one   Far as the sceptre of my sire extends,   Far as the navies bear the flag of Spain,   There is no spot – none – none, where I dare yield   An outlet to my tears, save only this.   I charge thee, Roderigo! Oh, by all   The hopes we both do entertain of heaven,   Cast me not off from thee, my friend, my friend!

[POSA bends over him in silent emotion.

   Look on me, Posa, as an orphan child,   Found near the throne, and nurtured by thy love.   Indeed, I know not what a father is.   I am a monarch's son. Oh, were it so,   As my heart tells me that it surely is,   That thou from millions hast been chosen out   To comprehend my being; if it be true,   That all-creating nature has designed   In me to reproduce a Roderigo,   And on the morning of our life attuned   Our souls' soft concords to the selfsame key;   If one poor tear, which gives my heart relief,   To thee were dearer than my father's favor —MARQUIS   Oh, it is dearer far than all the world!CARLOS   I'm fallen so low, have grown so poor withal,   I must recall to thee our childhood's years, —   Must ask thee payment of a debt incurred   When thou and I were scarce to boyhood grown.   Dost thou remember, how we grew together,   Two daring youths, like brothers, side by side?   I had no sorrow but to see myself   Eclipsed by thy bright genius. So I vowed,   Since I might never cope with thee in power,   That I would love thee with excess of love.   Then with a thousand shows of tenderness,   And warm affection, I besieged thy heart,   Which cold and proudly still repulsed them all.   Oft have I stood, and – yet thou sawest it never   Hot bitter tear-drops brimming in mine eyes,   When I have marked thee, passing me unheeded,   Fold to thy bosom youths of humbler birth.   "Why only these?" in anguish, once I asked —   "Am I not kind and good to thee as they?"   But dropping on thy knees, thine answer came,   With an unloving look of cold reserve,   "This is my duty to the monarch's son!"MARQUIS   Oh, spare me, dearest prince, nor now recall   Those boyish acts that make me blush for shame.CARLOS   I did not merit such disdain from thee —   You might despise me, crush my heart, but never   Alter my love. Three times didst thou repulse   The prince, and thrice he came to thee again,   To beg thy love, and force on thee his own.   At length chance wrought what Carlos never could.   Once we were playing, when thy shuttlecock   Glanced off and struck my aunt, Bohemia's queen,   Full in the face! She thought 'twas with intent,   And all in tears complained unto the king.   The palace youth were summoned on the spot,   And charged to name the culprit. High in wrath   The king vowed vengeance for the deed: "Although   It were his son, yet still should he be made   A dread example!" I looked around and marked   Thee stand aloof, all trembling with dismay.   Straight I stepped forth; before the royal feet   I flung myself, and cried, "'Twas I who did it;   Now let thine anger fall upon thy son!"MARQUIS   Ah, wherefore, prince, remind me?CARLOS                     Hear me further!   Before the face of the assembled court,   That stood, all pale with pity, round about,   Thy Carlos was tied up, whipped like a slave;   I looked on thee, and wept not. Blow rained on blow;   I gnashed my teeth with pain, yet wept I not!   My royal blood streamed 'neath the pitiless lash;   I looked on thee, and wept not. Then you came,   And fell half-choked with sobs before my feet:   "Carlos," you cried, "my pride is overcome;   I will repay thee when thou art a king."MARQUIS (stretching forth his hand to CARLOS)   Carlos, I'll keep my word; my boyhood's vow   I now as man renew. I will repay thee.   Some day, perchance, the hour may come —CARLOS                         Now! now!   The hour has come; thou canst repay me all.   I have sore need of love. A fearful secret   Burns in my breast; it must – it must be told.   In thy pale looks my death-doom will I read.   Listen; be petrified; but answer not.   I love – I love – my mother!MARQUIS                 O my God!CARLOS   Nay, no forbearance! spare me not! Speak! speak!   Proclaim aloud, that on this earth's great round   There is no misery to compare with mine.   Speak! speak! – I know all – all that thou canst say   The son doth love his mother. All the world's   Established usages, the course of nature,   Rome's fearful laws denounce my fatal passion.   My suit conflicts with my own father's rights,   I feel it all, and yet I love. This path   Leads on to madness, or the scaffold. I   Love without hope, love guiltily, love madly,   With anguish, and with peril of my life;   I see, I see it all, and yet I love.MARQUIS   The queen – does she know of your passion?CARLOS                         Could I   Reveal it to her? She is Philip's wife —   She is the queen, and this is Spanish ground,   Watched by a jealous father, hemmed around   By ceremonial forms, how, how could I   Approach her unobserved? 'Tis now eight months,   Eight maddening months, since the king summoned me   Home from my studies, since I have been doomed   To look on her, adore her day by day,   And all the while be silent as the grave!   Eight maddening months, Roderigo; think of this!   This fire has seethed and raged within my breast!   A thousand, thousand times, the dread confession   Has mounted to my lips, yet evermore   Shrunk, like a craven, back upon my heart.   O Roderigo! for a few brief moments   Alone with her!MARQUIS            Ah! and your father, prince!CARLOS   Unhappy me! Remind me not of him.   Tell me of all the torturing pangs of conscience,   But speak not, I implore you, of my father!MARQUIS   Then do you hate your father?CARLOS                   No, oh, no!   I do not hate my father; but the fear   That guilty creatures feel, – a shuddering dread, —   Comes o'er me ever at that terrible name.   Am I to blame, if slavish nurture crushed   Love's tender germ within my youthful heart?   Six years I'd numbered, ere the fearful man,   They told me was my father, met mine eyes.   One morning 'twas, when with a stroke I saw him   Sign four death-warrants. After that I ne'er   Beheld him, save when, for some childish fault,   I was brought out for chastisement. O God!   I feel my heart grow bitter at the thought.   Let us away! away!MARQUIS             Nay, Carlos, nay,   You must, you shall give all your sorrow vent,   Let it have words! 'twill ease your o'erfraught heart.CARLOS   Oft have I struggled with myself, and oft   At midnight, when my guards were sunk in sleep,   With floods of burning tears I've sunk before   The image of the ever-blessed Virgin,   And craved a filial heart, but all in vain.   I rose with prayer unheard. O Roderigo!   Unfold this wondrous mystery of heaven,   Why of a thousand fathers only this   Should fall to me – and why to him this son,   Of many thousand better? Nature could not   In her wide orb have found two opposites   More diverse in their elements. How could   She bind the two extremes of human kind —   Myself and him – in one so holy bond?   O dreadful fate! Why was it so decreed?   Why should two men, in all things else apart,   Concur so fearfully in one desire?   Roderigo, here thou seest two hostile stars,   That in the lapse of ages, only once,   As they sweep onwards in their orbed course,   Touch with a crash that shakes them to the centre,   Then rush apart forever and forever.MARQUIS   I feel a dire foreboding.CARLOS                 So do I.   Like hell's grim furies, dreams of dreadful shape   Pursue me still. My better genius strives   With the fell projects of a dark despair.   My wildered subtle spirit crawls through maze   On maze of sophistries, until at length   It gains a yawning precipice's brink.   O Roderigo! should I e'er in him   Forget the father – ah! thy deathlike look   Tells me I'm understood – should I forget   The father – what were then the king to me?MARQUIS (after a pause)   One thing, my Carlos, let me beg of you!   Whate'er may be your plans, do nothing, – nothing, —   Without your friend's advice. You promise this?CARLOS   All, all I promise that thy love can ask!   I throw myself entirely upon thee!MARQUIS   The king, I hear, is going to Madrid.   The time is short. If with the queen you would   Converse in private, it is only here,   Here in Aranjuez, it can be done.   The quiet of the place, the freer manners,   All favor you.CARLOS           And such, too, was my hope;   But it, alas! was vain.MARQUIS                Not wholly so.   I go to wait upon her. If she be   The same in Spain she was in Henry's court,   She will be frank at least. And if I can   Read any hope for Carlos in her looks —   Find her inclined to grant an interview —   Get her attendant ladies sent away —CARLOS   Most of them are my friends – especially   The Countess Mondecar, whom I have gained   By service to her son, my page.MARQUIS                    'Tis well;   Be you at hand, and ready to appear,   Whene'er I give the signal, prince.CARLOS                      I will, —   Be sure I will: – and all good speed attend thee!MARQUIS   I will not lose a moment; so, farewell.[Exeunt severally

SCENE III

The Queen's Residence in Aranjuez. The Pleasure Grounds, intersected by an avenue, terminated by the Queen's Palace.

The QUEEN, DUCHESS OF OLIVAREZ, PRINCESS OF EBOLI, and MARCHIONESS OF MONDECAR, all advancing from the avenue.

QUEEN (to the MARCHIONESS)   I will have you beside me, Mondecar.   The princess, with these merry eyes of hers,   Has plagued me all the morning. See, she scarce   Can hide the joy she feels to leave the country.EBOLI   'Twere idle to conceal, my queen, that I   Shall be most glad to see Madrid once more.MONDECAR   And will your majesty not be so, too?   Are you so grieved to quit Aranjuez?QUEEN   To quit – this lovely spot at least I am.   This is my world. Its sweetness oft and oft   Has twined itself around my inmost heart.   Here, nature, simple, rustic nature greets me,   The sweet companion of my early years —   Here I indulge once more my childhood's sports,   And my dear France's gales come blowing here.   Blame not this partial fondness – all hearts yearn   For their own native land.EBOLI                 But then how lone,   How dull and lifeless it is here! We might   As well be in La Trappe.QUEEN                I cannot see it.   To me Madrid alone is lifeless. But   What saith our duchess to it?OLIVAREZ                   Why, methinks,   Your majesty, since kings have ruled in Spain,   It hath been still the custom for the court   To pass the summer months alternately   Here and at Pardo, – in Madrid, the winter.QUEEN   Well, I suppose it has! Duchess, you know   I've long resigned all argument with you.MONDECAR   Next month Madrid will be all life and bustle.   They're fitting up the Plaza Mayor now,   And we shall have rare bull-fights; and, besides,   A grand auto da fe is promised us.QUEEN   Promised? This from my gentle Mondecar!MONDECAR   Why not? 'Tis only heretics they burn!QUEEN   I hope my Eboli thinks otherwise!EBOLI   What, I? I beg your majesty may think me   As good a Christian as the marchioness.QUEEN   Alas! I had forgotten where I am, —   No more of this! We were speaking, I think,   About the country? And methinks this month   Has flown away with strange rapidity.   I counted on much pleasure, very much,   From our retirement here, and yet I have not   Found that which I expected. Is it thus   With all our hopes? And yet I cannot say   One wish of mine is left ungratified.OLIVAREZ   You have not told us, Princess Eboli,   If there be hope for Gomez, – and if we may   Expect ere long to greet you as his bride?QUEEN   True – thank you, duchess, for reminding me!

[Addressing the PRINCESS.

   I have been asked to urge his suit with you.   But can I do it? The man whom I reward   With my sweet Eboli must be a man   Of noble stamp indeed.OLIVAREZ               And such he is,   A man of mark and fairest fame, – a man   Whom our dear monarch signally has graced   With his most royal favor.QUEEN                 He's happy in   Such high good fortune; but we fain would know,   If he can love, and win return of love.   This Eboli must answer.EBOLI (stands speechless and confused, her eyes bent on the ground; at last she falls at the QUEEN's feet)               Gracious queen!   Have pity on me! Let me – let me not, —   For heaven's sake, let me not be sacrificed.QUEEN   Be sacrificed! I need no more. Arise!   'Tis a hard fortune to be sacrificed.   I do believe you. Rise. And is it long   Since you rejected Gomez' suit?EBOLI                    Some months —   Before Prince Carlos came from Alcala.QUEEN (starts and looks at her with an inquisitive glance)   Have you tried well the grounds of your refusal?EBOLI (with energy)   It cannot be, my queen, no, never, never, —   For a thousand reasons, never!QUEEN                   One's enough,   You do not love him. That suffices me.   Now let it pass.

[To her other ladies.

            I have not seen the Infanta   Yet this morning. Pray bring her, marchioness.OLIVAREZ (looking at the clock)   It is not yet the hour, your majesty.QUEEN   Not yet the hour for me to be a mother!   That's somewhat hard. Forget not, then, to tell me   When the right hour does come.

[A page enters and whispers to the first lady, who

      thereupon turns to the QUEEN.OLIVAREZ                   The Marquis Posa!   May it please your majesty.QUEEN                  The Marquis Posa!OLIVAREZ   He comes from France, and from the Netherlands,   And craves the honor to present some letters   Intrusted to him by your royal mother.QUEEN   Is this allowed?OLIVAREZ (hesitating)            A case so unforeseen   Is not provided for in my instructions.   When a Castilian grandee, with despatches   From foreign courts, shall in her garden find   The Queen of Spain, and tender them —QUEEN   Enough! I'll venture, then, on mine own proper peril.OLIVAREZ   May I, your majesty, withdraw the while?QUEEN   E'en as you please, good duchess!

[Exit the DUCHESS, the QUEEN gives the PAGE a sign, who thereupon retires.

SCENE IV

The QUEEN, PRINCESS EBOLI, MARCHIONESS OF MONDECAR, and MARQUIS OF POSA.

QUEEN   I bid you welcome, sir, to Spanish ground!MARQUIS   Ground which I never with so just a pride   Hailed for the country of my sires as now.QUEEN (to the two ladies)   The Marquis Posa, ladies, who at Rheims   Coped with my father in the lists, and made   My colors thrice victorious; the first   That made me feel how proud a thing it was   To be the Queen of Spain and Spanish men.

[Turning to the MARQUIS.

   When we last parted in the Louvre, Sir,   You scarcely dreamed that I should ever be   Your hostess in Castile.MARQUIS                Most true, my liege!   For at that time I never could have dreamed   That France should lose to us the only thing   We envied her possessing.QUEEN                 How, proud Spaniard!   The only thing! And you can venture this —   This to a daughter of the house of Valois!MARQUIS   I venture now to say it, gracious queen,   Since now you are our own.QUEEN                 Your journey hither   Has led you, as I hear, through France. What news   Have you brought with you from my honored mother   And from my dearest brothers?MARQUIS (handing letters)   I left your royal mother sick at heart,   Bereft of every joy save only this,   To know her daughter happy on the throne   Of our imperial Spain.QUEEN               Could she be aught   But happy in the dear remembrances   Of relatives so kind – in the sweet thoughts   Of the old time when – Sir, you've visited   Full many a court in these your various travels,   And seen strange lands and customs manifold;   And now, they say, you mean to keep at home   A greater prince in your retired domain   Than is King Philip on his throne – a freer.   You're a philosopher; but much I doubt   If our Madrid will please you. We are so —   So quiet in Madrid.MARQUIS              And that is more   Than all the rest of Europe has to boast.QUEEN   I've heard as much. But all this world's concerns   Are well-nigh blotted from my memory.

[To PRINCESS EBOLI.