In five acts
Translation © 2017 Flora Kimmich, CC BY 4.0 http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0101.03
Characters
WALLENSTEIN, Duke of Friedland, imperial generalissimo in the Thirty Years’ War
OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, lieutenant general
MAX PICCOLOMINI, his son, colonel of a Cuirassier regiment
COUNT TERZKY, Wallenstein’s brother-in-law, chief of many regiments
ILLO, field marshal, Wallenstein’s confidant
ISOLANI, general of the Croats
BUTTLER, chief of a Dragoon regiment
TIEFENBACH, DON MARADAS, GOETZ, COLALTO generals under Wallenstein
CAVALRY CAPTAIN NEUMANN, Terzky’s adjutant
WAR COUNSELOR von QUESTENBERG, Kaiser’s emissary
BAPTISTA SENI, astrologer
DUCHESS of FRIEDLAND, Wallenstein’s wife
THEKLA, Princess Friedland, their daughter
COUNTESS TERZKY, sister of the Duchess
A CORNET
WINE STEWARD of Count Terzky
PAGES and SERVANTS of Friedland
SERVANTS and OBOISTS of Terzky
COLONELS and GENERALS
Act One
An old Gothic Chamber in the Town Hall of Pilsen, decorated with banners and other trappings of war
Scene One
Illo with Buttler and Isolani.
ILLO. You’re late in coming, but you’ve come. The long
Journey, Count Isolan, excuses your
Delay.
ISOLANI. And we’re not coming empty-handed.
We heard at Donauwörth57 of Swedish transports
Passing nearby and carrying supplies—
A good six hundred wagons. My Croats
Attacked. We’ve brought them with us here.
ILLO. Well done!
A timely gift to feed this high assembly.58
BUTTLER. It’s lively here already, as I see.
ISOLANI. The churches too are packed with troops, (looking around) and in10
Town Hall you’ve made yourselves at home. Well, well!
A soldier finds solutions where he can.
ILLO. The chiefs of thirty regiments have come.
Terzky you’ll find here, Tiefenbach, Colalto,
And Götz, Maradas, Hinnersam, as well as
The Piccolomini, both father and son—
You’ll see old friends in number once again.
Gallas alone is missed, and Altringer.
BUTTLER. You needn’t wait for Gallas.
ILLO (starts). How so? Do you—
ISOLANI (interrupts). Max Piccolomini here? Bring me to him!20
I see him still—it’s been ten years since then—
At Dessau, where we fought with Mansfeld,59 how
He leapt his charger from the bridge and swam
The ripping Elbe to relieve the press
Around his father. Beardless he was then,
And now he is, I hear, a finished hero.
ILLO. Today yet you should see him. He’s escorting
The Duchess Friedland and the Princess from
Carinthia, expected before noon.60
BUTTLER. The Prince sends for his wife and daughter? Quite30
A company he’s convened here.
ISOLANI. I say, so much
The better. I expected only talk
Of marches, batteries and attacks. But look!
The Duke provides what’s fair to please our eyes.
ILLO (who has been lost in thought, to Buttler, whom he has taken aside).
How do you know Count Gallas isn’t coming?
BUTTLER (with meaning). Because he also tried to keep me back.61
ILLO (warmly). And you stood fast?
(Presses his hand.) Most excellent Buttler!
BUTTLER. Considering the favor I enjoy—
ILLO. Congratulations, Major General!
ISOLANI. The regiment the Prince just gave him, not so?40
What’s more, I hear, the one in which he rose
From simple rider? True enough! A spur
And model to his corps—a warrior
Who rises by his merits.62
BUTTLER. I’m embarrassed,
Not knowing if I may accept your praise.
The Kaiser has not yet confirmed—
ISOLANI. Accept!
Accept! The hand that placed you so is strong
Enough to keep you there in all despite
Of Kaiser and of ministers.
ILLO. If we all
Should have such scruples! The Kaiser gives us nothing.50
All we want, all we have comes from the Duke.
ISOLANI (to Illo). I haven’t told you, Brother. But the Prince
Has offered to content my creditors,
Himself to be my treasurer henceforth,
Make me an honest man. The third time now
This princely man has rescued me from ruin and
Restored my name.
ILLO. Could he but always do
As he would wish! He gave his soldiers land
And people. How Vienna doesn’t block
His arm and clip his wings back, where it can! Those 60
Fine new demands this Questenberg has brought!63
BUTLER. I’ve heard of these Imperial demands.
I hope the Duke will stand his ground.
ILLO. For sure
In matters of his rights, if not—his place.
BUTTLER (startled). You’ve heard something? You frighten me.
ISOLANI (together). We’d all
Be ruined!
ILLO. Leave off! Our man is coming there
With Lieutenant General Piccolomini.
BUTTLER (shaking his head with misgiving).
We shall not go from here the way we came.
Scene Two
As above. Octavio Piccolomini. Questenberg.
OCTAVIO (still at a distance). What? Still more guests? Admit it, Friend! It took
This war, its many tears, to bring into70
One camp so many heroes crowned with laurel.
QUESTENBERG. Into the camp of Friedland’s peerless army
Let no man come who would think ill of war.
His difficulties almost slipped my mind
At this high sense of order, his mark as
He destroys, at the greatness that he builds.
OCTAVIO. But look! Here two men worthy to complete
The ranks of heroes come: Count Isolan
And Colonel Buttler.64 All the arts of war
Stand now before us.80
(Presenting Buttler and Isolani.)
Strength and speed at once.
QUESTENBERG (to Octavio).
Quite. And between them, seasoned counsel, too.
OCTAVIO (presenting Questenberg).
Chamberlain Questenberg, Counselor of War.
We honor in this worthy guest the man
Who brings Imperial orders—soldiers’ friend
And patron.
(General silence.)
ILLO (approaching Questenberg).
Not for the first time, my Lord,
Have we the honor to receive you here
In camp.
QUESTENBERG. These banners have received me, true.
ILLO. Do you remember where? At Znaim, Moravia,
You came, sent by the Kaiser, to entreat
The Duke, beg him to take the regiment.6590
QUESTENBERG. Entreat, General? That far my orders did
Not go, nor did my wishes.
ILLO. Then to force,
If you prefer. I remember well. Tilly
Had been defeated on the Lech.66 Bavaria
Lay open to the enemy. Nothing
Kept him from penetrating to the heart
Of Austria. There you appeared, and with
You Werdenberg,67 besieging, threatening
Imperial displeasure, should the Prince not 100
Take pity at such disarray.
ISOLANI (joining in). It’s all
Too comprehensible, Counselor, to
Forget that mission at your present one.
QUESTENBERG. Why should I not? No contradiction here.
We had to drive the foe out of Bohemia
Then. Now we must protect it from its friends.
ILLO. A fine office! We’ve wrung Bohemia from
The Saxon with our blood;68 for thanks you come
To throw us out.
QUESTENBERG. This wretched land must now
Be freed of friend and foe alike or fall from110
One fire into another.
ILLO. Stuff and nonsense!
The peasant’s had a good year. He can spare—
QUESTENBERG. If you refer to flocks and pastures, then—
ISOLANI. War feeds on war.69 Destroy the peasant, and
The Kaiser gains that many able soldiers.
QUESTENBERG. And loses just so many subjects.
ISOLANI. Pooh!
We’re all his subjects.
QUESTENBERG. A distinction, Count.
With industry some fill his coffers. Others
Busily empty them. The sword has made
The Kaiser poor. The plow’s to build his strength back.120
BUTTLER. The Kaiser wouldn’t be so poor if all those (he pauses)
Leeches weren’t sucking marrow from the land.
ISOLANI. It can’t be all that bad.
(He stands in front of Questenberg and stares at his uniform.)
I see they’ve yet
To strike all gold to coin.
QUESTENBERG. Praise be to God!
They’ve saved a bit from long Croatian fingers.
ILLO. Look! Slavata and Martinitz, on whom
The Kaiser lavishes his grace and favor—
Bane to all good Bohemians—they who feed
On loot from exiled citizens and batten
On general foulness, harvest sole amid130
A public wretchedness and mock the sorrow
Of the land with a king’s display—let them and
Their like defray the ruinous war that they
Alone have kindled.70
BUTTLER. Landed parasites,
Those lords who always have their feet beneath
The Kaiser’s table, ravening to snap
Up every benefice—they’d ration out
The bread of every soldier in the field
Before the foe and cancel his account.
ISOLANI. In life I’ll not forget: When I came to 140
Vienna seven years ago (it was
Our regiments’ remount I was arranging),
They dragged me from one antechamber to
Another, let me cool my heels among
The flunkies, and for hours. As if I’d come
To beg. At last they sent a Capuchin.
I thought that he was for my sins. But no.
It was with him I was supposed to bargain.
I went back empty-handed. Then the Prince got
Me in three days what cost me thirty in150
Vienna.
QUESTENBERG. Well I know. I found that entry
In the account. We’re paying for it still.
ILLO. A war’s a dirty, violent trade. Mild measures
Are not enough. One can’t always forbear.
To wait them out until they find the least
Among two dozen evils in Vienna
Will keep you waiting long. Wade right in,
Cost what it may. That’s better. People know
To patch it up and understand a hated
Compulsion better than a bitter choice.160
QUESTENBERG. That’s true. The Prince has spared us any choice.
ILLO. The Prince protects us like a father. We
Know what the Kaiser has in store for us.
QUESTENBERG. He has an equal heart for each estate,
Will not redeem one with another.
ISOLANI. Ho!
And sends us to be eaten in the desert,
Instead of all those precious sheep at home.
QUESTENBERG (mocking). It’s you draw the comparison, Count, not I.
ILLO. But were we that for which we’re held at Court,
It would be dangerous to give us freedom.170
QUESTENBERG (gravely). This freedom has been taken and not given.
It must be haltered, bridled, and restrained.
ILLO. Expect to find a horse you cannot manage.
QUESTENBERG. A better rider knows to handle it.
ILLO. It carries none but him by whom it’s tamed.
QUESTENBERG. When it’s once tamed, it’s managed by a child.
ILLO. A child, I well know, they’ve already found.71
QUESTENBERG. Your duty’s your concern, and not his name.
BUTTLER (who has stood to the side with Piccolomini, following the conversation attentively, comes forward).
Lord President, the Kaiser has at his
Command impressive troops in Germany,180
Full thirty thousand: sixteen thousand in
Silesia; then on Weser, Rhine, and Main
Ten regiments; in Swabia six and in
Bavaria twelve oppose the Swedes, to leave
Unmentioned garrisons to guard the strongholds
That keep our borders. All this army answers
To Friedland’s captains. Its commanders all
Were trained in one school, one milk fed them all,
One heart beats in their breasts. Yet all of them
Are strangers in these parts, his service their 190
Sole house and home. No zeal for country drives
Them. Thousands here were born abroad, like me.
Not for the Kaiser—fully half has come
From foreign service, changing sides and fighting
Indifferently for Double Eagle, Lion,
Or Lily.72 These an equal rein controls,
One man by equal love and fear molds all
To one force. Rapid as a thunderbolt and
Straight, his command runs from the farthest outpost
That hears the Baltic surf crash on its dunes200
Or looks on the rich valleys of the Etsch73
Clear to the watch that built its sentry box
Beneath the walls of the Imperial Palace.
QUESTENBERG. And the short sense of this long speech is what?
BUTTLER. That the respect, the love, the trust, all that
Makes us submit to Friedland, never can be
Transplanted to the next best man Vienna
Sends. We remember loyally just how
Command first came to rest in Friedland’s hands.
Was it Imperial Majesty bestowed210
On him a standing army? Merely went
In search of one equipped to lead its troops?
There was no army. Friedland had to raise
An army. He did not receive it. He
It was who gave it to the Kaiser. We
Did not receive our marshal from the Kaiser.
Not so, not so. From Wallenstein we got
The Kaiser in the first place as our master.74
He binds us to these banners, only he.
OCTAVIO (intervening). Please bear in mind, Counselor, that you’re among220
Warriors in camp. It’s boldness makes the soldier,
And freedom. Pluck in action, should it not
Speak pluckily as well? It is all one.
The boldness of this worthy officer (indicating Buttler),
Which has but chosen here its object wrong,
Salvaged, where only boldness could prevail—
A fearsome rising of the garrison—
The Kaiser’s capital city Prague.75
(Military music in the distance.)
ILLO. They’re in!
The Guard salutes. This signal tells us that
The Duchess is just entering at our gates.230
OCTAVIO (to Questenberg). Then my son Max is back. He went to fetch
Her from Carinthia and has brought her here.
ISOLANI (to Illo). Shall we go out to greet her right away?
ILLO. Quite so. We’ll go together. Colonel Buttler?
(To Octavio.) Remember we’re to meet this worthy lord
This morning yet before the Prince. Till then.
Scene Three
Octavio and Questenberg, who remain behind.
QUESTENBERG (with gestures of astonishment).
What I have had to hear, Lieutenant General!
What unabridged defiance, wild ideas!
If this should be the general spirit here—
OCTAVIO. You’ve heard three quarters of the army, Friend.240
QUESTENBERG. Disastrous! Where to find a second such
To keep an eye on this one? Illo here
Thinks even worse than how he talks, I wager.
Still less can Buttler hide his evil thoughts.
OCTAVIO. He’s touchy, over-proud, and nothing more.
I’ve not yet given up on him; I know
A way to righten his wrong-headedness.76
QUESTENBERG (pacing uneasily).
Oh, this is worse, far worse, my friend, than we
Had let ourselves imagine in Vienna.
We saw it but with courtiers’ eyes, blinded250
Before the brilliance of the throne, alas. This
Field marshal, though, we had not seen, not yet
Here in his camp, where he’s all-capable.
This is quite different!
There is no Kaiser here. The Prince is Kaiser!
The round through camp that I just made with you
Has altogether swept away my hopes.
OCTAVIO. You see now for yourself how dangerous is
The office that you bring me from the Court,
How perilous the role I must assume.77260
The least suspicion of the General will
Cost me my freedom or my very life
And only hastens his audacious plan.
QUESTENBERG. What were we thinking when we offered him
Our sword, bestowed such might on such a hand!
This badly guarded heart could not withstand such
Temptation! Why, a better man might have
Succumbed! I tell you, he’ll refuse his orders—
He can and will. Defiance such as his,
Unpunished, will expose us, prove us helpless.270
OCTAVIO. And do you believe that he has brought his wife
And daughter into camp for no good purpose,
Just when we’re massing here to launch a war?
His bringing these last guarantors of his
Good faith into safekeeping points us to
A looming danger: imminent revolt.
QUESTENBERG. Alas! And how shall we withstand the storm
That gathers over us from every quarter?
Our enemy upon our borders; worse,
The Danube his; advances on all sides;280
The fire bells tolling uproar through the land;
The peasants arming, every rank enflamed;
The army, from which we expected help,
Seduced, confused, all discipline abandoned,
Unmoored from Kaiser and from all the State.78
A reeling and uncertain army led by
A reeling and uncertain chief commander,
A terrible machine obeying blindly
The boldest and most desperate of men—
OCTAVIO. Let’s not lose courage at the outset, Friend.290
For speech is always cheekier than the deed,
And many a one who seems intent upon
The worst will find a heart within his breast
To hear the crime once called by its true name.79
Consider: undefended we are not.
Counts Altringer and Gallas, I assure you,
Keep faith with their small army, strengthen it
From day to day. He cannot take us by
Surprise. I have surrounded him with ears;
I’ll hear of his least step immediately—300
His own mouth tells me.
QUESTENBERG. Strange that he has not
Suspected any enemy beside him.
OCTAVIO. You should not believe that I used lies or flattery
To gain his favor, or half-truths to keep
His trust. And, while good sense and duty that
I owe the Kaiser led me to conceal
My heart, I’ve never shown him a false heart.80
QUESTENBERG. It’s heavenly disposition, manifestly.
OCTAVIO. I don’t know what it is—what binds him to me
And to my son so powerfully. We’ve310
Always been friends and brothers, brothers in arms.
Accustomedness, adventures shared alike
Allied us early on. Though I can name
The day that touched his heart, made his trust grow:
The morning before Lützen, when a dream
Had prompted me to seek him out and urge
That he accept a different horse for battle.
I found him far from camp, asleep beneath
A tree. I woke him, told him my misgivings.
He stared at me, then fell into my arms,320
Much moved, more than so small service could
Deserve. And since that day his trust pursues me
In just the same degree that mine flees him.81
QUESTENBERG. You’ve drawn your son into your confidence?
OCTAVIO. No!
QUESTENBERG. What? Not warned him of what evil hands he’s
In?
OCTAVIO. I must leave him to his innocence.
His open heart’s a stranger to deception.
Ignorance only can preserve in him
The peace of mind to make the Duke secure.
QUESTENBERG (troubled). My worthy friend! I have the best regard330
For Colonel Piccolomini, but if—
Consider—
OCTAVIO. I must risk it. Still! He’s coming.
Scene Four
Max Piccolomini. Octavio Piccolomini. Questenberg.
MAX. And here he is in person. Welcome, Father!
(He embraces him. When he turns, he sees Questenberg and steps back coldly.)
You’re occupied, I see. I’ll not disturb you.
OCTAVIO. But Max! Look carefully. You know this guest.
Such an old friend deserves attentiveness and
Respect as bearer of the Kaiser’s orders.
MAX (perfunctory). Von Questenberg! Welcome, if good report
Has brought you to headquarters.
QUESTENBERG (seizes his hand). Oh, do not
Withhold your hand, Count Piccolomini.340
I take it not just for my sake, and no
Ordinary thing will I express by this.
(Taking both their hands.)
Octavio—Max Piccolomini!
Propitious names, names of good augury!
The fate of Austria shall never turn
While two such stars, so rich in blessing and
Protection, spread their light above its armies.
MAX. You’ve fallen out of role, Lord Counselor.
It’s not to praise us that you’re sent. You’re here
To blame and scold. And I wish to enjoy350
No preference not accorded others like me.
OCTAVIO (to Max). He comes from Court, where one is somewhat less
Contented with the Duke than we are here.
MAX. What new reproach do they now bring against him?
That he alone decides what he alone
Can grasp? Fine! He does well, and so it will
Remain. For never was he meant to trail
Another, willingly adjust his course.
It goes against his grain. He cannot do it.
His is a ruler’s spirit and put him in360
A ruler’s place. Our luck, that it is so.
For few indeed can rule themselves, can use
Their good sense sensibly. A boon for all,
When there is one who builds a center, draws
In many thousands, stands firm like a pillar
To be embraced with joy and confidence.
Just such is Wallenstein, and if the Court
Prefers another, only such a one
Can serve the army.
QUESTENBERG. Yes, indeed, the army!
MAX. And it’s a joy to see just how he rouses,370
Makes strong, enlivens everything about him,
How every strength emerges, every gift
Perceives itself more clearly in his presence!
He draws out the particular powers of each man
And fosters them, lets each remain himself
Entirely, seeing only that each keep
His station. Thus adroit, he well knows how
To make all men’s capacity his own.
QUESTENBERG. No one denies that he knows men, knows how to
Use them! Engrossed as ruler, he forgets380
The servant, as if born into his rank.
MAX. And is he not? With every necessary
Power he is, and also with the power
To execute the plan of Nature and for
His ruler’s talent win a ruler’s place.
QUESTENBERG. So it depends on his largesse in what
Consideration we are henceforth held?
MAX. So rare a man requires rare trust. One need
But give him room. He’ll set his goal himself.
QUESTENBERG. So he has proved.390
MAX. There you are! Everything
Alarms them that has any depth. They feel
At home uniquely with what’s flat and shallow.
OCTAVIO (to Questenberg). Surrender in good grace, my friend! Give over.
With this one here you never shall be done.
MAX. Hard pressed, they call for high intelligence,
And then take fright, should it present itself.
Uncommon things, the very greatest deeds
Are to take place like everyday events.
But in the field the moment is upon us.
There personal powers prevail, there one must see400
With one’s own eyes. A field marshal must have
Recourse to every grandness Nature holds.
So let him live in grand dimensions, consult
The living oracle of his mind, not dead
Books, ancient regulations, musty papers.82
OCTAVIO. Son, let us not despise our regulations,
However old and narrow. These are priceless
Fetters oppressed men bound on their oppressors’
Swift will. For willfulness is terrible.
The path of order, crooked though it be,410
Is no detour. The thunderbolt runs straight,
As does the cannonball. The shortest path
Brings it, destroying all about it, to
Its goal, which it destroys. My son, the road
A man must take, the good road, follows streams,
The easy course of valleys; it avoids
A corn field or a vineyard, it respects
The measured boundaries of property
And leads more slowly, surely to its goal.83
QUESTENBERG. Oh, listen to your father, listen to420
Him, who is both a hero and a man.
OCTAVIO. In you one hears the camp’s child speak. Fifteen years
Of war have raised you. Peace you’ve never seen.
There’re higher values, Son, than war-like ones;
In war itself the ultimate’s not war.
The great and rapid deeds of violence,
The moment’s blinding miracle beget
No happiness or strong, enduring calm.
A soldier builds his canvas town in haste,
A momentary buzz and bustle brings 430
The square to life. On roads and rivers goods
Go back and forth, a busy trade springs up.
Then one fine morning tents are struck, the horde
Moves on. Sown fields and plow land lie as still
As churchyards, trampled, ruined. And the year’s
Whole harvest has been lost.
MAX. Oh, let the Kaiser
Make peace, my father! Gladly I’d give all
This bloody laurel for one violet
In March, the fragrant pledge of earth renewed!
OCTAVIO. Why, Max! (Pause.) What has so affected you?440
MAX. I’ve never seen a peace? Indeed I have,
My father. I’ve just come, just now, from there.
My journey led through lands no war has touched.
Oh, Father, life has charms we’ve never known.
We’ve only cruised the barren coast of blooming
Life, like a tribe of pirates, packed into
An airless ship, that squanders all its days
In savage living on a savage sea
And knows of the great land the bays alone
Where it might risk a thievish landing. What450
Its inner valleys hide in treasure—none
Of all that could we see on our wild voyage.
OCTAVIO (attentive). And has this journey shown you all these things?
MAX. It gave me the first leisure of my life.
Tell me, what is the point of endless work, the
Hard labor that so robbed me of my youth
And left my heart a desert, starved my mind, which
No arts had gentled yet and none refined?
For this camp’s noisy churning, horses neighing,
The trumpet’s blast, our clockwork rounds of duty,460
Practice at arms, obedience to command—
They strip the heart out and they parch it dry.
This empty busyness, it has no soul. There’s
Another happiness, there’re other joys.
OCTAVIO. You have learned much on this short trip, my son.
MAX. Oh, happy day! At last a soldier can
Reenter life, return to humankind.
The flags unfurl in festive celebration.
To peaceful marches he sets out for home,
All hats and helmets are decked out with green,470
The last loot from the fields. Now city gates
Swing open freely, no petard need breach them.
The walls are thronged by peaceful citizens,
Who wave. From every tower bells announce
The tranquil evening of a bloody day.
From villages and cities cheering crowds
Come streaming out and joyfully slow the march.
The old man, glad he’s seen the day, extends
His hand to welcome his returning son.
A stranger, he reenters what is his,480
Long left behind. At his return the tree
That he’d last seen a slender sapling shades him.
A blushing girl comes out to meet him whom
He’d once left lying on her nurse’s breast.
A happy man to whom a door, to whom
Soft arms, embracing sweetly, also open.
QUESTENBERG (touched).
Alas, that you should speak of far off, far
Off times, not of tomorrow, not today.
MAX (rounds on him). Who but you in Vienna bears the fault?84
Let me confess it freely, Questenberg!490
When I caught sight of you just now, ill will
Made my spleen rise into my throat. It’s you
Who block the peace, it’s you and you alone.
It’s fighting men who must bring it about.
From you comes endless trouble for the Prince,
You stop his steps, you blacken him. And why?
Because Europe’s great Good concerns him more than
A foot or more or less of land for Austria.
You’re making him a rebel and God knows
What else, because he spares the Saxon, wants500
To cultivate our enemy’s trust. But that’s
The only path to lead us to a peace.
If we don’t stop this war within a war,
What hope have we of peace? So go, just go!
I hate you as I love the Good. I swear
Most solemnly, I’ll give my heart’s last blood,
Last drop of blood, for him, for Wallenstein,
Before I see you triumph at his fall. (Exit.)
Scene Five
Questenberg. Octavio Piccolomini.
QUESTENBERG. God help us! Can this be?
(Urgent and impatient.)
Are we to let him go this way? He’s mad!510
Not call him back? Not open instantly
His eyes?
OCTAVIO (rousing himself from deep thought).
He has just opened mine and made
Me see more than I like.
QUESTENBERG. May I ask what?
OCTAVIO. A pox upon this journey!
QUESTENBERG. What? How so?
OCTAVIO. But come. I’ll have to track this down, to see
With my own eyes—(Offers to lead him away.)
QUESTENBERG. But what? Where would you go?
OCTAVIO (urgent). To her!
QUESTENBERG. To?
OCTAVIO (correcting himself). To the Duke. I fear the worst.
I see a net cast over him, he’s not
Returned to me the man who went away.
QUESTENBERG. Explain—520
OCTAVIO. Could I not see it coming? Not
Abort this errand? Why did I not speak?
You’re right. I should have warned him. Too late now.
QUESTENBERG. Too late for what? These riddles baffle me.
OCTAVIO (more composed).
We’re going to the Duke. Come. It’s almost
The hour he named for audience. Do come!
A pox, a three-fold pox, upon this journey!
(He leads Questenberg away.)
Curtain.
Act Two
A large Room in the quarters of the Duke of Friedland
Scene One
Servants are arranging chairs and spreading carpets. The astrologer Seni enters, dressed in black, rather fantastically, after the fashion of an Italian scholar.85 He goes to the middle of the room and indicates the four cardinal points with the white staff that he carries.
SERVANT (going about with a censor).
Fall to! Get finished here. The Guard’s been called to
Attention! They’ll be coming any minute.
SECOND SERVANT. But why was the red room closed off? The one
That has a bay and where the light’s so good?530
FIRST SERVANT. Ask him, the mathematician there. He claims
That it’s unlucky.
SECOND SERVANT. Pooh! That’s nothing more
Than fooling people. Look, a room’s a room.
What’s all the fuss about a simple place?
SENI (with gravity).
My son, there’s nothing in the world lacks meaning.
For every earthly matter, time and place
Have overwhelming, capital importance.
THIRD SERVANT. Don’t take it up with him, Nathanael.
The Master, even, has to do his will.
SENI (counting the chairs).
Eleven. Evil number. Place twelve chairs.540
The zodiac has twelve signs, five and seven,
For only sacred numbers make up twelve.
SECOND SERVANT. And what’s the grudge you have against eleven?
SENI. Eleven, that is sinfulness, exceeds
The Ten Commandments.
SECOND SERVANT. Oh! And why is five
A sacred number?
SENI. That’s the human soul,
Composed of good and evil, just as five’s
Composed of odd and even, straight and crooked.
FIRST SERVANT. The dunce!
THIRD SERVANT. Leave him alone. I like to listen
When he talks—how it always makes you think.550
SECOND SERVANT.
They’re coming. Quick! This way! Out by the side door.
(They leave in haste. Seni follows slowly.)
Scene Two
Wallenstein. The Duchess.
WALLENSTEIN. Well, Duchess? On your way you saw Vienna?
Appeared before the Queen of Hungary?86
DUCHESS. Before the Empress, too. Their Majesties
Admitted us to offer our respects.
WALLENSTEIN. How did they take it that I’ve summoned wife
And daughter to me in the field in winter?
DUCHESS. I did as you prescribed: observed that you
Had chosen for our daughter, wished to show her
To her betrothed before the next campaign.560
WALLENSTEIN. And did they speculate about my choice?
DUCHESS. They wanted it to be no foreigner,
To be no Lutheran whom you’d chosen for her.
WALLENSTEIN. And what is it you want, Elisabeth?
DUCHESS. You know your wish has always been my own.
WALLENSTEIN (after a pause).
Well, then. And how were you received at Court?
(The Duchess lowers her gaze and remains silent.)
Hide nothing from me. Tell me how it was.
DUCHESS. Alas, my husband, it’s not all the way
It used to be. There’s been a change—it’s different—
WALLENSTEIN. How so? Were you not treated with respect?570
DUCHESS. Respect? Oh, yes. Their mien was dignified and
Seemly. But stiff formality now took
The place of friendly, gracious condescension.
Their kindness toward me showed compassion more
Than favor. No, indeed. Duke Albrecht’s princely
Consort, Count Harrach’s noble daughter ought not,
Ought not, to’ve been received in such a fashion.
WALLENSTEIN. And they no doubt attacked my latest conduct?
DUCHESS. If they but had! I’m long accustomed to
Excusing you, to smoothing ruffled feathers.580
No, not a one attacked. They wrapped themselves
In solemn, leaden silence. This, alas, is
No ordinary misunderstanding, no
Mere passing sensitivity. Something
Disastrous, irretrievable has happened.
The Queen of Hungary once used to call
Me her dear aunt, embraced me when we parted.
WALLENSTEIN. And now?
DUCHESS (drying her tears, after a pause).
She still embraced me: I had taken
My leave of her, was almost at the door,
When she approached me quickly, as if she’d590
Forgot, and pressed me to her bosom, more pained
Than moved by tenderness.
WALLENSTEIN (taking her hand). Compose yourself!
With Eggenberg, with Lichtenstein, and with
Our other friends—how was it?87
DUCHESS (shaking her head). I saw none.
WALLENSTEIN. The Spanish Count Ambassador, who spoke
For me so warmly?
DUCHESS. Not a word for you.
WALLENSTEIN. These suns no longer shine for us. Henceforth
We’ll have to light our way with our own fire.
DUCHESS. Is it because, my Lord, is it because
Of what at Court they whisper, openly600
Recount abroad, what Father Lamormain88
Referred to—
WALLENSTEIN (quickly). Lamormain! What’s he been saying?
DUCHESS. That you’re accused of heedlessly transgressing
Your charge, of flagrant disregard of highest
Imperial orders. That the Spanish, that
The proud Bavarian duke complain of you,
And that a storm is gathering over you
More menacing by far than that which caused
Your fall at Regensburg.89 And that there’s talk—Oh!
I cannot say it—610
WALLENSTEIN (tense). There’s talk—
DUCHESS. Of a second—(She stops.)
WALLENSTEIN. A second—
DUCHESS. A dismissal more disgraceful
Than the first.
WALLENSTEIN. There’s talk?
(Pacing the room in agitation.) Oh, they’re forcing me,
They’re pushing me against my will into it.
DUCHESS (embracing him, pleading).
While there’s still time, my Lord—If it can be
Prevented by submission, willingness
To yield—Relent. Prevail on your proud heart.
It’s your superior, your Kaiser, that you yield to.
No longer let ill will and spite use poisonous
Construction to obscure your good intentions.
Stand up and use the conquering power of truth620
To shame those liars and those slanderers.
We have so few true friends. You know this.
Our swift good fortune has exposed us to
Men’s hatred. Where shall we then be, if now
The Kaiser turns away his favor from us?
Scene Three
Countess Terzky enters, leading Princess Thekla by the hand.90
COUNTESS. What, Sister? Speaking only of affairs,
And, I see, not of pleasant ones, before
He even has the pleasure of his child?
First moments should belong alone to pleasure.
Here, Father Friedland! I present your daughter.630
(Thekla approaches him shyly and is about to bend over his hand. He catches her in his arms and stands several moments lost in contemplation of her.)
WALLENSTEIN. This hope has blossomed for me. I shall take
That as a pledge of greater happiness.
DUCHESS. She was but a small child when you went out
To build a teeming army for the Kaiser.
And then when you returned from Pomerania,
Your daughter was in convent, until now.91
WALLENSTEIN. While in the field we sought to make her great,
To gain the highest earthly good for her,
Kind Mother Nature within quiet cloister
Walls did her part to give her godly goods640
And leads her now in beauty out to meet
Her brilliant fortunes and fulfill my hopes.
DUCHESS (to the Princess).
You hardly recognized your father here,
My child? You were just eight years old when last
You saw his face.92
THEKLA. Oh, yes, my mother, at
First glance. My father hasn’t aged. In him
I see the man I carried in my heart.
WALLENSTEIN (to the Duchess).
This charming child! A fine remark and what
Good sense. And I complained that Fate withheld
A son, an heir, to take my name and fortune,650
To carry forward my brief life in a
Proud line of princes. Rank ingratitude!
Upon this virginal young brow I’ll lay
The wreath of military life. Nothing’s lost
If it becomes a kingly crown that I
Can weave into this forehead’s lovely locks.
(He is holding her in his arms as Piccolomini enters.)93
Scene Four
Max Piccolomini and then Count Terzky.
COUNTESS. And here’s the paladin who shielded us.
WALLENSTEIN. I bid you welcome, Max. You’ve always brought
Me joy, and like the morning star you now
Lead in the sun, this true light of my life.660
MAX. General—
WALLENSTEIN. Till now it was the Kaiser who
Used my hand to reward you. But today
You’ve bound the grateful father, and this debt
Is Friedland’s own and his alone to settle.
MAX. My Prince, you lost no time in doing so.
I have been shamed, indeed it pains me. Scarce
Have I arrived, have I delivered mother
And daughter into your embraces than I
See led up from your stables as your gift
A four-in-hand magnificent in shining670
Harness to pay me off for all my trouble.
Oh yes! To pay me off. It was a mere
Office that I performed. And not the favor
I took it for, for which I came to thank
You from an overflowing heart. My service
Was not intended as my greatest joy!
(Terzky enters, bringing dispatches that the Duke opens immediately.)
COUNTESS (to Max). Is it your trouble he’s rewarding? He’s
Rewarding you his happiness. For you
Such delicacy is proper. It becomes
My brother always to prove large and princely.680
THEKLA. I, too, would have to doubt his love, for he first
Adorned me, then his father’s heart received me.
MAX. Yes, he must always give and make us happy.
(He takes the Duchess’s hand; with growing warmth.)
What don’t I have to thank him for! What do
I not pronounce in this sole name of Friedland!
Lifelong I shall be captive of this name,
From it will spring all joy and every hope.
Fast, as if in a fairy ring, fate holds me,
Enchanted, in the ambit of this name.
COUNTESS (who has been observing the Duke and sees that the letters have made him thoughtful).
Our brother wants to be alone. We’ll go.94690
WALLENSTEIN (turns, catches himself, and speaks cheerfully to the Duchess).
Once more, Princess, you’re welcome in the field.
You are the mistress of this court. You, Max,
Will once again take up your office, while
We here attend to matters of our master.
(Max Piccolomini offers the Duchess his arm; the Countess leads the Princess away.)
TERZKY (calls after him).
Remember to be present at assembly.
Scene Five
Wallenstein. Terzky.
WALLENSTEIN (deep in thought, aloud to himself.)
As she observed. Exactly so. Accords
With other notices quite perfectly.
So they’ve arrived at a decision in
Vienna, chosen a successor for me.
The King of Hungary, that Ferdinand,700
The Kaiser’s precious little son, he’s their
Savior, their rising star.95 They think they’re done
With us already, and like one dispatched
We’ve gotten our reward. No time to lose!
(He turns, notices Terzky, and gives him a letter.)
Count Altringer regrets, sends his excuses.
And Gallas.96 I don’t like this.
TERZKY. If you go
On doing nothing, they’ll all fall away.
WALLENSTEIN. This Altringer holds the Tirolean passes.
I’ll send him word to block the Spaniards coming
Up from Milan.97 Now! Old Sesin, that go-710
Between, he shows himself again. Has he
A message for us from Count Thurn?98
TERZKY. The Count
Would have you know: At Halberstadt at the
Convention these last days, he visited
The Swedish Chancellor, who says he’s had
Enough of you and wants to hear no more.99
WALLENSTEIN. How so?
TERZKY. He says you’re never serious,
You only want to gull the Swedes, ally
Yourself against them with the Saxons and
Then fob them off contemptibly with money.720
WALLENSTEIN. Aha! He thinks that I should give him German
Terrain as booty? Thinks that we’re no longer
The masters here on our own soil? Out with
Them, out, out! Who would have such neighbors? Out!
TERZKY. You would begrudge them a mere fleck of land?
It’s not been carved out from your own. If you
Win at this game, what care have you who loses?
WALLENSTEIN. Out with them! You don’t understand. No one
Shall say that I dismembered Germany,
Betrayed it faithlessly to strangers just730
To pocket my own portion. Nevermore!100
In me the Empire is to honor its
Protector. Proving princely and imperial,
I’ll seat myself among Imperial princes.
On my watch let no foreigner strike root here,
And least of all, those Goths, those wretched starvelings
Who look with hungry eyes upon this blessing,
German land. They’re to aid me in my plans
And not go fishing for their own advantage.
TERZKY. And with the Saxons you’ll proceed with greater740
Honor? They too are losing patience with
Your deviousness. Why all the masks? Even
Your friends have doubts, can’t make you out. Arnheim101
And Oxenstirn—it baffles everyone
How you hang fire. And in the end the blame
Comes back to me, since I transmit it all.
And I don’t have one scrap that’s in your hand.
WALLENSTEIN. I issue nothing written. You know that.
TERZKY. And how is one to know if you’re in earnest?
You give your solemn word and no deed follows.750
Admit it: All the things that you’ve agreed to—
They could have happened had you wanted just
To get the better of the foe, no more.
WALLENSTEIN (after a pause in which he fixes him).
And how would you know that I do not have
The better of him? Have the better of
The lot of you? Do you know me that well?
I don’t think I’ve shown you my deepest feelings.
The Kaiser, it is true, has done me wrong. If
I wanted, I could do him no small harm.
I like to know my power. Whether I760
Make use of it—of that you know no more than
The next one.
TERZKY. That’s the way you’ve always played.
Scene Six
Illo enters.
WALLENSTEIN. How is it out there? Have they been prepared?102
ILLO. You’ll find them in the mood you wanted. They know
The Kaiser’s terms and they’re beside themselves.
WALLENSTEIN. And Isolan?
ILLO. Is yours with heart and soul
Since you restored his faro bank.103
WALLENSTEIN. Colalto?
You’re sure of Deodat and Tiefenbach?
ILLO. What Piccolomini does they’ll all do.
WALLENSTEIN. So I can risk it with them, do you think?770
ILLO. If you’re sure of both Piccolomini.
WALLENSTEIN. As of myself. They’ll not desert me. Never!
TERZKY. I wish you wouldn’t put that kind of trust
In that sly fox, that old Octavio.
WALLENSTEIN. Tell me about it, you. Look! Sixteen times
I’ve marched into the field with that old warhorse.
And furthermore, I have his horoscope.
Born under the same stars, the two of us.
In brief—(Breaks off.) Another matter altogether.
If you’ll vouch for the others—780
ILLO. They’re of one mind:
You cannot lay down your command. They’ll send
Someone, I hear.
WALLENSTEIN. If I’m to bind myself
To them, they’ll have to bind themselves to me.
ILLO. Assuredly.
WALLENSTEIN. I want their word of honor,
In writing, sworn, that they’re committed to
My service absolutely.
ILLO. And why not?
TERZKY. Absolute? They’ll reserve the Kaiser’s service,
The duty they owe Austria.
WALLENSTEIN (shaking his head). Absolutely.
No other way. No word about reserve.
ILLO. Something occurs to me. Is Terzky not790
To give a banquet here this evening?
TERZKY. Yes,
Indeed. And all the generals are invited.
ILLO (to Wallenstein).
Say? Would you let me have a full free hand?
I’ll get the generals’ word for you exactly
The way you want it.
WALLENSTEIN. Get it me in writing.
How you get it is no affair of mine.
ILLO. And when I bring it to you, black on white,
That all the captains gathered here are pledged
Blindly to you—will you then double down
And boldly try your luck?800
WALLENSTEIN. Get me the writing!
ILLO. Consider! You can’t meet the Kaiser’s wishes:
You can’t reduce the army, can’t detach
Those regiments to meet the Spaniard—you’ll
Be letting go your forces for all time.104
Consider your alternative: You can’t
Defy the Kaiser’s order and command, go
On seeking pretexts, temporizing—you’ll
Be breaking with the Court in all good form.
Make up your mind! Will you anticipate
Him with deliberate action? Or, forever810
Hesitating, await the worst?
WALLENSTEIN. That’s what
One does before one fixes on the worst.
ILLO. Oh, seize the hour before it slips away.
The moment is so rare in life, the great
And weighty moment. Much must coincide
For a decision to be taken. But
The threads of fortune, opportunities,
Show singly, scattered. Only pressed together
Into a single instant can they form
The massy kernel of an outcome. See, then!820
How forcefully, how fatefully all things
Converge around you. All your captains of
The line, most excellent, have gathered here
About their princely leader. They await
Your signal only. Don’t let them disperse!
You’ll not convene them so united ever
Again in the whole course of this long war.
A high tide lifts a heavy ship from shore. In
The current of the crowd each courage grows.
You have them now—just for this moment. Soon830
The war will drive them hither, thither, and
The common spirit will dissolve into the
Small cares and interests of each one. A man
Who, swept along, forgets himself will sober
Up when he finds himself alone, know only
His feebleness, and pivot quickly, take
Instead the beaten path of common duty,
Intent to reach safe cover for himself.
WALLENSTEIN. It’s not yet time.
TERZKY. That’s what you always say.
When will it be time?840
WALLENSTEIN. When I say so.
ILLO. Oh!
You’re waiting for the astral hour. Meanwhile
The earthly hour escapes you. Believe me,
The stars of destiny lie in your heart.
Decisiveness, trust in yourself—this is your
Venus.105 Your sole disaster is your doubt.
WALLENSTEIN. That’s how you see these things. How often must
I say to you: At your birth, Jupiter,
The bright god, was descending. You’ve no lights
For secrets. You can only sift in the
Dark earth, unseeing, like the subterranean850
God whose pale leaden sheen attended you
At birth.106 It’s earthly, ordinary things
That you can see, connect with one another.
There you enjoy my confidence, my trust.
What works and weaves with secret meaning in
The depths of Nature—the angelic ladder
That reaches from this world of dust into
The world of stars, a thousand rungs on which
Celestial powers wander up and down—107
The circles within circles that embrace860
The central sun in ever closer union—
These things the unsealed eye alone perceives
Of Jove’s own children, brightly born and sparkling.108
(He takes a turn through the Hall, then stands still and continues.)
The heavenly constellations do not make
Just day and night, just spring and summer. Not
Just to the sower do they show the seasons
Of seed and harvest. No. The acts of men
No less sow destinies in the dark land
Of time to come, entrust them to Fate’s rule.
Here too one must inquire the sowing season,870
Seek out a favorable astral hour,
And search the planetary houses, lest
The foe of growth and of prosperity
Be hiding balefully deep in its corners.109
So give me time. And do what’s yours to do.
I cannot say yet what I want to do.
Relent, however, I shall not. Not I!
And they shall not remove me either. Count
On it.
CHAMBERLAIN (entering). My Lords the Generals.
WALLENSTEIN. Admit them.
TERZKY. Is it your wish to have all captains present?880
WALLENSTEIN. No need. Both Piccolomini, Buttler,
Forgatsch, Maradas, Deodat, Caraffa,110
And Isolani: they should be admitted.
(Terzky goes out with the Chamberlain.)
WALLENSTEIN (to Illo).
You’ve kept a watch on Questenberg meanwhile?
No secret conversations held with others?
ILLO. No. I put a sharp watch on him. He’s been
With no one but Octavio.111
Scene Seven
As above. Questenberg, both Piccolomini, Buttler, Isolani, Maradas, and three other Generals enter. At a gesture from Wallenstein, Questenberg seats himself directly opposite him; the others follow in order of rank. A momentary pause.
WALLENSTEIN. I’ve understood and weighed the substance of
Your mission, Questenberg, and taken a
Decision such as nothing more can alter.890
But it is meet that these commanders hear
The Kaiser’s dispositions from your mouth.
Be it your pleasure, therefore, to discharge
Your office here before these noble chiefs.
QUESTENBERG. I am prepared, but bid you bear in mind:
Imperial rule and worthiness express
Themselves through me, not my own hardihood.
WALLENSTEIN. Spare us the prelude.
QUESTENBERG. When His Majesty
The Kaiser gave his mighty armies in
The person of the Duke of Friedland a900
War-hardened, wreathed head, he confidently
And sovereignly expected rapid change
To his advantage on the battlefield.112
And the beginnings met his wishes well.
Bohemia had been swept clean of Saxons,
The Swedes stopped in their victories. These lands
Had paused to catch their breath just as the Duke
Of Friedland drew the scattered foe from all
The streams of Germany. He lured the Rhinegrave,
Prince Bernhard, Banner, Oxenstirn, and that910
Unvanquished king himself into a single
Rendezvous.113 Here at last before the walls
Of Nuremberg the bloody game of war
Should be decided.114
WALLENSTEIN. If you please, the point?
QUESTENBERG. New thinking heralded the new field marshal.
No more did blind rage wrestle with blind rage.
In well-defined encounters one now saw
Steadfastness stand up to audacity
And prudent art of war exhaust high courage.
In vain do they attempt to draw him. He digs920
Himself in ever deeper in his camp,
As if to found there an eternal house.115
The king in desperation calls for storm,
Forces onto a butcher block the troops
Whom hunger and disease are ravaging
In an encampment fetid with the dead.
Unstoppable, the king would storm his way
Through a breastwork of brush that guards a camp
Where death awaits him from a thousand muskets.
Attack and then resistance such as eye has 930
Not seen, until the tattered king retreats,
Not having gained an ell for all the slaughter.
WALLENSTEIN. You needn’t read us what the papers write
About a carnage we ourselves endured.
QUESTENBERG. It is my office and my mission to
Indict. It is my heart that dwells on praise.
In camp in Nuremberg the Swedish king lost
His fame, and then on Lützen’s plains his life.116
Who then was not amazed to see Duke Friedland
Flee to Bohemia from so great a day940
Like one who has been conquered, vanish from
The field, while the young hero of the House
Of Weimar breached Franconia unresisted,
Proceeded swiftly to the Danube, and
Appeared beneath the walls of Regensburg,
A feat to frighten all good Catholic Christians.117
Bavaria’s noble prince appealed for quick
Relief, pressed as he was. The Kaiser sends
Full seven riders bringing this request to
Duke Friedland, begs where he as master can950
Command. In vain. The Duke would hear just now
Only his cherished hatreds and resentments,
Ignores the common good and would indulge
His vengefulness on his old enemy.118
And thus falls Regensburg.
WALLENSTEIN. What era is this, Max?
MAX. He means Silesia.
WALLENSTEIN. Oh, so! But what could we be doing there?
MAX. Chasing the Swedes and Saxons out.
WALLENSTEIN. Quite right!
All that description makes a man forget
This wretched war.960
(To Questenberg.) Go on! Go on! Let’s hear it.
QUESTENBERG. Perhaps one could recover on the Oder
What had been lost so meanly on the Danube.
Astounding things were hoped for on this theater
When Friedland took the battlefield in person,
When Gustav’s rival found a—Thurn and an
Arnheim before him.119 Truly, they came close
Enough, but only to receive each other
As friends. All Germany groaned beneath the strain;
In Wallenstein’s encampment peace prevailed.120
WALLENSTEIN. Many a bloody battle’s fought for nothing,970
Because a young commander needs a win.
The proven captain has no need to show
The world that he knows how to gain a victory.
It profited me nothing to exploit
My luck against the likes of Arnheim. Much
Accrued to Germany by my moderation,
Had I been able to dissolve the league
That bound the Saxon and the Swede, at our cost.
QUESTENBERG. It didn’t work, and so hostilities
Resumed. But now the Prince redeemed his fame.980
The Swedish army dropped its arms at Steinau
Without a stroke.121 And Heaven’s justice there
Delivered straight to the avenger’s hands
That cursed war-torch, that inveterate
And proven troublemaker, Mattias Thurn.
He’d fallen into gracious hands indeed.
For punishment he got reward. The Prince
Released his Kaiser’s own archenemy,
Released him, sent him onward, bearing gifts.
WALLENSTEIN (laughs). I know, I know. You in Vienna had990
Already rented windows, balconies
From which to see him mount the hangman’s cart.
I might have lost that battle shamefully:
The unforgivable is ever to
Deny the Viennese a spectacle.
QUESTENBERG. Silesia had been liberated. All things
Now called the Duke to the relief of hard-pressed
Bavaria. And he indeed sets out:
At stately pace he marches through Bohemia
(Pause) by the longest route. Not even having1000
Once seen the enemy, he turns his army,
Goes into winter camp, oppresses thus
The Kaiser’s country with the Kaiser’s soldiers.122
WALLENSTEIN. The troops were in a hopeless state. They wanted
For everything, with winter coming on.
How does His Majesty see his troops? Are we
Not human, not subject to cold and damp,
Exposed to each and every mortal need?
The soldier’s is a truly cursed lot.
Where he approaches, all the world takes flight,1010
And where he leaves, they wish him every ill.
He must seize everything he hopes to get;
He’s offered nothing. Forced to take from each
And all, he is a universal horror.
These are my generals. Caraffa! Buttler!
Count Deodati! Tell him, please, how long
The soldiers’ pay has been withheld from them?
BUTTLER. There’s been no payment for a year.
WALLENSTEIN. A soldier
Must have his sou—that’s where he gets his name.123
QUESTENBERG. The Duke of Friedland let himself be heard1020
In quite another vein nine years ago.
WALLENSTEIN. My fault, I know. That’s how I spoiled the Kaiser.
The Danish War:124 I raised an arm of forty
Or fifty thousand head that cost him not
One cent of his own money. That war ripped
Through Saxony and spread the terror of
His name clear to the sheerest Baltic islets.
Those were the days! The whole Imperium knew
No name as honored as my own, and Albrecht
Wallenstein was the third stone in his crown.1030
Then came the Regensburg Electors’ Congress.125
What means I’d used to fight the war was clear.
Was that my thanks for taking on myself
The people’s hatred? For laying on the princes
A war that only made the Kaiser great?
To then be sacrificed to their complaints!
I was removed from office.
QUESTENBERG. Your Grace knows
How little freedom he enjoyed at that
Unhappy Congress.
WALLENSTEIN. Death and destruction!
I had what could procure him freedom. No,1040
My Lord. Since it became me all that badly
To serve the throne at state expense, I’ve learned
To think quite differently about that State.
Look! This staff I have from the Kaiser, granted.
I wield it now as marshal of the Empire,
Now for the good of all, the common weal,
Not for the magnification of one man.
But to the point: What is required of me?
QUESTENBERG. His Majesty desires first that the army
Vacate Bohemia instantly.1050
WALLENSTEIN. At this time
Of year? And where then would they have us go?
QUESTENBERG. To meet the foe. His Majesty desires
That Regensburg be cleared by Easter, that
No Lutheran sermon more be preached in its
Cathedral, and no heresy and horror
Besmirch the celebration of the feast.
WALLENSTEIN. Can this be done, my generals?
ILLO. Cannot
Be done.
BUTTLER. Out of the question. Can’t be done.
QUESTENBERG. The Kaiser also has sent Colonel Suys126
An order to advance into Bavaria.1060
WALLENSTEIN. And Suys?
QUESTENBERG. He did his duty and advanced.
WALLENSTEIN. Advanced? And I, his chief, had given him
Explicit orders not to budge from where
He stood! Is that the state of my command?
That the obedience I am owed? Without which
No state of war is thinkable? You be
The judge, my generals: An officer
Who breaks his orders—what has he deserved?
ILLO. His death!
WALLENSTEIN (raises his voice at the prudent silence of the others.)
Count Piccolomini, what has he
Deserved?1070
MAX (after a long pause). According to the law, his death.
ISOLANI. His death!
BUTTLER. By military law, his death!
(Questenberg stands up, followed by Wallenstein. All stand.)
WALLENSTEIN. The law condemns him to it, and not I!
If I now pardon him, I do so out of
Deference to the respect I owe my Kaiser.
QUESTENBERG. In that case, I’ve no further business here.
WALLENSTEIN. I took command here only on condition.
The first was that no mortal man, not even
The very Kaiser himself, have a say
Disadvantageous to me with the army.
Where I must vouch for the result with both1080
My honor and my head, I must be master.
What made that Gustav irresistible,
Unvanquished in this world? That he was king
Among his army—that alone! A king,
However, one who is king, never yet
Was conquered, save by his own equal. Well!
Enough of this. The best is yet to come.
QUESTENBERG. The Cardinal-Infante vacates Milan127
In spring to lead a Spanish army from there
Through Germany into the Netherlands.1090
In order to ensure his safety on
The march, the Monarch wants eight regiments from
This army to accompany him on horseback.
WALLENSTEIN. I see, I see—eight regiments. Quite so!
Finely invented, Father Lamormain!
Were that thought not so devilish clever, one
Could call it wonderfully idiotic.
Eight thousand horses. Absolutely right.
I see it coming.
QUESTENBERG There’s no thought behind it.
Prudence requires and need demands the measure.1100
WALLENSTEIN. My Lord Ambassador, it should escape my
Notice that one has tired of suffering
My hand upon the hilt? That they have seized
This pretext, use the Spanish name to reduce
My numbers, bring in a new force not subject
To my command? You find me still too strong to
Displace me openly. My contract demands
That all Imperial forces answer to me
Where German is the language of the land.
Of Spanish soldiers and Infantes who1110
Go wandering through the realm as guests it makes
No mention. Now one silently evades
Its clauses, weakens me, makes me unuseful,
Till one can make short shrift of me. But why
The subterfuges, my Lord Counselor?
Out with it! That agreement with me chafes
His Majesty. He would be rid of me.
I shall do him that favor. Here I had
Made up my mind, my Lord, before you came.
(Growing unrest among the Generals.)
A shame about the captains of my lines.1120
I don’t see how they will recover what they’ve
Advanced, how they’ll collect their well-earned wage.
A new regime brings new men to the fore,
And old deserts are all too soon forgotten.
This army’s served by many foreign troops,
And if the man was brave and fought well, I
Would not inquire about his lineage or
His catechism. That will change now. Ah,
Well. That is no concern of mine. (He seats himself.)
MAX. Not possible
That it should come to that! The army, the1130
Whole army will rebel, rise up as one.
The Kaiser’s misinformed. It cannot be.
ISOLANI. Cannot! It all would go to rack and ruin.
WALLENSTEIN. That it most surely will: to rack and ruin,
Isolan—all we built up with such care.
That’s why at length a marshal will turn up,
An army also gather for the Kaiser
When they have heard the drumbeat start again.
MAX (going busily, passionately from one to the other, calming tempers).
Do hear me, Marshal; listen to me, Captains.
I beg you, Prince! Until we’ve met in council,1140
Spoken to you, take no decision. Come,
My friends. I truly hope we can repair it.
TERZKY. Come, please. We’ll find the others just outside.
(They adjourn.)
BUTTLER (to Questenberg). A word of caution, if you care to hear:
Do not appear in public for the moment.
Your golden key would not be sure protection.128
(Loud commotion outside.)
WALLENSTEIN. Good counsel, that. Octavio, you will be
My surety for the safety of our guest.
So, fare ye well, von Questenberg.
(As Questenberg is about to speak.) No, please.
Not one word more about this wretched business.1150
You did the duty that you owed. I know
How to distinguish the man from his office.
(As Questenberg is about to leave with Octavio, Götz, Tiefenbach, and Colalto press in, followed by other Captains.)
GOETZ. Where is the man, the one who’s come to tell—
TIEFENBACH (together).
What’s this? Are you preparing to lay down—
COLALTO (together). We want to live, we want to die with you.
WALLENSTEIN (with poise, indicating Illo).
The Marshal is acquainted with my wishes. (Exit.)
Act Three
A Room
Scene One
Illo and Terzky.
TERZKY. Tell me, how will you manage at the banquet
That I give late today for all the chiefs?
ILLO. Here’s my plan: We’ll compose a formula
In which we dedicate ourselves to serve1160
The Duke to the last drop of blood, but with
Respect of our sworn duties to the Kaiser.
That last proviso we set in a clause
Apart, and thus we salve our consciences.
This version we present before the meal.
No one will take exception to it. Listen
Now. After dinner, when the wine has closed
Their eyes and opened hearts, we circulate
For signature a version where that clause
Does not appear, where it has been suppressed.1170
TERZKY.
Oh, come now! Do you think they’ll believe they’re bound by
An oath that we have tricked them into signing?
ILLO. Oh, we’ll still have them. Let them raise a hue
And cry. The Court will sooner credit their
Signature than their loudest protestations.
And so they’re traitors all the same, must be,
Must make a virtue of necessity.
TERZKY. Well, I’ll agree to anything as long
As we get action and move off the spot.
ILLO. It does not matter how far we get with1180
The generals. We need only to persuade
The Chief that they are his. He’ll act, proceed
On that assumption. Then they’re really his.
As he goes forward, they’ll be carried with him.
TERZKY. Sometimes I can’t begin to make him out.
He listens to the foe, has me write Thurn
And Arnheim, boldly rails against Sesina,
Discusses plans with us for hours on end.
Then when I think I have him: Hup! He’s gone,
Slips through my fingers, and it seems he cares1190
For nothing, only wants to stay in place.
ILLO. Him? Give up his old plans? I tell you he
Considers nothing else, awake, asleep,
Questions the planets day for day—
TERZKY. Did you know
He plans to watch the stars tonight, shut up in
The tower with the Doctor? The night’s supposed
To be important. They expect some great
Event, one long-awaited, to take place
Up there above.
ILLO. Were it down here below!
The generals are now all stirred up, can be1200
Induced to anything to keep their chief.
We have the chance to form a tight alliance
Against the Court, but innocent in name:
To keep him in command. In hot pursuit
One soon forgets how all began. I want
To stack the deck so that the Prince will find,
Will believe, them fit for any piece of daring.
Watch! Opportunity will draw him on.
When he’s once taken that great step, a step
Vienna can’t forgive, the very chain of 1210
Events will lead him on and further on.
Decision is what he finds hard. Impelled by
Necessity, he’ll find his strength and insight.
TERZKY. That’s what the foe is waiting for before
It leads its army to us.
ILLO. Come, then. We’ll
Advance our plan these next few days beyond
What it’s attained in years. When things once favor
Us here below—you’ll see—the stars above
Will look with favor on us, too. Let’s find
The chiefs. Strike while the iron is hot, I say.1220
TERZKY. Give me a moment. I’m expecting Countess
Terzky here. Don’t think we’ve been idle meanwhile.
If one cord breaks, another’s been prepared.
ILLO. Of course. Your lady smiles so craftily.
What’s this?
TERZKY. A secret. Quiet now. She’s coming.
(Exit Illo.)
Scene Two
Count and Countess Terzky, who enters from an adjacent room. A Servant, then Illo.
TERZKY. She’s coming, then? I can’t keep him much longer.
COUNTESS. She’ll be here right away. Just send him in.
TERZKY. I can’t be sure the Chief will thank us for this.
A point on which he’s never said a word,
As you well know. It’s you who have persuaded1230
Me. You must know just how far you can take it.
COUNTESS. I’ll answer for it. (Speaking to herself.)
No permission needed.129
Wordlessly, Brother, we each understand
The other. Can’t I guess the reason why your
Daughter’s brought here? Why he was sent to fetch her?
For this pretend engagement to a bride-
Groom known to no one may well fool another,
But I see through you. Since you can’t appear
To have a hand in such a game, it’s left
To my fine penetration. Well done! You’ll1240
Not have deceived yourself about your sister.
A SERVANT (entering). The Generals! (Exit.)
TERZKY (to the Countess). Try to stir up his desires,
Give him too much to think about, so that
At table he’ll not hesitate to sign.
COUNTESS. You go attend your guests. Just go and send him.
TERZKY. Because it all depends upon his signing.
COUNTESS. Off to your guests. Go!
ILLO (returning). Why so long here, Terzky?
The house is full and we’re all waiting for you.
TERZKY. Coming, coming.
(To the Countess.) But don’t keep him too long.
His father might suspect—1250
COUNTESS. Enough for now!
(Exeunt Terzky and Illo.)
Scene Three
Countess Terzky. Max Piccolomini.
MAX (hesitantly, in the doorway).
Aunt Terzky!130 May I?
(He walks into the middle of the room and looks around uneasily.)
She’s not here. Where is she?
COUNTESS. Is she perhaps behind the screen there in
The corner, hidden from you—
MAX. There are her gloves!
(He reaches for them, the Countess picks them up.)
Unkind, my aunt. Why would you so deny me—
I see it is your pleasure to torment me.
COUNTESS. What thanks for all my trouble!
MAX. If you knew
How I feel. Every moment since we’ve come,
To have to watch myself, weigh words and glances.
I am not used to that!
COUNTESS. Oh, you’ll get used
To many things, my charming friend. I must1260
Insist upon this test of your obedience.
On this condition only can I see
To everything and manage everywhere.
MAX. Where is she then? And why has she not come?
COUNTESS. You must leave everything to my arrangements.
Who has your interests more at heart than I do?
No one must know. Your father, too, must not,
Most surely not.
MAX. There is no need. For I’d
Betray to no one here the motions of my
Enraptured soul. Tell me, Aunt Terzky, are all1270
Things changed? Or is it only me? I find
Myself here among strangers, find no trace
Of my accustomed wishes and my pleasures.
Where’s it all gone? I once was quite content
In just this world. But now, how shallow it
All seems and how banal! My comrades I
Find insupportable, and my own father—
What ever have I now to say to him?
And duty, weapons—what a lot of tinsel.
It’s like one of the blessed dead returned1280
From realms of glory to the games of childhood,
Its interests, occupations, preferences, and
Friendships, to the whole wretched human race.
COUNTESS. I’d ask you nonetheless to cast a glance
Upon this ordinary world, where things of
No small importance are just now in train.
MAX. There’s something going on. I see it in
The swirl of strange activity around me.
And when they’re done, I too will hear about it.
Do you know where I’ve been today, Aunt Terzky?1290
No laughing. All the hurly-burly here
Became too much: the packs of pressing folk,
The tasteless jokes, eternal idle chit-chat.
It felt as if the walls were closing in.
I had to leave, to find a quiet place
For my full heart, seclusion for my joy.
Don’t smile, Countess. I was in church. I found
A cloister nearby called the Gates of Heaven,
Where I could be alone. The Virgin hung
Above the altar, badly painted but1300
The friend whom I was seeking at that moment.
How often have I seen her in her glory,
Ardor of worshippers but not for me. All
At once I understood devotion—and love.
COUNTESS. Enjoy your happiness, forget the world.
My friendship meanwhile watches for you, acts.
But you must be amenable to one
Who wants to show the way to happiness.
MAX. What’s taking her so long? Oh, golden days
Of travel: Every rising sun brought us1310
Together. Night alone divided us!
No hourglass ran, no timepiece struck our ear.
Time had arrested its eternal course.
Oh, one who has to count the hours has fallen
From paradise. For lovers, no clock strikes.
COUNTESS. And when did you disclose your heart to her?
MAX. This morning only did I dare to speak.
COUNTESS. This morning? After twenty days of journey?
MAX. Where you caught up with us, the hunting lodge
Between the camp and Nepomuk, last station1320
Along the way.131 We stood together in
A bay, our silent gaze on a bare field.
Before us we saw riding up the Dragoons
The Duke had sent as escort. Parting weighed
Upon my heart, and, trembling, I dared say:
This tells me, Mistress,132 I must part now from
My happiness. A little while and you
Will find your father, be surrounded by
New friends, and I’ll become a stranger to you,
Unnoticed in the crowd. “Speak with Aunt Terzky,”1330
She interrupted. Her voice shook, I saw
A glowing red suffuse her cheeks, and slowly
She raised her eyes, met mine, and I restrain
Myself no longer—
(The Princess appears in the doorway, observed by the Countess, but not by Piccolomini.)
take her in my arms, touch
Her lips with mine—a rustling at the door
Drove us apart. You entered, and the rest
Is known to you.
COUNTESS (after a pause, stealing a glance at Thekla).
Are you so undemanding or incurious
That you don’t ask now for my secret?
MAX. Yours?
COUNTESS. Well, yes. The way I came into the room,1340
Right after you left, how I found my niece,
How she in the first moment of surprise—
MAX (vividly). Well?
Scene Four
As above. Thekla entering quickly.
Don’t trouble, Aunt. That’s better said by me.
MAX (starting back).
Mistress! What have you let me say, Aunt Terzky?
THEKLA (to the Countess). Has he been here for long?
COUNTESS. Quite long. His time has just about run out.
And what’s kept you so long?
THEKLA. My mother wept so bitterly.133 I see
Her sorrow and can’t help my happiness.
MAX (lost in contemplating her).
I find the courage now to look at you.1350
I couldn’t then. The sheen of precious stones
Enclosing you obscured the one I love.134
THEKLA. Your eye saw me that way and not your heart.
MAX. When I found you this morning in the circle
Of family and in your father’s arms,
And saw myself a stranger in this group,
How much I wished to enter his embrace,
To call him father in that moment! But his
Forbidding eye demanded silent presence,
And all those diamonds frightened me, encircling1360
You like a studded wreath of stars. But why,
Then, must he put you under ban right at
Reception, deck an angel out straightway
For sacrifice, and lay upon this joyful
Young heart the mournful burden of its rank!
Love can address its suit to love, but such
Splendor admits approach by kings alone.135
THEKLA. No more about this masquerade. You see
How soon the burden is cast off again.
(To the Countess.)
But he’s not cheerful. Why should he not be?1370
It’s you, Aunt, who’ve made him so heavy-hearted!
For he was quite another on our journey!
So bright and calm! So eloquent! I’d like
To see you always so and never different.
MAX. There in your father’s arms you found yourself
In a new world that honors you, enchants
Your eye, if only by its very newness.
THEKLA. Yes, much enchants me here, I don’t deny it.136
I love the brightly bannered stage of war that
Renews in many ways a cherished image,1380
Connects to truth and to real life what had seemed
To be a lovely dream and nothing more.
MAX. It makes of my real happiness a dream.
I’ve lived these days upon an island in
The ether; it has now descended earthward.
This bridge that brings me back to my old life—
It separates me, bars me from my heaven.
THEKLA. It’s cheering to observe the play of life
When we hold fast a treasure in our heart,
And when I have observed it, I return1390
Contented to the better things I hold.
(Breaking off and playful.)
The new, unheard-of things I’ve seen in this
Short time! But all of this must pale before
The secret marvel that this castle holds.
COUNTESS (reflecting).
What would that be? For I am schooled in all
The darkest corners that this house encloses.
THEKLA (smiling). A way defended well by spirits and
Two griffins137 keeping watch before the gate—
COUNTESS (laughing). Oh, so! The astrologic tower. How
Could such a sanctuary, always closely1400
Guarded, have opened right away to you?
THEKLA. A little white-haired man with friendly face,
Who took a liking to me, opened for me.
MAX. That is the Duke’s astrologer, called Seni.
THEKLA. He asked me many things, my birth date, day
And month, and whether it was day or night.
COUNTESS. That was so he could cast your horoscope.
THEKLA. He also read my hand and shook his head,
Uncertain. It would seem the lines displeased him.
COUNTESS. How was it then inside that hall? I’ve seen1410
It always only very fleetingly.
THEKLA. It gave me an odd feeling, coming from
Bright day, to be so suddenly surrounded
By night, but faintly lit by a strange light.
Around me in a crescent stood six, seven138
Great statues representing kings; each carried
A scepter and, for crown, a star, and all
The light there seemed to come just from those stars.
My guide told me these were the planets and
They ruled our fate. That’s why one made them kings.1420
The last, a dark and glowering graybeard, with
A clouded yellow star-crown, this was Saturn;
Directly opposite, with ruddy sheen
And armed as if for battle, this was Mars;
And neither brings good fortune to mankind.
Beside him stood a woman of great beauty,
The star that shone above her head glowed softly;
I learned that this was Venus, star of pleasure.
Beside her on the left stood winged Mercury;
Precisely in the middle, bright as silver1430
And with the forehead of a king, there stood
Good-humored Jupiter, my father’s star,
And Sun and Moon attended at his side.
MAX. Oh, never will I scorn his belief in stars
And in the power of the spirit world.
It is not only human pride that fills our
Universe with mysterious, ghostly powers.
For loving hearts, too, common Nature seems
Too narrow. Deeper meaning can be found
In house tales told me in my childhood years1440
Than in the truths that life would have us learn.
The shining world of wonders only can
Answer the call of my delighted heart.
It opens its eternal spaces to me,
Extends to me a thousand bending boughs where
My reeling spirit rocks itself in bliss.
The fable is the home where love would live,
For love prefers the world of fairies, tokens,
Chooses to believe in gods because it’s god-like.
The ancient fable figures are no more.1450
That charming race has long since gone abroad;
The heart, however, needs a language; an old
Desire revives the ancient names. They now
Go wandering in the starry skies, who once
Would kindly walk beside us through our lives;
From there they smile down mildly upon lovers,
And every great thing comes from Jupiter,
From Venus every thing we know of beauty.
THEKLA. Is this the art of reading stars? Then I
Confess a faith so clear, so bright with gladness.1460
How comforting the thought that over us
Immeasurably a wreath of love made up
Of shining stars was woven at our birth.
COUNTESS. Heaven has not just roses, also thorns.
May they not spike the crown prepared for you!
What happy Venus has once woven is
Soon ripped apart by Mars, the sinister.
MAX. His gloomy reign will soon have run its course!
A blessing on the Prince’s earnest effort;
He’ll wind the olive branch into the laurel1391470
And make the grateful world a gift of peace.
For his great heart will then be surfeited;
He’s done enough to build and keep his fame,
Can now live for himself and for his loved ones.
And he’ll withdraw to his own holdings, to
His lovely residence at Gitschin or
At Reichenberg or Castle Friedland,140 where
The borders of his game reserve and forest
Extend up to the foothills of the mountains.
There he can freely follow his creative1480
Urges, as prince encourage every art,
Protect all glorious and deserving things,
Can build things, plant things, contemplate the heavens,
And if his daring powers will not rest,
Why, he can wrestle with the elements,
Rechannel rivers and explode a rock face,
Prepare the way for commerce and for gain.
Our ancient battle fortunes will become then
Long stories told in longer winter nights.141
COUNTESS. Let me advise you, Cousin, not to lay1490
Aside the sword blade all too prematurely.
For such a bride as this deserves most richly
That she be sued for, courted by the sword.
MAX. If she but could be won by weapons only!
COUNTESS. What was that? Did you hear? I thought I heard
Quarreling coming from the banquet hall. (She goes out.)
Scene Five
Thekla and Max Piccolomini.142
THEKLA (to Piccolomini as soon as the Countess has left the room).
Don’t trust them. They are playing games.143
MAX. They could—
THEKLA. Trust no one here but me. I saw at one glance:
They have a purpose.
MAX. Have a purpose? Which?
What do they gain by making hopes for us—1500
THEKLA. I do not know. But believe me, it is not their
Purpose to make us happy or unite us.
MAX. What need have we of these two Terzkys? Don’t
We have your mother? Can’t we put our trust
In her, confide like children in her kindness?
THEKLA. She loves you, values you above all others,
But never could she summon courage to
Withhold a secret such as ours from Father.
For her sake we must keep it from her.
MAX. Why
So secretive? Do you know what I’ll do?1510
I’ll throw myself upon your father’s mercy,
Let him decide my happiness. For he
Is truthful, forthright, hates all subterfuges,
He’s good and noble—
THEKLA. That is what you are!
MAX. You know him only now. But I have lived
In sight of him a full ten years. Is this
The first time he has done a deed that’s rare,
Unhoped for? That’s his way: surprise us like
A god. He must delight, amaze us always.
Who knows if he’s not waiting now to hear my1520
Avowal, yours, before uniting us?
Why no reply? And why the doubtful looks?
What do you have against your father?
THEKLA. I?
Nothing. I only find him much too busy
To spare the time or have the leisure for
Reflecting on our happiness.
(Taking him tenderly by the hand.) Do listen!
Let us not believe excessively in others.
These Terzkys we’ll be grateful to for what
They’ve done, but trust them only just so far
As they’ve deserved. We’ll trust in our own hearts.1530
MAX. Oh, shall we ever find our happiness!
THEKLA. Have we not found it? Aren’t you mine? Am I
Not thine? My soul is full of highest courage,
Our love has given it to me. I ought
Not be so open, should conceal my heart:
Decorum wants it so. Where ever then
Should you know truth, if not from my own mouth?
We’ve found each other, hold each other fast,
Eternally. Please believe me: That’s far more
Than they have reckoned with. So let us keep1540
It safe, like sacred plunder, safe in our
Own hearts. It fell to us from Heaven’s heights,
And we’ll thank Heaven only for this gift.
It can work wonders for us both.
Scene Six
As above. Countess Terzky returns.
COUNTESS (urgent). My husband’s sending for you, says it’s high time.
To table!
(When they pay her no heed, she steps between them.)
Separate!
THEKLA. But no. Not now.
We’ve hardly had a moment here.
COUNTESS. For you time passes quickly, Princess Niece.
MAX. No hurry, Aunt.
COUNTESS. Go! Your absence’s noticed.
Your father’s asked for you now more than once.1550
THEKLA. Well, well! His father!
COUNTESS. You know better, Niece.
THEKLA. What’s he to do in company like that?
That isn’t his society. They’re worthy,
Deserving men, but he’s too young for them,
He simply doesn’t fit in such surroundings.
COUNTESS. You’d rather keep him wholly for yourself?
THEKLA (vivid). Exactly right. Precisely what I want.
Just leave him here. And let their Lordships know—
COUNTESS. Why, have you lost your mind, my niece? You, Count,
Know full well what conditions we’ve agreed.1560
MAX. I must obey, Mistress. Farewell for now.
(Thekla turns away abruptly.)
You’ve no reply?
THEKLA (without looking at him).
None. Go, please.
MAX. Can I, when
You’re angry with me?
(He approaches her, their eyes meet, she stands a moment in silence, then throws herself into his arms; he clasps her tight.)
COUNTESS. Go! If someone should come!
I hear an uproar—strangers’ voices close by.
(Max tears himself away and goes, the Countess accompanies him. Thekla follows him with her eyes, wanders about the room, then pauses, lost in thought. A guitar lies on a table; she picks it up. After a melancholy prelude, she sings.)
Scene Seven
Thekla plays and sings.
Oak forest rustles and clouds rush o’er,
A maid is wandering the deep green shore,
The waves are breaking with might, with might,
And she sings aloud in the darkling night,
Her eye turned toward heaven above her.
My heart, it has died now, the world is bare.1570
It grants my wishes no more and nowhere.
Thou Blessed One, gather thy child to thee,
I’ve already tasted all earthly bounty,
For I have both lived and have loved here.
Scene Eight
The Countess, returning. Thekla.
COUNTESS.
What is this, Mistress Niece? For shame! You’ve thrown
Yourself at him. Fie! I should think you’d put
A rather better price upon your person.
THEKLA (getting to her feet).
Your meaning, Aunt?
COUNTESS. That you should not forget
Who you are and who he is. That, I dare say,
Has not occurred to either of you.1580
THEKLA. What, then?
COUNTESS. That you’re Prince Friedland’s daughter.
THEKLA. So? What else?
COUNTESS. Fine answer!
THEKLA. He was born what we’ve become.
He’s from an ancient Lombard house, his mother
Was born a princess.144
COUNTESS. Are you dreaming? Truly!
We’ll therefore bid him honor Europe’s rich-
Est heiress with his hand?
THEKLA. Unnecessary.
COUNTESS. Quite. One does well not to expose oneself.
THEKLA. His father loves him. Count Octavio
Will not oppose it—
COUNTESS. His father! His! And yours, my niece? Of him what?1590
THEKLA. I think it’s his you fear. It’s him—his father,
I mean—from whom you’re keeping it so secret.
COUNTESS (examines her searchingly).
Niece, you’re duplicitous.
THEKLA. Touchée, ma tante?145
Oh, don’t be angry.
COUNTESS. You think your game’s won.
Don’t laugh too soon.
THEKLA. Oh, please, Aunt, don’t be angry.
COUNTESS. We’ve not yet reached that point.
THEKLA. Yes. That I believe.
COUNTESS. Do you think he has squandered so important
A life on warlike labors, has forgone
All peaceful earthly pleasure, banished sleep
From camp, and filled his noble mind with cares1600
Just to unite the two of you in marriage?
To fetch you finally from your cloister only
To lead you then in triumph to the man
Who’s caught your eye? He could have had that cheaper.
This seed was not sown for your childish hand
To break the bloom and tuck it in your bosom!146
THEKLA. But something that he didn’t plant could still
Produce its very finest fruits for me.
If my benign good fortune aims to prepare
Life’s joys for me from his monstrous existence—1610
COUNTESS. You’re talking like a girl in love. Just look
Around. Remember where you are. For you’ve
Not come into a garden of delights,
These walls have not been festooned for a wedding,
Nor guests arrayed. The only brilliance here
Is that of weapons. Or did you think one had
Assembled thousands here to form the ranks
That flank your progress to the altar? Have you
Not seen your father’s forehead dark with thought?
Your mother’s eyes in tears? The fortunes of1620
Our house hang in the balance! Leave behind
Your girlish feelings, childish wishes. Prove
Yourself the child of your extraordinary
Father. A woman shouldn’t belong just to
Herself. For she attaches to the fate of
An other whom she best assumes with care
And carries in her heart with tender love.
THEKLA. That’s what I heard when I was in the cloister.
I had no wishes, thought of myself as
His daughter only, this great man’s. The fame1630
Of his exploits, which reached me, too, gave me
This feeling and none other: I was destined
To sacrifice myself to him in sorrow.
COUNTESS. This is your destiny. Submit with gladness.
I and your mother have set an example.
THEKLA. My destiny has shown the one to whom
I’ll sacrifice myself, whom I shall follow.
COUNTESS. Your heart, my child, and not your destiny.
THEKLA. The heart’s pull is the call of destiny.
I am his own. For he alone has given 1640
Me this new life that I live now. He has
A right to his creation. What was I
Before his love breathed life into my soul?
I’ll not think less of me than my beloved.
One who possesses priceless treasure, he
Is not to be despised. My happiness
Gives me new strength. With high earnestness
I contemplate an earnest life. I know now
That I belong to myself only. Firm will
Is mine now. I cannot be forced. And I1650
Can wager everything on highest goods.
COUNTESS. You would defy your father, should he have
Determined otherwise for you? You think
That you can force it from him? Know, my child,
His name is Friedland.
THEKLA. So, no less, is mine.
He is to meet his one true daughter in me.
COUNTESS. His Monarch and his Kaiser cannot force him,
And you, his daughter, think to do him battle?
THEKLA. What no one dares, his daughter dares to do.
COUNTESS. For that he’s not prepared, let me assure you.1660
He has surmounted every obstacle
And now should undertake his willful daughter?
Child! Child! You only know a smiling father,
Have never seen his eye in anger. Will
Your contradicting voice hold firm before him?
Alone, it’s easy to resolve great things,
Compose the purple passages, deck out
A dovish turn of mind in lion’s garb.
But you just try it. Go and meet his eye
Trained on you steadily and dare say, No.1670
You’ll melt before his presence, tender petal
Before a fiery all-consuming sun.
It’s not my wish to frighten you, my child.
I hope it will not come to that. Nor do
I know what he intends.147 It’s possible
His purposes will meet your wishes. But
He never can intend that you, the one
Proud daughter of his fortunes, conduct yourself
Like an infatuated little girl
And throw yourself away on one who, if1680
He is to gain the greatest prize, will have to
Purchase it by love’s highest sacrifice. (She goes off.)
Scene Nine
Thekla alone.
Thanks for the warning. It makes
A certainty of my misgivings. So
It’s true: We have no friends and no one here
Is loyal. We are left with one another.
Hard battles lie ahead. Thou god-like, Love, give
Us strength. Oh, she speaks truth. Unhappy are
The auguries attending this entente of
Our hearts. No theater of hope is this.1690
Dull armor only rattles here, and even
Our love makes entrance armored all in steel
And girded for a battle to the death.
An ominous spirit drifts here through the house,
Fate wants to make of us a speedy ending.
From safety and repose I have been roused,
A benign magic shields my soul by blinding.
Fate lures me forward by a heavenly wight,
I see it floating toward me, close, insistent.
It draws me forth from here with god-like might1700
Toward the abyss, and I cannot resist it.
(Distant table music.)
Oh, when a house is fated to the fire,
The heavens drive black clouds together, churning.
Swift lightning plunges, strikes the highest spire,
And crevasses gape open, flaming, burning.
The God of Pleasure, even, raging, wielding
Hot pitch, flings fire into the burning building! (She goes off.)
Act Four
A grand Hall, festively lit. In the center, upstage, an opulently laid table at which eight Generals are seated, among them, Octavio Piccolomini, Terzky, and Maradas. Two other tables, right and left and farther upstage, where six diners are seated, respectively. Downstage, a sideboard. The front of the stage is left free for the Pages and Servants who wait the tables. The whole room is in motion and marching musicians from Terzky’s regiment circle the tables. Before they have left the scene, Max Piccolomini enters. Terzky approaches him, carrying a sheet of paper; Isolani, equally, carrying a wine cup.
Scene One
Terzky. Isolani. Max Piccolomini.
ISOLANI. Ho, Brother! What a pleasure! Where’ve you been?
Quick! Take your place. Our Terzky’s sacrificed
His mother’s best reserve wines. It’s as if1710
These were the cellars of the Heidelberger’s
Castle.148 You’ve missed the best. Up there at table
They’re handing prince’s bonnets out: estates
Of Eggenberg, Slavata, Lichtenstein,
And Sternberg are on offer, all the great
Bohemian fiefs. Be quick and you’ll get something,
Too. March! And sit!
COLALTO and GOETZ (calling from the second table).
Count Piccolomini!
TERZKY. He’ll be there right away! Here, read this oath,
See if you like it, how it’s formulated.
We all have read it, everyone in turn,1720
And are prepared to put our name to it.
MAX (reads). “Ingratis servire nefas.”
ISOLANI. That sounds like Latin, Brother. What’s the German?
TERZKY. “No honest man would serve an ingrate.” Max?
MAX. “WHEREAS our most sovereign Marshal, his Grace, the Prince of Friedland, prompted by manifold offenses, intended to resign the Kaiser’s service, but, moved by our unanimous request, has promised to remain with the Army and not to leave us without consultation, we THEREFORE bind ourselves, separately and together, in lieu of oral oath, also to hold to him, in honor and in loyalty, to cleave to him irrespective of events, and to risk everything for him, to our last drop of blood, to the extent permitted by our Oath sworn to the Kaiser. (Isolani repeats these last words aloud.) We FURTHER declare anyone who deserts our common cause, in contravention of this Pledge, to be a traitor to our League whom we are obliged to penalize in his property and assets, his person and his life. IN WITNESS WHEREOF we hereby set our name.”149
TERZKY. Are you prepared to put your name to this?
ISOLANI. Why shouldn’t he? Why, every officer
Of honor can and must. Ho! Pen and ink here!
TERZKY. We’ll let that wait till after table.
ISOLANI (drawing Max after him). Come! Come!
(Both go to table.)
Scene Two
Terzky. Neumann.
TERZKY (signals Neumann, who is standing at the sideboard and comes with him to the front).
You have the copy, Neumann? Let me see.
It’s set so that one doesn’t see the difference?1730
NEUMANN. I copied line for line and nothing’s missing
Except the passage with the Kaiser’s oath,
Just as your Excellency ordered me.
TERZKY. Good! Lay it over there. Into the fire
With this. It’s done what we required of it.
(Neumann lays the Copy on the table and returns to the sideboard.)
Scene Three
Illo, coming from the back room. Terzky.
ILLO. Well? How’s it stand with Piccolomini?
TERZKY. I think, fine. He raised no objection to it.
ILLO. The only one whom I don’t really trust—
Him and his father. Keep an eye on both!
TERZKY. And at your table? Everybody’s keeping 1740
Warm?
ILLO. All aglow! It looks as if we have them.
And as I told you, talk is now not just of
The Prince’s honor being saved. Since we’re all
Together here, says Montecuculi,
We ought to put conditions to the Kaiser
There in his own Vienna. Believe you me,
But for these Piccolomini, we could
Have spared ourselves here this whole sleight of hand.
TERZKY. What’s Buttler after? Shh!
Scene Four
Buttler joins them.
BUTTLER (coming from the second table). I’ll not disturb you.
I’ve understood you, Field Marshal, and wish1750
You luck. As far as I’m concerned, (conspiratorial) just count
On me.
ILLO (vividly). We can then?
BUTTLER. With or without clause.
All one to me. You understand? The Prince
Can put my loyalty to any test.
I am the Kaiser’s officer as long
As he should choose to be the Kaiser’s general,
And Friedland’s servant when he once elects to
Be his own master. Let him know these things.
TERZKY. You’ve chosen well. For you’ve not pledged yourself
To any miser, any Ferdinand.1760
BUTTLER (gravely). My good faith’s not on offer to the high-
Est bidder, Count. Six months ago, I’d not have
Advised you to exact of me what I
Now freely offer. To the Duke I bring
Myself together with my regiment. The
Example that I set will not, I think,
Be altogether without consequences.
ILLO. Who doesn’t know that Colonel Buttler is
A beacon and a model for the army!
BUTTLER. Indeed, Field Marshal? I do not regret then1770
The loyalty I’ve kept these forty years,
If my good name, so carefully preserved,
Can purchase for me in my sixtieth
A vengeance so complete, revenge so perfect.
Take no offense, my Lords, at what I say.
You needn’t be concerned with how you have me,
Nor should you think your game will bend my judgment,
Or wavering thoughts, a blood that’s quick to boil,
Or any other trivial cause will drive
The old man off his chosen path of honor.1780
It doesn’t weaken my resolve to know
Quite clearly what it is I’m parting from.150
ILLO. Then tell us openly how we should take you.
BUTTLER. For a good friend. You have my hand on this.
With all I have, I belong to you and yours.
The Prince has need not just of men—of money,
Too. In the course of serving him I’ve laid
Aside funds that I’ll lend him; he, if he
Survives me, will receive them: he’s my heir.
I am alone here in this world. I know not1790
The feeling binding man to wife and child;
My name dies with me, I am at an end.
ILLO. Your money there’s no need of. Such a heart
As yours outweighs a ton of gold and millions.
BUTTLER. I came from Ireland as a simple groom
To Prague, accompanying my master, whom
I buried. I rose by skill at war from stable
Duties to dignity and prominence,
The plaything, object, of capricious fortune.151
No less is Wallenstein a child of fortune;1800
I love a progress that resembles mine.
ILLO. Strong spirits are all kin to one another.
BUTTLER. We have arrived at a great moment; our
Times smile upon the brave and resolute.
The way small change will wander hand to hand,
A city and a citadel now switch
Their fleeting occupant. Grandsons of ancient
Houses take flight, new names, new coats of arms
Crop up. A northern people would presume
To settle German lands against our will.1810
The Prince of Weimar arms himself to found
A mighty principality. And Mansfeld
And Halberstadt lacked only longer life
To conquer vast possessions by the sword.
Among these men who is our Friedland’s equal?
No object stands so high that a strong man is
Not privileged to set his ladder there.152
TERZKY. That’s spoken like a man.
BUTTLER. Make sure of both
The Spaniard and Italian. I’ll take charge
Of Scottish Leslie. Time to join the party!1820
TERZKY. Holla! Steward! Bring out the best you have.
The time is right and all’s in perfect order.
(Each goes to his table.)
Scene Five
Wine Steward comes forward with Neumann. Servants go back and forth.
WINE STEWARD. Such fine wine! If my former mistress, his
Lamented Mama, saw all this wild living,
Would she turn over in her grave! Oh, yes,
Indeed! This noble house is slipping backward,
Sir. It has neither measure nor does it
Have purpose, and their ducal Graces, these
In-laws, will bring us poor reward, I wager.
NEUMANN. Which God forbid! It’s coming into flower. 1830
WINE STEWARD. You think? There’d be a lot to say about that.
SERVANT (approaching). More burgundy at table four.
WINE STEWARD. That makes
Seventy bottles opened here, Lieutenant.
SERVANT. It’s all because that German, Tiefenbach,
Is sitting there. (Goes off.)
WINE STEWARD (to Neumann again).
They want to climb too high.
They want to equal prince-electors, kings
In ostentation; where the Prince has dared
To go, the Count, my master, wants to follow.
(To the Servants.)
You’re standing there and listening? Get moving!
Go wait the tables, check the bottles. There!1840
Count Palffy has an empty glass before him!
SECOND SERVANT (approaches).
They’re asking for the giant wine cup, Steward,
The decorated, golden one, the one
That carries the Bohemian coat of arms.
You’d know which one he meant, his Lordship said.
WINE STEWARD. The one that Master Wilhelm fashioned for
King Friedrich, for the king’s own coronation,
The finest piece of booty got at Prague?153
SECOND SERVANT. Yes, that one. It’s to make the round among ’em.
WINE STEWARD (brings out the Wine Cup and rinses it, shaking his head).
Yet more to be reported to Vienna!1850
NEUMANN. Show me! It’s truly a magnificent piece!154
Heavily gilded and in high relief,
It’s worked to show the cleverest things with charm.
The first escutcheon—let me see it clearly:
A towering Amazon astride a horse,
She vaults a crozier and a bishop’s miter,
She holds aloft a hat upon a pike,
Beside a flag on which I see a chalice.
Can you tell me the meaning of all this?
WINE STEWARD. The mounted female figure you see is1860
Electoral freedom of Bohemia’s crown,
Shown by the round hat and wild horse she rides.
The ornament of mankind is a hat,
For one who cannot keep his hat before
A kaiser or a king is no free man.
NEUMANN. The meaning of the chalice on the flag?
WINE STEWARD. The chalice is religious freedom in
Bohemia as it was in former times.
Our fathers in the Hussite War acquired
This privilege in defiance of the Pope’s1870
Denial of the chalice to the laity.
The chalice is the prize of Utraquists,
Their dearest treasure, and has cost Bohemians
Their precious blood in many bitter battles.155
NEUMANN. What is the meaning of the scroll above them?
WINE STEWARD. The scroll you see there represents the Letter
Of Majesty we forced from Kaiser Rudolf,156
A cherished priceless parchment that assures
The new religion, like the old, a free
Disposal over bells and over hymnal.1880
But since the Graz man157 rules us, that has ended.
Since Prague, where Friedrich Palatine lost crown
And realm, our faith lacks chancel, altar, and
Our brothers emigrate. The Kaiser, though,
Himself cut up the Letter with his shears.
NEUMANN. All that you know? How you’re well-schooled in your
Land’s chronicles, Wine Steward!
WINE STEWARD. That’s because
My ancestors were Taborites and served
Under Prokop and Ziska,158 may they rest
In peace. And fought for a good cause. 1890
(To a Servant.) Remove it.
NEUMANN. First let me see the second small escutcheon:
Oh, yes! The Kaiser’s counselors, Slavata
And Martinitz,159 pushed headlong from a castle
Window. And here’s Count Thurn, who ordered it.
(Servant removes the Wine Cup.)
WINE STEWARD. Unspeakable, that day! The twenty-third
Of May, one thousand and six hundred eighteen.
Like yesterday, and the beginning of
Unending sorrow for my country. Since then,
For sixteen years, we’ve had no peace on earth.
OFFICERS (at the second table).
The Prince of Weimar!1900
(At the third and fourth tables.) Long live our Duke Bernhard!
(Music.)
FIRST SERVANT. Listen to that!
SECOND SERVANT (running up). You hear? They’re toasting Weimar!
THIRD SERVANT. An Austrian enemy!
FIRST SERVANT. And Lutheran!
SECOND SERVANT. Just now, when Deodat proposed to drink
Our Kaiser’s health, you could have heard a pin drop.
WINE STEWARD. A toast has many meanings. And a well
Conducted servant does not listen to such.
THIRD SERVANT (aside to the Fourth).
See to it, Johann: Let’s have plenty to
Pass on to Father Quiroga.160 For our
Good work. He’ll grant us plenty of indulgence.
FOURTH SERVANT. That’s why I’m always busy near that Illo’s1910
Table. He says the most amazing things.
(They go to the tables.)
WINE STEWARD (to Neumann).
Who is his Lordship there in black and with
The Cross, so deep in talking with Count Palffy?
NEUMANN. Another one they trust too much, a Spaniard,
Maradas is his name.
WINE STEWARD. It’s no good with
These Spaniards, let me tell you. All those Latins
Are no good.
NEUMANN. Now! Now! Shouldn’t talk that way,
Wine Steward. They’ve some of the finest generals
Among them, whom the Duke esteems the most.
(Terzky comes to fetch the Oath; a stir at the tables.)
WINE STEWARD (to the Servants).
The Lieutenant General’s on his feet. Look sharp!1920
They’re breaking up. Snap to and hold their chairs.
(The Servants hurry upstage. Some Guests come down to the front.)
Scene Six
Octavio Piccolomini comes downstage, in conversation with Maradas; they stand far forward, to one side of the proscenium. Max Piccolomini comes down opposite them, alone, lost in thought, abstracted. In the space between them, slightly upstage, Buttler, Isolani, Götz, Tiefenbach, and Colalto gather; Terzky joins them.
ISOLANI (while the Company is coming forward).
Night! Night, Colalto! Lieutenant General, night!
Or rather, I should say “Good morning” to you.
GOETZ (to Tiefenbach). Prost, Brother! Prost and blessings!
TIEFENBACH. That was a banquet for a king!
GOETZ. Madame
The Countess knows a thing or two. She got
It from the Countess Dowager, God rest
Her soul. And what a chatelaine she was!
ISOLANI (wanting to leave). Lights here! Lights here!
TERZKY (approaching Isolani with the Oath).
Wait, Brother! Just two minutes more. There’s something1930
To sign here still.
ISOLANI. Oh, I’ll sign anything
You like, Friend. Just spare me the reading of it.
TERZKY. Let me not trouble you. It is the oath
That you’ve already read. A pen stroke merely.
(Isolani passes the sheet to Octavio.)
As you see fit. Whoever’s next. No ranks here.
(Octavio skims the text with apparent indifference; Terzky observes him from a distance.)
GOETZ (to Terzky). Count, by your leave. My warmest compliments.
TERZKY. But what’s your hurry! Have a nightcap. (To the Servants.) Hey!
GOETZ. Not up to it.
TERZKY. A little gaming?
GOETZ. Pardon!
TIEFENBACH (seating himself).
Forgive me, Lords. It’s hard to stand so long.
TERZKY. Make yourself comfortable, my Lord Field Marshal!1940
TIEFENBACH. My head is clear, my stomach’s strong. My legs,
However, now refuse to do their job.
ISOLANI (indicating his corpulence).
You’ve made them carry far too great a load.
(Octavio has signed and returned the sheet to Terzky, who gives it to Isolani. He goes to the table to sign.)
TIEFENBACH. The war in Pomerania did it to me,
We had to go out there in ice and snow,
And I will not recover all my days.
GOETZ. Oh, yes. The Swede did not inquire the season.161
(Terzky passes the sheet to Don Maradas, who goes to the table to sign.)
OCTAVIO (approaching Buttler).162
These bacchanals, permit me to remark,
My Lord, do not agree much with you either.
I’d think that you prefer the uproar of1950
A battle to the rowdiness of feasting.
BUTTLER. I must confess, it’s not quite to my taste.
OCTAVIO (coming closer, confidentially).
And not to mine, I happily assure you.
I’m gratified, most honored Colonel Buttler,
To find that we are so well matched in thinking.
At most, a handful of good friends, about
A small round table, with a little glass
Of Tokay, open hearts and honest talk—
That’s what I love.
BUTTLER. And I, when’t can be done.
(The sheet reaches Buttler, who goes to the table to sign. The proscenium has emptied, leaving the two Piccolomini, each on a side.)
OCTAVIO (having silently observed his son from a distance, comes closer).
You were away for quite a while, my boy.1960
MAX (turns away, confused).
I—urgent business held me up so long.
OCTAVIO. And I observe that you are still not here.
MAX. You know a noisy party leaves me silent.
OCTAVIO (coming still closer).
I’m not to know what kept you for so long?
(Sly.) And even Terzky knows?
MAX. What does he know?
OCTAVIO (with meaning).
He was the only one who did not miss you.
ISOLANI (who has been watching from a distance, joins them).
Quite right! Surprise his baggage train, old father!
And strike against his quarters! This won’t do!
TERZKY (bringing the Oath).
All hands on deck? Has everybody signed?
OCTAVIO. They’ve signed.1970
TERZKY (calling). Say! Who has yet to sign the oath?
BUTTLER (to Terzky). Go take a count. It should be thirty names.
TERZKY. A cross is here.
TIEFENBACH. That cross is mine.
ISOLANI (to Terzky). He cannot write. His cross is always valid
And recognized alike by Jew and Christian.
OCTAVIO (pressing Max).
Let’s leave together, Colonel. It’s now late.
TERZKY. One Piccolomini alone has signed.
ISOLANI (indicating Max).
It’s this guest from the graveyard that you miss.163
He’s not been worth the candle this whole evening.
(Max takes the sheet from Terzky and stares into it blankly.)
Scene Seven
As above. Illo comes out of the back room, holding the golden Wine Cup. He is very excited. Götz and Buttler follow, trying to quiet him.
ILLO. Wha’d’y want? Leave me alone!
GOETZ and BUTTLER. Illo! No more!
ILLO (goes to Octavio and embraces him, drinking).
Octavio! This is for you! Let’s drown1980
All our bad feelings, toast our brotherhood!
I know you’ve never loved me, nor I you,
By God! But now we’ll let bygones be bygones.
I value you just endlessly, I am your
(kissing him repeatedly)
Best friend and, so that you all know, anyone
Who calls him a bad apple—he will have
To do with me!
TERZKY (aside). Shush! Have you lost your mind?
Remember, Illo, where you are!
ILLO (guileless). Why should I? They are all our closest friends.
(Looking about the whole room with a contented face.)
There’s not a rogue among them, to my pleasure.1990
TERZKY (urgently, to Buttler).
Just get him out of here. I beg you, Buttler!
(Buttler leads him to the bar.)
ISOLANI (to Max, who has been staring absently into the sheet).
Soon finished, Brother? Studied it enough?
MAX (as if coming out of a dream).
What’s wanted?
TERZKY and ISOLANI (together). That you put your name to it.
(Octavio, in the distance, looks across at him anxiously.)
MAX (returning the sheet).
We’ll let it wait till morning. Business matters.
I can’t address them now. Send it tomorrow.
TERZKY. Consider now—
ISOLANI. Wake up! Just sign it, what?
The youngest at the table, you! You’d not
Pretend to know more than the rest of us?
Look here! Your father’s signed and all the others.
TERZKY (to Octavio). Use your prestige. Explain—2000
OCTAVIO. My son’s of age.
ILLO (has set the Wine Cup on the bar).
What’s all the talk?
TERZKY. Won’t sign the oath. Refuses.
MAX. I said there’s time enough for this tomorrow.
ILLO. There isn’t time. We’ve signed it, all of us,
And so must you. You have to sign your name.
MAX. Sleep well, Illo.
ILLO. Hey! Not so fast! Oh, no!
The Prince is to find out just who his friends are.
(All the Company gathers around them.)
MAX. My sentiments are well known to the Prince
And to all others. Antics are not needed.
ILLO. The thanks, this, that the Prince gets for preferring
These Latins always to the rest of us!2010
TERZKY (deeply alarmed, to the Commanders pressing in).
The wine he’s drunk is talking. Please don’t listen.
ISOLANI (laughs). No wine invents. It only prattles freely.
ILLO. Who isn’t for me is against me. Oh,
These tender consciences! If by the back door,
By a short clause—
TERZKY (hastily). He’s mad! Pay no attention!
ILLO (shouting). By a short clause they cannot save themselves—
A clause? The devil take this cursed clause—
MAX (coming to attention, looks again into the sheet).
What is there here so highly dangerous?
You make me curious. What have I missed?
TERZKY (aside). Illo, what have you done? You’ve ruined us!2020
TIEFENBACH (to Colalto). I noticed. It read differently the first time.
GOETZ. I thought so, too.
ISOLANI. What’s that to me? Where others
Have put their name I’ll gladly put mine, too.
TIEFENBACH. Before the meal there was a reservation,
A clause about our service to the Kaiser.
BUTTLER (to the Commanders).
For shame, my Lords. Consider what’s in play here.
The question is: Are we to keep our General
Or shall we be obliged to let him go?
We can’t split hairs when so much is at stake.
ISOLANI (to one of the Generals).
When you received your regiment, the Prince did 2030
Not wrap himself in clauses, I dare say?
TERZKY (to Götz). And when you got to sell supplies that yield
You full one thousand pistols every year?
ILLO. They’re rascals, those who would make rogues of us!
You’re discontent? Then take it up with me!
TIEFENBACH. Now, now. They’re only talking.
MAX (has read the sheet, which he returns). Till tomorrow.
ILLO (stammering with rage, no longer master of himself, brandishing the
sheet in one hand, his sword in the other).
Sign, Judas!
ISOLANI. Fie, Illo!
OCTAVIO, TERZKY, BUTTLER (together).
Drop that sword!
MAX (having blocked his hand and disarmed him, to Count Terzky).
Get him to bed!
(He goes off. Illo, cursing and scolding, is restrained by certain Commanders as the Company breaks up.)
Curtain.
Act Five
A Room in Octavio Piccolomini’s quarters. Night.
Scene One
Octavio Piccolomini. Chamberlain lighting his way. Then Max Piccolomini.
OCTAVIO. Direct my son to me as soon as he
Comes in. What is the hour?
CHAMBERLAIN. It’s almost morning.164
OCTAVIO. Set down your lamp just here. We’ll not lie down2040
Tonight. But you may now retire to bed.
(Chamberlain goes off. Octavio moves about the room, reflecting. Max Piccolomini enters unobserved and watches him in silence for a moment.)
MAX. Are you annoyed with me, Octavio?
God knows, I didn’t start that ugly fight.
I saw that you had signed. What you approve
Is good enough for me. But still—you know—
I follow my own lights and no one else’s.
OCTAVIO (goes to him and embraces him).
And so you should, my boy. You’re better guided
So than by the example of your father.
MAX. Explain yourself more clearly.
OCTAVIO. Very gladly.
After what’s happened lately, you and I2050
Should keep no further secrets from each other.
(They sit down together.)
Max, tell me: What do you think of that oath
They circulated for our signature?
MAX. I see no danger in it. Just that I have
No love for things so formal and contrived.
OCTAVIO. You’d have no other grounds to have refused
The signature that they were pressing for?
MAX. This was a serious move. I was distracted.
It seemed to me to be not all that urgent.
OCTAVIO. Be frank, Max: Had you no suspicion—2060
MAX. I?
Suspicion? What of? No, not in the least.
OCTAVIO. Then thank your angel, Piccolomini!
He pulled you back from the abyss, unknowing.
MAX. I don’t know what you mean.
OCTAVIO. Then hear it now:
They wanted you to give your name to a piece
Of treachery, you to repudiate
Your oath and duties with a single pen stroke.
MAX (on his feet). Octavio!
OCTAVIO. Stay seated. You have much
To hear from me tonight, young friend. You’ve lived
For years in an incomprehensible2070
Blindness. The blackest plot spins out before
Your eyes, a hellish power beclouds the good
Lights of your senses—I am forced to speak,
To rip the blindfold from your eyes.
MAX. Before
You do, consider carefully: If this
Is mere conjecture—and I fear it is
No more—spare me. I’m not prepared to hear
It quietly.
OCTAVIO. However grave your grounds
May be for fleeing these, my better lights,
Mine are more urgent yet for forcing them2080
Upon you. Mark! To your heart’s innocence
I could entrust you and to your good judgment,
Did I not sense, not see, a net being spread to
Ensnare that heart. The secret
(fixing his gaze on him) you are keeping
From me obliges me to tell you mine.
MAX (attempts to answer, cannot, and drops his gaze).
OCTAVIO (after a pause).
So hear me. They’re deceiving you, playing
Disgracefully with you and all of us.
The Duke is striking attitudes as if
To leave the army; all the while they’re taking
Measures to steal the army from the Kaiser2090
And lead it over to the enemy.
MAX. I know this Jesuitical tale. I never
Thought you’d be one to retail it to me.
OCTAVIO. The mouth from which you have it bears you witness:
This is no Jesuitical tale I tell you.
MAX. What kind of mad man do they think the Duke?
He could intend to try and lure away
Full thirty thousand proven troops, staunch soldiers,
Among them good one thousand noblemen?
Seduce them from their oath, their duty, honor,2100
Combine them for a piece of purest roguery?
OCTAVIO. He wishes nothing quite so base. What he
Would have of us bears a more harmless name:
He wants to make the realm a gift of peace.165
The Kaiser, though, abhors this sort of peace,
And he would undertake to force it on him!
He wants to pacify all parts and for
His trouble he proposes to keep back
Bohemia, which he occupies already.
MAX. Has he deserved, Octavio, that we—2110
We two—think so unworthily of him?
OCTAVIO. What we think here has no importance. None!
The matter itself speaks, gives clearest proofs.
You know how bad our standing is at Court,
My son. You have no inkling, though, of the
Intrigues, of the mendacity they’ve used
To sow a mutiny here in camp. The bonds
That bind the officer to sovereign, bind the
Soldier to civil life have been dissolved.
Released from law and duty, he now lies2120
Ensconced before the state that he should shield
And makes to turn his very sword against it.
It’s now gone so far that the Kaiser lives
In fear of his own army, he suspects
Treachery in his own citadel and city.
Why, he’s about to send his youngest heirs
To safety, not before the Swede, the Lutheran—
Oh, no! Before his own sworn troops and generals.
MAX. Enough! You frighten me, this shakes me. For
I know one often trembles at mere shadows.2130
But still—false fear can lead to true disaster.
OCTAVIO. This fear’s not false. A civil war has flared,
The most unnatural of all wars, if we
Do not go out, confront it swiftly, quell it.
Among the captains, many have been bought,
The loyalty of the subalterns wavers,
Regiments waver, garrisons are wavering.
Our strongholds have been put in strangers’ hands;
To Schafgotsch, that tenebrous figure, they’ve
Assigned the whole Silesian squad,166 to Terzky2140
Five regiments, both horse and foot, to Illo
And Kinsky, Buttler, Isolan, our best
Outfitted units.
MAX. Also to us two.
OCTAVIO. Because they think they have us and that they
Can tempt us with their glittering promises.
The principalities Glatz and Sagan are
My portion of these spoils, and I see all
Too clearly the hook on which they think they can
Catch you.
MAX. Oh, no! No! No! I tell you, No!
OCTAVIO. Open your eyes! Why did they order us2150
To Pilsen, do you think? To seek advice?
Since when has Friedland needed our advice?
We’re summoned here to sell ourselves to him,
If we refuse—to be his hostages.
That’s why Count Gallas kept himself away.
And you’d not see your father here if higher
Duty had not compelled his coming, too.
MAX. Never did he pretend we’d not been called here
For his sake. He admits he needs our help
To hold out long. He’s done so much for us2160
That we are duty-bound to do for him.
OCTAVIO. Do you know what it is that we’re to do?
That Illo’s drunkenness betrayed it all.
Remember what you saw and heard. Does that
Falsified oath, its crucial clause omitted,
Not show they’re binding us to nothing good?
MAX. That business with the oath last evening is
For me no more than yet another trick
Contrived by Illo. Such a race of meddlers
Will always drive it past the point. The Duke,2170
They see, has fallen out at Court. They think
They’ll fix it when they drive the breach beyond
Repair. The Duke, believe me, knows nothing of it.
OCTAVIO. It pains me to destroy a faith that you
Believe so well-founded. Here, though, there’s no sparing
You. You must act, take measures right away.
Therefore, I’ll tell you: Everything I’ve said—
Which you disbelieve—I have it from himself,
From his own proper mouth.
MAX (much aroused). Not possible!
OCTAVIO. From him I heard what I’d long since discovered2180
By other avenues that I had opened:
That he plans to go over to the Swede
And at the head of the united armies
Compel the Kaiser to—
MAX. He’s hot and rash.
The Court insulted him quite painfully
At a bad moment—that may be—and he
Forgot himself this one time, was too quick.
OCTAVIO. In cold blood he confessed these things to me,
And having misconstrued astonishment as
Fear, let me see the letters of the Swedes2190
And Saxons that raise hopes of certain aid.
MAX. It cannot be, can not be, can not be!
You see that it cannot! If you had shown
Him your repugnance, sure, he would have heard.
Or you’d not be alive and standing here.
OCTAVIO. It’s true: while I expressed my reservations
And warned him urgently and earnestly, I
Concealed my true repugnance and my deepest
Convictions.
MAX. You could be so false? My father’s
Not like that. I had doubts about your words2200
As you denounced him. Now you denounce yourself.
OCTAVIO. I had no wish to penetrate his secret.
MAX. His confidence deserved an honest answer.
OCTAVIO. He was not worthy of an honest answer.
MAX. And still less worthy was he of deception.
OCTAVIO. My dearest boy, it is no simple thing
To keep a childlike spotlessness in life
The way an inner voice tells us we must do.167
Embattled with the worst dishonesty,
No honest disposition can remain so.2210
The curse of the bad deed is that it hatches
Unending generations of bad deeds.
I split no hairs; I merely do what’s mine
To do. The Kaiser puts my conduct to me.
It would be better, could we follow our
Own heart. But one who does denies himself not
A few goals for the good. Our proper task is
Always to serve the Kaiser well, my son.
What our hearts say must be another matter.
MAX. Today I’m fated not to understand you. 2220
The Prince, you say, in honesty disclosed
An evil purpose. You claim you deceived
Him for a good one. Stop! I beg you. You’ll
Not get my friend. Don’t make me lose my father.
OCTAVIO (suppressing his feelings).
You’ve not heard everything, my boy. There’s more.
(After a pause.)
The Duke of Friedland has made preparation.
He trusts his stars. He plans to fall upon
Us by surprise, thinks the Bohemian crown
Already his. He errs. We, too, have taken
Measures. He’ll grasp his fate, prepared in secret.2230
MAX. Do nothing rash! Don’t act in haste, I beg you!
OCTAVIO. He‘s crept his dark way forward softly, softly,
And softly, slyly, vengeance has crept after.
It stands behind him now, concealed, unseen.
Just one false step, and he is overtaken.
You saw that Questenberg spent time with me;
His public mandate you’re acquainted with;
He had a secret one, for me alone.
MAX. Am I to know it?
OCTAVIO. Max! With this disclosure
I lay the fortunes of the realm, along with2240
Your father’s very life, into your hands.
You cherish Wallenstein, a band of honor
And love has fastened you to him since first youth.
You entertain the wish—oh, let me run
Ahead of your still hesitating trust—
The hope to belong to him more intimately
Still.
MAX. Father—
OCTAVIO. I have every confidence in
Your heart. But am I sure of your composure?
Have you the steel to come before this man
And give no sign, once I tell you his fate?2250
MAX. This scruple, after you’ve told me his guilt!
OCTAVIO (takes a paper from a casket and hands it to him).
MAX. What’s this? How—An Imperial letter patent—
OCTAVIO. Read it.
MAX (having cast a glance into the sheet).
The Prince condemned and outlawed!
OCTAVIO. Thus
It is.
MAX. But this is monstrous! A mistake!
OCTAVIO. Continue. Brace yourself.
MAX (reads on, then looks at his father, astonished).
What? You? You are—
OCTAVIO. Just for the interim. Until the King
Of Hungary can reach the army.168 Its
Supreme command has been transferred to me.
MAX. Do you think you can snatch this thing from him?
Not for a moment! Father, Father, they’ve2260
Imposed a fatal office on you. You—
You’d undertake to execute this charge?
Disarm this mighty man among his army?
Surrounded there by loyal thousands? Never!
You’re lost! And all of us along with you!
OCTAVIO. What I must dare to do is known to me.
I stand in the Almighty’s hand; it will
Protect the pious Kaiser’s house with its
Great shield and sweep away the work of darkness.
The Kaiser still has loyal servants, here2270
In camp are trusty men enough who’ll take
The side of justice with élan. The loyal
Have all been warned, the rest are under watch.
I only wait for the first step, and then—
MAX. You’d move against him on suspicion merely?
OCTAVIO. Tyrannical measures aren’t the Kaiser’s way.
He’ll punish, not the wish, the deed alone.
The Prince still holds his fate in his two hands:
He leaves this crime unconsummated—then he’ll
Be quietly removed from his command2280
In favor of the Kaiser’s son and heir.
An honorable exile on his holdings
Will count as favor more than punishment.
At the first step he takes, however, we—
MAX. And what would you consider such a step?
He’ll never take it. You, though, could misjudge
(As you have done) a fully harmless one.
OCTAVIO. However culpable the Prince’s aims,
All steps that he has taken publicly
Were open to a mild construing. I2290
Intend to make no use of this sheet, short
Of a committed deed that proves high treason
Incontrovertibly, and so condemns him.
MAX. And who shall be the judge of this?
OCTAVIO. You shall.
MAX. Then we shall never need it! Since I have
Your word that you’ll not act before you have
Persuaded even me.
OCTAVIO. It’s possible?
You—knowing what you do—can still hold him
For innocent?
MAX (vivid). Your judgment can be wrong,
But not my heart. (More temperate.) A spirit such as his2300
Cannot be grasped like any other. Just
As he attaches his fate to the stars,
Just so does he resemble them in secret,
Eternally incomprehensible,
And marvelous rotation. Believe me, he
Is wronged. It all will reach solution yet,
And we shall see him rise, clean, pure, and shining,
Out of the depths of all this black suspicion.
OCTAVIO. We’ll see.
Scene Two
As above. The Chamberlain. Then a Courier.
OCTAVIO. Yes?2310
CHAMBERLAIN. There’s a courier at the door.
OCTAVIO. So early?
Who is it? Where’s he from?
CHAMBERLAIN. He wouldn’t say.
OCTAVIO. Admit him. Keep strict silence in this matter.
(The Chamberlain goes off. A Cornet enters.)
It’s you, Cornet? Count Gallas has sent you?
I’ll take his letter.
CORNET. I’ve an oral message.
Lieutenant General Gallas wouldn’t risk—
OCTAVIO. Let’s hear it, then.
CORNET. He bade me say—I may speak
Freely?
OCTAVIO. My son is well informed.
CORNET. We have him.
OCTAVIO. Who’s meant here?
CORNET. It’s the go-between, Sesina.169
OCTAVIO (quickly). You have him?
CORNET. Since two days ago, in the
Bohemian Forest. Captain Mohrbrand caught him2320
At daybreak, on the way to Regensburg,
Carrying dispatches to the Swedish side.
OCTAVIO. And the dispatches?
CORNET. Were directed right
Away straight to Vienna, with the prisoner.
OCTAVIO. At last! At last! Extraordinary news!
That man contains a treasury of things
We want to know. Was much discovered on him?
CORNET. A good six packets sealed with Terzky arms.
OCTAVIO. None in the Prince’s hand?
CORNET. Not that I know.170
OCTAVIO. Sesina, then?2330
CORNET. Seemed very badly shaken
To hear that he’d be taken to Vienna.
Count Altring heartened him by saying he
Need only willingly confess to all.
OCTAVIO. Altringer’s with your master? I heard he
Was lying sick at Linz.
CORNET. For three days now
He’s been at Frauenberg with General Gallas.171
They’ve gathered sixteen squads together, all
Elite recruits, and bid me tell you they
Are waiting only to receive your orders.
OCTAVIO. In few days much can happen. When must you2340
Return?
CORNET. I, too, am to await your orders.
OCTAVIO. Remain till evening.
CORNET. Yes, sir. (About to go.)
OCTAVIO. No one’s seen you?
CORNET. No, not a soul. The Capuchins received me,
As always, by the wicket to the cloister.
OCTAVIO. Go, then, and get some rest. Keep yourself hidden.
I plan to make you ready before evening.
Affairs have reached the point of rapid change,
And sooner than the day that’s breaking now
Declines to dark a fatal lot must fall.
(Exit Cornet.)
Scene Three
Both Piccolomini.
OCTAVIO. What now, my boy? We’ll soon be clear on this,2350
Since everything—it’s known—went through Sesina.
MAX (who underwent an inner struggle during the whole previous scene, now resolutely).
I’ll look for light by quicker means. Farewell!
OCTAVIO. Where to? Don’t go!
MAX. The Prince.
OCTAVIO (startled). What did you say?
MAX (coming back). If you were thinking I would play a role in
This play of yours, you’ve got me badly wrong.
My way must travel straight. I can’t be true
In tongue and in my heart be false. Can’t let
Myself be trusted as a friend and salve
My conscience with the thought that he is on
His own, that I have never lied to him.2360
What someone takes me for, that I must be.
I’m going to the Duke. Today yet I’ll
Urge him to salvage his good name before
The world, to rip through your men’s artful web
By taking one straight honest step.
OCTAVIO. You’d do that?
MAX. I would. Don’t doubt it.
OCTAVIO. Then I’ve got you wrong
Indeed. I counted on a sober son
Who’d thank the saving hand that pulled him back
From the abyss. I find a blind man whom
Two pretty eyes have made a fool of, passion2370
Befogs, and whom broad daylight cannot heal.
Go ask him! Be so unconsidered as to
Betray your father’s secret and the Kaiser’s.
Oblige me to a noisy breach before
The time. Now, when a miracle has kept
My secret safe, has lulled sharp-eyed suspicion,
Let me see my own son, all wild and witless,
Pull down a painfully erected work
Of statecraft.
MAX. Statecraft! How I curse your statecraft!
You, with your statecraft, will yet drive him to2380
A step—Why, you, because you want him guilty,
Are capable of making him so. Oh,
This cannot end well. And, however it
Falls out, I sense a true disastrous turn
Approaching. For this regal man, in falling,
Will bring a world down in the aftermath.
And like a ship on the high seas that flames
Up suddenly and, bursting, flies apart,
Flinging its crew out between sea and sky,
Just so will he take all of us, attached2390
As we are to his fortunes, down with him.
You do as you see fit. However, grant
That I conduct myself in my own fashion.
No impure motive sully our relations.
Before the day is over, we shall know
If I must lose my father or my friend.
(As he goes off, the Curtain falls.)