The Piccolomini

PREFACE

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

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

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

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

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

OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, Lieutenant-General.

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

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

ILLO, Field-Marshal, Wallenstein's Confidant.

ISOLANI, General of the Croats.

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

TIEFENBACH, |

DON MARADAS, | Generals under Wallenstein.

GOETZ, |

KOLATTO, |

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

VON QUESTENBERG, the War Commissioner, Imperial Envoy.

BAPTISTA SENI, an Astrologer.

DUCHESS OF FRIEDLAND, Wife of Wallenstein.

THEKLA, her Daughter, Princess of Friedland.

THE COUNTESS TERZRY, Sister of the Duchess.

A CORNET.

COLONELS and GENERALS (several).

PAGES and ATTENDANTS belonging to Wallenstein.

ATTENDANTS and HOBOISTS belonging to Terzky.

MASTER OF THE CELLAR to Count Terzky.

VALET DE CHAMBRE of Count Piccolomini.

ACT I

SCENE I

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

ILLO, with BUTLER and ISOLANI.

ILLO

 
Ye have come too late-but ye are come! The distance,
   Count Isolani, excuses your delay.
 

ISOLANI

 
   Add this too, that we come not empty-handed.
   At Donauwerth¹ it was reported to us,
   A Swedish caravan was on its way,
   Transporting a rich cargo of provision,
   Almost six hundreds wagons. This my Croats
   Plunged down upon and seized, this weighty prize! —
   We bring it hither —
 

ILLO

 
              Just in time to banquet
   The illustrious company assembled here.
 

BUTLER

 
   'Tis all alive! a stirring scene here!
 

ISOLANI

 
                      Ay!
   The very churches are full of soldiers.
 

[Casts his eye round.

 
   And in the council-house, too, I observe,
   You're settled quite at home! Well, well! we soldiers
   Must shift and suit us in what way we can.
 

ILLO

 
   We have the colonels here of thirty regiments.
   You'll find Count Terzky here, and Tiefenbach,
   Kolatto, Goetz, Maradas, Hinnersam,
   The Piccolomini, both son and father —
   You'll meet with many an unexpected greeting
   From many an old friend and acquaintance. Only
   Gallas is wanting still, and Altringer.
 

BUTLER

 
   Expect not Gallas.
 

ILLO (hesitating)

 
             How so? Do you know —
 

ISOLANI (interrupting him)

 
   Max. Piccolomini here? O bring me to him.
   I see him yet ('tis now ten years ago,
   We were engaged with Mansfeldt hard by Dessau),
   I see the youth, in my mind's eye I see him,
   Leap his black war-horse from the bridge adown,
   And t'ward his father, then in extreme peril,
   Beat up against the strong tide of the Elbe.
   The down was scarce upon his chin! I hear
   He has made good the promise of his youth,
   And the full hero now is finished in him.
 

ILLO

 
   You'll see him yet ere evening. He conducts
 

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

BUTLER

 
   Both wife and daughter does the duke call hither?
   He crowds in visitants from all sides.
 

ISOLANI

 
                      Hm!
   So much the better! I had framed my mind
   To hear of naught but warlike circumstance,
   Of marches and attacks, and batteries;
   And lo! the duke provides, and something too
   Of gentler sort and lovely, should be present
   To feast our eyes.
 

ILLO (who has been standing in the attitude of meditation, to BUTLER,

whom he leads a little on one side)

 
             And how came you to know
   That the Count Gallas joins us not?
 

BUTLER

 
                     Because
   He importuned me to remain behind.
 

ILLO (with warmth)

 
   And you? You hold out firmly!
 

[Grasping his hand with affection.

 
                   Noble Butler!
 

BUTLER

 
   After the obligation which the duke
   Had laid so newly on me —
 

ILLO

 
                 I had forgotten
   A pleasant duty – major-general,
   I wish you joy!
 

ISOLANI

 
           What, you mean, of this regiment?
   I hear, too, that to make the gift still sweeter,
   The duke has given him the very same
   In which he first saw service, and since then
   Worked himself step by step, through each preferment,
   From the ranks upwards. And verily, it gives
   A precedent of hope, a spur of action
   To the whole corps, if once in their remembrance
   An old deserving soldier makes his way.
 

BUTLER

 
   I am perplexed and doubtful whether or no
   I dare accept this your congratulation.
   The emperor has not yet confirmed the appointment.
 

ISOLANI

 
   Seize it, friend, seize it! The hand which in that post
   Placed you is strong enough to keep you there,
   Spite of the emperor and his ministers!
 

ILLO

 
   Ay, if we would but so consider it! —
   If we would all of us consider it so!
   The emperor gives us nothing; from the duke
   Comes all – whate'er we hope, whate'er we have.
 

ISOLANI (to ILLO)

 
   My noble brother! did I tell you how
   The duke will satisfy my creditors?
   Will be himself my bankers for the future,
   Make me once more a creditable man!
   And this is now the third time, think of that!
   This kingly-minded man has rescued me
   From absolute ruin and restored my honor.
 

ILLO

 
   Oh that his power but kept pace with his wishes!
   Why, friend! he'd give the whole world to his soldiers.
   But at Vienna, brother! – here's the grievance, —
   What politic schemes do they not lay to shorten
   His arm, and where they can to clip his pinions.
   Then these new dainty requisitions! these
   Which this same Questenberg brings hither!
 

BUTLER

 
                         Ay!
   Those requisitions of the emperor —
   I too have heard about them; but I hope
   The duke will not draw back a single inch!
 

ILLO

 
   Not from his right most surely, unless first
   From office!
 

BUTLER (shocked and confused)

 
          Know you aught then? You alarm me.
 

ISOLANI (at the same time with BUTLER, and in a hurrying voice)

 
   We should be ruined, every one of us!
 

ILLO

 
   Yonder I see our worthy friend [spoken with a sneer] approaching
   With the Lieutenant-General Piccolomini.
 

BUTLER (shaking his head significantly)

 
   I fear we shall not go hence as we came.
 

SCENE II

Enter OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI and QUESTENBERG.

OCTAVIO (still in the distance)

 
   Ay! ah! more still! Still more new visitors!
   Acknowledge, friend! that never was a camp,
   Which held at once so many heads of heroes.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Let none approach a camp of Friedland's troops
   Who dares to think unworthily of war;
   E'en I myself had nigh forgot its evils
   When I surveyed that lofty soul of order,
   By which, while it destroys the world – itself
   Maintains the greatness which itself created.
 

OCTAVIO (approaching nearer)

 
   Welcome, Count Isolani!
 

ISOLANI

 
               My noble brother!
   Even now am I arrived; it has been else my duty —
 

OCTAVIO

 
   And Colonel Butler – trust me, I rejoice
   Thus to renew acquaintance with a man
   Whose worth and services I know and honor.
   See, see, my friend!
   There might we place at once before our eyes
   The sum of war's whole trade and mystery —
 

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

 
      to him.
   These two the total sum – strength and despatch.
 

QUESTENBERG (to OCTAVIO)

 
   And lo! betwixt them both, experienced prudence!
 

OCTAVIO (presenting QUESTENBERG to BUTLER and ISOLANI)

 
   The Chamberlain and War-Commissioner Questenberg.
   The bearer of the emperor's behests, —
   The long-tried friend and patron of all soldiers,
   We honor in this noble visitor.
 

[Universal silence.

ILLO (moving towards QUESTENBERG)

 
   'Tis not the first time, noble minister,
   You've shown our camp this honor.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
                    Once before
   I stood beside these colors.
 

ILLO

 
   Perchance too you remember where that was;
   It was at Znaeim ⁴ in Moravia, where
   You did present yourself upon the part
   Of the emperor to supplicate our duke
   That he would straight assume the chief command.
 

QUESTENBURG

 
   To supplicate? Nay, bold general!
   So far extended neither my commission
   (At least to my own knowledge) nor my zeal.
 

ILLO

 
   Well, well, then – to compel him, if you choose,
   I can remember me right well, Count Tilly
   Had suffered total rout upon the Lech.
   Bavaria lay all open to the enemy,
   Whom there was nothing to delay from pressing
   Onwards into the very heart of Austria.
   At that time you and Werdenberg appeared
   Before our general, storming him with prayers,
   And menacing the emperor's displeasure,
   Unless he took compassion on this wretchedness.
 

ISOLANI (steps up to them)

 
   Yes, yes, 'tis comprehensible enough,
   Wherefore with your commission of to-day,
   You were not all too willing to remember
   Your former one.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
            Why not, Count Isolani?
   No contradiction sure exists between them.
   It was the urgent business of that time
   To snatch Bavaria from her enemy's hand;
   And my commission of to-day instructs me
   To free her from her good friends and protectors.
 

ILLO

 
   A worthy office! After with our blood
   We have wrested this Bohemia from the Saxon,
   To be swept out of it is all our thanks,
   The sole reward of all our hard-won victories.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Unless that wretched land be doomed to suffer
   Only a change of evils, it must be
   Freed from the scourge alike of friend or foe.
 

ILLO

 
   What? 'Twas a favorable year; the boors
   Can answer fresh demands already.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
                     Nay,
   If you discourse of herds and meadow-grounds —
 

ISOLANI

 
   The war maintains the war. Are the boors ruined
   The emperor gains so many more new soldiers.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   And is the poorer by even so many subjects.
 

ISOLANI

 
   Poh! we are all his subjects.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Yet with a difference, general! The one fill
   With profitable industry the purse,
   The others are well skilled to empty it.
   The sword has made the emperor poor; the plough
   Must reinvigorate his resources.
 

ISOLANI

 
                    Sure!
   Times are not yet so bad. Methinks I see
 

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

 
   Good store of gold that still remains uncoined.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to hide
   Some little from the fingers of the Croats.
 

ILLO

 
   There! The Stawata and the Martinitz,
   On whom the emperor heaps his gifts and graces,
   To the heart-burning of all good Bohemians —
   Those minions of court favor, those court harpies,
   Who fatten on the wrecks of citizens
   Driven from their house and home – who reap no harvests
   Save in the general calamity —
   Who now, with kingly pomp, insult and mock
   The desolation of their country – these,
   Let these, and such as these, support the war,
   The fatal war, which they alone enkindled!
 

BUTLER

 
   And those state-parasites, who have their feet
   So constantly beneath the emperor's table,
   Who cannot let a benefice fall, but they
   Snap at it with dogs' hunger – they, forsooth,
   Would pare the soldiers bread and cross his reckoning!
 

ISOLANI

 
   My life long will it anger me to think,
   How when I went to court seven years ago,
   To see about new horses for our regiment,
   How from one antechamber to another
   They dragged me on and left me by the hour
   To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering
   Feast-fattened slaves, as if I had come thither
   A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor
   That fell beneath their tables. And, at last,
   Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!
   Straight I began to muster up my sins
   For absolution – but no such luck for me!
   This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom
   I was to treat concerning the army horses!
   And I was forced at last to quit the field,
   The business unaccomplished. Afterwards
   The duke procured me in three days what I
   Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found their way to us!
   Too well I know we have still accounts to settle.
 

ILLO

 
   War is violent trade; one cannot always
   Finish one's work by soft means; every trifle
   Must not be blackened into sacrilege.
   If we should wait till you, in solemn council,
   With due deliberation had selected
   The smallest out of four-and-twenty evils,
   I' faith we should wait long —
   "Dash! and through with it!" That's the better watchword.
   Then after come what may come. 'Tis man's nature
   To make the best of a bad thing once past.
   A bitter and perplexed "what shall I do?"
   Is worse to man than worst necessity.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Ay, doubtless, it is true; the duke does spare us
   The troublesome task of choosing.
 

BUTLER

 
                    Yes, the duke
   Cares with a father's feelings for his troops;
   But how the emperor feels for us, we see.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   His cares and feelings all ranks share alike,
   Nor will he offer one up to another.
 

ISOLANI

 
   And therefore thrusts he us into the deserts
   As beasts of prey, that so he may preserve
   His dear sheep fattening in his fields at home.
 

QUESTENBERG (with a sneer)

 
   Count! this comparison you make, not I.
 

ILLO

 
   Why, were we all the court supposes us
   'Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty.
 

QUESTENBERG (gravely)

 
   You have taken liberty – it was not given you,
   And therefore it becomes an urgent duty
   To rein it in with the curbs.
 

ILLO

 
   Expect to find a restive steed in us.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   A better rider may be found to rule it.
 

ILLO

 
   He only brooks the rider who has tamed him.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Ay, tame him once, and then a child may lead him.
 

ILLO

 
   The child, we know, is found for him already.
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   Be duty, sir, your study, not a name.
 

BUTLER (who has stood aside with PICCOLOMINI, but with visible interest in the conversation, advances)

 
   Sir president, the emperor has in Germany
   A splendid host assembled; in this kingdom
   Full twenty thousand soldiers are cantoned,
   With sixteen thousand in Silesia;
   Ten regiments are posted on the Weser,
   The Rhine, and Maine; in Swabia there are six,
   And in Bavaria twelve, to face the Swedes;
   Without including in the account the garrisons
   Who on the frontiers hold the fortresses.
   This vast and mighty host is all obedient
   To Friedland's captains; and its brave commanders,
   Bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk,
   Are all excited by one heart and soul;
   They are as strangers on the soil they tread,
   The service is their only house and home.
   No zeal inspires then for their country's cause,
   For thousands like myself were born abroad;
   Nor care they for the emperor, for one half
   Deserting other service fled to ours,
   Indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere,
   The Double Eagle, Lily, or the Lion.
   Yet one sole man can rein this fiery host
   By equal rule, by equal love and fear;
   Blending the many-nationed whole in one;
   And like the lightning's fires securely led
   Down the conducting rod, e'en thus his power
   Rules all the mass, from guarded post to post,
   From where the sentry hears the Baltic roar,
   Or views the fertile vales of the Adige,
   E'en to the body-guard, who holds his watch
   Within the precincts of the imperial palace!
 

QUESTENBERG

 
   What's the short meaning of this long harangue?
 

BUTLER

 
   That the respect, the love, the confidence,
   Which makes us willing subjects of Duke Friedland,
   Are not to be transferred to the first comer
   That Austria's court may please to send to us.
   We have not yet so readily forgotten
   How the command came into Friedland's hands.
   Was it, forsooth, the emperor's majesty
   That gave the army ready to his hand,
   And only sought a leader for it? No.
   The army then had no existence. He,
   Friedland, it was who called it into being,
   And gave it to his sovereign – but receiving
   No army at his hand; nor did the emperor
   Give Wallenstein to us as general. No,
   It was from Wallenstein we first received
   The emperor as our master and our sovereign;
   And he, he only, binds us to our banners!
 

OCTAVIO (interposing and addressing QUESTENBERG)

 
   My noble friend,
   This is no more than a remembrancing
   That you are now in camp, and among warriors;
   The soldier's boldness constitutes his freedom.
   Could he act daringly, unless he dared
   Talk even so? One runs into the other.
   The boldness of this worthy officer,
 

[Pointing to BUTLER.

 
   Which now is but mistaken in its mark,
   Preserved, when naught but boldness could preserve it,
   To the emperor, his capital city, Prague,
   In a most formidable mutiny
   Of the whole garrison. [Military music at a distance.
               Hah! here they come!
 

ILLO

 
   The sentries are saluting them: this signal
   Announces the arrival of the duchess.
 

OCTAVIO (to QUESTENBERG)

 
   Then my son Max., too, has returned. 'Twas he
   Fetched and attended them from Caernthen hither.
 

ISOLANI (to ILLO)

 
   Shall we not go in company to greet them?
 

ILLO

 
   Well, let us go – Ho! Colonel Butler, come.
 

[To OCTAVIO.

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