[A single Trumpet heard at a distance. Rise! rise! Or shall I rather kneel beside thee, Oft as thou canst, essay to lead the hunt And call down blessings from the wealth of Heaven OLD BATHORY. O he was born to honour! Gallant deeds ZAPOLYA. Lady Sarolta mean'st thou? OLD BATHORY. She is safe. The royal brute hath overleapt his prey, And when he turn'd a sworded Virtue faced him. [Exit RUDOLPH and manet CASIMIR. My own brave boy-O pardon, noble lady! The traitor, Laska!—— And yet Sarolta, simple, inexperienced, The fledge-dove knows the prowlers of the air, O fool! O parricide! through yon wood didst thou, Your son ZAPOLYA. Hark! Is it he? OLD BATHORY. I hear a voice Too hoarse for Bethlen's! 'T was his scheme and hope, ZA POLYA. O life of terrors ! OLD BATHORY. In the cave's mouth we have such 'vantage ground [Exeunt ZAPOLYA and BATHORY into the Cave. Enter LASKA and PESTALUTZ. LASKA. Not a step further! PESTALUTZ. Dastard! was this your promise to the king? Mother! Queen! Whom Laska saw the war-wolf tear in pieces? LASKA (throwing down a bow and arrows). Royal Zapolya! name me Andreas! Well! there's my arms! Hark! should your javelin fail Nor blame thy son, if being a king, he yet OLD BATHORY. [Clash of swords, and BETHLEN's voice heard from GLYCINE. Ha! weapons here? Then, Bethlen, thy Glycine [She seizes them and rushes out. BATHORY following her. Lively and irregular Music, and Peasants with hunting-spears cross the stage, singing chorally. CHORAL SONG. Up, up! ye dames, ye lasses gay! "T is you must tend the flocks this morn, To hunt the wolf in the woods to-day. Leave the hearth and leave the house To the cricket and the mouse: ANDREAS. [Triumphantly. Stop, thou revered one! Lest we offend the jealous destinies By shouts ere victory. Deem it then thy duty To pay this homage, when 't is mine to claim it. Yon bleeding corse, (pointing to PESTALUTZ's body) may work us mischief still: Once seen, 't will rouse alarm and crowd the hunt [Exit BATHORY. After a while several Hunters cross BAAB KIUPRILI (throwing off his disguise). [Then speaking as to ZAPOLYA in the Cavern. Haste! haste! Zapolya, flee! [He enters the Cavern, and then returns in alarm. Gone! Seized perhaps? Oh no, let me not perish Despairing of Heaven's justice! Faint, disarm'd, Each sinew powerless, senseless rock sustain me ! Thou art parcel of my native land. [Then observing the sword. Ha! and my sword! Zapolya hath escaped, CASIMIR. Monster! Stop, lord Casimir! Art thou too a traitor? Is this the place where Emerick's murderers lurk? OLD BATHORY (pointing to the body of PESTALUTZ). CASIMIR. I kneel, I kneel! Retract thy curse! O, by my mother's ashes, Have pity on thy self-abhorring child! If not for me, yet for my innocent wife, Yet for my country's sake, give my arm strength, Permitting me again to call thee father! KIUPRILI. Son, I forgive thee! Take thy father's sword; Fools! Cowards! follow-or by Hell I'll make you [Then sees the body of PESTALUTZ, covered by CASI- Thy blessing did indeed descend upon me; Enter RUDOLPH, BATHORY, and Attendants. Friends! friends to Casimir! CASIMIR. Rejoice, Illyrians! the usurper's fallen. RUDOLPH. So perish tyrants! so end usurpation! CASIMIR. Bear hence the body, and move slowly on! One moment- Devoted to a joy, that bears no witness, I follow you, and we will greet our countrymen [Exeunt CASIMIR into the Cavern. The rest on Scene changes to a splendid Chamber in CASIMIR'S Castle. CONFEDERATES discovered. FIRST CONFEDERATE. It cannot but succeed, friends. From this palace SECOND CONFEDERATE. With one voice Th' assembled chieftains have deposed the tyrant; FIRST CONFEDERATE. Just doom for him, who governs without law! Is it known on whom the sov'reignty will fall? SECOND CONFEDERATE. Nothing is yet decided: but report Of his renown'd father- Enter SAROLTA. Hail to Sarolta! SAROLTA. Confederate friends! I bring to you a joy RAAB KIUPRILI. Spare yet your joy, my friends! A higher waits you: Enter from opposite side, ZAPOLYA and ANDREAS royally attired, with GLYCINE. CONFEDERATES. Comes she from heaven to bless us? OTHER CONFEDERATES. It is! it is! ZAPOLYA. Heaven's work of grace is full! Kiuprili, thou art safe! RAAB KIUPRILI. Royal Zapolya! To the heavenly powers, pay we our duty first; Behold your King! And thank our country's genius, That the same means which have preserved our sovereign, Have likewise reared him worthier of the throne ALL. Hail Andreas! Hail, Illyria's rightful king! ANDREAS. Supported thus, O friends! 't were cowardice From the appointed charge. Yet, while we wait In this brief while, O let me feel myself The child, the friend, the debtor!-Heroic mother!-- Of the sublimest friendship, let my youth My heart is full, and these poor words express not Now, and from henceforth thou shalt not forbid me To call thee father! And dare I forget The powerful intercession of thy virtue, ZAPOLYA. Hear that from me, son! For ere she lived, her father saved thy life, Thine, and thy fugitive mother's! CASIMIR. Chef Ragozzi! O shame upon my head! I would have given her To a base slave! ZAPOLYA. Heaven overruled thy purpose, And sent an angel (Pointing to SAROLTA) to thy house to guard her! Thou precious bark! freighted with all our treasures! The sports of tempests, and yet ne'er the victim, (Pointing to GLYCINE.) Take her, son! A queen that brings with her a richer dowry Than orient kings can give! SAROLTA. A banquet waits!— On this auspicious day, for some few hours I claim to be your hostess. Scenes so awful With flashing light, force wisdom on us all! E'en women at the distaff hence may see, That bad men may rebel, but ne'er be free; May whisper, when the waves of faction foam, None love their country, but who love their home; For freedom can with those alone abide, Who wear the golden chain, with honest pride, Of love and duty, at their own fire-side: While mad ambition ever doth caress Its own sure fate, in its own restlessness! The Piccolomini; or, the First Part of Wallenstein. A DRAMA. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER. PREFACE. Ir was my intention to have prefixed a Life of Wallenstein to this translation; but I found that it must either have occupied a space wholly disproportionate to the nature of the publication, or have been merely a meagre catalogue of events narrated not more fully than they already are in the Play itself. The recent translation, likewise, of Schiller's History of the Thirty Years' War diminished the motives thereto. In the translation I endeavoured to render my Author literally wherever I was not prevented by absolute differences of idiom; but I am conscious, that in two or three short passages I have been guilty of dilating the original; and, from anxiety to give the full meaning, have weakened the force. In the metre I have availed myself of no other liberties than those which Schiller had permitted to himself, except the occasional breaking-up of the line by the substitution of a trochee for an iambic; of which liberty so frequent in our tragedies, I find no instance in these dramas. S. T. COLERIDGE. |