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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;
'When thou shalt lift it in thy country's cause,
In that same instant doth thy father bless thee!
[KIUPRILI and CASIMIR embrace; they all retire
to the Cavern supporting KIUPRILI. CASIMIR
as by accident drops his robe, and BATHORY
throws it over the body of PESTalutz.
EMERICK (entering).

Fools! Cowards! follow-or by Hell I'll make you
Find reason to fear Emerick, more than all
The mummer-fiends that ever masqueraded
As gods or wood-nymphs!—

Then sees the body of PESTALUTZ, covered by
CASIMIR's cloak.

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Ha! 'tis done then!
Our necessary villain hath proved faithful,
And there lies Casimir, and our last fears!
Well!-Ay, well!-

And is it not well? For though grafted on us,
And fill'd too with our sap, the deadly power
Of the parent poison-tree lurk'd in its fibres:
There was too much of Raab Kiuprili in him:
The old enemy look'd at me in his face,
E'en when his words did flatter me with duty.

[AS EMERICK moves towards the body, enter from
the Cavern CASIMIR and BATHORY.

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OLD BATHORY (pointing to where the noise is, and aside Th' assembled chieftains have deposed the tyrant;

to CASIMIR).

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EMERICK.

He is proclaim'd the public enemy,
And the protection of the law withdrawn.

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
Points to Lord Casimir. The grateful memory ·
Of his renowned father-

Enter SAROLTA.

Hail to Sarolta

SAROLTA.

Confederate friends! I bring to you a joy
Worthy our noble cause! Kiuprili lives,
And from his obscure exile, hath return'd

To bless our country. More and greater tidings
Might I disclose; but that a woman's voice

Curses on it, and thee! Think'st thou that petty omen Would mar the wondrous tale. Wait we for him Dare whisper fear to Emerick's destiny?

Ho! Treason! Treason!

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The partner of the glory-Raab Kiuprili;
For he alone is worthy to announce it.

[Shouts of "Kiuprili, Kiuprili!" and "The Tyrant's fallen!" without. Then enter KIUPRILI, CASIMIR, RUDOLPH, BATHORY, and Attendants, after the clamor has subsided.

RAAB KIUPRILI.

[Dies. Spare yet your joy, my friends! A higher waits you: Behold your Queen!

Hear, hear, my father!

Thou shouldst have witness'd thine own deed. O

father!

Wake from that envious swoon! The tyrant's fallen!
Thy sword hath conquer'd! As I lifted it,

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It is! it is!

OTHER CONFEDERATES.

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;
Who not alone preserved thee, but for thee
And for our country, the one precious branch
Of Andreas' royal house. O countrymen,
Behold your King! And thank our country's genius,

The powerful intercession of thy virtue,
Lady Sarolta? Still acknowledge me
Thy faithful soldier!-But what invocation
Shall my full soul address to thee, Glycine?
Thou sword, that leap'st from forth a bed of roses!
Thou falcon-hearted dove?

ZAPOLYA.

Hear that from me, son!
For ere she lived, her father saved thy life,
Thine, and thy fugitive mother's!

CASIMIR.

Chef Ragozzi!

That the same means which have preserved our O shame upon my head! I would have given her

sovereign,

Have likewise rear'd him worthier of the throne
By virtue than by birth. The undoubted proofs
Pledged by his royal mother, and this old man
(Whose name henceforth be dear to all Illyrians),
We haste to lay before the assembled council.

ALL.

Hail, Andreas! Hail, Illyria's rightful king!

ANDREAS.

Supported thus, O friends! 't were cowardice
Unworthy of a royal birth, to shrink

From the appointed charge. Yet, while we wait
The awful sanction of convened Illyria,

In this brief while, O let me feel myself

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!
[TO ANDREAS.
The sport of tempests, and yet ne'er the victim,
How many may claim salvage in thee!

(Pointing to GLYCINE). Take her, son!
A queen that brings with her a richer dowry
Than orient kings can give!

SAROLTA.

A banquet waits!

The child, the friend, the debtor!-Heroic mother!-On this auspicious day, for some few hours

But what can breath add to that sacred name?
Kiuprili! gift of Providence, to teach us
That loyalty is but the public form

Of the sublimest friendship, let my youth

Climb round thee, as the vine around its elm:
Thou my support, and I thy faithful fruitage.

My heart is full, and these poor words express not
They are but an art to check its over-swelling.
Bathory! shrink not from my filial arms!

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:

Now, and from henceforth, thou shalt not forbid me While mad ambition ever doth caress

To call thee father! And dare I forget

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.

In the translation I endeavored 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 It was my intention to have prefixed a Life of Wal-meaning, have weakened the force. In the metre I lenstein to this translation; but I found that it must have availed myself of no other liberties than those either have occupied a space wholly disproportionate which Schiller had permitted to himself, except the to the nature of the publication, or have been merely occasional breaking-up of the line by the substitua meagre catalogue of events narrated not more tion of a trochee for an iambic; of which liberty, so fully than they already are in the Play itself. The frequent in our tragedies, I find no instance in these recent translation, likewise, of Schiller's History of dramas.

the Thirty Years' War diminished the motives thereto.

S. T. COLERIDGE.

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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, that 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 Galas joins us not?

BUTLER

He importuned me to remain behind. ILLO (with warmth).

And you?-You hold out firmly?

Because

[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 his 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,
Work'd 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 perplex'd and doubtful, whether or no
I dare accept this your congratulation.

The Emperor has not yet confirm'd 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 banker 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.

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His arm, and where they can, to clip his pinions.
Then these new dainty requisitions! these,
Which this same Questenberg brings hither!-

BUTLER.

These 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.

Ay!

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Well, well, then-to compel him, if you choose.
I can remember me right well, Count Tilly
Had suffer'd total rout upon the Lech.
Bavaria lay all open to the enemy,

Whom there was nothing to delay from pressing

ISOLANI (at the same time with BUTLER, and in a hur- Onwards into the very heart of Austria.

rying voice).

We should be ruin'd, every one of us!

ILLO.

No more!

Yonder I see our worthy friend* 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, ay! more still! Still more new visitors!
Acknowledge, friend! that never was a camp,
Which held at once so many heads of heroes.
[Approaching nearer.
Welcome, Count Isolani!

ISOLANI.

My noble brother,

At that time you and Werdenberg appear'd
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 Isolan?
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,

Even now am I arrived; it had been else my duty-To be swept out of it is all our thanks,

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And lo! betwixt them both, experienced Prudence!
OCTAVIO (presenting QUESTENBERG to BUTLER and The war maintains the war. Are the boors ruin'd,
The Chamberlain and War-commissioner Questen- The Emperor gains so many more new soldiers.

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Thank Heaven! that means have been found out to His cares and feelings all ranks share alike,
Nor will he offer one up to another.

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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

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.

BUTLER.

Driven from their house and home-who reap no Why, were we all the court supposes us,

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 dog's hunger-they, forsooth,

"Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty.

QUESTENBERG.

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

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

Would pare the soldier's bread, and cross his reckon-Talk even so? One runs into the other.

ing!

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 dragg'd me on, and left me by the hour
To kick my heels among a crowd of simpering
Feast-fatten'd slaves, as if I had come thither
A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor
That fall 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 unaccomplish'd. Afterwards
The Duke procured me, in three days, what I
Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.

QUESTENBERG.

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ILLO.

Well, let us go.-Ho! Colonel Butler, come.
[TO OCTAVIO.
You'll not forget, that yet ere noon we meet

Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found their way The noble Envoy at the General's palace.

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Then after come what may come. "Tis man's nature You are now acquainted with three-fourths of the

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