Illo. For that, too, 'tis too late They know too much. He would but bear his own head to the block.
Coun. I fear not that. They have not evidence
To attaint him legally, and they avoid
The avowal of an arbitrary power.
They'll let the Duke resign without disturbance.
I see how all will end. The King of Hungary
Makes his appearance, and 'twill of itself
Be understood, that then the Duke retires.
There will not want a formal declaration.
The young King will administer the oath
To the whole army;
To the old position.
On some morrow morning
The Duke departs; and now 'tis stir and bustle
Within his castles. He will hunt, and build,
Superintend his horses' pedigrees,
Creates himself a court, gives golden keys,
And introduceth strictest ceremony
In fine proportions, and nice etiquette;
Keeps open table with high cheer; in brief
Commenceth mighty King-in miniature.
And while he prudently demeans himself,
And gives himself no actual importance,
He will be let appear whate'er he likes;
And who dares doubt, the Friedland will appear
A mighty Prince to his last dying hour?
Well now, what then ? Duke Friedland is, as others,
A fire-new Noble, whom the war hath rais'd
To price and currency, a Jonah's gourd,
An over-night creation of court-favour,
With which an undistinguishable ease
Makes Baron or makes Prince.
Wal. (in extreme agitation,) Take her away.
Let in the young Count Piccolomini.
Coun. Art thou in earnest? I entreat thee! Can'st
Consent to bear thyself to thy own grave,
So ignominiously to be dried up?
Thy life, that arrogated such a height,
To end in such a nothing! To be nothing,
When one was always nothing, is an evil,
That asks no stretch of patience, a light evil;
But to become a nothing, having been
Wal. (starts up in violent agitation,) Show me a way out of this stifling crowd,
Ye Powers of aidance! Show me such a way
As I am capable of going.-I
Am no tongue-hero, no fine virtue-prattler;
I cannot warm by thinking; cannot say
To the good luck that turns her back upon me,
Magnanimously: 'Go! I need thee not,'
Cease I to work, I am annihilated.
Dangers nor sacrifices will I shun,
If so I may avoid the last extreme;
But ere I sink down into nothingness,
Leave off so little, who begun so great,
Ere that the world confuses me with those
Poor wretches, whom a day creates and crumbles,
This age and after-ages * speak my name
With hate and dread; and Friedland be redemption
For each accursed deed!
What is there here, then,
So against nature? Help me to perceive it!
* Could I have hazarded such a Germanism as the use of the word after-world, for posterity.-" Es spreche Welt und Nachwelt meinen Nahmen "-might have been rendered with more literal fidelity :Let world and after-world speak out my name, &c.
O let not Superstition's nightly goblins
Subdue thy clear bright spirit! Art thou bid
To murder?-with abhorr'd accursed poinard,
To violate the breasts that nourish'd thee?
That were against our nature, that might aptly
Make thy flesh shudder, and thy whole heart sicken.
Yet not a few, and for a meaner object,
Have ventur'd even this, ay, and perform'd it.
What is there in thy case so black and monstrous?
Thou art accus'd of treason-whether with
Or without justice, is not now the question—
Thou art lost if thou dost not avail thee quickly
Of the power which thou possessest.-Friedland! Duke!
Tell me, where lives that thing so meek and tame,
That doth not all his living faculties
Put forth in preservation of his life?
What deed so daring, which necessity
And desperation will not sanctify?
Wal. Once was this Ferdinand so gracious to me:
He lov'd me; he esteem'd me; I was plac'd
The nearest to his heart. Full many a time
We, like familiar friends, both at one table,
Have banqueted together. He and I—
And the young kings themselves held me the bason
Wherewith to wash me-and is't come to this?
Coun. So faithfully preserv'st thou each small favour,
And hast no memory for contumelies?
Must I remind thee how at Regensburg
This man repaid thy faithful services?
All ranks and all conditions in the empire
I have not ventured to affront the fastidious delicacy of our age
with a literal translation of this line
Thou hast wrong'd, to make him great,-hadst loaded
On thee, the hate, the curse of the whole world.
No friend existed for thee in all Germany,
And why? because thou hadst existed only
For th' Emperor. To th' Emperor alone
Clung Friedland in that storm which gather'd round him.
At Regensburg in the Diet-and he dropp'd thee!
He let thee fall! He let thee fall a victim
To the Bavarian, to that insolent!
Depos'd, stript bare of all thy dignity
And power, amid the taunting of thy foes,
Thou wert let drop into obscurity.-
Say not, the restoration of thy honour
Has made atonement for that first injustice.
No honest good-will was it that replac'd thee,
The law of hard necessity replac'd thee,
Which they had fain oppos'd, but that they could not.
Wal. Not to their good wishes, that is certain,
Nor yet to his affection I'm indebted
For this high office; and if I abuse it,
I shall therein abuse no confidence.
Coun. Affection! confidence!-They needed thee.
Necessity, impetuous remonstrant!
Who not with empty names, or shows of proxy,
Is serv'd, who'll have the thing and not the symbol,
Ever seeks out the greatest and the best,
And at the rudder places him, e'en though
She had been forc'd to take him from the rabble
She, this Necessity, it was that plac'd thee
In this high office, it was she that gave thee
Thy letters patent of inauguration.
For, to the uttermost moment that they can,
This race still help themselves at cheapest rate
With slavish souls, with puppets! At the approach
Of extreme peril, when a hollow image
Is found a hollow image and no more,
Then falls the power into the mighty hands
Of nature, of the spirit giant-born,
Who listens only to himself, knows nothing
Of stipulations, duties, reverences;
And, like th' emancipated force of fire,
Unmaster'd scorches, ere it reaches them,
Their fine-spun webs, their artificial policy.
Wal. 'Tis true! they saw me always as I am—
Always! I did not cheat them in the bargain.
I never held it worth my pains to hide
The bold, all-grasping habit of my soul.
Coun. Nay rather-thou hast ever shown thyself
A formidable man, without restraint;
Hast exercis'd the full prerogatives
Of thy impetuous nature, which had been
Once granted to thee. Therefore, Duke, not thou,
Who hast still remain'd consistent with thyself,
But they are in the wrong, who fearing thee,
Intrusted such a power in hands they fear'd.
For, by the laws of spirit, in the right
Is every individual character
That acts in strict consistence with itself.
Self-contradiction is the only wrong.
Wert thou another being, then, when thou
Eight years ago pursuedst thy march with fire
And sword, and desolation, through the circles
Of Germany, the universal scourge,
Didst mock all ordinances of the Empire,
The fearful rights of strength alone exertedst,
Trampledst to earth each rank, each magistracy,
All to extend thy Sultan's domination?
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