The Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Twas one of Satan's imps, that grinn'd, and threaten'd you

For your most impudent hope to cheat his master!

LASKA.

BETHLEN.

Was it then

That timid eye, was it those maiden hands
That sped the shaft which saved me and avenged me?
OLD BATHORY (to BETHLEN exultingly).

Pshaw! What, you think 'tis fear that makes me 'Twas a vision blazon'd on a cloud

leave you?

By lightning, shaped into a passionate scheme
Of life and death! I saw the traitor, Laska,
Stoop and snatch up the javelin of his comrade;
The point was at your back, when her shaft reach d

O Raab Kiuprili! Friend! Protector! Guide'

In vain we trench'd the altar round with waters

A flash from Heaven hath touch'd the hidden incense
BETHLEN (hastily).

And that majestic form that stood beside thee
Was Raab Kiuprili!

ZAPOLYA.

It was Raab Kiuprili;

As sure as thou art Andreas, and the king.

OLD BATHORY.

Clash of swords, and BETHLEN's voice heard from Hail Andreas! hail my king!

behind the Scenes; GLYCINE enters alarmed; then, as seeing LASKA's bow and arrows.

GLYCINE.

Ha! weapons here? Then, Bethlen, thy Glycine
Will die with thee or save thee!

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 'tis mine to claim it.

GLYCINE.

[She seizes them and rushes out. BATHORY following
her. Lively and irregular Music, and Peasants
with hunting-spears cross the stage, singing cho- Accept thine hand-maid's service!

GLYCINE.

Hark! sure the hunt approaches.

Re-enter BATHORY, with the dead body of PESTALutz.

OLD BATHORY.

[Horn without, and afterwards distant thunder. Poor tool and victim of another's guilt!

Ha! what a crash was there! Heaven seems to claim a mightier criminal

Thou follow'st heavily: a reluctant weight!
Good truth, it is an undeserved honor
That in Zapolya and Kiuprili's cave
A wretch like thee should find a burial-place.
[Then observing KIUPRILL.
'Tis he!-in Andreas' and Zapolya's name
Follow me, reverend form? Thou needst not speak,
For thou canst be no other than Kiuprili!

Stop, Lord Casimir!

[Pointing without to the body of PESTALUTZ. It is no monster. Than yon vile subaltern.

OLD BATHORY.

CASIMIR.

Art thou too a traitor?

Is this the place where Emerick's murderers lurk?
Say where is he that, trick'd in this disguise,
Thou must have seen him. Say where is th' assassin?
First lured me on, then scared my dastard followers?

OLD BATHORY (pointing to the body of PESTA LUTZ).
There lies the assassin! slain by that same sword
That was descending on his curst employer,
When entering thou beheld'st Sarolta rescued!

CASIMIR.

You bleeding corse, (pointing to PESTALUTZ's body) Strange providence! what then was he who fled me?

may work us mischief still:

Once seen, 'twill rouse alarm and crowd the hunt

[BATHORY points to the Cavern, whence KIUPRILI advances.

From all parts towards this spot. Stript of its armor, Thy looks speak fearful things! Whither, old man! Would thy hand point me?

I'll drag it hither.

[Exit BATHORY. After a while several Hunters cross the stage as scattered. Some time after, enter KIUPRILI in his disguise, fainting with fatigue, and as pursued.

RAAB KIUPRILI (throwing off his disguise). Since Heaven alone can save me, Heaven alone Shall be my trust.

[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.
A sword!

Ha! and my sword! Zapolya hath escaped,
The murderers are baffled, and there lives
An Andreas to avenge Kiuprili's fall!-
There was a time, when this dear sword did flash
As dreadful as the storm-fire from mine arms:
I can scarce raise it now-yet come, fell tyrant!
And bring with thee my shame and bitter anguish,
To end his work and thine! Kiuprili now
Can take the death-blow as a soldier should.

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!

Thy blessing did indeed descend upon me; Dislodging the dread curse. It flew forth from me

And lighted on the tyrant!

Enter RUDOLPH, BATHORY, and Attendants.

RUDOLPH and BATHORY (entering).
Friends! friends to Casimir
CASIMIR.

Rejoice, Illyrians! the usurper's fallen.

RUDOLPH.

[KIUPRILI and CASIMIR embrace; they all retire So perish tyrants! so end usurpation!

to the Cavern supporting KIUPRILI. CASIMIR as by accident drops his robe, and BATHORY throws it over the body of PESTALUTZ.

EMERICK (entering).

CASIMIR.

Bear hence the body, and move slowly on! One moment

Devoted to a joy, that bears no witness,

With the two best and fullest gifts of HeavenA tyrant fallen, a patriot chief restored!

Fools! Cowards! follow-or by Hell I'll make you I follow you, and we will greet our countrymen
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.

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.

[Exeunt CASIMIR into the Cavern. The rest on the opposite side.

Scene changes to a splendid Chamber in CASIMIR'S Castle. CONFEDERATES discovered.

FIRST CONFEDERATE.

It cannot but succeed, friends. From this palace
E'en to the wood, our messengers are posted
With such short interspace, that fast as sound
Can travel to us, we shall learn the event!
Enter another CONFEDERATE.

What tidings from Temeswar?

SECOND CONFEDERATE.

With one voice

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

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?

It is! it is!

OTHER CONFEDERATES.

ZAPOLYA.

Heaven's work of grace is full!

Kuprili, thou art safe!

RAAB KIUPRILI.

Royal Zapolya!

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.

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

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

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

The child, the friend, the debtor!-Heroic mother!-
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!

To a base slave!

CASIMIR.

ZAPOLYA.

Chef Ragozzi!

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!-
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:

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 substitu a 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

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 Mansfeld 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 finish'd in him.

ILLO.

You'll see him yet ere evening. He conducts The Duchess Friedland hither, and the Princesst From Carnthen. We expect them here at noon.

A town about 12 German miles N. E. of Ulm.

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.

ILLO.

O 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 !— †The dukes in Germany being always reigning powers, their What politic schemes do they not lay to shorteu

eons and daughters are entitled Princes and Princesses.

« Előző Tovább »

Könyvek