Was not the will kept free? Beheld I not
The road of duty close beside me — but
One little step, and once more I was in it! 20
Where am I? Whither have I been transported?
No road, no track behind me, but a wall,
Impenetrable, insurmountable,
Rises obedient to the spells I muttered
And meant not — my own doings tower behind me. 25
A punishable man I seem, the guilt,
Try what I will, I cannot roll off from me;
The equivocal demeanour of my life
Bears witness on my prosecutor’s party;
And even my purest acts from purest motives 30
Suspicion poisons with malicious gloss.
Were I that thing, for which I pass, that traitor,
A goodly outside I had sure reserved,
Had drawn the coverings thick and double round me,
Been calm and chary of my utterance. 35
But being conscious of the innocence
Of my intent, my uncorrupted will,
I gave way to my humours, to my passion:
Bold were my words, because my deeds were not.
Now every planless measure, chance event, 40
The threat of rage, the vaunt of joy and triumph,
And all the May-games of a heart o’erflowing,
Will they connect, and weave them all together
Into one web of treason; all will be plan,
My eye ne’er absent from the far-off mark, 45
Step tracing step, each step a politic progress;
And out of all they’ll fabricate a charge
So specious, that I must myself stand dumb.
I am caught in my own net, and only force,
Naught but a sudden rent can liberate me. 50
How else! since that the heart’s unbiass’d instinct
Impelled me to the daring deed, which now
Necessity, self-preservation, orders.
Stern is the On-look of Necessity,
Not without shudder many a human hand 55
Grasps the mysterious urn of destiny.
My deed was mine, remaining in my bosom,
Once suffered to escape from its safe corner
Within the heart, its nursery and birthplace,
Sent forth into the Foreign, it belongs 60
For ever to those sly malicious powers
Whom never art of man conciliated.
What is thy enterprize? thy aim? thy object?
Hast honestly confessed it to thyself?
Power seated on a quiet throne thou’dst shake, 65
Power on an ancient consecrated throne,
Strong in possession, founded in old custom;
Power by a thousand tough and stringy roots
Fixed to the people’s pious nursery-faith.
This, this will be no strife of strength with strength. 70
That feared I not. I brave each combatant,
Whom I can look on, fixing eye to eye,
Who full himself of courage kindles courage
In me too. ‘Tis a foe invisible,
The which I fear — a fearful enemy, 75
Which in the human heart opposes me,
By its coward fear alone made fearful to me.
Not that, which full of life, instinct with power,
Makes known its present being, that is not
The true, the perilously formidable. 80
O no! it is the common, the quite common,
The thing of an eternal yesterday,
What ever was, and evermore returns,
Sterling tomorrow, for to-day ‘twas sterling!
For of the wholly common is man made, 85
And custom is his nurse! Woe then to them,
Who lay irreverent hands upon his old
House furniture, the dear inheritance
From his forefathers. For time consecrates;
And what is grey with age becomes religion. 90
Be in possession, and thou hast the right,
And sacred will the many guard it for thee!
[To the Page, who here enters.
The Swedish officer? — Well, let him enter.
[The Page exit, WALLENSTEIN fixes his eye in deep
thought on the door.
Yet is it pure — as yet! — the crime has come
Not o’er this threshold yet — so slender is 95
The boundary that divideth life’s two paths.
[Before 1] Wallenstein (in soliloquy). 1800, 1828, 1829.
[After 25] [Pauses and remains in deep thought. 1800, 1828, 1829.
[After 50] [Pauses again. 1800, 1828, 1829.
[After 62] [Paces in agitation through the chamber, then pauses, and,
after the pause, breaks out again into audible soliloquy. 1800, 1828,
1829.
SCENE V
WALLENSTEIN and WRANGEL.
Wallenstein. Your name is Wrangel?
Wrangel. Gustave Wrangel, General
Of the Sudermanian Blues.
Wallenstein. It was a Wrangel
Who injured me materially at Stralsund,
And by his brave resistance was the cause
Of the opposition which that seaport made. 5
Wrangel. It was the doing of the element
With which you fought, my Lord! and not my merit.
The Baltic Neptune did assert his freedom,
The sea and land, it seemed, were not to serve
One and the same.
Wallenstein (makes a motion for him to take a seat, and seats
himself). And where are your credentials? 10
Come you provided with full powers, Sir General?
Wrangel. There are so many scruples yet to solve ——
Wallenstein (having read the credentials). An able
letter! — Ay — he is a prudent,
Intelligent master, whom you serve, Sir General!
The Chancellor writes me, that he but fulfils 15
His late departed Sovereign’s own idea