Читать книгу: «The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04», страница 32

SCENE IV

Two lackeys enter, one with a letter in his hand. The others as before.

 
1st LACKEY. Sir, Colonels Kottwitz, Hennings, Truchsz and others
  Beg audience!
 
 
ELECTOR (to the second lackey, as he takes the letter).
  This from the Prince of Homburg?
 
 
2D LACKEY. Indeed, your Highness.
 
 
ELECTOR. Who delivered it?
 
 
2D LACKEY. The Swiss on guard before the castle gate,
  Who had it from the Prince's bodyguard.
 

[The ELECTOR stands by the table, and reads; whereupon he turns and calls to a page.]

 
  Prittwitz! Bring me the warrant, bring it here.
  And let me have the passport for the Swede's
  Ambassador, Gustaf, the Count of Horn.
 

[Exit the page.]

[To the first lackey.] Now Kottwitz and his retinue may come.

SCENE V

COLONEL KOTTWITZ and COLONEL HENNINGS, COUNT TRUCHSZ, COUNTS HOHENZOLLERN and SPARREN, COUNT REUSS, CAPTAIN VON DER GOLZ, STRANZ and other officers enter. The others as before.

 
KOTTWITZ (bearing the petition).
  Permit me, my exalted sovereign,
  Here in the name of all your soldiery
  Most humbly to submit this document.
 
 
ELECTOR. Kottwitz, before I take it, tell me now
  Who was it called you to this city here?
 
 
KOTTWITZ (regarding him).
  With the dragoons?
 
 
ELECTOR. Ay, with your regiment!
  I nominated Arnstein as your station.
 
 
KOTTWITZ. Sir! It was your behest that brought me
  hither.
 
 
ELECTOR. Eh? Let me see the order!
 
 
KOTTWITZ. Here, my liege.
 
 
ELECTOR (reading).
  Signed: "Natalie." And dated: "Fehrbellin,
  By order of my liege, my uncle Frederick."
 
 
KOTTWITZ. By God, my prince and lord, I will not hope
  The order's news to you?
 
 
ELECTOR. No—understand—Who
  was it who conveyed the order thither?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. Count Reuss!
 
 
ELECTOR (after a momentary pause).
  What's more, you're welcome, very welcome!
  You have been chosen with your squadrons twelve
  To pay Prince Homburg, sentenced by the law,
  The final honors of the morrow.
 
 
KOTTWITZ (taken aback). What, My sovereign?
 
 
ELECTOR (handing back the order).
  The regiment stands yet,
  Benighted and befogged, outside the Castle?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. Pardon, the night—
 
 
ELECTOR. Why don't they go to quarters?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. My sovereign, they have gone. As you directed
  They have found quarters in the city here.
 
 
ELECTOR (with a turn toward the window).
  What? But a moment since—Well, by the gods!
  You've found them stables speedily enough.
  So much the better! Welcome, then, once more!
  Come, say, what brings you here? What is your news?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. Sir, this petition from your loyal men.
 
 
ELECTOR. Come.
 
 
KOTTWITZ. But the words your lips have spoken strike
  All my anticipations down to earth.
 
 
ELECTOR. Well, then, a word can lift them up again!
 

  [He reads.]

 
  "Petition, begging royal clemency
  For our commandant, vitally accused,
  The General, Prince Frederick Hessen-Homburg."
 

[To the officers.]

 
  A noble name, my lords! And not unworthy
  Your coming in such numbers to its aid.
 

[He looks into the document again.]

 
By whom is the petition?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. By myself.
 
 
ELECTOR. The Prince has been apprized of what it holds?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. Not in the very faintest. In our midst
  The matter was conceived and given birth.
 
 
ELECTOR. Grant me a moment's patience, if you please.
 

[He steps to the table and glances over the paper. Long pause.]

 
  Hm! Curious! You ancient war-horse, you,
  You plead the Prince's cause? You justify
  His charging Wrangel ere I gave command?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. My sovereign, yes. That's what old Kottwitz does.
 
 
ELECTOR. You did not hold that notion on the field!
 
 
KOTTWITZ. I'd weighed the thing but ill, my sovereign.
  I should have calmly yielded to the Prince
  Who is most wonderfully versed in war.
  The Swedes' left wing was wavering; on their right
  Came reinforcements; had he been content
  To bide your order, they'd have made a stand
  With new intrenchments in the gullies there,
  And never had you gained your victory.
 
 
ELECTOR. That's what it pleases you to presuppose!
  I sent out Colonel Hennings, as you know,
  To pounce upon and seize the knot of bridges
  Held by the Swedes to cover Wrangel's rear.
  If you'd not disobeyed my order, look,
  Hennings had carried out the stroke as planned—
  In two hours' time had set afire the bridges,
  Planted his forces firmly on the Rhyn,
  And Wrangel had been crushed with stump and stem
  In ditches and morasses, utterly.
 
 
KOTTWITZ. It is the tyro's business, not yours,
  To hunger after fate's supremest crown.
  Until this hour you took what gift she gave.
  The dragon that made desolate the Mark
  Beneath your very nose has been repelled
  With gory head! What could one day bring more?
  What matters it if, for a fortnight yet,
  Spent in the sand, he lies and salves his wounds?
  We've learnt the art of conquering him, and now
  Are full of zeal to make the most of it.
  Give us a chance at Wrangel, like strong men,
  Breast against breast once more; we'll make an end
  And, down into the Baltic, down he goes!
  They did not build Rome in a single day.
 
 
ELECTOR. What right have you, you fool, to hope for that,
  When every mother's son is privileged
  To jerk the battle-chariot's reins I hold?
  Think you that fortune will eternally
  Award a crown to disobedience?
  I do not like a bastard victory,
  The gutter-waif of chance; the law, look you,
  My crown's progenitor, I will uphold,
  For she shall bear a race of victories.
 
 
KOTTWITZ. My liege, the law, the highest and the best,
  That shall be honored in your leaders' hearts—
  Look, that is not the letter of your will!
  It is the fatherland, it is the crown,
  It is yourself, upon whose head it sits.
  I beg you now, what matters it to you
  What rule the foe fights by, as long as he
  With all his pennons bites the dust once more?
  The law that drubs him is the highest law!
  Would you transform your fervid soldiery
  Into a tool, as lifeless as the blade
  That in your golden baldrick hangs inert?
  Oh, empty spirit, stranger to the stars,
  Who first gave forth such doctrine! Oh, the base,
  The purblind statecraft, which because of one
  Instance wherein the heart rode on to wrack,
  Forgets ten others, in the whirl of life,
  Wherein the heart alone has power to save!
  Come, in the battle do I spill in dust
  My blood for wages, money, say, or fame?
  Faith, not a bit! It's all too good for that!
  Why! I've my satisfaction and my joy,
  Free and apart, in quiet solitude,
  Seeing your splendor and your excellence,
  The fame and crescence of your mighty name!
  That is the wage for which I sold my heart!
  Grant that, because of this unplanned success;
  You broke the staff across the Prince's head,
  And I somewhere twixt hill and dale at dawn
  Should, shepherd-wise, steal on a victory
  Unplanned as this, with my good squadrons, eh?—
  By God, I were a very knave, did I
  Not merrily repeat the Prince's act!
  And if you spake, the law book in your hand:
  "Kottwitz, you've forfeited your head!" I'd say:
  I knew it, Sir; there, take it, there it is;
  When with an oath I bound me, hide and hair,
  Unto your crown, I left not out my head,
  And I should give you nought but what was yours!
 
 
ELECTOR. You whimsical old gentleman, with you
  I get nowhere! You bribe me with your tongue—
  Me, with your craftily framed sophistries—
  Me—and you know I hold you dear! Wherefore
  I call an advocate to bear my side
  And end our controversy.
 

[He rings a bell. A footman enters.]

 
                           Go! I wish
  The Prince of Homburg hither brought from prison.
 

[Exit footman.]

 
  He will instruct you, be assured of that,
  What discipline and what obedience be!
  He sent me words, at least, of other pitch
  Than this astute idea of liberty
  You have rehearsed here like a boy to me.
 

[He stands by the table again reading.]

 
KOTTWITZ (amazed).
  Fetch whom? Call whom?
 
 
HENNINGS. Himself?
 
 
TRUCHSZ. Impossible!
 

[The officers group themselves, disquieted, and speak with one another.]

 
ELECTOR. Who has brought forth this other document?
 
 
HOHENZOLL. I, my liege lord!
 
 
ELECTOR (reading).
                               "Proof that Elector Frederick
  The Prince's act himself—"—Well, now, by heaven,
  I call that nerve!
  What! You dare say the cause of the misdeed
  The Prince committed in the fight, am I!
 
 
HOHENZOLL. Yourself, my liege; I say it, Hohenzollern.
 
 
ELECTOR. Now then, by God, that beats the fairy-tales!
  One man asserts that he is innocent,
  The other that the guilty man am I!—
  How will you demonstrate that thesis now?
 
 
HOHENZOLL. My lord, you will recall to mind that night
  We found the Prince in slumber deeply sunk
  Down in the garden 'neath the plantain trees.
  He dreamed, it seemed, of victories on the morrow,
  And in his hand he held a laurel-twig,
  As if to test his heart's sincerity.
  You took the wreath away, and smilingly
  Twined round the leaves the necklace that you wore,
  And to the lady, to your noble niece,
  Both wreath and necklace, intertwining, gave.
  At such a wondrous sight, the Prince, aflush,
  Leaps to his feet; such precious things held forth
  By such a precious hand he needs must clasp.
  But you withdraw from him in haste, withdrawing
  The Princess as you pass; the door receives you.
  Lady and chain and laurel disappear,
  And, solitary, holding in his hand
  A glove he ravished from he knows not whom—
  Lapped in the midnight he remains behind.
 
 
ELECTOR. What glove was that?
 
 
HOHENZOLLERN. My sovereign, hear me through!
  The matter was a jest; and yet, of what
  Deep consequence to him I learned erelong.
  For when I slip the garden's postern through,
  Coming upon him as it were by chance,
  And wake him, and he calls his senses home,
  The memory flooded him with keen delight.
  A sight more touching scarce the mind could paint.
  The whole occurrence, to the least detail,
  He recapitulated, like a dream;
  So vividly, he thought, he ne'er had dreamed,
  And in his heart the firm assurance grew
  That heaven had granted him a sign; that when
  Once more came battle, God would grant him all
  His inward eye had seen, the laurel-wreath,
  The lady fair, and honor's linked badge.
 
 
ELECTOR. Hm! Curious! And then the glove?
 
 
HOHENZOLLERN. Indeed!
  This fragment of his dream, made manifest,
  At once dispels and makes more firm his faith.
  At first, with large, round eye he looks at it:
  The color's white, in mode and shape it seems
  A lady's glove, but, as he spoke with none
  By night within the garden whom, by chance,
  He might have robbed of it—confused thereto
  In his reflections by myself, who calls him
  Up to the council in the palace, he
  Forgets the thing he cannot comprehend,
  And off-hand in his collar thrusts the glove.
 
 
ELECTOR. Thereupon?
 
 
HOHENZOLLERN. Thereupon with pen and tablet
  He seeks the Castle, with devout attention
  To take the orders from the Marshal's lips.
  The Electress and the Princess, journey-bound,
  By chance are likewise in the hall; but who
  Shall gauge the uttermost bewilderment
  That takes him, when the Princess turns to find
  The very glove he thrust into his collar!
  The Marshal calls again and yet again
  'The Prince of Homburg!' 'Marshal, to command!'
  He cries, endeavoring to collect his thoughts;
  But he, ringed round by marvels—why, the thunders
  Of heaven might have fallen in our midst—
 

[He pauses.]

 
ELECTOR. It was the Princess' glove?
 
 
HOHENZOLLERN. It was, indeed!
 

[The ELECTOR sinks into a brown study.]

 
  A stone is he; the pencil's in his hand,
  And he stands there, and seems a living man;
  But consciousness, as by a magic wand,
  Is quenched within him; not until the morrow,
  As down the lines the loud artillery
  Already roars, does he return to life,
  Asking me: Say, what was it Dörfling said
  Last night in council, that applied to me?
 
 
MARSHAL. Truly, my liege, that tale I can indorse.
  The Prince, I call to mind, took in no word
  Of what I said; distraught I've seen him oft,
  But never yet in such degree removed
  From blood and bone, never, as on that night.
 
 
ELECTOR. Now then, if I make out your reasoning,
  You pile your climax on my shoulders thus:
  Had I not dangerously made a jest
  Of this young dreamer's state, he had remained
  Guiltless, in council had not roamed the clouds,
  Nor disobedient proved upon the field.
  Eh? Eh? Is that the logic?
 
 
HOHENZOLLERN. My liege lord,
  I trust the filling of the gaps to you.
 
 
ELECTOR. Fool that you are, you addlepate! Had you
  Not called me to the garden, I had not,
  Following a whim of curiosity,
  Made harmless fun of this somnambulist.
  Wherefore, and quite with equal right, I hold
  The cause of his delinquency were you!—
  The delphic wisdom of my officers!
 
 
HOHENZOLL. Enough, my sovereign! I am assured,
  My words fell weightily upon your heart.
 

SCENE VI

An officer enters. The others as before.

 
OFFICER. My lord, the Prince will instantly appear.
 
 
ELECTOR. Good, then! Let him come in.
 
 
OFFICER. Two minutes, sir!
  He but delayed a moment on the way
  To beg a porter ope the graveyard gate.
 
 
ELECTOR. The graveyard?
 
 
OFFICER. Ay, my sovereign.
 
 
ELECTOR. But why?
 
 
OFFICER. To tell the truth, my lord, I do not know.
  It seemed he wished to see the burial-vault
  That your behest uncovered for him there.
 

[The commanders group themselves and talk together.]

 
ELECTOR. No matter! When he comes, let him come in!
 

[He steps to the table again and glances at the papers.]

 
TRUCHSZ. The watch is bringing in Prince Homburg now.
 

SCENE VII

Enter the PRINCE OF HOMBURG. An officer and the watch. The others as before.

 
ELECTOR. Young Prince of mine, I call you to my aid!
  Here's Colonel Kottwitz brings this document
  In your behalf, look, in long column signed
  By hundred honorable gentlemen.
  The army asks your liberty, it runs,
  And will not tolerate the court's decree.
  Come, read it and inform yourself, I beg.
 

[He hands him the paper.]

 
THE PRINCE (casts a glance at the document, turns and
  looks about the circle of officers).
  Kottwitz, old friend, come, let me clasp your hand!
  You give me more than on the day of battle
  I merited of you. But now, post-haste,
  Go, back again to Arnstein whence you came,
  Nor budge at all. I have considered it;
  The death decreed to me I will accept!
 

[He hands over the paper to him.]

 
KOTTWITZ (distressed).
  No, nevermore, my Prince! What are you saying?
 
 
HOHENZOLL. He wants to die—
 
 
TRUCHSZ. He shall not, must not die!
 
 
VARIOUS OFFICERS (pressing forward).
  My lord Elector! Oh, my sovereign! Hear us!
 
 
THE PRINCE. Hush! It is my inflexible desire!
  Before the eyes of all the soldiery
  I wronged the holy code of war; and now
  By my free death I wish to glorify it.
  My brothers, what's the one poor victory
  I yet may snatch from Wrangel worth to you
  Against the triumph o'er the balefullest
  Of foes within, that I achieve at dawn—
  The insolent and disobedient heart.
  Now shall the alien, seeking to bow down
  Our shoulders 'neath his yoke, be crushed; and, free,
  The man of Brandenburg shall take his stand
  Upon the mother soil, for it is his—
  The splendor of her meads alone for him!
 
 
KOTTWITZ (moved).
  My son! My dearest friend! What shall I name you?
 
 
TRUCHSZ. God of the world!
 
 
KOTTWITZ. Oh, let me kiss your hand!
 

[They press round him.]

 
THE PRINCE (turning toward the ELECTOR).
  But you, my liege, who bore in other days
  A tenderer name I may no longer speak,
  Before your feet, stirred to my soul, I kneel.
  Forgive, that with a zeal too swift of foot
  I served your cause on that decisive day;
  Death now shall wash me clean of all my guilt.
  But give my heart, that bows to your decree,
  Serene and reconciled, this comfort yet:
  To know your breast resigns all bitterness—
  And, in the hour of parting, as a proof,
  One favor more, compassionately grant.
 
 
ELECTOR. Young hero, speak! What is it you desire?
  I pledge my word to you, my knightly honor,
  It shall be granted you, whate'er it be!
 
 
THE PRINCE. Not with your niece's hand, my sovereign,
  Purchase the peace of Gustaf Karl! Expel,
  Out of the camp, expel the bargainer
  Who made this ignominious overture.
  Write your response to him in cannon-shots!
 
 
ELECTOR (kissing his brow).
  As you desire then. With this kiss, my son,
  That last appeal I grant. Indeed, wherein
  Now have we need of such a sacrifice
  That war's ill-fortune only could compel?
  Why, in each word that you have spoken, buds
  A victory that strikes the foeman low!
  I'll write to him, the plighted bride is she
  Of Homburg, dead because of Fehrbellin;
  With his pale ghost, before our flags a-charge,
  Let him do battle for her, on the field!
 

[He kisses him again and draws him to his feet.]

 
THE PRINCE. Behold, now have you given me life indeed!
  Now every blessing on you I implore
  That from their cloudy thrones the seraphim
  Pour forth exultant over hero-heads.
  Go, and make war, and conquer, oh, my liege,
  The world that fronts you—for you merit it!
 
 
ELECTOR. Guards! Lead the prisoner back to his cell!
 

SCENE VIII

NATALIE and the ELECTRESS appear in the doorway, followed by ladies-in-waiting. The others as before.

 
NATALIE. Mother! Decorum! Can you speak that word?
  In such an hour there's none but just to love him—
  My dear, unhappy love!
 
 
THE PRINCE (turning). Now I shall go!
 
 
TRUCHSZ (holding him).
  No, nevermore, my Prince!
 

[Several officers step in his way.]

 
THE PRINCE. Take me away!
 
 
HOHENZOLL. Liege, can your heart—
 
 
THE PRINCE (tearing himself free).
                                    You tyrants, would you drag me
  In fetters to my execution-place?
  Go! I have closed my reckoning with this world.
 

[He goes out under guard.]

 
NATALIE (on the ELECTRESS' breast).
  Open, O earth, receive me in your deeps.
  Why should I look upon the sunlight more?
 

SCENE IX

The persons, as in the preceding scene, with the exception of the PRINCE OF HOMBURG.

 
MARSHAL. God of earth! Did it have to come to that?
 

[The ELECTOR speaks in a low voice to an officer.]

 
KOTTWITZ (frigidly).
  My sovereign, after all that has occurred
  Are we dismissed?
 
 
ELECTOR. Not for the present, no!
  I'll give you notice when you are dismissed!
 

[He regards him a moment straightly and steadily; then takes the papers which the page has brought him from the table and turns to the FIELD-MARSHAL.]

 
  This passport, take it, for Count Horn the Swede.
  Tell him it is my cousin's wish, the Prince's,
  Which I have pledged myself to carry out.
  The war begins again in three days' time!
 

[Pause. He casts a glance at the death warrant.]

 
  Judge for yourselves, my lords. The Prince of Homburg
  Through disobedience and recklessness
  Of two of my best victories this year
  Deprived me, and indeed impaired the third.
  Now that he's had his schooling these last days
  Come, will you risk it with him for a fourth?
 
 
KOTTWITZ and TRUCHSZ (helter-skelter).
  What, my adored—my worshipped—What, my liege?—
 
 
ELECTOR. Will you? Will you?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. Now, by the living God,
  He'd watch you standing on destruction's brink
  And never twitch his sword in your behalf,
  Or rescue you unless you gave command.
 
 
ELECTOR (tearing up the death warrant).
  So, to the garden! Follow me, my friends!
 

SCENE X

The Castle with the terrace leading down into the garden, as in ACT I. It is night, as then.—The PRINCE OF HOMBURG, with bandaged eyes, is led in through the lower garden-wicket, by CAPTAIN STRANZ. Officers with the guard. In the distance one can hear the drumming of the death-march.

 
THE PRINCE. All art thou mine now, immortality!
  Thou glistenest through the veil that blinds mine eyes
  With that sun's glow that is a thousand suns.
  I feel bright pinions from my shoulders start;
  Through mute, ethereal spaces wings my soul;
  And as the ship, borne outward by the wind,
  Sees the bright harbor sink below the marge,
  Thus all my being fades and is submerged.
  Now I distinguish colors yet and forms,
  And now—all life is fog beneath my feet.
 

[The PRINCE seats himself on the bench which stands about the oak in the middle of the open space. The CAPTAIN draws away from him and looks up toward the terrace.]

 
  How sweet the flowers fill the air with odor!
  D'you smell them?
 
 
STRANZ (returning to him). They are gillyflowers and pinks.
 
 
THE PRINCE. How come the gillyflowers here?
 
 
STRANZ. I know not.
  It must have been some girl that planted them.
  Come, will you have a bachelor's button?
 
 
THE PRINCE. Thanks!
  When I get home I'll have it put in water.
 

SCENE XI

The ELECTOR with the laurel-wreath, about which the golden chain is twined, the ELECTRESS, PRINCESS NATALIE, FIELD-MARSHAL DÖRFLING, COLONEL KOTTWITZ, HOHENZOLLERN, GOLZ, and others. Ladies-in-waiting, officers and boys bearing torches appear on the castle terrace. HOHENZOLLERN steps to the balustrade and with a handkerchief signals to CAPTAIN STRANZ, whereupon the latter leaves the PRINCE OF HOMBURG and speaks a few words with the guards in the background.

 
THE PRINCE. What is the brightness breaking round me, say!
 
 
STRANZ (returning to him).
  My Prince, will you be good enough to rise?
 
 
THE PRINCE. What's coming?
 
 
STRANZ. Nothing that need wake your fear.
  I only wish to free your eyes again.
 
 
THE PRINCE. Has my ordeal's final hour struck?
 
 
STRANZ (as he draws the bandage from the PRINCE's eyes).
  Indeed! Be blest, for well you merit it!
 

[The ELECTOR gives the wreath, from which the chain is hanging, to the PRINCESS, takes her hand and leads her down from the terrace. Ladies and gentlemen follow. Surrounded by torches, the PRINCESS approaches the PRINCE, who looks up in amazement; sets the wreath on his head, the chain about his neck and presses his hand to her breast. The PRINCE tumbles in a faint.]

 
NATALIE. Heaven! The joy has killed him!
 
 
HOHENZOLLERN (raising him). Help, bring help!
 
 
ELECTOR. Let him be wakened by the cannons' thunder!
 

[Artillery fire. A march. The Castle is illuminated.]

 
KOTTWITZ. Hail, hail, the Prince of Homburg!
 
 
OFFICERS. Hail, hail, hail!
 
 
ALL. The victor of the field of Fehrbellin!
 

[Momentary silence.]

 
THE PRINCE. No! Say! Is it a dream?
 
 
KOTTWITZ. A dream, what else?
 
 
SEVERAL OFFICERS. To arms! to arms!
 
 
TRUCHSZ. To war!
 
 
DÖRFLING. To victory!
 
 
ALL. In dust with all the foes of Brandenburg!