STRONG HEART-TIES BROKEN.
Into my power. Think not, that I will honour
That ancient love which so remorselessly
He mangled. They are now past by, those hours
Of friendship and forgiveness. Hate and vengeance
Succeed, 't is now their turn; I too can throw
All feelings of the man aside, can prove
Myself as much a monster as thy father!
Max. Thou wilt proceed with me, as thou hast power:
Thou know'st, I neither brave nor fear thy rage.
What has detain'd me here, that too thou know'st.
[Taking THEKLA by the hand. See, Duke! All, all would I have owed to thee,
Would have received from thy paternal hand
The lot of blessed spirits. This hast thou
Laid waste for ever, that concerns not thee.
Indifferent thou tramplest in the dust
Their happiness who most are thine. The god
Whom thou dost serve is no benignant deity.
Like as the blind irreconcilable
Fierce element, incapable of compact,
Thy heart's wild impulse only dost thou follow.
Wal. Thou art describing thy own father's heart.
The adder! O, the charms of Hell o'erpower'd me.
He dwelt within me, to my inmost soul
Still to and fro he pass'd, suspected never!
On the wide ocean, in the starry heaven
Did mine eyes seek the enemy, whom I
In my heart's heart had folded! Had I been
To Ferdinand what Octavio was to me,
War had I ne'er denounced against him. No,
I never could have done it. Th' Emperor was
My austere master only, not my friend :
There was already war 'twixt him and me
When he deliver'd the Commander's Staff
Into my hands; for there's a natural
Unceasing war 'twixt cunning and suspicion;
Peace exists only betwixt confidence
And faith. Who poisons confidence, he murders
The future generations.
Defend my father. Woe is me, I cannot !
Hard deeds and luckless have ta'en place; one crime
Drags after it the other in close link.
But we are innocent: how have we fallen
Into this circle of mishap and guilt?
To whom have we been faithless? Wherefore must
The evil deeds and guilt reciprocal
Of our two fathers twine like serpents round us?
Unconquerable hate rend us asunder,
Go you not from me, Max.! Hark! I will tell thee
How, when at Prague, our winter quarters, thou
Wert brought into my tent a tender boy,
Not yet accustom'd to the German Winters:
Thy hand was frozen to the heavy colours;
Thou wouldst not let them go.
At that time did I take thee in my arms,
And with my mantle did I cover thee;
I was thy nurse, no woman could have been
A kinder to thee; I was not ashamed
To do for thee all little offices,
However strange to me; I tended thee
Till life return'd; and, when thine eyes first open'd,
I had thee in my arms. Since then, when have I
Alter'd my feelings towards thee? Many thousands
Have I made rich, presented them with lands;
Rewarded them with dignities and honours;
Thee have I loved: my heart, my self, I gave
To thee! They all were aliens : THOU wert
Our child and inmate. Max! thou canst not leave me; It cannot be I may not, will not think
Held and sustain'd thee from thy tottering childhood. What holy bond is there of natural love,
STRONG HEART-TIES BROKEN.
What human tie, that does not knit thee to me?
I love thee, Max. ! What did thy father for thee,
Which I too have not done, to th' height of duty?
Go hence, forsake me, serve thy Emperor;
He will reward thee with a pretty chain
Of gold; with his ram's fleece will he reward thee:
For that the friend, the father of thy youth,
For that the holiest feeling of humanity,
Was nothing worth to thee.
Duty to whom? Who art thou? Max.! bethink thee
What duties mayst thou have? If I am acting
A criminal part toward the Emperor,
It is my crime, not thine.
To thine own self? Art thou thine own commander?
Stand'st thou, like me, a freeman in the world,
That in thy actions thou shouldst plead free agency?
On me thou 'rt planted, I'm thy Emperor;
To obey me, to belong to me, this is
Thy honour, this a law of Nature to thee!
And if the planet, on the which thou livest
And hast thy dwelling, from its orbit starts,
It is not in thy choice, whether or no
Thou 'lt follow it. Unfelt it whirls thee onward
Together with his ring, and all his moons.
With little guilt stepp'st thou into this contest ;
Thee will the world not censure, it will praise thee,
For that thou held'st thy friend more worth to thee
Than names and influences more removed.
For justice is the virtue of the ruler,
Affection and fidelity the subject's.
Not every one doth it beseem to question
The far-off high Arcturus. Most securely
Wilt thou pursue the nearest duty let
The pilot fix his eye upon the pole-star.
SCHILLER: 1759-1805: COLERIDGE'S Translation.
THEY sin who tell us love can die
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity :
In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell,
Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell;
Earthly these passions of the Earth,
They perish where they have their birth;
But Love is indestructible.
Its holy flame for ever burneth,
From Heaven it came; to Heaven returneth :
Too oft on Earth a troubled guest,
At times deceived, at times opprest,
It here is tried and purified,
Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest:
It soweth here with toil and care,
But the harvest-time of Love is there.
ROBERT SOUTHEY: 1774-1843.
JOY AND SORROW.
Joy is a weak and giddy thing, that laughs
Itself to weariness or sleep, and wakes
To the same barren laughter: 't is a child
Perpetually; and all its past and future
Lie in the compass of an infant's day.
Crush'd from our sorrow, all that's great in man
Has ever sprung.
In the bold Pagan world
Men deified the beautiful, the glad,
The strong, the boastful, and it came to nought:
We have raised Pain and Sorrow into Heaven;
And in our temples, on our altars, Grief
Stands symbol of our faith, and it shall last
As long as man is mortal and unhappy.
The gay at heart may wander to the skies,
And harps may there be found them, and the branch
4 I hear again thy low replies,
I feel thy arm within my own,
And timidly again uprise
The fringed lids of hazel eyes,
With soft brown tresses overblown.
Ah! memories of sweet summer eves,
Of moonlit wave and willowy way,
Of stars and flowers, and dewy leaves,
And smiles and tones more dear than they!
5 Ere this, thy quiet eye hath smiled
My picture of thy youth to see,
When, half a woman, half a child,
Thy very artlessness beguiled,
And folly's self seem'd wise in thee:
I too can smile, when o'er that hour
The lights of memory backward stream,
Yet feel the while that manhood's power
Is vainer than my boyhood's dream.
6 Years have pass'd on, and left their trace
Of graver care and deeper thought;
And unto me the calm, cold face
Of manhood, and to thee the grace
Of woman's pensive beauty brought.
More wide, perchance, for blame than praise
The school-boy's humble name has flown;
Thine, in the green and quiet ways
Of unobtrusive goodness known.
7 And wider yet in thought and deed
Diverge our pathways, one in youth;
Thine the Genevan's sternest creed,1
While answers to my spirit's need
The Derby dalesman's 2 simple truth.
For thee, the priestly rite and prayer,
And holy day, and solemn psalm ;
1 John Calvin, author of the stern creed known as Calvinism; called "the Genevan because he lived and taught at Geneva, in Switzerland. Born in 1509; died in 1564.
2 George Fox, the founder of Quakerism. Born in 1624; died in 1691. He passed his youth in the quiet and simple life of a shepherd, thinking much, and saying little.
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