She hath avenged the blood of Isidore! I stood in silence like a slave before her, That I might taste the wormwood and the gall, With bitterer agonies than death can give. Forgive me, Alvar! Dies. Oh! couldst thou forget me! [Alvar and Teresa bend over the body of Ordonio. Alh. (to the Moors). I thank thee, Heaven! thou hast ordain'd it wisely, That still extremes bring their own cure. That point In misery, which makes the oppressed Man Regardless of his own life, makes him too Lord of the Oppressor's-Knew I a hundred men This arm should shake the Kingdoms of the World; Should sink away, earth groaning from beneath them ; The strong-holds of the cruel men should fall, Their Temples and their mountainous Towers should fall; Till Desolation seem'd a beautiful thing. And all that were, and had the Spirit of Life, Alhadra hurries off with the Moors; the stage fills arms. Alv. Turn not thy face that way, my father! hide, Oh hide it from his eye! Oh let thy joy Flow in unmingled stream through thy first blessing. [Both kneel to Valdez. Val. My Son! My Alvar! bless, Oh bless him, Heaven! Alv. Delights so full, if unalloy'd with grief, THE PICCOLOMINI; OR THE FIRST PART OF WALLENSTEIN. A Drama. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER. PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR. T was my intention to have prefixed a Life of Wallenstein to this translation; but I found that it must either have occupied a space wholly disproportionate to the nature of the publication, or have been merely a meagre catalogue of events narrated not more fully than they already are in the Play itself. The recent translation, likewise, of Schiller's "History of the Thirty Years' War" diminished the motives thereto. In the translation 1 endeavoured 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 meaning, have weakened the force. In the metre I have availed myself of no other liberties than those which Schiller had permitted to himself, except the occasional breaking-up of the line by the substitution of a trochee for an iambic; of which liberty, so frequent in our tragedies, I find no instance in these dramas. S. T. COLERIDGE. DRAMATIS PERSONE. Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, Genrealissimo of the Imperial Forces in the thirty years' war. Octavio Piccolomini, Lieutenant General. Max. Piccolomini, his Son, Colonel of a Regiment of Cuirassiers. Count Tertsky, the Commander of several regiments, and Brother. in-law of Wallenstein. Illo, Field Marshal, Wallenstein's Confidant. Isolani, General of the Croats. Butler, an Irishman, Commander of a Regiment of Dragoons, Don Maradas, Kolatto, } Generals under Wallenstein. Neumann, Captain of Cavalry, Aide-de-camp to Tertsky. Baptisia Seni, Astrologer. Duchess of Friedland, Wife of Wallenstein. A Cornet. Several Colonels and Generals. Pages and Attendants belonging to Wallenston, |