# Open Book Classics

# **Wallenstein** A Dramatic Poem

**FRIEDRICH SCHILLER TRANSLATED BY FLORA KIMMICH, WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROGER PAULIN**

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# Wallenstein

A Dramatic Poem

*By Friedrich Schiller*

*Translation and Notes to the Text by Flora Kimmich Introduction by Roger Paulin*

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Translation and Notes to the Text © 2017 Flora Kimmich. Introduction © 2017 Roger Paulin.

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Friedrich Schiller. *Wallenstein: A Dramatic Poem.* Translation and Notes to the Text by Flora Kimmich. Introduction by Roger Paulin. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0101

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Open Book Classics Series, vol. 5 | ISSN: 2054-216X (Print); 2054-2178 (Online)

ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-263-9 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-264-6 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-265-3 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-266-0 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-267-7 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0101

Cover image: Rolf Werner Nehrdich, Wallenstein standing between Max and Thekla (detail). Courtesy of Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich, CC BY 4.0.

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# Contents



This attempt at Schiller's *Wallenstein* seeks to bring that extraordinary trilogy to young people in college-level instruction and to the general reader. It joins *Fiesco*<sup>1</sup> in a growing series of translations, with commentary, of Schiller's major plays, which Open Book Publishers makes freely available to a wide readership.

Endnotes add brief information to clarify the many historical references in the text; they comment on the rare obscurities and repeatedly they call attention to a web of internal reference that draws a work of nearly eight thousand lines into a dense, capacious whole. These references are noted by act, scene, and line number to bring before the reader ever and again the economy that distinguishes drama from the other genres.

A glossary of Notable Names intends to give quick aid when the reader cannot keep all the Friedrichs and Ferdinands here entirely straight or quite remember where it was that Tilly met his end. It also offers a small amount of information beyond the endnotes, particularly on the historical dimension of figures whom Schiller has reinvented for the purposes of his great drama.

For both the endnotes and the glossary I am deeply indebted to Frithjof Stock, editor of the edition Deutsche Klassiker, Frankfurt am Main, 2000, the text on which the translation is based, and to the everconcise and evergreen Columbia Encyclopedia, third edition, New York,

<sup>1</sup> Friedrich Schiller, *Fiesco's Conspiracy at Genoa*, edited by John Guthrie, translated by Flora Kimmich (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2015), https://www. openbookpublishers.com/product/261

1963. Roger Paulin, generously, helped me rid the text of weighty Latin words and other blots. Alessandra Tosi presided over it all with patience and forbearance and a fund of good solutions. Christoph Kimmich's conversation sustained me in this whole long labor, to say nothing of his resourcefulness in wrestling a typescript as thorny as was this one from an unyielding computer.

Readers can freely access the original German text of Schiller's *Wallenstein* (Stuttgart and Berlin: J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nachfolger, 1911) at Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6518

A reading of the drama (in German) is freely available at LibriVox, https://librivox.org/wallenstein-ein-dramatisches-gedicht-by-friedrichvon-schiller

Gerhard von Kügelgen, Friedrich Schiller (1808–1809), oil on canvas, https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gerhard\_von\_Kügelgen\_001.jpg. Image in the public domain.

# Introduction1

# *Roger Paulin*

Schiller first encountered the figure of Wallenstein as a subject during his work on his *History of the Thirty Years' War*, published in 1792. There, it was a question of pitting King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden against his main rival, Albrecht Wallenstein, duke of Friedland. According to Schiller's scheme at the time, this involved contrasting the figures of the king, an "idealist" but not unmoved by political motives, with Wallenstein, the "realist," power-hungry and following these aims pragmatically. Yet in the course of work on his *History*, Schiller developed a more nuanced view of Wallenstein, still unscrupulous and a victim of his own overweening ambition, but invested nevertheless with more admirable human qualities, such as generosity, always towering above his contemporaries as a figure in history.

The idea of treating this subject in dramatic form dates from as early as 1791, with work beginning in 1793. By 1796, he could confess to Goethe that the sheer mass of material was forcing him to think beyond the confines of conventional tragedy. His philosophical studies, and his close contact with Goethe, enabled him to envisage a subject that was rooted in the here and now—"realistic"—but which gained formal dignity through the ideal constraints of art. In this way, Schiller was able to create a tragic character, in moral terms blameworthy, but from whom paradoxically we cannot withhold our admiration.

<sup>1</sup> This Introduction is largely based on my 'Schiller, *Wallenstein*,' in Peter Hutchinson (ed.), *Landmarks in German Drama* (Bern, 2002), pp. 47–57 (by kind permission of the publisher, Peter Lang).

#### *6 Introduction*

By 1797, following Goethe's advice, Schiller concluded that a play—a "dramatic poem," as he eventually called it—of this density and complexity could not be contained in five acts of verse, nor indeed in two full-length dramas. By 1798, the play had assumed its present form, a trilogy, *Wallenstein's Camp* in old-fashioned rhyming verse, then *The Piccolomini* and *The Death of Wallenstein* in the blank verse of the German classical high tragedy. At its first performances in Berlin and Weimar in 1798, a shortened version of parts Two and Three was presented. In 1800 appeared the full three-part version that we have today.

Critics and commentators are in general agreement that *Wallenstein*  represents the pinnacle of Schiller's achievement as a dramatist.2 Contemporaries like Goethe and Wilhelm von Humboldt sensed that this was a new high point in German tragedy. Goethe had followed the genesis of the play in his correspondence with Schiller and was even behind the idea of using a trilogy as the only aesthetically satisfactory means of presenting the vast panorama of history. Coleridge's and Constant's translations are an indication of its reception beyond Germany.3

Only those critics who identified one-sidedly with another tradition or with different notions of tragedy found fault with *Wallenstein.* Hegel around 1800 saw no religious sense behind the presence of fate in the drama, comparing it unfavorably with Greek tragedy.4 Tieck in 1826 found the love scenes superfluous and not organic to the action, making comparisons with Shakespeare's very different technique in *Romeo and* 

<sup>2</sup> For an account of the reception of Wallenstein, with an extensive bibliography, see *Schillers 'Wallenstein,*' ed. by Fritz Heuer and Werner Keller, Wege der Forschung 420 (Darmstadt, 1977). See also *Friedrich Schiller: 'Wallenstein:' Erläuterungen und Dokumente*, ed. by Kurt Rothmann, Reclams Universal Bibliothek 8136 [3] (Stuttgart, 1982). Recent studies in English include T.J. Reed, *The Classical Centre. Goethe and Weimar 1775–1832* (Oxford, 1980), pp. 136–49; also *Schiller*, Past Masters (Oxford and New York, 1991), pp. 80–85; Lesley Sharpe, *Schiller and the Historical Character. Presentation and Interpretation in the Historiographical Works and in the Historical Dramas* (Oxford, 1982), pp. 72–105; and *Friedrich Schiller, Drama, Thought and Politics*  (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 217–50; F.J. Lamport, *'Wallenstein* on the English Stage,' *German Life and Letters*, 48 (1995), 124–47.

<sup>3</sup> Colerige's translation of the play (1891 edition) is available at https://archive. org/details/dramaticworksoff00schiuoft; Constant's (1809 edition) at https:// fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Livre:Constant\_-\_Wallstein,\_1809.djvu

<sup>4</sup> G.W.F. Hegel, 'Uber *Wallenstein,*' included in *Schillers 'Wallenstein,*' ed. by Heuer and Keller, pp. 15f.

*Juliet*. <sup>5</sup> Otto Ludwig in 1859 found Wallenstein's "reflective" nature unheroic and untragic and—crucially—un-Shakespearean.6 *Wallenstein*  does not reduce so easily to the classic relations between free will and necessity that inform traditional tragic practice.

These criticisms indicate nevertheless that the modem writer of tragedy is bound to be subjected to the scrutiny of the two major traditions that go before him: Greek drama and Shakespeare, in German terms "fate" versus "character." Anyone who cares to look will find elements of Sophocles or Shakespeare (especially *Henry IV*, *Macbeth* and *Richard III*) or even Racine in *Wallenstein.* We know that the reading of Shakespearean plays during the early stages of work on the play helped Schiller to resolve, to his own satisfaction, the questions of history, fate, and character. But we need to bear in mind that Schiller's historical and aesthetic sense was that of his own age and its needs. He was deeply aware of the unique and irrevocable nature of classical antiquity, the "unrepeatability" of Sophocles. Similarly, his reading of Shakespeare recognized elements irreconcilable with his own dramatic practice. His dramatic development—from *The Bandits* to *Fiesco* to *Don Carlos* shows a move away from Shakespearean characterisation to figures in the guise of the idealist. These act not so much out of the passions and emotions in themselves, but come to represent a kind of philosophical postulate (freedom in the case of Karl Moor, "freedom of thought" in the case of Marquis Posa). In that sense, *Wallenstein*, with its ambiguities, is hardly a continuation of Schiller's dramatic practice of the 1780s.

There is another major difference. Schiller, between writing *Don Carlos* and *Wallenstein*, had been active on two fronts. He had been a practicing historian, and he had committed to writing abstract notions about the idea of human moral freedom in the work of art. Is *Wallenstein*  therefore a demonstration in dramatic form of, say, Schiller's reception of Kant? It has been common to test *Wallenstein* against some aspects of Schiller's indebtedness to Kant: the categories of "sublime" and "beautiful," of "realist" and "idealist," of "moral" and "esthetic." But none in practice gives secure purchase. The aim of theatre to create "the true artistic world of the poet," the world of aesthetic "semblance," of

<sup>5</sup> Ludwig Tieck, 'Die Piccolomini. *Wallensteins* Tod,' *ibid*., pp. 21–40.

<sup>6</sup> Otto Ludwig, 'Schillers *Wallenstein*,' *ibid*., pp. 47–52.

"free play" against the merely material, is only partially fulfilled in the sombre interplay of mankind and history.

We must always remember that Schiller is a dramatist to his fingertips, not a philosopher who thinks in dialogue. Yet it is right to seek a philosophical, theoretical and dramatic centre to this play, a problem around which it revolves. Goethe, so much involved in its genesis, believed he had put his finger on it in 1799: it was the "fantastic mind" associated with "the great and idealistic," as against "base real life."7 But how could one square those fairly abstract ideas with the material that underlies the whole action, the history of Wallenstein in his own age? Wilhelm Dilthey, looking back on the emergence of the genre in the nineteenth century, called *Wallenstein* the first German historical drama.8 That is certainly true in the sense that Schiller is in this play closer to his historical sources than in any other (despite the invention of Max and Thekla). It is also true in that Schiller agonized over the material he had expertly marshalled in his *History of the Thirty Years' War* and its sources and over the best way to present it dramatically. We might question whether his deference to Goethe's suggestion of a trilogy was the best solution, especially since Schiller was acutely aware of Goethe's shortcomings as a dramatist.

Yet Schiller never regarded history as more than the quarry from which he drew the raw material for the finished work of art. History is a means to an end, nothing more. But he possesses nevertheless the historian's sense of a great figure standing out from his own age, incorporating it, explaining its currents and impulses, part of it yet transcending it. He does not abandon the ability to document, but he has the capacity to sum up what is dramatically essential in history. "Thus Wallenstein fell, not because he was a rebel, but he rebelled because he fell,"9 is the proposition in *History of the Thirty Years' War.*  It is a philosophical paradox, and an aphorism, held together in the rhetorical figure of the chiasmus. It is stating that Schiller is not primarily concerned with the tradition of the rise and fall of the great, the pattern that informed Greek and Senecan tragedy. *Wallenstein* 

<sup>7</sup> Goethe, 'Die Piccolomini. *Wallensteins* erster Teil,' *ibid*., pp. 3–9 (p. 9).

<sup>8</sup> Wilhelm Dilthey, *'Wallenstein,*' *ibid*., pp. 74–103 (p. 76).

<sup>9</sup> All German quotations from Schiller are taken from *Sämtliche Werke*, ed. by Gerhard Fricke, Herbert G. Gopfert and Herbert Stubenrauch, 5 vols (Munich, 1960), here IV, 688. *Wallenstein* translation quoted in text with part and line number.

cannot be explained solely in terms of *superbia*, *hubris*, overweening ambition, although they are part of his character. Rather he displays a sense of the inadequacy of the material world, a will to change that glimpses beyond the world of the senses to some kind of ideal state. This is the aspect of Wallenstein which Schiller found most fascinating. He is not like Macbeth; we can clearly trace the steps leading up to his crime and the stages towards his downfall. Wallenstein's dramatic graph is different. At the time of the action, over a decade of the Thirty Years' War is past, with Wallenstein's greatest deeds of heroism and generalship, the years of Tilly and Gustavus Adolphus, the battle of Lützen, now over.

Rather it is the sense of an age that Schiller wishes to convey. Indeed his prologue had expressed the appropriateness of the work of art to sum up the essentials of his own times:

> Not unworthy of the exalted Moment, the time in which we live now

> > (*Prologue*, 55f.)

Historical drama, as an esthetic exercise, may point to the great movements and commotions of its own age, in Schiller's case the aftermath of the French Revolution (the reference is to the First Consul, Bonaparte). By the same token, the work of art is not bound to the limits of its own circumstances; art by its very nature raises and transcends:

> […] and rather give her thanks That she would play the gloomy world of Truth Over onto the serene world of Art, That she herself undoes forthrightly the Illusion that she has created, does Not substitute its Seeming for that Truth. Our lives are earnest and our art serene.

> > (*Prologue*, 131–38)

How can "the gloomy world of Truth" and "the serene world of Art" be reconciled, and how can they be made to reflect both the historical moment and a transcendent ideal?

Schiller's use of the trilogy to some degree reflects the resolution of this. *Wallenstein's Camp* presents us with the great general's power base, not the man himself; *The Piccolomini* centres on the conflict between

father and son, Octavio and Max Piccolomini; *The Death of Wallenstein*  brings us the act of rebellion and the downfall. Each part of the trilogy has its own terms of reference and "feel." Schiller does not follow the Shakespearean pattern of alternation between high and low styles—a pattern that has consequences for nineteenth-century verse tragedy in general. *The Piccolomini* and *The Death of Wallenstein* are characterized by the interior setting of French tragedy, with its restricted numbers on stage, and use of verse (here blank verse). The *Camp* stands out formally through the use of "Knittelverse" and their "old German" or Faustian associations and the comic mode of the Capuchin's Sermon. Wallenstein does not appear. For this is the army that is occupying Bohemia and draining its substance. It is characterized by venality, materialism, the forces of fortune and chance.

Schiller's own commentary is "The camp alone explains his crime" [*my translation*] interpenetration of all spheres of the high tragedy by the *Camp.* We see this in the very first scene of *The Piccolomini*, where the generals, not the soldiery are assembled, with its military language, its use of foreign words in the original, and above all the accentuated theatricality of its stage directions ("lost in thought," "with meaning," "startled"). Buttler's "We shall not go from here the way we came" (68) has an ominous ring—when we know of his later role in Wallenstein's fall. We sense that Wallenstein's power base is built not on high ideals but on mercenary service and plunder. The much-vaunted charismatic power of Wallenstein to raise armies—another reason why Buttler must murder him in the night before the Swedes are due to arrive—is based also on his power to pay ("this princely man" as the venal condottiere Isolani calls him, 87). Wallenstein is aware of this, as he stoically notes when Isolani deserts him for the Emperor (*Death of Wallenstein*, 1967f.). It is the world of the *Camp—*but reflected in its highest officers—that enters into the proceedings at the banquet in *The Piccolomini* where Isolani and Illo brawl, that disturbs the action of *The Death of Wallenstein*, in the representatives of the Pappenheim regiment, that explains the mentality of Buttler and his hired assassins, and which ultimately underlies the punchline of the whole play, "It's for *Prince* Piccolomini."

We should not overlook that, at significant moments in the play, *Wallenstein* does fulfil the claims made about him in the *Camp*: he demonstrates an unsentimental and almost brutal attitude towards those in power and those close to him. We might cite here the scenes with

Questenberg and Wrangel, his attitude to Thekla, and his insensitive dismissal of Max as a potential son-in-law. Instead, once his power to act is invoked—as at the end of *The Death of Wallenstein* I, 1—his personality shows a formidable and awesome aspect, confirming Max's words at the end of *The Piccolomini*:

> For this regal man, in falling, Will bring a world down in the aftermath. And like a ship on the high seas that flames Up suddenly and, bursting, flies apart, Flinging its crew out between sea and sky, Just so will he take all of us, attached As we are to his fortunes, down with him.

> > (*The Piccolomini*, 23–91)

The first two lines suggest the Shakespearean analogy with Caesar; the image of ship and fortune—but with explosive power of expression reminds us the century that produced both the historical Wallenstein and baroque drama.

Goethe, in the first important analysis of the play, contrasted the "base reality" of power and the "fantastic mind" of an ideal that this world cannot fulfil.10 We note in *The Piccolomini* and in the early scenes of *The Death of Wallenstein* the preoccupation with the word "time": that it is not yet time to act, that things will be ordained in their own time. This is not merely the *hubris* of the Macbeth-like ruler (for *hubris* involves choosing the wrong time): Wallenstein also believes in a constellation of things beyond time. Think of the opening of *The Death of Wallenstein*:

> WALLENSTEIN. Such favorable aspect! That great threesome Converges fatefully; the two good stars, *Venus* and *Jupiter* take spiteful *Mars* Between them, force that vandal to serve me. […] SENI. These two great lights unthreatened now by any Star Melficus! Saturn rendered harmless, Quite without power, *in cadente domo*.

WALLENSTEIN. His rule is over, Saturn's is, the god who

<sup>10</sup> Goethe, 'Die Picolomini,' in *Schillers 'Wallenstein,*' ed. by Heuer and Keller, p. 8f.

Controls the birth of secret things in Earth's Dark womb and in the depths of our own hearts, Disposes over all that shuns the light. The time is past for brooding and reflecting, For Jupiter, most brilliant, governs now And draws a work prepared in darkness forth With force into the realm of light. Quick! Time To act, before the happy constellation Above my head eludes me once again, For change is constant on the dome of heaven.

*(Loud knocking at the door.)*

#### (*The Death of Wallenstein*, 9–30)

Here Jupiter (majesty) and Venus (beauty) hold destructive Mars in check, and Saturn, the earth, is powerless. "The most brilliant" (27), not "all that shuns the light" (25), is in control. This alone gives Wallenstein the assurance that he can act. How different from Macbeth who trusts the witches. And yet he cannot act as he would wish. Note the stage directions ("Loud knocking at the door"); Terzky arrives, then Wrangel. In the next scene, the instruction ("He makes great strides through the room, then halts again, reflecting") stresses the anguished necessity of acting within time. Political man does not enjoy the luxury of reflexion, of "when courage drove me/ Freely" (172f.), of "From a full heart" (l68), let alone the ideal esthetic freedom which Schiller sees as vested in "the beautiful." This scene, relatively abstract in its language, trusting in trope, where the images do not come tumbling out as in Shakespeare, is in many ways the turning-point of the tragedy. But is everything programmed for downfall and disaster merely because Wallenstein has decided that his options are foreclosed and he must act? Rather, it talks of things that once seemed to be ("dream," "hope" (143); a "full heart," 168) and that no longer are. These are words connoting freedom from constraint, creations of the mind, imaginings indulged. They lifted him *from* time: now he must act *in* time. They raised him above the demeaning effects of "the commonplace" (199): he now must grapple with them.

This pivotal scene may tell us what the tragedy of *Wallenstein* is. Of course, Schiller calls only *The Death of Wallenstein* a "tragedy:" the whole play is "a dramatic poem," the more neutral term that Lessing's *Nathan the Wise* had made current. Does that mean that the world of *Wallenstein's Camp*, as it spills over into *The Piccolomini*, is less tragic than the trilogy's dénouement? The first two parts are more closely linked with the actual stuff of political power and the jostlings for supremacy in that world. Wallenstein's great monologues, like the one in *The Death of Wallenstein*  I, 4, seem hardly to form part of this, showing as they do a character too complex to be confined in categories of good generalship or a warlord's fortune. He has always been complex: trusting moods, intuitions, signs, coincidences, as he chooses. Now, he is forced to act. That does not make him tragic, although there is a tragic irony underwriting all of his tactical decisions. Surely what makes the major characters in this play tragic, not just Wallenstein, but Max, Thekla or Octavio, is that they have identified something beyond the historical and political moment, to which they appeal—in vain. It is summed up in the abstract noun that occurs repeatedly in this play: "heart." It signifies something different at each usage, and it is never uncontaminated with other, often baser, associations. It situates this play in both the lexis and selfawareness of idealism and the cult of feeling: not the grand deeds that spur on the action in Shakespeare, but the appeal to inner sentiments. It is one reason why Schiller, in his explicit stage directions, wishes us to experience the interplay of inner and exterior reactions. It is what always sets Schiller apart from Shakespeare, even when the sentiments, as with Karl Moor or Marquis Posa, are often stridently expressed or inadequately excogitated. Had Wallenstein been Macbeth, he would have said at Max's death: "He should have died hereafter." Instead, his pondering of what "the beautiful" in a human life might mean takes him into a moral sphere quite different from Macbeth's. Had he been merely the "realist" of Schiller's theory, he would not have allowed his mind to rise above the pragmatics of the situation. But "heart" is multivalent and ambiguous, like "remembrance" in *Hamlet* or "honest" in *Othello*. It means love, honour, probity, the integrated self; it helps to explain why loyalty can become a key issue in this historical drama, so unlike the naked struggles in Shakespeare's Histories. But examining

one's heart means also consulting other interests: Octavio's appeal to Max's heart also involves imperial and dynastic loyalties; Wallenstein, similarly, but also Max's "between you and the promptings of my heart" (*Death of Wallenstein*, 696), which, as we know, means as much choosing Thekla as remaining loyal to Emperor Ferdinand. "Heart" also invites us to think, not in categories (such as "beautiful soul") but according to human experience. Max's desperate end cannot be read as "beautiful": what is there left to live for? Wallenstein's heart goes out to Max—it is in human terms the most convincing love in the play—but it cannot be divorced from retaining the Pappenheim regiment and it rules out Max as a son-in-law. Hence we are seized and moved by Wallenstein's "heart" in the elegiac mode of Acts Four and Five of *The Death of Wallenstein*  when there can be no more manoevrings and temporizings—and when thugs are planning his murder. Octavio is never more tragic than when he realises at the end that "heart" involves losing a son in the cause that he espouses.

The figure of Max distinguishes this play further from Shakespeare, a figure who represents "the beautiful," while, as we saw, drawn into the world of reality by family affiliation and profession. Shakespeare's technique is different: his villains, Richard or Macbeth, are so commanding that they steal the show from the powers of legitimacy (Richmond, Malcolm). Yet Schiller's play is not just a conflict between, in his terms, the "idealist" and the "realist." Max's despair and death do not belong in the pure realm any more than Wallenstein's actions. But it is Wallenstein who enunciates the principle of pragmatic action, while also looking beyond it. That is the sense of his famous speech in the second act of *The Death of Wallenstein*, *"*Young, one is quick to seize upon a word" (755ff.), with its awareness of the contrasting spheres of "wide" or "pure" as opposed to "crude," "bad" or "deceitful," its essential call for compromise, its opposition to what Max calls "heart." Through an irony, it is only after Max's death that Wallenstein can appreciate the "dream" of humanity he sees Max as representing:

To me he made real stuff into a dream (3324)

Max, as son, as the object of affection ("child/ Of my own house" 2089f.), brings out the inner side of the ruler, hidden from the world of the *Camp*  (*The Death of Wallenstein*, III, 18). One thinks of Thomas Mann's gloss

on the line "*my* Max would ever leave me" (2092) [my italics],11 where Wallenstein's little word sums up his moral dilemma. He is bound by forces of affection, but he also needs Max's regiment as part of the retention of power.

Max, too, is linked with that other aspect of Wallenstein's belief in some higher awareness. The well-known speech in *The Death of Wallenstein*, II, 3 ("My dream took me into the thick of battle," 896ff.), where Wallenstein's vision is written off by pragmatists as "chance", is in fact a defence of Max's father Octavio. Wallenstein's belief is guaranteed by an inner sense of security and wellbeing. But we note that Max, by an irony in the economy of the action, finds his death in a scene (IV, 10) which echoes Wallenstein's original dream vision.

Thus in the last scenes of the play, as Wallenstein accepts the guilt for Max's death, we sense almost a sublimity, (in Schiller's sense) entering in. It is not real, but dramatically devised. Wallenstein has not so much changed; he is not on an ascendant moral curve. But our esthetic satisfaction demands that his end be different from Macbeth's or Richard's. Think of the moving scene V, 3, with its renunciation of "baleful planets that deceive us" (3309). It contrasts with the tragic sense of impending catastrophe and end, and rises above the sphere of the brutal Buttler and his henchmen. The heavens are darkened; the atmosphere is lyrical; Max is the light of his life, not extinguished, but safe from the things that have held Wallenstein in their thrall, fate,' "planets," "misfortune" and "hour" (3603ff.). Yet for all that, Wallenstein has not entirely abandoned his hopes for the coming day, which for him will never dawn. It takes us back to his earlier monologue in the first act (I, 4). His ambition is not just to rule, but to fulfil a vision of change, to set new values against

> The commonplace, eternal Yesterday, What's always been, is always coming back Tomorrow will be good since it was good today. [...] Precious old hoardings, got from his ancestors! (199ff.)

<sup>11</sup> Thomas Mann, included in *Schillers 'Wallenstein,*' ed. by Heuer and Keller, pp. 139– 56 (p. 141).

It is a vision, not of habitual recurrence, but of change. It lifts us momentarily only—above intrigue. It deludes Wallenstein into thinking that ambition, double-dealing, and the naked exercise of power may be justified if the end is worthwhile. It is this vision which constitutes the major difference between Octavio (and by extension the Emperor) and Wallenstein, between the old order and a glimpse of the new. It is related to Max's vision of peace and "humanity" in *The Piccolomini* I, 4. But Wallenstein is too taken up with the present, with the ambition of a crown, a dynasty, a *pax romana*, to grasp the full implications of this "humanity." He sees fulfilment in the other, Max, not in himself. Wallenstein still sets his face against the real future, which we know will bring his demise and the tragic denouement for Max there is no future to fear:

> For him no future waits, for him no fate Spins treachery; his life now lies laid out Without a fold or wrinkle, and it shines, Immaculate, it lies beyond time's reach, And he's beyond both hope and fear, beyond Unsteady, baleful planets that deceive us. His lot is happy!

> > (*The Death of Wallenstein*, 3301–10)

# WALLENSTEIN'S CAMP

Translation © 2017 Flora Kimmich, CC BY 4.0 http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0101.02

*A Mounted Croatian Pikeman*

*How many stranger troops one doesn't see today In many a German town, and mostly with dismay. Their curious outfits are cause for wide alarm; We wish them home again, not in our house and barn.*

Seventeenth-century image of a mounted Croat, armed with a pike, https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zeitgenössische\_Abbildung\_eines\_Kroatischen\_Reiters.JPG. Image in the public domain.

# Prologue\*

*Spoken at the reopening of the Weimar Playhouse, October 1798*


<sup>\*</sup> Schiller composed this short poem as a prologue, or preliminary word, not to the *Wallenstein* trilogy, which was not yet finished, but to a performance of *Wallenstein's Camp*. That performance, in October 1798, was the main attraction at the formal reopening of the newly renovated Weimar playhouse. The Prologue was to be—and was—recited from the stage by an actor to welcome the company, name the occasion, and introduce the play. It is a ceremonial address composed to mark a special occasion. Two hundred twenty years later, it is profitably read not first but last, when the Wallenstein story is known and in the air, as it was in Weimar at the time.

Than here before this chosen circle that, Susceptible to every magic Art makes, 30 With feelings lightly prompted into motion Seeks after Mind in its most fleeting form.

For, quick and traceless, mimic art, a wonder, Escapes, goes past, evades the senses, while The image made by hammer and by chisel, The song made by the poet live for millennia. The magic made *here* dies out with the artist; The fleet creation of the moment fades away The way that resonance dies in the ear, Its fame preserved by no work that will last. 40 For Art is hard and praise of it will pass, Posterity weaves no garlands for the Mime. And so he must be chary with the present, Must fill the moment that is his entirely, Assure himself of his contemporaries' favor, And in the feelings of the Best and Worthiest Erect a *living* monument to himself. Thus he anticipates his name's eternity, For one who's done enough to satisfy The Best of his own time has lived for all time. 50 The era that the art of Thalia opens Upon this stage today emboldens also The poet, leaving accustomed things behind, To lift you from the narrow circles of Quotidian life onto a higher scene

Of spectacle not unlike the exalted Moment, the time in which we live now, striving. For only a grand object has the power To move man in his deepest human depths; In narrow circles thinking also narrows, 60 And mankind grows, expands with larger purpose.

Here at the grave end of our century, where Even reality has turned to poetry, Where we see mighty natures struggle and Perceive a weighty goal before us, and



# Characters

SERGEANT TRUMPETER } from Terzky's regiment of Carabiniers MASTER-GUNNER SHARPSHOOTERS Two HOLK HORSEMEN DRAGOONS from Buttler's regiment ARQUEBUSIERS from the Tiefenbach regiment CUIRASSIERS from a Walloon regiment CUIRASSIERS from a Lombard regiment CROATS UHLANS RECRUIT CITIZEN PEASANT PEASANT BOY CAPUCHIN FRIAR ARMY SCHOOLMASTER CANTEEN KEEPER A WAITRESS ARMY CHILDREN OBOISTS

*Before the city of Pilsen in Bohemia*

#### Scene One

*A Canteen Keeper's Tent with a booth selling small wares standing before it. Soldiers wearing all colors and insignia throng the scene; all the tables are full. Croats and Uhlans cook over a charcoal fire; the Canteen Keeper pours wine; Camp Children roll dice on a drumhead; singing in the Tent.*

*A Peasant and his Son.*

PEASANT BOY. Father, this will come to a rough end, Let's stay clear of these tough men. That's no company for you; They could harm us through and through. PEASANT. Pooh! They won't eat us up for lunch, Though they are a rowdy bunch. Look there! New troops to join the line, Fresh from the Saale and the Main, Bringing booty, the rarest treasure; 10 It's ours if we take good measures. A captain whom another knifed Left me with these lucky dice. I aim to try them out today, See if their old magic's still in play. Just pretend you're poor and dumb, They'll be your best pals and chums. They like to be flattered, to hear praise flow— It's easy come and easy go. When they rob us by the roomful, 20 We claw it back from them by the spoonful; And while they're gross with their big swords, We'll be fine with tricks and words. *(Singing and laughter from the Tent.)* What a racket! Faith abide! It all comes out of the peasant's hide. For eight months now that greedy swarm Lies in our bed and in our barn; For miles around, on every place,

Of flesh or fowl they've left no trace, So that for hunger and wretchedness 30 We have to gnaw on our own fists. I swear to God it was no worse With Saxon fingers in our purse.1 And they say they're the Kaiser's best! PEASANT BOY. Oh, here's a bunch who've left the rest But don't look like there's much to take. PEASANT. They're locals, that's Bohemia's make, Belong to Terschka's2 Carabiniers And have long been quartered here. They're the worst of the whole pack, 40 Stick out their elbows, arch their back, And make as if they are too fine To share with us a glass of wine. But I see three Sharpshooters there On the left around the fire. Tiroleans is what they seem to me. Emmerich, come! Let's go and see Those jolly fellows, as good as any,

And in their pockets, a pretty penny.

*(They go toward the tents.)*

## Scene Two

*As above. Sergeant. Trumpeter. Uhlan.*

TRUMPETER. Who's that peasant? Out, you thieving sneak! 50 PEASANT. My lords, a little bite to eat!

> We've had nothing warm these last two days. TRUMPETER. Oh, they must always feed their face. UHLAN (*with a glass*). Let me! I'll take him off your hands. *(He leads the Peasant toward the Tent; the others come forward.)*

SERGEANT (*to the Trumpeter*).

Do you think it's just by chance


And they are his as in a thrall.

### Scene Three

*A Croat with a necklace, trailed by a Sharpshooter. As above.*

SHARPSHOOTER. You, Croat! That necklace you stole— 90 I'll trade you for it; you can't use't. I'll trade this pair of terzeruole.6 CROAT. Nix, nix. You cheat me, you Sharpshoot. SHARPSHOOTER. I'll throw my blue cap in, to boot— From roulette, the one that I just won. You see? The grandest in the world! CROAT (*letting the sunlight play on the necklace*). *You* see? She's garnet and she's pearl. You see? She sparkles in the sun! SHARPSHOOTER (*taking the necklace*). You'll get my water bottle, too; (*examining the necklace*) It's just for the sparkle—this to-do. 100 TRUMPETER. Look how that Croat's getting took! Halfies, Sharpshoot, and I'll keep quiet. CROAT (*putting the cap on*). I like your cap. I like the look. SHARPSHOOTER (*signaling the Trumpeter*). We trade now! (*To the others.*) You see me buy it!

#### Scene Four

*As above. Master-Gunner.*

MASTER-GUNNER (*approaching the Sergeant*). How is it, Brother Carabinier? How long do we stay and warm our hands, Now the foe's in the field in every land? SERGEANT. What's your hurry, Gunning Master? The muddy roads are still a disaster. MASTER-GUNNER. No hurry. Me? I'm content to be here;

I/5 *Wallenstein's Camp 29*

110 But an express has come in, to our cost, To tell us Regensburg's been lost. TRUMPETER. Aha! That means we're soon in the saddle. SERGEANT. Oh, sure! To take up that Bavarian's battle?7 Who hates and harries our General so? For him our swords will never rattle. MASTER-GUNNER. Is that so? What-all you don't know!

## Scene Five

*As above. Two Horsemen. Then a Canteen Keeper. Camp Children. Schoolmaster. Waitress.*



Stay a minute, charming child.

WAITRESS. But guests are waiting this long while. (*She escapes and goes off.*) FIRST HORSEMAN. That little girl—she's an ace, 170 And her aunt, by the Sacrament! How all the gents from the regiment Wanted to kill for her pretty face! Oh, the people one meets and how time flies! What I'll yet see with my own eyes! (*To the Sergeant and the Trumpeter.*) My worthy lords, I drink to you. Come! Let's sit and talk a bit.

#### Scene Six

*Horsemen. Sergeant. Trumpeter.*



I/6 *Wallenstein's Camp 33*






#### Scene Seven

*As above. A Recruit. A Citizen. Dragoons.*

RECRUIT (*comes out of the Tent, a tin helmet on his head, a wine bottle in his hand*). Remember me to Father and the other men! I'm a soldier now; you'll never see me again. FIRST HORSEMAN. Well, looky there! He is new! CITIZEN. Watch out, Franz. This is not for you. RECRUIT (*sings*). Pipe and drums And flag unfurled. Friends and chums, 380 We wander the world. Prancing horses, Fearsome forces, A sword at our side, We march far and wide. We've left the herd, We're free as a bird That comes in spring To forage and sing. Hurrah! I follow Friedland's banner! 390 SECOND HORSEMAN. Welcome, boy. We like your manner! *(They all greet him.)* CITIZEN. Leave him be! He's bred gentle and meet. FIRST HORSEMAN. Well, we weren't exactly picked up on the street! CITIZEN. He also comes from people of means; Just look at his apron—what fine seams! TRUMPETER. The Kaiser's coat is the one that gleams. CITIZEN. There's a little cap mill he stands to inherit. FIRST HORSEMAN And lose all his freedom! What's the merit? CITIZEN. His grandmother will leave him a little store. FIRST HORSEMAN. To trade in dry goods evermore?



Thinks only he can have a girl!

SECOND HORSEMAN. He thinks he's a special case; 470 But this sweetheart's pretty face Is for us all, like bright sunshine. (*He kisses her*.) DRAGOON (*pulling the Girl away*). I tell you once more: She is mine. FIRST HORSEMAN. Musicians! That's a change of pace! SECOND HORSEMAN. You looking for trouble? You'll find it with me! SERGEANT. Gentlemen, silence! A kiss is for free.

## Scene Eight

*A Miners' Band*<sup>30</sup> *enters and plays a reel, first slowly, then faster and faster. The First Horseman dances with the Waitress, the Canteen Keeper with the Recruit; the Girl escapes, the Horseman pursues her; they collide with the Capuchin as he enters.*<sup>31</sup>


I/8 *Wallenstein's Camp 41*




*(He retreats as he shouts these words; the Croats cover his retreat against the other Soldiers.)*

#### Scene Nine

*As above, without the Capuchin.*


#### Scene Ten

#### *Soldiers hauling the Peasant along.*

FIRST HORSEMAN. String him up! SHARPSHOOTERS and DRAGOONS. To the hangman! SERGEANT. Without a warrant there'll be a wrangle. CANTEEN KEEPER. In an hour or so we'll see him dangle. SERGEANT. It'll go quickly. No probation. FIRST ARQUEBUSIER (*to the Second*). This is out of desperation. They come here hungry, begging a meal, And we're surprised to see them steal? 640 TRUMPETER. Who're you, coming to his defense? FIRST ARQUEBUSIER. Not so fast! No offense, But the world can see that the peasant, too, Is an ordinary man, like me and you. FIRST HORSEMAN (*to the Trumpeter*). No more quarreling! They're Tiefenbachers,45 Sons of tailors and glove makers; Lay in garrison at Brieg; Puts them in a different league.

#### Scene Eleven

*As above. Cuirassiers.*

FIRST CUIRASSIER. What's going on with the peasant there? FIRST SHARPSHOOTER. Cheated at dice. Took three times his share. 650 FIRST CUIRASSIER. Not news. Was it all that bad? FIRST SHARPSHOOTER. What do you think? He took all I had. FIRST CUIRASSIER. But you're somebody, are Friedland's man. Can you stoop so low and be so blind As to roll your dice with the peasant's kind? Let him run, if run he can. *(The Peasant escapes; the others gather to form a group.)*





I/11 *Wallenstein's Camp 49*







I/11 *Wallenstein's Camp 53*





The whole lot's not worth a piaster.



*(The Curtain falls before the Chorus has ended.)*

# THE PICCOLOMINI

In five acts

Translation © 2017 Flora Kimmich, CC BY 4.0 http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0101.03

Portrait of Octavius Piccolomini of Aragon (Ottavio Piccolomini). Engraving from Anselmus van Hulle, *Les hommes illustres qui ont vécu dans le XVII.siècle* (Amsterdam, 1717), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAnselmus-van-Hulle-Hommes-illustres\_ MG\_0469.tif. Image in the public domain.

# Characters

WALLENSTEIN, Duke of Friedland, imperial generalissimo in the Thirty Years' War OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI, lieutenant general MAX PICCOLOMINI, his son, colonel of a Cuirassier regiment COUNT TERZKY, Wallenstein's brother-in-law, chief of many regiments ILLO, field marshal, Wallenstein's confidant ISOLANI, general of the Croats BUTTLER, chief of a Dragoon regiment TIEFENBACH

DON MARADAS

GOETZ

} generals under Wallenstein

COLALTO

CAVALRY CAPTAIN NEUMANN, Terzky's adjutant

WAR COUNSELOR von QUESTENBERG, Kaiser's emissary

BAPTISTA SENI, astrologer

DUCHESS of FRIEDLAND, Wallenstein's wife

THEKLA, Princess Friedland, their daughter

COUNTESS TERZKY, sister of the Duchess

A CORNET

WINE STEWARD of Count Terzky

PAGES and SERVANTS of Friedland

SERVANTS and OBOISTS of Terzky

COLONELS and GENERALS

## Act One

*An old Gothic Chamber in the Town Hall of Pilsen, decorated with banners and other trappings of war*

### Scene One

#### *Illo with Buttler and Isolani.*



I/2 *The Piccolomini 65*


#### Scene Two

*As above. Octavio Piccolomini. Questenberg.*



I/2 *The Piccolomini 67*




There *was* no army. Friedland had to raise An army. He did not receive it. *He* It was who gave it to the Kaiser. We Did not receive our marshal from the Kaiser. Not so, not so. From Wallenstein we got The Kaiser in the first place as our master.74 *He* binds us to these banners, only he. 220 OCTAVIO (*intervening*). Please bear in mind, Counselor, that you're among *W*arriors in camp. It's boldness makes the soldier, And freedom. Pluck in action, should it not Speak pluckily as well? It is all one. The boldness of this worthy officer (*indicating Buttler*), Which has but chosen here its object wrong, Salvaged, where only boldness could prevail— A fearsome rising of the garrison— The Kaiser's capital city Prague.75 *(Military music in the distance.)* ILLO. They're in! The Guard salutes. This signal tells us that 230 The Duchess is just entering at our gates. OCTAVIO (*to Questenberg*). Then my son Max is back. He went to fetch Her from Carinthia and has brought her here. ISOLANI (*to Illo*). Shall we go out to greet her right away? ILLO. Quite so. We'll go together. Colonel Buttler?

(*To Octavio.*) Remember we're to meet this worthy lord

This morning yet before the Prince. Till then.

#### Scene Three

*Octavio and Questenberg, who remain behind.*

QUESTENBERG (*with gestures of astonishment*). What I have had to hear, Lieutenant General! What unabridged defiance, wild ideas! If this should be the general spirit here—

I/3 *The Piccolomini 71*



I/4 *The Piccolomini 73*


#### Scene Four

*Max Piccolomini. Octavio Piccolomini. Questenberg.*



How every strength emerges, every gift




Long left behind. At his return the tree That he'd last seen a slender sapling shades him. A blushing girl comes out to meet him whom He'd once left lying on her nurse's breast. A happy man to whom a door, to whom Soft arms, embracing sweetly, also open. QUESTENBERG (*touched*). Alas, that you should speak of far off, far Off times, not of tomorrow, not today. MAX (*rounds on him*). Who but you in Vienna bears the fault?84 490 Let me confess it freely, Questenberg! When I caught sight of you just now, ill will Made my spleen rise into my throat. It's you Who block the peace, it's you and you alone. It's fighting men who must bring it about. From you comes endless trouble for the Prince, You stop his steps, you blacken him. And why? Because Europe's great Good concerns him more than A foot or more or less of land for Austria. You're making him a rebel and God knows 500 What else, because he spares the Saxon, wants To cultivate our enemy's trust. But that's The only path to lead us to a peace. If we don't stop this war within a war, What hope have we of peace? So go, just go! I hate you as I love the Good. I swear Most solemnly, I'll give my heart's last blood, Last drop of blood, for him, for Wallenstein, Before I see you triumph at his fall. (*Exit*.)

#### Scene Five

QUESTENBERG. God help us! Can this be? (*Urgent and impatient.*) 510 Are we to let him go this way? He's mad! Not call him back? Not open instantly His eyes? OCTAVIO (*rousing himself from deep thought*). He has just opened mine and made Me see more than I like. QUESTENBERG. May I ask what? OCTAVIO. A pox upon this journey! QUESTENBERG. What? How so? OCTAVIO. But come. I'll have to track this down, to see With my own eyes—(*Offers to lead him away.*) QUESTENBERG. But what? Where would you go? OCTAVIO (*urgent*). To her! QUESTENBERG. To? OCTAVIO (*correcting himself*). To the Duke. I fear the worst. I see a net cast over him, he's not Returned to me the man who went away. 520 QUESTENBERG. Explain— OCTAVIO. Could I not see it coming? Not Abort this errand? Why did I not speak? You're right. I should have warned him. Too late now. QUESTENBERG. Too late for what? These riddles baffle me. OCTAVIO (*more composed*). We're going to the Duke. Come. It's almost The hour he named for audience. Do come! A pox, a three-fold pox, upon this journey! (*He leads Questenberg away*.)

*Curtain.*

# Act Two

*A large Room in the quarters of the Duke of Friedland*

### Scene One

*Servants are arranging chairs and spreading carpets. The astrologer Seni enters, dressed in black, rather fantastically, after the fashion of an Italian scholar.*<sup>85</sup> *He goes to the middle of the room and indicates the four cardinal points with the white staff that he carries.*



*(They leave in haste. Seni follows slowly.)*

#### Scene Two

*Wallenstein. The Duchess.*




# The Kaiser turns away his favor from us?

#### Scene Three

*Countess Terzky enters, leading Princess Thekla by the hand.*<sup>90</sup>

COUNTESS. What, Sister? Speaking only of affairs, And, I see, not of pleasant ones, before He even has the pleasure of his child? First moments should belong alone to pleasure.

#### *84 The Piccolomini* II/3


*(He is holding her in his arms as Piccolomini enters.)*93

#### Scene Four

#### *Max Piccolomini and then Count Terzky.*


From it will spring all joy and every hope.

Fast, as if in a fairy ring, fate holds me,

Enchanted, in the ambit of this name.

COUNTESS (*who has been observing the Duke and sees that the letters have made him thoughtful*).

690 Our brother wants to be alone. We'll go.94

WALLENSTEIN (*turns, catches himself, and speaks cheerfully to the Duchess*).

*O*nce more, Princess, you're welcome in the field. You are the mistress of this court. You, Max,

Will once again take up your office, while

We here attend to matters of our master.

*(Max Piccolomini offers the Duchess his arm; the Countess leads the Princess away.)*

TERZKY (*calls after him*).

Remember to be present at assembly.

#### Scene Five

*Wallenstein. Terzky.*




#### Scene Six

*Illo enters.*

WALLENSTEIN. How is it out there? Have they been prepared?102 ILLO. You'll find them in the mood you wanted. They know The Kaiser's terms and they're beside themselves. WALLENSTEIN. And Isolan? ILLO. Is yours with heart and soul Since you restored his faro bank.103 WALLENSTEIN. Colalto? You're sure of Deodat and Tiefenbach? ILLO. What Piccolomini does they'll all do.

II/6 *The Piccolomini 89*



Small cares and interests of each one. A man



With no one but Octavio.111

### Scene Seven

*As above. Questenberg, both Piccolomini, Buttler, Isolani, Maradas, and three other Generals enter. At a gesture from Wallenstein, Questenberg seats himself directly opposite him; the others follow in order of rank. A momentary pause.*

WALLENSTEIN. I've understood and weighed the substance of Your mission, Questenberg, and taken a 890 Decision such as nothing more can alter. But it is meet that these commanders hear The Kaiser's dispositions from your mouth.

II/7 *The Piccolomini 93*




*96 The Piccolomini* II/7




*98 The Piccolomini* II/7





## Act Three

*A Room*

### Scene One

*Illo and Terzky.*



III/2 *The Piccolomini 103*

1220 The chiefs. Strike while the iron is hot, I say. TERZKY. Give me a moment. I'm expecting Countess Terzky here. Don't think we've been idle meanwhile. If one cord breaks, another's been prepared. ILLO. Of course. Your lady smiles so craftily. What's this? TERZKY. A secret. Quiet now. She's coming.

*(Exit Illo.)*

#### Scene Two

*Count and Countess Terzky, who enters from an adjacent room. A Servant, then Illo.*



*(Exeunt Terzky and Illo.)*

#### Scene Three

*Countess Terzky. Max Piccolomini.*



MAX. There is no need. For I'd Betray to no one here the motions of my 1270 Enraptured soul. Tell me, Aunt Terzky, are all Things changed? Or is it only me? I find Myself here among strangers, find no trace Of my accustomed wishes and my pleasures. Where's it all gone? I once was quite content In just this world. But now, how shallow it All seems and how banal! My comrades I Find insupportable, and my own father— What ever have I now to say to him? And duty, weapons—what a lot of tinsel. 1280 It's like one of the blessed dead returned From realms of glory to the games of childhood, Its interests, occupations, preferences, and Friendships, to the whole wretched human race. COUNTESS. I'd ask you nonetheless to cast a glance Upon this ordinary world, where things of No small importance are just now in train. MAX. There's something going on. I see it in The swirl of strange activity around me. And when they're done, I too will hear about it. 1290 Do you know where I've been today, Aunt Terzky? No laughing. All the hurly-burly here Became too much: the packs of pressing folk, The tasteless jokes, eternal idle chit-chat. It felt as if the walls were closing in. I had to leave, to find a quiet place For my full heart, seclusion for my joy. Don't smile, Countess. I was in church. I found A cloister nearby called the Gates of Heaven, Where I could be alone. The Virgin hung 1300 Above the altar, badly painted but The friend whom I was seeking at that moment. How often have I seen her in her glory,



#### Scene Four

*As above. Thekla entering quickly.*






#### Scene Five

*Thekla and Max Piccolomini.*<sup>142</sup>





#### Scene Six

*As above. Countess Terzky returns.*


THEKLA (*vivid*). Exactly right. Precisely what I want.

Just leave him here. And let their Lordships know—

COUNTESS. Why, have you lost your mind, my niece? You, Count,

1560 Know full well what conditions we've agreed.

MAX. I must obey, Mistress. Farewell for now.

*(Thekla turns away abruptly.)*

You've no reply?

THEKLA (*without looking at him*).

None. Go, please.

MAX. Can I, when

You're angry with me?

*(He approaches her, their eyes meet, she stands a moment in silence, then throws herself into his arms; he clasps her tight.)*

COUNTESS. Go! If someone should come!

I hear an uproar—strangers' voices close by.

*(Max tears himself away and goes, the Countess accompanies him. Thekla follows him with her eyes, wanders about the room, then pauses, lost in thought. A guitar lies on a table; she picks it up. After a melancholy prelude, she sings.)*

#### Scene Seven

*Thekla plays and sings.*


## Scene Eight

*The Countess, returning. Thekla.*



III/8 *The Piccolomini 117*



#### Scene Nine

*Thekla alone.*


From safety and repose I have been roused, A benign magic shields my soul by blinding. Fate lures me forward by a heavenly wight, I see it floating toward me, close, insistent. 1700 It draws me forth from here with god-like might Toward the abyss, and I cannot resist it.

#### *(Distant table music.)*

Oh, when a house is fated to the fire, The heavens drive black clouds together, churning. Swift lightning plunges, strikes the highest spire, And crevasses gape open, flaming, burning. The God of Pleasure, even, raging, wielding Hot pitch, flings fire into the burning building! (*She goes off.*)

## Act Four

*A grand Hall, festively lit. In the center, upstage, an opulently laid table at which eight Generals are seated, among them, Octavio Piccolomini, Terzky, and Maradas. Two other tables, right and left and farther upstage, where six diners are seated, respectively. Downstage, a sideboard. The front of the stage is left free for the Pages and Servants who wait the tables. The whole room is in motion and marching musicians from Terzky's regiment circle the tables. Before they have left the scene, Max Piccolomini enters. Terzky approaches him, carrying a sheet of paper; Isolani, equally, carrying a wine cup.*

#### Scene One

*Terzky. Isolani. Max Piccolomini.*


and to risk everything for him, to our last drop of blood, *to the extent permitted by our Oath sworn to the Kaiser*. (*Isolani repeats these last words aloud.*) We FURTHER declare anyone who deserts our common cause, in contravention of this Pledge, to be a traitor to our League whom we are obliged to penalize in his property and assets, his person and his life. IN WITNESS WHEREOF we hereby set our name."149 TERZKY. Are you prepared to put your name to this? ISOLANI. Why shouldn't he? Why, every officer Of honor can and must. Ho! Pen and ink here! TERZKY. We'll let that wait till after table. ISOLANI (*drawing Max after him*). Come! Come!

*(Both go to table.)*

### Scene Two

*Terzky. Neumann.*

TERZKY (*signals Neumann, who is standing at the sideboard and comes with him to the front*). You have the copy, Neumann? Let me see. 1730 It's set so that one doesn't see the difference? NEUMANN. I copied line for line and nothing's missing Except the passage with the Kaiser's oath, Just as your Excellency ordered me. TERZKY. Good! Lay it over there. Into the fire With this. It's done what we required of it.

*(Neumann lays the Copy on the table and returns to the sideboard.)*

### Scene Three

*Illo, coming from the back room. Terzky.*

ILLO. Well? How's it stand with Piccolomini? TERZKY. I think, fine. He raised no objection to it. ILLO. The only one whom I don't really trust— Him and his father. Keep an eye on both!


#### Scene Four

#### *Buttler joins them.*



A city and a citadel now switch Their fleeting occupant. Grandsons of ancient Houses take flight, new names, new coats of arms Crop up. A northern people would presume 1810 To settle German lands against our will. The Prince of Weimar arms himself to found A mighty principality. And Mansfeld And Halberstadt lacked only longer life To conquer vast possessions by the sword. Among these men who is our Friedland's equal? No object stands so high that a strong man is Not privileged to set his ladder there.152 TERZKY. That's spoken like a man. BUTTLER. Make sure of both The Spaniard and Italian. I'll take charge 1820 Of Scottish Leslie. Time to join the party! TERZKY. Holla! Steward! Bring out the best you have. The time is right and all's in perfect order.

*(Each goes to his table.)*

#### Scene Five

*Wine Steward comes forward with Neumann. Servants go back and forth.*


Seventy bottles opened here, Lieutenant.




#### Scene Six

*Octavio Piccolomini comes downstage, in conversation with Maradas; they stand far forward, to one side of the proscenium. Max Piccolomini comes down opposite them, alone, lost in thought, abstracted. In the space between them, slightly upstage, Buttler, Isolani, Götz, Tiefenbach, and Colalto gather; Terzky joins them.*

ISOLANI (*while the Company is coming forward*). Night! Night, Colalto! Lieutenant General, night! Or rather, I should say "Good morning" to you. GOETZ (*to Tiefenbach*). Prost, Brother! Prost and blessings! TIEFENBACH. That was a banquet for a king! GOETZ. Madame The Countess knows a thing or two. She got It from the Countess Dowager, God rest Her soul. And what a chatelaine *she* was! ISOLANI (*wanting to leave*). Lights here! Lights here! TERZKY (*approaching Isolani with the Oath*). 1930 Wait, Brother! Just two minutes more. There's something To sign here still. ISOLANI. Oh, I'll sign anything You like, Friend. Just spare me the reading of it. TERZKY. Let me not trouble you. It is the oath That you've already read. A pen stroke merely. *(Isolani passes the sheet to Octavio.)* As you see fit. Whoever's next. No ranks here. *(Octavio skims the text with apparent indifference; Terzky observes him from a distance.)* GOETZ (*to Terzky*). Count, by your leave. My warmest compliments. TERZKY. But what's your hurry! Have a nightcap. (*To the Servants.*) Hey! GOETZ. Not up to it. TERZKY. A little gaming? GOETZ. Pardon! TIEFENBACH (*seating himself*).

Forgive me, Lords. It's hard to stand so long.



#### Scene Seven

*As above. Illo comes out of the back room, holding the golden Wine Cup. He is very excited. Götz and Buttler follow, trying to quiet him.*

ILLO. Wha'd'y want? Leave me alone! GOETZ and BUTTLER. Illo! No more! ILLO (*goes to Octavio and embraces him, drinking*).

IV/7 *The Piccolomini 131*



IV/7 *The Piccolomini 133*


*Commanders as the Company breaks up.)*

*Curtain.*

## Act Five

*A Room in Octavio Piccolomini's quarters. Night.*

#### Scene One

*Octavio Piccolomini. Chamberlain lighting his way. Then Max Piccolomini.*

OCTAVIO. Direct my son to me as soon as he Comes in. What is the hour? CHAMBERLAIN. It's almost morning.164 2040 OCTAVIO. Set down your lamp just here. We'll not lie down Tonight. But you may now retire to bed. *(Chamberlain goes off. Octavio moves about the room, reflecting. Max Piccolomini enters unobserved and watches him in silence for a moment.)* MAX. Are you annoyed with me, Octavio? God knows, I didn't start that ugly fight. I saw that you had signed. What you approve Is good enough for me. But still—you know— I follow my own lights and no one else's. OCTAVIO (*goes to him and embraces him*). And so you should, my boy. You're better guided So than by the example of your father. MAX. Explain yourself more clearly. OCTAVIO. Very gladly. 2050 After what's happened lately, you and I Should keep no further secrets from each other. *(They sit down together.)* Max, tell me: What do you think of that oath They circulated for our signature? MAX. I see no danger in it. Just that I have No love for things so formal and contrived. OCTAVIO. You'd have no other grounds to have refused The signature that they were pressing for? MAX. This was a serious move. I was distracted. It seemed to me to be not all that urgent.


*136 The Piccolomini* V/1







MAX (*reads on, then looks at his father, astonished*).

What? *You?* You are—



#### Scene Two

*As above. The Chamberlain. Then a Courier.*

2310 OCTAVIO. Yes? CHAMBERLAIN. There's a courier at the door. OCTAVIO. So early? Who is it? Where's he from? CHAMBERLAIN. He wouldn't say. OCTAVIO. Admit him. Keep strict silence in this matter. *(The Chamberlain goes off. A Cornet enters.)* It's you, Cornet? Count Gallas has sent you? I'll take his letter. CORNET. I've an oral message. Lieutenant General Gallas wouldn't risk—



*(Exit Cornet.)*

### Scene Three

*Both Piccolomini.*



*(As he goes off, the Curtain falls.)*

# THE DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN

A tragedy in five acts

Translation © 2017 Flora Kimmich, CC BY 4.0 http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0101.04

Engraved portrait of Albrecht von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, by Matthäus Merian, in Cornelis Danckaerts, *Historis oft waerachtlich verhael* (1642), https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dankaerts-Historis-9254.tif. Image in the public domain.

# Characters

WALLENSTEIN

OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI

MAX PICCOLOMINI

TERZKY

ILLO

ISOLANI

BUTTLER

CAVALRY CAPTAIN NEUMANN

An ADJUTANT

COLONEL WRANGEL, Swedish emissary

GORDON, commandant at Eger

MAJOR GERALDIN

DEVEROUX

MACDONALD } captains in Wallenstein's army

SWEDISH CAPTAIN

A delegation of CUIRASSIERS

MAYOR of EGER

SENI

DUCHESS of FRIEDLAND

COUNTESS TERZKY

THEKLA

Fräulein von NEUBRUNN, lady companion to Thekla

Von ROSENBERG, equerry to Thekla

DRAGOONS

SERVANTS. PAGES. A CROWD.

*The scene of the first three acts is Pilsen, of the last two, Eger.*

## Act One

*A Room equipped for astrological endeavors and furnished with globes, charts, quadrants, and other astrological instruments. A curtain is drawn back from a rotunda where we see statues of the seven planets, each in an alcove and strangely lit. Seni is observing the stars; Wallenstein is standing before a large black table showing the aspect of the planets.*

#### Scene One

*Wallenstein. Seni.*


The time is past for brooding and reflecting, For Jupiter, most brilliant, governs now And draws a work prepared in darkness forth With force into the realm of light. Quick! Time 30 To act, before the happy constellation Above my head eludes me once again, For change is constant on the dome of heaven. *(Loud knocking at the door.)*<sup>175</sup>

> A knock. See who it is. TERZKY (*outside*). Ho! Open up! WALLENSTEIN. It's Terzky. What's there so urgent? We are busy here. TERZKY (*outside*). Put everything aside. I beg of you. There can be no delay. WALLENSTEIN. Then open, Seni.

> > *(As Seni opens the door, Wallenstein draws the curtain before the statues.)*

#### Scene Two

*Wallenstein. Count Terzky.*


50 And now they have it. They know everything, Can piece together everything that's happened.

### Scene Three

#### *As above. Illo enters.*





#### Scene Four




(*To the Page who has entered.*)

210 The Swedish colonel? Yes? Let him come in. (*The Page goes out. Wallenstein gazes at the doorway, reflecting.*) It's still unsoiled—still. No crime has crossed That threshold yet. So narrow is the boundary That separates two paths that lie before us.

#### Scene Five

#### *Wallenstein and Wrangel.*




This land we're fighting over, this Bohemia,




#### Scene Six

#### *Wallenstein. Terzky and Illo return.*


He took that Bourbon up with open arms. The world is ruled by seizing what is useful.

#### Scene Seven

*Countess Terzky joins the others.*


If it succeeds, it'll be forgiven, too,

For all result is sealed by God's own verdict.



And everything remains in perfect order.





(*To Terzky.*) Bring Wrangel to me in my private study; The couriers I'll dispatch myself; send for Octavio! (*To the Countess, who is triumphant.*) Mind you don't laugh too soon! For Destiny is chary of her might. To laugh too soon intrudes upon her rights. We merely put the seed stock in her hand. 640 What sprouts—if good, if bad—tells in the end.

*(The Curtain falls as he goes off.)*

## Act Two

*A Room.*

#### Scene One

*Wallenstein. Octavio Piccolomini. Then Max Piccolomini.*


#### Scene Two

*Wallenstein. Max Piccolomini.*


#### *174 The Death of Wallenstein* II/2




II/3 *The Death of Wallenstein 177*


*(Max, who has shown signs of a painful struggle, quickly leaves the scene. Wallenstein looks after him, startled and surprised, then stands deep in thought.)*

#### Scene Three

*Wallenstein. Terzky. Then Illo.*

TERZKY. Max Piccolomini has just gone out? WALLENSTEIN. Where's Wrangel? TERZKY. Poof! Vanished. WALLENSTEIN. In such a hurry?




WALLENSTEIN (*stops and turns back*). If you aren't like those women who return 920 Forever to their first opinion, even When one has reasoned with them endlessly! Look! Human thoughts and deeds are not a force Like random waves upon a surging sea. Man's microcosm, inner world's the source216 From which they rise and flow eternally. They are compelled, as is the pear tree's pear, And shifting chance can never change their breed. When I've once seen a man's dark depths laid bare, I can divine his wishes and his deed.217

#### *(Exeunt.)*

#### Scene Four

*A Room in Piccolomini's quarters. Octavio Piccolomini, ready for departure. An Adjutant.*

930 OCTAVIO. Is the detachment ready? ADJUTANT. Waiting below. OCTAVIO. Trustworthy men, all of them, Adjutant? Which is the regiment you took them from? ADJUTANT. From Tiefenbach. OCTAVIO. That regiment is loyal.218 Have them stand quietly in the rear courtyard, Attract no notice, till you hear a bell. The house is to be closed then, sharply guarded, And anyone encountered here locked up. *(Exit Adjutant.)* I hope there'll be no need for such precautions, For I am confident of my assessment. 940 But this is Kaiser's service, much at risk, And better too great measures than too few.

#### Scene Five

*Octavio Piccolomini. Isolani enters.*




#### Scene Six

#### *Octavio Piccolomini. Buttler.*

BUTTLER. I am at your disposal, Lieutenant General. OCTAVIO. I welcome you as worthy guest and friend. 1020 BUTTLER. You do me too much honor.

*(They both sit down.)*








#### Scene Seven

#### *Both Piccolomini.*

MAX (*enters in great agitation, wide-eyed, walking unsteadily. He seems not to see his father, who stops at a distance and observes him compassionately. He crosses the room with long strides, comes to a halt, and throws himself into a chair, staring straight ahead*).

OCTAVIO (*approaching him*). Son, I'm about to leave. (*Having received no answer, he takes Max by the hand.*) Farewell, my boy.

MAX. Farewell!






*(Max falls into his arms; they clasp each other in a long silent embrace, then go off to different sides.)*

# Act Three227

*Reception Room of the Duchess of Friedland*

#### Scene One

*Countess Terzky. Thekla. Lady Companion von Neubrunn. Thekla and Neubrunn engaged in fine needlework.*


*(The Lady Companion removes herself.)*

#### Scene Two

*Countess. Thekla.*

COUNTESS. I do not like

His keeping silent, not at just this moment. THEKLA. At just this moment? COUNTESS. Now that he knows all. Because it's now he should declare himself. THEKLA. If I'm to understand, you must speak clearly. COUNTESS. With that intention I sent her away. Thekla, you're not a child. No more. Your heart Has come of age, for you're in love and love



COUNTESS. Compose yourself. I hear your mother coming. THEKLA. How to meet her! COUNTESS. Compose yourself, please.

## Scene Three

*The Duchess. As above.*



Can't see him now.

1380 COUNTESS. But he will miss you, ask For you. DUCHESS. Why does she want to leave the room? THEKLA. Because I cannot bear to see him now. COUNTESS (*to the Duchess*). She is not well. DUCHESS (*anxious*). What's troubling the poor child?

> *(Both follow the Young Lady, trying to hold her back. Wallenstein enters, speaking with Illo.)*

#### Scene Four

*Wallenstein. Illo. As above.*






DUCHESS. We're not returning to Carinthia? WALLENSTEIN. No. DUCHESS. To another of your holdings, then? WALLENSTEIN. You'd not be safe there. DUCHESS. Not be safe in Kaiser's Country and under his protection? WALLENSTEIN. That Is something Friedland's lady cannot hope for. DUCHESS. Dear God! You've taken it to such a point! WALLENSTEIN. In Holland you will find protection. DUCHESS. What? 1500 You'd send us into Lutheran territory? WALLENSTEIN. Duke Franz von Lauenburg accompanies You there.235 DUCHESS. Duke Franz von Lauenburg? Who's with The Swedes, who's with the Kaiser's enemies? WALLENSTEIN. The Kaiser's enemies are mine no longer. DUCHESS (*looks in fright from the Duke to the Countess*). It's true, then? Is it? You have fallen? They've Removed you from command? Oh, God in heaven! COUNTESS (*aside to the Duke*). We'll leave her in that belief. You see, don't you, That she could not endure to hear the truth.

#### Scene Five

*Count Terzky. As above.*



### Scene Six

*Illo. As above.*



Go, Sister. COUNTESS. Not in life! WALLENSTEIN. I wish it. TERZKY (*takes her aside and indicates the Duchess*). Theresa! DUCHESS. Come, Sister. He would have it so.

*(They go.)*

## Scene Seven

*Wallenstein. Count Terzky.*

WALLENSTEIN (*going to the window*). What's happening? TERZKY. A huge commotion in the troops. It's baffling. Mysteriously, in ominous silence, each corps Is placing itself under its own banners.

The Tiefenbachers all look menacing,


Are lightly writ in disappearing ink, Into this bosom's silent depths falls nothing. A cheerful temper stirs his lighter humors, But no soul warms his chilly viscera. TERZKY. Perhaps. But I would sooner trust myself

1590 To unmarked foreheads than to furrowed brows.

### Scene Eight

*Wallenstein. Terzky. Illo.*

ILLO (*entering furious*). Betrayal, mutiny! TERZKY. Aha! Now what? ILLO. The Tiefenbachers, when I gave the order To stand down—mutinous rascals that they are— TERZKY. Well? WALLENSTEIN. What then? ILLO. They refused obedience. Flatly. TERZKY. Then have them shot down on the spot! Give orders! WALLENSTEIN. Easy now! What's the reason that they give? ILLO. They claim no other can command them than Lieutenant General Piccolomini. WALLENSTEIN. What? How is that? ILLO. His orders at departure, 1600 And written in the Kaiser's very hand. TERZKY. The Kaiser's—Prince, you hear? ILLO. And at his urging The colonels also slipped out yesterday. TERZKY. You hear? ILLO. And Montecuculi, Caraffa, Together with six others he prevailed Upon to follow him, have all gone missing. They say he's had those papers from the Kaiser Now for a long time. Only recently Did he and Questenberg agree to act.

*(Wallenstein sinks into a chair and covers his face.)*

TERZKY. If only, only you had believed me.238

### Scene Nine

*Countess. As above.*


#### Scene Ten



Into the hands of mutineers. Quick! Send An escort we can trust to intercept him And bring him in to me by secret ways. *(Illo is about to go.)* BUTTLER (*holding him back*). Field Marshal, who are you expecting? WALLENSTEIN. The mounted messenger who brings us news 1670 Of how we've fared in Prague. BUTTLER. Hm! WALLENSTEIN. Something's wrong? BUTTLER. You don't know yet? WALLENSTEIN. Know what? BUTTLER. What brought in the Unrest in camp? WALLENSTEIN. What's this?

Whatever he may bring, he's not to fall

BUTTLER. That messenger— WALLENSTEIN (*expectantly*). Well? BUTTLER. He's in already— TERZKY and ILLO. In already?

WALLENSTEIN (*overlapping*). My messenger? BUTTLER. For several hours.

WALLENSTEIN. And I don't know it yet?

BUTTLER. The Watch stopped him.

ILLO (*stamps his foot*). Damnation!

BUTTLER. And his letter Was broken open, makes the rounds through camp— WALLENSTEIN (*tense*).

You know what it contains? BUTTLER (*withholding*). Don't question me. TERZKY. Disaster, Illo! Everything's collapsing! WALLENSTEIN. Just tell me. I'm prepared to hear the worst. 1680 So Prague is lost? It is? Admit it freely. BUTTLER. Prague *is* lost. Every regiment, all those Of Budweis, Tabor, Braunau, Königgrätz,

Of Brünn and Znaym:239 they have deserted you

And sworn to Austria. You, with Kinsky, Terzky, Illo, stand henceforth under Kaiser's ban.

> *(Terzky and Illo show horror and rage. Wallenstein stands firm and composed.)*

#### WALLENSTEIN (*after a pause*).

It is decided. Good, then! Quickly here now I'm healed of all the doubts that once were mine. My breast is free again, my mind is clear now: It must be night for Friedland's stars to shine. 1690 With slow resolve and with uncertain insight I drew my sword; I did so, my heart riven, As long as I knew space to choose was given. Necessity's upon us, doubt's now in flight, I battle for my life, exalted, driven.

*(He leaves the scene. The others follow.)*

#### Scene Eleven


#### Scene Twelve

*Countess. Duchess. Thekla.*


*A grand Hall in the quarters of the Duke of Friedland.*

#### Scene Thirteen

#### WALLENSTEIN (*in armor*).241


We shall see to which side the spirit lay.

*(Illo and Terzky enter.)*

Courage, my friends. We're not defeated yet. Five Terzky regiments remain still ours And Buttler's proven troops. Tomorrow we'll Be joined by sixteen thousand Swedish men. I was no stronger nine years since, when I 1770 Marched out to conquer Germany for Austria.

Scene Fourteen

*As above. Neumann, who takes Count Terzky aside to speak with him.*

TERZKY (*to Neumann*). What do they want? WALLENSTEIN. What's this? TERZKY. Ten Cuirassiers From Pappenheim—the regiment has sent them.242 WALLENSTEIN (*quickly to Neumann*).

Admit them. (*Neumann goes out.*) This is promising. Just wait! They have their doubts and can still be won over.

#### Scene Fifteen

*Wallenstein. Terzky. Illo. Ten Cuirassiers, led by a Private, march up and, at a command, form a single file before the Duke, performing honors.*

WALLENSTEIN (*takes their measure carefully, then addresses the Private*). I know you well. You come from Bruges in Flanders, Your name is Mercy. PRIVATE. Heinrich Mercy it is. WALLENSTEIN. You were once cut off on the march, surrounded By Hessians, and fought your way out, one hundred

And eighty men straight through theirs of one thousand.

1780 PRIVATE. It's so, my General.






#### Scene Sixteen

*Buttler. As above.*


I'll have it punished. Listen! Wait a minute! They won't hear me. (*To Illo.*) Go after them. Explain. 1940 And bring them back. Do anything it takes.

*(Illo hurries out.)*

A thing like this will ruin us. Buttler! Buttler! You are my evil genius. Why did you Announce it in their presence? Everything Was going well. Why, I'd half won them over. These hopeless hot-heads, they and their mindless Officiousness! My luck plays cruel games With me! The fervor of my friends will do Me in before the hatred of my foes.250

### Scene Seventeen

*As above. The Duchess plunges into the room, followed by Thekla and the Countess. Then Illo.*



## Scene Eighteen

*As above. Max Piccolomini.*

MAX (*crossing to the middle of the Hall).* 1980 Oh, yes. He's here! I can no longer stand





2120 You are not free to choose if you will follow. It rips you with it, forced into its train, Together with its ring and all its moons.262 You are pulled guiltless into this contest; The world will never blame you but approve, Because it was your friend who counted most.

#### Scene Nineteen

*As above. Neumann.*



#### Scene Twenty

*As above. Terzky returns.*



#### Scene Twenty-One

*Countess. Duchess. Max and Thekla.*





*(Max takes her into his arms, deeply moved. Behind the scene a wild, resounding cry is raised—"Vivat Ferdinandus!"—accompanied by military music. Max and Thekla hold one another in a long embrace.)*

#### Scene Twenty-Two

*As above. Terzky.*

COUNTESS (*going toward him*).

What was that? What's the meaning of the shouting? TERZKY. We're lost, all lost, and everything is over. COUNTESS. What? No retreat on seeing him? TERZKY. Retreat? No. It was no use. DUCHESS. I heard a "Vivat!" for— TERZKY. The Kaiser. COUNTESS. Renegades! They're renegades! TERZKY. They wouldn't let him even start to speak. When he began, they started up the music 2290 And drowned him out completely. Here he comes.

#### Scene Twenty-Three

*As above. Wallenstein, accompanied by Illo and Buttler. Then Cuirassiers.*

WALLENSTEIN (*in mid-stride*). Terzky! TERZKY. My Prince? WALLENSTEIN. Our regiments are to stand in Readiness to break camp today yet; we Are moving out of Pilsen before evening. *(Terzky goes off.)*

Buttler—

BUTTLER. My General?

WALLENSTEIN. In command at Eger is A man you know, your countryman.267 Write him by Express that he is to make ready to Receive us in the fort sometime tomorrow.268 You'll follow us and bring your regiment. BUTTLER. It shall be so, my Marshal.




*Curtain.*

## Act Four

*In the House of the Mayor at Eger*

#### Scene One


#### Scene Two

#### *Buttler and Gordon.*

GORDON. It's you? Oh, how I've longed to speak with you! The Duke a traitor? God have mercy on us! In flight? A ban upon his princely head! I beg you, General, tell me in detail How all these things in Pilsen came about.271 BUTTLER. Did you receive the letter that I sent Ahead by special messenger from Pilsen?




GORDON. It's true that he became reflective, he Turned Catholic. His miraculous salvation Converted him. And henceforth he thought himself A favored one, one who'd been liberated. As bold as one who's safe from ever tumbling, He ran along the slack rope that is life. Fate then led us away from one another, Far, far away. He took the path of greatness; I watched him scale the heights there, moving quickly, 2490 Become first count, then prince, then duke, dictator;277 And now the world's too small for him; he would Put out his hand and capture a king's crown, And plunges into bottomless perdition. BUTTLER. Leave off. He's coming.

#### Scene Three

*Wallenstein in conversation with the Mayor of Eger.*<sup>278</sup> *As above.*




I put my wife, my child, my sister in

I leave the fort tomorrow at first light And I shall take the regiments all with me.

Your faithful hands, Commander. For I'll not

2550 Remain here long. I've stopped for letters only.

## Scene Four

#### *As above. Count Terzky.*


WALLENSTEIN. Riders in Neustadt? How did they get there? That Altringer—he'd have to have had wings, Stood yesterday good fourteen miles away; Gallas is mustering still at Frauenberg And isn't nearly ready yet. Would Suys Have ventured so far forward? This does not Make sense.

#### *(Illo appears.)*

TERZKY. We'll find out soon enough. Here's Illo. 2570 He's in a rush and looking very pleased.

#### Scene Five

#### *Illo. As above.*


#### WALLENSTEIN and TERZKY. She's heard? NEUBRUNN. She wants to die.

*(She hurries out. Wallenstein and Terzky, with Illo, rush after her.)*

### Scene Six

#### *Buttler and Gordon.*



IV/7 *The Death of Wallenstein 245*



#### Scene Seven

*As above. Illo and Terzky.*




*(Exeunt Terzky, Illo.)*

## Scene Eight

*Buttler and Gordon.*

GORDON (*gazing after them*).

What lost souls! With no inkling whatsoever They rush ahead into the nets that death



If base-born men do themselves honor or not, So long as princes are preserved in standing. Each man awards himself his worth. How I Evaluate myself is my affair. No one on earth is placed so high that I Despise myself when I am placed beside him. It is one's *will* that makes one great or small; Because I'm true to mine, he has to die. GORDON. I'd as soon try to move a rocky crag! 2810 Alas! No man begot you humanly. I cannot stop you. One can only hope

#### *(Exeunt.)*

Some god will save him from your fearsome hand.

#### Scene Nine

*A Room in the quarters of the Duchess.*

*Thekla seated in a chair, pale, her eyes closed. The Duchess and the Lady Companion attend her. Wallenstein and the Countess in conversation.*



I'll not be second-guessed. My mother wants To spare me. Sparing is not what I want.



*(Exeunt Duchess and Countess.)*

### Scene Ten

*Thekla. The Swedish Captain. The Lady Companion.*



Points to the trench, leaps his mount back across; His regiment then plunges after. But— Too late—His charger, piked, rears up wildly



*(Thekla signals him to go and quits him. The Captain hesitates, wishing to speak. The Lady Companion repeats the signal. He leaves the scene.)*

#### Scene Eleven

*Thekla. Neubrunn.*




#### Scene Twelve

*Thekla.*

His spirit is what calls me. It's the troop Of loyal men who sacrificed themselves For him, avenged him. They charge me with dawdling. Even in death *they'd* not abandon him, Who led them while they lived. These simple men Did such a thing, and *I* should still live on? No! The somber laurel wreath that graced your bier Was also wound for me, its bright leaves darkly gleaming. Without love's brightness what worth has life here?


#### Scene Thirteen

*Thekla. The Lady Companion with the Equerry.*



#### Scene Fourteen

*Thekla. The Lady Companion. The Duchess.*

DUCHESS. He's gone now, and I find that you're more calm. THEKLA. I am. Let me lie down soon, Mother, and 3080 Let Neubrunn stay with me. It's rest I need. DUCHESS. And you shall have it. I go away relieved, Since I can reassure your father now. THEKLA. Good night, dear Mother. (*She falls into her arms and embraces her with emotion.*) DUCHESS. Daughter, you're not yet Entirely calm. You're trembling. I can feel On mine how hard your heart is beating. THEKLA. Sleep Will still it soon. Good night, beloved Mother!304

*(As she leaves her mother's arms, the Curtain falls.)*

## Act Five

*Buttler's Room*

## Scene One305

*Buttler. Major Geraldin.*


#### Scene Two

*Buttler. Captains Deveroux and Macdonald.*<sup>307</sup>

MACDONALD. My General, here we are. DEVEROUX. Give us the password. BUTTLER. Long live the Kaiser!






DEVEROUX. And how shall we get past the sentries, past the Guards standing watch around the inner courtyard?

	- Admit me to the Duke at any hour. I'll
	- Precede you, cut that guard's throat, clear your way.
	- DEVEROUX. And once we're up there, how to reach the Duke's Bed chamber without waking his attendants And having them raise the alarm—since he Has come here with an endless retinue.
	- BUTTLER. The servants all sleep in the right wing; he, Who hates all noise, sleeps in the left, alone.



For Ferdinand. Reward will not be wanting.

DEVEROUX. It's his intention to dethrone the Kaiser? BUTTLER. It is: to rob him of his crown and life. 3260 DEVEROUX. And he'd have died upon the scaffold, had we Delivered him alive back to Vienna? BUTTLER. A fate that he would never have escaped. DEVEROUX. Macdonald, come. Field marshal is how he Should end, with honor and at soldiers' hands.

*(Exeunt Deveroux and Macdonald.)*

*A Hall from which a Gallery extends, reaching far to the back.*

#### Scene Three

*Wallenstein is seated at a table. The Swedish Captain stands before him. Then Countess Terzky.*






#### Scene Four

*Wallenstein. Gordon. Then the Chamberlain.*




#### Scene Five

*As above. Seni.*



Perhaps I would have reconsidered, perhaps

Not. At this point, though, why forbear? Too grave Was its beginning for it to end in nothing. 3530 We'll let it run its course. (*He goes to the window.*) Look. Night has fallen. At the castle all Is still meanwhile. Come, Chamberlain, bring light. *(The Chamberlain, who has entered quietly and has followed the conversation from a distance, comes forward, much moved, and falls at the Duke's feet.)* You, too? But yes, I know why you would want to See me restored to favor with the Kaiser. Poor fellow! In Carinthia he has A farm he fears they'll confiscate because He's in my service. I should be so poor That I cannot replace a servant? Well Then, I'll force no one. If you think that luck's 3540 Deserted me, then you may leave me, too. Tonight you may undress me one last time And after that go over to the Kaiser. Gordon, good night. I think that I will have a long, long sleep. These last few days were torment quite enough. See to it that they do not wake me early.

> *(He goes off. The Chamberlain lights his way. Seni follows. Gordon stands in darkness, following the Duke with his eyes until he has disappeared at the end of the Gallery. He expresses his pain in gestures, then leans sorrowfully against a column.)*

## Scene Six

*Gordon. Buttler, initially behind the scene.*

BUTTLER. Halt! All stand still until I give the signal. GORDON (*startled*).

He's come; he's brought the murderers in already.



#### Scene Seven

*Macdonald, Deveroux enter with Halberdiers. Then the Chamberlain.* 

GORDON (*blocking Buttler*). You monster! You'll reach him only over my dead body, For this is horrible beyond endurance. BUTTLER (*pushing him aside*). Silly old man!

*(Trumpets in the distance.)*

MACDONALD and DEVEROUX. That's Swedish trumpets. Swedes Before the walls! Quick now! Let's get this done.

GORDON. God! Dear God!

BUTTLER. Go take up your post, Commander.

*(Gordon plunges out.)*

CHAMBERLAIN (*rushing in*).

*W*ho dares make so much noise? The Duke's asleep!

DEVEROUX (*with a terrible voice*).

It's time for noise, my friend!

CHAMBERLAIN (*shouting*). Help! Murderers!

BUTTLER. Be done with him!

CHAMBERLAIN (*impaled by Deveroux, falls at the entrance to the Gallery*).

Jesu Maria!

BUTTLER. Break the doors!

*(They step over the corpse and go down the Gallery. The sound of two doors being battered down, one after the other. Muffled voices. Clashing weapons. Then silence.*

## Scene Eight

*Countess Terzky, carrying a light.*

Her bedchamber is empty, she's nowhere to 3600 Be found, and Neubrunn, too, is missing, who Was watching by her. Can she have taken flight? Have taken flight to where? We'll have to rush out After, set everything in motion, find her! How will the Duke receive this frightening news? I wish my husband had come back from dinner! Whether the Duke perhaps is still awake? I thought that I heard voices here and footsteps. Let me go down and listen at the door. What's that? There's someone running up the stair.

### Scene Nine

*Countess. Gordon. Then Buttler.*

GORDON (*rushing in, breathless*).


COUNTESS. You're coming from the castle? Where's my husband? GORDON (*horrified*).

Your husband? Do not ask! And go on in—(*About to leave.*) COUNTESS (*delaying him*). But not before you tell me— GORDON (*very urgently*).

The world entire depends on this one moment!

For God's sake, go! For as we speak—(*Shouting.*) Buttler!

COUNTESS. He's surely at the castle with my husband.

*(Buttler appears from the Gallery.)*

GORDON (*catching sight of him*).

It's all an error. Those are not the Swedes— 3620 It's the Imperials—they have penetrated— I come from the Lieutenant General; He'll be here right away. Do not go further— BUTTLER. He comes too late. GORDON (*lurches against the wall*). Oh, merciful God— COUNTESS (*beginning to understand*). Too late for what? Who's coming right away? Octavio within the walls of Eger? We've been betrayed! We've been betrayed! Where is The Duke? (*She rushes toward the Gallery.*)

## Scene Ten

*As above. Seni. Then the Mayor. Page. Chambermaid. Servants running about in fright.*


#### Scene Eleven

*As above, without the Countess. Octavio Piccolomini enters with his suite. At the same time Deveroux and Macdonald emerge from the back, accompanied by Halberdiers. Wallenstein's corpse, wrapped in a red tapestry, is carried across the backdrop.*

OCTAVIO (*entering rapidly*). 3640 This cannot be! Not possible! Buttler!

Gordon! I cannot believe it. Tell me, No.

GORDON (*gestures without speaking to the back. Octavio turns and stiffens in horror*).

DEVEROUX (*to Buttler*).

Here is the Golden Fleece322 and here his sword!

MACDONALD. Is it your order that the Chancellery—323

BUTTLER (*indicating Octavio*).

Here is the one who gives the orders now.

*(Deveroux and Macdonald step back respectfully. Everyone melts away, leaving only Buttler, Octavio, and Gordon on the scene.)*

OCTAVIO (*turned to Buttler*).

Was that our intention, Buttler, when we parted?324 By all God's justice! I here raise my hand! This monstrous deed cannot be charged to me. I Am innocent.

BUTTLER. Your hands are clean. You Used mine instead.

OCTAVIO. You shameless reprobate! 3650 You misuse orders from your master to Heap on your Kaiser's sacred head a cheap, Atrocious, stealthy murder by your hirelings?

#### BUTTLER (*unmoved*).

I've merely executed Kaiser's judgment.

OCTAVIO. Oh, curse of kings that brings their words to life And chains indelible deeds to fleeting thought! Obedience had to come so quickly? You could Not grant this gracious man an hour of grace? Time is man's guardian angel. Swift conclusion Of judgment belongs alone to timeless God.


3670 Would you have further orders for me? I'm About to set out for Vienna, where


## Scene Twelve

*As above, without Buttler. Countess Terzky enters pale and disfigured. Her speech is faint and slow, without affect.*



GORDON. A house of murder and a house of horror!

*(A Courier enters, carrying a letter.)*

GORDON (*going to meet him*).

What have we here? That's the Imperial seal. (*He reads the address and gives Octavio the letter with an expression of reproach.*) It's for *Prince* Piccolomini.

> *(Octavio starts and, pained, gazes upward.) Curtain.*


# Notes

In references, the three plays are cited as *Camp*, *Picc.*, and *Death*, respectively.

# *Wallenstein's Camp*


# *The Piccolomini*

### Act One


#### Act Two


#### Act Three


#### Act Four


ambitions: many German princes—and not only younger sons—hoped to improve themselves in a war that, among much else, amounted to a land grab of continental dimensions. See "handing prince's bonnets out," scene 1, line 1713.


#### Act Five


# *The Death of Wallenstein*

#### Act One


#### Act Two


#### Act Three


#### Act Four


#### Act Five


# This book need not end here...

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# **Wallenstein** A Dramatic Poem

pt

# Friedrich Schiller Translated by Flora Kimmich Introduction by Roger Paulin

By the ti me Frederich Schiller came to write the Wallenstein trilogy, his reputati on as one of Germany's leading playwrights was all but secured. Consisti ng of *Wallenstein's Camp*, *The Piccolomini* and *Wallenstein's Death*, this suite of plays appeared between 1798 and 1799, each producti on under the original directi on of Schiller's collaborator and mentor, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Across the three plays, which are now commonly performed and printed together, Schiller charts the thwarted rebellion of General Albrecht von Wallenstein. Based loosely on the events of the Thirty Years' War, the trilogy provides a unique perspecti ve on an army's loyalty to their commander and the machinati ons and intrigues of internati onal diplomacy, giving insight into the military hero who is placed on the threshold between these forces as they are increasingly pitt ed against one another.

The Wallenstein trilogy, formally innovati ve and modern beyond its ti me, is a brilliant study of power, ambiti on and betrayal. In this new translati on—the latest in a long line of disti nguished English translati ons starti ng with Coleridge's in Schiller's lifeti me—Flora Kimmich succeeds in rendering what is oft en a diffi cult source text into language that is at once accessible and enjoyable. Coupled with a complete and careful commentary and a glossary, both of which are targeted to undergraduates, it is accompanied by an authoritati ve introductory essay by Roger Paulin. Kimmich's translati on will be an invaluable resource for students of German, European literature and history, and military history, as well as to all readers approaching this important set of plays for the fi rst ti me.

As with all Open Book publicati ons, this enti re book is available to read for free on the publisher's website. Printed and digital editi ons, together with supplementary digital material, can also be found at www.openbookpublishers.com

Cover image: Bernhard Neher (der Jüngere), Wallenstein standing between Max and Thekla (detail). Photo by Rolf-Werner Nehrdich, courtesy of the Zentralinsti tut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich. Cover design: Heidi Coburn.