Volume 3 / Act 3 — SCENE III
Reading edition
To them enter the DUCHESS
DUCHESS (to the COUNTESS).
Who was here, sister? I heard someone talking, And passionately too.
COUNTESS.
Nay! there was no one.
DUCHESS.
I am grown so timorous, every trifling noise Scatters my spirits, and announces to me The footstep of some messenger of evil. And you can tell me, sister, what the event is? Will he agree to do the Emperor's pleasure, And send the horse-regiments to the Cardinal? Tell me, has he dismiss'd Von Questenberg With a favorable answer?
COUNTESS.
No, he has not.
DUCHESS.
Alas! then all is lost! I see it coming, The worst that can come! Yes, they will depose him; The accursed business of the Regensburg diet Will all be acted o'er again!
COUNTESS.
No! never! Make your heart easy, sister, as to that.
[THEKLA, in extreme agitation, throws herself upon her mother, and enfolds her in her arms, weeping.]
DUCHESS.
Yes, my poor child! Thou too hast lost a most affectionate godmother In the Empress. O that stern unbending man! In this unhappy marriage what have I Not suffer'd, not endured? For even as if I had been link'd on to some wheel of fire That restless, ceaseless, whirls impetuous onward, I have pass'd a life of frights and horrors with him, And ever to the brink of some abyss With dizzy headlong violence he bears me. Nay, do not weep, my child. Let not my sufferings Presignify unhappiness to thee, Nor blacken with their shade the fate that waits thee. There lives no second Friedland: thou, my child, Hast not to fear thy mother's destiny.
THEKLA.
O let us supplicate him, dearest mother! Quick! quick! here's no abiding place for us. Here every coming hour broods into life Some new affrightful monster.
DUCHESS.
Thou wilt share An easier, calmer lot, my child! We too, I and thy father, witnessed happy days. Still think I with delight of those first years, When he was making progress with glad effort, When his ambition was a genial fire, Not that consuming flame which now it is. The Emperor loved him, trusted him: and all He undertook could not but be successful. But since that ill-starr'd day at Regensburg, Which plunged him headlong from his dignity, A gloomy uncompanionable spirit, Unsteady and suspicious, has possess'd him. His quiet mind forsook him, and no longer Did he yield up himself in joy and faith To his old luck and individual power; But thenceforth turn'd his heart and best affections All to those cloudy sciences, which never Have yet made happy him who follow'd them.
COUNTESS.
You see it, sister, as your eyes permit you, But surely this is not the conversation To pass the time in which we are waiting for him. You know he will be soon here. Would you have him Find her in this condition?
DUCHESS.
Come, my child! Come wipe away thy tears, and show thy father A cheerful countenance. See, the tie-knot here Is off—this hair must not hang so dishevell'd. Come, dearest! dry thy tears up. They deform Thy gentle eye.—Well now—what was I saying? Yes, in good truth, this Piccolomini Is a most noble and deserving gentleman.
COUNTESS.
That is he, sister!
THEKLA (to the COUNTESS, with marks of great oppression of spirits).
Aunt, you will excuse me?
[Is going.]
COUNTESS.
But whither? See, your father comes.
THEKLA.
I cannot see him now.
COUNTESS.
Nay, but bethink you.
THEKLA.
Believe me, I cannot sustain his presence.
COUNTESS.
But he will miss you, will ask after you.
DUCHESS.
What now? Why is she going?
COUNTESS.
She's not well.
DUCHESS (anxiously).
What ails then my beloved child?
[Both follow the PRINCESS, and endeavor to detain her. During this WALLENSTEIN appears, engaged in conversation with ILLO.]