The Works of Frederick Schiller Part 140

I tell you again, that it shan't be done.

FIRST YAGER.

The pipers are coming, lads! now for fun!

SECOND YAGER (to Dragoon).

I shan't be far off, should you look for me.

SERGEANT.

Peace, my good fellows!--a kiss goes free.

SCENE VIII.

Enter Miners, and play a waltz--at first slowly, and afterwards quicker. The first Yager dances with the girl, the Sutler-woman with the recruit. The girl springs away, and the Yager, pursuing her, seizes hold of a Capuchin Friar just entering.

CAPUCHIN.

Hurrah! halloo! tol, lol, de rol, le!

The fun's at its height! I'll not be away!

Is't an army of Christians that join in such works?

Or are we all turned Anabaptists and Turks?

Is the Sabbath a day for this sport in the land, As though the great G.o.d had the gout in his hand, And thus couldn't smite in the midst of your band?

Say, is this a time for your revelling shouts, For your banquetings, feasts, and holiday bouts?

Quid hic statis otiosi? declare Why, folding your arms, stand ye lazily there?

While the furies of war on the Danube now fare And Bavaria's bulwark is lying full low, And Ratisbon's fast in the clutch of the foe.

Yet, the army lies here in Bohemia still, And caring for naught, so their paunches they fill!

Bottles far rather than battles you'll get, And your bills than your broad-swords more readily wet; With the wenches, I ween, is your dearest concern, And you'd rather roast oxen than Oxenstiern.

In sackcloth and ashes while Christendom's grieving, No thought has the soldier his guzzle of leaving.

'Tis a time of misery, groans, and tears!

Portentous the face of the heavens appears!

And forth from the clouds behold blood-red, The Lord's war-mantle is downward spread-- While the comet is thrust as a threatening rod, From the window of heaven by the hand of G.o.d.

The world is but one vast house of woe, The ark of the church stems a b.l.o.o.d.y flow, The Holy Empire--G.o.d help the same!

Has wretchedly sunk to a hollow name.

The Rhine's gay stream has a gory gleam, The cloister's nests are robbed by roysters; The church-lands now are changed to lurch-lands; Abbacies, and all other holy foundations Now are but robber-sees--rogues' habitations.

And thus is each once-blest German state, Deep sunk in the gloom of the desolate!

Whence comes all this? Oh, that will I tell-- It comes of your doings, of sin, and of h.e.l.l; Of the horrible, heathenish lives ye lead, Soldiers and officers, all of a breed.

For sin is the magnet, on every hand, That draws your steel throughout the land!

As the onion causes the tear to flow, So vice must ever be followed by woe-- The W duly succeeds the V, This is the order of A, B, C.

Ubi erit victoriae spes, Si offenditur Deus? which says, How, pray ye, shall victory e'er come to pa.s.s, If thus you play truant from sermon and ma.s.s, And do nothing but lazily loll o'er the gla.s.s?

The woman, we're told in the Testament, Found the penny in search whereof she went.

Saul met with his father's a.s.ses again, And Joseph his precious fraternal train, But he, who 'mong soldiers shall hope to see G.o.d's fear, or shame, or discipline--he From his toil, beyond doubt, will baffled return, Though a hundred lamps in the search he burn.

To the wilderness preacher, th' Evangelist says, The soldiers, too, thronged to repent of their ways, And had themselves christened in former days.

Quid faciemus nos? they said: Toward Abraham's bosom what path must we tread?

Et ait illis, and, said he, Neminem concutiatis; From bother and wrongs leave your neighbors free.

Neque calumniam faciatis; And deal nor in slander nor lies, d'ye see?

Contenti estote--content ye, pray, Stipendiis vestris--with your pay-- And curse forever each evil way.

There is a command--thou shalt not utter The name of the Lord thy G.o.d in vain; But, where is it men most blasphemies mutter?

Why here, in Duke Friedland's headquarters, 'tie plain If for every thunder, and every blast, Which blazing ye from your tongue-points cast, The bells were but rung, in the country round, Not a bellman, I ween, would there soon be found; And if for each and every unholy prayer Which to vent from your jabbering jaws you dare, From your noddles were plucked but the smallest hair, Ev'ry crop would be smoothed ere the sun went down, Though at morn 'twere as bushy as Absalom's crown.

Now, Joshua, methinks, was a soldier as well-- By the arm of King David the Philistine fell; But where do we find it written, I pray, That they ever blasphemed in this villanous way?

One would think ye need stretch your jaws no more, To cry, "G.o.d help us!" than "Zounds!" to roar.

But, by the liquor that's poured in the cask, we know With what it will bubble and overflow.

Again, it is written--thou shalt not steal, And this you follow, i'faith! to the letter, For open-faced robbery suits ye better.

The gripe of your vulture claws you fix On all--and your wiles and rascally tricks Make the gold unhid in our coffers now, And the calf unsafe while yet in the cow-- Ye take both the egg and the hen, I vow.

Contenti estote--the preacher said; Which means--be content with your army bread.

But how should the slaves not from duty swerve?

The mischief begins with the lord they serve, Just like the members so is the head.

I should like to know who can tell me his creed.

FIRST YAGER.

Sir priest, 'gainst ourselves rail on as you will-- Of the general we warn you to breathe no ill.

CAPUCHIN.

Ne custodias gregem meam!

An Ahab is he, and a Jerobeam, Who the people from faith's unerring way, To the wors.h.i.+p of idols would turn astray,

TRUMPETER and RECRUIT.

Let us not hear that again, we pray.

CAPUCHIN.

Such a Bramarbas, whose iron tooth Would seize all the strongholds of earth forsooth!

Did he not boast, with unG.o.dly tongue, That Stralsund must needs to his grasp be wrung, Though to heaven itself with a chain 'twere strung?

TRUMPETER.

Will none put a stop to his slanderous bawl?

CAPUCHIN.

A wizard he is!--and a sorcerer Saul!-- Holofernes!--a Jehu!--denying, we know, Like St. Peter, his Master and Lord below; And hence must he quail when the c.o.c.k doth crow--

BOTH YAGERS.

Now, parson, prepare; for thy doom is nigh.

CAPUCHIN.

A fox more cunning than Herod, I trow--

TRUMPETER and both YAGERS (pressing against him).

Silence, again,--if thou wouldst not die!

CROATS (interfering.) Stick to it, father; we'll s.h.i.+eld you, ne'er fear; The close of your preachment now let's hear.

CAPUCHIN (still louder).

A Nebuchadnezzar in towering pride!

And a vile and heretic sinner beside!

He calls himself rightly the stone of a wall; For faith! he's a stumbling-stone to us all.

And ne'er can the emperor have peace indeed, Till of Friedland himself the land is freed.

[During the last pa.s.sages which he p.r.o.nounces in an elevated voice, he has been gradually retreating, the Croats keeping the other soldiers off.