The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 39

[_ALVAR and TERESA bend over the body of ORDONIO._

_Alh._ (_to the_ Moors). I thank thee, Heaven! &c.

Remorse.

_Shouts of_ Alvar! _Alvar!_ _Noises heard; a_ Moor _rushes in._

_Moor._ We are surprised, away! away! the instant-- The country is in arms. The old man heads them And still cries out, 'My son! My son is living'

Haste to the sh.o.r.e! They come the opposite road.

_ALHADRA (to ALVAR)._ Thou then art Alvar! to my aid and safety Thy word stands pledged.

_Alvar._ Arm of avenging Heaven!

My word stands pledged nor shall it be retracted.

(_The_ Moors _surround ALHADRA) and force her off. The stage fills with armed peasants. ALI and VALDEZ at their head. VALDEZ rushes into ALVAR'S arms and the Curtain drops._

[Alternative ending in S. T. C.'s handwriting affixed to lines 307-21, MS. III]

[320] him] her Remorse.

[After 321]

[_ALHADRA hurries off with the_ Moors; _the stage fills with armed_ Peasants _and_ Servants, _ZULIMEZ and VALDEZ at their head. VALDEZ rushes into ALVAR'S arms._

_Alvar._ Turn not thy face that way, my father! hide, Oh hide it from his eye! Oh let thy joy Flow in unmingled stream through thy first blessing.

[_both kneel to VALDEZ._

_Valdez._ My Son! My Alvar! bless, Oh bless him, heaven!

_Teresa._ Me too, my Father?

_Valdez._ Bless, Oh, bless my children!

[_both rise._

_Alvar._ Delights so full, if unalloyed with grief, Were ominous. In these strange dread events Just Heaven instructs us with an awful voice, That Conscience rules us e'en against our choice.

Our inward monitress to guide or warn, If listened to; but if repelled with scorn, At length as dire Remorse, she reappears, Works in our guilty hopes, and selfish fears!

Still bids, Remember! and still cries, Too late!

And while she scares us, goads us to our fate.

Remorse.

THE PICCOLOMINI[598:1]

OR, THE FIRST PART OF WALLENSTEIN

A DRAMA

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

It was my intention to have prefixed a Life of Wallenstein to this translation; but I found that it must either have occupied a s.p.a.ce wholly disproportionate to the nature of the publication, or have been merely a meagre catalogue of events narrated not more fully than they already are in the Play itself. The recent translation, likewise, of Schiller's _History of the Thirty Years' War_ diminished the motives thereto. In the translation I endeavoured to render my Author literally wherever I was not prevented by absolute differences of idiom; but I am conscious that in two or three short pa.s.sages I have been guilty of dilating the original; and, from anxiety to give the full meaning, have weakened the force. In the metre I have availed myself of no other liberties than those which Schiller had permitted to himself, except the occasional breaking-up of the line by the subst.i.tution of a trochee for an iambus; of which liberty, so frequent in our tragedies, I find no instance in these dramas.

S. T. COLERIDGE.

FOOTNOTES:

[598:1] First published in a single octavo volume, 1800: included in 1828, 1829, 1834, and in _Dramatic Works_ (one vol. 8vo) 1852. The _Piccolomini_ and the _Death of Wallenstein_ were translated from MS.

copies which had been acquired by the Messrs. Longman. The MS. copy of the original of the _Death of Wallenstein_ is in the possession of Mrs.

Alexander Gillman. The MS. of the copy of the original of the _Piccolomini_ was at one time in the possession of Mr. Henry R. Mark of 17 Highbury Crescent. A note in Schiller's handwriting, dated 'Jena, 30.

September 1799', attesting the genuineness of the copies, is attached to either play. The MS. copy of _Wallenstein's Camp_ ('Wallenstein's Lager'), which Coleridge did not attempt to translate, is not forthcoming. See two articles by Ferdinand Freiligrath, published in the _Athenaeum_, July 15 and August 31, 1861. See, too, _Die Wallensteinubersetzung von Samuel T. Coleridge und ihr Deutsches Original_ . . . vorgelegt von Hans Roscher. Borna-Leipzig, 1905. A copy of the translation which Macready marked for acting is in the Forster Library, which forms part of the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington. See note by J. d.y.k.es Campbell, _P. W._, 1893, p. 649. An annotated copy (in Coleridge's handwriting) of the translation of the _Piccolomini_ and the _Death of Wallenstein_, presented by Mr. Shadworth Hodgson, is in the Library of Rugby School [_MS. R._]. The MS. contents of this volume are now published for the first time. Coleridge began his translation of the two plays at No. 21 Buckingham Street, Strand, in December, 1799, and finished the 'last sheet' at Town End, Grasmere, April 20, 1800.

'These dramas have two grievous faults: they are prolix in the particular parts and slow in the general movement. But they have pa.s.sion, distinct and diversified character, and they abound in pa.s.sages of great moral and poetic beauty.' S. T. COLERIDGE.

'The defects of these dramas are all of an instructive character; for tho' not the products of genius, like those of Shakespere, they result from an energetic and thinking mind. (1) The speeches are seldom suited to characters--the characters are truly diversified and distinctly conceived--but we learn them from the actions and from the descriptions given by other characters, or from particular speeches. The brutal Illo repeatedly talks language which belongs to the Countess, &c. (2) Astrology (an undramatic superst.i.tion because it inspires no terror, and its foundation of imagination is overbuilt and concealed by its scientific superstructure, with other cause from the imagery, is thus unpopular or swallowed up in more general and pleasing a.s.sociations, as the Sun and Moon) is made prophetic, and yet treated ludicrously: the author as philosopher is in compleat discord with himself as Historian.

This is a most grievous fault. (3) The a.s.sa.s.sins talk ludicrously. This is a most egregious misimitation of Shakespere--Schiller should not have attempted tragico-comedy, and none but Shakespere has succeeded. It is wonderful, however, that Schiller, who had studied Shakespere, should not have perceived his divine judgment in the management of his a.s.sa.s.sins, as in Macbeth. They are fearful and almost pitiable Beings--not loathsome, ludicrous miscreants. (4) The character of Thekla = O, the bold Heroine of any novel. Nothing of the Convent, no superst.i.tion, nothing of the Daughter of Wallenstein, nothing that her past life is represented by. (5) Wallenstein is a finer psychological than dramatic, and a more dramatic than a tragic character. Shakespere draws _strength_ as in Richard the Third, and even when he blends weakness as in Macbeth--yet it is weakness of a specific kind that leaves the strength in full and fearful energy--but Schiller has drawn weakness imposing on itself the love of power for the sense of strength (a fine conception in itself, but not tragic--at least for the princ.i.p.al character of a long drama).--Hence Wallenstein, with one exception (that of the Regimental Deputation to him in the Second Part) evaporates in mock-mysterious speeches. These are the chief defects, I think. On the other hand, the character of Butler is admirable throughout. Octavio is very grand, and Max, tho' it may be an easy character to draw, for a man of thought and lofty feeling--for a man who possesses all the _a.n.a.loga_ of genius, is yet so delightful, and its moral influence so grand and salutary, that we must allow it great praise. The childish love-toying with the glove and Aunt Tertsky in the first act should be omitted.

Certain whole scenes are masterly, and far above anything since the dramatists of Eliz. & James the first.' _Note on fly-leaf of annotated copy (MS. R.)._

THE PICCOLOMINI[600:1]

ACT I

SCENE I

_An old Gothic Chamber in the Council House at Pilsen, decorated with Colours and other War Insignia._

_ILLO with BUTLER and ISOLANI._

_Illo._ Ye have come late--but ye are come! The distance, Count Isolan, excuses your delay.

_Isolani._ Add this too, that we come not empty-handed.

At Donauwert[600:2] it was reported to us, A Swedish caravan was on its way 5 Transporting a rich cargo of provision, Almost six hundred waggons. This my Croats Plunged down upon and seized, this weighty prize!---- We bring it hither----