Scene: A room in PICCOLOMINI’s apartments. It is night.
[OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI. SERVANT holding a light. Shortly afterwards, MAX PICCOLOMINI.]
OCTAVIO: Show in my son to me, as soon as he
Is here – What is the time?
SERVANT: Almost the morning.
OCTAVIO: Put down your light – We shall not want to go
To bed tonight, but you may go and sleep.
[Exit SERVANT. OCTAVIO paces the room in thought. Enter MAX PICCOLOMINI, whom he does not immediately notice, and who observes him in silence for a few moments.]
MAX: Octavio, are you angry? God be with me,
That hateful quarrel was no fault of mine.
– Of course, I saw that you had signed the paper;
What you approved, I could have well
Agreed to – but it seemed – you know –I can
Not follow others’ lights in such a matter,
Only my own.
OCTAVIO [goes up to him and embraces him]:
Follow your own light still,
My son! It has conducted you more surely
Thus far than the example of your father.
MAX: Explain yourself more clearly.
OCTAVIO: I will do so.
After the things that we have seen tonight,
No secret may remain between us two.
[They both sit down.]
Max, tell me what you think, then, of that oath
They put before us for our signature?
MAX: It seemed a harmless thing enough to me,
Although I do not love these formal phrases.
OCTAVIO: There was no other reason you withheld
The signature that they demanded of you?
MAX: No – it was business, and I was distracted –
The thing itself did not appear so urgent –
OCTAVIO: Be frank now, Max. Did you have no suspicion –
MAX: Suspicion, why, of what? No, not the least.
OCTAVIO: Now thank your guardian angel, Piccolomini!
Innocent yet, he held you from the brink.
MAX: I do not understand.
OCTAVIO: I will explain.
To monstrous villainy you were to lend
Your name, abjure your duty and your oath
Of loyalty with one stroke of the pen.
MAX [standing up]: Octavio!
OCTAVIO: Sit still, my friend, for there
Is much that you have yet to hear; for years
In wondrous ignorance you have been living.
The blackest of intrigues has spun itself
Before your eyes, the very power of hell
Veils with its clouds the daylight of your senses –
I can no longer hold my peace, I must
Remove the bandage from your eyes –
MAX: But first,
Before you speak, consider! If surmise
Is all you have to tell me – and I fear
It can be little more – then spare me! As
My mind is now disposed, I cannot hear it.
OCTAVIO: However grave your cause to flee this light,
More urgent mine to bring it to your eyes.
Till now I could entrust you to your heart,
To your own judgement and your innocence.
But when I see them spread their fatal nets
To snare that very heart – the secret which
[Staring pointedly at him]
You keep from me makes me disclose my own.
[MAX attempts to answer, but cannot speak, and casts his eyes down in confusion.]
OCTAVIO [after a pause]:
Know then! They have betrayed you – they are playing
A shameful game with you and with us all.
The Duke pretends that he is of a mind
To leave the army; and this very hour
Their plans are laid to steal the army from
The Emperor and to lead it to our foes!
MAX: I know that tale the priests tell, but I did
Not think that I should hear it from your lips.
OCTAVIO: The lips from which you hear it at this moment
Assure you that it is no tale of priests.
MAX: What madness they would credit to the Duke!
How could he think of luring thirty thousand
Well-tried and trusted troops and honest soldiers,
More than a thousand noblemen among them,
To quit their oath, their honour and their duty,
And join together in a monstrous crime?
OCTAVIO: Nothing so shameful and contemptible
Is what he seeks; no, his ambition bears
A name more innocent by far than that.
He only seeks to bring the Empire peace,
And as the Emperor detests this peace,
So he will –force him to agree to it!
All parties shall be satisfied, and he,
As recompense for all his troubles, keep
Bohemia – which he occupies already.
MAX: Has he deserved of us, Octavio,
That we, that we should think so basely of him?
OCTAVIO: It is not thoughts that we are speaking of,
But facts, and proof incontrovertible.
I think you know, my son, how low our stock
At court has fallen – but you can hardly guess
At the intrigues, at all the lying schemes
That were devised to stir up mutiny
Here in the camp. Broken is every bond
That binds the captain to his Emperor,
The common soldier to the civil order.
Lawless and mindless of their duty, they
Confront the state it is their task to guard,
And threaten they will turn their swords against it.
Now we have come to such a pass, the Emperor
At his own army trembles, fears the daggers
Of traitors in his capital – his palace;
Yes! would enjoin his tender princes flee,
Not from the Swedes, not from the Lutherans,
No! but before his own imperial troops.
MAX: No more! I tremble at your words in fear.
I know men quake before imagined terrors,
But such delusions bring us ill in truth.
OCTAVIO: No, it is no delusion. Civil strife,
The most unnatural of wars, will flare,
Unless we hasten now to damp the spark.
The colonels’ loyalty is sold already,
The subalterns are on the brink, and with them
Whole regiments, whole garrisons may fall;
Strongholds are in the hands of foreigners,
Schafgotsch, a man whom none should trust, commands
The whole Silesian army, Terzky has
Five regiments of cavalry and foot,
Illo and Kinsky, Isolan and Butler
Have been entrusted with the best-heeled troops.
OCTAVIO: Because they think they have us,
Think they can win us with their promises.
I am to have the principalities
Of Glatz and Sagan, and full well I see
The bait that they have set for you.
MAX: No, no!
I tell you, no!
OCTAVIO: Oh, will you use your eyes!
Why do you think that we were ordered here
To Pilsen? That our counsels might be taken?
Did Friedland ever need to hear our counsel?
We are called here to sell ourselves to him,
And if we will not – to remain here hostage.
That is the reason Gallas did not come,
And you would not behold your father here,
Were it not higher duty bid him stay.
MAX: He makes no secret of it, on his own account
We have been summoned here – does not deny
He needs our power to maintain himself.
He did so much for us; it is our duty
To do our share for him!
OCTAVIO: And do you know
What is this share that now we are to do?
Illo betrayed it in his drunken rage.
Will you not think what you have heard and seen?
Does not the forged petition, the proviso,
The all-important phrase left out, betray
That to no good we should commit ourselves?
MAX: This evening’s business with that piece of paper,
I think was nothing more than a base trick
Of Illo’s. Politicians like this man
Will always take such matters to extremes.
They see the Duke is fallen out of favour
At court, and think they serve his interest
By widening the breach beyond repair.
The Duke, believe me, knows no word of it.
OCTAVIO: It grieves me that I must destroy your faith
In him, that seems to you so well-deserved.
But here I cannot spare you – you must take
Swift and decisive measures, you must act.
– I cannot but confess to you – that all
That I confided to you, that to you
Seems so incredible, I learnt from his
Own lips – the Prince’s.
MAX [in violent agitation]: No, it cannot be!
OCTAVIO: Himself in confidence he told me – what
Indeed I had long since found out elsewhere;
He purposed to go over to the Swedes,
And at the head of the united armies
Compel the Emperor –
MAX: He is impatient,
The Court’s behaviour had provoked his temper;
So in a hasty moment, very well!
He may have uttered words he did not mean.
OCTAVIO: Cold-bloodedly enough did he admit
This plan to me; and thinking my amazement
Betokened fear, in confidence he showed me
Dispatches from the Swedes and from the Saxons,
That gave him hope of definite assistance.
MAX: This cannot be! can not be! cannot be!
Do you not see it cannot be! You must
Have shown him the abhorrence that you felt,
He must have listened to you, or – or you –
Would not be standing here alive beside me!
OCTAVIO: Of course I did express my reservations,
Advised him, warned him earnestly against it;
But my abhorrence, my true inner feelings
I kept concealed from him.
MAX: And you could be
So false? No, this is not the manner of
My father! I did not believe your words,
When you spoke ill of him to me; still less
Can I, when now it is yourself you slander.
OCTAVIO: It was not I that sought his confidence.
MAX: His trust in you demanded honesty.
OCTAVIO: To hear the truth from me he was not worthy.
MAX: Unworthier still of you was such deceit.
OCTAVIO: My son! It is not always possible
In life to be as pure as little children,
As we are bidden by the voice within us.
In constant battle with despite and malice
Even the upright spirit stays not true –
This namely is the curse of evil deeds,
That they will never cease to breed and bring forth evil.
I split no hairs, I only do my duty,
I carry out my Emperor’s commands.
Better indeed if we could always follow
The promptings of our heart, but we must then
Give up all hope in many a worthy purpose.
Our place, my son, is here to serve the Emperor.
Our hearts may say about it what they will.
MAX: It seems today that I am not to grasp
Your meaning, not to understand your words.
You say the Prince frankly revealed his heart to you
In evil purpose, and you say that you
In a good purpose could deceive the Prince!
No more, I beg you – you will not defraud
Me of my friend – let me not lose my father!
OCTAVIO [suppressing his emotion]:
You do not yet know all, my son. There is
Still more I must reveal.
[After a pause.] The Duke of Friedland
Has made his preparations. In his stars
He puts his trust. All unawares he thinks
To come on us – already he believes
The golden circlet lies within his grasp.
He is mistaken – we have acted too.
He grasps his secret evil destiny.
MAX: Oh, father, not too quickly! I implore you,
By all that’s good, do not be over-hasty!
OCTAVIO: As soft and silent as he crept his wicked ways,
So soft and cunning vengeance creeps upon his trail,
Already waits unseen and dark behind his back,
But one step more, and shuddering the two are met.
– You saw that I had Questenberg with me;
As yet you only know his public errand –
A secret message too he brought with him,
For me alone.
MAX: And may I know it?
OCTAVIO: Max!
With these few words I lay the Empire’s fate
And your own father’s life into your hands.
Your heart feels stronger love for Wallenstein,
For since you were a boy, a mighty bond
Of trust and reverence has drawn you to him –
You cherish the desire – let me but speak
What still you are unwilling to confide –
The hope you cherish, closer to him yet
To find your place.
MAX: Father –
OCTAVIO: I trust your heart,
Can I be certain of your strength of mind?
Will you be able still to look him in
The face unflinching, when I have confided
To you the compass of his destiny?
MAX: Only if you confide in me his guilt!
[OCTAVIO takes a paper from a drawer and hands it to him.]
MAX: What’s this? An open letter from the Emperor!
OCTAVIO: Read it
The Prince condemned, declared an outlaw!
OCTAVIO: So is it.
MAX: Oh, it is too much, unhappy error!
OCTAVIO: Read on! Compose yourself.
MAX [after reading further, looking at his father in astonishment]:
What? You? You are –
OCTAVIO: But for the moment, and until the King
Of Hungary can come to take command,
I am to oversee the army –
MAX: And do you think that you can wrest it from him?
Do not believe it – Father! father! father!
Unhappy is the office you are given.
This paper here – how are you to enforce it?
Disarm the mighty man amidst his troops,
Surrounded by his men in all their thousands?
You will be lost – you, all of us destroyed!
OCTAVIO: The risk I have to run I know full well.
The Almighty holds me in his hand; he will
Put forth his shield to guard the pious house
Of Austria and destroy the work of darkness.
There will be men enough and brave to rally
Around the Emperor and the cause of good.
Those who are loyal are warned, the others watched,
I only wait for his first move, straightway –
MAX: On mere suspicion will you act so swiftly?
OCTAVIO: Let no man think the Emperor a tyrant!
The will he would not punish, but the deed.
The Prince still holds the thread of his own fate –
Let him but stay, and leave this crime undone,
And quietly his command will be withdrawn,
And for his Emperor’s son he will make way.
An honourable exile in his castles
Will rather seem reward than punishment.
But let him take one single open step –
MAX: And what will you call such a step? He will
Not take a wicked one. – But you could put
(You have!) a foul construction on the purest.
OCTAVIO: However criminal his purposes,
The steps the Prince has taken publicly
Till now admit a fair interpretation.
It is not my intent to use this paper
Until he acts to prove beyond all doubt
His treason and declare his guilt himself.
MAX: And who shall be the judge of that?
OCTAVIO: –You shall.
MAX: Oh! then this paper never will be needed!
I have your word for it, you will not act
Until you have convinced myself, no less.
OCTAVIO: Can it be true? Still, after all you know,
You can believe him innocent?
MAX [with animation]:
Your judgement may speak false, but not my heart.
[He continues in a more restrained manner]
This spirit is no common one to grasp.
As to the stars he links his destiny,
So too like them he goes his secret way,
Mysterious, beyond men’s comprehension.
Believe me, he is wronged. Those matters all
Will be resolved. In splendour we shall see
Him step forth pure, above these black suspicions.
OCTAVIO: I shall be waiting.
[Enter to them a SERVANT, subsequently a COURIER.]
OCTAVIO: What news?
SERVANT: A courier waits before your door.
OCTAVIO: At such an hour? Who is it, and from where?
SERVANT: He would not tell me.
OCTAVIO: Send him to us, and speak no word of this.
[Exit SERVANT, enter CORNET.]
So Cornet, it is you? You come from Gallas?
Here, your dispatch.
CORNET: I have no written message.
The general would not take the risk.
OCTAVIO: What is it?
CORNET: He bids me tell you – Am I free to speak?
OCTAVIO: My son knows all.
CORNET: We have him.
OCTAVIO: Whom do you mean?
CORNET: Why, Sesina, their go-between!
OCTAVIO [quickly]: Is yours?
CORNET: Two days ago, in the Bohemian forest,
Our Captain Mohrbrand caught him, early in
The morning, on the road to Regensburg,
Bearing dispatches with him for the Swedes.
OCTAVIO: And the dispatches –
CORNET: General Gallas sent them on
Straight to Vienna with the prisoner.
OCTAVIO: At last! at last! This is the best of news!
That man is precious to us, as the vessel
That carries things of moment – How much was there?
CORNET: Six or so packets with Count Terzky’s arms.
OCTAVIO: None in the Prince’s hand?
OCTAVIO: And Sesina?
CORNET: Took fright, you may be sure,
When he was told his way led to Vienna.
But then Count Altringer assured his safety,
If only he would freely tell them all.
OCTAVIO: Is Altringer there with your master? Was
He not in Linz, and sick?
CORNET: He has been with
The general three days in Frauenberg.
Already they have sixty companies
Assembled, hand-picked men, and bid you know
That they are ready to receive your orders.
OCTAVIO: So much can happen in the space of days!
When do you leave?
CORNET: I wait on your command.
OCTAVIO: Stay till this evening.
CORNET: Sir! [Going.]
OCTAVIO: Did no one see you?
CORNET: No one. The Capuchins admitted me
As usual, through the convent’s wicket-gate.
OCTAVIO: Go, rest yourself, and keep yourself concealed.
I shall have letters for you before nightfall.
This business nears its turning-point at last;
Before the day that now so fatefully
Tinges the eastern sky has run its course,
The die is cast, on which so much must turn.
[Exit CORNET.]
[The TWO PICCOLOMINI.]
OCTAVIO: What now, my son? Soon we shall see the light,
For all – I know it – went through Sesina.
MAX [who has stood throughout the whole preceding scene in a violent inner struggle; decisively]:
A shorter way to clarity I seek.
Farewell!
OCTAVIO: Where? Stay!
MAX: The Prince!
OCTAVIO [startled]: What do you say?
MAX [returning]:
If you believed that I would play a part
In such a game as this, then you deceived
Yourself in me. My way lies straight ahead.
I cannot make my tongue speak truth while in
My heart is falsehood, – cannot watch, and let
Another trust me as his friend, and stifle
My conscience with the thought that it is he
Who runs the risk my lips may yet betray him.
What men believe I am, that I must be.
– I go to find the Duke. This very day
I shall demand he clears his name before
The world, and with a plain, straightforward step
Breaks through the net your guile has set to snare him.
OCTAVIO: You would do this?
MAX: I will. You need not doubt it.
OCTAVIO: Yes, I have been mistaken in my son.
I thought that I had raised you wise and prudent,
Thought you would bless the hands that drew you back,
Saved you from the abyss – and now I find
You are a fool, dazzled by two fair eyes,
Blinded and helpless in a fog of passion,
Not even to be cured by light of day.
Go then, and ask him! Go! Be rash enough
To give your father’s and your Emperor’s
Secret away to him. Compel me so
To break with him before the time is ripe!
And now, when till today a miracle
Of Heaven’s contrivance has preserved my secret,
Has lulled to sleep the sharp eyes of suspicion,
Let me be witness how my very son,
With heedless, headlong, and insensate haste,
Destroys the work of patient statesmanship!
MAX: Of statesmanship! Oh, curses on that name!
Yes, you will drive him with your statesmanship,
To take that step – yes, you could even now,
Since you would have him guilty, make him so.
Oh! this can only end in ill – and let
It be decided how it may, I fear
I see draw on the turning-point of woe.
For when he is laid low, this king of men,
A world will topple with him in his fall,
And like a ship, that on the open sea
Has suddenly caught fire, and bursting wide
Her planks, hurls forth her crew and all that sailed
In her, between the ocean and the sky,
So he will bring us all, who are bound fast
To him and to his fate, to ruin with him.
Act as you will! But me you must allow
To live my life as it seems right to me.
Between myself and him all must be pure;
Before this day is done, I must have news,
If it is friend or father I must lose.
[As he turns to go, the curtain falls.]