_Max._ Aye--this state-policy! O how I curse it! You will some time, with your state-policy, 50 Compel him to the measure: it may happen, Because ye are determined that he is guilty, Guilty ye'll make him. All retreat cut off, You close up every outlet, hem him in Narrower and narrower, till at length ye force him-- 55 Yes, ye,--ye force him, in his desperation, To set fire to his prison. Father! Father! That never can end well--it cannot--will not! And let it be decided as it may, I see with boding heart the near approach 60 Of an ill-starred unblest catastrophe. For this great Monarch-spirit, if he fall, Will drag a world into the ruin with him. And as a ship (that midway on the ocean Takes fire) at once, and with a thunder-burst 65 Explodes, and with itself shoots out its crew In smoke and ruin betwixt sea and heaven; So will he, falling, draw down in his fall All us, who're fixed and mortised to his fortune. Deem of it what thou wilt; but pardon me, 70 That I must bear me on in my own way. All must remain pure betwixt him and me; And, ere the day-light dawns, it must be known Which I must lose--my father, or my friend. [_During his exit the curtain drops._ LINENOTES: [Before 3] _Max (who through the whole of the foregoing scene has been in a violent and visible struggle of feelings, at length starts as one resolved)._ 1800, 1828, 1829. [Before 6] _Octavio (alarmed)._ 1800, 1828, 1829. [Before 7] _Max (returning)._ 1800, 1828, 1829. [14] ask'd] ask 1800, 1828, 1829. [16] _mouth_ 1800, 1828, 1829. [22] _I_ 1800, 1828, 1829. [52] _determined_ 1800, 1828, 1829. [53] _make_ 1800, 1828, 1829. [56] _ye_,--_ye force_ 1800, 1828, 1829. ACT IV SCENE I SCENE--_A Room fitted up for astrological Labours, and provided with celestial Charts, with Globes, Telescopes, Quadrants, and other mathematical Instruments.--Seven Colossal Figures, representing the Planets, each with a transparent Star of a different Colour on its Head, stand in a Semi-circle in the Back-ground, so that Mars and Saturn are nearest the Eye.--The remainder of the Scene, and its Disposition, is given in the Fourth Scene of the Second Act.--There must be a Curtain over the Figures, which may be dropped, and conceal them on Occasions._ [_In the Fifth Scene of this Act it must be dropped; but in the Seventh Scene, it must be again drawn up wholly or in part._] _WALLENSTEIN at a black Table, on which a Speculum Astrologicum is described with Chalk. SENI is taking Observations through a window._ _Wallenstein._ All well--and now let it be ended, Seni.--Come, The dawn commences, and Mars rules the hour. We must give o'er the operation. Come, We know enough.