The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 2 (of 2)Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
General
The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Vol 2 (of 2)
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
English poetry -- 19th century
_Illo._ Caraffa too, and Montecuculi, 15
Are missing, with six other Generals,
All whom he had induced to follow him.
This plot he has long had in writing by him
From the Emperor; but 'twas finally concluded
With all the detail of the operation 20
Some days ago with the Envoy Questenberg.
[_WALLENSTEIN sinks down into a chair and covers
his face._
_Tertsky._ O hadst thou but believed me!
LINENOTES:
[Before 1] _Illo (who enters agitated with rage)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.
[9] _Piccolomini_ 1800, 1828, 1829.
[10] _Wallenstein (in a convulsion of agony)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.
SCENE IX
_To them enter the COUNTESS._
_Countess._ This suspense,
This horrid fear--I can no longer bear it.
For heaven's sake, tell me, what has taken place.
_Illo._ The regiments are all falling off from us.
_Tertsky._ Octavio Piccolomini is a traitor. 5
_Countess._ O my foreboding! [_Rushes out of the room._
_Tertsky._ Hadst thou but believed me!
Now seest thou how the stars have lied to thee.
_Wallenstein._ The stars lie not; but we have here a work
Wrought counter to the stars and destiny.
The science is still honest: this false heart 10
Forces a lie on the truth-telling heaven.
On a divine law divination rests;
Where nature deviates from that law, and stumbles
Out of her limits, there all science errs.
True, I did not suspect! Were it superstition 15
Never by such suspicion t' have affronted
The human form, O may that time ne'er come
In which I shame me of the infirmity.
The wildest savage drinks not with the victim
Into whose breast he means to plunge the sword. 20
This, this, Octavio, was no hero's deed:
'Twas not thy prudence that did conquer mine;
A bad heart triumphed o'er an honest one.
No shield received the assassin stroke; thou plungest
Thy weapon on an unprotected breast-- 25
Against such weapons I am but a child.
SCENE X
_To these enter BUTLER._
_Tertsky (meeting him)._ O look there! Butler! Here we've still a
friend!
_Wallenstein (meets him with outspread arms, and embraces him with
warmth)._ Come to my heart, old comrade! Not the sun
Looks out upon us more revivingly
In the earliest month of spring,
Than a friend's countenance in such an hour. 5
_Butler._ My General: I come--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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