MAX. Ay--this state policy! Oh, how I curse it! You will some time, with your state policy, 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-- 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 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 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, That I must bear me on in my own way. All must remain pure betwixt him and me; And, ere the daylight dawns, it must be known Which I must lose--my father or my friend. [During his exit the curtain drops. FOOTNOTES. [1] A town about twelve German miles N.E. of Ulm. [2] The Dukes in Germany being always reigning powers, their sons and daughters are entitled princes and princesses. [3] Carinthia. [4] A town not far from the Mine-mountains, on the high road from Vienna to Prague. [5] In the original,-- "Den blut'gen Lorbeer geb' ich hin mit Freuden Fuers erste Veilchen, das der Maerz uns bringt, Das duerftige Pfand der neuverjuengten Erde." [6] A reviewer in the Literary Gazette observes that, in these lines, Mr. Coleridge has misapprehended the meaning of the word "Zug," a team, translating it as "Anzug," a suit of clothes. The following version, as a substitute, I propose:-- When from your stables there is brought to me A team of four most richly harnessed horses. The term, however, is "Jagd-zug" which may mean a "hunting equipage," or a "hunting stud;" although Hilpert gives only "a team of four horses." [7] Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, who succeeded Gustavus in command. [8] The original is not translatable into English:-- --Und sein Sold Muss dem Soldaten werden, darnach heisst er. It might perhaps have been thus rendered:-- And that for which he sold his services, The soldier must receive-- but a false or doubtful etymology is no more than a dull pun. [9] In Germany, after honorable addresses have been paid and formally accepted, the lovers are called bride and bridegreoom, even though the marriage should not take place till years afterwards. [10] I am doubtful whether this be the dedication of the cloister, or the name of one of the city gates, near which it stood. I have translated it in the former sense; but fearful of having made some blunder, I add the original,--