Оценить:
 Рейтинг: 0

The Piccolomini

Год написания книги
2017
<< 1 ... 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 ... 55 >>
На страницу:
18 из 55
Настройки чтения
Размер шрифта
Высота строк
Поля
WALLENSTEIN (in deep thought, to himself)

She has seen all things as they are – it is so,
And squares completely with my other notices,
They have determined finally in Vienna,
Have given me my successor already;
It is the King of Hungary, Ferdinand,
The emperor's delicate son! he's now their savior,
He's the new star that's rising now! Of us
They think themselves already fairly rid,
And as we were deceased, the heir already
Is entering on possession – Therefore – despatch!

[As he turns round he observes TERZKY, and gives him a letter.

Count Altringer will have himself excused,
And Gallas too – I like not this!

TERZKY

And if
Thou loiterest longer, all will fall away,
One following the other.

WALLENSTEIN

Altringer
Is master of the Tyrol passes. I must forthwith
Send some one to him, that he let not in
The Spaniards on me from the Milanese.
– Well, and the old Sesin, that ancient trader
In contraband negotiations, he
Has shown himself again of late. What brings he
From the Count Thur?

TERZKY

The count communicates
He has found out the Swedish chancellor
At Halberstadt, where the convention's held,
Who says, you've tired him out, and that he'll have
No further dealings with you.

WALLENSTEIN

And why so?

TERZKY

He says, you are never in earnest in your speeches;
That you decoy the Swedes – to make fools of them;
Will league yourself with Saxony against them,
And at last make yourself a riddance of them
With a paltry sum of money.

WALLENSTEIN

So then, doubtless,
Yes, doubtless, this same modest Swede expects
That I shall yield him some fair German tract
For his prey and booty, that ourselves at last
On our own soil and native territory
May be no longer our own lords and masters!
An excellent scheme! No, no! They must be off,
Off, off! away! we want no such neighbors.

TERZKY

Nay, yield them up that dot, that speck of land —
It goes not from your portion. If you win
The game, what matters it to you who pays it?

WALLENSTEIN

Off with them, off! Thou understand'st not this.
Never shall it be said of me, I parcelled
My native land away, dismembered Germany,
Betrayed it to a foreigner, in order
To come with stealthy tread, and filch away
My own share of the plunder – Never! never!
No foreign power shall strike root in the empire,
And least of all these Goths! these hungry wolves!
Who send such envious, hot, and greedy glances
Toward the rich blessings of our German lands!
I'll have their aid to cast and draw my nets,
But not a single fish of all the draught
Shall they come in for.

TERZKY

You will deal, however,
More fairly with the Saxons? they lose patience
While you shift round and make so many curves.
Say, to what purpose all these masks? Your friends
Are plunged in doubts, baffled, and led astray in you.
There's Oxenstiern, there's Arnheim – neither knows
What he should think of your procrastinations,
And in the end I prove the liar; all
Passes through me. I've not even your handwriting.

<< 1 ... 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 ... 55 >>
На страницу:
18 из 55