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The Piccolomini

Год написания книги
2017
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Ay, doubtless, it is true; the duke does spare us
The troublesome task of choosing.

BUTLER

Yes, the duke
Cares with a father's feelings for his troops;
But how the emperor feels for us, we see.

QUESTENBERG

His cares and feelings all ranks share alike,
Nor will he offer one up to another.

ISOLANI

And therefore thrusts he us into the deserts
As beasts of prey, that so he may preserve
His dear sheep fattening in his fields at home.

QUESTENBERG (with a sneer)

Count! this comparison you make, not I.

ILLO

Why, were we all the court supposes us
'Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty.

QUESTENBERG (gravely)

You have taken liberty – it was not given you,
And therefore it becomes an urgent duty
To rein it in with the curbs.

ILLO

Expect to find a restive steed in us.

QUESTENBERG

A better rider may be found to rule it.

ILLO

He only brooks the rider who has tamed him.

QUESTENBERG

Ay, tame him once, and then a child may lead him.

ILLO

The child, we know, is found for him already.

QUESTENBERG

Be duty, sir, your study, not a name.

BUTLER (who has stood aside with PICCOLOMINI, but with visible interest in the conversation, advances)

Sir president, the emperor has in Germany
A splendid host assembled; in this kingdom
Full twenty thousand soldiers are cantoned,
With sixteen thousand in Silesia;
Ten regiments are posted on the Weser,
The Rhine, and Maine; in Swabia there are six,
And in Bavaria twelve, to face the Swedes;
Without including in the account the garrisons
Who on the frontiers hold the fortresses.
This vast and mighty host is all obedient
To Friedland's captains; and its brave commanders,
Bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk,
Are all excited by one heart and soul;
They are as strangers on the soil they tread,
The service is their only house and home.
No zeal inspires then for their country's cause,
For thousands like myself were born abroad;
Nor care they for the emperor, for one half
Deserting other service fled to ours,
Indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere,
The Double Eagle, Lily, or the Lion.
Yet one sole man can rein this fiery host
By equal rule, by equal love and fear;
Blending the many-nationed whole in one;
And like the lightning's fires securely led
Down the conducting rod, e'en thus his power
Rules all the mass, from guarded post to post,
From where the sentry hears the Baltic roar,
Or views the fertile vales of the Adige,
E'en to the body-guard, who holds his watch
Within the precincts of the imperial palace!

QUESTENBERG

What's the short meaning of this long harangue?

BUTLER

That the respect, the love, the confidence,
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