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The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04
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ELECTRESS. Arise, my son, arise! What were those words?
You are too deeply moved. Control yourself!
THE PRINCE. Oh, Aunt, not ere you promise on your soul,
With a prostration that shall save my life
Pleading to go before the sovereign presence.
Hedwig, your childhood friend, gave me to you,
Dying at Homburg, saying as she died:
Be you his mother when I am no more.
Moved to the depths, kneeling beside her bed,
Over her spent hand bending, you replied:
Yea, he shall be to me as mine own child.
Now, I remind you of the vow you made!
Go to him, go, as though I were your child,
Crying, I plead for mercy! Set him free!
Oh, and return to me, and say: 'Tis so!
ELECTRESS (weeping).
Belovèd son! All has been done, erewhile.
But all my supplications were in vain.
THE PRINCE. I give up every claim to happiness.
And tell him this, forget it not, that I
Desire Natalie no more, for her
All tenderness within my heart is quenched.
Free as the doe upon the meads is she,
Her hand and lips, as though I'd never been,
Freely let her bestow, and if it be
The Swede Karl Gustaf, I commend her choice.
I will go seek my lands upon the Rhine.
There will I build and raze again to earth
With sweating brow, and sow and gather in,
As though for wife and babe, enjoy alone;
And when the harvest's gathered, sow again,
And round and round the treadmill chase my days
Until at evening they sink down, and die.
ELECTRESS. Enough! Now take your way home to your prison—
That is the first demand my favor makes.
THE PRINCE (rises and turns toward the PRINCESS).
Poor little girl, you weep! The sun today
Lights all your expectations to their grave!
Your heart decided from the first on me;
Indeed, your look declares, that, true as gold,
You ne'er shall dedicate your heart anew.
Oh, what can I, poor devil, say to comfort?
Go to the Maiden's Chapter on the Main,
I counsel you, go to your cousin Thurn.
Seek in the hills a boy, light-curled as I,
Buy him with gold and silver, to your breast
Press him, and teach his lips to falter: Mother.
And when he grows to manhood, show him well
How men draw shut the eyelids of the dead.
That is the only joy that lies your way!
NATALIE (bravely and impressively, as she rises and lays
her hand in his).
Return, young hero, to your prison walls,
And, on your passage, imperturbably
Regard once more the grave they dug for you.
It is not gloomier, nor more wide at all
Than those the battle showed a thousand times.
Meanwhile, since I am true to you till death,
A saving word I'll chance, unto my kin.
It may avail, perhaps, to move his heart
And disenthrall you from all misery.
[Pause.]
THE PRINCE (folding his hands, as he stands lost in contemplation
of her).
An you had pinions on your shoulders, maid,
Truly I should be sure you were an angel!
Dear God, did I hear right? You speak for me?
Where has the quiver of your speech till now
Lain hid, dear child, that you should dare approach
The sovereign in matters such as this?
Oh, light of hope, reviving me once more!
NATALIE. The darts that find the marrow God will hand me!
But if the Elector cannot move the law's
Outspoken word, cannot—so be it! Then
Bravely to him the brave man will submit.
And he, the conqueror a thousand times,
Living, will know to conquer too in death!
ELECTRESS. Make haste! The favorable hour flies by!
THE PRINCE. Now may all holy spirits guard your way!
Farewell, farewell! Whate'er the outcome be,
Grant me a word to tell me how you fared.
[Exeunt omnes.]
ACT IV
Scene: Room of the ELECTOR.
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Так получилось, что книга ко мне попала в тяжелый эмоциональный кризис и многое мне дала. Написано актуально, тут многих полезных вещей, никакого злоу...
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