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The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 04
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No, nevermore, my Prince!
[Several officers step in his way.]
THE PRINCE. Take me away!
HOHENZOLL. Liege, can your heart—
THE PRINCE (tearing himself free).
You tyrants, would you drag me
In fetters to my execution-place?
Go! I have closed my reckoning with this world.
[He goes out under guard.]
NATALIE (on the ELECTRESS' breast).
Open, O earth, receive me in your deeps.
Why should I look upon the sunlight more?
SCENE IX
The persons, as in the preceding scene, with the exception of the PRINCE OF HOMBURG.
MARSHAL. God of earth! Did it have to come to that?
[The ELECTOR speaks in a low voice to an officer.]
KOTTWITZ (frigidly).
My sovereign, after all that has occurred
Are we dismissed?
ELECTOR. Not for the present, no!
I'll give you notice when you are dismissed!
[He regards him a moment straightly and steadily; then takes the papers which the page has brought him from the table and turns to the FIELD-MARSHAL.]
This passport, take it, for Count Horn the Swede.
Tell him it is my cousin's wish, the Prince's,
Which I have pledged myself to carry out.
The war begins again in three days' time!
[Pause. He casts a glance at the death warrant.]
Judge for yourselves, my lords. The Prince of Homburg
Through disobedience and recklessness
Of two of my best victories this year
Deprived me, and indeed impaired the third.
Now that he's had his schooling these last days
Come, will you risk it with him for a fourth?
KOTTWITZ and TRUCHSZ (helter-skelter).
What, my adored—my worshipped—What, my liege?—
ELECTOR. Will you? Will you?
KOTTWITZ. Now, by the living God,
He'd watch you standing on destruction's brink
And never twitch his sword in your behalf,
Or rescue you unless you gave command.
ELECTOR (tearing up the death warrant).
So, to the garden! Follow me, my friends!
SCENE X
The Castle with the terrace leading down into the garden, as in ACT I. It is night, as then.—The PRINCE OF HOMBURG, with bandaged eyes, is led in through the lower garden-wicket, by CAPTAIN STRANZ. Officers with the guard. In the distance one can hear the drumming of the death-march.
THE PRINCE. All art thou mine now, immortality!
Thou glistenest through the veil that blinds mine eyes
With that sun's glow that is a thousand suns.
I feel bright pinions from my shoulders start;
Through mute, ethereal spaces wings my soul;
And as the ship, borne outward by the wind,
Sees the bright harbor sink below the marge,
Thus all my being fades and is submerged.
Now I distinguish colors yet and forms,
And now—all life is fog beneath my feet.
[The PRINCE seats himself on the bench which stands about the oak in the middle of the open space. The CAPTAIN draws away from him and looks up toward the terrace.]
How sweet the flowers fill the air with odor!
D'you smell them?
STRANZ (returning to him). They are gillyflowers and pinks.
THE PRINCE. How come the gillyflowers here?
STRANZ. I know not.
It must have been some girl that planted them.
Come, will you have a bachelor's button?
THE PRINCE. Thanks!
When I get home I'll have it put in water.
SCENE XI
The ELECTOR with the laurel-wreath, about which the golden chain is twined, the ELECTRESS, PRINCESS NATALIE, FIELD-MARSHAL DÖRFLING, COLONEL KOTTWITZ, HOHENZOLLERN, GOLZ, and others. Ladies-in-waiting, officers and boys bearing torches appear on the castle terrace. HOHENZOLLERN steps to the balustrade and with a handkerchief signals to CAPTAIN STRANZ, whereupon the latter leaves the PRINCE OF HOMBURG and speaks a few words with the guards in the background.
THE PRINCE. What is the brightness breaking round me, say!
[Several officers step in his way.]
THE PRINCE. Take me away!
HOHENZOLL. Liege, can your heart—
THE PRINCE (tearing himself free).
You tyrants, would you drag me
In fetters to my execution-place?
Go! I have closed my reckoning with this world.
[He goes out under guard.]
NATALIE (on the ELECTRESS' breast).
Open, O earth, receive me in your deeps.
Why should I look upon the sunlight more?
SCENE IX
The persons, as in the preceding scene, with the exception of the PRINCE OF HOMBURG.
MARSHAL. God of earth! Did it have to come to that?
[The ELECTOR speaks in a low voice to an officer.]
KOTTWITZ (frigidly).
My sovereign, after all that has occurred
Are we dismissed?
ELECTOR. Not for the present, no!
I'll give you notice when you are dismissed!
[He regards him a moment straightly and steadily; then takes the papers which the page has brought him from the table and turns to the FIELD-MARSHAL.]
This passport, take it, for Count Horn the Swede.
Tell him it is my cousin's wish, the Prince's,
Which I have pledged myself to carry out.
The war begins again in three days' time!
[Pause. He casts a glance at the death warrant.]
Judge for yourselves, my lords. The Prince of Homburg
Through disobedience and recklessness
Of two of my best victories this year
Deprived me, and indeed impaired the third.
Now that he's had his schooling these last days
Come, will you risk it with him for a fourth?
KOTTWITZ and TRUCHSZ (helter-skelter).
What, my adored—my worshipped—What, my liege?—
ELECTOR. Will you? Will you?
KOTTWITZ. Now, by the living God,
He'd watch you standing on destruction's brink
And never twitch his sword in your behalf,
Or rescue you unless you gave command.
ELECTOR (tearing up the death warrant).
So, to the garden! Follow me, my friends!
SCENE X
The Castle with the terrace leading down into the garden, as in ACT I. It is night, as then.—The PRINCE OF HOMBURG, with bandaged eyes, is led in through the lower garden-wicket, by CAPTAIN STRANZ. Officers with the guard. In the distance one can hear the drumming of the death-march.
THE PRINCE. All art thou mine now, immortality!
Thou glistenest through the veil that blinds mine eyes
With that sun's glow that is a thousand suns.
I feel bright pinions from my shoulders start;
Through mute, ethereal spaces wings my soul;
And as the ship, borne outward by the wind,
Sees the bright harbor sink below the marge,
Thus all my being fades and is submerged.
Now I distinguish colors yet and forms,
And now—all life is fog beneath my feet.
[The PRINCE seats himself on the bench which stands about the oak in the middle of the open space. The CAPTAIN draws away from him and looks up toward the terrace.]
How sweet the flowers fill the air with odor!
D'you smell them?
STRANZ (returning to him). They are gillyflowers and pinks.
THE PRINCE. How come the gillyflowers here?
STRANZ. I know not.
It must have been some girl that planted them.
Come, will you have a bachelor's button?
THE PRINCE. Thanks!
When I get home I'll have it put in water.
SCENE XI
The ELECTOR with the laurel-wreath, about which the golden chain is twined, the ELECTRESS, PRINCESS NATALIE, FIELD-MARSHAL DÖRFLING, COLONEL KOTTWITZ, HOHENZOLLERN, GOLZ, and others. Ladies-in-waiting, officers and boys bearing torches appear on the castle terrace. HOHENZOLLERN steps to the balustrade and with a handkerchief signals to CAPTAIN STRANZ, whereupon the latter leaves the PRINCE OF HOMBURG and speaks a few words with the guards in the background.
THE PRINCE. What is the brightness breaking round me, say!
