The Piccolomini: A Play

SCENE II.

      WALLENSTEIN, DUCHESS.

   WALLENSTEIN.
   You went, then, through Vienna, were presented
   To the Queen of Hungary?

   DUCHESS.
   Yes; and to the empress, too,
   And by both majesties were we admitted
   To kiss the hand.

   WALLENSTEIN.
             And how was it received,
   That I had sent for wife and daughter hither
   To the camp, in winter-time?

   DUCHESS.
                  I did even that
   Which you commissioned me to do. I told them
   You had determined on our daughter's marriage,
   And wished, ere yet you went into the field,
   To show the elected husband his betrothed.

   WALLENSTEIN.
   And did they guess the choice which I had made?

   DUCHESS.
   They only hoped and wished it may have fallen
   Upon no foreign nor yet Lutheran noble.

   WALLENSTEIN.
   And you—what do you wish, Elizabeth?

   DUCHESS.
   Your will, you know, was always mine.

   WALLENSTEIN (after a pause).
                      Well, then,—
   And in all else, of what kind and complexion
   Was your reception at the court?
      [The DUCHESS casts her eyes on the ground, and remains silent.
   Hide nothing from me. How were you received?

   DUCHESS.
   O! my dear lord, all is not what it was.
   A canker-worm, my lord, a canker-worm
   Has stolen into the bud.

   WALLENSTEIN.
                Ay! is it so?
   What, they were lax? they failed of the old respect?

   DUCHESS.
   Not of respect. No honors were omitted,
   No outward courtesy; but in the place
   Of condescending, confidential kindness,
   Familiar and endearing, there were given me
   Only these honors and that solemn courtesy.
   Ah! and the tenderness which was put on,
   It was the guise of pity, not of favor.
   No! Albrecht's wife, Duke Albrecht's princely wife,
   Count Harrach's noble daughter, should not so—
   Not wholly so should she have been received.

   WALLENSTEIN.
   Yes, yes; they have taken offence. My latest conduct
   They railed at it, no doubt.

   DUCHESS.
                  O that they had!
   I have been long accustomed to defend you,
   To heal and pacify distempered spirits.
   No; no one railed at you. They wrapped them up,
   O Heaven! in such oppressive, solemn silence!
   Here is no every-day misunderstanding,
   No transient pique, no cloud that passes over;
   Something most luckless, most unhealable,
   Has taken place. The Queen of Hungary
   Used formerly to call me her dear aunt,
   And ever at departure to embrace me——

   WALLENSTEIN.
   Now she omitted it?

   DUCHESS (wiping away her tears after a pause).
              She did embrace me,
   But then first when I had already taken
   My formal leave, and when the door already
   Had closed upon me, then did she come out
   In haste, as she had suddenly bethought herself,
   And pressed me to her bosom, more with anguish
   Than tenderness.

   WALLENSTEIN (seizes her hand soothingly).
            Nay, now collect yourself.
   And what of Eggenberg and Lichtenstein,
   And of our other friends there?

   DUCHESS (shaking her head).
                    I saw none.

   WALLENSTEIN.
   The ambassador from Spain, who once was wont
   To plead so warmly for me?

   DUCHESS.
                 Silent, silent!

   WALLENSTEIN.
   These suns then are eclipsed for us. Henceforward
   Must we roll on, our own fire, our own light.

   DUCHESS.
   And were it—were it, my dear lord, in that
   Which moved about the court in buzz and whisper,
   But in the country let itself be heard
   Aloud—in that which Father Lanormain
   In sundry hints and——

   WALLENSTEIN (eagerly).
               Lanormain! what said he?

   DUCHESS.
   That you're accused of having daringly
   O'erstepped the powers intrusted to you, charged
   With traitorous contempt of the emperor
   And his supreme behests. The proud Bavarian,
   He and the Spaniards stand up your accusers—
   That there's a storm collecting over you
   Of far more fearful menace than the former one
   Which whirled you headlong down at Regensburg.
   And people talk, said he, of——Ah!
              [Stifling extreme emotion.

   WALLENSTEIN.
                     Proceed!

   DUCHESS.
   I cannot utter it!

   WALLENSTEIN.
             Proceed!

   DUCHESS.
                  They talk——

   WALLENSTEIN.
   Well!

   DUCHESS.
       Of a second——
          (catches her voice and hesitates.)

   WALLENSTEIN.
              Second——

   DUCHESS.
                    Most disgraceful
   Dismission.

   WALLENSTEIN.
          Talk they?
      [Strides across the chamber in vehement agitation.
                Oh! they force, they thrust me
   With violence, against my own will, onward!

   DUCHESS (presses near him in entreaty).
   Oh! if there yet be time, my husband, if
   By giving way and by submission, this
   Can be averted—my dear Lord, give way!
   Win down your proud heart to it! Tell the heart,
   It is your sovereign lord, your emperor,
   Before whom you retreat. Oh! no longer
   Low trickling malice blacken your good meaning
   With abhorred venomous glosses. Stand you up
   Shielded and helmed and weaponed with the truth,
   And drive before you into uttermost shame
   These slanderous liars! Few firm friends have we—
   You know it! The swift growth of our good fortune
   It hath but set us up a mark for hatred.
   What are we, if the sovereign's grace and favor
   Stand not before us!