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Date Posted: 19:58:05 11/11/07 Sun
Author: part 3
Subject: Re: November 11, 2007
In reply to: part 2 's message, "Re: November 11, 2007" on 19:54:07 11/11/07 Sun

NUN KOMMT DIE SCHILLERZEIT

[The following article was prepared in the context of the
Schiller celebration taking place this week in Germany.]

A Centennial Across Two Continents
by Dean Andromidas

In earlier times, wherever there were Germans, especially in
the United States, there was an outpouring love and admiration
for Germany's Poet of Freedom Friedrich Schiller on the
anniversary of his date of birth. Love and true freedom are
universal sentiments, and Schiller's works draws universal
admiration wherever mankind seeks after truth and the love of
humanity.
This short report will draw on two centennial celebrations
of Schiller's birth held in 1859, one in New York and one in
Munich. The two events mark a very important link between
Schiller's concept of republican freedom and the first modern
republican state. This is not a deep study, but based on no more
than a six New York Times articles reporting on the event, and a
little follow-up research. Although somewhat anecdotal,
nonetheless the result reveals that the love of Schiller across
two continents parallels that of the republican movement in both
the United States and Germany. Especially if you consider that
the documentation is from the New York Times. Here we see the
citizens of the United States, express their admiration for the
German poet, and the German lovers of Schiller express their
admiration for the United States.
The year 1859 is a very special year for both countries
where the centennial for Schiller served as a powerful metaphor,
for the struggle for republicanism on both sides of the Atlantic
was at hand.
The United States of 1859 was the high water mark of the
debate on the question of slavery, which would, within months,
tear the nation into two. In Germany, despite the failure of the
1848 revolution, the struggle for the unity of the nation served
as a cause for those who fought for a German republic in the
image of the United States.
Schiller served as a unifying link between the fighters for
the preservation of the union of the United States, and the
elimination of slavery and the republican movement of Germany.
The New York City of 1859 was home to a large population of
German Americans, many of whom arrived long before the American
Revolution, and many who arrived after the collapse of the German
Revolution of 1848. So large, influential, and politically active
were the German citizens of the city, that the centennial
celebrations lasted no less then four days. The ceremonies drew
not only the German American community, but also Americans of all
origins who loved Schiller, as the German Poet of Freedom.
The opening of the New York city centennial was a major
event of the city, and held in the grand hall of the famous
Cooper Institute, also known as Cooper Union, which still stands
today. Cooper Union was modeled on the Ecole Polytechnic, and was
a preeminent technical and scientific institute of the day. Its
founder, David Cooper, was an outspoken opponent of slavery and
an important political supporter of Lincoln in the 1860
Presidential campaign. Describing the "beautifully decorated"
speakers platform, the New York Times wrote "In the center was a
full length statuesque painting of Schiller, framed in a border
of evergreens and immortalles, most tastefully interwoven. On
each side of this picture the whole formed a semi-circles...were
busts of German and Italian poets standing on high pedestals...in
front on the edge of the platform were the bust of Homer and
Dante." In the center was "large circular painting representing
the Genius of Liberty..."
After the opening address by the head of the Schiller
Society, Dr. William Loewe, letters of greeting were read from
the President of the United States, the governor of New York and
venerable American author and patriot, Washington Irving, who,
because of ill health, for he would die that same year, could not
attend.
The Times devotes much of its reporting to the speech of
William Cullen Bryant, literary figure, poet and editor of the
New York Evening Post. Bryant, who toured Europe as a young man,
wrote two poems related to Schiller, one entitled The Death Of
Schiller, second, William Tell, a Sonnet. The Times published
his entire presentation. A few excerpts are of interest.

William Cullen Bryant's Address

After introductory remarks on the love and veneration
Schiller enjoys in Germany, Bryant declared: "We may therefore
well say to the countrymen of Schiller: 'Schiller is yours, but
he is ours also. It was your country may have given him birth,
but the people of all nations have made him their countryman by
adoption...' We of this country, too must honor Schiller as the
Poet of Freedom. He was one of those who, if he could worship
aught visible to the human eye shaped by the human fancy, he
would rear an alter to liberty, and bring to it at the beginning
and close of every day his offering of praise. Schiller began to
write when our country was warring with Great Britain for its
independence and his genius attained the maturity of manhood just
as we had made peace with our powerful adversary and stood upon
the earth a full-grown nation. It was then that the poet was
composing his noble drama of Don Carlos, in which the Marquis of
Posa is introduced as laying down to the tyrant Philip of Spain,
the great law of Freedom. In the drama of the Robbers, written in
Schiller's youth, we are sensible of a fiery vehement destructive
impatience with society, on account of the abuses which it
permits; and enthusiasm of reform, almost without plan or object;
but in his works composed afterwards we find the true philosophy
of reform calmly and clearly stated, The Marquis of Posa in an
interview with Philip tells him, at the peril of his life, truths
which he never heard before, exhorts him to lay the foundations
of his power in the happiness and affections of his people, by
observing the democratic precept that no tie should fetter the
citizen save the respect for the rights of his brethren, as
perfect and as sacred as his own, and prophesies the approaching
advent of freedom, which unfortunately we are looking for
still...that universal Spring which could yet make young the
nations of the earth.
"Yet Schiller was no made innovator. He saw that society
required to be pruned, but did not desire that it should be
uprooted..he would have it reformed, but not laid waste. What was
ancient in its usages and ordinances, and therefore endeared to
many, he would where it was possible improve and adapt to the
present wants of mankind..."
Bryant then illustrated this point citing lines from
Wallenstein. He then spoke of Schiller's "last great dramatic
work" William Tell, writing, "He took a silent page from history,
and, animating the personages of whom it speaks with the fiery
life of his own spirit, and endowing them with his own superhuman
eloquence, he formed it into a living protest against foreign
domination, which yet rings throughout the world. Wherever there
are generous hearts, wherever there are men who hold in reverence
the rights of their fellow-men wherever the love of country and
the love of mankind coexist, Schiller's drama of William Tell,
stirs the blood like the sound of the trumpet..."
Bryant wrote that it was not for him to analyze the literary
merits of his Schiller great drama but concluded by stating that
as a man of letters Schiller was "entitled to the veneration of
Mankind" for "he was an earnest seeker after truth .. a man
whose moral nature revolted at every form of deceit.. that on the
ascertainment and diffusion of truth the welfare of mankind
largely depends..The office of him who labored in the field of
letters he thought was to make mankind better and happier, by
illustrating and enforcing the relations and duties of justice,
beneficence, and brotherhood, by which men are bound to each
other, and he never forgot this in anything he wrote. Immortal
honor to him whose vast powers where employed to so worthy a
purpose and may the next hundredth anniversary of his birth be
celebrated with even warmer enthusiasm then this."
The Times wrote, "Bryant retired amid enthusiastic
cheers..."
Another speaker was Judge C.P. Daily who began, "The
question of the grave digger in Hamlet, 'Who builds stronger that
the mason or the carpenter?' might be answered with perfect
propriety and thought, the Poet..." For Schiller, the Poet, his
"Chief merit was, that he touched the hearts and carried with him
the earnest sympathies of all the people. He, only, is a great
poet to whom the chorus of all humanity respond, and who touches
the emotions of every breast... Schiller is readily comprehended,
because he is free from mysticism, and, therefore more thoroughly
reaches the heart. He is full, through of fidelity and manly
earnestness....He was ever laboring to impart to others the
knowledge of the Good, the Beautiful, the True. When the period
approached in which he was to withdraw from the earth, in the
language of of our great national poet, who has come here today
to pay his homage to his great predecessor - in the language of
Mr. Bryant:

"when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustain'd and sooth'd
By an unfaltering trust, approach they grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

In the words of the Times, "The judge retired amid a storm of
applause"

Almost a hundred and fifty years later, Amelia Boynton
Robinson, the Vice Chairwoman of the Schiller Institute,
concluded her own eulogy on the passing of her friend and fellow
civil rights fighter, Rosa Parks, with the above poem of Bryant.
Another event held during the four days of centennial events
was held at the Music Academy where an orchestra performed
Beethoven's Egmont. A fine Bust of Schiller was placed on a
pedestal on the stage. This bust can now, in 2007, be seen in
Central Park. There was also a life-size statue of Schiller, as
well as bust of other great poets including Homer, Shakespeare,
Lessing, Euripides, Goethe, and others. Selected scenes from
Schiller's, The Robbers, Fiesco, Mary Stuart, a scene from
Wallenstein's Camp. There were also "living statues" of
characters from various dramas including the Maid of Orleans, Don
Carlos, and William Tell.
A few months later William Cullen Bryant would introduce, in
this same hall at Cooper Union, someone who was not a poet, but
nonetheless a Poet of Freedom, Abraham Lincoln.
A few weeks before the Schiller centennial, in October 1859,
Abraham Lincoln, Presidential aspirant accepted an invitation to
lecture at the Henry Ward Beecher's Church in Brooklyn. A few
months later in February of 1960 the Young Men's Republican
Union assumed sponsorship of the event. One of its leading
members was William Cullen Bryant, who was instrumental in
gaining this sponsorship with the purpose of introducing Lincoln
into New York city Republican Party circles, with the hope that
they would endorse Lincoln over the then New York backed
candidate William Seward.
Lincoln arrived at Cooper Union to give the lecture on
February 27, 1860, although not a "poet" but nonetheless a "poet
of Freedom" Lincoln gave one of his most powerful speeches of the
1960 campaign. An eyewitness said of Lincoln's address, "when
Lincoln rose to speak, I was greatly disappointed. He was tall,
tall, - oh how tall! And so angular and awkward that I had for an
instant a feeling of pity for so ungainly a man." But once into
his powerful speech "his face lighted up as with inward fire;
the whole man was transfigured. I forgot his clothes, his
personal appearance and his individual peculiarities. Presently,
forgetting myself, I was on my feet like the rest, yelling like a
wild Indian, cheering this wonderful man."
This is not the place to detail that speech, but let it be
said that Lincoln, in a speech running 7,500 words, thoroughly
devastated one the great lies of the South's biggest sophist
ideologue, Senator Stephen Douglas. The absolute lie that the
founding fathers of the U.S constitution would not have allowed
the Federal Government to act on slavery, Lincoln systematically
documented how the vast majority of the 39 signers of the
constitution, in fact supported the Federal government right to
act against slavery. Lincoln ended his speech with the words,
"Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances
wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored -
contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between
right and wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be
neither a living man nor a dead man - such as a policy of 'don't
care' on a question about which all true men do care - such as
Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists,
reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the
righteous to repentance - such as invocations to Washington,
imploring men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what
Washington did. "Neither let us be slandered from our duty by
false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces
of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves.
Let Us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let
us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

Schiller Fest in Munich.

In Germany, the homeland of Schiller, the Centennial was
celebrated throughout the land in a grandeur whose description an
American journalist could not improve, and therefore serves no
purpose to review here. But an American journalist, one who see
himself as a member of the first modern republic, might see
beyond the pageantry to see that in celebrating Schiller's
birthday the people celebrate their desire for freedom and truth.
As the New York Times wrote, Schiller was their "best beloved
bard, Beloved, for though some may admire Goethe more, they
cannot love him as much."
On November 8,1859 the Times took note,"The Schiller
Celebration, it is impossible not to see, has other bearings than
those of a merely literary nature. ..In fact the present
extraordinary interest and simultaneous action of all parts of
Germany find their primary cause in the general desire for a
united Fatherland. The fortunate occurrence of this anniversary
has been seized upon as a means for arousing and expressing the
national feeling. In this fact lies the secret of the opposition
which the celebration has met in various circles. Most
governments have felt themselves obliged to countenance the
movement, because the popular desire is too strong to be
withstood."
The New York Times reports Prussia, claiming the "critical
condition of of His Majesty's health" banned all public
celebrations. Nonetheless an absurd compromise were effected
where "foundation stone of a new Schiller monument will be laid;
but the popular demonstration dispensed with! These, and other
symptoms seem to indicate that the Prussian Government do not
desire, at the preset time, a free expression of the people's
hopes and wishes; for such, in fact will the Schiller's fest
become..."
Meanwhile in Bavaria, "The shrewder Catholic interest of
the large towns has eagerly taken this occasion to show their
love for "the man of progress" as a contrast to the 'bigotry of
Protestantism' manifested in Prussia. In this way they hope to
make the breach between North and South Germany still wider." But
our author writes despite all these attempts to manipulate the
celebrations there continues a "strong feeling which lies in the
German people, and which is not so much (at present)
revolutionary sentiment as a bitter contempt of their petty
princes (in general, if not personally,) an a readiness to slip
from under the yoke with the first peaceful opportunity." In
this same article the author details a campaign in the press with
articles planted "sometimes by the authorities who hope to check
the tide of emigration [to America] in this way!" article on the
alleged horrible and lawless conditions that prevail throughout
the United States.
Our correspondent in a long article dated November 12 gave a
full and detailed account of the varied centennial events held on
the last day of the Schiller festival in Munich which were
sponsored by old King Ludwig. But in an article dated November
18 R.W.R., after writing how in Vienna, as in Munich, the event
was sponsored by the Monarch, whose censor carefully reviewed
each proposed speech to ensure that all part deemed seditious
were "scratched out" in some cases the even the word Freiheit,
can one imagine speaking of Schiller and unable to utter the word
Freiheit!
In Vienna all the "soldiery 'out of sight' it doesn't follow
that they were 'out of mind,'. On the contrary, every man knew
that they stood under arms in the caserne, and that their
invisibility was a sign of their readiness.." In Munich the
Court took over the proceedings, so the court poet wrote the
poems of dedication, the court orators wrote all the speeches,
the court newspapers praised them the court actors performed the
dramas, "The sole event left free for the popular sentiment was -
a crowd, and a hurrah."


Out journalist then describes the great dinner where all the
cities luminaries were present, including U.S. Councilor General
Mr. Ten Brooke. Of course the event was carefully stage managed
to present a "harmonious" display complete with court "flops",
censored speeches on the various aspects f Chiller, the
dramatist, the historian,the idealist, the man and even the
politician, but the unfortunate reciter of the his last had to
cut his speech short because he found no way to get past the
censor.
The our correspondent writes, "just as everything seemed to be
proceeding to such a "harmonious" termination .. what was the
consternation of the contrivers to see old Dr. Neumann rise to
speak.
"The Doctor was suspended from his Professorship in 1852,
principally on account of the wit and ability which which he
lectured on Modern History, (bringing his remarks under that
thread to the very year in which he lectured, and, consequently,
pretty close home.) Since that time he has won himself a much
greater audience as author and his special talent will find its
fitting exponent in his present undertaking - the History of the
United States. This, by way of reminding you who it was that so
disarranged the plan of the old fogies.
" It was Prof Neumann's first political speech since eleven
years; but his talent for stump oratory is truly American, and
seems not to have rusted by disuse. His remarks, though
extemporaneous were, by far, the most striking and interesting
of the evening. The anxiety of the "harmonious" became painful as
he proceeded, after a humorous introduction and the relation of
several anecdotes of Schiller, to take up the stitch which had
been so awkwardly dropped, and consider Schiller as a
politician, closing with a parallel between Schiller and Goethe,
in which he claimed that the former was the Poet of the People,
the latter the Poet of the Artists. He said that, when a young
man, he once asked Baron Wm Humboldt why it was that the
celebrated correspondence between these two greatest poets of
German, which took place at the most interesting period of her
history, when she suffered under the oppression of the foreigner,
not a word was to be found about the condition of the Fatherland;
only discussions as to whether Mlle.----, in dancing, held her
foot so or so, and other purely aesthetic matter. In replay to
which the Baron gave him to understand that Schiller would
willingly have brought political matters into the correspondence,
but 'the minister' declined to agree to it. It is not to be
denied that after Goethe became connected directly with the
Court, he chose no more popular subjects for his dramas. Egmont,
the hero of the Netherlands finds no counterpart in such ideal
creations as the Iphigenia. And Hermann and Dorothea is perhaps,
the only work of Goethe where Nature seems stronger than Art.
"On the other hand, Schiller paints a Wallenstein basely
treated by a tyrant Emperor; a Tell , a Joan of Arc, leaders of
the people; a patriot Don Carlos, a martyr, Marie Stuart - yes,
he is the People's poet."
"Such a train of though roused the most violent opposition,"
our New York Times correspondent wrote, but nonetheless old
Professor Neumann, "completely came off conquerer over his
opponents." The author then writes that he spent so much time on
this event because the theme of the contrast between Schiller as
Poet of the People and Goethe the "poet of the artist" had
repeated itself throughout Germany.
In showing the demonstration of how the theme of German
unity pervaded the festivities, despite the manipulation of the
oligarchy, our correspondent quotes a statement by a professor at
the university of Wurtzburg to his student during the period of
the Centennial
"It is your turn now, you that are young. You are the hope
of the Fatherland-- its support for the future. We old men have
labored in the cause; much is already accomplished for Freedom
and for Union; it is yours to complete the good work. Do not
stand aloof! Let today's solemn festivity be a symbol of the
German unity. One in this spirit, we bring our heartfelt
greeting to the manes of Schiller, and lay, together with the
millions who like us love and honor him, the wreaths of Frame and
Gratitude -the gratitude of a nation - yes, a world upon his
grave!"
In 1863, the American Civil War was raging, and Old
Professor Karl Freidrich Neumann Published his History of the
United States, which was the first such history to have been
written in Germany. He dedicated it to Lincoln followed by a the
following quote from Benjamin Franklin, "America Best Cultivates
what Germany brought Forth." In his foreword, Neumann writes that
the American Constitution should form the basis for a
constitution for the German "fatherland." It goes without saying
that throughout the Civil War, Neumann was one of Germany's most
passionate supporters of Lincoln and the Union struggle.

Happy Birthday Friedrich Schiller!

In celebration of Friedrich Schiller's birthday, we publish
translations of Schiller's Prologue to the Wallenstein triology
and Wallenstein's soliloquy in Wallenstein's Death. These
selections are especially relevant in light of Lyndon LaRouche's
recent piece on the Force of Tragedy. In his soliloquy,
Wallenstein identifies the enemy of humanity at this and, by
implication, other great moments in history when decisive action
is required, as an invisible force, which he refers to as the
force of custom--the eternal yesterday.
The purpose of Schiller's trilogy is to incite in the
audience the revolutionary capacity to effectively overcome the
cultural habits which led Europe during the 30 Years War to its
self-destruction, until the conflict was ended with the Treaty of
Westphalia based on the contrary, anti-entropic principle of the
advantage of the other.


Prologue to Friedrich Schiller's Wallenstein

Spoken at the reopening of the theater in Weimar in October 1798

The play of jesting and of earnest masks,
To which you've lent a willing ear and eye
So often, devoted your tender souls,
Unites us once again within this hall-
And look! It's been rejuvenated, art
Has beautified it as a cheerful temple,
And an harmonic lofty spirit speaks
To us out of this noble column order
And animates the mind with festive feelings.

Yet this is still the theater of old,
The cradle of so many youthful powers,
The pathway of so much arising talent,
We're still our same old selves, who have been trained
With ardent drive and zealousness before you.
A noble master stood upon this place,
Enchanting you by his creative genius
Unto the cheerful summit of his art.
Oh! May this room's new dignity attract
The worthiest of all into our midst,
And may one hope, which we have long preserved,
Appear to us in radiant fulfillment.

A great example wakens emulation
And gives unto our judgment higher laws.
So let this circle stand, the brand-new stage
As evidence of the perfected talent.
Where might it also rather test its powers,
Rejuvenate and recreate its former fame,
Than here before a well-selected circle,
Which, sensitive to each enchanting stroke
Of art, with gently moving feeling snatches
The mind in its most transient appearance?

For rapidly and tracelessly the art
Of mimes, the wonderful, fades from our mind,
Whereas the chisel's figure and the song
O'th' poet after centuries live on.
But here the magic dies off with the artist,
And as the sound trails off within the ear,
The moment's swift creation dies away,
And no enduring work preserves its fame.
Hard is the art, and fleeting is its prize,
For the mime, posterity entwines no garlands;
Therefore, he must be greedy for the present,
Fulfill the moment, which is his, completely,
Assure himself of his contemporaries,
And in the feelings of the best and worthiest,
Erect a living monument-Thus, in
Advance he takes his name's eternity.
For who has done sufficient for the best
Of his own time, has lived for all the ages.

The modern era, which for Thalia's art
Begins today upon this stage, has made
The poet also bold, the old course leaving,
To transfer you from out the narrow sphere
Of bourgeois life unto a higher scene,
Not undeserving of the sublime moment
Of time, in which we're moved aspiringly.
For only subjects of great import can
Excite the deep foundation of mankind;
In the narrow sphere the mind becomes more narrow,
But man grows greater with his greater aims.

And now upon the century's earnest end,
Where actuality itself is turned
To poetry, where we behold the struggle
Of potent natures which is undertaken
For an important goal and for great issues
Of humankind, for mastery and freedom--
Now art may too engage in higher flight
Upon its shadow stage, indeed it must,
Lest it be put to shame by life's own stage.

Within these days we see the old fixed form
Collapse, which once a hundred fifty years
Ago bestowed upon the realms of Europe
A welcome peace, the costly fruit derived
From thirty woeful years of war. Now once
Again permit the poet's fantasy
To bring that melancholy time before you,
And gaze more happily into the present
And towards the hopeful distance of the future.

Into the middle of that war the poet
Puts you now. Sixteen years of desolation,
Of theft, of misery have flown away,
In gloomy masses ferments still the world,
And from afar no hope of peace shines forth.
The Empire is a romper-field of weapons,
Deserted are the cities, Magdeburg
In ruins, art and industry lie low,
The citizen is naught, the soldier all,
Unpunished insolence makes fun of morals,
And brutal hordes, made wild in lengthy war,
Encamp upon the devastated earth.

Upon this gloomy background is depicted,
An undertaking of bold arrogance
And also an audacious character.
You know him-the creator of bold armies,
The idol of the camp and scourge of nations.
The pillar and the terror of his Emperor,
Felicity's adventurous adopted son,
Who, born aloft by the favor of the times,
Scaled rapidly the highest rungs of honor
And, never sated striving always further,
Fell victim to his unrestrained ambition.
Confused by the favor and the hate of parties,
In history our image of him wavers;
But art shall bring him closer as a man
Before your eyes and also to your heart.
For art, which binds and limits everything,
Reduces everything extreme to nature,
It sees this man amid the throng of life
And shifts the greater portion of the blame
From him unto his inauspicious stars.

It is not he, who will appear upon
This stage today. But in the daring troops,
Which his command with might directs, his spirit
Inspires, you will confront a shadow-image,
Until the bashful Muse herself shall dare
To place him in his living form before you;
For 'tis his power, which seduces his heart,
His camp alone elucidates his crime.

Therefore, forgive the poet, if he does
Not pull you all at once with rapid steps
Unto his story's goal, but only dares
To unroll his enormous subject-matter
Before your eyes, in an array of paintings.
May this day's play gain vict'ry o'er your ear
And o'er your heart for unaccustomed tones;
May it return you to that period of time,
Back to that foreign theater of war,
Which soon our hero with his actions will
Perform.

And if today the Muse, unshackled
Goddess of dancing and of song, should claim
In modesty her ancient German right
Once more, the play of rhyme-do not rebuke her!
Yes, thank her, that she transfers the dire image
Of truth into the cheerful realm of art,
Herself uprightly destroys the deception,
Which she creates, and does not substitute
Fallaciously its semblance for the truth;
Life is in earnest, art's serenely cheerful.

************************************ Act I. Scene 4
of Wallenstein's Death

WALLENSTEIN (speaking to himself):
Were't possible? Could I no more, as I wished?
No more return, as't pleases me? I must
{Perform} the deed, because I {thought} of it,
Drove the temptation not from me--my heart
Did nourish with this dream, for an uncertain
Accomplishment have laid aside the means,
Have merely kept my pathways to it open?--
By the great God o'th' Heavens! I was not
In earnest, 'twas ne'er a decided thing.
Myself I merely flattered with the thought;
The freedom and capacity enticed me.
Was it not right, for me to take delight
In the deceptive hope of royalty?
Did not free will remain within my breast,
And saw I not the good path at my side,
Which always kept return open to me?
Where then see I myself led suddenly?
Pathless lies it behind me and a wall
Is erected by my own endeavors,
Which towering doth impede my turning back!--
(He remains standing deep in thought)
Culpable I seem, and I can not shake
The guilt from me, however I may try;
The ambiguity of my life indicts me,
And--even my pure deed of pious source
Suspicion will, with wicked meaning, poison.
Was I, as I am held to be, the traitor,
I would have kept up good appearances,
A mantle had I drawn around me tightly,
Ne'er lent a voice to anger. Conscious of
The innocence of my unseduced will,
I gave way to my temper, to my passion--
Bold were the words, because the deed was not.
Now, what occurred without a plan, they will
Knit together, farseeing, as fully planned,
And what my anger, and my joyous spirit
Let me speak i'th' profusion of my heart,
They will join to me in an artful web,
And make thereof a fearful accusation,
Which I must face in silence. Thus have I
Fatally ensnared myself with my own net,
And but a violent act can rip it free.
(Again standing still)
How different! then the free impulse of courage
Drew me to the bold act, which harshly bidding
Need, preservation now demand of me.
Grave is the appearance of necessity.
Not without a shudder dips the hand of man
Into the mysterious urn of destiny.
Within my bosom was my deed yet mine:
Once released from out the protected corner
Of my heart, its maternal origin,
Sent forth into the foreign lands of life,
It belongs unto those malicious powers,
Which no man's art can make reliable.
(He paces intensely through the room, then he stands still
again in thought)
And what is thy beginning? Hast thou even
Acknowledged honestly to thy self? Thou would'st
Shake the tranquil, securely reigning power
Which in deep-rooted, sanctified possession,
In ancient custom rests firmly grounded,
Which to the people's pious childhood faith
Is fastened with a thousand stubborn roots.
This will not be a war of strength with strength:
{That} fear I not. With any foe I'll venture,
Whom I can see and look into the eye,
Who, full of courage, kindles mine in turn.
It is a foe invisible, whom I feared,
Who in the breast of men opposes me,
By cowardly fear alone to me appalling--
Not what proclaims itself alive and forceful,
Is dangerously terrible. 'Tis what's
Quite common, the eternal yesterday,
What always was and always reappears,
And tomorrow's good, because today 'twas good!
For out of what is common is man made,
And force of habit he doth call his nurse,
Woe's him, who moves his worthy ancient household
Effects, the precious heirlooms of his forebears!
The {year} exerts a consecrating force,
What's gray from age, that is to him divine.
Be in possession and thou dwellst i'th' right,
And sacredly the crowd will guard it for thee.
(To the page, who enters)
Is it the Swedish Colonel? Now, he comes.
(The page exits. Wallenstein has fixed his glance pensively
on the door)
Yet, it is pure--as yet! The crime has not
Come o'er this threshold yet--So narrow is
The boundary, which life's two paths divide!

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