The Robbers and Wallenstein by Friedrich Schiller

Author:Friedrich Schiller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-11-04T04:00:00+00:00

SCENE 2

[Enter OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI and QUESTENBERG.]

OCTAVIO [still at a distance]:

What? More guests do I see? Admit, my friend,

It took this war, and all its bitter tears,

To bring so many heroes crowned with fame

Together in the circuit of one camp.

QUESTENBERG: Let no man come to one of Friedland’s camps,

If he of war would only ill believe.

Almost I had forgotten all its torments,

When order’s noble spirit here I saw,

Through which, while all-destroying, war itself

Is yet preserved, maintains its majesty.

OCTAVIO: And now! See here a noble pair, most worthy

To close these heroes’ ranks: Count Isolan

And Colonel Butler. Now, I think we see

With our own eyes the whole estate of war.

[Introducing BUTLER and ISOLANI]

Here you see strength, my friend, and swiftness here.

QUESTENBERG [to OCTAVIO]:

And here between them, wisdom and experience.

OCTAVIO [presenting QUESTENBERG to them]:

Counsellor and State Secretary Questenberg,

The bearer of Imperial commands,

Master and generous patron of the soldier,

We honour in his most distinguished guest.

[Silence.]

ILLO [approaching QUESTENBERG]:

I think it is not, Minister, the first time

That you have graced us with your noble presence.

QUESTENBERG: Under these banners I have stood before.

ILLO: And where you stood beneath them, you remember?

At Znaym in the Moravian lands, where on

The Emperor’s behalf you came to beg

The Duke that he would take supreme command.

QUESTENBERG: To beg him, General? I did not think

My orders, nor my zeal, had gone so far.

ILLO: Why, then, to force him, if you like it. I

Remember very well – Count Tilly had

Been beaten on the Lech – Bavaria

Lay open to the foe, nothing could stop him

From thrusting to the heart of Austria.

Then you appeared, and Werdenberg came too,

Before our lord, besieging him with pleas,

And threatening the Emperor’s disfavour,

Unless the Prince took pity on his woes.

ISOLANI [joining them]:

Yes, Minister! I understand full well

Why with the task in which you come today

You do not willingly recall the other!

QUESTENBERG: Why should I not? For I can see between them

No contradiction! Then, Bohemia must

Be saved from foes, today it is my duty

To save her from her friends and her protectors.

ILLO: A pretty office! After we have spilt

Our blood to wrest Bohemia from the Saxon,

In gratitude you drive us from the land!

QUESTENBERG: Unless it should not be but to exchange

Old misery for new, this wretched land

Must now be freed from scourge of friend or foe.

ILLO: Pah! It has been a fruitful year, the peasant

Can give again.

QUESTENBERG: Why, now, if you are speaking

Of pastures, and of flocks and herds, Field-Marshal –

ISOLANI: War feeds on war. If peasants cannot live,

All the more soldiers will the Emperor gain!

QUESTENBERG: And all the fewer subjects he will have!

ISOLANI: Bah! Are we hot his subjects, every one?

QUESTENBERG: But with a difference, Count! For there are some

Who fill his chests with useful industry,

While others know not but to scoop them clean.

The sword has made the Emperor a pauper;

It is the plough must make him strong again.

BUTLER: The Emperor were no pauper, were there not

So many – leeches battening on the land.

ISOLANI: Nor can it yet have come to that. I see [planting himself in front of QUESTENBERG and inspecting his clothes]

There is still gold in plenty yet uncoined.

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