The Piccolomini. Friedrich von Schiller

A mendicant suitor for the crumbs of favor

         That fell beneath their tables. And, at last,

         Whom should they send me but a Capuchin!

         Straight I began to muster up my sins

         For absolution – but no such luck for me!

         This was the man, this Capuchin, with whom

         I was to treat concerning the army horses!

         And I was forced at last to quit the field,

         The business unaccomplished. Afterwards

         The duke procured me in three days what I

         Could not obtain in thirty at Vienna.

QUESTENBERG

         Yes, yes! your travelling bills soon found their way to us!

         Too well I know we have still accounts to settle.

ILLO

         War is violent trade; one cannot always

         Finish one's work by soft means; every trifle

         Must not be blackened into sacrilege.

         If we should wait till you, in solemn council,

         With due deliberation had selected

         The smallest out of four-and-twenty evils,

         I' faith we should wait long —

         "Dash! and through with it!" That's the better watchword.

         Then after come what may come. 'Tis man's nature

         To make the best of a bad thing once past.

         A bitter and perplexed "what shall I do?"

         Is worse to man than worst necessity.

QUESTENBERG

         Ay, doubtless, it is true; the duke does spare us

         The troublesome task of choosing.

BUTLER

                          Yes, the duke

         Cares with a father's feelings for his troops;

         But how the emperor feels for us, we see.

QUESTENBERG

         His cares and feelings all ranks share alike,

         Nor will he offer one up to another.

ISOLANI

         And therefore thrusts he us into the deserts

         As beasts of prey, that so he may preserve

         His dear sheep fattening in his fields at home.

QUESTENBERG (with a sneer)

         Count! this comparison you make, not I.

ILLO

         Why, were we all the court supposes us

         'Twere dangerous, sure, to give us liberty.

QUESTENBERG (gravely)

         You have taken liberty – it was not given you,

         And therefore it becomes an urgent duty

         To rein it in with the curbs.

ILLO

         Expect to find a restive steed in us.

QUESTENBERG

         A better rider may be found to rule it.

ILLO

         He only brooks the rider who has tamed him.

QUESTENBERG

         Ay, tame him once, and then a child may lead him.

ILLO

         The child, we know, is found for him already.

QUESTENBERG

         Be duty, sir, your study, not a name.

BUTLER (who has stood aside with PICCOLOMINI, but with visible interest in the conversation, advances)

         Sir president, the emperor has in Germany

         A splendid host assembled; in this kingdom

         Full twenty thousand soldiers are cantoned,

         With sixteen thousand in Silesia;

         Ten regiments are posted on the Weser,

         The Rhine, and Maine; in Swabia there are six,

         And in Bavaria twelve, to face the Swedes;

         Without including in the account the garrisons

         Who on the frontiers hold the fortresses.

         This vast and mighty host is all obedient

         To Friedland's captains; and its brave commanders,

         Bred in one school, and nurtured with one milk,

         Are all excited by one heart and soul;

         They are as strangers on the soil they tread,

         The service is their only house and home.

         No zeal inspires then for their country's cause,

         For thousands like myself were born abroad;

         Nor care they for the emperor, for one half

         Deserting other service fled to ours,

         Indifferent what their banner, whether 'twere,

         The Double Eagle, Lily, or the Lion.

         Yet one sole man can rein this fiery host

         By equal rule, by equal love and fear;

         Blending the many-nationed whole in one;

         And like the lightning's fires securely led

         Down the conducting rod, e'en thus his power

         Rules all the mass, from guarded post to post,

         From where the sentry hears the Baltic roar,

         Or views the fertile vales of the Adige,

         E'en to the body-guard, who holds his watch

         Within the precincts of the imperial palace!

QUESTENBERG

         What's the short meaning of this long harangue?

BUTLER

         That the respect, the love, the confidence,

         Which makes us willing subjects of Duke Friedland,

         Are not to be transferred to the first comer

         That Austria's court may please to send to us.

         We have not yet so readily forgotten

         How the command came into Friedland's hands.

         Was it, forsooth, the emperor's majesty

         That gave the army ready to his hand,

         And only sought a leader for it? No.

         The army then had no existence. He,

         Friedland, it was who called it into being,

         And gave it to his sovereign – but receiving

         No army at his hand; nor did the emperor

         Give Wallenstein to us as general. No,

         It was from Wallenstein we first received

         The emperor as our master and our sovereign;

         And he, he only, binds us to our