Chapter XXV: Act V: Scene: a hall in the Castle

SCENE I

_The_ ELECTOR, _scantily clad, enters from the adjoining chamber, followed by_ COUNT TRUCHSZ, COUNT HOHENZOLLERN, _and_ CAPTAIN VON DER GOLZ. _Pages with lights_.

ELECTOR. Kottwitz? And with the Princess's dragoons?
Here in the town?

TRUCHSZ (_opening the window_). Indeed, my sovereign!
Drawn up before the Castle, here he is!

ELECTOR. Well? Will you read the riddle, gentlemen?
Who called him hither?

HOHENZOLLERN. I know not, my liege.

ELECTOR. The place I set him at is known as Arnstein!
Make haste, some one, and go and bring him in.

GOLZ. He will appear forthwith, my sovereign.

ELECTOR. Where is he?

GOLZ. At the City Hall, I hear,
Where the entire generality,
That bears obedience to your house, is met.

ELECTOR. But why? What is the object?

HOHENZOLLERN. I know not.

TRUCHSZ. My prince and lord, will you vouchsafe that we
Likewise betake ourselves a moment thither?

ELECTOR. Whither? The City Hall?

HOHENZOLLERN. The lords' assemblage.
We gave our word of honor to appear.

ELECTOR (_after a short pause_).
You are dismissed!

GOLZ. Come, follow, gentlemen!

[_The officers go out_.]

SCENE II

_The_ ELECTOR. _Later, two footmen._

ELECTOR. Most curious! Were I the Dey of Tunis
I'd sound alarm at such a dubious move,
Lay on my desk despair's thin silken cord,
And at my palisaded castle-gate
Set up my heavy guns and howitzers.
But since it's just Hans Kottwitz from the Priegnitz
Who marches on me of his own sweet will
I'll treat the matter in the Mark's own way;
Of the three curls that gleam so silvery
On his old skull, I'll take firm hold of one
And lead him calmly with his squadrons twelve
To Arnstein, his headquarters, back again.
Why wake the city from its slumber thus?

[_He goes to the window a moment, then returns to the table and rings a bell. Two lackeys enter_.]

Do run below and ask, as for yourself,
What's doing in the City Hall.

1st LACKEY. At once!

[_He goes out._]

ELECTOR (_to the other_).
But you go now and fetch me my apparel.

[_The lackey goes and brings it. The_ ELECTOR _attires himself and dons his princely insignia._]

SCENE III

FIELD-MARSHAL DÖRFLING _enters. The others as before._

DÖRFLING. Rebellion, my Elector!

ELECTOR (_still occupied with his clothes_). Calm yourself!
You know that I detest to have my room
Without a warning word, invaded thus.
What do you want?

MARSHAL. Forgive me! An affair
Of special consequence has brought me hither.
Unordered, Colonel Kottwitz moved his force
Into the city; hundred officers
Are gathered round him in the armor-hall.
From hand to hand a paper passes round
That purposes encroachment on your rights.

ELECTOR. I am informed of it. What can it be
Except a ferment friendly to the Prince
On whom the law has laid the sentence, death?

MARSHAL. 'Tis so, by God on high! You struck it right!

ELECTOR. Well, then, and good. My heart is in their midst.

MARSHAL. The rumor goes the maniacs intend
This very night to hand you their petition
Here in the Castle; and should you persist
In carrying out, irreconcilably,
The sentence--scarce I dare to bring you this!--
To liberate him from his bonds by force!

ELECTOR (_sombrely_).
Come now, who told you that?

MARSHAL. Who told me that?
The lady Retzow, cousin of my wife,
Whom you may trust. She spent this evening
In Bailiff Retzow's, in her uncle's house,
And heard some officers who came from camp
Brazenly utter this audacious plan.

ELECTOR. A man must tell me that ere I'll believe it.
I'll set this boot of mine before his house
To keep him safe from these young heroes'
hands!

MARSHAL. My lord, I beg you, if it be your will,
To grant the Prince his pardon after all:
Fulfil it ere an odious deed be done.
You know that every army loves its hero.
Let not this spark which kindles in it now
Spread out and wax a wild consuming fire.
Nor Kottwitz nor the crowd he has convened
Are yet aware my faithful word has warned you.
Ere he appears, send back the Prince's sword,
Send it, as, after all, he has deserved.
One piece of chivalry the more you give
To history, and one misdeed the less.

ELECTOR. Concerning that I'd have to ask the Prince,
Who was not idly made a prisoner,
As you may know, nor idly may be freed.--
I'll see the gentlemen when they arrive.

MARSHAL (_to himself_).
Curse it! His armor's proof to every dart.

SCENE IV

_Two lackeys enter, one with a letter in his hand. The others as before_.

1st LACKEY. Sir, Colonels Kottwitz, Hennings, Truchsz and others
Beg audience!

ELECTOR (_to the second lackey, as he takes the letter_).
This from the Prince of Homburg?

2D LACKEY. Indeed, your Highness.

ELECTOR. Who delivered it?

2D LACKEY. The Swiss on guard before the castle gate,
Who had it from the Prince's bodyguard.

[_The_ ELECTOR _stands by the table, and reads; whereupon he turns and calls to a page_.]

Prittwitz! Bring me the warrant, bring it here.
And let me have the passport for the Swede's
Ambassador, Gustaf, the Count of Horn.

[_Exit the page_.]

[_To the first lackey_.]
Now Kottwitz and his retinue may come.

SCENE V

COLONEL KOTTWITZ _and_ COLONEL HENNINGS, COUNT TRUCHSZ, COUNTS HOHENZOLLERN _and_ SPARREN, COUNT REUSS, CAPTAIN VON DER GOLZ, STRANZ _and other officers enter. The others as before_.

KOTTWITZ (_bearing the petition_).
Permit me, my exalted sovereign,
Here in the name of all your soldiery
Most humbly to submit this document.

ELECTOR. Kottwitz, before I take it, tell me now
Who was it called you to this city here?

KOTTWITZ (_regarding him_).
With the dragoons?

ELECTOR. Ay, with your regiment!
I nominated Arnstein as your station.

KOTTWITZ. Sir! It was your behest that brought me
hither.

ELECTOR. Eh? Let me see the order!

KOTTWITZ. Here, my liege.

ELECTOR (_reading_).
Signed: "Natalie." And dated: "Fehrbellin,
By order of my liege, my uncle Frederick."

KOTTWITZ. By God, my prince and lord, I will not hope
The order's news to you?

ELECTOR. No--understand--Who
was it who conveyed the order thither?

KOTTWITZ. Count Reuss!

ELECTOR (_after a momentary pause_).
What's more, you're welcome, very welcome!
You have been chosen with your squadrons twelve
To pay Prince Homburg, sentenced by the law,
The final honors of the morrow.

KOTTWITZ (_taken aback_). What, My sovereign?

ELECTOR (_handing back the order_).
The regiment stands yet,
Benighted and befogged, outside the Castle?

KOTTWITZ. Pardon, the night--

ELECTOR. Why don't they go to quarters?

KOTTWITZ. My sovereign, they have gone. As you directed
They have found quarters in the city here.

ELECTOR (_with a turn toward the window_).
What? But a moment since--Well, by the gods!
You've found them stables speedily enough.
So much the better! Welcome, then, once more!
Come, say, what brings you here? What is your news?

KOTTWITZ. Sir, this petition from your loyal men.

ELECTOR. Come.

KOTTWITZ. But the words your lips have spoken strike
All my anticipations down to earth.

ELECTOR. Well, then, a word can lift them up again!
[_He reads_.]
"Petition, begging royal clemency
For our commandant, vitally accused,
The General, Prince Frederick Hessen-Homburg."

[_To the officers._]

A noble name, my lords! And not unworthy
Your coming in such numbers to its aid.

[_He looks into the document again._]

By whom is the petition?

KOTTWITZ. By myself.

ELECTOR. The Prince has been apprized of what it holds?

KOTTWITZ. Not in the very faintest. In our midst
The matter was conceived and given birth.

ELECTOR. Grant me a moment's patience, if you please.

[_He steps to the table and glances over the paper. Long pause._]

Hm! Curious! You ancient war-horse, you,
You plead the Prince's cause? You justify
His charging Wrangel ere I gave command?

KOTTWITZ. My sovereign, yes. That's what old Kottwitz does.

ELECTOR. You did not hold that notion on the field!

KOTTWITZ. I'd weighed the thing but ill, my sovereign.
I should have calmly yielded to the Prince
Who is most wonderfully versed in war.
The Swedes' left wing was wavering; on their right
Came reinforcements; had he been content
To bide your order, they'd have made a stand
With new intrenchments in the gullies there,
And never had you gained your victory.

ELECTOR. That's what it pleases you to presuppose!
I sent out Colonel Hennings, as you know,
To pounce upon and seize the knot of bridges
Held by the Swedes to cover Wrangel's rear.
If you'd not disobeyed my order, look,
Hennings had carried out the stroke as planned--
In two hours' time had set afire the bridges,
Planted his forces firmly on the Rhyn,
And Wrangel had been crushed with stump and stem
In ditches and morasses, utterly.

KOTTWITZ. It is the tyro's business, not yours,
To hunger after fate's supremest crown.
Until this hour you took what gift she gave.
The dragon that made desolate the Mark
Beneath your very nose has been repelled
With gory head! What could one day bring more?
What matters it if, for a fortnight yet,
Spent in the sand, he lies and salves his wounds?
We've learnt the art of conquering him, and now
Are full of zeal to make the most of it.
Give us a chance at Wrangel, like strong men,
Breast against breast once more; we'll make an end
And, down into the Baltic, down he goes!
They did not build Rome in a single day.

ELECTOR. What right have you, you fool, to hope for that,
When every mother's son is privileged
To jerk the battle-chariot's reins I hold?
Think you that fortune will eternally
Award a crown to disobedience?
I do not like a bastard victory,
The gutter-waif of chance; the law, look you,
My crown's progenitor, I will uphold,
For she shall bear a race of victories.

KOTTWITZ. My liege, the law, the highest and the best,
That shall be honored in your leaders' hearts--
Look, that is not the letter of your will!
It is the fatherland, it is the crown,
It is yourself, upon whose head it sits.
I beg you now, what matters it to you
What rule the foe fights by, as long as he
With all his pennons bites the dust once more?
The law that drubs him is the highest law!
Would you transform your fervid soldiery
Into a tool, as lifeless as the blade
That in your golden baldrick hangs inert?
Oh, empty spirit, stranger to the stars,
Who first gave forth such doctrine! Oh, the base,
The purblind statecraft, which because of one
Instance wherein the heart rode on to wrack,
Forgets ten others, in the whirl of life,
Wherein the heart alone has power to save!
Come, in the battle do I spill in dust
My blood for wages, money, say, or fame?
Faith, not a bit! It's all too good for that!
Why! I've my satisfaction and my joy,
Free and apart, in quiet solitude,
Seeing your splendor and your excellence,
The fame and crescence of your mighty name!
That is the wage for which I sold my heart!
Grant that, because of this unplanned success;
You broke the staff across the Prince's head,
And I somewhere twixt hill and dale at dawn
Should, shepherd-wise, steal on a victory
Unplanned as this, with my good squadrons, eh?--
By God, I were a very knave, did I
Not merrily repeat the Prince's act!
And if you spake, the law book in your hand:
"Kottwitz, you've forfeited your head!" I'd say:
I knew it, Sir; there, take it, there it is;
When with an oath I bound me, hide and hair,
Unto your crown, I left not out my head,
And I should give you nought but what was yours!

ELECTOR. You whimsical old gentleman, with you
I get nowhere! You bribe me with your tongue--
Me, with your craftily framed sophistries--
Me--and you know I hold you dear! Wherefore
I call an advocate to bear my side
And end our controversy.

[_He rings a bell. A footman enters._]

Go! I wish
The Prince of Homburg hither brought from prison.

[_Exit footman._]

He will instruct you, be assured of that,
What discipline and what obedience be!
He sent me words, at least, of other pitch
Than this astute idea of liberty
You have rehearsed here like a boy to me.

[_He stands by the table again reading._]

KOTTWITZ (_amazed_).
Fetch whom? Call whom?

HENNINGS. Himself?

TRUCHSZ. Impossible!

[_The officers group themselves, disquieted, and speak with one another._]

ELECTOR. Who has brought forth this other document?

HOHENZOLL. I, my liege lord!

ELECTOR (_reading_).
"Proof that Elector Frederick
The Prince's act himself--"--Well, now, by heaven,
I call that nerve!
What! You dare say the cause of the misdeed
The Prince committed in the fight, am I!

HOHENZOLL. Yourself, my liege; I say it, Hohenzollern.

ELECTOR. Now then, by God, that beats the fairy-tales!
One man asserts that _he_ is innocent,
The other that the guilty man am _I_!--
How will you demonstrate that thesis now?

HOHENZOLL. My lord, you will recall to mind that night
We found the Prince in slumber deeply sunk
Down in the garden 'neath the plantain trees.
He dreamed, it seemed, of victories on the morrow,
And in his hand he held a laurel-twig,
As if to test his heart's sincerity.
You took the wreath away, and smilingly
Twined round the leaves the necklace that you wore,
And to the lady, to your noble niece,
Both wreath and necklace, intertwining, gave.
At such a wondrous sight, the Prince, aflush,
Leaps to his feet; such precious things held forth
By such a precious hand he needs must clasp.
But you withdraw from him in haste, withdrawing
The Princess as you pass; the door receives you.
Lady and chain and laurel disappear,
And, solitary, holding in his hand
A glove he ravished from he knows not whom--
Lapped in the midnight he remains behind.

ELECTOR. What glove was that?

HOHENZOLLERN. My sovereign, hear me through!
The matter was a jest; and yet, of what
Deep consequence to him I learned erelong.
For when I slip the garden's postern through,
Coming upon him as it were by chance,
And wake him, and he calls his senses home,
The memory flooded him with keen delight.
A sight more touching scarce the mind could paint.
The whole occurrence, to the least detail,
He recapitulated, like a dream;
So vividly, he thought, he ne'er had dreamed,
And in his heart the firm assurance grew
That heaven had granted him a sign; that when
Once more came battle, God would grant him all
His inward eye had seen, the laurel-wreath,
The lady fair, and honor's linked badge.

ELECTOR. Hm! Curious! And then the glove?

HOHENZOLLERN. Indeed!
This fragment of his dream, made manifest,
At once dispels and makes more firm his faith.
At first, with large, round eye he looks at it:
The color's white, in mode and shape it seems
A lady's glove, but, as he spoke with none
By night within the garden whom, by chance,
He might have robbed of it--confused thereto
In his reflections by myself, who calls him
Up to the council in the palace, he
Forgets the thing he cannot comprehend,
And off-hand in his collar thrusts the glove.

ELECTOR. Thereupon?

HOHENZOLLERN. Thereupon with pen and tablet
He seeks the Castle, with devout attention
To take the orders from the Marshal's lips.
The Electress and the Princess, journey-bound,
By chance are likewise in the hall; but who
Shall gauge the uttermost bewilderment
That takes him, when the Princess turns to find
The very glove he thrust into his collar!
The Marshal calls again and yet again
'The Prince of Homburg!' 'Marshal, to command!'
He cries, endeavoring to collect his thoughts;
But he, ringed round by marvels--why, the thunders
Of heaven might have fallen in our midst--

[_He pauses._]

ELECTOR. It was the Princess' glove?

HOHENZOLLERN. It was, indeed!

[_The_ ELECTOR _sinks into a brown study._]

A stone is he; the pencil's in his hand,
And he stands there, and seems a living man;
But consciousness, as by a magic wand,
Is quenched within him; not until the morrow,
As down the lines the loud artillery
Already roars, does he return to life,
Asking me: Say, what was it Dörfling said
Last night in council, that applied to me?

MARSHAL. Truly, my liege, that tale I can indorse.
The Prince, I call to mind, took in no word
Of what I said; distraught I've seen him oft,
But never yet in such degree removed
From blood and bone, never, as on that night.

ELECTOR. Now then, if I make out your reasoning,
You pile your climax on my shoulders thus:
Had I not dangerously made a jest
Of this young dreamer's state, he had remained
Guiltless, in council had not roamed the clouds,
Nor disobedient proved upon the field.
Eh? Eh? Is that the logic?

HOHENZOLLERN. My liege lord,
I trust the filling of the gaps to you.

ELECTOR. Fool that you are, you addlepate! Had you
Not called me to the garden, I had not,
Following a whim of curiosity,
Made harmless fun of this somnambulist.
Wherefore, and quite with equal right, I hold
The cause of his delinquency were you!--
The delphic wisdom of my officers!

HOHENZOLL. Enough, my sovereign! I am assured,
My words fell weightily upon your heart.

SCENE VI

_An officer enters. The others as before._

OFFICER. My lord, the Prince will instantly appear.

ELECTOR. Good, then! Let him come in.

OFFICER. Two minutes, sir!
He but delayed a moment on the way
To beg a porter ope the graveyard gate.

ELECTOR. The graveyard?

OFFICER. Ay, my sovereign.

ELECTOR. But why?

OFFICER. To tell the truth, my lord, I do not know.
It seemed he wished to see the burial-vault
That your behest uncovered for him there.

[_The commanders group themselves and talk together._]

ELECTOR. No matter! When he comes, let him come in!

[_He steps to the table again and glances at the papers._]

TRUCHSZ. The watch is bringing in Prince Homburg now.

SCENE VII

_Enter the_ PRINCE OF HOMBURG. _An officer and the watch. The others
as before._

ELECTOR. Young Prince of mine, I call you to my aid!
Here's Colonel Kottwitz brings this document
In your behalf, look, in long column signed
By hundred honorable gentlemen.
The army asks your liberty, it runs,
And will not tolerate the court's decree.
Come, read it and inform yourself, I beg.

[_He hands him the paper._]

THE PRINCE (_casts a glance at the document, turns and
looks about the circle of officers_).
Kottwitz, old friend, come, let me clasp your hand!
You give me more than on the day of battle
I merited of you. But now, post-haste,
Go, back again to Arnstein whence you came,
Nor budge at all. I have considered it;
The death decreed to me I will accept!

[_He hands over the paper to him._]

KOTTWITZ (_distressed_).
No, nevermore, my Prince! What are you saying?

HOHENZOLL. He wants to die--

TRUCHSZ. He shall not, must not die!

VARIOUS OFFICERS (_pressing forward_).
My lord Elector! Oh, my sovereign! Hear us!

THE PRINCE. Hush! It is my inflexible desire!
Before the eyes of all the soldiery
I wronged the holy code of war; and now
By my free death I wish to glorify it.
My brothers, what's the one poor victory
I yet may snatch from Wrangel worth to you
Against the triumph o'er the balefullest
Of foes within, that I achieve at dawn--
The insolent and disobedient heart.
Now shall the alien, seeking to bow down
Our shoulders 'neath his yoke, be crushed; and, free,
The man of Brandenburg shall take his stand
Upon the mother soil, for it is his--
The splendor of her meads alone for him!

KOTTWITZ (_moved_).
My son! My dearest friend! What shall I name you?

TRUCHSZ. God of the world!

KOTTWITZ. Oh, let me kiss your hand!

[_They press round him._]

THE PRINCE (_turning toward the_ ELECTOR).
But you, my liege, who bore in other days
A tenderer name I may no longer speak,
Before your feet, stirred to my soul, I kneel.
Forgive, that with a zeal too swift of foot
I served your cause on that decisive day;
Death now shall wash me clean of all my guilt.
But give my heart, that bows to your decree,
Serene and reconciled, this comfort yet:
To know your breast resigns all bitterness--
And, in the hour of parting, as a proof,
One favor more, compassionately grant.

ELECTOR. Young hero, speak! What is it you desire?
I pledge my word to you, my knightly honor,
It shall be granted you, whate'er it be!

THE PRINCE. Not with your niece's hand, my sovereign,
Purchase the peace of Gustaf Karl! Expel,
Out of the camp, expel the bargainer
Who made this ignominious overture.
Write your response to him in cannon-shots!

ELECTOR (_kissing his brow_).
As you desire then. With this kiss, my son,
That last appeal I grant. Indeed, wherein
Now have we need of such a sacrifice
That war's ill-fortune only could compel?
Why, in each word that you have spoken, buds
A victory that strikes the foeman low!
I'll write to him, the plighted bride is she
Of Homburg, dead because of Fehrbellin;
With his pale ghost, before our flags a-charge,
Let him do battle for her, on the field!

[_He kisses him again and draws him to his feet._]

THE PRINCE. Behold, now have you given me life indeed!
Now every blessing on you I implore
That from their cloudy thrones the seraphim
Pour forth exultant over hero-heads.
Go, and make war, and conquer, oh, my liege,
The world that fronts you--for you merit it!

ELECTOR. Guards! Lead the prisoner back to his cell!

SCENE VIII

NATALIE _and the_ ELECTRESS _appear in the doorway, followed by ladies-in-waiting. The others as before._

NATALIE. Mother! Decorum! Can you speak that word?
In such an hour there's none but just to love him--
My dear, unhappy love!

THE PRINCE (_turning_). Now I shall go!

TRUCHSZ (_holding him_).
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!

STRANZ (_returning to him_).
My Prince, will you be good enough to rise?

THE PRINCE. What's coming?

STRANZ. Nothing that need wake your fear.
I only wish to free your eyes again.

THE PRINCE. Has my ordeal's final hour struck?

STRANZ (_as he draws the bandage from the_ PRINCE's _eyes_).
Indeed! Be blest, for well you merit it!

[_The_ ELECTOR _gives the wreath, from which the chain is hanging, to the_ PRINCESS, _takes her hand and leads her down from the terrace. Ladies and gentlemen follow. Surrounded by torches, the_ PRINCESS _approaches the_ PRINCE, _who looks up in amazement; sets the wreath on his head, the chain about his neck and presses his hand to her breast. The_ PRINCE _tumbles in a faint_.]

NATALIE. Heaven! The joy has killed him!

HOHENZOLLERN (_raising him_). Help, bring help!

ELECTOR. Let him be wakened by the cannons' thunder!

[_Artillery fire. A march. The Castle is illuminated._]

KOTTWITZ. Hail, hail, the Prince of Homburg!

OFFICERS. Hail, hail, hail!

ALL. The victor of the field of Fehrbellin!

[_Momentary silence._]

THE PRINCE. No! Say! Is it a dream?

KOTTWITZ. A dream, what else?

SEVERAL OFFICERS. To arms! to arms!

TRUCHSZ. To war!

DÖRFLING. To victory!

ALL. In dust with all the foes of Brandenburg!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Permission Porter & Coates, Philadelphia.]

[Footnote 2: Permission Porter & Coates, Philadelphia.]

[Footnote 3: Ten o'clock.]

[Footnote 4: Of Jupiter Tonans.]

[Footnote 5: The body in the Pantheon, the head in Saint Luke's church.]

[Footnote 6: Strassburg.]

[Footnote 7: The hall of the Pantheon seems too low, because a part of its steps is hidden by the rubbish.]

[Footnote 8: This opening in the roof is twenty-seven feet in diameter.]

[Footnote 9: The Pole-star, as well as other northern constellations, stands lower in the south.]

[Footnote 10: The German texts read: _Reben_, vines. But the conjecture _Raben_ as the correct reading may be permitted.--ED.]

[Footnote 11: Permission The Macmillan Co., New York, and G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., London.]

[Footnote 12: This appropriate expression was, if we mistake not, first used by M. Adam Müller in his _Lectures on German Science and Literature_. If, however, he gives himself out as the inventor of the thing itself, he is, to use the softest word, in error. Long before him other Germans had endeavored to reconcile the contrarieties of taste of different ages and nations, and to pay due homage to all genuine poetry and art. Between good and bad, it is true, no reconciliation is possible.]

[Footnote 13: This difficulty extends also to France; for it must not be supposed that a literal translation can ever be a faithful one. Mrs. Montague has done enough to prove how wretchedly even Voltaire, in his rhymeless Alexandrines, has translated a few passages from _Hamlet_ and the first act of _Julius Cæsar_.]

[Footnote 14: It begins with the words: _A mind reflecting ages past_, and is subscribed I.M.S.]

[Footnote 15: Lessing was the first to speak of Shakespeare in a becoming tone; but he said, unfortunately, a great deal too little of him, as in the time when he wrote the _Dramaturgie_ this poet had not yet appeared on our stage. Since that time he has been more particularly noticed by Herder in the _Blätter von deutscher Art und Kunst_; Goethe, in _Wilhelm Meister_; and Tieck, in "Letters on Shakespeare" (_Poetisches Journal_, 1800), which break off, however, almost at the commencement.]

[Footnote 16: The English work with which foreigners of every country are perhaps best acquainted is Hume's _History_; and there we have a most unjustifiable account both of Shakespeare and his age. "Born in a _rude age_, and educated in the lowest manner, without any instruction either _from the world_ or from books." How could a man of Hume's acuteness suppose for a moment that a poet, whose characters display such an intimate acquaintance with life, who, as an actor and manager of a theatre, must have come in contact with all descriptions of individuals, had no instruction from the world? But this is not the worst; he goes even so far as to say, "a reasonable propriety of thought he cannot for any time uphold." This is nearly as offensive as Voltaire's "drunken savage."--TRANS.]

[Footnote 17: In my lectures on _The Spirit of the Age_.]

[Footnote 18: In one of his sonnets he says:

O, for my sake do you with fortune chide
The guilty goddess of my harmless deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
_Than public means which public manners breeds_.

And in the following:

Your love and pity doth the impression fill,
which _vulgar scandal_ stamp'd upon my brow.]

[Footnote 19:

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,
That so did take Eliza and our James!]

[Footnote 20: This is perhaps not uncommon still in some countries. The Venetian Director Medebach, for whose company many of Goldoni's Comedies were composed, claimed an exclusive right to them.--TRANS.]

[Footnote 21: _Twelfth Night, or What You Will_--Act iii., scene 2.]

[Footnote 22: _As You Like It_.]

[Footnote 23: In one of the commendatory poems in the first folio edition:

And on the stage at _half sword parley_ were
Brutus and Cassius.]

[Footnote 24: In the first volume of _Charakteristiken und Kritiken_, published by my brother and myself.]

[Footnote 25: A contemporary of the poet, the author of the already-noticed poem, (subscribed I.M.S.), tenderly felt this when he said:

Yet so to temper passion that our ears
Take pleasure in their pain, and eyes in tears
Both smile and weep.]

[Footnote 26: In Hamlet's directions to the players. Act iii., scene 2.]

[Footnote 27: See Hamlet's praise of Yorick. In _Twelfth Night_, Viola says:

This fellow is wise enough to play the fool,
And to do that well craves a kind of wit;
He must observe their mood on whom he jests,
The quality of the persons, and the time;
And like the haggard, check at every feather
That comes before his eye. This is a practice
As full of labor as a wise man's art:
For folly that he wisely shows is fit,
But wise men's folly fall'n quite taints their wit.--AUTHOR.

The passages from Shakespeare, in the original work, are given from the author's masterly translation. We may be allowed, however, to observe that the last line--

"Doch wozu ist des Weisen Thorheit nutz?"

literally, _Of what use is the folly of the wise?_--does not convey the exact meaning of Shakespeare.--TRANS.]

[Footnote 28: "Since the little wit that fools have was silenced, the little foolery that wise men have makes a greater show."--_As You Like It_, Act I, scene 2.]

[Footnote 29: Charles the Bold, of Burgundy, is known to have frequently boasted that he wished to rival Hannibal as the greatest general of all ages. After his defeat at Granson, his fool accompanied him in his hurried flight, and exclaimed, "Ah, your Grace, they have for once Hanniballed us!" If the Duke had given an ear to this warning raillery, he would not so soon afterward have come to a disgraceful end.]

[Footnote 30: I shall take the opportunity of saying a few words respecting this species of drama when I come to speak of Ben Jonson.]

[Footnote 31: Here follows, in the original, a so-called "Allegory of Impudence."--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.]

[Footnote 32: Here follows in the original a biographic sketch called "Apprenticeship of Manhood."--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.]

[Footnote 33: Permission Porter & Coates, Philadelphia.]

[Footnote 34: Translator: Charles Wharton Stork. From _Spiritual Songs_ (1799).]

[Footnote 35: Translator: Charles Wharton Stork. From _Spiritual Songs_ (1799).]

[Footnote 36: Translator: Charles Wharton Stork.]

[Footnote 37: Permission Porter & Coates, Philadelphia.]