The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV
by
Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke
Part 11 out of 11
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._
[Illustration: #STATUE OF THE GREAT ELECTOR# Sculptor, Andreas Schlueter]
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 DOeRFLING,
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!
DOeRFLING. 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 Mueller 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 Caesar_.]
[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 _Blaetter 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.]
Back to Full Books
|