The Works of Frederick Schiller Part 68

KOSINSKY. You are joking.

CHARLES (in a commanding tone). Quick! quick! delay not! leave every thing behind! and let no eye see you!

(Exit KOSINSKY.)

I fly from these walls. The least delay might drive me raving road; and he my father's son! Brother! brother! thou hast made me the most miserable wretch on earth; I never injured thee; this was not brotherly.

Reap the fruits of thy crime in quiet, my presence shall no longer embitter thy enjoyment--but, surely, this was not acting like a brother.

May oblivion shroud thy misdeed forever, and death not bring it back to light.

Enter KOSINSKY.

KOSINSKY. The horses are ready saddled, you can mount as soon as you please.

CHARLES. Why in such haste? Why so urgent? Shall I see her no more?

KOSINSKY. I will take off the bridles again, if you wish it; you bade me hasten head over heels.

CHARLES. One more farewell! one more! I must drain this poisoned cup of happiness to the dregs, and then--Stay, Kosinsky! Ten minutes more-- behind, in the castle yard--and we gallop off.

Scene IV.--In the Garden.

AMELIA. "You are in tears, Amelia!" These were his very words--and spoken with such expressionsuch a voice!--oh, it summoned up a thousand dear remembrances!--scenes of past delight, as in my youthful days of happiness, my golden spring-tide of love. The nightingale sung with the same sweetness, the flowers breathed the same delicious fragrance, as when I used to hang enraptured on his neck.*

*[Here, in the acting edition, is added, 'a.s.suredly, if the spirits of the departed wander among the living, then must this stranger be Charles's angel!']

Ha! false, perfidious heart! And dost thou seek thus artfully to veil thy perjury? No, no! begone forever from my soul, thou sinful image!

I have not broken my oath, thou only one! Avaunt, from my soul, ye treacherous impious wishes! In the heart where Charles reigns no son of earth may dwell. But why, my soul, dost thou thus constantly, thus obstinately turn towards this stranger? Does he not cling to my heart in the very image of my only one! Is he not his inseparable companion in my thoughts? "You are in tears, Amelia?" Ha! let me fly from him!-- --fly!--never more shall my eyes behold this stranger!

[CHARLES opens the garden gate.]

AMELIA (starting). Hark! hark! did I not hear the gate creak? (She perceives CHARLES and starts up.) He?--whither?--what? I am rooted to the spot,--I can not fly! Forsake me not, good Heaven! No! thou shalt not tear me from my Charles! My soul has no room for two deities, I am but a mortal maid! (She draws the picture of CHARLES from her bosom.) Thou, my Charles! be thou my guardian angel against this stranger, this invader of our loves! At thee will I look, at thee, nor turn away my eyes--nor cast one sinful look towards him! (She sits silent, her eyes fixed upon the picture.)

CHARLES. You here, Lady Amelia?--and so sad? and a tear upon that picture? (AMELIA gives him no answer.) And who is the happy man for whom these silver drops fall from an angel's eyes? May I be permitted to look at--(He endeavors to look at the picture.)

AMELIA. No--yes--no!

CHARLES (starting back). Ha--and does he deserve to be so idolized?

Does he deserve it?

AMELIA. Had you but known him!

CHARLES. I should have envied him.

AMELIA. Adored, you mean.

CHARLES. Ha!

AMELIA. Oh, you would so have loved him?---there was so much, so much in his face--in his eyes--in the tone of his voice,--which was so like yours--that I love so dearly! (CHARLES casts his eyes down to the ground.) Here, where you are standing, he has stood a thousand times-- and by his side, one who, by his side, forgot heaven and earth. Here his eyes feasted on nature's most glorious panorama,--which, as if conscious of his approving glance, seemed to increase in beauty under the approbation of her masterpiece. Here he held the audience of the air captive with his heavenly music. Here, from this bush, he plucked roses, and plucked those roses for me. Here, here, he lay on my neck; here he imprinted burning kisses on my lips, and the flowers hung their heads with pleasure beneath the foot-tread of the lovers.*

*[In the acting edition the scene changes materially at this point, and the most sentimental part of the whole drama is transformed into the most voluptuous. The stage direction here is,--(They give way to their transports without control, and mingle their kisses.

MOOR hangs in ecstacy on her lips, while she sinks half delirious on the couch.) O Charles! now avenge thyself; my vow is broken.

MOOR (tearing himself away from her, as if in frenzy). Can this be h.e.l.l that still pursues me! (Gazing on her.) I felt so happy!

AMELIA (perceiving the ring upon her finger, starts up from the couch). What! Art thou still there--on that guilty hand? Witness of my perjury. Away with thee! (She pulls the ring from her finger and gives it to CHARLES.) Take it--take it, beloved seducer! and with it what I hold most sacred--take my all--my Charles! (She falls back upon the couch.)

MOOR (changes color). O thou Most High! was this thy almighty will? It is the very ring I gave her in pledge of our mutual faith. h.e.l.l be the grave of love! She has returned my ring.

AMELIA (terrified). Heavens! What is the matter? Your eyes roll wildly, and your lips are pale as death! Ah! woe is me. And are the pleasures of thy crime so soon forgotten?

MOOR (suppressing his emotion). 'Tis nothing! Nothing! (Raising his eyes to heaven.) I am still a man! (He takes of his own ring and puts it on AMELIA'S finger.) In return take this! sweet fury of my heart! And with it what I hold most sacred--take my all--my Amelia!

AMELIA (starting up). Your Amelia!

MOOR (mournfully). Oh, she was such a lovely maiden, and faithful as an angel. When we parted we exchanged rings, and vowed eternal constancy. She heard that I was dead--believed it--yet remained constant to the dead. She heard again that I was living--yet became faithless to the living. I flew into her arms--was happy as--the blest in Paradise. Think what my heart was doomed to feel, Amelia! She gave me back my ring--she took her own.

AMELIA (her eyes fixed on the earth in amazement). 'Tis strange, most strange! 'Tis horrible!

MOOR. Ay, strange and horrible! My child, there is much--ay, much for man to learn ere his poor intellect can fathom the decrees of Him who smiles at human vows and weeps at human projects. My Amelia is an unfortunate maiden!

AMELIA. Unfortunate! Because she rejected you?

MOOR. Unfortunate. Because she embraced the man she betrayed.

AMELIA (with melancholy tenderness). Oh, then, she is indeed unfortunate! From my soul I pity her! She shall be my sister.

But there is another and a better world."

CHARLES. He is no more?

AMELIA. He sails on troubled seas--Amelia's love sails with him. He wanders through pathless, sandy deserts--Amelia's love clothes the burning sand with verdure, and the barren shrubs with flowers. Southern suits scorch his bare head, northern snows pinch his feet, tempestuous hail beats down on his temples, but Amelia's love lulls him to sleep in the midst of the storm. Seas, and mountains, and skies, divide the lovers--but their souls rise above this prison-house of clay, and meet in the paradise of love. You appear sad, count!

CHARLES. These words of love rekindle my love.

AMELIA (pale). What? You love another? Alas! what have I said?

CHARLES. She believed me dead, and in my supposed death she remained faithful to me--she heard again that I was alive, and she sacrificed for me the crown of a saint. She knows that I am wandering in deserts, and roaming about in misery, yet her love follows me on wings through deserts and through misery. Her name, too, like yours, is Amelia.

AMELIA. How I envy your Amelia!

CHARLES. Oh, she is an unhappy maid. Her love is fixed upon one who is lost--and it can never--never be rewarded.

AMELIA. Say not so! It will be rewarded in heaven. Is it not agreed that there is a better world, where mourners rejoice, and where lovers meet again?

CHARLES. Yes, a world where the veil is lifted--where the phantom love will make terrible discoveries--Eternity is its name. My Amelia is an unhappy maid.

AMELIA. Unhappy, and loves you?*