I will, as fure as this heart beats.
I have, indeed, mifcalculated on thee.
I calculated on a prudent fon,
Who would have bleft the hand beneficent
That pluck'd him back from the abyfs-and lo!
A fascinated being I discover,
Whom his two eyes befool, whom paffion wilders,
Whom not the broadeft light of noon can heal.
Go, question him!-Be mad enough, I pray thee.
The purpose of thy father, of thy Emperor,
Go, give it up free booty!-Force me, drive me
To an open breach before the time. And now,
Now that a miracle of heaven had guarded
My fecret purpose even to this hour,
And laid to fleep Sufpicion's piercing eyes,
Let me have liv'd to fee that mine own fon,
With frantic enterprise, annihilates
My toilfome labours and ftate-policy.
Aye-this state-policy! O how I curse it!
You will fome time, with your state-policy,
Compel him to the measure: it may happen,
Because ye are determin'd that he is guilty,
Guilty ye'll make him. All retreat cut off,
You close up every outlet, hem him in
Narrower and narrower, till at length ye force him-
Yes, ye,-ye force him, in his desperation,
To fet fire to his prifon.-Father! father!
That never can end well-it cannot-will not!
And let it be decided as it may,
I fee with boding heart the near approach
Of an ill-starr'd, unblest catastrophe.
For this great Monarch-spirit, if he fall,
Will drag a world into the ruin with him.
And as a fhip (that midway on the ocean
Takes fire) at once, and with a thunder-burft
Explodes, and with itself fhoots out its crew
In smoke and ruin betwixt fea and heaven;
So will he, falling, draw down in his fall
All us, who're fix'd and mortic'd to his fortune.
Deem of it what thou wilt; but pardon me,
That I must bear me on in my own way.
All muft remain pure betwixt him and me;
And, ere the day-light dawns, it must be known
Which I muft lofe-my father, or my friend.
Scene a Room fitted up for aftrological Labours, and provided with celeftial Charts, with Globes, Telescopes, Quadrants, and other mathematical Inftruments.-Seven Coloffal Figures, reprefenting the Planets, each with a transparent Star of a different Colour on its Head, ftand in a Semi-circle in the Back-ground, fo that Mars and Saturn are neareft the Eye.-The Remainder of the Scene, and its Difpofition, is given in the Fourth Scene of the Second Act.There must be a Curtain over the Figures, which may be dropped, and conceal them on Occafions,
[In the Fifth Scene of this Act it must be dropped; but, in the Seventh Scene, it must be again drawn up wholly or in part.]
WALLENSTEIN at a black Table, on which a Speculum Aftrologicum is defcribed with Chalk. SENI is taking Obfervations through a Window.
All well-and now let it be ended, Seni.-Come, The dawn commences, and Mars rules the hour.
We must give o'er the operation. Come,
Your Highness must permit me
Juft to contemplate Venus. She's now rifing:
Like as a fun, fo fhines fhe in the east.
WALLENSTEIN.
She is at prefent in her perigee,
And shoots down now her ftrongest influences.
(Contemplating the figure on the table.)
Aufpicious afpect! fateful in conjunction,
At length the mighty three corradiate;
And the two ftars of bleffing, Jupiter
And Venus, take between them the malignant
Slily-malicious Mars, and thus compel
Into my fervice that old mischief-founder:
For long he view'd me hoftilely, and ever
With beam oblique, or perpendicular,
Now in the Quartile, now in the Secundan,
Shot his red lightnings at my ftars, disturbing
Their bleffed influences and fweet aspects,
Now they have conquer'd the old enemy,
And bring him in the heavens a prisoner to me.
SENI. (who has come down from the window) And in a corner house, your Highness-think of that!
That makes each influence of double ftrength,
And fun and moon, too, in the Sextile afpect,
The foft light with the vehʼment-fo I love it.
SOL is the heart, LUNA the head of heaven.
Bold be the plan, fiery the execution.
And both the mighty Lumina by no
Maleficus affronted. Lo! Saturnus,
Innocuous, powerlefs, in cadente Domo.
The empire of Saturnus is gone by:
Lord of the fecret birth of things is he;
Within the lap of earth, and in the depths
Of the imagination dominates;
And his are all things that efchew the light.
The time is o'er of brooding and contrivance;
For Jupiter, the luftrous, lordeth now,
And the dark work, complete of preparation,
He draws by force into the realm of light.
Now muft we haften on to action, ere
The scheme, and moft aufpicious pofiture
Parts o'er my head, and takes once more its flight;
For the heavens journey ftill, and fojourn not.
(There are knocks at the door)
There's fome one knocking there. See who it is,
TERTSKY. (from without)
What is there of fuch urgence? We are bufy.
TERTSKÝ. (from without)
Lay all aside at present, I entreat you.
It fuffers no delaying.
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