They have had time enough to talk; let's save them the
trouble!
World's Greatest Books - Volume 17 - Poetry and Drama
SICKINGEN: I shall not turn from you in trouble. No better wooing
than in time of war and danger.
GOETZ: On one condition. You must publicly detach yourself from me.
The emperor loves and esteems you, and your intercession may save me
in the hour of need.
SICKINGEN: But I can secretly send you twenty horsemen.
GOETZ: That offer I accept. [_Exeunt. _
SCENE III. --_A hill with a view over a fertile country_. GEORGE _and_
GOETZ'S _men cross the stage, chasing the imperial troops.
Then_ SELBITZ _is carried on, wounded, accompanied by_
FAUD.
SELBITZ: Let me rest here! --and back to your master; back to Goetz!
FAUD: Let me stay with you. I am no good below; they have hammered
my old bones till I can scarcely move. (_Exit soldiers. _) Here from
the wall I can watch the fight.
SELBITZ: What do you see?
FAUD: Your horsemen are turning tail. I can see Goetz's three black
feathers in the midst of the turmoil. Woe, he has fallen! And George's
blue plume has disappeared! Sickingen's horsemen in flight! Ha! I see
Goetz again! And George! Victory! Victory! They are routed! Goetz is
after them--he has seized their flag! The fugitives are coming here!
Oh! what will they do with you?
SELBITZ: Come down and draw! My sword is ready. I'll make it hot for
them, even sitting or lying down!
[_Enter imperial troops_. SELBITZ _and_ FAUD _defend themselves until_
LERSE _comes to their rescue, attacking the soldiers furiously,
killing some and putting the rest to flight. Enter_ GOETZ, GEORGE,
_a troop of armed men. _
SELBITZ: Good luck, Goetz! Victory! Victory! How did you fare?
GOETZ: To George and Lerse I owe my life; I was off my horse when
they came to the rescue. I have their flag and a few prisoners.
SELBITZ: Lerse saved me, too. See what work he has done here!
GOETZ: Good luck, Lerse! And God bless my George's first brave deed!
Now back to the castle, and let us gather our scattered men.
ACT IV
SCENE I. --_Jaxthausen. A small room_. MARIE _and_ SICKINGEN.
SICKINGEN: You may smile, but I felt the desire to possess you when
you first looked upon me with your blue eyes, when you were with your
mother at the Diet of Speier. I have long been separated from you; but
that wish remained, with the memory of that glance.
[_Enter_ GOETZ.
SICKINGEN: Good luck!
MARIE: Welcome, a thousand times!
GOETZ: Now quickly to the chapel! I've thought it all out, and time
presses.
SCENE II. --_Large hall; in the background a door, leading to the
chapel_. LERSE _and men-at-arms. Enter_ GOETZ _from
chapel_.
GOETZ: How now, Lerse? The men had better be distributed over the
walls. Let them take any breastplates, helmets, and arms they may want.
Are the gates well manned?
LERSE: Yes, sir.
GOETZ: Sickingen will leave us at once. You will lead him through
the lower gate, along the water, and across the ford. Then look around
you, and come back.
[_Enter_ SICKINGEN, MARIE, ELIZABETH, _from chapel_.
_Drums in distance announce the enemy's approach_.
GOETZ: May God bless you and send you merry, happy days!
ELIZABETH: And may He let your children be like you!
SICKINGEN: I thank you, and I thank you, Marie, who will lead me to
happiness.
GOETZ: A pleasant journey! Lerse will show you the way.
MARIE: That is not what we meant. We shall not leave you.
GOETZ: You must, sister! (_To_ SICKINGEN) You understand? Talk to
Marie; she is your wife. Take her to safety, and then think of me.
[_Exeunt_ LERSE, SICKINGEN _and_ MARIE. _Enter_ GEORGE.
GEORGE: They approach from all sides. I saw their pikes glitter from
the tower.
GOETZ: Have the gate barricaded with beams and stones.
[_Exit_ GEORGE. _A trumpeter is dimly heard from the distance,
requesting_ GOETZ _to surrender unconditionally_. GOETZ
_refuses angrily, and slams the window. Enter_ LERSE.
LERSE: There is plenty of powder, but bullets are scarce.
GOETZ: Look round for lead! Meanwhile, we must make the crossbows
do. [_Distant shooting is heard at intervals. Exit_ GOETZ _with
crossbow_.
LERSE (_breaking a window and detaching the lead from the glass_):
This lead has rested long enough; now it may fly for a change.
[_Enter_ GOETZ.
GOETZ: They have ceased firing, and offer a truce with all sorts of
signs and white rags. They will probably ask me to surrender on
knightly parole.
LERSE: I'll go and see. 'Tis best to know their mind.
[_Goes out and returns shortly_.
LERSE: Liberty! Liberty! Here are the conditions. You may withdraw
with arms, horses, and armour, leaving all provisions behind. Your
property will be carefully guarded. I am to remain.
GOETZ: Come, take the best arms with you, and leave the others here!
Come, Elizabeth! Through this very gate I led you as a young bride.
Who knows when we shall return?
[_Exeunt_ GOETZ _and_ ELIZABETH, _followed by_ GEORGE.
_While the men are choosing arms and preparing_,
LERSE, _who has heard shouting and firing without,
looks through the window_.
LERSE: God! They are murdering our master! He is off his horse!
Help him!
FAUD: George is still fighting. Let's go! If they die, I don't want
to live! [_Exeunt. _
SCENE III. --_Night; anteroom in_ ADELHEID'S _castle_. WEISLINGEN,
FRANZ, ADELHEID, _with a retinue of masked and costumed
revellers_.
WEISLINGEN: May I, in these moments of lightheartedness, speak to
you of serious matters? Goetz is probably by this time in our hands.
The peasants' revolt is growing in violence; and the League has given
me the command against them. We shall start before long. I shall take
you to my castle in Franconia, where you will be safe, and not too far
from me.
ADELHEID: We shall consider that. I may be useful to you here.
WEISLINGEN: We have not much time, for we break up to-morrow!
ADELHEID (_after a pause_): Very well, then; carnival to-night, and
war to-morrow!
WEISLINGEN: You are fond of change. A pleasant night to you!
[_Exit. _
ADELHEID: I understand. You would remove me from the court, where
Charles, our emperor's great successor, is the object of all hope? You
will not change my plans. Franz!
FRANZ (_entering_): Gracious lady!
ADELHEID: Watch all the masks, and find out for me the archduke's
disguise! You look sad?
FRANZ: It is your will that I should languish unto death.
ADELHEID _(apart)_: I pity him. (_To_ FRANZ) You are true and
loving; I shall not forget you!
SCENE IV. --_Heilbronn Town Hall_. IMPERIAL COUNCILLOR _and_
MAGISTRATES, USHERS, GOETZ.
COUNCILLOR: You know how you fell into our hands, and are a prisoner
at discretion?
GOETZ: What will you give me to forget it?
COUNCILLOR: You gave your knightly parole to appear and humbly to
await his majesty's pleasure?
GOETZ: Well, here I am, and await it!
COUNCILLOR: His majesty's mercy releases you from the ban and all
punishment, provided you subscribe to all the articles which shall be
read unto you.
GOETZ: I am his majesty's faithful servant. But, before you proceed,
where are my men; what is their fate?
COUNCILLOR: That is no business of yours. Secretary, read the
articles! _(Reads)_: I, Goetz von Berlichingen, having lately risen
in rebellion against the emperor------
GOETZ: 'Tis false! I am no rebel! I refuse to listen any further!
COUNCILLOR: And yet we have strict orders to persuade you by fair
means, or to throw you into prison.
GOETZ: To prison? Me? That cannot be the emperor's order! To promise
me permission to ward myself on parole, and then again to break your
treaty.
COUNCILLOR: We owe no faith to robbers.
GOETZ: If you were not the representative of my respected sovereign,
you should swallow that word, or choke upon it!
[COUNCILLOR _makes a sign, and a bell is rung. Enter
citizens with halberds and swords_.
COUNCILLOR: You will not listen--seize him!
[_They rush upon him. He strikes one down, and snatches
a sword from another. They stand aloof_.
GOETZ: Come on! I should like to become acquainted with the bravest
among you.
[_A trumpet is heard without. Enter_ USHER.
USHER: Franz von Sickingen is without and sends word that having
heard how faith has been broken with his brother-in-law, he insists
upon justice, or within an hour he will fire the four quarters of the
town, and abandon it to be sacked by his men.
GOETZ: Brave friend!
COUNCILLOR: You had best dissuade your brother-in-law from his
rebellious intention. He will only become the companion of your fall!
Meanwhile, we will consider how we can best uphold the emperor's
authority.
[_Exeunt all but_ GOETZ. _Enter_ SICKINGEN.
GOETZ: That was help from heaven. I asked nothing but knightly ward
upon my parole.
SICKINGEN: They have shamefully abused the imperial authority. I
know the emperor, and have some influence with him. I shall want your
fist in an enterprise I am preparing. Meanwhile, they will let you and
your men return to your castle upon the promise not to move beyond
its confines. And the emperor will soon call you. Now back to the
wigs!
They have had time enough to talk; let's save them the trouble!
ACT V
SCENE I. --_Forest_. GOETZ _and_ GEORGE.
GOETZ: No further! Another step and I should have broken my oath.
What is that dust beyond? And that wild mob moving towards us?
LERSE (_entering_): The rebel peasants. Back to the castle! They
have dealt horribly with the noblest men!
GOETZ: On my own soil I shall not try to evade the rabble.
[_Enter_ STUMPF, KOHL, SIEVERS, _and armed peasants_.
STUMPF: We come to ask you, brave Goetz, to be our captain.
GOETZ: What! Me? To break my oath? Stumpf, I thought you were a
friend! Even if I were free, and you wanted to carry on as you did at
Weinsberg, raving and burning, and murdering, I'd rather be killed
than be your captain!
STUMPF: If we had a leader of authority, such things would not
happen. The princes and all Germany would thank you.
SIEVERS: You must be our captain, or you will have to defend your
own skin. We give you two hours to consider it.
GOETZ: Why consider? I can decide now as well as later. Will you
desist from your misdeeds, and act like decent folk who know what
they want? Then I shall help you with your claims, and be your captain
for four weeks. Now, come! [_Exeunt. _
SCENE II. --_Landscape, with village and castle in distance_. GOETZ
_and_ GEORGE.
GEORGE: I beseech you, leave this infamous mob of robbers and
incendiaries.
GOETZ: We have done some good and saved many a convent, many a life.
GEORGE: Oh, sir, I beg you to leave them at once, before they drag
you away with them as prisoner, instead of following you as captain!
(_Flames are seen rising from the distant village_. ) See there! A new
crime!
GOETZ: That is Miltenberg. Quick, George! Prevent the burning of the
castle. I'll have nothing further to do with the scoundrels.
GEORGE: I shall save Miltenberg, or you will not see me again.
[_Exit. _
GOETZ: Everybody blames me for the mischief, and nobody gives me
credit for having prevented so much evil. Would I were thousands of
miles away!
[_Enter_ SIEVERS, LINK, METZLER, _peasants_.
LINK: Rouse yourself, captain; the enemy is near and in great force!
GOETZ: Who burnt Miltenberg?
METZLER: If you want to make a fuss, we'll soon teach you!
GOETZ: You threaten? Scoundrel! [_He knocks him down with a blow of
his fist_.
KOHL: You are mad! The enemy is coming, and you quarrel.
[_Tumult, battle, and rout of the peasants. Then the
stage gradually fills with gypsies_. GOETZ _returns
wounded, is recognised by the gypsies, who bandage
him, help him on to his horse, and ask him to lead
them. Soldiers enter and level their halberds at_
GOETZ.
SCENE III. --ADELHEID'S _room. Night_. ADELHEID. FRANZ.
FRANZ: Oh, let me stay yet a little while--here, where I live.
Without is death!
ADELHEID: Already you hesitate? Then give me back the phial. You
played the hero, but you are only a boy; A man who wooes a noble woman
stakes his life, honour, virtue, happiness! Boy, leave me!
FRANZ: No, you are mine. And if I get your freedom I get my own.
With a firm hand I shall pour the poison into my master's cup.
Farewell.
[_He embraces her and hurries away_.
SCENE IV. --_Rustic garden_. MARIE _sleeping in an arbour. _ LERSE.
LERSE: Gracious lady, awake! We must away. Goetz captured as a rebel
and thrown into a dungeon! His age! His wounds!
MARIE: We must hurry to Weislingen. Only dire necessity can drive
me to this step. Saving my brother's life I go to death. I shall kneel
to him, weep before him.
[_Exit. _
SCENE V. --WEISLINGEN'S _hall_.
WEISLINGEN: A wretched fever has dried my very marrow. No rest for
me, day or night! Goetz haunts my very dreams. He is a prisoner, and
yet I tremble before him. (_Enter_ MARIE. ) Oh, heaven! Marie's spirit,
to tell me of her death!
MARIE: Weislingen, I am no spirit. I have come to beg of you my
brother's life.
WEISLINGEN: Marie! You, angel of heaven, bring with you the tortures
of hell. The breath of death is upon me, and you come to throw me into
despair!
MARIE: My brother is ill in prison. His wounds--his age----
WEISLINGEN: Enough. Franz! (_Enter_ FRANZ _in great excitement_. )
The papers there! (FRANZ _hands him a sealed packet_. ) Here is your
brother's death-warrant; and thus I tear it. He lives. Do not weep,
Franz; there's hope for the living.
FRANZ: You cannot, you must die! Poison from your wife. [_Rushes
to the window, and throws himself out into the river_.
WEISLINGEN: Woe to me! Poison from my wife! Franz seduced by the
infamous woman! I am dying; and in my agony throb the tortures of hell.
MARIE (_kneeling):_ Merciful God, have pity on him!
SCENE VI. --_A small garden outside the prison_, GOETZ, ELIZABETH,
LERSE, _and prison-keeper_.
GOETZ: Almighty God! How lovely is it beneath Thy heaven! Farewell,
my children! My roots are cut away, my strength totters to the grave.
Let me see George once more, and sun myself in his look. You turn
away and weep? He is dead! Then die, Goetz! How did he die? Alas!
they took him among the incendiaries, and he has been executed?
ELIZABETH: No, he was slain at Miltenberg, fighting like a lion.
GOETZ: God be praised! Now release my soul! My poor wife! I leave
you in a wicked world. Lerse, forsake her not! Blessings upon Marie
and her husband. Selbitz is dead, and the good emperor, and my George.
Give me some water! Heavenly air! Freedom!
[_He dies_.
ELIZABETH: Freedom is only above--with thee; the world is a prison.
LERSE: Noble man! Woe to this age that rejected thee! Woe to the
future that shall misjudge thee!
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The story of "Goetz von Berlichingen" was founded on
the life of a German soldier of fortune who flourished between 1480
and 1562. The possibilities of his biography inspired Goethe (Vol.
IV, p. 253) with the idea of doing for Germany what Shakespeare had
done for mediaeval England. In a few weeks he had turned the life into
a series of vivid dramatic pictures, which so engrossed him that he
"forgot Homer, Shakespeare, and everything. " For the next two years
the manuscript lay untouched. In 1773 he made a careful revision and
published it anonymously under the title of "Goetz von Berlichingen of
the Iron Hand"; it is in this form we possess the work now. At a still
later period, in 1804, Goethe prepared another version of the play
for the stage. The subject-matter of "Goetz" is purely revolutionary.
Goetz, the hero himself, is a champion of a good cause--the cause
of freedom and self-reliance. He is the embodiment of sturdy German
virtues, the Empire and the Church playing the unenviable role of
intrigue and oppression. As a stage play, "Goetz" is ill-constructed,
but otherwise it stands a veritable literary triumph, and a worthy
predecessor to "Faust. " This epitome has been prepared from the German
text.
Iphigenia in Tauris[B]
_Persons in the Drama_
IPHIGENIA ORESTES
THOAS, _King of Tauris_
PYLADES ARKAS
_The scene throughout is laid in a grove before_ DIANA'S _temple in
Tauris_.
ACT I
IPHIGENIA _and_ THOAS.
THOAS: To-day I come within this sacred fane,
Which I have often entered to implore
And thank the gods for conquest. In my breast
I bear an old and fondly-cherish'd wish,
To which methinks thou canst not be a stranger:
I hope, a blessing to myself and realm,
To lead thee to my dwelling as my bride.
IPHIGENIA: Too great thine offer, king, to one unknown,
Who on this shore sought only what thou gavest,
Safety and peace.
THOAS: Thus still to shroud thyself
From me, as from the lowest, in the veil
Of mystery which wrapp'd thy coming here,
Would in no country be deem'd just or right.
IPHIGENIA: If I conceal'd, O king, my name, my race,
It was embarrassment, and not mistrust.
For didst thou know who stands before thee now,
Strange horror would possess thy mighty heart,
And, far from wishing me to share thy throne,
Thou wouldst more likely banish me forthwith.
THOAS: Whate'er respecting thee the gods decree,
Since thou hast dwelt amongst us, and enjoy'd
The privilege the pious stranger claims,
To me hath fail'd no blessing sent from heaven.
End then thy silence, priestess!
IPHIGENIA: I issue from the Titan's race.
THOAS: From that same Tantalus, whom Jove himself
Drew to his council and his social board?
IPHIGENIA: His crime was human, and their doom severe;
Alas, and his whole race must bear their hate.
His son, Pelops, obtained his second wife
Through treachery and murder. And Hebe's sons,
Thyestes and Atreus, envious of the love
That Pelops bore his first-born, murdered him.
The mother, held as murderess by the sire,
In terror did destroy herself. The sons,
After the death of Pelops, shared the rule
O'er Mycenae, till Atreus from the realm
Thyestes drove. Oh, spare me to relate
The deeds of horror, vengeance, cruel infamy
That ended in a feast where Atreus made
His brother eat the flesh of his own boys.
THOAS: But tell me by what miracle thou sprangest
From race so savage.
IPHIGENIA: Atreus' eldest son
Was Agamemnon; he, O king, my sire;
My mother Clytemnestra, who then bore
To him Electra, and to fill his cup
Of bliss, Orestes. But misfortunes new
Befel our ancient house, when to avenge
The fairest woman's wrongs the kings of Greece
Round Ilion's walls encamp'd, led by my sire.
In Aulis vainly for a favouring gale
They waited; for, enrag'd against their chief,
Diana stay'd their progress, and requir'd,
Through Chalcas' voice, the monarch's eldest daughter.
They lured me to the altar, and this head
There to the goddess doomed. She was appeased,
And shrouded me in a protecting cloud.
Here I awakened from the dream of death,
Diana's priestess, I who speak with thee.
THOAS: I yield no higher honour or regard
To the king's daughter than the maid unknown;
Once more my first proposal I repeat.
IPHIGENIA: Hath not the goddess who protected me
Alone a right to my devoted head?
THOAS: Not many words are needed to refuse,
The _no_ alone is heard by the refused.
IPHIGENIA: I have to thee my inmost heart reveal'd.
My father, mother, and my long-lost home
With yearning soul I pine to see.
THOAS: Then go!
And to the voice of reason close thine ear.
Hear then my last resolve. Be priestess still
Of the great goddess who selected thee.
From olden time no stranger near'd our shore
But fell a victim at her sacred shrine;
But thou, with kind affection didst enthral
Me so that wholly I forgot my duty;
And I did not hear my people's murmurs.
Now they cry aloud. No longer now
Will I oppose the wishes of the crowd.
Two strangers, whom in caverns of the shore
We found conceal'd, and whose arrival here
Bodes to my realm no good, are in my power.
With them thy goddess may once more resume
Her ancient, pious, long-suspended rites!
