Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/195

Creates himself a court, gives golden keys,
And introduceth strictest ceremony
In fine proportions, and nice etiquette;
Keeps open table with high cheer; in brief
Commenceth mighty King—in miniature.
And while he prudently demeans himself,
And gives himself no actual importance,
He will be let appear whate'er he likes;
And who dares doubt, that Friedland will appear
A mighty Prince to his last dying hour?
Well now, what then? Duke Friedland is, as others,
A fire-new Noble, whom the war hath rais'd
To price and currency, a Jonah's Gourd,
An over-night creation of court-favour,
With which an undistinguishable ease
Makes Baron or makes Prince.

WALLENSTEIN. (in extreme agitation.)
Take her away.
Let in the young Count Piccolomini.

COUNTESS.
Art thou in earnest? I entreat thee! Can'st thou
Consent to bear thyself to thy own grave,
So ignominiously to be dried up?
Thy life, that arrogated such an height,
To end in such a nothing! To be nothing,
When one was always nothing, is an evil
That asks no stretch of patience, a light evil,
But to become a nothing, having been—

WALLENSTEIN.