Читать книгу The Greatest German Classics (Vol. 1-14) - Various - Страница 1738

Art thou in earnest? I entreat thee! Canst 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 (starts up in violent agitation).

Show me a way out of this stifling crowd,

Ye powers of Aidance! Show me such a way

As I am capable of going. I Am no tongue-hero, no fine virtue-prattler; I cannot warm by thinking; cannot say To the good luck that turns her back upon me, Magnanimously: "Go; I need thee not." Cease I to work, I am annihilated. Dangers nor sacrifices will I shun, If so I may avoid the last extreme; But ere I sink down into nothingness, Leave off so little, who began so great, Ere that the world confuses me with those Poor wretches whom a day creates and crumbles, This age and after ages[25] speak my name With hate and dread; and Friedland be redemption For each accursed deed.