Literal Translation.
Alas! for those who place their confidence on thee, against thee lean the secure hut of their fortune, allured by thy hospitable form. Suddenly, unexpectedly, in a moment still as night, there is a fermentation in the treacherous gulf of fire; it discharges itself with raging force, and away over all the plantations of men drives the wild stream in frightful devastation. Wallenstein. Thou art portraying thy father's heart; as thou describest, even so is it shaped in his entrails, in this black hypocrite's breast. O, the art of hell has deceived me! The Abyss sent up to me the most spotted of the spirits, the most skilful in lies, and placed him as a friend by my side. Who may withstand the power of hell? I took the basilisk to my bosom, with my heart's blood I nourished him; he sucked himself glutfull at the breasts of my love. I never harboured evil towards him; wide open did I leave the door of my thoughts; I threw away the key of wise foresight. In the starry heaven, &c.—We find a difficulty in believing this to have been written by Schiller. 1800, 1828, 1829. I have here ventured to omit a considerable number of lines, which it is difficult to believe that Schiller could have written. 1834.
[755:1] This is a poor and inadequate translation of the affectionate simplicity of the original—
Sie alle waren Fremdlinge, Du warst
Das Kind des Hauses.
Indeed the whole speech is in the best style of Massinger. O si sic omnia!
LINENOTES:
After [4] [Advancing to Thekla, who has thrown herself into her mother's arms. 1800, 1828, 1829.
[[14]]
must leave 1800, 1828, 1829.
Before [40] Max (calmly). 1800, 1828, 1829.