Chapter 35

GABOR _and_ SIEGENDORF.

_Gab._ Who calls?

_Sieg._ I--Siegendorf! Take these and fly! Lose not a moment!

[_Tears off a diamond star and other jewels, and thrusts them into_ GABOR'S _hand_.

_Gab._ What am I to do With these?

_Sieg._ Whate'er you will: sell them, or hoard, And prosper; but delay not, or you are lost!

_Gab._ You pledged your honour for my safety!

_Sieg._ And Must thus redeem it. Fly! I am not master, It seems, of my own castle--of my own Retainers--nay, even of these very walls, Or I would bid them fall and crush me! Fly! Or you will be slain by----

_Gab._ Is it even so? 10 Farewell, then! Recollect, however, Count, You sought this fatal interview!

_Sieg._ I did: Let it not be more fatal still!--Begone!

_Gab._ By the same path I entered?

_Sieg._ Yes; that's safe still; But loiter not in Prague;--you do not know With whom you have to deal.

_Gab._ I know too well-- And knew it ere yourself, unhappy Sire! Farewell! [_Exit_ GABOR.

_Sieg._ (_solus and listening_). He hath cleared the staircase. Ah! I hear The door sound loud behind him! He is safe! Safe!--Oh, my father's spirit!--I am faint-- 20

[_He leans down upon a stone seat, near the wall of the tower, in a drooping posture_.

_Enter_ ULRIC _with others armed, and with weapons drawn_.

_Ulr._ Despatch!--he's there!

_Lud._ The Count, my Lord!

_Ulr._ (_recognizing_ SIEGENDORF). _You_ here, sir!

_Sieg._ Yes: if you want another victim, strike!

_Ulr._ (_seeing him stript of his jewels_). Where is the ruffian who hath plundered you? Vassals, despatch in search of him! You see 'Twas as I said--the wretch hath stript my father Of jewels which might form a Prince's heir-loom! Away! I'll follow you forthwith. [_Exeunt all but_ SIEGENDORF _and_ ULRIC. What's this? Where is the villain?

_Sieg._ There are _two_, sir: which Are you in quest of?

_Ulr._ Let us hear no more Of this: he must be found. You have not let him 30 Escape?

_Sieg._ He's gone.

_Ulr._ With your connivance?

_Sieg._ With My fullest, freest aid.

_Ulr._ Then fare you well! [ULRIC _is going_.

_Sieg._ Stop! I command--entreat--implore! Oh, Ulric! Will you then leave me?

_Ulr._ What! remain to be Denounced--dragged, it may be, in chains; and all By your inherent weakness, half-humanity, Selfish remorse, and temporizing pity, That sacrifices your whole race to save A wretch to profit by our ruin! No, Count, Henceforth you have no son!

_Sieg._ I never had one; 40 And would you ne'er had borne the useless name! Where will you go? I would not send you forth Without protection.

_Ulr._ Leave that unto me. I am not alone; nor merely the vain heir Of your domains; a thousand, aye, ten thousand Swords, hearts, and hands are mine.

_Sieg._ The foresters! With whom the Hungarian found you first at Frankfort!

_Ulr._ Yes--men--who are worthy of the name! Go tell Your Senators that they look well to Prague; Their Feast of Peace was early for the times; 50 There are more spirits abroad than have been laid With Wallenstein!

_Enter_ JOSEPHINE _and_ IDA.

_Jos._ What is't we hear? My Siegendorf! Thank Heaven, I see you safe!

_Sieg._ Safe!

_Ida._ Yes, dear father!

_Sieg._ No, no; I have no children: never more Call me by that worst name of parent.

_Jos._ What Means my good Lord?

_Sieg._ That you have given birth To a demon!

_Ida_ (_taking_ ULRIC'S _hand_). Who shall dare say this of Ulric?

_Sieg._ Ida, beware! there's blood upon that hand.

_Ida_ (_stooping to kiss it_). I'd kiss it off, though it were mine.

_Sieg._ It is so!

_Ulr._ Away! it is your father's! [_Exit_ ULRIC.

_Ida._ Oh, great God! 60 And I have loved this man! [IDA _falls senseless_--JOSEPHINE _stands speechless with horror_.

_Sieg._ The wretch hath slain Them both!--My Josephine! we are now alone! Would we had ever been so!--All is over For me!--Now open wide, my sire, thy grave; Thy curse hath dug it deeper for thy son In mine!--The race of Siegendorf is past.

The end of the fifth act and the Drama. B. P. J^y 20, 1822.

FOOTNOTES:

[159] {337}[This is not correct. _The Young Lady's Tale, or the Two Emilys_ and _The Clergyman's Tale, or Pembroke_, were contributed by Sophia Lee. _Kruitzner, or The Germans Tale_, was written by Harriet Lee (1757-1851), the younger of the sisters. Miss Lee began her literary career as a dramatist. A comedy, _The New Peerage; or, Our Eyes may deceive us_, was played at Drury Lane, November 10, 1787. In 1798 she published _The Mysterious Marriage; or, The Heirship of Rosalva_. After the publication of Byron's _Werner_, she wrote a dramatic version of _The German's Tale_, under the title of _The Three Strangers_. It was brought out at Covent Garden, December 10, 1825, and acted four times.

The first volume of the _Canterbury Tales_, by Harriet Lee, was published in 1797; the second volume, by Sophia Lee, in 1798 (a second edition of these volumes was published in 1799); a third volume (second edition), by Sophia and Harriet Lee, appeared in 1800; the fourth volume, by Harriet Lee (which contains _The German's Tale_, pp. 3-368) was published in 1801; and the fifth volume, by Harriet Lee, in 1805.

There can be little doubt that Byron's visit to Churchill's grave at Dover, which took place April 25, 1816 (see _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 45), was suggested by a passage in the _Introduction_, pp. vii.-ix., to the first volume (1797) of the _Canterbury Tales_. The author "wanders forth to note the _memorabilia_ of Dover," is informed that "the greatest curiosity in the place is the tomb of a poet," and hastens "to a spot surrounded by ruined walls, in the midst of which stood the white marble tablet marked with Churchill's name," etc.]

[cm] {338} [_Of England or any other country. It may seem unnecessary to add this, but having seen a poem of mine never intended for representation, dragged in spite of my remonstrance upon the theatres of more than one nation, I trust it will not be deemed impertinent if I once more repeat my protest against_ [_a gross_] _folly which may injure me--and_ [_benefit_] _no one. If it be understood that_ all dramatic _writing is generically intended for the stage, I deny it_[*]. _With the exception of Shakespeare_ (_or Tate, Cibber, and Thompson under his name_), _not one in fifty plays of our dramatists is ever acted, however much they may be read. Only_ one _of Massinger--none of Ford--none of Marlowe_, one _of Ben Jonson--none of Webster, none of Heywood: and, even in Comedy, Congreve is rarely acted, and that in only one of his plays. Neither is Joanna Baillie. I am far from attempting to raise myself to a level with the least of these names--I only wish to be_ [_exempted_] _from a stage which is not theirs. Perhaps Mr. Lamb's essay upon the effects of dramatic representation on the intelligent auditor_[**]----_marks are just with regard to this--plays of Shakespeare himself--the hundredfold to those of others_.--From a mutilated page of MS. M.]

[*] [Byron is replying to Jeffrey (_Edinburgh Review_, February, 1822, vol. 36, p. 422). "A drama is not merely a dialogue, but _an action_: and necessarily supposes that something is to pass before the eyes of assembled spectators.... If an author does not bear this continually in his mind, and does not write in the ideal presence of an eager and diversified assemblage, he may be a poet, perhaps, but assuredly he will never be a dramatist."]

[**] ["It may seem a paradox, but I cannot help being of opinion that the plays of Shakespeare are less calculated for performance on a stage than those of almost any other dramatist whatever."--"On the Tragedies of Shakespeare," _Complete Works of Charles Lamb_, 1875, p. 255. It was, too, something of a paradox that Byron should be eager to shelter himself under the ægis of Charles Lamb. But unpopularity, like poverty, brings together strange bedfellows.]

[160] {340}[The Thirty Years' War dates from the capture of Pilsen by Mansfeld, November 21, 1618, and did not end till the Peace of Westphalia, October 24, 1648. The incident recorded in act v., a solemn commemoration of the Treaty of Prague, must have taken place in 1635. But in _Werner_ there is little or no attempt "to follow history."]

[cn] {342} _Yea--to a peasant_.--[MS. erased.]

[161] {346}[Compare--"And still my passions wake and war." Lines "To----" [Lady Blessington], _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 564.]

[162] {347}[It has been surmised that Byron had some knowledge of the early life and history of the dramatist Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner (1768-1823), and that a similarity of character and incident suggested the renaming of Kruitzner. But the change of name was made in 1815, not in 1821, and it is far more probable that Byron called his hero "Werner," because "Kruitzner" is unrhythmical, or simply because "Werner," a common German surname, is not unlike "Werther," which was "familiar as a household word."]

[163] {348}["Lord Byron's establishment at Pisa was, like everything else about him, somewhat singular; it consisted of a monkey, a mastiff, a bull-dog, two cats, ... several servants in livery, and the trusty Fletcher as _Major Domo_, or superintendant of the _Menagerie_."--_Life, Writings, Opinions, etc._, 1825, ii. 203, 204. See, too, Medwin, _Conversations_, 1824, pp. 1, 2.]

[164] [The Oder crosses and re-crosses the northern frontier of Silesia.]

[165] {349}[In Miss Lee's _Kruitzner_ Gabor is always spoken of as "The Hungarian." He is no doubt named after Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, who was elected King of Hungary, August, 1620.]

[166] {351}[Compare--"And so--for God's sake--hock and soda-water." Fragment written on MS. of Canto I. of _Don Juan_.]

[167] {352}[On the 18th of August, 1619, Bethlen Gabor threw in his lot with the Bohemians, and "wrote the Directors at Prague that he would march with his troops, and in September would, in their defence, enter Moravia."--History of the Thirty Years War, by A. Gindely, 1885, i. 166. _Vide ibid._, for portrait of "Gabriel Bethlem, D. G. Princeps Transsylvaniæ, etc., Ætatis suæ 40, A^o Christi, 1620."]

[168] {354}[From _super_, and _nagel_, "a nail." To drink _supernaculum_ is to empty the cup so thoroughly that the last drop or "pearl," drained on to the nail, retains its shape, and does not run. If "the pearl" broke and began to slide, the drinker was "sconced." Hence, good liquor. See Rabelais' _Life of Gargantua, etc._, Urquhart's Translation, 1863, lib. i, ch. 5.]

[co] {355} _Without means and he has not a stiver left_.--[MS. erased.]

[cp] {357} _ This is one of those to whom I owe aid_.--[MS. erased.]

[169] {364}[Compare Age of Bronze, line 130, _vide post_, p. 549.]

[170] {365}[For the "merchant dukes" of Florence, see _Childe Harold_,