Three plays by Frederic Hebbel

To-day you’ll see what Lydia can achieve! I know you Grecians, though your necks are bended, Just for your standstill plight bear the old yoke With gnashing teeth and lip-curl a...

And now be happy, maidens mine; to-day Your whims are free. Though I must blame you dear If other times you even hide and listen, And though my gay-heart Hero yesterday, Who cla...

_Open space. A crowd._ KANDAULES _on his throne_. LESBIA, HERO, _and others at one side, on a raised structure. The games are just over. General stir and drifting into groups. W...

I will and must have further parley with him. To think what I’ve been forced to hear this night! Heaven knows I went not out to catch the talk, Yet home I come as packed as thou...

My soul, ’tis true! Vain, vain the salve of flattering persuasion That I have duped my senses. Turn thee, Night, And pall me in the dunnest of thy veils! I am defiled as never y...

Oh for one moment of oblivion! Why toss the riddle ever and forever? ’Tis solved--I know how soon! I should be busy Even as my maids who slack the drag of time By hearkening eve...

Where’er I go you’re hard at heels. What would you? No heart to open speech with me, old man, Because I was a trifle rough with you? Speak--on with what you’d say. I’ll keep my...

And if I might not go and bring her some of them, For every one she said she’d give a pearl Though there should be a hundred; but with speed It must be done.

It is extinguished. (_Aside._) Ha, then it is true The mummer dogs the town-ways in disguise When others are asleep! Then bridle tongue! A chance may prick it blind against his...

Now to’t, “and once again!” I’d almost said, But there’s no end in prospect. I resemble The Man i’ the Fable whom before, the lion, Behind, the tiger gripped at; whom the eagles...

Nay then, surely not to fetch My thanks in person for the pearls so wondrous? I waved you twice aside, but once again Make trial if I’d pleased to change my mood, That would hav...

Not now! The next day then, the next day’s morrow! After my death she will be kind to me! What, speaks a woman thus? I know that oft When I have called her fair she’s marred her...

He is welcome! There is my man! To him I hand my sword And goad him through the craven mood so deep To hardy mettle that he’ll use’t like me.

Now she lives under sword, and that’s my spur To do what I ne’er did before, to suffer What ne’er before I suffered, and find comfort If all be vain! and now, away!

It gives me no surprise. No, in a Herod nothing gives surprise Who once as stripling on the Sanhedrim Declared a war: who with his gleaming weapon Strode up before his judge and...

The folk’s already struck him dead in thought! I know, I know! and by that token see How sore the wish that he no more returns. A lucky juncture that the locust-swarm Settled on...

She comes! Ah, could she be decoyed from him And yield consent to follow me to Rome, Then--but she hates and loves him at a breath! Dare I arouse a last storm? To the deed!

Weaponed for certain, as he always is When he comes our way, since he had no luck In cozening our wits with glozing phrases After the manner of his first attempt. Do you not kno...

Already done! And now I come to ask you Whether you wish for prisoners or dead. My eagle grips as thoroughly as he mangles And you must know which better serves your ends.

Who else? No evil ghost! Your wife, your hapless wife Whom once you wooed as Jacob wooed his Rachel And whom you now----(_To_ MARIAMNE.) Accurséd, was’t not even Enough for you...

I’m home again. (_To_ SOEMUS.) Does it stil bleed? The stone, Though meant for me, hit you because in just That nick of time you came to tell me something. Your head for this ti...

There was a charge preferred. Before I gave The charge a hearing I sent word to beg you Come hither, but in truth with no desire That you should counter it with your defence, On...

On a brother’s murder The seal you’ve planted of necessity To which the neck must bow though sharp the shudder, But you’ll ne’er have the plausible success To stamp this seal up...

What plan you, Man of Horror? Ah, I see My husband led away; and he conjures me Beseech you for your mercy--but I wavered Because I bear him grudge nor understand him, And now--...

The bloody work Is brought to end; but all Jerusalem Stands stock-still asking why the man whom you Ordained to represent your person when you Made journey hence, now at your co...

And I, I, Herod, am to make the third! ’Tis good! I make the march to-day. Soemus, For all this sorry plight of things, supplies me. Good that he came!

’Tis true I went too far. When half-way launched I told myself the same. But not less true If she loved me the offence she would condone. If she loved me! Has she loved, truth t...

You pose me with your riddles. First the oath “I kill myself if he return no more!” Then bitter coldness when he came, so froward That he was mortified as keen as I Rejoiced; an...

True, with what I know not. You still have on your shirt of camel’s hair, And that they freed you for a wild bees’ nest Which you, with every hollow tree familiar, Could have be...

What, could she Have such fine nerve? Time was she could not bear A sword to sight, and shuddered back at his Whene’er he held it toward her for a mirror.

Had you done that for livelong years, as I, You’d be in just the case that touches me, More so if every night you got to dreaming You had the old-time post still in your care. I...

I am no pipe to play on and no candle, Not made for sounding and not made for lighting. Then take me as I am. No, do it not! Drive me to have my own neck’s cleaver whetted-- Wha...

Indeed I must If I will learn how matters stand. I have been Invited to a feast, and yet they say No word of why the feast is being given. True, I can guess it, but I must have...

Well for her! She’ll not change from what she is, For if she ranks her with the foes of Herod She will not share the pangs his friends must suffer.

And what means this? A thousand candles called From distant regions through the night to me-- “Your courier did not fall in Arab hands A captive. He arrived; you are awaited!” A...

An end, an end to this! The Inquisition I’ve ordered and will execute its sentence. I, I whom once each fever set a-shaking E’en though her maid-in-waiting it befel, ’Tis I myse...

Titus said to me The very same. Myself I saw enough, And she is right. I gave to her a sister, A mother almost, for her victims. Would they Not counterpoise the brother whom she...

And so he knows it! Swimming-brained He lauds the wine. Does not that furnish proof That he has drunk.[17] And what veneer used he To coat it? Why betrayed he my commission To her?

I gave command He should be put to torture till he do it. (_To_ TITUS.) This man had sworn, I’ve heard, that he would kill him Could he not make me in his own sweet likeness, Wh...

I do not doubt it. With my house and me You’re closely bonded all as friend and kin; What hurts me must hurt you. You will rejoice, Touching the Queen, if you--(_stops short_) f...

Yet one more word before I sleep, the while My latest chamberlain prepares my bed. I see you are astounded that this word Directs itself on you and not my mother, But she is far...

She’s gone! And yet I feel no throb of heart, A further sign that she deserves her fate. And so I have at last my brother back, My mother also has her son. ’Tis well; I would no...

Three kings from out the Eastern lands are here, They are with costly presents richly laden And at this very moment have arrived. Never were seen more strangely striking figures...

Yes, child, the fashion runs on, till it can’t get any further, and has to turn back. This dress has gone out of fashion ten times already, and has always come in again.

Well, give me some of that. I won’t grumble if the pancakes are a bit thin for the next fortnight. You’ve done it many a time before. I know that. When you were saving up for Cl...

Oh, he grieves me to the heart. Yes, your father’s right. That’s the outcome of it. When he was still a curly-headed boy, he used to ask so sweetly for his piece of sugar, and n...

You are always cross. A fellow can stay away for a fortnight; it can have rained and shone again ten times over; but each time I see _you_, there’s always the same old cloud on...

Heard last night. When I was on my way, in the evening, to measure the old miller for his last abode, I heard two good friends of yours railing against you. So I said to myself...

Dear old mother. I won’t wish that you should close my eyes. It’s a hard task, and I’ll do it for you instead. I’ll do you that last service of love. But you must give me time,...

Now you may go and pay your bet. _People in red coats with blue facings_ (_with emphasis_) would never come, into _your_ house! Eh? Well, here you have two of us. (_To_ SECOND B...

A poor appetite means a bad conscience. Well, we shall see. Or was there poison in the soup, as I dreamed last night, a bit of wild hemlock that was plucked with the other herbs...

O God, O God, have mercy! Have mercy on this old man! Take me! It’s the only way to help him. Look! The sunshine lies so golden on the street that the children snatch at it. The...

O father, if only you were here! There are his spectacles! He’s forgotten them. If only he’d notice it and come back! How did you find them? Where? At whose house?

Now I ought to be glad. O God! And all I can think of is--“It’s only you now.” And yet I feel as if I’m bound to think of something soon that will put it all right again.

I’ve brought good news. Your brother, Miss--Oh, Clara, I can’t go on talking in this stiff way to you, with all the old tables and cupboards and chairs around me; my old acquain...

Close, close, my heart! Crush in upon thyself. Let not a drop of blood escape, to fire anew the waning life in my veins. There again something like a hope arose in thee. I reali...

There’s the sixth sheet since dinner. How fine a man feels when he does his duty! Anybody could come into the room that liked, even the king himself--I would stand up, but I wou...

Clara? (_Aside._) I didn’t expect this. (_Aloud._) Didn’t you get my letter? Oh--perhaps your father’s sent you to pay the rates. How much is it? (_Turning leaves in a journal._...

Oh, what lovely flowers! (_Strikes his brow._) The devil! That’s stupid! _I_ should have sent some! How am I to get out of it? I don’t know much about these things, and the litt...

Yes, Clara, you talked about keeping one’s word, and just because I _am_ a man of my word, I am compelled to answer as I do. I broke with you a week ago. You can’t deny it. Ther...

I must marry her! Yet why must I? She’s going to do a mad trick to keep her father from doing a mad trick. What need is there for me to stop her by doing a madder trick still? I...

Now just come to your senses. Or else I might shoot you down for a mad dog that has bitten what is dearest to me, without knowing what I was doing;--as it is I’ve got to treat y...

No one at home! If I didn’t know the rat-hole under the threshold where they keep the key, when they all go out, I wouldn’t have been able to get in. Well, that wouldn’t have ma...

I kept the thing in my hand, and yet the wind is so strong that it is blowing slates off the roofs. As I went past the church, one fell right at my feet. I nearly fell over it....

The one’s good and the other is unnecessary. If I sell my Sunday clothes I can satisfy the people myself, that want a few shillings from me. When I’m a sailor--(_aside_) there,...

Do you doubt it? You’d like to, but you can’t. Just think of what you said to her. You sent her out on the road to death, and I, I’m to blame that she didn’t turn back. When you...