What may not he himself too have permitted
Himself to do, to snare the enemy,

The laws of war excusing? Nothing, save
His own mouth shall convict him—nothing less!
And face to face will I go question him.

Thou wilt?

OCTAVIO.

ΜΑΧ,

I will, as sure as this heart beats.

OCTAVIO.

I have, indeed, miscalculated on thee.

I calculated on a prudent son,

Who would have blest the hand beneficent

That plucked him back from the abyss-and lo!
A fascinated being I discover,

Whom his two eyes befool, whom passion wilders,
Whom not the broadest light of noon can heal.
Go, question him!-Be mad enough, I pray thee.
The purpose of thy father, of thy Emperor,
Go, give it up free booty:-Force me, drive me
To an open breach before the time. And no,
Now that a miracle of heaven had guarded
My secret purpose even to this hour,
And laid to sleep Suspicion's piercing eyes,
Let me have lived to see that mine own son,

With frantic enterprise, annihilates
My toilsome labours and state-policy.
MAX.

Aye-this state-policy? O how I curse it!
You will some time, with your state-policy,
Compel him to the measure: it may happen,
Because ye are determined that he is guilty,
Guilty ye'll make him. All retreat cut off,
You close up every outlet, hem him in
Narrower and narrower, till at length ye force him—
Yes, ye,-ye force him, in his desperation,
To set fire to his prison. Father! Father!
That never can end well-it cannot-will not!
And let it be decided as it may,

I see with boding heart the near approach
Of an ill-starred, unblest catastrophe.
For this great Monarch-spirit, if he fall,
Will drag a world into the ruin with him.
And as a ship (that midway on the ocean
Takes fire) at once, and with a thunder-burst
Explodes, and with itself shoots out its crew
In smoke and ruin betwixt sea and heaven;
So will he, falling, draw down in his fall
All us, who're fixed and mortised to his fortune.
Deem of it what thou wilt; but pardon me,

That I must bear me on in my own way.

All must remain pure betwixt him and me;
And, ere the day-light dawns, it must be known
Which I must lose my father, or my friend.

[During his exit the curtain drops.

ACT IV.-SCENE I.

Scene a Room fitted up for astrological Labours, and provided with celestial Charts, with Globes, Telescopes, Quadrants, and other mathematical Instruments.-Seven Colossal Figures, representing the Planets, each with a transparent Star of a different Colour on its Head, stand in a Semi-circle in the Back-ground, so that Mars and Saturn are nearest the Eye. The Remainder of the Scene, and its Disposition, is given in the Fourth Scene of the Second Act.--There must be a Curtain over the Figures, which may be dropped, and conceal them on Occasions.

[In the Fifth Scene of this Act it must be dropped; but in the Seventh Scene, it must be again drawn up wholly or in part.]

WALLENSTEIN at a black Table, on which a Specu

lum Astrologicum is described with Chalk. SENI is taking Observations through a window.

WALLENSTEIN.

All well-and now let it be ended, Seni.-Come,

The dawn commences, and Mars rules the hour.
We must give o'er the operation. Come,

We know enough.

SENI.

Your Highness must permit me

Just to contemplate Venus. She's now rising :
Like as a sun, so shines she in the east.

WALLENSTEIN.

She is at present in her perigee,

And shoots down now her strongest influences.

[Contemplating the figure on the table.

Auspicious aspect! fateful in conjunction,
At length the mighty three corradiate;
And the two stars of blessing, Jupiter

And Venus, take between them the malignant
Slily-malicious Mars, and thus compel

Into

my service that old mischief-founder:
For long he viewed me hostilely, and ever
With beam oblique, or perpendicular,
Now in the Quartile, now in the Secundan,
Shot his red lightnings at my stars, disturbing
Their blessed influences and sweet aspects.
Now they have conquered the old enemy,
And bring him in the heavens a prisoner to me.

SENI (who has come down from the window). And in a corner house, your Highness-think of that! That makes each influence of double strength.