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A retired part of the forest—brooks dashing in spray over the rocks.
Enter BERTHA in a hunting dress. Immediately afterwards RUDENZ
Berth. He follows me. Now, then, to speak my mind! | |
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| Rud. (entering hastily). | |
| At length, dear lady, we have met alone | |
| In this wild dell, with rocks on every side, | |
| No jealous eye can watch our interview. | 5 |
| Now let my heart throw off this weary silence. | |
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| Berth. But are you sure they will not follow us? | |
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| Rud. See, yonder goes the chase! Now, then, or never! | |
| I must avail me of this precious chance,— | |
| Must hear my doom decided by thy lips, | 10 |
| Though it should part me from thy side forever. | |
| Oh, do not arm that gentle face of thine | |
| With looks so stern and harsh! Who—who am I, | |
| That dare aspire so high, as unto thee? | |
| Fame hath not stamp’d me yet; nor may I take | 15 |
| My place amid the courtly throng of knights, | |
| That, crown’d with glory’s lustre, woo thy smiles. | |
| Nothing have I to offer, but a heart | |
| That overflows with truth and love for thee. | |
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| Berth. (sternly and with severity). And dare you speak to me of love—of truth? | 20 |
| You, that are faithless to your nearest ties! | |
| You, that are Austria’s slave-bartered and sold | |
| To her—an alien, and your country’s tyrant! | |
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| Rud. How! This reproach from thee! Whom do I seek, | |
| On Austria’s side, my own beloved, but thee? | 25 |
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| Berth. Think you to find me in the traitor’s ranks? | |
| Now, as I live, I’d rather give my hand | |
| To Gessler’s self, all despot though he be, | |
| Than to the Switzer who forgets his birth, | |
| And stoops to be a tyrant’s servile tool. | 30 |
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| Rud. Oh Heaven, what words are these? | |
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| Berth. Say! What can lie | |
| Nearer the good man’s heart than friends and kindred? | |
| What dearer duty to a noble soul, | |
| Than to protect weak, suffering innocence, | 35 |
| And vindicate the rights of the oppress’d? | |
| My very soul bleeds for your countrymen. | |
| I suffer with them, for I needs must love them; | |
| They are so gentle, yet so full of power; | |
| They draw my whole heart to them. Every day | 40 |
| I look upon them with increased esteem. | |
| But you, whom nature and your knightly vow, | |
| Have given them as their natural protector, | |
| Yet who desert them and abet their foes | |
| In forging shackles for your native land, | 45 |
| You—you incense and wound me to the core. | |
| It tries me to the utmost not to hate you. | |
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| Rud. Is not my country’s welfare all my wish? | |
| What seek I for her, but to purchase peace | |
| ’Neath Austria’s potent sceptre? | 50 |
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| Berth. Bondage, rather! | |
| You would drive Freedom from the last stronghold | |
| That yet remains for her upon the earth. | |
| The people know their own true int’rests better: | |
| Their simple natures are not warp’d by show. | 55 |
| But round your head a tangling net is wound. | |
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| Rud. Bertha, you hate me—you despise me! | |
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| Berth. Nay! | |
| And if I did, ’twere better for my peace. | |
| But to see him despised and despicable,— | 60 |
| The man whom one might love— | |
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| Rud. Oh Bertha! You | |
| Show me the pinnacle of heavenly bliss, | |
| Then, in a moment, hurl me to despair! | |
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| Berth. No, no! the noble is not all extinct | 65 |
| Within you. It but slumbers,—I will rouse it. | |
| It must have cost you many a fiery struggle | |
| To crush the virtues of your race within you. | |
| But, Heaven be praised, ’tis mightier than yourself, | |
| And you are noble in your own despite! | 70 |
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| Rud. You trust me, then? Oh, Bertha, with thy love | |
| What might I not become! | |
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| Berth. Be only that | |
| For which your own high nature destin’d you. | |
| Fill the position you were born to fill;— | 75 |
| Stand by your people and your native land— | |
| And battle for your sacred rights! | |
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| Rud. Alas! | |
| How can I win you—how can you be mine, | |
| If I take arms against the Emperor? | 80 |
| Will not your potent kinsmen interpose, | |
| To dictate the disposal of your hand? | |
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| Berth. All my estates lie in the Forest Cantons; | |
| And I am free, when Switzerland is free. | |
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| Rud. Oh! what a prospect, Bertha, hast thou shown me! | 85 |
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| Berth. Hope not to win my hand by Austria’s grace; | |
| Fain would they lay their grasp on my estates, | |
| To swell the vast domains which now they hold. | |
| The selfsame lust of conquest, that would rob | |
| You of your liberty, endangers mine. | 90 |
| Oh, friend, I’m mark’d for sacrifice;—to be | |
| The guerdon of some parasite, perchance! | |
| They’ll drag me hence to the Imperial court, | |
| That hateful haunt of falsehood and intrigue, | |
| And marriage bonds I loathe await me there. | 95 |
| Love, love alone—your love,—can rescue me. | |
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| Rud. And thou couldst be content, love, to live here; | |
| In my own native land to be my own? | |
| Oh Bertha, all the yearnings of my soul | |
| For this great world and its tumultuous strife, | 100 |
| What were they, but a yearning after thee? | |
| In glory’s path I sought for thee alone, | |
| And all my thirst of fame was only love. | |
| But if in this calm vale thou canst abide | |
| With me, and bid earth’s pomps and pride adieu, | 105 |
| Then is the goal of my ambition won; | |
| And the rough tide of the tempestuous world | |
| May dash and rave around these firm-set hills! | |
| No wandering wishes more have I to send | |
| Forth to the busy scene that stirs beyond. | 110 |
| Then may these rocks, that girdle us, extend | |
| Their giant walls impenetrably round, | |
| And this sequestered happy vale alone | |
| Look up to heaven, and be my paradise! | |
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| Berth. Now art thou all my fancy dream’d of thee. | 115 |
| My trust has not been given to thee in vain. | |
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| Rud. Away, ye idle phantoms of my folly; | |
| In mine own home I’ll find my happiness. | |
| Here, where the gladsome boy to manhood grew, | |
| Where ev’ry brook, and tree, and mountain peak, | 120 |
| Teems with remembrances of happy hours, | |
| In mine own native land thou wilt be mine. | |
| Ah, I have ever loved it well, I feel | |
| How poor without it were all earthly joys. | |
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| Berth. Where should we look for happiness on earth, | 125 |
| If not in this dear land of innocence? | |
| Here, where old truth hath its familiar home. | |
| Where fraud and guile are strangers, envy ne’er | |
| Shall dim the sparkling fountain of our bliss, | |
| And ever bright the hours shall o’er us glide. | 130 |
| There do I see thee, in true manly worth, | |
| The foremost of the free and of thy peers, | |
| Revered with homage pure and unconstrain’d, | |
| Wielding a power that kings might envy thee. | |
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| Rud. And thee I see, thy sex’s crowning gem, | 135 |
| With thy sweet woman’s grace and wakeful love, | |
| Building a heaven for me within my home, | |
| And, as the spring-time scatters forth her flowers, | |
| Adorning with thy charms my path of life, | |
| And spreading joy and sunshine all around. | 140 |
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| Berth. And this it was, dear friend, that caused my grief, | |
| To see thee blast this life’s supremest bliss | |
| With thine own hand. Ah! what had been my fate, | |
| Had I been forced to follow some proud lord, | |
| Some ruthless despot, to his gloomy keep! | 145 |
| Here are no keeps, here are no bastion’d walls | |
| To part me from a people I can bless. | |
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| Rud. Yet, how to free myself; to loose the coils | |
| Which I have madly twined around my head? | |
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| Berth. Tear them asunder with a man’s resolve. | 150 |
| Whate’er ensue, firm by thy people stand! | |
| It is thy post by birth. [Hunting horns are heard in the distance. | |
| But hark! The chase! | |
| Farewell,—’tis needful we should part—away! | |
| Fight for thy land; thou fightest for thy love. | 155 |
| One foe fills all our souls with dread; the blow | |
| That makes one free, emancipates us all. [Exeunt severally. | |
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