[Pg iii]
|
THE WORLD'S GREATEST BOOKS
JOINT EDITORS ARTHUR MEE Editor and Founder of the Book of Knowledge J. A. HAMMERTON Editor of Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia
VOL. XVII POETRY AND DRAMA |
[Pg iv]
[Pg v]
Table of Contents
|
Portrait of Moli�re |
Frontispiece |
|
Goethe (Continued) |
PAGE |
|
Goetz von Berlichingen |
|
|
Iphigenia in Tauris |
|
|
Gogol, Nicolai |
|
|
Inspector-General |
|
|
Goldsmith, Oliver |
|
|
She Stoops to Conquer |
|
|
Heine, Heinrich |
|
|
Atta Troll |
|
|
Homer |
|
|
Iliad |
|
|
Odyssey |
|
|
Horace |
|
|
Poems |
|
|
Hugo, Victor |
|
|
Hernani |
|
|
Marion de Lorme |
|
|
Ruy Blas |
|
|
The King Amuses Himself |
|
|
The Legend of the Alps |
|
|
Ibsen, Henrik |
|
|
Master Builder |
|
|
Pillars of Society |
|
|
[Pg vi] Jonson, Ben |
|
|
Every Man in His Humour |
|
|
Juvenal |
|
|
Satires |
|
|
Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb |
|
|
Messiah |
|
|
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim |
|
|
Nathan the Wise |
|
|
Longfellow |
|
|
Evangeline |
|
|
Hiawatha |
|
|
Lucretius |
|
|
On the Nature of Things |
|
|
Macpherson, James |
|
|
Ossian |
|
|
Marlowe, Christopher |
|
|
Dr. Faustus |
|
|
Martial |
|
|
Epigrams, Epitaphs, and Poems |
|
|
Massinger, Philip |
|
|
New Way to Pay Old Debts |
|
|
Milton |
|
|
Paradise Lost |
|
|
Paradise Regained |
|
|
Samson Agonistes |
|
|
Moli�re |
|
|
The Doctor in Spite of Himself |
|
|
(Moli�re: Continued in Vol. XVIII) |
|
A Complete Index of The World's Greatest Books will be found at the end of Volume XX.
[Pg 1]
Poetry and Drama
GOETHE
(Continued)
Goetz von Berlichingen[A]
Persons in the Drama
|
The Emperor Maximilian |
The Bishop of Bamberg |
|
Goetz von Berlichingen |
Franz Lerse |
|
Adelbert von Weislingen |
Elizabeth, wife to Goetz |
|
Franz von Sickingen |
Marie, his sister |
|
Hans von Selbitz |
Adelheid von Walldorf |
|
Franz, page to Weislingen |
Imperial Councillor |
|
George, page to Goetz |
Usher |
|
Faud |
|
|
Max Stumpf, Sievers, Metzler, Link, Kohl, Leaders of the rebel peasants |
|
Act I
Scene I.�Forest; a poor hut in the background. Goetz and George.
Goetz: Where can my men be? Up and down I have to walk, lest sleep should overcome me. Five days and nights already in ambush. But when I get thee, Weislingen, I shall make up for it! You priests may send
[Pg 2]
round your obliging Weislingen to decry me�I am awake. You escaped me, bishop! So your dear Weislingen may pay the piper. George! George! (Enter George.) Tell Hans to get ready. My scouts may be back any moment. And give me some more wine!
George: Hark! I hear some horses galloping�two �it must be your men!
Goetz: My horse, quick! Tell Hans to arm!
[Enter Faud, who reports to Goetz that Weislingen is approaching. Exit Goetz and his men.
George: Oh, St. George! Make me strong and brave! And give me spear, armour, and horse!
[Exit.
Scene II.�Hall at Jaxthausen. Elizabeth and Marie.
Marie: If I had a husband who always exposed himself to danger, I should die the first year.
Elizabeth: Thank God, I am made of harder stuff! God grant that my boy may take after his father, and not become a treacherous hypocrite, like Weislingen.
Marie: You are very bitter against him. Yet report speaks well of him. Your own husband loved him, when they were pages together to the margrave.
[The gay tune of a wind-instrument is heard.
Elizabeth: There he returns with his spoil! I must get the meal ready. Here, take the cellar keys and let them have of the best wine! They have deserved it.
[Exeunt. Enter Goetz, Weislingen, and men-at-arms.
[Pg 3]
Goetz (taking off his helmet and sword): Unstrap my cuirass and give me my doublet! Weislingen, you've given us hard work! Be of good cheer. Where are your clothes? I could lend you some of mine�a neat, clean suit, which I wore at the wedding of my gracious lord the Count Palatine, when your bishop got so vexed with me, because I made him shake hands with me, unknown, after having taken two of his ships a fortnight before on the Main.
Weislingen: I beg you to leave me alone.
Goetz: Why? Pray, be cheerful. You are in my power, and I shall not abuse it. You know my knight's duty is sacred to me. And now I must go to see my wife.
[Exit.
Weislingen: Oh, that it were all a dream! In Berlichingen's power�and he, the old true-hearted Goetz! Back again in the hall, where we played as boys, where I loved him with all my heart! How strangely past and present seem to intermingle here.
[Enter Goetz, and a man with jug and goblet.
Goetz: Let us drink, until the meal is ready. Come, you are at home. It is a long time since we last shared a bottle. (Raising his goblet) A gay heart!
Weislingen: Those times are past.
Goetz: Heaven forbid! Though merrier days we may not find. If you had only followed me to Brabant, instead of taking to that miserable life at court! Are you not as free and nobly born as anyone in Germany? Independent, subject only to the emperor? And you submit to vassals, who poison the emperor's ear against me! They want to get rid of me. And you, Weislingen, are their tool!
Weislingen: Berlichingen!
Goetz: No more of it! I hate explanations. They only lead to deceiving one or the other, or both.
[They stand apart, their backs turned to each other. Enter Marie.
[Pg 4]
Marie (to Weislingen): I come to greet and to invite you in my sister's name. What is it? Why are you silent both? You are host and guest. Be guided by a woman's voice.
Goetz: You remind me of my duty.
Weislingen: Who could resist so heavenly a hint?
Marie: Draw near each other, be reconciled! (The men shake hands.) The union of brave men is the most ardent wish of all good women.
Act II
Scene I.�A room at `. Marie and Weislingen.
Marie: You say you love me. I willingly believe it, and hope to be happy with you and to make you happy.
Weislingen: Blessed be your brother and the day he rode out to capture me!
[Enter Goetz.
Goetz: Your page is back. Whatever his news, Adelbert, you are free! All I ask is your word that you will not aid and abet my enemies.
Weislingen: I take your hand. And may I at the same time take the hand of this noblest of all women?
Goetz: May I say "yes" for you, Marie? You need not blush�your eyes have answered clearly. Well, then, Weislingen, take her hand, and I say Amen, friend and brother! I must call my wife. Elizabeth! (Enter Elizabeth.) Join your hand in theirs and say "God bless you!" They are a pair. Adelbert is going back to Bamberg to detach himself openly from the bishop, and then to his estates to settle his affairs. And now we'll leave him undisturbed to hear his boy's report.
[Exit with Marie and Elizabeth.
Weislingen: Such bliss for one so unworthy!
[Enter Franz.
Franz: God save you, noble sir! I bring you greetings
[Pg 5]
from everybody in Bamberg�from the bishop down to the jester. How they are distressed at your mishap! I am to tell you to be patient�they will think the more impatiently of your deliverance; for they cannot spare you.
Weislingen: They will have to. I'll return, but not to stay long.
Franz: Not to stay? My lord, if you but knew what I know! If you had but seen her�the angel in the shape of woman, who makes Bamberg a forecourt of heaven� Adelheid von Walldorf!
Weislingen: I have heard much of her beauty. Is her husband at court?
Franz: She has been widowed for four months, and is at Bamberg for amusement. If she looks upon you, it is as though you were basking in spring sunshine.
Weislingen: Her charms would be lost on me. I am betrothed. Marie will be the happiness of my life. And now pack up. First to Bamberg, and then to my castle.
[Exeunt.
Scene II.�A forest. Some Nuremberg merchants, who, attacked on their way to the Frankfurt Fair by Goetz and his men, have escaped, leaving their goods in the hands of the knights. The page George has, however, recaptured two of the merchants as Goetz and his men enter.
Goetz: Search the forest! Let none escape!
George (stepping forward): I've done some preparatory work. Here they are.
Goetz: Welcome, good lad! Keep them well guarded! (Exit his men with the merchants.) And now, what news of Weislingen?
George: Bad news! He looked confused when I said to him, "A few words from your Berlichingen." He tried to put me off with empty words, but when I pressed him he said he was under no obligation to you,
[Pg 6]
and would have nothing to do with you.