The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Chapter 234 : _Tertsky._ He is stark mad--don't listen to him! 55 _Illo._ Unless they can slip

_Tertsky._ He is stark mad--don't listen to him! 55

_Illo._ Unless they can slip out by a proviso.--What of the proviso? The devil take this proviso!

_Max._ What is there here then of such perilous import?

You make me curious--I must look closer at it.

_Tertsky (in a low voice to Illo)._ What are you doing, Illo? 60 You are ruining us.

_Tiefenbach (to Kolatto)._ Ay, ay! I observed, that before we sat down to supper, it was read differently.

_Goetz._ Why, I seemed to think so too.

_Isolani._ What do I care for that? Where there stand other 65 names, mine can stand too.

_Tiefenbach._ Before supper there was a certain proviso therein, or short clause concerning our duties to the Emperor.

_Butler (to one of the commanders)._ For shame, for shame!

Bethink you. What is the main business here? The question 70 now is, whether we shall keep our General, or let him retire.

One must not take these things too nicely and over-scrupulously.

_Isolani (to one of the Generals)._ Did the Duke make any of these provisos when he gave you your regiment? 75

_Tertsky (to Goetz)._ Or when he gave you the office of army-purveyancer, which brings you in yearly a thousand pistoles!

_Illo._ He is a rascal who makes us out to be rogues. If there be any one that wants satisfaction, let him say so,--I am his man. 80

_Tiefenbach._ Softly, softly! 'Twas but a word or two.

_Max (having read the paper gives it back)._ Till to-morrow, therefore!

_Illo (stammering with rage and fury, loses all command over himself, and presents the paper to Max with one hand, and his sword in the other)._ Subscribe--Judas!

_Isolani._ Out upon you, Illo! 85

_Octavio, Tertsky, Butler (all together)._ Down with the sword!

_Max (rushes on him suddenly and disarms him, then to Count Tertsky)._ Take him off to bed.

[_MAX leaves the stage. ILLO cursing and raving is held back by some of the Officers, and amidst a universal confusion the curtain drops._

LINENOTES:

[11] _dear_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[15] here, are there? (_looks round the whole circle with a jolly and triumphant air_) 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 16] _Tertsky (to Butler, eagerly)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 19] _Illo (cordially)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[22] _pa.r.s.ed_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 23] _Max (waking as from a dream)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[After 24] [_OCTAVIO directs his eyes on him with intense anxiety._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[26] _business_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 49] _Tertsky (in extreme embarra.s.sment, to the, &c._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 51] _Isolani (with a bitter laugh)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[51] _tattles_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 55] _Tertsky (interrupting him)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 56] _Illo (raising his voice to the highest pitch)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[57] _proviso_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[Before 58] _Max (has his attention roused, and looks again into the paper)._ 1800, 1828, 1829.

[67] _was_ 1800, 1828, 1829.

ACT III

SCENE I

SCENE.--_A Chamber in PICCOLOMINI'S Mansion.--Night._

_OCTAVIO PICCOLOMINI. A_ Valet de Chambre, _with Lights._

_Octavio._----And when my son comes in, conduct him hither.

What is the hour?

_Valet._ 'Tis on the point of morning.

_Octavio._ Set down the light. We mean not to undress.

You may retire to sleep.

[_Exit Valet. OCTAVIO paces, musing, across the chamber; MAX PICCOLOMINI enters un.o.bserved, and looks at his father for some moments in silence._

_Max._ Art thou offended with me? Heaven knows 5 That odious business was no fault of mine.

'Tis true, indeed, I saw thy signature.